Volume 1, Episode 7: Fragile Memories

We'd spent the night switching shifts for who would be taking watch, but nothing ever happened. Eventually the sun climbed over the horizon and we'd both gotten out. All of our belongings were dry, so we changed in to our clothes. Qrow had an extra pair of his clothes and ended up tossing the ones from yesterday in to the river, as they were basically destroyed.

As Qrow began packing the tent up I started putting my claws on and flexed my hands, thankful for the healing properties that came with aura.

"Alright, Chess. You up for some tracking today?" Qrow asked as he finished packing the tent, threw his bag over his back, and strolled over to me.

"Always." I answered.

As Nalassandra, to our knowledge, hadn't been down by the waterfall with us we'd have to get back to where we were yesterday to catch any scent of her. Neither of us felt like scaling the cliff, so instead we began trekking down the river's edge, hoping the cliff would eventually taper off somewhere and there would be a hill or path we could climb to get back to where we were.

While I wasn't expecting to catch Nalassandra's scent, it didn't mean that I wasn't hyper-aware of any scent I came across. Being a faunus, I was blessed with a more sensitive sense of smell, sight (especially at night), and hearing than Qrow or anyone else I'd ever met had. It made my ability to track someone or something easier and better.

I sneezed as my nose was assaulted with multiple different stenches of grim, as was to be expected. I shook my head and kept moving forward, Qrow about two feet behind me off to my right. Eventually we made it to a point where the cliff dropped in to a hill and the ground level off. It would be extremely far out of our way to go all the way back, but I knew we would if we had to.

There was a gust of wind, and I was caught slightly off guard by how cold it was. And then I remembered, we were at the beginning of winter. I was surprised it hadn't snowed yet. It probably would start in the coming days.

With the wind came a faint scent I'd smelled before of Nalassandra. It was very faint, and it was old. But, it was there and it meant we didn't have to back track.

"Got it." I told Qrow to let him know I wasn't about to start bush whacking through the forest for no reason. Qrow nodded and followed me, no questions asked.

The smells coming from the grim, animals, river, etc. worked to mask Nalassandra's scent from me. In fact, I lost the trail a few times but was thankfully able to get it back. Eventually, I stopped moving and looked around carefully because the scent went from faint and old to in my face and fresh.

"She's been here recently." I whispered to Qrow, as I didn't know how recent or how close she might be to us now. Qrow nodded, not moving but looking around calmly.

We stood in silence, waiting to see, hear, or smell anything different. Then, out of nowhere, two yowls came from behind us. We spun around, my claws shooting out and Qrow taking his sword out in an instant.

Nalassandra's body slammed in to mine, knocking me to the ground. Her knees dug in to my thighs and her hands pushed in to my shoulders.

"Ha!" She laughed sharply. "Pinned ya again." She grinned, flashing her fangs to me. I swallowed as I looked at them, and then glared at her.

"Get off of me." I snarled, trying to wiggle any part of my body free. She wouldn't move, so I moved my right arm (from the elbow down) and swiped at her stomach with my claw. I must have just barely grazed her, because she hissed, pulled my upper body up slightly and slammed it back in to the ground. My head slammed in to the ground and I saw stars for a minute before they went away.

That was when I noticed the low grumble of an almost consistent growl coming off to my left where Qrow was. I couldn't see him past Nalassandra, but I remembered seeing two figures and knew that Qrow must be facing someone else.

"I said. Get. Off. Of. Me!" I snarled, twisting the left side of my body up quickly, catching her off guard and knocking her off of me. I grabbed her shoulders as she rolled off of me, rolling on top of her and pinning her to the ground.

She looked at me in shock, and chuckled. "Someone's grown up a bit, huh?" I didn't respond, growling in response.

Suddenly, I felt her leg move behind me from where I was sitting on top of her abdomen, and then felt a sharp pain in my tail as she slammed her foot down on it. I yowled in pain, quickly getting up and backing up a few feet. Nalassandra chuckled and stood up, dusting herself off and smirking at me.

As we stood up I was able to see Qrow and the person he was facing. It was a man with the same dark complexion as Nalassandra. He had large fangs just like she did, but he was far hairier, and his hair was darker. He had scraggly, long black hair that went slightly past his shoulders, and a scraggly black beard. His eyes were a vivid green and he had a scar that crossed from above his left eye to below it. He carried a long spear in his right hand, a long, serated bone blade at the end.

"Scar." Qrow greeted unkindly.

