A Third Rose
Chapter 11
The Search part 4
A/N: Another thank you to my creative consultant Iron117Prime, without him this would have turned out somewhat differently.
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-Vale, Beacon Academy, Ozpin's Office-
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Ozpin had been going through a number of different reports from Krim and Qrow and the most latest was quite frankly the most troubling. Apparently now instead of just going after one boy with a sword heading to Vale there were apparently three children heading in that direction together; two boys and one girl. Though that wasn't the problem. The problem was that now a notorious assassin seemed intent on killing them. According to eyewitness testimony a restaurant employee was trying to take out some trash but was killed shortly before three kids burst into the kitchens and made their way through to the dining area.
Marcus Black continued to try and chase the trio down to kill them, wounding or outright killing some of the patrons that were there. Fortunately though someone called the police which forced Marcus to fall back and try to escape before anyone else could be hurt or killed. Unfortunately both he and the trio were in the wind. With no one having seen any of them since. Qrow and Krim had wanted to conduct a search of the town with the help of the local police but when they found that the police had already done so throughout the entire day and had found nothing. Those kids were extremely elusive towards everyone who tried to pursue them.
As the headmaster looked over the reports on what the two Huntsman had sent back showed that they were all but completely certain that not only did the kid have Summer's weapon but that he was making his way to Vale. Ozpin also saw that both the train station's security camera footage and the eyewitness accounts painted a very interesting picture regarding Nix's new traveling companion. It would seem that despite having gone underground for several years, Marcus Black hadn't been idle; apparently he had fathered a son if the resemblance was any indication.
Though they weren't sure why Marcus was chasing the two, anyone could hazard a guess, Mercury had likely run away from home and his father hadn't taken kindly to that. During the whole thing, Mercury had likely encountered Nix and the two were now traveling together. Their newfound friend however didn't have as colorful a background as the son of a former assassin, and there wasn't really even a name on her. All anyone really knew was that she was a pickpocket that had arrived in town just a few weeks before the two boys.
There were also more than a few things that were still unsaid in the report. They hadn't given any speculation as to why the children were making their way towards Vale, though Ozpin could tell that the boys were doing so even before they had run afoul of Marcus Black. He was almost certain that Nix was trying to return the weapon to the family of Summer Rose. If that was the case, then Ozpin didn't hold much in the way of hope for the survival for her.
Still though he had to focus on the present. There were three children that were being pursued by a mass murderer and even if they didn't have anything to do with Summer, he would do what he could to keep them safe. All he really could do right now was inform the Vale Police Department of the situation; as well as any Hunters between the town of Burgundy and Vale about how a notorious hitman was attempting to hunt down and murder a trio of children who were trying to make their way to Vale.
They needed to find those kids quickly.
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-Vale Frontier, Merchant Caravan-
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It hadn't taken Emerald all that long to lead the boys to the caravan that planned on leaving the town, and oddly enough, it didn't take too much for them to convince the guys to bring them along. They were of course a little bit reluctant to just let three twelve-year olds follow them on their route. Eventually though, after promising that they were only going to the next town and that they would help with whatever needed done.
The trio were currently in the rest of the merchant caravan, having set up camp and most were sitting around a campfire while a group of hired guns were on watch. The merchants and some of the travelers that had joined up with their caravan journeying to parts unknown were themselves were cooking food around the fire. The food of course were things that everyone had brought with them. The merchants and travelers talked with one another, be it about where they were headed, what they were doing when they got there, things like that.
There were however whispers regarding some of the younger members of their group. There were several who wondered just what three twelve year old kids were doing with the merchant caravan but for the most part didn't give them much in the way of bother for the most part. Just about everyone was around the fire, mostly eating out of some canned goods or simple meals that could easily be cooked over an open flame. It wasn't fancy but it was still better than what most of the trio were used to.
Of course they only had what they had in their backpacks for food which were a mishmash of various protein bars, water bottles and other necessities for their little mission. It wasn't much but for Nix it was a gourmet meal at a 5 star hotel compared to what he'd had to live off of for the last couple of years. As he pulled out his dinner, he noticed that Emerald didn't have anything to eat. In fact he noticed that she had the same look he probably did when he saw someone eating a nice meal while he often had to go hungry.
When he saw that Nix reached into his bag, not really thinking as he did and pulled out a second protein bar. When he did he immediately offered it to the dark skinned girl who seemed extremely surprised by what he was doing. Even as Mercury started to munch down on his own food, he gave a curious look to his friend.
"Wha-" she started "You looked hungry and you don't seem to have any food on you so…" he trailed off with a shrug. Emerald looked like she was about to refuse the offer when a loud growling noise came from her stomach causing Merc to nearly choke on his food as he struggled to contain his laughter at the scene.
Emerald looked down at her stomach with a look of complete and utter betrayal for several seconds before looking back up. With no small amount of reluctance, Emerald reached out for the food and took it from the outstretched hand. She unwrapped the protein bar before she started to heartily devour it like her life depended on it.
In less than fifteen seconds the protein bar had been completely devoured. Nix and Mercury were looking at the girl with more than just a little bit of surprise that someone could eat something that quickly. She gave them both a dirty look and said "What? I haven't had actual food that wasn't half thrown away in…well I can't remember."
Mercury looked more than a little bit surprised but Nix just looked like someone whose suspicions had been confirmed "I figured as much."
Emerald blinked in surprise. "I'm a street rat too." Nix explained and suddenly everything pieced together and her eyes widened in realization "So that's how you knew I had grabbed your buddy's cash." She nearly exclaimed before continuing "You two looked like easy marks, just a couple of dumb tourists wandering around!"
Both Mercury and Nix gave Emerald deadpan looks and Emerald immediately reddened in embarrassment in the fact that she said part of that out loud. "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way! It's just, well most of the tourists that come through here to get to Vale are pretty easy. Practically none of them pay any attention, and well given how your friend wasn't, I thought it might be some easy money."
At that Mercury looked over at Nix who groaned as he remembered something unpleasant "Well I can understand pickpocketing someone who seems like an easy mark at least."
Mercury then gave a knowing look over at Nix who seemed sad for a moment before his face assumed a more normal expression. Emerald didn't decide to pursue speaking on that at least and instead moved on "So, is anyone going to explain why we have your gun-toting psychopath of a father after us?"
There was more than just a little bit of reluctance to discuss the matter but eventually Mercury spoke "Well the short version is that my old man didn't like that I took a lot of money and ran off while leaving a note basically telling him to go fuck himself written on the wall."
Both Emerald and Nix gave Mercury looks that told him exactly what they thought of what they did "What? I knew we'd need the money!" He declared.
Nix groaned and massaged his temples "It's not the fact that you stole from that bastard, it's the fact that you left a message taunting him. Don't you think that might have set him off?"
To Mercury's credit, he looked at least a little bit unnerved when he remembered what happened "Well…yeah maybe."
"Then again, given what you told me before, that psycho probably would have come after us anyways." At that Mercury scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, I was planning on warning you after got on the next train. I swear I didn't think he'd be able to track us down that fast!"
Emerald and Nix looked at one another before the latter said "I believe you, but we gotta figure out what we're going to do about him."
