He loathed this situation...
But it wasn't like there was a choice...
Gripping his throat, seeing those glimmering eyes through that abomination's projection, Mercury shuddered. That sultry voice...
With such dread-filled authority, he knew that he couldn't refuse. That paralyzed and rooted him in place when she spoke...
And she wasn't anywhere in the vicinity, yet he knew that with that Grimm, she could dispose of them with utmost ease.
Her presence was unlike anything he ever felt before. Even Cinder, when she was at her most volatile, didn't hold a candle...
Grimacing as he glanced around the dim warehouse, a wrench in hand as he worked on tuning his cybernetic legs, his gaze drifted to his partner. Her meek form as she tapped her scroll, searching for any information she could. "Em, what exactly is the plan here? I'm sure we're wanted criminals at this point..."
"Doesn't seem like it," Emerald scanned through her scroll, her eyes fixated on her scroll as she thumbed through the information. "It doesn't look like they have put a warrant out for either of us. I'm not sure what they are playing at, but either they are keeping it close to the vest... Or they don't know that we are involved somehow."
"Somehow doubt that after I intervened to keep the rose girl from inferring with the broadcast that ended her little robot friend. Maybe the idiot girl hasn't reported it yet. Might want to silence her before she could rat us out..." Mercury tapped the wrench against his leg, a sinister smile creeping upon his lips before he scoffed. "But you would think, even if they thought that Cinder was working alone, they would want to speak with the team she was a part of."
"This is why we must be keenly aware of our situation and be careful. They might be onto us and not want us to know it, so it's best to be careful and not draw their attention with any dumb decision. They may have their hands full, but snuffing one of the core members' family might catch their attention, idiot." Emerald snidely retorted, pocketing her scroll. "But if the opportunity does arise, it might be necessary, but I prefer we keep this from getting any messier. I could infiltrate and get some information from them..."
"If only someone else was here to do that job instead," Mercury spat, eyes glowing with annoyance. "Then we could do what we're better at..."
"Well, they're not, and there's no use harping on the issue. They've both disappeared and who knows what happened to either." Emerald turned and began to walk away. "Now, if you could hurry, we have a job to do."
"And I, for one, do not want to make this new arrival wait on us."
[ X ]
Things were too quiet...
Something was wrong, and he knew it.
Everything had progressed too smoothly. The damages to the city had been reversed so quickly due to his help. In fact, everything had been so easily overcome due to his assistance.
Even if Glynda was now exhausted and had slept most of the day away after the temporary infusion of his unique Aura...
But he felt it in the air.
A sinister presence was stirring.
If it was what he thought it was, this predicament would only worsen, and he feared for the residents here in Vale.
He feared for the safety of both of his nieces, especially Ruby, after what had just happened to her...
"So I see you are still amongst the leaving." A familiar voice echoed behind, narrowing crimson eyes as he knew who it belonged to all too well.
If she was here...
"Raven... " Qrow simply pulled out his flask and took a sip from it.
He needed all the alcohol he could imbibe to deal with this encounter. After his swig, he turned and faced his dearest sister with a smug expression upon seeing her annoyance.
Was she expecting him to offer a drink? Nah, he needed it.
"So what do I owe the pleasure of being graced with your presence, sis?" Qrow scrutinized her appearance, feeling this wasn't a cordial appearance.
Nothing ever was with her.
Scowling, placing a hand on her hip, Raven scolded her brother. "Hmph, if I knew this was the reception I'd receive, I wouldn't have bothered coming to warn you and left you to your own devices. Shows how much you still care about your family. "
"Oh, a warning? Like when you warned Yang about Beacon burning while attempting to separate her from who she cares the most about in the world?" Qrow retorted evenly, taking his sister's withering gaze without flinching. "I don't pick and choose when to protect my family, expecting something in return. I've always been protecting them and expect nothing in return. Including you, sis."
