What's up people! RebelKira here starting off the year with what has become the second most popular of my stories! I apologize for the long wait for a new chapter, but I'm back. As always if you enjoy what I'm doing here check out my other stories and including the new one I've started for Pokemon.
CyanideLegend99: Why does everyone want me to fuck Cardin? Well either way thanks for the support!
Jerrend: No Comment *eyes shifting back and forth*
On with the show!
Then next morning I woke up and immediately went to make a pot of coffee. Archer had followed shortly after me.
"If you don't mind me asking. What is your plan for talking to Ozpin tomorrow?" He asked.
"I'm basically gonna lay out both team's situations, and bring up what Cardin's been doing to Hailey, Jaune and I." I said grabbing my mug out of the cupboard. "You want some?"
"No thanks. I wonder how far you've thought this plan though. If Mr. Winchester's team has been victimizing the lot of you wouldn't it be better to keep at a distance from Ms. Sakura rather than getting closer to her? There wouldn't be any alternate reasons that are clouding your judgement are there?" He asked.
"There's no other reason. I just wanna help her. Isn't that what being a huntsman is about? Helping people?" I asked.
"I suppose so. However, with her teammate Ms. Mellow dating one of his teammates. Mr. Lark I believe. This swap idea of yours would no doubt only serve to infuriate him more." He said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Say your plan succeeds and say Proton switches with Ms. Sakura. Once Mr. Winchester learns that Proton was a former member of your team. He'll no doubt be infuriated assuming it you had something to do with it not caring whether it's true or not. Wanting even more revenge on you. Meaning he would be out for blood." He said.
Before I could respond, the coffee maker dinged. I poured myself some and sat across from Archer at the table. I took a drink and set the mug on the table.
"Of course, I know that." I said in a serious tone.
"Then why are you going through all this trouble?" He asked.
"I'd do the same for anyone else. If I see someone in trouble I wanna help them. Being a huntsman means selflessly throwing yourself into harms way do protect something, or in this case someone. I know I'm painting a target on my back and making it bigger with every action I take. I don't care." I said.
Archer was silent for a moment. "I see." He got up from the table and started towards the door. "I'll leave you with this to think about. Do you think anyone here would go to these lengths for you?" He walked out of the kitchen.
'Before last night I would have hoped the three of you would have.' I thought.
Hailey came staggering in shortly after he'd left looking like she could easily fall asleep standing up.
"Morning." She said groggily.
"Morning. You want anything for breakfast? Some coffee maybe?" I asked.
"I don't really like coffee… I don't suppose you have any Pumpkin Pete's?" She asked.
"I'm afraid not." I said.
"Aww… Orange Juice?" She asked.
"I think so." I said with a slight laugh. I got up and looked in the fridge. "Looks like we do."
"Can I have some with a couple pieces of toast please?" She asked.
"Sure. You want anything on it?" I asked.
"Just a little peanut butter please." She said.
"No problem." I said.
I made her the toast and got poured her a cup of orange juice. Once she started eating, she slowly seemed to wake up more.
"So, I was thinking we could head to the training hall with Yang today. I thought about inviting Coco too so I can actually get some training in with her this time. Figure an upperclassman would be able to give us some decent tips." I said.
"Sure." She said.
"Unless you have something you'd rather do?" I asked.
"If it's not too much trouble… I'd kinda like to just get away from the school for a bit." She said.
"No problem. Anything in particular you'd like to do?" I asked.
"Not really." She said.
"Alright then, how about we see if Velvet and Coco have any ideas. They'd know the city better than about anyone else at this point." I said.
"Okay." She said with a small smile.
"Cool. I'll message her to have them pick us up." I said getting up to pour another cup.
"Hey, Cian." She said.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"I'm really sorry about the way I acted when we first met…" She said.
"Don't worry about it. Given the circumstances I don't blame you for distrusting someone you didn't know." I said.
"I still feel bad about it…" She said. I walked over and pinched her arm. "Ouch."
"There. We're even." I said smiling.
"No, we're not… I don't even know where to start to repay you." She said.
"I never said you had to." I said.
"But…" She started.
"Hailey, you don't need to do anything to repay me." I said.
"Okay." She said smiling with a slight blush.
"R-right. So, I'll go ahead and message Coco. I-if you wanna go grab a shower quick go ahead. I'll take care of the dishes while I wait for her to message me back." I said with a slight blush myself.
"Thanks." She said before heading out the door.
