Hey guys. Striker777 here with another addition to The Rose Assassin. Be sure to vote and all the good stuff. Onto the story.

———

Connor and Jaune were talking about what happened over the weekend whilst walking down one of Beacon's many corridors. "Seriously, who would have thought my semblance would be he same as my ancestor's?"
"You're right, it is strange, but let's put that behind us for now and get to breakfast."

The duo made their way down the hall, before stopping outside the huge double doors, and finding RWBY sitting at the regular table talking. Jaune still had a hard time looking at Weiss, as their ancestors were together, and Connor's teasing about how far stretched the gene pool was that it would lead to no consequences with children. Jaune and Connor took a seat at the table.

"What are we teasing Ice Queen about?" asked Connor.
"Well, it turns out that Weiss here has a crush on a guy she dreamt up." replied Yang in a fit of snickers.
"I don't know why, but the dream felt so real, and this Marson character gave me this warm feeling inside, like it was a burning fire." said Weiss, tired of Yang's antics.

Both Jaune and Connor looked at each other, visibly freaking out. Weiss somehow knew about Marson Milet, which was not a good thing, no matter what way you tried to cut that cake. What else did Weiss know, did she know about the assassins, or about Jaune's lineage? Very concerning questions.

Jaune was trying his hardest not to burst out into a vat of nerves, with Weiss having a crush on hi-their ancestor. Weiss could never find out this information, it would lead to too many questions from her, ones where she would force him to tell the truth, exposing the assassins and their lineage to her.

Connor, on the other hand, was better at keeping his feelings inside, including the extreme fear that he currently felt. "It is, however, only a dream. I don't think you should pay a lot of attention to it. Besides, I'm pretty sure that the one for you isn't some dreamt up man. Maybe, the one for you is a lot closer than you think." He sent Jaune a smirk, evidence of how he had been hanging around Yang too much.

"I suppose that your point has some merit Connor, but I find it hard to believe that this 'one for me' is as close to me as you appear to believe he is. Besides, I'm not too sure what I would even want in a man, much less something like 'the one for me'." replied Weiss.
"I suppose that at the end of the day, your heart is your greatest ally. Listen to what it says and you can't go wrong. That's how it worked for me anyway." said Connor, as he glances over to team NDGO chatting with May and Roy. "It worked out really well."
"Maybe I will in the future, but for now, I would much rather focus on my career as a huntress and worry about love later."
"That kind of thinking has more often than not lead to lonely middle-aged women who had to settle for a second fiddle. As a wise woman once said, 'Enjoy your youth and love. Don't let anything get in the way of how you feel for someone'."

Dorothy actually told Connor that, seeing as she was a woman well past her prime with no husband or children to speak of. Ozpin was probably the same as well, if his appearance was anything to go off.

"Well, enough about all that, I heard that the Atlas student will be arriving soo-" Yang was cut off when Nora threw a grape at her.
"Also off that topic, what the hell is with the giant binder?" asked Connor as he pointed to the giant binder on the end of the table.
"Ruby too the initiative to plan a day out for all of us. She also stole my binder." replied Weiss.
"I told you, I am no crook." exclaimed Ruby.
"That's what you said when mum found you sniffing around the cookie jar when you were 8. But who was it that stole those cookies again?" teased Connor.

"We were originally making fun of Blake for being boring and going over notes from last semester, but now we moved onto Weiss and her crush. Ruby made a list of activities for us for the last day of holidays, so we figured we'd go along with it." said Yang, indicating to each of the teammates in turn.

"Well I for one think tha-" began Weiss before she was cut off by a cream pie to the face. Connor looked back to see Nora pointing to Ren, who had his head in his hands, and Pyrrha with a shell shocked expression.

There was only one thing to do in this situation.

"FOOD FIGHT!!!"

———

Sun was retelling the events of the previous semester to his partner, Neptune. "So then we were fighting side by side, and she was super fast. And I threw a banana at a guy, which sounds gross but it was awesome."
"Nice."
"Right? And the best part is, she's a faunus." continued Sun, before releasing what he said. "But that's a secret, okay?"
"Got it."
"And not a 'I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back' secret. I'm talking secret secret."
"Woah, chill out man, okay? I got it. I got it."
"You better. I just don't wanna screw this up, you know?" said Sun as the began to walk by the windows, completely missing the staining and bodies hitting the windows. "The people here are the coolest! No offence to you guys."
"None taken."
"Okay they're just in here." said Sun as he pointed to the entrance to the cafeteria. "I'm really excited for you to meet them, so be cool, okay? You're gonna be cool, right?"
"Dude..." said Neptune as he got into a cool stance and had his teeth glisten in the sunlight.
"Good point."

