Hey guys. Striker777 here with his last chapter before the HSC. Be sure to vote and all that jazz, but for now, onto the story.

———

"Um... this could be a problem." muttered Connor as he looked at his uncle, who just threw an Atlesian Knight to the ground.
"Why's that?" asked Dew.
"Cause is he's referring to the Ice Queen I think he's referring to... then there may be an international incident between Atlas and Vale." said Connor in a slightly terrified voice. "I also never told him I'm back... and if my sisters did, he'd have stormed Beacon with dad to see me."
"Well, no time like the present." said Nebula. "Go say hi."
"Um... on second thought, and international incident isn't all that bad." concluded Connor who began to walk in the other direction.

"You realised you just destroyed Atlas military property?" asked Winter in a harsh tone at Qrow.
"Ohhhh I'm sorry." said Qrow, obviously drunk. "See, I mistook this for some sort of... sentient garbage."
"I don't have time for your immature games, Qrow." said Winter, in a harsher tone than before.
"Wait, you two know each other?" asked Weiss.

Well, they did know each other. They knew every single cell of the other's body, because they loathed each and every one of them from several prior experiences together, where insults were shot back and forth, and on more than one occasion, things got physical real quick. Connor had seen it once, and wished to never see it again, cause it almost froze him and Summer when they went on a mission to keep Qrow out of trouble in Atlas around 7 years back.

It didn't go so well.

"Geez, you Atlas specialists think you're so special, don't you?" mocked Qrow at the elder Schnee.
"It's in the title." replied said Schnee.
"Well, you know what you really are?" asked Qrow in his drunken, smug voice, just begging for trouble. "A bunch sellouts. Just like your boss."
"I'm not sure what you think you're implying, but I've heard enough." said Winter in a harsh and warning tone.
"Oh, I heard too." said Qrow. "I heard ol' Ironwood finally turned his back on Ozpin."
"Ozpin?" asked Weiss to herself.

"Oh shit, this is not going to end well." said Connor, deciding that he had to intervene.

"Weiss, it's time for you to go." said Winter in an authoritarian tone.
"What?" asked Weiss, looking at her elder sister in shock.
"Listen to big sister, Weiss." mocked Qrow. "She'll protect you. Just like Atlas is gonna protect all of us, huh?"

"I reiterate, oh shit." said Connor to himself.

"If you won't hold your tongue, then I will gladly remove it for you!" threatened Winter, drawing her sword and causing a few students to ooh.
"Alright then." said Qrow, running a hand through his hair, pushing it back, and staring at the Atlesian with a smug look.

"Come take it."

There was absolute silence for a few moments, and Connor hoped that meant that Winter was going to be the bigger person and leave it alone, letting Qrow face the repercussions of his actions by Ozpin's or Ironwoods hands.

All hope for a peaceful resolution vanished when she rushed forward, ready to strike the man.

Appearing in front of an unfazed Qrow, Winter stabs at his head, but he moves his head to the left to dodge it, then to the right to dodge another stab. He turns his head on it's side to dodge a slash from the end stabbing position, still looking confident, before dodging to the right once more, then left and right once more, before bowing with his hands outstretched to dodge another swing. Winter swings her blade down in an overhead slash to finish the foolish charade, but her blade struck Qrow's inactive Harbinger.

Qrow grasps his weapon in his right hand, causing it to extend into it's sword form. He spins around, simultaneously swinging his blade in an arc, causing Winter to step back or else risk losing her weapon. He throw the weapon up as it spins, grasping it in his left hand and holding it out, pointed at Winter in a challenging manner with an arrogant and cocky smile on his face. Winter regained her composure quickly, making a similar pose with her sword, up against Qrow's Harbinger.

The two lightly tapped their blades together, testing the waters, before they both brought their blades up in a guarding position, before Qrow lowered his again, preparing for an attack and Winter held hers in a diagonal defensive position. The crowd was stuck on the two, and more had gathered. This wasn't like the tournament battles they had seen all day.

This was two huntsmen, fully licensed huntsmen, going against each other in a no rule, zero boundary fight.

