Heyo. I wrote more of this. I didn't plan to, but I thought of more stuff and I had to get it out of my head before I could write my other stories hahaha.
Second Summer: Chapter 02
Ozpin, headmaster of the prestigious Beacon Academy and Hunter Extraordinaire, liked to think of himself as a very unflappable person, the rock in the stream unaffected by the currents rushing past.
He wasn't anywhere close to prepared for when one of his most skilled hunters came bursting into his office, covered in blood, on the verge of flying into a blind rage.
"Qrow, I need you to tell me what is going on. Did someone attack you? Is anyone hurt?" Ozpin asked the pacing, angry man in front of him. He sincerely hoped Qrow hadn't done anything too stupid in a drunken stupor, but that was never the old birds thing anyway. he was more of a "fall over and pass out in the gutter" kind of drunk.
He could only pray that whoever donated their blood to Qrows outfit deserved it.
Qrow kept up his pacing, stomping from one side of Ozpins office to the other as he tried to work his thoughts into some semblance of order. He had left his two nieces just outside with Glynda, who looked confused as all hell at the distraught Yang and completely uncaring Ruby, before coming inside, and already his instincts were screaming at him to get back to them and take them somewhere they could be same.
Not that there are any places safer than Beacon Academy, but his brain didn't care about that.
After serval long minutes punctuated by Qrow opening his mouth to begin speaking, only to snap it closed again and resume his pacing, they are finally interrupted by the door opening and Glynda stepping into the office with Yang and Ruby training behind holding hands. The blond teacher stomped up to Qrow, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to a stop.
"What. Happened."
Qrow glanced over at the two girls before finally taking a deep breath, and forcing what had to be the most awkward and uncomfortable words that he would ever have to say.
"I killed Tai."
Glynda flinched back from Qrow and fingered her riding crop nervously. She never did have the best opinion of the man, and despite them being on sort of friendly terms for years she couldn't help but think all of her worst fears about the man had come true.
After all, who murders their best friend?
On the other hand, Ozpin did not look worried at all. He stared at Qrow for a long moment before turning his gaze onto the two girls. Neither of them looked nervous around Qrow, and as he watched, Ruby sidled up next to Qrow and took his hand in her own. To Ozpin it looked less like the white cloaked girl was mourning her father, and more like she was trying to comfort the old bird.
Which certainty raised some questions. Ozpin was already regretting not checking in with Tai more often. He meant to get in contact with him every year or so just to make sure the man was taking being a single father well and wasn't being overwhelmed but something always just seemed to get in the way until he completely overlooked it. The last time he called Tai must have been at least a year ago, and several more years since he had last actually seen the man in person.
Apparently, that would remain the last time he saw Taiyang Xiao-Long.
"It's okay Qrow, you didn't do anything wrong." Ruby said softly from her place next to Qrow. She squeezed his hand tightly and gave him a big ear to ear smile that would normally pull at the heartstrings, but now just made Qrow angry and unbearably sad.
The grizzled hunter forced a smile to his face and pat the girl on the head, "I know kiddo. Now go take care of Yang, will yah, she looks like she is going to pass out."
The cloaked girl nodded and went over to Yang, pulled her into a soft hug while rubbing her back mumbling soothing words in her ear. Whatever she said immediately began to calm Yang down and they both walk out of Ozpins office hand in hand.
Qrow stared after the pair and sighed heavily. He couldn't quite believe how fucked up his already travesty of a life had gotten in the last day. "I didn't exactly plan for either of them to be here for this... but to put it simply, Tai has been abusing Ruby for the last few years. Maybe longer."
Shocked would not even begin to describe how Glynda looked. Her face shot through a thousand different emotions ranging from rage to disgust before sinking into such a heavy disappointed sadness that made her look a decade older. The anger she had been feeling towards Qrow vanished like it was never there to begin with. It was a lot to take in, and they both knew Qrow, he could goof around on occasion, not to mention act like a complete pig, but he was serious as a heart attack when things were important, and he never looked as worn down as he did right now.
It was even worse than hearing that his best friend was dead, and his sister was taking up the family business of murdering the innocent.
For his part, Ozpin did not have the immediate guttural reaction like his assistant. He instead reached into one of his many drawers and pulled out a bottle of alcohol and dumbed a liberal amount into his coffee.
"Are you absolutely sure Qrow? From just what I've seen it looks more like he would have been harming Yang more than Ruby. The girl looked remarkably put together all things considered."
Qrow flopped into a chair of his own with a sigh. "Yeah it definitely does. Yang mostly just feels guilty for not stopping it. Ruby is much worse despite how she looks."
At that Glynda broke out of her sadness induced coma, "What do you mean?"
Outside the office, the two sisters were sitting on the long couch where people would normally wait for an appointment with the headmaster. Yang was clinging to Ruby like she was a life-raft in the middle of a hurricane, and Ruby was still just rubbing her sisters back, whispering words of encouragement.
