Chapter 51

[||||=LEVEL 51= ||||]

"It could be worse," Qrow mused.

"It could have been a lot better too," Yang muttered as she ran a hand down her pink dress. Qrow snickered but shut up when Yang sent a death glare at him. It wasn't like it was Qrow's fault that everyone had had terrible luck but it was still his semblance acting up, or more like going into overdrive.

"I got off kind of lucky," Ruby chirped, "A burned hem isn't that bad."

Ozpin and I glanced at each other and our untouched suits and had a silent agreement to not talk about how we were perfectly fine when everyone else might as well have walked through hell by the way they looked.

"And what the hell happened to you?" Qrow sent a pointed glance towards Oobleck, whose suit was bloodstained around his family jewels.

Oobleck took a quick sip of his coffee. "It's not mine. I had to kill a bull. It's a long story. ButifyouwanttoknowI-"

"And your story, Port?" Qrow asked.

"I took the wrong pills this morning," Port said a little drowsily. "The sleepy ones." I wondered personally if he got some other type of pills, he seemed somewhat out of it, but I kept my opinions to myself.

"What about the raccoon girl? The bridesmaid?" I asked.

"Rabies," Qrow summarized.

"Ah."

"Are we not talking about how you three look perfectly fine?" Yang demanded, looking at Ozpin, Taiyang, and I.

"In case you haven't noticed, the family car isn't in the parking lot," Tai said. He waved his hand over towards the parking lot not far away.

"Oh," Yang said, looking chatsized. "And what about you two?"

"I had to help you and Ruby out." I shrugged.

"Do you think your bride had similarly poor luck?" Ozpin asked Qrow, oh so subtly changing the subject. Qrow rolled his eyes while we all had a moment of exasperation for Ozpin.

"She's probably okay..." Qrow said, though he suddenly looked a little concerned. "But now that I think about it I should probably check on her. There's also the first look."

"Did you actually plan this?" Ozpin asked, bemused.

"Nope. Just a bunch of drinking and talking before the ceremony and dinner and then we drive away into the sunset to a nice hotel in Vale. We spent more time getting a band and a place to do this whole thing. Besides, a stiff schedule is boring and has responsibilities and stuff. Neither Bella or myself are good with that stuff. That's why neither of us ever made lesson plans for Signal."

"Of course." Ozpin smiled a little and sipped his drink, which was now from some expensive looking wine glasses that Qrow brought. We were also tentatively taking out the more expensive wines but we were saving the good stuff stashed away for later.

"You never made a lesson plan?" Tai asked, seemingly a mix of angry and incredulous. Qrow blanched.

"Uh, right. I wasn't supposed to tell you that. I just made things up as I went along with the class or assigned spars and I'm off." He immediately turned away and walked quickly towards the church to escape Tai's fury.

On that cue it was time to split up again and find new people for conversation. I had checked the schedule and we still had about thirty minutes until the ceremony. Then there was an hour of eating and drinking and toasts and speeches at the same time as the beginning of cocktail hour. After that was dancing as some people began to go home but at that point I was probably going to say my goodbyes.

"Abyss, care to talk?" I glanced to Ozpin, who had, if I hadn't just misheard, asked to speak with me.

"That depends if we're going to be talking about work," I said, meaning magical matters and the Ozluminati (though the name was unofficial).

"Not quite," he said with a vague and polite smile. It felt almost genuine but I had a gut feeling that it was fake. I shrugged and walked over towards a table before sitting down, Ozpin right in front of me.

"How are you finding Beacon?" Ozpin asked.

"Boring," I said honestly. "Being around people my age is alright, though not exactly new, but it's nice to be able to see old friends like Weiss and Pyrrha. I haven't gotten to meeting Lie Ren or Nora yet but when I do get there I'm sure we'll get along from what Pyrrha's told me. But otherwise Beacon seems monotonous and filled with paperwork and sitting in a classroom listening to others tell me things I already know."

"You know material beyond the advanced classes?" Ozpin asked, not seeming disbelieving at all but rather unsurprised.

I nodded. "The only class that slightly interests me is dust studies because we've tried using the magical plants I've made in a few ways. I assigned my R&D team to using the recent findings themselves."

"That does make sense," Ozpin agreed.

"My memory is nearly eidetic anyways," I said offhandedly. Ozpin's eyes suddenly grew far more interested at that.

"Nearly?" He asked.

"I can choose to forget or remember whatever I want," I explained. "An interesting use of my recently acquired mind affinity." Ozpin looked alarmed at that.

"Mister Mavros a mind affinity is a very rare and powerful thing and-"

"I'm not going to abuse it," I said with an eye roll. "I got the affinity to make sure other people can't mindwipe me and use me for their own ends. I'm sure you realize how disastrous that would be." Ozpin frowned but nodded.

"Besides that one of my greatest fears is having my mind tampered with. Influenced is fine, hormones, aura, and a million other things do that no matter what, but directly influenced or directly controlled is perhaps my worst nightmare. I held off on getting a mind affinity for quite some time before caving in and swearing to myself that I would only use the affinity defensively."

"Are you sure you can hold yourself to that?" Ozpin asked cautiously. I nodded.