Sun and Neptune enter the cafeteria, but are immediately greeted by screaming and fleeing students. They turn their attention towards a maniacal laugh.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" shouted Nora as she continued with her strange laugh, standing atop a collection of upturned tables and other dining appliances, with her team.

"Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! It will be DELICIOUS!" screamed Ruby, crushing a carton of milk with her hands, and enticing her team to scream in their support.

Connor stood in the middle of the battleground, one arm raised above his head. "The war between RWBY and JNPR is now in effect! No mercy on the battle field! May the best team... WIN!" he shouted as he brought his hand down, beginning the war. "Oh, Sun's over there, I'm gonna go talk to him."

"Off with their heads!" screamed Nora, as she jumped down from her high tower, behind a table that housed a large amount of watermelons. Ren jumped over three watermelons, kicking the tray that they were on, before kicking the melons over towards RWBY. Jaune rolled whilst picking up a melon and hauled it towards his sister team, while Pyrrha simply picked up a watermelon in each hand and threw them in the same direction. Nora flipped the table and sent the melons off towards the enemy, who now faced a massive onslaught of melons.
"Yang! Turkey!" ordered Ruby, as her sister rushed forward and did a front flip that sent he hands into a pair of turkeys, before punching them together and charging at the watermelons. Yang began her assault, using her turkey-fists to destroy the watermelon that were intercepting her path, and clearing the way for Blake to jump over her, grabbing a pair of baguettes and charging team JNPR.

She and Yang destroyed the remaining melons, before Yang launched her turkeys towards Pyrrha, who moved out of the way, only for the turkeys to be on a collision course with Jaune. Jaune, luckily, caught the two turkeys and threw them to either side, as Pyrrha turned around and dodged a blow from Blake from above, before counteracting with an overhead swing from her own baguette, which Blake blocked with her two baguettes. The two fiercely stared at each other, emerald eyes meeting amber ones, before their assaults began.

Pyrrha started by swinging her bread in a right arc, hoping to catch Blake off guard and strike her, but Blake used her shadow clones to dodge with a jump over Pyrrha, landing behind her and trying her own circular slash with her two bread blades. Pyrrha was faster, and front flipped out of the way just in time, before returning the assault with another curved slashed followed by another slash that came from below, the first of which Blake dodged with a backflip, and the second being deflected with one of her pieces of bread. Pyrrha tried another curved slash, but Blake used her shadow clones again to jump over her, throwing one of her baguettes at Pyrrha, who dodged with a backstop, watching the bread break in two, before rushing forward and attacking Blake with a stabbing motion, who was thrown back towards her team.

Pyrrha saw her bread was broken, and picked up Blake's unbroken one before launching it like a javelin at Yang, who broke it with a punch, and the following one with a high kick, but was caught by a third bread spear to the stomach. Falling on her back, Ruby rushed forward surfing on the edge of a table on a tray, knocking off all the remaining food and plates onto the floor. She jumped up with her tray now in her hands, and reflected a bread spear back at Pyrrha, who dodged it with a forward roll. Regaining her balance, she had just enough time to block her face with her arms as Ruby surfed the tray straight into her arms, sending her back.

Jaune, Ren and Nora all rushed forward to attack Ruby, but Ruby stepped out of the way, revealing Weiss with a bottle of tomato sauce, who sprayed it all over the floor. Jaune jumped over the condiment attack, but Ren was caught and slipped in the sauce, rolling forward past Jaune and slamming into a pile of tables, food and crockery. With the mass of stuff going into the air, Nora jumped onto a table to reach higher, whilst Jaune grabbed his own baguette and charged at the partners. Nora however, swung onto one of the flat poles, breaking it off and falling back to the ground, into a watermelon, to which she used as a hammer, going for an overhead swing at Weiss, but Ruby jumped in the way, and was sent backwards, with Jaune hot on her heels.

Weiss rolled to the side, and picked up a swordfish, before holding it in her signature battle stance, before rushing forward and thrusting at Nora, who blocked the fish with her metal pole, before being pushed back, doing a backflip to land on her feet, and rushing forward toward Weiss to do battle. Nora jumped high into the air, and went for an overhead smash, but feinted out as Weiss performed a curved slash towards her, before Nora started twirling her watermelon hammer around her body, forcing Weiss to go on the defensive, before slamming into her and sending her flying back into a pillar, that broke apart instantaneously.

