Just Visiting

As the morning sun began to rise over the trees Ambur finally chose to speak up. She and Olivier had been riding on Mydnight's back for a few minutes now but almost immediately he had deviated from the path and headed off into the woods. The girls had given each other a funny look but kept their questions to themselves as he walked but she could do so no more. "Myd...where are we going?" she asked quietly as she leaned forward and whispered into his ear.

She knew of course that he couldn't verbally respond in this form, but she had known him long enough to know that he would give her a sign in response. However after she asked her question he simply kept walking, nodding his head forward deeper into the woods, indicating that this was the way he meant to go and that he was doing so with a purpose.

"Alright then..." she sighed as they continued past the trees, beginning to feel the sun on her face.

"Well if he wants to go this way then I suppose we can't stop him. But we really should be trying to catch up with the others. I don't want to say we are wasting time but.." She began before trailing off into silence, not wanting to assume that Mydnight was wasting their time.

"Well...he's never been one to steer me wrong so far. So wherever he is taking us must have some purpose for him, if not all of us, " Ambur shrugged.

As he continued through the woods the girls could feel his body temperature rising and noticed that he began to look around more frantically than before, as if looking for something and he was nervous. This in turn made the girl's begin to look around, unsure of why their friend seemed so nervous in this area. Not many things were capable of making the wolf nervous these days and if he was scared they felt they should be aware of their surroundings just in case.

However, they could tell that the trees were beginning to thin into a large circular clearing. As they walked out of the treeline and into the open they began to very clearly hear the grumblings and howls of a pack of grim in the area. Mydnight's ears perked up as he quickly ran to the center of the clearing and turned around to find that the pack had been following them.

Ambur and Olivier immediately readied their weapons and jumped down from his back. Seconds afterward as the Beo-wolves surrounded them Mydnight changed back into his humanoid state, his new hand cannons brandished and at the ready.

"So what, did you just lead us into the woods to get some target practice?" Ambur spoke up as the three stood back to back to back as the countless grim circled them.

"Not intentionally no..." He sighed. "We are almost where I was taking us...there's something nearby I wanna see..."

Ambur was silent for a few moments as she took his tone into consideration before answering. "Alright well...we will go once we kill these things then," she smirked as she transformed her sniper rifle into it's broadsword form. Mydnight too transformed his weapon back into it's scythe form.

As the first wolf lunged at Mydnight he ripped the cord on his scythe and it roared to life, drowning out the howl coming from the creature attacking him. The teeth began to rotate and he swiped the blade horizontally. The scythe sliced clean through the grim's jowls and cut it in two effortlessly as he began to lunge forward toward his next target through the corpse of his first.

Olivier in turn also had to dodge the corpse, which she did with ease, bending forward into a front handspring before jumping up, her knee connecting with the jaw of another grim as her weapon went off, ejecting dust pellets into its head and blowing it clean off the creature as she continued up into the air. As she fell back to the ground she brought her elbow down onto the back of another grim, blowing a hole straight through its chest as she landed, picking out her next target.

As the first of Ambur's Grimm lunged at her, claws extended she, instead of counterattacking, decided to grab the monster's paw, stopping it dead in its tracks. The beast looked down to his paw and began trying to wrench it out of her grasp to no avail, before looking down and finding her grinning back at it. She stuck her large blade into the Beast's foot, pinning it to the ground as it howled loudly in pain. As it looked back down to her however its face was pushed back away from her, having moved her now free hand to it's neck. Ambur then grabbed it by the throat and yanked both of her arms away from each other, as hard as she could, in turn pulling the grin's arm clean off.

It again began to howl loudly as all the other grim looked on at the spectacle, slowing down their attacks and watching as their pack mate was literally ripped to shreds effortlessly. This allowed Mydnight and Olivier began to pick them off even easier than before and soon the three had defeated the entire pack.

"Nice distraction," Liv laughed as they all re-holstered their weapons.

Mydnight laughed along with her, "Ya, I thought for a second I saw some fear in some of those eyes babe," he chuckled out before lightly slapping his hand against her thigh. Ambur flushed as his hands wandered and she felt him press a kiss to her cheek. Ambur was a little stunned when she felt a small hum of approval vibrate through her own mouth.

"My pleasure," she cooed before watching him step away and look around. "Which way?"

Mydnight began to sniff around the clearing, before focusing on a pathway leading back into the woods. "This way."

As the girls followed him down a short path the sun started to peek through the trees, casting orange light on the snow around their feet. Their short walk ended almost as soon as it began though, when Mydnight suddenly stopped in his tracks. Ambur, distracted by the light, nearly walked straight into him. "Babe don't, GAH-" she started hastily as she barely side stepped him. "Just stop right in front of me," she complained before looking straight ahead and seeing the object her Wolf had been seeking.

Olivier too peered around her large friend and found his vision fixed on the object, right on the edge of a large cliff. "Wowwwww..." she let out softly as her eyes were captivated with the incredible view. As the girls moved closer to the edge, Mydnight stayed still. He knew he had wanted to see this place but now that he was here he wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel. So many times he had imagined what he would say to his parents if he had ever gotten the chance but now that he had the opportunity all of his words escaped him.

