{THIRD PERSON POV}
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Surprisingly, Theodore is happy to meet them; case in point, he is currently hugging both Qrow and Miles in a tight hold, while behind him are a couple of his professors.
"My friends! It's been so long since I've seen either of you!" He let go of them and patted their backs. "Here, let me introduce you to my professors!"
Theodore then walked to a huge man who had to be at least seven feet tall and patted his back. "This is Professor Sabri. He is our Grimm Studies professor!"
Professor Sabri gave Miles and Qrow a nod before Theodore went to a woman and patted her shoulder. "And this is our History professor, Professor Adelai."
"It's a pleasure meeting both of you. Headmaster Theodore has talked about you two before," she told them, which surprised Miles more than Qrow.
Miles hadn't been in Vacuo for more than a decade. This place brought only pain for him. He only came here if he was forced to, like this mission.
"Really... well, it's been a pleasure to meet you too, Professor Adelai. Let me introduce myself. My name is Miles Arc," Miles introduced himself, while Qrow fixed his hair before greeting Adelai with a bow.
"And my name, my beautiful lady, is Branwen... Qrow Branwen... but you can call me Qro-Ouch!" Qrow held his side in pain as his Aura activated to protect him from Miles's elbow, but it didn't do anything against the pain.
"What the fuck did you do that for?" Qrow glared at Miles, because why the fuck was he cockblocking him? Didn't he know that a guy wanted to get laid? Didn't he know just how awesome a Vacuan lady is compared to a woman from Vale?
Miles sighed before motioning Qrow to get closer. When he did, Miles whispered to him, "Look at their fingers, you idiot. They're married."
Qrow's eyes widened in shock before he checked for himself, and indeed... there were two matching rings. Shit.
Qrow then slowly looked up at Sabri. "Well... my man... I'm sorry for hitting on your wife." Qrow silently crossed his fingers because he didn't want to fight a guy just because he couldn't stop running his mouth.
Surprisingly, Sabri didn't yell or try to hit Qrow. All he did was chuckle softly and shake his head. "Do not be afraid, my friend. I did not take offense. The one you should be apologizing to is my wife. She is a bit of a spirited woman."
Miles finally looked at Adelai, because he had been focused on Sabri in case he tried to attack Qrow, and damn... Adelai looked pissed. If not for Sabri's hand on her shoulder, Miles would have bet money on her jumping onto Qrow and ripping him a new pair of balls.
Qrow also finally looked back to Adelai, because his face went pale and he slowly backed away to hide behind Miles. Thanks to Qrow's leaner build and slightly shorter stature, it worked.
"A fiery lady and a gentle giant, huh. Shade has its own unique professors, but isn't there supposed to be one more? I know Shade's student population is less than forty even with all of the years combined, but where the hell is the combat professor?" Miles pondered to himself before he looked at Theodore.
"So, Theodore... where is the combat professor?" Shade couldn't be that short on money that they would be forced to fire the combat professor, right? If they were short on money, they would have fired the History professor rather than the combat professor. This is a Huntsman school; a combat professor is much more useful than a history one.
Theodore let out a tired sigh before he shook his head. "About that, my friend... sadly, Professor Zayn has been Missing in Action for about five months now."
Bringing up Professor Zayn even calmed down Adelai. "Yeah... he was a good man. Before he went missing, he was talking about a Grimm nest. We don't know where he went exactly, but we tried to look for him everywhere and couldn't find anything. All we know is that we lost contact with him around the vicinity of the academy."
Qrow raised an eyebrow at them before he looked at Theodore, because if he was missing in the vicinity of the academy... did he find the location of where the Relic is?
Theodore shook his head no, because he understood what Qrow was thinking without Qrow needing to say anything. Theodore had personally searched through the area for any sign of Zayn, but he couldn't find tracks or anything that would suggest someone had been there.
