AN: Okay, first off, I'd like to thank RustedThuder for the review, it's appreciated as always.
Also, While I said the last chapter was going to be the last one in this section, I'm not ready to move it yet from an editing standpoint.
I also feel like since I started the story here, I kind of feel like I should finish it here.
I'm just not sure what to do in this regard. I know I'm going to do it at some point, just not sure when.
Also, With Vol.5 now out, This should go without saying, but I'm going to be disregarding certain Canon material to stay within the line of story I want to write. I will adapt where it still fits with my goal, but I'm not going to change everything I have planned.
Also I'd like to take this time to make clear that there Will be Spoilers for Vol.5 I'm not going to be retelling it, but elements of it will be found here.
Well, you guys who have made it this far aren't here for my thoughts, other than the ones' I put into the story.
So here's the next chapter.
Norns
Watts watched as the giant Grimm's body swelled up, as the huge meal it had eaten settled somewhere in its stomach.
He didn't know how long this fusion would take, not only due to the sheer volume of what was trying to be achieved, but the fact an inorganic component, and very large one at that, was involved now.
The worm just lay on the ground and made guttural sounds that reminded him of a sick or dying animal. He supposed that was very likely this would kill it, but that didn't matter in the end.
He'd leave it to finish its work, while he tried to salvage the disaster of the attack. First thing, was to try and find the relic Hazel had lost when the bridge had been destroyed.
It would still be at the bottom of the canyon, and he knew the general area of where it should have landed. The cane itself wasn't that important, but what was hidden inside it.
Ozpin had taken the relic and hidden it in that thing, not only to keep it with him, but to hide it in plain sight. That was why they couldn't find it after the school feel.
He guessed he couldn't use the artifact while it was inside, or if he could, it was severely limited, otherwise Cinder would of likely been killed when she fought him. He didn't even know if it was possible to get it out of it's container under normal circumstances, but he was taking steps in that regard.
Hazel shouldn't have had the damn thing with him during the attack, but wouldn't let it out of his sight. Either he didn't want to lose it, or he wanted to make sure he received credit for it's retrieval. Arthur thought the first was more likely, Hazel had been dutiful, and not particularly driven by advancement.
But, so long as no one else knew what it was, or if they did, the Hazel had it, or he was even at the battle, it should be fine.
He'd have some searching to do, but he didn't doubt he'd find it.
The Grimm wailed in pain, it raised its head and let it drop to the ground. He could almost feel sorry for it…almost.
Setting off for his search, he thought of how he could use this to her personal advantage. He could be the one to retrieve not one, but two relics. That was surely to put him his Salem's good graces, perhaps even make him her second in command.
Qrow walked down the halls of Haven, towards the "forge" as students called it. It wasn't, strictly speaking, the correct term. It was more or a mixture of forge and machining shop. There were part for hammer out blades, but tons of other machines for making gun parts and machine pieces.
He knew he find Thor here, Yang had told him as much when he visited her and Ruby this morning.
As he thought of his nieces, and felt a crushing shame over the way he'd carried himself over the past few days. He'd been completely unable to help them in any real capacity, because he was too wrapped up in his own failures.
Granted, they were bad, but he should have been used to it by now, the setbacks, the tragedy. He didn't really to want to get used to it, but he should be able to cope with it better than he did.
He had made a personal vow not to let it get to that point again. Their father wasn't here for them right now, and both of them had lost their mothers. He was the only family they had on this side of the world, unless Raven was floating around nearby, but he didn't count her anyway.
As he entered the forge, he saw Thor working on a bench, with pieces of equipment around him, sparking flying out as he worked.
Lionheart had agreed to give him whatever he wanted in order to make his new equipment. That wasn't an offer extended to anyone else. It was his rewards for saving the city, a small token of thanks.
What Thor had done wasn't really know to the wider circles of the city. Or more accurately, it wasn't widely known he was the one who had done it.
Qrow didn't doubt the truth would come out, no one was actively trying to hide who he was, but none one who really knew was giving the information out either.
But Thor had expressed a desire not to let it happen faster than its natural course. He knew once it was out there, his life wouldn't be nearly as private. The News was almost exclusively about the attack on the Bridge and sudden arrival of some "Unknown Hero" as he was being called, that destroyed the enemy.
But Qrow also thought there was a bit more to it than that.
He didn't think Thor could replicate the same feat again under normal circumstances. He didn't want to be put into a situation where he had to tell them he couldn't. Qrow thought that for the time being that was for the best.
The news coverage had caused a huge turn around in moral of the city, people felt happier and safer than ever, thinking this being would just come in and save them.
But Qrow didn't think Thor could do that, but he'd like to find out if he'd ever be able to.
He walked up to him as he worked, and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.
Thor turned off his torch and turned to face Qrow, pulling off his eye protection.
"Can I help you?" His voice was cool, not hostile, not exactly, but not welcoming. He supposed he hadn't made a good impression on him over the last week.
"Yeah, you can." Qrow said, pushing forward. "How did you do it?" He asked, not specifying what he meant, there was only one thing he'd bothered to ask Thor about.
Thor sighed and picked up a rag to wipe his hands off. "It started back at Beacon." He said somberly, and Qrow, listen intently. "I wasn't sure what to do, in fact I don't think I was actually at all aware of what was going on in truth." He said, sighing.
"Yeah, but tell me how it happened." Qrow wanted to cut through straight to the event itself.
"Well we were at this cabin, while I was recovering, and we decided- "
"What?" Cut him off "are you talking about?" he was lost now, was the hammer or something alive and talked to him.
"Well me and Yang decided- "
"Oh, my god!' Qrow slapped his hand over his face.
"Yes?" Thor said smiling.
"Not you!" Qrow growled at him. The big smirk on his face told him everything he needed to know, Thor was messing with him. "I'm not asking about how you and my niece hooked up! I'm asking how you pulled off the whole 'Thundergod', thing!"
"Oh, you should have been more specific." Thor said with such a tone of fake innocence's that Qrow felt his blood pressure rise. But Thor reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
It was the handle of Ozpin's cane, cracked and looking ready to fall to pieces. Qrow thought if Thor dropped it, it might shatter into pieces.
"Where did you get that?" Qrow's voice was much more serious now.
"The one leading the Wendo had it, he was a man, I don't think he was White Fang, he didn't look it." Thor held up the handle to show it in the light. "He tried to attack me with it, but I felt energy coming from it, it made me strong enough to call one last bolt of lightning." He said turning the broken remains of the cane to look it over. "It's like it called to be down there at the bottom of the canyon. I can't explain it more than instinct told me to break it, and I did. I got my powers back for a little while, but as you saw, they didn't stay."
