Chapter 9: Cold Complications

Winter brushed past Qrow and entered the cockpit. She saw Nick actually piloting the ship. She tried to shake away the encroaching fog in her head. "Where are we?" Nick glanced at a monitor. "Mmm… about twenty kilometers from Sanus." Winter started to feel dizzy, suddenly she found herself sitting in a chair. "I think you should just rest for now." Someone said as she fell asleep.


It was a crisp, overcast early morning when Yang woke up. She sat up and rubbed her stump, looking out her window at the sky. She got up, changed, and decided to go for a slow walk outside. The weather wasn't pretty enough to make her depression disappear, but it was enough to make her emotions easier to live with. The cold helped numb what was left. Today however, all she could muster was a walk around the house. Her breath billowed like smoke from a dragon with each breath. Her legs started to feel like rubber as she went in and sat down. She looked over at a stack of books. No, I've read those already.

Then she noticed the book of fairytales she used to read to Ruby when they were little, laying open on the floor. She bent down and snatched it up. From what she saw, it was opened to the story of the Four Maidens. She closed it up and put it aside, and decided to rest for a little. She leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes.

She fell asleep instantly, dreaming a peaceful meadow – no, a wheat field. She strolled around her dreamscape, feeling the heads of wheat with both hands as she passed. She looked down at her hands, especially her right, which was a translucent yellow-glowing image; as if her aura replaced her once severed arm, the solid-state energy sprouting out of her stump. She looked up at her surroundings; the only distinguishable landmark outside the rolling hills of waving grain was a lone tree. The tree was huge, holding what looked like a tire swing.

For a moment, she felt like she'd been here before, a long time ago.

She breathed in the fresh air in a contented sigh, lying down in the wheat. She watched the clouds meander along the azure sky, forming and reforming their shape by their own whim. She closed her eyes, basking in the sunlight…

…and found herself suddenly in the presence of another upon opening. She sat up, alarmed at the sudden appearance of a girl. Unlike Yang, the girl was completely translucent, glowing green. She giggled. "C'mon, my sisters are waiting!"

Yang got up and followed her. Under the tree she stopped, and they waited for the "sisters". They arrived one-by-one, all translucent, but each glowing a different color. Red wearing overalls, Orange wearing a simple dress, Green wearing an almost-sundress with a wreath of flowers on her head, and Blue in a winter coat. Yang recognized them immediately; she read about them enough to Ruby for them to be etched in her memory. They were the Four Maidens: green, the youthful Spring Maiden; red, the playful Summer Maiden; orange, the meek Fall Maiden; and blue, the wise Winter Maiden. They all smiled at her, but only the Winter Maiden spoke. "Hello Miss Xiao Long, there's something we came here to discuss."

Yang's eyes flashed red. "Yeah? And what's that?" Winter closed her eyes and sighed. "We don't like to tell the future, however this is a necessary exception." She looked at Yang with a piercing stare. "Your destiny is about to intertwine with another, one you've met before in this very field." Yang looked around, the field, the tree… it was vaguely familiar; part of a buried memory of childhood. "What do you mean?" she looked back at them, only to find them not there.

She started forward, sitting near the edge of the couch ready to spring out of it. Her heart racing, her chest heaving, her forehead damp with a cold sweat, she felt like she'd just had a nightmare. She looked down at the book of fairytales in a dazed confusion. She shook her head in disbelief. She checked the time, and found out she was only asleep for just over an hour.

Taiyang yawned as he walked into the room. "Morning lil' sun dragon." She rubbed her eyes and quietly sighed. Taiyang made his way to the kitchen. As soon as he left the room, Yang grabbed the book, placing it in the bottom of the pile. 'My destiny is about to be intwined with another?' where did that come from? Whywould I dream about the Four Maidens?

She got up and joined her dad for breakfast. "So," he asked as she sat down, "what's got you up so early?" she raised her head, thought about her answer, and said, "Weird dreams." He chuckled, cracking an egg. "I've had those." She didn't reply. He cracked another egg, it sizzled on the gridle. Yang's stomach growled, provoked by the sound of frying eggs. Taiyang added seasonings to their eggs, and the smell impacted with her senses. Her mouth watered. her eyes widened. Her stomach growled like a little beast.