Qrow knew about Zayn. He and Zayn had met a couple of times whenever he went to Vacuo. A man of his caliber wouldn't go down without a fight. Qrow's instinct told him that Zayn wasn't missing; he had died. Qrow trusted his instinct, because it was what kept him alive most of the time.
Zayn was an A-rank Huntsman. Something that could kill an A-rank Huntsman without any warning was something fearsome.
Meanwhile, Miles only offered his condolences, not because he wasn't curious about Zayn's disappearance, but because he had never met the guy before.
He would be overstepping his boundaries if he suddenly acted like he knew who Zayn was.
Miles would be furious if some stranger asked how his father died and started asking questions. It would be different if the stranger turned out to be his father's old friend, but in this situation, the stranger (Miles) didn't even fucking know what Zayn looked like, and if he started asking personal questions...
"As of now, I'm the temporary combat instructor until two more months pass, when a new professor will be joining us," Theodore said. Then he smiled and walked to the Bullhead. "So, my friends... what happened to your Bullhead? There's some... damage."
Damage was an understatement. There were gashes from Miles's greatsword, holes from the greatsword and from the Grimm's pincers, scorched marks from Fire Dust, and a destroyed engine/thruster.
In the seven-hour flight it had, it had seen more action than some of its comrades.
"Well, I blame Qrow for that," Miles smirked and looked at Qrow's offended expression.
"Me?! What the fuck do you mean it was my fault?!" Qrow raised his arms defensively over his chest, and Theodore let out a chuckle.
"Is he the one who piloted the Bullhead?" Theodore asked, taking the chance to mess with Qrow because it was amusing to see him like this.
Miles nodded. "Yeah, he was the one who piloted it. I had to rescue us by myself."
"Wait, wait, wait! Me piloting it doesn't mean I'm automatically the one at fault here!" Qrow panicked, because it wasn't his fault. It actually was. He didn't do shit. That was technically true, because his Semblance did it. How was he supposed to know a Lancer could fly that high? They should have never been attacked by Grimm. That was true, but his Semblance still caused it.
Miles and Theodore looked at each other before they chuckled.
"Come on, my friends. Let's talk in my office," Theodore said as he started to walk ahead, and both Miles and Qrow followed him.
"You scared my students, you know. My students never thought that what was basically a flaming meteor would crash-land-"
"Hey! I didn't crash it!"
"-on my front yard at 2 a.m. in the morning," Theodore said, glancing back as he led them into his private office.
"Come in. Sit anywhere you like, my friends."
Miles and Qrow got comfortable, with Qrow sitting on the windowsill and Miles taking a seat on a couch.
"So, what brings you here, my friends?" Theodore asked.
Qrow and Miles looked at each other before looking back at Theodore.
"We are searching for a... Maiden," Qrow revealed.
"A Maiden? From what I know, the only Maiden who was here was the Fall Maiden, and even then, it's been almost two decades since she last stepped foot in Vacuo." Theodore looked at Miles. "Is she here?"
"Well... we're not exactly sure if she is here, but Qrow has looked all over Sanus and Anima. This is the only place she could be," Miles said. Then he sighed and leaned back. "Because... today... today is my father's death anniversary."
"Oh..." Theodore fell silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "Whatever help you need, my friends, I'll give it to you."
<=======]==¤
The ride to the ruined town was silent. Qrow wanted to start a conversation many times, but he kept his mouth shut, knowing that this place brought bad memories for his friend.
Before they got into the off-road vehicle Theodore had lent them, Qrow offered to drive, but he didn't know where the town was. All he knew was that it used to be a small town in the desert before it was destroyed seventeen years ago, leaving only a handful of survivors among its ruins.
Qrow looked at Miles and saw him focused on driving, but his hands were gripping the wheel like it owed him money. His knuckles were white.
The drive took about three hours, and Qrow had to kill a few Grimm that tried to attack them. Qrow was slightly unnerved by how silent Miles was.
