Pestilence - Neat.
{A month later Maccillian's general POV}
A month back home would usually be boring. But not on Remnant. Two or three days after we got to Patch, Saya made her weapon. She based it off of the whip she got from the fall, but made its gun form a shotgun, the whip from before turned into an SMG somehow, and she loved it. The irony that Saya was SUPPOSED to learn how to use an SMG was not lost on me, but she only knew the shotgun due to me turning her into a Werewolf. Anyway, I reinforced it with my aura, and then did so with the rest of team RWBY'S weapons after they learned I could, and we went from there.
Weiss' dad came by at some point, so she HAD to go with him. But Saya told Weiss we'd be going to Atlas at some point to play in her lab, and that placated Weiss. The rest of team RWBY wanted to stop it, but Weiss kept them from trying. She said she'd see them when Beacon reopened, which it was, and they agreed to see her there. After that, Blake ended up going next, but she told the girls she was going to see her parents and apologize to them. Seeing Weiss' dad and spending time with Tai seemed to be enough for her.
They called Sun, which was possible since the CCT in Vale was among the first things repaired as fast as they could. Velvet was busy, and asked him to go with Blake to Menagerie. The crush they had forming was lost only on Ruby, so it was set up that Sun would be her 'bodyguard' for the trip. A part of my mind told me something was going to happen, but I couldn't remember what. Yin didn't seem to remember either, so she just gave Blake some potions and a defensive item as they went on their way.
An interesting thing that happened during the week was Saya actually sparred with Saeko sometimes, and eventually, got good enough with both variations of her weapon to get a win out of Saeko. We celebrated that day, and the rest of the house would sometimes get embarrassed when they looked at me or Saya.
There were some ok hunts during the week, but nothing too fun, but that was fine. After a bit, it was Rika's turn for a new weapon, and when I say the squeal of excitement Ruby let out could've woken the dead, I mean it. I could swear there was a faint ringing in my ears days later. The three of them, Saya was obviously helping, went wild with Rika's weapon, and I knew she loved it.
She got a sniper similar to her old one made, gave it a double sided axe form, and even a spear form. After reinforcing it, and giving it the ammo bit again, Rika treated the thing like it was her firstborn. Ruby made a 'snipers are the true way' club with Rika, and I made sure to keep my mouth shut. Sure they were cool, I just liked rocket launchers more. Who wouldn't like explosions?
Shizuka, after watching the other girls spar with theirs, said she wanted a weapon too. Safe to say, we were all confused since Shizuka never seemed interested in them, but we agreed. Then my mind came up with a funny image, and I recommended what Shizuka's weapon should be. That was a few days ago. So before the month ended, Shizuka got her weapon. A massive fucking rocket hammer just a little taller then me. It was like the rocket great sword from monster hunter, just better. It didn't have a gun form, none of us trusted Shizuka with a gun.
After that, we spent another week on Patch, then started getting ready to go to Atlas. And after a while, we were ready.
{Maccillian's POV}
After the whole routine, the girls and I got ready to take a bullhead out to Atlas. When we got our belongings, which were some clothes Rika and the girls bought, we made our way to the ride. But before we did, we were stopped by Ruby and her sisters. I say stopped, but it was more of Ruby latching onto Saya and Rika, and not letting them go.
"NOOOOO! Can you stay just one more week? Just one?" Saya had a look on her face that told us all she was actually considering it. But after a few seconds, she sighed.
"We can't Ruby. I've held off on opening up a few robots for too long. Weapons are great, especially these, but they're robots! I can't hold on anymore." Ruby whined like a child, and Saya just started patting her on the back.
"Don't cry kid, you can still call us. That was the whole point of us getting scrolls in the first place." Which was true. We all, me included, got scrolls to talk with team RWBY, and a few others. Qrow and I talked booze, Saya talked with Weiss a lot, Shizuka wouldn't stop calling Glynda, and they somehow became friends. (Still lost on how the fuck she did that. The two are polar opposites, there should've been no chance of that happening.)
"It's not the sameeeeee! Yang, Yin! Help me!" Said twins just looked at each other, then walked over to pry Ruby off of them. Seeing Ruby flail at my girls was amusing.
"They can't stay here forever Rubes. They've got people to see, places to blow up, and stuff like that."
"... Yang. I don't think they're going to be blowing stuff up on purpose... Right old man?" My eye twitched, and I huffed at Yin.
"No we won't brat. And remind me who WAS older again?" The deadpan and following kick to the shin was worth it. Yin was in her early 20's when we died, so I was technically the younger one. 2,821 years be damned. My girls found it amusing that Yin was older then I was, they knew we reincarnated, there was nothing stopping me from telling them, and I didn't want any secrets between us.
