Akame knocked on team RWBY's dorm door, and waited for a response a few moments later the door opened revealing Ruby who looked a bit disheveled but smiled warmly
"Hey Akame, whats up?" Ruby asked as she straightened out her hair
"Qrow sent me a text and told me to get you and for us to go to Ozpins' office." Akame answered as she straightened her tie "Most likely because were involved with what happened last night."
"Yeah, Esdeath told me about that last night, I hope we don't end up in trouble." Ruby said as she exited the room and shut the door behind her
"I doubt we would end up in trouble for aiding in an investigation." Akame waved off as they began to walk down the hallway Akame noticed something "Ruby is that an Insignia?"
"Yeah, I figured if Esdeath wanted me to be in her army I'd at least wear the Insignia she gave me." Ruby answered "But I have no idea how to actually put them on properly." Akame let out a sigh stopped and stopped Ruby too then began to fiddle with the insignia on Rubys shoulders
"You had them on backwards." Akame said after she finished causing Ruby to blush a bit
"Sorry, I've never been in something so official before." Ruby apologized as they continued walking "So... what did you do over that week that you were... you know... criminalized?" Ruby asked as they walked
(\_/)
Just before they could throw her from the ship Akame grabbed the wrist of one of the solders holding her yanking him off with her she drew his pistol shot him, and then fired back at the other who dodged the shot, flipping over she used the corpse to try and slow her decent and cushion her fall.
Akame struggled to move, the pain was nearly unbearable she felt like every bone in her body was broken and what didn't help was how scared for RWBY she was, the forest was teeming with Grimm and that despair would lead them right to her, hearing the growl coming from just about every direction she pushed herself to rise to her knees if she was going to die she didn't want to be lying on her stomach waiting for death to claim her. Rising to her knees Akame looked around blood red eyes were gazing at her from every direction, looking down at the soldier she reached to his boot and drew his combat knife, pushing herself again she stood and waited and listened for any attacking creatures, seconds after she heard movement a portal opened and Raven dropped out of it
"What the hell happened kid?" Raven asked as she cut down the Beowolf
"Esdeath... here..." Akame answered then everything went black
(o)
"It was an abnormal day here, but a pretty normal day for someone in the empire." Akame answered as they entered the CCT
"Is... is that bad?" Ruby asked as they walked towards the elevator
"Very close to death, but not too bad." Akame explained causing Ruby a few feelings of guilt
"I'm so sorry." Ruby apologized her voice was a little shaky like she was on the verge of tears
"Think nothing of it, Qrow nearly died twice in the empire. So I have one more near death experience before you have to feel bad." Akame joked causing Ruby to chuckle a bit and wipe her eyes as Akame pressed one of the buttons in the elevator
"You know your humor sounds just like Uncle Qrows'." Ruby commented after the door shut
"He did unlock my Aura, so I'm bound to start to sound like him sooner or later." Akame said as the elevator began to move and she grabbed onto Ruby
"Whats up? Do you not like elevators?" Ruby asked feeling a bit like their roles didn't suit either of them
"I don't trust a large metal box connected to a string going up an impossible height." Akame answered calmly "That and motion sickness."
"You and Jaune... but yours seems way worse than his."
"I've never ridden in a car or bullhead before, so my body isn't used to the motion." Akame explained as the elevator slowed to a stop and she released her
before they entered the could hear shouting, they couldn't tell who until the door opened
"WE CANT JUST SIT BACK AND DO NOTHING OZPIN!" Ironwood shouted at Ozpin who was massaging his eyes
"For once I agree with James. We have to act." Qrow added causing Glynda to look surprised
"What is going on here? I know you would never side with James on any occasion." Glynda asked as Ironwood looked Qrow in surprise
"I got Akame to think about now, I'm not gonna risk so much on Oz feeling we should keep this under raps." Qrow answered, before Ruby or Akame could enter Esdeath held her arm out signaling for them to stop
"See even Qrow agrees with me, so are we going to act or what?" James asked turning back towards Ozpin
"What do you want me to do? I'm trying to make sure this years Vytal festival goes of without any panic or any issues." Ozpin finally answered
"Then let Esdeath take RWBY and Akame on her mission, its a solid plan. They will be the only ones who." Ironwood said staring Ozpin dead in the eyes
"If we let her do that then she'll involve all five of them with our war on Salem." Ozpin shouted letting his anger out as he quickly stood
Esdeath grinned at that and lowered her arm letting them enter the office "No, I believe that's on you Ozpin." Esdeath said drawing all their attention to her, Akame, and Ruby
Ozpin looked like he was about to say something but sat back down and closed his eyes, after a few seconds of steady breathing he reopened them and spoke in a calm tone "We can deal with this later, for now can you two recall the events of last night for us." Akame looked to Ruby then nodded
Ruby stepped forward and spoke "My night progressed as normal, me and Esdeath enjoyed the dance then as we were leaving you asked to speak with her, so I went outside to wait, mainly because I don't like how stuffy the ballroom is, anyways I saw a woman running along the rooftops of the classrooms across from the ballroom so I followed her, until I reached the CCT where I found a few solders who were knocked out, so I began to search after sending an alert, I took the elevator to the previously selected floor and it brought me to the communication room, where I found her on one of the computers there, so I did what I though anyone else in my position would do and attacked, but she escaped."
