A/N: Alright, first things first. I'm really really really really really sorry. Finals happened, and I got swamped with schoolwork, and then I had my head up my own ass for an extended amount of time.. That being said, we're finally back on track for the story. I'll have more to say after the chapter, I just wanted to get this done.
"1390 has been assigned leader status after his recent success in leadership scenarios and exercises. I don't think he was expecting that, and he immediately tried to tell us that he didn't deserve the role. However, we see his potential, and it's clear his peers do as well, and with any luck this will bolster his confidence. Time will tell if Jaune will be the leader his team needs. Branwen, out."- Sergeant Qrow Branwen, 5 years BBG.
Kamino 7 years BBG
"Run you maggot!"
Qrow winced at the harsh tone of his sister, but he knew she didn't really mean it. She was yelling at one of the trainees, a little blonde girl who had fallen face first into the mud.
"Two-Six do you want to fail? Do you want to let your fellow trainees down?"
The little girl stood back up on shaky legs, beginning to run again, trying to catch up to the other children.
"No ma'am!" The girl, designated as 26, said weakly, desperately trying to gain lost ground.
Qrow just sighed, firing his rifle into the air. Live rounds, but he wasn't trying to hit them. Just scare them.
He hated this, but he knew it had to be done. The children were technically six years old, but at the same time, they were around three years old. Kaminoan rapid aging tech made it hard to keep track of how old everyone was.
"Run, dammit! If you don't make it in time, you'll run it again!" Qrow joined in, yelling at the children, firing his rifle repeatedly.
I know it hurts, but please just don't stay down. If they stayed down, they would have to be submitted for termination. The first time Qrow heard a Kaminoan say that word referring to the clones, he almost throttled her on the spot.
The girl fell again, and Qrow began to walk over, ready to take her away, when, to his surprise, she got back up and began to run.
"That's it Six! Run like you have a purpose!" He yelled out, almost filled with happiness as she ran to her group, meeting Tai and Summer at the finish.
He would have to keep an eye on Two-Six. She had something special within her.
He could feel it.
Okay, here's how it goes. Same dream, every night. It always starts with Summer, just seeing her on the ground, and her blood all over us. All over me. That used to be all it was, but now it keeps going, and I see the family, begging for their lives. It happens in slow motion, from the pull of the trigger to their bodies hitting the grass. But it doesn't stop there. I see CRDL, and then I see us. I see Pyrrha taking a sniper round through the heart, Nora being taken out by a mortar round, Ren bleeding out on the ground, until it's just Jaune. Then it's Jaune in his room, a blaster hole in the roof of his mouth. One by one we fall, until I'm the only one left. And then, I'm gone too. - Private journal of RC-1126
Coruscant, 30 Days ABG
"Hey Sarge, I have a question."
Qrow turned around to see Jaune with a troubled expression on his face, scratching his neck awkwardly.
"What is it Jaune?"
"Back there, when you told Roman we were your sons, did you mean it?"
"Course I did Jaune. You're like my children, all of you." Qrow said, rustling Jaune's blonde hair.
Jaune smiled at him, seemingly reassured as Qrow pulled out his comlink and quickly tapped in a code.
"Hello?"
"Oz, it's Qrow. I've got a request to make, but you're not gonna like it."
"You're already doing a good job selling it."
Qrow hesitated a second, before continuing with his train of thought.
"I need a sizable amount of explosives from the GAR armory."
"I assume you have a reason?"
"We're going to use it as bait to take the terror cell down."
"I want you to walk me through this plan Sergeant." Ozpin said coolly, and Qrow began to worry that this wouldn't work. If he shuts this down we're screwed, I don't have any other plans.
"We'll put word out that we're selling a very large amount of high-grade explosives. This is the kind of bait only a big fish has the teeth to take, so I'm not worried about some punk street gang trying to get their hands on something so they can make their rival's eyes water."
"And if they take this bait?"
"Then we get as many of them into one spot as we can, try and get all their leaders there, and clean house."
"I will be needing the explosives back, Qrow."
"Don't worry, you won't even notice they're missing."
The Apartment
"It's good you're here Yang, you're just the person I was looking for." Weiss said, setting her Deece down.
"I am?" Yang said, sitting down on the couch across from Weiss.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you were still having those nightmares?"
Yang paused for a second, as if she wasn't expecting this line of questioning.
"Yeah, I'm still having them. Why?"
"Is it so wrong for me to care about you Yang? We are a team after all." Weiss said matter-of-factly, as if disappointed Yang even had to ask.