"We don't mention that old man." The smug look I gave her made her reaction all the better.
After that, the girls talked some more, and when we were ready, we started heading out. Ruby gave me a hug, which I returned since she grew on me and the rest of us after a month on Patch, and the rest of us got a hug from the twins. Yang got over her fear of Saeko, she didn't, she just learned to lessen it, so they both hugged a second or two shorter then the rest. When it was Yin's turn, we hugged, and I gave her a smile.
"See you sometimes kid. Try not to get offed or something like that."
"You're lucky I don't have a dungeon strong enough to drop you in."
"Don't threaten me with a good time kid." She clicked her tongue, and walked back to her sisters. They all waved us off, and the girls and I walked into the bullhead.
It was a private one, Ironwood sent it since Saya told him we were coming, so we had the space to do whatever we wanted. I still find it funny how Saya likes to threaten Ironwood for seemingly no reason at all. Ironwood learned about Saya not caring enough to backup her threats, so they somehow turned it into some weird game of 'how far can I push before she sends the Werewolf after me?'
Saya got close once, but that was all. I just think Ironwood has some fear kink, but that's just me. I was brought out of my musing by Shizuka dropping her hammer onto the floor, and seeing it dent the bullhead. We all just looked at her, and she had this innocent expression on her face. "Shizuka, could you maybe not drop the super hammer on our fucking ride?"
"But carrying it for so long gets boring. Sayaaa why couldn't it be smaller?" That was the only issue she had with her weapon. She saw Coco's weapon, and the fact it was a fucking purse before it turned into a minigun, which drove Saya crazy, and wanted it to be like that... Which was impossible. Saya tried to do it, but she just couldn't. It was the only thing she decided to give up on until later.
"Because it can't be! Just take the hammer as it is!" Shizuka pouted, then turned to me. Fuck. She was giving me the eyes.
"Silveeer!" I just sighed and picked it up. After a hug and quick kiss to the cheek, Shizuka went over to Rika, and they went to check out the rest of the bullhead. Saya went off with Saeko, since Saya had her own room, to play with her whip, pionós, which she only named due to Ruby constantly badgering her to do it. Saeko was infinitely amused at the name, and Saya didn't want to change it.
Rika named her weapon 'Triple tap,' and Shizuka named hers 'Boomstick.' The moment I heard that, I was doubling over in laughter. (The idea of Shizuka yelling 'Boomstick go BOOM!' is still hilarious. We're never going to Ash's world, but I'll entertain the idea of them comparing Boomsticks.) Speaking of, I went over to our room, and dropped Boomstick by the door. The rest of the room looked normal, and I shrugged.
"Welp. Now what?" As if by some cosmic sign, my scroll started ringing. "Convenient." I picked it up, and smiled.
~Hey Silver, heard you and your wives flew the coup.~
"... Qrow... Did you just use a pun on me the first sentence in?"
~Hah... Firecracker threatened me into it.~
"Ah... That makes sense. Anyway, what's up ol buddy of mine?"
~Well Beacon is up again, the Vale council is back, and we're ready to speed up our efforts to fix the rest of the place up.~
"Ok, this concerns me how?"
~Oz wants to talk to you about something. He was too busy getting a new arm and helping set everything up, but he's free... Ish, now. Not sure what else he wants to talk to you about other then helping keep Beacon from being destroyed, but I know that's part of it.~
Huh. That was interesting. Since Ozpin survived, the backlash from the world was actually a bit more focused on him then it was at everything else. There were no student or faculty casualties, some fucking how, but there were hundreds of civilian lives lost. Those loses were blamed on Ozpin, and Beacon by association, so he had a bunch of shit on his head for that.
"Well, I'll get to him eventually. Or not. Talking to people like him is just asking to give me a headache. All the double meanings, the subtle wording, the secrets and shit that makes me have to think about what I just heard and question if I should just fuck off and get a drink. I don't really need to see him."
Qrow grunted in what I assumed was agreement at the drink comment, and I heard someone sigh at the whole thing.
"You're not alone are you?"
~Nope. I got Oz and Glynda in the back. Oz asked me to call ahead, and now we're here.~
"Cool... I'm not taking back anything I said. Secrets are fucking annoying to deal with. I'm too young to have my hair get any greyer then it is." Qrow snorted at that.
~Weren't you 2,000 something?~
"No clue about what you mean you drunkard. I'm clearly 19."
~HAH! And pigs can fly.~ I paused at that.
