Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth and Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo. I own nothing of either of them and make no profit from them. I am only playing in the worlds they gave us.
I'm going to do something unprecedented. I'm going to thank a troll I had a short PM exchange with after posting the last chapter. (No name, why give them recognition? They know who they are.)
The utterly meaningless word salad you puked up all over your keyboard in your hopeless attempt to put me in my place was freaking hilarious. I hadn't had a laugh like that in weeks and I needed one very badly. Depression and stress (and the anger and frustration it brings) is a bitch and a good laugh is hard to come by.
Seriously, it changed my entire mood and pulled me out of the psychological funk I'd been stuck in for months and put me in a much better mood. All day, every time I thought about it, I would start laughing. It was just so utterly pathetic and mind numbingly predictable. Standard troll boilerplate material there.
You and your mouth breathing ilk assume I'm a wet behind the ears fanboy who is easily hurt. Yeah, not even remotely close there. Despite life doing its best to knock me down, I'm still standing and grinding along. It's a family trait. So, when immature, attention seeking little fart sacks start yipping, it's as relevant as a mosquito buzzing around...annoying, but totally inconsequential and easily swatted aside. I deal with morons like you all day long at work, so it's a bad act that I'm well used to.
My issue, as mentioned in last chapters opening AN, is ten percent what was said and ninety percent when it was said. Some of it came when I was having a particularly bad day. Normally it would have been out of mind five minutes later. But, hit me with garbage like that on a bad day and the smell sticks around.
So, thank you. (Also, congrats, you've proven nothing and you've won nothing) Your smug self importance and inability to keep your putrid mouth shut when nothing needed to be said created a condition where I was able to stop, take a deep breath, and reset myself. I feel a hell of a lot better for it.
Your comments were moronic and immature and delivered with a tone of implied superiority and a belief, like all trolls have, that you're the smartest person in the room. That's easy when you're alone I guess, but if you were even half as smart as you believe you are, you wouldn't be a troll now would you?
In light of your imbecilic analysis of me, what about you? You're a troll, a useless, societal non-entity who obviously has nothing better or actually productive to do with their time, so maybe you should do a little self reflection and see who is lacking maturity and who is naive. Check the mirror.
And in case you were wondering, no, I haven't been angst ridden over this since then. I wrote this a couple of days later and then pretty much forgot all about it. Almost forgot to add it to this update.
My apologies to those who have supported me and helped me keep my head above water. But as ugly as this was, I needed to say this and get it out of my system. It was cathartic.
This is not something worth making comment on so please don't and save your comments for the chapter content itself. I'm sure there are trolls who will anyway, but that's what the block function is for and I have no issue with using it.
Now, on with the show.
A Chance Encounter
Chapter 17
A lone crow soared over Beacon's sprawling campus, no part of the grounds escaping its scrutiny. It observed the students scurrying to their first classes of the day, its gaze lingering on two particular girls, one blond, the other dark haired and wearing a familiar red cloak as they rushed along laughing and joking with their friends. Once they disappeared into the main building the crow flapped its wings and gained some altitude before turning and soaring on a diving arc that would take it around the school's signature tower.
Swooping back around to the front of the school the bird pulled up to land on an adjacent rooftop, suddenly transitioning from a crow to a dark haired man dressed in black slacks, a two tone grey shirt, and a tattered red cape. He had wine red eyes, a perpetual shadow of stubble on his chin, and carried a large sword slung across his lower back. Every time he came back to Beacon, the place gave Qrow Branwen a nostalgic sense of home.
For four years it had been his home and it gave him more of a sense of home than the dusty bandit camps he had grown up in ever had. The only other place that could give him that same feeling was a certain cabin on the isle of Patch, although both places also reminded him of things that he had lost.
When it came to his sister Raven, that split was inevitable no matter how much he had hoped it would never come to pass. She believed too heavily in the teachings for their tribe, while he didn't and had no desire to spend his life among murderers and thieves. Raven had begun to change while they were at Beacon but unfortunately that change didn't hold. It had been one thing for her to abandon him and their friends and team mates, her husband, but she also abandoned her own daughter and no matter what Raven did, even if she totally changed and came back, he could never truly forgive her for that.
Losing Summer Rose had been like losing a part of himself and it still hurt all these years later. She had always been there to help one of her team mates no matter what and could always easily cut through Raven's bad attitude or his moodiness. It hadn't surprised him in the least when she stepped up without hesitation when Raven left. Tai needed help with Yang and Yang needed a Mom and she got the best one she could have. He also wasn't surprised when the situation led to Tai and Summer getting together and eventually having Ruby.
He had loved Summer so it did hurt a little, but it wasn't like he had ever done anything about his feelings. He was always paranoid about the effect his Semblance could have on those around him and he cared about her too much to allow it to endanger her. Being the favourite, cool Uncle to Yang and Ruby was a pretty good gig though and he loved those two as if they were his own and there was nothing he wouldn't do for them. It had been months since he had last seen them and he was glad to see that it looked like they were doing well. He'd catch up with them soon enough.
It had taken a while for him to get Ozpin's message, the area he was working in was a bit of a dead zone for communications most of the time and the need to keep off the radar and as unnoticeable as possible meant that he didn't have a lot of opportunities to let his guard down. He couldn't afford to have a careless moment, or the untimely intervention of his Semblance, just so he could check for messages or make a call on his scroll.