Ruby was in the middle of deflecting one of Jaune's slashes with her tray when she saw Weiss begin to fall towards the ground. Gasping, she left Jaune in the dust and rushed over to Weiss, who was about to be crushed by the pillar. Ruby caught her mid fall and moved out of the way of the falling debris, before clutching an unconscious Weiss close to her. "Weiss. Weiss! Don't leave me!" She pulled her head back for dramatic flare, screaming "NOOO!!" as the pillar came crashing down behind her, sending an array of tables, crockery and food up in the air.

Yang jumped past her sister and teammate, and somersaulted into a pair of turkeys again. Jaune rushed up behind her, catching up to her, as Ren jumped over a vending machine and a non-turned over table, grabbing a pair of leeks. The three yelled out a battle cry, and charged at each other, Yang brought her foot up for a high kick to Ren's face, who blocked it by placing his leeks in a cross guard. Jaune went for an overhead slash at Yang's head, who followed Ren's lead and blocked it with a cross guard using her turkey fists. Yang had a stare off between Ren and Jaune, staring menacingly into each other's eyes, and waiting for the other to make the first move.

"Hey, how long do you think it will take Yang to realise that her skirt probably just gave Ren an eyeful?" asked Connor.

Yang made the first move, bringing her foot back and performing a jumping roundhouse kick in Ren's direction, who ducked under it, before facing behind her and punching Jaune, who deflected with his baguette blade. Ren brought his knee up to attack Yang's exposed side, but Yang blocked it with her turkey, and punched Ren across the face, and going for a three hit combo to his chest. Jaune went for a curved slash to the side of her head, but Yang blocked it with one of her fists, using the other to punch Ren across the face again. Yang sent the hand that was holding Jaune's blade back, which made him jump back giving Ren the space to pull off his own attack, who counterattacked by bringing his leek around in the direction he was spinning face to Yang's punch, putting extra force behind the attack, that Yang blocked with her two turkeys. Ren moved the other leek towards her face from the opposite direction, which Yang then ducked under, leading to Ren going for an reverse overhead slash that Yang redirected with both her turkeys again. Ren went to drive his elbow into Yang, but she blocked it with a punch, making Ren stumble back, Yang drove an overhead punch into Ren's head, sending him to his hands and knees, before delivering a devastating uppercut, sending Ren into the air.

Ren wasn't done, as he threw his leaks to the ground where Yang was, who jumped up high to get out of the way and deliver a devastating blow to the back of her fellow huntsman-in-training. Yang was, however, shocked, when Jaune appeared out of nowhere, pushing Ren out of the way, and blocking the attack with his baguette, that broke upon contact with Yang's fist, and sent him to the ground at high speed. Jaune caught himself and landed on his feet, leaving a small crater in the floor. He picked up another baguette and charged Yang. Jaune went for an diagonal reverse overhead slash, which Yang dodged, before chaining it with a diagonal overhead slash in the opposite direction, making an X. Yang blocked the second one with her turkey, before going for a punch to the head, which Jaune evaded, and followed up with a thrust towards Yang's head. Yang countered this by punching the bread blade, which made the baguette shatter upon impact. Yang gave a victorious smirk, before realising that Jaune was nowhere to be seen, disappearing behind the bread crumbs. She looked down to find Jaune under her, lifting himself up and lunging at her. Yang, for some reason, felt fear, and for a moment, Jaune resembled the Grimm Reaper himself, before she was caught off guard as Jaune shoved an apple in her gaping mouth. Yang was caught completely off guard, giving Jaune the chance he needed to sidestep out of the way and let Nora do her thing.

And by that, he meant letting her launch Yang through the air with a reverse overhead slam to her midsection, which broke the melon.

All the while, the students from Shade were sitting quietly, enjoying their breakfast.
"So, who do we have first?" asked Gwen as she moved her head forward slightly to avoid a high velocity apple hitting the side of her head.
"Professor Port, it think." replied May as she reached up, grabbing a stray baguette and breaking it in half, offering half to Roy, who gladly accepted.
"I swear, if I hear one more story of how he vanquished a Grimm and got to have sex with all the ladies in the village, I'm gonna lose it." said Octavia, stabbing her knife into the air and catching an apple that was headed their way.
Roy looked over at the two fighting teams. "Such a waste of perfectly good food." he muttered.
"At least it's just like home." said Nebula.
"Yeah, except at home I don't have to worry about-" he cut himself off bu reaching out and stopping a watermelon hitting him at high velocity. "-that."

