Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“*Groans in pain* Damn…I end up saving the world only to die like this…”

A man in his twenties could be seen leaning against a tree. His black hair was a mess, and he was missing one of his red eyes. He chuckled weakly. “I learn so much magic from an old immortal witch, becoming possibly the strongest mortal around, only to die thanks to a few cheap shots from evolved grimm. “Damnit Salem…I wish I had your immortality right now.”

To think, the son of a bandit queen/maiden would die like this. Not a satisfying death in his opinion. Still, he doesn’t have that many regrets. He only needed his family, and that was enough. ‘Then again, most of my family and I never got along. Our ideals conflicted too much.’ This was especially true when it came to his sister. Unlike her, Roc was able to acknowledge the importance of blood, so while he hated his sister a lot, he still accepted that he was his sister.

“Damn…I wish I could die a better death than this” he muttered, closing his eyes.

“Perhaps you can, Roc Branwen” a voice said, causing Roc to open his eyes once more. Two beings stood before him, both having horns. Both of them represented light and darkness. Roc knew who these two were.

Roc grunted as he tried to stand. “I thought you two were never going to return…that humanity was worth keeping around after I beat the two of you in a verbal and physical battle” he said. He did not regret actually defeating two gods.

The brother gods decided to ignore that last part. It was embarrassing for them. The god of darkness cleared his throat before speaking. “We have returned because we watched how you died. My brother and I both agree that you should have died a better death” he explained.

Roc raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to revive me, are you?” he asked, knowing the answer already.

The god of light shook his head. “No, but we will grant you something similar to a revival. Surely you remember how Ozma was reincarnated multiple times.”

Roc hated thinking about Ozma or any of his incarnations. Seriously, he was more annoying than Salem at times, always pretending that Roc was this “lost soul” that needed guidance. “I don’t want to share my body with anyone else” Roc answered.

The god of light shook his head. “That is not what will happen. Instead, you will be completely reborn into a new world where aura and semblances do not exist. Do not worry, you will keep your memories of your previous life, but your body will not remember all of the training you have gone through. You will essentially be starting from scratch” he clarified.

‘Reborn in a new world huh? Well, if that gives me the chance to die a better death, then so be it’ Roc thought. “Very well, I’ll do it. Two things though. For one, I wanna keep my scroll as a souvenir, but make sure it has infinite energy. Also, just make sure my old body gets a proper burial by the Branwen tribe” he said, ready to be reborn.

The god of darkness looked confused. “What of the rest of your family? Surely, they would wish to know what happened to you.”

Roc thought for a moment before replying. “Yeah, you can tell them. Still, as far as I’m concerned, I have two families. One is just better than the other.” The Branwen tribe may be a bunch of killers and thieves, but they were still his family, and he loved them all. Besides, his mother is long dead anyway, killed by the fall maiden. In his mind, his mother died strong, because she went out on her own terms, keeping her son safe.

The two gods nodded and raised their hands. “Good luck, Roc Branwen. May your new life be a prosperous one!”

“Would you quit daydreaming already?!” a female voice yelled, snapping him out of his memories. He looked up to see one of his fellow mercenaries, Lazley, glaring at him. “I swear, I always catch you daydreaming Shez!”

Shez…that was his name now, wasn’t it? No last name, just Shez. His hairstyle was the same, but his eyes and hair were now violet. Not only that, but all of the magic he learned back then just wasn’t castable here. He had to learn all of his new magic from his mother. Luckily, Shez was a prodigy, so when he asked to learn magic from his mother, she obliged after some pressing.

He asked to be taught when he was 4, and now he was 17. He was arguably stronger than his past self at this point, considering how fast he can grow. Fodlan’s magic is pretty powerful, he had to admit. Still, not many people were as creative with their magic as he was. He could create weapons out of thin air thanks to his magic as an example. He could temporarily increase his speed, physical strength, and his durability using his magic as well. These magic spells didn’t really fall under white or black magic, Shez just used the knowledge he had from his past life to access these spells.

Of course, white magic was an issue for him. It required some amount of faith, but Shez could never fully grasp spells like warp or Abraxas. Luckily for him, he once saw his mother use what he knew to be dark magic thanks to his past life. Initially, his mother was horrified that she was caught, but Shez just asked to be taught that magic. Again, she was hesitant, but Shez wasn’t budging, even threatening to leave and find someone that would teach him.

So, he was taught the dark magic spells that were rare among people in Fodlan. Shez even used his knowledge to create dark variants of light magic spells. Shez noted that while some spells were completely the same, just with a different color, others were a different story. Healing spells like psychic just healed the wounds at a faster rate than they normally would. The dark variants he used didn’t really heal, they just reversed the damage like a small time rewind.

Fodlan’s history is interesting to him. In his past life, he had an interest in history, which carried over into his new life. So, using his vastly-superior-to-everyone-else’s warping magic, he was able to warp from city to city, gaining as much knowledge as possible about Fodlan’s history and its political system.

Shez laughed almost maniacally when he came across the crest system. Let it be known that in his past life, he was taught to question just about everything. Ideals, history, people’s intentions, everything. So, he obviously questioned the crest system as well as the history and intentions of the Central Church. ‘Those guys are just waiting for war to be declared against them’ he thought. He knew it would only be a matter of time before someone snapped.

When he told his foster mother about his questions about the central church, all she said was to be careful around them. Now, being around at least 4 people that weren’t normal humans in his past life kind of gave Shez the feeling that his foster mother wasn’t who she seemed. Plus, the way she avoided talking about her past was also suspicious.

He had a suspicion that his foster mother wasn’t human, or at least she was older than she appeared, but he could care less about that. In his mind, she wasn’t as good of a mother as his past one, but he loved her regardless.

“Sorry Lazley. Actually, I’m not” he said with a grin.

Lazley just shook her head, exasperated by Shez’s comment. “You know what? Screw this. Just go find your sister. Getz went off to find her and he hasn’t come back” she said before walking off.

Yeah, Shez had a new sister named Sarah. They were twins, just like Roc and Yang were. The key difference is that these twins ACTUALLY got along. Sarah, despite questioning many of her brother’s views, didn’t try to change them. In fact, she just engages in a bit of banter with him. She, unlike Yang and the rest of his past family aside from his mother, accepted him for who he is, instead of what he isn’t. That alone made her more tolerable than Yang and Ruby.

Shez sighed as he got up to look for his sister. After a bit of searching, he came across Getz and his sister. “Ah, is my sister already finding love?” he joked.

Sarah and Getz rolled their eyes at Shez’s jab. “Shez, you know romance isn’t something I’m interested in” Sarah said. While it sounded nice, Sarah wasn’t content with the idea of settling down anywhere. Putting down roots isn’t her style.

“Yeah, and I doubt anyone would be willing to put up with her sense of direction” Getz jabbed before being smacked in the back of his head by Sarah.

Sarah let out a low growl at her fellow mercenary’s comment. “Let me remind you that the two of us are FAR stronger than you are currently. You might wanna be more careful about what you say” she said.

Shez placed a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. “Easy there sis, he’s not smart enough to understand that yet. We just need to train his mind a bit more” he said, being completely unapologetic about his insult.

Getz rubbed his head and glared at Shez for that comment. “Well, at least I found her. Now all we need to do is take down Jeralt’s mercenaries and this mission is over and done with.”

Shez nodded. “Yeah, half of our forces are guarding the goods we need to protect while the rest of us take on Jeralt’s crew. By the way, if the Ashen Demon is here, leave her to me” he said.

Sarah shook her head at her brother’s suggestion. “No way, she’s mine. I’ve been training hard, and the Ashen Demon is the perfect opponent for me. You yourself said that training pales in comparison to an actual battle Shez.”

Sarah had a point. She was easily the second strongest of their mercenary group, with Shez being number 1. She was also one of the strongest mercenaries around by a large margin. The thing is, she never had a true opponent other than her brother to test her power against. With a sigh, Shez conceded. “Alright, but I’ll bail you out in case something happens. Just don’t get lost on the way to the battlefield” he said, taking a shot at his sister’s horrible sense of direction.

Sarah just rolled her eyes. Getz had left to talk to Berling, leaving the two siblings to chat for a bit before battle. “Shez…I’ve been having those dreams again. You know, the ones about the War of Heroes” Sarah revealed as they started to walk to their new destination.

Shez nodded in understanding. “Okay, anything different this time?” he asked.

Sarah nodded. “Yeah, these mages that used similar dark magic to what we use. One of them didn’t even look human. He seemed to be leading the other mages. And Seiros…she turned into a dragon. Other dragons were there too.” Sarah was about to continue when she noticed her twin’s smug smile. Sarah sighed. ‘Here we go…’

“So, Saint Seiros is the Immaculate One, and there were mysterious dark mages participating in the war…” Shez said before giving his sister a grin. “And you say that I shouldn’t question everything.”

Questioning everything, even when people say you shouldn’t, was a core part of who Roc was and who Shez is. His mother, Raven Branwen, had always told him to question everything no matter what. “If you listen to and believe everything you are told without a second thought, you are a fool” was her saying.

Shez, even now, wasn’t able to question literally everything, but he did find it easy to question certain viewpoints and philosophies. He’s able to see the pros and cons of one side. This habit of questioning everything is what led him to seeing some discrepancies in the church’s history. For example, most official accounts claim that the Immaculate One is simply a “Divine Beast” (Shez learned that the term “dragon” is almost never used. As far as he knew, only commoners call them dragons, and even that was pretty rare) that helped during the War of Heroes, but older, “forbidden” texts say that Saint Seiros and the Immaculate one had some sort of connection. Sarah’s dream just confirmed that Seiros and the Immaculate One are the same being.

“Let’s just focus on the mission. We can talk about any conspiracies later” Sarah said as they made their way to the battlefield.

Almost 5 minutes later, Shez is busy dealing with the main force of Jeralt’s mercenaries. Sarah was off doing who knows what, but he trusted her to handle herself. Shez was surrounded by archers, but he wasn’t worried. “Come on, go ahead and attack me already!” he challenged.

One of the archers took a look at the literal hill of dead bodies that Shez left behind. Sweating nervously, the archer tried to back away, only for Shez to appear right behind him in a flash and stab him through the chest with his sword, causing him to fall to the ground. Shez flicked his sword to clean the blood off of it.

The sword he was using was forged by him. He preferred using katanas in his past life, and that remains true here. That doesn’t mean he isn’t skilled with other weapons, it’s just a preference. The thing that separated this blade from other blades was its materials. The steel came from his mother, but it wasn’t normal steel. It wasn’t mythril or umbral steel, but it did allow him to channel his magic even more than a sword made from an arcane crystal. The steel was magical and durable. A shame it didn’t allow him to cast white magic, but he already had solutions for that issue.

The handle was black, and the hilt was red. This was to remind him of his past mother, Raven Branwen. The steel’s color was interchangeable depending on whatever magic Shez was using. For example, if he was using fire magic, the steel would turn orange. If no magic was being used, it was silver.

Shez’s actions caused the other archers to fire, but he deflected every arrow casually by using one hand to spin his katana. Every arrow missed it’s mark. This continued for a while until the archers had run out of arrows.

Shez chuckled. “Sucks to be you guys. I don’t have ANY problems running out of arrows” he said before using his dark magic to create a bow made of darkness. As much as he hated the Fall Maiden for killing Raven, he had to admit that she had interesting moves. Using magic to launch himself high into the air and took aim. Pulling the dark bowstring created arrows out of nothing. Releasing the string, he released 3 arrows imbued with fire magic. The arrows were perfectly aimed, not missing their mark at all. Three archers had their heads pierced by the arrows before they exploded thanks to the fire magic.

The final archer was dealt with differently. Firing another arrow, Shez made sure to hit the ground underneath the archer. The wind magic within the arrow launched the archer high into the air. Shez used ice magic to create a platform for him to leap off of. Using his speed and his skills, Shez cut off one of the archer’s arms. Creating another platform, Shez repeated his actions, leaving the archer armless.

This onslaught continued until the archer was cut into nothing but pieces. You could barely see anything that looked remotely human aside from the blood that covered Shez’s top half as he landed beneath the archer he had slain. Shez didn’t have time to worry about that though. During his aerial escapades, he saw Lazley, Getz, and Berling all having trouble. So, he needed to move as fast as he could to save them.

Lazley barely avoided an axe strike from one of the mercenaries. The rookies were easy to deal with, but the main force was another story. She cried out in pain as one of the mercs grazed her ankle with his sword. She fell to the ground, thinking the end was in sight. A mercenary raised his axe above his head, ready to strike down Lazlely.

