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"So how'd you know about me and Jaune?" Ruby asked as I wheeled Qrow down one of the rugged streets. They weren't exactly built with wheelchairs in mind but I muddled through.
"The way he looked at you. The way he wanted to talk to you after he killed that guy. Plus when you held up your bee clothes so he could get a look at you."
"I suppose that might give it away," Ruby agreed.
"He wasn't subtle."
"Hey I… tried," I blurted.
"If you hurt her though…" he trailed off. It wasn't so intimidating from the chair. I laughed which made him frown.
"If I hurt her she's more than capable of taking it out of my hide. Plus I'm sure Yang will give me a similar threat. You'll have some competition."
Ruby stammered slightly. "I'm sure Yang will behave."
We both looked at her. Disbelief on both our faces.
"Okay, you don't have to bust me about it," Ruby let out.
"It's fine. Yang'll make her threat because she's gotta, it's an older sibling thing, and life will go on," I said. "Won't stop me from loving you."
Heat crept up her neck at that. Silver eyes imploring me.
"It's always the fuckin' blondes." Qrow muttered, seeing Ruby's reaction. "Always. We're here. You can stop staring at each other."
I wasn't sure that I could. I wanted to stand there and look into Ruby's eyes. Luckily, or unluckily as the case may have it, she looked away first and eyed up the Malachites' bar.
"So this is it?" She asked.
I nodded. "Come on." I pushed Qrow inside. It was pretty similar to the last two times I'd been inside for all that it was still morning. People were doing drugs in plain sight, and Malachite sat with two different bodyguards though this time she was shuffling a deck of cards and playing with herself. Was that her weapon? I'd heard of stranger huntress weapons but not by much and a little Titania went a long way.
"So, you completed our favors?" She asked from the long side of her table.
I held out the Don's scroll and passed it to her. "The encryption key is 'There once was a girl.'" It was also written on a sticky note attached to the device in Weiss's handsome script.
"You also snagged his scroll? Well done," she purred. "I'll honor my end of the arrangement. I already have the prosthetics at my personal surgeon's office. I'll get you his address. Then we'll see about getting Qrow back into fighting shape."
"How long will he be under for?" Ruby asked.
"I'm not the surgeon, deary," Malachite said. "He'll also probably want to stop that." She gestured to where Qrow had his flask of liquor in his hands. Qrow scowled and put the flask back in his pocket. "There's a good boy. Anesthesia can have all kinds of bad reactions as it is."
She snapped her fingers and a legal pad appeared. She picked up a pen and scrawled out an address. "A pleasure doing business with you all." She handed it over to me.
I just grunted in reply and glanced at the address. I opened my scroll and looked up the location through the maps feature. It was on the middle floors and from the images that came up it looked like a nice place. It had a pebble garden out front and some tall and immaculately trimmed trees in the photos. It looked like a small private hospital which also served as a front for the Malachites' operations. Any time they needed somebody cut into, I imagine they took them here. It was probably also a legitimate business. Better to hide that way.
"Until next time," Malachite dismissed us from her service and we walked out the way we came in.
"Well that wasn't so bad." Ruby said. "She seemed alright, although maybe Torchwick would have seemed that way too. If we'd met under different circumstances."
"How did you meet Torchwick?" I asked. I hadn't heard the story.
She explained how they'd tried to rob her in a small dust shop in Vale. She went on about how Torchwick had tried to blow her up with a crystal when she pursued him but she was saved by Goodwitch.
"You know how to use dust, though, don't you Jaune?"
"Just to blow stuff up. Not like Weiss or Ms. Goodwitch with their magic. Or even like you with your bullets."
"But you know how to make explosives."
"I do. It isn't as hard as it sounds. Even a caveman like me can do it. You just need to complete a circuit through the stuff and it goes off. Or throw it hard enough. Either does fine."
She gave a soft hum in thought at that.
"Please tell me this isn't how the two of you flirt," Qrow muttered. I could tell that his inability to drink was getting on his nerves.
I wondered how much he'd already had to drink. It was only eleven in the morning. He'd probably be fine, though. Hunters were fairly resilient.
I laughed. "It's not. We're just sparring your old man sensibilities by not."
"I'm going to be out of this chair in a bit and you're going to regret every one of those side comments."
"Sure," I drew out the word. "What a way to thank me."
"I mean it. I'm going to hit you and you're going to deserve it."
"Don't you dare," Ruby said. "Play nice, both of you."
I shrugged. Easy enough for me. Qrow grumbled down in the chair as I pushed him all the way to the hospital.
"How much alcohol have you had today, uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked. Some concern in her voice. I was mostly staring at her pink lips.
Later.
"Only a little. It'll be fine. I swear."
"Maybe we should wait…"
"I've waited long enough to get up out of this damn thing."
"We're here," I said. We stood in front of the medical building. It was white leading up to nicely colored dark bricks with several gardens and terraces. It looked pretty enough from the outside.