"If I need something badly enough that I consider using that affinity to control others I'll stop and think of any possible alternatives. There are already enough ways to control others anyways. Blackmail, persuasion, bribery, and so on. I doubt I'll ever get desperate enough to use the affinity."

Ozpin seemed fairly relieved at that and nodded in acquiescence. "Good. My apologies if I seem paranoid." I waved off his concerns.

"I'm worried about telepaths when I'm fairly sure there's only one if that many."

"She is," he warned me. "She simply uses such a tactic as a last resort. I have grown a sufficient resilience to such things over the years, a sort of hardening of mind, but I am aware that everyone is vulnerable to such things."

"I doubt she'll ever use it against me," I agreed. "I've considered that my void affinity might make me immune to magical means of mind control anyways."

"Perhaps. I have little experience in such a branch of magic," he admitted. I nodded. "If you have so little interest in Beacon what have you been doing in the meantime? I confess that I have scryed you but had some sort of interference."

I frowned. "You scry me?" He nodded.

"Rarely, when I am unaware of your whereabouts or you are in some sort of event. For instance, I glimpsed you during your trip to the Schnee mines. I take care to respect your privacy and do not listen in on important conversations." I was skeptical but there wasn't anything I could do about Ozpin's 'scrying'.

"I've been using a facet of the void," I admitted. "Dimensional travel." That caught Ozpin's attention.

"Truly?" he asked. "Such magic is difficult and unpredictable." I chuckled and choked on my beer. I took a moment to cough before answering him.

"No. It's extremely easy using my particular method. I can propel myself through the void, though technically distance has no meaning there, and choose my destination. I make sure that my chosen destination is free of entities too powerful for me to handle or ensure that such entities that have great reason to not interfere with whatever I choose to do."

"Would you be willing to tell me more about your void based abilities?" Ozpin seemed almost excited, albeit controlled. "Information is incredibly scarce on the branch of magic due not only to the incredible rarity of void users even when magic was relatively common, but that such users were very secretive, either by nature or in order to keep void magic one of the strongest variants of magic."

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Ozpin, but I have the same motivations." Ozpin nodded understandingly. "If it's any consolation, there are few to no ways to defend against void, and those methods are more to briefly stall the inevitable than any form of defense. Not to mention that if I use the mantle I don't believe any defense except holding a void affinity would hold back one of my attacks."

"Of course." Ozpin didn't look put out by my refusal to give information. "That said, I have wondered if you have considered acquiring a guardian. Of the magical variety, I mean." I blinked.

"Your books mentioned that but you edited out the specifics of them. They were only described as a physical protector of a magic user and a manifestation of a facet of their soul. There were too many ways to interpret that statement. I assumed they were something like a guardian with permanently merged souls to a magic user like I did with Summer."

Ozpin frowned. "Yes. Yes I did abstain from allowing details of that. My apologies, Mister Mavros. When I made those copies I was under the assumption that the reader would be my apprentice." I glared harshly at Ozpin and he took it in stride.

"A guardian is a physical manifestation of an affinity of yours. Magic users would take a very small part of their own soul and merge it with their chosen affinity, making an extension of themselves that is expressed through the affinity. It would have no soul or mana as it shares your soul but it would be physically capable and constantly be pressed into a state of utilizing the body of worlds technique. Imagine a second you made of fire or what have you, incapable of dying and directed entirely by your will. An immortal, loyal, and entirely useful creation. So long as you are a powerful magic user and take very little of your soul it is harmless, I assure you. Given a matter of months your soul would be whole again."

I blinked at that. That did sound useful. "When you refer to the soul you don't refer to aura, do you?" Ozpin frowned and shook his head.

"Aura is the power of the soul, yes, but I would liken the soul to a body and aura to it's blood, though you cannot typically manipulate your soul and only aura. Souls are, unsurprisingly, extremely difficult to shatter without specialized magics such as void. Extreme aural exhaustion as well as an attack from an outside source works but most people prefer to perform a ritual." I scowled. Rituals.

"I never studied rituals," I said irritatedly. And there was no way I was going to go to Ozpin to let him do a ritual on me when I only had his word to count on for his honesty. There were too many ways for him to exploit that trust if I gave it. Then I paused.

"Actually I may already have something like that. For shattering souls. I just have to alter it a little…" My lips grew into something of a smirk and Ozpin looked curious before shaking it off.

"Well, regardless, this talk has been quite enlightening. It is good to know that you are dealing with your issues at Beacon. I have no issues with your activities so long as you perform well on your tests, which I don't believe will be a problem. I hope you succeed in quelling your team's interpersonal issues as well. I've heard you still don't get along with your partner. I'm sure that with effort your differences can be resolved." Ozpin stood up and walked off at that.

I nodded absently while pondering this 'guardian' construct. Of course I thought immediately of Pit, but that was still fairly different from what he described. I couldn't acquire an imprint of my own affinity but it wasn't that hard to get an affinity. Maybe I could do something similar? Pit had been wanting a human body as well. Perhaps I could hit two birds with one stone.

I pushed the thoughts out of my head and stood up to talk with Oak a little more. He was a nice guy and we never went through Qrow's embarrassing pictures. Magic stuff could wait until after the wedding.