"Qrow, old friend. How… pleasant it is to see you." The man's voice was like liquid honey. Despite appearances it wasn't rough.

"You know him, Qrow?" Qrow only pursed his lips together and nodded slightly as he shifted his sword in his hand.

"Come now, we aren't here to fight." Scar said, holding his spear and free hand in the air in a peaceful gesture. I narrowed my eyes and moved up to Qrow's side as Nalassandra moved back to Scar's side.

"For some reason I don't believe that." Qrow responded.

"Come now, Qrow. I think you know why I'm here." Scar smiled in a way that could either be interpreted as evilly or normally as he motioned his free hand towards me. This had to do with me? What did he want with me?

"Yeah, I think I do. But I think it's time you two left us alone for a while. Our mission doesn't have anything to do with that yet." I blinked in confusion and looked at Qrow. Yet? They were important to our mission? Or, at least, they would be?

"Qrow? What's going on?" I asked.

"You mean you haven't told him?" Nalassandra suddenly shouted, her face lighting up in glee. "Oh this is going to be so much fun."

"Nala." Scar scolded gently. Nalassandra closed her mouth, though she was still smiling and her eyes were glinting in pure joy.

"No, I haven't. And he doesn't need to know for a while still." Qrow answered, his tone dropping from calm to threatening in a heartbeat.

"You deny the boy his history?" Scar asked in shock. He looked between Qrow to myself, and then smirked. "You deny my son his heritage?"

I felt as if every ounce of blood in my body drained out right then and there. Everything went cold. I looked at Qrow. He had to be lying, right? Qrow's eyes lit in anger, and I knew from that split second, even as Qrow recomposed himself, that it must be true.

"You knew my father?" I asked, sheathing my claws. Qrow didn't look at me, keeping his gaze fixed on Scar. On my father. He didn't answer me. A moment passed, and my body reignited in anger.

"Look at me!" I shouted. Qrow blinked in shock and looked at me. He looked at me and his eyes grew incredibly dark and sad.

"Yes, Chess. I knew."

"And still you didn't tell him his father was alive. Or that he had a sister." I looked at Scar, who was looking at Nalassandra, and almost threw up. They were my blood family?

"You told me my family died." I clenched my teeth and looked back at Qrow.

"I told you your mother died." Qrow answered, closing his eyes and looking back at Scar, recomposed.

"Well now, that much is most certainly true." Scar nodded his head. He smirked as his eyes flicked between me and Qrow, before he took a bag- my bag- from off his shoulder and tossed it at me.

"There, we'll be off now. We got what we wanted. We'll be in touch, gentlemen." And with that, Scar and Nalassandra took off. Qrow moved at first as if he were going to chase after them, but then stopped when he looked at me.

I was staring at my bag, on the ground and about a foot from me. Qrow knew. He knew that my father and sister were alive. And he hadn't told me. Qrow, the man I'd done nothing but idolize like my own father almost all of my life, had lied to me. I felt my eyes start tearing up and slammed them shut, clenching my fists and gritting my teeth.

"How long?"

"What?"

"How long have you known who my family was? That they were alive?"

"I've known since the night I found you and took you to Ozpin."

"And you never once, not once, thought it was important enough for me to know?" I was shaking in anger and disappointment. In mistrust.

"Chess, listen to me." Qrow crossed the distance between us in two strides, and placed his hands on my shoulders, looking me straight in the eye as mine shot open. "There's something vital about your family, about you, but I can't tell you yet. I promise, one day I will. But I can't right now, it's too dangerous. And it's not relevant to anything right now, but it will be one day."

I stared at him in silence.

"Please, just trust me."

I broke eye contact and shook my head, grabbing my bag and looking through it to make sure everything was there, and it was, including my phone. I threw my bag over my shoulder, and started moving back towards the road in silence.

How was I supposed to trust him from here on out? My whole life he'd let me believe that my family was dead. Sure, they probably weren't the greatest people, but he'd known they were alive.

And so had Ozpin. Ozpin, the person I idolized more than anyone, including Qrow, must have known as well. And he hadn't told me either. All of those nights as a child, Ozpin and Qrow taking turns taking care of me, reading me the same stories about the maidens and the silver-eyed warriors that they were telling everyone else about, seemed like such a lie now.

Part of me knew it was childish, but most of me just didn't care.

We reached the road and Qrow said nothing as he took the lead again. I blinked as something white fluttered in peripheral. I blinked as something cold landed on my cheek, and then realized that it was starting to snow. Both Qrow and I reached in to our bags and pulled out travelling cloaks. Mine was purple and his was white. We put them on and continued on our way.