I messaged Coco and started doing the dishes. She messaged back saying they would meet us in about an hour. I finished the dishes and went out to get some clothes to change into. Archer and Ariana appeared to have already left with Proton still being asleep. Hailey came out of the bathroom wearing a white long sleeve shirt with light pink petals on it and black capris.
"Did she respond?" She asked.
"Y-yeah. They'll be here in about a half hour." I said.
"Is something wrong?" She asked.
"No, I just liked your outfit." I said.
"Oh, well thank you." She said blushing.
"Anyway, I'm gonna jump in the shower before they get here." I said.
"Alright." She said.
I went in and once I was finished, I came out wearing a white shirt and jeans. Hailey had put on a light blue jacket. Proton had finally woken up and staggered to the bathroom as soon as I got out.
"Good to go?" I asked.
"Yeah." She said.
I went over and grabbed a pocketknife from under my bed.
"Why are you bringing that?" She asked.
"Never know when it could come in handy." I said.
A couple minutes later Coco and Velvet showed up at our room. We'd made it a few steps down the hall before Coco stopped.
"Shoot I forgot my scroll." Coco said.
"Again?" Velvet said.
"Hey, at least I remembered before we left the school this time. Sorry, we'll have to make a quick detour." Coco said.
"That's fine." Hailey said.
When we got to their dorm we went in and Yatsuhashi closed the door behind us.
"I had a feeling you didn't forget it." I said.
"Ozpin gave us permission to let Hailey in on the plan since she's heavily involved." Coco said.
"What plan?" Hailey asked.
"Your little hero here managed to seal the deal. Tomorrow you'll be changing teams. You'll join Cian's team and Archer will be taking your place." Coco said.
"What?" Hailey asked.
"Yeah, the only people who know though are you, me and team CFVY. So, we'll have to keep it under wraps for now until tomorrow." I said.
"I can't believe it." Hailey said with tears forming in her eyes.
"You can thank him once we get to town. There's more we have to go over first." Coco said.
"There's another reason we're doing this. We have reason to believe that the rest of Cian's team are actually working for someone else. That they are here undercover. The problem is we don't know what they could possibly be after." Yatsuhashi said.
"As of now you and Cian aren't allowed to reveal anything truthful about yourselves to them. The less actual information they have on the two of you the better. You'll need to make sure you both have passwords on your scrolls. This comes straight from Ozpin himself. We have no proof that they are criminals of any kind, but we'd rather be safe than sorry." Coco said.
"Just so you know, we don't necessarily think you'll be in any danger just being on their team. There are just some things that don't add up about them and seem too odd to ignore. So, we just want to take precautions in case our suspicions are right." Velvet said.
"Obviously they'll know who your friends are, we can't stop that, but most of your friends aren't pushovers either. We just don't want too much important information getting out." Yatsuhashi said.
"This way too you can look out for anything suspicious from them. They seem to have been slipping with information lately and not realizing it. Again, we have no official leads, just being cautious." Coco said.
"I know this is a lot to take in, especially with everything else you've had to deal with. We just don't wanna see anything worse happen to you." I said.
"Some of us more than others." Fox said.
"It's gonna take a bit for me to process this." Hailey said.
"Understandable. At least this should be easier than having to deal with Cardin." I said.
"I can't argue that." Hailey said.
"Alright now that that's out of the way. Shall we get going?" Coco asked.
"Sure." Hailey said smiling.
The four of us headed out of the dorms to the airships. We boarded one and started heading for the city.
"So, what do you guys wanna do?" Velvet asked.
"That's kinda why we asked you to come along. Since you've been here longer, you'd know the city better than I would." I said.
"Yeah, I don't really know the city either." Hailey said.
"Haven't either of you been at all since coming here?" Coco asked.
"A couple times, but I didn't spend a lot of time there." I said.
"I've really only gone when I went with Cian and teams RWBY and JNPR." Hailey said.
"If you don't mind me asking, where are you guys from?" Velvet asked.
"I'm from Mistral. The Capital City actually." Hailey said.
"You're from Mistral too?" I asked.
"Yeah, where do you live?" Hailey asked.
"In a small village in the southern part of the continent." I said.
Hailey went silent for a bit before she burst out laughing.
"I think we're missing something." Coco said.
Hailey finally calmed down enough to speak.
"So, ever since I met Cian something about him seemed familiar. I just remembered what it was." Hailey said before she started laughing again.
It finally hit me what she was talking about.
