AN: From now on I'll be switching to past tense in my writing. I was trying to write in the present tense as a self challenge, but it's become a pain in my luscious backside. Now, read on and review! This is the last chapter for… some time. Oh, and the last chapter was updated, so go back and read it again.
-Pad
Chapter 7: Great Days Ahead
Yang ran through the forest, terror rapidly filling her body. Ruby still hadn't awoken, and she was quickly becoming more and more pale. Yang could feel Ruby slipping away. Don't ask her how she knew, but she did. Ruby was dying, and they were stuck in the middle of the FUCKING forest!
She growled, and reaching into her pocket wrenched free her scroll. With one arm holding Ruby on her back, the other hand splays across the screen, dialing Taiyang. She watches as it calls him, before her call ends. He didn't pick up. She curses, and glances over her shoulder.
The Grimm hadn't made any moves, and she wasn't sure why. All she knew was that they needed to reach the edge of the forest as soon as possible. Hopefully she was on the right track, she thought to herself as the trees blurred into a hazy gray and brown stream.
She had no ideas, no plans. All she had was hope, and hope never saved anyone from the Grimm.
Elsewhere…
A small black bird flitted between the trees, careful to avoid hitting the leaf encrusted branches that loomed out of the night. It's red eyes flickered quickly, seemingly looking at everything as it moved nearly faster than the eye could track. Flitting between the trees, the bird landed silently on a branch, and looked down on two girls running through the trees. The Red one was unconscious, and the Blonde was clearly reaching her limit. The bird cocked its head to one side, as if contemplating the two humans down below. With a squawk, it lifts off the branch, swooping down towards the young women below.
Yang glanced up at the squawk, eyes narrowed in consternation.
'A bird… is it a Grimm?' she thinks, paranoia overriding her common sense. 'I need to assume it is… expect the worst, hope for the best!' she snarls, lowering Ruby to the ground by a tree, with her back leaning against it's great trunk.
Yang pivoted, her arms up and ready as she glared into the shadows.
'I got this. Come and get me you stupid Grimm!' she thought, fury colouring her eyes red as the clearing creaks with the sound of branches twisting and groaning. She spies a flash of red, and bends over. She rose and with her hand came a large stone, which she threw into the shadows at the red smear dashing towards her.
Somehow, the stone hit a branch and fell to the ground, thumping into the wet grass. The red dash slowed, and a voice came from the shadows.
"Hey, hey! Chill out Firecracker, it's just me." Qrow said as he emerged completely from the shadows, his eyes sharp and gleaming. Yang heaved a sigh of relief, lowering her arms.
"Oh thank the Brothers! Uncle Qrow, Ruby needs help!" she said, looking back at Ruby. Qrow nods, reaching into his dress shirt.
"I can see that Yang." he drawled, taking out his flask and unscrewing it's lid. "We're in the outer fringes of the Grimm Woods, but for some reason…" he glared at her, taking a quick swig from his flask, "The Grimm don't appear to be anywhere nearby. We could just walk out." he finished, emptying his flask into the depths of his throat. Yang sighed, relaxing further.
"Oh good…" she breathed out, bending over to lift Ruby. "Then let's go. I still don't like this place, it's creepy." Qrow nodded shortly.
"I couldn't agree more Firecracker. Let's move it." he rasped, his voice dry despite his drink. Yang nodded, lifting Ruby and looked at Qrow, who started walking.
"Follow me." he said, hunched over as he walked into the darkness.
Elsewhere…
Taiyang was incredibly anxious. He'd been searching the town on Patch for a solid hour, and no one he'd talked to had seen Yang or Ruby. He struggled to not break out into a sprint and charge into the forest; if they were in there, he'd need help to scour the whole place. With that in mind, he was heading to the police station. They'd be able to send out search parties without alerting Ozpin that something was up (hopefully).
If Ozpin found out that Ruby was in the woods, he might take the opportunity to try and sway her towards attending Beacon.
'I can't let that happen.' he decided as he ran to the Police Station on Patch. Bursting in through the front door, he blinked when he saw a single officer there, sleeping at her desk. Taiyang glowered furiously, and stomped across the room, his Aura flickering around him like a candle flame, it's colour a light crimson shean across his body. He slammed his fist on the desk next to the officer's head, startling them awake.
Without giving them time to gain their bearings, Taiyang spoke slowly.
"My daughter is lost in the Grimm Woods. I need help to search it. Do you understand?" he growled, nearly bearlike in his delivery. The officer nodded rapidly, groping for the scroll on the table behind her, eyes wide as she stared at the crimson light leaking from Taiyang's body, wisping off in smoky tendrils. Finally getting her hands on it as Taiyang stared at her, she hastily hit a speed dial.
"This is Officer Wendly, need immediate search and rescue team with Huntsmen suppor-" Taiyang cut her off, his face drawing into a scowl.
"No Huntsman necessary. I already have two A-Class Huntsmen searching." he said, thinking of himself and Qrow. The officer nods slowly, before reiterating her statement into her scroll.
"Negative, only search and rescue." she said, glancing at Taiyang's 'angry dad face' before she spoke again, quietly. "Please hurry." The scroll beeped twice, confirming the message had been sent, and she sighed in relief. Taiyang spoke up, his face devoid of any emotion, and his voice only slightly betraying his fear.
"How many are coming?" he demanded, his voice as frosty as a river in the winter. The officer audibly gulped, retreating into their chair.
"W-well, a standard search and rescue team is comprised of twenty personel, and since you said w-we have Huntsmen, we'll be heading out when they get here in five minutes." she whispered, fear tainting her voice. Taiyang sighed, untensing but not relaxing.