Thor held the handle out to Qrow to allow him to take it an examine it.
Qrow took it and popped a compartment in the handle, surprised it yeilded so easily. Thor looked on interested as Qrow pulled out what looked like a silver metal coin the size of a silver dollar. It was cracked right down the middle.
"What is that?" Thor ask, and Qrow sighed.
"One of the relics I told you about, one for Choice specifically, and it looks like you destroyed it."
Thor's eyes went a little wide, and looked at the coin, before finally saying "Oops."
Qrow gritted his teeth at this response, he didn't seem to catch the gravity of the situation.
Slipping the now useless relic back into the handle, he tossed back to Thor. "So, breaking, or destroying the relics gives you power?"
Thor shrugged, indicating he really didn't know. "Why was in even in the cane in the first place?" He asked.
Qrow sighed "Oz wanted to move it out of it's hiding place and put in an new one, that could be moved if it had to, as I understand it, that things shouldn't even open unless someone in particular tries it, but I guess smashing it did away with that." Qrow did not add that he didn't think destroying the container, or relic, should of even been possible."Well, thanks for the talk, I've got something else to see to." With that he turned and left.
Thor pocketed the handle with the coin inside. He could still sense a glimmer of divine energy in it, not much more than a spark, but he thought he might be able to use it in his equipment. Melting it down and incorporating it into the metal what his plan right now.
But right now, he needed to finish his arm and leg. The temporary ones he was using were just inferior. The state of art one's were lost, destroyed in his attack. He's taken a bullhead to the spot to try and recover them, but the usable parts that were left could have fit in a soda can.
Jarnbjorn was significantly better, but was needed to be fixed up.
But first thing was first. The arm and leg he was working on, he hadn't made from scratch, but rather had Lionheart get him something close to what Ironwood had given him and Yang. It wasn't quite as good, but he was going to modify it with what he'd learned in his transformation.
He added armor plating to both and reinforced the interior structure, in the fashion of the Destroyer armor. It was the same metal he'd used to make Jarnbjorn, mixed with some silver-steel and adamantine dust.
The result resulting metal was pitch black, and wasn't sure why it had come out that way, but he didn't really care as long as if functioned they way he wanted it to.
Then next thing he did was insulate then electronics even more heavily than his old prosthetic, so lighting wouldn't cause them to shut down, or rather make it harder to shut them down.
Once he put the finishing touches on them, he'd move onto his weapon again.
Ruby and Jaune walked out of the hunter supply shop, and Jaune wasn't exactly sure what had prompted the trip. Well, he did, but he didn't know why Ruby had decided to do it now.
"You think Thor will like what picked out for him?" Ruby asked, a bit nervousness in her voice.
"Sure, why wouldn't he?" Jaune replied.
"I don't know, just I'm not exactly sure it's his…style?" she said the last part in a questioning tone, showing she wasn't sure she'd used the right word.
"I'm sure it's exactly his style Ruby, you saw what he was wearing." Jaune put a hand on her shoulder, kneading the muscles with his thumb.
"Yeah, but what about what I got Yang? You know how much for fashion-oriented than me, I think her standards are going to be a lot higher."
"Ruby, you need to calm down about this, everyone will love what you got them, if for no other reason than you were thinking about them when you got it."
That got a smile out of her.
Jaune didn't know why she'd wanted to go out and get something for everyone so suddenly. It may have been the money they'd gotten for taking part in the defense of the city. Every hunter who had been there was paid a generous amount, even the ones who bugged out after the bridge broke.
That still irritated Jaune sometimes. The hunters who had run were getting as much recognition as those who had stayed. He knew they had fought bravely in the first half of the battle, but still, they had left.
He knew he shouldn't be judging anyone, everyone had a breaking point. But still, he thought…well he wasn't sure. He didn't care about money, so much as…was it recognition? No that wasn't right either. He didn't care so much if he was famous or not.
He thought it might just be he was angry they hadn't stayed to do what they were supposed to do.
"Jaune, you still with me?" Ruby's voice broke him out of his thoughts, and he realized he was gazing into the distance.
"Yeah, sorry just thinking about some stuff."
"Kay…" Ruby's tone told him she was a bit concerned.
"I'm fine, let's head back to the school." He smiled and she smiled back.
With that they went back.
Blake had found Sun, and she sort of wished she hadn't.
He was sitting in jail cell, apparently accused of breaking and entering a council meeting. He'd probably have been out by now if he hadn't been carrying a weapon when he did it.
She understood why he'd done it, to warn them. But they hadn't known that at the time, and then there was the Faunus prejudice that came with almost anywhere they went.
The White Fang's part in the attack wasn't doing him any favors.
"Blake, you got to get me out of here!" He said to her, his tone strained and panicked. "There are these guys in here, who do not like Faunus, and I don't whatever they have planned is going to be good for my health."
"Sun…I think I might be able to help, but it'll be a day or two, you think you'll be alright till then?"
He didn't look too happy about this news, but he nodded in agreement.
"Alright, I'll get right on it, just hang tight, okay Sun?"
He almost whimpered in response, and she didn't think she'd ever felt so bad for someone before.
As she walked out of the police station, she pulled out her scroll and dialed Weiss's number.
Weiss sat in the apartment she had rented. It was far from the standard she'd grown up in, but it was more than adequate.
She had managed to hide some money in an account her father knew nothing about. Her sister, the last time she had spoken to her, had told her to do so, and helped her do it.
It wasn't really all that much, but she'd been fine for some time with it.
She was thinking of so many things that just wouldn't leave her mind. What the worst thing was, she was thinking of too many things at once to really decided on a course of action.
Her scroll buzzed, and she saw that it was Blake.
"Hello?" she said as she answered.
"Weiss, it's Blake. Look, I know we haven't really seen each other for a while, and haven't had much time to catch up, but could you do me a favor?"
A little taken aback by this, Weiss answered anyway "Sure, what is it?"
"Sun is in jail, you think you could…pull some string to get him out?"
No, she didn't think she could. She was disinherited, but there was something she might be able to do. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thanks' Weiss, I'll talk to you later." With that she hung up.
She'd have to do some crafty and underhanded persuasion. But Weiss thought she might be able to wrangle what Blake wanted.
And frankly she was grateful for a distraction.
Nora wanted to talk to Thor, about his people. No, that wasn't right, not now. The people who worshipped him. She didn't know anything really about her family, but the comparisons, she couldn't ignore.
