Here we are again guys and gals. I am finally back after being away for several months for Basic training. I am now a US Army MP! I do apologize that it has taken so long for me to return despite me having been graduated since Jan 27th. I wanted to prioritize finishing my book before I came here, and lo and behold, I actually managed to do that at last. So, with some extra free time I can get back to dedicating some time to these fanfics.
Without further ado, let's get back to it!
YBWR
Chapter 24- Lighting Up The Match
"Qrow," Salem greeted her loyal ally and friend with a courteous smile. "It is good to see you again. How long has it been, two years?"
"Around that, I reckon," Qrow replied, returning the polite gesture and shaking hands with the headmistress. They had been working together ever since the year he graduated, back when Team QRTS, or Team Quicksilver - Salem had cheated slightly with the coming of their name, but despite the absence of a T, it stuck with them their whole lives – and even after he had long moved to Mantle to work with General Khan and train to become a Specialist. He took up a Drill Instructor position when it was offered to him and he was granted mandatory obligational leaves in order to conduct the missions that Salem would privately send to Khan, and then she would extend that to him.
Remembering all of that and then seeing this office again made a wry smile appear on his face. He felt old, like Yang had just a few minutes ago. But it also reminded him that he was here for a reason. Failing that, Cinder would have reminded him just as quickly.
"Since you are here, I presume that you have some pertinent information to report to us. In person, no less." Cinder said, hitting it right on the nail. The apprentice to the headmistress stood next to them with her arms crossed and her expression and her demeanor serious.
Qrow sighed. "Yes, that is true. If I felt confident that the information that I have would have been safe reporting over long distance, I would have called you instead. Though, with someone like Bartholomew Oobleck within Ozma's ranks, it was better for me to come to you in person."
"I suppose we can catch up later," Salem said with a tired sigh. "Go on then, sit down, you as well Cinder." They did as the headmistress said, Qrow taking the seat on her right and Cinder on her left. They both sat across her desk, like the students they were long ago. Qrow got comfortable, knowing that the environment was safe for him to do so. Long ago when he and his sister Raven first left the tribe in order to become huntsman, he might have thrown his legs up on her desk, snored through every deserved detention, and outright disrespected everyone in the room just because they weren't a Branwen like he. Understandably, he remembered Taiyang and Summer questioning why he was made team leader instead of either of them, whereas Raven couldn't care less. To her, he was still her little brother, even though she was born just a few minutes earlier than he, she never let him forget that. Enough reminiscing, Qrow thought, he was here for business.
"Ambert wasn't killed," Qrow began. "I know we all know that. He's being kept alive, but he isn't recovering?" He asked Salem.
Salem let out a defeated sigh. "I did all that I could with my abilities, and when that wasn't enough General Khan gave me an experimental machine that would keep him alive. However, saying that Ambert is alive is dubious at best. It's more that he isn't being allowed to die."
"Thankfully Raven got to him in time before he was killed. Her portals proved to be beyond helpful when she used to work directly with us. But when she found him and saved him from that man, the same man that we've heard of in these reports," Qrow pulled out his scroll and used its holographic function to take out a picture of an unknown man, back when Yang ran into Neopolitan before she was accepted into Beacon. The picture was taken by a news helicopter that had been hovering over the scene of the battle, and it was lucky enough to be able to hover there without getting shot down by the Bullhead. The picture it had of the cockpit just before it escaped deeper into the city using the tall buildings to hide the large aircraft showed Neopolitan piloting it, and another man standing behind her with his back to the camera. It was a blurry image. "The man is blonde, rather tall, and he is wearing the same clothing that Raven told me about when she first saw him attacking Ambert. That's him, there's no doubt about it. He's here. Which is why I am here. Mantle is under no danger right now," Qrow explained.
"But Vale is. Beacon might be. He is here for a reason we can all understand immediately. He is here to finish the job, and since we're all in the way of that, and with Ozma's backing, I am prepared to make the presumption that he'd go to extreme lengths to get the rest of the magic within the former Lord of Fall within Ambert."
"I am considering options for the future successor of the Lord of Fall's abilities," Salem said. "I've gone through the list of our male students several times, but in truth, there is only one that speaks to me much more than all the others. This term our female body has been surprisingly outclassing the male part, but there is one young man that has proven time and time again how durable and skilled he is in combat. One who can regenerate and amplify his own aura mid battle."
"Jaune Arc," Cinder said for her. "He is the only real choice. As the combat instructor I can personally vouch for his skill. He is far beyond his peers, and he has a tendency to hold back. However, if there was a flaw to be said about him, is that he is too honorable. If we were to ask him to inherit Ambert's power, his already potent insecurity about what people think about him will inflate, and he would be reluctant to ever use the power or his semblance at that."