Yang was sent into the air, crashing through the roof of the cafeteria. Blake backflipped out of the way of the falling debris, and picked up a string of sausages that she used as a whip. She sent a strike Jaune and Nora's way, but Jaune jumped over it and charged at her, whilst Nora was hit and sent into a vending machine, which quickly dented, sending cans of soft drink everywhere. Nora, getting an only Nora idea, shakes up one of the cans before launching it at Blake and Jaune. Jaune side rolls out of the way before he gets hit, with Blake backflipping to move out of the way. Nora continues her assault, launching another two cans at Blake, who stops dead in her tracks and moves to the side to avoid them. Pyrrha rejoined the fight by using her semblance to control the cans, and send a flurry of them in Blakes direction. Blake managed to avoid a few, before getting caught up in so many that she had no chance of escaping the wrath of the cans. Pyrrha ramped up her assault, sending a pair of waves of cans towards Blake, who was caught up in the assault, and sent into the wall, where she was continuously pelted by cans, staining her and her uniform.

Ruby got up again, and gave JNPR the look as Blake fell down behind her, messy and stained. Silver eyes met the remaining four pairs, as she crouched into a runner's position, and rushed forward, her semblance now in effect. The air pressure messed with the can's trajectory, and the cans began to follow Ruby as she made her way towards team JNPR. Jaune rushed forward, ready to collide into her, but was picked up by Ruby, as she began spinning violently, rushing towards the wall. The remnants of his team were caught up in the after-wind of Ruby with the cans and remainder of the food. Ruby stopped suddenly, Jaune being slammed into the back wall as it shattered, with Ren, Nora and Pyrrha joining soon after. Ruby leapt out of the way and Jaune saw the onslaught of food coming. He ducked his head under the food, with all the food going over him and hitting the back wall where his team was. Ruby landed again, behind a collage of colour and food. Three human shapes fell from the wall, splatting on the ground next to Jaune.

"I love these guys." said Sun, as he and Connor had a high-five, whilst Neptune looked at the two, covered in grape soft drink, clearly not impressed.

At that moment, Glynda Goodwitch stormed through the doors, in a foul mood and it written all over her face. She halted a stray platter of food coming her way, before swiping her riding crop and watching as the cafeteria began to mend itself, with tables flying high, and the students from Shade somehow going along for the ride. As the task was finished, with the Shade students too dizzy to stand up, she turned her attention to the two teams. "Children please. Do not play with you food." she seethed, fixing her glasses. Nora took the opportunity to burp, and Yang plummeted back down through the ceiling, smashing into the ground. Glynda was ready to chew them up, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Let it go." said Ozpin.
Glynda sighed. "They're suppose to be the defenders of the world."
"And they will be. But right now they're still children." said Ozpin, watching as Yang stood up, brushed herself off, and gave them a thumbs up. "So why not let them play the part?" He took his hand off her shoulder, turned his back to her, and began walking away. "After all, it isn't a role they'll have forever."

Connor couldn't think of any way he could put it better, before he got a text from Roman, and his plans for that night changed dramatically.

———

Connor was pulling down a crate that was handed to him by a White Fang grunt, and began pushing it towards Roman. Neo had cast an illusion over him to make him a member of the White Fang with wolf ears. Neo was there too, in the background, making sure the illusion held.

Roman had told him the plan. That the Templars would be visiting him tonight, two of that Cinder woman's underlings. All he had to do was not stand out, get a few pictures, get the plan, and get out.

Simple was never in his life.

Just then, a bullhead descended on the base. Two people got out. One was a tan girl in a lime crop top and white sleeveless half jacket with a gem symbol, white jeans and brown leg guards, with dual pistol holsters between her back and ass and short hair that matched the crop top, and a bracelet with the insignia of the templars. The other was a boy, with grey hair, and a silver and black jacket. He wore long pants that covered all but his shoes, which were also silver and black, had silver armguards and a cloth around his waist. His insignia was a necklace.

Connor watched as they walked up to Roman, who was clearly annoyed at their presence, but not only because they were Templars. No, these kids just plain old annoyed him.

