Heyo, Kariotic here with another update. Still super surprised with how many hit this is getting, I really appreciate it! For future purposes, if it feels a little slow or the jumps feel a little weird, I'm just having a little trouble getting the story to get to where it needs to be. If anything I'll add other tidbits/shenanigans that could happen here or previous chapters as later scenes in a future update. Kinda the way things happen when one writes a story as it comes to them, essentially off the top of the head.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the chapter!
Maybe there was a bug at school. Maybe the tea was bad. Maybe the cold weather was a shock to the system. Maybe it was a part of his seasonal depression. Whatever it was, it was a bitch.
"A-are you ok?" Ruby knocked on the bathroom door as she could hear Kay coughing a puking his lungs out. "Kay?"
"Y-yeah," Kay's voice came through a pause in the suffering. "Could you get my phone? It's on the couch."
Before Ruby could even more, the sound of dry retching filled her ears and she scrambled to get away from the door and reached the living room, where everyone else sat with concern on their faces. She saw Kay's phone on the arm of the couch next to Yang, grabbed it, then ran back to the bedroom. Knocking softly on the door, she was glad to hear the Kay wasn't throwing up at the moment. The bathroom door swung up slightly, enough for Ruby to slide in the phone to poor guy.
"Thanks Ruby, I'm gonna-" His gratitude was interrupted by a loud gurgling sound from his stomach, prompting him to slam the door and return to his pitiful state of kneeling in front of the toilet. Ruby sighed as she made her way back to the rest of them. Blake emerged from the kitchen with a mug of tea.
"Still going, huh?" Yang asked sympathetically. She had woken up early to find Railen already in the bathroom, spewing sickness. "That sucks."
"Maybe it was the pizza we had for dinner?" Jaune shrugged. Ren was kind enough to take Kay's usual morning responsibility of making breakfast. Nora stood at his side, watching him make her favorite dish.
"None of us got sick though," Ruby argued. "Were you guys outdoors for very long yesterday?"
"No," Weiss shook her head. "And I doubt it was the tea he had either."
"I may have a theory." Ozpin spoke up, gaining everyone's attention. "There have been certain instances on a few missions involving a large amount of Huntsmen and a few civilians. The civilians, no more than three or four, would suffer from a sort of pressure from the Auras of the surrounding Huntsmen."
"Aura-based pressure?" Weiss repeated. "How so?"
"The civilians that were being escorted from a border town," Ozpin explained. "They never had so much exposure to a fully-trained Huntsman's active Aura before, let alone several of them. After spending even a short time with them, the Auras began to latch onto the vulnerable souls in an aggressive attempt to protect them. However, their inexperience with it made their bodies' immune systems go into overdrive to expel this forced change to the body. Thus they were even weaker during the whole escort mission."
"But we're not actively using our Auras!" Yang pointed out. "There's literally no reason for us to use it here!"
"Even so," Ozpin said. "I fear the amount of pressure from all eight of our combined Auras, even passively, is damaging Kay's immune system."
"Or," a new voice popped in. Much like their first meeting, they all turned to see weak young man leaning against his bedroom door frame. His face was pale, but he seemed to be breathing normally. "It could just be a bad cold or small flu. I doubt you all did anything."
"Here," Blake handed him the hot tea. He nodded in thanks and went to the kitchen to retrieve some sort of packet from the cabinet. Blake watched as the man tore the packet upon and poured an orange powder into his tea. "Medicine?"
"Of a sort." Kay answered. "Vitamins to boost me while I'm down."
"Are you still going to work today?" Weiss asked. The whole crew let out a collective sigh of relief as Kay shook his head. "Good. Then you'll be staying in bed for the entire day."
"You mean your bed?" Kay asked, pointing back to his master bedroom. Weiss shook her head, but her team leader spoke first.
"We'll be fine if we move the blankets out here, Kay." Ruby said. "Seriously."
"Alright," Kay sighed, taking a sip of his tea. "If you say so."
"We do say so." Blake said, still standing in the kitchen with him. She was surprisingly brave enough to put her hands on the sick man and gentle push him back towards his room. "Get some rest. Yell if you need anything."
The man gave no resistance as the Huntress escorted him back to his room. Blake joined the rest of the group as the sisters turned the TV once again and made to play Smash Brothers once more.
"Could we watch some TV for once?" Weiss asked. "Maybe the news?"
"I agree," Ozpin said. "While I'm not against you kids having fun, I'd like to see what the world is like on a live scope."