In a few minutes, Taiyang slipped the eggs on a couple plates, and set them on the table. He sat down behind one, grabbed a fork and dug in. she simply stared at her eggs –sunny side up– taking a bite every so often; sluggish, not from lack of hunger, but she didn't really feel like digging in like her dad.

"glad to see you up n' about." She didn't respond. He reached over and held her hand. "hey, you're gonna get your arm back soon… it'll be okay." She looked up at him fiercely, eyes crimson. "will it? will it be okay? The people who took down Beacon are still out there, the Grimm have overrun Beacon itself, but you're –we're both stuck here because of my disability!" Her voice darkened in odium. He stood up and said, "Well, maybe your more disabled than you think; seems to me you lost a few brain cells with that arm!" she stared at him, mouth gaping. "Y-you're such a jerk!" she groaned at his hard humor, rolling her now lavender eyes. He chuckled.

"Well, are you excited about getting your arm back?" he said after a moment. Yang hesitated, feeling her anxiety grip her chest with iron claws at the thought of her arm. "Can't wait," she lied.


"…Well as soon as we near patch, I'm gonna tell Tai we're coming." Qrow looked over at Nick, who was gazing out the window. "Who's–?" Nick started. "He's Yang's dad." Nick nodded. "You may still find her attractive," Qrow said under his breath. Nick gave a smirk. "I didn't know you were so concerned about my welfare, Qrow." Qrow looked on at his sarcasm.

A console beeped urgently next to Nick, grabbing his attention. He flipped a switch and a figure of the ship appeared on a monitor, surrounded by a circle; a dot appeared on the circle near the five o' clock position. Nick frowned. "We've got bogeys on the–"Nick checked what system it was, "motion tracker." He turned in his seat to look.

Three black birds.

"Son of a–" Nick swore under his breath. "What?" Qrow started, looking back as well, "Nevermores." He got up and moved toward the cabin. The Nevermores were closing quickly.

"Ruby! Wake up." Ruby groaned at the interruption of her dream. Her head fell to the side as she fell back asleep, landing on Weiss' head. Weiss mumbled something randy in her sleep in response to Ruby's head. Qrow was about to shake Ruby's shoulder to wake her when the ship lurched to the side. Ruby startled awake at the sudden upheaval. Weiss was not so graceful; she toppled onto the floor.

"What's happening?!" Ruby looked around in a frantic near-panic; then she saw uncle Qrow. "We've got a few Nevermores chasing us," he said. Ruby perked up when she heard that. "Ugh, you've got to be kidding me, you're not thinking of going out there?!" Weiss picked herself up off the not-too-comfy floor. "This isn't even a combat vessel."

"NO CRAP!" Nick yelled from the cockpit. The trio looked into the cockpit, seeing Nick wrestling with the controls and glancing out every few seconds; and winter stirring awake from this excitement. Suddenly, Nick yanked the controls, and the whole ship tilted dramatically. Everyone grabbed on to something. Nora squealed in delight. Jaune tried to keep his insides, inside. Winter shot out of her seat and bolted up front. "What is going on?" she coolly asked. Nick looked up at her as he leveled off. A stream of black feathers shot overhead. "Look for yourself; and after you do, could you please take the wheel." Winter counted three Nevermores, with about ten more Gryphons joining. He started to get up. "What are you doing?" he didn't even look at her. "I'm a better gunner than I'm a pilot."

She looked at him like he was stupid. "This is a cargo vessel." He whipped around. "Well, don't you have any rocket launchers?!" she furrowed her brow. "Why do you want those? How are you going to fire them anyway?" He simply asked, "Could you please tell me where they are?" She sighed, "there missile launchers, and they're in the cargo bay… but how do you think you'll–" "I'll open a hatch and fire." He cut her off as he ran off to get the launchers. Winter looked back as he left; then caught the Grimm out of the corner of her eye and pulled back on the controls in response. A few black feathers scraped the hull. One embedded itself.