"It's not that it's just, I guess I wasn't expecting you to ask."
"Have you talked to Qrow about them yet?"
"Haven't gotten the time yet."
"Yang, we've been doing nothing but recon assignments for the last month. Do you honestly expect me to believe you haven't had the time?" Weiss said, staring Yang down.
"I'm just kind of afraid of what he'll say." Yang said, looking down at the ground. She looked up when she felt a touch on her shoulder, Weiss standing there, hand on Yang comfortingly.
"Yang, you know that he'll only want to help you."
Yang had to take a second to think, knowing that unfortunately Weiss was right. Qrow would just want to help her. Deep down, she knew she hadn't come to Qrow yet because she was afraid to admit that she had failed. She had failed when they had to cut down the family, and she had been trained not to fail. In training, failure wasn't acceptable. Failure came with death, something the squad had learned the hard way when Summer died in front of them. Squads that failed were taken to reconditioning, and never seen again. People spoke of what happened to them in hushed whispers at night, but no one truly knew what had become of the teams deemed bad enough to be sent to reconditioning. All they knew was they never, ever, came back.
"Yang." She looked up to see piercing blue eyes staring at her, accented by a scar over her left eye, a reminder to take live fire exercises seriously.
"You should go talk to him." Weiss said, her voice softer then Yang had ever heard before. In that moment, she knew what had to be done.
"You know what? You're right Weiss." Yang said, standing up, making to leave the room.
"Thanks Weiss. You're a good friend."
Elsewhere in the Apartment
"Calling again so soon Qrow?" The smug voice said from the comlink, making Qrow grit his teeth. Only one man would have the guts to speak to Qrow in such a manner.
"I need you to do something for me Roman." Qrow said, hoping to cut through the bullshit and get straight to business.
"You never call to say hello, you don't send flowers, it's like you don't care anymore." The smartass said, causing Qrow's left eye to twitch slightly in irritation.
"It's about the Grimm dickwad. Stop messing around."
The line went silent for a second, and Qrow was almost afraid he had gone too hard.
"How can I help you Qrow?" Roman said, all playfulness gone from his voice. Roman knew when to get serious, and it was the only reason Qrow hadn't killed him yet.
"I need to put some materials on the market." Is all Qrow said, keeping it intentionally vague. Roman would know exactly what he was referring to.
"How secure is this line?" Roman said, voice hushed.
"No one's going to hear what we say."
Roman let out a sigh of relief, before proceeding with the conversation.
"What type of materials, Qrow?"
"I have what they're looking for."
"That is… quite a bit of material my friend. How much do you have?"
Qrow smiled, knowing he had Roman hooked now.
"I've got enough for them."
"How much are you asking for?"
"Highest bid ought to do fine."
"I'll want a fee for putting this on the market for you."
Qrow gritted his teeth at that. Greedy bastard.
"Your fee can be anonymity."
"You're not actually going to give them the materials are you?" Roman asked hesitantly, and Qrow smiled at that. You've no idea what I'm up to, and you're better off not knowing.
"Can't tell you that."
"These people are professionals Qrow. I'm not sure you want to fuck with them."
"I can handle myself Roman. Put my number out with the material." Qrow said angrily, ending the call. He ran a hand through his hair, eyes closed, wincing at the oncoming headache. It was going to be a long night.
"Hey Qrow, do you have a minute to talk?"
I was wondering when this was gonna happen. Qrow thought, as he gestured to the seat across from him. "What's on your mind firecracker?"
She smiled for a brief second, before it faded from her face as she sat down.
"I messed up Sarge. I messed up real bad." She said, the fingers on her right hand rapidly drumming a nervous beat on her thigh.
"Start from the beginning Yang. Tell me what happened."
Yang took a deep, shaky breath, avoiding Qrow's eyes.
"On Qiilura, we had to cross this field. In the middle was this farmhouse, and we had to go quiet so we didn't disturb the people inside, because we were running covert ops. I fucked up, and the family heard me, and they came out. We… we had to…"
Qrow immediately knew what she was going to say, and he reached over and gently grabbed her hand in his.
"Hey, eyes up soldier." Her lilac eyes met his, tears beginning to pool in hers.
"Mistakes happen. People get hurt. But it's what you take away from this, what you learn, that's important. Understand?"
"I can see them in my dreams Qrow. I can hear them begging for their lives. And then Ruby gives the order, and then it happens."
"Are these anything like the nightmares you used to have? After Summer died?"
She nodded, and Qrow's mind couldn't help but wander to the fateful day Team RWBY witnessed their instructor dying in front of them. He quickly shoved those thoughts away. Now was not the time to reflect on her death.
