AN: Okay Potential spoilers for anyone who hasn't watch Vol. 5 of RWBY. I'm not copying the story line, but elements or there from it.
Also, I'd like to thank RustedThunder, DragFire and AceSpeedNinjia. For their reviews. I appreciate them more than you could ever know.
Still looking for a Beta Reader, if anyone is interested or knows anyone.
Well here's the next chapter.
Ice Cold
When Weiss arrived at the room, it was more crowded than she would of thought. Which was odd, she should have known who would be here, and who wouldn't. She supposed it was just having them all crammed into a room that was only meant to really house two people.
Thor was in the room, his size made him immediately noticeable among their circle of friends. Nora and Ren weren't present either, but she thought that might be a good thing. If they showed up, along with Thor, whom she was certain would return sooner, rather than later given he slept here, they wouldn't be able to move.
As she hung out at the door, she went unnoticed. The all seemed interested on something, passing it around. It may be the book again, but she'd of thought that at this point, interested would have faded.
Ruby noticed her first.
"Weiss!" She cried and ran over, pulling on her arm. "You've got to see this, it's so cool!"
She didn't fight it, knowing her partner at this point. It would be easier to just let her show her what she wanted.
But as she got near the rest of the group, she noticed it was indeed a book. But not the one Blake had been carrying.
"Is this the one from the Library?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
The looks from her friends told her it wasn't a normal.
The story was explained to her, and while she had witness a good deal of "magic" recently, she still felt a bit weird at thinking what they had said, had happened. She felt like she was being pranked, but she knew truly that wasn't the case.
She didn't know if it was just a life of distrust she never managed to shake, or she was still coping with the reality of what the world had in it.
Instead of voicing any of these ideas, she just asked to look at the book, and started looking through the sections in the part Thor had previously translated, and something immediately caught her eye.
"I thought this part was written in runes, why is it in English?" She asked, a bit confused.
"Don't know." Yang responded, "But in the Library, if you put blood on it, it translated it, maybe Blake burning her hand on it did the same thing?"
Weiss shrugged, it wasn't important at any rate, not now. She started reading from it for the first time in a long time. She didn't know what suddenly drew her in again, but her mood had been elevated a bit, feeling she was moving beyond her limited scope of relationships.
She loved all of these people, rather, dearly, but she felt she should be making connection beyond those she worked and lived with. They were her friends, but still, she didn't have a wider circle of friends, and she had always wished she had.
But she continued to read. Some of the things in the "future" section, made sense now. But that didn't really help in determining what would happen. It wasn't much use if you could only realize what it meant after the fact.
But she was still confused and bit worried about the parts that referred to the "Wendo" or "Eaters of the Dead". That Grimm type was new, incredibly new, yet they shared many similarities with the creatures described here. The names didn't matter so much as the traits they shared, after all the names were derived from this book.
But that they matched traits so closely, and were unknown until now, she didn't have a clue what that meant, or even if it meant anything really, but she felt it did.
"Weiss? You okay?" A voice broke her from her reading.
She looked around to see Ruby a few inches away from her, and the rest of her friends looking at her. Well, she didn't know if they were looking at her or trying to read the book, but she still asked "What?"
"Kind of got that thousand-yard star there for a second princes." Yang said. "You okay?"
"Yes." She said quickly "Just interested in the book." Which was true, but not truly the whole depth of what she was thinking. "I wanted to see if there was anything new." Which was also true.
They seemed to accept this, but the concern still lingered in their eyes, she could see.
"You…okay?" Ruby asked, hesitantly.
"Yes…I'm just a bit distracted."
"With what?" Jaune asked, innocently yet still showing curiosity.
"Nothing, just…something that happened on the way here." She said curtly.
She didn't notice, as she was to fixed on looking at the book. But Yang and Sun were grinning at each other, Jaune and Ruby were smiling as if they knew some sort of secret. Truthfully, they didn't, but knew that Yang and Sun would make it known soon.
"Soooo…what exactly did happen?" Yang said moving nearer Weiss.
Weiss felt her pulse quicken, for no real reason other than she was not comfortable with Yang's attitude. Sun seemed to make to take a step towards her, but a look from her made him stop and step back.
"It wasn't…" she didn't know why she was even bothering to avoid it. Other than the teasing she might get from Yang. "I just meet someone on the way here, that's all." She said, trying to make it sound as small as possible, hoping to cut Yang off.
"Yeah…more information?" Yang pushed.
She still instinctively wanted to avoid the question, but it wasn't going to be possible with her friends, Yang at least.
And they'd find out sooner or later, she didn't plan to hide it anyway. "I just…" she paused to try figure out the best way to word it "have a date on Saturday, it's not a big deal."
That felt surprisingly good, especially as she saw the surprise in Jaune and Ruby's face. The other's smiled and as predicted Yang was clearly ready to jump on the topic.
"Yang, please, I'm not in the mood for the teasing or the wordplay." She sighed, knowing it wouldn't help.
"Okay." Was the only response she got, and that surprised Weiss.
She looked at Yang as if expecting something else, but no puns, jokes or teasing. They sat in silence for a moment, before Yang spoke again, but it wasn't at her expense. Well at least no intentionally.
"So, who is he?" She asked calmly.
"I just ran into him on the street and we talked a bit." She said, not mentioning that it was about a literal statement she could offer. "He asked me out on Saturday, and I agreed." A lie, but she felt like if they knew she'd asked out someone she'd just meet, they might think her…weak in some way.
"What's his name?" Ruby asked, in tone that seemed far too suspicious for the situation.