We stopped occasionally for breaks, during which Qrow would attempt to engage with me in conversation only to be answered by silence or me standing up and starting down the road again. Eventually, he got fed up with it.

"Chess. Stop and come here." Qrow ordered. I stopped in my tracks ad turned to face him, finding that he was moving to the side of the path. He sat on a large rock and dropped his bag to his side and motioned for me to sit on the rock next to him.

"What is this about?" I asked as I threw my bag on the ground and sat next to him.

"This is about getting you to trust me again so you'll stop ignoring me like a child." Qrow took out his flask, took a swig, and put it down next to his foot. "Have you ever tried connecting to someone's aura?"

I scrunched my eyes and nose up in confusion. "No? I didn't even know that was a thing."

"It's not unless your semblance works that way. Or if you're part of the family your mother comes from."

I wasn't really paying attention before, but I was now. My tail flicked once, quickly, in surprise.

"My mother's family?"

"Like I said earlier, I can't explain everything. But I'm going to show you some part of it so you'll trust me again." Qrow placed his elbows on his knees and held his right hand out, palm towards me. I watched it for a moment, before placing my left palm against his.

"Now connect to my aura."

"How?" I asked irritably. Qrow shrugged.

"Dunno. Just do it." He smirked playfully. I narrowed my eyes in annoyance, but tried nonetheless.

I took a deep breath to calm down, trying to ignore Qrow's annoying tendencies. I'd never been great at controlling my aura, but other than my semblance I'd never needed to, and even then I used it to mask myself. I'd never needed, or wanted, to stretch it out before. The more it stretches, the thinner it gets, and the more vulnerable you are.

I could feel Qrow's aura radiating off of him. It was dark, but not in an evil way. In an, unlucky way. I visualized my aura pushing out and grabbing on to it, and suddenly images flooded my mind.

It was storming. My clothes were soaked through from the rain and I was frozen to the bone. I practically flew down the dirt road that I was on, towards the single speck of light in the distance. I reached the wooden cabin and took the steps leading up to the porch in one leap, and began pounding on the wooden door. I had to save her, I couldn't be late.

A beautiful woman opened the door. She had long, snow white hair. She wore a long white gown and looked at me with her vivid blue eyes.

"Qrow? What are you doing here?" She looked behind herself in to the small cabin, before stepping outside and almost closing the door behind herself. She wrapped her arms tightly around her chest in an attempt to block the cold, her small white cat ears flattening to her head. She looked at me in both confusion and worry.

"Tiuka, you've got to get out of here. Scar is coming." A loud clap of thunder rolled over as lightning flashed across the sky.

"He's what?" Her voice rose in volume for a moment in her shock.

"Mommy?" A small child's voice called from inside the cabin, before a set of tiny hands pulled the door open just far enough to let the child walk out and join us.

The child had bright, purple hair that now blew wildly in the wind. He wore a simple pair of black pajamas. He rubbed tiredly at his eyes as his small, purple cat tail drug across the porch.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" The child could be no older than three. "Who's he?" He looked at me like no one else ever had. His bright, vivid yellow eyes looked straight through me, almost as if he was staring in to my soul.

"This is Qrow, Chess." Tiuka crowed as she knelt down and swooped her son in to her arms. "Nothing's wrong, everything is going to be okay."

Suddenly a roar erupted from a distance not far off. But it wasn't thunder, it was a lion's roar. I locked eyes with Tiuka, who placed her son back on the porch. She knelt down and sat on the ground, eye level with her only son. She smiled sadly, her eyes misting over. She'd never been happier or more beautiful than when she'd had her son.

"Chess, Qrow is going to take you with him for a few days. You're going to meet mommy's friend Ozpin."

"Are you coming with us?"

"I will in a few days. I have to see your father first."

"Is daddy coming too?"

The child's face lit up in hope as Tiuka chuckled softly, tears falling from her cheeks. The toddler had no idea what was going on, and how could he? His face turned from hopeful to confused as he reached up and wiped the tears from his mother's face.

"Don't be sad, mommy. It'll be okay." Tiuka smiled radiantly at her son, tears falling more swiftly from her eyes as she wrapped her son in her arms.

"Tiuka, I'm not leaving you." I couldn't. She was my best friend.

"I'm not letting you fight for me again, Qrow." Tiuka stood up and placed a hand on her son's head and looked at me. "But I will ask that you fight for my son. I can take care of myself."

I stood and stared at her, my heart breaking.

