A soft, mechanical hum was the only sound in the tiny windowless box, interrupted by the occasional ping of another passed floor. TaiYang Xiao Long stared absently at the cluster of round-numbered buttons on the wall before him. He only vaguely noticed each time the backlight went out and appeared behind the next in line.

35. 36. 37. 38.

He blinked, rather slowly, and crept his sunken eyes up past the digital read above the door, to the light mounted in the ceiling. His bright baby-blue lit up in conquest as the pupils yielded as much room as they could. The beautiful vibrancy was a harsh contrast, the only apparent life left in his gaunt, pale face.

The elevator slowed to a stop, marked by one final chime of the bell and the doors slid open in silence. Tai heard someone request that he enter. He blinked, slow, and looked down to find a man sitting behind a massive desk in the center of a spacious high ceiling office.

The man stared past his spectacles and smiled patiently as Tai made his way to the center of the room. "Please sit," he said, gesturing to the single chair across from himself.

"I'm sorry for being late, Oz," Tai responded as he sank into his seat. His voice was rough, haggard as if he hadn't made use of it for some time.

Professor Ozpin frowned. "You aren't late, Tai."

Tai blinked slowly once more. He glanced up at the gargantuan clock face housed in the wall above them. A great many gears of all types and sizes sat suspended in an intricate display, shifting and spinning without end and both of its hands rested firmly in place nearby a large obsidian X.

"Oh," Tai huffed out a weak laugh, "I guess you'd know better than anyone. Sorry."

Ozpin gave the man a sad, almost pitied smile, "How are the girls holding up?"

Tai spent a moment considering the question; long enough that Ozpin might feel he wouldn't answer. "Yang." he began. "She's never at the house anymore. She either spends all her time in town or the forest doing-" he hesitated, his face growing darker, graver. "I don't really know what she does. She's always hurt and tired when she comes back, though. And she's always angry, always snapping at me, always snapping at her sister."

Another moment passed in silence. Tai looked back up at Ozpin. "Did you know her eyes are red?" A faint smile ghosted onto his lips, "just like Raven's. For some reason, I've always thought they were purple."

Neither man spoke. Tai sat there and smiled down at his hands. He'd not thought about Raven for years. His lips began to quiver a bit as Ozpin stood and strode from the desk. A sharp, quiet metallic click filled the room every time he set his walking cane to the tiles. The clicks stopped, and soon the hard aroma of fresh coffee began to fill the empty air.

Tears were sliding down Tai's cheeks when Ozpin returned and offered him a delicate glass, emitting a thin steam. "And what of Ruby?" Ozpin asked, leaning both himself and his cane against the table's edge.

Tai took the glass between two gloved hands, sipped from it, and set it aside to cool. "Ruby is-" he paused and took a deep, deliberate breath. "Ruby isn't doing that great, Oz. She's lost all of her energy. She doesn't talk to anyone. Barely does anything that someone her age should be doing, like laughing. Or smiling." He scratched at the stubble on his jaw, hesitating. "She's so young," he said, "too young to understand why, I think, but she knows that her mom- that Summer- isn't ever coming back."

Ozpin sipped from his glass. He laid a gentle hand on Tai's shoulder, "I'm truly sorry for what your family is dealing with right now." He waited. When Tai failed to respond, Oz stood and made his way back around the desk. "Summer was a fine huntress, we both know that, and she was an even better person. Remnant is a darker place without her."

Still, Tai did not respond.

Ozpin reclaimed his seat and leaned onto the table, hands crossed before him. "I know some part of you blames me." He sighed. "I blame myself, as well. If I hadn't-"

"Don't!" Both men refused to meet each other's gaze. More tears forced there way out of Tai, burning as they stained his face. "Don't- She knew the dangers of being a huntress. We all do. We'd have all died long ago if it weren't for you."

Ozpin untangled his hands and retrieved his coffee. They both sat quietly and listened to the minutes tick by on the giant clock above them. Ozpin finished his glass and set it back on the table. "I want to help you get through this, Tai, but in order to do that I must be sure that you still trust me."

"I do."

"Then please hear me out."

Tai waited. When Ozpin did not continue, he spoke up again. "I'm listening."

"I need you to go to Mistral."

"What?"

"In Mistral, you will find a man that calls himself 'Tiger.' He is a dangerous man with dangerous habits, and I would like you to assist the police there in neutralizing him."

"Wait. How is this supposed to help me, and what about my kids?" Tai's mind began racing. It made no sense.

Ozpin held his hand out. "Let me finish, Tai."

Silence.