Could she have been descended from the Vikings? She thought she was, now that she examined it. Her last name, her temperament, her strength. All attributes of the Viking people.
The idea of a heritage, that was something new to her. And she found she wanted it. A cultural identity was something she never felt she had ever had.
But she didn't want to bother him. The reasons varied, but they all seemed important. He was trying to fix his equipment for one. And he wanted some time to relax, after everything. He'd been on deaths door and had pulled back from it.
But then there was the simple fact she was intimidated by him. The idea she was talking to someone who had been worshipped by her ancestors, or potential ancestors. She didn't know, but felt there should be some level of reverence there.
He had made her world so much bigger. The idea of where she came from, the reality of gods and demons. Other realms and worlds.
These had been mere ideas in the minds of most men, now were fact in her mind.
She just knew she'd have to do something about it soon, she didn't want to just sit on this.
Ren was worried about Nora. She had become quiet and introspective ever since the battle and their talk.
He felt it was his fault, bringing it up. He should have left it alone, but he thought it was something important to say. But she'd never of thought of the connection on her own.
Nora wasn't dumb. On the contrary, he thought in some ways she was smarter than Weiss or Blake, but she wasn't good at making connections.
He tried to talk to her, but he never got much.
She needed to talk to Thor directly, but at the same time she didn't seem to want to bother him.
If she wouldn't do it, he would. He hated going behind her back, but this was one those times where someone needed to do something good for themselves, but was scared to do it.
If she hadn't spoken to him by tomorrow, he'd bring it up to Thor.
Thor finished up on the leg, and sighed. "That should do it."
He took off the temporary prosthetic he'd been using on his leg and replaced it with his own modified piece. He'd done the same with arm a few hours ago, and the difference was just as noticeable.
Both limbs felt significantly stronger than the others, he'd dare say even stronger than the one Ironwood had given him.
He looked at his ax and decided to finish up for the night. He could work on it tomorrow.
With that in mind, he went back to the room he shared with Yang and Ruby.
As he walked he wondered if he should try and recreate Mjolnir again, or if he should just modify Jarnbjorn.
As he got to the door, he pushed these thoughts out of his mind. There would be time for that tomorrow, and right now he wanted to relax. They only had, maybe a week before they'd be back on the hunt again for what had happened at Beacon.
As he came entered the room, he saw Yang laying on the bed, reading a magazine.
"Hey, how'd it go?" She asked, looking up from her magazine.
"Better than I expected." He said holding up his new arm to show it off. "I don't know why, but I just seemed to know how to do it."
"Wow." Yang said standing up to look at it. "You make that from scratch?"
"No." He said while he let Yang look over it "I used another one as a base, but I've improved it."
"Yeah, not joking, why's you make it all black though? Doesn't seem like your color."
"Just came out like that when I alloyed the metals together. I'm not exactly sure why their color changed."
"Well, it's cool." She finally stopped looking it over and looked at him directly.
"You going to work on your combat gear next?"
Thor nodded and sat down to take his boots off.
"Any idea what you're going make? Sticking with the ax or you thinking of going back to what you had at Beacon?"
Thor was honestly on the fence about it. He thought he could do it more safely this time, but it still felt like tempting fate.
"I think I might go somewhere in the middle of the road. I might take some old idea and use them, but I don't think I'm going to try and totally recreate it."
"Well, whatever you think is best." He said getting behind him and started to rub his shoulders. He didn't realize how stiff he was from working all day.
"Oh, that feels good." He moaned.
"You need to stand up and stretch when you work, otherwise you going to end up being all locked up."
He knew that, but he'd been in a bit of a zone, and wanted to get his work done. He felt her breath on his ear "You know what we haven't done in a while?"
He smiled and said "Camping?"
She laughed "No…" moved around in front of him to kiss him.
Watts hadn't found the relic, and was now worried that his it had been found and retrieved. It was clear someone, or several someone's, had been here.
Bodies were missing, and gear had been salvaged. Even Hazels body was gone.
He'd go back into the city if he had to, but he wanted to make sure.
He pulled out a book Salem gave him. She didn't tell him where it came from, but it was clearly old, and in an artistic design he wasn't familiar with, which was saying something. He was also under the impression this was a recent addition to her collection.
The book, was unique. It never had the same content twice. It was always changing. The subjects didn't change, at least as far as he could tell, but the information on them did.
The relics were in here, and an update to date location were always in it. It was like a tracking device in some ways, and a computer in other.
It to be another type of magic like the Maidens. It was how they'd managed to get the drop Qrow and the boy. He's been skeptical of its abilities until that point.
But something was wrong. Only three were now on the page.
He closed it, and opened it again. Still only three.
"This is impossible." He muttered "They can't just disappear."
He closed and opened it again. And again, and again.
It was gone.
At worst, it had somehow been destroyed, or at best it was just lost beyond nearly all hope of recovery.
He knew if he didn't return with the other relic, he'd been in a whole world of trouble. He thought he could pawn this failure off on Hazel and Adam, save himself, but it was no doubt going to be an unpleasant experience.
Luckily, the Mistral relic was practically his.
Qrow sat across form Lionheart, and the man was dodging his questions.
"Listen, Leo, if we can replicate that event, we could end this in one day." Qrow said, leaning forward "You saw him. Forget the god's who left us here with some pieces of junk. We have a god that actually cares, he'll save us all if we let him."
"But we can't know if it will work a second time." Lionheart said in calm, slightly gruff voice. "We've been charged to protect these relics Qrow, we aren't supposed to use them."
"I get that, but if we gave it to him, he could save us and free us of that burden. Salem would never get her hands on them if he destroyed them, and she'd probably be dead anyway."
Lionheart stroked his beard, thinking. "I'll take it under advisement, but I need to talk to someone first."
Qrow raised an eyebrow "Who? I thought we were in on this together."
"We are Qrow, but you must understand the need for some secrets. It's not that I don't trust you, but only a fool put's his trust in one thing." He said and sipped from a teacup in front of him that reminded Qrow of Ozpin. "Secrets are strongest when known by the fewest."
Qrow sighed and stood up to leave "I hope you know what you're doing."
With that he left.
Blake and Weiss walked out of the police station, Sun on their heels, taking his wallet out of an envelop they had given him.
"Weiss." He said jogging up to them "I can't say how much I appreciate this."
"Yeah, what's you do?" Blake asked.
