19 - ||

The next morning came sooner than seemingly possible and after a hearty breakfast thanks to Wayland and the gift of some fresh supplies and ammunition from Jorth we all made our way to the edge of town, where Jorth and Wayland went to say their goodbyes.

"You four take care out there, alright then?" Wayland said loudly, clapping Ren on the back with such force that he stumbled forward a few steps. "I know you'll be ready after what my darling wife put you through but the Remnant can be a scary place if you let your guard down."

"We will daddy." Nora said with a smile, going back for one more bear hug from the massive man, Wayland lifting her from the ground and holding her tight as if she would vanish into the air if he let her go.

"You're all more than ready." Jorth said bluntly before turning her gaze flicking to Ren for a moment before addressing us as a whole. "Don't go out of your way to handicap yourself. Your enemies won't care if you are. Treat every fight like it could be your last."

"Because out there it could be." Wayland added with a nod, finally releasing his daughter from his grasp. "Jaune I've got something to return to you as well."

Wayland reached into one of the myriad pockets on his smith's apron and proceeded to stick his arm into it far more than should have been seemingly possible before he pulled out my sword, which I had given to him last night over dinner.

Albeit with a new alteration.

I ran my hand over the now dark blue blade, running my aura through it with a thought only to let out a sigh of relief as no Enochian sigils suddenly sprung into existence as a response.

"Took a long bloody while to find something that wouldn't just be blasted off whenever you ran your aura through it and hid the glowing runes at the same time, shame about the color though." The smith said, seemingly sounding disappointed in himself that he hadn't been able to make it a seamless transition. "That being said I can't guarantee that it'll hold. You're an angel Jaune and even with the paint you've still got more aura inside of you then anyone I've ever seen, and that includes my darling wife. If you try and force too much aura through it then it could overpower the paint."

I nodded at the advice and after a few test swings to make sure the blade didn't feel noticeably different, slid the blade over my shoulder to allow it to adhere to the back of the coat, which it did without any trouble at all.

"Thank you, Wayland. This is just what I needed." I said appreciatively, nodding my head in thanks as I did so.

I saw something blur towards me in the corner of my eye and my hand flicked up to catch it on reflex. I looked at what had just been thrown at me only to find a brand new scroll in my hand, bearing the hammer and anvil sigil that was emblazoned on all of Wayland's work.

"I bought a new one for you a while ago." Jorth said simply as I flicked a thumb over the yellow scroll button, the device expanding out to its full size with ease. "I had Wayland give it the same heavy duty case as mine does. He's already upgraded the others as well. Last thing you want is to have it break on you in the middle of nowhere."

I felt rather stunned at this latest gift, even as my mind flashed back to last night when Jorth had told me not to worry about the fact I didn't have a scroll. "Thank you Jorth." I said softly but sincerely, bowing respectfully as I did so.

Jorth's lip twitched minutely but she said nothing, merely turning to Nora and speaking softly to her before pulling her daughter into a hug.

Wayland looked un it all with a broad smile, before his expression changed and he clicked his fingers. "Oh and last of all, I managed to grab a certain little something for a certain sliver eyed lady." The smith sing songed before pulling...

Uh…

A thing.

I narrowed my eyes and tried to make sense of just what the hell that Wayland had in his hands before Ruby let out a high pitched squeal that had me flinching away before she blurred over in plume of red rose petals, taking the device from Wayland before a stream of words that was entirely indecipherable to me went back and forth between the scythe wielder and the master smith.

"Uh Ruby?" I ventured trying to get her attention.

It was like I didn't even exist.

"Wayland?" Ren spoke up, trying another angle only to meet precisely as much success as I had.

This could take a while.

"Stand back and let the expert handle this one." Nora said, pushing both of us to the side so she could take center stage. "Hey Mom, Dad told me that he approved of those changes to the Valkyrie, especially the fuel system."

Jorth blinked at that. "Alright them. I'll go get the explosives." She said simply and started walking towards the house.

"LIKE HELL YOU WILL!" Wayland roared. Physically tackling his wife to the ground. "I'm still paying off the house from the last time!"

I blinked at that, made note of the don't ask looks both Ren and Nora gave me and promptly put it out of my head.

That way lies madness.

Jorth displayed the strength that defied her size by lifting her husband bodily off the ground and throwing him over her shoulder, although his feet did still drag across the ground given his size.

"You should all be off now." Jorth commanded us, paying no heed to her position. "I'm going to take Wayland back home now and make sweet, sweet love to him."

With that Jorth turned on her heel and started walking back to her house.

"Have fun kids!" Wayland said, giving us a thumbs up as he did so.

We all just stood there for a moment not really looking at each other, especially not looking at Nora, and I was not really quite sure of where I was supposed to go after that.

"And that right there is why I didn't talk about my parents." Nora huffed before she turned on her heel and started walking down the road without saying a word.

Ruby let out a little giggle at that and I stifled a laugh of my own while Ren remained perfectly silent even if the smirk on his face said something else entirely.

