Okay people, last chapter! Yay!
Only took me, like, seven months to get it done. Whoops! :p
Well, I finally finished it, no matter how much I procrastinated, and am ready to get you people started, so here we go!
But before we begin, many thanks belong to the great and powerful Shadowmaster of archiveofourown! Without him, I'd still be completely stuck. Ugh.
And it helps to have an outside perspective on your own works from time to time. :)
Also, if you have any song ideas, send a link to it on YouTube for me to watch/listen to and I'll think about putting it in.
One final note is that, I did wait a few days, because I wanted to add in my cents worth to help honor the memory of Monty Oum, great man that he was. Never met him, but I saw that his work inspired a lot of people, and I can only hope that mine does the some to an extent.
So, here on the 1-year anniversary of his death, the final chapter to my RWBY story (though not necessarily the end of this plot) and the mark of the first completed success in my literary armory!
And just for the heck of it:
MONSTA'S OF HIP HOP DANCE TOUR, YO!
(Thank you Mr. Brewer for being an awesome Auto Trans teacher! And for not yelling at me for writing this story in class because I got it so easily, and even taking it and making it a fun thing about me. You're awesome! :])
At the top of the tallest tower of Beacon, silence reigned, broken only by the clocktower gears as they turned, though even they seemed quiet too, contemplative like their master.
A soft voice cut through the silence. Feminine, somewhat annoyed, and barely revealing the pain she must be in, but resigned to the reality of things. "I had a feeling I'd find you here."
Mahogany eyes opened and gazed upon Glynda Goodwitch, her normal ruffled dress shirt destroyed and temporarily replaced with an old, ill-fitting t-shirt that tired to cover extensive bandaging from all the damage received during the assault on their prestigious home. Her normal business skirt had also been replaced by a rarely-used pair of black slacks, though the bulge of thick leg bandages showed rather clearly if you knew to look for them, and the knee-high leather combat boots she wore instead of her normal heels were definitely out of the norm for her, but at least they gave her injured right ankle support the heels would've taken from her, allowing her to walk unaided and continue to portray the image of an unharmed Huntress, completed by her flowing (if slightly ripped at the edges) black cape, missing a few brass studs, though it was.
An image she'd always striven to keep.
"You, should be in bed." He commented dryly.
An annoyed look crossed the huntress's face. "So should you. You were badly injured and you need your rest."
He cut off the rest of her speech with an amused eyebrow raise. "Just because I no longer launch myself into battle does not mean that I cannot protect myself or my students, including you." He said in quiet rebuke, and she gave a quiet wince at the reminder. He pulled his coffee cup to his mouth to savor the victory while hiding a smile. He set it down with a soft thunk, right next to one of the most famous collections of fairy tales, including ones about the great monster Grimajeow, the valiant Hunters Rubel and Angel, and the many, many stories of the greatest team of Hunters ever to exist, known only as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as well as a few of the most legendary Grimm. A favorite of his ever since a certain Faunus had shown it to him during his childhood, when she was taking a break for the day from her own shop in her friend's home and workplace. "Now, while my hair may silver, I am still a Huntsman. I can take care of myself Glynda. Better than you can, might I add." He noted, his soft smile in plain view to help soften the blow. Glynda had always been rather rash and prone to giving in to her anger, which always led to mistakes and thus to injuries.
She sighed aggrivatedly and turned away, causing his smile to fade in confusion. As one of her students had once explained to him, and rather accurately at that, Glynda Goodwitch was the most judgmental, stubbornly headstrong mule of a woman to ever 'grace the world with her presence'. She never gave up in their banter this easily. He let her take the time to pace and try to organize herself. Just as he was about to interrupt and ask what was wrong, she beat him to the punch.
"Just who are they?" She asked simply.
He chose not to make her ask twice. "I don't know." She looked at him sharply, demanding an explanation for such a lack of information.
