Qrow Branwen unwrapped a cigarette carton and lit his first. The sun dipped and settled off Beacon Academy's cliffs. He reckoned by the star that he'd arrived two hours early. After it set, he reckoned by the cigarettes.
He turned South and spied the jagged skyline haunting the horizon: Mountain Glenn. It had been a decade, almost to the day. The buildings stood empty, the blood dried. But the screams still echoed in empty streets. Several friends had left skeletons there.
He put the Glenn behind him, and faced North. Below Beacon's plateau, The Emerald City of Vale sparkled with nightlife. The decadent city had survived.
He'd been living in the wild too long. In his father's day, huntsmen had worn loin cloths and Grimm bone charms. Qrow had lead a fashion trend with blue jeans and a dress shirt.
Now huntsmen- mostly women- dressed like ladies of the night- neon hues protecting them from roadside accidents. He couldn't walk down a civilized street without drawing stares. He hoped his nieces were still clothing themselves like humans.
He glanced to the top of The Tower, and wondered what Beacon Academy's Headmaster thought of the times. The Beacon was an ancient structure, Remnant's first challenge to the heavens- Now its tallest, if you included the height of the plateau. Now it served as Vale's Cross Continental Transmitter, a modernized lamp in the darkness. The architect had chosen a high gothic bell-tower aesthetic. Because Headmaster Ozpin refused to live in anything less eccentric.
Qrow shook his head, then noted the time and flicked his cigarette away.
The clock tower bells rang, and Professor Bartholomew Oobleck arrived. "Qrow!"
The professor's hair had turned a nasty green in some long gone alchemy mistake. Qrow tried not to look at it. The man had many other qualities that drew attention. It was true of all huntsmen. Oobleck had a similar fashion problem, for example. Slacks and a button down shirt, safari helm, loafers.
Oobleck talked too fast and too smart. "Qrow! And punctual. Serendipitous for me. Though you look dour. Quench your fatigue?" He offered a mug that probably had coffee.
Qrow grumbled, "I've got a headache. And I'd like to get this over with." He nodded to the dorms.
Oobleck offered the mug again. "Hair of the dog, then," he suggested.
Qrow peeked in the mug. Liquor. He'd been trying to cut back, for the nieces' sake.
Oobleck noted his sour expression, and countered, "Trust me, old friend. Now is no time to experiment with emotional states."
Qrow swigged.
Oobleck turned to the complex and patted his satchel. He'd brought a holo-screen and data slate. He presented a keycard to the door, and they were accepted into Beacon Huntsman Academy.
The hallway bore Vale's evergreen colors. Though some doors had foreign banners bracketing them. The Vytal Festival was beginning, and Vale was hosting the tournament, and foreign students.
Qrow stopped at an intersection.
Oobleck pointed to a door.
"Team RWBY" tickered across the electronic lock.
But Qrow's senses flared, and he glanced down the hall to see team JNPR. The rumor had spread of a dour professor and a stranger entering the halls.
These four students had poked their heads into the hallway. Qrow stared them down. Oobleck cast a glance and said, "Mr. Arc. Manage your team, please."
Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren's heads vanished, and they shut their door.
Qrow pulled his flask from his jacket, then remembered where he was and returned it without drinking. He looked at team RWBY's door. He wondered if he could just leave and let this moment never happen.
Oobleck recognized that thought. He offered, "They will hear it from you, or they will hear it from the media hounds."
Qrow didn't answer. He scratched at his chin stubble. He'd been about their age when reality slapped his childhood aside. He had survived. He had coped, somewhat. So would they.
He knocked.
Mirthful shrieks pierced the door. Pillows thudded. Qrow knocked again.
The door opened to reveal sixteen-year-old Weiss Schnee, snapping, "What?"
She wore her older sister's sneer. Behind her, a war of feathers waged across a tangled mess of suspended beds and scattered blanket forts. Qrow pushed the door open and passed Weiss without an introduction.
"Hey!" she yelled.
"Hey," he mumbled back.
"Hey," Blake Belladonna complained from atop a bunk bed. A pillow had interrupted her reading. She threw it down. Qrow caught it.
"Heyyyyyyyy!" Ruby realized.
Yang pillowed her face in the moment of weakness. "-is for horses," she finished, adding, "Hey Uncle Qrow. And... Doctor Oobleck?"
The girls had been smiling. But their smiles faded, seeing that Qrow did not join them. They looked to Oobleck for an explanation.
The door closed.
"We should find seats," Oobleck suggested.
They circled around Oobleck's holo-screen. Qrow sat reversed in a chair.
Oobleck paced behind him, narrating. "You remember, girls, our student mission to the abandoned city of Mountain Glenn. We stumbled upon a White Fang operation which imperiled the very lives of Vale's citizens. So we boarded a train controlled by the White Fang, and we foiled their plot to breach Vale's wall and unleash a swarm of Grimm."
Qrow had not heard about this. He turned a concerned look to his nieces.
Ruby smiled and gave two thumbs up.
Yang shrugged, "All in a day's work."
Weiss interrupted, "We Almost thwarted them."