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Your name feels insulting."

"(Ambivalent)"

"On the contrary it's the name of the institution as a school. Not you."

"(Curiosity)"

"I think you should call yourself Helen. Hogwarts is a school. You're a person. I don't consider you to be a castle. You're more like the keeper of the school to me or an exceptionally friendly ghost, though I know technically you are the school."

"(Considering)"

"I also think you should get a body. Not like become a person. That would drain every ward around Hogwarts and magically deprive the school for… well, ever. Eventually it would return to a similar concentration of magical power but it would take a very long time and it would never be the same. Not to mention that all the house elves would die and so on."

"(Questioning)"

"I mean you should learn to take an avatar form. Here, I'll show you."

"(Exclamation!)"

"See? It's a second me. A magical projection that's connected to me by my soul. You could do the same. You could even call yourself headmist-"

"(Refusal!)"

"You're still on that?"

"(Affirmative) (Determination) (Persistence)"

"Fine, fine. But are we agreed that you need a name? If not for the dignity of it then to at least distinguish yourself as a person and a school."

"… (Agreement)"

"Good. Thanks Helen."

"(Happiness) (Blush) (Surprise) (Embarrassment) (Blush)"

"Was that a mental image of a blush? Or two of them, rather… You're getting better, although that blush was clearly unintentional. Still, though, it shows you're gaining mental clarity and you're better able to transmit your emotions. Actually that reminds me… have I ever told you about will training?"

"(Denial) (Blush)"

"Quit blushing. You're over a thousand years old for dust's sake."

"(Blush)"

"Ugh. Will training is a mental exercise where we try to overcome one another's emotions through aura. It's a very tame way to control emotions and battle your willpower by controlling your emotions as you assail someone else with mental images, emotions, and so on while maintaining concentration. Care to try?"

"(Happiness!) (Agreement!)"

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Abyyyysss," Ruby whined as she draped herself over my shoulder. "I'm bored!"

"I am too, Ruby. Bear with it," I said stoically. I would have retreated to my soul space and isolated myself from everyone but Yang pulled me out of it every time I tried to escape the slow part of the event through some sixth sense and forced me to socialize once more, which was far worse than being bored after long enough.

The same treatment went for Ruby. Together, though, we looked just occupied enough that we weren't dragged once more into the fray and in just the right spot that it kind of looked like we were talking to Ozpin's gang of teachers, though Yang still gave us suspicious looks every once in awhile.

We had talked to everyone at the wedding at least once, though it was a group conversation in some cases. It seemed like Ruby and I were the only introverts at the event to both of our detriment.

Well, that was a lie. We were the only introverts not able to hide in our niches. Ozpin and co. were huddled together just close enough to not look like they were avoiding others but far enough to not be bothered. In other words, they had found the holy ground of introverts. They just didn't want to share. We took the table beside them and looked like we were utterly enraptured in their conversation, which was normally about the beginnings of the school year though it shifted around a little.

Yang and her father were hamming it up with Bella's family and having a blast. Qrow and Bella were alongside them, having decided that not looking at each other again until the ceremony was for suckers who didn't appreciate their fiance's beauty/handsomeness. It surprised absolutely nobody that Qrow and his bride deviated from tradition. It was their wedding, though, and they did whatever they wanted to whatever protest might have occured if anybody actually cared about the tradition.

Tai was Qrow's best man, after all, and Bella was reconnecting with her family and regaling them with her tales of being a huntress and former field operator. The non-classified parts of that portion of her life anyways.

"Do you think we can get away with playing scroll games?" I asked. Ruby paused consideringly but slumped a little harder in negative. I frowned and looked off into the distance for a moment into the forest. I had used my magical senses at maximum range and killed all the grimm I could. I'm not ashamed to admit that I played with some of them. I poked this one beowolf in the ass until it was driven into such a frenzy at an unknown assailant that it killed one of it's fellow beowolves in blind rage with a little nudge from me to trip it, dragging its claws over it's brother grimm's throat. It was the closest thing to amusement for me.

"Can I shoot something?" Ruby begged. I considered that.

"The others would want in," I concluded. Ruby looked at the others, who were grinning as Yang, Taiyang, Bella, and Qrow recounted some old story and filled in each other's blanks. She shuddered.

"I think I've talked to more people in the past few hours than I have in the past few months!" She cried. I glanced in my soul space to a clock.

"We've only been here two and a half hours. There's still another half an hour to go." Ruby looked at me with puppy eyes as though I had some magical solution to her boredom. I met her gaze without the smallest change in expression.

Ruby, apparently, took this as a challenge and ramped up the puppy eyes. Her eyes watered just enough to make them a little shiny and drew in on herself. I remained unchanged. A small and pathetic whimper seemed to tear it's way out of Ruby's throat, a manipulative little sister art she had long mastered. Still I remained unchanged. I had combated her charms for years. This was nothing special.

A single, lone teardrop slid it's way down it's cheek. I waited for a moment, checking for water mana. I didn't find any. The tear was natural. That she had learned to make crocodile tears without magic was impressive and clearly designed to combat me and Raven especially since we were the only people who could sense mana that were frequently around Ruby. While I was more interested in her due to her reveal of that particular skill, I kept my expression neutral as it was before.