With that we left Nioavellir behind us and began following the beaten path back the way we came towards Beacon for a moment before taking a different fork in the road.

We moved at a brisk pace, not quite walking but not quite jogging either, somewhere comfortably between the two and easily achievable between the four of us as Huntsman and huntresses in training.

"So…" Ruby dragged the word out, dragging the word out as she did so. "What is the plan precisely for us getting to Mistral?"

I looked at Ruby with a raised brow at that. "I thought you already knew?" I said with a raised brow, still walking as we did so.

"Wait you seriously didn't know where we were going?" Nora interrupted, a grin spreading on her face as she did so.

Ren turned as well, walking backwards so he could face the increasingly embarrassed huntress. "I figured you asked Nora or Jaune ages ago." He remarked lightly, a hint of laughter in his words.

"Well I just figured that one of you would have told me already okay?" Ruby exploded as she waved her hands about, the pink tinge on her face betraying how embarrassed she was about it.

"Okay, okay." I apologised holding back my own laughter as I did so. "So obviously the major obstacle between us and Mistral is the fact that there's a great big ocean between us and it in the shortest possible distance."

"And given the fact that we have to keep a low profile given the whole Jaune's an angel thing," Nora said, gesturing to me as she did so to which I gave an answering wave. "We can't exactly buy ourselves a ticket and get the standard dust plane over there.:

"So, we're not going to do that," Ren continued, gesturing as he did so. "We're going to use Jaune's connections with Neptune's family's shipping business to get ourselves on board one of the ships that is already bound for Mistral."

"And after that well," I shrugged, throwing my hands up into the air as I did so. "Then we improvise."

The plan was still a work in progress.

We knew the lotus tile wanted us to go to Mistral but we had no idea what to do when we actually got there.

Hopefully the thing would be a bit more specific when we actually got to the place.

Or maybe Ren would recognise something that his Uncle might have left behind.

Food for thought.

And with that we continued travelling down the road, still talking intermittently while stile keeping an eye on the surroundings for the sign of any Grimm lying in wait to ambush us.

Or the other kinds of threats that these roads could hide.

But as the first day ended, and then the next, and the next, we'd still yet to come across more than a group of three Grimm in single encounter.

It was…eerie.

We'd encountered more Grimm in the Emerald forest by this point.

And when you can run into more Grimm in what is the favoured training ground of a school that was full of huntsman and huntresses compared to the unpatrolled back roads of Vale proper, you know something isn't adding up.

"Maybe the Dragon's still making the Grimm head towards Beacon?" Ruby suggested as a possibility.

Ren shook his head at that. "If that were so, then we would have encountered signs of their migration, tracks or something like that." Ren explained dismantling the theory.

"And there's been no damage or evidence of the Grimm's passage in any of the trees or bushes that we've passed by either."

Nora in particular looked rather perturbed. "There should have been a lot more Grimm by this point." She stated with authority, her eyes flicking from side to side as if waiting for reality to reassert itself. "I've travelled this route with my parents before, we were attacked far more than this."

I frowned at that.

What the hell was going on?

Qrow spun on his heel, going to pull the trigger of his shotgun to blast the Grimm's head clean off on instinct. He swore internally, restraining the instinct and ducked instead transforming his weapon into a scythe with a flick of his wrist and cut the Beowolf in half without so much as looking the monster.

As the Beowolf collapsed to the world in two halves, Qrow sighed dropping onto his ass with a groan, returning his weapon to its undeployed sword form once more and sliding it behind his ragged cloak.

"God damn it can't those brats slow down already?" He asked rhetorically, taking a swig from his flask as he did so.

Whatever it was that the kids were looking for in Mistral, apparently Jaune thought it was the only way for Nikos to recover from her comatose state.

Given that nobody else had a damn clue on how to help the girl what remained of the Council in Vale had decided to send Qrow to shadow them, to do his best to make the path of the four as fast as physically possible.

Now normally that'd mean that whoever was going to escort them would stay within the group itself, working alongside them to ensure that they could not only make the best time possible but also allow the escort to achieve rest when needed.

Unfortunately, that wasn't exactly possible.

Not for the first time Qrow cursed his blasted Semblance.

It was certainly an excellent thing to have when surrounded by enemies, and even if it effected himself in the process, he'd lived with the curse all his life and was more than used to reacting to such things without so much as an afterthought as a result.

He'd once been ambushed by a team of assassins when trying to get into bed only for the man in the rear to trip on an upraised floorboard and impale the two men in front of him with his daggers.

The contract killer's eyes had still showed his confusion on just what had happened when Qrow had dropkicked him out of the twelfth story window into the ocean below.

Others on the other hand, not so much.

The others had tried so hard when his Semblance had really taken hold during his last year at Beacon.

They'd tried everything, attempting to force their way through it all with a combination of Tai's bravado, Summer's hope and dear old sis' familial love.

Qrow scoffed at that.

Look how that turned out.