Yang retorted, "We saved a lot of lives."
"A lot of people... Got hurt," Blake mumbled.
Qrow's gaze lingered on her, on the extra set of feline ears atop her head. He'd heard stories about Blake Belladonna. Unkind, she's-literally-a-terrorist stories.
"The point is," Qrow grunted. He gestured to Oobleck, "The Professor-"
"-Doctor," everyone corrected him.
Qrow licked his lips. He nodded onwards, "Doc found something while you were fighting the White Fang."
The alcohol finally hit. Qrow slowed to a comfortable drawl. He nodded to Oobleck, and caught him in his own vice. Doctor Oobleck was part-way through a swig of coffee. He gulped it down and spoke as fast as he could articulate. "Yes. Girls, the fall of Mountain Glenn may have been a little before your time, but you should know that it has never left my generation's thoughts, from the moment it happened. This was not the first time a city was annihilated by Grimm. But it was technically a suburb of Vale, and we had hoped that the Great Cities were secure. And we were wrong. Beyond that, most of the families affected are still alive. And so what I have found is very relevant to the world right now."
Blake Belladonna leaned forward, her typical sullen look turning to annoyance.
Her feline ears perked up. "Doctor… What is it?"
"A cellular phone."
Yang asked, "A what?"
"It's before your time," Oobleck explained, "But you can think of it as a primitive Scroll. Someone made a very thorough recording of the defense at Mountain Glenn on their Scroll."
Ruby Rose had figured out that they were going to watch a video. She was the only girl too young- too naïve- to wonder why.
Oobleck had never delivered a death notice. He knew, very suddenly, that he couldn't bear this with any serenity.
"I thought that you may want to see it when you can prepare yourself, when you can have family at hand. Here. Qrow, would you? I should step outside."
Qrow accepted the remote control, but would not meet anyone's eyes. When Oobleck reached the door, he flicked the lights off. Qrow thanked him. But in the silence after the door clicked shut, Qrow did not speak. Night had fallen in Vale, and the only lights in the room were their auras glowing in their eyes, and the UI of the holo-screen in their midst. Those eyes all weighed on Qrow's weary features.
In the darkness, Ruby whispered, "It's a video from Mountain Glenn?"
Qrow didn't answer.
Blake asked, "Why show it to us?"
Yang checked everyone's faces and added, "Does it... Does it have to do with the White Fang?"
Weiss was silent. Then, understanding, she covered her mouth and hoped that the shadows hid her despair. Qrow could bear it no longer. He realized that he had to face the moment, and could never be ready for it. He extended his hand and pressed play.
The camera was clearly a mobile device, from the age before shake correction. The operator was short and clumsy. Her fingers slid over the camera lens and the microphone. When she finally seemed to have it working, the camera lifted, and the scene of Mountain Glenn was fully realized. Her camera faced two soldiers, a Vale Infantry Captain and a Sergeant. Behind them were the great glass windows of the Museum. And beyond those, the undercity burned and writhed like a black ooze smothering a fire.
The Captain asked, "Are we recording?"
The camera nodded. "Yes." A young girl's voice.
The Captain looked into the camera.
"Great. Alright, this is Captain Satin Scarlatina, Vale Motorized Reserve. I don't have much to say that I haven't before, Velvet, but you've done us proud in combat school, and you'll do us proud as a huntress. Sergeant? Last words? Excuse me."
The Captain jogged off screen to join the fight. The Sergeant leaned in to speak, but was interrupted by shattering glass.
The camera panned to a gaping window, where a huntress lay prone. She groaned, stood, and dusted her white cape.
Her face came into focus. Ruby and Yang gasped, "Mom!"
The Sergeant pointed. "You alright?"
Summer Rose smiled back. "Yeah. What are you two doing here?"
She pointed at the camera.
The Sergeant shrugged. "We're trying to get some broadcasts to Vale. You want to say some words to anybody back home?"
Summer looked confused.
"Since we're all gonna die," the Sergeant explained.
Summer blushed. "Uh... I'm not really good on camera," she mumbled.
"Look, Miss, this is how people are going to remember you. Just say something for the people you want to hear it."
The camera zoomed to Summer's face. Yang and Ruby leaned in to study every curve and detail of the woman who had raised them. Qrow looked away from his fallen teammate.
"Uh... Alright," Summer smiled, "I mean..."
Summers' silver eyes met with her daughters' again, crossing a long gap of time. She smiled at them.
"I, uh... Hi, Tai. Hi Yang. Hi Ruby. I love you guys. See you home soon."
Anxiety stirred her into a rocking motion. She twirled her combat skirt and pursed her lips to indicate she was done.
"They'll appreciate that," the Sergeant nodded.
"Yeah. Well, anyway..." Summer hefted her weapon. "I'm not good at goodbyes," she admitted.
And she leaped out the window, back into the fight. The video ended there, and the dorm was cast into darkness again.
Only Blake, with her Faunus eyes, could see in the darkness of that room. They all heard her move to Yang's side, as if saving her from a fall. They heard a sniffle, and Yang's whimpered, "I love you too, Mom."