Chapter 6
Nightmare, Last leg & The Chess master
AN: Hello all, welcome to another chapter, this one if more going to be focusing on Rai's Point of view, without further a due onto the chapter.
POV Rai
Rai was walking down a barren pathway, with familiar houses lining each side of the road, on occasions he stops as the scene flashes to burning house quickly before turning back to what it was.
After walking for half an hour and many flashes and not seeing anyone Rai stops walking and looks around, looking down the path he walked and the path ahead he sees only an endless expanse of houses.
Looking to the gap between the houses he sees the same, moving back to the path, Rai stands there to look back and forth before he starts to hear a dark laughter echoing around him.
With a scared look on his, Rai begins to frantically look around for them to try and find where it comes from, the sound echoing all around him is joined by the sound of hundreds of feet hitting the both the ground and wood.
Picking up on the new sound Rai immediately looks in the direction of the sound, to see three things, the first a large cloud of smoke that spreads as far the eye can see both to the left and the right rising from the distance that is slowly getting closer, the second is the smaller but just as wide dust cloud moving quickly towards him, and the third is the uncountable number of black and white dots just in front of the dust cloud.
As the three things get closer Rai is soon able to see that the black and white dots are the same types of Grimm that attacked his village, the look on Rai's face turns from scared to pure terror as he falls to his knees shaking.
Soon the ground starts to rumble as the Grimm get closer and lightning forms around Rai and soon starts to arc out burning the ground black where it travels, soon the rumbling gets stronger as small stones start to bounce around, Rai sits there shaking in terror.
When the Grimm are a few hundred feet away Rai hears a familiar voice, but is unable to place it shouting "RUN" snapping out of his terror Rai stands shakily turns and runs with everything he has with his lightning boosting his speed by nine times and his speed further boosting it but a further three times and Rai shoots through the row of house leaving behind a near solid line of silver light and the sound of a thousand-chirping bird.
But no matter how far he ran the Grimm didn't fall behind any nor did they come any closer, after running for what felt like hours Rai started to slow down until he walked to a stop and fall to his knees then down to his stomach, Rai lays there tired, scared, shaking and alone.
Tears slowly start to roll down his face as the Grimm get closer, When the Grimm are just over a hundred feet, Rai can clearly hear soft footsteps approaching him from the opposite side looking towards the sound and through blurry eyes he sees a tall man with grey clothes and a red tattered cap, the man walks calmly and knees in front of Rai saying three words "Uncles here kid" which wash away all the fear that Rai is feeling.
The man stands after ruffling Rai's hair and walks to stand between the Grimm and Rai with the Grimm still charging forward and soon the world fades to white and Rai slowly wakes up feeling arms wrapped around and the slight smell of burning.
Looking around Rai sees that he is sat help within Qrow's arms on his temporary bed and on the walls, ceiling and floor are multiple lines of burn marks spreading out randomly from the bed, looking towards Qrow Rai's eyes widen as Qrow has small wisp of smoke floating off him with a few sparks of lightning rolling across him.
Panicked Rai asks "Uncle Qrow, Uncle Qrow are you okay?"
Rai hears a grunt as he hears Qrow reply "Ahh, don't worry about me, the more important question it, are you okay?"
Rai doesn't answer only looks at Qrow's chest where he sees a medium size hole through his coat with burned edges and a fresh lightning mark at the centre spreading out towards the edge of the hole.
Rai leans forward and starts to cry into Qrow chest repeating "Sorry" over and over.
Qrow says nothing and just stays there holding Rai.
POV Qrow minutes prior to Rai waking up
Qrow was sleeping in the temporary bed until a near deafening thunderbolt sound out from behind him, shooting up Qrow immediately hears the constant sound lightning from Rai's bed, looking over at Rai, Qrow sees Rai encased in a dome of lightning that is arching outwards along the floor up the walls and along the ceiling, Qrow quickly gets out the bed.
Just as the door swings open as several other hunters that were awoken by the sound and came to investigate, they all freeze at the sight of the domed lightning, Qrow turns to them and shouts "RUN" and as if to emphasize his point a bolt of lightning runs across the top of the doorway forcing the huntsmen and huntresses to back away from the door.
Qrow notices a shift in the lightning around as it soon shrinks and coils around Rai, but the lightning still arcs around, slowly Qrow walks towards Rai, when is about to reach the bed the lightning suddenly discharges and hits Qrow square in the chest sending back a few feet with his Aura taking as much of the life-threatening damage as possible but it still bores a hole through his coat and leaves a scar as some of the lightning dances around Qrow's body.