"What are we supposed to do?" Emerald asked incredulously "The guy is a freaking killing machine, and we're a bunch of kids. And you said yourself that going to the cops would be pointless because the bastard slaughtered his way through a police station once."
There was a look of utter fear on Nix's face before he managed to find his resolve again "Simple, when we get to Vale we head straight for Beacon Academy."
They both looked confused as to why that was when he explained further "Well, since we can't go to the cops because Marcus would tear through them; I think that the only real protection we can get is from a heavily fortified, heavily armed school for aspiring hunters. Think about it; from what I've heard that place is built on top of a cliff surrounded by forests teeming with Grimm. The guys in there are probably the toughest people around. Even if there were just a bunch of students they have hunters teaching there right? So it's probably the safest place we can get to."
That did make a lot of sense but there was still one small problem "But how do we get to Beacon, like you said it's built on top of a cliff and the woods around it are teeming with Grimm."
At that Nix started to deflate more than just a little bit "Well, uh, I haven't actually thought that part completely through yet. I mean they'd have to have airships going back and forth right, maybe those aren't as well guarded as the ones back in Vacuo?"
The look that Mercury gave him said that probably wasn't the case "Well, we'll just have to figure something out when we get to Vale." He said.
That wasn't as reassuring as it sounded but that was pretty much dropped for the time being, instead Emerald asked "Also, I've been meaning to ask; what's with that sword you're always carrying around?"
Nix started to look uncomfortable "That's uh…I'll tell you tomorrow."
Emerald seemed more than a little disappointed by the delay but she decided to drop the matter entirely for the time being. Besides it was starting to get more than a little bit late and given that the merchant convoy always had to get up at sunrise to try and cover as much ground as possible, they would need to get as much sleep in as they possibly could.
Besides with all the insanity that had happened in the last few hours, she needed to get some sleep too, especially after everything that had happened. Nix himself was starting to get tired and was thinking about turning in when he heard Mercury speak up.
"Hey, Nix." Mercury called out, looking somewhat sheepish. Nix turned to look at his friend and waited for him to continue "Thanks for that back there. Nobody had ever done anything like that for me before."
Nix shrugged and smiled "Yeah well…I wasn't about to sell out one of my friends especially to a psychopath." Mercury gave a small smile at that.
"Then why save me or take me along for the ride?" Asked Emerald, having been curious about the boy's actions towards her as well. Nix looked over at the crimson eyed girl and had a strange expression on his face as he said "Well, you didn't deserve what he'd do you either. I don't think I'd ever be able to live with myself if I let him hurt or kill either of you while there was something I could do about it."
"Besides us street rats should try to stick together." He gave them both a small smile and they returned it.
"I guess so," she replied and while she felt that there was probably more to it than that, she'd accept that answer for the time being. As the trio prepared for bed, Emerald figured she'd probably stick with them, at least for a while after their business in Vale was done.
Soon enough though exhaustion began to creep in. Within moments they all decided to head back to the tent they were borrowing from the merchant caravan and get some much needed sleep. They would need all the rest they could get before they headed out in the morning.
As they did, Emerald found it harder to get to sleep with all the thoughts swirling on in her head. She had said that she would ditch the group after all the insanity was over but at the same time…maybe it would be good if she stayed with them for a while longer afterwards.
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-Vale, Frontier, wilderness-
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It hadn't been easy for Marcus but he had managed to evade the authorities in that damned town. He had to put more than a few of them down of course but that was necessary, and a decent enough stress relief. For the most part anyways. The little shit and his son had managed to get away. The lucky little bastards, he'd make them all pay for humiliating him like that.
After everything Marcus had done for the boy, he brought his useless ass up and trained him to be a proper successor so that he could continue a perfect line of assassins he ran off with a couple of weak little brats. Mercury had proven to be nothing but a failure and a weak little brat that amounted to nothing. He was too soft, too weak, and Marcus had sworn that he had managed to beat that out of him during their training sessions but there was still more than enough of it left that he tried to run.
Marcus did an ammo check on his weapon and swore. He knew that he'd used a bit during his little rampage to take out the little shit that had hurt his eye, and more than a little when he had to blow away some of the cops but this was a little more than he had been expecting. He was almost completely out of ammunition.
The man swore so creatively that any sailor would have been completely impressed by it. Not only was he low on ammo but he'd have to lay as low as possible in any town he went to so it would make it even more difficult to get ammunition. Sure he could go through his usual underground channels but that would just give his quarry longer to get farther and farther away. He would still need to get some ammo though, even if he managed to avoid the authorities, the Grimm were another matter entirely. Then there were other supplies he would need for this little excursion.
He all but snarled in anger; this little excursion had become a lot lengthier and when he got to those little shits, he'd have to make it pretty damn slow and agonizing when he made them pay the price for their defiance.
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-Vale, Patch Island, Rose Xiao/Long Household two weeks later-
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It was almost mid-day when Cinder found herself outside of the house; more specifically right by a makeshift target range that she and the rest of the family had set up a while back. When Cinder stated her desire to become a huntress like her mother and father, both Summer and Taiyang had wanted to make sure that was what she truly wanted. After Cinder had said 'yes' the two began doing everything they could to help her make her ambition a reality. Of course it hadn't just been her parents, Yang and Ruby both tried to help in their own way. Mostly by trying to come up with some really over the top weapons designs for their sister to try out.
To this day Cinder wasn't sure that it was possible to create a pair of boxing gloves that could turn into oversized multi-barreled machineguns or a halberd that could fire artillery shells. But either way it had been really fun for Cinder to watch her two sisters come up with such over-the-top concepts for her. Hell there were even a few times where she had joined in on the fun, after all what huntress-in-training wouldn't want a bow that doubled as a missile launcher?
Eventually however Cinder settled on a pair of scimitars that could be combined into a bow. Cinder learned pretty quickly from her parents that eventually weapons would be either modified or outright replaced at some point. This was because as her parents explained, it. She would literally outgrow the weapon itself, so she'd have to make a new one at some point.
Still though it was a decent enough weapon for her to train with, and she found herself enjoying target practice outside at the makeshift range that she and the family had on their property. It wasn't too big, and mostly just had a few targets that were set up at varying ranges. Cinder wasn't a crack shot by any means and still had a long way to go but she could almost always hit the center of the target on the closest of the three, and was more moderately good at the middle ranged one but the third…well, the fact that there were arrows littered around almost everywhere but the target or its outermost edges said it all.
She nocked an arrow and pulled back while aiming directly at the target farthest from her. She let the arrow free and sent it flying towards the target. Unlike the other two targets Cinder still failed to land a hit on even the outermost sections of the target at the longest range. She nocked her last arrow and this time tried to adjust her aim and stance and still she failed to hit the target, with her arrow landing a few away from the target.
Cinder scowled and moved to collect the arrows from the targets and the ground, and as she did she tried take her mind off of her failure to hit the targets by remembering a time that was better.
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Cinder had spent most of the day on a shopping trip by her father since the morning. He said it was important because he had plans on building a shed in the backyard for some of his tools and had brought her into Vale to for some 'father daughter' bonding as he called it. It was annoying at first but Cinder didn't mind too much, even as her father asked for her opinion on some of the color of some of the materials. Naturally Cinder tried to go with dark red while her father thought it would be better for a more yellow color. The two would childishly and –especially looking back- hilariously for a while before they simply decided to go with the color of the house they lived in.