When he finally was able to get both some secure privacy and a good scroll signal, he had been surprised to see the message from Oz and was even more surprised that he was asking him to break off from his mission when able and come back. The message was a bit cryptic, stating that while it was important, it also wasn't a drop what you're doing and get back here now scenario. It took him a few days to be able to disengage and slip away.
He couldn't help but worry though when he got back to Vale and found military ships from Atlas patrolling the skies. It had to be something official and unless he missed his guess it most likely had to do with the upcoming Vytal Festival. Jimmy was always pushing to be more proactive about things and he had a bad feeling that this was part of that. Great, just what they needed, an overt display of Atlesian machismo to make everyone wonder and worry about what the hell was going on.
He pulled a flask out of his shirt and took a drink. At least he'd been able to refill with some decent whisky before he came back. "Well, guess I better not keep him waiting." Turning back into his bird for he flew around the corner of the main building to a spot where he knew he wouldn't be observed, landed, and changed back. It would only take him a couple of minutes to walk back to the entrance and then he could go and find out why Ozpin called him back.
Meanwhile, In Ozpin's Office
"You did what?!" Ironwood asked incredulously.
The room was set up for a meeting with the temporary table and chairs and the coffee and tea service off to the side again. If it wasn't for the sensitive nature of the conversations at these meetings it would be simpler to just use one of the conference rooms, but there was almost no chance of being overheard by unwanted ears in the Headmaster's office.
Ozpin sat at his desk, sipping his ever present cup of hot cocoa, while Glynda sat to his left nonchalantly sipping a cup of tea. Ichigo and Yoruichi sat at the opposite end of the table, both nursing cups of coffee. Ironwood stood at the windows to Ozpin's right and of course it was the two Death Gods he was addressing.
Yoruichi sighed. She always hated repeating herself. "We recruited Neo to be our informant."
The General massaged the bridge of his nose. "And what made you think that this was a good idea? She works for a thief and a conman, she could be stringing you along."
She snorted derisively. "Give me a little credit General, I'm not new at this."
"Torchwick thinks of himself as a survivor," Ichigo said. "Cinder offered him enough money to make him ignore his survival instincts and he soon found himself in a jam. If he doesn't live up to his end of the bargain he gets reduced to a pile of ash. He's all for causing mayhem, especially if it means he can profit from it, but even he wouldn't have cooked up a plan like the train from Mountain Glenn or what else we know is likely coming. With no way out in sight, he keeps on with Cinder's plan and hopes that she doesn't decide to kill him anyway. It was the only survival option he had open to him."
"By being in custody and telling me everything he gained a way out from under her thumb and gained himself an alternate way to survive." Yoruichi said. "He may be a criminal but just like anyone else he is under the protection of the law of the land and he has cooperated and confirmed a lot of things. Neo backed all that up, including the part about them trapping themselves with their deal with Cinder. She tried to warn Torchwick but the lure of that much money was something he couldn't resist."
"She wants to be out of Cinder's shadow too," Ichigo continued. "The bad fake identity and the possibility of being recognized by someone from Team RWBY, even if it might have been remote given her disguise, was only part of the reason they were trying to swing this with her off campus, figuring her absence wouldn't be noted. She doesn't want to be anywhere near Cinder. She was ready to show up when needed but just like Torchwick it was the only real choice she had."
"So how did you get her to agree?" Ozpin asked.
"Fear and intimidation," Yoruichi answered easily. "It's a language both Torchwick and Neo understand. Although, given that Neo was here and not in a jail cell, we had to go a little over the top to make sure the point got through, loud and clear."
"What did you do?" Glynda asked, a bit of trepidation in her voice.
"We showed her that there is a bigger monster than Cinder," Yoruichi smirked. "She encountered Ichigo in his Hollow form."
She pulled out her scroll and brought up a picture then handed it to Glynda. The poor woman gasped and nearly dropped it. "T-this is you?" she asked Ichigo.
"It is," he answered. "If I were to transform here to show you the power output would blow the tower apart and maybe more than that. Last night I used a garganta to go out to the Badlands to transform, then came back inside the arena before Neo and Yoruichi got there."
Glynda handed the scroll to Ozpin and he too startled. "A fearsome sight indeed," he said. "She must have been terrified." He handed the scroll to Ironwood.
The General's eyes widened. Still, ever the skeptic, he gave Ichigo a disbelieving look.
"If you're willing to go through the garganta I can take you somewhere for a live demonstration," he challenged lightly.
"That won't be necessary," the General said levelly. It was obvious that he remembered what that void felt like when Ichigo had proved to them all that it was real and he had no great desire to experience again and especially not from the inside. "Was this intimidation enough to gain her cooperation or did you offer her something as well?"
Yoruichi was so tempted to tell him that she had offered Neo and Roman something outrageous that would probably make the General's head explode but she contained her mischievous instincts. "I told them both that I would look into what consideration might be made on their behalf for their cooperation, but I also made it clear that they shouldn't get their hopes up for anything too substantial. They made their beds themselves and they'll just have to lie in them. Not knowing at the time that they were taking part in a real eventual end of the world plot likely won't carry a lot of weight."