And it was going to be beautiful.

Qrow does a jumping, swinging slash, causing Winter's blade to be dragged down with his insanely giant sword as opposed to her sabre type weapon too the level of her knee. Qrow then swung his sword in the opposite direction in hopes of catching Winter off guard, but she had just enough time to quickly jump back as he advanced. Qrow performed another swinging horizontal swing, aimed at the Schnee's neck, but Winter just managed to duck under it, but stumbles back slightly. Qrow tries the same manoeuvre again, but Winter used her stumble to perform a backflip out of harms way.

Qrow attempts another spinning horizontal strike, which Winter also backflips out of the way of, followed by a regular horizontal strike in the opposite direction, then another in the opposite direction to the previous one, which lead into another spinning horizontal slash, all of which were dodged with several backflips. Qrow carried his momentum into another spinning slash in the same direction, but Winter blocked it with her sword, her other hand pushing against the flat of her blade up near the tip. The two looked into the eyes of the other, staring them down to try and get in their head to anticipate their next move to counter and swiftly defeat them.

The two then let loose a giant combination of attacks, dodges, parries and counter attacks in order to send their enemies to the ground, which got the students watching hyped up, whilst Connor could only watch his stupid uncle in disbelief. I mean really? Who the fuck picks a fight with an Atlesian Specialists who could easily send a battalion of men to an early retirement or a short trip home for the rest of their lives.

His mother fucking uncle, that's who. And it wouldn't be the first time he pulled something like this.

This is ridiculous.

Ruby had actually just made it to the scene, and pushed to the front to stand by her partner. "What's going on?"
"Some crazy guy just started attacking my sister!" responded Weiss, gesturing to the 'crazy man' who had talked (*cough* *cough* *aggrivated* *cough*) her sister, and had in turn raised and used her sword on him.
"Oh no! Who would do such a th-aaaaat is my uncle!" yelled Ruby as she laid eyes on her uncle and trainer from before Beacon, jumping up and down in glee.
"What?!" asked Weiss in a voice that spoke volumes to her current emotions. Shock, confusion and slight realisation at where her leader got her ridiculous nature from.
"Kick he butt, uncle Qrow!" yelled Ruby to her uncle, who spared her a quick glance and a wink.
"Uhh, teach him respect, Winter!" supported Weiss.

Now, not that Winter would ever admit it, but a small, MINUSCULE, smile appeared on her face.

All allegations with no evidence to back them up.

Connor took notice to Mercury Black, one of the Templars that had infiltrated Beacon with Cinder Fall, and how he retreated from the fight. Quickly calling Washi down, and telling her to follow the guy with the scroll on. Washi seemed to get the message, and quickly went off in the direction that the hidden Templar ran off in.

However, returning to the fight, Qrow tries with another horizontal slash, aimed at the wrist of the Schnee that held her sword, but Winter was able to pull her wrist up enough to narrowly avoid contact. She brought her sword down to her pelvis, the hilt facing the drunken bastard she had locked swords with more than once in the past, and a one legged overhead striker was performed at the man. Qrow sidestepped ho his left, sword raised high, which he planned on bringing down on the white haired woman, but Winter countered this by performing a spinning high block, that prevented his blade from reaching her.

Qrow then improvised by dropping down to the level of her pelvis, and swung his sword up in a reverse overhead slash. Winter was able to jump out of the way, however Qrow uses the position of his sword for a spinning overhead slash while holding the flat of his blade with his other hand to gain speed and power. Winter intercepts this with a one handed horizontal block, and when Qrow backs away to prepare his next attack, she moves in with a stab. Qrow grasps the flat on his blade once more and does his own two handed block, pushing Winter's blade up and throwing off her balance, causing her to stumble back. He goes in for a powerful horizontal slash, but Winter blocks it with her own sword, and the two jump back.