"I will say while I don't agree with Esdeaths' choice of placing you in indentured servitude I will say you fill your rank very well." Ironwood complemented with a neutral expression
"Thank you, Reichsmarschall." Ruby thanked causing Esdeath to grin at her then turned to Akame and spoke
"Akame, your account."
"I was only involved in the search for them after Rubys' encounter. But thinking back to the ballroom, I can account multiple pieces of suspicious activity, none of it correlates to the attack though so its unnecessary information, Ozpin stationed me in the CCT to wait and see if the enemy came back, none did. I have nothing else to add." Akame said with a robotic tone
"Every little bit helps, but I can see now that stationing you inside the CCT was pointless, and I apologize for that failing." Ozpin apologized as he pulled up a map of the school with hundreds of red lines leading from the CCT, all the ones looping back to it vanished and then all the ones leading from points apart from the roof tops near the ballroom vanished too leaving about forty left "This is the best prediction we have, for their route."
"What if they looped back to the dance?" Akame asked looking at the holographic map in curiosity
"If they were in combat clothes then they would stick out like a sore thumb." Ozpin waved off
"I know that, but its a common practice for assassins and thieves alike to hide their gear under things like jackets, cloaks, dresses, and the like, I had Murasame and Muranohi on me all night." Akame explained "I have them on me now too." She demonstrated that fact by reaching behind herself and drew both then from under her coat then dropped it and turned around showing the sheaths resting in an X on her back
"So you believe that they escaped, changed cloths, then hid in the dance. Correct?" Ozpin elaborated causing Akame to nod
"Or maybe it was the other way around." Ruby said as she racked her brain to explain "Look at it this way, she hid her dress under her combat clothes then used embedded dust to burn them away leaving no evidence and almost changing her appearance completely."
"That actually makes sense, but hardly anyone embeds dust in clothing anymore, how'd you know about that?" Ironwood asked as he processed that information
"I don't know... Esdeath?" Ruby pushed the question to her
"I studied up on that while I was in Atlas academy, it was a fascinating prospect for a while but it quickly grew stale when I learned that it wouldn't effect my semblance, so I dropped it." Esdeath answered "It seems our bond is growing stronger if you're already pulling such meaningless information subconsciously."
"It doesn't really feel that special if its meaningless." Ruby replied
"That's actually very useful for us right now, assuming that they followed Akames' ruling that makes our investigation harder." Ozpin said "But that just means that it narrows down our targets. All we have to look for is someone who knows dust weaving and showed up late to the dance, while that doesn't make it much easier it does make it a little easier."