"Don't worry Yang, I know it's scary but Oz is a good person, he and Glynda will make sure everything is alright."
Yang knew her sister meant well. Their strange relationship pretty much always meant that Yang would blow a gasket and Ruby would have to calm her down and relax her, but in moments like this it made Yang feel so terrible inside. She was the older sister, she was the one who should be doing the comforting her abused younger sister, not the other way around. Ruby is supposed to be the one barely holding back tears, keeping themselves just a hairsbreadth away from a full-blown panic attack!
But she wasn't. She was doing what she always does, looking out for Yang first, and acting like nothing was wrong with her.
Yang knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help but feel inferior to her sister.
The two sat in an almost comfortable silence, never quite settling down fully, for what felt like hours until the almost serenity was broken by Glynda stepping through the door. The deputy headmistress looked quite the worse for wear. Her eyes were puffy and red and her makeup had quite obviously been wiped off at some point. The most striking thing to Yang, however, were her eyes. They looked so incredibly sad, like at any moment the woman could break out in sobs.
They only got worse when they looked at Ruby.
"Come on girls, Ozpin would like to speak with you."
Yang nodded slowly and levered herself to her feat slowly. Talking about this, especially with people she didn't really know, was far down the list of things she wanted to do, but she knew Qrow trusted the pair, and she trusted him.
Ruby did not have such reservations. Her face split into a wide gleeful smile upon laying eyes upon Glynda, like seeing a good friend after a long time away, and hopped up and flew through the door in the blink of an eye.
"Ozzy!" Ruby shouted happily as she slid to a halt in front of the man's desk. "How ya been? Drinking enough milk?"
Knowing how Ruby would act and actually seeing it in person was an entirely different beast to Ozpin. The man had seen a lot of horrible things over his very long life, but he had to admit. This was definitely up there.
Way, way up there.
"We have a few questions we would like to ask you Yang" he waved a hand to the chair she had slid past, "if you wouldn't mind sitting?"
In a flash of white, the girl was sat.
Yang fell into the other seat in front of the desk and flopped back like a dead fish. The two girls couldn't possible look more different. One excited, the other one seemingly trying to drown on dry land.
"First thing I would like to ask you, is what is your recollection of today's events?"
Ruby simply tilted her head in confusion so Yang jumped in.
"Well, Qrow came by and stayed for dinner. He found out what was going on a-and... sent us to the end of the street before..." she glanced at her uncle who still wore his blood splattered clothing, "killing dad."
Ozpin sipped his drink, mirrored by Qrow who took a massive chug of alcohol, and nodded slowly.
"And Ruby? What would you say happened today?"
All eyes turned to the white clad girl who was busy looking for lint in her cloak. She didn't react to them, and kept fiddling with her clothing until Yang spoke up, "M-mom..."
Ruby immediately turned to Yang, "Yes dear? Do you need something?" The earnest, honest curiosity on the girls' face was agonizing to see for everyone else in the room.
"Ozpin was asking you a question."
Ruby spun to the headmaster and smiled apologetically, "Sorry Ozzy, I zoned out, what did you say?"
He blinked slowly, it was not often he would feel unsure about how to proceed, but this was not a usual situation, and he knew any wrong step could have massive negative consequences. He had dealt with abused children before of course, being a hero typically meant sticking your head where it didn't belong and getting involved in less than savory things, but he never had to deal with something at quite this level.
"I was asking what you remember about what happened today?"
"Oh!" Ruby perked up and tapped a finger against her chin thoughtfully, "Well it was pretty normal for the most part. We woke up, I cooked breakfast for everyone. After breakfast we went outside and practiced with our weapons for a few hours until lunch. I made Tai and Yang some sandwiches! After that I uuuh..." She glanced towards Yang and blushed bright red, "Tai sent Yang out so we could have some... ahem... alone time. Then bird brain stopped by while I was making dinner! It was such a nice surprise, he's always away on work for so long we never get to see him anymore."
She turned her gigawatt smile onto Qrow, who rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"And then?"
"Well than we had dinner, I broke a plate again, which I shouldn't have done because I do it constantly because I am such a clutz and it makes Tai upset and I never want to make him upset because you know how he gets and-"
Yang hung her head and sniffled. Glynda and Qrow looked very much like their wanted to go brutally murder something.
Or in Qrows case, brutally murder someone again.
"Mom, you're rambling again."
Ruby snapped her mouth shut and broke out in giggles, "Sorry about that, I've been up for like 30 hours straight. I'm kind of running on fumes at this point."
Ozpin turned to the other two hunters', looking for their opinion on the matter. They discussed things thoroughly before bringing the two back in, but none of the three were a hundred percent happy with their decision.