The two got back home after a while but when they did, Cinder had noticed that her father was trying desperately to keep a straight face for some reason and found herself curious as to what was going on. "Dad?" She asked as the pair got out of the car.
Her father turned to look at her, a smile on his face and asked "What do you need Little Ember?"
"Why exactly did we have to spend four hours in store after store looking for something for that shed you wanted to build? Why bring me?"
At that Taiyang just gave a smile –a somewhat nervous one- and said "Well, clearly I wanted to spend time with my oldest daughter. Is something wrong with that?"
Okay, now she knew for sure that something was up. Whenever Cinder's father ever tried to spend time with them it was generally as a group, though he did spend time with each of his daughters individually as well. The thing was though, was that he tried to make whatever it was he was doing with them as enjoyable as possible. Being dragged to several stores for several hours wasn't something that her father would do. Granted she had only really known him for about a year at this point but she'd like to think that she'd gotten a decent read on him.
When she told him that, he looked even more nervous at that even as the pair approached the door. "Well let's just get inside and spend some time with everyone." His attempts at changing the subject weren't fooling her. In fact she wasn't sure as to whether or not it would fool anyone! There was something going on and Cinder was about to demand answers when Taiyang opened the front door to the house.
Through the entryway Cinder saw Summer, Ruby and Yang waiting inside, with balloons, and streamers decorating the inside of the house "Surprise!" They called out, which was closely followed by a "Happy birthday Cinder!"
Cinder was brought into the house even as her family started to sing a traditional 'happy birthday' song.
She was quickly brought over to the table where a cake covered in chocolate icing with "Happy Birthday" written on it with vanilla icing was located. On it were eleven candles, all of which were lit and Cinder had a feeling what was about to come next, having seen it from time to time back at the Glass Unicorn, but never once did she think that she would be part of it.
"Blow them out and make a wish!" little Ruby insisted, a big smile on her face. Cinder did just that, and blew out the candles. As she did though Cinder wondered what she should wish for but she came up empty. She had no idea what she would want. She could wish for strength but she was already getting stronger every time she trained her mom and dad. A good family? She already had that and more.
What could she want?
Soon enough though her younger sister asked "Well, did you make a wish? What was it? Was it a gajillion of mommy's cookies?" Cinder gave a small snicker at that. One could trust Ruby to want an infinite supply of that. Though she had to say it was very tempting given how delicious they were.
"Yang, Ruby, you know if someone tells their wish than it won't come true." Her mother teased and Ruby's eyes instantly widened before her hands went to her mouth for a second, horrified while Yang just started to look more than a little nervous. "I'msorry!I'msorry!I'msorry!" the youngest of the sisters cried out but Cinder and their mother gave her reassuring looks.
"We know sweetie, we were just kidding." Ruby's face scrunched up into an adorable pout that didn't make her nearly as intimidating as she thought it did. Yang was fighting off snickering at the look her sister was giving, which only became worse when Ruby turned to face her older sister and the put intensified. It was only after promising Ruby they wouldn't do that again that she forgave them.
Eventually though, Cinder admitted "I'm not sure what to wish for. Can I save the wishes until I know what I want?" Summer thought for a second or two before she nodded "I don't see why you can't Little Ember."
Cinder smiled as the family began to dig into the birthday cake as yet another happy memory was made in her new life.
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Cinder brought herself out of the memory as she started to walk towards the home from the range. It was easy to look back and see things as childish. However after nearly a month of hearing nothing about what happened to her mother, the foundations of her family beginning crack, she found herself once again completely powerless to do anything about it. Cinder completely despised this feeling, she hated being so powerless, especially with how her family was suffering all around her. She tried to be there for them, trying to reassure them that mom would be back soon, but as the days turned into weeks, everyone was slowly starting to realize that Summer Rose, their mother; probably wasn't coming back and that they would never see her again.
Cinder didn't give up hope though. There was no way that her mother, the strongest, most dependable person she had ever met would just die on them like that. She had to come back home, she had to.
It seemed as though the only thing that Cinder could do at that point was something that seemed both hopeless and childish but as of that moment, she couldn't care less.
'I don't know if this will work or not, but I wish for mom to come back alive and unharmed.' The thought echoed in Cinder's mind for a moment or two before she shook herself out of it. She doubted that simply wishing would work. Cinder was young but she knew that if someone wanted something, then they would have to acquire it on their own.
For so long Cinder wanted strength so that she could achieve freedom but instead of breaking out of the Glass Unicorn on her own, she had been saved by the woman she now called mom and soon after introduced to those that became her true family. She still wanted to become stronger, but she found that it wasn't only for herself, but for her family. They had done so much for her; saved her, taken her in and loved her like she was one of them and soon enough she had become one of them. Ruby and Yang had embraced their new older sister with open arms –quite literally in fact-, Taiyang and Summer treated her like she had always been one their daughters even before the adoption had been made official.
Cinder began to walk back to the house her thoughts still racing even as she opened the door and stepped in. The once vibrant, happy atmosphere of the home had become steadily gloomier over the last few weeks. Her father was barely holding it together at this point and he barely even tried to smile anymore. Ruby attached herself to whoever was nearby, as though she was scared that they'd disappear if she let go. Sometimes it was her father, other times Yang or Cinder.
She tried not to cry but as time went on, everyone could feel the tears that stained their clothes whenever Ruby latched onto them for any amount of time. Yang however was the almost the opposite. She had sequestered herself in her room, and spent most of her time looking over some of the belongings that the woman who had given birth to her had left behind.
Cinder had been having trouble understanding why Yang would even bother trying to find out more about Raven. For whatever reason that woman had left, leaving Yang with only her father. Summer had been there for her since she was a baby and by any measure was her real mother.
The dark haired girl entered the home and heard the pitter patter of small feet on the wooden floor of the home. Cinder knew almost immediately who this was, even before the red clad, dark haired blur impacted against her. Within seconds Ruby had wrapped her arms around her older sister and Cinder could feel tears start to stain her shirt.
Not even hesitating Cinder wrapped her arms around Ruby and held her close for several minutes as the crying intensified. Eventually though the girl calmed down a little "Ruby, what's wrong?" she asked.
"It's Yang!" said Ruby "She's still in her room and won't come out. She won't talk to me or anyone!"
Cinder wasn't surprised by this, Yang had sequestered herself in her room for hours most days and was trying to find out more about her mother. There were a lot of things, mostly pictures and a few other things that Yang had been going through ever since the revelation about who her birth mother was.
Cinder, dad and Ruby had made several attempts to either help her or at the very least get her to stop for a little while so that she could take her mind off of it, there was little any of them could do. Yang however had rebuffed them all, and instead continued to go over anything and everything that her mother had let behind. Apparently she hadn't even taken as much as a break.
"I'll try to talk to her." Cinder assured but she wasn't sure she'd be able to convince her sister to stop. Yang could be incredibly stubborn when she wanted to be. So much so that there were times where even Taiyang and Summer had trouble getting her to back down.
Cinder and Ruby headed upstairs towards their sister's room. Their father was out getting some things and said he'd be back before dinner, but this was something that Cinder felt would probably be best settled as soon as possible. Besides, their father had been having just as much trouble trying to reach Yang as of late as they had.