"Speaking of which," Weiss turned to the headmaster/farm boy. "You visited the library to learn about this world. What exactly did you learn?"
"Shhh," Ruby hushed her partner as the local news came up. Eight faces had their attention sucked in by news segment after news segment as Kay's world was brought to light. A lot of crime, a lot of corruption and greed, and many a blind eye turned from the true roots of the problems. The anchors attempted to give levity now and then with segments involving trivial matters such as pets or children. Nora and Ruby liked those quite a bit.
"There are no monsters like the Grimm here in Kay's reality." Ozpin narrated during the program. "Just man himself, greedily taking advantage of the systems they helped set in place. Then they blame others and use their powers to propagandize their positions to justify their scapegoating."
"That is… diabolically cruel." Weiss said.
"The world we come from is not so pristine either," Ozpin added. "If anything, there can be just as much corruption and man-made adversity in our world. However, we try to create much more positive propaganda for the sake of avoiding Grimm."
Ruby nodded, knowing that it was absolutely true. The White Fang still existed as an insurgent terrorist group for decades. There were still people who discriminated against Faunus despite Remnant's leaders coming to a peaceful agreement after the war. There were plenty of people who took advantage of their status as Huntsmen and Huntresses; Torchwick was a good example. A former Huntsman-turned-thief, the local police could only record his crimes while it took Huntsmen and Huntresses, and a well-placed Griffon flying above them to stop the notorious criminal.
"Speaking of home," Jaune began. The news transitioned to the weather segment, showing a light snowstorm that was to come in the following days. "I wonder how everyone is doing back home."
. . . . .
"Where. Is. My. Son." Julius Arc demanded, pounding on the desk. His clenched teeth helped punctuate every word with vigorous anger. He stood in front of a seated General Ironwood, who looked worse for wear after the final battle against Salem.
"Julius, I assure you we're trying our best with what we know." Ironwood replied, attempting to placate the blonde veteran. "I'd appreciate a little patience at the moment. You are not the only parent who lost a child in that incident."
Indeed, as Jacques Schnee had also made a point to barge in and demand to prioritize Weiss's return once it was deduced that their children were not killed in the explosion. Rather, a concentration of forces had come into play. Winter's background in Dust helped deduce the use of not only Burn and Spark Dust on the outside, but a rare, unnamed purple Dust that was native to the Grimmlands. While they were currently experimenting with that combination with what little of the sample they had, Atlas sent out more Hunter-escorted mining parties to find more of the Dust. They would resume testing of the Dust onsite, though there was no telling how long it would take for any progress to be made.
Julius Arc's blue eyes met Ironwood's own for a moment before the veteran hunter took the general's advice and took a seat. On the desk between them sat several papers, but more importantly, a glass bottle of bourbon along with two glasses. One of them was already drank down to about half.
"Care to join me?" James offered, picking up the bourbon.
"Please," Julius nodded, sighing as he finally relaxed in his seat. "The family has been running around like emotional headless chickens. There's nothing much else I can do but come here."
"So you're here on Juniper's orders?" Ironwood asked as he passed the other glass of bourbon to the distraught man. The blonde nodded his head, admitting that his wife had indeed urged that he make his way over to Atlas and demand for their son's safe return. "I swear, Julius, we're doing all we can and as fast as we can. Tai-Yang Xiao Long has already made a case of his own and is currently staying here until his daughters return as well."
"Have there been any updates?" Julius asked, taking a well needed sip. "Any news at all."
"As you know, there'd be much more… evidence if the explosion had ended up much more deadly." Ironwood said plainly. "I apologize for being blasé about it, but we at least know your son and his friends are alive. Search teams are working across Remnant and leaving no stone unturned looking for them."
"And Winter Schnee?" Julius asked. "She's normally at your side for the entire day, especially in times of crisis."
"Just as you were distraught at the loss of your son, Winter took it upon herself to lead the investigation." The Atlesian general took a long swig at his drink, finishing it before pouring more for himself. "She's been hellbent on finding a way to bring her sister back ever since we found out they weren't killed."
Indeed she was. If one were to traverse to the Grimmlands now, they would be absolutely surprised at the sight of a bright silver structures that harshly contrasted the darker environment around them. A lone messenger jogged from one building in the makeshift base to another. On the near horizon, one could see several armed soldiers guarding the perimeter. Entering the building, the messenger saw Winter Schnee examining an encased scene: an area of scorched ground right next to the statue of the defeated Salem, still glowing with regular pulses from the remains of the God of Light's relics.