"So who's Salem?" Ruby asked causing everyone to fall silent and divert their eyes from her, Except Esdeath who turned to Ozpin
"Yes, why don't you answer that fascinating question for us Ozpin." Esdeath asked smiling at him
"That information is unimportant. I request that you keep it and everything else discussed here private." Ozpin avoided causing Esdeaths' smile to fade into a scowl
"Alright professor..." Ruby agreed but seemed very concerned that he was asking her to keep secrets
"Thank you, you two may leave. We have... many other subjects to discuss." Ozpin said after the two turned and began towards the elevator his gaze turned to a glare which was directed at Esdeath
(o)
After the elevator door shut Ruby let out a sigh and sat down on the ground
"That was so horrible I felt like everyone was judging me." Ruby vented as she panted
"Don't worry about it too much, they just wanted the information we could provide if they were asking for things we couldn't then your reaction would make more sense." Akame calmed as she sat down next to Ruby
"Last night I... I might have... acted like Esdeath a bit." Ruby said after a few minutes of quiet
"What do you mean?" Akame asked as she rapped her arm around Ruby
"I... I wanted to see that woman bleed, I wanted to kill her, I wanted to watch her die for trying to tamper with my school. She was trying to destroy everything I have ever wanted. So I let my instincts take over." Ruby explained she seemed to have taken what she said very personally but didn't entirely regret it
"It doesn't matter so long as you don't let your bloodlust control you like Esdeath does." Akame comforted pulling Ruby to lean on her "We'll go get you something to eat, that's what usually makes me feel better."
"Can it not be meat this time? Can we go get something like ice cream?" Ruby asked as they sat in the now stationary elevator
"Of course, I don't just eat meat." Akame agreed
"Your eating habits over the past two and a half months would disagree." Ruby joked Akame just hummed in agreement
"So do you want to get out of the elevator or would you rather we stay here?" Akame asked after a few moments of comfortable silence
"We should go prepare for our missions, we should be able to pick them out today." Ruby finally said as she stood quickly followed by Akame
"Yeah..." Akame quietly said seeming sad for some reason
"Is something wrong?" Ruby asked Akame quickly shook her head
"No its nothing, you are right though, we should prepare." Akame agreed and began towards their dorms to gather their gear
(o)
Weiss was standing outside of Akames' dorm waiting for them, which was confusing considering she just got out of the infirmary and spent most of her time sleeping, Walking up to her Ruby waved and smiled, Weiss ignored her in favor of lifting up a notebook and spoke
"Akame we need to talk." Akame looked at the object and nodded then entered her room swiftly followed by Weiss while Ruby reentered her room
"What do you want to talk about?" Akame asked after they entered the room
"This notebook, I have three others that I got from in here." Weiss answered as she placed the book down on the desk
"to my knowledge it's not mine." Akame answered only taking one look at it
"Are you sure? 'Cause this is your handwriting." Weiss said again opening it
"I carry all my notebooks on me, at all times." Akame said as she reached into her coat pockets and drew out multiple notebooks at a time, began to count them, she then spoke "Two are missing, one would be the one containing my past, the other is combat issues I saw in each of you, and how I planned to fix them."
"Are you kidding me! I THOUGHT YOU WERE PLANING TO KILL US!" Weiss shouted "THE WAY YOU WROTE THAT I-" Akame chopped Weiss on the head causing her to stop
"Don't be stupid, you are my family, and I'd never do anything to cause you pain." Akame scolded "But I agree, I could have written better."
(o)
Qrow leaned back on the window watching at everyone but him and Esdeath shouted at each other trying to get the others to listen to them, zoning out Qrow let his eyes shut and the shouts vanish from his mind, the shouting was replaced by Esdeaths voice though, and it wasn't any better
"I could go on and on about how bad of a leader Ozpin is... I saw the glares you were throwing at him. You aren't happy with him, are you... if I wasn't here what do you think Ozpin would do about the White Fang? Nothing... I know whats running through your head right now... Esdeath was right the whole time..." Qrow reopened his eyes his vision locked onto Esdeath who was leaning on the opposite side of the room, she was watching him with what seemed to be a satisfied look on her face, like she was reading his mind
"Yeah... I'm done here." Qrow said breaking his stare from Esdeath and drew all attention to him
"We're not done here." Ironwood said turning to him causing Qrow to scoff
"Yeah, I can tell. How 'bout you guys start talking instead of yelling about nothing, I'm done, I got other work I need to do." Qrow snarked as he entered the elevator
"I have to agree, while I'd love to stand here and listen to this argument, it is of little concern to me. I have a team of specialists waiting to be briefed on their mission anyways." Esdeath added entering the elevator too much to Qrows dismay, but he hid it as well as he could
"General." Ironwoods voice came before the door shut "I will trust your judgment on taking that team on a mission, their leader seems to be very capable. Don't let any of them die."