"Oh no." I said bringing my hand to my forehead.
"He was the last one our airship picked up before coming to Beacon. He tripped on the edge and fell face first onto the floor of the ship." Hailey said.
This caused Velvet and Coco to start laughing.
"You know Pyrrha never laughed at me for it." I said crossing my arms.
"I-I'm sorry okay." Hailey said.
"You know, I don't think I've seen you laugh this much since we met. I'll let it slide. This time." I said.
We arrived in the city and started walking around.
"Alright, so we have some options. There's a huge mall on the southern side. About any store you could think of is there. There's a park on the west side. Plenty of restaurants all over. Couple different movie theaters." Coco said.
"The theaters won't start playing anything till at least this afternoon though." Velvet said.
"Your choice Hailey." I said.
"We could start with the mall." Hailey said.
"I was hoping you'd say that." Coco said.
She led us towards the mall and listed off some of the stores her and Velvet tend to visit more often. I think Hailey and I underestimated just how big this mall was as we were both stunned.
"This place is about as big as the school." I said.
"Yep, there should be enough people around that you won't need to stick around with us the entire time. No one would be dumb enough to try anything with all these people around. We'll meet in the food court in a few hours." Coco said.
"Sounds good to me." I said.
"Have fun you two." Coco said with a wink before her and Velvet walked away.
"I feel like she had a hidden meaning with the way she said that" Hailey said.
"I get that feeling almost every time she talks" I said.
"So, where would you wanna go first?" She asked.
"Well I thought about checking out one of the bookstores, but if you wanna do something else we can." I said.
"I don't mind." She said.
"Alright." I said.
We checked one of the maps in the mall and headed for one of the bookstores. At least we tried anyway. We got lost pretty quickly along the way and had to check another map about three times before finally finding it. We were both pretty sure we checked at least one of the maps twice. We looked around the store a bit and each ended up getting a couple books.
"Alright, I picked this place, so the next place is yours." I said.
"Well, I think I saw a tea shop around here somewhere." She said.
"Works for me." I said.
We walked around again and eventually found the shop. Hailey looked around at the different variety's they had giving me brief descriptions for each.
"No way, they have White Dragon Bush. This only grows in remote areas of Mistral. It's so rare to find." She said.
"I'm gonna guess it's pretty good going off your reaction." I said.
"It's said to be so delicious, it's heartbreaking." She said.
"I'm guessing you'll be getting some then?" I asked.
"I wish. The rarity of it makes it incredibly expensive." She said.
"What like eighty Lien?" I asked.
(Note: for this story Lien will be equal to USD)
"Try five-thousand for fifty grams. At three grams a cup that equals up to about three hundred lien for one cup." She said.
"Are you serious?" I asked astonished.
"Yeah, I'd love to get some but there's no way I could afford that. Oh well, a girl can dream." She said.
She ended up purchasing some jasmine tea instead.
"So, I hope you don't mind me putting this in your room when we get back. Since I'll be moving in anyway." She asked.
"Nah, but since they aren't supposed to know about that yet, I'll just tell them your doing it because you don't want your team messing with it. Whether it's a lie or not having met your team I think they'd buy it either way." I said.
"Thanks. Honestly I'd probably believe it too." She said getting a little disheartened.
"Hey how about we head for the food court?" I suggested.
"Sure." She said.
"I'll message Coco and let her know we're heading over." I said.
We spent some time looking for the food court as well as trying to decide what we wanted. I ended up getting a cheeseburger and fries while she ended up getting chicken fried rice. We sat down and started eating.
"You know I have to admit this is probably the happiest I've seen you since we met." I said.
"How could I not be happy? I got probably the best night sleep I've had since I left home. I get told that I'm getting away from those assholes and put on a new team. Meaning I'll get some distance from Cardin. We've got plans to finally take him down for everything he's done. On top of that I'm just away from him in general today. There's probably only a couple things that could make this day any better." She said.
"Like what? If there's something I can help with I'll do it." I said.
"W-well umm…I-I'd kinda like it if… I… could…" She started nervously. "Unlock my semblance." She finished halfheartedly.
"Oh, well unfortunately I'm not sure I could help you with that." I said.
"I-I know… It would just be nice. I-It would at least be one less thing for people to make fun of me for." She said.
"It'll happen one day. Just try and stay positive about it." I said.
She gave a small smile. "I hope so."
"If you don't mind me asking, what did you mean by the best night sleep since you left home?" I asked.