"Specialist Schnee, ma'am," the messenger made sure to let her know he was here. She turned to meet his salute and he saw the bags under her normally sharp, alert eyes. She had been working nonstop to rescue her sister from whatever fate she had fallen victim to. "Ironwood has requested a status report from you, specifically."
"Understood, Private." She turned around to look at the incident site. The dark, scorched ground formed a ragged circle of damage that appeared to come from a solid center. The center point was a slightly deep crater, marking where the bomb landed where Emerald Sustrai had thrown it.
Winter sighed. She wouldn't dare interrupt Ironwood when he was in the middle of political issues. After the fall of Salem, the Academies lay in ruin and many people thought to be allies were revealed to be traitors that allowed for Salem's machinations to come to fruition easily. Not only did he not have a solid case in regards to the missing children, Ozpin himself was also among those missing. Ironwood and Glynda Goodwitch could handle the media and Council's attention, but in the end, Ozpin was needed to clarify the ends of the mission. What could they do next?
"No further progress has been made since we have started testing possible Dust combinations," Winter could hear the messenger typing out the message. Curse the Grimmlands and its poor connectivity to the outside world. No doubt the vile presence of the Grimm was affecting their communications. "Miss Sustrai refused to cooperate during the interrogation at first, but eventually relented and told us about the use of the rare Dust that is sourced here in the Grimmlands that had been combined with Burn and Spark in the bomb. Several samples have been used to test on subjects, inorganic and organic. She openly admits that it was last resort attack, orchestrated by Salem herself as a last ditch plan to eliminate Ozpin and his allies."
She stopped pacing directly ahead of the frozen statue's gaze. Even in victory, Salem would rob them of such hope. Winter took a deep breath before continuing her report.
"We have begun to test with varying Dust combinations, but none of the tests held so far have shown any evidence of progress." Winter looked down at the remains of the Relics that continued to emanate light pulses ever since the fight's end. "However, I cannot think that we may be missing something. Did the proximity to Salem's statue and the Relics' have an affect on the bomb? I recognized Weiss using a Gravity glyph as well, which may also be a factor in the incident. I plan on continuing to be a part of the experiments and will alert you at the first sign of progress."
"Will that be all Specialist Schnee?" The messenger asked, typing in the last of her speech. When Winter shook her head, the Private saluted once more and took his leave. He paused before the door to say one last thing. "Good luck, Miss Schnee."
The elder Schnee sister said nothing as the young man took his leave. She simply looked on at the spot where she last saw her little sister. Now, truly alone and not expecting anyone else to intrude on her, she allowed the rare tear to streak down her face. She would find a way for her sister to return. She would not stop those experiments until Weiss, Ozpin, and the others were home safe and sound.
. . . . . .
Two whole days. That's what it took for Kay to recover from whatever sickness it was. At least he was kind enough to give us clean sheets afterwards. Blake mused as she read one of Kay's poetry books. According to him, this was his second published work. In both of the collections she had been through so far, she had seen a lot of works alluding to mental health and insecurities. There had also been some taste-breakers in there as well, as Kay had also decided to include some ridiculous poems with comedic or meta commentary.
"You seem deep in your thoughts," Blake looked up to see the man had taken a break from typing at his computer. They had both been in his office for most of the day, sipping tea and relishing the warmth of the home. Yang and Jaune were delegated to shoveling the driveway and front sidewalk today; the last two days were dominated by a snowstorm that kept everyone in town indoors. Today was a clear weather day, but it was still too cold for Kay to go out and help, so they implored him to stay inside to make sure he stayed well. "Any pennies?"
"You mean Lien for my thoughts?" Blake corrected.
"No, pennies." Kay retorted. The cat Faunus rolled her eyes, but smiled at the writer's light tone.
"Many of us feel lucky to have dropped into your lap of all people, Kay." Blake said, not looking away from her reading material. "I don't know how much different it would be if we landed in the home of someone completely unfamiliar with who we are."
"Probably in jail," Kay answered simply, as if it were the obvious answer. "Or held in a room with regular psych checks. Or both."
"Really?" Blake asked. Surely no one would really do the latter to youth in need.
"A bunch of kids with superpowers and weapons drop in and tell you they've been transported from a world with magical dust and monsters," Kay said. "And they ask you if you can help them get them back home."
"Fair point." Blake chuckled as she raised her mug to her lips.