"I won't, Reichsmarschall." Esdeath agreed she then pressed the button on the elevator wall causing the door to shut, Qrow leaned on the wall of the elevator preparing to try and ignore Esdeaths' words again
"I can tell you've given what I said some thought, as I said I'm done trying to convince you, but I'm just glad that you're keeping an open mind when it comes to your future." Esdeath said leaning next to him "So I'm assuming you'll be following us on our mission."
"That's what Oz asked me to do." Qrow answered neutrally doing his best impression of Akame and keeping his expression completely unreadable
"Hmm, if you want to come just say the word. Akame is already tagging along due to her spot as leader of Rubys' squad." Esdeath said after a few moments of thought, Qrow wanted to agree but that would give her an in, and he really didn't want to do that, but he really wanted to go on another mission with Akame, he had forgotten what it was like having a partner. Qrow silently looked away from Esdeath who shrugged "It would be preferred to have seven of us, but it doesn't really matter to me who comes and who doesn't. But just so you know, we'll be leaving in forty-five minutes." she then exited the elevator and walked away, Qrow exited the elevator too but walked in the opposite direction planing to transform and fly to Akames' room
(o)
Esdeath knocked on the door to Rubys' dorm and waited patiently for it to open, after a few second it did thanks to Blake who looked frightened for a few seconds
"Whats wrong Blake? You seem... frightened." Esdeath asked warmly causing Blake to step away from her, one of the things Esdeath found the most amusing was how faunus had such a hard time remaining composed near her, it was primarily because their instincts told them to flee from her, so she enjoyed watching then struggle from time to time "You have no reason to fear me, so long as you stick around I will have no reason to hunt you. So calm yourself and steel your nerves."
That didn't seem to help Blake at all but she did try to calm herself "If you want to come in Ruby is showering." Esdeath immediately took the invitation and entered the room, her eyes jumping from Blake to Yang then finally Weiss
"Oh goodie... To what do we owe this unwelcome visit?" Yang snarked glaring at the woman
"You owe it to your mission." Esdeath answered smiling warmly at Yang who growled at her
"So were you planing on brainwashing all of us or just Ruby?" Yang asked trying to get a rise out of Esdeath but failed
"Actually no, I had no hand in that. Just because William wants to live out all her perverted fantasies on you doesn't mean I wanted her to touch Ruby, quiet the opposite actually, I would cut her eyes out myself if she tried." Esdeath responded calmly
"Okay but why would you employ someone like her?" Yang asked glaring at her
"So I can have solders act on more morally flexible orders." Esdeath answered "Example, Yang I order you to punch Blake in the gut at hard as you can."
Yang didn't more she just scoffed "Not happening Ice Queen."
"Precisely, Yang your master orders you to strike Blake." Yang seemed to have a very difficult time not acting on the orders, given the fact she fell off her bed and punched the floor instead "Disregard that order. I'll guess that yours started somewhere around the time you all were allowed to wander the ship last week."
"Shut up you bitch!" Yang shouted as she stood and swung at Esdeath who easily dodged the strike
"Yang stop." Weiss said turning from her school work to watch "You're not going to be able to hit her."
"You should listen to her." Esdeath agreed as she easily dodged all the attacks
"STOP DODGING THEN!" Yang shouted, Esdeath complied and caught both of Yangs' fists and smiled at her
"Very well, lets try another command shall we?" Esdeath asked grinning at Yang who was trying to break free from Esdeath grasp until Esdeath spoke again "Yang your master orders you to freeze." Yang stopped struggling but she also completely stopped moving entirely, Esdeath released her and stepped back looking her up and down "You may move again." Esdeath said after almost a minute and Yang collapsed then swiftly crawled away from Esdeath as she tried to breath "Sorry, I completely forgot that you cant breath like that." Esdeath apologized, she seemed to actually be sorry for what happened
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Yang tried to shout through coughs
"I was just having a bit of fun, normally I'd remember that issue... I guess it just slipped my mind." Esdeath apologized again her expression dropping
(o)
Akame, lightly wiped away the last of the excess polish off of Muranohi, her attention was quickly caught by a light tapping on her window turning to it she saw a crow sitting on the ledge next to her window, sheathing the blade she stood and opened the window, the crow flew in and transformed into Qrow
"Hey kiddo, doin' some maintenance?" Qrow asked as he sat down on her bed
"Yeah, I have a mission coming up so I figured it'd be a good idea to prepare." Akame said as she drew Murasame and looked at the blade as she stared into the blade she spoke in what seemed like a distant "I don't know how to feel to be honest with you. I miss Mine and Najenda, but I also know that they are probably doing better off without me there, I just wish I could see them again."