Qrow rushes at the Atlesian Military Specialist, as they both stepped out of the circle of student spectators watching their fight. Winter tries a jumping overhead slash, but Qrow is able to parry it, and move in with a two handed diagonal overhead slash. Winter barely dodges, her eyes going wide as she leans her head back just enough for the blade to miss it's mark. She followed up with an overhead attack, slamming the end of her hilt into the drunken man's face, much to her utter glee and enjoyment. However, Qrow quickly recovered, smirking with a glint in his eyes to tell her that he was far from done. He went with a double handed, one legged overhead slash. Winter knew how devastating that would be if the attack landed, so for the first time in that fight, she activated her semblance. A glyph appeared underneath her feet, and she jumped back as Qrow's Harbinger slammed into the ground, shattering the stone floor and leaving a broken crater with a giant boom.

Qrow looked up at his opponent, who appeared to be soaring in the air like she was a bird, much to Qrow's humour, since he could turn into a bird and fly laps around her. Winter looked down at him with a smug smile, challenging him to see what his next move could be, but this was not the first, and probably not the last time that someone would have a smug smile at Qrow, so he kept his calm and went after her as she began her descent, spinning in a cannonball position.

The Specialist landed on the ground off the courtyard, onto the nice grass, regaining her balance and looking up to see her opponent rushing her, letting out a small, surprised gasp as he jumped up, swinging Harbinger in a horizontal slash through one of the large lampposts of the courtyard and cutting through it like a knife through warm butter. Winter ducked under the slash, but the lamppost fell between the two of them. As Qrow looked up with a smirk, Winter jumped over the lamppost and attacked with a spinning vertical attack. Qrow pulled his sword up and once again held the flat of his blade as Winter performed her attack.

The Specialist landed behind him with a cocky smirk and Qrow went for a horizontal slash. Winter jumped over it landed on the side of his blade. Qrow looks up to see a smirking Winter, her sword slung over her shoulder and her hand on he hip in a cocky smirk, before she performs an upwards kick to the chin, and backflips off his sword and onto the stump of the lamp post. Qrow throws his weapon at her, and Winter jumps out of the way as Harbinger imbeds itself into the stump. Winter performs a few flips in the air before landing on a railing on a single knee. She quickly jumps off, however, when Qrow fires a shot from his gun, striking the area where she just was.

Qrow returns Harbinger to it's original sword mode, and looks up as Winter, who had imbedded her sword into a wall, and looked down at him in return. The two glared at each other momentarily.

"This is not going to end well." muttered Connor.
"What's happening?" asked Octavia.
"Well... uncle Qrow and Winter over there have a bit of a past, and fights like this are usually commonplace. However... they usually end in quite a lot of collateral damage." said Connor, remembering the previously mentioned trip to Atlas, where an entire street of Mantle was destroyed. The two of them were able to come together and claim Grimm did it, but Ironwood always had his doubts. "Besides, this fight is just getting started, since uncle Qrow hasn't pulled out the big guns yet."

Just as he finished that sentence, Qrow rushed down the courtyard, and Winter began running up the wall she had found herself on. Qrow returned Harbinger to it's gun mode, and began firing shots at Winter Schnee as she reached the top of the wall and began running along the top of the archways, shots barely missing her as she kept running. Qrow himself managed to jump up onto another archway a little closer into the school and a little shorter than the one Winter found herself on. He spared a momentary glance at Winter, who was still running, before racing her across the archways, still firing his gun at her as they ran.

Several students had begun taking bets and cheering for their favourite, much to the chagrin of Weiss and Connor. Ruby was really into it, and put her entire cookie allowance on Qrow. The fact that she risked her cookie money for Qrow speaks volumes about how much faith she had in him to beat her partner's sister.

The shots from Harbinger continued to fire, before one seemed to hit and threw up a cloud of dust and debris, making Qrow return to a stand still. Harbinger shifted back into it's sword mode and he stood there, looking at the clouds.

Students cheered or yelled at their respective wins and losses, but Connor knew better. Schnee had more fight in her than that, she was just showing off at this point.