Tai; a hollowed-out wreck of a man that was nowhere near the level of Hunter he'd been when he'd graduated Beacon, let alone his prime.

Summer; dead leaving only an empty grave and a grieving family behind her.

And as for Raven?

Not even God knew where that woman was.

Probably back with the clan.

That'd be just about right given his luck.

But the one thing that team STRQ had discovered in their experiments that seemed to achieve any positive results with Qrow's semblance was alcohol.

To be specific, if Qrow got drunk then the effect of his semblance was subdued somewhat, no longer an ever-present thing but more along the lines of something that was only active when the seasoned huntsman willed it to be so.

As a result, Qrow had taken it upon himself to be perpetually buzzed from that day forth, which later lead to the gift of the flask from Tob about a month later.

And the truly ironic thing?

Qrow hated alcohol.

Utterly loathed the stuff.

It remined him of the bad old days with the clan, the raiders coming back with a 'fresh haul' from some poor souls and proceeding to get rip roaringly drunk for however long it took them to go through it all, leading them to go out and go get a new haul.

Rinse and repeat.

When he was younger he'd sworn he'd never be like those bastards, would never let himself be deluded or controlled with drink as his family was.

And yet life had conspired to make a liar out of him yet again.

The thought of family had Qrow thinking of his other niece, no doubt still safely tucked away in Patch with Tai and the rest of the brats from Alan's orphanage.

His eyes glittered darkly as he thought of the one that had reduced Yang to such a state.

Adam Taurus.

Alan and Lilith's little shit, all grown up and raising all the wrong kinds of trouble.

Part of Qrow knew that Adam was nothing more than a pawn in the greater scheme of things, that he was simply another piece of Queen's chess board to draw attention further and further away from herself so she could accomplish her actions while the world focused on the target that Adam provided.

Part of him said that Adam was the son of Alan, as well as the son of Lilith, the closest things he'd ever had to real parents. Hell, they'd done the job a hell of a lot better than the real thing had.

He hadn't shed so much as a tear when he'd heard they'd passed on.

But a much larger part of Qrow stated that he didn't give a damn who was behind him, didn't give a right damn who he was.

If that sorry bastard ever showed his misbegotten face in front of Qrow then he'd cut it off with his scythe.

With the blunt part of his scythe.

Then he'd get personal.

But first he needed to get some rest himself.

I mean come on.

How much trouble could those kids get into when he left them alone for a few hours?

Yang trudged forward, blinking her weary eyes as she sent to get herself a drink of water.

The nightmares we're making it hard to sleep.

She felt like she hadn't slept at all, waking up only to find herself even more tired then she had been the night before.

She reached up with her left arm to pull a glass from the cupboard before she moved over to the sink and filled it to have a drink.

After washing it down as best as she could, feeling a tiny bit more lifelike then she had been a moment ago she turned and was surprised to find that the kids weren't asleep in the adjoining living room as they had been when she went to sleep.

I mean she generally only came out of her room later in the morning these days and by then the kids we're up and about doing something, but being up this early?

"Where are they?" Yang whispered to herself, placing her cup to the side as her curiosity got the better of her, walking to the door to try and find where they could have gotten to.

As she opened the door and closed it before her she heard it.

A sound she could identify anywhere at this point.

The sound of fist striking flesh, of grunts and tumbles, of missed attacks and failing defences.

She turned the corner just in time to see the monkey faunus, Andy she thought his name was be thrown bodily at the remaining two of the pups sending them tumbling to the ground in a flailing mass of limbs.

Kira pushed herself up from the ground, not for the first time it would seem by the state of her clothes, wipe the blood away from her split lip with the back of her hand before she launched herself forward with a roar, letting loose a flurry of slashes with her extended claws towards her foe.

Taiyang didn't so much a bat and eye, cleanly blocking her attacks with a single arm before his hand lanced out in a vice grip seized her by the wrist and in a movement that sent the young tiger faunus spinning over his shoulder, slammed her into the ground.

The breath whooshed out of Kira's lungs and this time she stayed down, clearly winded from this final attack.

"You lost your temper again Kira." Taiyang said admonishly, cracking his neck as he did so. "You lose your head in a fight and the only thing you're going to do is lose. Quick thinking beats quick fists every time."

Kira let out an acknowledging groan at that, slowly trying to push herself up before slumping back down to the ground with a muffled "ow".

Yang watched as her father's eyes sharpened and he turned on his heel, snapping out a kick that sent the tree that had been about to fall on him spinning backwards.

At the base of the tree Ana tried vainly to regain control of her impromptu weapon before the seasoned hunter bounded over to her and proceeded to hit her with a kick with such force that she bounced off the side of the house.

Yang had seen enough at that and rushed over to Ana's side, crying out in concern.

Her father halted mid-step at that, shock in his face as he saw Yang displaying more emotion in those few seconds then she had in weeks.

"What the hell are you doing dad!?" Yang screamed at him, going to pull the bruised orphan in the fur coat into her arm. "Why would you ever think that this was a good idea?"