Lazley closed her eyes, ready for the end. She waited for a bit and realized something was wrong. She opened her eyes when she heard the sound of a head falling to the ground. Opening her eyes, she saw that the axe-wielding mercenary had lost his head. His body fell to the ground, unleashing a torrent of blood from where his head used to be.

Turning to her right, she saw Shez with his sword out. His stance clearly showed that he had decapitated the mercenary. Lazley and Shez had never really gotten along well, but she was thankful that he had saved her life.

The opposing mercenaries all yelled and charged at Shez. Shez parried a brigand’s axe swing with his scabbard and kicked the mercenary away with a straight kick. Shez ducked under a spear stab and delivered a somersault kick that launched his assailant into the air. With a snap of his fingers, the poor guy was incinerated by a lightning strike. A screaming fool tried to attack Shez from behind, but Shez turned and used his other hand to hold a shield he made using ice magic. The ice was so thick and heavy that the fool’s sword didn’t even damage the ice. Shez was using magic to enhance his physical strength. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to hold the shield.

His opponent didn’t realize that he was outmatched. He simply yelled again and tried to attack Shez, but Shez just parried with his shield before turning his ice shield into an ice lance and stabbing it through the mercenary’s chest, causing the merc to cough out blood and fall to the ground.

Shez turned to face the last two opposing mercenaries. The menacing look he gave off caused them both to flinch. Shez pulled his now green sword out of its scabbard and with one horizontal slash, a small cyclone came out and tore the mercenaries apart, literally. Shez sheathed his sword and turned to face Lazley, who wasn’t surprised by Shez’s feats at all. Shez scoffed. “Come on Laz, I expected better from you” he said, seemingly not caring that his comrade was hurt.

Lazley rolled her eyes. “Shut up and help me already” she demanded. Shez shrugged and placed his hand on Lazley’s wound. Using his dark magic, the damage was reversed. Lazley sighed in relief and returned to her feet. “I never thought I would say this to you, but thanks” she said.

Shez smirked. “Oh? This is new. Is this the part where we kiss?” he joked.

“Just hurry up and help out the others!” she said before returning to the battlefield.

Shez used his speed and some ice platforms to get back into the air. Flight would be better, but he was still working on that. When he made it into the air, he could see Berling was doing better against her opponents, but Getz was having trouble. Shez used dark magic to make his ice platforms float while using more of it to create a small wall to cover himself. It was obvious where he was, but no arrow would be able to hit him considering he was covered on all sides.

Using magic to gain better vision, he used his bow to fire precise shots at some of the mercs giving Getz trouble. Getz knew that this was Shez helping out, and he was thankful for it. With cover fire from Shez, Getz was able to finish off the mercs giving him trouble, not that there were many left in the first place.

With Getz helped, Shez turned to help out Berling, only to realize that she needed no help. She was perfectly fine. Still, he raised his palm and used some long-range healing to help her and Getz out with any injuries. ‘Well, I guess I should check up on my sister’ he thought before he started his search.

Sarah herself was actually doing well against Byleth. The battle had been fierce and both combatants had a few wounds on their bodies, but nothing that would stop them from continuing the fight.

Byleth was amazed. No person had EVER given her this much trouble aside from her father. This girl was something special.

Sarah grunted as she fired a ball of dark magic at Byleth. Byleth rolled to the side to avoid it, but this was a bad move as Sarah summoned dark tendrils from underneath Byleth. The tendrils wrapped tightly around Byleth’s legs, preventing the demon from moving. ‘I’ll have to focus on defending myself then’ she thought.

Firing multiple balls of fire from her free hand, Byleth hoped to use these as a distraction while trying to free herself. Sarah summoned a reflective barrier in her hand and blocked all three fireballs. Charging forward, Sarah uses her speed to attack Byleth from multiple sides. Byleth blocks the first three with her sword, but the rest she cannot avoid. Sarah’s sword cuts through the flesh easily, leaving open wounds in Byleth’s arms. Byleth eventually manages to free herself and delivers a strong kick to Sarah’s gut, sending the violet-haired mercenary flying back a good distance. Byleth was still hurt by Sarah’s attacks though, even bleeding in a few places.

Byleth and Sarah both use vulneraries to heal themselves slightly. Some of their minor wounds manage to heal completely while the major ones aren’t as bad anymore. Byleth looks at Sarah and decides to commend the young woman. “I must praise you. No opponent has ever taken me to my limits. You are the strongest foe I have ever faced.”

Sarah chuckled and moved some stray hair out of her face. “Well, I have my family to thank for all of my skills. My brother was especially helpful. His experience with magic and combat was a huge help. I’m lucky I have a brother with a lifetime of experience under his belt” she said.

Byleth was confused by that last sentence, but Sarah used the shadowblade technique to send two arcs of dark energy towards Byleth. Byleth quickly countered with lightblade. Lightblade was similar to shadowblade but used light magic instead of dark. The two attacks clashed, creating a whirlwind of light and darkness when they collided. When the whirlwind ended, Byleth was the first to strike, using wind magic on her feet to launch herself at Sarah. Sarah warped to the side using her magic to avoid the incoming thrust attack. Sarah tried to counter with a spinning slash, but Byleth jumped over the attack and thrust her sword downward, only for Sarah to parry and push Byleth back.

Byleth avoided a thoron attack from Sarah and used the spell Bolganone to counter. 4 waves of fire surrounded Sarah. Sarah looked around and saw the fires closing in on her in a swirling motion. Sarah thrust both of her hands out to her sides and used her magic to create an icy wind so strong that it blew both Byleth and the fires away.

Sarah saw this as an opportunity to finish off Byleth. Summoning a dark lance to her free hand, she was about to finish off Byleth once and for all when a hand was placed on her shoulder. “That’s enough sis. We’ve won.” Sarah turned to see Shez alongside Berling.

“What? What do you mean?” Sarah asked, a little confused as to why her brother had stopped her fight.

Berling took the stage in this one. “He means the mission’s over. Jeralt finally gave up after he realized how outmatched he was thanks to your brother here” Berling said, clapping Shez on the back. “Shame this’ll be our last mission together before you two go off on your own. You sure you guys won’t stay?”

Shez shook his head. “Thanks for the offer, but we’ve made up our minds. Still, working with you guys again in the future isn’t completely out of the question, so keep an eye out for us on the road” he responded, shaking Berling’s hand.

Byleth was confused. Her father had surrendered? Speaking of Jeralt, he came in riding his horse and dismounted it, standing next to Byleth. “Well kid, we lost this one” he sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

Shez chuckled. “Sorry old man. I just got curious and decided to drop in on you guys after watching my sister fight for a bit.”

Sarah wasn’t surprised that Shez was watching her, but Byleth was. She didn’t even notice his presence at all. ‘That must be her brother’ she thought. Byleth got a good look at Shez. She could tell that despite his youthful appearance, he had a ton of experience on the battlefield. He looked to be about 17, but those eyes seemed much older than that. She glanced at Jeralt. When he returned the glance, that told her Jeralt had come to the same conclusion.

‘As someone who’s met a lot of weird people, I know full well that kid ain’t who he seems to be’ Jeralt thought. Shez must have noticed their stares as he told Berling and his sister something before making his way over to them.

Sarah waved as he introduced himself. “Hey there. So, I’m Shez, the guy who caused you to give up. Sorry about that” he said, completely lying about being sorry.

Jeralt waved it off. “Forget it kid. You beat us fair and square. I gotta admit, I’ve never seen ANYONE pull the stunts you have. Makes me wonder if you’re even human.”

Shez chuckled. “Sorry, but I’m just a guy who was reborn into a new world. That probably won’t sound too strange to a guy like you” he said with a small grin.

Jeralt didn’t respond to that comment, but he didn’t need to. Both Shez and Jeralt knew that neither of them were “normal” people, though Jeralt would argue that Shez was more abnormal than him. Shez’s ability to tell when people weren’t whoever or whatever they seemed to be as well as his experience with immortals told him that Jeralt was older than he appeared.

Shez turned to face Byleth next, giving her a nod. “Thanks for giving my sister a challenge. Aside from myself, I don’t think anyone has truly been able to test her” he praised, acknowledging the strength of Byleth. He respected strong people. To Shez, strength had many different meanings.

Byleth nodded and stood to her feet. “She was a formidable opponent. You trained her well, I must admit” she said. “I would love to test myself against her once more, should the day come again.”

Shez shrugged. “You never know. Who knows, maybe the two of you both have some hidden power within you. I swear, sometimes my sister’s eyes change color at random. Combine that with the dreams, it’s obvious that we’re both special in some way” he commented.

That gained Byleth’s intrigue. “Dreams? Were they about a war?” she asked. This was a complete guess on her part.

To her surprise, Shez nodded. “Yeah, about the war of heroes. In fact, her dreams paint a clearer picture of the war, revealing some pretty interesting facts.” That’s when Shez gained a small grin. “Do you have dreams like that too?” he asked. When Byleth nodded, he asked another question. “Do you sometimes have knowledge of events or locations for no reason?” Again, Byleth nodded. “Well, I never expected to see this again. Long story short, you likely have another being inside of your body. That being likely possesses knowledge of great importance. My best advice would be to meditate a lot. See ya” he said before walking back to Berling and Sarah. Byleth had no clue how valuable that advice would be in the future.

With that, Shez and Sarah got their cut of the gold and made off for their own journey. The two had no clue what awaited them in the future. After all, our past always comes back to haunt us.

Chapter Text

6 months later…

“Shez, would you mind telling me why we’re heading to Remire village?” Sarah asked. The duo of mercenaries had been on their own for 6 months now, making names for themselves. Shez, for reasons Sarah didn’t understand, wanted to head to Remire, which is why they were currently traveling through Barnabas Woods.

Shez, ducking under a few branches, shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to meet Byleth again. Maybe she has a voice in her head now, just like you sis.”

Sarah narrowed her eyes as she followed her brother through the woods. “I would like to remind you that the only reason that happened is because YOU nearly killed me during one of our training sessions.”

Arval, the being inside Sarah’s head currently, spoke to both of them. “To be fair, you almost killed him with a botched attack, so I’d say the two of you are even” she said. How was Shez able to hear Arval? A spell of course. No, he can’t read minds, but he’s able to use his bond with his sister to connect with Arval.

Shez stopped and let a few squirrels pass before moving forward again. “You know what Arval? You and my sister are far more tolerable than the last person I met with a voice in their head” he complimented. He had only known Arval for 3 months, but she was far more enjoyable to be around than Ozpin.

Arval chuckled at this compliment. “If you didn’t have your scroll, I would never have believed your claims about being reborn. Also, it was nice of you to capture the exact moment Sarah transformed on that device of yours.”

Shez pulled out his scroll and pulled up a video showing Sarah in her transformed state. A good majority of her hair had turned orange, and she had a violent orange aura surrounding her. Her eyes had turned orange and she had white markings on her cheeks. She also had a new sword in her right hand as well.

Sarah sighed as she watched the video alongside her brother. “Even after I transformed, I still couldn’t beat you” she said dejectedly.

Shez sighed and put away his scroll. “Would you stop with that? Just focus on improving yourself, not trying to beat me. I’ll let you think about that with Arval while I head to the village” he said before warping away, leaving a shocked Sarah behind.

“GET BACK HERE YOU IDIOT!!!” Sarah screamed, loud enough for birds to fly out from the trees around her. Sarah was furious, transforming into her awakened state out of pure anger.

“Calm down, he’s just testing you again. He’s obviously trying to help you with that terrible sense of direction you have” Arval explained. It was true, Sarah had gotten them all lost on multiple occasions, which is why Shez was the one who usually took the lead.

Sarah took a few deep breaths before she returned to normal. She closed her eyes in thought. “So, I need to find Remire on my own huh?” she asked herself. After a moment, she opened her eyes and grew a confident smile on her face. “Piece of cake!”

3 hours later, in Remire Village…

‘I’m starting to think leaving Sarah alone was a bad idea’ Shez thought, leaning back on the bench he was sitting on. He made it to Remire only 10 minutes after he left his sister behind. He expected it to take a while for Sarah to find Remire Village, maybe an hour at most, but 3 WHOLE HOURS?!

‘Arval, how’s my sister doing?’ Shez asked, mentally communicating with the being in his twin’s head.

“How do you think?” Arval asked sarcastically. “I tried warning her multiple times, but she couldn’t find Remire even with a map! Currently, she’s sleeping on a bundle of leaves in the middle of the woods.”

Shez soon facepalmed after Arval finished speaking. “Damnit all…” he muttered. He was about to go find his sister when he heard footsteps heading his way.

“Your sister still hasn’t arrived?” a familiar voice asked. Shez turned his head to see the Ashen Demon eyeing him with that same emotionless gaze. She and Shez had met up in the village while Jeralt was getting some rest.