Qrow felt sorry for Luna and her children if this was what they had to put up with every day of the week, because seriously depressed Miles was scary Miles. Was this why they had so many kids, because Luna wanted to cure his depression with fucking?
Qrow wouldn't put it past Luna, because as good of a healer as she is, she's not a certified doctor, or a psychiatrist, or even a therapist.
In Qrow's opinion, Luna's Semblance is so good that she doesn't exactly need a lot of medical knowledge to heal injuries, but compared to a doctor, her medical knowledge is lacking.
In the distance, Qrow could see something he could only interpret as what used to be a town, because there was almost nothing there. Just a few ruined buildings covered by sand. There wasn't even a sign nearby, probably because it was destroyed in that battle years ago.
Qrow didn't exactly know what happened that day. All he knew was that Miles's father died because of a new species of sentient Grimm-a Knight Grimm. That was how Anbar and Miles described it.
It could talk. They both said the Knight Grimm could talk. Qrow chalked it up to being one of Salem's creations, but Ozpin's reaction didn't give him much hope.
Ozpin asked him and the others in the inner circle to leave the room, and they did, leaving Ozpin and the two injured alone.
They couldn't hear what was being said, but when Ozpin came out, he had a melancholic and knowing look in his eyes, like he knew something none of them knew-which was true most, if not all, of the time. That bastard had lived way too long for anyone to ever fucking dream of.
He probably had secrets on top of secrets on top of secrets.
Qrow's musing was cut off when the vehicle stopped and Miles got out, with Qrow following just behind.
Qrow wanted to say something, but he stopped when he saw that, in the distance, there was a campfire and a cloaked figure sitting next to it.
When they got closer, Qrow was suspicious, but Miles walked ahead before he casually sat down next to the figure on the log.
"Anbar," Miles greeted the cloaked figure, who was revealed as Anbar, the Fall Maiden.
Anbar took off her hood and smiled at Miles. "Miles... it's been a while..."
Qrow decided to stand nearby so as not to disturb the moment with his personality.
"Yeah... it's been... seventeen years now, I think. The last time we saw each other was in the hospital," Miles said with a chuckle, and Anbar followed with a chuckle of her own.
"Yeah... seventeen years... it's been a long seventeen years..." Anbar looked at the fire. "So how is life, Miles? How are Saphron and Artoria?"
"Life has been good to me, Anbar. I have eight children now," Miles said, and Anbar's eyes widened. Miles continued, "Saphron is doing good too. She's going to become a doctor, and Artoria joined Atlas Academy to become a Huntress or part of the Atlas Military. I don't know which one she plans on, but I know she'll succeed either way."
Anbar hummed. "Tell me about the others."
"Well... my third-oldest is Mordred. She's a spitfire, just like me when I was her age; all fire and spirit. Jeanne is gentle and kind, and she's a prodigy too. Most of my children are prodigies. Then I have the twins, Noir and Blancheur. Their personalities are the exact opposite of each other. Noir is energetic and so full of life that, unfortunately, she's the loudest of my children. Blancheur is different. She's quiet and shy. She prefers to be inside her own room alone and sleeping, if not for her twin dragging her outside to play," Miles said, tapping his finger on his thigh. "And then the youngest: her name is Olivia. She's like Noir in a way, but she doesn't talk much and she's too adventurous for her own good. One time, Luna put Olivia on the floor so she could do the dishes. Six minutes later, when Luna turned back, she found Olivia on top of the fridge."
Miles laughed softly.
"Miles... as much as I love hearing you talk about your children, I only counted seven. Who is the last one?" Anbar asked, and she didn't need to be a genius to know there was a reason Miles was leaving one out.
"I know. I was saving him for last," Miles said, letting out a tired sigh. "He... his name is Jaune..."
Anbar's eyes widened slightly, and her chest tightened because she had hoped she misheard.
"John?" Anbar asked, her eyes glistening with tears.