Unfortunately, their hands were tied in a way, Yang was already accepted into Beacon, and Qrow was too important an asset to have sitting around taking care of family. As much as it hurt for him to say what Qrow did every day was far too valuable to just set aside for any amount of time. It's why he didn't take more than a few days off from hunting every year. Even his drinking had to be worked around his constant hunting and information gathering trips.
The man was simply impossible to replace at the moment, which is exactly why Ozpin was so invested in that year's batch of students. The previous generation of Hunter's was dropping like flies and they needed plenty of fresh blood to bolster their ranks.
"Yang, you are already going to attend Beacon in the upcoming semester, so you will be staying here at the school until initiation. Ruby, you will also be staying at the school for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, Qrow doesn't have the means to take care of you so we will go with this until we can find a better solution."
He turned his computers monitor around so the two could see Yangs admittance form on the screen, along with all the different information they provided about her semblance and abilities. "Unlike your sister you haven't had constant testing of your abilities, so between now and term start we will test your abilities to see where you place among your age group."
Once again, Ruby looked incredibly confused, which Yang expected, and the rest had feared would happen.
"Um... Ozzy? Who's Ruby?"
"God fucking damnit." Qrow grumbled under his breath. "Ruby, that is your name."
Her cheery smile froze on her face in a mocking caricature of happiness, "What are you talking about birdo? My name is Summer Rose, not Rugby or whatever it is you are talking about."
Qrows agitation finally got the better of him, "No. It is not. You are not Summer Rose. Summer is dead, you are my niece, Ruby Rose."
The temperature in the room plummeted. Summer dropped all pretenses of looking happy and instead turned a baleful glare onto Qrow. The look of pure, unfiltered rage and hate shocked the other 3 to the core, and they jerked away in surprise.
Summer slowly got to her feet and stalked over to Qrow. Her silver eyes shimmered and released puffs of light with each step. "My. Name. Is. Summer. Rose." She stopped in front of Qrow and glared up at him. The gruff hunter easily towered over the petite girl, but he looked like he wanted to jump out of the window to escape.
"I am not some pathetic, worthless little girl that let her father do horrible things to her. Ruby Rose does not exist. She is dead."
She grabbed onto his collar and pulled his head down to her level. Her eyes flared brighter and brighter, lighting the entire room with an eerie shimmering light that weighed on them all light a ton of bricks on their chests.
"Do you understand."
Welcome to the bottom. Welp, this chapter is significantly less... awkward and cringy that the first. I really enjoyed reading all the reviews for this story, because hot damn, they were funny. Sorry if the first chapter made you feel bad.
As to the plan for this series, which I guess it is now that it is not a one shot, I am debating what to do with Summer (and from this point on, Ruby will always be referred to as Summer unless I am making a point by referring to her as Ruby). Their will probably be another chapter or two before initiation, one for testing Summer's abilities, and another for the Tortchwick theft. I originally planned on Summer becoming a student at Beacon, but after rethinking things and just actually putting words to paper I might make her part of the faculty instead.
It doesn't exactly make any sense, but nothing I write ever makes and sense so that's nothing new hahaha.
Oh, and I don't think Summer had a weapon named in the show, so if you have an idea for a cool weapon (because in this Summer will be using Summers weapon and fighting style) please toss that shit my way bruv.
Not much else to say. ONTO THE REVIEWS!
tastingrainbows: that was the goal! I have always enjoyed writing things that are fucked up or off putting and seeing how people react to it. its always memorable! And yes, it was quite obvious what was happening pretty quickly in the story. I tried making it more vague, but I have tons of issues with trying to be subtle, and not weighting it properly so it just goes completely over everyones heads and it just confuses everyone. I went with being more obvious and less confusing. And boy, I cant disagree more with the writing quality. It's sooooooo bad. I pretty much speed wrote the entire thing so i didn't really check over anything at all. :D
Jackthespades: Yeah i write a lot of different things at once haha. I also am writing over a dozen of my own personal, original projects for practice while writing these. Writing is typically a fast process for me, so I tend to just immediately write whatever is on my mind so i can get practice in regardless without wasting time forcing myself to write something I'm not feeling. That and I'm too scatterbrained to just force myself to write something specific, so i just blast through other projects until i wrap back around haha.
merendinoemiliano: you bet it was!
RizkyBiznoose: Thanks. I had like 5 more ideas that were even more fucked up, and got a few partially written. None of those would have worked under this websites TOS though so i had to nix them hahaha.
KHARAKI TAKAN: yeah it does work better as a one shot. Alas, If i dont write it, my brain will explode.
fanfiction's rookie: I really love your review :D all the reaction reviews just make me crack up whenever i get them
To everyone who mentioned in their review that "Matters of the Heart" is the inspiration, Yes it was! I completely forgot the name and couldn't remember any details other than that Ruby used a Katana or something hahaha.
And to anyone who was both disgusted, and wanted me to write more...
Thanks.
And this will probably only get more fucked up.
After all, if you have read my other stories their are few things I love more then flashbacks...