The bubbling black ooze vomited out a limb the clawed fingers dug into the dirt pulling itself out of the pool of destruction, the beast finally freed itself and dragged itself away from the pool, its figure quickly shaped itself gaining fur and bone armor the now identifiable Beowolf let out a howl which was greeted by roars of many others, it then took off towards the sounds
(o)
the sound of a snap drew Emeralds attention, turning towards the sound she quickly moved over to Cinders' side, she looked much better than when they found her... right now she was whole, unlike then, leaning down she waited for cinder to speak
"Tell... him... t-to... mind his... head." Cinder quietly said, standing straight Emerald opened her mouth to repeat her line but stopped short when the door at the far end of the hall let out a groan, everyone stood in attention, as she entered the room, as she moved everything changed, it grew colder, time seemed to slow to a snails pace, Emerald felt that she was going to die at any second so she averted her eyes and looked to the ground as she passed around the table
"Watts." she said calmly, it hurt, her words felt painful in the mind, as though she could kill with nothing but words "Do you find such malignance necessary?"
"My apologies ma'am. I'm not fond of failure." Watts apologized calmly but it was clear that he was uncomfortable with being directly spoken to, Salem gestured for them to sit and the sensation of dying faded away as everyone followed her order
"What failure are you talking about? She destroyed Beacon tower, she became our fall maiden, and most importantly, she killed Ozpin. So tell me, what failure are you referring to?" Salem listed as she stared him down
"The girl with the silver eyes, and Esdeath successfully preventing the berserk virus from effecting her androids." Watts awkwardly answered as he presented what he felt were valid points
"I will admit, I have grown quite interested in the girl too. Cinder did say that she could control ice... which is strange given the nature of her eyes." Salem commented she then turned her attention to Cinder and spoke again "Make no mistake Cinder, while the girl may not be effected by her eyes you clearly are. Your power is magical in nature, her eyes act as a seal to that power, rendering you no stronger that you were without the maiden powers, add in the fact that you still had Grimm within you when you faced her, it is no wonder you lost, but when you next face her... you will be prepared." Cinder felt the blood leave her face at the thought, a cackle to her right drew her attention
"It looks like our 'dear' fall maiden has lost her nerve." Tyrian commented as Cinder shuttered a bit then gestured to Emerald who lead down to her after a few seconds she looked to Salem who smiled warmly at her and gestured for her to speak
"She said; That you and her would get along." Emerald relayed earning a chuckle from Tyrian, Salem then redirected the conversation from the dead end it was approaching and directed it back to their objective
"While she is a threat, she is one we can deal with later, right now Tyrian I need you to continue your search for the Spring maiden, Hazel you are to meet with Sienna Khan, have Adam show you to her, the boy has proven loyal, ensure that Sienna proves the same."
"As you wish." Hazel agreed looking up from the table to her, Emerald again looks to Salem who gestured again for her to speak
"She wants to know... what you plan for Ruby?" Emerald relayed again
"What about her? If you ask me this is Cinders problem, not ou-" Watts began but was cut off by Salem
"Tyrian..."
"Yes, my lady?" Tyrian questioned with a grin, he already knew her order but he was far more excited to hear her say it
"I need you to hunt down our unknown maiden first, while she is still a fledgling with her powers I suppose it is unbecoming of us to let such a large obstacle sit in our way for too long. Find the girl, and bring her here, to me." Salem ordered but her eyes were glued to Watts, Tyrian pouted a bit about the fact that he wouldn't be allowed to kill her but quickly recovered, which quickly changed to excitement as he thought of what his master was planning for the girl "Beacon has fallen thanks to all of you, and soon Haven will follow it."