Weiss smiled before talking "I simply told the chief of police that the Schnee's didn't take kindly to their friends being locked up so unjustly. And it would be a shame for dust to stop coming to the city, and for his superiors to know that it was all because he was too stubborn to let a simple misunderstand go."
"And he bought that?" Blake asked laughing.
"I don't think he did, not really, but I could see it wasn't worth the risk to keep Sun when it had become clear he was just trying to help, as poorly as he handled the situation."
"Weiss, I'd could kiss you." Sun said only for Blake to punch him in the arm, playfully, but still enough to make him wince. "Ow."
Weiss suddenly felt very lonely. Blake and Sun were pretty clearly something of an item, even if they hadn't made anything official.
Blake and Sun, Ren and Nora, Thor and Yang…Jaune and Ruby. She didn't have anyone to love her like that, and she suddenly felt like she was on the outside of something.
She'd thought finding her friends would make her feel like she'd come home. And it had, but now she had this feeling of isolation she didn't really understand completely. She did, and she didn't. She knew why she was feeling it, but didn't know why it was so much stronger now than it had back home.
"So, Yang should still be here, but Thor isn't going to be back until later, we can give it to him them." Ruby said as she carried her bags to the room she shared with Thor and Yang. "Jaune, could you get the door?"
"Sure." He said balancing his bags and boxes in one hand and opened the door. As he opened the door, he shouted something, and dropped everything he was holding to cover his eyes, shouting "I'm sorry!" He back peddled out of the room.
Ruby's curiosity got the better of her, and looked in and saw her sister and Thor in the middle of a very intimate act.
Her face turned beat red, and covered her face and retreated into the hall.
Yang pulled the sheets up to cover herself, and her face was glowing red.
Thor seemed totally unabashed. "You think they saw?"
She glared at him.
"Right, so, you want me to talk to them?"
"Thor!" she near shouted "My little sister just walked in on me having sex with my boyfriend!"
"Yeah?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
Yang sighed in frustration. This had to be a cultural thing, she knew he was totally unconcerned with anything physical, he'd go naked in front of a crowded room and think nothing of it.
"Just trust me, this is embarrassing." She said starting to get dressed.
"Well." He said standing up and getting dressed himself. "I'll talk to them."
Yang didn't think that was a great idea, but she didn't think she could face them right now. Her sister seeing her having sex was bad, but now Jaune had seen her naked too. That wasn't something she'd have even of thought would happen in anything other than maybe strictly something medically related.
"Sure…just…have some tact."
"You know me." Thor said grinning "I'm nothing if not discrete."
Yang knew he was joking, but also knew he was right. When he wanted to be, he was very insightful and wise. Problem was he often didn't want to.
He walked to door saying "I don't know what the big deal it with sex. Hell, it's how we all got here."
She couldn't help but laugh at that.
Jaune and Ruby were sitting on the floor outside the room, just staring at the wall, faces still glowing with embarrassment.
Thor came out of the room, thankfully clothed.
"You two enjoy the show?"
"No!" they both cried out, only to see he was smiling, teasing them.
"Sorry we didn't leave a sock on the door." He finally said.
Jaune got the reference, but Ruby clearly did not.
Thor sat down from across them "Look, I get this is embarrassing…for some of us…but it's just something people do." He said smiling "It's really not any worse than walking in on someone in the shower." He said smiling,
Jaune could see he truly believed it, and while he didn't agree in the slightest, it made him feel a bit better that he wasn't upset with them.
He didn't think Yang would be as understanding though, and he thought he might avoid her for a day or two.
He looked at Ruby and she looked completely calmed down now. The color of her face was back to normal. "Really?" she said.
"Really." Thor smiled, and patted them on the shoulders before going back into the room.
Ruby's face looked pensive, but frankly Jaune was happy Yang hadn't given them a beating.
But it wasn't really their fault, how were they supposed to know what they were doing?
"Jaune?" Ruby asked finally breaking the silence. "Why would they put a sock on the door?"
"It's supposed to be like an indicator or note, telling anyone on the outside that whoever is in their needs privacy."
"Oh, I don't get why it's a sock, but I guess if it's supposed to be the clue…I'll remember from now on." She said, nodding while she spoke, like she was trying to convince herself of it.
But he was disturbed by how quickly she'd gotten over the embarrassment.
"Well, let's go give them what we picked up." Ruby said picking up the bags and boxes.
"Ummm, you go ahead Ruby, I think I'm going to head back and check on Nora and Ren." He said standing up.
"Well, here, given them these then." Ruby said handing him a bag and a box, which he knew she'd picked out for his teammates.
"Sure." He said taking the packages.
"See you later." Ruby leaned in a kissed him on the cheek, and entered the room.
Jaune smiled at this and went to find his other friends.
Yang watched her sister come in, and looked at the floor.
It was going to awkward for the next few days. But Ruby seemed in good spirits, and gave the impression of having gotten over the issue already.
"I got you guys something." She said in a cheerful tone that made Yang think she had gotten over it.
"You didn't have to do that." Yang started, but shut up as her sister handed her a box, and she gave Thor a bag.
"Whatever, just open them!" She was clearly excited.
Yang smiled at her sister's enthusiasm and opened the box to find a new pair of sunglasses. They looked like her old aviators, but more expensive. "Thank you Ruby." She reached out an arm to hug her sister "I love them."
Thor pulled something long and red out of his bag. Opening it up, Yang saw it was a cloak like Ruby's.
"I thought, well, after see what you wore when you transformed, you might- "Ruby was cut off by Thor catching her in a bone-crushing huge.
"I love it." He said, releasing her and putting it on. "Now we match!" he ruffled her hair at this comment, and while Ruby pulled away, she grinned wildly at the same time.
Jaune went back to his room, his face still hot from embarrassment. He'd calmed himself down a bit, but he really didn't want to run into Yang until things had calmed down. Thor had handled the situation so casually that it was almost funny. But he doubted Yang's feeling were the same.
As he entered the room he shared with Nora and Ren, he noticed both reading on their shared bed.
"Hey guys, I've got some stuff for you." HE said as he walked in.
"Ohh, what is it?" Nora asked jumping off the bed.
"Here." He handed the boxes to them. "Ruby picked them out."
Nora opened her package and pulled out a bottle of maple syrup. It was in a glass bottle and looked more like a bottle of wine than syrup. Jaune knew it was a syrup used for mixing drinks, and had an alcoholic content.
Ruby either hadn't noticed this fact, or hadn't cared, and he didn't want to burst her bubble when she had bought it, and truth be told, he didn't think Nora would have cared for the difference anyway.
