The problem rayla had with weiss and ciri wasn't that they both were happy near each other, it wasn't because they had a bond beyond student and teacher...no, what pissed her off was that where they went she never got any alone time with weiss.
"Any small compliment he gave me was never like what I had experienced when in atlas and it showed" weiss said taking a small bite of her sandwich and smiled.
She largely ignored the cat eyed freak but what caught her ear was when ciri had said, "From what I've heard about 'student' cole and 'homeless' cole I'd say he was a lot more unrestrained in the wilds"
Rayla slid in the middle of them and asked "was my baby brother like that all the time?"
Ciri scooted away from her and replied standoffishly "I don't know ms.foster, I only heard of such things"
"I was asking ice queen here not you cat eye" she chided annoyed
"That's very inconsiderate of you; I need to call my... sister, excuse me" weiss said dejectedly remembering that her father used to be whom she called to report her condition of her store and the SDC as a whole.
Watching her disappear behind the corner ciri glared at the shadowy girl and said quietly "why are you hell bent on hurting every person cole had been associated with!? Not everyone intended for him to die as he had, but you don't want peace you want to hurt everyone out of spite"
Rayla scoffed at her and sat back propping herself up on her elbows "if she's as amazing as you all claim then my baby brother wouldn't be pushing up flower beds and feeding the planet" using her shadows to grab a flower ciri noticed that the second it touched the top petal the entire flower rotted away and crumbled to dust.
"Weiss loved him sure; cole chose poorly again, his heart could drown a desert and yet it got him killed" she glowered at the woman standing near her and stood up matching her gaze.
"By that logic you and his bio-family failed him as a child, power without purpose is useless but he still found belonging in a few good people that stayed by his side and I'd wager you aren't among them"
While they screamed at each other for a few more minutes geralt, qrow and ironwood as well as Glynda were walking the grounds discussing the situation a month ago and it wasn't good.
"I'm really sorry glynda but for once I say we bolster our kingdoms and reinstate haven and shade academy with new headmasters."
Geralt sighed exasperatedly "and as we all discussed already james, we need to focus on haven. Shade still has their headmaster"
Qrow chuckled as he put his flask in his hand, "Hey old man, why not take Leo's place. You and your daughter seem to have a great deal of humanity for a faunas in this age so its not a stretch that you would be perfect for the job"
Glynda smiled and said "im surprised qrow, you complementing someone is rare."
"Well, who else would you have trustworthy enough to replace leo the pussycat with, professor rivia is a good man and has the bite to match his bark"
"Kissing anyone's asses won't get you anywhere branwen" geralt replied grabbing his scroll from his back pouch "plus I hate being a teacher, I'm more qualified killing monsters"
They silently agreed to let him have the last word on that topic but the three of them knew geralt was one of the best they could get in his craft even if he taught more than grimm hunting but it was better to teach more than not at all.
Rounding the corner geralt heard weiss sniffing and hiccupping behind a bush with orange flowers and said "hey James you still free for the rest of today right, why not go drink and eat in glyndas office with qrow, I'll be right up" he gave no room to let him interject.
"Twenty minutes or I'll have to sicc ciri on you" ironwood joked walking out of earshot of the witcher.
Weiss crying had become a regular occurrence at this point so it wasn't a stretch that he and a few close people would find her alone somewhere crying for cole, her father -still odd to shed a tear for him but he was still her father- and the most interesting was that her old friendships were in shambles but she wanted to rebuild the home she had in remnant in general but even more so being herself.
"These flowers are quite beautiful" he said kneeling down next to her as he cut one from the bush and put it in her hair just under her tiara holding it in place. "What are you doing here weiss" he asked cutting to the chase.
She gave a nod in agreement to herself and pulled her hair loose from the ties and removed her tiara but somehow the lily stayed fixed to her beautiful hair.
It took a few steady breaths, and moments to muster up the courage to speak, when she finally had, she looked him in the eye. "I wanted to say goodbye to cole before I devote my life to scrubbing remnant clean of my fa- of Jacque schnee's legacy, I just wanted one normal day to go through before going home and doing what I should have done a long time ago"
Geralt smiled at that and sat beside her in silence, he was many things through his life; a killer, a lover, a father, a teacher and now of all things he was a role model for the youth around him; witchers weren't suited to be family people but somehow against his very nature as a witcher he'd made it work despite the struggles.