"And don't even get me started on the whole immortal-wizard-who-shares-the-body-with-a-teen thing." Kay added, almost causing Blake to spit out her tea.
"You win again," Blake smiled. It really must have been luck on their side that they landed in his house. She took a second to look at the books in his shelf. "Kay?"
"Hm." Kay hummed as he sipped from his own tea. His focus was back on whatever he was writing.
"Do you have a favorite character?" Blake's question was simple, one between deep readers that she thought Kay would appreciate. "Among us?"
"That doesn't seem appropriate now that I know that y'all are real." Kay deflected. A minor coughing fit caused Blake's ears to perk up, but she relaxed when the writer raised a hand for her to calm down as he went for more tea only to realize his mug was empty. The older man took to his feet, revealing that he was still in his pajamas. "I'll be right back."
He exited his office to find the rest of the kids chilling out in the living room. Weiss and Ozpin were also reading books in the corner of the room away from the chaos of Nora, Ren, and Ruby playing UNO. From what Kay could tell, Ren was doing pretty well at causing chaos.
"Reeeeeeen!" Nora faux-sobbed. She smacked her man's arm repeated while Ruby looked at him as though he had committed some sort of scandal. A closer look showed that Nora would have won, she had one card in her hand, that is until Ren shattered her dream of victory with a Plus-4 Wild card. "How could you!"
"You don't get to win so easily," the ninja said sagely, ignoring the young viking's blows. "Now pick up your four so Ruby can have her turn."
"That's the way to do it, Ren." Kay's voice caught the younger man's attention. Ren watched the homeowner walk over to the kitchen, replace his mug's teabag with a fresh one, and poured the still warm water from the stove kettle. "No love, no friends in UNO. Just victory."
"Whose side are you on, Kay?" Nora cried as she finished picking up the last of her four.
"I'm on the side of victory." Kay said, walking back to his office before pausing at Oscar and Weiss. The farm boy looked up at him with a raised eyebrow as the man extended a free hand to shake. "Ten Lien or dollars says Ren wins."
The younger man looked at the game in progress, the players looking back at their conversation awaiting his decision. They didn't expect his answer.
"I'll be taking that bet." Ozpin said, shaking Kay's hand before he turned back with a sly smirk as the card game became raucous once more. Kay relished in the despair in Nora's cry as Ren placed a Plus-2 card. The writer stopped as a knock knock loudly announced itself at the front door, making him turn away from his intended destination.
Maybe Yang and Jaune are done outside? Kay thought. It really wasn't a lot of snow. He turned the front door handle in hopes to see the two blondes waiting to warm up inside. Instead, a man around his age stood smiling in relief. His green eyes shone with excitement and he wore a black beanie and scarf that had several snowflakes that were starting to melt from the warmth emanating beyond the threshold.
"Kay!" The man said, garnering the attention of everyone inside. A tense atmosphere quickly descended. Was Kay going to have an explanation for them being there? "I got your text, man. How are you?"
"I'm… good." Kay retrieved his phone from his pocket to check that he hadn't missed any texts or calls. When he realized he didn't, he looked back at the man with slight disappointment. "No warning?"
"My phone's kinda broken at the moment," said the visitor. A shudder wracked his body as a cold winter wind passed behind him. "So uh, you gonna let me in or…?"
"Um," Kay glanced back at the kids inside, who looked about ready to pounce. He tried his best to calm them down by waving a hand dismissively, though none of them seemed to relax. Turning back to the visitor, he saw Yang and Jaune emerge from far behind the stranger, as though they were hiding from him. "Sure, c'mon in."
"Oh, you have company?" His friend said as he stepped into his home and saw the large group within. None of them had said a thing so far despite the man waving to them. "They friends of yours?"
"Yeah," Kay said, allowing for Jaune and Yang to finally come in from shoveling. They shook off the thick coveralls he had given them to protect their clothes from the weather. Ren stood to help and take their boots, placing them next to a nearby heater. The man made to take off his hat as Kay thought of a reasonable excuse. "Visiting from far off."
"They uh," his visitor seemed to finally feel the intensity in the air once he took off his hat. "They seem a bit on edge right now! I don't bite, I promise."
"Yeah uh… it's fine, everyone. This is my friend and editor," Kay said stiffly, preparing himself for any outburst about to happen. The green eyes and styled red hair did not help the situation. "He's visiting to help me with something about my work.
"Hi there everybody," the guest waved again with a smile on his face. His friend's cheery demeanor did not ease Kay nor the rest of them from what was going on. "My name's Roman!"