"You're feeling home sick." Qrow said Akame nodded in agreement "Do... you regret coming here?" Qrow asked carefully
"No, just because I miss them doesn't me I believe this choice was a mistake." Akame answered almost instantly and pulled Qrow into a hug which he returned swiftly
"Alright, I just wanted to make sure. Anyways, me and Esdeath talked and apparently she wants to bring you along on her little mission to the South-East. She also offered me a spot, but I didn't give her an answer." Qrow explained after a few comfortable moments of quiet
"I say you come, I'd like to have someone I can truly rely on to watch my back." Akame said looking him dead in the eyes
"The rest of team RWBY are going too you know." Qrow said causing Akame to nod
"I know, but do you really trust them to be able to take on Esdeath?" Akame asked causing Qrow to sigh in defeat, to be honest that thought didn't even cross his mind, it should have though.
"Alright, I'll tag along." Qrow agreed causing Akame unknown amounts of joy, it may have been only a few days since they last fought together but she missed it
(o)
RWBY and Esdeath were standing on the landing pad waiting for the Manta to refuel
Ruby watched as Yang continued to throw glares at Esdeath it was starting to concern her so she decided to speak
"Yang? Cant you just drop it?" Ruby asked causing Yangs glare to go from Esdeath to her
"She nearly killed me and you want me to let it go! Whats gotten into you!?" Yang snapped but Ruby held firm
"She apologized! That means that she really meant it! I'm just saying you should take what you can get and trust Esdeaths' judgment, shes a lot smarter than she acts." Ruby ranted to Yang who just scoffed and went back to glaring at Esdeath
"Yo, we're here." Qrows voice came surprising Ruby who quickly turned to see both him and Akame
"Uncle Qrow! Are you coming too?" Ruby happily asked practically bouncing over to him
Qrow looked to Esdeath who smiled at him he rolled his eyes and spoke "Yeah, gotta show you all how a real huntsman works."
"Just how many combat professions have you had? Huntsman, assassin, bandit, soldier, anything else?" Esdeath asked causing confusion to cross all of team RWBYs faces
"Yeah, I don't remember being a soldier." Qrow said also confused by her statement
"Yeah, you killed Daidara and became one of my beasts." Esdeath answered "Quiet a shame that you didn't stay that way."
"I disagree, I'm rather glad I didn't continue working for you. I got to meet a bunch of people I got along with way better than your lot." Qrow denied
"You punched Chelsea through a door." Akame said immediately after Qrow finished
"Not helping kid, besides I apologized." Qrow followed instantly after she finished
"Two days later causing me to worry." Akame followed him calmly and quickly
"What do you want me to buy you dinner as an apology?" Qrow asked just as quickly
"Yes." Akame answered instantly causing Qrow to sigh then spoke
"Well my plans for after this is done have been filled."
"Speaking of filled, the ships ready to go." Esdeath said and began towards the Manta quickly followed by everyone else
(o)
As the Manta flew Esdeath began to brief them on the mission
"Now then, we'll be dropping into Mountain Glenn, the failed expansion of Vale, now then were searching for a White Fang base of operations, for this area, I was planing for us to take the metro there instead of flight, but all the entrances were sealed off so our only entrances into the underground is from the surface in the expansion."
"I saw the reports from scout drones sent out, I saw at least three points that lead to the metro from Mountain Glenn, I don't know if they are unblocked or caved in, but that's all I've notice." Qrow added, leaning back in his seat and rubbed Akames' back while she struggled to handle her motion sickness
"That's very useful, thank you Qrow." Esdeath thanked "Right so we'll split into teams, to check each one. Qrow and Akame will take one, RWBY will take another and I'll take one."
"Or I can go with you." Ruby offered after Esdeath finished
"I'm sure it would fairer, but we're looking for efficiency, not fairness. If your entrance it clear alert the other two teams, if not, inform the others that its blocked." Esdeath responded "Is that understood?"
