Chapter Thirty-Eight: Haven


"Crapbaskets," Phoenix grumbled as he looked down the barrel of Grant's gun.

"You're a very difficult person to find, Fall," Grant said coldly.

"That was kinda the idea. How the bloody hell did you even know I where I was."

"I had my suspicions the moment that idiot came back from taking you to Mynstral and said you'd taken him and those kids hostage. You've never taken hostages before. Four of your so-called hostages also happened to be students at Beacon. Even if they were there against their will, you wouldn't pose a threat so large that they would have no choice but to follow your orders. Therefore…"

As Grant continued to explain in excruciating detail how he had managed to track Phoenix down, Phoenix started to formulate a plan. "Grant is likely using his semblance to try and make sure that I don't make a move without him noticing anything. That means that he'll be ready for anything that I send at him. But what if that's exactly what I want…"

"... And now it's finally over. I've caught you, and you have no tricks up your sleeves that can save you now," the monologue concluded.

"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say 'no tricks'." Phoenix said with a grin. As he did, he pulled out a knife he had up his sleeve and threw it. Grant easily caught it.

"I'm not sure what telegraphed your attack more: the movement or the one liner." Phoenix just kept grinning. His plan had worked.

"What are you smiling about?" His question was quickly answered by the explosive attached to the knife. The explosion did minimal damage, but it did its job. The sound and flash had overwhelmed Grant's currently heightened senses. He hadn't had time to lower them to their base level. With the help of large amounts of ice Dust and head trauma Phoenix was able to knock Grant out.

"Holy shit! I can't believe that actually worked! I guess the secret to defeating huntsmen and huntresses is distracting them," Phoenix recalled his use of an almost identical trick on Winter. "Alright, now… what to do about the body."


"…and that's what happened," Phoenix's finished explaining to Team RNJR why he and Jenkins were stuffing Grant's body into a crate that had once contained some Jenkins' explosives. The four tried to come up with a response.

"What do we do with him?" Ren eventually asked, "We can't leave him in there forever."

"Leave who in where forever?" Qrow asked as he joined them in the room.

Phoenix sighed and went through the story again.

"Well, you're going to have to find some way to get him outta here and to the house I got us without anyone asking questions."

"You got a house?" The group's emotions ranged from excited to confused.

"Yup. I called in a few favors. By the way, we're going to see Leo soon, so you'd better come up with something quickly."

"So you have no idea what we should do, but whatever we do, we need to do it fast." Qrow nodded, and Phoenix groaned. "Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. Qrow, give Jenkins the address. He'll just carry the crate there. Hopefully everyone will want to avoid him after all the chaos he caused at the hangar."

"You got it Boss," Jenkins replied cheerfully as he finally managed to slam the lid on the crate Grant was in shut.


"The city of Mistral… Been a while since I've been here."

"Ugh, It's about time!" Nora voiced what they were all thinking.

"We did face many obstacles: Broken airships, destroyed settlements," Ren listed some of the issues that had plagued their journey.

"Oh and, you know, all those people and monsters who tried to murder us!" Jaune added.

"You say that like it's something weird for us," Phoenix pointed out. "Besides, only a couple of us almost died." Ruby and Nora gave scolding looks to Qrow and Ren.

"How much farther to Haven Academy?" Jaune asked.

"Not much farther," Qrow replied. "I figured I'd take you kids on the scenic route." He pushed open a massive door to reveal a large lift that overlooked the city.

"Wow," Ruby dashed to the railing to get a better view. "This. Is. Awesome!" she cheered. Her enthusiasm was infectious. The others ran over as well.

"Well, it's certainly something."

"Look at all the weapons!" Ruby looked at the section of the massive market that sold weapons.

"They've probably got some pretty interesting ones down there to modify. Maybe once we've talked with Lionheart we can go check it out," Phoenix suggested.

"Don't buy anything too crazy. Vendors here don't care if they should be selling you something or not."

"They really made the most out of these mountains," Jaune pointed out, changing the topic from weapons.

"Yep, every inch. But stay away from the lower levels," Qrow advised. Phoenix made a mental note to check out the lower levels. "The higher up you go the nicer it gets."

"And we are going to the top!" Nora declared, pointing upward.


