The Ursario and The Blind Reaper

Unknown Mountain Region: Many Years Ago

A much younger Maria Calavera had been making her way across the mountains via a series of long bridges. During that time, she'd worn a long, tattered cloak with a curved and pointed hood and a decorated skull mask that she wore at almost all times. During those days she'd gone by another name, a name that was revered by the innocent and struck fear in the hearts of bandits and those who would do evil. Back then, she had been known as the Grimm Reaper. But that time had come to an end on this fateful day.

As she had been crossing the bridge, she was attacked by a giant Nevermore, nothing she hadn't handled before. Though she may have underestimated the tenacity of this one after dragging it down on to some rocky terrain with a little skilled use of her large sickle's magnetic properties. She'd thought it was dead until it threw her off its back and tried charging at her, forcing her to activate her silver eyes and petrify the Grimm, turning it to stone which quickly dissolved away. That should've been the end of her troubles for the day, but immediately after she was attacked by a group of mercenaries led by a crocodile Faunus wearing overalls and a green button-up shirt named Tock.

Despite the match being four on one, she'd been able to take out nearly all of them. But Tock herself had a semblance that granted her a type of invulnerability for sixty seconds, making Maria unable to hurt her with her weapons as she bit her blade staff in half and head-butted her mask into pieces. The last thing she'd 'seen' after that was Tock swinging one of her sabers at her, then nothing but pain. The blasted crocodile had slashed out her eyes, leaving her a screaming mess on the ground as she desperately shot in the direction where she last saw her foe and missing every one.

"A fighter 'til the end," Tock had said as she deflected the now empty sickle Maria had thrown at her, "I can respect that I suppose." It had been a desperate situation, one where the former Grimm Reaper had franticly searched around on the ground near her for her second weapon. She had just gotten her hand on it and was searching for the magnetic switch when another sound interrupted the both of them.

"What would you know about respect," said a somewhat grainy, feminine voice as a bear Faunus woman came walking out from behind one of the rock formations. She was wearing a pair of long, armored gloves and shoulder pads that left her upper arms exposed, as well as a pair of rough-looking combat boots. She also wore brown pants that looked a bit worn and a belt that held a couple of knives on the back of her waist. The look was completed by a brown vest with grey, furred edges and some type of chainmail material shirt. "You didn't even have the decency to ask for what you needed."

"And just who are you supposed to be love?" Questioned Tock with a hint of annoyance in her heavily accented voice.

"My name is Jane Ursario," replied the woman as she approached a little closer, "You injured my husband and a few other members of my family in a raid on a caravan we were traveling with not long ago. I had to bury three of them."

"A caravan, oh now I remember," said Tock as she bonked her head, "That's right, me and my crew were a bit low on supplies. Tracking people like the Reaper over there tends to wear on your wallet a bit. So yeah, we decided it'd be best to take a few items we were missing. I lost five guys in that raid, two of which were my best because of a few bear Faunus. The biggest one with that nasty kukri forced me to use my semblance after cutting through my aura and giving me this cut on me head. I made him regret it with his life."

"He's still alive," said Jane, "But you cut deep into some of his nerves. He won't be able to walk properly or fully use his left hand ever again thanks to you. I'd say you were lucky, striking when I was out with the other members of my clan scouting ahead, but I've found you now."

"Look love, life is tough," replied Tock, "And I got far scarier things to worry about than ticking off some crazy bear la-." Tock was interrupted as she noticed Maria hitting the switch on her weapon, causing the other sickle to come flying towards her. The crocodile Faunus managed to deflect the weapon, but wasn't able to plant her feet in time as Jane crossed the distance between them in only a few moments and slammed into her with her drawn, knuckle knives. The only thing that had saved Tock was the fact that she'd managed to position her weapons to block the strike as she moved back and swung at Jane's head.

But Jane was faster than her husband and deflected the strike before swinging low with her left weapon. Tock leapt back and jabbed both of her blades forward, missing as Jane spun out of the way. The two women traded blows for a minute before finally locking blades. Jane then positioned one of her knives and pulled the trigger, firing a round from the built in gun at her midsection. Tock just managed to shove the weapon aside, but wasn't quick enough to keep the bullet from grazing her side.

'I'm not used to fighting this much right after using my semblance,' thought Tock, 'usually the fight's over by now.' The two locked blades again as Tock used a head butt against Jane, attempting to stun the woman. This turned out to be a bad idea as Jane immediately head butted her back even harder, causing Tock to stagger several feet back before Jane closed the distance again. Tock deflected her forward strike and kicked her foe in the side before jabbing at her head.