"Thank you. I'll be honest; I don't really know how this will help you, but I have a feeling that in confronting this man you will find something in his possession that is of great importance to you." Ozpin moved his hand to his empty glass, made to drink, and stopped with a frown. He glanced across the room at the fresh pot, clearly considering if he should get more before continuing. He merely set the glass back down with a sigh. "Qrow will watch the girls while you are away."

Tai's brow furrowed. "No," he said with no shortage of finality.

"Qrow is their uncle. He loves them just as much as you."

"He's irresponsible."

"Not with these matters."

"He's a drunk!"

Ozpin sighed again, leaning back in his chair. "When was the last time you saw him drinking near those two?"

Tai mirrored Oz; crossing his own arms. "I try not to let him near my children."

"And I'm sure they're very grateful for it."

Tai stood from his chair with such violence that he struck the table and sent his forgotten glass off the edge. It clattered to the ground and shattered, splashing the cold coffee into an ugly little puddle. The two men stared each other down. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to this."

"And what will you do when they enroll in Signal? Will you force a substitute into every class that they have with him? Perhaps you'll cover these classes yourself, as well as your own?"

Slowly, Tai straightened his back and stretched his gloves over each knuckle. He rounded toward the elevator and began to march away. He jammed his finger into the call button and waited for all of nothing before doing it twice more.

"Consider the state you're in, Tai. Consider how it affects them," Ozpin called from his seat.

The doors pinged open, and Tai was inside, slamming his fist into the group of buttons. The doors closed with another ping.


The nerve of that old bastard. How dare Ozpin suggest that Qrow, of all people, come anywhere near his kids; how dare he even imply that Tai himself was part of the trouble his family was facing! In all the years Tai's known him, Oz never once felt the need to talk about himself in anything more than vague, cryptic riddles. He knew Ozpin had been around a long time- far longer than anybody- but he also knew that the man never had a family, So Oz couldn't possibly have the slightest clue what he was talking about.

Tai stepped off the ramp leading from the ferry and onto the single small platform that made up Patch's dock. Patch was a quaint little town on the of a quaint little island. Small towns often have a certain air of tension about them even to this day, due to the higher chance of Grimm attack, but not Patch. It was close to Vale, the capital, so it benefitted from many of their defenses. The water around the island was far too shallow for many of the more massive aquatic Grimm to maneuver, and perhaps most importantly, most of the residents were licensed or retired Huntsman and Huntresses who'd settled here to raise their families. Tai was one such Huntsman. He and what family remained to him lived in a cabin a short walk into the woods. He liked it. It was nice and quiet.

It was mid-day, and the street was bustling as Tai made his way down it. The many stall vendors sat behind their wares quietly as people moved about making purchases. Some greeted Tai, and he absently greeted those that he noticed: Terra, selling the fruit from her garden; Denim, with his vast selection of liquor; Fulvo, who interrupted his own attempt at convincing an unfamiliar but pretty young girl to buy a blouse he'd just sewn.

Tai began to loosen as he strolled through the thin crowd. This always happened when he came home; the atmosphere just fit him too well. The sharp chink of a hammer striking against metal rose up over the surrounding noise, growing louder still as he approached the exit. Smoke billowed from the stone chimney jutting out from atop a short building with an open facade. Inside, the Smith pounded on an unfinished breastplate as the forge burned next to him.

Tai slowed his advance to watch a bit longer, and the man glanced up from his work. A broad grin broke out from behind his bushy, black mustache and he paused. "TaiYang Xiao Long!" he exclaimed in greeting. "Back from Beacon already? I hope Vale hasn't burned to the ground!" The man laughed as he moved the breastplate into the furnace and stood.

Tai stopped and returned the smile as he said, "Hello Argon. Vale stands another day I'm afraid. Sorry to disappoint."

Argon moved toward Tai and laughed again. "Well, that is quite a shame. My hopes remain shattered." He stopped just at the edge of his shop, his bald head catching the sunlight with a bright gleam. "I hope your business concluded smoothly."

"Everything stayed relatively on track," Tai replied, "How's the shop been? Pick up any new customers today?"

Argon frowned and straightened a sword that had caught his attention hanging on a wrack next to several others and various pieces of armor. He conducted business out of this room just as much as he did the central section of his shop. "Not today, no, just finishing up on some old orders."

"Well, not every day can be a tragic flow of broken spades and chipped pots for you to profit off of I'm afraid," Tai said.

Argon perked up at the jab, his frown deepening just before he burst out laughing. "You're not wrong there, Tai! You're not wrong there."

TaiYang's smile broadened into a grin. He opened his mouth to continue but a voice small and delicate, cut him off. "Excuse me," he heard, and whirled on instinct at some phantom hope.

"I'd like to buy a weapon." It was that same unfamiliar girl from before.