Once Cinder reached the door that lead into her sister's room she knocked on it "Yang," Cinder said before knocking on the door again, only this time a little bit harder "Yang! It's Cinder, come on, open the door!"
There was a long pause before Cinder heard the sound of something getting up off of the bed; which was followed by a series of muffled footsteps as the individual on the other side made their way towards the door. Within a moment or two of waiting, the doorknob turned and then the door started to open. On the other side was Yang, whose slightly bloodshot eyes had bags beneath them.
Cinder started to wonder just how much or how little the girl had been sleeping. She hadn't noticed anything wrong with Yang lately but then again, she hadn't exactly been spending much time with them either. Instead she had all but sequestered herself in her room with whatever bits and pieces of information she had about her birth mother that their father had on hand.
Yang's eyes rested on Cinder for a moment before turning to Ruby who was standing nearby with a hopeful look on her face. "What is it?" the young girl asked somewhat annoyed by the interruption.
"Yang, can we come in? We really need to talk."
The blonde haired girl seemed reluctant to let them in but eventually gave a small shrug and opened the door and allowed the other two sisters to enter her room.
There was a box on top of Yang's bed and most of its contents were spilled all over it. Most of them were photos and old documents that were from their parents' time at Beacon Academy. In some of the photos of team STRQ she could see each member of the team and Cinder found herself at just how young her mom and dad looked in them.
Yang sat on one of the uncovered spots on the bed and looked at her older and younger sisters. The latter was behind Cinder and extremely nervous while the latter wore a more concerned expression. "Well?" Yang asked.
Cinder found herself not entirely sure where to begin so she'd start with the obvious "So how has the little search been going?" She asked while Ruby just looked up at her with a strange expression, apparently having expected her to try to talk her into coming out of her room and spending time with the rest of them.
Yang meanwhile perked up a little at that "Good! I've been finding out more about my mother. Here let me show you something!"
Yang excitedly went through the pile of papers on the bed for a minute or two. Eventually she came back with a small map "I keep finding things about this place here on the map, I'm not sure what it is but I think that this is where she lives!" She exclaimed.
Cinder had a look at the map itself and it was a relatively simple one. It actually lead from their house and to a spot somewhere in the woods. There was also a photo of what looked like an old cabin with several members of team STRQ were hanging out at.
"It's only a short walk away, we can go now and get back before dad realizes we're gone and-" Yang didn't even have the time to finish before Cinder immediately torpedoed the mad plan "Absolutely not!" She exclaimed putting her arms into an x before slashing them outwards like a pair of swords.
Yang looked shocked at this and said "But-but we can get there and find out more about Raven!"
Ruby looked between her two older sisters and almost seemed on the verge of tears as she watched the argument unfold "It's dangerous out there in the woods! There are Grimm out there!" She all but shouted while Yang came back just as hard "The hunters on Patch killed all the Grimm! It's safe!"
"Doesn't matter, there will always be more Grimm! You're not going out there and that's final!" Cinder yelled.
"You're not my mom!" Yang shouted back.
"No I'm not, but I promised mom that I'd look after you both and that includes making sure you don't go out into Grimm infested woods!"
Yang looked like she was about to shout at her sister again when Ruby set foot in between the two and tears were streaming from her eyes and down her cheeks "Stop it!" She begged/yelled at the two of them.
It was like magic. Both Yang and Cinder immediately stopped shouting at each other and turned to their youngest sibling. "Please stop fighting," Ruby begged again looking at each of them.
To this day, Cinder wasn't sure how Ruby did it but she was somehow able to defuse most arguments simply by begging them to stop and getting teary-eyed. Through some bizarre means she managed to make everyone feel guilty about fighting. Cinder had wondered many times whether or not this was some kind of bizarre semblance but given that Ruby hadn't had her Aura unlocked that was unlikely. The only real question remained was whether or not Ruby was aware of how much power her little expressions could hold over people.
Gods help the world if it turned out she actually knew…
Unfortunately, while Cinder and Yang had stopped their argument it was easily clear that nothing had truly been resolved. In fact the only thing that changed was that Yang came to the conclusion that her 'super-sis' wasn't going to help her. So instead Yang began to make plans to sneak out later.
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-Coastal Town of Argo-
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Argo was a town that was located just outside of Vale and it was quite prosperous for its fishing industry and for how the trains went through the town and directly into Vale. In fact ever since the town had the rail line built through the town, the place had started to massively thrive. The place was so practically jumping with activity despite the fact that it was getting close to the evening but that was to be expected, given how many of the fishing boats were coming back to the docks.
In the middle of the mess were two huntsman who were desperately trying to track down a trio of kids. It had taken several days but Qrow and Krim finally managed to track them to this one singular town. They had first managed to track down the merchant caravan the kids had used to leave the town and through a series of other caravans and train stops, found the kids here.
The pair were currently talking to a group of fishermen who were already bringing in their haul onto the docks "Yeah I saw 'em. They wanted us to take 'em to Vale but I told 'em that we don't head towards those waters. Too much of a pain with all the paperwork involved. Then they asked if we could take 'em to somewhere that could take 'em to Vale. I said sure."
At that both of the Huntsman started to light up "Alright so where did you take them?" Qrow asked. When the man responded both of the Huntsman looked at one another in dumbfounded shock.
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-Patch, Forest-
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Yang had waited a while before putting her little plan into motion, a couple of hours in fact. Dad was still out on his errands while Cinder was in her room still cooling off after their argument. Depending on the situation their super-sis could be hard to anger or easy to anger. Sometimes she could take taunt and insult from others one after the other without it bothering her but if someone were to try to harm Yang, Ruby or someone else she cared for, she'd get very angry, very fast.
This was possibly one of the few times that Cinder had actually ever gotten that upset with Yang. In fact Yang and Ruby could count on one hand how many times Cinder had gotten angry with either of them and still have several fingers left to count on.
As Yang and Ruby set out –with the latter riding in a small hand pulled red wagon- the younger of the two looking between their home and the forests that were becoming closer and closer with every footstep they took "Um…Yang, are you sure that this is a good idea. Super-sis said that-"
Ruby didn't even get a chance to finish when she saw Yang scowl "'Super-sis' isn't even going to help!" She ground out while Ruby looked more conflicted. "But she said that the forest is dangerous," Ruby mumbled.
Yang shook her heads "Dad and the others go out into the woods all the time to look for Grimm, there can't be any left on the island by now." She declared with certainty.
She'd had heard of mom and dad joining hunters around the island to kill all the Grimm shortly after she was born. Not only that but given how incredible they both were and the fact that never once had Yang ever seen a Grimm anywhere in her entire life was proof enough that they weren't around anywhere on Patch.
The leaves on the ground had already turned and fallen onto the ground and partially covered the decent trail in a carpet of brown, red, orange and yellow. Each time Yang took a step forwards or the wagon was pulled along there was a small *crunch, crunch* on the ground as they were crushed underfoot and into dozens of smaller pieces, which left a small trail in their wake.
The trees however were almost completely bare at this point though and whenever it got dark Ruby always thought they looked scary when the light wasn't on. Like they were gnarled hands reaching up out of the ground to grab everyone and drag them all away. If Yang were to be completely honest, she thought they were a little bit creepy sometimes too but overall they never truly got to her.
