An: Sorry for the short one today guys, and for the real long update. Life has been at that point where you don't want to do anything and any motivation is sucked up by university. I'm really sorry for the long update. Hope you enjoy!
Pain… That was the first sensation Onyx felt as she was stirred from her slumber. Her arm throbbed with a tooth chattering ache that reached into her core. Every fibre in that arm seemed to pulsate and exude pain with each and every heartbeat.
"That's the last time I go all out like that." She mumbled to herself as she opened her eyes, the light of dawn creeping over the horizon and bathing her in a warm light. "At least the sun is as bright as ever." She grumbled before getting out of bed and doing some morning stretches.
The rest of the party were still in their blankets, and she felt it would be rude to wake them up when it was so early in the morning. But she felt a pair of eyes on them.
Could it be the man from before? No… He was likely to have gone home to think of a strategy, so who did this gaze belong to?
A pained gasp was all she could manage as she slid her longsword out of its sheath and leant on it, breathing out hard. "F-fuck, I need to see someone."
She nearly vomited as she stood up, the cool morning air doing wonders for her gut as it passed over her face. Her thoughts focussed, she cast a gaze to where she felt the stalker was at. "You know it quite useless to hide when I've found you." She spoke clearly to the clearing.
At first there was nothing, but then a rustle. A rustle followed by snow being tramped upon as a tall, slender man came from the bushes.
They were wearing a skin-tight blue body suit. But what drew Onyx's eyes was the evil crimson spear he wielded. It hung loosely from his grasp and his stance was casual. "Yo Onyx, been a while!"
The face broke into a wide grin as his free hand gave her a wave. Dumbstruck, she instinctively waved back. "Azure? Is that you!? What are you doing here!?"
"Firstly yes, that is my name. Secondly yes, it is me. Thirdly, I heard a big lumping idiot that we know got sent flying out of a building. Now I know that you had something to do with that. Only one person I know to do that is you, since you're crazy and head strong enough to send that poor sucker out the way he came in."
"I-I'm glad you're here." She sighed in relief. Out of all the people she could've ran into, he was one of the best options.
"Aye you look right buggered up. So lemme guess, you went a bit hard this time?" He asked, striding to her with his lance on his shoulders.
"Yeah I pushed myself too hard and I think it might be irreversible." She explained as she stood up taller. He came over, clucking his tongue in disappointment as he looked over her.
"Wounds were never really your speciality, were they?" He chuckled and wrapped her uninjured arm around his shoulder and led her to a stump. "While I do highly admire your tenacity and your stubbornness, sometimes it is more beneficial to lose every once in a while?"
"Easy for you to say, I don't think you've forgotten how you lost our last bout." She smirked at him.
"Hey now, no fair to use that on me while I'm helping you." Azure pointed out as he gazed at her injured arm.
"Fine, I'll let you off the hook just this once."
"Who is this?" A female voice can be heard. The pair looked to the source and found Nora nervously gripping her hammer.
"Ho hey now slow your roll pretty lady. I know this sorry excuse of a sensei." He chuckled and patted Onyx on her injured arm, on purpose.
"Y-yes. Unfortunately I know this poor example of a student." Onyx clenched her teeth and beared the pain, shooting daggers at him.
Nora nodded and lowered her hammer. "Alright then. If she says that she trusts you, then I trust you… Kinda."
"Then that's good enough for me. Can you find me spare rags and maybe something for her to bite on?" Azure asked Nora, looking over the injured limb.
Nora looked at Onyx nervously, who nodded for her to go on. "Alright, I'll be back soon." She disappeared as she went to their camp.
"Good kid. Are you babysitting a bunch of kids?" Azure smirked.
"Yeah… Got called in as a favour I owed to an old coot, wanted me to escort these kids while they look for one of the Maidens."
"Maidens… Those are those hyper powered chicks with elemental powers that are crazier than Semblances, right?" He asked as he saw Nora return with a bag.
"Yeah. Also don't tell anyone else that, it was a secret told in trust, alright?" She looked at him seriously.
"Alright alright I understand, no speaky the secrety." He laughed at his childish joke, reaching for the bag provided.
"You know how sad it is to hear someone laugh at their own joke?" Onyx jabbed.
"Yeah yeah, now bite on this like a good girl while I fix your mistake." He shoved a stick in her mouth and grabbed her arm and with counting a few seconds, pulled on the arm harshly before straightening it out and resetting it.