The door opened automatically as I pushed Qrow forward up to the receptionist. "Name and date of birth?"
I let Qrow answer her. There were also some forms to fill out before the operation. I let Qrow take care of those and he sighed from the chair. Of all the things to get between him and walking again I think he hated bureaucracy the most.
Then we sat in the waiting room until a nurse came to wheel Qrow away.
"Wait uh- we sorta want to watch. To make sure everything goes smoothly," she recovered. She still didn't trust the Malachites.
The orderly nodded. "Yes the Doctor Seward mentioned you might be the sorts of patients who require the one way mirror. You'll be able to watch the surgery from there. Please follow me."
We did. "Right through here please." We entered a small room with chairs like those out in the waiting room all facing a pane of dark glass. On the other side there was an operating room and table. Surgical lights and lines of sanitized chrome medical equipment sat on still more chrome tables.
I left my sword at the door. I couldn't sit down with it on my back. Ruby and I took a seat and she took my hand in hers which I squeezed.
"You know, now we can do all the flirting we want."
"Butt." She called me out but she smiled a little through her worry so it was worth it. I kissed her cheek and brushed her hair back over her ear. She leaned against me and rested her head on my chest. From there she anxiously traced little circles over me.
We watched them bring Qrow into the room wearing only a gown. Two orderlies lifted him onto the operating table and started wiping his legs down with sanitizing wipes and setting up an IV drip. I watched him relax his red aura and let a needle enter his arm at the vein in his elbow.
He gave us a wave through the mirror but it was clear he couldn't see us. He leaned back and tried to relax and Ruby pursed her lips nervously.
"Hey. He'll be fine. We made it this far. How are you after yesterday?"
"There was so much blood," she whispered. "You had to kill again. You were right when you said that you would have to. That couldn't have been easy for you. And those poor girls who got shot… the one who got hit in the stomach probably died."
"Maybe, yeah," I agreed loosley. There was a chance she had survived.
"Was it worth it?"
"Qrow will go on to save lives after today. Innocent lives from the agents of Salem. That's about as good as you can ask for."
"Was it worth it though? All the bloodshed."
"I don't have an answer. I figured you would tell me."
"I'm serious."
"So am I. You've been more than my moral compass, Rubes. I've done some stuff I'm not proud of."
"Like killing all those people?"
"Yeah. Weiss and I talked about it this morning, it's just the two of you who haven't done it at this point."
"And you've done it the most."
"Yeah," I said. It wasn't exactly a bragging point for me. I was a murderer.
We watched the surgeon come in. A male nurse put the surgeon's gloves on for him, he was already wearing a mask and his own robes. Then they wheeled in a set of dark gray legs, cut off at the knees. They looked sleek but they'd have to be inserted where Qrow was injured at the thigh.
"I killed Roman Torchwick," Ruby whispered. She told me about the fight on top of the battleship and how a Gryphon came swooping down and ate him.
We watched as they put him under and set up a tent around his legs. Scalpels came away from this flesh colored red with blood and I felt Ruby tense beside me.
"Rubes…"
"I as good as killed him," her voice was small.
I wasn't going to fight her on it. If she said she killed him then in her mind she did. Besides, if we counted Vernal as using the Grimm as a weapon then didn't what Ruby did count? Maybe. Ruby had it sorted out straighter than I did. So I just put one arm around her.
We watched the surgery and let our thoughts be morbid.
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I was the one Qrow selected for his first sword fight. He was up and walking on those long legs and wanted to give them a test drive. I could hardly blame him. When my weapon changed I trained constantly and his legs were different now.
He might have to change his whole fighting style. That meant decades.
He was wobbly and I knocked him off balance with a grunt. He managed to block but he was still not used to the new legs. His sword arms were still fast and they made his weapon a blur as he descended onto me.
I parried and riposted with the broadsword fast enough that he had to back off. His balance was straight bad. I capitalized on it with a normal Cross-Slash. It held him in place then flung him back.
Weiss and Ruby watched from the sidelines with Oscar. They were quiet as they watched the elder huntsman fall over and over again. He stood up and shook at the thigh, the new legs were strong, it was where they were grafted on that was weak.
They'd been attached to the femur, the longest, strongest bone in the body. The new legs were long with narrow knees. He tried to kick me with them but I blocked by twisting my own leg to the side.
"Ooh," Oscar moaned with empathetic pain at the sound of bone on metal when our shins connected.
I bullied the older huntsman with my shoulder. He stumbled back, arms cartwheeling as he frantically tried to regain his balance. I didn't take any pleasure in it, even as my semblance activated from the amount of damage I had dealt.
I rolled my sword and waited for Qrow to come back at me and he did with a tired sigh.
He swept his sword low and I hovered straight over it. He cursed and was forced to back up when I struck at his face. He ducked and our swords clashed with sparks when they met in the middle height. The angle was awkward for both of us and I retreated as his weapon's form shifted partially into a scythe.