True to his prediction, Winter Schnee appeared from the cloud of dust, rushing at Qrow with a battlecry. Qrow brings up Harbinger in a defensive position. Winter decides to go all out, and clicks a certain compartment that opens up her sword and allows her second blade to spring out into her other hand, as she holds her main sword in a thrusted position and her secondary sword in a thrusting position. She spins around with another battlecry and slams her blades into a cross strike against Harbinger. The resulting force smashed the platform they were standing on into pieces, and the two return to the ground with a smash and a dust cloud, leaving behind another crater in the courtyard.

The two lock swords again, Winter in a cross guard and Qrow in an overhead block before jumping away from each other once more. Their swords lock again as Qrow rushes forward from where he landed and slams his sword into another cross guard, before jumping back and reappearing as Winter tries to go for a horizontal slash at his neck, which Qrow ducks under. and rushes forward following a quick retreat from Winter, doing a combination of a horizontal swing followed by an upwards diagonal strike, which Winter is able to redirect away from her with her swords. Qrow tries an overhead strike, but Winter sidesteps as if she were a ballerina, before performing a cross guard strike on Qrow, pushing him back so much that he drives Harbinger into the ground to slow his movements and not crash into a bunch of students. Qrow ends up in the middle of the Vale emblem and gets into a combat stance, with his sword in a reverse grip behind his back and his hand in front in a hand to hand combat position.

"This is starting to get serious." muttered Connor. "There's going to be hell to pay for this."
"Not good?" asked Dew.
"Not good." reiterated Connor.

Winter performed a move, where she brought her two blades to the left side of her body facing down, then turned so her main blade was behind her in an upwards direction, and the secondary was pointed to the ground right in front of her, she brought her main blade into the air in front of her and spun it around several times, before slamming it into the ground in a reverse grip with her other blade behind her in a regular grip facing the left. She activated her semblance, a glyph appearing beneath her, and several dozen summons, small Nevermores made of ice, flew around her, before launching themselves at the man at high speeds. Qrow brought his blade up to help protect his face as several flew buy and surrounded him. He began slicing them, but more kept coming. Winter smiled as the summons surrounded Qrow in a barrier, but her concentration was broken when an arc of pure wind pressure was launched at her, forcing her to cancel the glyph. She looked down at Qrow, as he looked back at her with a frown on his face.

No more time for playing around.

Another glyph appeared behind Winter, her face in a deep scorn, and she readied another attack at the drunken bastard. Qrow decided it was time to get serious, so he shook his blade, activating the mechashift in Harbinger. It came to life with a series of clanks and cogs turning, then the blade separated into five differed sections, held together with a black underside, which began tilting up to become a curved shape. Winter got into her stance, her right hand holding her main blade in a regular grip behind and over her back, and her other hand holding the second blade in a regular grip behind her body, which was twisted around in a strange way that lead to a strong combo attack.

Qrow was just as serious, before something caught his eye, and his blade whirled again, but this time deactivated. Students winged and cried out at him, and Winter looked at him in shock, before he put Harbinger on his back, looked Winter directly into the eyes, and made the universal, 'Come and get it' motion.

Winter yelled, powering the glyph behind her and propelling herself at top speeds, ready to impale the man's throat and end his miserable life. As she drew ever so close, two things stopped her from doing so.

One, a sudden yell of "Schnee!" from a very familiar voice that brought fear and dread to Winter's mind.

Two, a sudden grasp of her wrist that prevented here from reaching any further at the walking migraine.

She first looked down at her wrist, seeing an black leather protected hand grabbing her, with a black robe, with a drawn down silver hood, revealing a boy with dark skin, black hair and silver eyes, narrowed dangerously at her, if it wasn't specialist Schnee he was glaring at. She pulled her wrist away, shooting her own glare at the boy before facing Ironwood and his escort in her military stance. "General Ironwood, sir!"
"What in the world do you think you're doing?" demanded the general of the Atlesian military.
"He started the altercation, sir." accused Winter, pointing at a still shellshocked Qrow.
"This coming from the one who attacked first?" asked Connor, seeing as Qrow was still shellshocked about him and couldn't respond.
"Is that right?" asked Ironwood, and Winter looked down in shame.

Ironwood did a quick survey of the area, destroyed Knights, landscape and a crowd, to see a pair of highly accomplished individuals go at it. This was going to be a huge pain to deal with.