"I…don't know." She muttered. She was embarrassed to admit it, but it was her own fault.
"What do you mean you don't" know?" Yang said confused "You didn't ask?"
"He was in a hurry, I was in a hurry…" She defended.
"But you still had time to agree to a date?" Yang was grinning again.
Weiss sighed and had a feeling she was going to be getting an earful of what she had desperately hoped to avoid.
The walk back to the room was one Thor didn't much care for. Sometimes he liked time to think to himself. But now he felt more mysteries, with Nora, he did wonder if there was a connection. He didn't truly think so, but there was maybe something to it.
A raid horn broke him out of his thoughts. His scroll buzzed and a city-wide notice was called to all available hunters to return to the bridge.
Another raid? But the Wendo were all dead, or enough of them were that they shouldn't be able to mount a significant fight force.
Was this perhaps something else? Either way, he didn't have a working weapon Jarnbjorn was at the school and still needed to be fixed. He wasn't expecting another raid so soon. Even the White Fang had been obliterated in the attack, at least as far the ones in the area anyway.
It didn't matter now, he'd have to find some sort of substitute weapons in the meantime. Which still meant going back to the school.
He ran as fast as he could, keeping his ears open. He didn't hear the calls of the Wendo, and while he didn't have a good look at the site of the assembly, he didn't think he saw fog.
As he came upon the school, he didn't bother going to his room. He knew the others wouldn't be there, they'd either be at the bridge on heading to it. He'd meet them there.
He ran to the armory, and looked over the weapons available. Nothing a trained hunter would actually use, nothing was as refined or powerful as crafted weapon and no combination weapons. These were more meant for general practice or possible training droids.
He grabbed a long sword and a mace. No dust, not that it mattered, none of these weapons were dust compatible.
He ran out as fast as he could, and as he did, the people of the city seem totally at their ease. They kept chatting as if the warning alarm hadn't sounded.
He ignored it for now and ran to the bridge. Many hunters were already assembled. He soon caught sight of Yang, her head of golden hair sticking out like a sore thumb.
"Yang!" He called, and ran to meet them.
They all greeted him, Yang hugged him, and he asked "What's the situation? More Grimm?"
"I honestly don't know, but look." Yang said pointing to the far end of the bridge. There was indeed fog, but unlike past events, it was much over a much smaller area, and seemed, thicker than before.
"What do you think?" Thor asked them all in general.
"Could be the last of Wendo." Jaune put forth "One final attack? Trying do what they can to weaken the last resistance."
"Could be juvenile Shriekers." Ruby added, reading Crescent Rose.
"No." Thor said, "This is different, listen."
They all did, and it was silent, none of the variations of Shriekers were quite unless they were dead. But they still heard something. A thudding sound that seemed like footsteps of some giant man.
The Fog advanced to the break in the bridge and suddenly stopped. Thor stared into it, to try and catch what was in it. He thought he spotted something for a moment, but then it faded. The mist continued to grow, but didn't advance towards them, it grew wider and taller.
This continued on few minutes, only making everyone more tense. Then Thor spotted a disturbance that seemed to shoot up through the mist.
He realized what it was almost too late.
"Move!" He shouted, and he and all he friend did so, as did most of the hunters. But one unlucky soul was crushed under the weight of one of the biggest Grimm Thor had ever seen.
It was in the shape of a human man, but the size of a five-story building. The bony white plates of the Grimm covered its body, the black of the body only visible through these gaps.
The face looked hollow, and he spied the glowing red eyes deep inside. But he felt there was more to this thing.
The first attack came from a hunter Thor didn't know, but the man leapt through the air and tried to bring down a sword near as large as him, attempting to try and sever the Grimm's arm or maybe to try and cut it in half, but Thor never saw what he was planning, as the Grimm turned and fired a blast from its hollow face and vaporized the hunter, his sword falling to the ground.
"Holy shit?" He heard someone from the group of hunter yell, and Thor understood the sentiment. A completely fresh hunter had just been killed in one attack, and another, whom everyone else seemed to of forgotten about, was crushed beneath it.
The silence only lasted a moment before every long-range weapon opened fire. Bullet's bouncing off its shell, and explosives impacting and exploding violently.
It didn't even phase it as it slowly marched forward and fired another blast, killing three more hunters.
Thor took his sword and threw it end over end at the Grimm, and the landed point first and promptly snapped in half.
He threw the mace next, to similar effect and ran to pick up one of the remaining spears from the defense, tipped with silver steel.
"No matter how tough, this should do it." He thought and ran around the Grimm's blindside and charged the Grimm from behind and thrust the point between the gaps, and…nothing happened.
It didn't glow or burn like the other Grimm. Instead, it swung a first and shattered the steel shaft and there Thor to the ground.
As he rolled to his feet, he saw it charging another blast. Before he could reach, something blitzed him in the side and threw him out of the way.
They both tumbled to the ground and Thor realized it was Ruby.
"Thank you." He said getting to his feet as quickly as possible, pulling Ruby up with him.
"Does the metal not work on it?" Ruby asked as the Grimm turned its attention to another group that was firing on it.
"It doesn't appear so." He mumbled. He was in a bind, he did not have the appropriate equipment to fight this thing, the weapons he'd brought were useless, which was why he threw them and now the Silver-steel wasn't working.
"What do we do now?" Ruby asked as Thor started to move back to the fight.
"I have no I idea." He said and did the only thing he could, call the lighting.
Lionheart thought pensively in the elevator that descended into the hidden levels of his school. This had to be what Watt's was talking about, the alert level was at one of the highest he'd ever seen.