"Worried that we were going to give them the keys to the kingdom General?" Ichigo asked.
Ironwood sighed. "When it comes to the two of you, I never know what to think."
"I do love being unpredictable," she chirped. "We have another item to discuss as well."
"What is it?" Ozpin asked.
"Emerald and Mercury were scouting other students again yesterday," she began. "Two of the General's students I think. I shadowed them all the way across the grounds to the air dock and the students got on an Atlesian shuttle. One girl had dark skin and blue hair, the other was pale skinned and had hair almost the same colour as Ichigo's."
The General hid his reaction well, but when you are trained to see even the slightest change in a persons demeanour it was easy to spot. His facial muscles, particularly at his jaw and around his eyes tightened a little and his posture became a little straighter.
"I believe I may know which students those are," he said. "So it would seem Cinder is still gathering information towards making the match pairings she wants to set up."
"Yes," Yoruichi agreed. "I also noticed something about the orange haired girl that I know Mercury noticed as well." Ironwood's posture became a little more stiff.
"And what would that be?" Ozpin asked.
"The girls had to step off the path at one point to avoid some other students and they crossed a piece of ground that had been softened up by the rain. The orange haired girl left a footprint that was deeper than that of her companion, significantly deeper, by a measure of two or three inches. An impression that is far deeper than someone of her size and build should have been able to leave. Also, she had a slightly stiff manner to how she walked, but that may or may not mean anything."
The General was looking more uncomfortable by the minute.
"I felt out her spirit energy and it was fine, except that it didn't have the same feel everyone else has with how her soul and body connect. I've never felt anything quite like that before."
"I do believe I recall seeing this girl at the dance," Glynda spoke up.
"Yes," Ozpin agreed as he turned his gaze directly on the General. "She was accompanied by a pair of your soldiers. Who is she? I don't believe I ever caught her name."
Glynda was already on her scroll, no doubt looking up the visiting student roster, which prompted the General to let out an almost unnoticeable sigh before he answered. "Her name is Penny Polendina."
"As in Dr. Pietro Polendina?" Ichigo asked.
"You know him?" Ironwood asked.
"Not really," he answered. "We know of him, at least as much as anyone else might. We did run into him in Mantle once. There had been an accident on the street in front of his clinic and we helped move someone inside so he could tend to them until help got there."
"Is this girl his daughter?" Glynda asked. "I had never heard that he had any family."
James looked like he was on the spot again but got bailed out when the elevator dinged and the doors opened.
As Qrow stepped out, whatever he was about to say was forgotten as he stopped dead. He expected to see Oz, Glynda and Ironwood, but not the other two. "What are the two of you doing here?" he asked.
"Long time no see Qrow," Yoruichi chirped. "I see your eyebrows grew back."
Salem
Someone, was killing her Grimm. Well, someone was always killing her Grimm, that was the nature of the struggle to survive on this world. More specifically, someone was killing her Grimm in large numbers in the vicinity of Mountain Glenn. She had been having steady stream of Grimm make their way there in order to aid Cinder in her plan. Of course that had also meant a noticed increase in attacks in the settlements outside the kingdoms but no one had seemed to detect a pattern to their movements.
At least, not until recently. The leadership of the kingdom's themselves hadn't noted that a sizable number of the dark creatures were actually going somewhere specific, but someone further down the chain apparently had. She had dispatched Seers to monitor the migration and all had been progressing as it should. Grimm were gathering around the failed settlement and biding their time and waiting for the wave of negativity Cinder would create from Vale to signal their time to attack.
Checking one day had shown that all was well. Checking again a couple of days later showed that a very large number of the Grimm were gone. She'd had the floating orbs move throughout the area to try and find where they had went. There were no signs that they had moved elsewhere for some reason and it was highly unlikely that they would disobey her. All of the Grimm that were found were new arrivals, the ones that should have already been in the area were simply gone as if they had never been there at all.
It had taken the Seers a couple of days to actually catch sight of something. A white clad figure had showed up in the evening and began taking out all of the Grimm in the area around the crumbling settlement. It was moving too fast for the Seers to get a clear view of and unless she missed her guess it seemed to know it was being watched. If her watchers got too close in their effort to get a better view they were quickly destroyed. Who ever it was they seemed to show up every night and they were succeeding in keeping the Grimm out of Mountain Glenn and had created a perimeter of nearly a mile that was their kill zone.
Added to this was the fact that the Grimm were becoming hesitant to venture closer and that should not have been possible. It wasn't just because she had commanded them to go there, but what resided in that mountain should have been drawing them there without pause.
The only thing that should cause the Grimm to stop like this is a superior threat but this figure in white had never displayed much overt power of any kind beyond its incredible speed and the occasionally seen flash of its blade, at least not that one of her Seers had witnessed. It seemed to prefer making its kills up close. Over all, it was perplexing and that was not a feeling that she liked.
The Grimm being a little further away wouldn't hinder the plan to any significant degree and the figure in white seemed uninterested in expanding the clear zone to any great degree. She didn't feel the need to send any of her underlings to investigate, there were more important things for them to keep an eye on. There was no shortage of Grimm after all and there were no signs that anything was amiss with the plan itself. She could issue new instructions to the Seers to get them to remain out of sight and try to get a better view of this individual.
