Ruby didn't pout. At least, she didn't like to think she did. She was going on sixteen, and that meant she was far too mature to pout. Her dad or Yang probably would say she was moping instead, but her dad wasn't there and Yang… well, Yang wasn't there either, not really. Truth be told, Ruby didn't think she'd ever felt so alone before. There'd been the times where her dad had gone on missions and Uncle Qrow was too busy to babysit and Yang needed to go into town to get groceries or something else along those lines, but they were always going to come back. Here, sitting in the hotel lobby, with her dad stuck on Patch and her team falling apart at the seams and all her other friends dealing with their own issues, well… she wondered if things were going to ever feel normal again.
Ruby sunk even further into her chair, to the point where she was practically laying on it. Despite the number of students staying at the hotel, the lobby was pretty quiet. Most of the other students kept themselves occupied in their rooms or went out to help keep the Grimm in check or explored Vale. Ruby just wasn't feeling any of that.
A few muffled shouts from outside the front door caught her attention, and she lolled her head to the side to take a look. Between public attention moving away from the Battle of Beacon over time and the students figuring out other ways out of the hotel, most of the paparazzi had dispersed, so Ruby was a little curious who was worth getting into a tizzy over and who would be foolish enough to come straight in through the front.
The door opened and Ruby shot out of her seat. "Uncle Qrow?! A-Aspen?!"
Flanked by flashing cameras, the two people in question looked her way, though neither in surprise. They weren't alone either, and Ruby recognized the other two as the hunters that had been with Aspen in the arena, the ones who may or may not have been her parents. Ruby still needed to figure that out. The more important question was what they were all doing together. As far as she knew, no one had seen Aspen for the last week, and she'd barely seen her uncle in that time, certainly not enough to get an explanation for what happened in the CCT.
"Ah, hey kiddo," Qrow said, leading the group over to where Ruby now stood. He reached out a hand and ruffled her hair. "You been staying out of trouble?"
Ruby endured the display of affection, her mind still reeling. "Uh, y-yeah. I'm trying."
Qrow chuckled. "That's too bad. I thought I taught you better than that."
Laughing nervously at the joke, Ruby looked from person to person. This was all just… too weird. Why was he hanging out with Aspen and her maybe-not-parents? Should she ask? Maybe… maybe not directly. "S-so, Aspen," she said, turning toward the black-haired girl. Aspen seemed distracted at first, still glancing back in the direction of the paparazzi out front. Now that Ruby thought about it, they had probably recognized her as the girl who'd attacked Team RWBY in the middle of the tournament. She did eventually turn her head to look at Ruby, though, so the younger girl felt a little more comfortable continuing. "Where've you been the last week? Ilex was asking about you, said he hadn't seen you since the attack on Beacon. He did mention that General Ironwood wanted to arrest you because he thought you had something to do with it, but he also wasn't really sure about it, so I guess I just… um…"
"I… was arrested," Aspen said, seemingly ignoring Ruby's rambling speech.
It didn't make her feel any less awkward, though. "O-oh, I see." Ruby absently played with her fingers, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with Aspen. "W-well, I guess since they released you, that means you didn't have anything to do with it then, right? That's a good thing. A… A really good thing." Oh, gods, what was she saying?
Aspen frowned. "Yes. It is… good."
Something in the way she said that made Ruby's nervousness dissipate completely. Aspen sounded different than she remembered. Weird. Well, Aspen had always seemed weird, but this was more weird than usual. She sounded less confident, even less sure of her words. When she stumbled over them before, it had almost been like she didn't even know what they meant. Now, it was more like she doubted what she wanted to say.
Ruby would have thought about it more, but Aspen's maybe-not-dad stepped forward. "Hey, you're, uh, Ruby Rose, right?" The girl nodded dumbly, her social awkwardness catching back up to her. "My name's Oliver Cyprus, and this is my partner Laurel Tawn," he said, gesturing to the woman behind him.
The name "Tawn" jogged Ruby's memory, bringing her back to her and Weiss's literal run-in with Ilex by the elevator. He'd said something about not seeing a Mantis or a Tawny along with Aspen. Were those these people? She could see a tattoo on Oliver's neck, and it looked like an insect leg of some kind. Were Mantis and Tawny nicknames? Was it weird for adults to have nicknames? "Uh, hi," Ruby said, waving meekly. "I'm Ruby." She slapped herself in the face. "Which you… already know…"
Oliver—Mantis?—Oliver, Ruby decided—grunted an odd laugh while scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah. So, I've been meaning to apologize for what happened on the colosseum, back when Aspen attacked you."