“Nope,” Shez responded. “Unfortunately, my sister is probably lost. I should probably go find her at some point.” He’d have to do so on foot because he couldn’t just sense where his sister was. It would also be hard searching for his sister from above, considering she was in a forest and all.

“I see. Will you be returning to the village with her?” Byleth asked.

Shez just shrugged. “If I don’t, either something came up or we died.” That last one was something he wanted to avoid right now.

Byleth nodded in understanding. “I see. If you do not return, I wish to thank you for your advice. I am starting to better understand these dreams I have been having. On occasion, I am able to see a girl sitting on a throne” she revealed. She hasn’t been able to talk to the girl, but she hopes that girl will have the answers she wants.

“A girl sitting on a throne, huh? Well, if meditation stops working, then a near-death experience will definitely work. It worked for my sister after all” he said before running off into the forest, leaving Byleth confused as to what he meant by all of that.

Meanwhile, Sarah had awoken to three nobles with bandits after them. Sarah had her arms crossed as the three explained their situation. Once they were done, Sarah closed her eyes and reviewed the situation aloud. “So, you were all being chased by bandits and were looking for a village, but one of you ran away like a coward leading to where we are now?”

The teen in yellow rubbed the back of his head nervously. “I wouldn’t call it running like a coward…” he murmured. Still, the other three heard his murmuring.

The only other female in this group of 4, a young woman with long white hair and lilac eyes wearing red, glared at the other boy. “What would you call it then Claude? A “strategic retreat?” I would hardly call it that” she said, clearly upset that Claude ran away.

“Hey, you two were the ones that followed me, so both of you ran away like cowards!” Claude countered, angering the young woman. The woman was about to throttle Claude when the other male, a blonde teen with light blue eyes, grabbed the woman before she could do any damage to Claude.

“Calm down Edelgard. None of this matters right now. We must focus on the bandits trying to capture us!” the blonde argued.

Edelgard eyed the blonde for a moment before sighing, removing herself from his grip. “You are right Dimitri. I shall reprimand Claude for his reckless behavior later” she said, giving Claude a small glare.

Sarah quickly realized that she was about to help the crown prince, the imperial princess, and the duke’s grandson. Respectively, they were the future rulers of Faerghus, Adrestia, and Leicester. Sarah put a hand to her head and sighed. “Oh…my brother is going to have a field day with this…”

“Brother?” the three nobles asked. Before Sarah could tell them who her brother was, a loud yell came from behind Sarah. A bandit had found them and was trying to attack Sarah from behind. He raised his axe to strike her down, but Sarah simply vanished just before the axe struck her. The nobles and bandit were surprised, wondering where she went.

That question was answered when someone tapped the bandit on his shoulder. Confused, the bandit turned around where he was met with a powerful fist to his face. The force of the punch broke the bandit’s nose, but that was the least of his worries. Sarah grabbed the bandit by his right leg, using magic to briefly enhance her strength. She may have overdone it a bit as she threw the bandit high into the air, so high that he was above the tallest trees in the forest.

Sarah summoned her sword and pointed it at the now falling bandit. A purple beam of light appeared on the tip of the sword. That beam fired from the tip, piercing the bandit and leaving a big gaping hole in his chest. The bandit fell hard onto the ground, the hole in his body clear for all of them to see.

Claude whistled and elbowed Dimitri in his stomach. “I think this gal may be even stronger than you Dimitri” he said, impressed by Sarah’s feat of strength.

Dimitri was a little wide-eyed. “Not many possess that level of strength. Do you possess a crest?” he inquired.

Sarah shook her head and put away her summoned sword. “Sorry, no crest. I’m just using magic to increase my strength. My brother can do the same thing. In fact, he’s a lot stronger than I am” she replied. Arval had relayed to her that Shez was on his way, but staying put wasn’t an option, as bandits were crawling all over the place.

Edelgard was a bit suspicious of Sarah and her brother. The way she teleported was exactly like how her “allies” did. However, her questions would have to wait, as they had bandits to deal with. After a small introduction from Sarah, the 4 made their way into the heat of battle.

Meanwhile, Shez was leaping from treetop to treetop, searching for his sister. As Shez stood atop a tree, he sighed and placed his hand on his head. “I shouldn’t have left her alone…” he muttered. Shaking his head and refocusing on the task at hand, he continued his treetop leaping. A while later, he heard the sounds of battle. ‘Sis?’ he thought.

Looking down from his perch, he sees armored knights protecting people in uniforms from bandits. Shez narrowed his eyes slightly. “The Knights of Seiros? Why the hell are they here?” he muttered.

Down on the battlefield, one of the knights parried a sword swipe with his axe, striking down the bandit with ease. The knight laughed triumphantly. “HAHA! You brigands are no match for the power of the Goddess’ chosen warriors!” he bragged.

Shez rolled his eyes at this. “Is that what they call themselves? Pathetic.” Shez switched his attention to some of the uniformed individuals, who looked to be younger than the knights. To his surprise, most of them were fighting pretty well. One of them, a black-haired individual with sinister yellow eyes, was dispatching the bandits fairly well using dark magic. “Interesting. These guys are like the hunters in training back home.”

While watching the knights battle, Shez heard one of the knights say something interesting. “Alois, one of the bandits mentioned something about the house leaders. They are in the north part of the forest!”

Alois nodded. “Good! Once we finish with the bandits here, we will make our way to help them!”

Shez thought about this for a moment. ‘Those house leaders seem pretty important, and knowing my sister’s sense of direction, she’s probably run into them…’ Shez, seeing an opportunity here, leapt from his perch and drew his sword. The blade was now an icy blue color, an indication that Shez was about to use ice magic.

Everyone was shocked when Shez appeared out of nowhere, stabbing his blade into the ground. 3 ice spikes impaled three bandits when Shez stabbed his blade into the ground. The bandits struggled to get free from the spikes, but it was no use as their blood stained the ice. Shez pulled out his sword, the blade now silver.

Shez turned to look at the stunned crowd. Shez shrugged with a smile. “Mind if I join the party?” he asked.

2 bandits didn’t accept his invitation and charged straight towards Shez like a pair of fools. Shez smirked and used dark magic to warp behind them, slicing them in their backs with one wide horizontal slash. The bandits cried out in pain as their backs were sliced open, causing blood to fly out. Shez thrust his palm forward, creating a powerful gust of wind that sent the bandits flying forward. Shez summoned two ice spikes in front of the bandits’ flight paths. Their screams came to an end when the spikes pierced their heads, splitting them open for everyone to see.

A green haired guy gagged at the sight, but Shez ignored him. “Now, I’ve got a sister to find, so I’m gonna make this quick.” Shez’s blade turned into a dark blue color. Shez raised his left hand and released a ball of electricity into the air. The ball remained stationary for a moment before tendrils of lightning were released from the ball. The tendrils wrapped around the bandits, paralyzing them. Shez used magic to increase his speed, and in just one second, sliced all of the bandits to bloody pieces. Arms, legs, and heads lay all across the battlefield.

Shez sheathed his sword, turning to Alois. “Look, my sister is likely with those house leaders you were talking about. What do you say we team up and look for them?”

Alois blinked a few times, still stunned by what he just saw Shez do. He wasn’t the only one doing this, as many people in the area were amazed by the way Shez killed those bandits. The man a sinister looking face eyed Shez suspiciously.

Before Alois could respond to Shez’s request, a knight pointed at something in the forest. Everyone turned to see what looked like a purple tornado sending bandits into the air. To the shock of everyone aside from Shez, a violet-haired woman leapt high into the air to slice apart the bandits caught in the tornado.

Shez smirked. “Ah, there’s my twin sister” he said leaping into the trees, moving towards his sister. Alois and the knights tried their best to follow him.

Back with Sarah, she was using wind magic to glide to the ground safely, while the dead bandits and their body parts around her fell to the ground unceremoniously. Sarah flicked some blood off of her sword, taking a moment to catch her breath. She wasn’t too exhausted, but she was overdoing it a bit with her magic.

The house leaders were amazed by Sarah’s magic, though Edelgard was looking a little worried. Sarah’s magic already reminded her of “them,” but her power was unlike anything Edelgard had ever seen, and her brother was supposedly much stronger than her. There was something that didn’t make sense to Edelgard though. ‘If Sarah and her brother ARE affiliated with them, why hasn’t Thales mentioned them?’ she thought. Powerhouses like Sarah were rare, and definitely someone that would peak the interests of those who slither in the dark.

Regardless, Edelgard and the rest carried on, with Sarah doing most of the work. And by most, I mean ALL of the work. Instead of joining Sarah, the house leaders just watched as Sarah cut through bandit after bandit. At one point, she even turned into a spinning wheel of death, extending the length of her blades using magic beams. As Sarah rolled like a ball, any bandits in her path were sliced in half, leaving a bloody trail of bodies.

Claude cleared his throat. “Are we sure we need to be doing anything to help her? I’m pretty sure she’s got this” he stated.

Dimitri looked around the area and noticed 4 strongholds. “It looks like our mercenary ally hasn’t noticed the strongholds yet. Perhaps we should-“

Dimitri was cut off when Sarah let out loud “WOOHOO!!!” Dimitri and the others watched as Sarah leaped high into the air and above the 4 strong holds. Sarah grinned and transformed before their very eyes. The transformation alone was surprising, but not as surprising as what Sarah did next.

Sarah created a ball of fire in her hands. Raising it into the air, the fireball grew bigger and bigger. Sarah threw the giant fireball down onto one of the fortresses. The explosion created a plume of fire, burning any bandits in there to a crisp. Sarah turned to another fortess and lifted her hands up, causing a giant ice pillar to emerge from the fortress. The bandits were all caught in the ice with horrified expressions on their faces. Sarah snapped her fingers and made the ice shatter, finishing the bandits for good.

Sarah’s arms crackled with lightning as she thrust them forward, causing multiple lightning bolts to rain down on another fortress. The bandits were too slow to avoid the lightning, so all of them either had their eyes pop out of their sockets or they were just shocked to death. Sarah grinned and started a divebomb attack. The bandits of the last fortress saw her coming down with a wicked grin on her face. A purple aura surrounded Sarah, making her look like a purple comet. When said comet landed, the entire fortress was covered in a violet dome.

“Never mind” Dimitri said, absolutely stunned by what he just witnessed. Claude and Edelgard had their mouths wide open.

Meanwhile, back at Remire village, Byleth and Jeralt had seen Sarah leap into the air and attack multiple spots. Jeralt, who was currently intoxicated, laughed. “Nice *hic* light show, huh kid?”

Byleth rolled her eyes. Her father was really annoying when he was drunk. As tempting as it was to go see what was happening, Byleth was certain that Sarah wasn’t in any danger. Her priority right now was making sure Jeralt didn’t do anything stupid.

Back with Sarah, she was breathing a little bit as she landed on the ground. “Nice…I forgot how much fun it was to really let loose!” she said with a bit of exhaustion.

Arval, being the wiser of the two, scolded her partner in destiny. “Yeah but letting loose can also leave you exhausted. Stop using my power so recklessly!” she scolded, crossing her arms even though Sarah couldn’t see it.

Sarah was about to respond when the house leaders arrived in front of her. Sarah waved and gave them all a cocky smile. “What took you three so long?”

The three house leaders were in awe of Sarah’s transformation. They could practically feel the power radiating off of her.  “Incredible! Where did you obtain such a power?!” Dimitri asked in amazement. Edelgard also wished to know the answer, but for different reasons.

Before Sarah could tell them the answer, someone landed behind her and gave the answer in Sarah’s place. “I nearly killed her during a sparring match, that’s when her new power awakened.”

The three house leaders were shocked and wary of the person standing behind Sarah. They weren’t sure if he was an enemy at first. That’s when Sarah sighed and turned around. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been searching for Remire for HOURS!” she complained, returning to her normal state after saying this.

Shez crossed his arms and smirked. “Uh, YOU were the one who got lost sis, not me. Still, at least you made some new friends because of that” he jabbed, eying the three house leaders.

The house leaders soon realized that this was Sarah’s brother, the person who was supposed to be even stronger than her. They could definitely see a resemblance, especially with the purple hair and eyes.

Sarah threw a punch, aiming for her brother’s face. Her fist was easily caught with one hand. “Uh, YOU were the one who left me behind! The way I see it, you owe me Shez!” Sarah countered, pulling her hand away.

Shez sighed and turned around with a smile. “Alright, I’ll make it up to you by taking care of the rest of these bandits” he said. The entire bandit force was heading towards them, with their leader, well, leading the charge. Shez cracked his neck and took a stance. He let out a yell of power as a black aura surrounded him. The house leaders stumbled as the ground began to shake beneath them.