This wasn't the first instance where large numbers of Grimm had been disposed of under questionable or unknown circumstances. For the last few hundred years, ever since her break with Ozpin and the death of their children, she had been sequestered in the territory of the God of Darkness and rarely ventured out. She had wandered and seen enough of the world to last her innumerable lifetimes and preferred the solitude to plan and experiment with the Grimm.
Through the underlings she recruited she would hear of the conditions of the outside world and over the last three or four hundred years she had been made aware of some mass Grimm kills. The sites of all of the Great Geographical Anomalies of Remnant for instance. Each one had supposedly been caused by means that were not natural and there were scattered stories that two individuals had been responsible for them.
She found that hard to believe since the two most powerful people, people who could still wield the might of magic and deal that level of destruction if they chose to, were herself and Ozpin. She had instructed her underlings to visit the sites and keep their eyes and ears open but little came of it and with no great revelations of any kind to explain it, it ceased to be a matter of any great interest.
Since then there had been periodic stories, again of two people, taking on and destroying large hordes of Grimm, or taking on the biggest and oldest Grimm they could find. That one persisted right up until this day. It was entirely possible that perhaps there were a couple of powerful Huntsmen that fancied themselves giant killers. It was also equally as possible that it was more than two, or that the entire thing was exaggerated. Even if it was true there were still a great many old and powerful Grimm throughout the world and even if there weren't, the sheer quantity of Grimm would make up for it many times over.
On a different matter, she had gotten reports that there seemed to be bit of an issue regarding the White Fang in Vale. Someone had been harassing them for the last few weeks, disrupting their operations in the city and making it harder for them to recruit new members. One of her subordinates, the technologically brilliant Arthur Watts, had shown her a series of videos that had been released to the public via the internet, the latest showing someone literally slapping around the Fang's Vale cell leader Adam Taurus.
Under different circumstances she wouldn't much care, but Taurus and his faction were an integral part of Cinder's plan and potential disruptions were unwelcome. There had already been a snag involving the train from Mountain Glenn, though even in failure it had still served a useful purpose, just not the more impactful one it had been designed to deliver. Taurus and his group had gone to ground somewhere, or at least that was the inference. She couldn't see him abandoning the chance he had been given to strike a blow at human society, but she would like to have some assurance that he was still committed.
Perhaps she would have Arthur or Hazel sniff around a bit to see what they could find out. She didn't want to make any sort of direct contact with Cinder, the operation was to run without direct oversight and if Cinder was competent there should be no need for any direct communications or updates. Still, it wouldn't hurt to confirm that Taurus was still on board. The humiliation he had suffered should have made him even angrier, more committed, and even more dangerous. If anything they might have to worry about him jumping the gun.
Well, what would happen would happen. She had given Cinder free reign to run the operation and it would be up to her to adapt if necessary to make sure the intended goals were accomplished. She would make sure that there were sufficient Grimm in the area to help her meet those results. Everything else was in her hands and she knew the consequences of failure.
Evening, Main Combat Training Arena
Professor Ozpin dropped into the seat with an uncharacteristic plop. His shoulders sagged as he looked out over the array of targets that he had barely been able to touch. The edge of one smouldered a bit and another had a small amount of ice clinging it. His concentration, and thus the strength of his magic and his ability to aim it were very much off tonight. He really should have put this practice off for the night. The day had been somewhat taxing, but he knew he wasn't going to rebuild his strength and ability to use the magic if he didn't practice.
Shortly after Qrow's arrival, and Glynda leaving to tend to her classes, they had spent the time right up until the end of lunch explaining who and what Ichigo and Yoruichi were and what the world had once been. Needless to say it was a lot for Qrow to take in but the man had seen and knew of a great many other things that were also rather fantastic and hard to believe, and he was more open minded than James so it hadn't taken a lot to convince him.
In the afternoon, Ichigo and Yoruichi had left to teach their class and James went back to his ship to attend to his duties and that left just the two of them for the rather hard and unpleasant conversation to reveal the entirety of the truth in regards to himself and Salem. It was no more pleasant than it had been when telling the others and in some aspects it had been worse given Qrow's level of commitment to him and this cause and the reasons why he had attached himself to it. None of it had been easy for the man to hear.
"Getting in a little practice?" Yoruichi asked, causing him to startle. "Hainawa," she called, wrapping one target up in a yellow ropes of energy. "Sho." Another was knocked back several feet. "Must have been deep in thought if you didn't hear me come in."
"Well, you are a stealth expert," he countered.
"True, but I wasn't trying to be stealthy," she said as she leaned on the rail in front of him. "Byakurai." She pointed at another target and a thin stream of energy left her finger and lanced through the target. "Those last two actually work a little better up close and are really handy in a close quarters fight." She regarded him for a moment. "So I take it this is supposed to be part practice, part distraction. The talk with Qrow didn't go so well?"
"He was perhaps a little bit more understanding overall than James was at first," he answered. "But Qrow placed a great deal of trust in me and on a personal level for him, so as you may imagine that trust has been severely damaged. I can't say that I blame him for feeling that way."