The bear Faunus moved her head to the side before swinging back and catching her knife on Tock's left blade, firing off a round which skinned the top of her hand and caused her to drop her weapon. 'I've had some time for my aura to recharge, but not much,' thought Tock as she was forced back by the ferocity of her opponent, parrying and dodging her relentless strikes, 'I won't have the full sixty seconds, but if I time it right.' Tock waited until Jane was about to get a hit in on her head before activating her semblance. The surprise was evident on Jane's face as her knife bounced off of Tock's head and out of her hand, allowing the crocodile Faunus a chance to counter attack with a slash to her opponent's midsection before punching her across the face, staggering her backwards several feet.

Tock pressed the attack then with some slashes of her own against Jane, who could only really defend now that she had a single blade. Feeling her superior position, Tock intentionally left an opening for Jane to counter against before activating her semblance again, causing it to bounce off of her body and leave Jane vulnerable to being easily disarmed with a single swipe. "Is this the best you've got then," said Tock as she started swinging at Jane like a madwoman, "And here I was expecting you to put up more of a fight!" Jane didn't reply as she kept dodging around Tock's attacks before the crocodile Faunus managed to trip her up with a sweep of her leg and plant her foot on Jane's midsection.

As she was about to stab her saber into Jane's neck, however, a few shots rang out as a couple of bullets went flying mere inches from her face. 'The blasted silver-eyed wench still thinks she can fight,' thought Tock as she turned her attention to the source of the bullets. "Hey, I'll get to you in a minute love, right now I-." Tock didn't get to finish her sentence as her foot was shoved away by Jane. The bandit spun around to regain her balance and swung her saber at Jane, who caught the blade with her hands.

"You want more of a fight," growled Jane as she tightened her grip on the sword and started physically bending the blade towards its owner, "Very well." It was then that Tock noticed her eyes had turned blood red, the color of the Faunus rage mode. Something that until recently, she had thought was a myth. Jane yanked the weapon out of her hand then, tossing it behind her as she cocked her fist and threw a nasty right cross straight for her face. Tock moved her head out of the way, but still felt an impact on her cheek that staggered her.

The crocodile Faunus instinctively activated her semblance as Jane gut punched her, then followed up with a combination of blows to her stomach and face, the last of which sent her flying into one of the nearby boulders, or rather stuck her to it. 'She wasn't punching like that before,' thought Tock, whose semblance had only been able to block half the blows before deactivating, 'what is this woman?' "Do you like my semblance," said Jane as she blew some of the dust off of her fist, "I'm able to store high air pressure in my body and release it to increase the range of my blows. It takes a physical toll on me, though and the stronger the air pressure I release, the greater the strain. Of course it's my opponents that get the worst of it."

"That explains *cough* why you waited so long to use it," said Tock, "It's been *cough* a long while since I've been this 'urt."

"I can also do something about that," said Jane as she approached, her eyes switching back to normal as she did so, "A permanent fix if you will."

"Well get on with it then," said Tock as she spat some of the blood out that had started filling up her lungs, "You'd save me boss the trouble."

"Of course," said Jane as she cocked her fist back, building up a good bit of air pressure in her body before throwing a punch that blasted out the top section of rock behind Tock's head, or rather, where Tock used to have a head. Jane exhaled loudly as she visibly relaxed, her hand shaking for a good few moments from the after effects of her semblance. 'That woman's semblance was no joke, I've flattened death stalkers easily with punches like those.' But the deed was done, and that filled the bear Faunus with a bit of relief as she pulled the large, yellow clock off of the corpse of her fallen enemy. 'Now to return to the rest of the caravan.'

"Mother," said a small voice that drew Jane's attention over to where the blinded huntress was. Next to her was another bear Faunus that resembled a miniature version of her, but wearing baggy, worn pants, boots, and fingerless gloves, along with a jacket and wool shirt. "She's still alive mother."

"I know that Jen," said Jane as she approached, picking up her knives along the way, "But I recall telling you to signal the rest of the clan. So why are you here?!"

"I did signal them mother," said Jen, defensively, "But I'm the one that spotted the fight in the first place! I wanted to see how it ended."

"And what would you have done if you'd been spotted," said Jane, "Our enemy was not above taking hostages."

"I wouldn't have gotten caught," replied Jen as she crossed her arms, "Dad said I'm one of the sneakiest Ursarios." Jane simply rolled her eyes as her gaze fell upon the prone huntress with bleeding eyes. "Well since you're here, grab as many essentials as you can and the woman's weapons."