"Please, Qrow."

Another roar. This one much closer.

"Mommy, look! It's daddy!" The child screamed in joy. He made to run off the porch, but without looking back or at him I quickly swept him in to my arms.

"Qrow. Go." She commanded, wiping the last tears from her face. I knew there was no fighting her as I nodded.

I turned and ran. Not down the road I came from, but the road towards Beacon.

"Scar, leave us!" I heard her yell in defiance behind us.

The child's head was facing behind us at the scene. "Qrow, why are mommy and daddy fighting?" I didn't respond. I only tried to run faster. If only I could fly.

Another roar. Weapons clattered and struck.

"Mommy, no!" The child began squirming.

"Chess, stop! You can't do anything!"

There was a high pitched scream that was mirrored by Chess's equally loud one. The screams were instantly cut off and once they stopped Chess went slack in my arms. Tears fell from my eyes as I continued running.

I gasped in shock as I reeled my hand back from Qrow's, as if I had touched a hot stove.

"What was that?" I asked after a moment of silence in which I sat and tried to catch my breath. My heart was pounding heavily.

"Exactly what you think it was." Qrow dropped his hand and took another drink from his flask.

"How did I do that?"

"Your mother's family has an ability. Like Ruby's silver-eyed relatives." Qrow coughed and met my eyes. "You can connect auras with someone, and, with practice, you can sort through and find whatever memories you want. With or against their will."

"So why am I just learning about this?"

"I already told you. There's more to it that I can't tell you."

"Can I share my memories with someone? Can I change their memories?"

Qrow stood up quickly and looked at me very seriously. "I don't know, Chess. You'll have to find that out for yourself. But know something: Memories are precious. They shouldn't be taken lightly."

"Is that why you blocked that night from mine?"

Qrow stopped in his tracks and looked at me like I had just shot him.

"Don't act surprised. I don't care how young I was. I would never forget watching my father kill my mother." I stood up and grabbed my bag. "Or, for that matter, I'd never forget my family at all."

Qrow looked at me solemnly. "You didn't speak for weeks after I got you to Ozpin. He thought it'd be for the best if we blocked all of your memories before the day you got there. So, we did. And afterword's you were happy. You were a normal kid."

I looked at the ground.

"Please, Chess. Please don't resent us. We-"

I moved and closed the space between Qrow and myself, wrapping my arms around his chest. He was shocked at first, but slowly relaxed and returned the embrace.

"I don't care anymore." I released Qrow and stepped back. "I trust you. Completely. Just tell me what I need to know, when I need to know it."

"Of course." Qrow looked around at the snow falling around us. "Now, back to Haven."

"This is horse shit!" I shouted, standing up and kicking a rut in to the nearby snow bank. Qrow chuckled from where he sat.

"Aura control just isn't your strong point, is it?" He laughed, drinking out of his flask.

I growled in response, flicking my tail. Give me any other type of goal to meet. Anything at all besides controlling aura, and I could do it. We'd been training for weeks trying to get my skills at seeing memories better as we continued traveling towards Haven. But I hadn't gotten through to Qrow barely at all. And if I had I would only see a few moments of a conversation between us that had happened earlier that day.

"Laugh all you want, Qrow. Eventually I'll know every embarrassing fact about you."

"With your skills you wouldn't know them even if I told you." He teased.

Qrow's phone began ringing, muffled by the other contents of his bag. He pulled it out, looked at whoever it was calling him, and answered.

"What's wrong, Tai." Taiyang was calling him? Something must be really wrong.

"She what?" Qrow stood up in a flash, throwing his bag over his shoulder and staring off in the distance.

"Okay. Tai… Tai, listen to me. I'll find her. I'll keep her safe." There was a pause for a few minutes. "Of course, Tai. I promise. Just take care of Yang."

Qrow hung up and turned to me. "Ruby ran off. She's meeting up with Pyrrha's team and she's heading to Haven."

I sighed in annoyance. Of course. Now we were on babysitting detail.

"Qrow, we're going to lose weeks of progress."

"I know. But this is what's going to happen. I'm going to go ahead. I can cover a lot of ground a lot faster by myself. You're going to back track by yourself. And you're going to do so carefully." He met my eyes seriously. "I'll have my phone. I'll let you know where they're at when I catch up with them. If you have any problems- and I mean any, Chess. You call me, got it?"

"Of course, Qrow. This isn't my first time travelling without you." Qrow looked at me for a few minutes, before nodding, turning away, and running back towards the way we came.

I sighed and started walking in the same direction.