"Did he listen to the whole explanation or did he leave before the end?" she asked.
"He listened to all of it," he answered. "Which may be the most positive aspect of the situation but time will tell if it will even matter."
"We thought he may have been rattled by the whole thing," she told him. "Especially since he seems to be your primary field operative, so we planned on talking to him ourselves, maybe reign him in a bit if needed like we did with the General. Ichigo's out looking for him and shouldn't have any trouble tracking him down."
"I wish I had seen a way to do things differently," he lamented. "Or at least seen the task I so hastily agreed to for what it was right from the start."
"You did what you felt you had to, right, wrong or otherwise," she said. "As much as I hate the phrase, it is what it is. All of the lament and regret in the world isn't going to change it. A God decided to take advantage of your emotional state to have you undertake a task so he could soothe his guilt over what he and his brother had done."
"To play devil's advocate and to be fair, he did try to warn me that Salem would not be the same woman I had known," he said with a self deprecating smirk.
She half smiled. "You're not the first and won't be the last to go charging headfirst after a woman and end up tangled in consequences for your trouble."
He smiled a bit at her humour. "Unfortunately my entanglement has proven to be quite a serious one."
"It certainly took the God of Light long enough to come to you with his offer," she said.
"I have often wondered about the timing and if there was any significance to it," he said. "Wherever I was there was no sense of awareness of any kind until the God of Light came to me. When I came back in my first reincarnation humankind was at a state of progression that was perhaps a bit further ahead than it was when I had originally died. I suppose he could have visited me shortly after they had left and reincarnated me later, or came to me later and sent me along shortly after. There is no way of knowing."
"Either way there would be no point of sending you back until human life had returned to the world," she mused. "But how did life return? If they left and vowed to never return until the time of judgment when the relics were brought together, then how did life come to be again? Did they leave behind something or create some condition where it would happen on its own, or have they been popping in now and then to see what's going on and maybe meddling a bit?"
"You believe that they never truly left?" he questioned.
"I believe they did and it was their intent to stay away until summoned back," she said. "But your situation alone is proof that the God of Light didn't stay away. He made his deal with you over the guilt he felt for what he and his brother had done. Then there are the silver eyes. You told us that he had silver eyes and speculated that it may have been a gift he left behind. If the people could no longer use magic and he was feeling guilt about that as well, why not leave a little something behind to help the people fight and survive against the Grimm? Humankind could rally behind these champions and fight back against the darkness that threatens them all. Safety and prosperity promotes a stronger sense of goodwill and unity."
"What of the God of Darkness then?" he queried. "If the God of Light did indeed choose to remain involved despite what they said, then it is highly unlikely that his brother would have sat idly by and allowed it."
"He certainly wouldn't have," she agreed. "The story of Salem's attempts to have you brought back show that the God of Darkness felt he got the short end of the deal he made with his brother over their cooperative effort of bringing life to this world. If he thought his brother was cheating the game, he may have been inclined to cheat right back. He could push the creation of more Grimm, or new, more fearsome varieties, or he could introduce another seemingly random element."
"Such as?" he asked.
"What was one of the most prominent things that was different about the world after the God of Light sent you back compared to your original life?" she asked.
"Mankind had discovered Dust..." his eyes widened. "The Faunus. There were no Faunus in the world during my original incarnation as Ozma."
"Dust was naturally occurring and just hadn't been discovered yet," she said. "In Dust energy Ichigo and I can feel the different types of spirit energy within it so it has to be a byproduct of the cataclysm...as a matter of fact, this entire world feels very much like the spirit realms to us, much more than it feels like what we called the world of the living. It is definitely a combination of both. It seems a little odd though that when they bring life back to this world after destroying it, that they would introduce a new life form that hadn't been here before."
"And with human beings, especially that early in their development, being prone to fear and superstition when encountering the unknown, they react negatively," he said flatly. "They subjugated and imprisoned the Faunus, sometimes going out and actively hunting them down. For a very long time there was little effort expended in trying to understand them or get along with them."
"So much so that even to this day relations between Human and Faunus are still badly fractured despite any progress that has been made," she concluded. "Not exactly a sign of harmonious relations come judgment day. It's a theory that Ichigo and I have talked about. We certainly don't have anything to back it with and we could be completely out to lunch on this, but considering the actions the God of Light took it could be a possibility. Little Brother doesn't sound like the type to let Big Brother have an edge."
"Sadly, given what we do know, it does seem like a plausible theory." He sighed. "And I suppose it would not be out of character for a "God of Destruction' to do something as morally reprehensible as creating a race of beings to be used in such a horrible way. After all, he had no qualms about destroying the entire human race just to teach Salem a lesson and to punish them for an attack that had no hope of ever harming him."
"Can't say much for the God of Light allowing him to get away with it," she scoffed. "Having a guilty conscience about it later doesn't begin to make up for it."
"Since you and Ichigo told us your story there is something that I have been wondering about," Ozpin said. "Kisuke and I have discussed it as well, but I have to wonder if the Brother's knew that the two of you were here."
"We've been thinking about that too," she admitted. "Maybe our energies blended in with that of the rest of the world? The cataclysm would have produced in immeasurable mass of spirit energy. As powerful as the two of us may be, it should have been a mere speck in comparison to the whole."