But finally Ruby pulled out the big guns. Before I even realized what had happened Ruby's aura captured me, projecting a sense of despair and utter helplessness, as though it was some sort of dying puppy that only I could save.

It was a trap! Connivery! Skullduggery! A dagger in the side from the shadows! And I, my interest piqued, however faintly, by Ruby's crocodile tears was caught in her clever tactics. True, her crude skill in using her aura to project emotion was nowhere near Cinder or my level. However, it was unexpected and that made all the difference. My expression unwillingly shifted the smallest amount. It was nothing, really. A small curve at the edges of my lips, a small softening around the corners of my eyes. But it was enough.

"Yes!" Ruby crowed. "Victory!" I looked irritatedly at her smirking face.

"Not fair," I grumbled.

"Is too!" she retorted childishly. "It worked on Auntie!" I rolled my eyes. That had no bearing on our little game at all. A small glance to the side showed the professors watching us amusedly, though they turned back to their conversation at my glance.

"Want to-" I was cut off by a sudden dinging of metal on glass. I noticed Qrow standing up dinging a teaspoon (where the hell did he get a teaspoon? There's no teaspoons, or tea for that matter, at the wedding) on a wine glass.

"Get your butts in the church! We're doing the thing!" Qrow called excitedly. People immediately broke into light cheers and got up to funnel themselves into the church. Qrow grabbed Bella and they disappeared around the back to some back room to get ready for their dramatic entrance, because really, that was what the ceremony was to them at this point.

Ruby hopped up with a grin on her face and used her semblance to dash inside the church, to the surprise of everyone else, though they shrugged it off a moment later as a 'huntsman thing'. I just walked in like everybody else before seating myself beside Ruby.

Religion on Remnant was different than on Earth, though not in the actual religions. For one thing it was a lot more relaxed. Sunday services were nonexistent and prayers were only done before or during important events like weddings, graduations, or the like. Churches weren't often used because of this. It also made religion more personal, but less prevalent in daily life.

Ceremonies were also a lot less structured because it was supposed to be personal to the people taking part. Weddings were a big example. Ignoring the 'first look' idea was uncommon, but Qrow and Bella weren't defying any important tradition by breaking from the norm. I know that people have done weddings in whorehouses on Remnant and not been thought less of for it.

Religious figures weren't widespread either. Jesus Christ wasn't even a thing. The cross was, though but it was supposed to represent the father, the people, and the holy spirit in the people. Simply being alive was something religion approved of rather than only approving of believers in the faith. This also meant that religious artwork and symbols like angels, Buddha, shrines, or idols of gods, were obscure. I didn't think that there were religious books either.

Christianity wasn't the only religion, of course. Just the most widespread. Buddhism was pretty big as well, though it was far more involved with finding inner peace through aura than before. It was also the main reason people believed aura was a power related to the soul. There was also something like Sikhism and a mix of Islam and African religions. Overall, almost everybody believed in monotheism, however. Hinduism wasn't popular on Remnant.

"You realize that it's going to take about ten minutes until they're ready to come in, right?" I asked. Ruby wilted and looked at me in disbelief. "Right after that the minister has to talk a bit before the best man and bridesmaid give their small speeches. Then finally Qrow and Bella say their pieces, they kiss, and we all go party. Given how Qrow and Bella have mangled tradition so far, though, I'd be surprised if they do anything typically."

"That seems like a lot of work," Ruby muttered. "I don't think I like the traditional stuff."

"It's a big event," I reminded her.

"Yeah. There could have been less sitting around though. Could I fight my future husband in combat for who gets to kiss who first? That sounds way more fun than waiting! "

"That sounds fun," I agreed. "But Qrow and Bella could have also hired a wedding planner, or gotten fancy flowers, or rented actual silverware, as in silver cutlery, or done any number of useless and trivial things. Instead they hired a photographer and organist and just made this up on the fly. It seems to work for them."

"There's a photographer?" Ruby asked, puzzled. I pointed at an empty space, where a greyish aura was. Ruby squinted for a second before her eyes shot open. In an instantaneous movement her hand shot to the spot on her runic matrix where a link to a portion of my soul space lay and crescent rose was nearly drawn out.

In the interest of not giving our invisible photographer a heart attack, he was really old after all, I cut Ruby's access to my soul space and she ended up slapping her hand. She blinked in confusion before looking at her hand blankly.

"O-oh!" she exclaimed, a blush on her cheeks. "Um, sorry mister invisible photographer man." The photographer, who had a camouflage semblance that applied itself to objects he touched, peeked out from under the blanket where his semblance was focused, making it invisible, and gave her a smile and a thumbs up before retreating back under his blanket.

"Bella got in contact with him," I explained. "They're old friends and he did intelligence work before retiring. Most aura users who have a stealth based semblance turn themselves camouflaged or go invisible or something of that sort. That prevents them from taking decent pictures or they have their cameras floating in mid-air or something. So this guy comes in and takes photos of dangerous places from a ways away unseen with higher quality since he can actually set up high powered cameras closer than anyone else."