"Sorry, I'm just… really high strung right now." he apologized, trying to unshake the officer, who he now noticed was deathly pale. She nodded quickly.
"Oh, i-it's fine sir! This h-happens all the time! Don't worry! We'll find your d-daughter in n-n-no time!" she said, forcing a smile on her face. Taiyang's heart twanged as he saw her smile, and he felt cold when he saw the tear leaking from her eye.
'Gods, I need to calm down. I'll call Qrow, see if he's found anything. Knowing him, he wouldn't tell me if he found them, the slob.' he thought, sagging down as he reached for his scroll.
After pawing at his cargo shorts pocket, he was puzzled when he didn't find his scroll.
'Huh. That's where I normally put it.' he thought, reaching into his other pockets.
After rifling through all his pockets with increasing fear with each pocket he checked, he threw his hands into the air.
"GODS DAMMIT!" he roared, terrifying the officer. "I forgot my scroll!" he moaned clutching at his head.
"What'll I do, what'll I do!" he groaned, pacing. The officer, still rooted to the spot, tried getting his attention.
"Uuhhmm sir?" she whispered, before speaking louder when Taiyang didn't respond. "Mister!" she called, to which he turned and looked at her, his eyes red and puffy. She spoke up again now that he was paying attention.
"Sir, we have a terminal over there." she gestured to a small booth by the window. "You can make any call you need to from there, if you know the number." she offered, a small yet hesitant smile on her face.
Taiyang smiled brightly at her, causing her to blush. Older or not, Taiyang still had it.
"Thanks miss. I'm so sorry for how I was acting earlier, I'm just so worried about my little rose and dragon." he said, his voice drenched in worry. The officer smiled, more confident now, and touched his shoulder.
"Don't worry sir, we're the best of the best on Patch. Besides, you've got your Huntsmen looking for her. I'm sure that your daughters are fine." she soothed, as Taiyang took in her features.
She had pretty brown hair, and a small pimple above her lip on the right. She also had a blue hair clip, which he noticed was made of wood. Taiyang smiled at her graciously, and bowed, causing her to blush again, though he couldn't see it (as far as she knew).
'Huh, Naruto was right. Bowing really does seem to have a good effect on people in authority.' Taiyang thought as he glanced up at Officer Wendly as she blushed and looked away. He smirked, rising up and walking briskly over to the terminal. Punching in Qrow's mission number, he watched as it dialed. Finally, it was answered.
"This is Qrow."
"Qrow thank the Gods! Listen, I need you to-"
"Ha ha! Got you sucker! Leave a message after the sound of your mother orgasming, bitch."
Taiyang froze as he glanced at Officer Wendly, who was staring at him in disgust before shaking her head and leaving.
"Wait I didn't know his voicemail was like that!" Taiyang cried out, fear at being branded a pervert stealing into his mind, causing his knees to shake.
'I can't let the girls learn about this!' he mentally screamed.
"Ha, knew it." he glanced back at the terminal, and saw the call still going.
"Sucks to suck Tai, but hey, how ya doin?" Qrow asked, the smirk evident from his voice. Taiyang however, was not amused.
"Qrow, so help me when I get my hands on you-"
"Hells man, I know I'm a catch but please try to keep those chicken feet away from me!" Qrow guffawed, his voice tainted by mirth and ruthless joy. Right as Taiyang was about to angrily respond, he heard a voice that nearly stopped his heart.
"Hey, Uncle Qrow! Knock it off! We still need to get back! Tease him later!" Taiyang froze, before whispering.
"Yang? Is… is that you?" he asked, scarcely believing it.
"Yeah, it's me. Uncle Qrow found us, we're nearly out of the woods."
"Do you have Ruby?!" he yelled, his voice breaking.
"Yeah, I got her. We'll be back in like ten minutes." Qrow said, his voice gravelly. Taiyang sagged with relief.
"Oh good! Oh Gods!" he cried, falling to his knees.
"Hey Tai? Might want to stop doin' whatever you're doing. The pretty officer with you might not be impressed." Qrow said, the eyebrow wiggle implicit in his words. Tai flushed an angry red.
"Shaddup Qrow! Whatever, I'll wait for you back at the house."
"Sure." Yang said, tension and strain clear in her voice.
"Great! See you guys in-"
Qrow interrupted, his voice harsh. "Then we need to talk about you not letting Ruby go to Beacon, fat-ass."
'Oh shit.'
Author's Note:
Hey guys (and gals and non binary pals). As you can see, still alive. This is a really short chapter, but I've been busting my butt and felt like I'd release it early, then update it later with more content.
Not really feeling the mood to be honest, this story is all set in my head but I just have one tiny problem.
I hate the stuff that happens at Beacon.
I read it too often, and don't want to write a 100k+ story that we've all read before. So I've come to a decision! I'm going to either blast through it, and move onto the stuff I want to write (after team selection of course, and some classes). I'll include the invasion obviously, but basically, what I'm asking is if any of you mind if I drop things like Mountain Glenn. Since it'll go the exact same way unless Naruto's there (basically), I don't feel like writing it. You know what happens, and all that jazz.
Please tell me what subplots you want followed in the comments, and I'll try my best to include them. No promises!
Again, special thanks to all the people who've complimented me and critiqued me, your suggestions will carry more weight than the VERY few people who didn't have any suggestions, only pet peeves.
"Sometimes the very act of taking action, regardless of what action we take, inspires us to succeed, along with others who watch us flourish."
Pad