"Ooo." Nora said as she looked at the bottle.
Ren opened his box and found a bottle of shampoo and another of conditioner. They both looked rather expensive. "How did she afford these things?" He asked Jaune.
"With the money, we all got paid for our part in the defense."
"Ahh, that's right." Ren said, having completely forgotten about the money. Truth was he didn't much care one way or the other, he didn't want to be a hunter for the payday, he wanted to help other's and kill Grimm. He suspected that Ruby felt very much the same way, which was why she was so free with the reward she'd been given, and why she was using it for gifts for her friends.
"Well, next time you see her, tell her thank you." Ren said and put his gift away.
"Will do." Jaune said, sitting down on his bed. As he sat on his bed, he eyes became far away.
"You okay?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, it's just, I kind of had an…embarrassing run in back at Ruby's room." He said, some of the color coming back to his face.
"What happened?" Nora said, setting down the bottle on her bedside table.
Jaune's color started to rise again, and didn't seem to want to talk about.
"Come on Jaune!" Nora practically whined, wanting to know what had made him so embarrassed.
"It's just…" he started "Thor and Yang were…" he clearly didn't want to say what he was thinking. It was as if speaking it out loud would somehow make the situation for himself worse. He didn't know if Yang would appreciate him talking about it. He was certain Thor wouldn't care one way or the other, given how he'd handled it afterwards.
Despite fear of running into her right now, he found himself of a mind to agree with Yang on this situation, that it was something that should be a private action that you didn't talk about in polite company.
It didn't matter, Nora and Ren both clearly understood the general idea of what had happened.
Nora grinned, and Ren just shook his head.
Ren spoke first "If I were you, I'd talk to them sooner rather than later. If you put it off, it's just going to get more awkward."
"Yeah, I mean, Thor was fine, but I'm more worried about Yang, you know how she is." Jaune moaned at his own bad luck.
"Yes, and that is even more reason to get this over with and not drag it out." Ren said.
Jaune sighed and made to leave.
"Are you going now?" Nora asked.
"Yeah, I was gonna lay low for a few days, but Ren's right, I better get this over with." Jaune signed, mentally steeling himself for anything.
"Well, if you see Thor, could you tell him I want to talk to him?" Nora said, in a much more subdued tone than he was accustom to from her.
"Sure…any reason why?"
"Just, got a few questions." She said in that same, almost unnerving tone.
"Alright, I'll let him know." He said and left the room.
Blake and Sun made their way into the building where most of their friends were staying. Weiss had gotten, weird was best way to describe it, and gone off to her own apartment.
But Blake wanted to look at the other book with this other one. She didn't know why, but these books had something that called to her. She didn't know if it was from her extended exposure to the first, or if she was just more sensitive to these things, like when she'd know from the start Thor was atypical.
They got to the room, and knocked on the door. They heard a mild commotion and someone came to the door, quicker than what might have been expected.
Ruby opened the door, and she had a big smile on her face. Her smile died a bit, but she still looked happy. "Hey Blake, you wanna come in?"
"You look a bit disappointed to see me?" She said through a smile as she and Sun came in, waving to Thor and Yang as did so.
"It's not that, I just thought it was Jaune, he shot me a text and said he was on his way over." Ruby said, blushing a bit.
"Ahh." Was all she said in response, and continued into the room. Jaune and Ruby's relationship was one of the funniest things she'd ever witnessed, in a cute way. They were two of the biggest dorks she'd ever meet, and while she used the term affectionately, it didn't make their interactions less awkward.
"I'm actually here to see Thor, and have a look at that book again." She said, pulling out the book she'd taken from the Library vault.
"Blake!" Ruby near shouted "Did you steal that?"
"Sort of?" She said shrugging "But it's really Thor's, right? So, if anything I liberated it."
"Yeah?" Yang's voice called "What about this one?" She waved the first book, smiling as she did so.
"Yeah, I stole that one." She said, seeing no point in lying about it, they knew and she knew it.
"So, you're a cat burglar?" She said, grinning stupidly.
"No." she said in a totally serious face. "By definition, a cat burglar is some who steals by entering a building upper stories, I went through the front door."
Yang smile faded, and she pouted "Ah, you ruined it." She said, smiling a bit as she tossed the book to Blake.
Blake reached out and grabbed it, and placed it on top of the one she'd brought and walked over to the table. "Careful, it's an old book!" she chastised her friend, Yang didn't look remotely abashed. "Well, I think if we look over both them at the same time, we might get a better idea of information inside." Blake said as she sat down.
"But we've been doing that." Ruby said "Thor made notes and we've- "
"I'm not saying that wouldn't work, but it would be better to read it straight from the original source. Maybe the page layout is important, or something hidden in the pages themselves, in hidden ink." She said, trying to pull the top book off the bottom.
It wouldn't budge.
"What the hell?" She said pulling harder.
"What wrong?" Ruby asked, walking over to look.
"They're stuck!" She said grunting to pull them apart. "Did you spill anything on you book or something?"
"Hey!" Yang said, a bit offended "I may not worship books like you, but it doesn't mean I'm careless with them!"
"Well something ... ouch!" Blake cried pulling her hands away, feeling like she'd touched a hot stove.
"What!" Ruby said startled, Sun and Yang standing up to make sure she was okay.
"It's hot!" She said sucking her fingers, pumping Aura into them to heal them.
"Get back." Thor said calmly but sternly.
They all back away and the two stacked book burst into flames.
"No!" Blake said, and tried to run to put it out but Yang and Sun grabbed her.
The fire only burned for a couple seconds, then it dyed out. Instead of ash however was a single book.
Blake made to look at it, but Thor grabbed her arm and said "Wait, I'll do it."
She wanted to look at it, but she thought she might want to let him handle it.
Thor touched it with his prosthetic first, then his organic hand. "It's cool." He said and picked it up.
He didn't open it, not at first, but looked it over.
"Look at this." He said holding it out so they could look at it the bottom of it.
"What?" Ruby said, clearly confused.
"There are pages missing." Blake said, pointing out a gap in the pages, where it looked like someone had pulled near a whole other book's worth of pages out.
Thor passed the book to her and she examined it's cover first. It had the combined look of the other two, leather and woodwork mixed with iron and bronze.
"Here." She said, handing it back to Thor. She wanted to look through it, but thought Thor should have the first look.
"Thank you." He said and opened the book.
The first thing Thor noticed was the first part of the book had a heading now. It read as "Urd".
He furrowed his brow at this, and using the missing middle pages, he flipped instantly to the other section.