"Cool," Ruby said with another smile towards the cameraman. "I never really thought about all the people who contributed to huntsman stuff other than actual, you know, huntsmen."

"There are lots of supporting roles for huntsmen. Someone has to make all the armour, or repair the weapons for the sizeable number of huntsmen without the know-how, plot supply lines for villages, run the numbers for the supplies huntsmen use like white and red sap, map out grimm territory, and make the specialty gadgets huntsmen sometimes have to use in the field on some missions such as explosives. You could even go farther and say that the workers who make the white and red sap are helping out. Farther than them there's the normal civilians who help out through their jobs and taxes."

Ruby smiled and nodded. "Everyone contributes against the grimm."

"Exactly." I said with a small smile of my own. My grin then quirked a little. "Except politicians." Ruby rolled her eyes and leaned backwards on her seat.

"Mmm, technically you're a politician too!" I looked curiously at Ruby and she continued on. "I mean, you do all that activism stuff. You're sort of a symbol of the faunus and all, though I never see you put any effort towards that title at all, and that's pretty political, right? Not to mention that SDC deal. You technically passed laws with how autonomous the SDC is in their camps. And that audit of the SDC's treatment of the faunus was another sort of wide scale political move. Some of that stuff was published, you know?"

I blinked and stared silently at Ruby. She suddenly looked awkward and glanced around uncomfortably. Nobody else was sitting near us at the moment, though.

"Um, what?" she asked nervously. "That was… that was sort of a joke? Um, hehe?"

"I didn't think you paid that much attention to my business or my hobby of faunus rights. Nor did I think you were perceptive enough to realize that large scale business and politics were essentially the same," I finally said.

Ruby puffed her cheeks out childishly. "Of course I pay attention! It's sort of your job! Just because I'm not there with you doing fancy stuff doesn't mean I don't cheer you on! Yang and I watched a documentary on your company once. It was super boring, but I still watched it!"

"They have a documentary on Nature's Bounty?" I wondered.

"Uh-huh." Ruby nodded.

"What's it like?"

"Boring."

"I mean whether it had a positive or negative view of what I've done."

"Oh." Ruby smiled. "They liked you. Most of the people thought you'd done some real good for Remnant. Dust isn't renewable but it's not like we're running out any time soon. But with your company dust prices fell, which meant the price of everything else fell too since, y'know, everything uses dust. Not to mention the faunus stuff. Even the super racist guy they had was a little impressed with you since you hired from all the poor communities. The only things people didn't like is that you don't do more speeches and stuff and that your… Uncle Mystic is a recluse. They also didn't like that you use Menagerie as a producer, claiming that the country didn't deserve it or that other kingdoms could have used the stimulation to their economies more than a kingdom that they claimed didn't have an economy to speak of."

I nodded. "The company does help Remnant but it's more of a hobby to me than anything else. R-Mahogany is the only person that really tends to it, though apparently Cesium is learning the ropes of it pretty quickly."

"Is he okay with Roman now? Last I remember they didn't like each other." Ruby frowned slightly as she mentioned Cesium. They weren't really friends, but she got along well with the guy. He was more of a friend of a friend for her.

"They've worked something out," I said. I didn't really know how their relationship was. I didn't particularly care either. They got along in the end, or at least tolerated each other. That was enough for me.

"Oh." Ruby spent a moment thinking of another topic before her eyes lit up. "Didn't you say something about a magical castle?!" she whispered conspiratorially.

I rolled my eyes at the unnecessary quietness of her voice. Nobody was listening to us. "Hogwarts is the name of the school officially." Ruby made a somewhat disgusted expression.

"I know," I agreed. "The name is terrible. Awful, really. Recently I've just called her Helen. It seems somewhat disrespectful to call her Hogwarts. I think she also likes the more personal name since she's more of a person now than just an institution ever since she got more defined sentience from aura."

"Do you think I can visit her?" Ruby asked.

"Sure," I shrugged. "Just know that almost every wizard in her is miserable at combat and most forms of magic. They have massive amounts of potential but they don't have much of a need to use that potential. Imagine if you only ever fought beowolves. You would never develop anything near the level of skill you have now. There's just nothing to push those other wizards."

"I can see that," Ruby said thoughtfully.

"They think that immortality is something to be proud of. Some sort of great accomplishment," I snorted.

"It isn't?" Ruby asked, puzzled.

"I discovered it by accident, Ruby," I said exasperatedly. "Immortality is pathetically easy to obtain in almost any case. All you have to do is enhance your soul sufficiently. Having more aura or magic increases your lifespan anyways. Just look at the correlation between that and figure out how to transfer your soul between alternate bodies. Anyone mildly competent in soul magic could do it. Actually, come to think of it, any huntsman with good aura control and a decently powerful aura could tear someone's aura from their body and potentially keep it in someone else's body or a homunculi."

"Really?" Ruby asked with wide eyes. I nodded.

"I know Ozpin has a machine capable of performing such an act in a Beacon sublevel. People would have discovered immortality through that method a while ago if huntsmen lived longer. They always die because of the grimm, and few, if any, huntsmen are research oriented. Being a huntsman implies that you're going to fight so few intellectual people activate their auras or become huntsmen."