"Mister Arc can be convinced." Salem said with an understand nod, taking Cinder's point seriously. "He is still young despite his prodigious status. Young minds are almost always fickle. I had done some digging into his files and noticed that his choice to become a huntsman was a late one. He lies to his friends and peers and the public believes that he has been training his whole life, but really, he has only been trained ever since the age of twelve, and by the time he was thirteen, he was already winning junior tournaments."
"Really?" Qrow said, impressed. "That's incredible for a boy his age. Though, he certainly had the best teachers around in Mistral. Nicholas Arc and his family are well known for their nonstop training and mentorship. But still, to grow so fast… it's unheard of."
"I believe that to be a possible side effect of his semblance." Cinder said. "Perhaps it doesn't just amplify his aura and regenerate it. Perhaps it also increases his ability to learn and adapt."
"If your hypothesis is true, then he is an even better candidate than we all originally thought," Salem concluded. "I will discuss this further with General Khan, but I am sure that she would agree with our deduction that Mister Arc would make the best candidate."
Qrow nodded along, though he didn't feel nearly as enthusiastic about it as they did. He cursed himself for being too damn old to be able to take it onto himself. With a life and fitness like his he could naturally live a very long life. His loyalty to Salem could not be put into question, and he'd be determined to master the power even more because of that. If this had happened ten years ago, Qrow would have taken up the mantle the second Ambert was confirmed that he wasn't about to recover anytime soon, if at all. Qrow squeezed the hand rails of his chair hard, feeling his fingers digging into the soft cushion and even deeper into the wood. He really was getting old, and he couldn't help but think about what Yang and Raven and Ruby had been telling him these past ten years or so. He works too much, he does too much, he should find someone to settle down with and this that and there. There was just no time. In that moment, when he nodded along with Salem and Cinder as he agreed to condemn a teenage boy to forever being hunted and to deal with a great amount of responsibility being thrust upon his shoulders, he felt all the older man he was becoming.
"I'll talk to her about it," Qrow piped up once he was done with pitying himself. "I was planning on seeing Sienna later anyway. Is she still in town?"
"Likely on her airship as where the General of her status should frequent." Cinder said. "You're going to fly there?"
Qrow smirked. "Yep, might as well. I'm sure Sienna will agree to this, it makes sense, after all, ands he's all for training young minds to becoming great soldiers. Just look at Adam Taurus and even me!"
"Hmph, you're not so young anymore, Qrow." Cinder remarked.
Qrow sighed. "Yeah, guess you're right. Well, I'll be off then," he said, standing up and moving to the nearest window. He saw the airship far off in the distance, as a bird he should be able to get there within the hour. "And remember about what I said. The enemy is already here. I can't say for certain if they have men in Beacon, but I wouldn't put it past this usurper fellow. He's smart, and so he'd want to scout out any potential battlefields before a battle happened."
"I will take your warning seriously," Salem promised. "In the meantime, we still have a festival to plan. But with the number of huntsmen and huntresses already in the city, plus some favors I can call in with Vale's police force, I can push the investigation of this man higher on the list of priority. We will find a name, and then we will find the man. I'll hunt him down and deal with him myself if I have to."
"And I have to ensure that the upcoming training missions are all properly distributed to those who wish it, and then make room for time the professors chaperoning them can fit it into their schedules." Cinder said with a groan.
"You can handle it, I'm sure." Salem said as Qrow flew out the window, losing interest in the conversation. "Besides, you do the work I couldn't be bothered with. I have more pressing matters to attend to, when I step down from this position and you have it for yourself, you'll understand my reasons for delegating responsibilities."
"I already do." Cinder said, already typing away at her scroll and working on the details of each specific mission. "Should I put that mission into the pool?"
Salem knew of which she spoke of. "Yes, and do make sure first year teams are also able to participate in this event."
"Of course, I'll be sure to be in the area if so, conveniently a certain team tries to accept a mission they otherwise wouldn't be able to being so young and inexperienced." Cinder added with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh Cinder, you are learning!"
"Hey Yang!" Ruby greeted her sister with an excited squeal. She rushed forward and hugged the smaller girl. She sensed her tenseness, and was eager to do what she could to help. "Heard about what happened from Blake once she went off with her boyfriend. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, I guess." Yang sighed. She sat down on the ledge of Beacon, below her was the Emerald Forest and behind her was dozens of other people, both huntsmen, huntresses, ones in training, and their parents all here checking out Beacon on the free day. Training missions were being handed out for the weekend, and the school let family relatives into the school to see the future of their generation grow. "I thought Qrow was in the school because he was here for us. But it turned out that he was here for work, like always… He never makes time for us anymore."