"Yes ma'am." RWB said "Yeah" Yang said "Mhm" Qrow affirmed "Ugh" Akame groaned
"Good." Esdeath said with a grin
(o)
Dropping from the Manta Qrow looked around and saw no Grimm, Esdeath and Akame landed on either side of him did the same RWBY jumped out and checked their flank, nothing
"Clear." Qrow said
"Clear" Ruby replied and they all relaxed, Qrow put Harbinger back on his belt and Akame returned Murasame to its sheath, Esdeath followed suit and sheathed her blade too, RWBY watched them all relax and start walking off towards the ruins
"Keep up you four, if you get lost it'll be a pain to search for you." Qrow called back to them casually, causing them to all quickly catch up
"I thought we had to be as quiet as possible when out here." Ruby commented after they caught up
"'course, in certain places, the Emerald forest, Dooie Sand south of Vacuo, Erfrierungen Grat north of Atlas, and Chimamire no iwayama far south of Mistarl, those four places are the most well known hives of grimm activity, if you ever walk into them thats when you gotta stay as quiet as you possibly can." Qrow explained "But here the only thing that'll get you found out is huge amounts of negativity."
"Oh, that makes sense. Have you ever been in any of those areas?" Ruby asked causing Qrow to laugh dryly
"Yeah, all of them, I probably have the highest kill count in all those areas... and probably the highest survival rate too." Qrow said dryly
"I'd contest you on Erfrierungen Grat I've spent a good deal of time there, and whipped quiet a number of hordes out there." Esdeath said causing Qrow to roll his eyes
"Yeah, I bet you have." Qrow rolled his eyes "Alright you get Erfrierungen."
"Good." Esdeath agreed as they reached a crossroads "Here's where we separate. Inform the rest of us when you reach your entry point." everyone quickly began to make their ways towards their objective
(o)
Qrow slid down the side of a broken pillar and looked around then down at his scroll, Akame slid down next to him and looked at all the buildings
"What happened here?" Akame asked looking at the broken buildings and streets
"Grimm; the 'expansion of Vale project' happened about fifteen years ago, the idea was expanding into the mountains where Grimm have a hard time reaching and having a metro system leading between here and Vale, it work for about a year, then... then everything went to shit. The Grimm attacks became unbearable, they happened almost every night and day, it stressed the people out to no end, then a massive horde showed up and over ran the surface forcing them under ground into the metro where they expanded again into an underground civilization, where they lasted for another seven months, as they expanded again they opened up into a cave full of Grimm, no huntsman were in the city at the time, it was a slaughter. We, team STRQ, were the first huntsman to arrive after that happened..." Qrow explained he had a distant look in his eyes after he finished before quickly snapping out of it "Sorry, this place is just full of ghosts."
"Don't worry about it, I just hope it doesn't effect you on this mission." Akame said as she placed her hand on his shoulder
"Nah the worst of its probably over now. Lets just get moving." Qrow said and looked back at his scroll and spoke "We gotta, take a left up here then there should be a collapsed building that we gotta climb over then it should be in the middle of the road."
"Its a good thing ours is close." Akame commented as they continued to walk
(o)
"I spy with my little eye... something... blue!" Ruby said looking around
"Is it the sky?" Yang asked also looking around
"Nope!" Ruby answered
"that traffic sign?" Yang asked looking closer at the environment
"That's two wrong! You got one left." Ruby taunted happily causing Yang to growl
"That car!?" Yang shouted
"Nope! It was weisss' dust cartage. On the side of Myrtenaster." Ruby answered happily
"How could you even see that!" Yang asked clearly outraged
"Remember earlier when I was looking around, I caught a brief hint of it." Ruby answered
"Can you two stop talking for five seconds?" Weiss asked
"You don't gotta worry too much Weiss, remember I got Demons' Extract. Anything that tries to hurt us will be greeted with a brutal and painful death." Ruby happily waved off "So relax."