"It wasn't his idea." A voice rang out, silencing Yang's tirade before it could go any further.

Yang turned to see the twins pushing themselves up onto their feet, using each other as support and clearly beaten and bruised but despite that staring defiantly into the stunned huntress' eyes. "It was our idea. All of us." They spoke up again, each one speaking at the same time as the other.

"The world doesn't care if you can't fight. The Grimm don't care if you can't fight." Po grunted, spitting a mouthful of blood to the side as he walked over to them, a massive black eye clearly making it all but impossible for him to see out of that left eye.

Andy and the Husky pups didn't say a word, they just picked themselves up and walked over to the others, Natsu and Gatsu dragging a still groaning Andy behind them as they moved forward.

"Tob's sick. And Jaune's gone." Tucker grunted, helping a hobbling Carolina make her way forward out of the tree line, apparently having twisted her ankle. "We're not just going to sit around and have to be rescued again."

Yang just stood there stunned before she was pushed away with a surprising amount of strength, sending her to the ground with a shock.

She looked up to see Ana there, bruised and clearly hurting but staring Yang right in the eye. "Next time, I'm going to help protect him." Ana's quiet voice promised, barely audible by Yang but the conviction made it seem far louder than it actually was. "I swear it."

Yang stood there for a moment, unable to say so much as a word as the bruised and bloodied kids turned and formed a ragged line before her father waiting for his next command.

Taiyang looked down at kids before him, barely managing to stay upright but refusing to let themselves fall before him and shook his head lightly.

Whatever the hell Tob had taught these kids they were certainly just as stubborn as that cantankerous old man could be.

Although something told him that Jaune kid had a pretty large part in it as well.

"Okay that's enough resting for now don't you think?" Taiyang spoke up, supressing any thoughts of showing his charges mercy. They didn't want mercy and if he was in their position he wouldn't want it either. "Time for push ups."

They all groaned at that.

Taiyang's version of pushups was probably a form of torture.

It was pretty simple.

You did push ups in time with Taiyang's own pushups, stopping at both the up and the down for a second each.

And you kept doing it until your arms gave out.

Or Taiyang grew tired.

Taiyang even said he'd make it easier on them and only do the push ups with one arm compared to the others using two, and they could even do the push ups from their knees instead of their feet if they felt it was too hard.

Taiyang had yet to break so much as a sweat during these little workouts that left the kids feel like they were dying by the end of them.

But despite how much they may have grumbled or complained they still spread out, getting into position under Taiyang's watchful eye.

The blond huntsman watched them stumble into position before he lowered himself into position hooking his right hand behind his back and holding himself with his left hand, the fingertips extending downwards, keeping his palm off the ground at all times.

"Everyone ready?" He called out readying himself for the movement as he did so.

The was a loud thump by his side and he turned to see his daughter taking a place next to him, having retightened her hair into the ponytail she had taken to wearing it in the past few weeks, and holding herself ready for one armed push ups of her own. "I could use the exercise." Yang explained, a spark of the fire that had always fuelled her beginning to burn behind her eyes once more.

Taiyang wanted to smile broadly at that but instead smirked cocking an eyebrow at his eldest daughter. "Well as long as you aren't afraid of your dear old dad showing you up?" He said tauntingly, waggling his eyebrows as he did so.

Despite how tired the kids were, several of them let out loud 'oohs' at that, always willing to applaud a good insult. After watching Tob tear strips off Jaune for years it kind of grew on you.

Yang blinked at him in shock for a moment before her eyes narrowed, her lips spreading in a mocking grin that for a moment brought up painful memories of Raven before their daughter reasserted herself over the image. "I'm more worried about you breaking your hip old man."

The kids let out even louder oohs at that and Taiyang even let out a chuckle under his breath as he watched life spread across her face.

"Alright then, first one to fall has to sweep the front porch." Taiyang challenged not giving any time for Yang to change her mind as he lowered for the first push up, the kids and Yang quickly scrambling to follow his lead as he firmly stated "One."

As he continued on with his push ups, Tob's kids and Yang following alongside him he found his thoughts wandering as he performed the monotonous exercise.

Wandering to Ruby out there in the world, not alone thank god, but travelling to Mistral with an angel of all things.

Sounded like one of those dumb stories Summer would have come up with when they were back in Beacon.

That being said they didn't get any better when she was telling them to Ruby and Yang.

He looked up again and was surprised to see the kids had already collapsed only Yang still managing to keep pace, albeit with sweat now coating her body. Understandable considering the fact that she hadn't been exercising since she'd gotten back home.

Now as her father there was only thing to do in this situation.

"What's the matter Yang?" He asked casually, taking the time to do another push up as he did so. "Do you need a hand?

The Beowolves leapt forward, snarling maws full of razor sharp teeth only to let out startled yelps as they slammed into my shield, materialising seemingly out of nowhere to prevent them from reaching their targets.

Looking over my shoulder in a move that would have had Tob cracking me over the back of the head for the blatant stupidity of it, I smiled broadly and spoke in a casual tone that I most certainly did not feel. "That sure was close wasn't it folks?"

