XI.
Ruby runs harder and faster than she ever has before. The forest liquefies and becomes a river, sending her who knows where, far away from Jaune and his stupid, stupid lies.
He's wrong. A little girl whispers inside her, surrounded by black feathers and snow. He's wrong….
Shadows rush from the trees.
Ruby gasps, skidding to a halt. There is a sound, crossed somewhere between the flap of wings and the clank of armor. She unlatches Crescent Rose, thinking it's Grimm, hoping blindly that it isn't Jaune again trying to stop her, because she doesn't know what she'll do if it is.
Raven Branwen melts from the forest, wild and rattling with quills and cracked beads.
"Going somewhere, kid?"
She makes no move to come closer, stopping about fifteen feet away. The massive sword at her hip remains where it is, but Ruby still has to force herself not to shrink back. She shifts Crescent Rose to her side, but makes a point of keeping it out.
"Leave me alone."
"That's not an answer," Raven says back, arms crossing, "Where is your father? Your sister?"
"None of your business."
They stare at each other. Raven glances over her shoulder, toward the winding trail ahead. When she speaks again, it's almost conversationally.
"The only thing that way is an old lab of Haven's. Plenty of rumors around there, odd deaths and illegal shipments of Atlesian technology. Since the Grimm broke through the wall yesterday, White Fang and student protestors have swarmed the main courtyard."
Ruby stays silent, even as her chest lurches in panic. Protestors mean guardsmen too. She'll have to find a way to sneak in now, maybe a back door or window. Ruby spins around, brain already plotting out another route before Raven ends her thoughts abruptly, dropping them as if mayflies.
"You won't find him there."
Her face is smooth of expression, alien in everything but those eyes.
"The Grimm around Mistral," she says, "They're not the ones you're use to in Vale. Their strength, their age, their cleverness—it's all different. They can see your weaknesses. They have learned how to lie."
"What's your point?" Ruby says, her voice halting, her knuckles leeched white, "Why should I care if—"
"I saw him."
The grass breathes beneath Raven's footsteps.
"A Grimm with my little brother's face."
She closes in slowly, as if Ruby is some injured animal she has backed into a corner.
"I don't know what you hope to accomplish or where you're trying to go. But if it has anything to do with that creature, then it isn't the right way."
"Shut up," Ruby snaps suddenly, almost cutting her off. A lump is trying to form in her throat. "Do you really think I don't know that? I never…I have no choice. It's the only way."
But Raven just shakes her head. "I see you still don't understand."
"I understand plenty."
"But not what matters."
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"You are afraid," Raven replies, "Of moving on. Of accepting things."
"No…no, go away."
"But the world turns. Time marches. Things will be alright eventually."
"No they won't. Go away."
"You should not pretend otherwise if you are angry."
"I am angry!" Ruby screams, breath shuddering and she doesn't know why she's pouring her heart out to this woman, who can leave things behind without a second glance and never think about them again.
"I couldn't save Penny," she whispers, "I couldn't save Pyrrha. If there's even a chance now that things could be different then I have to take it."
Raven looks at her, head tilted, not at all perturbed by the outburst. For a long bemused beat, there is only silence.
"I want you to picture him."
Ruby blinks. "W-What?"
"Think of him the way you remember. Any memory that comes to mind."
She has no intention to, but like any ghost, Uncle Qrow arrives unbidden.
He is smiling when he appears in her mind's eye, leaning up against the headboard of her bed, all the stress lines soft with mirth and the hard eyes twinkling with secrets. It is the night before he finally left her and the last story he ever told and Ruby doesn't know why out of all the wonderful memories she had of him, the only ones that come readily are the ones where things end.
Ruby shakes her head, feeling the tears begin to gather again.
"Wha—Why do I—"
"What you're seeing now," Raven says softly, almost gently, "The Qrow that you knew—do you really think a Grimm has the first idea of how to bring him back? Can you tell me, truly, that the thing you saw is the same man who sat next to you beneath the stars? Who picked you up and taught you how to fight and tied that cloak to your shoulders?"
