Lion Heart

"What do you mean a training exercise?" Gretchen asked as she poked her head out from behind her scroll. Team OCHR was spread out over their room as the news was discussed. Olivier stood in front of the mirror combing through her hair and looking back at Gretchen in its reflection.

"Ya isn't it about time we had an actual mission?" Caroline asked with a huff.

"Look I know we are all feeling really restless about our situation and I'm sorry for it," Liv responded with a sigh. "I'm sure it's my fault that Oz hasn't given you a mission all year and there's really nothing I can do about it. He probably just wants to test me to see if I can still handle combat properly."

"Even if he did think that way, wouldn't an easy mission just be what we need to get the ball rolling? Not more random training," Hunter added.

"Ya, frickin' Mydnight and Ambur go on missions all the time what's the deal with that? Talk about picking favorites," Gretchen huffed as she returned her eyes to her scroll.

Olivier, of course, knew the reason for all of this but she was attempting to play it off as if she didn't. None of her teammates had been graced with the information that she knew and it was clearly starting to annoy them. 'Man Oz you are not making my job very easy right now...' she thought to herself. Mydnight, Ambur, and Olivier had all been brought into Ozpin's little group at this point and been given a little more information than they had been in the beginning. For starters, they actually knew what they were fighting against finally.

They had been told of a timeless witch who did not age and wanted nothing more than to tear humanity apart from the inside out. They had also been told about how she controlled the Grimm, and that assets like Qrow and Mydnight were incredibly valuable in gathering information across great distances. Obviously, Qrow was far more useful in this regard since Mydnight apparently was still having great difficulty controlling his new alter ego but still, the group knew that someday Mydnight would reign himself in and be a huge part of the team.

Ambur too had been sent on all sorts of missions now that she had become more and more adept at controlling her strength. Olivier had often found herself more jealous than she had been the year prior of Ambur's immense strength and how easily she was able to defeat Grimm. She made the monsters look foolish, barely taking any damage from them and tearing them apart almost effortlessly. Lately, it had seemed that since Ambur's disposition to her own abilities had improved she no longer had anything holding her back from being anything short of the most effective huntress any of them had ever seen.

Liv knew all too well that Oz wanted nothing more than to clear her team for combat missions but was hesitant due to Olivier's condition. She felt fine but she knew that the technology in her body was very new and untested and that any sort of malfunction in the field could be disastrous. She wanted to get out there and do her part but she also couldn't deny that her headmaster had a very valid point and had never put up a fight.

"Well look at it this way. If we do really good on this test then maybe they will finally let us get back out there and do real missions right?" She turned to her group and put her best smile on. "So we just gotta do our best and prove to Oz that I...WE can do this. Right?"

"Ya I guess," Gretchen shrugged. "When is it?"

"Tomorrow morning," Liv responded as she crossed the room to her bed and flopped backward onto the mattress, picking her scroll up from her bed and reading the messages she had missed while getting ready. It was still early that Saturday morning and she had been waiting for her other friends to wake up before trying to get their attention.

She pulled up a text from her friend in the next room and mumbled it to herself, "Sorry I slept in, didn't sleep much last night. What'd you wanna do today?" She read as she frowned.

'Why'd you sleep so bad?'

'Just come on over I'm alone in the room just getting dressed for the day.'

"Alright well," she said softly as she stood back up from her bed and headed for the door. "Everyone take it easy today, no need to tire ourselves out before tomorrow," she smiled back to them before crossing the hallway and entering Ambur's room. "So what's the deal huh?" she asked as she shut the door behind her. As she turned back to Ambur though she froze as her eyes widened, finding Ambur facing away from her half-naked.

Her eyes were drawn to the Amazon's curves, the items that she had put on so far were a thong and matching bra that the pair had picked out together at the mall. Liv hadn't been in the changing room to see what it looked like on her friend but she had known of course that it would fit her nicely. The set was a light shade of yellow and mostly lace, other than the front of the bra which needed to be far more supportive than lace ever could be. Ambur soon turned around to find Olivier staring back at her with reddening cheeks before she looked away quickly. "Sorry I should've knocked," she said softly.

"It's fine?" Ambur shrugged her shoulders before putting her hands on her hips. "Does it look bad or something?" she asked as she began to look herself over to make sure it was on straight.

"No no, it looks really great I just..." Liv trailed off before looking back to Ambur. "Nothing," she shook her head and put on a fake smile. "It looks really nice on you."