The three people behind me stared at me as if I was a madman, with the possible exception of the kid who had a look on his face that could only be called awed. His parents on the other hand were far less easy to convince, the bloody wound on the father's shoulder from a Beowolf savaging him probably contributing significantly at that.

We'd been making our way down the road, expecting yet another day of dull monotony to come to an end only to have the sound of a scream cut through the sky.

We'd immediately run towards it, Ruby taking the lead with her Semblance enhanced speed to find an overturned cart, a man with a bloody gash on his limp left arm, hurriedly trying to reload a rifle one handed, a woman cowering behind him and a small boy who bore many of the characteristics of the two.

Ruby was already hard at work as the decaying corpse of a Beowolf acknowledged, flinging herself against the advancing horde, more and more Grimm drawn by the prospect of easy prey.

"Go help Ruby, I'll keep the family safe!" I ordered with a shout and my two teammates bounded off without so much as another word, hurling themselves into the fray with devastating effect.

And as my two friends went with the silver eyed prodigy off to slaughter the Grimm I had to do the other job that no-one ever really thought about when you thought about huntsman and huntresses.

I had to convince the family that there was no reason to be worried, that there was nothing to fear.

That was the real danger of fighting the Grimm.

For us it was fine, monotonous even, it was an integral part of our job as Huntsman and Huntresses we expected the Grimm to fight us just as we expected ourselves to fight them,

For civilians however an encounter with a Grimm was a far more perilous and fearful thing to encounter.

And since the Grimm had this annoying habit of being able to and drawn by negative emotions, like per say, fear?

Unless you wanted to be stuck constantly fighting Grimm until the local population was dead or you were, that meant having to make those civilians think that there was no reason to feel such negative emotions.

We'd had a few of these classes during Beacon and I'd found a very simple strategy to achieving such a thing.

"And what's your name then little laddie?" I asked cheerfully, as I shrunk my shield to its normal size to cleave a creep in two with Candidus Mors, and then casually backhanded a charging boarbastusk off course with my shield leading it to slam into the still recovering Beowolves in a cacophony of squeals and roars.

Channel my inner Peter Port.

"Uh, my n-name, sir?" I heard the kid stammer behind me, seemingly stunned by the question.

"Why yes laddie your name!" I boomed, laughing as I did so even as I watched a flight of juvenile nevermore vanish in an explosion of crackling pink lighting and Ren tore into a group of Beowolves like the kids through a cookie jar. "Can you tell me what it is?

"My name is J-Jett, sir." The boy answered after a beat, his voice growing a touch steadier now.

Good.

Got to keep him focused on me, on this conversation and not on the Grimm.

"That's a good name there Jett!" I said back loudly, my eyes flickering across the field before a minute frown appeared on my face.

The flow of Grimm was finally beginning to slow, always a welcome sign in a situation like this. But at the same time I could feel the ground shake slightly behind my feet, the leaves on the trees beginning to shake and sway.

That told me it was a large Grimm.

And large Grimm have this awful habit of being really scary looking to regular civilians.

"What do your parents do Jett?" I continued on boisterously, angling my shield just in time for Nora to land on top of it with her war hammer with a loud giggle before she launched herself up into the air in an awe-inspiring display that drew all eyes to her.

And not to the battle currently underway past the tree line and just in sight if you were looking for it of Ruby and Ren fighting against a King Taijitu.

The bubbly berserker simply seemed to float up there in the skies for a long moment before she twisted, Magnhild shifting into its grenade launcher configuration once more but as I saw the face of the gun fall forward I knew what was coming next.

As I was doing so I realised I wasn't listening to Jett and as I boosted my shield up to its wall size once more I divided my attention between the conflict and the people behind me.

"and Pa's a farmer. We were taking this road to go sell some of the crops to the next town."

"And what kind of crops does your family make?" I asked again just as a rain of pink grenades plummeted down onto the remaining Grimm before me, reducing them to a fine mist as they exploded into blasts of pink energy.

As Jett answered me, his voice now as sure and steady as it would be in any other situation I saw Ren and Ruby walking back out of the woods, Stormflower safely stashed away up Ren's sleeves and Crescent Rose collapsed and holstered behind Ruby's back as she flashed me a thumbs up.

I let my aura return to normal and my shield reverted back to nothing more than a normal looking gauntlet. I slid my sword onto my back where it clung to the trench coat as it always did and approached the father reaching into my medicine pouch and pulling out a basic coagulant and some bandages. "Let's get you patched up then."

I knelt down by the still stunned looking father grabbing his shirt, tearing the sleeve away roughly where over his wounded shoulder. "Sorry about this, just need to get this out of the way." As I was doing this I noticed Ruby come over to Jett and capture his attention with her scythe, the boy let out awed sounds as she made it transform into a variety of different states.

Ren was talking to the mother in a low tone, speaking in a calm measured way that was rapidly calming down the no longer hyperventilating woman.