"Kisuke believes that to be a large possibility," he told her. "Chances are that there was really nothing in the way of a discernible world here and the Brother's gave it form and he sees the chances of them discovering the two of you to be slim."
She smirked, knowing how Kisuke thought. "But there is that chance that they did know, and if they did, why didn't they do anything? That brings into question why it took so long for us to awaken. We have no idea how many thousands or millions of years may have passed before the Gods became involved here, or even how much time passed between then and when we awoke. We don't even really know how we were able to survive. Ichigo had immense power even then but I don't know if it could have protected us or sustained us for such a long period of hibernation, or suspended animation, or whatever it was."
"Perhaps you were sustained by the spirit energy of the world itself?" he suggested.
She shrugged. "Could be. Still, the question remains, what took so long? Things were pretty fuzzy and out of whack when we did awaken but we can't recall anything that would suggest that someone or something specific woke us up. Flip side of that coin is, we also don't know if we were being kept asleep when we should have already awakened either."
"That must be disconcerting," he said with a frown.
"It is," she admitted. "If we were being kept asleep, the question is why? They would have had no way to know who or what we were or if we would tip the scales in the direction of what either one of them wants out of this."
"If they did keep the two of you asleep perhaps it was for that very unknown quality," he suggested. "Or, perhaps whatever energies protected the two of you from the cataclysm onward was something they could not overcome and they had little choice but to leave you alone."
"Too many questions with too many possibilities and not even so much as a hint or a clue to go on." She let out a frustrated sigh. "As someone who specializes in getting into places and finding things out, do you have any idea how frustrating that is?"
"The dilemma of curiosity and the cat I suppose," he answered mirthfully.
"Something like that," she chuckled.
"I suppose I should try practising again," he said, rising from his seat. "Care to join me?"
"Sure," she answered. "You know, other than power level, since your imagination is the basis for what kind of things you can do with your magic, you should be able to mimic some of our Kido without a lot of difficulty. Especially the simpler ones."
"Well, let's give it a try then shall we?"
A Bar in Downtown Vale
It wasn't a high end joint, but it wasn't the worst dive in town either. It was somewhere in the middle with a comfortable, warm decor and was a generally quiet establishment with music playing softly over the sound system. It was almost more of a social club atmosphere where people could come and drink and have conversations without having to be heard over a loud band or raucous patrons. It was also a good place if you were brooding and wanted to be left alone with your thoughts. The owner was an ex-Huntsman who appreciated the quiet and calm of his retirement and understood the need for a place like this. He did a good business.
Qrow was sitting at a table in the back corner, hunched over that table with his eyes locked on the half empty glass between his hands. Considering all of the things he had been told today it was a wonder that he wasn't already falling off his chair drunk, but that may have been the very thing that had kept him from setting a new speed record for getting plastered. He had so much on his mind that he was doing way more thinking than drinking. He was only on his fourth. Didn't even feel a mild buzz yet.
First he finds out why Remnant was the perfect name for this world, and he finds out that the woman he tried to out drink for information and the guy that turns out to be her husband, are immortal and the last remaining survivors of the world...worlds, that used to be. She was a Death God, and he was that and a few other things besides.
Over the years he had heard stories about a pair that hunted the biggest, oldest, and nastiest of Grimm but he had always thought it to be tall tales. He had also heard tales about some of these Grimm, told by travellers and people who had relocated settlements because of them...enough of them overlapping that he believed many of them to be legitimate. He had a few confirmed by Huntsmen who had been foolish enough to try and kill those Grimm themselves and were barely able to escape with their lives.
He had even been heading towards a swamp in Mistral where a truly enormous King Taijitu was reported to reign supreme, having heard that this pair of rumour was going after it. He was miles away, flying there in his crow form when he saw a huge plume of black smoke rise up and drift away on the wind. By the time he got there the last of it was fading away and it was clear at the site that there had been a battle but there was no sign of the Grimm or who killed it. There was a lot less damage than he expected for a battle against such a creature.
To hear that the world used to be something else and sitting face to face with two immortal survivors wasn't enough. Oh no, Ozpin then had to tell him the untold parts of his story and turn his world inside out right after it had just been turned upside down. Another fairy tale that was true, Salem was Oz's old flame, and to make it even better, the witch was fucking immortal. Plus, after finding out that he couldn't kill her, Oz hadn't had a plan to deal with her. Ever since that point it had been an attempt to contain her by thwarting her schemes and making sure she couldn't get her hands on the relics.
All of the lives that had been risked and spent in the crusade to rid the world of Salem, the people who had fought, falsely believing that they had a chance, that they were moving closer to the day Remnant would be free of her...did Summer know? Did she go to her death knowing that Salem was immortal or was she as ignorant of that fact as everyone else, only finding out at the moment of her death?
He downed the rest of his drink and looked up to signal the bartender for another only to find Ichigo standing there, another drink for him in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other.
"You looked like you could use another one," he said, setting the drink down in front of him before taking a seat, uninvited, across the table.
"What are you doing here?" Qrow asked, not entirely happy that he now had company.
"Probably being a pain in your ass judging by the look on your face," Ichigo answered with a smirk.