Her crimson gaze lies heavily for a second over Ruby's bare back and Ruby feels herself flinch, the guilt making her head lower. She has no idea how Raven knows all of this, but she supposes that isn't what's important either.
"I just want to save him," she says, voice breaking, "Just him. Why is that wrong?"
There is a sigh. It almost sounds tired. Almost sad.
"You are confusing what is wrong with what must be."
Ruby stares at the ground, small fists clenched at her sides. She is quiet, but Raven seems to have nothing left to say either.
Her eyes stay down when she hears the woman finally retreat, gliding back into the shadows of the woods.
It is only when she's at the point of vanishing that Raven speaks again, softly, even if Ruby can hear every word echoing like thunder.
"And perhaps too, you cannot move forward because you're afraid there were words left unsaid. That you never told him you loved him and so he never knew."
At last, Ruby raises her head, heart pounding. It must be a trick of the light, a mirage in the rippling wetness of her own tears, but Raven's eyes in the distance seem to swim with pain.
"But believe me, he did. He was a fool for many reasons, but not about that. Not about you. He knew."
And the trees reach out for Raven and swallow her up easily.
Taiyang watches Yang smash through the front gate with her bare hands. The right door snaps off its hinges with a furious squeal and goes skidding some forty feet away. It's reckless and insane, lacking all the finesse and technique that they'd spent weeks buckling down, but Tai finds he doesn't care.
He hopes Lionheart can hear it all the way from his office. He kind of wants to rip off the left gate too.
No matter how long they've known her, the other kids still pause for a beat to gawk at Yang, edging their way past the rubble. Only the Jaune boy runs through the dust cloud without a glance, sharp blue eyes already darting about for the closest entrance. Determination shines like steel in his gaze and Tai wonders again exactly what Ruby means to this boy.
"Come on!" Jaune yells, sprinting through the ruined gardens and the open courtyard. They follow at his heels, pass the fountains and the stone bench Tai and Lionheart had confronted each other over less than two days ago. They climb the stairs, heels clacking and when there continues to be nothing all around them but dead silence, Tai realizes something is wrong.
"Hold on," he says and stops where he is. He's broad enough that Ren and Nora are halted immediately behind him, while Yang (miracle of miracles) listens and skids to a standstill.
Jaune is at the door though, hand on the wrought-iron catch. Shadows cast over the fragile rice paper and it hits Tai suddenly and out of nowhere that they are coming from the other side.
"Get down!" Surging forward on old instincts, Tai grabs the kid's bicep, wrenching him from the door and nearly off his feet.
Not a second later, a bullet explodes through the wooden frame.
Jaune yelps and Nora screams. Yang yells something that is ninety percent profanity and then Tai is too busy shoving all these kids away from the doors and out of range.
Giant figures emerge, heavy boots against paneling. Two men stand at the threshold of Haven's entrance, both garbed in guard uniforms. The glinting badges of Mistral's Council are pinned tight to their lapels and scars mark the sides of their chins and mouths. One of them lowers a pistol and sticks it back into a holster at his belt. From the way Yang's jaw clenches and Jaune stiffens, it doesn't seem a first encounter for everyone.
"The hell do you think you're doing?" Yang snarls, eyes piping red.
The men regard her icily.
"We said we'd be in touch," one of them replies, "Didn't we, you smartass little brat?"
Sharp flaks of rage shoot through Taiyang's veins. His eyes narrow and he takes a step in front of Yang. The sky rumbles and he growls, "Say that again, I dare you. Who do you think you are? Shooting at us without provocation."
They glare at him, but a note of dubiousness lingers in the gazes. Aura crackles across the pavement, hot sparks of gold that singe the pale stone. Finally the man who spoke previously slips a hand into his pocket, producing a knotted scroll.