The bandits stumbled too, causing them to fall over each other. Birds flew out of trees and animals started to make panicked noises. Sarah and Shez were the only ones unaffected by the shaking. The aura around Shez grew more and more intense, swirling around his body. The aura concentrated into one black ball that coated Shez’s right hand. Shez grinned and slammed his fist into the ground. “QUAKE!” he shouted.

All of the bandits were devastated by a wave of darkness that covered the entire battlefield. The wave was so strong that even the Knights of Seiros, who had just arrived, had to dig their weapons into the ground to avoid being blown away. The bandits didn’t stand a chance and were completely destroyed by the attack. The wave of darkness surrounded them, and they were gone.

Shez grinned and turned to face the others. While Sarah just crossed her arms, everyone else looked at Shez as if he was some sort of demon. Edelgard was extremely concerned. ‘That spell…Thales mentioned it once. Who are these two?’ she thought, staring at the pair of Shez and Sarah.

Chapter Text

Meanwhile, on Remnant…

Salem, former queen of the grimm, the driving force behind many of Remnant’s conflicts, easily the most annoyed woman on the planet right now. ‘Damnit all, I just HAD to ask gods to return me to my normal form’ she thought, blasting away three beowolves at once using fire magic from her hands.

Currently, Salem was in the Land of Darkness, or Evernight, searching for someone. Despite Salem no longer being a threat, the grimm definitely were, they just lacked a leader. Salem’s job, as part of what most would call a “redemption arc,” was to clear out as many grimm as possible from Evernight. Salem knew this land better than anyone, so she was currently leading the charge. Most people would rather see Salem killed or imprisoned for her past actions, but everyone on Remnant knew they owed a certain Branwen a favor after literally saving the world and making sure the brother gods didn’t wipe out humanity, so they reluctantly allowed Salem more freedom than most think she should have.

Salem’s look grew solemn as she thought about the man who was responsible for her new way of life and her lack of immortality. Roc Branwen, a bandit, killer, and other things, was able to do something not even Ozma or the brother gods could do. Salem, despite learning somewhat about the importance of death, still hated it. That was mostly thanks to Roc, who told her that just because death is a part of life, doesn’t mean we can’t despise it. That, alongside other lessons and Roc being fun the hang around, is what allowed Salem to change her ways.

‘He should have hated me, he had every right to, yet he chose to reach out. Roc Branwen, I have lived a long life, but you were by far the most interesting part of that life’ Salem thought, thankful that she got to meet Roc.

As Salem moved further into Evernight, passing by a few caves that were more than likely filled with grimm, so she avoided them. Salem sighed as she saw no sign of her target. Pulling out her scroll, she started to communicate with it. Luckily, scrolls no longer needed a tower in order to communicate with others, thanks to someone revisiting an old Atlas project. “Sustrai, any sign of him?” Salem inquired.

Emerald Sustrai, former thief, now huntress in training, gave a response Salem didn’t want to hear. “Sorry Mistress Salem, but we haven’t found him at all.”

Salem sighed. “Emerald, I told you to stop calling me “Mistress.” I know it’s what you are used to, but I don’t want to be that woman anymore.” There was another reason she didn’t want to be called that, but she would never let anyone know that reason.

Unfortunately, another person somehow figured out that reason. “Is it because it makes you feel old? Well, I guess you are pretty old considering how long you’ve been around.” Salem’s eye twitched as an annoying voice that she was never fond of to begin with called her old.

The annoying voice belonged to Mercury Black, a former assassin who wasn’t here for redemption at all, he just didn’t want to be imprisoned. Still, Mercury did owe Roc for saving his life once, so this was his way of repaying the favor.

Salem enjoyed Mercury’s scream of pain as Emerald likely socked him in the jaw. “Do you have ANY manners?!” Emerald questioned.

As usual, the two started arguing, which Salem had no patience for. So, she hung up and continued her search. Her search eventually led her to an empty black field. Salem wasn’t surprised when multiple nevermores tried divebombing her. Of course, they were all easily killed when Salem crushed them using her telekinesis. Of course, a few ursa tried to slash Salem with their claws, but Salem just burned them to dust by creating a pillar of fire around herself, making the pillar wider and wider to wipe them all out.

Salem sighed as a nuckelavee appeared. ‘This is getting annoying’ Salem thought as she prepared to take care of the grimm. Before she could, the nuckelavee screamed in pain as something pierced its eye.

Salem looked behind her and gave a small smile. “I was wondering where you were.”

The person who shot the grimm looked very similar to the late former general of Atlas, James Ironwood, although this person had both of his arms. Also, his hair was blonde, and he had green eyes. This was Cedar Ironwood, the son of Glynda Goodwitch and the late James Ironwood, although most never knew that Glynda was his mother.

Cedar rolled his eyes. “I was busy, wipe that smile off your face” he said, putting his revolver back in its holster. Cedar pulled out his main weapon, a sword. He lost his old weapon a while back, so a sword was all he currently had at the moment, no mechashift weaponry.

Cedar’s eyes turned to the nuckelavee as he activated his semblance. Depending on his emotion, his power varied. Cedar had great emotional control, so he was able to call upon the emotion of grief in order to control the earth. With ease, Cedar opened a hole in the earth and trapped the nuckelavee in it. The grimm tried to escape, but Cedar sliced the head off with his sword.

Cedar sighed and turned to Salem. “Well, if you were searching for me, you sure as hell found me” he said. You’d think that he would hate Salem or would be trying to kill her, but they had plenty of time to hash out their issues, especially with Roc’s help 17 years ago.

Salem crossed her arms. “You haven’t been seen in weeks. Harriet and your kids were worried sick. Of course I had to come find you. I knew you would be here” she said, taking a few steps towards Cedar.

Cedar looked up at the shattered moon of Remnant. “Of course, I would be here” he said before looking at a destroyed forest. “This is where we had our rematch 17 years ago.”

Salem nodded solemnly. She understood where Cedar was going. “You wanted to have one more bout with him, didn’t you?” she asked.

Cedar remained silent, thinking back to how he and Roc even met.

17 years ago…

Cedar was sitting in a small corner of Shade Academy’s dining hall. While most of the students and his mother were sitting together, Cedar was eating his food alone in a small corner. Nobody paid much attention to him aside from Harriet, who gave him the occasional glance every now and then.

Cedar was about to finish his lunch when someone else sat across from him. Cedar looked up to see Roc Branwen. Cedar narrowed his eyes. “What do you want, bandit?” he asked, getting a little hostile.

Roc chuckled. “Chill there, I’m just here because my family was getting pretty annoying. Well, aside from my mom.” Roc and Cedar took a look at the table where teams RWBY, ORNJ, the remaining Ace Ops, Qrow, Glynda, and Raven were sitting. A conversation between Qrow and Raven seemed to be getting pretty heated. It was so heated that Raven left through a portal she made.

“Sheesh, I wonder what my uncle said to piss her off so easily” Roc thought aloud as he threw his plate in the trash bin, not hitting anything along the way.

‘Nice aim’ Cedar complimented. Another thing was on his mind, though. “From what Harriet told me, you seem to despise most of your family.”

Roc snorted. “Yeah, I do, but they’re still my family. And yes, I do believe that family is more than blood, but I also know the importance of my bloodline. I wouldn’t have the knowledge and strength I do now without my parent’s blood flowing through my veins.”

Cedar gave a small smirk. It seems Roc was one of the few that understood the importance of one’s blood. Cedar himself wasn’t fond of his mother Glynda, especially after what she said about his late father. Despite this, he wouldn’t be the man he is today if Glynda and his father hadn’t split up. All of his training, the growth Cedar went through was all possible because of her.

“Your Ironwood’s kid, aren’t you?” Roc asked suddenly. When Cedar’s eyes narrowed, Roc raised his hands. “Calm down, I’m not about to spout off any nonsense about how he was a coward or how what he did was wrong or whatever. Trust me, hearing that bullshit really gets on my nerves sometimes.”

Cedar was confused. “What?”

Roc sighed and crossed his arms. “Look, I do my best not to concern myself with morality. Considering there is no written understanding of how the afterlife works, nor is there exactly a standard set by history, it’s up to us humans to use our own morals to get through life. Even if there was, I wouldn’t follow that standard if it didn’t suit me. Would I be condemned? Maybe, but at least I would go out as myself.”

Cedar chuckled. This bandit was certainly interesting, so he let Roc continue.

“In regard to your old man, I find it pretty funny that people condemn him for what he did and how the fall of Atlas was entirely on him, when in reality, it’s a bunch of other factors at play. Ironwood, like the rest of us, only did what he thought was necessary, as did my sisters and their friends. Sure, he was acting out of fear, but we act out of fear all the time too, so it’s pretty hypocritical to call it out. Then again, we’re all hypocrites in some way.”

Roc took a sip from his soda can before speaking again. “We can argue about the morality or effectiveness of what Ironwood did forever, but we can’t seriously pretend that our ways are perfect either. I mean, my sisters dropped an entire kingdom in the middle of the desert. Also, while Ironwood did make his own decisions, it still isn’t that simple. A lack of trust, caused by my sisters, which was somewhat caused by Ironwood, which was caused by Salem’s attack on Beacon, which was caused by Ozpin’s lack of action…I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.”

Cedar nodded as he crushed his own soda can and threw it in a nearby recycle bin. “I do. It’s not as simple as making our own choices. There’s always some outside influence. It’s all layered. Rarely is someone entirely to blame for their own actions. Past events often influence the decisions we make in the present” Cedar said wisely.

“Exactly!” Roc exclaimed after downing the rest of his soda. “Seriously, my sisters and that Robyn woman sure as hell didn’t make things better, and neither did Salem. My sister’s lies, Robyn’s attacks, and Salem being, well, Salem all combined with Ironwood’s pretty understandable fear. Ultimately, pinning the blame on someone is pointless, because it doesn’t change what happened, especially when the answer of who to blame isn’t so clear cut.”

Cedar nodded in agreement, taking a small liking to Roc. “Indeed. Many now despise my father and me by extension.” The glares he received were harsh ones.

Roc rolled his eyes. “Idiots. Just don’t focus on what they think, especially if their criticism isn’t constructive. Just focus on what you think. You don’t HAVE to agree with them about your father, even if there was some objective moral or ethical standard. Your feelings and opinions are your own, and no one can take them from you. You can think and feel however you want, regardless of whatever other people might say about you. As an example, say my mom betrayed me, which would never happen. Despite all of this, I’m not going to just throw away everything we’ve been through together because of just one thing. I know that there is a lot more to my mom than most believe, because I am not blinded by society’s black-and-white view of reality.”

Roc’s words somewhat inspired Cedar, making the huntsman smile. “I gotta say, for a bandit, you’re quite wise” he complimented.

Roc just shrugged. “Well, my mom taught me to question everything, so that may have something to do with it” he said before a food fight had started in the cafeteria. Roc and Cedar ducked under a couple of food weapons. “Sheesh, what a mess…” Roc muttered before turning to Cedar. “You wanna get out of here?”

Cedar nodded and the two quietly made their escape from the chaos in the cafeteria.

That was how their bond started, with Roc helping Cedar realize that he didn’t have to think or agree with everyone else. Even after what his father did, that didn’t mean he had to suddenly stop loving his father. Despite Ironwood’s strictness, he always cared for his son, even watching movies with Cedar. ‘Roc, wherever you are, thank you’ Cedar thought.

Back in Foldan…

Sarah scoffed as her brother eliminated the bandits with just one spell. “Show-off…” she grumbled. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was a little jealous of the fact that her brother was better than her at magic.

As for the house leaders, they had never seen or heard of a spell like that, aside from Edelgard who was very suspicious of the twin mercenaries. ‘Both of them…they possess similar magic to “them.” Why is that?’ she wondered.

Shez cracked his neck after casting his spell. “I’m glad we asked mom to teach us magic” he said, walking over towards his sister.

Sarah raised an eyebrow at Shez’s statement. “Asked? We didn’t ask her; YOU just threatened to leave and find someone who would teach you the magic she knew” Sarah reminded her brother.

Shez chuckled as he remembered the look on his mother’s face when he did that. “What can I say? I’m good at persuading people” he bragged. Sarah just narrowed her eyes at this.

“Hold on,” Claude started. “I’m a bit out of the loop here. Your mom taught you guys the magic you know?” he asked.

Before Shez or Sarah could answer, Alois and the rest of the knights appeared from a side path in the forest. “Ah, there you all are!” Alois exclaimed, relieved that the students were okay. Turning to Shez, he gave the merc a thankful smile. “Young man, I must thank you for helping us out earlier with the bandits.”