Qrow grunted. "Well after the day I've had, you keep buying and you can be as big of a pain in the ass as you want."
"Deal," Ichigo agreed. "And I promise I won't shave your eyebrows off if you pass out."
"That wasn't funny you know," Qrow groused.
Ichigo shrugged. "She thought it was hilarious."
"That woman's a handful, isn't she?" Qrow surmised.
"Two, and then some," Ichigo answered with a smile. "Just one of the many things I love about her."
Qrow sipped his drink. "You know, I used to think finding out that the story of the Two Brother's was true was unbelievable enough, but now there's the two of you."
"I understand that feeling," Ichigo said. "I went from being able to see the spirits of the dead for as long as I can remember, to suddenly finding out that Shinigami really existed. Then I found out about a whole bunch of other mind blowing stuff. Nothing like finding out you were a major part of some guy's twisted plans before you were even born. Of course, a lot of the shit I found out about came late in the game after I had already been fighting."
"Just like me and Oz it seems," Qrow said bitterly.
"If you had known what you know now back when Ozpin recruited your help, would it have made a difference?" Ichigo asked. "Would you have joined on anyway looking for a way to win or would you have gone on your way and done something else?"
"How the hell am I supposed to answer that now?" Qrow asked irritably. "That ship has already sailed."
"The only thing that's really different and relevant between what he told you then and what he told you today, is that Salem is immortal," Ichigo explained. "Every other factor is the same or has little importance."
"That's a pretty damn big factor," Qrow countered.
"Yeah it is, but it doesn't mean that you just lay down and give up either," Ichigo said. "Whether I was fighting Shinigami or Arrancar, I was fighting beings I had no business crossing swords with. I knew I was badly outclassed but if I didn't fight them then the people I was trying to save would die. Hell, as it was I got carved up too many times to count and I freaking died twice."
Qrow gave him an incredulous look. "I'll explain that later. I've been to Hell, and shouldn't have survived that either. When I defeated Aizen he was a transcendent being powered by a ridiculous artifact one of my mentor's had created but couldn't destroy...it effectively made Aizen immortal. I had to learn a technique that would cost me all of my power, my ability to protect the people I cared about and that meant everything to me. I wouldn't even be able to see spirits at all after that. Even then, I wasn't able to kill him but I weakened him enough that he could be sealed. I was constantly facing enemies stronger than I was, even immortal ones, but I still found a way to beat them. People still needed to be protected and I did it because I could. Not for fame or fortune, but because it needed to be done and I could do it."
He looked the other man dead in the eye. "Why did you become a Huntsman Qrow?"
Qrow was silent for a moment, running his finger around the rim of his glass. "Because I didn't want to be a murderer and a thief. My sister Raven and I, we come from a tribe of bandits in Mistral. The strong survive and the weak die...that's how the tribe justified their crimes. The only true opposition they ever faced was from Huntsmen and the skills of a bandit couldn't come close to fending them off. So the leadership decided to send me and Raven to Beacon to learn the skills that would let us take down a Huntsman and protect the tribe."
He picked up the glass, regarding the amber liquid within it. "I saw it as my way out. Raven was all for the idea and for taking those skills back to the tribe." He took a sip and set the glass down. "Me, I wanted to be a Huntsman to help people. I always hated what we were, nothing but parasites living off the hard work and gains of others, never honestly earning a damn thing we had. When the tribe raided a village they took everything that was useful. When the Grimm started to come around they took off and left the villagers defenceless against them. Used to make me sick. Raven thought I was a coward and wasn't afraid to say so. She was all for the ways of the tribe."
"Sounds to me like you had all the right reasons in your head for becoming a Huntsman," Ichigo observed.
"Maybe so," Qrow agreed. "But with my background and considering my Semblance I had a lot of difficulty believing I could actually do it at first."
"Your Semblance?" Ichigo asked.
"Misfortune," Qrow sighed. "I'm a walking fountain of bad luck and I can't turn it off. Raven wasn't exactly the most supportive person so if it hadn't been for the rest of our team I don't think I would have lasted long enough to find my way."
"Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose," Ichigo said.
Qrow nodded. "They both accepted us pretty quick but it took a while for us to return the gesture. I was afraid of my Semblance getting in the way and Raven was just too much of a hard ass. Although, no one could resist Summer for long. Ruby looks and acts so much like her it's scary." His look turned sour. "We started working for Oz after graduation. He told us part of the truth about Salem and we went on a lot of missions for him. That slowed down when Tai and Raven got married and had Yang...and then Raven just abandoned them one day and went back to the tribe."
"You think she somehow found out about what Oz didn't tell you?" Ichigo asked.
"Looking at some of the things she's said since then, yeah, I think she did, but she never comes right out and says it," Qrow answered. "She calls him a liar, called us stupid for still working for him but she would never come right out and say what the lies were. Tai had already cut way down on missions and was teaching at Signal and Summer stuck around to help him with Yang. She'd still take the odd mission but I was still at it full time and became Oz's primary field agent." He took a large pull on his drink. "I thought I was doing some good. I felt like I had finally found somewhere I belonged and I had a purpose and I didn't even have to think about where I came from anymore. I felt like I was actually worth something."