At long last, the six of them reached Haven Academy.

"We made it," Ruby said with a sigh of relief. Most of the others shared her relief. Phoenix wasn't one of them. However, he didn't want to ruin the moment by bringing up the suspicious lack of people. He glanced at Qrow, the two of them nodding in silent agreement to stay on guard.

The two of them became even more suspicious when they entered. The inside of the building was as abandoned as the outside.

"Hello!" Ruby called out, "Is anyone there?"

"Maybe you should try louder," Nora suggested.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone here?" Ren observed.

Well, I guess school isn't really in session right now. Maybe that's it," Jaune offered.

"No… this isn't right," Qrow muttered before running off towards the headmaster's office.

When they reached the door Phoenix set his glasses to tactical mode and scanned the room. "One person," he told them quietly. "They're coming towards the door. Be ready." They all raised their weapons. Phoenix and Qrow kicked the door down once the person going to open it was close enough that the door would hit them. The person they hit, however, wasn't an intruder. It was the office's owner. Phoenix and Qrow froze in astonishment before losing balance and falling.

"Qrow! Phoenix! For crying out loud, you nearly scared me half to death!" Professor Lionheart yelled as he got up.

"Us? Why weren't you waiting for us at the entrance?" Qrow demanded to know as he got up as well.

"Oh, right," Lionheart said as he pulled out a pocket watch, "I guess time slipped away from me."

"You've got to be kidding me," Phoenix groaned.

"Where is everybody?" Nora asked the question that was on everyone's minds.

"Ah, you must be the students Qrow mentioned." Lionheart quickly changed the subject. They all introduced themselves. Lionheart tensed slightly when he heard Phoenix's name. He chuckled nervously. "It's a pleasure to meet you all. Leonato Lionheart, at your service. I'm afraid most of my staff is currently away until classes resume-"

"What?!" Qrow cut him off, "Leo you can't be serious. Who's guarding the relic?"

"Qrow, the children-" he tried to protest.

"Already know. I filled them in. What do you mean your staff is away?"

"You filled them in?"

"Sooooo is this not going at all like anyone thought it would?" Nora leaned over to ask the younger members of the group.

"No one's tried to kill us yet, so it's honestly going better than I expected," Phoenix said, only half joking.


"I have to say Qrow, this all seems very reckless. Even for you," Lionheart criticized.

"No, reckless is leaving the relic completely unguarded. It's not checking in with Oz for ages!" Qrow yelled.

"There was nothing to check in about until the fall of Beacon, but since that day Mynstral has been in chaos!" He explained how the situation at Beacon had impacted them. They'd been swarmed by Grimm, and the knights being hacked lead to a large amount of tension between Mynstral and Atlas.

"All the more reason we need the huntsmen and huntresses here!"

Ruby decided to intervene before the argument could get any worse. "Okay, okay, things are bad, but we can figure things out. Why is the Spring Maiden so important?"

"I thought you filled them in," Lionheart said.

"Mostly filled in," Qrow corrected. "It's a lot to cover, okay. I quit teaching for a reason." He took a sip from his flask. Phoenix barely kept himself from making a remark about how he and the others still seemed to be kept in the dark.

Lionheart groaned before he explained that each Maiden had a vault that they could open and that the Spring Maiden, the one able to open the vault in Mynstral, had disappeared.

"I know where she is. At least I have a pretty good Idea," Qrow said once Lionheart had finished.

"Are you serious?!" he exclaimed.

"It's not exactly good news."

"What are you talking about? This is incredible news!"

"I wouldn't be so sure," Phoenix said. "She clearly doesn't want to be found, and if she's with a group they're likely to put up a fight."

"I can just about guarantee that they will. I did some digging and found out that Spring was picked up by bandits. The Branwen Tribe."

Lionheart realised who they'd be fighting if they attacked. "Raven."

Everyone in the room knew that name, though for very different reasons. "Yang's mom?" Jaune asked. Qrow nodded and projected a map of Remnant from his scroll. A small section of Mynstral was zoomed in on.

"That's about where they set up their main camp," he explained. "It's where they fall back to after raids and scouting missions. Raven's managed to gain a lot of followers since her return to the tribe, and I'm sure when the Spring Maiden showed up it only made things easier."