"Are we taking her with us," questioned Jen as she pointed to Calavera, "I saw her fight, she was amazing."

"An enemy of those bandits is a friend of ours," said Jen as she picked up the unconscious huntress and threw her over her shoulder, "We'll do what we can for her. After all, it's thanks to her that we don't have to hunt down the rest of them. Now get to collecting."Jen nodded happily at that as she went to work picking up anything of value she could find.

Present Day: In the Forest near Argus

"The Ursario Clan tended to my wounds," explained Maria, "They said they owed me that much for taking out the other bandits. After that, they sent me up to Atlas with the guides they'd been traveling with. Apparently they'd been heading to Vale when they were raided and they didn't have a lot of nice things to say about Atlas except that their technical knowhow could probably help my eyes. Thankfully, they were right. Soon after that, I went into hiding."

"Mother never liked discussing Atlas," said Wayne as he leaned on the trailer, "The Ursario clan was a bit scattered after the great war, something that befell a number of other warrior clans. Her section of the clan tried making their way in Atlas, but for whatever reason it didn't work out, so they traveled to Vale. I always wondered why Grandmother kept that broken clock, she said it was one of the last great fights of her life. It finally makes a bit of sense now."

"You always said your grandmother was a big softie though," Yang pointed out, "According to this little story she had no problem tearing someone to pieces."

"I always found it hard to believe myself," Aegis said as he answered for Wayne, "When mother told us that she saved the Grimm reaper once, I just figured she was saying grandmother was going to live for a good long while. Though when I think about it now, mother said the Grimm reaper inspired her to become a huntress in the first place."

"It's little wonder why," said Qrow from his position on the front of the trailer, a look of awe on his face, "When I was growing up, the Grimm reaper was a legend. A legend that just disappeared one day. A lot of us thought you were just keeping a lower profile, given that you never used your name and wore a mask, and others simply came to believe you were dead. But the stories never died, I even based my weapon off what I'd heard about yours. When I was growing up, I wanted to be as good as the Grimm Reaper too."

"Well given the disappointment I've turned out to be, you may be well on your way," said Calavera.

"Why would you even think that?" Questioned Blake.

"Because it's true child," replied Calavera, "A huntress's duty is to protect others, even if it costs them their life to do so. I could've kept fighting after I got my eyes worked on but I didn't. I just looked after myself because I was afraid someone else might find me and finish what the last group started. So if you're going to aspire to be like a legend, you'd best pick someone other than me. Especially when some of you are stronger already."

This comment was clearly directed at Yang, who gave a small smile in return. "It does give me hope to see that this generation seems up to taking on the world after mine is gone. My only wish is that I could've done a bit more to help make it better."

"Well there may be something you could do now," suggested Ruby, "I still don't know how to use my eyes. But you can teach me, show me how to fight with them like you did." Maria seemed to consider this for a bit, but didn't get the chance to answer as Ruby's scroll suddenly started going off. "Guys, I'm getting a call from Jaune!"

"How in the world do our scrolls even have reception out here?" Questioned Weiss as Ruby answered the call.

"Ruby, thank goodness I finally got a hold of you guys!" Exclaimed Jaune over the scroll, "I've been checking my scroll every hour since we got to the city. I finally got your signal hardly a minute ago!"

"Wait a minute, the city," Ruby held her scroll up, checking the direction of the signal. It seemed to be originating near the top of a large hill in the distance. No one said it, but the same thought was on all their minds as Wayne and Aegis mounted their bikes and followed Yang as she pulled the trailer, which Weiss had transferred to, up the large hill. The climb up the steep incline took a few minutes, but when they reached the top, a beautiful sight greeted them.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said Yang, "We have arrived at our destination. I give you the city of Argus." Sure enough, down at the bottom of a beautiful valley between two hills was the walled city of Argus, with several of its taller buildings rising up against the backdrop of the sea beyond it.

"And just like that," said Aegis, "My depression from the last day and a half is gone."

"I guess it has been a time for firsts," said Wayne as he suddenly revved the engine, "So why don't we keep it going." The Older Ursario brother shot down the hill on his bike, letting out a cheer as he did so. Aegis took off after him, yelling that he wasn't ready.

"Wow, Wayne starting a race," said Ruby, just as surprised as everyone else.

"That really is a first," said Blake, knowing full well that the older Ursario wasn't the overly competitive type.

"Well we'd better catch up before they wreck or something," said Yang as she gunned her own bike down the hill, much to the joy, or terror depending on who you asked, of her passengers.

