Leaning near the door of the office Cinder waited and listened as until Leonardo walked in and sighed as he walked to his desk and sat down covering his eyes with a sigh
"So Leo what were you taking care of?"
"A group of huntsman students, Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, and Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose though, from what you told me about her she has silver eyes yes?"
"Yes, Salem wanted me to keep a close eye on her."
"Her eyes look more like yours now." he said causing Cinder to frown her eyes narrowing at him as Watts came walking out of the hidden room
"Salem has asked that we kill the huntsman."
"No... she's like me, she would be far more useful alive, and maybe even working with us... I believe she and her cronies have no idea that we were involved in what happened at Beacon." Cinder reasoned earning a hum from the scientist as he ran his fingers through his mustache and hummed
"Should Salem agree then you'll be free to convince them to join us, but it's up to you to convince her that they are worth joining your posse." he said earning a nod from Cinder who entered the hidden room to speak with Salem, her thoughts wracking on how to convince the five of them, that Jaune boy and the Nikos girl both knew her involvement... but perhaps she could use that to her advantage... they couldn't know much more than what Ozpin told them which was more than likely already limited.
(o)
Yang sat across from Raven as she listened to the woman lecture her on controlling her Aura, expanding it and contrasting it, guiding it across her body to her hands then feet, attempting to gain full mastery over her body and aura was something that Raven said was important, that her father wasn't too big on but the rest of her family were energy fighters, shifting their Aura to their limbs as they strike to massively increase the power of their strikes, Raven uses something similar to with her attacks making her able to cut through most metals and weapons, the down side is that it concentrates your Aura where you're striking leaving the rest of your body exposed
she had been training extremely hard to catch up to Raven but the difference in their power was clear, even with all her effort she couldn't keep up not unless she actively uses her semblance and presses her advantages, even with all that effort she would sometimes fail, but Raven would encourage her to keep pushing her upper limits, eventually Blake would join in her training as Raven left to find Ruby, it would take her about a day to reach Mistral and a few days afterwards to find Ruby maybe even a week, so now with Blake joining, Yang had begun to train harder than before pushing herself to the absolute limit attempting to match Ravens' power
(o)
Yang crossed her arms and focused her on her legs proceeding to go through the motions with each kick she twisted her body and continued to spin each strike growing faster as she built momentum until she couldn't move any faster, stopping she walked back to the start and did so again. Blake on the other hand danced across bamboo poles, hopping off eventually she then began to dance across them again
"Hey Yang, when do you want to leave?" Blake questioned through a few breaths, Yang had told her to exercise with her Aura deactivated, it was proving to be a very taxing endeavor but she could understand the request
"Soon, but I understand if you want to stay, you've got family here."
"No, I... well... we need to get back to Ruby-"
"I need to get back to Ruby, you've got your family and friends here. I get it if you don't want to come with me." Yang reassured as she began to kick again, after finishing she let out a sigh and wiped the sweat from her forehead, and then swapped to her punches, as she went through the motions she quickly twisted and swung a few kicks before dropping back into punches. Blake flipped backwards landing on one of her hands and flipped back the tips of her toes landing on the poles, kicking off she rapidly leapt between each pole making her way around the training grounds "I'm not done fighting Yang, I'll be by your side the whole way." She said as she leapt into the arena as Yang finished her set then turned to Blake
"You've got your family here, don't let them go so quickly, not like I did."
