"You know I never caught your name..."

"My name is Silver. Silver Flower."

"Huh, cool name. So did you grow up here in mistral?"

"Goodness no, I lived in Vale and went to Beacon."

"Seriously! I don't remember you!"

"You went to Beacon?"

Shifting nervously and shooting a shifty look at Blake I said "yeah I did. I there when the attack happened, I was near the bottom of Beacon tower."

Blake seemed to suddenly gain an interest in our conversation "you were near the bottom of beacon tower?"

"Yes, I fought beside a very brave girl. She was a Faunus and I had no idea until she suddenly got a call and then took of. Quite literally, she actually flew away. On wings! Big white wings! Do you know her?"

Blake froze for a second then got a dejected look on her face, "Y..ye..yeah..her name was Dove, she was a close friend. She died in that fight saving an other friend of mine."

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. Ah we're here! Your friends are just through that clearing over there. Good luck on your journey Blake, be safe." Waving I turned and ducked back into the thicker woods, intent on getting back to Mercury.

Silver was quiet for most of the trek through the woods, until we were almost back and then she said "you know I never caught your name..."

Smiling in spite of my self I said "my name is Dove."

The woman blinked and then said "those are your friends." It was more of a statement than a question before she continued "why do they think your dead?"

Smile slipping I pondered the conundrum, "well I nearly did die, and they all thought I was dead. I didn't want to hurt any of them by suddenly coming back to life only to hurt them all over agin if I did die. This quest is dangerous you know! So I was just gonna sit back and protect them from the shadows, and then everything got complicated and now I have team DENM and I just..." Trailing off I didn't know how to finish that sentence, yeah everything really had gotten complicated, hadn't it?

Before either of us could come up with a suitable response we reached the small camp that housed the rest of my team mates. Smiling with renewed happiness at their joy to see me back, I allowed myself this one moment to truly relax. Tomorrow would bring another day, and another day we would be closer to leaving this god forsaken grim infested continent.

xxx

xxx

The sound of hushed whispers woke me. Blinking my eyes open I peered around, easily spotting the source of the whispering. Silver was standing of to one side of camp whispering with a whole bunch of other people. Rolling to my feet i had my scythe out in record time as I eyed the strange collection of people before me. "Who the hell are all of you?"

Silver spun around seemingly surprised to see me awake and wielding a weapon at her. "Uh Dove...these are my team mates, we are team DUSC. They just got here, I was traveling ahead, so they just caught me up. This is Dante vermilion, our leader..." here she gestured at a tall red haired man, I was slightly surprised to note the fluffy looking red wolf ears. Meeting the mans serious gold eyed gaze I was just slightly unnerved, although I blamed it entirely on animal instincts. Not waiting for me to acknowledge him she moved on, gesturing to the short girl wearing a pink fedora hat standing next to her. "This Umbra Orange..." I studied the girl, she had brown hair with blonde tips and I could feel the pull of Faunus on her, as well as the rest of team mates even though only Dante and the black haired guy had visible ones. I had a feeling the hat hid a pair of ears but I moved on noting the bright green eyes and way her shoulders curved suggesting shyness.

"This is Cyan Rouge..."

"For the love of...one time! I spell my name wrong one time, and you just won't let it go."

"Nope! Life isn't a song by Demi Lovato after all."

"Uh.."

"Oh right sorry, this is Cyan Rogue, our very own anti social loner and hater of all things people related."

Scanning the guy head to toe I took in the black hair that fell to bellow his shoulders as well as his oddly blue coloured jackal ears, finally settling on his naturally bright eyes. Turning my attention back to Silver I was intrigued to get a better look at her as she had removed the thick black cloak she had been wearing. Silver sported a highly polished robotic left arm, thick black hair with bright purple tips, without really thinking about it I took note of the velvety black ribbon that was in her hair tied in a very similar way to Blake's 'assuming she is a Faunus as she feels like one, it must be how she hides her ears'. Finally I settled my gaze on her warm amber eyes, Meeting her stare head on I said "well looks like we have things to discuss."

"Like what?" Dante was definitely the leader if that surly cold tone of voice was any indicator as to how he took threats to his team.

"Like do you all want to come with us? Or do you want to go your own separate way and catch up with us later? I don't care which but I will need to discuss it with my team if you want to come with."

"They are welcome to come if they want." Mercury mumbled as he slung an arm around my waist, while leaning heavily against me.

Rolling my eyes but smiling warmly at the top of Mercury's head I rubbed his silvery locks fondly "finally up sleeping beauty?"

Groaning he slumped slightly, if I was any weaker I would have been dragged to the ground but as it was I remained standing...just. "Don't mock me this early in the morning, I don't have the mental capacity to fight back."

Laughing I turned my attention back to the group of Faunus in front of us "so, you coming or what?"

Several long meaningful looks passed between the group, including a harsh looking glare from jackal boy, as I had so eloquently dubbed Cyan. Finally Dante spoke up "no, I don't think it is wise at this moment we will continue on our way and catch up with you at a later date."

Nodding her head in agreement Silver added "if we see or hear anything about the winter maiden we will send word."

"How the network is down?"

"Oh, well if you link your scrolls up you can send short text messages with little bursts of aura. Its not perfect but its better than nothing right?"

"That is awesome thank you, here let me link us up." Moments later and myself and Silver were linked up on each other scrolls so we should be able to send messages if we need to. "Well we will be seeing you, travel safe."

"You too Dove, its been nice seeing you sister season."

AN- Just so everyone is aware, I corroborated with some other authors for this chapter and included some of their characters at their request. So say hello to the mighty team DUSC I had to dumb them down a little for my story because they were just a smidgen too OP, so everybody hold on tight because its gonna be a bumpy ride! XD

-SL xxx