But he was filled with doubt. Doubt if Watts machine would work, what might happen if it didn't, and doubts that if he was even doing the right thing.
But he steeled himself. This was the only course of action now, especially after the Wendo attack. The city was in a bad place, and while it hadn't been great before the attack, it had actually been pretty bad, the whole city was now on the edge of collapse.
There were nowhere near enough hunters in the city, even on the one choke point, to stop another major attack, divine intervention aside.
If it weren't for the just that fact in the last battle, nor would the city of fallen, but with his sudden appearance, the city's morale had been boosted to point the Grimm were leaving them more or less alone.
But he knew that it just an instance was not likely to happen again. He understood the circumstances on how it had happened, and knew it was not reliable.
To save his people, he needed to work with his sworn enemy, and while it turned his stomach, he needed to swallow his pride and do it.
He approached the vault, and the special lock, that needed the Spring Maiden's power, normally, to unlock it.
But Watts had told him this machine could do the trick. He didn't ask the specifics, knowing he wouldn't understand them even if he did. But he'd been told this was like a lock decoder, it cycled different energies to try and replicate the Maiden's Aura enough to unlock it.
Watts had studied the Fall Maiden's power and used that as a base, but this was still the first time it would actually be tested.
The device looked like a suitcase, but when it opened, what looked a like a video projector popped out and started to project…something onto the wall.
He watched at it worked, not really sure what he was hoping to happen.
The fight was going badly, and Weiss knew that if something didn't change soon, they'd be dead. This thing was…terrifying. Her knight had been blown to pieces by it, and the other attacks didn't seem to affect it.
Thor had blasted it with as much lighting as she'd ever seen him do without his hammer, the magic one or the one he'd made.
That seemed to slow it down, but it only seemed to stun it for a moment or two.
She scanned the area looking for something that they could use. Her eye's wandered to the bridge, and thought that their best chance was to try and throw it into the Canyon.
"Thor! Nora! Yang!" She called over the sounds of battle. They were the best bet to do it, they were the physically strongest.
Her friend looked to her, and after a moment rushed over.
"What is it Weiss?" Nora asked, panting slightly "Are you hurt?"
"No, nothing like that." She said hastily "Do you three think you could pull that thing off the bridge?"
They looked at each other, clearly not sure, but Thor responded "Yes, I think if the others can drive it nearer the edge, we could pull it off.
"Good, you three stand back and weight, I'll get everyone else to draw it to the bridge."
With that she was off.
"You think we can knock it off if we hit it all at once?" Nora asked the other two, as she watch their friends and the other hunters draw the Grimm back to the bridge.
"Maybe, but both of you give me your hands." Thor said, extending a hand to each of them. Nora took his hand, and she watched Yang do the same.
"Is this some sort of Viking prayer or something?" Yang asked.
"No." Thor said and lighting course through them both.
Nora watched as Yang went to her knees. She, for her part, felt her power rise.
"Thor! What The hell?!" Yang yelled.
"I'm increasing both of your semblance power, Nora will draw power directly from my lighting, and you will grow stronger from the damage." He said, extending his hand again, to repeat the process.
"Oh." Yang muttered, rubbing her shoulder "Just warn me next time okay?"
"Okay, here it comes again." He said, and another surge of lighting came.
This process went on for ten minutes, or so Nora thought, but she kept her eyes on the battle, and now, the hunters had drawn the Grimm to near the edge of the bridge.
"Let's go!" Nora said as lighting coursed around her, Yang was engulfed in a fiery Aura, and Thor's prosthetic fist was a lighting with lighting.
All three charged the Grimm, and jumped at it.
It wasn't even looking at them when all three slammed into it, and it did topple.
But it was much heavier than any of them had expected, and instead of soaring off the edge it just fell onto it's back.
"Shit!" Yang yelled "Hit it again!"
Yang made to chare the Grimm, but a hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. She looked up to see Thor.
"Thor what the hell!" she shouted.
He didn't say anything and just pointed. She looked and saw the Grimm wasn't getting up, instead it looked like it was jerking and spasming.
Then lighting radiated out of it, and soon another bolt came from the heavens, and crashed onto it in a blinding light, so bright she had to cover her eye's.
Once she thought it was safe to look again, she saw the body of the Grimm fading into smoke.
"What the hell happened?" she asked no one in particular, just thinking out loud.
"There." Thor said pointing to where the Grimm lay "What was there last time we were here?"
Yang had to think for a moment, and remembered "Your hammer." She said finally "But would it do that to a Grimm just from landing on it?"
"Mjolnir is a holy item, creates of darkness can't stand actual contact with it."
Yang decided to take his word for it, because something else was getting her attention. And the attention of many of the other hunters.
This Grimm appears to be fading away, but a metallic skeleton seemed to stay behind.
All the remaining hunters approached and eventually saw a machine underneath the Grimm flesh.
No one had ever seen anything like it before, a merger of Grimm and Machine, that was starting to cause quite the commotion.
Lionheart looked at her scroll as he got an update from the battle. The hunters had killed the Grimm, which he wasn't at all surprised by. The thing clearly was only meant to serve as a distraction, it probably didn't have any real hope of winning.
Lionheart's problem was the dame machine still hadn't cracked the vault. He was starting to worry now that he might get caught. Qrow would head back immediately to make sure everything was okay.
He figured he had, ten minutes max before Qrow actually got back to the school.
Just as he was getting ready to bug out, he heard the stone grinding on the vault, as it opened.
