Here's chapter 64, everyone.
"Are you still sure it's okay that we spar with-?" Before finishing her sentence, Ruby recoiled back a bit when her partner flicked her forehead. "Ouch! Weeeiiiiissss! I thought you wouldn't do that anymore!"
"I do that because you're a dolt that needs to understand when you're asking too many questions." Weiss said, arms crossed as she gave her partner an unamused look. "If I said it was fine once, you don't need to ask me again, got it?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am." Ruby stuttered.
The white haired member of Team RWBY rolled her eyes. "I'm not ordering you around, you dork."
Ruby was on the offensive immediately when she was called a dork. "Bleh." She stuck her tongue out at Weiss. "Wolfy."
"Ugh, shut it, you little hassle." Weiss replied, a slight blush tinted her cheeks.
Yang was watching from a distance, her elbow on the desk as she had her palm against her chin to hold herself up. "Y'know, the fact that Weiss calls my sister a dork fits, because two dorks are perfect for each other." She had a cheeky grin on her face when she said that.
"Don't have Weiss catch you calling her that." Blake warned while focusing on her art.
The blonde glanced over, noticing the drawings Blake had in her book. "Hey, I didn't know you were an artist, shadowcat." She continued to make sure to whisper when she'd use the nickname.
Blake shrugged. "It's just a hobby. Not really much else to it."
"You shouldn't sell yourself short, cause seriously, you're really good at this." Yang complimented, looking at the art of Grimm that Blake was working on. "Grimm are monsters and all, but even I have to admit that they look cool."
Being complimented wouldn't usually make the cat Faunus blush, but when it was Yang, she couldn't help but feel her cheeks warming up. "Uh, thanks…"
"Come on. I'm serious, Blake. I think you should show my sister and ice wolf. Trust me, they'll say the same thing." Yang encouraged.
It wasn't like she wanted to hide her art, but she never felt like anyone really needed to see it either. "I don't know… It's mostly just a hobby for me. I'm not one on trying to show off anything."
"Ey, don't be so silly. It's not showing off. You're just sharing your art." Yang continued to try and motivate her partner, not choosing to give up so easily. "And hey, maybe you can start posting it onli-."
"I think just showing Ruby and Weiss is just enough for me." Blake said, not much for social media, but in the back of her mind, she was considering it.
"Alright, I won't push it." Yang assured, stretching her arms a bit as she grinned. "So, wanna show em now?"
Blake shook her head as she closed her book. "Maybe after the sparring match we have."
"Sounds fine to me." The blonde brawler cracked her knuckles, clearly pumped up to take on Team JNPR. "Been waiting to have this kind of fight. Me and Nora go head to head sometimes, but man, thinking about fighting Pyrrha," She almost felt like sweating. "Even makes me a little nervous."
"Didn't think I'd ever see you like that." Blake remarked.
"Few championship titles, and coverbox girl on some cereal, yeah, she's not exactly all talk." Yang noted, but still looked determined to fight. "Just means we'll have to give it more than our all."
The cat Faunus shrugged. "I'm not all that worried about a sparring match to be honest."
"Aww, but you know they'll rub it in our faces if they win." The blonde brawler said, trying her best to get her partner to go all out.
"Not like I'd let it get to me." Blake nonchalantly responded, earning a groan from her partner, so she sighed and picked her book up. "Relax. It's not that serious." As she got up to head for the exit of the library.
"Maybe not, but I am so not about to let them get bragging rights." Yang followed her partner out the library.
"You're honestly as much of a dork as Ruby and Weiss, you know that, right?" Blake let out a small grin, while Yang scoffed in response. "Ey, I am not a dork. I am a very motivated person who just wants to rub it in Nora's face when we win."
Blake rolled her eyes. "Yeah, a dork."
Her partner pouted and complained the rest of the way back to their dorm.
"Okami…" Raven greeted, finding time to chat with the woman she was tasked with helping. "I didn't think I'd see you this soon, but here you are. So, are you going to tell me why you asked me to come out here?"
They were in a coffee shop, the white haired woman was wearing a hood to cover her face as best she could without resorting to her mask. "I didn't know you wanted to speak in last names, Branwen."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Sometimes it's better to work with that in situations like these. Now explain why you've asked me to meet you here."
Lazuria sighed. "Updates… Anything? Normality… I don't know. I wanted to do more than hide, and honestly, you're the only other person I feel like I can go to for that."