"Could this aura tearing thing be how the maidenhood is transferred?" Ruby asked. I considered that for a moment.

"Perhaps. The maidenhoods are something like souls but less sentient and likely have the act programmed into them somehow rather than consciously doing it. Also, doing the transfer themselves implies that they have more divinity than most souls or use less of it to sustain themselves, hence their ability to briefly exist without a body so they can be transferred between people."

"The maiden souls definitely have some sort of sentience," Ruby confirmed. I glanced towards her curiously.

"Sometimes my powers activate unconsciously. Normally the stronger ones," Ruby explained. "It's like I can talk to them. Feel them out. And they react to stuff. I tried petting my air affinity - and I have no idea how I did that - but it was super fluffy and seemed happy."

"That's just affinities," I told her. "Affinities are like a part of you so it makes sense that yours are more independent from you than most. After all, they're extensions of the maiden's souls imparted onto you. My own affinities do the same thing. Using them becomes instinctual rather than something you have to focus on. I barely think about using an affinity to move an object to me. Sometimes I just think 'I need a pencil' and it flies into my hand. In the same way you don't have to think about navigating your scroll because you're so familiar with it, affinities don't always need conscious thought to act for you."

Ruby nodded with a smile. "They're like buddies!" I snickered for a moment before I heard a crashing of glass. I whipped my head around to see a speckled black and white shape breaking through the colored pane window behind us. I blinked once just to make sure I wasn't seeing things before realizing that yes, that was an owl. An owl with a little note tied around it's leg.

The owl flew down to stand at the pew in front of me and stare at me while everyone else in the church stared at it in dead silence. It didn't seem to realize that it had just broken into a church before a wedding.

With a small groan of just how bad the timing of this was I plucked the tie holding the letter to the owl's leg and put it into my soul space before looking up at the owl.

"How'd you even-" I didn't even finish my sentence before the owl exploded into a cloud of feathers. Feathers got everywhere on me. I couldn't even see through the absolute maelstrom of feathers raining on me.

Luckily the rain of feathers only lasted a few seconds as they all fell down to the floor. Unfortunately a lot of them got caught on my nice, formerly immaculate - suit.

For a few more seconds nobody spoke, just looking at the utterly ridiculous stroke of… well, magic but everybody would call it-

"Bad luck," Ruby groaned. "Just… the worst luck. Ever. Uncle Qrow's semblance must be having a field day. I don't think it's ever gotten you this good though." I leaned back in my seat and didn't even bother to try and pick off the feathers or justify anything about what just happened. There were way too many and the service was likely about to start. It was a strange sort of irony that I was now the messiest looking attendee after coming through unscathed so far.

As if on cue Qrow and Bella walked in, arms linked, and an organist started to play. Qrow gaped at the mess of feathers and almost laughed but choked it down. Bella was slightly more controlled, hey eyes widening for a moment before she focused on the altar, where the priest guy stood waiting stoically, though his eyes flicked to me once or twice.

Ruby, perhaps unintentionally, perhaps not, had left a mess of rose petals down the aisle for the two to walk down. Qrow smiled a bit at what I think was a happy accident and people just smiled at them, glad to see them about to have their special day.

I didn't pay too much attention to the couple as they finished walking down the aisle, but rather just soaked in the atmosphere of people smiling and the auras of people around me. I felt happiness for Qrow and Bella, sadness at not being married themselves, and a cluster of other emotions from all the people.

Some felt only joy, like Ruby. Yang felt a little sad that her uncle was getting married and worried that he wouldn't be the same. Tai felt wistful and a little jealous of his friend, or brother really, but hoped almost desperately for his happiness. Bella and Qrow were a mess of nerves, though they felt oddly secure in a way I hadn't seen in anyone before. Qrow also felt guilty for ruining everyone's days with his semblance but that was an afterthought. He knew nobody really blamed him.

The emotions overwhelmed me somewhat and I let myself fall into them. It was more memorable than whatever the priest was saying. One of my parallels alerted me when they were about to make the vows though.

"Bella," Qrow started, a wide grin over his face. I wondered if he was going to get all sappy with everyone and got myself ready to tease him afterwards. I could recruit Yang to help me. "Before I met you I was at a low point for a long time. Alcohol's always been a favorite pastime of mine, but I took it farther than I should have more than enough times after the death of one of my teammates, Summer Rose."

People grew solemn for a moment before Qrow continued. "A lot of stuff was messed up around then. Some of it is still as much a wreck as before. But for the first time in awhile I've been looking forward to the future. I've started realizing what I have rather than what I don't. Two nieces, an ass of a nephew, a brother in all but name, some few friends I'd trust with my life and more, and you. I won't say that you're the light of my life or anything but I know for a fact that things are easier, happier, and far more fun when you're around. That's why I promise that I'll always be around for you whenever you need it. I'll trust you with all my secrets, not that there's any you don't know at this point, and I'll make sure that we'll be together for a long, long time."

Bella smiled brilliantly with some tears in her eyes as people clapped and cheered for a few moments before quieting down for Bella to make her vows. I was just thankful Qrow didn't try to swear off alcohol or something stupid like that.

