"So here's what you do…" Hazel watched as Courrier puncture a hole into a lightning Dust vial, "Shotgunning something like this ain't easy, like my friend Ulysses once said; 'Better down it all in one shot, 'cause your body's not going to want to keep going after the second one'," she then held the Dust vial horizontally, making sure none of the Dust spills out, "Then you just-" she popped the cap open and began sucking in all of the Dust through the hole, all at once.

"Ah…" Courrier breathed out contently, "I know it's a powder, shut up," she chucked the vial away, "It doesn't really do anything but it's damn cool right?" she grinned at Hazel, who just shook his head in slight horror as he just watched someone take Dust, an ammunition propellant, like some common prescription drug.

"Let me try something…" Hazel grunted as Courrier stabbed another vial into his chest, "Damn it just slides right in huh?" NO! No it doesn't! The vials are rounded at the bottom! He used Dust crystals to kick-start his Semblance, not vials! Hazel twitched, it's not like he can say anything right now; not to mention the combination of being extremely tired and whatever the hell Courrier did to him to wake him up have done numbers on his ability to speak normally.

Somehow, some way… Courrier have found a way to stab Dust vials into his chest, despite their bottoms being rounder than a cue ball. Hazel breathed raggedly as she pulled the vial out, "Oh look there's some blood, see?" she dangled the vial over his face, there were blood, quite a bit too, "Don't you dare fall asleep again, you know what happens if you do."

Courrier's been 'entertaining' herself for the past several hours, Hazel have passed out several times from fatigue only to be awaken by Courrier sticking some kind of inhaler into his mouth and forcing him to breath in some kind of toxic chemical, "Adam already left like hours ago so we're the only one left here," she stared at Hazel's Scroll, "No one has called so far… Damn, no one likes you huh."

"They're… probably… busy…" Hazel breathed, "Damn it…"

"Oh so you CAN speak after all," Courrier snarked, "Want another vial?" Hazel shook his head vigorously. What's taking Cinder or Emerald or Watts or Gods forbid that Mercury so long?!


Cinder, alongside Salem's cronies, walked into the Branwen camp… Where's the camp? "Eugh…" Emerald sneered at the litany of corpses littering the destroyed camp, "Who… who could've done this?" Mercury nudged a body with his legs, rolling the corpse over, "Are those cut marks?"

"Too precise to be Grimm…" Watts crouched down to one of the bodies, "Deep cuts too and…" his face then turned deadly serious, "Rose petals," Cinder raised an eyebrow at this, "But not like the one from that kid… these ones are more pointed… with a sharper edge…"

"So this was the work of someone else then?" Cinder narrowed her eyes as Watts dropped the rose petal, "Who?"

"I have a few theories…" Watts rubbed his chin, "Though that's not in either of our mission objectives," he smirked, stepping over the corpse, "If Raven Branwen really is dead, which I doubt, then we best report back to Salem before something else happens."

"She's not dead by the way, that'd be… cheap," Watts snorted, "But whoever came by didn't do a good job at concealing their steps," he pointed at the obvious footsteps in the ground, alongside a vaguely human-shaped crater in the ground, "Having the Branwen tribe collaborate would be great… but ultimately unnecessary, think of it more like a… secondary concern," Cinder followed closely behind, Emerald and Mercury trailing close by behind her, "I'll have to report back to Salem for this, in the meantime, go track down the footsteps will you please?"

Cinder clicked her tongue, "Get to it then," she snarked, walking in the direction of the footsteps alongside Emerald and Mercury. She felt her burn scars itch when Watts just smirked; soon… soon… he'll be ash and dust soon…


Ozpin was too busy thinking about… well, everything, all at once, at the same time while he read through the papers. He scoured the headlines, everything that he had missed during his period of absence, the days, weeks, or maybe even months that he was not there for while he slowly reconstituted within Oscar's mind and consciousness. It was overwhelming, immensely so. Courrier had assumed complete and total control over Vacuo, he tried contacting Theodore but all the man said was 'leave that monster alone and you won't lose another academy… or city.'

Coming from one of his most trusted advisors and friend? Not a good look at all, Shade Academy had been reduced to basically a city-state residing within the New Vacuan Republic, and the locals are not happy in the slightest. Fortunately, Courrier, for all of his warmongering faults, managed to defuse the situation by denouncing Shade Academy and stating that 'such an insignificant place would pose as much threat to the NVR as the ruined city of Vale.' This did hurt Ozpin's ego a bit but did work in quelling the outrage, even if it means changing their anger into hatred instead, this will definitely make it harder later in the future, if Courrier ever decided to go down the warmongering route for real.

