Akame stared off into the distance Neo was resting her head on her shoulder, she had become happier over the past few days, most likely because they were spending more time together
"I should get down and start making dinner." Akame said as she began to stand, Neo did the same and smiled at her, the two made their way towards the edge of the roof "Are you going to be eating with us?" Akame asked earning a shrug from Neo, she never really ate with them, it confused her considering they were in a relationship, they should have been eating and cooking together, well that's what she thought about when she imagined... Kuromes' … that's what she...
"Akame are you alright?" Qrows' voice came from in front of her, Neo also looked concerned
"I'm fine... why?" she asked clearly confused by their concern
"Well I wouldn't be asking if you weren't crying." he added causing Akame to touch her face, she seemed to be crying quite a lot
"Sorry... I... Kurome... was..." she trailed off as she covered her eyes
"Hey, if you want I can make dinner... for you, I love you but I wont make everyone else suffer for you." Qrow said causing Akames face to light up a bit
"Yeah, that would help me a bit." Akame agreed as she began towards the kitchen wiping the tears from her face
"Why were you crying anyways?" Qrow asked as they entered the room
"Kurome... we never got to end our relationship... thanks to you and Raven."
"Well, look at it this way; you didn't have to kill your sister, that seems like a major plus to me." Qrow reasoned as he got to work cooking
"It wasn't your choice to make." Akame reasoned earning a sigh from Qrow
"Look... you don't wanna kill a family member... it cuts deep." Qrow said as he drew his flask, Neo raised an eyebrow and looked at him
"How would you know?" she asked causing Qrow to sigh and drink rather heavily from his flask
"It's unimportant." he said rubbing his eyes
"But you sound like-"
"I know what it sounds like now shut up about it." Qrow snapped at her
"Who did you kill?" Akame asked crossing her arms
"I didn-"
"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Akame shouted slamming her hand on the table, Neo took a few steps away from the two and began to slowly walk out of the room, she really didn't wanna be here for whatever was going on
"I wasn't trying to, I was-"
"Then who?" Akame began to question as Qrow slammed his fist into the counter
"My dad, I killed our father, and Raven killed our mother." Qrow answered as he turned towards the wall, he wasn't prepared to look at Akame with that information
"Then why are you so against our battle? Our-"
"Because unlike me and Raven you love your sister. For all I care Raven can go die in a ditch, hell, I'd laugh if I got to watch." Qrow lied after downing what remained in his flask "And that's what is wrong, once you do something once it gains an amount of normalcy to it, Familicide is wrong and it should never be preceved as anything other than meaningless and wrong." he said turning towards her, Akame let out a sigh as she sat back down at the table
"I just wanted to see her grow up... I guess I never really thought about how it would effect me if I were to lose her... but she remained resolute in her want for my death so I owed it to her to do the same." Akame said earning a nod from Qrow
"Supporting family is all well and good but I don't think murder is really the way to go about it." he snarked causing Akame to sigh
"Probably not, but it was our family. Do you have any idea what happened to her?" she asked, she wanted him to tell her that she was fine and that she was probably happily leading a new life happily... but those were fairy tale ideas
"Still got no idea, I have a couple theories but nothing to really get your hopes up over." he said staring off into space as he spoke, it seemed like he wasn't there, that had occurred more frequently lately, he seemed to zone out and think about... something else
"Well I want to hear at least one of them?" Akame said earning another sigh from the man as he focused on her again
"I think Raven might have found a way to keep her in suspended animation so she has an opening into your world." Qrow said causing Akames' eye to twitch in rage "Yeah see. Not really something worth thinkin' 'bout." he added as he looked back to the meal he was cooking for her, the silence stood for what felt like hours, Akame didn't know what to say and Qrow couldn't think of anything to say.