(o)
Akame stared at the town before her, it was large and full of life, continuing down the path she drew the map from her pocket and looked it over, she wasn't too far from Mistral now but she did lose a bit of time due to a detour she had to take to get around the mountains, if she were in a group she wouldn't have cared, but traveling in mountains alone would have been a stupid idea, reaching the gate to the town Akame looked for a panel to identify herself on, there was none and there was no one on guard, that had been the case with most gated settlements these days, leaping over the wall she began down the street, it was a rather big place to say the least looking around at the buildings it told her that the people here were really fond of their colors, and that she would probably stick out, but no one paid her any attention, entering the dimly lit inn she walked up to the counter and spoke to the woman standing here
"I'd like to get a room." Akame said with a smile, one of the many things she learned is that you should never do is; be rude to people in the service industry unless you want an early grave
"How many occupants?" the woman asked, she was clearly surprised that Akame was there, not a lot of people have been traveling around these days and those that were were very irritable
"One." Akame answered her smile unwavering
"So... you a huntress?" the woman asked as she began to dig through the large amount of paperwork on the desk
"Yes, I'm going to Banrinochōjō. A lot of problems have been popping up around there so they need huntsman now more than ever." Akame answered, it was a practiced lie and one she has been telling since she got to Anima, given her actual objective
"Umm, you do know that the road north leads there right?" the woman asked clearly trying to sound unoffensive
"Yeah I know, but there has been an unusual amount of Grimm activity in that area, and many sightings of Nuckelavee, so I'd rather steer clear of that." Akame continued earning a raised eyebrow from the woman as she placed the sign-in sheet in front of Akame who began to fill it out, under an Alias
"Everyone knows that Nuckelavee don't come this close to the kingdom's, so if you stuck to the mountains you would be fine." the woman added
"Mountains are dangerous. Towns are safer." Akame commented as she slid the paper back to the woman, who nodded slowly and held out a key to Akame who took it and began upstairs, she was extremely tired.
(o)
Ruby let out a sigh the Geist that was chasing her was getting boring, dodging a swing from its arm she quickly noticed the distinct lack of tree beneath her, looking down she found out why... she jumped off a cliff
"I am very unobservant." Ruby commented as she slowly began to fall towards the ground, the Geist apparently didn't notice the ledge either because it fell after her, summoning a large shard of ice Ruby kicked off of it and landed in the clearing where JNR were waiting to ambush the beast
"Come on big guy!" Ruby shouted a few seconds later it busted through the the trees and tried to attack her, as it swung its arm a pillar of ice raised from the ground and blocked the strike, running up the side of the pillar was Nora who leapt onto the arm of the Geist and began to charge up her hammer, of course it tried to shake her off but the fact that she was frozen to its arm made that a very difficult task
"Ren! Now!" Ruby shouted causing him to dive from the trees behind the beast running up its back attempting to reach the top, the Geist failed to catch him in time, dropping down Ren stabbed StormFlower into its face, causing it to stumble as Nora shattered its arm, knocking it farther off balance
"Ruby freeze its feet!" Jaune shouted out from his position at the back, nodding Ruby kneeled down and let Demon's Extract flow from her freezing its legs in place, kicking back she avoided a strike from the Geist, drawing Crescent Rose Ruby rushed forward and leapt up on its arm, the beast continued to squirm trying to free Ren from his position stabbing at its face Nora watched and waited as Ruby froze the arm she was running on with each step leaping towards Ren raised Crescent Rose as he dodged out of the way, plunging Crescent Rose into its mask causing it to faded away and the stone body to collapse, as Ruby fell she yanked Crescent Rose violently from the stone causing the ice she used to keep the weapon in her hands to shatter cutting up one of her hands
"Good work team JNRR... RJNR... RJNR is a far better name." Jaune trailed off as they began towards town