For a while they continued onwards, eventually though in the near total silence only interrupted by the occasional animal Ruby said "Big sis, maybe we should go back."
Yang shook her head "We're almost there Ruby, it's just a little while longer." She stated.
Ruby bit her lip but otherwise didn't argue with her and instead tried to make herself more comfortable in the small wagon that her sister was pulling. That was pretty much the only thing that was said between the two sisters throughout the journey as Ruby had laid down on the metal wagon and curled up into a small ball and almost seemed asleep despite how awkward and uncomfortable the position looked.
The two continued onwards for over an hour on the lonely trail. By this time the sun was starting to set, giving the sky a dark orange hue as it started to sink beneath the horizon. The trail was getting wider and wider at this point, as though it was starting to come to a clearing, though any view of it was blocked by a small hill.
The incline wasn't too bad and Yang easily managed to walk up the hill; all while pulling the wagon behind her. At last the cabin came into view.
Yang would admit she'd had some expectations when she saw her birth mother's home. True she didn't expect it to be a castle or a mansion or something like that. But she hadn't expected a half rotted away shack of a home that looked like it was about to fall over with the slightest breeze. Even the few windows that were on the building were all broken.
Still though she was happy, at last she had found something on her mother. Even if it turned out that she didn't live here, there must have been something inside of the shack that might lead her in the right direction.
Yang's elation of finally reaching her destination was interrupted by a low growl that was coming from her left. She instantly felt her heart turn to stone as she slowly turned her head to look at the largest Beowolf she had ever seen in her life. True she hadn't seen any before then but the pictures and drawings she had seen before…she never imagined that they would be this big.
All of the sudden her super-sis' words echoed back in her head "It's dangerous out there in the woods! There are Grimm out there!" And she hadn't listened. Now they were face to face with a monster straight out of everyone's worst nightmares.
The creature was on all fours, approaching them slowly, its mouth open and growling. Though it was clearly hostile, Yang could swear with the way the creature bared its mouth it was smirking at them. Immediately Yang put herself between little Ruby –who was now certainly wide awake and off of the little wagon- not that it would do them much good as the monster slowly advanced towards them, Yang felt her sister grab her arm and pull her close.
'This is it…' Yang thought to herself before she heard someone shout "Yang, Ruby! Get down!"
.
-Patch, Rose-Xiao Long Residence, Earlier-
.
Cinder had left Yang and Ruby alone after the argument, having gone to her own room and closed the door behind her. She needed to cool off for a little while, and given how Yang had acted so did she. Ordinarily if she was upset or she'd go out for a little extra training but considering how she had already gone out for some training earlier, she decided to simply head for her room for a while.
For a time, Cinder simply lay on her bed, the conversation –or rather argument- between her and her sister playing back over and over again in her head. Yang's temper was like an explosion, it was big and loud but it was relatively short, most times at least. Cinder on the other hand, would stew on things for hours, if not days; and it wasn't like Yang who made sure that everyone knew that she was angry, instead Cinder would be more…subdued, depending on the situation at least.
When she was angry there was an underlying hint of anger but she was able to put on a façade of, almost indifference, though it was clear that if anyone decided to push any further, she'd get truly furious. Of course there were other things that bypassed the façade of hers entirely. Someone threatening, bullying or harassing her family and friends for starters, when that happened well…one only needed to ask Mach how well that went.
This however was the first time that Cinder had ever had a shouting match with either of her sisters. Ruby was almost impossible to get upset with and the second she ever did anything wrong, she'd always apologize and try to make things right. Yang was a bit more of a firecracker in that regard but she never really ever got into any real arguments with her either.
Eventually Cinder got up off of the bed, deciding that it would be best to try and talk to Yang. Maybe she could try to figure out why in the gods' name she cared so much about finding out about what had happened to her birth mother. The woman had up and abandoned her, just like Cinder's parents had dumped her in that orphanage. Clearly that bitch didn't care.
Still though she needed to at least try to settle the differences between herself and Yang, especially with everything that had been happening lately.
She walked out of her room and headed straight for Yang's. Cinder inhaled, held her breath for a moment and then exhaled. The awkward feeling in her chest grew to epic proportions as she knocked on the door to Yang's room "Yang, it's Cinder. Can we talk?" She asked as she started to slowly open the door.
She heard no response from the other side but still Cinder persisted and fully opened the door. When it was completely open to her Cinder looked around Yang's room and saw no one. She blinked and started to search the room, checking the closet, underneath the bed, everywhere.
Starting to grow a little concerned Cinder called out her sisters' names but received no response. Her fears became more and more pronounced as she practically bounded through the house, looking for her younger siblings but she only heard silence in response. Eventually Cinder raised her voice, still hoping that this was some ill-thought-out prank that Yang and Ruby were trying to pull on her "Yang, Ruby! This isn't funny! Get out here now, or there will be hell to pay!"
Her shout was met once again by silence.
Cinder's heart was pounding in her chest almost nonstop, with fear beginning to overtake her. It was only when her father's advice when it came to reacting in stressful situations "When you're a huntress you have to remain as calm as possible, and think rationally even in the most extreme situations."
So that's just what Cinder, did. She forced down her anger, fear and anxiety and tried to think more calmly. Several possibilities entered her head all at once.
The most obvious was that it couldn't have just been a prank, Yang and Ruby wouldn't cause something like this just to freak her out. They both knew better than to pull something like this. The next was that they were trying to hide from her in some weird form of 'the silent treatment' was similarly ruled out as well. There weren't all that many place to hide inside the house, so that ruled theory out. The next one was kidnapping but Cinder discarded that one just as quickly. Yang and Ruby wouldn't have been quiet and all the windows and doors had been locked after dad had left for his errands.
Then Cinder quickly settled on the most likely scenario of them all. Yang had set out to try and go to that cabin and had brought Ruby along with her. Cinder all but snarled 'When I drag them both back here, I swear I am going to tie them both up and I'm not going to let them out of my sight ever again.'
Cinder grabbed her bow and a quiver of arrows and immediately ran out of the house tried to find a trail. Much to her good fortune, she did. It wasn't perfect but she found a set of footprints with two small sets of wheel tracks. If she was lucky she could catch up to them before something else did and bring them back home.
The eldest daughter of Taiyang and Summer ran off in pursuit of her younger sisters.
While the trail became more difficult to follow given the fallen leaves all over the dirt when she entered the forest, the path was still straight and without any real turns.
Cinder didn't know how long she was running but she felt as though her energy was at first nearly boundless. Even as she started to get tired as she continued on the path, never slowing, never stopping. The young girl didn't know how long she was running through the woods, nor did she care. The only thing that mattered was reaching her family.
Eventually Cinder finally reached the pair. Yang and Ruby were standing in front of a dilapidated shack but her relief was swiftly removed as she saw an enormous Beowolf slowly starting to stalk up to them, with both Ruby and Yang frozen in fear. Acting purely on instinct, Cinder raised her bow and nocked an arrow.
"Yang, Ruby! Get down!" She shouted before letting the arrow loose at the nightmarish creature. While the Grimm had numerous bone plates on its head and part of its arms, legs and chest, the arrow was able to land on the side of the creature, embedding itself into the monster's side.