While he was known, at times, for not informing his friends and allies when he thought it best they did not know some of the things he knew, he was never known for not knowing. And while he had participated in the brawl which had threatened his school, his students, he had been knocked out of it fairly quickly inside his office by some venturesome Grimm, which is what prompted him to make the public address to the students when it'd proven troublesome to deal with. That fight had nearly knocked the life out of him, and had left him somewhat handicapped, and he'd felt trapped and helpless at his desk, unable to help beyond watching his students as they fought off the collective Grimm. The footage was mostly grainy at the level of enhancement that allowed him to see faces, something he wished to remedy as soon as he knew where to shop for better hardware and software, which while it wasn't ideal, it had been enough to watch his students to know which ones deserved a pat on the back for their actions, and allowed him to see in terrifying detail that final battle between those four women and that gigantic Grimm.
She looked at him sharply, her glare demanding an explanation, and he sighed. Then he chose a different approach. "What do you think of them?" She narrowed her eyes and her lips pulled back in a snarl, though the sound, if any, was sub-sonic.
After a few seconds, she gave in with a sigh and began her report. "Out of the group, the woman in dark red, whom appears to go by the name 'Rose' appears to be the most powerful, but not the most clear headed in a fight. She is capable of augmenting various 'strengths' of hers, such as her actual strength, and her speed. It is unknown at this time if she is capable augmenting her intelligence or anything else about her. She also seems to posses a powerful glyph like ability, which may be her Semblance, as she was capable of lifting the large Hydra Grimm type above the clouds on her own. However, she seems to have some sort of personal vendetta against the Grimm, as she went as far as to eat them during combat. It is possible she would have been far more extreme with her battle strategy, had she been against only one Grimm, and not a horde. Unlike most Hunters or Huntresses, she seems to be well versed in several forms of combat, as she was reported using a sword (type of blade unknown), hand-to-hand, knives/daggers (reports of both) dust, and an odd pistol that had three barrels. It should be noted that the pistol was capable of cracking and breaking the one of the Hydra head's bone mask, and that the blade's material was reportedly both sharper and more durable than that of most of both the students and staff of Beacon. She also appeared to be the leader of her group, but seems to have difficulty with words, as she struggled to alert her group that the Hydra had been concussed. Overall she is quite impressive and skilled, with a keen battle sense, but with a questionable level of intelligence and her temper control likewise."
He moved his jaw in thought and gave a thoughtful Hmm. He didn't do anything further outwardly, letting Glynda take the hint and continue, though it took her an awkward moment to do so.
"Snow seems to desire to primarily stay by Rose's side, although Rose appears to leave her behind frequently, serving almost as a lieutenant of sorts. She was seen using a blade similar to the one Rose was wielding - presumably of the same material - and a rather large rifle of unknown caliber and type, though it appears to be some sort of rifle. She appeared to be rather protective of Rose, and she showed a large amount of interest in trying to find out what Cinder Fall, a student from another academy here for the Vytal Frestival, had done to her or her shop. Her combat prowess appear below that of Rose, but still above that of most of the staff of Beacon. She seems to enjoy sass and sarcasm, including in battle. Overall, she seems a decent lieutenant, if a bit too personal with her commander."
He raised an eyebrow and looked her in the eye, an amused smile tugging at his lips. "Oh, so we do know them."
To his great amusement, she actually blushed at the implications and he waited for her to elaborate. "I, met Snow once, while on a mission that was deemed undercover. I was having a nice dinner with an oaf who couldn't stop his endless stream of innuendos and was as much of an ass as I'd been led to believe, but he was my only lead in finding the cache of stolen high-powered explosives, which were, according to evidence, stolen by a society of upper-class swordsmen, and you only gain access by either being born into it or being good enough to be invited, and you can only stay if you are still good enough to be re-invited after a certain period of time. She then interrupted our 'date', violently drunk, and proceeded to blow my cover to smithers, insult him beyond any and all reason, show herself a far more skilled swordsman than the man I was investigating with nothing more than her skill with a dulled blade and some impressive strength after telling me off for choosing such a boor for a date and before telling me where to look to find the explosives I was looking for, which had apparently been stolen by an organized crime group that I have neither seen nor heard of before or since. They called themselves The Twenty Rings."