"It really doesn't matter." Ruby commented as she rapped up her hand in gauze while looked over her clothes, she was looking for any dirt or blood, after reaching Anima she learned that she needed clothes better suited for the climate, while Demon's Extract helped her with the cold it did nothing for the heat so now she was wearing a white high-neck décolletage blouse with brown studded wristbands on her arms, a black skirt with red tulle underneath, personally she found it far more comfortable, sadly her cloak has suffered damage which made her feel a little more uncomfortable but now her tattoo was on full display thanks to the space between the neck of her shirt and the corset it gave her a sense of calm, on her belt she had a buckle made from the Partas clan mark that Esdeath had on her hat, she felt that she needed it, and the pin to hold her cloak in place was her own emblem. Staring at the buckle on her waist her mind was quickly filled with thoughts of Esdeath, and what she was possibly doing right now
Jaune had barely changed since they left but after they get his new gear he'll look far different then before. Nora had gotten a bomber jacket a few towns ago and began to wear it over her shirt, the harness she once wore was now implemented into her hammer to let her charge it instead of herself, Rens' hair had grown longer and his outfit became better suited for their new location, his sleeves were gone, replaced by longer gloves with a small amount of armor on them to protect him a bit
"Have you thought about cutting your hair?" Jaune asked looking over to Ruby, who ignored him "I mean... you know it's getting kinda long." again Ruby ignored him but this time she began to walk faster leaving the three of them behind
"Shes been like this ever since we got to Anima... do you guys have any idea why?" Jaune asked as he watched her storm off ahead staring at her hands
"No idea, do ya want me to talk to her?" Nora asked watching Ruby as she walked away
"If you want, I don't really know if that would help though." Jaune said after a few seconds of thought
(o)
Weiss walked down the hall occasionally looking out the window to the snow covered grounds of their house, she missed training, but she was always happy to help out around the house, the servants had grown rather warm around her too, they constantly shared their dislike for her father as a way of mutual bonding
"Ms. Schnee? Your father wants to see you." a voice said breaking her from thought
"Thank you... Maria right?" Weiss said looking over to the woman, she was rather interesting to see, she was tall and thin and had dark skin and black hair with a pair of dog ears protruding from her long hair, and heterochromic eyes, one was a deep shade of red the other was a pale shade of blue
"Yes... how did you know that?" Maria asked her ears standing up momentarily before dropping down again
"My father and brother may be assholes, but I find it far more enjoyable talking with the staff and working in the kitchens." Weiss explained as she set the book she was carrying down on a nearby table and began towards her fathers study leaving the woman dumbstruck by her bluntness
(o)
Walking up to the door she heard shouting, placing her ear to the door she listened to the loud shouting quite easily
"I'm not talking about my company, I'm talking about ATLAS! OUR KINGDOM!" she heard her Jacques shout
"That's bullshit and you know it." James voice calmly replied
"I BEG YOUR PARDON!?" Jacques screeched as Weiss quietly entered the room
"LISTEN! to me." James ordered "Esdeath is in charge of Atlas academy now. I tried to get her rank pulled but the council ruled in her favor so she is still a general, I cant do anything about it anymore. We have been talking, me and her, about this action for a while and we both agree that this is for the best."
"Oh yes, your dust embargo was FOR THE BEST!? YOU HAVE COST ME MILLIONS!" Jacques shouted in rage as he slammed his fist into the table
"Oh... so this is about you." James snarked as he stood, the door behind Weiss clicked shut and both turned to her
"Ah, Ms. Schnee, I should have been gone by now, I apologize if we caused a disturbance." James commented as he walked towards the door "I'm sorry." James whispered as he pasted Weiss, it seemed that she was the only person in the room meant to hear it, and she was.
"It's okay." Weiss waved off, as James exited the room, Jacques sighed and mumbled to himself as he walked around his desk and sat down
"That bastard is costing me with his dust embargo, a 'precautionary measure' is what he called it 'until we're certain no one plans to declare war.', honestly he and Esdeath should both be stripped of their ranks."
"Well it does make sense, we need to keep our people safe first and foremost." Weiss reasoned earning a roll of the eyes from Jacques who made no effort to hide it
"Yes, but why do some people still believe we're responsible for the fall of Beacon!? Its completely ridiculous." Jacques ranted "But we're going to show the world that we stand with them, which is why we will be hosting a charity concert, in two weeks." that was surprising, but Weiss knew that there was a catch, there always was with her father "It will be a wonderful event, especially if you preform, I can see it making a lot of people happy."
"Are you asking?" Weiss asked raising an eyebrow as she crossed her arms
"I have a feeling it will make a lot of people happy." Jacques deflected adding to Weiss' perfectly concealed fury.