"By order of Leonard Lionheart, Headmaster of Haven Academy," he reads, "And with express approval from the Mistral Council, we present this warrant of arrest for one Ruby Rose of the former Beacon Academy."
Behind him, Nora sputters out a confused, 'HUH?' in tandem with Ren's stammered 'What?' The word 'arrest' bounches up and down stupidly in Taiyang's head. Arrest? Ruby?
"What are the charges?" Jaune asks, full of forced calm even as Yang trembles with fury beside him.
"One count of conspiracy—for plotting the Grimm's breach of the outer wall," the bastard responds, reading from the parchment with utter indifference, "And one count of willful homicide—for the murder of a Mistral Gate Patrolman."
Taiyang nearly bursts out laughing. Ruby killing someone? His little girl releasing Grimm on the innocent? Ruby? It's so ridiculous, so impossible that Tai can't even imagine it.
Ren and Nora are on a similar page.
"You're freaking crazy!" the latter shouts, hammer tightening in her grip, while the former gives a more logical retort.
"You have no substantial evidence at all that Ruby hurt anyone. Plus, she was with Jaune or us since before the breach even started. Are you saying she went out in the middle of the night to lure Grimm to the wall and somehow had them wait patiently there until this completely random moment in time to attack?"
But the men just shake their heads. The scroll is rolled up and tucked away.
"Save it, kid, we're not here to begin debates or consider arguments. You can plead her case to the Council once she's in custody," they stare down at them, eyes black and unfeeling, "Now tell us where she is."
"Didn't you hear me the last time?" Yang spits, trying to push Tai aside, "Fuck. If. We. Know."
The men's shoulders go rigid. Their hands begin sinking towards their guns and the tension hardens, blood clotting in a vein set to rupture.
"Liar," they hiss.
The sky is graying. Lightning fizzles from Taiyang's pores, his fingertips and the ends of his hair. Who knows how quickly things would've degenerated if Jaune had not suddenly spoken again then.
"And the alternative?"
The cold gazes shift toward him, but Jaune doesn't budge, pinning them down with his own glare.
"I'm afraid we haven't a clue what you mean, boy."
"I think you do. Ruby isn't the endgame here, we all know that. I'm asking what you—what Lionheart wants in exchange for clearing her name."
"She committed high crimes against the kingdom. You would imply that bargaining is on the table?"
"Are you saying it isn't?"
The two men exchange sharp glances. A minute passes before the one who had read from the scroll lowers his hand from his pistol. He smirks, the first real sign of emotion on his face, and it is jagged and mean.
"I suppose we could come to an agreement. Circumstantial evidence after all. The girl's record is as good as clean, provided you bring Headmaster Lionheart what he needs."
Yang's fists are balled so tightly that Tai can almost hear the metal giving.
"And that would be?" she whispers.
"A trifle task. Not worth its weight in the grand scheme of things. Simply turn around, head home," the man says.
"And relinquish Qrow Branwen's belongings."
Yang's hand is on Tai's shoulder, practically throwing him out of her way as she screams and charges. He barely notices because his Semblance is already snaking through his skin, summoning thunder from the overcast. He doesn't even notice when Jaune rushes forward too, Nora and Ren not far behind, or when the two guards draw their guns in surprise. Shouts and bullets fly while other guardsmen start flowing into the courtyard, appearing from every nook and cranny.
Somewhere up in his teetering tower, Taiyang knows Lionheart is watching. A coward inclined toward cruelty—paving a road in children and dead men.
There is a flash and a boom. The sky cracks open, full of dragon teeth.
The path winds out before Ruby, ugly and bristling with thorns. It tugs her closer with nothing but the pangs of her own desperation and a Grimm's promise. Ruby worries her lip and all her doubts, latent and otherwise, bubble to the surface. They chase each other—a tempest in the looming waves of her thoughts.
(Yet in her heart of hearts, where the little girl in the snow lies, she has already declared that Raven doesn't know anything. She was never there and so she cannot hurt now or ache or even understand. She doesn't care, not really, and so she does not know anything).