He chuckled. He motioned with his coffee mug to continue, and after a moment to collect herself, she did so.
"The faunus woman seems to be a sort of enigma. She hasn't spoken much as of yet, and her large amounts of speed were put to good use in striking with lunges and stabs when not avoiding attacks. She used similar weapons to what was reported to be used by Snow, though of a completely different style for both. Has also been reported she is a cat type Fanus, type of cat is narrowed down to Puma, Jaguar, or Leopard. Her stance gives an air of confidence and assurance, with her black ears on proud display. However, there is nothing else I can say at this time, as we just don't know anything else about her, other than that she is currently out front, apparently helping her friend with putting new cobblestones in the courtyard."
"The final member, Dragon, has been shown to have the ability to produce fire, as well as extreme amounts of strength. She seems likely to be the closest member of the group to Rose, though the relationship between the two leans more to familial instead of the romantic. Dragon was reported using the same sorts of weapons as Snow and the faunus. No one managed to see Dragon set the fires, so it is unknown if this was achieved through Dust, Semblance, or some other means. She appears to have a strong sense of family, and seems to attempt to put a large amount of emphasis on this around Rose, though her reasons for this are currently unknown."
"As a whole these women seem to be extremely capable Huntresses, and have a great sense of familiarity amongst them. Although..." She trailed off, and he felt his expression soften as he guessed what was bothering her.
"It's the song they sang, isn't it?" He asked softly, to which she responded with a shuddering nod. He understood, as that same haunting song was still ringing in his head, and he hadn't been outside when they'd sung it. Seemingly wordless, but filled with emotion and savage joys, it rang through his skull even now.
The woman who resembled Ruby Rose was the one who'd sung it first, and while the footage was too grainy to see her expression properly, he could see the joy on it that echoed through her song, whatever the language it was sung in. He closed his eyes as the song played through his head once more. A song somehow inspired thoughts and memories of blood and death and the few times he'd reveled in them, all of them whilst hunting Grimm.
he opened his eyes and stood, grabbing his coffee mug on the way to the door to his office, Glynda following in confusion. He'd have to be careful.
They strode through the halls of Beacon Academy with purpose. He knew that Glynda would have shuttered away her confusion and put on a determined face, same as always, and he was rather glad his green waistcoat, overcoat, and cravat covered his frame well and were somewhat baggy as well, covering his Dust-infused bandages form sight without a single clue to their existence.
They reached the medical wing and he hesitated, stopping them in front of the infirmary's front door. He took a deep breath and opened the door quietly, wanting to be unnoticed in his observation before approaching.
The door opened with only a whisper of sound and he slipped in. He searched for his quarry until he found the red shirt under buckled ammunitions belts and froze when mahogany eyes rested upon one closed silver eye and an eyepatch framed by a familiar face, one he'd seen only yesterday, with the woman from earlier, Snow, worrying by her bedside. Her breathing changed from its restful pattern and the white warrior standing guard perked up a little and began to search for what had disturbed her charge's rest. That got him moving back behind the door rather quickly.
"Is something wrong?" Glynda asked with concern. After all, he'd only been there a few seconds, and normally he watches a few minutes before calling in his blunter companion.
He sighed with a smile and shook his head. "No, simply unanticipated." He said before he put his coffee mug on top of the wall-mounted case holding a fire extinguisher nest to him, before setting his cane against the wall beside knew it was only worrying his second-in-command, but it would be better this way. Less chance of things breaking.