The City of Argus

It took Wayne and Aegis only a short time to locate a storage garage for their bikes, though they had to wait a bit for Yang and the others to show up on account of them racing and zigzagging down the hill. Not that there was much of a hurry, given that they also had to wait for team JNR to show up and meet them. As always, it was Nora that announced their team's arrival.

"LITTLE BOY OOOOZ!" Yelled Nora as she tackled Oscar to the ground.

"It's good to see you're all well," said Ren as he gave Yang a more reserved hug, "What happened exactly. We were pretty worried."

"It's just been a bit of an unusual trip," said Blake as she gave Jaune a quick hug.

"That's something of an understatement," added Weiss, speaking for pretty much everyone.

"And where'd you guys find the old lady," questioned Nora as she pointed to Calavera from her position on the ground.

"Call her a stowaway legend," said Wayne as he put a hand on said old lady's shoulder, "She'll be tagging along with us for a while."

"Well we're already traveling with an old man," said Nora, "May as well make it even with an old lady."

"Hey, what'd I say about calling me old," called Qrow from the back of the group. Wayne simply shook his head in amusement. They finished up their reunion with Ruby and Jaune giving each other a heartfelt hug before they all boarded a trolley that took them down the street.

As they rode along, Ren and Jaune explained that the city of Argus, which shared Argus De Wolfe's first name by coincidence only, was actually one of the largest if not the largest noncapital city in all of Remnant. Initially, settlement of the city had been difficult as usual thanks to the Grimm. In fact, none of the early settlement attempts succeeded at all until settlers from Mantle arrived and provided assistance for handling the colder northern climate and supplies that Solitas was unable to provide. The result was a hybrid city that falls under Mistral domain but also maintains a presence of Atlas soldiers to insure protection of the city and continuing trade between the two nations. At least they had until recent events stopped trade all together.

The city itself was a bit more rustic than the city of vale, with cobblestone streets and more brick-layered buildings. That being said, it still had several tall structures and was just as crowded as one would expect a city to be. Had this been a normal visit, Wayne wouldn't have felt all that at home. But given the events of the last couple of days, he was just happy to be around his friends. "So I guess the first order of business is to work on finding a ship," said Blake as they all stepped off the trolley.

"I'd like to stow my stuff first," said Oscar, "Where are you guys staying right now anyway?" Jaune gave a nervous laugh at that, but didn't get a chance to answer as a voice called from across the street.

"Hey Jaune," said a blond-haired girl from across the street, "I've been looking for you guys!" Everyone looked over to see a blond-haired girl wearing a buttoned, white vest, an orange shirt and brown pants and boots. She was also holding a small, dark-skinned child but that's not what everyone was focused on. The girl across the street bared something of a resemblance, to Jaune.

"Hey Saph," said Jaune as he waved nervously. Ruby, on the other hand, couldn't be more excited. If Wayne didn't know better he'd even say her eyes had gotten a little bigger.

Saphron's Apartment

The elder Arc had a rather decent apartment in Wayne's opinion with two floors, a kitchen and a lightly decorated living room with a coffee table and two couches in the center."Oh I've waited so long to meet one of Jaune's sisters," said Ruby excitedly, "I have a lot of questions I want to ask."

"Oh sure," replied Saphron from her spot on the couch, "I'd be more than happy to give you the whole rundown sometime."

"Will you two cut it out," said Jaune, a grumpy tone in his voice that he reserved only for his siblings. He'd made the mistake of sitting on the same couch as his sister with the rest of his team. Ruby, Oscar and Maria were on the couch next to them while Blake, Qrow, Aegis and Wayne remained standing or leaning against the nearest wall. Weiss and Yang were currently sitting on the floor, quite taken with Saphron's little infant.

"But I love telling stories about my baby brother," said Saphron as she pinched Jaune's cheek.

"Hey, I'm not a baby, okay," said Jaune as he waved off his sister and pointed at the infant, "That right there, is a baby." The little infant seemed to catch on that Jaune was talking about him and crossed his arms with a frown on his face.

"Oh that's adorable," said Weiss as she and Yang couldn't help but fawn over the little infant.

"Sure he's cute now," said Wayne from his position against the wall, "Just wait 'til it's time to change a diaper."

"Oh how can you say that about someone with such a cute face," Questioned Yang.

"Hey just speaking from experience," said Wayne, "One of the local weapons dealers was a friend of the family back in Blue Forge. When their kid was born a few years back, a lot of our conversations started with 'hey I'm here to pick up our order, and by the way I think you're kid needs a diaper change.'"