Shez shrugged. “Eh, no big deal. Besides, the bandits weren’t too tough anyway” he said. Turning to the dead bandits, he gave a small smirk. “In the end, their weakness was their downfall. They lacked the strength to overcome me, or the strength to run away and live another day instead of fighting a battle they couldn’t win.”

“Uh…that’s cowardice” Sarah said, unsure if her brother knew the definition of cowardice.

Shez rolled his eyes and patted his sister on her head, much to her annoyance and embarrassment. “Ah…my poor sister. You don’t understand a thing, do you?” When Sarah used shadowflash to get away, Shez chuckled. “Listen sis, strength has no definitive meaning. It either depends on the situation or someone else’s judgement. To me, strength isn’t just about wielding power over your opponent, oh no. See, strength also comes from your will to act. Combine that with wisdom, and you’ll know what to do in at any moment.”

This confused everyone. They all tried to decipher the meaning behind Shez’s words. Edelgard was the first to realize where she was going. “I see. The bandits were fools, believing that overwhelming numbers could win the day. They lacked fear, which was their ultimate downfall. If they had the strength to properly harness their fear, they would have realized how pointless battling was and would have retreated. It would not be cowardice, it would be wisdom” she said, making Shez smile.

Shez clapped for the princess of Adrestia. “Nice one. You see, fear, despite how negatively we view it, helps keep us alive. Someone with a complete lack of fear tends to be pretty reckless, making rash mistakes. Someone with too much fear is the same” he said. He had a point. Knowing when to harness your fear was very important.

“I get the feeling you were talking about me when you said people without fear are reckless” Sarah deadpanned.

Shez gave his sister a look. “Sarah, how many times have I had to save you because you jumped off a cliff in order to “get stronger?” Go ahead, tell me the number” he challenged. Sarah didn’t answer the question, instead choosing to look away with a blush on her cheeks. “Uh huh, that’s what I thought.”

Claude couldn’t help but snicker when Shez said that. “You jumped off a cliff to get stronger? Wow.”

Dimitri, not really as amused as Claude, shook his head in disappointment. “Claude, give it a rest. It is rude to laugh at one of our saviors” he scolded, even if he did find the idea of Sarah jumping off a cliff to get stronger absolutely ridiculous. Even Felix wouldn’t do something like that.

Edelgard was more shocked than humored by Shez’s statement. ‘There is no possible way Those who Slither in the Dark would ally themselves with someone as reckless as Sarah’ she thought. Her reluctant allies were indeed willing to manipulate just about anyone they deemed useful, herself included. Sarah, despite being a powerhouse, was likely not someone they would ally themselves with, despite the fact that she shared similar magic with them, which was still a bit worrying.

‘Still, her brother is another story. He’s confident, but also intelligent. He also seems far stronger than her’ Edelgard thought to herself. Shez was definitely someone to keep an eye on. He seemed like a far more valuable target or ally for twsitd, but that was also somewhat unlikely. If he was working with them, she would likely know, as a powerhouse like himself would definitely not go unnoticed. If he wasn’t working with them, then they would surely try to manipulate him. ‘He doesn’t seem like the type of person who would be easily manipulated, so that is also unlikely…’

Edelgard didn’t really have a lot of information about the two mercenaries. They were complete unknowns to her. Still, they were mercenaries, which meant they battled for gold. ‘Perhaps if I were to hire them, I could learn more about them…’ she thought. It was risky, and Shez might be able to spot anything funny, as he seemed to be incredibly observant. Still, it was a risk she had to take.

After Alois managed to convince them to head back to their camp, the twins and house leaders split off from each other. Alois stopped and turned to face the twins. “Well, here we are. It’s not much, but we made do with what we had” he revealed.

Shez and Sarah took a look around the camp. There were a few small buildings and sheds put together, as well as tables and tents. Aside from other knights like Alois, there were also a lot of students in uniforms. Most of them were the same, but a few stood out. Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and a few others they didn’t know wore slightly different uniforms than most.

Shez, thanks to his knowledge of Fodlan, chuckled as he realized what was going on here. “This is surprising. We just saved a bunch of students from bandits” he said with a smirk.

Sarah raised an eyebrow at her brother’s comment. “Students?” she asked, confused as to what he meant.

Alois smiled at Shez’s knowledge. “Ah, so you are aware of the Officer’s Academy?”

Shez nodded. From what he knew, the Officer’s Academy, located at Garreg Mach, was owned by the Church of Seiros. It wasn’t too different from the huntsman academies back in Remnant. “Yeah, I do. I do my best to learn everything I can if it interests me, whether it be for historical purposes, or a way to get stronger” he replied.

Sarah rolled her eyes. “You’re always looking to get stronger. That’s one of the things we have in common” she said. They had other things, but this was one that stuck out.

Shez snorted and crossed his arms. “Yeah, but I seek strength for survival. YOU just wanna be more well-known than you already are.”

“Mercs have to make a name for themselves” was Sarah’s quick response. “By the way, didn’t we get an offer to attend the Officer’s Academy?” A few years ago, they did get an offer from some high-ranking individual from Fhirdiad.

Shez sighed at his sister’s incorrect memory. “No, wrong academy. We were offered to attend Fhirdiad’s School of Sorcery, but we didn’t go after I managed to convince you” he corrected.

This was news to Alois. These two were clearly commoners, yet they had the chance to attend one of the most prestigious academies in Fodlan. To turn such an opportunity down was foolish in his eyes, but he wasn’t going to question their reasons for doing so. “Well, we have two students who have graduated from that school over there” he said, pointing towards two females. Both of them seemed to be chatting about something. In fact, they seemed like best friends. “You should go introduce yourselves. In fact, why not greet the other students while you’re at it?” Alois suggested.

Shez and Sarah both nodded, not seeing any harm in getting to know a few people here. Bidding Alois a temporary farewell, they made their way over to the two girls, who were now talking to multiple people, Dimitri included. The prince was the first to notice their arrival and smiled. Turning to the rest, he introduced the two. “These are the two mercenaries that saved my life” he said with thankfulness.

Shez put his hands behind his head in a relaxed manner. “Sis, I’m starting to think that your sense of direction may be a good thing. Running into the three future rulers of Fodlan is pretty impressive” he said before giving her a cheeky grin. “Maybe I should let you get lost more often…”

Sarah rolled her violet eyes at her brother’s comment. “Uh, YOU were the one that left me in the woods and wanted me to find Remire village on my own” she reminded her brother with a bit of anger. She understood that her brother was trying to help her but leaving her out on her own was a bit mean.

Shez, much to Sarah’s annoyance, didn’t even apologize. He just turned to the other students. “So, I’m Shez, and this is my twin sister, Sarah. I know we’ve just met the future king of Faerghus, but we don’t know anything about the rest of you” he said, willingly ignoring his sister’s glare.

A tall male, who Shez assumed to be from Duscur, bowed and introduced himself. “I am Dedue, Prince Dimitri’s vassal. I must thank you both for rescuing him as well as the rest of us from the bandits” he said with great thanks. Shez could tell he was thankful despite Dedue’s stoic demeanor. Seeing behind masks was a talent of his. In fact, he could see behind Dimitri’s mask as well.  Shez knew there was darkness in Dimitri. Of course, Sarah wasn’t as keen as Shez, so she didn’t pick up on this.

A blonde female with green eyes also bowed in thanks. “You have my thanks as well. Dimitri has been a close friend for years. I do not wish to see him harmed” she said. Based on her stature, she was clearly a noble.

The male next to her, a taller guy with spikey orange hair, smiled and acted more casually. “Thanks for helping us out. I’m Sylvain. It’s nice to meet the two of you” he said. While Shez appreciated his casualness, he could tell Sylvain was a flirt, even if there was likely some reason behind it. In his past life as Roc, many Branwen tribe members tried flirting with his mom, only to either end up punished or killed. His father, Taiyang, also tried to teach him how to talk to women, either ignoring or forgetting the fact that Roc already had experience with girls because he didn’t want to talk about Roc’s bandit life. Prior to her death, he and Vernal actually were a thing, but it didn’t work out.

You’d think that Roc would be angry with his mother after Vernal’s death, especially since Vernal was the decoy maiden and Raven was the real Spring Maiden, but the decoy thing was actually Vernal’s idea. Roc and Raven both tried to convince her not to do it, but Vernal was stubborn. (A/N: This obviously isn’t what happened in canon, but just roll with it for the sake of the story. Also, I just wanted to flesh out Vernal a bit. I wish we knew more about her and why she ended up with the Branwen tribe.)

This eventually led to an argument between Roc and Vernal, which then led to them breaking up. Yeah, not one of Roc’s best moments.

Shez was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Sarah talking to the two girls Alois said graduated from Fhirdiad’s magic academy. He briefly heard that their names were Mercedes and Annette.

Annette’s eyes were wide as Sarah explained how they would have also attended the academy. Annette turned to Shez with confusion in her eyes. “Why did you turn it down? It could have been great for both of you” she said.

Shez snorts. “No, it wouldn’t have been great for my sister and I” he says. Seeing all of the confusion, he decides to explain. “Firstly, my sister and I already knew a lot more magic than what they would probably teach there. Our mom is probably a better mage than most, considering that Quake spell I used isn’t something most mages know. Feel free to correct me on that” he said, waiting for someone to jump in.

No one corrected him, as none of them had ever heard of the quake spell before. “Alright, onto my next point. Thanks to us knowing more magic than most, there wouldn’t really be much the two of us could learn. We would more than likely excel above the rest of the students and even the teachers. Considering most students and teachers would be noble, two commoners doing better than everyone else wouldn’t exactly look good. So, we turned the offer down” Shez said, finishing his explanation.

His explanation did make sense. Two commoners who exceled in magic to a great degree would be seen as targets for discrimination by many nobles in that school. Of course, nobody wanted to drag the mood down by talking about discrimination, so a boy with greyish hair decided to change the topic. “My name is Ashe. That quake spell you used; do you know more spells like that?”

Sarah grinned. “We know a lot of spells, including some we made ourselves. I prefer using a sword though” she said, summoning her sword to show it off. Everyone is either amazed or intrigued by the sword she held.

Shez could feel that someone was watching them. ‘Probably the sinister guy’ he thought.  He wasn’t too bothered by it, but he knew his sister might be.

Speaking of his sister, her sword was now the topic of conversation. Sylvain, a guy who liked interesting weapons, eyed the sword like he was looking at a diamond. “Incredible! I’ve never seen a weapon like that before. Is this also a spell that you learned from your mother?” he asked.

Sarah shook her head. “No, this is something unique to me. Even my brother can’t use this sword. Plus, it just appears whenever I want it to. When I let go of it,” Sarah releases her grip on the sword, causing it to vanish, “it does that” she finishes.

“Interesting…is there anything else you can do with your unique magic?” Mercedes asked.

Sarah smiled and nodded. She then turned into a small purple light. The ball of light circled around everyone a few times before Sarah returned to normal. She then activated her transformation, which was probably the thing that got the most attention.

Shez could feel the entire camp staring at his sister. Looking around, the looks ranged from shock, to fear, to amazement, to suspicion. That last one was especially apparent when he saw Edelgard and the sinister looking individual. ‘Those two are wary of us…good, it’s not a good idea to trust someone right off the bat. You never know what could happen’ he thought.

As Sarah returned to her normal state, the Blue Lions couldn’t help but stare at her in awe. “Incredible! I’ve never heard of magic that allowed someone to transform in such a way!” Annette exclaimed, absolutely awestruck.

Shez cleared his throat. “Yeah, but I’m still stronger and better than my sister when it comes to magic. Plus, she’s not the only one with a unique sword” he stated, unsheathing his weapon from its scabbard. “I made it myself with some help from a local blacksmith. Mom provided the steel, but I don’t know exactly what it is. Whatever it is, it lets me channel my magic and amplifies it to a whole new level. Also, the blade changes color depending on what magic I’m using” he said. To show this off, he created a fireball in his hand. The blade’s color changed to orange.

“Wait, this blade amplifies your magic? How does that work?” Dimitri asked. If this blade could amplify magic, how much would that magic be amplified?

Shez sheathed his sword and began to explain. “Well, it depends on how good you are with magic. For someone like me, who is fantastic with magic, the sword amplifies it to a level that is almost impossible to comprehend. As for those who aren’t good with magic, you’ll only gain a small boost. For healers, this would be great, as the number of people you could heal at once would greatly increase” he said before sighing. “Unfortunately, I can’t use white magic. I have to rely on dark variants instead.”