(o)
Leone whistled as she walked along the slums, occasionally she looked at the note in her hand to make sure she was going the right way, she was still being cautious about the whole situation she didn't trust the White Fang or Sienna Khan it was just her nature now, she was mistrusting of just about everyone, looking around at the bunches of rundown buildings, this part of town was seedy but she knew why it was like this, it was like this so people could share information and conduct illegal sales without drawing public eyes, it was her part of town and that's why she was happy to be paranoid for once
"Hey sweetheart-" a voice called to her
"Try anything and I'll replaced your eyes with your testicles." Leone sweetly called back her brutal killing intent burning off of her causing the man to quiet himself, most people around here didn't even know how to release their killing intent, so it wasn't that tough to scare people but some people needed a gentle reminder
(o)
Blake stared at the spy the caught, while the speech was going on Ilia showed up with a couple spies to warn her if she was getting flanked, they weren't paying attention to themselves, so they now had a few restrained and in cells, entering the cell Blake looked them up and down, he was young about the age of sixteen, a little older than Ruby, he had dark brown hair but no discerning features, he most likely had claws
"Hello." she greeted, he glared at her for a few seconds then looked away "I know you're not going to be willing to answer my questions, and I really don't want to use force, so please be smart about this, you are a child playing an adults game." Blake said as she sat down in front of the door
"I'm not gonna listen to a human sympathizer." he said turning away from her
"Then you will die stupid." Blake said casually earning a glare from the boy
"Fuck you." he said earning a shrug from Blake
"I'm just saying that you will die without listening to everyone, and that will end with ignorant people. Tell me, what are you fighting for? Why are you a soldier in this war?" Blake questioned, using the boys anger to initiate conversation was her best chance, it was better than appeasing him
"Why? WHY?! The humans cornered us on a tiny island in the middle of no where!"
"We wanted the war over just as much as them, and we were losing." Blake answered his anger with reason
"They treated our people like the Grimm!"
"We did the same with them." Blake again answered his anger with logic
"They still discriminate against us!" he shouted clearly desperate to get the final word
"And what of the White Fang?" Blake asked "Who said they it was a faunus only group, was it you, me, Sienna Khan, who said that humans weren't allowed to join?"
"THEY CHOSE TO LEAVE US TO SUFFER!..." he shouted then covered his mouth in rage, but after a few moments he spoke again "Its all your fault... you cowards who are sick of fighting."
Blake gestured around the cell "Do you think you're the only one we captured? We aren't done fighting, but we are sick of the dogmatic and corrupt faunus who think themselves better than everyone else. People like Adam, and people like you." Blake said as she stood and walked to the door and pulled it open "I want you to spend some time actually thinking about why you fight, not what they tell you you're fighting for." she added as she shut the door and walked away
(o)
Sun stared out the window he had no idea how to bring this topic up to Blake, he didn't like how she was acting, it was like she was shutting everyone out again but it seemed far more dangerous now, she would lock herself in her dads study for hours and not come out until she had a plan of action, she also seemed to become extremely good at predicting the spies movements, it was scary how well she was getting along with that roll, but she barely talked to anyone anymore
"Hey Blake!" he called as she walked past him, jogging to catch up to her she slowed down a little so he could
"What is it?" she asked as they walked
"Do you... wanna take a break and go get something to drink?" he asked earning a raised eyebrow from her
"No, we have work to do, after we have more control over this situation then maybe." she denied and walked out onto the balcony that led to her dads office shutting the door behind her preventing him from following
"Dang it..." Sun said as he turned and began to search of Kali or Ghira, one of them might have an idea to fix this
(o)
"Ruby what are you doing?" Akame asked she was hanging upside down with her scroll in her hands melodically pressing on the screen in time to what Akame assumed was music
"It's a rhythm game." Ruby answered "It helps with concentration especially when you're hanging upside down." she answered, it was one of the only ways she could take a break from fixing Crescent Rose and training when Ozpin was around
"Does it?" Akame asked hopping up next to Ruby who held the scroll out to her
"It's a little tough, but you should try and beat my score; the song will play on loop each button you press counts as one point. At the top of the screen you can see my score which is two-eighty, at the bottom is your score." Ruby explained as Akame started, it was on the hardest setting so she'll probably fail quite a bit
(o)
"And that's what was talked about..." Qrow finished him and Ozpin sitting in silence afterward, he was clearly processing the problems that Leonardo could because if he actually is working for Salem that would be a whole other can of worms for them to deal with
"He hasn't been keeping the staff at the school either?" Ozpin asked scratching his chin as he thought
"Yeah, everyday it's just him. Akame has been watching him and she said the same." Qrow answered earning a sigh from Ozpin, placing his head on his hand, he seemed extremely tired for what was going on
"I wish we could do something... maybe if we... no... that wouldn't work." Ozpin said to himself, he did that quite frequently when he was stressed so Qrow stood and left so he could sort this out, a knock at the door drew his attention too
(o)
Yang continued to push herself up and down, Ruby was complaining that drew her attention
"HOW!? HOW DID YOU DO THIS?!" Ruby shouted in confusion and rage
"I just followed your instructions." Akame answered, Ruby looked over to her and their eyes met
"Yang, you know that rhythm game you showed me just after we started going to beacon?" Ruby called, it was a fun game and pretty useful for hand eye coordination
"Yeah, my high score was something like two-forty or something like that." Yang answered
"Akame has just played for the first time and she is at five-ninety. She only stopped after I took the scroll from her." Ruby said clearly frustrated by her cousins' abilities
"Okay... so she's good at rhythm games, I'm sure you can find some game you're better at then her."