Nora on the other hand was walking over to the overturned cart and was likely going to try to right it onto its wheels once more.

I used some of my water and the torn rags of his shirt to mop away the blood so I could examine the state of the wound.

I grimaced.

Not bad, could be worse.

That being said he hasn't got any aura so he can't expect the quick healing turnaround that we're used to as hunters.

"This is going to sting." I warned the farmer before I poured the coagulant directly over the wound and started shooting it across the entirety of it with one hand.

The farmer let out a low groan at that but said nothing more, gritting his teeth as I did my work I brought out the bandages and began immobilizing his arm, strapping it across his chest while I also got to work binding his wound.

I examined my work for a few more moments before I nodded my head. "That'll do enough till we can get to the next town and get you a real doctor." I said standing back up from where I had been kneeling next to the man and brushed off my knees before I reached out a hand to help him up. "I'm Jaune."

The farmer took my offered hand with his unharmed one and pulled himself up with a huff of air. "I'm Mikhail." He said in introduction, before he bowed his head deeply towards me. "Thank you for coming to our assistance. If you'd come even a second later…I don't have much but I'm sure I'll be able to pay you all fo-"

I held up a hand and smiled gently. "We don't need any money Mikhail. You needed help so we helped you, simple as that." I said kindly, putting the last of my gear back into my pouches as I did so. "We were going to spend the night at the next town anyway so we'll accompany you the rest of the way."

Mikhail started at that. "I thank you for the offer, but I can't leave my cart and since the horses ran off I've got no way of bringing it the rest of the way into town."

I looked from the farmer to the now righted cart, Nora inspecting the wheels to make sure that it would still be in working condition before a lightbulb lit up in my head.

Actually I think I may have a way to solve that problem.

"Say Mikhail, does the inn in town serve pancakes?" I asked the farmer, the man seemingly taken aback by the random question.

"Uh, sure they do, Jett has them every time we pass through." He admitted, looking at me strangely as he did so. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

I grinned broadly at that, even as I relished at the perfect opportunity that life had placed before me. "That, is what you'll paying your noble steeds to pull the cart."

I saw Ren's head perk up on reflex at that most hated of titles only to pale as he saw the look on my face.

Oh you thought I'd forgotten about that fearless leader plug hadn't you.

The best revenge takes time my friend.

And guess what time it is?

"Oh Nora?" I called out theatrically, even as I cackled internally at the chaos that was to follow. "I think I found a way to get you your pancakes."

Nora's eyes went wide at that and she bounced over to me in what seemed to be a single step in a blur of speed that could have put Ruby to shame. "Really?" She squealed bouncing up and down excitedly as she did so.

"Oh certainly." I affirmed before I leant to the side slightly so I could stare straight into Ren's eyes as I said the next part. "But only if you can get Ren to help out with a little physical exercise."

Nora whirled on her partner with a manic gleam in her eyes and I stepped backwards to let nature take its place, even as Ruby and Jett laughed as Ren dodged and jumped away from a leaping Nora.

Even as I laughed as I watched Nora quickly conscript Ren alongside her to help pull the cart forward while Ruby and I remained to the sides to protect from any further attacks I found my mind drifting towards something else.

To someone else.

We're on our way Pyrrha.

Just hold on.

AN: From the grave it rises!

Sorry for long wait friends, I started my accelerated law degree earlier this year and unfortunately the course load wasn't exactly conductive to writing.

I'd intended for this chapter to be a bit longer than it is now as well as get a little further.

Life however seemed to have an issue with that plan and I proceeded to accidentally gouge one of my eyes a bit.

Needless to say that stung a bit.

That made writing a little bit of an issue so I haven't been able to write as much as I'd like.

On the plus side I've been able to listen to a lot of my dad's old audiobooks. A lot of Tom Clancy.

But still since this chapter was a bit shorted then I'd hoped I thought I'd give you all a little hint of what's to come later on in this arc of the story, a sneak peek of what's to come.

I gazed up at the barrel of the gun levelled at me and swore internally.

Damn it.

I was already buggared after the last fight.

I was not up to a fight like this.

Especially with Qrow as an invalid behind us.

There wasn't really much room for us to make use of either, and with walls to either side of us and guns before us they had us dead to rights.

I saw Ren catch my eye and shook my head minutely.

Not yet.

Wait for an opportunity.

So…

I paused, narrowing my eyes as I heard something just at the edge of my hearing.

Was that…something rattling?

CLANG

The sound filled the air and something slammed into the wall behind us with an explosion of noise, chips of wood showering my back like tiny bullets.

I turned over my shoulder to see what appeared to be a harpoon sticking through the back wall of the airship, the four massive barbs of the weapon outstretched and having grabbed a tight hold of the rear door.

Before I could do more than comprehend that fact there was a great yank, and everyone was thrown forward as the harpoon went backwards, dragging the airship along with it back down towards the ocean.

Well if that's not an opportunity then I don't know what is.