His heart sank at this. He'd hoped it would fail and he could tell Watts it was beyond his control.
But now it was time, and he walked into the vault.
The relic for Knowledge at on a pedestal in the center. It looked like an old-fashioned quill pen, but he knew it's mundane appearance belied its true nature.
He reached to pick it up, and as soon as he did, he felt a cold chill run down his spine. He then felt like he was drugged, and that nothing mattered.
His arms fell to his side, and he just stared into space. He felt completely at ease in the world, and that everything was going to be just fine.
He heard a voice whisper in his ear "Give it to me.". It was a pleasant voice, and in his thoughts, very trustworthy. He extended his hand with the relic out and felt someone take it. This seemed like the right thing to do, it made him feel good to do it.
"Good." The voice said, "Now leave the room, and lay down on the floor and go to sleep." The voice said.
This seemed a perfectly logical thing for him to do, and in fact he felt tired. He turned to leave the vault and thought he might have heard someone walking behind him. He started to turn to look, but the voice came again "eye's forward." He obliged.
As he got into the hall, he lay down and started to sleep, but he heard one more directions from the voice as he faded to sleep "You will forget everything from the time you exited the elevator in your sleep." It said.
That seemed just fine to him, as he slipped off to sleep.
The remains of the Grimm, or rather the machine beneath it, were being carted off to where ever in the city would handle.
Thor for his part approached the hammer. It had saved them, by accident, but still, it had done it again. He reached down a gripped the hammer and pulled.
It didn't budge, but he didn't expect it to move, nothing had changed.
But still, he wondered what would come of this fight. Close to a dozen hunters had been killed in this attack. The fact was the city was losing fighting force in the forms of hunters.
The traditional soldiers were going to have to make up the difference, not anywhere near as powerful, but much easier to come by.
Conscription was a likely thing in the future. The pure number of people in the city might actually make that useful, but more than anything, the city needed a proper defense, the silver-steel had worked to some degree, but he couldn't help but feel it wasn't nearly livening up to it's potential. He knew that was in part due to the fact what had been used was something that could be put up quickly and still work. But now that there was some breathing room, he was sure the Council would come up with a more advanced version.
But the underlying problems were still there. Not enough hunters, or any real defensive force. He imagined that defensive buildings were going to be commissioned sooner or later.
Qrow made his way to the underground base in Haven, Lionheart hadn't been answering his calls, and now he was worried. Everything was going wrong it seemed, and now Lionheart just seemed to fall off the grid for the past few hours, no one knew where he was, and this was the only place Qrow could think of where he might be, at least where no one would know where he was.
The elevator opened and he rushed out down the hall, and that's when he saw Lionheart face down on the floor.
"Shit!" He shouted and ran to his friend and checked his pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief, he was just unconscious. "Leo." He said shaking him "Wake up." He shook him some more and looked around and saw, as his heart dropped into his stomach, the vault was open.
He stopped trying to wake up Lionheart and ran into the vault, and sure enough, it was empty.
Lionheart groaned as he started to rise, and Qrow ran to him.
"Leo! What happened here?!" He near shouted.
"What?" Leo said groggily.
"The relic, where is it?"
"What?" he said again, almost like he was drugged.
Qrow grunted in frustration, he shouldn't even need to ask, there was only one way the vault could have been opened. The Spring Maiden had been here, and that meant his sisters involvement.
That made what needed to be done, all the pressing.
Lionheart couldn't remember what had actually happened from the time he got off the elevator to when Qrow had woken him up. But he had decided to act as if he couldn't remember the past 24 hours. The machine he'd used to open the vault was gone, so whatever happened between when he got off the elevator to when he was woken up, someone, Watts most likely, had recovered it.
But now he was missing a part of his memory, and as soon as he was able to do so safely, he'd have to contact Watts and try and connect the dots.
He didn't know why Watts would incapacitate him like he had, and not kill him, but in truth he didn't really understand the man all that well.
He'd have to wait until Qrow left, then he's contact the Doctor.
Arthur had waited long enough. He'd been expecting contact from Lionheart long before now. He'd contact him on his own, and pulled out his scroll.
He dialed in the information for Lionheart and it wasn't long before he got a response.
A groggy voice came in over the call "Hello?"
"Lionheart, where are you? Do you have the relic?" He said, much more aggressively than he intended to.
Silence just came over the call and eventually Arthur spoke again "Are you still there?"
"Yes…but…I mean…you don't have it already?"
Watts felt an unfamiliar sensation run down his spine. He recognized it surprise and fear. He hadn't had cause to feel that in a long time.
"Explain." Was all he said, still trying to get his head around the idea.
Lionheart didn't explain right away but he clearly knew not to keep him waiting "The last thing I remember was going down the elevator with your machine. When I woke up, the vault was open, the relic was gone and I just assumed-"
"Enough!" Arthur shouted into his scroll, Lionheart listened without hesitation. "I'll be stopping in to see you in a short while, be ready to explain."
He shut his scroll off, and pulled out the book, and opened it to the page he knew covered the relics.
His heart rate slowed, as he saw that the relic was still intact. But here is where the problem with the book came it.
It only gave general information, not precise. It told him the relic was still in the city. It showed up on a fairly primitive map, but it looked like it was somewhere in the northern end of the city.
He signed as he closed the book. At least it was still in the city, but now he'd have to try and track it down. He could at least assume his device had worked, if it had been the Spring Maiden, he was certain it would have left the city by now.
That meant some other party was privy to the information of the relics, and now had one. Salem had none, and the Huntsmen had the other two. This was not good, and if he didn't get something, even information on what was going on, he was sure he'd be killed for his failure.