This was surprising. Dimitri himself wasn’t good with magic, but at least he was able to use white magic to some degree. To not be able to use white magic at all was a rarity, but Shez seemed to have found a way around that. “Would you give us an example of this?” he asked, wanting to know what Shez meant by “dark variants.”

Shez nodded and used a bit of fire to burn his arm somewhat, which caused him to wince. The others were also a bit concerned, but if this was what allowed him to show what he meant, then it was fine. “Normally, healing magic soothes and heals the wound, reducing the pain. What I do is different. It doesn’t heal, it just reverses the damage. It’s like the wound is being sent back in time” Shez explained.

Sarah, the person who probably saw this the most, nodded her head. “Yeah. One time, Shez lost an arm during a battle. He also lost a lot of blood. He was able to reverse the damage and regain his lost blood, but it wasn’t exactly soothing” she said, wincing at the memory.

“I see” Dedue said as Shez started to reverse the burn. “So, while you were able to regain your arm, you still felt the pain?”

Shez nodded as he finished undoing the burn. “Yeah, and while I was reversing the damage, the pain itself was still there, just reversed. It felt like I was losing my arm again, just in reverse. Also, the more damage there is, the more magic I have to use, which will likely wear me out before I can fully heal the damage. Some wounds I just can’t reverse, and I definitely can’t bring back the dead. Sicknesses are also out, because I’m not curing them, just putting the sickness back in its early stages” he explained. Shez crossed his arms and frowned. ‘If I could completely cure sicknesses, are mom would still be alive.’

He tried reversing Morticia’s sickness, but it just wouldn’t work. It came back every time. Eventually, Morticia said it was time to give up. She thanked Shez for trying, but this was just meant to be.

Sarah and the Blue Lions noticed Shez’s frown. It was obvious he was thinking about someone he likely failed to save from a sickness. Sarah looked down as she realized who he was thinking about, but quickly shook off her sadness. Now was not the time to be sentimental. “My brother’s also good at making weapons and other items using magic. He’s probably the most creative magic user out there” she said, trying to move away from any dark topics.

THAT was something interesting. Every Blue Lion turned to Shez. The male with black hair and orange eyes, the only person who hadn’t introduced himself yet, began to speak with intrigue in his voice. “You can create weapons just by using magic?”

Shez grinned and donned a full set of ice armor, creating an axe and shield to go with the armor. “Yup.”

Some of the lions had to admit, they were jealous of Shez’s capabilities. The only one not jealous, Mercedes, looked a bit concerned. “Is the ice not heavy to you?” she asked. Ice can be very heavy, especially when using magic.

Surprisingly, Shez shook his head. “Not at all. I can control how thick the ice is. Plus, even when I make it thick, I can use magic to increase my strength, so it doesn’t feel like I’m wearing heavy armor, or use speed to make myself faster. Sarah can do that too. How do you think she was able to leap into the sky?”

His explanation did make sense. The unknown guy just chuckled. “I wonder if you’re stronger than the boar with your magic.”

Dedue glared at the unknown male. “Felix…” he growled.

Dimitri placed a hand on his vassal’s shoulder, trying to calm him. “It is alright Dedue, I am used to it” he said, which seemed to placate the taller male for the time being. Dedue dropped his glare and returned to his stoic demeanor.

‘That boar comment would have been treated very differently in Remnant’ Shez thought, thinking back to humanity’s issues with Faunus, the White Fang, and other Faunus rights groups. Shez didn’t really care about those issues too much during his past life. In his mind, it was stupid, as humans could still hate other humans, and Faunus could hate other Faunus.

“The most I’ve been able to throw without destroying my body thanks to overuse of my strength-enhancing magic is a demonic beast. I threw one across a river, but it left me pretty tired out after that” he revealed, which made the lions’ eyes go wide.

“YOU THREW A DEMONIC BEAST?!” Sylvain’s yell was so loud that everyone heard it, including the knights and other students, who were now staring at Shez with incredibly wide eyes.

Ingrid facepalmed. “Great going…” she sighed.

Shez knew that was their cue to leave. “Well, it was nice meeting all of you. We should go talk with the others around the camp” he said. The others bid them farewell as Shez and Sarah made their way over to Claude and his fellow students, the Golden Deer.

Chapter Text

All rights go to their respective owners.

Italics are for flashbacks/dreams/memories/transitions. Bold text indicates a transformed character, a godlike entity, or someone speaking in someone else’s head.

Oh, and for those wondering where Roc’s name comes from, it’s actually a bird from Middle Eastern mythology. You can find it in a few Arabian fairy tales. Plus, Qrow and Raven were named after birds.

Meanwhile, on Remnant…

The bar was as busy as usual for Junior Xiong. After the second great war, many had come to his bar to celebrate the end of it. Business had gone down a bit, but it was still better than normal. Junior wiped one of the glasses when he heard the bell ring, signaling a new entrant. Junior turned around to see someone he’d never expected to show up again, especially not after all this time. “Blondie?”

Sure enough, the professional huntress and one of the heroes of the second great war had entered his bar, but she looked terrible. Yang Xiao Long’s normal vibrant demeanor was replaced by something melancholic. Yang just sat down and ordered a strawberry sunrise. Junior raised an eyebrow at this. “You’re not gonna cause trouble?” he asked, knowing what happened the first time she came here.

Yang just shook her head. “No, and I’m not even in the mood” she muttered. Junior just shrugged and went off to work on her drink, leaving the huntress to her thoughts. Yang sighed and pulled out her scroll, searching through a bunch of photos until she finally found the one she was looking for. ‘This was probably the one time we truly felt like a family…’ she thought, taking in the picture of herself, Ruby, Raven, Qrow, her father Taiyang, and Roc. They were all smiling in the photo, even Roc.

Yang sighed and put her scroll away. She and Roc had never really gotten along, especially after Raven died, but hearing about his death…it broke her heart. ‘Damnit…why couldn’t we just get along?’ she thought, thinking back to when she first met her half-brother.

When the team finally arrived in Vacuo, the first thing they did was head to Shade Academy. She was expected to be greeted by a few friends, and she was right. Sun Wukong and his partner Neptune were the first to greet them. “Guys, you’re alive!” the monkey Faunus exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around his friends.

Blake chuckled and hugged her old friend back. “Hey Sun” she greeted warmly as they all shared a group hug. It was the norm at this point.

Sun and Neptune showed them around the academy, eventually allowing team RWBY and Jaune to reunite with their friends. In the cafeteria, the remaining Ace Ops, the Happy Huntresses, Nora, Ren, Oscar, Winter, and Qrow were all there. When RWBY and Jaune entered, all of the talking ceased.

Qrow’s eyes went wide when he saw his nieces. “K-Kids?” he breathed.

“UNCLE QROW!” Ruby and Yang yelled as the leapt into their uncle’s arms. Qrow spun his nieces around and let the tears flow. He thought they had died, but thankfully they were okay and alive.

Weiss reunited with her sister, Winter Schnee. Jaune reunited with his team, and everyone just shared hugs. Well, almost everyone. Some just smiled, while others didn’t react too much. Harriet was one such individual, not reacting too much to their arrival. If anything, she seemed slightly annoyed by it, and that annoyed Yang. She understood that they had been enemies, but they didn’t need to fight anymore!

Yang removed herself from the hug she was in, ready to give Harriet a piece of her mind, as she was still upset over what happened in Atlas. Before she could, the cafeteria door burst open loudly. Yang turned around to see someone she didn’t recognize. His black hair was spiked up slightly, and his red eyes matched Qrow’s. In terms of facial features, he looked a lot like her. ‘Is this some new huntsman? He doesn’t look older than me’ she thought. Looking at Qrow briefly, she saw his face sour slightly. Clearly, he knew this guy.

The newcomer cracked his neck and looked around the room with a smirk. “Alright, where the fuck are my twin sister and younger half-sister?!” he exclaimed loudly. Yang blinked in surprise. What was this guy talking about?

Her uncle sighed loudly. “They're right here Roc…please don’t antagonize them” he pleaded, only for “Roc” to grin.

“Sorry unc, but I can’t help but antagonize people sometimes” Roc said with a shrug. His eyes searched the room briefly before he met Yang’s eyes. Roc put a hand to his chin and hummed in thought. “Lilac eyes, long hair, similar facial features…” he said before snapping his fingers and pointing at Yang. “You’re my twin sister, aren’t you?!”

Yang blinked a few times, not sure if she heard him correctly. She pointed a finger at herself before speaking. “M-Me?! I don’t even know you!” she exclaimed. Seriously, who was this person, and why was he claiming that she was his twin? Sure, there WERE some similarities between them physically, but Yang would know if she had a twin!

Roc rolled his eyes. “Oh, don’t worry about that, just let me test something really quick.” Those were his words before sprinting past a few people and drawing his sword. Yang gasped and quickly rolled underneath the deadly slash that nearly sliced off part of her hair. That alone pissed Yang off. Roc cracked his neck and spun around to grin at Yang. “Alright, you’ve got decent speed at least.”

Yang narrowed her eyes and fired a few shotgun rounds at Roc in retaliation, only for him to casually deflect each with his katana. That was something Yang didn’t expect. “How did you even do that?!” she yelled.

Roc just shrugged. “My mom taught me” he answered before a black aura surrounded him. Yang and a few others couldn’t help but gasp in shock as they witnessed Roc turn into a boarbatusk, but less menacing looking. Roc rolled like a wheel, destroying a few tables that were in his way. Yang was so shocked by the sudden transformation that she was hit head on by Roc’s attack, sending her flying into Ruby.

Rock stopped rolling and returned to his human state, dusting off his pants. “So…is that it? I thought you had more than that, but maybe I was wrong” he jabbed, trying to rile her up.

It worked, as Yang’s eyes flashed red. Yang went to punch Roc with a flaming fist, but Roc simply parried the strike with a backhand, knocking Yang off balance.  After regaining it, she tries to throw a few jabs at Roc’s face, but Roc either ducked under or sidestepped the jabs with a smirk on his face.

‘How is he so damn fast?!’ she wondered. Ruby was fast thanks to her semblance, but Roc seemed to be somehow even faster than that.  No matter what she did, she couldn’t hit him!

This one-sided battle continued for a while until Roc grabbed Yang’s arm mid-punch, pulling her in and delivering a powerful clotheslined that flipped yang backwards before landing on the ground with a groan of pain. Roc looked down with disappointment as he stood above Yang. “I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed. Your speed is decent, but everything else about you just…sucks” he said with a small sigh. “Mom told me you were strong. She got that wrong.”

Before Yang could snap at that particular comment, a familiar voice entered the conversation. “I wasn’t wrong Roc. I just overestimated your own strength.” Yang knew that voice. She looked over at the cafeteria entrance to see her birth mother, Raven Branwen, standing there with her arms crossed and a look of disappointment.

Many questions were going through Yang’s mind at the moment. Why was Raven here? Is Roc truly Raven’s son? Does that mean Roc really is her twin brother? Why did she never learn about him? Why did her father and Qrow never tell her or Ruby? Did Summer know?

“About time you got here!” Qrow exclaimed, giving his sister a glare. “I thought I was going to have to explain this shit on my own!” he screamed, throwing a chair at Raven, which was easily dodged.

Raven facepalms. “I’m sorry, okay? I was busy taking care of that other thing for Tai!”

Roc blinked and smiled. That smile didn’t seem so friendly. “Oh, my old man’s here? Finally…I can’t wait to see the bastard and see what he’s made of!”

Raven glared at her son, red flames emerging from her eyes. “Do NOT attack your father! While we are here, you WILL play nice, understand?!”

Yang actually gulped nervously. It was actually terrifying to see Raven acting like this. ‘Yeah…maybe it was better that she left’ she thought. She knew that she would have been stricter than Summer.

Roc crossed his arms and frowned. “I’ll act how I want. Just because we’re allies against Salem doesn’t mean I’m going to change who I am. Not even for my family” he responded to his mother.

Ruby, having had enough of this, ran over to Qrow and started shaking him. Yang was pretty sure Qrow’s eyes were bouncing around in his head now, as Ruby was shaking him so fast, he was like a blur. “UNCLE QROW, WHAT’S GOING ON?! WHY IS RAVEN HERE?! WHO’S ROC?! WHY DID HE SAY HE WAS OUR BROTHER?!” the silver-eyed huntress exclaimed.

Ren sighed and went to grab Ruby by her shoulders, pulling her off of the older huntsman. “Ruby, I think it is best to let Qrow and Raven explain. Trust us, we were all shocked as well” he said, releasing his grip on Ruby.

Yang looked up to face her so-called “brother,” only to realize that he had turned into the same bird that he was named after. Yang had read stories about this bird. The bird symbolized the untamed power nature held. Considering Roc was likely raised with bandits in nature, the name fit him well. Of course, he wasn’t as big as the same bird from the myths Yang had read about.