Cinder quickly became the focus of the Beowolf who looked straight at her with glowing red eyes and soon growled. It almost looked annoyed at the attack but Cinder didn't care. As long as it wasn't going after Yang or Ruby, that was all that mattered. She nocked another arrow and pulled the bowstring back until it wouldn't go any further before letting the arrow free once more. It soared off and impacted the Grimm directly in shoulder this time. Still though despite the wound the thing kept barreling towards her.
Cinder managed to let loose another arrow but instead of hitting the black fur, the projectile harmlessly bounced off of the bone plating of the Grimm. The young huntress in-training wouldn't get another chance to fire another shot at the beast as it tackled her to the ground. The force of the impact completely knocked the wind out of her and she found herself dazed for half a second, even with her aura up.
The Beowolf let loose a howl as though in triumph and to mock its prey one final time before it finished her off. In between the howls though, Cinder could vaguely hear someone shout her name but she couldn't be sure. Whatever the case though, Cinder continued to struggle in the beast's grip even as it slowly lowered it's now open maw directly towards her face.
No! No! This was not how it all ended! She only just found the family she had always yearned for, what she had always needed. No one, and nothing was going to take them from her! Especially not some oversized mutant wolf! Cinder's expression went from terrified to enraged yet highly focused. The beast's maw was getting closer and closer, as though it was savoring the kill before it made it rather than getting it over with.
Cinder put her right hand against the beast's lower jaw while using her left on the upper jaw. Hell she even tried to drive one of her fingers into the thing's eye, hoping that would hurt it enough to get it to jump off. She had been expecting a normal response to pain like how a normal human or any other animal would react to having something hard being jammed into their eyeball, but a Grimm was nothing like that.
The beast showed no signs of pain, discomfort or…well anything as it simply continued to lower its jaws towards her throat. 'Not like this, please gods, not like this!' She thought desperately. Cinder thought she heard what sounded like a gun going off several times in rapid succession.
The Beowolf buckled slightly, as something impacted the back of the creature but even then the monster still went in for the kill. As Cinder fought back she felt a burning spark that had been slowly growing in strength over the course of her mother's disappearance, of seeing her family fracture at the seams and suffering despite having done nothing to deserve it. That spark had grown from a small kindling and at this point in time had changed into an inferno!
An inferno that Cinder felt move from her body, and into her hands. From there the inferno left her hands and onto the jaws of the beast that was holding her down. The bony white plated surface of the Beowolf right where Cinder had placed her hands began to turn orange and then a bright red. For the briefest of moments, Cinder could almost hear a faint, high pitched whistling noise coming from her hands just seconds before everything exploded outwards. The Grimm's head completely disintegrated as its body was blown off of the young girl by the force of the explosion.
Cinder meanwhile, was completely untouched, though her aura had taken a hit from the blast, she was by all accounts, unharmed. However that wasn't her focus, as she immediately tried to set her eyes on her sisters. Only when she saw that they were unharmed did she allow herself to at least somewhat relax…for about two seconds.
The protective streak she had towards her younger siblings reared its head and almost immediately she ran towards Yang and Ruby. The very instant she was there she started to look over them for any sort of injuries "Are you two okay? Did it hurt you?!" She demanded as she looked the two girls over who were practically in tears!
She checked every square inch of Yang and Ruby and only when she was satisfied that they weren't hurt did she embrace the two of them. During her run through the woods Cinder was so angry that she could only think of catching up to the two of them before dragging the pair back home, demanding to know what they had been thinking! Instead, upon seeing the two almost get killed she just wanted to make sure they were both okay.
"W-we're okay." Yang stated, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes while Ruby was already crying. Instead of chastising them like she had been planning to, Cinder just enveloped both of her sisters in her arms and held them close. The two girls' tears began to cry freely now going on about how they were sorry they didn't listen to her.
It was at that point that Cinder noticed the door to the shack open, and she heard what sounded like footsteps coming from inside. In an instant, Cinder had Yang and Ruby behind her and her bow drawn and ready.
Instantly a voice came from inside "Wait we're not Grimm!" It shouted. The voice was a boy's that sounded similar in age to herself and soon came out with his hands up. He had tanned skin, messy dark brown hair and equally brown eyes. He was followed by two others. One was another boy with equally messy grey hair and dark eyes, while the other was a girl with dark skin, crimson eyes and mint green hair done into a bobcut, though there were a more than a couple of strands that ran down her back, and it was pulled back into a sort-of ponytail.
"Look we're not here to cause trouble and we helped save your life just a few seconds ago. So could you please just stow that thing?" As reluctant as Cinder was to admit it, they had a point. Immediately Cinder lowered her weapon but made it clear that she'd use it if they made one wrong move.
The leader of the group then gestured to himself "Look, my name's Nix Malachi, this is Mercury and Emerald." As he mentioned the names of his two companions, he gestured to them as well.
Ruby being the chatterbox that she was "Do you live here? Is Raven home?" Ruby asked the three of them while the trio just looked at one another for a moment or two before turning back to their group they helped rescue. The seeming leader of the group looked down at Ruby for a moment and completely paled. That grabbed Cinder's attention more than anything else.
He seemed to recover pretty quickly before he jerked with his thumb back at the house "Not really, we just found the place and were planning on using it for a little while. I don't think that anyone lives here actually, and none of us know anyone named Raven."
At that Yang became even more crestfallen than she was before. Not only had she put herself and her sisters in danger but her birth mother hadn't even been there! She should have just listened to Cinder and stayed at home.
The eldest sister meanwhile still had some questions she wanted to ask, especially after she finally noticed something that Nix was carrying on his back. It was a sheathed sword, but also one that was very familiar to her, especially given her history with both it and its owner. Her eyes narrowed, as she focused in on it she quickly realized that she wasn't seeing things.
Cinder immediately addressed the one carrying the blade "Where did you get that sword?" she all but demanded. It was then that her younger siblings also seemed to notice it as well "Is that mommy's weapon?" Ruby asked curiously and with no small amount of hope in her voice.
Nix looked more and more nervous about the situation and he seemed to be having trouble finding his voice "W-well that's…" He trailed off, completely unsure of what he was supposed to say.
At that point Mercury elbowed him, "Come on man, you said you wanted to do this." Nix looked more than a little bit terrified at the prospect. "This wasn't exactly how I wanted to go about doing it though,"
"Come on Nix, you can do this." Emerald assured.
Just listening to the three of them made Cinder's blood run cold as the possibilities of what the boy was about to tell them ran through her mind. Of course, not a single one of those possibilities were very good. The boy seemed to be drawing on some hidden font of strength as he breathed in and out for a few seconds.
While Cinder had a very, very good idea as to what was coming, the girls that were right behind her seemed utterly confused by what was happening. Cinder almost envied the pair of them at that moment.
Before Nix could say anything though, Mercury looked over at the distance and his eyes widened while his face completely paled "Oh, fuck me." He swore.
Cinder almost admonished him for swearing in front of her sisters but as his friends turned to look at whatever it was that the young man was looking at they adopted similar expressions. Then she turned to see at whatever it was that the trio were so freaked out by.