"None of that has changed," Ichigo told him. "Yeah, full disclosure would have been nice, but it wouldn't really have changed the nature of the job that needed to be done. When I was fighting Aizen and then Yhwach, there were a lot of things that I hadn't been told. Some of it might have been useful, but it didn't change the fact that they had to be stopped. You heard Ozpin's reasoning, you heard what he's been through and for how long. You're a smart guy Qrow, you can see this whole picture now, so what is it that's bothering you more, exactly what Ozpin didn't tell you, or the fact that he didn't tell you everything in general? That leads back to my first question, if he had told you back then, would you still have joined the fight?"
Qrow leaned back and sighed. "Hnn. Yeah, I probably would have. I know Summer would have and there's no way I would have let short stack go it alone so I would have ended up in it anyway, riding shotgun. It still hurts that he didn't tell me, especially after all the things I've seen and done. Finding out that Salem's immortal and that he didn't even have a plan beyond trying to keep her contained, that's a little hard to brush off. He accepted me and trusted me and I trusted him. Hell, in some ways at times he was even like a father figure to me. It's going to take me a while to be okay with this, if I ever can be."
"Believe me, I get it and so does he," Ichigo said. "Whether we think he was right or wrong, he did what he thought he had to and he's living with several lifetimes worth of regrets and consequences, and this is another one to add to a hell of a big stack. But the good thing about keeping your enemy contained for a while is that it gives you time to find other options."
"Like you and your sword?" Qrow questioned.
"Maybe," Ichigo smirked. "Won't know for sure until we get to that point but it's a possibility. Even if all I can do with it is weaken her enough that we can seal her like we did with Aizen, it will be enough, at least in the short term. We'd still want to find a way to put an end to her. Immortal or not, one of my Quincy techniques should work but totally destroying a soul, even hers, is something that should be kept as an absolute last resort. I'll try every trick we've got before that extreme. The only thing that we do know for sure that should hurt her is the power of the silver eyes, but I'd rather not push that onto Ruby if we don't have to."
"You and me both," Qrow agreed. "I'd rather not see her involved with this at all, but I guess it's too late for that." He chuckled a bit. "Her team is just like ours was, we were always getting into the middle of things too."
"Judging from what I see it'll be double the trouble," Ichigo smirked. "Because I'm pretty sure that anywhere Team RWBY goes, Team JNPR isn't going to be too far behind."
"How much do they know about what's really going on?" Qrow asked.
"About Salem and Cinder's plan, nothing, at least not yet," he answered. "We've been telling them about me and Yoruichi bit by bit since their curiosity was dragging them in the right direction. They found references in history books and started poking around, finding some of the holes in the stories. Came down to Ruby guessing immortals and Nora guessing aliens."
Qrow couldn't help but laugh. "Sounds like the pipsqueak alright. You said not yet about the other stuff, but you plan on telling them. Does Oz know?"
Ichigo took a swig of his beer. "Yeah. In light of how things went in my life, Yoruichi and I figure that if they're going to be involved they deserve to know what's really going on. He didn't really fight us on it but I think he knows he can't stop us from doing it either. And this was before he told us the rest. The bulk of it can probably wait until after the Vytal Festival, but as far as Cinder is concerned, that's a bit more delicate. Not telling them for reasons of operational security is one thing. They're good kids but they're still kids and there's always a chance they could be overheard discussing it among themselves. On the other hand, they could literally end up right in the middle of a fight they aren't expecting and should know what they're up against."
"And to think, Lionheart might be playing for the other side," Qrow sighed. "Leo's a bit nervous and twitchy but he's a good man. Or at least he was, I never would have thought he'd betray Ozpin. He knows what's at stake. And to have the ones that attacked Amber right here under our noses...that takes some balls." He shook his head. "If I had been even a few seconds quicker they wouldn't have gotten any of her power. The two of you, you were really able to help her?"
Ichigo nodded. "It has taken multiple treatments but we were able to heal the rip in her soul and stabilize her. Now it's a matter of her continuing to rebuild her Aura. It's going to be a long, slow process before she recovers enough to wake up though. We're checking on her again tomorrow morning, you should come with us."
"I think I will," the veteran Huntsman said. "Even if she's unconscious I can still apologize to her face. It'll have to do until she wakes up."
"So, are you still in the game Qrow?" Ichigo asked seriously.
He looked at him, remaining silent for a moment. "You've talked me down off the ledge enough that I'm not going to do something pointless or stupid like punching Oz or going on a week long bender, and I'm calm enough now that I'll be able to think about this from his side and try to understand it. Fully trusting him again will take a bit, but yeah, I'm still in the game. Hell, if Yang and Ruby are in it I guess I can't exactly walk away now can I?"
"Wouldn't want the kids to make you look bad," Ichigo smirked.
Qrow laughed. "So how are they doing in that advanced class of yours?"
"Really well," Ichigo answered. He signalled the bartender for another round. "Got a few stories too if you want to hear them."
"I'm all ears," he grinned. Hearing about the exploits of his nieces was always good and he might just find some teasing material there too.
AN: You know, it's really nice when you're feeling something like close to human again and the flow returns to your writing.
Hope you'll be so kind as to leave a review and tell me what you think about this chapter.
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