Ruby looked on as Nick slid down the ladder to the cargo bay, hollering, "I could use a few guns down here." She snatched Crescent Rose and followed; Nora, Ren, and Blake, not far behind. "So, what's your plan?" she asked Nick when she hit the floor. He shrugged his broad shoulders, looking around for the launchers. "I dunno, go ahead and open those side hatches and blast away to your heart's content; just leave some for me." They got right on that. Finally, he found the crate he was looking for. Ruby's rifle boomed, as did the others' guns as he opened it and hefted the launcher. He looked around, both side hatches were slid open and the four were firing away, nearly turning the air into a swarm of small arms fire. Then he spotted the floor hatch, and an idea came to mind. He hefted the launcher and opened the hatch. Nora turned around at the noise. Nick was already headfirst through the hatch, grappling the sides of the hatch with his knees.

Ruby had the Nevermore in her sights… until it suddenly exploded; Nick had it in his sights too –holding the launcher while upside down– and fired first. He crawled back out and replaced his launcher. Ren was surprised at the sudden addition of a rear-firing missile… actually, so was everyone; they all stopped and stared at nick. He looked at each of them. "What?" He bent over and was waist-through the hatch again. "He's crazy!" Ruby exclaimed. Nick didn't hear her. The airstream rushing through his hair, ripping at his loose clothes, and screaming in his ears, it was all he could do to steady the launcher with both hands; one on the trigger, the other holding the tube above his shoulder. He sighted on one Nevermore, before it spiraled to the ground; then sighted the last Nevermore and pulled the trigger. A stream of smoke flew past him in the airstream. The Nevermore saw the oncoming missile and evaded it. It exploded on a Gryphon not too far behind. The Nevermore screeched. Nick sneered. "Aww come on!"

He crawled back up and stood, then staggered. A reddish-blue haze danced across his vision for a moment. "Sheesh," he uttered as he shook his head. Then he noticed something out of place: everyone stopped shooting and was staring at him. It was Ren who spoke first. "Have you fired missiles like that before?" Nick worked his Jaw like he did when he thought about something. "No, first time actually." He turned and hefted another missile launcher. Hell, I haven't even handled weapons like these since the war. Before anyone else could say anything more, Nick slipped back out the hatch. Suddenly there was an explosion right on the rear of the craft. Ruby glanced outside and saw the remains of the too-close Nevermore plummeting toward the ground, and the two Gryphons nearly on the ship. She looked back at Nick, who didn't shimmy back out the hatch, but she could see him twisting; and she decided to see the other side of the picture.

Lying in her belly, Ruby leaned clear over her side hatch to see what was wrong, locking her feet in the girders. It was one of the Gryphons. Nick was swinging at it with his tomahawk. Ruby Trained Crescent Rose on the large monster and fired, scoring a hit right behind the eye. Nick looked at her as the beast fell away. He shimmied back up, so did Ruby.

"Alright, you guys finish them off," Nick said as he headed for the ladder, "I'll try to keep them off us." Suddenly, the ship lurched to the side as one of the engines exploded. Nick found himself all-of-a-sudden tumbling out the side hatch, and into the airstream.

Blake reacted with feline speed, throwing Gambol Shroud and holding on the end of its ribbon. For a moment that seemed to slow down to forever, Gambol Shroud snaked its way across empty space toward Nick, then wrapped around his left ankle. However, his momentum nearly carried her off with him. Although Ruby held on to her to keep her from flying out, she caught her in such a way that, in any other situation, would be inappropriate.

Nick bent over and grabbed the ribbon, pulling himself up like he would on a rope. He soon found out that ropes and ribbons were different. Blake had closed her eyes from exertion, leaning halfway out the hatch; now she opened them, and saw nick making his way up her ribbon –slipping several times– but craziest of all, he was grinning the whole way. She started to pull him up with Ruby's help. He glanced to the engine –now a raging inferno– and saw a black feather skewering it. Finally, he got one hand on the edge of the deck, then both. He pulled himself up and rolled onto the deck itself, ending up on his back. Blake sat back, and Ruby collapsed to her knees, both panting from the exertion of pulling the slightly over one hundred twelve kilogram man. Blake shook her head, "you won't get away that easily." Nick chuckled.

"Blake, did you just make a joke?" Ruby asked starry-eyed. Ren was about to comment when Nick cut him off, "As much as I hate breaking up this moment, you should probably know we'll be landing soon." They looked at him. "Um, we're nowhere near Vale." Nora remarked. "I know," Nick said, "we're crash-landing." Another explosion made the ship shudder as if to accentuate his point. Everyone stared at him for a moment; then made for the ladder.