He faced the door once again. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked over. It was Glynda, looking worried enough to break through her usual facade. "Whatever you saw, you don't have to do it now." His nervousness must really be showing. He knew he really shouldn't be nervous, but he couldn't blame himself for it after what he'd seen in the security footage and what they'd been thinking about just a few short minutes ago.
He smiled and shook his head. "No, she knows I'm here. It'll be better to get it over with now than to deal with her disappointed stare later." He said simply.
'Well,' he thought to himself as he visibly pulled himself together, holding back a wince at the pain the motion incurred. 'At least I won't have to be too careful.'
And so, with a near-silent grunt of effort, he pushed open the larger-than-normal infirmary double doors, basically announcing himself to the room ostentatiously, very unlike his usual silence.
He starting counting the seconds at the first gasp and it was less than a second after the second gasp that it felt like his life was being crushed out of him while his ears tried to bleed after a heart-rending cry of "MR. ARBIGOTTI!"
It really hurt, especially with how the bullets on the belts crushed in on his bumps and bruises, but he smiled because honestly, what else can you do in the face of such honest happiness? "How are you doing Rosie?" He asked, keeping the pain and breathlessness out of his voice as best he could. He couldn't keep it all out, but he'd be the first to admit he wasn't perfect.
She set him down, a little roughly, and began to speak, dusting off imaginary (or was it real?) dirt and rubble off his shoulders and chest as she did so. "Oh, I've been better. Had a rough and tumble with a Hydra earlier and the cliff." She turned her head down to glare and pout at the ground as she muttered "Stupid cliff wouldn't let me pay.", which made no sense whatsoever to him, but she continued talking to him before he could start to analyze her words, smile back as if it had never left and without skipping a beat. "I hope that you've been well since we saw each other yesterday and you look much different without your afro, you know." She paused to let him answer.
He smiled through the pain, much easier now that she wasn't holding him so tightly, and with the smug knowledge in his smile at Glynda's unseen but undoubtedly completely confuzzled look. "Yes, I have, though I would think the difference would be either fairly obvious or difficult to see." He paused to wince as his chest twinged heavily while she nodded in acknowledgement of his point about his fake hair, and then frown at his wince. "I think the fighting earlier today wasn't my best choice ever." He admitted sheepishly.
Her understanding smile returned as she chided him. "Well of course it wasn't!" At his confusion, she elaborated. "You're an experienced Hunter. A little out of practice, but that's ok. What's not okay, and thus your problem, is that other than that Hydra attack in Hollow';s Ground, you've never fought brooded or Blooded Grimm." He blinked at that, trying to understand what she meant. Then she decided to take pity on him. "You remember how that Hydra Minor had made itself a nest out of the mayor's building In Hollow's Ground?"
"That was a Minor Hydra?!" Glynda asked outraged, pulling their attention to her and she looked surprised and afraid as Rose nodded, remembering the destruction of the town all those years ago, back before it was a ghost town.
Rose turned to Glynda long enough to say, "Yeeesss, moving along." (not unkindly or harshly though, and with a bit of a headbob) before turning back to him. "Now, being Nested is right about when a Grimm decides to settle down and start a nest, kinda like a person moving out of their mom's house and moving into their own apartment. That tends to attract others, one way or another, but it means something entirely different when a Blooded Grimm, like that Hydra you saw at Hollow's Ground. When that happens, the Blooded Grimm who has Nested starts to evolve, or if they're already big enough, then they start to produce others, just like the Hydra we killed earlier today. In fact, other Grimm are still there, occasionally appearing in the ruins of Hollow's Ground. We go there every so often to clear out the extra." A nostalgic look came over her face. "Kinda like the family trips we used to take."
"I'm curious," he began. "What exactly makes a Grimm 'Blooded'?"