"Yang there was nothing you coul-"
"I don't want to hear it. I'm heading into town." Yang quickly shot back extremely coldly as she stormed out of the arena and towards the side gate with a frown her hair sparking violently as she stormed off in a rage
(o)
Ruby couldn't help but let out a growl as she continued to preform push-ups, it had been nearly an hour of straight effort she couldn't feel her muscles strain in the slightest
"Ya doin' okay?" Nora asked as she shifted slightly balancing on Rubys' shoulders Jaune shifting slightly in her arms as he let out a noise of worry as they nearly fell
"I... don't think this is doing anything for me." Ruby finally answered causing the girl to hop off her shoulders onto solid ground and dropped Jaune who yelped as he clattered to the ground, groaning in pain
"Alright then, mind doing the same for me? I gotta get my strength on par!" Nora asked already in the ready position
"Hey! Wait a second! I'm not a training weight!" Jaune quickly said as Ruby picked him up and stepped onto Noras' back "Ren! Please help!" Jaune called out as Ren payed no attention to any of them his aura glowing brighter for a few moments before fading
"It's fine Jaune, Renny cant hear anything when he goes that deep." Nora commented as she began to push herself
"I've been meaning to ask about that, why does he meditate like that?"
"Ren never had a lot of Aura, so he always had to work extremely hard to keep up, I always had tons of it so... ya know I never really needed to, Anyways what am I up to? I lost count around forty."
"Sixty-eight." Ruby answered shifting her weight a bit as Nora began to push harder than before with a sigh, Pyrrha had left to the CCT communication building, it had been almost half a year sense she called or even saw her family and they were probably worried sick. As she made her way towards the near empty building she made her way towards the phone booths, which with the CCT down were now crowded by comparison, waiting her turn a brown cloak over her body and hood pulled over her head left her feeling a little uncomfortable, usually in situations like this she would be swarmed by fans or challengers, it was different, she didn't know if she liked it yet or not, eventually she got to the phone booth and inserted a few lien after a few moments she dialed her family house number and waited... and waited
"Hello?"
"Hi mom."
"PYRRHA!? My... my daughter... where are you? What's going on? Why haven't you come home yet? When will you be-"
"Mom, please. I just arrived in mistral yesterday, me and my friends are searching for the threat that caused the destruction of Beacon, I haven't been home yet because as I recently learned I'm not looked upon favorably now, we should be heading to Argus at some point, I'll make sure to stop by if I get the chance. But I can't stick keep talking like this, it's not safe."
"I understand... I'm just so happy to hear that my darling daughter is safe."
"I... I have to go. Bye mom."
"Goodbye dear."
Pyrrha quickly hung up and dashed off towards the familiar and clearly exhausted figure
(o)
Raven glided along the roof tops coming to a stop on one of the roofs and peered down into the streets searching the faces of those occupying it before flapping her wings and few off once more making her way up towards Leonardo's office knowing him if a group of huntsman showed up he'd have some form of records on them, landing outside his window she stared in and watched as he and another man spoke, she was unable to hear them and the man he was talking to was facing one of the book shelves seemingly attempting to select one of interest
Leonardo seemed a bit more flustered, and fearful, as the man turned and Ravens' eyes dilated, she recognized that disgraced Atlas scientist Arthur Watts, he was also a confidant of Salem and her crew, meaning that Leonardo has betrayed Ozpins' war to save his own skin, which wasn't uncommon but was rather annoying for her as of right now, soon after the two began speaking they entered a room hidden behind one of the many bookcases, fluttering over to the window she shifted back to normal, quickly jimmying the lock she scrambled inside and picked up his scroll, pressing her own into it and began to transfer all relevant data, as the transfer took place she moved towards the bookshelf and placed her ear to it enhancing her hearing, she could her muffled voices just beyond
"-Cinder can convince the girl, then we should be more than capable to meet this Sephiroth, but she did share a bit of worrying information, apparently he is in Mistral, for what reason we have no idea but-"
"I do not care what he is there for, he poses a threat to our plan and must be dealt with." a feminine voice countered, it was frigid and uncaring it sent a shock down Ravens' spine she knew who that voice belonged to even if she never heard her before, taking a few steps back she quickly dashed towards the desk and grabbed her scroll as the transfer finished and dived out the window after falling about ten feet she shifted into her avian form and flew off towards a more secure location her worries growing as it appeared that Cinder was planning to try and convince Ruby to support Salems' cause, such a thing would be worrying.