"I like chess." Akame said earning a hum from Yang
"So does Esdeath." she said earning a nod from Akame
"It was a very popular game back home."
"What other games were there?" Ruby asked she guessed there weren't many
"Alquerque, Mill, Tablut, Table of Astronomy, the Zara, liars dice, Mancala, and Shogi, and pinochle when we had access to cards, those were all the ones that I played." Akame answered earning a hum from Ruby, she didn't expect there to be that many
"Why did you play those?"
"Most were to learn strategy, others like Liars' dice and pinochle were so we could lie."
"Pinochle? Isn't one I familiar with." Yang commented earning a raised eyebrow from Akame
"How many did you recognize?"
"Chess and Shogi." Yang answered with a bright smile "Anywho, how do you play Liars' dice? Seems fun."
"If you want we can play a few rounds later. Father, Lubbock, and Leone played it quite a lot while we were training on the Margue Plateau." Akame said earning a hum from Yang
"That doesn't sound like hi-"
"They used it as a drinking game." Akame add, her memories of helping Leone and Qrow back to their rooms were fresh in her mind
"That sounds exactly like him." Yang corrected with a quick laugh, her hand also twitched a little bit she seemed to to a lot of twitching lately, if it wasn't her hands it was her neck, it was probably something to do with the stress that came from traveling from the middle of nowhere to here
(o)
"Well well well, if it isn't Weiss... how'd you find your way here?" Qrow commented with an over exaggerated bow
"Yang sent me a beacon." Weiss answered calmly, that earned a slow nod from Qrow
"Guess you're here to help Ruby too." Qrow guessed earning a nod from Weiss
"But I also have another mission here too." she said earning a raised eyebrow from the man as they walked into the kitchen area "I need your help, Esdeath has been growing in power, she has been building a power base so large that most huntsman that are in Atlas academy are already loyal to her, she needed to get three new ships just to keep up with the number of recruits joining just to serve her." she explained quietly, that earn a dry chuckle from Qrow
"I figured this would be a shit show... … I have no idea how the hell to deal with this... but we need to bide our time... what little we have left of it anyways. Luckily for you, you probably have far more time then me." he said clearly stressed by Esdeaths' massive amounts of progress in almost a year
"That's not a good thing, if that woman has her way... … if she has her way
Remnant as we know it will end." she said, she was clearly the only person on Rubys' team to listen to his warnings
"Yeah... Ruby and Yang are downstairs, feel free to go see them... and tell Akame that her dinner was ready like... fifteen minutes ago. Also keep this between us, no telling how Ruby or Yang will react." Qrow said as they walked past a plate of good smelling food
"I'm assuming you have no idea how to cook."
"Apparently she likes it." Qrow said, he didn't deny her words and she knew it was more than likely because she was right.
(o)
Blake let out a sigh as she read over the areas in which she and Sun had searched and where they hadn't searched, she didn't trust that Sun had the discipline to act as a proper spy, he had limited amount of skill when it came to hiding his presence and that effected his ability to catch the spies but he was still helpful when it came to convincing the other faunus to begin to fight
"Blake?" her mothers voice came from the doorway
"Yes, what is it?" she questioned ignoring her movements in favor of reading over the reports from the guards that she had preforming spy duty for her
"Sun asked me to talk to you about your... sudden coldness." Kali said earning a sigh from Blake
"Yeah, I just think that right now I should be focusing on saving our people right now."