I threw myself forward and tackled the soldier with the rifle around the legs, just as Ren bounded up and snapped his fists across the man's face, smashing his head into the side of the airship.

The man let out a chocked scream before slumping to the ground, unconscious.

"Jaune, stay still." Ruby commanded, wriggling over behind me to rub her bonds against my blade's edge, trying to saw through the rope. "Once I've cut myself free, I'll free you."

Ren in comparison had already managed to free himself from his ropes somehow, probably some crazy martial art bullshit like always, and was already hard at work at freeing Nora from her bonds, the bubbly berserker still a bit groggy from the hit to her head.

In no time at all Ruby had managed to cut herself free and then with a little precision work from Crescent Rose managed to free me as well.

I rubbed at my wrists, trying to force the circulation to pick up as the feeling of pins and needles momentarily seized my hands.

"Any ideas guys?" I asked, honestly at a loss at what precisely we were supposed to do at this point.

"So we got kidnapped by bad guys, and then those bad guys got kidnapped by other guys," Ruby reiterated cocking her head to the side in that puppy like way she did when she was thinking hard. "which makes these new guys the good guys?"

"Or just other bad guys." Ren grunted, helping a swaying Nora to her feet as she did so, the dizziness clearly fading with each passing moment.

I walked forward, trying for the heavily reinforced door that served as the only way in or out of this room only to curse as I found no way for it to open from this side and when I tried to kick it down the only thing I achieved was jarring my leg,

I propped Qrow up on one of the side walls and turned towards the others, drawing Candidus Mors from my back with one hand and shaking loose my shield bracelet with the other. "Okay so plan so far is we wait for the door to open, force our way through and then we improvise."

Ren gave me a dry look at that. "Not much of a plan there Fearless Leader." He said wryly, Stormflower held in both hands in a loose but ready position.

There was another loud shudder that shook the whole ship and the clanking sound vanished, while the sounds of conflict beyond the door only intensified further, becoming more frantic and desperate.

Nora had Magnhild in its war hammer form, the grenade launcher being rather useless at the moment given the fact that it didn't have any ammunition. "I like it! Nice and simple."

It was at that moment that the light above us winked off, leaving us in near total darkness if not for the light spilling out from the cracks in the door.

I heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door and I motioned for the others to be quiet, holding up fingers to give the others the proper timing.

'Three' I mimed, quietly deploying Aegis, its dim white light illuminating the dark hold further, giving us a little bit more perspective to work with.

'Two'

Before I could move to one there was a massive tearing sound as the back end of the room was wrenched away, blinding white light blazing in from the new entrance, ruining our eyesight entirely.

I threw my shield arm up in front of my face to block most of the light, Candidus Mors still held at the ready by my right arm.

There was the sound of heavy footsteps approaching before someone jumped through the newly made entrance to the back of the ship.

I couldn't make out much in the way of colors, but the person who entered was tall, metallic armor covering their legs and their chest while the arms were left relatively uncovered, save for a single bracer around her left wrist.

The figures face was hidden behind a blank mask, two eyeholes revealing bright yellow eyes like that of a hawk gazing imperiously forward. The only color I could really make out beside the eyes was a vibrant red scarf that rapped around the figures head, save for the mask further obscuring the individual's identity.

On the figures left was a round shield, that was about the size of my own albeit a different size, the exact details impossible to make out.

But in the figures right arm?

The same rattling sound I had heard before met my ears, as my eyes gazed upon the harpoon that had torn the airship we were in from the sky held solidly in the hand of the person in front of us.

I swore internally.

To be able to tear an airship from the air in mid-flight? Seemingly through sheer brute force?

That was something I'd only ever seen Penny manage to do before and that was with the added benefits of one; that the Bullheads were both a lot lighter and had only just taken off at the time and two; that Penny was a freaking combat android with strength far beyond that of a regular human.

I resolved myself to not so much as attempt to block a blow from that harpoon.

I'd have better luck trying to block a diving Nevermore if my luck held the way it had.

"Jaune Arc." The figure in front of me intoned, gesturing at me with their weapon as they did so.

Then they turned their weapon slightly. "Nora Valkyrie."

"Lie Ren."

"And judging by the scythe I'm assuming that's Ruby Rose."

I blinked, stunned into silence for a moment.

Huh?

How the hell did this person know our names?

I went to ask them as such when I suddenly heard a loud gurgle sound out behind us, followed by a wind that ruffled my hair and clothes and almost had me closing my eyes as I turned to face the new sound.

What I saw shocked me.

Behind us, having opened the door to hold was one of the soldiers who had captured us, their short sword like weapon held firmly within their hand.

Clearly, they'd been attempting to sneak up behind us when we'd been distracted.

The thing that was capturing most of my attention however was the harpoon that was impaled through the woman's chest, with a long chain trailing away back into the waiting hand of the armoured figure.

I hadn't even seen the throw that had killed the man, only felt the aftermath of its wake as it passed me by.

That was...unbelievable.