"Well Qrow," Lionheart patted Qrow on the back, "I've got to hand it to you. With these coordinates we can mount a retrieval force and head out in a few weeks." They all looked at him like he'd gone insane.

"I'm sorry, I think I must've misheard you," Phoenix said. "I could've sworn you just said we'd wait a few weeks."

"No, you heard me correctly, Mr. Fall." As Lionheart said this, he typed something in before the map disappeared.

"Leo, maybe you're the one who didn't hear us. My sister has the Spring Maiden, and I know where she is! We need to go as soon as possible!" Qrow knocked a pile of books off of the desk.

"Clearly you didn't listen to what I said earlier! The kingdom is in shambles! As soon as possible does not mean tomorrow! It means as soon as I can convince the rest of the council that I need huntsmen more than they do, and unfortunately bandit tribes aren't a priority when the threat of war is just on the horizon!"

"Then we do it ourselves!" Phoenix interjected. "You two are trained huntsmen, RNJR and I are more than capable of holding our own."

"Yeah!" Nora cheered.

"Perhaps there's a more peaceful way to approach this," Ren suggested.

"We need to get Spring as far away from here as possible, and Raven won't give up her prize possession without a fight," Qrow said.

"Unfortunately you and your sister are evenly matched, and I'm not the fighter I used to be. No offense but these students and I can't take on an entire bandit tribe and a Maiden that's no doubt had years to hone her skills. We need to be positive that we can apprehend Spring because if we fail Raven and her tribe will scatter, and they'll be lost. We get one shot at this, and it needs to be perfect."

Qrow sighed. "You know Oz wouldn't be happy with any of this if he were here."

"Perhaps you're right, but he's not and I'm doing the very best I can."

"There has to be something we can do," Ruby said.

"What about Cinder?" Jaune beat Phoenix to bring her up. "She came with Emerald and Mercury from Haven. Do you have anything on them?"

"We pulled their files after the fall of Beacon. Nothing but lies and forgeries," Lionheart admitted. Jaune clenched his fists and growled. Phoenix had a similar reaction, gripping the edge of Lionheart's desk. "I'm sorry. I know you've all traveled a long way, but I will do everything I can to help."

"Sure," Qrow said, not entirely convinced. "We'll stay in the city for now. Keep in touch this time. Come on kids." Before he turned around to follow Qrow out Phoenix made sure that the hidden listening device that he'd placed when he gripped the edge of Lionheart's desk was attached. He barely kept from grinning when he saw that it was.


Phoenix was having an increasing amount of difficulty focusing on adding a new function to his mask. The reason for this was the large amount of noise coming from by the front door. He decided he'd had enough when he heard what sounded like Qrow yelling "I found him!"

Ruby left her room the same time he left his. She seemed equally angry about the noise. "What the hell is going on in here?" he demanded to know when he saw everyone. His question was quickly answered when he saw the state Qrow was in.

"Qrow, did you get drunk again?" Ruby asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Maybe."

The boy standing in the doorway noticed Ruby. "You have silver eyes," he pointed out. The others glanced at each other wondering if the boy knew the significance of that.

"Who are you?" Ruby asked. Qrow chuckled slightly.

"Well… uh… my name is Oscar Pine," he said nervously.

"Wait for it," Qrow said when he paused.

"But you probably know me as Professor Ozpin."

"I did it!" Qrow cheered before falling off the couch.


I LIVE! This took way longer than expected (THE ENTIRE BLOODY SCHOOL YEAR), but between waiting for all of volume 5 to come out, having limited access to my laptop because my parents need to use it to look for work, getting a concussion, my bus breaking down in the middle of an intersection, my bus setting on fire, and the nightmare that is homework, I've had hardly any time to work on this. On the rare occasion I can use my laptop for something other than homework, I'm either not in the mood to write or too tired. On a related note, I can officially sympathize with Kayaba Akihiko in SAO Abridged. I'm taking a game programing class, and I had to go four days straight without sleep. I can hardly imagine how absolutely insane I'd be after three weeks. I think I should be able to get the next chapter out sooner though (That's by default more than anything). Thanks for reading!