This one also had a heading, it read as "Skuld".
That all but confirmed it in his mind, and he opened the book completely, and looked at the missing section.
"Thor?" Yang finally asked, troubled by the look on his face.
"Urd." He said putting the book on the table, open to the missing section. He muttered "Skuld" then started tapping the exposed spin with his finger "Verdandi."
"You want to tell us what's going on?" Yang finally asked, her voice irritated and scared.
"Past." He said, pointing at the first half of the book, then tapping the second half "Future, more or less." He said "These are the names of the Norns, beings who know the fates of all things, and weave the life of all."
"So…what are you saying?" Blake asked.
"This book, and the one that I assume is this out there, are either created by, or linked to the Norns." Thor said.
Blake had read about the Norns in the first book, and she started connected the dots. "The first one was like a history book, the past." He muttered.
"The other was written in riddles and poems." Thor said "Confusing and vague, just like the knowledge and predicting the future."
"So…" Ruby said speaking up. "What would the third one be like?"
"The present." Thor said rubbing his chin "It may…I don't know, tell the reader of what is happening now." He said with no real certainty.
"So where would it be?" Sun asked.
"Well, if there are only three, and we found the first two in the Kingdoms, in the Capital cities." Blake said "Then Atlas or Vacuo is the most likely choices."
"That's not really all that narrow of a search area." Sun said rubbing the back of his head.
"This isn't a priority now." Thor said, putting the book down. He didn't want to put this on the back burner, but he could feel things were coming closer and closer to some final conflict. He could almost feel it on the wind. "Here." He said handing the book to Blake. "You can borrow this for a while."
Blake took the book and opened it.
Jaune walked up to his old room and knocked. He thought he'd heard several voices inside. They didn't die down as someone opened the door.
"Hey Jaune." Yang greeted him. She wasn't cold, not exactly, but there was an air of discomfort in her voice. "Come in." She said opening the door.
"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you, in private if possible." He said, seeming to shrink a bit at this.
Yang looked confused, but stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.
"What is it?" She asked, crossing her arms.
"I just wanted to…say sorry, for earlier, I should have knocked or something." He was now beat red, remembering the embarrassing incident.
Yang herself blushed a little but answered "I know it was an accident Jaune, and I wasn't exactly completely void of responsibility. We should have locked the door or something."
"Still…I'm sorry." He said weakly.
"I know." She sighed, running her hand through her hair. "But I kind of agree with Thor, maybe not totally, but he's right, it's not anything to really be ashamed of, like he said "It's how we all got here", I just wish it wasn't my little sister and her boyfriend who walked in." She sighed again "I can't believe you saw me naked before you saw your girlfriend naked." Yang said, almost laughing then the laugh died in her throat and she glared at him "Right?"
Jaune went pale and gulped "We haven't done anything more than kiss!" He knew better than to try anything with Ruby. Yang would kill him, and he thought Thor and Weiss might not take too kindly to it either, just one of them would destroy him in a fight, he didn't want to make any of them mad.
"Good." She said calming down, and moved onto her next statement"You want to come in? We've got a pretty cool new discovery."
Jaune couldn't help but feel interested, and he still had to tell Thor what Nora had asked him. So, he nodded and Yang lead him into the room.
Ruby had eavesdropped on the conversation as best she could, but the sound of everyone else in the room talking had caused her to miss some bits and pieces. But when she figured they were close to finishing up, she jumped onto her bed. As she watched as her sister and Jaune entered the room she jumped up to go to Jaune.
"Hey Jaune can we talk outside for a second?"
"Umm, sure I just wanted to- "He was cut off by the much smaller girl pulling him back into the hall.
Yang looked suspicious, and moved to the door, and opened it a crack to listen.
"Soooo." Ruby started and Jaune really didn't want know where she was going with this. Something about her general mood told him she was up to something.
"Yeeess?" He mimicked her drawn-out version of the word.
"I've been thinking." She cupped her hands behind her back, and was rocking back and forth on her feet.
Jaune didn't like where this was going, he felt he was going to get in trouble some way or another.
"What Ruby?" he asked, his heart racing, knowing he wasn't going to like what came next.
"Well… you know what Thor and Yang were doing?" She said blushing.
Jaune hoped she just wanted to clear the air about, get it off her chest, get the awkwardness that was left over out in the open.
"Do you think, you and me, we could- "
Jaune felt like his heart was thumping in his ear, and like there was no blood in his legs.
When the door burst open, he thought his eardrum might of burst. It only took a second for him to realize it was just Yang.
Even in his frazzled state he realized "Just Yang", was like saying "Just a Tornado" or "Just an Earthquake."
He was expecting her to hammer him in the face, but to his surprise and relief, she just grabbed Ruby and pulled her down the hall, away from him.
They were three or four doors down, when all the strength went out of his legs, and his vision tunneled, and it all went black as he crumpled to the floor in a dead faint.
"Yang come on!" Ruby whined as her big sister dragged her down the hall. "This is embarrassing!"
"Yeah well, you shouldn't be talking about doing that sort of thing yet!" He finally stopped and pulled her sister in front of her.
"But I thought you said it wasn't a big deal?!" She cried out.
Yang didn't know her sister eavesdropping on her and Jaune, and she might have been upset if she hadn't done it herself.
"Well it's not, for anyone but you." She said frankly, as if she were stating a simple fact. "You're too young."
"I'm sixteen!" she cried, now very clearly upset.
"Yeah, and you won't be ready till you're at least fifty, so that's the end of that, let's go back." She said quickly, and turned hoping to end the conversation so her sister couldn't really a counterpoint.
"How old were you when you had your first time?" Her sister called after her.
Yang stopped dead in her tracks. The truth of the matter was she had only recently been intimate with anyone. But the age difference between her and Ruby was not so large that she could not properly argue that as a point.
But her sister seemed so much younger than her age, it just freaked her out. She was happy she'd finally moved into the "dating" zone, but she didn't want her sister going into anything more "intimate", for a while yet.
"Ruby…" She said much more softly, turning to face her sister "I know you like Jaune…and I think he's…nice." She was having a hard time thinking what to say next, but put her hand on her sister's shoulder "But you shouldn't rush this sort of thing." She knew she wasn't in much of place to talk on the issue, but Ruby and Jaune both were new to the idea of dating in general, and still both still innocent in a lot of ways.
Ruby made of scowl, that came off as more cute than angry, and Yang couldn't help but laugh. "Yang, stop laughing." She whined.