Tai recomposed himself; Argon had already stopped laughing and shifted into business mode. "Then you've come to the right place little miss," he said, gesturing for her to enter, "I'm the finest smith on Patch, and it's not at all to do with being the only Smith on Patch."

Tai lingered only long enough to chide himself for his foolishness before resuming his walk. He could hear the market sounds, and Argon's stellar salesmanship specifically, even as he made his way through the town gate. They slowly faded to be replaced by the quiet tranquility of the forest, and the overbearing suppression of his own thoughts.


He'd fallen back into that mode again by the time the clearing became apparent through the trees: the one he seemed to spend all his days in lately when left to his own devices. He'd spent the whole trek unable to think of anything other than how much he missed Summer and had almost not made it home before nightfall, losing sight of the path and taking all manner of wrong turns. The sun hung low, just over the treetops as he approached the carved wood door of the cabin and paused.

Tai forced a smile on his face. The corner of his mouth quivered. He let it fall, finding a smile just too hard to maintain before he opened the door. "I'm home," he said. He did manage to make his voice slightly more than a flat croak.

He was first greeted by the stiff, professional voice of the local news anchor, then by the sight of a rugged, sharp-featured, salt-and-peppered old buzzard sitting on the couch.

"Sup," said the man, pressing a button on the remote held aimed at the translucent screen before him. The channel flicked from news to some childish cartoon, and he set the remote down with a snicker.

Tai took a moment to contain as much of his anger as he could manage. "What the hell are you doing here, Qrow?" he growled

Qrow lay sprawled on the couch; feet propped over the glass coffee table. He threw a short glance in Tai's direction before saying, "what does it look like? I'm watching TV."

Tai's hands tightened into fists. "Get out," he growled again.

Qrow smirked as he crossed his hands behind his head. "Is that any way to talk to your old teammate-"

"Get out!"

Qrow fell silent, frowning, watching Tai with those crimson eyes that resembled Raven's far too closely.

Tai's body went rigid. He ground his teeth as his lips pulled back and he snarled like some wild animal. "Stop it," he said, his voice low and full of warning.

"I don't think I will."

"STOP! IT!" Tai slammed his fist into the wall next to him, the wood crunched under the force, and a visible shudder ran through the entire structure. Everything that wasn't nailed down was sent shaking and swaying: the pictures on the wall(one of which fell from its hanging to shatter on the floor), the TV, small tables and the various objects that rested on them at the far sides of the room. Silence fell, corrupted by the incessant gibbering of the cartoon on the screen. Still, Qrow stared at him.

Tai made to move toward the man but stopped when he heard a small sound. "Dad?" The voice said, female and frightened, "what are you doing?" He shifted his eyes over to where it had come from and there found a young girl frowning at him.

He deflated entirely at the sight of her; at the big, round, purple eyes watching his every move; at the wild golden hair tied into two loose pigtails on either side of her head; at the tiny scrapes and cuts that covered every inch of her with only the largest of them having seen any attention. He rushed to her, any trace of his rage gone. "Yang, are you alright? What happened?" he demanded, falling on his knees to get a closer look.

Yang recoiled slightly under his scrutiny and turned away, scrunching her face at the floor. "Nothing happened Dad; I'm fine."

"Nothing? Yang, you look like you got attacked by a Grimm!"

She muttered something he could not hear.

"Yang. Please." He reached out and took her little hand in his ginger grip.

The girl rounded on him. She pulled her hand back with a violent jerk and tears began to well up in her eyes. "Why should I tell you?" She balled the hand that he had taken into a fist and wrapped it protectively in her other. "It's not like you care! Ever since- Ever since what happened to Mom, you haven't cared!" The tears flowed down her face. She took a short, quick step back from him and her voice dropped low as if she were too drained to speak to him directly. "You just sit there every day and do nothing." She began to crescendo. "You never go anywhere. You never do anything. I have burns all over because the oven is too big for me, but you aren't going to cook, or even eat unless I force it. Ruby has no idea whats going on because you won't even look at her!"

She spat the last bit through her teeth like venom and Tai could feel it burn him as he heard it. He remained frozen in place, his hand hovering before him, his mind racing past far too quickly for him to latch onto any actual thought.

Yang dropped her arms when he offered no reactions to her words. The surreal purple of her eyes began to shade over with a brutal, deep, bloody red and she sucked in a heavy breath, throwing her shoulders back to stand at her full height. "Dinner will be ready soon. If you can manage to show up." With that said, she turned and shoved the door open that she had been standing next to and marched back into the kitchen.