"Fine." Weiss agreed as she turned and walked out of the room ignoring the 'praise' he gave her
(o)
Blake leaned on the side of the ship, letting out a sigh she undid her bow and dropped it into the sea, turning towards the bow of the ship she began to walk towards it, ignoring the other passengers, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she is being watched, it had to be a White Fang spy but she needed to find out where they are before doing anything... drastic. Looking off the bow of the ship she saw a rock formations coming closer now, they were getting close to Menagerie, but the sensation that she was being watched wasn't going away, she deiced that she should try and catch whoever is following her in Kuo Kuana
(o)
Yang was completely still, she listened as Esdeath paced in front of her, but she was struggling to control her breathing, Esdeath constantly let her killing intent burn off of her it caused... memories to return
"I want you to repeat that." Esdeath ordered, ever since they left Patch Esdeath slowly became more and more frightening to be around
"The, group of fourth years we sent into the abandoned mine 8 miles north of Atlas returned unsuccessful, one of their members are in critical condition, and the rest are severely injured." Yang repeated as she stared at her prosthetic arm, the black and silver of her new limb adding some strange form of comfort
"So do you know what the plan is?" Esdeath asked her tone unchanged as she walked around her desk and sat in her chair
"After they recover they will be sent back, this time with orders not to return if they fail again." Yang answered earning a slow nod from Esdeath, Yang was placed in charge of mission briefings, so whenever a team returned unsuccessful she was forced to report to Esdeath alone, the teams quickly learned that Esdeath is a far harsher leader that James, so they all quickly cleaned up their acts, but that didn't mean that they didn't fail.
"Good." Esdeath confirmed as she spun her chair around and pressed a few buttons on her desk
"Yes Esdeath?" James voice came from the desk
"How did your meeting with Jacques go?" Esdeath asked putting on her professional tone
"Ha... he's still against the idea but he's not on the council so it really doesn't matter. How have things at the academy been going?" James asked his voice carrying a hint of envy
"Right now things are going fine, but a forth year team failed their mission. So I'm rather unhappy about that."
"Only one?" James asked his voice carrying surprise
"Yes, I strive to have a powerful student body, they have been mostly cooperative, how is Pietros' special project?" Esdeath answered as she began to type on her computer
"He has hit a few snags but he's having an easy time getting past them. How's Yangs' new arm?" James answered
"She has been getting used to it, I've been sending her out with first and second years so she can get used to it. Sometimes she trains with Raven to show her where she needs to improve." Esdeath answered, Raven wasn't the worst person to train with, but she was fanatically devoted to Esdeath, not that she didn't understand that, Esdeath is one of the only genuine people left in the world, but it was like a religion for her
"Are you sure that's a good idea? I know it has been a while but trauma like that... trauma like that doesn't go away easily." James warned, Esdeath rolled her eyes at that and spoke her tone carrying her authority
"She is one of my solders James. I take care of them, if she has a problem she can come to me with it. If she fails to do so and it gets her killed that's on her." Esdeath said as she stared at Yang, who had yet to stand from her kneeling position
(o)
"Thank you, that Geist was giving us so much trouble, I was beginning to fear we would have to move." the village elder thanked as he shook hands with Ruby
"It was no problem sir, but with all the Grimm activity in this area I recommend that you, either move now while its safer, or sure up your towns defenses." Ruby advised earning a hum from the man
"We will discuss what we plan to do after things have settled down." the elder agreed "I believe that Shames has your weapon and armor ready."
"Good, lets move." Ruby quickly ordered as she turned and began towards the blacksmith, she let out a sigh as she walked clearly bothered by something
"Ruby!" Jaunes' voice came from behind her, continuing to ignore him she walked until he ran in front of her blocking her path
"Hey, what is wrong?! You've been acting weird since we got to Anima, what is wrong?" Jaune asked as Ruby placed her hands behind her back
"What's wrong? I have lost my team, my cousin, my girlfriend, my school... and now here I am exploring a new continent without any of them... I feel like I'm doing something wrong." Ruby answered she then sighed and spoke again "But it's not a problem, come on... lets just go." Ruby then walked around Jaune and began to walk towards the blacksmiths again, this time at a pace he could keep up with
(o)
Akame sat up from her bed, her instincts screaming for her to move, grabbing Murasame she ran out of her room and downstairs, no one was there, running out of the building she heard screams and could see smoke, with a sigh she drew her blade and ran towards the smoke. Arriving at the scene she looked around, the wall was broken by what looked to be a Death Stalker, running towards it she jumped back avoiding feathers from a Nevermore, slashing at the winged beast she sent an Aura Arc cutting off one of it's wings causing it to plummet to the ground and turn to dust, kicking back Akame avoided the stinger of the Death Stalker, climbing on the appendage she wedged Murasame between the bone armor and the stinger itself then kicked off of it, cutting the beast causing it to turn to dust, rolling to a stop she slashed Murasame through a Ursa and stabbed a Beowolf, the few people who were already fighting against the Grimm were awestruck by her display of expertise
"Do you have any way to patch that wall?" Akame asked no one in particular
"We have some raw materials in the storehouse." the woman who worked the front desk answered as she sheathed the blade she was carrying
"Alright, I'll stay here and draw the Grimm to me, while you send some people to get the materials to fix this." Akame ordered as she leapt out of the hole cutting down a few Beowolves that attempted to get through
(o)
Blake, stepped off of the ship and entered the docks, everything seemed familiar but very different, it didn't surprise her though, she hadn't been home in almost two decades, thinking about that she realized that she's older than Akame... that was a weird thought, given how mature she is.