"So… You just wanted to hang out?" Raven deadpanned, and the other woman shrugged.
"Maybe to you that doesn't seem important, but I don't get to live a normal life anymore…" Lazuria quietly spoke, but shook her head. "Don't think I'm complaining… Sometimes I like to pretend I can live a normal life is all."
While she wasn't one to feel pity for others too much, Raven couldn't help but see how screwed up her life really was. "Well, you got me here, so I guess coffee isn't that bad." She said as she took a sip. Once she set the cup down, she continued. "We have a new plan for the mission. One you'll need to listen to so it'll work."
Lazuria perked up. "What about your previous plan?"
"Didn't give us anything to work with, but one of the others we called in suggested something we think should work well." Raven explained, unable to tell her the rest of the details since they were out in public.
"I see… Well I'll tag along with you for now. Trouble won't be around for me until another week and a half at the least." Lazuria remarked.
Raven nodded. "Like I said, it's best that you listen to the plan to get what we're doing. It involves you," She leaned over the table to whisper. "Ending another one of those lives."
Lazuria's eyes widened. "W-What? You're telling me to spare one…" She whispered back in shock.
"You're going to have to trust me on this. If not, then I don't know if we can help you in the long run." Raven admitted, raising Lazuria's heart rate. The black haired huntress noticed her tense up. "Relax. I didn't say we won't be able to help entirely. Just that we need you to do this for us, so we can get this started properly."
"I… I guess I have no other choice." Lazuria conceded, taking a sip of her own coffee Raven paid for. "Thanks for the coffee…"
Raven sighed. "I'm sorry for what you have to deal with, but we're doing our best."
"This isn't me complaining." Lazuria stated. "I'm tired, and… Maybe I should honestly just let them win… I don't know."
"Is that really the thing you want to say to yourself after this long? Even with how much you've done, and how badly you want to see your daughter again?" Raven asked, keeping her voice down still.
Without hesitating, Lazuria countered. "You were the one saying I shouldn't even tell my daughter the truth…"
"Yes, the truth. I never said you shouldn't see her, so are you about to throw that away, or will you let us try to continue helping you?" Raven questioned, keeping her stare on the other woman.
Lazuria hung her head down, contemplating everything she's done in the seventeen years of running. "Honestly… I have seen her… My little cub… I've seen her grow, and sometimes I wish I could walk up to her and hug her… Never to let go, but I refused each time-."
"In fear of her becoming involved." Raven finished her sentence, and the other woman stayed quiet. "Come with me." The huntress said as she got up from her chair and walked around the table, lifting the white haired woman up by her arm.
"W-Where exactly?" Lazuria asked when she got to her feet.
"Don't ask so many questions." Raven ordered, walking out of the coffee shop with Lazuria following close behind. "Sorry you didn't get much of a normal day of… Hanging out."
Lazuria couldn't argue about that. It's not like she expected a long talk about anything other than the mission they were on. "Not much to be sorry about."
Raven said nothing more and led the woman to the warehouse that she, Qrow and Summer were using.
"Tai should be here soon." Summer said to Qrow, both having waited in the warehouse when Raven informed them to. "So don't start any problems with him, or I won't protect you from what he might do."
"Eh, we'll see what he can do against me." Qrow challenged, and Summer sighed at his response. "I'm just messing with ya. Sheesh, can't make a joke around here?"
"Qrow, you don't joke a lot." Summer deadpanned.
The huntsman shrugged and took a drink. "Doesn't mean I can't."
"What is he trying to do this time?" Raven asked, almost startling the two, and Summer was taken aback when she saw the woman next to her old friend. "I don't need a migraine today, so whatever it is, don't do it."
Qrow rolled his eyes and flipped his sister off. "I don't need any sass from you today either, sis."
Summer barely paid attention to her teammates, only taking in what Lazuria, who she assumed was Lazuria looked like. White hair, blue eyes. It was like she was a Schnee herself. "Are… Are you-?"
"This is her, yes, Summer." Raven answered for the woman, while Lazuria didn't seem too interested in speaking.
The blacksmith walked up to Raven and the woman she knew as Weiss' birth mother. "I've heard a bit about you. I'm Summer Rose, one of Raven's teammates."
"Yes… I've seen you before." Lazuria admitted, surprising the blacksmith, and Raven. "The times I would visit… Well, more like spied on my daughter, I would see you once in awhile."
"You spied on snowflake?" Summer questioned.