Ruby sighed as well. She was just as frustrated about it as her sister was. Two years was not an understatement. Qrow had moved to Mantle one day after he finished his training to become a Specialist, which was something he was able to do quickly since he was already a seasoned huntsman at the time, and then all he did was work, work, and work some more. She honestly admired him for doing everything he can to help people every single waking hour of every day if he could help it. It was what she heard Taiyang was like, and Summer as well, her birth mother and father. He took after them much more than Raven ever did, clearly. But she had to agree with her sister here.
"He needs to figure out what his priorities are. His life is really busy, too busy." Ruby agreed, remembering what Raven had told her one day. "He's going to break one day, and if and when that happens, we're going to be there for him and rub it in his face about how we were right and how he should have settled down years ago," Ruby shared a laugh with her sister. "Don't get too riled up about it. Mom has already been doing her own part in taking care of him. Those random portals she goes through, then comes back with scrapes and cuts and bruises? C'mon, you expect me to believe her when she says that she went out for a run of all things?"
Again, the sisters shared a boisterous laugh at the expense at their mother's complete failure when it came to lying. She was really bad at it, being usually the most brutally honest person out there. She just didn't want them to worry about them so much, but they knew that she could more than care for herself, they also knew that if they ever brought it up that they knew that she was just some big softie on the inside, they'd end up with a few cuts and bruises themselves.
"C'mon, get up." Ruby said, picking her sister up by her armpits and putting her back down on her feet. "No contemplating jumping off the ledge here while I am still around. Let's go find Weiss, she has to be around her somewhere. We can leave Blake to make out with her boyfriend while we pick out one of those training missions."
"Eh?" Yang tilted her head in confusion. "Are we allowed to take those even though we're still first years?"
"Why not?" Ruby shrugged back at her. "We're going to have a professor chaperoning us anyway. What's the worst thing that can happen?
The worst thing had happened. Finding Weiss was easy, she was just sitting down in their dorm room reading one of her skimpy books that she doesn't bother trying to hide from them. Penny was there to, funnily enough, but she made excuses for herself to leave once they told her that they were going to go take on one of those training missions. She seemed to have realized that she was the leader of her own team and wanted to go grab a mission with them before it was too late. Even though she was a temporary exchange student, she still had the option. That wasn't what the bad part though.
Starting from the beginning, after getting Weiss, the three of them went off to the station within the school to acquire these missions. Mister Rainart was explaining how it all works and how they can choose what kind of mission they can take, and it turned out most of the professors and teachers were there to help students figure out what was best for them. They all had a limit to how many students they can take at once, however, to take to each booth and explain what each mission was and what it would take to complete them. Mister Watts, expectedly, was full to the brim with dozens of students with him and he carried himself just as he did in class. Explaining with great elegance and making even the most boring kinds of mission's sound like it would be the kind to save all kinds of lives. Then there was Cinder, who was surprisingly surrounded by a lot of the older students and a handful of ones from their year. There was a waiting line getting set up for Salem herself who took it upon herself to help some of the students as well, and there were still more waiting for Watts and Cinder.
Notably, however, there was a person, a professor, who had zero people waiting for him. There was no one with him. Not because they were nervous, but because there were rightfully afraid, and intimidated by the man who was hanging upside down in a booth made out of black bones that look like it could have been taken out of a Grimm's corpse by his scorpion tail. He hung with his eyes closed, his jacket flapping over his body and revealing his marred and scarred body with cuts that were still healing from all the times he's ran into the Emerald Forest and captured a Grimm with his bare hands. If it weren't for the fact that he showed off how he wrangled Grimm one time in class, what he did after hours might have been just considered rumors. But no, not this guy. He was crazy strong, crazy smart, and crazy insane.
And he saw them.
He saw them, and he came.
Ruby tried to save them, Yang tried to pretend she never saw him, Weiss tried to run away, but didn't get far. Mister Tyrian caught her first, and in that moment, they all knew that they were doomed.
"Students, students!" He wailed, crying overjoyed tears as he wrapped two long arms around the entire trio of girls. "I am so happy to see you have interest in me becoming your chaperone, truly, I am beyond flattered! Everyone else, oh, they couldn't handle me. My gusto, my motivation! It is unmatched I say, unmatched!"
"I-I," Yang looked to Ruby, and then to Weiss, and they were both looking at her as if she'd be the one to save them from this terrible fate. She could do nothing, however, her position as leader of Team YBWR meant precious little in the presence of a Beacon Instructor like Tyrian Callows.
"Sure?" She said for some reason instead. Eliciting an excited cheer from the faunus professor and therefore making Ruby and Weiss widen their eyes with betrayal and fear.