The ship thundered around them, and they were thrown backwards. Then it went dark.


Jaune stirred out of the bleak unconsciousness into the afternoon light of the white covered forest. He was lying on the ground, covered by a blanket. Where am I? What happened? He looked around, to his right all he could see were trees, bushes, and snow. To his left he could see snow, bushes, and trees. He turned his head forward and stared at the blue sky. Okay, how did I get here? C'mon Jaune, what's the last thing you remember...?

The crash, he was thrown backwards, now he was here. His eyes glazed over as he saw black smoke float across his vision. Then he wasn't looking up at the sky, he was lost in a familiar and haunting memory.

Pyrrha's kiss, the last time he saw her.

He started murmuring to himself as the scene played out inside his mind. Suddenly, a voice broke through from the outside world. "Jaune? Are you okay?" He recognized that voice. Blake? He turned to her, red barely starting to fill his cheeks. "Uh, yeah I'm fine," he said, sitting up. She sat down next to him, and he offered his blanket. She hesitated, shying away. "Here, take it." Jaune insisted. "No, I shouldn't." he looked at her in confusion. "Hey, you need it more than I do; you're starting to turn blue." He was right.

In the rush to go, Blake forgot her coat. Now she sat in the snow, her lips turning blue, trying to hide her shivering; she refused the blanket not because she didn't feel the cold, but for more emotional reasons. For reasons she couldn't rationalize, she found Jaune to be a rugged, dependable, and furthermore sensitive boy; she was starting to like him.

She slowly took the blanket from him, wrapping herself up in his warmth. He put his bare hands in his armpits to try to warm them. "So, is everyone else okay?" she shivered as the warmth penetrated. "Only a few cuts, mostly scrapes and bruises. Qrow took Ruby, Ren, Nora, and the Schnees to scout the forest."

Jaune stayed silent, staring at the smoldering engine of the crashed ship. Blake glanced at him through the corner of her eyes, seeing a flash of sorrow on his face. "Where's Nick?" he asked. She was caught off guard by his sudden question. "He went into the cockpit." Jaune stood up and walked to the wreck. Out of earshot, Blake sighed. If only you could talk to me about this thing that is hurting you.

If only we were friends.


The cockpit felt colder than the snowy ground outside. It was a hard cold, but not really there. Jaune shivered as he entered. Nick was sitting in the copilot's seat, earbuds in listening to music. Jaune tapped him on the shoulder, and his eyes shot open. Pulling his earbuds out, Nick calmly asked, "Yes?" Jaune could hear the rock music, a guitar somberly weeping, and replied, "I wanna talk about something." Nick turned off his music. Jaune sat down and fidgeted. "I figured –you being one of the Wolves– that you could help; share some insight, you being a warrior…" Jaune sighed. "A friend of mine… a close friend… my partner, died in the battle of Beacon." Nick winced, but said nothing. "My partner shoved me in a rocket-locker and launched me to safety, that was the last time I saw her." That caught Nick's attention. "She… well…" "And how close were the two of you?" Nick gently asked. Jaune looked up, tears in his eyes. Nick saw the pain and the loss in them, as well as something more, love. That answered his question, Jaune didn't answer.

"I know your pain." Nick said, "The other Wolves, people I considered more than just teammates, my kin, came under the same fate as all creatures do." He sighed, "But what do you want me to do about it? Why are you coming to me with this?" Nick grunted, "Look, I found out then that people die, it happens; there's nothing you can do to stop it." Jaune looked at him, "you obviously did." Nick's face darkened. "There are fates worse than death," He said beneath his breath.

Looking out the window, Nick saw Qrow the rest return from their scouting trip. "Alright, it's time to move on." he got up and left the cockpit. He breezed by a figure right outside, one who vanished trying to hide that she was eavesdropping.

A/N: happy last weekend of September everyone! This is a big chapter, I know. It took long to write.

I realized a few weeks ago that if I had ben posting a chapter a month, this would be out in December!

Anyway, It seems that none of you could answer my question, or at least didn't want to. I'll give you another chance to guess... As I said before, you can give your answer in the reviews.

THE REVIEWS:

merendinoemiliano: well, here's some more action. Honestly, I kinda find it a bit hard to write action scenes like this, especially for my OC. there's so many points to cover...

well, that's it. see you all next time!