The way he phrased the apology confused Ruby. Wasn't what happened when Aspen attacked them just… Aspen attacking them? "W-well, she didn't do any real damage to us and did already apologize and promise that it wouldn't happen again so, I dunno. I guess we're already kind of squared away. Y'know?"
Ruby didn't like the way Oliver's face tightened, but Aspen spoke before he could say anything. "Ruby, I broke my promise."
H-huh? Ruby looked around at the three adults, hoping one of them might explain what Aspen was talking about. She felt like she would have heard if Aspen had attacked someone else. "What do you mean?" she asked when it was clear no one else would talk. "What did you do?"
Eyes fixed on the ground, Aspen shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Three days after I fought you and your Ruby Team, I attacked my own team in the forest. I did it in an attempt to prove myself to—" she glanced at Qrow, who only raised an eyebrow in return. "Why I did it is not important. I did not have to attack them and I chose to do it anyway." After a moment's hesitation, she added, "I am sorry."
Ruby felt light-headed. She already had so much going on, and now Aspen was telling her that she'd put someone else through what RWBY had gone through. Why would she…? No. Like she said it doesn't matter why. Ruby took a deep breath. "What about your team? Did you apologize to them? Did they forgive you?"
Aspen hesitated. "Yes. I do not fully understand the concept of forgiveness, but I believe they did."
"Then it doesn't really matter what I think!" The force of her own words caught Ruby off-guard. She looked down, toying with her fingers. "Th-that is, I don't really know you well enough to get upset at you over a promise. I mean, I'm a little disappointed that you broke it, but I also know that you've been trying really hard to be a good person." Aspen cocked her head at that, though Ruby wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "Back on the colosseum, you were the one to get us all moving to help save people during the attack. You kept me focused after General Ironwood left to retake his ship." Growing bolder, she stood up straighter. "You and your team were the first ones off the airship. You fight alongside all of us to protect people, and Yang told me what you did for her and Blake. As far as I'm concerned, you've made up for attacking us. From the way your team followed you, I don't think they hold it against you either."
Aspen stared at Ruby, a look of confusion on her face. "What I did…?" For a moment, Ruby wondered if there had been something wrong with her bringing that up. When Aspen lifted a hand between them, palm toward herself… Yeah, she still couldn't figure out what she was thinking. "I am… grateful for your words, Ruby. Thank you."
Ruby rubbed her neck, the rush of confidence beginning fade. "Heh heh, yeah. Sure." Proud to have successfully maneuvered through the conversation so far, she waited until Aspen lowered her hand again. "So, are you guys here to see your team, then?"
"That's right." It was Oliver who answered, a small smile on his face. "Your Uncle here was going to lead us up to their room."
Giving Ruby a wink on the side, Qrow pivoted on one foot to face the hunters. "Yeeeah, actually, do you think you could head up on your own? Room 522? I'd like to talk with my niece a little longer."
"Not a problem," Oliver said, nodding. He took a step forward and held out his hand. "It was nice to meet you, Ruby. I can see why you're the leader of your team."
The girl took his hand and shook it. "Uh, thanks. It was nice to meet you too." She turned her eyes toward Laurel and received a respectful nod in return. Come to think of it, she didn't say anything the entire time. I guess she's the quiet type, like Blake. As the three separated from the group, Ruby gave a small wave to Aspen, though she wasn't sure if the other girl even saw it. Dropping her hand to her side, she turned to her uncle. "So, are we finally going to have our talk?"
Chuckling to himself, Qrow nodded. "Yeah, I figure it's about time." He gestured toward the chair Ruby had been sitting in and she returned to it, sinking into the soft leather. He eased himself down into the seat opposite her. "Anywhere in particular you want me to start?"
Who was that man? Why did he attack Pyrrha? Why did you let him go? Ruby shook her head. She felt like there was going to be a lot of explanation, so it would be better to let her uncle explain everything in his own way. Any questions she might have could wait until after.
Qrow settled back into his chair, momentarily staring into the middle distance. "You've heard The Tale of the Two Brothers, right? One brother created the Creatures of Grimm to wipe out the other brother's creations?" Ruby thought for a moment, then nodded. She couldn't remember the specifics, but it sounded familiar enough. "Well, the tribe your Aunt Raven and I grew up in had a different story about the origins of the Grimm, one passed down the generations for longer than anyone can remember. It never officially had a name, but we called it The Scourge of the Rephaim."
Ruby sat up straighter. Qrow rarely ever talked about Raven, so if he was bringing her up, it had to be important.
"Hundreds of thousands of years ago," he continued, "before the time of Human and Faunus, before Aura and Dust, there was a race of soulless demons called the Rephaim. The Rephaim looked human, but… well, they were superhuman, even by hunter-standards. They moved faster than the eye could see, had the strength and endurance of a thousand men, and had keener senses than any living creature. They were practically unkillable, and they took pleasure in hunting early Man."