"No. Jaune. J-A-U-N-E. Luna named him after my father," Miles said, looking at Anbar as he reached out to hold her hand. "My father would love him, Anbar. He is everything Dad ever wanted in a son."
Miles's eyes were wet, and he shook his head as if trying to stop himself from crying.
"Miles..." Anbar held his hand tighter.
"I failed him as a father, Anbar. God fuck, I failed him," Miles said, and Anbar pulled him into a hug.
"Hey... come on. Don't cry. You didn't fail anyone, Miles," Anbar said, patting his back.
"But I did, Anbar. I failed him. All he ever wanted was to become a Huntsman. That is his dream, but I took it away. I took it away because whenever I see him... I see my father's face, Anbar."
Anbar's eyes widened, but she held him tighter.
"He looks just like him. I still have pictures of my dad when he was Jaune's age, and God fuck, Anbar... it's like looking at the same person."
Miles tightened his hold.
"I don't want him to die, and because of what I did, one of my daughters hates me, and I don't even feel worthy of his forgiveness."
Anbar continued to comfort him. "Miles... come on. He forgave you, didn't he?"
Miles nodded.
"Then it's okay. If he is as good as you say, then he would understand why you did what you did."
Anbar let out a sigh. "Was what you did right? No, and yes. What you did is something a parent should have never done to their child; you took away his dreams. But you also did what every parent should do: you did your best to protect him."
She chuckled and pulled away from the hug.
"I... I really want to talk more about your children with you, Miles, but unfortunately, I don't think I have much time left," Anbar said as she sat, looking tired.
Miles's eyes widened as he wiped his tears. "What? What are you talking about?"
"I'm old, Miles, and I lost so many people I cared about in these long seventy years," she said. Then she looked at Miles and held his hand. "I'm tired, Miles. I want to rest. I want to see him again."
"But-"
"No buts," Anbar cut him off.
"Please... let me rest, Miles. I should have died so many years ago. I'm just staying alive for the past seventeen years because I have a responsibility to do so."
She turned her head and called out to Qrow.
"Kid! Come here!"
Qrow sighed before walking over.
"You're the crow that Ozpin sent to watch me these past few years, are you not?" Anbar asked, a knowing look in her eyes.
Qrow wanted to ask how she knew about his ability to turn into a crow, but he didn't, because she was a seventy-year-old Maiden. She could probably sense him when he was perched on a tree. "Yeah..."
"Tell the old bastard that he doesn't need to search for the next Fall Maiden. I already trained her for the past five years to shoulder the burden of being one."
Both Miles's and Qrow's eyes widened. Miles hadn't even thought about what would happen when a Maiden dies, because he was too focused on the fact that Anbar was going to die. Qrow was shocked because he didn't expect Anbar had already prepared a replacement.
Qrow looked at her. "So... where is she, then?"
Both Miles and Anbar glared at him.
"Fuck off, kid. I'm not going to tell you who she is or where she is. I won't turn her into a prisoner," Anbar said. She looked back to the campfire. "Because that is what I am: a prisoner to Ozpin. Before you say shit, I know. I know Ozpin meant well, but it is still wrong at the same time. You can't turn someone into a glorified prisoner just because she is a Maiden."
She sighed.
"So no. I'm not telling you anything. She's strong enough to fight anyone who tries to hunt her, and she promised me to use the power as sparingly as possible."
"Well... it was worth a shot," Qrow muttered.
Miles reached out to hold her hand. "...When?"
"In a few more minutes, Miles. I already drank the posion ten minutes before you came here," Anbar said, squeezing his hand. "I miss him, Miles. God... I love him so much that it hurts thinking about him."
She started to cry, and this time Miles hugged her tightly and held her.
"Anbar... I never saw him as happy as he was when he was with you. He loved you too, Anbar," Miles said, and Anbar cried harder.
"Oh, John... you stupid bastard... why did you have to leave me?" She tightened her hold on Miles. "I love you. I fucking love you. And you just had to leave me. Why was it you? Why?"
