Chapter Text

"How is the arm Dove?" asked Russel.

Russel, Dove and Cardin where at Russel’s room in the hospital. It had been almost 24 hours since the match between Pyrrha and Penny had started.

"Fine, the doctor said nothing's broken. Almost doesn't hurt anymore. What about your face?" asked Dove.

"I'll have some nasty scars" said Russel with a couple of strips of gauze diagonally over his face on the right side "That ugly Beowolf scratched me good."

Sky entered the room with a crutch.

"What about you?" asked Russel.

"Fine, I'll be running by tomorrow" Sky answered as he limped towards a chair.

"Did you hear about CFVY?" asked Cardin.

"Yep, heard Glynda allowed them to take part in the fighting" answered Dove.

"What's bunnygirl going to do? Dance for the wolves?" said Sky as he started laughing.

"So you're fine with sitting here while they risk their lives to take Beacon back" snapped Cardin "Aren't you embarrassed about what happened? We were useless. I hear JNPR and RWBY were in the middle of it, clearing the path to evacuate Amity Colosseum and then some more civilians in Vale. We didn't even defend ourselves."

Sky, Russel and Dove looked at each other and then away.

"Well, we didn't expect Grimm to…"

"And you think they did? Admit it, we were weak. We didn't train enough and got people hurt because of it" said Cardin lowering his voice gradually. He sighted and added "I want to go to another academy and resume my training. If you want to stay here that's fine, I'll manage alone."

"Wait, I'm going with you. I still want to become a Huntsman and it’s not like Beacon is going to be back anytime soon" said Russel

"Me to, my family is close to the headmaster at Haven so we should try going to Mistral" added Sky

"Don't leave me behind, I'm not letting bunnygirl save me" said Dove

"How do we get there though?" asked Russel, everyone turned to Cardin and he smiled

**************

"I don't care about public opinion, we need help from the other kingdoms to take back Beacon. We can't do this alone" Glynda shouting could be heard through the door "No, I told you, we can't let the younger students join. I allowed CFVY because of their exceptional record but first and second year students are not ready for this"

The voices went down to a mumble behind the tent door as team CRDL looked at each other in front of the command tent. A military-like camp in the middle of Vale. This was the main base of operations for the Huntsman and Huntresses that were attempting to retake Beacon. Long faces were the norm here as battle hardened teachers and students that had just come back carried around their heavy weapons back to their temporary barracks. The team leaders were coming towards the command tent, probably to make a report on Grimm activity.

Suddenly an old man in a suit came out of the tent, fists clenched and angry looking. He quickly got onto an armored car waiting by and left. Team CRDL entered the tent. It was a spartan and utilitarian tent. A desk with a couple of chairs in a corner and a table with a holographic representation of Vale in the middle. There were colored indicators of known Grimm areas as well as a perimeter separating Vale from the wilderness formerly known as Beacon.

"Oh, team CRDL what are you doing here?" asked professor Goodwitch as she looked at a notebook on her desk. "I see, you had something important, we are short on time so go straight to the point please" she said looking tired but with a small smile on her face

"We want passage to Mistral to enroll in Haven academy" said Cardin "we are not allowed to help here until we are properly trained, Sky's family knows Haven's headmaster and is confident they'll let us in" Cardin kept going, thinking he would only get one chance to convince her "We have talked about it and if we can't fly there then we'll walk there ourselves."

Glynda's smile vanished as she looked them up "You are not even healed yet, are you sure you want to wander around Remnant like that?" She asked looking at Dove's arm sling and Sky's crutch

"We are fine" said Sky letting his crutch fall and taking a couple of careful steps before throwing his arms up like a gymnast after landing.

Glynda chuckled before saying "If you are sure about this I can arrange you to be on an airship. Tomorrow at 11AM. They'll leave without you if you're late. And, kids, please don't waste this opportunity"

"Thank you ma'am" said Cardin as he gave Sky back his crutch and added "this time we'll do things right"

**************

The next morning Cardin found himself standing in front of room 306 walking up to the door to knock and heard muffled voices on the other side. He stopped and turned around, walked back a couple steps and straightened his jacket. He was his best clothes which amounted to jeans and a gray t-shirt with a Beowolf in it and the words "BAD WOLF" under it, covered by a brown leather jacket. He went back to the door and knocked.