Making his way back to Rai's bed, Qrow climbs onto the bed and pulls the shaking Rai onto his lap and while stroking Rai's head he says softly "Uncles here kid" with those words Rai stops shaking
Back to the present
After Rai cries himself back to sleep Qrow hears a worried voice from the door ask "Is everything okay in there?"
Turning to the Door Qrow sees the same Faunus woman that gave them their food, with a small grunt of pain Qrow answer with some pain in his voice "Yeah, he's calmed down… and can I get some ice?"
The woman quickly runs off and is replaced by the old man who asks sternly while looking at the damage done to the room "What happened?"
Qrow gives a sigh and says "He had a nightmare" Qrow see the old man raise an eyebrow and continues with a sorrowful tone after giving another sigh "His Aura from what he told me did not unlock in the most peaceful of ways…"
Before he can say anymore the woman runs in hand over the bag of ice that takes while saying "thank you" and carefully moves Rai so he's lying down across he lap which reveals the new scar which Qrow quickly covers with the Ice which both soothes and burns when he places it on the scar.
Hearing the old man give a sigh Qrow turns back to him as he hears "Okay I'll tell the others" and sees him walks out followed by the Faunus woman who closes to door behind her, Qrow finds himself unable to sleep and waits for morning to arrive while he moves to have his back against the headboard of the bed with Rai asleep on his lap.
POV Rai the morning
Rai slowly wakes up sitting on Qrow's lap, which surprised him until he sees the lightning scar which reminds him what happened last night which puts a solemn look on his face.
Looking up at Qrow he sees him looking out the window, after a few seconds Rai says "Sorry", which shakes Qrow out of his stupor.
Rai see Qrow turn and look down at him with a little bit of a worried look, before asking "What are you sorry for?" Rai says nothing and only moves his hand and stops before it touches the scar, A look of realization flashes across his face as Qrow gentle grabs hold of Rai's hand and places it onto the scar while saying "I don't blame you, what happened was not your fault and it would be foolish of metooo with what you went through, so I don't blame you and you should not blame yourself for something you had no control over"
Rai sits there in silence for some time before he leans in a places his head on Qrow's chest and hugging him before nodding, Qrow returns the hug and they stay like that for a few seconds before Rai's stomach growls turning his face crimson and Qrow laughs and says "I guess someone's hungry, come on let's go eat"
Rai nodes and slowly gets off Qrow then the bed trying his best to ignore the burn marks around the room which never seem to have touched the other bed, feeling a hand scratch him behind the ear gentle while also hearing Qrow says "Don't worry about this, let's go eat" before Qrow's hand leave Rai's head Rai grabs hold of Qrow's hand with his own and walks closely next to him with the hold of his cloak over his head.
They walk down to the to the front area, once they arrive Rai can feel many eyes on him which causes him to move closer to Qrow who give Rai's hand a gentle squeeze letting him know it's okay, Qrow leads them over to one of the tables, sits down and picks up Rai and put him on his lap.
When one of the staff members come over with pen and pad to take their order Qrow asks for two of the same from the night before, they sit there in silence until Rai hears a chair being pushed back and someone telling whoever it is to sit back down to no avail, the sound of soft footsteps slowly get closer and stop next to the table before a soft female voice asks "Can I sit here?" Rai doesn't say anything but feel Qrow nod.
After the lady sits down Rai looks over to her to see a young woman with light pink medium length hair and a pair of wolf ears with the same colour hair, accompanying the hair is a pair of light green eyes, the lady sees Rai staring and puts on a friendly smile before saying "Good morning" Rai only nodes, the lady seeing this lets out a little bit of a sad sigh before asking "Are you alright? Many people were worried about what happened"
Rai looks at the lady for a few seconds before responding in almost a whisper "I'm okay" Rai sees the lady's face brighten at those words.
Putting her arms on the table she asks "Can you tell me you name little one, I'm called Lilly Azure"
Rai recognizes the name but can't place it, shaking his head he answers softly "Rai, Rai Zilar", Rai sees the lady's eyes go wide upon hearing the name.
Before asking "Are you Cobalt's son?" Rai nodes to her question, Rai hears her give out a sigh before she looks over to the table she walked form and calls over "Alcatesh, get over here" (That was the first name I thought of that began with A the same with Lilly the names pronounced Al-Ka-tesh)
From over where she called to Rai hears a female grumble before standing and walking over, looking towards the newcomer Rai sees a tall woman roughly the same age as the other with dark grey short length hair and deep purple eyes, waking up next to the table before asking "What is it Lily?"