" I know very well that Summer's child is dear to Yang. I know she would have never abandoned her. I said what was necessary to protect her and get her to treat her training seriously after losing to that woman, who now has broken reality and disappeared without a trace." Raven scowled, her gaze blistering as Qrow's eyes snapped to attention.
"Wait, the young woman that Yang described in her report... Is what caused the strange warp here in Vale?" Qrow questioned, bewildered by this development, before narrowing his gaze. "Raven... How do you know this unless you were keeping track of her?"
"What makes you think I haven't? She would have killed my child if I hadn't intervened when I did." Raven flatly responded before smirking, noticing her brother's look. "Kept my eye on her as she was... Interesting. After all, have to keep note of my enemies, especially when they find something noteworthy and they aren't aware of what they have found."
Refraining from snarling, knowing his sister was stringing him along, Qrow kept from snapping at her. He just wanted her to get to the point...
"Tell me, have you read the stories Through the Looking Glass and The Girl Who Fell Through the World?" Raven, seemingly aware of her brother's agitation, bored her gaze into his.
"More fairy tales?" Qrow raised his eyebrow and scowled. "Are you telling me those stories have truth to them as well? Stories that even Oz himself had nothing to do with..."
"Oh, they are more real than you would ever imagine, dear brother." Raven's eyes twinkled, and a wry smirk slithered on her lips. "What if I were to tell you a story about how I learned just how real they were..."
"And why we have been using it to our advantage against her this entire time!"
[ X ]
"Hey, hey? Is that who I think it is? The brat and her team? Oh, I've been looking forward to..."
"Quiet!" Emerald slapped her hand over Mercury's mouth, a frown crossing her lips, and watched them enter a small restaurant with someone she had never seen before.
"Sorry! Forgot, okay!" Mercury scowled, annoyed at being reprimanded by his partner. "But we can't waste an opportunity like this. The brat and her team are here. Think of what we can learn or, at the very least, take care of?
Tightening her expression, wanting to meet with their new boss as soon as possible, Emerald took a deep breath. Mercury had a valid point.
Information was vital, as was cleaning up their mess if they could.
And she covered their tracks...
Emerald rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "As coincidental as this may be... This is a fortuitous opportunity for us. Our contact can wait, especially if we give him some information. But let's be careful about this, understand? No taking unnecessary measures."
A devious grin worked its way onto Mercury's lips, cranking and cracking his neck before popping his wrist. "Oh, I can get it if they have it..."
"Now that I can fully cut loose, they won't know what... Huh?"
"I have to say..." A voice echoed behind them, and their eyes shrunk in horror as they turned around and gazed into cerulean eyes. "You two radiate negative intentions."
"And I really want to have a night on the town without any issues, so I guess I'll take you in myself."
[ X ]
The aroma of this place was divine...
Not quite Ichiraku's, but nothing could ever match.
The man and his daughter had a particular way about how they went about making ramen, and there was nothing else like it. Then there was the sublime taste that none could match...
Perhaps it was bias...
Or that the place was a second home, where people cared for him even when no one else did...
Not trying to ruin anything, but I sense negative intent just outside. Seems directed toward the girls. Might want to take care of it before it becomes anything.
Naruto concealed a scowl. Letting the fox's chakra flow through him momentarily to confirm, he hid his discontent while his gaze fell upon the four.
What could they have done to draw anyone's ire? They hardly seemed capable of earning such scorn considering how bubbly and upbeat...
Two of them seemed. Blake and Weiss were a different story, but even they had a specific energy.
Was it because of what he learned about Ruby? So soon?
This would require investigation...
Forming a hand seal under the table, he smiled as silver eyes beamed upon him. "How do you like this place? Is it anything like it was back home?"
"It seems pretty nice." Naruto returned her beam, taking a deep breath and inhaling the aroma before looking around. "Nothing can replace Ichiraku's, but I'm excited for some ramen! One miso and one pork over here to start me off!"
"Never seen someone so excited for such a common food..." Weiss muttered, brow furrowed, trying to understand his excitement before blanching at the amount he ordered. "Sometimes, I will never understand..."