Slowly, so slowly, Tai turned his hand over and stared at his palm as if he'd only just now realized how Yang had reacted to his touch. His thoughts continued to push by, swirling and spinning uncontrollably in the massive hurricane that was his mind. He vaguely registered a noise behind him but did not respond to it, only sat on his feet and stared down at his hand. Something hit him. It was soft, but large and carried enough force to jar him back into the world. He turned around and found a pillow sitting on the floor next to him. He heard that same noise again as he reached over and picked it up: someone clearing their throat.

"You were right ya know," he heard Qrow say from the couch. "She was attacked by a Grimm."

Tai forced out his response, voice flat, and grey. "How? Where?"

"She brought Ruby to the old cabin after you left this morning. Looking for any sign of her mo- of Raven. I showed up just in time to keep them from getting too beat up." Qrow paused, and let out a single dry huff. "You probably know this somewhere inside that screwed up head of yours but Ruby's pretty crazy. She was asleep the whole time: on the way there, through the fight, even now."

They both sat in silence after Qrow made his statement. "What the fuck am I doing, Qrow?" Tai said after some time.

"Grieving"

"Oh, is that all? This should be easy to deal with, then." Tai attempted a wry smile, standing once he realized that not only did he likely fail, but Qrow couldn't see it anyway.

"At least you've got sarcasm down. And me. You've still got me."

"Lucky me," he said tossing the pillow back into an empty place on the couch, only for it to bounce right onto the floor.

Qrow frowned at the pillow, humming a single, thoughtful note. "Apparently not."

Tai laughed. It was low and weak, but it was genuine. He watched as Qrow bent down to grab the pillow and place it where Tai had thrown it before saying, "What should I do?"

Qrow stood without facing him and straightened his grey dress shirt. "I think you should go. If you stay here, everything is just going to remind you of your sadness. It'd be like using a knife to bandage a stab wound," he said before turning to look at Tai. "Plus, Ozpin usually knows what he's doing. He has a lot of secrets, and his own motives, and he's always tugging at strings, but he's not diabolical. You can trust him, I do." He smiled. "And I'll try not to be a bad influence while you're gone."

Tai said nothing. He only pondered the man's words with a nod and looked away, stalking around the room and into the hallway. He stopped and rested his hand on a door that was slightly ajar, took a deep breath, and pulled it open. It was dark inside the room. Toys lay scattered across the floor. On the dresser beside him sat a rough crayon drawing of three stick figures. A small lump stirred in the bed as he grabbed a nearby stool and made his way toward it. A mop of straight red and black hair poked out from beneath the spread.

He sat and watched her sleep for a moment; she looked so much like Summer he could hardly stand it. He had begun to cry when she rolled over, and her bleary eyes found him.

"Mmhm. Daddy?" she managed before breaking into a yawn.

Tai smiled through his tears. "Hey, baby girl. Did you sleep well?"

The girl slid around and sat up straight, rubbed her face, and yawned again as she nodded. Her bright silver eyes reflected the hallway light when she looked at him and frowned. "Why are you crying Daddy?"

"They're tears of joy, Ruby. Daddy's just really happy to see you."

Ruby's face stretched into grin. "Me too, Daddy!" She raised her arms up to him, waiting.

Tai hesitated before he wrapped his arms around her fragile little frame as gently as he could manage and pulling her to him in a hug as tight as he dared. He buried his face in her hair as much as he could, wetting it with his tears, as she squeezed him with all the might in her tiny arms. They stayed this way for a long moment before he let go and she sat back down. "Listen, Ruby; I have something important to say." He put his hand on her head and rubbed her hair down.

She stared at him with intense focus. "Okay"

He took his hand back and leaned his weight onto his arms as he found her eyes again. "I know I haven't been on my best behavior since Mommy left, and I'm sorry for that. And I'm sorry for this, but Daddy has to go away for awhile. I wish I didn't, but I have something that I have to do, and I need you to do something for me."

Ruby's eyes widened as she listened but she remained silent and focused.

"I need you to be strong while I'm gone. I need you to take care of your sister and keep her out of trouble. Can you do that for me?"

She looked down when he finished speaking. They sat in silence as she took the time she needed to fully understand his words. Her silver eyes burned with determination when she leveled them back on him and said, "promise you'll come back."

The corners of Tai's mouth twitched and his eyes teared up again. "I promise that I will come back."

Ruby grinned again and said, "Okay. Have fun Daddy!"

"Thank you. I will." He poked her cheek and stood to leave. "Now get dressed. Your sister has dinner ready, and your uncle is here."

Her face brightened further. "Uncle Qrow is here!?" she almost screamed and flew from the bed, already dressed, and into the hallway laughing.

Tai watched her go, took one last look around the room and closed the door behind him as he made his way further down the hall to his own room. He flicked the lights on and went around the large bed to the closet, where his duffel bag lay stuffed in the corner, empty. He threw it on the bed, ripped it open and began to pack.