Lazuria let out a somber chuckle. "Snowflake… Yes, I've heard Willow call her that many times… So I assume with that, you know all about who I really am."
"I do. Willow trusted me to inform me about who you are… Not everything, since I'm sure she wanted to keep what you're doing out of public ears." Summer replied.
"It's because of my request that she hasn't attempted to tell that many people the truth." Lazuria explained. "For someone like me… I'd rather the less people involved, the better."
Raven cut in before Summer could respond. "We're not here to talk about who needs to know what. Okami, we plan on interrogating the next Relentless that comes after you, and not in the kind way you think."
The crestfallen woman was surprised by that, not thinking hunters would resort to tactics. "I… Never really got the chance to try it myself. It was either kill or be killed with The Relentless."
Summer grimaced when she said that, and Raven nodded. "You don't have to give me excuses. I get what you had to do, but we'll be around when the next one comes, so try not to kill them, or else we'll have to wait even longer."
"I-I'll try." Lazuria nervously replied, while Qrow walked over, clearly a little buzzed.
"Y'know, I didn't say this last time, but you gotta be pretty tough to keep killing the people they send after ya." Qrow noted, and Summer wasn't enjoying the conversation, so she saw herself outside, while the buzzed huntsman looked over. "Summer, where ya going?"
"Leave her." Raven suggested, and pushed passed her brother to sit down by one of the rusted metal desks. "This isn't her scene, at least not right now."
Qrow shrugged and walked back over to where he was sitting originally. "Ey, did you know your ex is showing up on this one?"
Raven sighed, looking down for a moment. "Can you get your drunken ass out of here for a few minutes… Because I'm not about to deal with you right now."
"Buzzed, not drunk." Qrow remarked as he took another swig.
Lazuria looked back and forth at the twins, as she began to wonder if they were the right people for the job after all.
"Okay! It's almost time for the sparring match to go down, so… Wait, what is that, Yang?" Ruby asked when her sister walked into the dorm room.
The blonde brawler grinned, holding a tube in her hand. "Oh I think you know who's in here, sis."
Ruby gasped, running over to her sister, while Blake looked confused, and Weiss sighed. "Your father did not just send who I think he did like that again… Did he?"
"Heh, you know how dad is, ice wolf." Yang commented, and Blake still looked completely out of the loop.
"Okay, I'll ask. What did your dad send in the mail?" Blake questioned as she got off her bed to see. Yang smirked, and instead of answering, she opened up the tube and popped out what looked to be a fluffy tube shaped object. Blake watched it move for a moment, and then after a couple of seconds, it popped and a corgi was revealed, startling her as she jumped back. "What?! He sent a dog?!"
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. "In the mail again…"
Ruby squealed happily and hugged the little corgi. "Zwei!"
"How… How did he even fit in that tube?" Blake asked, dumbfounded by what she just saw.
Yang shrugged. "He's flexible? I don't know. Dad tried it once, and Zwei seems to like it a lot, so we said screw it, we'll pack him up like that whenever we gotta send him somewhere. Which isn't as much as you'd think actually."
"I'm… I'm not gonna ask any more questions. Just make sure he doesn't get near my stuff." Blake requested, and Yang grinned at her.
"What? Not a fan of dogs, Shadowcat?" The blonde teased.
"Don't start." The cat Faunus warned.
"Come on, Blake. You've been around the ice wolf a lot, and she-." Before Yang could finish her sentence, she saw Myrtenaster's blade appear in her vision to her left. "She heard me… Didn't she?"
"Use me as a comparison to a dog again, and I swear they won't find your body, Xiao Long." Weiss threatened, her cold tone evident as Yang slowly gave her a thumbs up to say she won't ever do that again.
Yang gulped. "Message received…"
Zwei is here. Oh and don't compare Weiss to a dog, or she will unleash her fury on you. Also to explain why Lazuria called Raven over, well like she said, she wanted to feel some normality in her life for once. So even if it was just a short talk, it was something.
To the guest on chapter 63- Oh wow you just made me smile with that Xenoblade comparison. I love that game and plan on playing the DLC that comes out soon for challenge mode. And I'm kinda thinking of what they'd be like with those voices. Huh, not bad choices.
To JJ- Hey it's all good. I'm the one who messed up and posted so late in the first place. Anyways, Zwei is finally here! So hope you'll enjoy his little involvement here and there. Don't underestimate the power of a Ruby Rose puppy dog stare, as even the girl who can become a wolf can't resist it.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 64. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 65.