Ruby shivered. This was sounding more like a monster story designed to frighten children into not wandering off than the kind of fairy tales she was used to. This was the kind of story Qrow grew up with? No wonder he was so weird.
"What made the Rephaim truly deadly, however, was their ability to track a person by their very soul. It's said that they could sense fear from miles away, and the greater the fear, the easier it was for them to track. They were savage and animalistic. Over time, their depravity warped them, changed their forms into something more reflective of their nature: the Creatures of Grimm."
Ruby shrunk into her chair, trying to process what she was being told. The idea of Grimm being descended from literal demons was as plausible as any other origin myth, but it was still just a myth, right? "These… Rephaim… Are you saying they're real? That one of them attacked Pyrrha?"
Qrow nodded gravely. "Obviously, parts of the story have been exaggerated over time. They're not immortal, for instance, and it's… unlikely they turned into Grimm on their own, but most of what we do know about them matches up."
So, not literal demons. That, at least, made Ruby feel a little better. Still, even acknowledging that what boiled down to a humanoid Grimm actually existed didn't sit well with her. "How do you know about them? Outside the story I mean. Are… Are there more of them out there?"
"Part of it comes from what your friend Pyrrha told us. The man she fought called himself Deirean, and claimed to be the last of the 'Old Rephaim.' As for the rest…" Qrow drew a long sigh. "Yes, there is another rephaite. She told us just about everything we know about the Rephaim…" He looked up to meet Ruby's gaze. "…and I think you know who she is."
"Aspen," Ruby whispered. How… how had she not seen it before? The way Aspen fought, impossibly fast and impossibly strong. No amount of Aura could let someone heal from being impaled by a scythe, especially not as quickly as she had. She probably didn't even have an Aura if she was Grimm. Even Zwei had known something was wrong with her, and Ruby had just ignored his instincts. "Aspen's a Grimm."
She made to stand, but Qrow quickly raised a hand to stop her. "She's not a Grimm, Ruby, and she's not a threat either. Please, sit back down." Ruby hesitated but lowered herself down. "Ozpin worked it out after she attacked you and figured it would be better to keep her close than set her loose back into the world. The good news is that she seems to be genuinely interested in being a huntress and protecting people. As long as she doesn't give anyone reason to doubt that, she's going to be given a chance to do that. Like you said, she's trying to be a good person."
Ruby shifted in her chair, uncomfortable with having her words twisted back at her. On the one hand, she knew he was right. This really shouldn't have changed anything. Aspen had done those things of her own free will and had never actually shown any ill will or traitorous intentions toward anyone as far as she knew. Still… "But she's a Gr- er, a Rephaim, isn't she?"
Qrow let out a pained sigh and leaned forward onto his knees. "It's not that simple Ruby. There's no hard line between good and evil here." He shook his head and looked down. "Look, there's another part of the story that I didn't tell you. It's why I've been putting this off, because I'm a little worried at how you'll react." His eyes rose to meet Ruby's. "The Rephaim… There's another thing that separates them from humans and faunus. They don't have the same genetic variation that we do, so every single rephaite shares the same three features: pale skin, black hair, and red eyes."
Ruby's breath caught in her throat, the pieces of the puzzle coming together. She knew those features well: the man who'd nearly killed Pyrrha, half-charred and bloody, one good eye burning with malice; the girl who'd tried to kill her team, eyes wide and bestial, still alive after being nearly bisected; and the man in front of her, who'd trained her, helped raise her. All Rephaim. "U-Uncle Qrow?"
A pained smile tugged at the corners of the man's eyes, eyes she'd long looked into with love and respect. "When we were growing up, Raven was convinced that we were descended from the Rephaim. I always told her that it was ridiculous, that it was just a story, but she never let go of the idea. It turns out, after all this time, she was right, in a sense. We're human, for all intents and purposes but, deep down, there's a small part of us that isn't." He laughed, short and bitter. "We even grew up speaking their language. Never even realized it until that night."
Ruby's mind buzzed, a dozen thoughts trying to drown one another out. How can something like the Rephaim exist? Where did Aspen and Deirean come from, and why did they show up now? Wait, if Uncle Qrow and Aunt Raven are part rephaite, then that means… Ruby gasped. "Yang!"
Qrow sighed and nodded. "She's got a little bit of rephaite in her too, even if it doesn't always show. It's easy enough to explain her eyes changing color as part of her Semblance, but… " he tapped near his own eye, "that's just her genetics coming through."
Genetics… So, it really was true. "Does she know?"