"I mean, there are some that CAN. Maybe not HERE, but I've seen some." I was pretty sure Hawk from Seven Deadly Sins, a world I wanted to go too when the rest of the girls could handle it, solely to fight Ban and annoy him to death with a Regeneration off, could fly.
~... I shouldn't have said that.~
"Eh, you live and you learn. Anyway, anything else you wanna bring up you drunkard?"
~Nah. Only called for Oz.~
"Ok. I'll just go do something I guess. Try not to kill your liver drunkard."
~Whatever. Talk to you later Silver.~ He hung up after that, and I put my scroll down at a table.
"Huh... Now what?" With no idea what to do, I decided to just go bug Saya and Saeko for a bit.
{Qrow's POV after ending the call}
"Hah... You heard him Oz. Guess we won't be seeing grandpa Silver talking to his something something grandkid huh?" We had this new running gag ever since Glynda described Silver to Oz. The gray hair was really the only thing we had for it, but we ran with it anyway. Glynda actually went with it sometimes, which I took as an achievement, and Oz was mildly annoyed with it.
Oz sent an annoyed glare my way, but I just laughed. "... Qrow. Again, we are in no way related." We all knew it, still said it though.
"Anyway, what's the plan now Oz?" The big man himself just sighed and picked up his coffee. He got used to using his new arm real fast, so he didn't shake the cup too much like his first time doing that.
"... I don't know. In all my years, I've never come across a situation like this. From what you've all told me, if I try to set up a meeting, I could very well be ignored. Using other methods is also out of the question. We have nothing he may want, I'm also reluctant to try to coerce any of his... Wives, as you've called them, into convincing him to meet with me. It's as the one called 'Saya' said. They have the upper hand.
From what we've seen, Mr. Maccillian can destroy all of Beacon and Vale should he choose to do so. The reports from our students have also shown us none of them mind killing those that stand in their way... That may not include us, considering both of the deceased were with or affiliated with Salem or an agent of hers, but I cannot take that risk. As of now, all I can do is ask James to set up a call with us and Mr. Maccillian. Whatever his answer is will have to be what we accept."
He kinda had a point there. We all saw Silver kill off hundreds if not thousands of Grimm with one shot. We heard his blond wife dragged around an Alpha Beowolf like it was a baby. The Saya girl was smart enough to figure out Mechashift, some of the parts of those knights, and scrolls in a month. That put her in the 'Genius and higher' category. Then there was the sniper woman Ruby got attached to. We figured out she was military of some kind, just not what. She was a better shot the Ruby, quick on her feet and on the uptake, and knew how to fight with her new weapon like she was born with it. Then there was the actual killer.
Saeko Busujima. Thinking about that woman sent a shiver down my spine.
(Firecracker and Raven Mk ll told me about that Saeko girl before we looked for her. Then meeting and sparring with her? She's dangerous. Adam got his, that's all fine and dandy. The White Fang got screwed with the backlash, but that's their fault. But Cinder? She deserved getting killed, but damn was it brutal. Even Port couldn't look at her corpse without dropping his act. Didn't even know the name of some of those muscles she tore apart. The kid's scary as hell on a good day, and a monster on a bad one.)
I got on Silver's case about having four women to keep up with, but the guy said he'd never have it any other way. The fact he meant that was crazy to me, but oh well.
"Qrow? Are you listening?"
"Huh?" Oh. Oz was handing me something. I grabbed the file he was giving me, and checked it out.
~Mercury Black - No semblance reported. Prosthetic legs, weapons built into his shoes, assassin. Spotted making his way towards Mistral with companion Emerald Sustrai.
Emerald Sustrai - Semblance, hallucinations, weapon Thief's Respite. Dual revolvers capable of becoming Sickles and Kusarigama. Sighted making her way with Mercury Black towards Mistral .~
"Ah. The kids with Cinder. I was wondering when we'd find em." Oz nodded, and took another sip of his coffee.
"They managed to stay off of our radar for long enough. But now? Now we have a lead. I would like for you to find them, if possible detain them, and bring them back. We cannot do so with Cinder due to her... Demise, but we can question her accomplices." That made sense.
"Gotcha. I'll get em here as soon as I can." A nod later, and I'm out the window flying towards my assignments. This could take a while, but I'd manage.
{Maccillian's POV}
"Why?" That was the only thing I had to say. No one could fault me for this either. After the talk with Qrow, I went off to Saya's room. I didn't expect anything strange, why would I? But when the first thing I see is Saeko, with a collar on, bound in rope, Saya's aura whip curled around her throat, and Saya herself using Saeko as a seat? That was all I could say.