"Well… the first couple nights I had a hard time getting to sleep, but I figured it was just from being in a new place. Then after Cardin started harassing me every night just gave me more and more nightmares. Last night though, I'm not sure what it was but I didn't have a single bad dream." She said.
"That's good at least. Maybe just knowing you were in a safe place helped. You know like it made it so you were able to keep calm all night." I said.
"Maybe." She said with a slight blush.
"Hey, you okay? Your cheeks are getting kinda red." I said.
"I'm fine I guess I was just thinking about the dream I did have last night." She said.
"Oh? What happened?" I asked.
"Oh, well… umm…" She started.
Before she could continue explaining Coco and Velvet finally showed up.
"So, what do you guys think of this place?" Coco asked.
"I think we'd only managed to go to a fraction of it. The rest of the time we spent lost." I said.
"Well at least you two know what you can do on your next date." Coco said.
"D-date?" Hailey said getting very red.
"Doesn't 'next' imply we've already been on a date?" I asked confused.
Coco and Velvet sat in silence for a moment.
"Never mind. So, do you guys wanna look around some more or head back?" Coco asked.
"Well Ozpin did suggest I get some training in. So, we should probably head back." I said.
"Y-yeah, I could probably use some training as well." Hailey said a little dejected.
Coco mumbled something while standing up.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Nothing, Let's head back." Coco said.
The four of us made our way back to the airship and eventually back to Beacon. I messaged Yang to have her meet us for some training. After Hailey and I dropped our stuff off in my dorm and gave a brief lie to Proton why we were leaving her stuff in here. Yang stopped by with Pyrrha and Ren. We stopped by our lockers and grabbed our gear. Unfortunately, Ruby was still working on my gloves, so I had to train without them. Hailey came out with two tonfas on each side of her wearing black gloves with her hair in a ponytail. Since we hadn't seen Hailey fight yet, we decided to let her go first against Ren.
Hailey grabbed her weapons and started spinning them. Her weapons started sparking with electricity. The two fighters charged at each other trading hits back and forth Hailey seemed to keep the advantage with the electricity causing extra damage to Ren. Ren managed to hook one of his blades on the hilt of her weapon and kicked her back ripping it out of her hand. He started firing at her causing Hailey to spin her remaining weapon to try blocking his shots. It was only a matter of time until Hailey's Aura had gone below twenty percent.
"That's enough." Pyrrha called out.
The two fighters stopped, and the electricity started fading from Hailey's remaining tonfa. The final score being forty-seven to nineteen.
"Not bad. If I hadn't managed to get one of your weapons away the outcome could have been different." Ren said.
"Although using lightning dust against Ren probably wasn't the best starting strategy. With Nora's semblance and all." Yang said.
"Nora's semblance?" Hailey asked.
"She can produce and channel electricity. Enhancing her strength." Ren said.
"So, he pretty much already had plenty of experience dealing with it." Yang said.
"Regardless you still held your own fairly well against him." Pyrrha said.
"Well at least I'll know for next time. I've been meaning to upgrade them anyway." Hailey said.
"Maybe when Ruby's done with my gloves, we can have her take a look at them. If anything, she could probably give you some ideas." I said.
"Sounds good. I mean as long as she's willing." Hailey said.
"I'm sure she'll be more than willing." Yang said.
"So, how about a rematch Yang?" I asked.
"You sure that's a good idea with a handicap?" Yang asked jokingly.
"Should be fine." I said pulling my swords out and spinning them.
"Alright, just remember you asked for this." Yang said.
We took our stances ready to fight when a voice rang out.
"Riley!" Cardin yelled out. "I thought I was very fucking clear the last time we talked." His team was following closely behind him.
Yang and Pyrrha stepped to my side while Ren stepped in front of Hailey each of them ready to fight.
"Back off Cardin." Yang said sternly. Her eyes had changed from their normal lilac color to red.
"Shut up you fucking bimbo. This is between me and him." Cardin said.
"This became about me when you attacked my sister for no reason!" Yang yelled.
"There was a reason alright. She dug her nose into where it didn't belong. Keep this up we'll do the same thing to you." Cardin said walking up to me.
"Hailey isn't your property. Leaver her the fuck alone." I said.
"Oh, is the little superhero gonna actually do something this time? Get the fuck out of my way before I put you in the ground." Cardin said.
"You know not once have you ever had the guts to take me on alone. You've always had to use your goons. I don't think you could beat me one on one no. I think you'd be too scared to." I said.