"I somehow find it harder when you say it like that, you sound almost exactly like Esdeath when you do." Weiss shot causing Ruby to sigh
"And so what if I do? I'm just saying you should loosen up a bit, leave my mentality out of this." Ruby said
"Is that really a good thing though? You sounding like Esdeath I mean." Blake added and Ruby turned to her and began to walk backwards
"I don't know if I like it or not yet but all I know is that's linking with her has made my life both in and out of school so much easier." Ruby countered
"But is that a good thing? What if shes not telling you something about her semblance, what if its like Mas... we need to come up with a way to call her something universal." Blake asked
"Give it enough time and I will know, her memories and mine are constantly melting together that's how I've gotten so good with classwork and homework, its not that bad. Besides we're all strong enough to survive. So I'm not worried about this mission." Ruby explained as they came to a stop near a manhole cover
"Is this it?" Yang asked looking at the cover
"Yep" Ruby confirmed and crouched down and placed her hand on it quickly ice formed on her hand and the cover, Ruby then lifted her hand and the cover, revealing a ladder going down into darkness
"So does that mean its open?" Yang asked
"It might be caved in lower down." Blake said causing Yang to sigh
"Cant anything ever be easy?" Yang asked no one in particular
"Where would the fun be then?" Ruby asked causing Yang to hum in agreement
(o)
Esdeath ducked under a slash from a Beowolf and stabbed upward with her blade killing the beast she sighed and spoke to herself
"fourteen."
Walking towards her objective she looked around at the open area and walked up to the manhole cover, placing her hand on it and a thick layer of ice formed on both her hand and the cover, lifting her hand and subsequently the cover she looked down it and saw dirt and rubble, withdrawing her scroll after dropping the cover she typed out
[Blocked]
Next came Qrows message [Blocked]
finally Rubys [Open]
Esdeath sighed [Regroup at Rubys position.]
[Confirmed] Qrow messaged
[Holding position.] Ruby messaged
She then lowered her scroll and began towards Rubys' position
(o)
RWBY, Akame, and Qrow sat waiting for Esdeath to arrive
"I spy with my little eye... something...gray." Ruby said
"The back of that stop sign two streets away from us." Akame answered as she watched Qrow preform minor maintenance on Harbinger
"HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT!?" Ruby shouted completely outraged
"Your eyes, they stayed over there for slightly longer than normal, and then you waited another few moments letting your eyes drift across the rest of the scenery." Akame explained calmly
"But you weren't watching me! You were watching Uncle Qrow!" Ruby continued her outrage
"I can multitask." Akame answered
"So are we going to get down there or..." Esdeaths' voice came from behind them
"Yeah, just finishing." Qrow said pulled the trigger on harbinger a few times causing it to extend and sheath itself before placing it on his belt "I'm ready."
"Good, how far ahead did you scout Ruby?" Esdeath asked turning her attention to Ruby
"We went down to the bottom it blocked but there is a maintenance access hatch above it that we can get though." Ruby answered
"Right, Akame and Blake will lead followed by Yang, myself, and Ruby, then finally Qrow." Esdeath said
"Why does Qrow have to bring up the rear? Why cant he lead?" Yang asked glaring at Esdeath still
"Its 'cause Harbinger is good for open areas, enclosed spaces, not so much. But I can still kick ass bare handed." Qrow said as everyone else got up
"You'll have to show me sometime." Esdeath said as she began down the ladder
"Me too cause dad said your hand to hand is shit." Yang called up from the ladder
"He only said that cause I kicked his ass... so did Raven... and Summer. Lets just say Tai wasn't good at fighting until he was an actually huntsman." Qrow said as he slid the manhole cover back on above them bathing them all in darkness
(o)
Exiting the maintenance shaft they got the view of a massive city that looked similar to Vale except completely ruined
"Well the future looks great doesn't it Qrow?" Esdeath asked looking out over the city
"Sure it does, anyways we should move. You're gonna have to have a long talk with them after this is done anyways." Qrow said causing Esdeaths' gaze to jump from the ruins to Qrow who stepped off the ledge and vanished into the darkness
"Esdeath, where's Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked jogging up to her
"He's gone to scout ahead." Esdeath answered her excitement for the future growing as she spoke again "We should get off this building, we have much work to do." Esdeath then turned and began towards the fire escape on he side of the building
A/N These past few chapters have been pretty long in comparison to all the other chapters I have written and with good reason... which I will tell you when I figure it out, I'll be honest I just kinda started writing and didn't stop until I was happy, that and I wanted to make sure that I fit everything I wanted to in each chapter. It should be mentioned that recently I've been thinking of a story that's not related to Crow of Night Raid in any fashion, but its still related to RWBY. It wont be replacing Assassin of Beacon, but it will be released at some point 'cause I don't really know if I'll be happy with it or not, so I cant really pin point a date. But I will say that you can thank Fallen Order for it.