"Why what?" Saya didn't even turn to me as she said that.
"The rope? I can tell it's aura, but why..? And is that a collar?"
"Yup. And Saeko wanted it. We found out she liked being bound and restrained during a spar. I get free control experience, Saeko gets off and happy, and I also get a free chair." One blink... Then another, then I looked at Saeko. She was happy, and reminded me a little too much of Shalltear, and I sighed.
"Mo lann? Why are you the way that you are?" She grinned at me for that.
"Who knows my lord. Who knows." Another sigh, and I just went over to Saya, and nudged her. When she looked at me, I looked over to her whip. She gave me a confused grunt, so I clarified.
"Gonna add anything to it, or are you just fiddling with it because you can?"
"Yes." She knew I hated that.
"... Saya." She even had the nerve to giggle at me! "Just... Answer." After the giggle fit, that Saeko joined in on, she did.
"I'm mostly doing maintenance. I don't want to take this out into the field, and then have it break or jam on me. I'll write down ideas about what I want to do with it later." Huh.
"Makes sense. Anyway, how long are you planning on playing in Atlas?" She set down her whip, and actually started thinking on that.
"... Hm... Another month or two should give me enough time to figure out how those robots work. I'll probably debate with their 'genius' and work with him and his notes... Unless his intellect is lesser then mine. No point in wasting my time with someone beneath me."
"You do realize you spend most of the time with people that fall under that category right? And Saeko is literally beneath you. That doesn't stop you from spending most of your time with her when you're not with us." She 'hmph'd' at that, and smacked my shoulder.
"You're all different. I love you, Shizuka, Rika and Saeko. As much grief and annoyance as you and her give me, I wouldn't change any of you for the world." I hummed at that, and ruffled her hair a bit. She tried to swat me away, not seriously, and stopped after the first attempt failed.
"Love you too ceann beag." She just nodded, and went back to playing with her whip. I decided that was all, and gave both her and Saeko a kiss before I left. There wasn't much else to do, so I just spent some time with Shizuka and Rika, and waited to land in Atlas.
{Hours later}
No clue how long we flew for, I was too lazy to check, we eventually made it to Atlas. When Saya saw it for the first time, I think she was about to have a nerdgasm. She almost went into her Werewolf form, and jumped ship to Atlas. After a few more minutes, and making sure my grip on Saya kept her from destroying the ship on accident, we landed on a military landing zone.
"LET'S GO ZAKA! ROBOTS AWAIT!" That's all I could get from Saya before she shifted and we watched her run out of the bullhead, passed all the knights, Winter and the Ace ops, and towards the lab building. Saya's sudden outburst surprised everyone, and any greeting we were going to get died in their throats.
We all watched her go, and I felt a headache forming. "The day we go to a mecha world, she is going to drive me crazy." Rika laughed, and Shizuka and Saeko giggled. They followed after Saya, not minding the escorts we had, and followed her into the building.
We were being followed by Winter, the Ace ops, and a few others, but they hadn't said anything. For Winter, I think it was because she didn't know WHAT to say, or WHEN to say it. Saya had cut off any chance to perform an introduction by just going full speed forward. Though, Rika managed to salvage it.
"Hey snowy." Everyone, including the now renamed Winter, turned to Rika. "Whats the CoC like here? I've got an idea and everything, but it's easier to just ask." And here comes the military speak. As soon as Rika and Winter started talking, I zoned out. Saeko seemed somewhat interested in the topic, but Shizuka joined me in zoning out.
After who knows how long, we eventually made it to the lab Saya was given. And damn was it a lab. The squeal of joy Saya let out after she shifted back when we got in, and saw she had three different knight models to play with, was enough to shatter glass. She didn't even get embarrassed afterwards, she just fully focused on what was in front of her, and went to work. Though as she did, I didn't know what to do now.
That was until Shizuka nudged me. "Hm?" She pointed out towards the window, which gave us a great view, and gave me a look I knew. I didn't mind, so after dropping off whatever luggage we had, and stopping for a second. "Saya! Want anything to eat!?" She grunted, and I heard something creak.
"Something fresh, two or three drinks, a cake and maybe some cookies." Fresh?
"Saya... You do realize you asked for something fresh... Right?" She stopped playing with the oldest model, and turned to me.
"And?"
"Look outside for me please." She did, blinked, and shrugged.
"So? If it comes to it, bring me wolf meat."
"... Fine." With that settled, Shizuka, Saeko, and I left the lab. I did hear someone mutter 'cannibalism?' Before we did though. Rika had hit it off with both Winter and the Ace ops, so she was going to do whatever she wanted with them. So now, it was just me and my girlfriends.
