Team Nightwatch

A Chance to Relax

     I sighed as I stretched out under the tree with the girls, still a little sore from the fight.  I'm glad that we won but I've never felt this bad in my life...physically anyways.   

     "Since when have you been able to do that?"  Destiny asked, looking at me.

     "Do what?"  I groaned.  "Be awsome?  I've always been able to do that...."  All three of them rolled their eyes but they also smiled a little.

     "You know what I mean," she continued.  "That huge energy blast.  I don't remember that being on your list of semblances."  I looked up at the sky but didn't say anything.  To be honest, I didn't know that I could do that.  I mean...resistant to fire, yeah I've always had some tolerance to it, but actually  absorbing energy?  That's a new trick.  I thought back to what Cinder had told me...about Shade.  He died eighteen years ago, but seeing some of his old wanted posters and reading about his semblance and weapons, I couldn't help but think that we were more alike than I thought.

     "It just kinda happened," I said.  "It almost felt like I'd done it before...maybe that's just me being crazy though."  

     "Maybe," Leah said, her hand close to my hair.  "There's still something odd about it all though."  We all looked at her and she continued.  "With Cinder and them showing up, what we found about Shade in the library, Andrew's fighting style...doesn't it seem just a little strange to any of you?"  Before any of us could answer, we heard the sound of fighting coming from the entrance to the grounds.

      "What's going on?"  Isabel said.  I pushed myself laboriosuly to my feet, and pulled out Nightblade.

     "Not sure," I replied, "but I don't like the sound of it.  Come on."  We raced towards the noise and pushed through the crowd but we stunned by what we saw.  No Grimm, no students...the two fighting were adults.  One was a tall woman, dressed in an Atlas military uniform with a cutless in her hand.  The other one, a man with black hair and a tattered red cape, I knew.  "Qrow...."

     "That's Qrow?"  Isabel asked.  "The way Ruby and Yang talk about him I would've thought he was...more impressive."  Qrow slammed his sword into the pavement, wrecking a swath of it.

      "He's one of the teachers at Signal," I explained, leaning on Nightblade and watching.  I know that I should be trying to stop them, but I'd get ripped to shreds if I tried.  "I don't know who he's fighting though...."

      "That's...," Leah began, "Winter Schnee?  What's she doing here?"

      "Wait, she's a Schnee?"  Isabel asked.  "I never knew that."

      "Yeah, she's Weiss's big sister," Leah continued,  "She's not as harsh as her father, but she's nowhere near as nice as Weiss...."  I snorted to stifle my laugh and watched the fight unfold.  Winter pulled out what I can only assume is a parrying dagger, but I saw Qrow's fingers inch towards the button beneath the hilt of his sword.  He pushed it as Winter glared at him and, with the grind of gears and extension of metal, his sword turned into a scythe...for all of two seconds.

     Not only did he put away the scythe, but he put his sword on his back.  Winter still looked angry but also a little confused.  Qrow beckoned her with a finger, and she used a glyph to launch herself at him before she stopped.

     "Schnee!"  General Ironwood, Ozpin, and Glynda were walking through the crowd.  Winter lowered her sword point and Qrow pretended to look innocent.  Winter looked slightly ashamed of herself as Ironwood railed her for 'conduct not befitting the uniform' or something like that.  

     "There is another fight going on in the arena, ladies and gentlemen," Ozpin told the crowd.  "I can assure you that there is better seats, and there's popcorn."  The crowd slowly dispersed until it was just me, the girls, Ruby, Qrow, Ironwood, Glynda and Ozpin.