And by Courrier, he meant his equally deranged and completely unknown sister that nobody knew that he had before. Ozpin was sceptical, Courrier had a sibling? Yet he didn't bring it up at all in any of their chats or any of his chats that Ozpin was spying in on, curious… curious indeed.

Ozpin could mention the faint scar lining Courrier's forehead on the pictures in the papers, that could be significant… or it could be just a scar, who knows for sure? Ozpin floated around within Oscar's mind, passively thinking about everything thanks to his advanced intellect and even more advanced age while Oscar walked around the apartment or hotel room in boredom. Qrow was passed out on a chair in the room, and the kids were in the second room playing games and bonding with one another.

Their reaction to all the Maiden stuff was to be expected, Ozpin didn't like revealing so much to kids of all people but they're in too deep now, and there's nothing he can do to try and pull them out of the rabbit hole that they've jumped into themselves. Qrow reported that the Branwen tribe was destroyed by Sharon, and that Raven wasn't around, Qrow believed that she may have gotten away, but with how he described the bloodbath covering the camp?

Ozpin shuddered, Sharon… what's she doing now? He spotted her while he watched Summer get aboard the bullhead to Beacon, they seemed close, like family, Summer even hugged her before getting aboard. Sharon just seemed impassive with the whole ordeal, and her companion… Sharon and Burgun Rose… Ozpin furrowed his brows, two silver-eyed warriors, and to think that three of them were standing near the entrance of his Academy.

In all of his years of searching, NOW was the time that they show up? How unfortunate… Ozpin sent Huntsman after Huntsman after the two, seeing if they can dig up any leads pertaining to the two's location. The Huntsmen that he hired all went missing, one by one, Ozpin scowled, if only he pulled out of the investigation earlier… A good number of up-and-coming Huntsmen… gone because Ozpin wanted to push his luck.

And Bluebell, Ozpin had two choices now, either try to recruit the meek man to fight against Salem or have him hidden away somewhere safe. The man was capable, sure, but he didn't seem like the person to have many… convictions or beliefs. Bluebell focused solely on his own, personal survival, and telling the stressed man that he was needed to fight against an over encompassing evil that controlled the demonic beings that tore apart so many families might not be a very wise idea. Ozpin needed all the help he can get though and if Bluebell truly has the silver-eyes the same as Sharon and Burgun and Summer then…

Ozpin considered plucking Bluebell's eyes right out of his sockets before reprimanding that aspect of him. Some 'perks' of being so old, sometimes you get some really disturbing thoughts from your not-so-proud 'warrior king' days. Having a silver-eyed warrior not willing to fight is a liability, Salem could get to him and take the eyes if Ozpin just left him there… but the man was not willing to fight back against Salem, Bluebell seemed like he'd rather run away rather than stay and fight.

Ozpin mulled over such a dilemma, how interesting, he never had such intellectually stimulating thoughts in quite a while, especially one that questioned his morals to this degree.


Unlike Ozpin's altruistic ass, the Courier had no qualms about ripping someone's eyeballs out. Well, she's not at that stage yet, but she'll do that once she gets her hands on some of that sweet, sweet magical Maiden power. Mint and Johan reported back about the Spring Maiden, great! That means that the Courier can actually start hunting that power down easily now! And it's a Branwen to boot, even better, Qrow might be mad about the Courier killing his sister but who cares what that bird fuck thinks? He stole the Courier's whole fucking flow anyways, I mean, imagine having UNlucky powers? Shameful…

Unfortunately, Raven Branwen ran away before she can be captured and presented to the Courier like a sacrifice to a sun deity. The Courier sighed, slapping Hazel around as the man passed out from exhaustion about two hours ago; it was surprisingly fun using the guy as a punching bag, seeing how his Semblance blocked out the pain. They never did call him… how sad… well they did but she'll never tell him that.

Hazel's Scroll rang again, the Courier felt her eye twitch as she listened to the ringtone, some kind of… idol pop? Who knew such a burly man would have such great tastes in music? Not this genocidal mailwoman, that's for sure. Hazel was startled awake by the music, just like he did before… and before… the Scroll rang three times within the span of six minutes and Hazel stayed deadly still when it rang the first two times.

The Courier answered the call and held the Scroll up to Hazel's ear. The plan's all coming together nice, the Courier smirked; now we're cooking with gas… or Dust…


Damn, this chapter's short as fuck.

Told you the releases are going to be sporadic and random, a bunch of IRL stuff is happening all at once right now and I'm always so busy all the time!

Still, thanks to whoever's still reading though, I know how it feels when an Author that you like just kinda disappear for long stretches of time without any update. That disappointment of knowing that the story you're reading can be abandoned at any time... scary.

Thanks for reading!