We talked, kept on going, but were eventually stopped just before we left. One of the Ace ops, not sure who and I didn't care to ask, told me Ironwood wanted to see me in his office. I debated just saying no, and leaving, but Saya did bully the guy into getting her lab, so I accepted just to thank him for it. I was thinking about where to pick up Saya's order, and thinking about Titans, though Saeko nudged me and stopped those thoughts.
"My lord." She nodded towards the door to Ironwoods office, and saw the man himself standing outside of it.
"Aren't I supposed to meet YOU? Not the other way around?" He sighed at that, and opened the door for us to follow, which we did.
"Normally, that is the procedure. But these aren't normal times." He went over to his desk, and Shizuka and I took a seat. Saeko stood behind me, and let her head rest on mine. "Like Miss Saya said, you hold the advantage. While you may be in my territory, you hold all the power. I COULD throw the entire Atlesian military at you, but that'd just annoy you and deny our side a group of powerful assets. We can't force you. We can't offer you anything YOU'D like. We can't bribe your companions. All we CAN do is ask you for assistance, to hear us out, and go from there."
He was right, and we all knew it. "Well, whatcha wanna ask?" Ironwood sighed, and smiled.
"Ozpin would like to talk to you. We can set up a call here in my office, and the two of you could speak face to face." Hm... There was nothing stopping me from talking to him, and Shizuka DID want to meet him.
"Alright. I guess it's time to talk to the wizard." Mentioning that, made Shizuka brighten up. Ironwood didn't get it, and Saeko was just interested. She knew OF Ozpin, but didn't care enough to check in about that situation. (Hopefully, this goes fine. It'd suck if he was boring to the point I pulled another Takagi moment.)
[Omake - A weird Winter's day. Winter's general POV]
Winter had not been having a good few days. The 'Fall of Beacon' as it were, put her in high alert. Weiss and her safety was an immediate concern for her, and if she were allowed to do so, she would've dropped all her duties to ensure her little sister was fine. She even contemplated disobeying orders and taking a bullhead to Patch after it was said that's where she'd be.
Thankfully, that was unneeded. Well, thankfully for her. Weiss had been 'brought' back by her father. That day was one of the rare times Winter outright left her post and returned to her family. She had been told by her general that Weiss was unharmed, but she had to make sure of this with her own eyes. And it was just like her general told her. Weiss was fine.
However, Winter considered bringing her sister to a psychiatrist. After hearing about a 'pack of Werewolves' saving Beacon. Thinking they were Faunus with powerful semblances was Winter's conclusion to Weiss' tale.
Until her general told her the same tale. Just with more information. An honest to gods Werewolf and his pack had saved Beacon. Despite how much she despised Qrow, she wondered just how much she'd need to drink to handle that sort of information. It just couldn't be possible. They had to be some kind of evolution to Faunus. That was what she told herself day after day, and even up to the moment she saw these 'Werewolves' herself.
Then she saw one turn into a pink wolf, and run towards the labs. Faunus couldn't do that. Maybe some long lost tribe could, but not the modern day Faunus. Then there was another issue. None of them had wolf traits. No ears, tail, eyes, nothing. They looked human. And that threw her off even more.
Following this pack, who were following the runaway wolf girl, gave Winter some time to think. Her theory that they were some form of evolved Faunus was now a 50/50 at best, and completely wrong at worst. An evolved form of Faunus should keep their animal trait, or maybe even have both of them. But these people had nothing like that.
It was while she was thinking that the one named 'Rika' got her attention.
She'd been briefed about what they'd known about them, and even found some form of ID. Said ID gave their ages, an old overrun village as a place of birth, and came with their current photos. We knew they were probably forged or something of the sort, but it couldn't be proven. No matter how they were looked at, they were nothing but genuine.
Being given a nickname the first few minutes since meeting her, did not give her a good impression in Winter's mind. Then asking what the chain of command was something that gave Winter pause. It was assumed this woman had a military background, and this gave Winter an opportunity to fish for information.
After a few minutes of talking to this woman however, made Winter come to a startling conclusion.
'She's like a mixture of me and Qrow.' That revelation made Winter want to drink just to forget it. Too bad she was still on duty.
[Status]
Name - Maccillian Silver Zaka
Age - 20(2,821)
Strength - B+
Dexterity - B-
Vitality - A+
Intelligence - B-
Wisdom - B
Charisma - A
Luck - C
Grimm slain - 821/100,000 - 1,040/100,000
Titan's slain - 1/3