The attack of the Mecha-Grimm, as the media had taken to calling it, had solidified in Jaune's mind that there was an enemy controlling the Grimm. This was not exactly surprising, but to have confirmation, was scary.
But despite the fact this Grimm had killed several fully trained hunters, the people were not in a panic. The news of it being killed by a massive bolt of lightning had made its way into the news and the various networks were quick to claim the savior of the Wendo attack had struck down the Grimm.
Jaune knew it was, in a way, technically true. But it had been due to dumb luck it had fallen on the hammer in the first place.
He was getting scared, and that's all there was to it right now. The Wendo had nearly overwhelmed them, and this new Grimm-machine hybrid had killed several hunters without much effort.
The city felt safe when it really shouldn't. But telling the truth would only draw more Grimm in, and while he didn't like the idea of the city being complacent, it was in its own bizarre way, one of the best safeguards right now.
He knew something was coming, from who, he didn't know, but he had a feeling that soon, very soon, they would be on the move again.
Weiss could only think of how empty her apartment was now. The battle had wiped her both physically and mentally, and now he was socially devoid of human contact.
She was going to go insane at this rate. She needed some level of constant interaction, a roommate or something. She saw her friends during the day, but being alone at night, that seem a hundred times worse than being home alone in the day. The quiet and the dark, just seemed to amplify it all.
She was reminded again of her…lack of a relationship, compared to all her friends.
But she pushed these thoughts, that seemed to never leave her alone for long, and that worried her.
It seemed almost pathological on her part to never leave it alone in her head.
But in this moment, she just felt tired and wanted to sleep. She climbed into her bed and tried to fall asleep. Her body was exhausted but her mind just wouldn't shut down.
She looked at the clock. It was 9:15. She closed her eyes and rolled on her side and tried to drift off, but she couldn't. Too many things on her mind, and not just her social life, but the affairs of the world, and her own family issues.
For whatever reason, that was where her mind decided to go, her family. Her battle with the Wendo, during then she had thought of all the things she wished she had said and done to try and fix the issues she had with all of them.
Now that death wasn't staring her down, those thoughts seemed much less appealing. While she did want those things, the idea of what she'd have to do to achieve it wasn't pleasant. Her father in particular, sometimes she hated him.
But she loved him too, she could remember a few times, when she was very young, when he'd seemed like the greatest man in the world to her. But as she got older, she saw a much darker side to him. She didn't know if it was she was able to see more of what he was, or if he was just being driven into a harsher mindset by the ever-increasing White Fang attacks. It didn't help that the violent shift in White Fang tactics happened in that same time.
Her heart told her the truth was somewhere in the middle, that the attacks had aggravated some underlying character flaws.
But still, he was her father, even if right now it didn't feel that way. She was constantly worried that he'd send someone to retrieve her.
She sighed at her own thoughts and looked at the clock again. It read 10:15. Her heart jumped at that, the idea she had just spent an hour thinking of family issues, and it had only felt like a couple minutes.
She knew this was not going to be a good night.
Qrow knew that going after his sister would be hard. As of right now, he could count on nine huntsmen, or Huntsman in training, to come with him on such an attack. But that wouldn't be enough, not against his sister, the Spring Maiden, and however many bandits she had with her.
Lionheart had made this a point when he discussed it. They'd have to get help from the council, but Huntsman were getting rarer in Mistral. But this needed to be done, the relic had to be recovered. He didn't know what his sister would do with, and in truth, he didn't know what this, or any of relics really did.
But it couldn't be good, that much he knew. But he saw one silver lining to this whole situation. One relic was gone for good. That meant that Salem couldn't reunite them all, and gain the power of all four. The four together were far beyond then individuals.
At least that part of her plan was foiled beyond repair, and he smiled at the thought. He'd have given anything to see her face once she realized she'd never attain godhood like she wanted.
Then he remembered Thor, and actually started laughing. He'd love for her to learn her ascension was out of reach forever from an actual deity. That would be just too good.
Thor lifted his lifted his finished ax. He'd decided to stay with the simpler plan, but had built a new vest, but was to provided dust he could mix with his semblance for more variety in his powers and to extend them. But it didn't have nearly the mechanical intricacies, this did not interact with his weapon at all.
The new blade had the remains of relic, and he didn't really know what that would do, but the faint spark of the divine energy in it could still be felt, by him at least.
Now, with everything in his arsenal back in working order and then some, he felt like a weight was off his shoulders. At least now, if another attack came, of they got a mission, he was ready, at least as much as he could be.
Holstering the ax back into its sling in his back, he decided he was feeling tired and needed to sleep. He'd spent a good deal of energy at the battle and had come straight here to finish his equipment, do in no small part to his lack of equipment at the fight.
But it was catching up with him now, and he yawned, scratching the back of his head. He felt like a good night sleep would be, at this moment, the greatest thing in the world.
Well, the day was here. Weiss felt more nerves than she would of thought. She knew part of it was that this was more or less a stranger she was meeting. The other was, she embarrassed to admit, she had to ask the boy his name.
She was not looking forward to that, but it would be rude to not show up, and one of the traits she'd been instilled with was to avoid rudeness. She'd just explain the situation, that she'd just forgotten to ask, and given he hadn't either, she was hoping it might be more of a funny joke than anything else.
But wondering wouldn't do her any good. She got ready, and once she was presentable enough for the restaurant, as high end as it was, she set off to meet her date.
She saw him, waiting outside, in the same suit, or at least a similar one. His hair was perfectly combed back, and he looked impossibly elegant.