She had expected to see some sort of a Grimm, given how the three had reacted. Instead though she saw a man, with messy grey hair and a more unkempt beard –he closely resembled Mercury if she was going to be honest-. However that wasn't what was most striking about him. No that would have to be the fact that he was carrying a rather sinister looking hatchet in one hand and had a nearly crazed look in his eyes.
"Boy, did you and your little friends actually think you could get away from me? Really? Did you all really think that you could get away from me by just sticking with some merchant caravans and then getting on a boat? Sure you slowed me down a bit by not taking the trains but not nearly enough."
'Oh so we go from Grimm to lunatics, perfect.' Cinder thought as she once again gently pushed her siblings behind her. She wasn't he only one though as Nix placed himself in-between everyone and the maniac with the hatchet. The instant he did he drew the sword he had been carrying and Cinder knew instantly that it was her mother's. Dozens of questions came to the forefront of her mind as she saw it, even as she forced Yang and Ruby into her embrace, making them look away from the scene going on in front of them.
"Stay the hell away from them!" Nix shouted holding the sword with both hands in front of him, trying his best to sound as firm and as angry as he could. Despite his bravado, Cinder could easily see that even if it hadn't been a twelve year-old kid making the threat to a fully grown and armed man. Not only that but his stance was at best sloppy and the way he held Summer's sword was even worse. He was shaking so bad that it was actually kind of amazing that the weapon hadn't fallen out of his hands yet.
"Oh goodie a repeat." The lunatic started chuckling to himself "But you're out of ammo, you used it all up trying to save those three little shits over there. It's just you and a sharpened chunk of metal."
Cinder desperately wanted beat the hell out of him for insulting her sisters and her mother's weapon but kept her mouth shut for now.
Nix kept shaking even as he spoke in a relatively firm voice "Mercury, Emerald, take them and run. I'll hold him off while you get away." At that both Mercury and started making protests against that but Nix didn't seem to care "We don't have time to discuss this now go!"
"What about your promise to tell her family what happened?!" Mercury demanded while Cinder's heart fell into her stomach at the implication. Nix shook his head "T-that's your job now." He said in a terrified yet resigned tone, "I'm gonna stay here and make sure you can get out of this alive."
He didn't even give any of them a chance to refute him before he charged forwards, the sword raised for a horizontal strike at the madman but everyone could see that this wasn't going to end well. Sure enough, it didn't.
The man just smirked as he entered a stance of his own and this one was far more practiced, experienced, solid and ready. The result was as predictable as it was horrific. The man with the hatchet lunged forwards and cut downwards with his hatchet.
Everything that came next happened as if in slow motion. The weapon went straight through Nix's right arm, slicing it completely off just below the elbow. The arm went flying away from the body, sword still in hand as it fell into the dirt and Nix fell face first into the dirt. Ruby and Yang were screaming for their parents, Mercury and Emerald both had shared expressions of horror and fear at what had just happened to their friend.
The monster in front of them though, he just gave a disgusting smirk. "Well then, now that that's over…" He stepped forwards to them, ignoring the cries and pleas of Yang and Ruby but before he could get any closer to them, a bloody arm wrapped around the man's leg. In spite of the pain and agony he Nix had managed to drag himself over and wrap his arm and bloodied stump around his leg in a desperate and vain attempt at holding him back.
"Run," he managed to get out, his looking at the group pleading, "Run! Just go!" He managed to rasped, filled with utter pain and agony with every word. The monster in front of them looked down at the one who was trying to slow him down with undisguised annoyance. "…Really?" He asked.
"…Won't let you…hurt them." Nix managed to get out, his voice getting weaker.
The bastard snarled before he reached down and picked the wounded boy off of the ground by his one remaining arm in spite of the weak resistance he offered in trying to kick out with his legs and still bleeding stump. The only thing he really managed to succeed in doing was get blood on the man's clothes, but the bastard seemed more annoyed than anything else.
Cinder immediately drew her bow and nocked an arrow but couldn't get a clear shot at the bastard given how Nix was in her line of fire.
"You really think you can stop me, let me show you what happens to people who piss me off!"
He raised his hatchet, his intent to kill the boy obvious to everyone. Mercury was no longer standing still, he charged up to the man screaming in hatred, his fist raised back, ready to strike. He was sent into the dirt by a vicious, and almost casual backhanded strike. "I'm giving a lesson here boy, and you better be paying attention because this is what happens when you decide to run away or defy me."
At this point Emerald was also moving, a small shiv that she had acquired during her travels with Mercury and Nix in hand. It wasn't much but she wasn't going to stand around and do nothing any longer. The near paralyzing fear that had held her in place replaced with reckless anger and foolhardy courage. Like Mercury though she was also sent into the dirt by a ruthless kick to the chest, completely knocking the wind out of her as well.
By this point, Cinder had already given up on trying to properly aim at the bastard and was about to change her bow back into its paired blades form. She was getting ready to rush him when the maniac brought up his hatchet and slashed across horizontally. It was as though the world was moving in slow motion and she saw everything happen; the axe blade struck the boy's arm and sliced it off as though it was tissue paper. Cinder could see the agonized expression on his face as he fell.
As Nix fell, Marcus kicked him away sending him away and onto the ground, both of his arms severed just below the elbows. Cinder nocked an arrow and sent it flying at the man, who didn't even try to block the shots. Instead he spread his arms out mockingly at her. Cinder let the arrow free at the bastard before she nocked and loose another one less than a second later. Both of the arrows impacted and bounced off of the man's aura harmlessly. If anything the bastard seemed almost enjoying her futile attempts.
Emerald and Mercury had both gotten back up from where they were on the ground and upon seeing the state of their friend, looked like they were about to try again. When they saw the state of their friend tears started to well up. Emerald jumped onto the back of the bastard and started to drive her shiv down onto his shoulder over and over again but each time it just bounced off the man's aura harmlessly.
Mercury meanwhile ran up to his father and began to rain blow after ineffective blow at the man's chest the man seemed more annoyed and wrenched Emerald from his shoulders and threw her into Mercury. Cinder nocked and let loose arrow after arrow, but they just bounced off the madman's aura. Ruby and Yang were crying almost hysterically at this point, screaming for their parents, for the monster to go away and similar things but the bastard just smirked at them.
'He won't hurt them, I won't let this bastard hurt them!' Cinder screamed in her mind despite her own mounting terror.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ruby screamed as a bright light came at the corners of Cinder's vision, before she was completely enveloped by it. Cinder turned to glance at her little sister and saw that there was a bright silver light coming from her eyes, Cinder found herself shielding her eyes with her hands as the light grew brighter and brighter
"What?!" she shrieked in complete and utter shock.
The light was so bright that she found herself near blinded by it.
Moments later she heard a familiar voice yell "Get down!"
.
-Patch, Bullhead, several minutes earlier-
.
The instant that Qrow and Krim had heard that the three of the kids were on Patch, they all but raced back to the bullhead which, fortunately had already finished refueling. The flight itself was roughly fifteen or twenty minutes so it wasn't all that bad, at least physically. The fact that the kids had gone to Patch rather than trying to take a train into Vale proper was troubling to say the least. The people on patch all knew one another on some level, and both Huntsman had family on that island. The fact that the kids were being tracked by a violent psychopath that had gunned down half a restaurant while chasing them.