Ruby's eyes gleam. There is a door inside her that should not have opened. The crack left ajar streams glittering light and caresses her with the yellowed veneers of the past. Black feathers lay scattered at her feet, at her knees as she finally crouches down into the dense snow.
She picks one up, watches it flake in her hand. And even as the ground splits and the sky grows beady with eyes, she cannot move.
Ruby makes her choice, even as a rasping voice urges, Get out of here, little rose. Don't look back. Keep going. Keep going.
I can't, she cries, hands huddled around her burning center, You never taught me how.
(And in the branches overhead, Raven watches, exasperated. She has half a mind to leave her to it, but knows that she can't. The child is her hairshirt now and there is something to be owed).
"I thought you weren't part of all this."
Raven arches a brow. "This?"
"You know," Taiyang rubs his forehead, feeling the beginning tremors of a headache, "The schools. Ozpin. Why would you go so far for him?"
"It's not for him," Raven retort curtly, "His is a pointless design. Salem can't be stopped. Ozpin will fail and keep taking down whoever's blind or fool enough to follow him."
Her eyes are pointed at those last words, but Taiyang lets the jab slide for now. They've already spent the better halves of their adult lives fighting over the Ozpin issue and it can afford to wait.
"Then why?" he asks simply.
She crosses her arms, glaring daggers at the moon, and he's struck randomly of another time and another place. The spring nights and quiet hands. All of it now bleach-bone memories.
"Because it needs to end," Raven says, "Because I want to be free."
Taiyang laughs. "Of what? The twin that you fought with and loved and was all that mattered to you in the beginning? You think removing all the traces of him will somehow make you free?"
"I'm not talking about Qrow," she whispers and there's real hurt in her voice and Taiyang feels suddenly guilty.
Raven breathes, hands digging into her sleeves. "You don't know how long I've been stuck in this story. Caught in this chess game between gods. Seeing the things they're capable of doing. I'm sick of it, Tai, and I'm tired."
The walls of the inn groan, weighted down by the heaving winds and rain. Taiyang is grateful that it drowns out their voices. God knows Ruby needs whatever sleep she can manage to find.
"Raven," he says, carefully, "Lionheart will take everything. The scythe, the flask, even that ragged old cape Summer made him second year. Everything. And maybe it doesn't mean much to you, but…to my girls—to Yang—that's all they're going to have. You'd let him do this for freedom?"
He searches for the woman he remembers in her eyes, even if all he finds are walls and shutters.
"If it is for freedom," she says, "For freedom, I'll do whatever it takes, even if that means protecting Ozpin, or letting Mistral destroy every single thing my brother once owned," she halts for a second, eyes flickering, "I just told you this is not about us. It's not about Qrow."
(But it is)
Taiyang does not need the words to be said. He is not so much a fool as Raven wishes he was.
"Then you're not making much sense," he shoots back, "If you want things to end then you should just hand Ozpin over, wherever he is."
She snorts. "To that stupid old coward? Don't be ridiculous. Old Oz will be dead within days under his watch and then even this current pathetic little modicum of resistance against Salem will crumble. She'll take what she wants and swallow us all."
"Isn't that going to happen anyway, according to you? What does it matter, as long as you're 'free'?"
Silence.
Raven and Taiyang gaze into each other, torrential fire against unyielding ice.
"You insinuate a lot of things about me, Tai," she says at last, quietly.
He sighs, frustrated. Tired beyond reckoning. He tries not to shout.
"Why can't you just admit it? You don't believe in this fight anymore, but Qrow did. He never stopped and now this is about you, thinking you can make amends by guessing at what he could have wanted."
"I don't need to guess," Raven snaps back, voice rising, a strange glitter in her eyes, "He left the tribe for Ozpin's mission. He left me. Nothing was more important to him than that."
Taiyang shakes his head. "You left him. You left us all. You don't know what was important to him."