"Just take it slow, okay?" She tried to put as much as she could into those words, because she didn't think she could discuss the issue in detail. She knew a lot of kids Ruby's age, or even younger, already were having sex. But all she could do it try and make sure her sister didn't do something she would regret. And even if she did, she just prayed she used protection.
Ruby just nodded, and Yang patted her on the back "Come on let's head back."
With that the two sisters headed back to their friends.
"Think he's dead?" Sun asked the room as he nudged Jaune's leg with his foot.
"He's not dead Sun, he just fainted." Blake said, kneeling to check his pulse to make she he wasn't having some kind of episode or going into shock. His pulse was normal, although he'd hit his head hard when he fell, and Blake was sure he was going to have a headache when he woke up.
She stood up and stood next to Thor and Sun, and they just looked at him.
"So, what should we do?" Sun said "Should we wake him up, or will that make him go crazy?"
"That's for sleepwalkers Sun." Blake said exasperated. "I think we just need to put him somewhere until he wakes up on his own."
"Well, I think the floor is as good place as any, good job team!" Sun said and turned to go back into the room.
"Sun." Blake said gruffly and grabbed his shoulder "Help me get him inside."
"Fine" Sun sighed "But I'm gonna complain…a lot."
The three of them picked him up and brought him into the room and laid him on one of the beds, Sun complaining, just as promised, about the dead weight of Jaune's body.
Yang and Ruby came back a few minutes later and Ruby started to wig out.
"Oh, my God! Jaune!" She rushed over to him and started yelling at the other's "What's wrong with him?" She grabbed his arm "Yang! You didn't have to kill him! It wasn't even his idea!"
Yang looked completely bewildered by this, she hadn't even touched him. "Ruby, you saw the whole thing, I didn't lay a hand on him."
"He just fainted Ruby." Thor said calmly. "He should wake up in a bit."
And as he spoke Jaune started to stir. First eye opened his eyes and shook his head.
He groaned and opened his eyes, he looked around the room, saw Yang, and started to yell "Please don't! It wasn't my idea! I wasn't going to agree to it anyway!"
"Jaune, calm down, she's not going to do anything to you." Ruby said stroking his arm.
He calmed down, but still looked scared.
"Umm, so what did you guys find?" He said, trying to get the conversation moving in another direction.
Seemingly glad to have an excuse to do so Blake pulled out a large book, that looked like the one Blake had given Thor.
"Is that the one from the Library? Or is this a new one?" He asked, looking it over.
"Both?" Blake said, as if not sure which answer was correct.
"Huh?" Jaune's voice and face easily conveyed his confusion.
"I got the one from the library, and I don't know how, but it fused with the first." Blake said.
"Like magic?" Jaune asked.
Blake shrugged, she didn't know any other way to explain it, and frankly it was the truth.
"Oh." Jaune said as if suddenly remembering something. "Thor, Nora wants to talk to you."
"Me?" Thor said confused "About what?"
Jaune shrugged "Didn't say what, just she wanted to talk to you."
"Hmmm, alright." Thor said, and turned to leave.
"You're going now?" Jaune asked, a slight surprise in his voice.
"Why not? No time like the present." He said curtly and with that, he left the room.
"Sooo." Sun said, trying to move the conversation on and looked at Jaune "How are you and Ruby doing?"
Blake didn't know why, the tension in the room seemed to grow at thick as tar.
Thor approached the door the room Ren, Nora and Jaune shared. He knocked and only waited a moment before someone answered.
It was Nora, as if she was expecting him. He supposed she may have been.
"Thor!" She cried in joy, opening the door wider "Come in."
"Jaune said you wished to speak to me?" Thor said as he walked in.
Nora didn't answer the question at first but made a comment on his appearance. " Nice cloak."
"Yes." He said, holding it up "Ruby got it for me."
"I can tell." She said, smiling.
"Yes." He returned her smile "So, what did you want to talk about?"
Nora became uncharacteristically silent, and looked rather bashful. "I was just wondering, if, you know my last name, right?"
Thor nodded, and suddenly thought he had a good idea of what it was about.
"Well, I don't know much about my family, and I was wondering...if you might, know where I come from?" The hope in her voice made his heartache.
"Nora." He started slowly. The truth was he didn't know anything more than she did. Her last name could have been a coincident. He hadn't ever thought much on the matter other than a passing curiosity.
He'd worried something like this would happen. Not with Nora specifically, but with anyone who found out who and what he was. People had expectations that gods held all the answers, and while some, like his father, did, he was not one of them.
He didn't think his people or the Vikings who worshipped them had ever been on this world. True her disposition was that of a Northman, her affinity for lighting, her family name, had made him wonder.
But he didn't have any answers for her that he could give truthfully.
Nora clearly saw the disappointment in his face, and her face fell.
"Nora, I'm sorry that I can't tell you about you're past." He said putting a hand on her shoulder, but an idea came to him "But, I may be able to find out a way to do so."
Nora's eye's widened at this. "Really?! What?"
"Those books, they have some properties that…reveal information, at least in their own way." He said not really sure if this would lead anywhere but continued on "I can't promise anything, but If I can find them all, I may be able to help."
Nora jumped up and hugged him "Thank you Thor!"
He smiled and hugged her back "I can't promise anything, but if you are related to them in any way, I think this could lead to some information.
They broke apart, and Thor thought he saw tears in her eyes.
He'd hoped he's stressed enough there wasn't any promises on his part, but he'd try his best.
Nora watched as Thor left, and she felt her heart soar. He hadn't promised anything, but the fact that he was willing to make the effort, had touched her.
As Thor left, Ren came back. He'd gone to pick up some food for them and set it down on the table.
"How'd it go?" He asked, clearly wanting to tread as carefully as he could.
"He didn't have any answers." She said "But he might have a lead." She smiled at this.
Ren smiled at her, happy that she might finally have some information on her past.
Qrow sat in the bar, thinking. Lionheart's unwillingness to hand over the relic was frustrating, but not totally unexpected. But that was only part of the issue anyway.
They still needed to Spring maiden. His sister had her, and they had no real way to retrieve her. Counting himself, his nieces, and their friends and Lionheart, they had nine. Raven had herself, the Maiden, and a whole army of bandits at her disposal.
That would be a hard fight, one that would likely result in the deaths of everyone involved.
His mind wandered back to the hammer, Thor's hammer. If they could just, somehow, harness its power, they could end this once and for all. But Thor was the only one who knew anything about using it, and he was certain it was the destruction of the relic that had facilitated his ability to use it again.