"Everyone has their comforts." Blake shook her head before simply nodding at the server expectantly as their gaze met.
Her order was wordlessly conveyed.
Weiss scrunched her gaze at the scene before palming her face. "Here, too? Does every place know your ordering habits?"
"I'm curious as to how they know?" Yang puckered her lips as she stroked her chin before glancing at Blake's bow. "Huh, wonder if they know because of..."
"No need to question it!" Blake furiously flushed, not wanting attention drawn onto her, her eyes falling back onto Naruto as she searched for a distraction to turn their attention away from her.
Her eyes flickered as a thought came to her, remembering the story he supposedly came from. "If I remembered correctly, in the tale of the Brothers of the Sun and Moon, something stuck out to me. ...It called you in your childhood a pariah, looked down upon by his village with no friends or family. Was that true?"
"Blake!" Ruby waved her hands, alarmed at the question as Yang choked on the drink she ordered while Weiss' eyes widened disproportionately.
Naruto, however, responded with a light chuckle before exhaling with a small sad smile. "Yeah, I was an outcast when I was younger. I struggled greatly in my childhood, and all of it was out of my control. I was an orphan with no friends for the longest time. Just a lot of looks of hate as they ignored me. All because many people couldn't tell the difference between me and the fox when he wasn't even at fault for what happened. They didn't know that, but can't blame him for it either."
"Seriously?" Yang scowled, her eyes flickering to crimson momentarily from agitation. "People can be so damn cruel..."
"If you only knew..." Blake murmured at the shock her fellow team members were displaying, closing her eyes for a moment and taking a breath before gazing directly at Naruto. "So another, if you wouldn't mind? How were you... Able to overcome years of such..."
"Hardship?" Naruto grinned at catching Blake by surprise as he caught where she was leading him as she nodded. "The answer might not be as enlightening as you think... At the end of the day, I'm just stubborn."
"What?!" Blake snapped, her eyes narrowed.
Of all the answers she expected from someone who had faced difficult hardships, that was not what she thought she would have heard.
It was almost insulting to hear!
"I just didn't want to let their hatred get to me. Change who I was, ya know?" Naruto continued in earnest, ruffling his hand through his locks before their gazes locked with one another. "I was angry at them, for sure! Didn't understand anything! But all it made me want to do was prove them wrong, no matter the cost. Show them up! And when I reached the end of my rope... I pranked the ever-living shit out of them to annoy them to make myself feel better!"
As his cerulean eyes peered deeply into her golden eyes, her breath hitched. Those crystal swells...
Was swallowing her whole...
What was this feeling?
A snort and then a loud laugh broke her from his gaze as her head snapped to Yang, covering her mouth. "Oh, man! I would have loved to have seen some of those pranks! Sounds like they deserved them!"
"Yeah! I can only imagine how cool some of them were!" Ruby cheered, a wide grin spread across her face. "Oh, Yang and I caused so many pranks! We can exchange stories!"
"You know it!" Yang elbowed Naruto in the ribs with a light tap, smirking as she did. "Perhaps we can share some stories later, say, just the two of us?"
"Yang!"
"What?"
"I want to hear them too!" Ruby complained, pouting as Yang rolled her eyes while Naruto chuckled
"...Ruby completely missed that hint..." Blake exhaled, running, and took a deep breath, glad she was saved from earlier.
There was something about that look of his...
But with what he said, Blake had a better understanding. It was something she felt and to be put into words, even so inelegantly...,
A light smile crossed her lips as she gazed back at Naruto. He was...
Her eyes glistened as the bowls of food were brought to them.
Her bowl of fish!
"Oh no, it's here." Weiss palmed her face before flinching, hearing a loud and enthusiastic 'Yatta!' from Naruto, and grimaced. "Okay, I get comfort foods making you feel better and all... But isn't this a little much?"
"You say that, but ramen means more to me." Naruto picked up the chopsticks offered, the wide grin on his face softening as he reminisced. "When I was young, I stumbled onto a ramen stand. I expected, like many other places, that the owner would treat me with the same hateful gaze as everyone else, but to my surprise... He didn't."