Raven bears her teeth, glinting white, sharper than a human's should be.
"Don't tell me I didn't know my own brother."
But the hard stiffening in her shoulders suggests that he's right. For Raven, they were all frozen right where she'd placed them those seventeen years ago. In her mind, Qrow will always be that same scowling boy, with his bad luck and his sad eyes, who clung to her like a shadow and then left her for a dream.
"I know you regret how it ended," Taiyang whispers, "I know you are ashamed."
The words barely land before Raven's hands are clenched around his collar, wrenching him close. Taiyang doesn't really even flinch. He notes remotely that she still smells like the forest skies, muddled though it is now by the stench of smoke and despair and dying things.
"Don't," she hisses and falters for a second before continuing, "Do not test me. The mission was what counted for him. He would've been worried about where Ozpin would be. Whether the relics are still closely guarded. Nothing else mattered more."
The hand twisted, fingers more akin to talons bruise the surface of his skin. Nothing, her hold seems to say, tightening with every beat. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
"You're wrong," Taiyang croaks, and his head tilts, gesturing behind him towards the wall, "There was one thing."
She looks. He hadn't expected her to, but she does and if isn't the lack of oxygen making his vision spotty, then he swears he can catch Crescent Rose's blade glow like flames in her eyes.
Raven goes completely still, enough that the pattering storm outside magnifies by ten and Taiyang drops from her grasp like dead meat.
He stumbles, coughing slightly and massaging his throat. When he pulls himself together, Raven is still standing there and staring right through him.
"We walked down different paths a long time ago," she says, "He had his family and I had mine. I don't care if he hated me."
The statement comes from nowhere, but Taiyang only looks at her, not surprised in the least.
"Is that what you think?" he asks softly, "That he hated you?"
Instead of a response, Raven traces the scythe's head with her fingertip, the familiar gearwork and design. She gazes at it for a long time and then she straightens, unstrapping the mask from her belt. Her boots click as she strides toward the window.
"Watch yourself, Tai," she says simply, "I'll be seeing you soon."
He isn't sure they will. Taiyang's nails dig into his palms. He hates the sight of her back with unbridled passion and it occurs to him that it's all Yang probably remembers. Yet he still can't stop her, not this time either. She will go, but not before she hears what he needs to say.
"You know he was afraid too," Taiyang whispers, watching her freeze mid-air to the handle, "Of his Semblance hurting the girls. Of ruining them somehow."
Taiyang straightens his back. He stands tall before his first love's large, liquid gaze.
"But he still chose to stay. He chose them even though it was hard and terrifying. And he'd never accept that you're sorry, Raven. He'd never forgive you for leaving. Not if you don't do what's right."
He spots her as she lands on the golden tiles of a rooftop, not sixty feet from where he's smashing an elbow into a goon's nose.
Taiyang nearly stumbles, heart skipping two rapid beats as they lock eyes. Beyond the immediate onslaught of a thousand aimless questions, he understands somehow, without the need for words, why she's here.
"Raven!" he yells, and Yang jolts at the name. A man goes sailing over their heads, twice the size of Nora who's cackling madly. He had no idea the girl's Semblance was fueled by electricity, but it's a handy coincidence nonetheless.
"Dad?" Yang calls, eyes wide with alarm. Ren spin-kicks another guard into Jaune's shield. The river of security seems never-ending. They wouldn't get far if they tried to move together.
Taiyang grinds his teeth and jabs a finger towards the rooftop, "All of you, follow that bird!"
Incredulous glances flash in his direction. Yang balks at him like he's crazy.
"What?"
"The bird, go with that bird! I'll handle things here!"
"But—"
"YANG!" Tai roars, "Do as I say and follow that damn bird! It'll lead you to Ruby!"
Yang turns around without another word. She follows the bird while the JNPR kids scramble after.