Lily with a smile on her face says "Come say hello to Rai Zilar"
Alcatesh eyes widen at the last name before sitting down and looks over top both Qrow and Rai Before asking Rai kindly "Can you take down the hood please"
Rai looks at her for a few seconds before nodding slightly and pulls back his hood revealing his silver right eye and silver and gold left eye, along with his short red hair with silver endings and his two fox ears of the colouring
Rai sees Lily's face brighten greatly be for squealing "Cute" and Rai blinks so see Lilly not in her chair, feeling a hand start to stroke his head he turns to his left to see lily kneeling there with a bright smile before he could speak the food arrives, with the smell of it causing his stomach to grumble and turning his face crimson.
Lily lets off a small laugh before returning to her seat while Rai and Qrow start to eat, as there eating Lily starts "Can I ask where Co-" but stops when Qrow send her a stern look while shaking his head, realizing the meaning behind the action both Lily and Alcatesh's faces turn sad.
After Qrow and Rai finish eating, Rai with a satisfied look on his face turns to Qrow and looks at him, Qrow looks down at Rai and says "Yeah I guess we should be going" Rai hops down and once Qrow stands Rai hears Lily asks "Qrow can we join you?"
Rai looks at Qrow who is looking at him, and raise an eyebrow towards him, Rai tilts his head a little before nodding and Qrow answers with a sigh "Sure" and starts to lead Rai towards the exit but not before tossing the Lien for the meal on the table to be collected.
Both Lily and Alcatesh stand up and follows them, after they step outside Qrow turns to the two ladies and says to them "I hope you can keep up" before he turns to Rai and says to him "Rai I want you to try and see if you can focus the aura that bleeds off you when you use your semblance"
Rai tilts his head for a few seconds before asking "Is it the sparks and that what you're talking about?" seeing Qrow nod makes Rai smile before saying "I'll try"
Qrow nodes and says "Will start out slow so Lily and Al can match us and we can speed up after that" Rai hears as "Yes" from Lily and a "Yes... hey" from Alcatesh.
They start off and slowly pick up speed with Rai doing his best to focus the extra Aura into his semblance and once they reach six-tenths of Qrow's max instead of the constant chipping of the sparks it's considerably less with it being at the level of sound when he was running at two-tenths Qrow's max.
Smiling Qrow shouts "Where picking up the pace" Rai nodes and hears confirmation for Lily and Alcatesh and they speed up until they reach nine-tenths Qrow's max because Lily is unable to keep up if they go faster, Rai hears Alcatesh Tease Lily by saying "You need to work out more" only for Lily to respond by shouting "Are you call me fat" Rai Tries to suppress a laugh but is unable to.
The remaining two-day trip to beacon passed without trouble other than Rai waking up being held by Lily which surprised him which cause lily to get zapped as he didn't remember sleeping next her, Alcatesh just laughed at Lily as her hair was standing out in all directions. (note two days are including the rest that they take for Rai as he hasn't run this much before and would get tired after half an hour and rest of a couple of minutes)
Shortly after the midday of the second day they arrived at the gates of Vale, it didn't take long for them to pass through, after passing through Qrow kept Rai close and Rai had kept his tails wrapped together since the morning before they went down to eat at the Inn.
Qrow lead them to the landing platforms and requested one of the Bullhead to take them up to Beacon, Rai had no trouble when there were flying (not airsickness) and was stunned by the view of Vale from the sky, once they landed and stepped off the Bullhead Rai froze in awe at how Beacon looked Feeling Qrow tap his shoulder pull Rai back to reality and follows Qrow, Rai know that this is a school of sorts asks Qrow "Where is everyone?"
Qrow smiles and answers "The semester just ended yesterday and everyone is on break… well almost everyone"
The four of them walk for a few minutes until they reach an elevator, pushing the button to call it, after it arrived they stepped inside and started going to the top floor while listening to the trouble elevator music, once they arrived at the top floor and the elevator doors open, Rai sees a glass desk on the opposite side of the room with gears visible above them and to the left of them as well as a near three sixty-degree window.
Behind the desk Rai sees a man with a dark green suit and a light green shirt with underneath with a large collar, the man has short and spiky light grey hair, with brown eyes and odd looking glass (I don't know the name of the type of glasses and they look odd to Rai so it good in my book) next to the desk stands a tall woman wearing a black and white skirt that goes just below the knees with arm length sleeves and she had a black and purple cap, she has blond hair that is tied into a bun, her eyes a light green with clear glasses seated in front of them.
The man says "It's good to see you made it here" before turning to Qrow and glaring at him slightly asking "What happened to you" indicating the hole in his shirt Qrow give a sheepish chuckle.
AN: dam this one took me some time to complete only finished after I upload chapter 5, I had the most trouble with the nightmare and how it would play out, with Lily and Alcatesh I hadn't thought about having them in until I had the idea for a good-natured huntress to cheek on Rai, I did plan on there being two males and two females in team CLAS but you read how that went, and lastly Cliff-hanger, Well until next time.