He spotted her shortly after, and a smile broke his face as he approached her.
"I'm glad you decided to show up." He said, with a voice that just calmed her mood.
Weiss didn't know why she felt her cheeks flush at this, but she assumed it was an impending question.
"Thank you." She said, demurely, hiding her own embarrassment. She wanted to avoid the awkwardness of the inevitable, but knew that it would come up sooner rather than later.
"I'm sorry." She said, not being able to hide her face flushing red. "But I don't believe I ever got your name." she felt completely embarrassed.
But he just smiled at her, and she felt confused at this, but still waited for his response.
"I was wondering when you'd ask." He said smiling at her. All she could assume was he was aware of this lapse in information since they had last meet.
"I just…" she tried to say, but petered off, it didn't matter as he continued.
"Gunnar Golmen." he said, still smiling. "Miss Schnee." He added still smiling.
"Well…there's that, out of the way." She said trying to sound as nonchalant about it as she could. "But how did you know who I was?" she asked hoping to turn the conversation away for what she'd done. She had a pretty good idea of how he did know her, but she just wanted to move on from her own embarrassing moment.
"Well, I thought that would be clear." His voice just seemed to soothe her, and she had no idea why. But she didn't think too much on it and just listened to him. "You are quite famous, your shows, your family."
That was as much as she had expected, and frankly was happy it wasn't anything less…savory.
But she didn't know if it wasn't, not for sure, but so far, he seemed alright.
Dinner was going well, at least she thought so. The food was good, not the best she ever had, not even close, but an admirable attempt.
But Gunner as so engaging, she thought she could be eating car tires and still have fun. He was far more…refined, then all her friends. He spoke eloquently, smoothly and calmly, and he his choice of topics were far worldlier than what she'd expect her friends to talk about.
"So…" She finally asked, "Are you from Mistral?"
"Oh my, no." He said smiling. That was another thing, he never stopped smiling, and that seemed oddly familiar to her. "I'm from much further north."
"Oh…like…Atlas?" She said, now feeling the first hints of paranoia, that he was here to bring her home.
"No, not that far." He said, taking a bite of his food "I'm from an independent region, we aren't part of the kingdoms."
"Oh, I see." She said, taking a bite of her own meal. She'd heard of these types of settlements, they weren't very common, but they did exist. "So, what brings you to Mistral?"
"I'm…looking for someone." He said before taking a sip of his drink.
"I guess we have that in common." She said smiling at him.
"I see, have you found them yet?"
"I meet up with them almost as soon as I got here." She said. "Who are you looking for?"
"I'm just trying to find my brother. He's gone off on his own, and I'm trying to sort out some family matters with him." He said, finishing off his dinner, wiping his mouth on his napkin, and placing it next to his plate.
"How do you know he's here?" She worried that she might be overstepping her bounds on the matter, but her curiosity was pulling her in.
"Just some reports." He said taking another sip of his drink. She took that as to mean he didn't want to discuss the issue.
"Well, I hope you find him." She said simply.
They stood outside the restaurant, and chatted for a few minutes. Weiss had enjoyed herself, and would like to see him again. But she wanted to see if the feeling was mutual, and if he would ask her again.
"I had a lovely evening." Gunner said to her "I would hope, you'd allow me to reciprocate?"
There it was, and he'd said it in such a casual way, she didn't immediately respond.
He stared at her for a second before she said "Of course, When and where?"
He smiled "Well, I did enjoy the food here, but how about I make you something? Here." He handed her a slip of paper to her. It had an address on it, which she assumed was his apartment or pulled out his scroll and started typing in it "I own the building and my apartment is above the office." He said, still smiling "How does next Saturday work for you?"
"Yes." She said quickly "That will be fine."
"Good, I look forward to seeing you then." Her took her hand and kissed it, then strode away.
Weiss was feeling good about how the night had gone.
She turned to walk back to her apartment, but as she turned around Ruby was looking her dead in the eyes.
She shrieked and nearly feel backward and only thanked providence that Gunner was gone and hadn't seen this display.
"Ruby!" She gasped, holding her chest "What are you doing?!"
Her partner didn't seem at abashed at the situation. "I was just seeing how your date went." She said.
"Well, it went fine." Weiss said, brushing herself off. "But how did you get here just it ended." She thought she knew the answer.
"I just sort of…followed you." Ruby said, now starting to show signs of being uncomfortable.
"Of course you did." Weiss sighed, but to her own surprise, she wasn't mad. She just felt calm after the whole night, and was in a pretty forgiving mood.
Ruby seemed to be waiting for some sort and angry rant, but when none came she continued speaking. "So…do you like him?"
Typical of Ruby, to assume one date was enough to accurately judge these things. "I enjoyed his company, and we will be meeting again, that is all I can say for now."
Ruby looked disappointed, as if expecting more information, but there just wasn't anything more to say.
"It's late Ruby, go back to your room, we'll talk tomorrow." She said, and started to head back to her apartment.
"Okay, see you tomorrow." Ruby said, and she left as well.
Loki walked into his apartment, and once the door was closed, he took his jacket off and undid his tie.
The night had gone about as well as he could have expected. He had endured himself to the Schnee girl, the one who the most emotionally vulnerable, and that was one step closer to where he wanted to be.
He knew Thor had saved the city, and he'd gathered from what he could from his time at Beacon, this girl was one of his friends.
The trick here was getting close to him, without him being aware of his presence. He didn't dare directly confront him at this time, their history would mean his brother would likely try to kill him on sight, and he had no doubts of who would come out ahead in a direct fight.
