Chapter 26 Nevermore Father

(Akira POV)

In the morning we all woke up early and after getting ready and headed to the cafeteria to eat breakfast early. The cafeteria was empty excluding Ren, a sleeping Nora, and a few other students including Seth Estelle and his team. When we finished, we were about to head to Professor Indium's classroom until we remembered we had no clue where it was exactly.

"I'll go ask Seth," I said heading to the table he sat at with his team as my team waited at the table we were at. When I reached the table, I tapped Seth on the shoulder and said, "Hi Seth."

"Oh hi Akira," Seth said as the rest of his teammates began asking questions about me, "Akira, meet my team, Glacier Remorse, Sherri Blitz and Luna Silver. Everyone, this is Akira Fang, leader of team ASPR."

"It's nice to meet you," Glacier said his husky voice resonating in a way that reminded me of lullabies as I noted his black hair and midnight blue eyes.

"It's nice to meet you all too," I said.

"So Akira what brings you here?" Sherrie asked, her silver hair and feathers dyed in varying shades of blue and harvester gold eyes, her feet were propped on a pillow on the table and I could already see her talons where blades seemed to be attached, most likely a backup weapon.

"I was wondering if Seth knew where Professor Indium's classroom is," I sheepishly said, "I never saw her before and my team and I need to see her."

"Her classroom is in the hallway opposite of Professor Oobleck's classroom, at the same location as if it is a mirror," Luna said, her silvery-blue hair was draped over her shoulders and held in loose pigtails framing her face where her turquoise eyes were.

"Thank you," I said turning around and heading back to Team ASPR, "Maybe next time I'll introduce the rest of Team ASPR to you."

Once I told them of the directions, we headed to her classroom. Upon entering Professor Indium's classroom I caught a scent similar to Raven's. When he turned around, I saw many similarities apart from the numerous scars that dotted the skin we could see. But those eyes, those thawing blood-red eye, I knew them, he was Raven's Nevermore father, coming face to face with her as Raven Faunus.

"Oh so this must be the team you were talking to me about Even," Professor Indium said a woman around Professor Goodwitch's height with curled blue hair and cerulean eyes, "Team ASPR, right?"

"Yes ma'am," I said, "we were coming here hoping you would let us forge weapons and armor here."

"I suppose you weren't expecting to see him now were you Garnet?" Indium said.

"I'm not Garnet; I'm Raven," I said, "and yes I wasn't expecting to see my father again."

"Gar-Raven, I know this seems completely strange, but some Creatures of Grimm, no matter what species, can take on a human form," her father, Even, said, his voice like silk, "I was able to take on a human form, and I was curious about Remnant so I went to school in Vacuo and then later on applied to Beacon, posing as an ordinary Raven Faunus. You won't believe how hard I had to try just so I wouldn't lash out at Professor Port every time in Grimm Studies just so he could stop recounting his stories. It's however, because of your mother that I was able to get through that class."

"Because of Mom?" Raven asked.

"Yes, she was a Faunus like you," Even said, slightly stroking Raven's cheek with his gloved right hand, "You look almost like her."

"Was she a Raven Faunus?" Raven asked.

"She made everyone seem like she was one," Even said, "her hair was naturally black like yours, but with her wings, she dyed her feathers black before entering Beacon so then they would stop calling her a fallen angel."

"She was a Dove Faunus then?" Raven asked in surprise.

"No, not a dove, a crane," Even said, "a Crane Faunus with wings of ivory white feathers before she dyed her feathers black."

"How would you know?" Raven asked.

"Because she told me," Even said as guilt crept up onto his face, "it was only our third year at Beacon when we were close enough for her to tell me she was truly a Crane Faunus. Halfway through that year, I couldn't hold it in anymore and took her to a secluded place and finally decided to tell her the truth. That moment, she promised me she'd keep that secret."

"So how does Professor Indium know? She doesn't look shocked at all by this," Yoko asked.

"Even and I were on the same team," Indium said, "only thing is, after Beacon, my partner died on a mission just to save me, I've been a teacher ever since."

"Can I at least know my mother's name?" Raven asked.

"Yukiko," Even said, "Yukiko Waters; that was her name before we were married."

"And what was your last name?" Raven asked.

"Remor," Even said.

"One more thing," Raven said.

"What is it?" Even asked.

"I missed you daddy," Raven said hugging her birthfather tightly as she was shaking.

Her father was shocked by this but in the end warmly smiled as he hugged his daughter back and said, "I missed you too, my dear little Raven."

When they seemed to have made amends, Shawn was talking to Professor Indium about our situation and she had agreed to allow us to use whatever materials and tools we needed for what we were planning to do. From that point, for two weekends, we were in Professor Indium's classroom, taking our time with making our weapons and armor.

(Normal POV)

"Raven, you've been focusing mostly on your weapon, any reason why?" Even asked, watching his daughter's work.

"I could never find anything that would suit me," Raven muttered.

"Well, I'm not sure if this does, but it was your mother's," Even said holding out something that caught Raven's eyes.

"They go over the top of the wings and top primary feather right?" Raven asked looking at the bronze wing armor that was once her mother's.

"Yes, your mother designed it to be strong yet as light as possible," Even said, "she never wanted to be bound to the ground for the rest of her life."

"Can I ask you one thing?" Raven asked.

"What is it?" Even asked in return.

"Am I the reason you're still alive?" Raven asked looking at him questioningly.

"Unfortunately, yes," Even said, "Most elder Creatures of Grimm learn from the past, while it is rare that few could take on a human form, those who could, rarely bother with mating and more with surviving. From all I could remember, if a Creature of Grimm has a living offspring, then that is the reason why the Grimm won't die because natural instincts are in their minds to protect them. However the offspring would be like a normal Faunus, and if the Creature of Grimm has a prolonged life, when its offspring dies, the Grimm dies with it. Not many have the mind to even have an offspring and very few remember this."