"Ooookay?" Ambur sighed before smiling and turning back to the closet out pick out the rest of her outfit. "So what did you wanna do today huh?"

"Well do...do you have the whole day off or what?"

"Oz doesn't need anything from me this weekend so far as I know. Mydnight is already out headed to go investigate something or other with Qrow for the weekend so I don't need to worry too much about that. All yours for today," she said as she smiled back over her shoulder.

"Okay well, then I guess we can just go do whatever ya know?"

"Does anyone else plan on joining us?" Ambur asked as she pulled clothes from their hangers and finally began to get dressed.

"I don't know they all seemed pretty keen to get some rest before tomorrow."

"Oh?" Ambur pouted as she pulled her clothes on and turned back to face Olivier. "That's kinda lame. If anyone on your team should be resting it's you, no offense."

"None taken," Liv sighed, knowing all too well that Ambur was right. She had been pushing herself as hard as she could since returning to school and her team had urged her to slow down. Of course, this was a double-edged wish for them, considering that if Liv simply returned to her normal self then it could take even longer for Oz to approve them for a mission that none of her teammates were keen to do. "Honestly I have seriously lost my edge as the leader of my team. Being gone so long and now being the thing holding them back is just...really frustrating."

"Oh come on Liv you aren't holding them back. We are at school for a reason, all of this is just really intense practice," she joked. "We are only in our second year. Don't be in such a rush to be perfect ."

"It's so crazy to hear those words come from you," Liv laughed. "You have changed so much it's unbelievable."

"Hey, you're the one that did it," Ambur winked at her.

"No. You did it. I just steered you in the right direction. You put in the work. And now you're a great team leader."

"Ehhhhh. I wouldn't say that. I still have a teammate that refuses to listen to a single thing I say."

"Ya but that's...not so much your fault as it is Mydnight's."

"Hmm," Ambur hummed to herself thoughtfully. "Honestly I'm not sure if that's true or not. She hated me right from the beginning. She always thought that she would have made a better leader than me. I'm glad to say that I don't believe that that is true at least," she rolled her eyes. "If she had been our leader I probably would have quit school by now or transferred to another academy."

"I don't think anyone would be able to stand it if they were on a team led by Rosaria," Liv said in disgust at the thought. "She would just bully everyone on her team and treat them like crap all the time. Leaders are supposed to be inspiring."

"So if inspiration is all it takes then you should be fine huh?" Ambur joked again but she could see Liv sulking as she sat down onto her friend's mattress.

"Not funny," she sighed with a fake smile. "You know I don't like to use my semblance that way unless I have to or I...do it by accident," she mumbled.

"Well, I'm still thankful that you were there the night that Mydnight ran away. Do you think you could actually influence Ozpin to give you a mission?"

"Honestly I don't know. I haven't practiced with my semblance very often so I don't really know what the limits are. It's too dangerous of a thing to practice you know? Ordering people to do anything I can think of."

"Ya, that's fair. It would be nice to know exactly what you're capable of but I understand all too well how hard it can be to train when your semblance is too dangerous."

"Ya, I know you do...I think that's one of the reasons that you and I get along so well honestly we just...get it," she said as she smiled and looked up to find Ambur smiling back to her. Ambur crossed the room and sat down beside her on the bed and sighed as she let herself fall backward, laying down on the mattress as Olivier watched her. She loved the way that Ambur's brilliant red eye shown through her hair but she had, for the first time in a while, caught a glimpse of her right eye as well. "How's your eye anyway?"

"Eh," Ambur shrugged as she removed the few stray hairs from her face to give Olivier a clearer look at it. She could see clearly now just how much the color had faded and the extent of the damage that had been done to the iris and pupil. The light and cloudy shade of red didn't match her left eye color at all and Liv could tell that Ambur was having issues focusing on what she wanted to look at. "It doesn't hurt or anything anymore it's just...there."

"What have the doctors said lately? Can you see anything?"

"They said it's about as good as it's ever gonna get. I can see a little bit but not really. Nothing is in focus and there's a lot of blind spots in it. Not to mention it can't see color anymore but you already know that so..." She trailed off as she looked over to Liv again, gazing up into her plum-colored orbs. "Figures," she laughed lightly. "You go through all that work to make me pretty and I go and ruin it..."

"Pssh," Liv rolled her eyes down at Ambur before using her pointer finger to gently trace Ambur's scar. "You know statistically speaking there is some guy out there that thinks scars are super hot," she smiled.