Qrow didn't answer immediately, looking at the ground while he toyed with his hands. "Not yet. With everything going on, it doesn't feel right to burden her with this too."
Ruby nodded. She couldn't imagine the damage that knowledge would do to Yang when she was already stressed out about Blake and… whatever had happened during the finals round. She didn't talk much about it, but Ruby knew it was still eating away at her. Still, she would need to be told at some point, and the longer Qrow waited, the worse it could be.
How much simpler would things have been if Aspen had never shown up? Her mind went back to their fight in the arena, the blood that stained Crescent Rose and, at the same time, hadn't. Aspen's admission of attacking her own team. The way she'd taken charge after Penny had… Yang's story about Aspen putting herself in danger to save her and Blake from the White Fang.
How much worse would things have been if Aspen had never shown up?
"I can understand if you look at me differently, or find it hard to trust me now," Qrow continued, slumping back into his chair. "I've been grappling with that myself ever since I found out, trying to figure out if it's somehow made me who I am without even knowing it. I'm still not sure, to be honest."
Ruby stood up, her legs shaking beneath her. "Don't…" She took a breath as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Don't say that." Qrow looked up, only for her to throw herself at him and grab him in an awkward hug, unable to wrap her arms around him with the chair in the way. He was warm and smelled of booze and pine. Familiar. "You're my uncle. Maybe you're part-Grimm, too, but I know you'd never do anything to hurt me or Yang or anyone else. It's like you said, you're human. The color of your eyes doesn't define who you are."
Qrow stayed silent, wrapping his arms around Ruby to return the embrace. Ruby thought she felt something damp on his skin when he lowered his head onto her shoulder, but she wasn't in a place to say anything. "Thank you, Ruby," Qrow eventually said, squeezing her tighter. "I needed that."
Ruby smiled to herself and squeezed back. "That's what family's for." Pulling away, she rubbed the tears from her eyes and pretended not to notice her uncle doing the same. "Yang really deserves to know about all this, and it would be better if it came from you."
Qrow sighed. "I know, I know. I will tell her, but… it's going to have to wait." He looked up at her apologetically, his eyes looking a touch redder than before. "I have to go find someone. Someone… really important."
Ruby nodded and stood up again, freeing her uncle to do the same. She didn't like that Yang was going to be kept in the dark for even longer, but it probably was for the best until everything else got sorted out. "That's alright. You have to go be a hero. I get it, and I'm sure Yang will understand too." Ruby struggled to keep her smile. Despite her optimism, she knew it wasn't going to be that simple.
Qrow knew that too. "Maybe," he muttered. He set a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I know this might sound a little contradictory, but I want you to stay away from Aspen for a little while. She might not be a danger," he added quickly, "but Deirean's still out there, and she's a lightning rod for trouble right now. I don't want to risk you running into him again."
Ruby couldn't help but feel a little afraid at the warning. After everything he'd told her about the Rephaim, she could understand his worry, but there was something about the look on his face that made her feel there was something else he hadn't told her yet. "Y-you never did tell me what the two of you said to one another."
Judging from the way Qrow took a deep breath in, it seemed like she'd hit the nail on the head. "He… threatened to kill you the next time he saw you, regardless of whether or not you were in his way."
A shiver ran down Ruby's spine. "And… what did you say."
Qrow managed a weak smile. "I told him that it would be a bad idea." He sniffed and shrugged, clearly trying to lighten the mood some. "I guess he didn't like me talking back to him in his own language, 'cause then he cussed me out and called me an abomination. I've been called worse."
Ruby smiled, more for him than herself. Abomination… That must've referred to Qrow being part-rephaite, which wouldn't have helped his fears. Stepping forward, she wrapped her arms around him again. "I promise I'll be careful, but I need you to promise that you'll be careful, too."
Qrow patted her head. "I promise."
"I love you, Uncle Qrow."
"Love you too, kiddo."
Boy, it really wasn't supposed to be this long before I put this chapter out. I got almost half of it done within a week after posting the last chapter, but then I just kind of hit a wall. So, sorry about the delay.
Also, this chapter wasn't supposed to be just one scene. Once I started going, though, I realized that this one was going to be longer than I anticipated. Decided to split it off and give the other scene a little more room to grow once I get to it.
Anyway, we finally got the promised conversation between Qrow and Ruby. I wonder if anyone actually figured it out beforehand. I wasn't exactly subtle about it, but I did have some issues keeping it from being too obvious. Qrow being part-Grimm was one of those ideas that's just crazy enough that it could wind up being canon and I'm glad I could get it out before the show could blow it for me like they did Aura-transfer for my other story, Wayward Son.
That's all for now. Au revoir!