The pain was enough to make her ears ring. Her vision dimmed white as she felt like her whole body was on fire. What only took Azure a second to do felt like an eternity of agony for Onyx. It was a textbook reset of a broken limb sure enough, but the tendons, muscles and ligaments suffered severe trauma from her battle with Citron.
Azure kneeled in front of her and held her steady, staring into her face. "Onyx, breathe. Don't forget to breathe." He reminded her. In response, she took in a great sucking breath.
She glowered at him once her vision returned. "That hurt so bad I could murder you." She growled.
He chuckled at her idle threat. "Love ya too sensei." He hummed a tune as he wrapped her arm up properly in a supportive sling. "Not perfect but it'll definitely work for now. I do suggest you go to a medical professional, and maybe brush up on your own medical training."
"No thanks, that's what I have you for. And stop calling me Sensei, it's bloody weird. And I'm not your teacher anymore." She grumbled.
He stood up and stretched. "Alright, time for you to introduce me to your children."
"Another joke about that and I'll break your arm." She stood up with a grunt of pain.
Speaking of the devil, the rest of the group came to her, all of them looking warily at the blue man. "Onyx… Who is this guy?" Jaune asked as he watched Azure.
"Me? I am a simple guy running around. I was in the area so I thought I'd come over and say hello to my former teacher." He said, all smiles.
'If he was any more laid back, he'd fall backwards.' Jaune thought before turning his gaze back to Onyx. "You okay?"
She breathed out again and nodded. "Just had my arm reset… I'm okay for now… Is the camp packed up?"
Jaune nodded. "Yeah, we've got all the packs done and ready to go. Where are we headed?"
"W-well it's time for a game of cat and mouse across Atlas. I've heard some rumours of unnatural occurrences, and magic is usually the word to describe them. The info of those rumours were the things I was stockpiling as you guys came in."
"Do you remember any of it?" Jaune asked sceptically.
Onyx barked with laughter. "With the number of hymns and prayers I had to remember I think I would be able to remember certain details at a glance. I remember at least three rumours. One is there were sudden appearances of icicles. No dust thrown, no previous altercations. Just ice forming. Second is the frost developing on the tips of grass in certain parts. While Atlas is cold, it's not cold at this time of the year for frost to develop on grass. And third but not least, there are reports of a foreign looking woman and apparently wherever she steps, ice follows. Now I know these all sound fanciful, but we have no choice but to investigate."
"So where do we begin?" Jaune asked sceptically.
"Well I've drawn circles around the area of at least 50 kilometres, and then drew a triangle from that. So that whole area is where she might be."
"What are the chances of these being call ins?"
"Unlikely, since these rumours have occurred multiple times."
"Well where do we start?" He asked again.
"There is a small village about a day's hike from here that may have seen the Maiden. If we can get a description, a name or even their favourite food it'll help us to know where to go."
"So just senseless marching?"
She gritted her teeth. "Look kid! You can bloody cry and go home whenever you like! No one is forcing you to be here!" She spat at him, finally sick of his bullshit.
He took a step back. "This is a madman's adventure!" He combatted.
She shot up and stormed over to him. "This is what you signed up for you little bitch! Did anybody force you to go half across the world to fight!? No! You made that decision yourself and now that it's starting to get hard, you're throwing in the towel!"
"I haven't thrown in anything yet!" He barked back.
"Good, then shut up, suck it up and stop being a fuck up!" She bellowed. "If I was your fucking dead girlfriend I'd be rolling in my grave!"
"Don't you da…" He started.
"Don't I dare what? Bring her up? You seem to be fine swinging around with her shit on your belt! Got her sash do ya? I notice that the symbol on your shield is an awful fucking lot like her tiara as well! What? Surprised I know that? I also watched TV kid, I'm not stupid. So you either shut up and get your shit together and maybe make her proud or I can pay you to go the fuck back to Vale. Either way, I'm in no mood to deal with bitches." She turned off and started a hard march, stooping down to grab her bag.
Ren and Nora looked between each other in shock before looking at Jaune. His cheeks burnt with embarrassment and indignation at being talked to like that. Sighing with a gruffness in his voice he stooped to grab his bag as well, following Onyx. "Come on guys." He mumbled as he passed them.
Azure stood there in the back with an amused look on his face. "Well, been a while since Teach blew up like that. Must mean she likes them." He barked with laughter before following behind.