"Qrow," she began. She sniffled a little and refocused herself before laughing a little wetly. "You're making me look bad…" A few chuckles escaped the audience while Qrow rolled his eyes.

"When we first met I thought you were a drunken ass. I was right." More chuckles from the audience. "But you were also caring. You cared immensely about your students then as you do now. Even though you always smelled like alcohol, not that that's changed much, you eventually did what you had to. I didn't like you but eventually you managed to become my closest friend and someone I know I can trust with anything. Everything you try to give me I promise I'll try to give back twice over, from love to passion to sympathy. I-"

A spatial distortion. I eyes snapped to it immediately to see a red portal in space. Fucking Raven. I stilled the air and bent light around her portal to mask her presence. But even when I did that she calmly stepped out of the portal and sat down on one of the pews. She glanced to me neutrally, not even blinking at the feathers, before turning her attention to Qrow.

Cheers rang out at the end of Bella's vows and I scowled while I reviewed the memories I had from a parallel quickly and looking once more at Raven. "Don't ruin this for him," I warned. She nodded but said nothing, her eyes fixed on Qrow with an odd expression as Qrow and Bella kissed.

…

…

…

Maybe they should stop now…

[|||| =+= ||||]

"You think we're ready?"

" :| "

"A little more time would be nice, yeah. I think we're good for the dust. Robbing the stores was pretty fun too. Can't have the company linked to buying a bunch of dust right before a big dust explosion. But I think I would have liked to rob a little more. I get so few excuses to go on crime sprees these days. Not that I need one but I like to have a meaning to my crime other than my reputation."

" ;) "

"Yeah, I don't think you EVER need a reason, Neo."

" ^u^ "

"Sure, sure. You're all puppies and rainbows; free as a bird. A murderous bird that lives on an ice cream based diet."

" ;) "

"Back to being ready, though, ya think we could take a few huntsmen if they caught wind of us?"

"..."

"Yeah. Let's take up our fiery eye candy on her offer then. Let's hope this Adam guy is as good as fighter as eye candy claims she is."

[|||| =+= ||||]

Everything hurt.

"Urghhh…" I moaned.

"Shut up," someone else moaned. I opened my eyes, seeing only blurs for a moment, before my eyes focused and I saw the face of Bella's cousin, the bridesmaid who killed that raccoon bare handedly, naked beside me. Right, her name was Amethyst.

"Oh..." I muttered. I worked my aura to clear the alcohol from my system and started feeling better immediately. The headache I had faded quickly and I allowed my magical senses to spread out, though the mental strain made the headache worsen, I doubted that I would have it in a few minutes. Half an hour was the longest I expected to have it. Food and some iced tea did wonders according to Raven. She mentioned that once during dinner.

Luckily, I was at my apartment with Raven and the clan and my shower was nearby. A parallel made a glass of iced green tea for me and I sipped it as I stepped into the shower. I turned the nozzle and just relaxed for a moment as I tried to figure out what happened last night.

Luckily for me, I had an eidetic memory so blacking out drunkenly wasn't that big of a deal. I drank a bit keeping an eye on Raven as people started dancing. I got dragged into it and got taught a few moves, which I took to easily thanks to my high DEX. Really I just copied the moves and made them flow better, incorporating a little of my sting style into the moves so they were more familiar to me. But apparently I held my own with even the much more experienced dancers.

At that point I attracted a bit of attention. Bella's cousin Amethyst was one such person. We talked a bit, danced a little more, and I bid everyone goodnight before coming back to my place where we showed each other some more intimate dancing moves, which Amethyst was really good at. I was better though. However, she was also thirty six. Ah, well. You win some, you win some.

Showering took five minutes where I just did everything quickly. I didn't really have time to enjoy the hot water. I had left Ruby and Yang on their own last night and they might still be at the church. I was supposed to be their ride for the night.

"Amethyst," I shook her shoulder lightly. She opened her eyes blearily and looked up at me before suddenly hugging me, her face resting against my stomach.

"Mmm… abs. Good kitty," she slurred deliriously. Then she went back to sleep. I rolled my eyes and separated her from me before setting the glass of iced tea on my nightstand. She would need it later. In the meantime I got dressed in casual clothes and checked the time. Only nine? I thought it would be closer to ten.

Today I didn't have school to deal with so I could do whatever I pleased. But I was more curious about where Ruby was since Raven was asleep in her bed at the apartments as I could see with mage sight. Qrow could enjoy his privacy with his new wife I suppose. I'll need to find out what Raven did after I left later.

My first stop was the church. It was, as expected, a mess. Party streamers were strewn about the place chaotically as well as beer bottles and sandwich wrappers. People probably got sandwiches as a late night snack.

I closed my eyes and searched out auras, finding a lot of them around the parking lot. I blinked over to a car and looked inside, finding three of Bella's family members snuggled together under a heavy quilt in the backseat with their clothes still on. I suppose people didn't bother to get to hotels.

Even if Bella's family were still at the church, I didn't see the newlyweds or my sisters anywhere. Not to mention whatever mischief Raven had gotten up to. I wouldn't have put it past her to have seduced Tai… dear dust I hope she didn't do that. If there's a higher power may he/she have mercy.