But for now, he was content to leave his brother to his own plans, partially because he didn't know much more than him. But he'd been smart enough not to use his real name when interacting with the people of this world.
He'd fabricated a name and backstory, which from what he could tell, his brother hadn't bothered to do. He seemed to at best just omit information.
But he wasn't as good at deception as he was. Even the power this world has imparted to him by virtue of his semblance fit with his skill set.
It wasn't perfect, but when he used it properly, it was truly a marvelous thing to have.
He strode over to his desk, and opened the top drawer. Inside was a lock box which he pulled out. He opened it and pulled out the quill. This was the relic, one of them anyway. He could feel it's divine energy. He just didn't know how to access it...yet.
He planned on using the next few days to try an unlock its power, and see what it could do on its own without the other's. He had the machine as well, and the beauty of it was it looked like a normal briefcase, he could keep it out in the open without it raising suspicion.
Things were looking up on this front.
Lionheart sat at his desk, fear rushing through him. was coming to see him, and he didn't know what to tell him. Not only did he not have a clue where the relic was, but possibly worst, the machine was gone, so whoever had knocked him out, had taken it.
As he thought, the Door to his office opened, and in the Doctor walked.
"What happened?" Watts said with no preamble, not pretended pleasantries.
"The same things I already said." Lionheart said, trying to sound braver than he felt. "I woke up and everything was gone."
"So." He began "There is nothing you can tell me?"
"Yes." Lionheart said, and was hoping in some way thing might mean the end of their dealings.
"Hmmm." Watts said pacing the rooms. "Tell me Leo, do you remember what my semblance is?"
"Something to do with the bio-electrical signals, I sorry I can't recall the exacts." He said, starting to feel nervous.
"You are close, but the point being, one of the abilities it gives me, I can generally tell when someone is lying." He approached Lionheart and was only a foot away from him now. "That's why I believe you when you say what you are telling me is the truth."
Leo felt relief wash over him, and he realized he was standing, and decided to sit down. "Well, thank you for that."
"And it also means you are more of a loss end." Watts said coolly.
"What?"
Watts quickly punched him in the chest, and he felt a sudden pain in his chest and run down his left arm. He gripped his chest and rolled out of his chair onto the floor.
"Goodbye professor." Watts said and turned to leave.
Lionheart reached out to Watts, not sure if he was asking for help or trying to choke the man. It was an anemic effort, and soon the world faded from view and he blacked out.
Qrow watched the news feed, and he it was a busy news day. The attack was still big news, with the giant bolt of lightning that killed the Grimm being attributed to Thor, though not by name.
But the biggest story of the day was the death of Haven Academy Headmaster Leonardo Lionheart. He'd had a massive heart attack, and was found dead in his office by Qrow himself earlier this morning. It was clear when he found him that it was all over, and he called the police and an ambulance, but he knew that it was all a formality.
The idea was right now it was a heart attack, and while them timing seemed far too coincidental, he wasn't ready to rule it out.
But this was a huge complication for them, Lionheart was their best bet in getting the support of the council, now he was gone.
Qrow felt a little callous thinking of the man like that, but in truth, they hadn't known each other very well, and their relationship was more professional than anything else. And he hadn't impressed Qrow recently with his attitude and handling of the school, it was under his watch the relic was lost.
Their chances of mounting a proper assault on Raven would now take much longer to put together.
But he had a feeling time was most certainly not on their side.
Arthur Watts had on and only one goal now, to retrieve the relic from whoever it was that stole it. The Spring wasn't even needed now that it was out. It was out and floating somewhere in the northern end of the city.
He thought he might be able to make a device to track it, but he didn't know where to start looking in how to track it. But it must have a unique energy source of some kind, there were many things like that in the world. So, it may be as simple as scanning or tracking unknown energy signals.
That might take a few days, but then an idea hit him. If the thief had taken his invention, he didn't need to track the relic, just his invention. It was a unique piece of equipment not found anywhere else in the world, a prototype, and it had clearly worked.
It could be tracked, he knew that. He wasn't set up to do so at the moment, but he knew it would be much quicker to solve that problem than trying to find an energy signal he didn't know the first thing about.
He'd find it sooner rather than later. And with confirmation his invention worked, along with the relic, he thought Salem may be forgiving enough. Add to that he tied up a loose end, he may just survive the loss of the first relic.
"You ever feel like we're getting complacent?" Jaune asked Ruby.
"How do you mean?" She asked form her position next to him on the couch.
"I mean, I feel like we've just kind of been…hanging out for weeks now, not making any real progress towards what we came here to do."
"But we've fought those Grimm, and that one big one, how are we just 'hanging around'?".
"I don't mean that we aren't doing things, I mean more like…we know about this bigger issue, and the people we came looking for are part of it, but now we're just waiting for Qrow to give us the go-ahead to do anything." He tried to hide his frustration, but he thought a little bit of it came through in his voice.
"But you heard what Uncle Qrow said." She replied, and he could hear her desire to defend her Uncle. "We have to wait for support, we won't stand a chance on our own."
He knew that was true, but still he felt this was taking longer than it should, and with Lionheart dying of a heart attack, he knew it was going to take longer. But still, he felt it should have been faster than this. But maybe he just didn't understand what was needed to really get this sort of operation.
He knew that he in fact didn't, but still, he wondered.
"I know we need help." He said, "But still, it's taking longer than I would of thought." He said softly.
"Let's not talk about this…" she said, "You know Weiss was on a date, tonight right?" Her voice clearly telling him she was trying to change the subject, and he felt alright doing that.