"Ahah," Ambur couldn't help but laugh. "You know I got my heart set on a boy already and uh...honestly I don't think he has seen it since the night he gave it to me..."

"Wait...really? What does he look away?"

"No no, it's not like that I just...always keep my hair over it when he's around so he doesn't have to look at it..."

"Ambur that's...I know you're trying to be nice about it but Mydnight he...he's not that kind of guy you know he...he really..." she trailed off, not wanting to spill any of Mydnight's secrets he had confided in her.

"I know," she said softly as her vision returned to the ceiling. "I know how he feels about it and...ya..."

"Yeah?" Liv asked as she raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Yeah what?"

"You know...how he...feels about...stuff," she said slowly, trying not to think about it too much.

"He told you how he feels?!" She gasped.

"I mean he sort of...tried to but I...he wasn't really...super specific but yeah he...tried," she sighed with a smile.

So many things cried out in Olivier's head all at once as she tried to focus herself on one of her emotions rather than all of them. On the one hand, she was now more furious with herself than ever for accidentally wiping Ambur's memory. But on the other hand, she was so happy for her friend that her sadness simply had no staying power and evaporated just as fast as it had come. "That's great!" She let out with a smile as she turned to face Ambur, laying on her side as the amazon mimicked her movement to return the look.

Liv couldn't help but stare as Ambur's white locks dripped down over her face before she had reached up and tucked them back behind her ear. Liv's hair had done much the same thing and she removed the strands from her face as well, her plum-colored eyes locked with Ambur's brilliant red one and her far less vibrant injured one. She figured it was weird to stare into her eyes this way but the alternative was looking further down and staring into her cleavage.

"How did you torture the info out of him then?" Liv smirked.

"Oh I didn't really have to try that hard," Ambur smiled back as she gently pushed on Liv's shoulder. "You did most of the work for me and you know it."

"Ugh," Liv rolled her eyes. "He told you that?"

"Well not at first. It was just REALLY obvious that something was troubling him. It was written all over his face and his body language was all off. Like he was uncomfortable in his own skin and something was eating away at him. I asked him what his deal was and he told me...ya know how much he cares and how much things have changed over the time that I've been back at school."

"Oh..? Then how?"

"Well after he finally spat it out I asked him what had suddenly made him so keen on telling me and he said that he had talked to you about it and that you helped him realize that you can't wait forever when it comes to these kinds of things. He said he wasn't really sure what to do and you made it clear to him that if he had real feelings for me that he shouldn't be waiting around to tell me."

"Ya, he...he mentioned that he didn't really know how to tell you because he has never had to tell anybody how he feels before."

"Ya..." Ambur trails off before shaking new thoughts from her head. "So hey did Oz mention what your training mission was anyway?" She thought aloud, trying to change the subject. The girls had had many Rosa hating sessions in the past but it had gotten stale and Ambur really just wanted to leave the conversations in the past.

"All he said was that we would be supervised on a short mission that had little risk involved. A couple Grimm maybe. Nothing crazy...It's insulting honestly..."

"I hate to agree with you on that but it's kinda true...I know you're hurt but it's not like you got hurt on a mission or anything. It was just a freak accident. You're right at the top of the class just like the rest of us so I don't know why he's being so careful with you."

"It's fine...I'll just do really well and we will all be in sync and he will see that we are ready to go on missions just like you and Mydnight do...right?" She forced a smile Ambur let out a small laugh.

"You know you almost had me convinced until that fake smile. You know you can't get those past me..."

"Ya I know," Liv sighed.

"You guys will do fine," Ambur smiled softly as she put her hand on Liv's shoulder and Liv couldn't help but soak up the warmth from her hand, savoring her touch for as long as she could.

"I hope so..."

/

"Huh...hahhhhooowww...WhaaHHHHH," she groaned out as her ears continued to ring. She couldn't hear anything that was happening around her. Her vision was filled with nothing but the dirt and rocks beneath her as she struggled to even get to all fours. Even as she did make it to her hands and knees her right eye began to close as a small stream of blood ran down over her eyelid. All she could hear was Ambur's words ringing out in her head, muffled as if she was far away.

'You guys will do fine...You almost had me convinced there for a second,' the words played on repeat in her mind as her vision blurred. She felt sick. She was light-headed and struggling to breathe as if something had knocked the wind out of her. As she began to slowly realize what had happened her hand clumsily moved over her hip and up her back, feeling along her spine for any breakages. Though she found none she couldn't get the sense of worry out of her head, trying her best to turn over and sit down so she could look back toward where she had remembered being only moments ago.