"And you." said the general, snapping Qrow out of his shocked state. "What are you doing here?"
"I could be asking you the same thing." responded Qrow in an accusation tone.
"I-" began Ironwood before he was interrupted.

"Now, now everyone." said another voice, causing everyone to turn to Ozpin and Goodwitch, who were approaching the scene. "There is a sanctioned fight happening just around the corner at the colosseum that I can assure you has better seats. And popcorn."
"Mmm. Popcorn..." muttered Connor. How long had it been since he'd had some? Not since arriving in Vacuo, so more than 5 years by now.
"Break it up everyone! We will take care of this mess." commanded Goodwitch, and the students started to disperse.
"Let's go." said Ironwood, as he and his escort, Winter included, left the scene. Connor did see Ruby momentarily wave at a girl with orange hair. A friend perhaps? Possibly that Penny girl she told him about.

"UNCLE QROW!" yelled Ruby after she finished waving, rushing over to him with her semblance and latching onto his arm. "Hi." Qrow lifted his arm up to look Ruby in the eye. "Ahh, it's so good to see you! Did you miss me? Did you miss me?!"
"Nope." said Qrow, jokingly, and rustled Ruby's hair. "But Ruby, is that-"
"Qrow." called out Ozpin, making Qrow drop Ruby, who grunted as she hit the floor. "A word, please."
"I think I'm in trouble." whispered Qrow to Ruby, who had just gotten up off the floor.
"You did kinda tear up our courtyard." pointed out Ruby.
"Yeah, I did." said Qrow, fist bumping Ruby. "Catch you later, kid." he said, walking off for a bit before stopping abruptly. "Oh, and if that is Connor, tell him I'm gonna kill him for the last 5 years."

Connor, who was sneaking away, quickly felt a shiver go down his spine, and rushed off to the closest bullhead, with NDGO in tow.

———

"Okay, so today wasn't the best day ever. We got knocked out of the tournament, Connor's uncle threatened to kill him, and that Neptune guy was an asshole." said Nebula.
"Sounds about right." replied Octavia.
"Yeah. However, we can look back at this as a way to remember to get stronger for next time and maybe tell people about coming back from the dead." quipped Dew.
"Get fucked Dew." said Connor.
"Only by you."

"And that brings me to my next point. Let's just forget all about that right now, have a good time, and get our pussies wrecked at the end of this." said Nebula.
"I still can't believe this is how you act." said Connor.
"Get used to it honey, I have needs you know." smirked Nebula.
"Alright. Now, whilst we're here, we may as well talk shop." said Connor. "What do we think is going to happen next?"

"After 'The Breach', Gwen and I did a little digging into the Haven students you told us about. No previous records or anything. They just appeared out of nowhere." said Dew. "It's like they appeared out of nowhere."
"Templars have a talent for that." said Connor. "We can safely assume that the administrator of the school, Lionheart, is siding with the Templars."
"I did a little digging into the new headmaster at Shade." said Nebula. "Perfect position. He used to be the combat instructor, but when Dorothy took over for us first years, he had a little free time on his hands, so he gave her a hand with the paperwork of the school."
"He would have an ample window to kill her." said Connor. "I don't trust him."
"Neither do I, but he doesn't seem to be affiliated with the Templars." said Nebula. "But then that raises the question as to why the Templars didn't put someone else in instead."
"I don't know why, but we can assume that nothing good will come of it." said Connor. "But enough about that for now, let's dig in."

That was enough talk about shop. The group decided that they would enjoy the time they had together, and ate their BBQ, filled with laughter, kisses, and promises to kick a certain blueberry to the sterile group when they next saw him.

They had no idea about the absolute terror that would soon be unfolding.

———

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed. Just to let you all know, with the HSC coming up in a week, there will be no more writing for a while whilst I study and do my tests. I thank you all for your patience, but the next chapter will have to come out 2 weeks later due to this and other personal circumstances, on the 30th of November. I once again thank you for your patience, hope you enjoyed, but for now, Striker777, over and out.