(o)
Pyrrha sat across from the white haired girl watching as she ate rather fervently, she was dressed in a more practical version of her combat dress, she had a white military jacket over her dress and a pair of long military boots
"Sorry-" Weiss began but quickly started to scarf down on the meal in front of her "This is just so good! Traveling from Argus to here was a bit of a pain, and travailing with Atlas specialists mean that all we had were MRE's... which aren't that bad but you do tend to have... difficulties with other activies related to eating." Weiss explained after clearing her plate, Pyrrha just smiled at her it was good to see someone they knew here
"So what brings you to Mistral? I thought your father took you home." Pyrrha asked earning a slump from Weiss shoulders as she frowned and looked down
"He did, But Winter apparently went into an experimental program created by the military then Sephiroth... I don't know, took her or something. Because he came walking out from her room and she was gone."
"Maybe she wasn't present?"
"She spent the past five months in a coma, with no signs of waking up. I don't think she suddenly felt the urge to get up and get a glass of water."
"Fair enough, so you also have a reason to hunt him down."
"I assume Ruby does too."
"So do I." Pyrrha added raising her right hand which was made completely from bronze with a smile, that caused Weiss to pale slightly
"I'm so sorry."
"Ah, don't worry about it, my mother doesn't have either of his right arm, right leg, or left leg from the knee down, so losing a hand isn't that bad by comparison."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know, she never liked talking about it." Pyrrha answered with a shrug as she placed some Lien on the table and raised her hand earing the attention of one of the waiting staff to move towards them and collect the money and plates as the girls began to walk away from the restaurant
"So do you mind filling me in on everything that's been going on sense I've been separated." Weiss asked earning a nod from Pyrrha who began to explain their journey and everything that came with it, the ups and downs, as well as all the changes Ruby had gone through, including the new glow in her eyes, Weiss didn't quite understand what she was talking about but she was quite happy that Ruby was here with her
"I should add that Professor Lionheart has given us a place to say for the time being, you can join us there."
"It has been so long sense I've been in a nice bed." she said earning a laugh from Pyrrha at the similarity between their both their words upon arrival within the city
"Lucky for you we have plenty of beds... like eight or nine of them, it's kinda weird." Pyrrha commented earning a shrug from Weiss
"I'll settle for a couch if you don't wanna give me a bed for whatever reason." Weiss quickly said clearly desperate for a luxury of some kind, the two of them then moved off towards the level lifts, Pyrrha was quite happy that she could give Ruby a present like this, it would be nice to have another person for Ruby to lean on, she had left out quite a few details like how for the first few weeks Ruby had nightmares and Pyrrha would lull her to sleep again, or how after that Ruby tried to not sleep and eventually passed out and they made camp missing out on a day of travel which Ruby was extremely angry about, regardless she became a little less angry about the whole situation after realizing that none of them were willing to trek through the night like she was until they collapsed from exhaustion, that caused her whole... frustratingly pressing them forward as much as she could.
"I should mention that Ruby is a bit... troubled." Pyrrha added earning a worried look from Weiss as they entered the small cylindrical lift as it began to rise
"Troubled?"
"Yes... she... it's been hard ever sense her uncle had passed, she has pushed everyone away except me, I think it's because I've also suffered a loss at Sephiroths' hands." she said with a worried look at her bronze hand
"I hope she'll at least be happy to see me."
"She didn't stop talking about you, Blake, or Yang until we were half way through Anima, I'm sure she'll be ecstatic."
A/N Alright, so this one'll be shorter mainly 'cause I wanna see if I can get the fun started in the next chapter and I wanna start trying to get onto it as quickly as I can and sort all that stuff, mainly because the number of things to do in Mistral is a bit limited due to character motives, and other such things, but I'm rather lucky with my choice of Sephiroth clones, I'm sure you've already put together the number and their purposes.