"Yang, you just need to come to terms with what you've done. Only when you do, will you be able to move past what happened, and continue to help your squad."
She nodded, as he squeezed her hand briefly, before letting go.
"Now come on kid, let's go get you something to eat."
Coruscant, 42 Days ABG
Pyrrha was drenched in sweat, her lungs burning as she ran another lap around the training complex. She'd been exercising like mad since they started the operation, as it was the only way she could stay sane. That, and spending time at the range, keeping her aim sharp. The commandos had all been doing the same, even now Weiss was running too, a few meters behind her. They weren't racing, merely staying conditioned. Pyrrha slowed to a stop, taking a swig from her water bottle as Weiss continued to run.
It had been a very slow, boring twelve days since Qrow had put word out that he was selling high explosives. They were beginning to worry that the terrorists wouldn't take the bait. If that was the case, they'd have to come up with something new, and no one was sure what the plan would be.
"Hey Pyr! Weiss!"
Pyrrha's head turned to face Jaune, who was calling her name.
"What's up Jaune?"
"Qrow made contact with the terrorists. He wants all of us upstairs."
Weiss jogged over to them, out of breath from her run.
"Come on Weiss, Qrow wants us to meet with him."
She nodded, as the trio walked through the door.
A short speeder ride later and they were walking into the apartment, Pyrrha noticing the presence of the other five commandos, plus Sun and Neptune.
Pyrrha and Jaune stood by the door, while Weiss sat down in an empty seat next to Ruby and Nora. Qrow was deep in conversation with Sun and Neptune, but when he noticed that all the commandos were present he merely shook his head at whatever Sun was saying, before walking to the center of the living room.
"Alright kiddos, I've made contact with the Grimm, and I've set up a time and place to meet with them. We'll be discussing cost and delivery, since that's not something anyone wants to talk about over comlink. Much safer to meet in person. Commandos will be overwatch, nonlethal rounds only. We're here to observe, not kill. Besides, they won't be bringing all their top tier members, so killing the ones that show up will just cause the higher-ups to scatter, and we won't find them again. Sun and Nep will be on the ground with me, posing as the hired muscle. I'm not expecting trouble, but we're being cautious anyway. Meet is tomorrow at 1600, in the industrial sector. We're mobilizing at 0800 to get set up. Questions?"
The room had gone silent, all the commandos eager at the thought of finally getting to hunt again.
Qrow smiled, understanding the anticipation the soldiers were feeling.
"Let's end this"
A/N: I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD MOTHERFUCKERS. Sorry, had to get that out of the system. Good news, this fic is officially back in action, and I've got a good feeling about future chapters. Bad news is, there will not be a schedule for release. I'll put them out when I make them, but no worries, it won't be another 5 month gap. This chapter is coming out at exactly 5 months after the last one, which I think is kind of cool. You know, besides the almost half year gap. Couple things I want to address story wise. Well, really, one big thing. Last chapter I decided to add in some romance. That's not happening. At least, not for a very long time. I'm focusing on what I intentionally wanted this fic to be about, which is action and character development inside the squads. Next chapter will be the end of the Coruscant arc, and then we're going to have some pretty action heavy chapters to make up for the lack of action we've been having. Also, I'm publishing these through my new Reddit account, TheNewKraken. It's still me writing these, just changed my Reddit user so people from the /r/RWBY discord could recognize me on the sub, and vice-versa.
Sorry again for the wait, but I promise, this fic has got good things coming. ALSO HOLY SHIT THIS FIC HAS ALMOST 4K VIEWS THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE.
Team RWBY
RC-1183 Ruby, Sergeant Rank
RC-1104 Weiss, Private
RC-1170 Blake, Private
RC-1126 Yang, Private
Team JNPR
RC-1390 Jaune, Sergeant Rank
RC-1163 Nora, Private
RC-8051 Pyrrha, Private
RC-2223 Ren, Private
Team SSSN
ARC S-11 Sun, Captain Rank
ARC S-07 Scarlet, Lieutenant Rank
ARC S-12 Sage, Sergeant Rank
ARC S-10 Neptune, Lieutenant Rank
Other
Qrow Branwen, Mandalorian Warrior. Former Training Sergeant in the GAR
Taiyang Xiao Long, Mandalorian Warrior. Former Training Sergeant
Summer Rose. Mandalorian Warrior. Former Training Sergeant
James Ironwood. Mandalorian Warrior. Former Training Sergeant
Vode An
Heil96, out.