Roc flew over and perched on Raven’s left shoulder. Raven rolled her eyes at this. “Really?”

Roc shrugged his tiny wings. “Hey, you did this to me too on occasion. Unless you want me to perch on your head and peck your eyeballs out?”

Raven sighed in response to her son’s joking threat. “Fine, stay there, but only for a little bit” she told him. As Yang walked over to them, Raven tried to remain stoic, but a few emotions slipped through. “Yang…you’re okay” she said after a bit of hesitation.

Yang crossed her arms. “And you’re actually here. Have you finally come to your senses?” she asked. She always hated the fact that Raven, a huntress, had given up an important battle just because Salem was immortal.

Roc started speaking next. “Actually, she’s only here because I decided that I FINALLY wanted to meet the rest of my family. So far, I’m a little disappointed…”

Ruby blinked. “So…you’re NOT here to help us with Salem?” she asked, somewhat disappointed.

Roc left Raven’s shoulder and flew in front of Ruby, making the huntress flinch a bit. “Actually, I was the one who suggested we come here. I wanted to see what the big deal was. I mean, Salem sounds pretty dangerous, but I’ve faced down dangerous people before” he bragged to his younger half-sister.

Qrow cleared his throat to gain everyone’s attention. “Yeah, before we start anything else…I think it’s time we told you about Roc.”

Yang was brought out of her memories by her scroll vibrating. Yang sighed and pulled it out of her pocket. She had received a text from her wife, Blake Belladonna. It read, “The kids are getting worried. Where are you?”

Yang quickly typed out a reply as Junior left her strawberry sunrise on the table. “Tell them I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” After sending the reply, Yang scolded herself. Blake could tell that Yang was lying, even through a text. Regardless, she started drinking her strawberry sunrise, a small tear flowing down her face. ‘Roc…I’m sorry for everything’ she thought.

“Let’s hope our talk with these guys ends a bit better” Shez whispered to his sister as they closed in on Claude and the Golden Deer House.

Sarah nodded in agreement with her brother. Their talk with the Blue Lions was okay, but the ending wasn’t the greatest. ‘Claude seems like he’s easier to talk to anyway. I hope his friends are like him too…’ she thought to herself.

“Hey you two!” Claude greeted with a charismatic smile as the pair of mercenaries arrived. “Thanks again for the help back there. Things were pretty hairy before you two showed up.”

Shez shrugged in response as he and Sarah stopped in front of the group. “Eh, the bandits were easy to deal with. It’s a wonder why my sister here struggled with them” he said, pointing a thumb at Sarah.

Sarah swatted away the thumb and glared at her brother, her eyes flashing orange briefly. “I didn’t struggle at all! I just used a bit too much of my power!” she rebutted. Shez just smirked in response to this. He really enjoyed getting on his sister’s nerves sometimes.

Arval sighed at Sarah’s annoyance. “You make things too easy for him, you know that?” she told Sarah. “Honestly, you need to learn to use your brain instead of your heart sometimes…”

‘Don’t take his side!’ Sarah yelled to her partner in destiny, feeling betrayed.

“Speaking of power…” a pink-haired girl started, eyeing Shez up a bit, “which one of you is stronger?” she asked, her pink eyes lingering on Shez.

“Me” Shez told her bluntly. “I’m a lot stronger than my sister, who still has a lot to learn.” Sarah decided not to respond to this, impressing Arval. Sarah normally tried to argue, but she knew Shez was speaking the truth.

An orange-haired girl, Leonie, admired the pair of mercenaries. “Both of you are pretty strong! I hope I can be as strong as you two one day!” she proclaimed excitedly, pumping a fist up. “I wanna become a merc myself, so I joined the academy to get stronger.”

Shez smirked and elbowed his sister. “You hear that sis? You and she want to get stronger. You have something in common” he teased, taking a shot at his sister’s desire to get stronger, not that it was a bad trait in his eyes.

Sarah rolled her eyes before giving Leonie a smile. “Well, I hope we get to work together someday. By the way, what are all of your names?”

Each student began to introduce themselves. Claude von Riegan, Hilda Valentine Goneril, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, Raphael Kirsten, Ignatz Victor, Lysithea von Ordelia, Marianne von Edmund, and Leonie Pinelli.

Shez couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Edelgard’s hair and Lysithea’s. He let out a low “hmm” as he wondered what that was all about. ‘There’s no way they could be related to Salem, unless she used her magic to come here at some point, but I doubt that. I wonder…what is it that turned their hair white? Hair like that isn’t normal in Fodlan…’ he thought to himself. He had seen white hair before in his past life. The Schnee’s and Salem were obvious examples of this. In Fodlan, Lysithea and Edelgard were the only people he had seen with white hair. Well, aside from a few other people.

Shez’s eyes went wide for a minute before he recomposed himself. ‘Don’t tell me those two went through the same thing…’ he thought to himself. He then shook his head.  ‘I’ll talk to Sarah about it later.’

“So, Sarah, how long have you two been mercenaries? You don’t seem any older than most of us” Ignatz inquired.  That was indeed true, Shez and Sarah weren’t that much older than the other students.

Sarah shrugs. “A few years. Still, even as a kid, my brother knew how to fight” she said, remembering the time her brother wandered off without her and their mother noticing. By the time they had finally found him, he was manhandling a demonic beast.

Raphael blinked. “Wait, was he trained at a young age or something?” he asked. It wasn’t uncommon, especially for those who wanted to be knights.

Sarah shook her head. “No, it’s not that at all. It’s…a pretty long story” she said hesitantly, not wanting to reveal the fact that her brother was actually a reincarnated bandit from another world. Yes, she knew he was a bandit, as did their mother, but Sarah, as a mercenary, had little room to talk about morals.

Shez rolled his eyes at Sarah’s unwillingness to reveal anything, but he understood why. Plus, it was better to explain it to everyone at once. He never had any real reason to hide his past life, but his sister was always against it. Probably because things would get confusing.

Lysithea hummed with interest, eying the twins with suspicion and intrigue. “Both of you seem to be incredible with your magic, especially you Shez. Who taught you how to cast such spells?” she asked, hoping that their teachers weren’t related to the people who gave her the second crest, as Shez and Sarah’s magic felt very similar to their magic.

Shez shrugged. “Mostly our adoptive mother, but we came up with a few spells on our own. As for my sister’s transformation? I nearly killed her one day and it just…happened” he said, not sounding remorseful for nearly killing Sarah at all, which caused a visible tick mark to appear on his sister’s forehead.

Sarah’s eyes twitched as the vein on her forehead pulsed with anger. “Oh, so you really don’t regret it, do you?” she asked with an evil smile on her face. Add on the angry orange eyes, and you have a very intimidating female mercenary. Some of the Golden Deer even took a step back as a frightening orange aura surrounded Sarah. She was almost fully transformed, but she didn’t fully transform.

*SMACK*

“No, and I don’t regret that either” Shez responded with a smirk, watching as Sarah rubbed her head.

Claude couldn’t help but laugh alongside a few of the other deer. ‘Oh…these two are a treat’ he thought.

Chapter Text

“Bye mom, I’m heading out to Signal!” a teen boy with silver eyes told his mother. He ran a hand through his black hair that was red at the tips. “I’m pretty sure I have everything” he said, though there was a bit of uncertainty in his voice.

His mother, an adult with shoulder-length hair that matched her son’s, smiled warmly and handed her son something before he walked out of the door. “Crimson, you forgot your weapon. Never leave without it. And don’t forget to say bye to Summer” she said in a warm tone. She was lucky she never did this when she was his age.

Crimson snaps his fingers in realization. “Right, thanks mom!” he said before running up the stairs. As he left, Ruby’s warm smile turned into a look of sadness and grief. She knew she had to stay strong for her kids, but she just couldn’t get what happened out of her mind.

Oscar Pine, who was in another room, noticed his wife’s look and went over to hug her. “I know it still hurts Ruby, but he’s gone. There’s nothing we can do” he whispered as she released a few sobs into his shoulder.

Ruby knew Oscar was right, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. It also didn’t help that Ruby felt incredibly guilty for never fully being able to understand her older half-brother. She wished so much that she could just tell him how sorry she was for that. ‘Why? Why did you have to die too soon?’ she thought as she continued to sob into her husband’s shoulder.

The tension in the air was clear. Everyone was sitting at multiple different tables, ready to listen to what Raven and Qrow had to say. Ruby couldn’t help but glance at Roc a few times. The Branwen was currently relaxing across one of the tables with his hands behind his head. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Raven sighs, her red eyes showing her age a bit. “As you know, I left shortly after Yang was born. One thing that was never revealed was the fact that Tai and I…had a son as well” she said, giving Roc a brief glance.

Roc didn’t really respond, he just kept relaxing, much to Yang’s annoyance. The blonde brawler kicked the table he was on, annoying Roc and making him sit up. “Fine, I’ll listen” he groaned. He didn’t really feel like he needed to hear this, but his sister probably wouldn’t stop bothering him if he kept acting the way he was.

Raven sighed, looking a little older than she already was for a bit. “When I…left you, I took Roc with me. When he was born, he didn’t cry, not once. If anything, he looked slightly annoyed whenever you cried” she explained. One glance at Yang made it obvious that she wasn’t exactly happy with the fact that her twin was easily annoyed by something babies naturally do.

Yang scoffed and rolled her lilac eyes in disgust. “What, so you took him because he was stronger than me?” she accused. Ruby understood her sister, but now wasn’t the time to make assumptions, especially when they all needed to be united.

Ruby held her half-sister’s hand tightly, but reassuringly. “Yang, please let her finish.”

After a sigh from Yang, Raven continued. “Anyway, I raised Roc in the tribe. Even at a young age, his desire for thrills and combat was evident. Reluctantly, I trained him.” Raven frowned and looked away, a slight look of shame on her face. “I…I never wished for him to become a warrior at that young of an age, but I knew he would simply train himself or go off on his own if I didn’t start his training…”

Ren turned to Raven with a confused look. “While your desire to protect him at a young age is commendable, I find it odd that you failed to realize that you would be raising your son among a tribe of bandits who have made countless enemies over the years.” It was a fair point. Even Raven couldn’t hide the sheepish look on her face.

Blake gave the subject of the conversation a curious glance. “What was it like raising him? Was he troublesome?” she asked, her cat-like gaze meeting the cocky gaze of the son of Raven.

The moment that question was asked, it was as if Raven suddenly grew older. Her face visibly sagged slightly as she let out a long groan. “I love my boy, I truly do, but by the gods, he could be unbearable at times…” she said.

Weiss sighed at this revelation, placing a hand over her face. “Great, Yang’s twin is as unbearable as her…” she sighed, earning a betrayed look from Yang.

“You’re supposed to be on my side!” Yang exclaimed, lightening the mood a bit as a few people chuckled.

Raven wasn’t one of those that chuckled. She remained focused on her story. “Anyway, Roc was always a bit of a smartass. Anytime he was right about something, he wasn’t afraid to be smug about it. And he didn’t hold back his smugness either” she told them before giving Roc a small glare. “It took a LOT of effort to get him to tone it down to a more reasonable level…” she said, although the look on her face made it clear that Roc was still pretty smug, which wasn’t untrue.

Ruby turned to her older brother (Man, that feels so weird to say) and gave him an awkward smile. There was a lot she wanted to talk about with him, but she needed to know more about him. Was he really on their side? Did he really want to help them, or was he only here because Raven was here? Why didn’t he leave Raven to come find them? Did he even know they existed prior to Raven telling him? “Uh…hi?” Ruby said awkwardly, receiving a casual wave from her older brother.

Blake didn’t exactly look okay with all of this. Not because Roc was probably not the nicest of individuals, but because of his seemingly casual demeanor. He was obviously aware of the fact that they are in a war against an immortal and her army of Grimm, but he seemed pretty casual about everything. “You said that you’re not really here for Salem, but because you wanted to meet the rest of your family, right?” she asked Roc.

Roc looked over to Blake and nodded, shifting his position a bit. “Pretty much, yeah. And like I said before, Salem sounds dangerous, but I’ve faced down dangerous foes before. I mean, my mom is a maiden, and I managed to beat her more than a few times” he revealed, causing the eyes of Weiss, Blake, and Ruby to widen as they all turned to look at the older Branwen woman, who showed no emotion whatsoever to her son revealing what they thought to be a big deal.

Qrow, who was leaning against a nearby wall, snorted at their expressions. “Yeah, we already knew. Roc blurted it out when he arrived alongside his mom” he told them, making those that were surprised look a bit embarrassed, though Yang wasn’t one of them because not only did she already know this, but she didn’t really care at the moment. Ruby could tell by the look on her face and the occasional flicker of red in her eyes that Yang was solely focused on getting answers about their newfound brother.