Ambur and Liv hadn't gotten close enough yet to see that the large rectangular stone was actually engraved with yet, and turned back to Mydnight with questioning looks.

"What's wrong?"Ambur asked softly, easily able to tell that something was disturbing him.

He pointed to the large stone before speaking up softly. "That's...her grave..."

Ambur looked back to the stone, not sure what he had meant. She walked closer to the small monument, followed by Liv. As she got close enough to read the words her heart sank, and her face began to lose its color. "Wha...why," she asked as she turned around to see him looking down to the ground. "Why would you take us here?" she asked exasperatedly. "How do you even know where this is?"

She saw him ball his fists in frustration before answering. "Ruby told me about this place...I asked her."

"Why would you want to come here?" She asked as she walked back to him, unable to understand why he would put himself through such pain. As she reached him she pulled him into a tight hug and moved his face into her shoulder.

"I don't know, I just..." He let out before trailing off and shrugging his shoulders. "Can you really blame me?"

"No I..." she admittedly quickly before taking a deep breath and patting him on the back. "No one can blame you for wanting to be accepted but...she's gone...what did you expect to happen here?"

Liv moved in front of the grave and began to read it off to herself as she tried to distract herself from her hurting friend.

"I don't know what I expected okay..." he said as he pushed his way out of her grasp and walked past her, right up to Liv's side and began to read the tombstone as Liv and Ambur watched him. "I just...need a minute alright?" He said as he turned back to Ambur for approval.

Ambur was quiet for a few moments before she let out a sigh and called out to Liv. "Come on Liv..." she nodded with her head back toward the forest. Liv touched her hand to Mydnight's arm and forced out a smile to him as he nodded down at her. She and Ambur began walking back toward the trees out of ear shot. Mydnight breathed silently for several seconds, trying to find the right words for the situation.

"Guess you wouldn't recognize me anyway if you were alive," he sighed as he sat down in the snow, folding his legs in and staring into the intricate rose carved on the stone before him. "I'd say it's nice to see you but, it's kinda not. I thought it might be but...I was wrong..." he began. "All these years and all I've ever wanted was an explanation that I'll never get. You could tell me you cared and you never wanted this life for me but...the fact still remains that you abandoned me. Why? Why wasn't I good enough for you?" He asked with anger in his voice, almost yelling before he drew in a long, calming breath.

"Why couldn't you just...try harder...BE better? Why are all of our parents fucking quitters...All you guys ever do is make excuses and give up," he sighed as he looked back out to the horizon. "Raven gives up and leaves. Qrow can't even stub his toe without blaming his semblance. Tai raises two girls by himself because Qrow is never around and afraid of himself...And you..." He said with bite in his words, looking back down to the stone. "Summer Rose," he waved his hands as if you mock the name. "You ditch my dad as soon as I'm born and have no interest in me. Even after he dies you make no effort to find me. Let me go into an orphanage and then you selfishly take a mission you know is suicidal and abandon your daughter...God you're all so...useless. And yet Ruby idolizes all of you. She deserves better than what she got with you people."

"I don't even...really remember dad anyway...I guess the only people around here that would are Qrow and Tai but...they've never mentioned it. I don't even know what his name was. I don't know what you said to convince him that I should have your last name but I wish I didn't. I wish I knew what It was so I had a good enough reason to go and get it changed but, I'll probably never know. You all took that from me..." He shook his head before looking back down into the stone. "You took it from her too."

"She got a life full of lies and she makes heroes out of all the people that do her wrong and leave her. That little girl is the one right thing that any of you ever did and no one wants to take responsibility for her other than me. Even Yang gave up."

Mydnight stood and looked back out over the cliff. "I don't know if I came here seeking answers or just to yell at a stone and get my frustrations out but...I deserved better too...and that's why I'm going to be better than any of you...ALL of you..." he said sternly as he looked back down to the stone one last time. "I won't give up on the things I start no matter how many people I lose along the way...I refuse to be like you all and just quit when things get tough. ESPECIALLY if I have kids..."

He turned away from the stone, but before walking away he looked back one more time over his shoulder. "I may hate you but...I'm not wasting this life you gave me. I'll never let what you all did to me prevent me from trying to fix this mess," he sighed before turning back toward Liv and Ambur and walking away. He walked right past them and straight into the woods, and they turned with him and fell into step behind him silently, not wanting to pry. After they returned to the large clearing they watched him transform back into his wolf form and lay down waiting for them to climb on, and after they did he took off into the woods, trying to make up for lost time.

Ruby barreled down the staircase as she quickly scanned the large wooden room, finding Jaune camped out at the bar gobbling down his breakfast. It was still early, the sun barely peeking out over the tops of the tall Mistral trees. They had arrived in the small town only days before. Jaune was quick to find a black smith to try and consolidate some of the weight of his bag.

