Missing Pieces
As the rain tapped on the window of their train car the pair sat in silence for hours. She had been enjoying the silence, to an extent of course, not having to deal with the annoyance provided by her partner in crime. Though, she had come to learn over the past weeks that it was actually quite satisfying to argue with what was left of the man. Once in a while she would look over to him, appearing to be asleep, sitting on the bench with his back to the window, looking down to his hands which were fidgeting between his criss-crossed legs. His poncho was ever draped upon him, hood up even in the darkness of night, but she could faintly see his eyes glowing from underneath it.
They had been this way all night, the sun would be rising soon, and since jumping onto the train they hadn't said much of anything, no strategy, no small talk, nothing. She swore after a while she was able to hear the electronic whirring of all the machinery keeping him alive. "Tell me," he eventually let out softly, grabbing her attention and snapping her out of her trance.
"Tell you what?" She snapped back, annoyed with his vague request.
"Tell me more about who we are and what we are doing," he spoke more clearly, his voice sounding more electronic with each word as he shifted slightly in his seat, raising his head a little to be able to look her in the eye from below his hood. "You've barely said anything about it since we started working together."
"Well ya, there's a reason for that," she rolled her eyes. "Salem says you don't need to know. What do you even wanna know?" She asked in disbelief. "Do you REALLY wanna know how you ended up like this?" She teased.
"Yes I do," he grumbled back to her. "Just because Salem says I don't need to know doesn't mean I don't want to know."
"Huhhhh god, fine if it'll shut you up...you're just as annoying as you used to be," she sighed before sitting up right and facing back away from him to watch the rain hit her window. "Ask away," she pretended to be enthusiastic.
"What's..." He paused, not expecting her to have actually agreed to answer him. "What's my name?"
"Nope," she laughed, "Try again robot boy, Salem doesn't want you to hear your name."
He sighed, half expecting that to be the pink haired witch's answer. "Fine...What happened to me to make me this much of a machine?"
"Honestly I don't know the answer to that one," she laughed to herself, "I left right before it happened to you I think, but I can guess," she smiled wickedly.
"...Okaayyy," he sighed, growing frustrated that he was getting nowhere. "Why don't I have a weapon?"
"Yours was confiscated at the hospital they took you too I think. Salem valued your semblance over your weapon and didn't want to risk trying to take you both and getting caught. Besides with your new body parts you really don't need one do you?"
"I suppose not just...wondering. Were you taken by Salem too?"
"No no," she laughed again. "You're actually the only one among us who didn't volunteer. Salem found me and told me how powerful I could become and that I could easily have revenge on my idiotic team mates. Become a maiden even."
"Speaking of," he began with a smirk, "Why do you have such a personal grudge with the Wolf guy we are chasing?"
"Tch," she grunted, revealing an angry smirk before calming herself and looking to the dancing lights of the sun rise between the trees. "We used to be together if you must know..."
"You...you're serious? That's it?" He asked before he began to laugh. "You turned evil because a dude broke up with you?" She growled back at him before he spoke again, "You may as well kill all men if that's the case cus nobody is ever gonna put up with your bullshit for happily ever after," he chuckled out.
"Rrrr," she grumbled, looking back to the window before folding her arms over her chest. "God the more you talk the more I've always felt justified in hating you."
"You talk like we used to know each other before all of this happened...did we?"
"Unfortunately," she grumbled quietly before realizing she was divulging too much to her un-willing participant.
"Were...were we teammates?" He wondered aloud, however Rosaria fell silent as if she was ignoring him. "Were we?" He asked again.
"That's enough questions just...shut up okay?" She shooed as she got lost in her thoughts again, watching the sun peek up over the tops of the trees, the sky turning wondrous shades of purple and orange.
After another short while of sitting in silence the pair heard a female's voice come over the intercom as the train began to slow. "Last stop before Mistral city." As the train began to slow more and more, Rosa was able to see the station coming up quickly on her side of the train. There were several people on the platform to her surprise. This entire ride only a few passengers had got on after they did and no one had got off.
"Hide us," she spoke softly as she stood from her seat, "Time to get off."
He made no discernible movement as he activated his semblance, hiding them in plain sight to everyone else's eyes, and as the train stopped they opened the door to their car and immediately left the platform as fast as they could, walking through the bustling town completely invisible to its residents.
"How long can you keep this up?" She asked, never having seen him keep his semblance active for so long.
"I'm not sure to be honest, haven't had it for very long I...think," he questioned, genuinely not knowing how long he had had his semblance unlocked.