I quickly repressed that horrible thought and decided to just try to locate Ruby first. Luckily I had a teleport marker on her, which made things far more convenient than they would be otherwise.

I found myself in Ruby's room in a blink. I glanced down and saw her sleeping peacefully in her bed. A quick check through my mage sight saw Tai downstairs looking miserably hungover and Yang showering with a heavy scowl. It didn't look like she'd had a good night.

I was about to teleport back to my room to deal with Amethyst when I got tackle hugged. "Abyss!" Ruby exclaimed. I watched a little nervously as her smile at seeing me turned into a scowl. "You were supposed to teleport me back with you!" she accused.

"I'm sorry for leaving you at the wedding," I apologized.

"Mmmm…" Ruby growled. It was entirely unintimidating. "You totally owe me!"

I grew a little more serious, deciding to get this done now rather than later. "I think I won't after we get through talking about you going behind my back."

"I did?" Ruby looked confused for a moment before her face showed a realization.

"Tai and Yang," I said flatly.

"Ohhhhhhh…" she said slowly. "Right."

"You should have made that decision on your own. It was YOUR decision. We both know you're mature enough for it," I said angrily. "Yang as well. We already live together at Beacon most of the year anyways! Putting the decision in my hands just means you can't make your's."

Ruby nodded, looking chatsized. "Not to mention that you're already on good terms with both your father AND myself. You stay with whoever you want! There's no reason you can't stay with Tai sometimes and me and Raven the other half of the time. What did you think you would get out of this?!"

"Yang and auntie…" Ruby said softly. "Also you and dad." I scoffed.

"Tai and I aren't friends. We sure as hell aren't family either. He's as far from my father as water is from fire." Ruby winced. "And Yang? What about her? Sure she has issues with her mother but that isn't your business. We've been over this more times than I can care to count and my answer is the same as always. It. Is. Not. Our. Business."

"But what about when she finds out?!" Ruby blurursted out. I realized that this was going to get heated and stilled the air around the room, making sure nobody heard usRuby and I. "When Auntie and Yang meet what is Yang going to think of us?! ShHe's going to think we've betrayed her and we kind of have, haven't we?!"

"What's Raven going to think when you tell Yang?" Ruby grimaced and I could tell that she already thought of this. "Neither option is good. So choose the third. Things are fine as they are. Raven is living her life as she chooses, although at this point you seem to dislike her making her own choices when it comes to her daughter. Does Yang seem terribly unhappy? Is she suffering because her mother isn't here? Leave it. Don't try to make Yang change homes or bring me to Tai. Either option will end badly, I can promise you. Even with that little crack in who we call family you still got Yang back not too recently. Do you really need more? When it means risking what you already have?"

Ruby looked down silently and I just watched her for a moment. "Look," I began, "Any day of the week I'd choose Yang over Tai. If she wants to live with me and Raven then I'll ask Raven about it and defer to her. She's been my best friend for years now and I won't let that change because Yang wants to move more into my life. Yang's been trying to be my sister and it's working pretty well, though that she defaults to being the big sister is still irritating. People are happy except for Tai, but he's been a mess for so long that I doubt he'll ever be a really happy person again. Could you just stop pushing for Tai and Yang back? You can't have both parts of your family completely together. At this rate I'm wondering if you plan on getting Raven married to Tai again." Ruby shook her head sullenly. Thank dust for that.

"Just be happy with what you have. There's a point where you can just stop, you know? Stop working so much. Let people deal with their own problems on their own terms and slow down. Enjoy Beacon, kiss a guy, kill grimm, do something other than whatever this is! Live your life for yourself for a moment!" I took a small breather while Ruby looked saddened but she still wasn't saying anything.

"I'd appreciate it if you told Tai and Yang yourself. I've already had enough of these talks I keep getting into. Text me if you want to go back to the clan's apartment for the night. Otherwise I'll leave you here and you can catch a ride with Yang." I finished. In a split second I blinked away to see Amethyst in my bed, still nude, rubbing her head with a pained expression on her face.

"What happened?" she moaned.

"We slept together," I said bluntly. Then I mentally reprimanded myself for acting that way. That I was frustrated with Ruby didn't give me a right to be short with Amethyst. If anything she was nice to me. "I'll teleport you back to your family after you've had a shower and some coffee. I have some rather important things to talk about with a friend of mine soon." Amethyst groaned at the sudden deluge of information and looked at me blearily.

"Whoa. Nice," she said approvingly. I rolled my eyes and blinked away to return a moment later with clothes in her size from Vernal's closet.

"Enjoy your shower. I doubt your family will be having one today. They're sleeping in cars."

"Hey, we don't drunk drive," Amethyst smirked. I rolled my eyes and walked out of my room as Amethyst was caught in a yawn. It was time to wake Raven up… I should probably tell her about Ruby's plotting too. I hope Qrow enjoyed his wedding. I would have too if it wasn't for Ruby's meddlings. I just want to go back to Beacon at this point. Maybe the breach will distract everyone enough that I can stop with all this annoying family drama.

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