They had already contacted Ozpin and he was sending more Huntsman over to Patch but that would take time. Qrow and Krim needed to get over there as soon as they could. The pair had a relatively simple plan, first they'd use the radio to contact the local authorities on Patch about the situation. They had already been told to be on the lookout for the kids and Marcus Black but they had been told that they were most likely heading through Vale through the train line. Still there had always been the possibility of them trying to get there by boat and considering that they had a psychotic hitman chasing them, caution was more than warranted.
Sure enough the cops and the local hunters were already moving and trying to organize search parties. No one had seen anyone matching the description of Marcus or the kids but they were going to start searching the area just to be sure. The entire time Krim was laying out the situation Qrow was flying the Bullhead as fast as the damn thing was capable of flying towards Patch, all the while his Scroll was still unable to get a damned signal out so that he could contact Tai and the girls and tell them what was going on, maybe even have them head for the police station for a while, or hell Qrow could take them and Krim's family into Vale or even Beacon until everything got sorted out. The last thing he wanted was for any of them to get dragged into this insanity.
Eventually Krim got off the phone with the police station on Patch and turned to his friend "Still no reception for your scroll."
Qrow shook his head, continued to scowl and even began to ground his teeth a little. There wasn't so much as a single bar on the damned thing 'Fuck you semblance, seriously, fuck you right now.' He thought.
"You can use mine, it's got full bars!" Krim insisted passing him the device and Qrow did just that and started to dial. Within seconds the phone started ringing and when Taiyang answered there was panic in his voice "Qrow! I'm sorry I can't talk right now! They're gone!"
Qrow had never once heard his brother-in-law sound so out of sorts in his life, the man seemed almost completely and utterly panicked "Tai! What's happening? Who's gone?"
"The girls, I think they went out to look for Raven at that old shack we used to hang out at when we were younger! Dammit I never should have left-"
"Tai calm down! Look, we're already headed for Patch on a Bullhead, we should be there in a few minutes! We'll make it to them!" Qrow assured as Krim slightly changed the course of the ship into the direction of the old building.
'Semblance please don't screw us over now, not my family, not them!' Qrow thought desperately as Krim gunned the engines at full power towards where the kids were likely headed.
"We'll pick them up and bring them back home!" Qrow assured, while Taiyang continued "I'm going out there now, I'm not sitting and waiting!"
"Okay but you're probably going to have to turn back home before you're even half-way there!"
"I don't give a damn!" Taiyang's voice could be heard before the call disconnected.
Qrow let out a breath "Tai's still as quick to act where everyone he cares about is involved."
Krim nodded "Can't say I blame him. If it was Nell or Lycus out there, not even an army would be able to stop me from going out after them."
The hunter's comrade in arms gave a small smile of understanding and then nodded in agreement.
It only took a few minutes to reach the damn place but for the pair it felt like an eternity, as various scenarios ran through both men's minds. The ones featuring the girls being lost in the woods, scared, alone or in danger only made them want to get there even faster. They were already pushing the damn thing as fast as it could possibly go and still they needed to get their faster.
By the time they started to close in on the small structure which was in a clearing in the woods surrounded by trees there was an extremely brilliant flash of almost silver light.
'No, it couldn't be…' Qrow thought to himself, his memories of Summer using her silver eyes went through his mind for a second as they flew closer. Once they did, both could partially make out the kids they had spent weeks trying to find, along with the psychopath that had been chasing after them.
In an instant Qrow leapt out of his seat and headed straight for the door, with Krim not even bothering to try to stop him. The Bullhead was still more than a ways up but given that Qrow's aura was completely full, he could easily tank the fall even if he didn't use his preferred landing strategy of using Harbinger's shotguns to slow his descent.
Moving swiftly Qrow swung open the door and felt the winds bellowing into the cabin of the craft. Then without a moment of hesitation jumped out into the open air, the wind whipping around him as he shouted at the top of his lungs "Get down!"
Then just as he always did when making an aerial insertion; he fired off Harbinger's shotguns, slowing his descent more than enough for his aura to only take minimal damage at best. The instant he was on the ground he saw that the bright light from earlier had faded and that the bastard was still shielding his eyes his hands, cursing very creatively as he did. He was also at least somewhat aware of Qrow as he was swinging his hatchet in the vague direction of where Qrow had just come from with his free arm.
Qrow ignored the profanity and instead fired off Harbinger at near point blank range right into the man's chest. The dozens of shotgun pellets slammed into him, tearing his aura apart and sending him sprawling into the dirt. Without a moment of hesitation Qrow drove Harbinger's blade into the bastard's chest. Marcus Black turned his head to see his killer and managed to glare at him before coughing up more blood. He seemed to want to say something but only managed to utter a weak "You…b-" before Qrow tore his weapon outwards from the bastard's chest.
Marcus fell to the ground and blood began to pool around him.
The Hunter looked over at his nieces and saw that Cinder had tackled Yang and Ruby to the ground and was doing everything she could to shield them from what was happening. Qrow ran up to them and Cinder tensed, not seeing that it was their uncle.
"It's okay, it's me Qrow!" He shouted, and Cinder slowly turned around, Ruby and Yang in hand to look at their uncle. Ruby and Yang were in tears and were unconscious but Qrow would be sure to get the two of them to a hospital as soon as possible. "A-are they…?" Cinder trailed off clearly scared out of their wits.
"They should be okay," Qrow assured.
"But I saw light coming from Ruby's eyes, I couldn't see anything!"
That was all the confirmation that Qrow needed in regards to the Silver Eyes. Tai and Ozpin would both probably want to hear about this. Obviously he couldn't just tell Cinder everything that was going on and while he hated lying to them, he didn't have much in the way of alternatives "We'll have to figure that out later, right now we need to get you all to a hospital."
Over the roar of the descending Bullhead's engines Qrow heard one of the three kids screaming. Immediately he turned to see the three kids he had been trying to find for weeks. A dark skinned girl and a boy that looked remarkably similar to Marcus were kneeling next to their friend. A friend that had lost both of his arms right around the elbow. They were both trying to stem the flow of bleeding but it was clear that they had both had limited medical training but at least they were trying. When Qrow got closer, he saw that shockingly the kid was still alive, his chest was still rising and falling, weakly but it was more than enough to tell Qrow that he was still at it.
When he started to get close though the kids looked up at him in fear. Qrow immediately held out his hands in a conciliatory fashion, "Hey I'm not going to hurt him I'm a Huntsman, I'm here to help."
With no small amount of reluctance, the two kids reluctantly let him through though not without the boy glaring at him fiercely. Qrow ignored it and stepped between them and immediately got to work. He retrieved a pair of tourniquets from his medical kit and tightly wrapped them around the boy's stumps. Though this would be a stopgap, it may not keep him from dying before they got him to a hospital. Qrow did know of one thing that would work however, but he was only supposed to do it for aspiring Hunters, not normies. However considering the situation, he didn't really care. Besides no one would blame him for bending the rules on this one.
He activated his aura and put his hand up against the boy's chest and hoped this would keep him alive long enough for them to get him to a hospital.
To be continued.
A/N: So I believe this is what is called a 'wham episode' if so please tell me your thoughts.
And just so no one gets the wrong idea; NO, Cinder does not have the Maiden powers all of the sudden. That was just her activating her semblance for the first time.