"Well then I guess we shouldn't linger too long," she sighed, hoping to have been able to steal some fresh food, but the two of them would stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of this town, not to mention that they didn't want to accidentally run into their targets if they were in the area already somehow. The two of them turned down an alleyway and waited until no one else was around them to lift their camouflage. "Alright here's the plan..." she began thinking out loud. "You hide yourself and get out of town and I'll call you when I find out which direction we are going. They shouldn't have made it here yet, no matter how fast they were running."
"Sooo I should leave town with the west exit then."
"Either that or south yes. I'll get us some real food and we can start heading back toward them and hopefully cut them off before they are able to reach Mistral."
"Works for me," he shrugged his shoulders before he disappeared right before her eyes.
"Hahhhh," she sighed as she walked back into the slightly crowded streets and began following her nose to the best smelling food in the area. "Finally some time away from that clown," she spoke softly as she began to rub her temples.
"Oscar...Oscar wake up," the young boy heard in his head as his eyes began to flutter open. It was morning, almost noon in fact, and the sun hurt his eyes as he began to rub them.
"Ugh what, what," he asked, annoyed after being woken up. "Are we there?"
"Yes we are, finally, take a look," Ozpin said back to him, Oscar's attention shifting to the outside of his train car, finding that they were about to go over one last bridge and that he could actually see the huge city of Mistral.
"Woah," his eyes widened in awe, never having seen a town bigger than about a few dozen buildings. He had never traveled with his family, so the mountainous city was quite intimidating at first.
'Don't worry, I'll be able to help you get around.'
"Oh right you've...probably been here a bunch of times right?" Oscar thought out loud as the train slowed down, approaching the platform. He was thankful now more than ever that he had gone back into the first train car when they had picked up the replacement fireman. Had he stayed out in the cold night air he would have never been able to rest, never mind sleep.
'Yes I have been here on several occasions. I had a personal hand in designing each school from top to bottom,' Ozpin answered proudly.
As the train came to a final stop Oscar departed, looking to the front of the engine and finding the engineer he had helped the night before waving farewell to him. He smiled warmly and waved back before beginning to listen to Oz direct him through the station and down the road toward his final destination. "So where exactly are we going? It's not like we know what house they are staying in...if they are even here yet right?"
'Well thankfully there's a pretty easy way to locate Qrow at the very least,' Ozpin groaned, thankful for the first time ever that Qrow drank so much. 'First off we should just start by heading up the mountain to the top level of the city. They shouldn't be staying too far from Haven Academy, not to mention that if we end up unable to locate Qrow we can at least rest assured that the headmaster of Haven will be there.'
"Well wait...if the head master IS there then shouldn't we go there first?" Oscar asked.
'You would think so, but I trust Qrow more than any of the headmasters I've appointed actually. The circumstances of his loyalty are quite...unique. I actually wanted to appoint him as one back in the day but he has tried teaching and...it doesn't quite...hold his attention.'
"Ah," Oscar sighed as he began up a long path.
'I would say let's get some real food but if your card was declined at the train station I think you may have to stick to the rations you packed.'
"Probably," he sighed as his shoulders sank. "So what am I looking for when I get up to the top?"
'Hm? Oh, a bar crawl, basically.'
"A what?"
'Oh sorry,' Ozpin quickly recoils, 'Bit too adult of a subject for you to have learned about on a small farm I suppose. Basically you're just going to walk in and out of every bar on the top level until one of them has Qrow in it.'
"Uh...are they gonna let me in? I'm fifteen," he retorted with a nervous laugh.
'Well not if they have guards, but Mistral is a typically carefree and unregulated place. You should be fine. Besides, it'll be in the middle of the afternoon, not like I'm going to make you break into a nightclub. Qrow is a professional day drinker, he'll be there.'
"Okay," Oscar breathed out quietly before concentrating on navigating his way up the paths.
'Alright where are you, I'm ready,' she typed before pressing the send button. She reached up and ran her hands through her long pink hair, de-tangling it as much as she could as she walked through the streets, waiting until she felt her scroll vibrate.
'Little outside the west gate, out of sight.'
She turned down another street and walked the rest of the way out of town, simply heading down the road without stopping as the town shrunk more and more behind her. She eventually heard his footsteps join hers from the forest as he came out into the light, certain the guards at the gate wouldn't be able to see him. As they continued down the path she handed him one of the take-out boxes she had procured along her walk, each cracking one open and eating slowly as they walked along.
"And so?" He asked.
"No one has seen them come or go, they haven't made it this far yet."
"Good," he sighed in relief. "We need to catch them soon. If they slip by us she's gonna-" he began before Rosa cut him off.
"I know..." she grumbled. "I know what happens if we fail."