"We're not exactly sure." The blonde, Dragon, spoke up from behind him, startling him as she entered. "We don't know what, biologically speaking, makes the difference between a Grimm as you know them from a Blooded Grimm, like what we learned against. What we do know is that Blooded Grimm have blood running through their veins, making them tougher, stronger, basically more powerful in almost every sense of the word and much, much smarter. If it takes a Grimm 30 years to be able to take on a trainee hunter like most of the kids here in the infirmary, then it takes a Blooded Grimm anywhere from 3 months to 3 years, if active and good at Recon, maybe up to fifteen if it's in a nicely secluded area and doesn't get into many fights." She summed up simply, the casual tone chilling Ozpin throughout his spine. "But it's the Evos and Nested that you really gotta be careful about, especially when they're one and the same." She added as she came to stand next to Rose, long brown coat tossed over her shoulder and her many exposed muscles gleaming with sweat in the dying light of the day as the dark-haired amber-eyed faunus stood at her side. "Because they're exponentially more powerful and smarter, as well as being able to summon help from other Grimm pretty much at command, and all of them are extraordinarily tough." She gave Rose a stare that bored into the other girl rather powerfully, even if the red-frosted brunette seemed completely unaffected. "So how bloody were you when they finally cleaned you up?"
"Completely covered." Snow said. "She was out cold when we reached the corpse, fifteen feet inside the monster of a kaiju as she was, and had to be bathed in bleach before the hardening stuff would start to come off. Multiple times!" She gesticulated wildly to help show her annoyance.
"And how is it that her skin isn't peeling off like the color from her clothes?" Dragon asked pointedly.
"Eh, probably just the same freakish stuff that we've been dealing with for the past few years since coming to Vale." Rose waved it off dismissively, though Ozpin took interest in that statement. At Snow's yawn, however, he decided to shelve it for tomorrow, though a niggling thought of a reminder had him decide to put that off for a second.
He opened his mouth to speak when Dragon grabbed Rose in a bear hug, trembling slightly.
"I'm okay, Ash, sheesh." Was Rose's simple, exasperated reply.
"I know. But, I mean," She paused and trembled, tears about to spill evident in her voice. "Jesus, R, you almost died. We almost lost you."
There was a slight chuckle from Rose as Ozpin imagined a slight smile. "You didn't lose me to the epileptic trees, you aren't going to lose me now to an overgrown dog."
A few moments later, Dragon pulled away from Rose, the former straightening the latter's hair as she calmed herself while the latter brushed away the tears and some dust off the taller woman's shoulders. At the small cloud of red dust filling the air, Rose asked, "Mistrali Clay?"
Dragon nodded. "Yeah, found some bricks down in the basement, figured I would start rebuilding the courtyard, onna fact a we ripped it up, an' a'cuz the dusty clay really helps ward off Lesser Grimm."
Rose smiled at her in pride as Ozpin filed that previously unknown fact away.
Just then, a barely audible sniff ripped through the near-silence and all six of them tensed up a little as they looked over in the direction of the sound. Fluidly, and faster than either Ozpin or Glynda could react, the four of them didn't walk nor glide nor fly but damn near flowed over to the pair of beds. As Ozpin saw when he reached the curtains, this pair held Ruby Rose and Wiess Schnee, both cradling their now-useless weapons, though the heiress had the presence of mind to try and hide her shame. Rose perked up for a moment, then said "Be right back." before dashing off. Not at Semblence-enhanced or Aura-enhanced speeds, but quickly nonetheless, dodging around Ozpin and his cane before quickly making her way back, going through the few privacy curtains in the way of a direct line of travel. She reappeared from behind the curtains on Ruby's side by going under them and lept over the brunette's bed before grabbing Weiss's rapier, ignoring said white-et's protests, and pouring the silvery contents of a small bottle down the length of the long blade, whose thin length had been separated equally into four straight sections.