Miles held her until she calmed down.
"Thank you, Miles... thank you. John would have been proud of you," she said. Then she kissed his forehead.
Her body began to glow orange, and flakes broke away from her form as she slowly disappeared like golden dust on the wind, leaving Miles and Qrow alone by the campfire.
<=======]==¤
"..... Lancel, can you help me deliver this to Ozma?" a blond young man asked his dearest friend for help as he looked over some papers on his table.
"You do not need to ask, my king. I will do as you order." A Purple-haired man walked to his king and took the papers. "Consider it done."
When Lancel opened the door to deliver the papers, he backed away a few steps because a brown-haired missile launched herself into him. "Your Highness!?"
The brown-haired missile turned out to be an eleven-year-old girl. "Lancel!? I didn't know it was you! Where is he!?" She then got off him and started to bounce on her feet, which resulted in Lancel letting out a soft chuckle.
"Well, Your Highness, if you look behind me, you will see that His Majesty is behind me." He then stepped to the side, revealing the king looking at them with a small smile.
"Hello there."
"There you are!" The brown-haired girl then ran up to him and jumped over the table before crashing into him, making him fall off the chair.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed dramatically, as if the king hadn't caught her and made sure it was his body that hit the ground.
"That hurt!" She started to pummel her fists against his chest.
"Okay... okay, my fault..." He then carried her and stood up, but just as he tried to put her down on the floor, she shook her head and started to squirm.
"No! I want you to carry me!" She then squealed in excitement when he followed her request and princess-carried her.
"Is this okay, Fall?" the young man asked her as he walked to the balcony with her in his arms.
"Hey... I heard that you are planning to get married soon." She pouted at him, which resulted in him chuckling.
"Yeah... I guess I am. Why are you pouting? I thought you would be happy," he asked her, and she answered him by shaking her head.
"No! Why would I be happy that my big brother will marry some strange princess from who-knows-where!?" She pouted even harder.
"Some strange princess? Well... I guess I should tell her that the next time you practice magic with her, and we'll see what she has to say then..." He gave her a hint, which she instantly latched onto, and after a few seconds her eyes lit up as elemental flares appeared at the corners of her eyes.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! You're marrying her!? The Witch of the tower herself!?" When he nodded, she got extremely excited.
"Yay! My brother is marrying the strongest Witch in the world!" After a few seconds, she calmed down and looked up at him nervously.
"You... you won't leave me or the others, right?" she asked softly, as if she feared what his answer would be.
"No, of course not. Why would you think like that? I would never leave you. All four of you are my little sisters, and Mom and Dad made me promise to never leave you girls." He then chuckled. "And you know me. Whenever I give my word-"
"You would never take it back..." she finished for him.
"Have I ever told you how much I love all of you?" he asked her, then kissed her forehead.
"Of course! You practically tell us that every day!"
"Well, I don't think I say it enough then!" He hummed and looked out over his kingdom. "I love all of them too, you know. Each one of them. They are my people. My banner will protect them, my sword will fight for them, and my scabbard will be their safe haven."
Fall nodded and looked out at the view of their kingdom. "I know... all of them know that you are the best king they could have ever asked for, and you're the best big brother I could ask for... Jaune."
Jaune woke up with a gasp, and it felt like his heart had been stabbed.
"Gasp What is happening!?" He gritted his teeth as he held his chest in pain, rolled out of bed, and fell to the floor.
He tried to manually activate his Aura, and it activated, but it did not help with the pain.
His heart hurt so much that he wanted to cry out. Someone was dying. He did not know who, but someone was dying, and it was hurting him.
"It hurts... my heart... I can't... help... Mordred..."
[You could read up to 10 chapter ahead if you support me on patr30n. At patreon.com/Zaneninjacat]
[AN: oh yeah, any comments/engagement is something i really appreciated, so please do more of em.]