"Give it a month or so more and I promise you'll get back to your boring business life happier knowing you spent more time with those you trust at your back; pillows are often softer than a blades edge"
To that she giggled and stood up smiling genuinely, no façade to be seen and she loved the feeling.
"Thank you for talking to me professor" playfully punching his shoulder and walked off with a noticeable spring in her heel. Geralt stood up and walked off to that office invitation qrow pitched to him.
In jaune's hands he clenched his fists as he charged ren to throw a punch, but he saw through it and palm struck his arm away like it was nothing and avoided him.
"Y'know, when you said "let's go train" I did not think "all out fighting like yang" was what you had in mind" ren said taking a breath to relax himself but watching jaune -his leader- throw himself at everything with a pulse was stressful.
"I need to be the best ren; failure means-" jaune began but collapsed when a gust of wind blew past him, or more accurately through him.
He wasn't fast enough to process his defeat but ren had enough of jaune being this self-destructive. "Sleep it off for now fearless leader" ren said solemnly.
Nora gave a sad round of applause walking in the circle and picked up jaune and put him over her shoulders, "I'll carry him today, you grab the bags and weapons" she said turning toward the double doors and escorted ren to the hallways to get jaune to bed.
"You can stay with him today, I'll grab three nora sized boxes of dinner to go-"
"Just get the normal sized boxes to go, im not that hungry today" nora cut him off taking the bags and weapons never making eye contact. "See you in the room renny"
He kissed her cheek and left without a word strolling down the hall leading to the outside portion of the academy gym.
Ren absent-mindedly passed by the many people exercising, hanging out or just plain existing in their bubbles of life.
'I'm surprised it's holding together through all this' he thought reminiscing the good times of jnpr and how beautiful the past used to be.
[We really messed up] he texted nora
[I don't care anymore, you told us that the past doesn't define us so just drop it] she responded ten minutes later.
Knowing her she took a while to type it out since jaune needed tending to and she was trying her best to keep it together for her own sake as much as her family's.
[I love you] he sent as he put his scroll away and made his way inside the cafeteria, he went straight to the boxed lunches not caring to wait for his turn, paid for the boxes despite them being free and up for grabs.
Cardin and his team waved to him and gave their condolences for pyrrha and yang; everyone went out of their way to give him space and gave him the nod in understanding or just stayed out of his way. Knocking on the door with his elbow nora opened the door letting him in.
"He still unconscious?" He asked setting the lunch on the desk near Pyrrha's bed.
"Same as usual for his standards" she responded pulling his boots off and left him in his bed wearing just his blue jeans and orange shirt.
"It's getting worse" she finally got out after an hour of silence and picking at her food.
Ren hummed looking her way asking "what do you mean by that"
"Cole, pyrrha and Blake are dead, Weiss is an international business owner running a company born out of hatred for her dad, Yang is no longer able to move one of her arms from the shoulder down, jaune is training himself to the bloody bone, you and I are breaking and cole's back-from-the-dead sister is antagonistic towards all of us..." she paused to wipe the tears away slowly making herself able to talk some more. "Worst of all that assassin killed ozpin minutes after jaune got let out of jail; WE'RE LOSING PEOPLE AND YOU DON'T EVEN CARE ENOUGH REACT TO IT ANYMORE"
When she ended her rant ren flinched at her outburst and took a shaky breath and looked right into her eyes, "I know I'm not the most expressive person out there but I'm just doing my best for my family to keep a calm mind so that you all have someone to turn to for anything, I promised I'd be there for you guys and will honor that promise"
She couldn't take it anymore, the pain was too big a burden, her smile was gone, her tears ran like hot water and gasped when he enveloped her in her soft pink blanket and tightly hugged her. She cried while beating his chest with her fists for a solid five minutes before she cried herself to sleep next to jaune.
Ren lied her down to cuddle jaune and took her shoes off and climbed in with them making a small cuddle pile nora loved them after a few months in their 2nd year and by the gods did he love them too. It gave the four of them comfort they didn't even know they needed, but like all good things even his resolve shattered and left him crying into Nora's back and fell asleep too. Their lives weren't hellish by their standards but it sure wasn't getting easier to manage.
Yang sat in the hard plastic chair holding a plastic card with thirty-nine printed on the front of a ticket in her left hand and a cast around what resemble a stump of her right shoulder and a metal socket with a t-shirt sleeve tied up to hide the metal hole and prevent possible debris from getting in it.
Walking out of the room stumbled a faunas woman in a doctor's coat with a ponytail resembling a chameleon "Ms.xaio long? Is there a-"
"Right here miss" she said standing up holding the side of her sleeve and walked in quiet as a mouse.