Slowly, the silvery substance built itself up until it appeared to be seamless between the separated parts of the formerly one-piece blade. Rose tilted her head as she examined the rapier, seemingly oblivious to everyone's wide-eyed stares, including his own. She nodded authoritatively at it before spikes grew out of nowhere on the blade, aiming for her face. She pushed it away from her as she scolded it. "Hey, no need to be so snippy." She said as she placed the blade by Weiss' side once more. "Besides you don't need my approval, you need hers." Turning to Weiss, she appeared sheepish for a moment. Not that Weiss was paying any attention to the Ruby-alike's face instead of her weapon. "Sorry its not the best fix in the world, but it is one that will last you for quite a while, and will give you an ace in the hole I think you desperately need."
Then she turned to set herself on Ruby's bed and held the child close. "Shhh, it's okay. It's alright. It's not the end of the world, sweetie."
The black-haired faunus, who, Ozpin suddenly noticed, looked distinctly like Blake of Team RWBY, shook her head and muttered something under her breath in astonishment. He couldn't make it out, though it sounded vaguely Vacuan.
"Here's an idea." Rose said to Ruby. "How about this: We take your weapon and rebuild it. Scrap what metal is left and the melting pot into the parts for a new weapon."
"R-replace Crescent Rose?" Ruby asked, horrified.
Rose shook her head. "I didn't say replace. It'll be like a full-body upgrade. Crescent Rose Version 2.0, in a sense. It will still be your original weapon, but with newer, better parts. And forged even better, accounting for the mistakes you didn't know to correct the first time around. And I have just the material in mind for the blades themselves."
"What?" Ruby asked, starting to calm down, now that the prospect of forever losing her weapon was fading.
Rose grinned. "Well, we can use the metal from the first version perfectly well for the outermost blade, with inlays and secondary layers of Superior Steel, then Inferior Grimslayer Metal for the inner sheath and Superior Grimslayer Metal for the innermost blade. Then you can have a tournament blade, as well as two or more holdout methods for when you actually need it without switching weapons. You'll have to re-train with it massively, just like Weiss, but it'll be worth it in the end." She pulled back a little, loosening her hug as she smiled softly at Ruby, before wiping away the tear tracks. Suddenly, the older girl frowned, causing Ruby to frown in return.
"What is it?" She asked.
Rose cocked her head to the side in consideration, then smirked. "Well, it appears as though I have a gift for you, Ruby Rose." At Ruby's sudden excitement, Rose held out a calming hand. "I do need you to understand, however, that this is something very precious to me. I will only give it to you on one condition. That you treat it with care and respect, as if you held the lives of your entire family in your hand inside this gift. The lives and wellbeing of your father, sister, uncle, teammates, and yes, even your dog. Do you understand?"
Swallowing at the solemnity of that last statement, Ruby meekly nodded, then straightened up as well as she was able (given her injuries), and gave a firm determined nod.
Rose studied the girl for a moment longer before nodding in affirmation and reached up to her neck to tear off the collar of her shirt, the unevenness of the rip showing that something had been held there, inside the collar. Slowly, deliberately, she unwrapped it, and Ozpin felt his jaw drop in shock as Ruby's fell in awe. He fully recognized this "'gift'. Thought it lost to the wilds more than a decade ago.
It was a necklace, with a simple silver chain holding four gemstones strung along it, surrounding an ornate silver cross. A Ruby in a Black wire setting, a Diamond in a Polished Platinum setting, followed by the cross' top and connecting ring, a fairly simple affair made of steel at the top of the cross, a Black Diamond in a White Gold setting, and a Yellow Topaz in a round Cast Iron setting.
"It's beautiful." Ruby breathed out.
Rose nodded as she gently transferred possession of the necklace to Ruby as if handing over a holy relic made of thin artisanal glass. This necklace belong to the greatest Paragon of a Hunter who ever lived. The only true monster that I have counted as an honor and a privilege to meet and know." She paused to help Ruby with the chain's relatively difficult clasp. "Summer Rose. Your mother and my friend, and a truly famous and powerful Hunter to many." Her face turned away, a sadly reminiscing smile gracing it. "Dragon told her that she'd live on well with the stories about us in the mead halls of Joranna after she died, and those kinds of stories are truly rare, with such exceptional people doubly so."