Unbeknownst to his comrades he had been carrying Pyrrha's shield with him in his bag on their long walk from Patch. They hadn't even been able to figure out how he had gotten his hands on it in the first place during the chaos of evacuating the school.

He had dropped off the shield along with his own shield and sword asking for the smith to combine the metal and upgrade his own equipment. In the meantime they had sought out work and picked up a few odd jobs, most of which simply involved killing packs of grim that were terrorizing the small, out of the way village.

As she made it to the bottom of the steps she skipped across the room and jumped up into the seat next to him. Back at school this action would have taken Jaune by surprise but after spending so much time with little Red over the past few weeks he had become more accustomed to what her teammates would have no doubt gotten used to.

He had already known that she had her quirks and she was spunky and upbeat around her friends but he could have never imagined just how much until now.

"Morning Jaune!" She let out with a smile as she always did. It never ceased to amaze him just how strong she was. Every morning, now matter where they were she always greeted them with a smile on her face and an upbeat attitude.

"Good morning," he said as he exhaled quickly through his nose with a smile. Of course he knew all too well that if he was forcing smiles, then surely she was too. He just knew well enough to not bring it up at this point. Neither of them needed reminding of the way they really felt, but now wasn't the time to get bogged down by their shared sense of loss. "Sleep well?" He asked as he took another bite of his breakfast. He had been trying to eat a bit healthier now that they were on the road and couldn't exactly bring groceries with them. It had been bread and energy bars on the road with water bottles, and eggs with toast in towns.

He had gained some muscle too which had surprised him. Despite all the training he had gone through at school he hadn't really built any muscle mass until now. He chalked it up to his more healthy eating habits.

"Ya it wasn't too bad," she said as she motioned for the bartender to come over before she ordered the same meal as Jaune with a tall glass of chocolate milk. It made him laugh every time she ordered the drink since they had left. She was just too innocent and it was so endearing. "Nora didn't talk in her sleep too much last night so that made it easier," she chuckled.

"At least you brought your headphones in case she gets really bad. Your snoring is inescapable," he laughed back as he nudged her in the arm.

"Hey you're the only one who has complained about it," she shot back as she stuck her tongue out.

"Well your team probably got used to it, just like we got used to Nora. You will too," he smiled as he returned to his food. Soon enough her meal came out and they sat in silence eating until Jaune finished his food and spoke up again.

"Were the others awake when you left the room?"

"Nah," she said with her mouthful. She had enjoyed regaining her freedom to use as little manners as she cared for. Back at school Weiss had corralled all her un-lady-like tendencies but if Ruby had to name one good thing about her leaving it would be that she got to be herself again. "Ren was starting to shift around but Nora is totally out."

"Huhhh...Alright, I'll go wake them up," he started as he stood up. However before leaving he called their server back over. "A cheddar omelet and a stack of like, ten pancakes, please and thank you," he smiles to the man who rolled his eyes, having learned over the last few days who exactly Jaune was ordering for. The man retreated to the kitchen and Ruby found herself chuckling. As Jaune walked away she rested her fork down on the plate and began to chug her milk.

As she finished the glass she pushed it forward for the tender to re-fill upon his return. As she waited she began to gaze down into her food and her mind began to wander. As it did her smile ran away from her lips into a flat expression, her eyes closing tight as she tried to shake the thoughts of her friends from her mind.

She remembered how she felt when she had taken the first walk around her house after waking from her long sleep. She remembered how cold Yang had been to her, how cryptic her uncle had been, but worst of all she remembered how worried she was about her brother. She remembered seeing him bed ridden and un-able to wake up long after she had done so.

She remembered sitting up beside him night after night up until she left with her friends for Mistral, telling him stories that deep down she knew he wouldn't remember when he woke up...'if he wakes up,' she thought to herself before she felt a shiver go down her spine, trying her best to get her mind out of the dark corner it was headed towards. 'Come on Ruby don't talk like that...he will be okay...he has to be okay...'

However as she began to wallow in her feelings she heard Nora's charging footsteps headed right for her and she braced herself against the counter. As Nora grabbed her from behind and hugged her tightly, shaking her back and forth, she couldn't help but let a smile creep back across her lips as she saw Jaune re-take his seat, followed by Ren on his side. As Nora let go of her she took her seat laughing lightly to herself as their server returned and refilled her glass, delivering Nora and Ren's breakfasts as well.

"Thank youuuu," Nora swooned over her food before beginning to shovel it down as fast as ever.

"So do we have a job today?" Ruby asked as she and Ren looked at Jaune.

"Ya there's some kind of...titan type Grimm out in the forest that has been coming and going apparently."

"Titan? Like what kind?" Nora got out between gulps of her food.

"Well from the sounds of it there might be more than one. People have said they've seen one made of rocks and others say it's made of trees so I'm really not sure yet," he shrugged.

"Well whatever it is I'm sure we can handle it," Ruby smiled. 'He'll be okay,' she smiled softly to herself as she looked up from the table, seeing her friends smiling softly back at her. 'He will...'