"Are you all alright?" The armoured figure asked, their voice still muffled by the mask going to walk out of the downed airship. But even with that, there was something about them.

Something familiar almost, yet I know I had never met this person.

I was acclimatizing to the change in light now, and I could make out what looked like a large wooden deck, with several different people, faunus as well as humans, in a mish mash of outfits that were only really identifiable by the blood that was coating some of their weapons as well the symbol that was emblazoned on all of them, sometimes on clothes, sometimes on armor, hell even one time I saw it tattooed on the shoulder of some kind of faunus with scales on the edges of his face.

A long spear, with a circle surrounding it.

"I'm sorry, but how do you know us?" I asked apologizing as I did so.

The person almost fell over at that.

"What?" They squawked in outrage, their voice sounding decidedly more feminine then it had before. "You seriously don't know who I am?"

"Captain!?" A voice called out from the crowd in concern, one of the women holding a rifle with a bayonet on the end stepping forward as they did so.

The person before us, the 'Captain' I'm assuming, waved them off and stood up straight again, coughing awkwardly as they tried to regain their demeanour. "Ahem, yes. So, introductions. I'm Thetis, otherwise known as the Queen of the Mistralian Seas and the Goddess of Waters." The newly named Thetis said nodding her head forward politely as she did so in greeting.

She raised her head again, her eagle like eyes clearly waiting for some kind of response.

I honestly had no idea what I was supposed to do here.

I was sure I'd heard that title once from Vulcan or maybe Neptune's father Triton but only in passing and whatever it was it wasn't ringing any bells.

I flicked my gaze to the others to find they were in as much the same boat as I was, clearly having no idea who the strange woman in front of us was.

Was I supposed to introduce myself as well? But she already knew my name.

Maybe I was supposed to give out a title as well?

Did I even have a title?

My mind immediately leapt back to some of the kinder ones Tob gad gifted me with during training and I shuddered.

Those were never going to see the light of day again.

"Uh," Ruby spoke up, hesitating as the eyes of everyone, both those of us onboard the airship as well as those waiting on the deck outside of it turned their attention towards her. "That's…nice?" Ruby said finally, unsure of herself as I said it.

I barely restrained the urge to palm my face and sigh.

I actually witnessed one of the people waiting outside fall over at Ruby's response falling heavily to the deck in a cacophony of noise.

"Really!?" Thetis said finally, throwing up her arms as she did so, the chain of her harpoon making that same unmistakable rattling sound as she did so. "I mean I'd understand Ruby not knowing who I am but you three? What on Remnant I-"

One of the figures outside, a decidedly distinguished looking gentleman who should have looked decidedly out of place compared to those around him and yet seemed to be perfectly at ease at his situation, coughed loudly in a clearly fake manner drawing Thetis attention towards him. As she turned he tapped at his face with a rather dry expression.

Thetis froze at that. "Still wearing the mask aren't I?" She asked aloud before raising a hand to find out and proceeding to swear in a way that would have had Tob stand from his wheelchair and clap in appreciation.

The crew proceeded to chuckle quietly at their captain's mishap before becoming remarkably straight faced when she whirled around to look at them.

The bronze mask was casually tossed to one of the men outside who caught it with ease before she impaled her harpoon in the deck of the airship, both of her hands reaching up to grasp the red scarf that was wrapped around her head.

Wait.

The scarf was removed, revealing hair that was just as brightly red, the scarf deftly being tied around her hip in a way that was as familiar to me as slap to the face.

The woman turned and I staggered in place as the face of my partner stared back at me.

I could hear the others gasping beside me as what I could only call Pyrrha's twin sister walked towards us, that same kind smile on her face as Pyrrha's as she approached.

"I'm Pyrrha's mother." She said simply before a wry grin spread across her face. "Although it is kind of you to say such things Jaune."

I felt myself flush.

Had I said that aloud?

Blast it.

"You coming?" She asked before she jumped down the short distance to the deck below, walking briskly forward through the path that the crowd made for her.

We looked at each other for a moment before I shrugged, following after Thetis with the same causal walk as she had given herself.

The crowd of people in front of us we're staring at us intently now, their gaze not malicious in anyway but it was still rather disconcerting to have that many people staring at us like that.

A sharp whistle filled the air and the crowd started before dispersing in every direction, some running to the sides of the ships, others running below deck, and the rest making their way towards the masts, a few even pulling themselves up the masts as smoothly as I would up one of the trees of Freshwater.

We walked up the well worn steps up to the upper deck of the ship or whatever it was supposed to be called, where Thetis stood at the helm of the ship, taking the wheel from a shirtless tattooed man who nodded respectfully before he made his way elsewhere.

"Where are we?" Nora asked taking in the surroundings,

"Currently? You're on board my ship, the Argo." Thetis said, both hands firmly around the wheel as she talked to us, her gaze locked on the ocean ahead, twisting the wheel this way and that on occasion for reasons that were unknown to me. "Granted it's more like the Argo mark 8 and a half but that doesn't really roll off the tongue now does it?"