"Yeah, I know you followed her, which I have to say, may not have been best idea." He said
"Yeah, I know that know." She huffed, blushing a little "But still, you're not… a little jealous?"
"Why would I be?" He asked genuinely confused.
"Well." She said before stopping "I know you used to like her, like a lot."
There it was, and in a way, he understood it. But he'd moved on from that hang up a while ago. "Not for a long time Ruby." He started "I mean, yeah, I liked her, but I eventually decided that if she wasn't going to give me the time of day, then I was going to stop putting myself out there." He said, deciding not to put the reality out there.
The truth was he had still liked her far beyond the time he stopped asking her out constantly, but was tired of getting himself shot down. He didn't need any more blows to his confidence than what he was getting on a daily basis at the time.
"It's just." Ruby started "I feel sort of like…well…you know." Her voice got quieter and she looked at the floor.
"What?" He asked, genuinely confused.
"I mean." She said clearly having an incredibly hard time voicing her feelings on the issue.
"What?" he said with his voice starting to show concern.
"I'm not as much of a "lady" as she is." She finally said, making air quotes with her fingers on the "lady" part.
"Yeah that's what I like about you." He replied trying to put her insecurities at rest. He wouldn't ever claim to understand the inner workings of another person's mind, but he knew what it felt like to feel inadequate compared to someone else. "You're different, but it's a good thing."
Her face seemed to calm relax at this, but she still looked mildly distressed "But, I mean, she's so smart and cultured."
"Yeah." He cut her off "And you are incredibly fight savvy and a whiz with the weapons." He said, "You aren't Weiss, but that's not a bad thing, you have your own personality and gifts, and you should be proud of that."
She smiled at this "So, you aren't upset she'd dating someone else?"
In truth, he was a bit irritated. Not because he still wanted to date Weiss, that had passed. But that she had agreed to go out with a guy she had literally run into on the street and she hadn't even given him the time of day. It was more a blow to his confidence or ego, whatever it was called, but the idea of her dating someone, in the general idea, idea didn't bother him.
"No, I mean, back at school I would be, but I've moved past that since we went on our journey." He decided that now was a good time, if there ever was one, to tell her how he started to feel for her. "I didn't realize it at the time, but while we were getting her, I just sort of…started to like you…more than a friend." He said.
"Yeah?" Her face no longer had the blushing, but now looking curious "In what way?"
"I just sort of…did." He said "After Pyrrha…I just." He didn't know how to really explain his feeling, but decided to try. "I guess I didn't think anyone would ever love me the way she did, but still, I couldn't help but be drawn to your positive attitude and friendliness, and…I don't know, I just sort of, started to like you." It was lame, and in no way conveying his proper feelings, but he just couldn't manage to voice it properly.
She just laughed at this, or giggled more like.
He didn't think of this as malicious, but it finally prompted a question he never had in his head. One that should have come up before now he supposed, given she had been the one to initiate their relationship.
"So, when did you decide you liked me?" he asked with sly smile.
Ruby blushed at this and looked back at the floor. She clammed up for a minute before answering.
"Sort of…since…we meet?" she said posing the final part of the statement as a question.
That caught him offhand, had it been that long she had liked him? "But…" he said more than bit confused "that long?"
"Yeah?" she said, the flush coming to her face.
"But…" he started, a bit confused. "Why didn't you say anything?" his voice more than a bit confused.
"It was just…" she started "You liked Weiss, and Pyrrha clearly liked you." Her face flushing more.
He got it, while he didn't fully agree with the idea she was following, he got it.
"Well." He said, starting off, "Things worked out the way they did for a reason." His tone didn't fully convey the idea he truly believed this statement, in terms of fate, but that was how it had happened. "We are here now, and I think…this is pretty great." He said and leaned in to kiss her on the check.
As he moved back from her, her face was flushing again, and he couldn't help but remember that while she was less than two years younger than him, in some ways her mentality was still years younger.
That always had him concerned, her mixture of age-appropriate behavior, sometimes of an even older person, and the behavior of a much younger person. It made him uncomfortable at times, but more often, he just felt a genuine unadulterated affection for her. He'd even call it love, and he did love her, in ways that weren't strictly romantic. He cared for her beyond that, and the fact he didn't want to follow her idea to try and have sex, was enough in his mind to show him he liked her beyond that idea.
She was looking at him in a way that told him that he had spent too much time thinking and he knew he had to responded.
He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. "You are the one I'm with." He thought this was a weak argument and so he continued "And wouldn't want to be with anyone else." He kissed the side of her head, and getting a mouth full of hair for it, but didn't care.
As they separated, he saw her face, and her eyes full of tears, but a smile broad across her face.
"Thanks for that." Ruby said, looking him dead in the eyes. "I wouldn't be with anyone else either."
After that, Ruby's actions became much more aggressive. She kissed him on the mouth, and war fa more intimate than he'd ever been. Her lounge worked its way into his mouth, and whipped around his mouth.
He wanted to stop, at least in his logical part of his mind. But this felt so good to him, that he just let it slide.
But as the intensity of the interactions grew, he found himself carrying less. But the passion grew and he felt his care lesson and he didn't care. But then he felt her grip his shirt with both hands and pulled him close to her in a powerful passion.
Her kisses became much for forceful, and he didn't know how to respond. But this felt so good, he kissed her back with equal passion.
It wasn't until she started to undo he the button and zipper to his jeans that he started to really think on the issue.
But frankly at that point, he didn't' care.
AN: Please Read and Review.