"So if I die without any descendants, then you will die as well," Raven said, "I wouldn't mind at all. After all I never really liked screaming children."

"Your mother didn't like them as well, we were glad you would always fall asleep easily without much of the crying and screaming," Even said.

"I still don't understand why you abandoned me," Raven said before heading to her workstation.

"I didn't want to, but rumors began to spread about what I truly was," Even said, "in the end I had to do it to keep you safe."

In the end Akira finished her silver chest plate, arm and wrist braces and armor going over her yellow skirt, where the chest plate and braces had gray designs and strapped into the place with strong tan-colored fabric and her symbol, a gray crescent moon was on the center of her chest plate; all worn over a yellow sleeveless tee-shirt and yellow skirt. She had a red ribbon in her hair to tie her hair into a ponytail and had two simple bobby pins hold back her side bangs. She also had slate-colored leggings, and navy blue boots lined with gold and blue. There was a gold and blue belt holding onto two different rectangular prism-like containers that held her twin swords, Shattered Jewels. Similar to how Jeweled Ventus was but this time, with the blade blue, the split guard a lighter shade of blue with the guard closer to the blade having a yellow diamond shaped compartment that would hold extra ice dust crystals, a silver handle, a gold pommel holding the broken pieces of the gems from Jeweled Ventus with the pommel being a yellow crescent moon that ended off with a better grappling system on it using ice dust crystals and had extra dust-crystal-sized yellow blades to help. This time, with a little help in designs from Ruby, Akira was able to make Shattered Jewels telescope.

Shawn's armor became more complicated; he had brass-colored shoulder pad-like armor, arm, wrist and leg braces, all outlined in a bronze color and designs and bronze-colored chest plate, leg armor that ended above his knees and combat boots with brass-colored designs on the boots while on his chest plate and leg armor, were six brass-colored dots on both sides on the chest plate which also had copper lining the top and bottom and four brass-colored dots on both sides of his leg armor. The braces and shoulder pad-like armor were held down by strong forest green fabric as he wore an open sleeve, spring green shirt and pants underneath. Around the bottom of his tail feathers was now a gilded folding piece of armor that would fold with his tail feathers and his symbol, three mauve feathers that resembles his head feathers were at the center of his chest plate as it was mirrored on his leg armor. His weapon, Summer Feather, was a bladed fan that had mahogany guardsticks, the boleta and head had an imitation purple lotus flower with two leaves underneath on it. The lilac leaf that was decorated with white peacock feather eyes with a golden center, was protected by a silver-bladed rivet as two silver feather shaped kunais, now with gilded centers, were in the guardsticks. At the boleta, was a long violet ribbon he could use when he was going to throw Summer Feather at an enemy. With Summer Feather, he could easily hide it up his sleeve.

Raven had forged less armor than Akira and Shawn, she her mother's copper-colored wing armor that only went on her primary feathers to have the strap rest under her collarbone rather than under her chest, removing the extra one that was originally on it. She had on black gloves that ended bellow her elbows with copper-colored armor over her pinkie, thumb, wrist and most of her forearm that the glove went over and a bit above as how the armor ended at a point rather than rounded out with the glove. She had a midnight blue shirt with sleeves that ended above her elbows with a copper-colored brace on her left sleeve made to hold her newly forged weapon in place when not in use. Her dark blue jeans had copper leg armors that had the appearance of shorts with ends that resembled the ends of her gloves. She had black boots that technically ended under her knees with the ends resembling both the copper-colored leg armor. Her symbol, two feathers, one black the other silver crossed over forming an 'x'-shape was on the left side of her shirt just under the strap holding her wing armor in place. Her weapon, Feathery Eclipse, a Battle Axe/Spear Hybrid, slightly resembled Midnight Wing. It still had its mahogany shaft however this time, it could telescope. The axe blades telescoped as well and now black rimmed with silver at the curved edge while having what could almost resemble half of a yin yang symbol without the dot. The top of the shaft above the axe blades had a silver feather where as underneath the blade had three smaller silver feathers that had two overlapping the middle one. At the end of the shaft were five silver feathers that could close up like a peacock's tail feathers. All the silver feathers on Feathery Eclipse, their tips could telescope to a certain point.

Yoko barely forged much for armor. He had a gilded shoulder pad-like armor for his right shoulder lined with silver with a silver band on his upper right arm and a leather band crossing over his chest to the left side of his stomach at the center was the same knife that was given to him years ago by the huntress that disappeared in white rose petals that was sharpened once again to what it could have been before the blade was dulled. He had on a scarlet colored shirt with opened sleeves and amber colored pants. At the top of his pants was leg armor that matched his shoulder armor was mostly ended off on the side of his left leg above the knee. On the belt that held the leg armor in place were two hook-like slots to hold his weapon in place while his symbol, a snowflake with arrow-shaped points with a fire ball circling it starting from the upper-right point to the bottom middle point was on his leg armor above his right leg. However, he found it hard to part with his scarf, so he kept one of the two parts around his neck. His weapon was Kitsune's Whip, twin swords that were also whips like the last time however he found a way to make it collapse and telescope to become longer and thinner if he needed to as well as break off seamlessly when he used them as whips with the guard collapsing as well. There was a gold-colored, diamond-shaped pommel; leather-bound grips with the silver guard with the tips a golden color. The blade itself was orange red at the center and at the edges a golden yellow.

"So, we're finished now at least," Akira said, "Now we should focus on winning the tournament if we can as well as train with our armor and weapons. After all, Team ASPR has regained what was lost before."

A/N: This was written before the World of Remnant episode for the Creatures of Grimm was released. I'm fine with how this is and I'm not planning on rewriting it.