"Take a seat ma'am, I'll bring up your file in a minute. How was the ride over into this part of vale, it's a bit ritzy for hunters but I suppose when you need a prosthetic even the headmistress isn't below helping her kids huh?" She hit print on the computer and smiled at yang.
She looked at the doctor and said coldly "how much longer will we have to get me fitted...I don't know if I can afford it these days"
The doctor grabbed a clipboard and the paper from the printer handing both to yang and said, "just worry about the prosthetic sweetie. Ms.Goodwitch said beacon would cover your expenses and with that schnee friend of yours helping our hospital with dust reinforced metals im sure you'll have an arm that's just like new."
Yang jumped at the cold touch of her hand and looked down but it looked like an ordinary arm, flesh and all.
"anyone tell you that your hands are freezing doc?" She tried for humor but she felt down when she gave a sad smile.
She kept quiet as she watched yang sign the paperwork messing up a few spots and if she had a word for it she'd say it looks sloppily but sadly it wasn't to have her fill out the sheet, it was to test her ability to write left-handed and to get her used to not having both hands but it didn't stop her from getting frustrated and hand her the clipboard scowling at the paperwork with disdain.
The woman smiled at yang's childish demeanor towards this exercise and looked it over, "it looks better than last week just try to take it slower. Remember, technique over speed and you'll be fine"
Yang growled in anger "why can't I just use my new arm to write stuff down in the future?" She looked her in the eye with a challenging aura but hesitated when she took off her right arm and attached it to her socket. The feeling was not a pleasant one but now she had a temporary arm.
"Take the pen and draw me a picture" doc said giving up on the bedside manners. "Your father might be more understanding but I'm not sure nicety is working"
Yang grabbed the paper from the clipboard and pen with the robot hand but froze at the snapping of wood the groaning of metal and crunching of the pen soaking the hand and floor in ink.
"Yang this is why you need to learn restraint and control; glass cannon is looking more like you by the day and if you keep it up you'll never get the right arm nor will you be able to go back to being a huntress" she explained harsh and walked out the room after taking her arm back.
Hearing the bad news yang was not ready for she had to fight the urge to cry and forced it deep down saving herself from falling apart and right now she needed to keep it together. Walking out the door she saw her physical therapy doctor standing in front of a tank of fish and spoke up "you can leave whenever you want ms.xaio long"
"I'm sorry doc, I just have a bad habit of exploding in unnecessary moments" she put her left hand on the tank hoping that her apology was made clear.
"You are the third patient that has been explosive but that's an excuse you lot use as hunters; choose restraint and you feel like your caged but it's not about who gets hit its who you should hit and where it's happening. Cole was too but when he came to my hospital he never had stayed for his own wounds, he'd only taken others here and left...he knew restraint when it mattered"
Yang glared at her reflection and spoke quietly "he tore me and my friends apart like cotton candy, restraint was never his forte he was a beast made man"
"Fighting a man like cole is a mistake not many make consciously but to be honest he made sure he didn't create more collateral damage than necessary, you and yours don't care for anything but the thrill of the fight" she retorted and walked away "come back next week for a fitting and we'll see if your compatible with the next model"
"Yes ma'am" she sighed taking off slowly walking to the roof for ironwood to come get her. Yang sat on the roof for several minutes before she watched the beacon airship come into view and watched the side open up extending a walkway to her, maybe tomorrow would be different and she could get her life back, unfortunately that sat on weather she'd be compatible.
"You are the third patient that has always have been explosive but that's an excuse you lot use as hunters" her doctor's words reverberated in her mind making her think over what made her like this, her mother was a possible source but qrow wouldn't even help, even after he saw how desperate for answers from her mouth she got but as her uncle had said "no answer I or your father gave you will be any different than raven's, plus the last time you went looking ruby almost died!"
"I want to hear it from her" she grumbled watching the world pass by below.
Everyone so far was either trying to move forward, drown it, repress it, ignore it, or just flat out could move on from it. They all were feeling the weight of pain they had endured ever since cole had showed up and died, but he was merely a catalyst to someone or something worse to come take what was broken and smash it to powder and burn it all down.
'To claw through hell one must first fall from heaven' and it seemed rayla was the limbo, her shadows rot everything it touched yet some rotted faster than others; aura shielded objects as well as people were immune however so she just needed to find out a way to get through the auric obstacle.