"The kid was in the back of the house too," Said Aegis, who was leaning on the back of the couch with team JNR, "We were standing outside." This only served to make everyone laugh as their warnings fell on deaf ears.

"So are you the only Arc in the city?" Questioned Blake as she glanced at an old photograph depicting a kid Jaune and all of his siblings.

"Pretty much," replied Saphron, "I left as soon as I got the chance. I guess Jaune wanted to be like his big sis because we're the only two living away from home."

"That's not, well not entirely-," Jaune started to say but couldn't come up with an excuse.

"Oh I must be right, because you aren't denying it!" Saphron practically sang as she pinched Jaune's cheek again. The boy Arc tried swatting her off, leading to an amusing struggle between the two. It was short-lived, though, as the door to the apartment opened. Wayne instinctively reached for his Crescent Fang before he saw that it was just a darker-skinned woman in a blue jacket and dark blue pants, with a pair of red glasses on her face.

"Everybody," said Saphron as the woman kicked the door closed with her foot, given that her arms were full of groceries, "This is Terra Cotta, she's my wife."

"Hello," Everyone greeted as Wayne discreetly took his hand off his weapon, though not discreetly enough for him to avoid a quick glare Blake.

"Well hello, this is quite a crowd," said Terra Cotta, "I just hope I bought enough food. Could I get a hand in here hun?" Saphron hopped up from her spot on the couch and proceeded into the kitchen to help her unload the large pile of groceries. Once that was done, team JNR went into the kitchen as well to help with putting the meal together. A few minutes later, both Terra Cotta and Saphron came back into the room as JNR finished up in the kitchen.

"I'm still wondering if it's really okay for us to just drop in on you," said Ruby as Saphron and Terra Cotta took their seats on the couch with their son.

"It's more than alright," replied Terra Cotta as she bounced the infant on her knee, "It's the least we can do, especially when huntsman and huntresses risk so much to keep us safe in the first place. And how could we say no to such an elite huntsman, though I will admit it's a bit surprising that you've got students helping you. Is that technically legal in your line of work?" Qrow had only been half paying attention to this question and had to be nudged by Ruby before answering.

"What, oh yeah, it's legal," said Qrow, "It's like a high end training mission really, get them some real world experience outside of the classroom. I may not look it but I was a professor once, and I even attended the same school when I was their age. I will say this, they're turning out better than my class did, well not better than me specifically, but in comparison to the average student back then they're fairly-."

"SHUT UP THERE'S FOOOOOD!" exclaimed Ruby as team JNR came out with trays full of sandwiches. There wasn't much conversation then as everyone got to stuffing their faces. Now it may have been the fact that their last meal was heavily seasoned beans that were likely way past their expiration date, but in Wayne's opinion the sandwiches were extra delicious. Everyone looked relatively happy until Terra Cotta got a call on her scroll and had to pass the infant over to Saphron, who instantly developed a pouting face.

"Is everything alright," questioned Blake, somewhat concerned the call might have something to do with them.

"It's going to be, yeah," replied Saphron, "Terra works as a technician on the town's relay tower, which just so happens to be where the military's radar system is as well. And who gets falsely blamed when the system starts going on the fritz like it's been doing lately." Saphron said the last part to her little infant. Everyone else got the message though.

"So what's the plan for you guys tomorrow?" Questioned Saphron, trying to change the subject.

"Well," said Ruby, having to swallow the large amount of sandwich in her mouth before speaking properly, "We've been making our way towards Atlas. We were hoping we could get some help at the military base." This question caused team JNR's faces to drop a little.

"About that," said Jaune, "When we got here, we decided to go ahead and try that. It didn't go, as great as it could have."

"Oh come on," said Yang, "I'm sure you caught them at an awkward time. It can't be all that bad." In retrospect, someone probably should've knocked her in the back of the head for that comment.

And the tick tock has stopped now that Tock has lost her block. All bad jokes aside, it seems our heroes have finally arrived safely at Argus, though once again things might not be as straightforward as they'd hoped. Hello everyone and Merry Christmas, I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter, though it does come with a bit of bad news. Given that RWBY itself will be on hiatus for the holidays, it's highly likely that there will not be a new chapter of team WA next week. But fear not, once the hiatus is done, so to shall this story resume. In the mean time, feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got a neat idea for the story. Be sure to stop in next time as our heroes encounter another obstacle in the form of a short, grumpy military lady. 'Til next time.