"Good, good! Come with me, I have much to tell you about!" Tyrian exclaimed, taking the three girls with him to his booth. Surprisingly, it didn't smell all that bad like the girls would have imagined. Instead, it was rather organized and neatly put together. However, there was only one mission that on this particular booth, which was a search and reconnaissance mission into the bowels of the ruined city of Mountain Glenn. In search of another mission – despite this one looking so interesting already – Yang looked over the rest of the booth, her eyes scanning up and down, to the floor and to the walls, even though there were no walls and the ceiling was easily thirty feet or more above their heads. There was nothing else, this is it.
"This is the mission we will be conducting." Tyrian happily began, waving a hand to the lonely program on the large human-sized screen before them.
"W-Wait a moment," Ruby tried. Tyrian perked up with intrigue, making the young reaper instantly regret her decision. "Aren't there any other choices? Any other options for us to pick from? We were under the impression that we'd get to choose our own mission."
"Hm, hm," Tyrian hummed, nodding his head with approval. "That is an excellent question." He replied eventually, patting Ruby on the head. Then proceeded to ignore her question entirely. "Anyway, this search and recon mission into Mountain Glenn is imperative for the reason that there is an unknown cause as to why there has been a sudden rise in Grimm activity in the area. Our job, or more realistically, your job under mine own supervision,"
"Wait," It finally clicked for Weiss. "You are going to be out sponsor for this!?"
"Yes!" Tyrian happily replied, then completely missed her shocked and horrified expression. "I know you must all be very excited, but please, save your excitement for the Grimm. Also, I do not condone capturing the Grimm. That is my job, and my job alone. Don't steal it from me." Suddenly, Tyrian sniffled, looking like he might have broken down crying right there. "It's all I have…"
Like the thought ever came to any of their minds! Capturing a Grimm should have been impossible, they wouldn't even know how to do it in the first place!
"Good!" Somehow reading their confused expressions as them agreeing to his pleading, Tyrian went on happily. "To keep it short; As I said, this is a search and recon mission, not particularly meant to be a combat-oriented mission, however, an exception may be made if an emergency is present and action needs to be taken. Also…"
As Tyrian went on, Weiss pulled on Yang's sleeve, getting her attention. "I was going to tell you this before, but Penny and I were talking about where Neopolitan could have gone."
"You were?" Yang's eyes widened with surprise. "What kind of theory did you two concoct?"
"We were surmising that she could have potentially fled to Mountain Glenn. The news lately hasn't said anything about Neopolitan or her gang, and that's not like her. She's the type that wants her face spread out on the front page of all the newspaper to paint herself as this criminal gentlewoman. But as we know now, there is a lot more going on underneath than we initially thought." Weiss explained.
"Yeah? And how do know that Mountain Glenn is the answer?" Yang asked. "There's a dozen different things Neopolitan could be doing right now. Why would they be in a ruined city of all places?"
Weiss looked at her seriously, then blushed a little. "Penny has a hunch." She said with a sigh. "I think its worth investigating, anyway. Also, its not like we have to dedicate all of our time to it. I hope I'm wrong, honestly, I'd rather we focus on the mission. We're going to be shacked up with Mister Callows anyway for this mission. So, in the time we aren't actively scouting out the area we can look around on our own. I can make a glyph to make an illusion temporarily."
"Of course, you can," Yang chuckled. "Sure, we can make it a secondary thing. I doubt anything too crazy is going on down there. There's going to be some Grimm I bet, and we're going to take them down and maybe Mister Callows will do some professor stuff and teach us something."
Weiss snickered. "Yeah, maybe. Hopefully it wouldn't include- "
"Miss Schnee! Thank you for volunteering to be the bait!" Tyrian exclaimed.
"W-What? Bait? For what!?"
"Weren't you listening?" Tyrian inquired, genuinely concerned.
Weiss thought about being honest. And then decided that would be the wrong choice. She nodded her head, meekly.
"Great! You will be the bait to draw out the Grimm, and the mission will be taking place at the end of the week." Tyrian said. "I'll send the rest of the information to your scrolls. Do. Not. Be. Late."
Those last four words had all three girls standing at attention. Feeling the uncontrollable urge to salute the man, and doing so. Amused, Tyrian returned.
"At ease, students," he played along. "Now go and prepare. The end of the week will be here before you know it!"
And there we go! Just because I feel the need to say it, Adam in this story is NOT abusive. He is very doting and loving to Blake, and he will never abuse her as long as I am the writer of this story. With that said, I hope you enjoyed the returning chapter. I know it was short, but it needed to be, I'll come back with something happy.