The faunus made a soft, astonished sentence in what sounded like Mistrali before Dragon shook her head with a smile. "Blake, rest your weary head. It's been a long and injuringly eventful day, and we're in no state to try and understand those tiny parts of Rose's brain that aren't drenched in blood and guts."
The faunus woman made a soft, agreeing grunt as she moved away while Snow approached.
A hand lay gently on Rose's shoulder as Snow looked down on her kindly. "C'mon GrimGurl217, let's go sleep."
Gently, Rose disentangled herself from the red-tipped brunette slowly falling asleep around her waist and then began to walk away. "Y'know Blake? You don't really speak in a monotone. You have emotion, while a monotone is exactly as advertised, a single, continuous tone of voice with zero changes or emphasis, like that one teach we had together, ah, what was his name again? Oh, yeah, Alan Wrench." Then she promptly belly-flopped into a faceplant, with the tone of the crack that rang out telling Ozpin that the floor had actually cracked underneath the now sleeping store owner, rather than the other way around.
Dragon snorted as Snow sighed, exasperated and fond. "Yep, that's Rosie for ya." the blonde said as said brunette began to snore loudly.
Then Snow came over and sat down, cross-legged, on top of Rose, apparently settling down to sleep.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? He asked.
Snow nodded. "It'll keep her from wandering off in the middle of the night and it'll wake us up if she does."
"That's not quite what I meant."
"I know." Snow replied with a yawn and a tired smile. "She's never complained-" She paused to think a moment. "Well, of anything really, but she's never showed signs of back pains or other damage after nights like this, so it should be fine." She closed her eyes to sleep.
"Wait." The voice was stern and commanding, which was a little odd as it was coming from Weiss. The not-so odd part was the frustration apparent in both voice and face. "Just who are you people?"
Snow smiled sadly at her. "Sometimes, it's better not to know. I know that from experience. But I'll tell ya anyway. The way Rose would probably put it, we are a Monster" she pointed at Rose, then herself "a Saint," then at Dragon "a Blacksmith, or maybe she'd say a Dragon-"
"She'd say dog." Dragon said with a tired shrug. "She'd keep me short and insultingly simple."
Snow nodded, conceding the point. Then she pointed at the Faunus woman and finished with "And a Cat. I'd call us fighters, a killer a knight, a berserker, and a traveler." Dragon has her own labels for us and so does Blake."
"But there is a title that we all agree on." The busty blonde in a trenchcoat and armor-plated cut-finger gloves noted as she came in close. "It was given to us and we've found that it fits."
"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." was the Faunus woman's simple reply, the only words he'd heard out of her in Valean, although something about it told him she wasn't actually speaking the same dialect. Then she turned around and picked up Blake Belladonna of Team RWBY from the stomach and carried her towards another bed like a mother cat retrieving an errant cub, effectively cutting off the conversation as it stood, allowing the children to regain their strength while Dragon simply draped herself over Snow, stomach over the white-haired head without bend as if Snow was a statue, and then began snoring even louder than Rose had been (she'd stopped snoring some time ago) as the faunus woman returned to sit, cross-legged like Snow was, on top of Dragon as if they were a totem pole.
Recognizing his own fading strength, Ozpin left the infirmary, holding off on relying on Glynda for physical strength as long as he could, though he still had to rely on her even after he reclaimed his cane, cup left on top of the fire extinguisher box as if forgotten.
And amidst all the hubub, Cinder lay not too far away, forgotten and asleep. Gathering her strength for when she'd strike back at the swordsman that had punched her into the wall.
Finally! She's here! She's back! In fact, the whole family is back in town! Oh, this is just too good!
*Grin*
Ack! Put that bone down! It belongs to the Horsemen!