Walking away from the ship she walked up to a fruit stall and watch over her shoulder, she caught sight of a person in a cloak standing at the opposite side of the market they were watching her too, she decided to double back to the ship and see if they would follow her, walking away from the stall she began towards the ship the figure watched her as she moved but wouldn't get closer, walking away from the ship she began to go down alleyways trying to make sure they were close together and constantly changing directions, the person who was following her would have to get closer to keep up.
Looking over her shoulder as she turned she bumped into someone
"I'm sorry." Blake apologized as she looked at the person who she bumped into she was wearing almost no clothing, she had a black tube top that barely covered her breasts, a tan scarf, detachable sleeves with two gold rings holding the sleeves up, and chaps that matched the color of her sleeves, she had short blond hair and eyes to match but the most surprising part was that she didn't have any appendages that defined her as faunus
"No worries, who you runnin' from?" the woman asked warmly, as the words left her mouth Blake couldn't help but think of Yang, this woman gave off the vibe that she could be trusted
"I... it's nothing, I gotta go-" Blake began to wave off but stopped when the woman placed a hand on her shoulder
"Tell you what, you give me a description of who's chasing you, and I'll beat the crap outta them." the woman offered, Blake raised an eyebrow at that
"I'd rather find out who they are first." Blake commented earning a sigh from the woman
"Fine, fine, we can do it your way."
(o)
Turning the corner Sun looked around for Blake, she was nowhere to be seen but there was a woman there and she was pretty so she could probably help
"Excuse me ma'am." Sun said confidently but that confidence quickly faded when the woman pushed off the wall she was leaning on, they were the same height and for some reason that was extremely intimidating... not that he was scared of her or anything
"Whats up." the woman asked as she looked him up and down, seemingly unimpressed
"I... was wondering if you could... help me... find someone." Sun slowly asked as he took a step back and pulled down his hood
"Sure, but first... you have to buy me a drink."
"I um... sure." Sun agreed as the woman rapped her arm around him and pressed her chest against him, she then began toward a new location a bright smile on her face
(o)
Blake waited nearby the location that woman told her about it has been a few hours, but she knew that woman would follow through, it was hard to figure out but she had such an easy time trusting that woman, hearing footsteps Blake quickly grabbed Gambol Shroud and turned towards the sound
"Heyo, I got what you wanted to know, and what I wanted." the woman greeted, as she slid something into her... top, and tossed a rather large bottle away from her
"Who is it? And what did you want?" Blake asked as she relaxed
"It's just some kid named Sun and I got his wallet." she answered as she began to walk away "See you later kid, if you need to find me, just keep an eye open I'm sure you'll catch sight of me sooner or later." after the woman left Blake immediately ran towards the bar the woman left, again she realized that she didn't ask anything about that woman, cursing herself she pushed the door to the bar open and quickly found Sun lying face down on a table with half a dozen bottles around him
"Sun... are you okay?"
"Huh... yeah... 'm good." he slurred out, letting out a sigh Blake picked him up and began to leave but decided to pay for the tab that Sun had built
A/N You might have noticed how everything is set up in this chapter, trust me it will all make sense eventually, but this chapter is set up this way to show where everyone is at this point in time, this is just to get you caught up and so you know who the focus for each story will be.
the school year has ended and I have learned that I've been doing this for over a year now, I'm beyond happy with the choice I've made to do things like this, the amount of support I've gotten with this and how I feel when I upload a new chapter or story is always amazing, it never goes away, but the feeling of excitement of just barely finishing a chapter before the deadline has faded.(mainly due to the fact that I've begun writing in advance.) I hope you enjoy this one too.