"Is it already time for the nurse to be back" a young male voice said

"Come in" said a deeper voice.

"Sorry to intrude, my name is Cardin Winchester, I am..." Cardin hesitated, what was he to them?

"I see, the Huntress mentioned you. She said you saved Evergreen's life, thank you" said the deep voice.

It belonged to a 50 something man sitting in a chair by the bed, Cardin's eyes examined him for a second before his eyes where drawn to the bed. Eve was lying on the bed, covered by hospital white blankets and bandages all over her right shoulder. She had her eyes closed and was hooked up to several machines. Cardin didn't know the details but the way the doctor had acted, he didn't think she would wake up.

"Bullshit dad. It's his fault she got hurt. He was supposed to protect her" Cardin turned around to locate the young man voice. The owner was standing up near the far wall opposite to the bed. Green eyes were staring right at him anger boiling inside him"

"You know that's not true. He is not a Huntsman yet, he wasn't ready for what happened. No one was" the older man replied. The young man's eyes suddenly started watering, he turned around and stormed out of the room. "Sorry about that" he continued "My son just wants to blame someone for hurting his sister"

"That's okay Mr. Gren, I... I should have done more, if I'd been stronger or faster or... I'm sorry" Cardin said, voice breaking toward the end

"I'm sure you did the best you could" Eve's father said. "The doctors say she is not getting worse" he added turning towards the bed "but she isn't improving either, they don't know when she will wake up"

Cardin looked at him, then stared at the bed, sadness flooding him. After almost half a minute he said: "When she wakes up, can you give her this?" as he pulled an envelope from his pocket "I'm leaving for Mistral. The government doesn't want help from kids who didn't complete their first year and honestly, we were not exactly the best anyway. So my team and I will go to Haven academy to complete our training so, next time, we can save everyone."

Mr. Gren stretched his arm and picked up the envelope. "Of course kid, she will be reporting on your exploits sooner than you think"

Cardin eyes brightened for a second as he smiled towards Eve "Thank you Mr. Gren. Eve, wake up soon okay? I'll be back before you know it." He turned around with watery eyes toward the door, as he opened it he added "Next time I'll pay for the drinks, promise. Goodbye Mr. Gren"

**************

"What the hell Dove, we warned you to be punctual" Russel said as his scroll jumped from 10:58 to 10:59 "hurry up"

CRDL was the last team to get into the airship and everyone was already seated. He spotted the team that fought team RWBY near the back chatting excitedly albeit with somber faces. They had to take the last seats available near the front.

"What are we nerds?" asked Dove "Why do we have to seat here?"

Russel made a quick jab at Dove's arm "Shut up, we are lucky to have seats at all. It's not like they intended on bringing back more people than they brought"

"Actually, we are not, those are the seats of team DISY... They didn't make it." Said a man wearing a brown hat with green feathers and a leather vest with what looked like a falconry glove in his right hand. "They were ambushed between Atlas robots and the White Fang while helping evacuate "your" people." He added, anger in his voice.

"It's not our fault this happened D'Artagnan" Cardin said, putting himself between the man and his team and standing a good 6 inches above the stranger his shoulder almost twice as wide, suddenly aware of the silence in the ship.

"Cardin, that's actually..." Russel was interrupted as Cardin was swiftly brought to his knees with a movement faster than the eye could follow from the smaller man.

"I meant while they evacuated your team of losers" he then let go of Cardin's arm and leave to sit down with his team a few rows further back

Nobody moved while team CRDL sat down and Cardin moved his wrist to alleviate the pain. Slowly the silence died as people went back to their conversations.

"Sorry, tried to warn you. That was one of the finalists from the tournament. Team LILY I believe." Russel said quietly, not wanting to draw attention

"I guess DISY was the team that helped us get to the evacuation zone. They were rad" said Sky

"Fuck" cursed Cardin "This is not what we're supposed to be doing"

A blinking light turned on indicating the airship was about to leave for Mistral.