The raven soars into the air as his daughter disappears over the rooftop. For a beat, their gazes meet again and Taiyang's heart swells in a timid, hesitant way, as if he can't quite believe what he's seeing. The sky thrashes with dry lightning and infused aura and he remembers Ruby in the snow at eight years old. He was watching through a window, unable to summon the energy to rise from bed.
But she was happy, giggling freely as she gazed up at her uncle, her cheek pressed against his side, a tiny hand wound around his wrist.
Bring her home, Yang, Tai thinks and can nearly hear Qrow after him, an old echo of assent.
Bring the poor kid home…
The raven leads them into the woods, through the damp squelch of swamp mud and down a writhing trail of thorns. An old courtyard comes into view, Yang notes, all fractured tiles and wreathed in vines. The ruins of a dilapidated warehouse squat beyond the iron-welded gates, half-choked by trees and police tape.
Clumps of people are gathered everywhere. Haven uniforms and peaceful White Fang crests and touted red signs slathered in painted messages of No More and Today We Fight. They learn that the place use to be a former lab of Haven's, now under public scrutiny for the backalley deals that take place here.
"Stop Lionheart and his Council cronies!" A winged Faunus boy yells to the pumped fists of at least thirty comrades and Yang feels strangely reassure. They may not have the leverage to touch Lionheart anymore, but someone in Mistral will hold him accountable. Someone will make sure he gets what he's due. It's a vicious, but contented thought.
When they request access through the gate, the protesters direct them towards a row of Atlesian guards, shiny and polished in their metallic armor. It's a small squad and they're young—military specialists fresh out of the academy. Their smiles are easy and real.
"We've been stationed here for a few weeks now," one of them says when Jaune asks, "Got notice of an unauthorized shipment to this place. Super expensive machinery paid off the books. Heard it was some kind of tracer or whatever to analyze residual aura. Our commander was pissed off. She headed back to Atlas for an explanation. Left us here on watch 'til she comes back."
"If the General lets her anyway," a second guard grumbles while another one adds, "If her father lets her you mean."
They elbow each other for the disrespect and Yang gets a sudden inkling. A kernel of a suspicion that burrows quickly into her brain.
"Who's in charge then?" Yang interrupts unintentionally, cutting Jaune off from his questions about the machine (which they will address again later because it sounds too damn familiar and that can't ever be a good thing).
"Eh, not really anyone from our side. I mean, the Commander's sister is still here. Use to go to Beacon before all the terrible things that went down there. She hasn't exactly graduated yet though so—"
"Honestly, we've kinda just melded together with the natives. Some of the protesters are in the local militia. The White Fang members here also follow the old leader and that guy was all about the peace and harmony."
Yang almost can't hear them anymore over the stampede of her heart. Faintly, she catches Ren and Nora making noises of shock and their gazes darting towards her while Jaune asks hastily for the commander's name.
Their alarm is received with various odd looks, but eventually the men shrug and answer.
"Winter Schnee. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure Commander Schnee actually had a meeting with the protest leader before she left right? Ghira Belladonna's daughter?"
"Yeah, I remember that. We weren't expecting them. Kinda weird now, since she and Lady Weiss have been stuck together like glue ever since."
Jaune says something to her, or maybe it's Nora. Yang can't tell. She pivots on her heel, sending dust flying and isn't sure if she wants to go tearing through the site herself or demand the guards to take her.
Her heart is hammering, threatening to burst through her ribs and catch fire in her blood.
No way, no fucking—
"Hey, there they are now!" the guards say and wave blithely at something over her head, calling out, "Ms. Blake! Lady Weiss! These folks here are looking to speak with you."
Yang is so frozen that she can't even turn around, but it's not like she needs to. She can see every second play out like a reel of tape in her head. The abrupt and stunned halt, the choked inhale of surprise. Whatever they're holding crashes to the ground in a heap and even though Yang is giving this whole optimism thing another try, there had always been a small part of her that thought she would never ever hear those voices again.
"…Yang?"