He swept it at me and I blocked and brought my sword down on him in a single massive overhead strike. I let out a cry as I did and he brought up his weapon to block. He bent at the legs from the strike. Straying more at the hips than at the knees.
He growled in absolute frustration when I spent the Limit in a thrust that knocked him halfway across the courtyard in a smooth blue sweep. The motion carried us both and I slammed him back into the ground.
He lay on the ground with his dark red aura flickering. He just lay there and breathed hard and I had to remember he'd done basically no exercise for almost a month. At his age that shit was hard, even as a huntsman.
"Motherfucker," he exhaled.
"I can swap in for Jaune if you want, uncle Qrow?" Ruby called from the side.
"You'd take it too easy on me!" Qrow got to his feet. "The kid fucking gets it. Don't you?"
"You'll die," I murmured. "It's bad."
"I used to be a little shorter, I think." Qrow leaned on the staff of his scythe. "Not sure. Can't quite remember."
I winced for him. It sounded rough. Qrow had been the trooper. He wasn't complaining, just resigned to the hard work. Sure, he'd gotten frustrated in the chair but who wouldn't? Seriously, name a single person. His surgery had only been days ago and he was still frail.
It left me in the precarious position as still one of the best fighters in the group. perhaps even the best swords-person. He was still healing. The surgery was as deep as any wound I had received, including my brushes with death against Tyrion. Even a huntsman's healing factor could only do so much.
Still the deep grafts had the advantage of preserving his transformation. I'd seen his transformation work with little metal bird's feet. His clothes transformed with him too so it wasn't too much of a surprise, I suppose.
However Ozpin's magic worked; the bone deep fixtures seemed to be enough.
"Come on. Let's get some water." I swept inside and picked up two glasses and filled them up. When I came back outside and handed Qrow the glass of water, Oscar and Weiss were sparring in comparative slow motion. She fenced at him with shallow thrusts and he parried with wild swings of the staff. He wasn't blocking with narrow turns of the wrist as was appropriate against Weiss's style. She wasn't riddling him with more stabs than were necessary to teach. Just the occasional throbbing reminder to keep his guard tight.
I watched her dance about him with elegance and stood beside Ruby.
"He's getting better," Ruby said. "You have credit for that."
I grunted. "Only if you have responsibility for me."
"I thought the guy was supposed to take responsibility, Jaune."
I laughed. "Responsibility for what, I wonder?"
"I'll show you later…" She murmured. She gave me a chaste kiss to let the message sink in. The absolute little minx. My face flushed red with all kinds of thoughts. "Thank you for looking after my uncle. I don't know if he's right to push himself so hard but I suppose you know a thing or two about hard work."
"Of course. I'd do anything to you-for you. I meant for you."
It was her turn to blush and stammer. "Y-yeah well thanks regardless. For both."
"You two are killing me," Qrow bemoaned. "That's my little niece."
"Not so little anymore." I looked her up and down and pointedly licked my lips. She watched my tongue and I felt a little satisfied as she exhaled, making a little shuddering noise. She wanted me to really kiss her. I could tell by the look in her eyes and the curvy wolfish smile.
She leaned back slightly, showing off her chest to me.
I knew she was thinking of when we got interrupted a few days before. We hadn't had the chance to pick up where we left off and I suppose I wasn't the only one who wanted release.
She'd have to keep waiting, though. She'd started this.
"Did I miss anything?" Yang came out. Ren and Nora were behind her.
"Just these two flirting," Qrow breathed, leaning down the wall until he was sitting.
"Score." Nora high-fived Ruby. "You go girl. Get some."
"Anybody up for a match with me?" Yang asked.
"I'll go," Ren agreed.
They stepped out, distinctly separate from where Weiss and Oscar fought, and started fighting. They fought in close range and Ren was using actual bullets to pepper Yang. Then when they got closer Yang's shotguns had the advantage. They alternated again at the length of Ren's blades but it was a short trip from that range to Yang's gauntlets.
He didn't have the long range Crocea Mors offered me to keep her at bay and had to actually engage her fairly close.
It was a bad matchup for him, a bit like he or Ruby were for me but that made it good practice in being smart rather than being good.
It was always possible for a huntsman to run into a bad matchup and die, even if they were good. And right now I was one of the best we had. That was a grim thought. Me.
Maybe I should take it in stride and be flattered by my growth, instead I was worried. If we got into a fight I was going to have to put part of the group on my back and carry it.
I watched Oscar with the cane that seemed a touch too long for him. Maybe that was hypocritical considering the length of my own weapon.
"Roll the wrists Oscar! It's in the wrists!" I shouted when he got stabbed again. Weiss put him on his ass as gently as she could. It was a sort of good practice for her. In control rather than speed or power. Plus she was constantly trying to trick him and had put herself in a corner.
It was good practice all around. I just felt unprepared anyway.
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-WG