But that clearly wasn't going to happen for a while. Frankly, he'd let Thor smash all the relics if he could, they weren't doing humanity any good locked up like they were, and they were only attracting trouble.
But it was beyond him to let Thor do so. He didn't have access to all of them, the one he did Thor had destroyed.
Which he thought was incredibly odd. He didn't think they could even be destroyed, but then again, he was dealing with a god in mortal form.
That thought seemed to mean something, and for a moment he didn't know what. Then he started to think of the fail-safes guarding the relics. Maybe Thor didn't have to follow them? He could destroy them after all, maybe it was in his power to retrieve them as well.
Standing up, he decided to go find the god of thunder.
Weiss liked to think she was a person who didn't let personal setbacks stop her from going about her day. Yet here she was, just sitting, sulking in her room, because she wasn't dating anyone.
She knew it was ridiculous, childish even. But the feelings were still there. What made it all the more frustrating as it seemed to be more focused on the fact Jaune was now dating Ruby. She didn't know that should annoy her so much, even make her jealous.
She's turned down Jaune countless time, she shouldn't be mad he moved on. She should be relieved, knowing his interests should be turned elseward.
Ruby was her partner, and she didn't know if that was making it worse, or if it was something else.
She thought it might be the fact that in some way, both were replacing her in some manner. That she was losing important in two people's lives where she thought her position was fixed at least somewhat firmly.
These were not thoughts she wanted to dwell on. She needed to try and get herself back into a normal mood. She'd been distant from her friends, and she didn't want that. She wanted to be better than she was before, and she wasn't make great strides to that.
Standing up she left the room, intent on making more connections.
As she walked briskly to where she knew most of her friends were staying, Jaune and Ruby included, she noticed the weather was starting to turn nasty.
She picked up the pace, not wanting to get caught in the rain. As she turned a corner, she ran into someone and went straight on her backside.
"I'm sorry." She started to say profusely, embarrassed at her own carelessness. But as she looked up, she saw a hand reaching out to her face. She reached out for it, and it pulled her to her feet quite easily.
She finally saw the face of the person she'd run into. He was a tall, slight man, about her age. He had long black hair slicked back, very blue eyes and a very handsome face. He was wearing a very nice green three-piece suit, which she admired for a moment.
"It's quite alright, it was as much my fault as yours, more I'd say." His voice was gentle, with the vague hint of some accent. "Where were, you going in such a hurry?" He asked politely.
"I was, just going to meet my friends." She said, with still embarrassed over the incident, which was something she considered more of something Ruby would do, not her.
"Ahh, well I won't keep you then." He smiled and bowed and turned to leave.
Weiss didn't know what, but called after him "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" It was the clumsiest way she could to ask someone out, someone she didn't know at all, but to hell with it, a lot of people did this sort of thing all the time. "Like…dinner or something?"
He turned to look at her, smiled and walked back. "Why, that would lovely." He said, pulling out his scroll. "When and where?"
Weiss thought on it for a moment, "There is this one place, 'The North Dragon', do you know it?"
"Indeed, I do." He started typing something into his scroll. "The time?" he inquired.
She thought on this a moment. "Saturday, four o'clock?"
"Very good." He said "So you then Miss Schnee." He said then turned and continued on his way.
She smiled and continued on her own way. It felt good to try and move on to try and do something new. But something didn't feel right. She walked on for some time before she realized what it was. She didn't think she'd actually told this man her name, but he knew it…and that brought out another realization. She hadn't asked him.
She slammed the heel of her palm into her forehead. "You dolt", she muttered to herself. That was going to be incredibly awkward come Saturday. Him knowing her name wasn't exactly odd, she was quite famous due to her shows and family. She might have thought him a stalker if he hadn't seemed content to go on his way.
But now she was feeling a slight paranoia come over her, which she wasn't sure if it was warranted or not.
At any rate, she decided to go on Saturday, if he was some sort of creeper, she wanted to feel him out. If he wasn't, well she'd at least have a night out. But he had seemed...oddly alluring in his own way. It was crazy, they barely spoke and just agreed to meet up on Saturday, but still, he didn't leave her thoughts easily. She supposed that might be a cause for concern, but she didn't feel threatened by him.
It was crazy, but he gave off sense of safety.
Pushing these thoughts to the back of her mind, she continued to meet her friends.
Watts sat watching the Grimm continue to swell, it was close.
"Lionheart, do you still hear me?" He said into his scroll.
"Yes." A voice resigned to its fate said.
"Have you tested my means of retrieving the relic yet?"
"No, With Qrow and his team here, I dare not try until I can get them out of the city." The voice quavered a but over the scroll signal.
'Coward' was all he could think, but there was no helping it for now. He didn't want to risk exposure if he didn't have to.
"Luckily for you, I have a distraction in the works. It will be coming in the next few days, I dare say they will all be preoccupied them, just do it when it happens, am I clear?"
"What is the distraction?" Lionheart's voice came over the scroll, clearly scared of what might befall his city. He was still on edge after the Wendo attack, and was worried for his people. Luckily, Arthur had managed to avoid Lionheart knowing he was in any way involved.
As far as Lionheart was concerned, it was a White Fang attack with controlled Grimm. Lionheart had of course been suspicious, given what he knew about Salem, and Arthur had only barely managed to convince him that if one person could control the Grimm, then there may be others who could as well.
It was only the Headmasters fear and desire for what Arthur had promised him that had made the deception even remotely possible.
To spar his city, it was what he was most concerned about, and if he hadn't wanted it so badly, and been so frazzled and scared from the past years' experience, Arthur knew he wouldn't of had a chance of convincing him.
But his semblance had also helped a great deal in that regard. Where it not for all these factors, Arthur was sure these plans would have been ruined by now.
"Just be ready when it comes." He said, and hung up his scroll.
He looked at the giant Grimm as it wailed again, the middle of its body now swollen beyond what he would have thought possible.
Eventfully It cried out one last time, raising its head into the air, then in thumped on the ground, clearly dead.
Then it's body burst open, and a tall humanoid figure stepped out. It was covered in the bony plates of the Grimm, but also piece of the machine it was built around showed up in its limbs. The head looked vaguely like a helmet, and it red eyes glowed like embers, but its mouth seemed be constantly opened, and heat waves rose off its body, and especially out of its mouth.
IT stood fifty feet tall, and as it walked, he felt the tremors in the ground from its movement.
It was a rough prototype, he'd have to refine the process later, but it would serve its purpose.
It looked at him, with a face that couldn't show expression.
He said one word.
"Go."
AN: Okay, Read and Review.