"He served me up a bowl of ramen. Told me it was on the house. Saying it was just good business practice to help keep bringing in customers." Naruto longingly gazed into the ramen, ignorant that the gaze of the others was entirely on him. "Heh, at a time when no one else treated me in such a manner, it was something else. I kept coming back, and man, that place became something special to me. Ramen... Meant something more to me."
Eyes flickering at the story being told, turning her gaze and looking upon the bowl served to her, Weiss stared silently at the dish. Shifting her gaze back at Naruto and then back at the dish, memories of her past come to mind.
And she closed her eyes, a soft smile gracing her lips. "It's a wonder such a simple dish can evoke such vivid emotions."
"I know, right!" Naruto broadly grinned and took a good whiff of the aroma. "Ah, time to dig in!"
"Itadakimasu!"
[ X ]
Curious eyes glistened as glass built around, taking shapes.
Forming into desired thoughts of the creator before shattering to her displeasure.
Why couldn't she re-create what she craved for desperately?
Why couldn't she draw upon that power? She destroyed the living vines and turned this entire area into a strange wonderland of her creation!
What was this power? Where did it come from?
And why did it resonate when she heard his voice?
It perplexed and vexed her. She felt stronger. She didn't understand why.
Or know where she was, wherever this place happened to be. It wasn't Vale. She was sure of that. She last remembered being in the ruins at her family's home, and now she was at this fantastical, whimsical formation of land that this talking cat told her she forged from her will.
How did she do such a thing? Why couldn't she do it again for what she desired? If she could create this landscape...
Could she create...
She twitched as two curious eyes continued to gaze upon her unblinkingly.
Why was the stupid cat watching her every move?! It was frustrating!
She wanted peace to herself to practice and attempt to draw forth the power she had felt surge through her! Try to craft the images in her mind.
The former forest around her had not turned into a whimsical fairy tale land from all the stories she read as a child and still treasured to this day. She wasn't sure how she bent it to her will and changed it, but all the glass shards of her Aura remained, and she could feel it came from her...
So perhaps, maybe...
She could recreate her prince charming if something like this was possible ...
If it was anything like she was younger and how her desire took its own construct from her Semblance...
"My, my..." It finally spoke, its gaze ever present as it watched her failed constructs shatter again as her Aura pulsed around her. "How peculiar... It seems you are incomplete, my dear. Shall I say, broken? Now, how could such a tragedy such as this have come to be?"
Vibrant heterochromatic pink and brown eyes sharply aimed toward the strange cat. Her lips twisted into a snarl as their eyes met.
He dare call her broken?
Yet... Was the cat wrong?
Without him, she had all but given up, and only his voice was what rose her to continue fighting again. Now, here she was, trying to recreate him with what she saw her powers do, but to no success...
All because that woman sent him to his death...
At the hands of that no good little bitch!
The curious cat didn't seem to take notice of the ire in her gaze or didn't care. She wasn't sure which.
It only smirked as it finally rosed from its position and sauntered toward her, his tail flicking behind him. "What's the matter, cat got your tongue, my dear?"
Neo rolled her eyes at the benign creature and its horrid pun and mouthed her discontent. She swore it was something that blonde from that team would have come up with.
She was a wizard with torturous puns from the few times she had the pleasure of having to spy on them. How the Schnee or the Faunus dealt with her was beyond her.
The cat was only amused, annoying her as he strolled past her and continued to walk by. "Or perhaps it is that you cannot speak because you've always been broken, unable to be fixed no matter the means?"
Tensing as the cat stopped in its tracks, its head turning back to hers, its eyes peered through hers as if looking directly into her soul. "I dare say whatever has broken you has led you to falling to this world. You are not the first, and oh, how I miss that dear child. But alas, it is no mistake. Just like her, you are searching for something, and I can show you it..."
"All you have to do is trust me."