Cardin punched me across the face knocking me to the ground. Yang and Pyrrha stepped in front of me even more pissed off.
"You really think I'm scared of a little bitch like you? Tell your little cheer squad to back off and I'll show you just how fucking wrong you are." Cardin said.
"Or we could jump you like you do to everyone else here." Yang said.
"No. Step aside." I said getting off the ground.
"You're kidding right?" Yang asked.
"No, I'm not. I'll fight you one on one. On one condition. If I win you stay away from Hailey and stop bullying everyone else." I said.
"Yeah sure whatever. If I win you and your little hero club stay away from her." Cardin said.
"Cian. Don't so this." Hailey said.
"You don't have to do this." Pyrrha said.
"I'm done being pushed around by him. I'm not backing down this time." I said.
Cardin gave a small laugh. "Your funeral. You heard him back off."
"Fine, but if any of your teammates get involved, we will too." Yang said.
"Whatever." Cardin said. He signaled for his team to back up.
I picked up my swords and got ready to face him.
I started charging my semblance into my swords. He started rushing me and I slashed towards him with both my weapons. He swung his mace and bashed though both beams I'd fired off. He went for and overhead smash, but I was able to block it with my blades. I charged my right foot, but he was able to kick me back before I could launch it. I charged my chest plate as I was getting up. He knocked my swords away from me and swung at my chest. I released the energy in my chest plate knocking his mace away from him. He quickly regrouped and tackled me to the ground. We rolled on the ground laying into each other with punches. I managed to get on top and use the energy in my right foot to get up and distance myself from him. I was starting to breath fairly heavily. I looked and saw our auras were at twenty-two and thirty-six. He was still leading. I ran towards one of my swords, but he managed to get it first and got a hard slash on me. Depleting my aura and cutting into my left arm.
"That's enough." Pyrrha said.
"Oh, we're not finished yet." Cardin said turning the sword over, so he was holding it upside down.
Cardin's teammates stepped in front of Yang and Pyrrha.
"His aura is gone Cardin, you already won. Now back off!" Yang yelled.
"You really thought I would stop at a simple victory like that? No, I'm gonna make sure this little fuck never gets in my way again." Cardin said.
Pyrrha, Yang and Ren tried to rush in to stop him but were cut off by his teammates.
"Any last words?" Cardin asked.
I tried standing up. "I'm not done."
"Defiant to the end. Stupid, but I respect that." Cardin said. He flipped the sword around again and swung for my neck.
"NO!" Hailey yelled out.
The sword stopped inches from my throat. I looked and saw Cardin with a strained look on his face. He slowly backed up in a jerking motion. I looked over to see Hailey with her left arm stretched out with her hand shaking in a claw position. Cardin's hands shot out in front of him and he turned the sword around, so the blade was pointing at him. They slowly brought the tip of the sword to his cheek as it sliced downward. I didn't know what was going on, but I could tell Hailey was somehow the cause of it. Cardin began screaming out in pain as the blade dug into his face. I got up and limped as fast as I could over to Hailey. By the time I got to her the blade had created a large gash on the right side of his face with blood pouring down from it. Cardin's teammates were now trying to break though to get to Hailey.
"Hailey you have to stop before you do something you'll regret." I pleaded.
I looked back to see the blade move to the other side of his face and start the same process.
"Hailey please, I know he did horrible things to you, but you need to stop." I said. I grabbed onto her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. Her gaze hadn't moved it was like she couldn't even tell I was there.
I looked back again to see that he had pulled the sword back again and had slowly lowered it to his neck.
"Hailey stop!" I yelled. She didn't move. "Please forgive me." I slapped her across the face and her hand fell to her side.
The sword dropped from Cardin's hands as he fell to his knees. His teammates quickly rushed over and helped him up and carried him out of the training room.
Hailey stood quietly as her mind finally caught up with what just happened. She looked at her hand as tears started falling down her face. She dropped to her knees and started crying loudly. I got down and wrapped my arms around her.
"It's alright. It's over. You're okay." I said.
"I-I almost killed him! I-I… I'm a monster…" Hailey started.
"You're not a monster." I said.
"Yes I am! I-I was about to kill him! I wanted to kill him… If you hadn't stopped me…" She cried.
"It's okay. No one's upset with you." I said. I pulled her closer and rubbed her back.
"I'm so sorry!" She cried.
"It's alright. I'm just glad you're safe." I said.