Speaking of answers, Nora decided to get some of her own by barreling over to Roc and grabbing him by his collar and shaking him violently as she asked him something that was probably on most of their minds. “WHY ARE YOU SO CASUAL ABOUT ALL OF THIS?! SALEM’S IMMORTAL, YET YOU AREN’T WORRIED?!” she screamed into his face before being grabbed by a pair of gorilla arms. Nora went completely pale as she realized that she was in trouble.

Roc snorted like a gorilla would and lifted Nora up with his now gorilla arms. “You aren’t gonna try that shit again, right?” he asked, getting a frantic nod from Nora. “Good” he said before releasing her, allowing her to run and hide behind Ren, who simply deadpanned at his girlfriend’s actions.

Weiss blinked multiple times as she stared at Roc’s gorilla arms. She was practically gaping like a fish. After she finally snapped out of it, she pointed a finger a Roc’s arms and asked the question that was on more than a few people’s minds. “Is that…your semblance?” she asked hesitantly.

Roc just nodded and returned his arms back to normal. “That’s right. I can shapeshift into any non-human entity I come into contact with. Plus, I can use their traits if I want to. Faunus, animals, you name it. Well, I can’t do it with the Grimm” he revealed, which caused a few eyes to raise in either shock or intrigue. That was quite an impressive semblance, and he seemed to display mastery over it. Roc then sighed and put his hands behind his head in a relaxing manner. “But yeah, I’m not THAT worried about Salem. If we win, great. If not, oh well” he said.

Yang deadpanned at her brother, not believing what she was hearing. “You do realize that you could die in this fight, right?” she asked, though everyone was certain the question was rhetorical.

Roc just shrugged in response to what his sister asked him. “Don’t we all die anyway? I mean, I don’t see that as all good, but the ‘natural order’ doesn’t exactly care what I think. Besides, I’ve encountered death way too much in my life. You get used to it at some point” he said, referring to his bandit background, which caused Qrow to give Raven a look that made it clear he wasn’t appreciative of her raising him as a bandit.

Roc’s answer didn’t satisfy Ruby though. She didn’t know why that was. Maybe it’s because she wasn’t used to having a family member like Roc in her life. Maybe it’s because she just couldn’t accept that people like him don’t want to save the world purely for altruistic motives. Maybe it’s because she wanted to believe that Roc might have actually been lying. Maybe he did have altruistic intentions and wasn’t what she thought he was. “But…why are you still here? You’ve met us already…so why haven’t you left?” she asked, her eyes desperate for an answer that would satisfy her.

Roc’s gaze shifted from relaxed to serious as he sat up and looked his little half-sister in the eyes. Red met silver as there was a long and deafening silence. There was clearly a unique type of tension now, but nobody could explain it. Raven looked away, already expecting the answer Roc would give while everyone else waited in anticipation of his response.

Finally, the silence came to an end when Roc stood up and walked over to Ruby before looking at her with a look that completely contrasted his laid-back attitude. “Little sister, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t even know why I’m still here. Maybe it’s because of mom. Maybe some part of me actually wants to know the rest of my family better. Maybe it’s because I’m getting a little bored with my regular old life. But one thing’s for certain…” he started as he narrowed his eyes slightly, “I’m definitely not here to be a hero. That’s one thing I’ll never be.”

Those words would be the beginning of a very poor and sometimes hostile relationship. But as the years went by, Ruby realized that if she had just taken the time to see things from Roc’s perspective, she would have had a much better relationship with him. ‘I messed up…’ she thought to herself as she continued to sob into her husband’s chest.

‘Last stop, the Black Eagles. Let’s see if this bunch is as interesting as the rest’ Shez thought to himself as he and his sister made his way over to the final group of students. Looking ahead, he could tell that a taller man next to Edelgard was giving him and Sarah a look that reminded him of a certain witch he knew. ‘Those two would get along well…’ he thought with a deadpan as his sister gave everyone a small wave.

“Hey Edelgard, hey everyone” Sarah greeted with a small yet cheerful smile. Shez just gave a non-committal grunt, causing Sarah to turn her head and glare. “What’s with the sudden shift?” she said, giving her brother an elbow to the side, but Shez barely moved.

“Just trying to impress the guy staring daggers at me” was the response he gave, causing everyone to turn to Hubert.

Hubert ignored the looks he received and simply continued his staring, though there was a noticeable smirk on his face. “Oh, from what we have seen and from what Lady Edelgard has described, you two have done more than enough to impress me and quite a number of people here.” His voice was sinister, but Shez had heard far more sinister than him.

“Oh, you mean the way we took out those bandits? That wasn’t impressive, that was just us warming up” Sarah said, getting a bit too cocky, which resulted in Shez smacking her in the back of the head. Sarah winced and rubbed the back of her head with her right hand, turning to glare at her twin. “Shez, what the hell was that for?!” she yelled.

Shez ignored the looks he received from the Black Eagles and crossed his arms. “Firstly, what we did IS impressive in their eyes, but YOU went all-out too fast and wasted a lot of your energy, which led to ME almost having to bail you out” he said in a no-nonsense tone, something that was rare for Shez. And just like that, Sarah began trying to outsmart her brother in another argument, only to fail miserably.

‘These two certainly have an interesting relationship…’ Dorothea thought as a bead of sweat dripped down the side of her flawless face. She wondered what kind of childhood they had. Hopefully one that was decent by commoner standards.

Petra raised an eyebrow as the twin mercenaries argued in front of everyone. ‘Is this how sibling relationships are working in Fodlan?’ she wondered, assuming that all of this was the norm. It actually wasn’t.

Edelgard cleared her throat to grab the attention of the arguing mercenaries. “Excuse me, but I believe we are all supposed to be introducing ourselves?” she said.

The twins finally returned their attention to the main point of them being here, although not before Sarah gave Shez one last glare. “Right, well, as you can tell, we’re siblings. Twins in fact” Sarah said as she stood next to her brother. Honestly, the resemblance between them was so obvious. Even their heights were the same. Sarah gave her twin an evil grin before she spoke again. “Oh, and don’t bring up my brother’s height. He’s pretty sensitive about it” she teased, causing Shez to roll his eyes.

“I’m not sensitive about my height, I’m just a LITTLE annoyed that my sister is taller than most women her age and I’m a bit shorter than most guys my age. If I were SENSITIVE, I’d be beating the hell out of anyone that commented on my height” was the response Shez gave. Sometimes he cursed himself for not asking the brother gods to make him taller before he was reborn. And yes, he did get teased about his height when he was a kid.

Caspar, one of the shortest of the Black Eagles, patted Shez on the back in an attempt to help him feel better. “Don’t worry too much. Look at me!” he said, gesturing to his own short stature. “I’m as tall as guys like Hubert, but that still doesn’t stop me from being confident and willing to dole out some justice!” he said proudly and WAY too confidently to the point where even Shez was somewhat concerned.

Hubert closed his eyes in exasperation and disappointment at Caspar’s words. “Please, do not use me as an example…” he said with a very small grimace. Sure, Hubert was proud of his height, as it made him look intimidating when used in the right ways, but that doesn’t mean he appreciates being used as a comparison, especially by someone like Caspar.

Shez’s thoughts had already shifted to the green-haired boy who was resting his head against one of the tables, sleeping. Shez raised an eyebrow at this. ‘No one’s calling it out. I guess this must be normal. These guys are certainly an interesting bunch…’ he thought, recalling some of the stranger folks within the Branwen tribe and even outside of it. He smiled at the nice memories of his old life. Things could get chaotic with that bunch, and that’s what made it fun at times.

Edelgard took note of the sudden smile on Shez’s face, which was odd as it didn’t seem like he liked Caspar’s comment. “What is it that you find so amusing?” she asked, tilting her head slightly.

Shez’s smile turned into a smirk as a glint appeared in his eye. “Oh, I’m just admiring the pretty face of an imperial princess” he responded, lying about what he was actually thinking about. Still, what he said wasn’t wrong, as he did find the imperial princess to be very attractive, but his words still got more than a few reactions.

Edelgard was completely caught off guard by his words. She even had to take a step back in surprise as her mouth hung open slightly. There was a hint of red on her cheeks as she put a hand to her chest in surprise. She’d received compliments about her looks plenty of times from suitors and other admirers, but the way Shez said it was just…shocking. The fact that he said this knowing she was the imperial princess made it all the more surprising and even admirable.

Hubert was very clearly NOT amused by Shez’s comment. He was very protective of Edelgard, and he was not about to let some mercenary flirt with her in such a manner. He took a few steps forward as wisps of dark magic began flowing from his fingertips. His eyes bore daggers into Shez’s skull as he spoke in a low and dangerous tone of voice. “It would be wise of you to never speak to Lady Edelgard in such a manner again…” he threatened.

Shez just raised his arms and shrugged. “What? Can’t a guy give a gal a compliment?” he questioned. He had already figured out that Hubert was incredibly loyal to Edelgard based on his reaction alone, but he had a feeling Hubert took loyalty to a whole other level, a level that reminded him of Harriet and Cedar. Those two were one of the few he got along with during the war.

Dorothea elbowed Hubert slightly, annoyed by his reaction. “He’s right Hubie, let Edie receive a compliment. He’s being a gentleman, unlike you” she said with a slight glare. Reluctantly, Hubert sighed and backed off, at least for the time being. Dorothea smiled and turned back to Shez with a slight look of approval.

She wasn’t the only one who approved of Shez’s compliment to Edelgard. Ferdinand, possibly one of the loudest people imaginable when it came to bragging about how great they are, nodded with a look of respect. “Indeed. Despite how he expressed it, I cannot deny that Shez was indeed complementing Edelgard perfectly.”

Shez just shrugged again. “Eh, I have experience to back it up. I’ve been in a relationship before” he said. He wasn’t THAT flirty in his past life, but Raven did everything in her power to make sure he knew how to compliment females. Did he always listen to her? No, of course not, but he did try his best sometimes.

Edelgard, having recovered from the impact of Shez’s earlier comment about her looks, raised a curious eyebrow.  She’d never heard of mercenaries forming romantic relationships. From what she knew, they tried to stay detached. She could understand Shez and Sarah being close, but they were siblings, so their love was a different kind of love. “Really? That is surprising. How did it end?” That was not a good question to ask.

Sarah’s expression shifted to one of concern, causing her to look away slightly. Arval, who hasn’t been very vocal, also spoke up. “Not good…” she murmured as both she and her partner knew full-well how painful that story was for Shez.

Shez’s casual look vanished the moment Edelgard asked that question. Instead, a look of grief grew onto his face, though it wasn’t extreme. There was a very slight hint of red in his normally purple irises, almost as if there was a hint of his old self being reflected in his eyes. He shifted uncomfortably, his normally confident stance weakening a bit. “Horribly…” was the quiet response that left his mouth.

The atmosphere the group shared was no longer filled with curiosity and enjoyment. Rather, it was filled with a tense silence. The Black Eagles all knew that things had taken a turn based on Shez and Sarah’s expressions and Shez’s response. Edelgard felt guilt creeping up into her stomach. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her. She frowned, mentally scolding herself for her mistake. ‘I should not have said anything…’ she thought. She brought up something that was clearly painful.

Before she could apologize, Shez silently left, with his sister soon following. Edelgard released a long sight, crossing her arms. “I’ll have to apologize before they leave…” she said to the group. No one said a word, not disagreeing with her. It was a mistake to bring up the past.

Alois knew something was up the moment Shez and Sarah walked over to him without any joy on their faces. He had just finished talking with one of the knights, who came up with a suggestion that Alois didn’t agree with, but it WAS the best thing to do. Still, he wondered if now was the time to bring it up. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“No” Shez said. His response was far too quick for Alois’ liking. There was most definitely something wrong, but he knew better than to press the issue, especially if it would anger powerhouses like Shez and Sarah. He couldn’t risk endangering the students. The whole bandit mess was a big enough embarrassment for the Church of Seiros.

Alois cleared his throat before responding. “Right. Well, if it is not too much trouble, how would the two of you like to accompany all of us back to the Monastery?”

Chapter Text

Hi there. Sorry for the lack of updates. I have a lot of other commitments, and I have to focus on those as well as my gaming too. My current planned updates are for A Beast makes a Miracle, Team RVWM, and a reboot of The Scourge of the Goddess (Yes, I am rebooting that story for the third time). I can't say WHEN these will all be up, but I assure you all that I AM working on them and I WILL get back to all of my other stories. Just be patient. Thank you.