[ X ]
"And then, I was like, swish! Zoom! Then everything went kaboom and splattered onto the wall along with our opposition!" Ruby excitedly recounted old stories with her exuberant energy to Naruto as Blake and Weiss blanched and deadpanned at her while Yang only chuckled. "And that is how I toppled Nora as Queen of the Castle! A hill no one has toppled me off yet..."
"Think I might after that explanation of how our second semester started..." Weiss palmed and dragged her hand over her face while Blake sighed in exasperation.
"I'll follow your lead..." Blake muttered, bow depressed as she shook her head, a hesitant smile crossing her lips and seeing Weiss cover her giggle.
Covering her mouth daintily as she muffled her laughter, Weiss' eyes sparkled momentarily. "Alas, I do think we should give Ruby her hill. I think very soon she will be knocked down a few pegs whether she likes it or not..."
Bowing flattening as her gaze fell upon an enthusiastic Ruby, Blake's expression faded grimly. The realization of what was to come for her friend soon...
The weight and pressure of being a leader of a Huntresses squad was rough as it was. It was something she was still coming to terms with. But now, to have the pressure of a secret society protecting the world from an unknown threat thrust on her shoulders because a power she never desired was thrust upon her?
Being responsible for summoning a book character or offworlder to this world with the seemingly magical power of her eyes that she didn't know she had? And having to discover and fix that, too?
Blake scowled. To have such a burden placed on her friend...
If there was some way to help alleviate the burden...
Her bow dipped further, her quivering...
She almost abandoned Ruby to deal with this situation...
What kind of friend would do that? She knew well Ruby wouldn't hesitate to do whatever she could to assist her in her troubles if she opened up. Neither would Yang or even Weiss, though she may have a few words to say about it after...
Perhaps during...
It was just so...
Difficult.
"What is that at our dormitories?" Yang squinted, placing her hand on her brow to help scan. "Seems like there is a large gathering of some sort. And is that Professor Goodwich out front? She looks pissed. Wonder why..."
"That's a lot of a droids with her." Naruto scowled, his eyes focusing on the scene, eyes narrowed. "She's talking to a prestigious-looking man..."
"No!"
All attention diverted to Weiss.
Her form went rigid. Hand drawn and covering her mouth as she shivered.
Eyes dazed and widened fearfully, taking a step back. "No, no, no... I didn't believe his message, but he's here... Why can't he leave me be..."
"Weiss?" Ruby worriedly spoke, reaching out to her friend, seeing her in obvious distress. "What's wrong? What's the matter? I've never seen you like this before..."
Her words fell on deaf ears.
Weiss was mortified at the sight before her before her visage sunk. Her eyes misted as she bit her lip.
"It seems no matter what I do, I can't escape." Weiss meekly strode forward, resigned to her fate. "This is to be my story, no matter what..."
"Do you trust me?"
Weiss' head snapped up as she stopped in her tracks.
Her icy blues gazed into dazzling ceruleans, a confident glint within as he held his hand outstretched toward her.
[ X ]
"What is this?" A gentle voice hummed, gazing upon the whimsical scenery around bizarrely.
Tracing her hands against what seemed to be a pink mansion, a woman with black hair with red highlighted tips tilted and frowned at all the glass shards spread throughout the area. "This is quite unusual. None of this was here before. What could have caused this change? No... It can't be, could it?"
She frowned as everything around her slowly faded and shattered before her eyes as if it were only an illusionary construct. Her silver eyes shone brilliantly, recognizing the residue in the air. "Has someone from Remnant fallen to the Ever After? No... Is it possible? The Looking Glass... Not after all this time..."
A growl sundered the glass it shattered before her. A horrid humanoid creature with a horn mask stalked before her vision, carefully gazing upon her.
She sighed, drawing a modified ax/rifle hybrid from her back. Her cape billowed as white rose petals billowed as a gentle breeze blew, her eyes fixated on the creature as a silver and red majestic glow emanated from her eyes. "So, it is... The cat is involved, I see. Oum, I fear what is to come of this."
"Raven, I hope things are proceeding well on your side."