"Oh look, she sent the kids again." he walked up behind them and pulled them into a semi-hug by grabbing their heads. "It's turning out just like the divorce." He was also smart, plucking a strand of hair from each of them and pocketing it.
"Save us the thoughts of you procreating." said the girl.
"That was a joke." said Roman, before pulling something out of his pocket. "And this just might tell me where you two have been all day."
"What?" said the girl again, in pure disbelief, looking into her own pocket, and finding nothing there.
"I'm a professional sweetheart. Pay attention and you just might learn something." It took all Connor had in him not to snicker. Roman looked down onto the paper, before freezing up. "Why do you have this address?" he asked.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" retorted the girl.
"Yeah, I would. Now where have you been all day?" asked Roman again.
This time, the boy stepped up. "Cleaning up your problems. One of them, at least."
"I had that under control." muttered Roman.
"Two packed bags and a ticket out of Vale said otherwise." responded the boy.

That's when Connor realised what was on the paper. 'Tuskon... oh no.' Tuskon was a friendly for the assassins. Connor organised that ticket for him. Tuskon was a leak.

"Listen, you little punk, if it were up to me I'd take you and your little street-rat friend here, and I would-" he began.
"Do what, Roman?" asked a voice.

Connor froze up. That voice. The voice that installed fear into Roman and Neo, the Templar inner circle herself.

Cinder had arrived on scene.

"Hahaha, I'd uh, not kill them?"
"Cinder!" said the girl. She went up to talk to her, but Cinder completely brushed her off.
"I thought I made it clear that you were to eliminate the would-be runaway." she said, stalking up to Roman.
"I was going to."
"He was going to escape to Vacuo. Mercury and I decided to take it upon ourselves to kill the rat." said the girl.
'Mercury. One down, one to go.' thought Connor.
"I think he was some sort of cat actually." said Mercury.
"What, like a puma?"
"Yeah, there you go."
"Quiet." ordered Cinder. "Did I not specifically instruct you two to keep your hands clean while in Vale?" she asked as Roman laughed silently at their expense.
"I just thought-" began the girl.
"Don't think. Obey." said Cinder, as Roman made the universal sign of decapitation. "That is the will of the father of understanding, to obey the Isu."
"Yes ma'am. It won't happen again."
"And you." she turned to Roman. "Why wasn't this job done sooner?"
"Uh... eh." muttered Roman, pointing to Connor and his crate full of dust. "Eh.", pointing to several crates of dust. "EH!", gesturing too the shipment containers of Dust behind him. "Sorry if I've been a little busy stealing every speck of dust in the kingdom."
"You're an inspiration to every punk with a gun and a ski mask." sarcastically quipped Mercury.
"Look around kid, I've got this town running scared. Police camping out at every corner. Dust prices through the roof. And, we're sitting pretty in an old warehouse with more dust crystals, vials and rounds than we know what to do with."

"Speaking of which," began Roman, hoping to squeeze out some intel from Cinder for Connor. "if you guys wouldn't mind filling me in on your grand-master plan, it might actually make my next string of robberies go a little smoother."
'Please take the bait.' pleaded Connor, looking back to Neo who was recording the whole thing, and had yet to be noticed.
"Oh Roman, have a little faith." she brushed her hand across his cheek. "You'll know what you need when you need to know it."
'Shit.' thought Roman, before grunting and turning away.

"Besides, we're done with dust." said Cinder, as she pulled her hand away.
"Okay. Then what now?" asked Roman.
"We're moving." said Cinder, beginning to walk away. "Have the White Fang clear out this building. I'll send you details and coordinates tonight."
"Coordinates?"
Cinder looked back at Roman. "We're proceeding to phase two." The three of them began to walk away. "May the father of understanding guide us."
"You still haven't told me what that means yet!" shouted Roman after her. Clearly being ignored, Roman pulled out a cigar and place it in his mouth, before feeling his pocket, yet not feeling his lighter. He heard the flick of a lighter, and looked up to see the girl holding the lighter, sticking her tongue out, closing it, and throwing it back.

Connor made his move. He walked across the entryway, out as the bullhead was taking off, and threw a shrunken tracker at the bullhead, getting it caught in one of the side engines. They would have to work a long time to get it out, as it would explode when touched. Connor wore a heavy frown as he slipped out of the factors, and having Neo change him back.

"This is bad. Really bad."

———

Hey guys, so that was the next chapter of The Rose Assassin. Be sure to vote and comment, and check out my new story , Jaune Arc, Sinbad Reincarnate. I'll be sticking to the schedule again, so the next chapter should emerge February 25 in Australia. But for now, Striker777, over and out.