She could see the school peaking up above the cliff face on the horizon, its spires blurry in the evening light as she wiped the blood from her eye, looking down to her hand finding it a bit more covered than she liked in the red substance. She was bleeding more than she thought. She slowly ran her hand over the spot that hurt on her forehead and cringed as the pain shot through her. She was thankful that she had so much adrenaline pumping through her veins or it would have felt even worse. She summoned what small amount of aura she could in her dazed state and began to channel it through the wound. She hadn't been able to seal it but it was certainly gushing less than it had been only a moment before.

She was exhausted and her memories were certainly taking their sweet time coming back to her. It was obvious that she had taken a blow to the head but she also felt as if she had been punched in the stomach by a freight train...again. She was still short of breath and the forest was still spinning around her as if she had chugged an entire bottle of wine.

"You'll be fine..." She heard Ambur's voice wash over her again, but this time she could swear she saw something in the distance...a figure coming toward her through the trees with its weapon drawn, the massive blade looking comical in Liv's trance-like state. Liv tried to squint and make out the figure coming toward her and after a moment she began to realize that it was Ambur. Her lips pursed as she racked her brain for the reason as to why Ambur would be running toward her with her weapon drawn. It took far longer than it should have for Liv to turn her head to try and look behind her. Her eyes widened and her blood began to pump harder and she collapsed back into the dirt on her back, trying to scoot backward from the scene before her.

Never mind the Ursa charging at her, her mind was far too fuzzy to even comprehend the black blur of rage barreling toward her. No, it was everything else stationary on the ground around her that had taken her attention. The forest was on fire in a few places, tiny bits of metal scattered here and there and there were trees down all around. Had something exploded near them? She could barely make out a few other people in the clearing, most on the ground in much the same condition as Liv.

After several seconds of focusing her vision on each of them, she had managed to find Caroline on the ground, her hands feeling herself all over, half-conscious with Hunter crawling as best he could to her side to try and help her. She could see Professor Goodwitch staggering to her feet across the newly made clearing as well, pulling frantically on her small purple cape, trying to pull it from her shoulders in her impaired state. The frayed edges of the piece of cloth had caught on fire from where she had landed in the grass.

What was she doing here? Liv had only to focus on the situation for another moment before she felt the wind rush a bit as Ambur rushed past her, hacking through the Ursa and cutting it clean in two before it could slash at Olivier. Ambur turned and looked down to find Olivier clearly out of it, still not seeming to fully understand that she had ever been in danger. Ambur looked around, trying to see if anymore Grimm had been attracted by the blast before crouching down next to Liv. "Olivier," she said softly as she took hold of her friend's shoulders. "Hey!" she said again as she shook her softly. "Liv you okay?" she asked as Ambur wiped a fresh bit of blood from her friend's forehead that had been about to run into her eye.

"...Ambur...? What? What happened?" she mumbled out as she recoiled from Ambur's touch on her forehead. The whole clearing was still spinning and she could hardly focus on her friend's face. As her eyes settled on Ambur's face she even began to squirm, trying to back away from her as a sense of urgency washed over her. Ambur held onto her though, not letting her push away as Liv began to calm down. She had seen the bright red of Ambur's eye among the fog in her mind and thought it was the eye of a Grimm starring her down for just a moment.

"Someone set you guys up...they knew that a team had a training mission in the forest today...Looks like Glynda was able to shield you all from the blast..." She mumbled out as she stood and looked around, sadness spreading across her face as her vision passed over their Professor. She'd finally managed to rip her cape off and toss it into the dirt. She leaned forward, hands on her knees, bent over and breathing heavily. Ambur's vision continued to pan and Liv's eyes followed Ambur's around the clearing until Ambur stopped, her vision landing on a fallen tree trunk that had been ripped from the ground.

Ambur's hands flew up to her mouth as her eyes widened and her breath audibly hitched in her throat. Liv's vision lingered on the tree for several seconds, still unable to see properly at that distance before she saw Glynda weakly wave her wand toward the tree, forcing it up into the air and placing it down a few feet from where it had landed.

It was only then that Olivier finally saw the half-crushed body that had been underneath the large object. The corpse's long brown hair had fallen from its braided crown, splayed all around her in the dirt as Glynda let out a somber reply to Ambur.

"Almost everyone..."