"Your father was the same way when he first started the White Fang. He was so sure that it was the best course of action... but now I am sure he would tell you now to take your time and relax." Kali said clearly she was just as concerned as Sun about her
"I can relax when this Menagerie is free from the White Fang." Blake denied
"Are you really going to stop there?" Kali asked, she already knew the answer but she wanted Blake to say it
"Even if we free Menagerie that doesn't mean that the White Fang wont keep attacking the schools, we have three weeks before the volunteers and I are leaving for Haven, and we have barely enough people to protect the school as is." she said placing her hand on the side of her head, she was trying to nurse a headache that seemed to persist for the past few days
"You're stressing yourself too much. Relax, take a day or so." that caused Blake to groan as she stood
"Fine, but you have to look over these maps and tell me about the spies that we have in those areas. So please, don't screw it up." Blake groaned clearly she was annoyed but she still wanted to get the work done, she stood and walked out of the office leaving her mother in charge of her duties... she was probably going to push them onto her father but that wasn't her problem now
(o)
Leone entered her room, it was a shitty rundown inn, but she was staying her, flopping down on the bed she let out a sigh
"Qrow?... do you ever lie down and think about how small in the universe we all are?" Leone asked placing her hands behind her head "I guess you don't have to worry bout that when there are problems like Esdeath floating around here." Leone rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in the pillow, she then let out a muffled shout in rage, she wanted to find him so badly she knew he was in the city she could feel it, but the city was too large to search, it took about a day to cross the whole thing and even longer if you're in the lower parts of the city, like she was. It takes enough time to get down in the city but it takes money to get to the higher levels, rolling back over she stared at the ceiling
"Fuck me..." she said kicking off her boots "This place isn't as corrupt as the empire but it sure is on its way." she added pulling her sleeves off then undid her belt, most people in the empire slept naked or in underwear, she alternated between the two, it all really depended on how much she had to drink, pulling her top off she sighed the heat in the lower city even made her sweat quite a bit, she heard that places like Vale did have heat problems, but it had more flat area to expand than all the other kingdoms with the exception of Atlas, lying back down she looked at her underwear she began to debate whether to sleep in them or not... she eventually settled with sleeping due to the fact that she didn't want to put in the effort
(o)
Qrow leaned on the balcony watching as Neo and Akame fought, Akame was clearly more skilled but Neo had many tricks that kept her in the fight. Neo spun her blade countering a strike from Akame while vanishing into thin air, Akame swung her blade behind her blocking the strike from Neo, grabbing her wrist she yanked Neo in front of her and kicked at her, Neo shattered but was still in Akames' grasp, twisting around she kneed Akame in the gut earning a gasp from her but she didn't miss a beat slamming her head into Neos' causing her to stumble back a bit yanking her forward Akame drew Due Process and fired it into her gut while releasing Neo sending her into the railing of the training grounds and shattering her Aura
"Akame, you seem to have something on your mind." Qrow said as she walked over to Neo and helped her up
"A few days ago I started feeling weird, like I was missing something that was sitting right in front of me." Akame answered earning a nod from Qrow
"I've been feeling like that too." Qrow said earning a hum from Akame
"When did yours start?"
"About a week ago." Qrow answered taking a drink from his flask "No idea why."
"Neo, ideas?" Akame asked, Neo shrugged then her form changed to Esdeath
"Probably not, if she was here... she would make sure everybody knows." Qrow denied as she transformed back then shrugged clearly giving up, but given she had no real vested interest in the issue so it made sense
"Akame do you mind checking on Ruby Weiss and Yang, they seem to be getting a little loud in there." Qrow requested as he heard a shout from inside
"I can do that, Neo can you make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Akame requested earning a smile and a salute from Neo who turned to Qrow and stared directly at him
"I would never." he commented fake shock in his voice as he leaned on the railing causing it to groan a bit, he then sighed and took his weight off of it, he then moved down a few panels and leaned again this time with no creaking from the railing
"You should really tell Akame... we I guess you cant tell her anything but-" Qrow began to converse but was kicked by Neo who pouted at his words "Well hey, I don't know if you can talk or not, maybe you're just really committed to the bit." Qrow reasoned but Neo just crossed her arms and scoffed at him "Right I get it, starting off on the wrong foot... got any embarrassing info on Roman?" Qrow asked that seemed to get Neos' attention as she gave him an evil smirk
"You really need to learn how to smile like a normal person, I am sure Akame would appreciate it." Qrow snarked causing the smile to vanish as she turned away from him again and pouted "I can see this is gonna be a really constructive conversation." Qrow sighed as he took a drink from his flask
A/N And were done, I know it seems like there's no build up towards the Battle at Haven... which is with good reason, there was no build up towards it in the show either, with Beacon the build up was focused on the Vytal Festival Tournament, but in the original volume 5 the build up for the characters in Mistral was a phone call from Leonardo that lasted like... twenty seconds at most. So it'll come out of nowhere, and I feel like things are moving just fine thus far, if you don't think so feel free to tell me. I'd love to hear your reasoning.