Author's note: So I'm sorry this took awhile, but recently things had been hard on me recently, (Bow Chika Bow Wow). But seriously, I don't want to bore you people. So I'll just say, let's do this.
[Somewhere in Mistral at a bar]
Qrow and Locus walked in as Qrow headed towards the bartender with Locus behind him. The man behind the counter asked the two something he asks customers, "Regular or the special?" He asked.
Qrow responded first, "I'm actually looking for someone goes by the name Shiro Wan, ever heard of him? I heard he's a regular around here." He asked.
"Who's asking?" The bartender asked.
The man stopped in his tracks as he seemed to be hiding something, Locus then spoke up, "We're not with the police, but we need to speak to him. He's an old ally." He stated.
The bartender then nodded, "Way back huh? So he's a friend of yours?" He asked again.
Qrow stroked his chin, "Yeah, I'd say so, he's a pretty alright guy." He began.
The bartender then began to speak more, "Well, in that case...you tell that jerk he better not show his ugly face in here until he pays me the Lien he owes me!" He said.
Qrow backed up as he began to walk towards the door, "Uh, did I say friend? I uh I meant acquaintance, really we're just colleagues. Anyway thanks for your time. We'll just be taking off." He said as he and Locus exited the bar laughing nervously.
Outside Locus and Qrow pulled out their scrolls as they both crossed off a name off the list. They both somehow knew this was gonna be a long day, "Great start." Qrow said.
After many more stops and going to different places in the town, they came across different answers with the exact same response. From they were able to gather, the huntsmen and huntresses here were all scheduled for different life threatening assignments. It came clear to them after the final house.
Locus approached the door, "Heather Shields?" He asked as he began to knock on the door.
When the door opened, Qrow greeted the man before asking the question, "Oh, uh, hey there. I'm looking for Heather?" He asked. After receiving no response from the man he grew tired, "Look pal, I've had a rough-" He paused as he felt something touch his shoulder.
Locus shook his head, just as a little girl came out, "Daddy? Does he knowing where mommy is?" She asked.
Locus looked down towards the ground, "I'm sorry to bother you." He said as he and Qrow began to walk around.
Later they went to the Mistral bounty board to come to the terrible realization, everyone from their list were no longer available. Every single one of them.
Locus went to the bar they had went to earlier to find Shiro Wan, and came face to face with the bartender, "You've got a lot of nerve showing up back here, unless you brought that idiot with you-" He said.
Locus stared at the ground, "How much did Shiro owe you?" He asked.
The man behind the counter looked confused then guessed a random amount, "Well I'd say about...16,000 Lien." He said. Locus pulled out his wallet and tossed his credit card on the counter, "Wait, what?" He asked, "Man you must be in some serious trouble with him if you're paying me off." He said.
Locus looked the man in the eyes, "His name is clear." He said as he began to walk out slowly.
"Yeah." The bartender then stopped talking for a moment, "That idiot." He said knowing the he'd never see him again.
"Yeah." Locus said.
[Brawnwen Tribe Camp]
The guests from the Reds team, Tucker, Weiss and Yang were all crowded together within the tent, as they are given cups of tea.
Raven had sent Vernal outside, "You can wait outside, thank you." She said.
Yang refocused the subject, "So, what's the 'truth'?" She asked.
Raven took a sip of her tea, "You know, it's better when hot." She said.
Weiss then spoke up, "You know you're really obnoxious." She responded.
Raven finally went back on topic, "The truth is that 'truth' is hard to come by. A story of victory for one person is a story of defeat for someone else. By now, your Uncle has surely told Ruby and her friends plenty of stories." She said.
Yang kept her arms folded, "Well he's never given me a reason to doubt him before." She replied.
Raven looked at her daughter, "That doesn't mean those reasons don't exist. You know, you and your teammates might as well be the poster children for the Huntsmen academies. Your motives vary, but you all enrolled to try to make the world a better place. It's adorable." She said.
Yang reminded her mother of the job description, "It's what Huntsmen and Huntresses do." She explained.
Raven then explained her side, "Not all of them. Some people are just in it for the money and the fame, but there's even more that are just looking to grow stronger. Your Uncle Qrow and I didn't attend Beacon to become Huntsmen, we did it to learn how to kill Huntsmen." She received gasps from Yang, Weiss, and Donut but received disgusted faces from Tucker and Sarge, "Daddy and Uncle left that part out hm?" She asked, "Aside from the Grimm, Huntsmen were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. Our tribe needed a counter force and Qrow and I were the perfect age. The entrance exams were child's play compared to what we'd already been through. We were good. So good, that we caught the atattention of Beacon's very own Headmaster, Professor Ozpin. Even after we were put on a team, I could tell he was keeping his eye on us. Back then, I thought it was because he knew. But it was team STRQ he was interested in." She said.
Yang was left with another question, "What do you mean by that?" She asked.
Raven explained while having her back face them, "Constant attention, extra training missions, turning a blind eye whenever we happened to break the rules and get into more trouble than we should've. Sound familiar?" She asked.
Yang fired with another question, "What's your point?" She questioned.
Raven responded with another question, "How much do you know about Professor Ozpin? About his past?" She asked.
Weiss responded slowly, "He was...a prodigy. One of the youngest headmasters to be appointed to a school." She said.
Raven responded quickly, "Because that's how he planned it. Because the man you know as Ozpin designed those schools and has followers inside every Academy on Remnant that are loyal to him and no one else." She said.
Yang snapped with her quick response, "That doesn't make any sense! How could he have...? No, why would someone ever do that?" Yang asked.
Raven answered her daughter's question, "Because old man Oz has a great and terrible secret. One that could spread fear across the world. One that he eventually entrusted to our team, and once I knew, there was no going back. I needed to know more, but with every new discovery I made, the more horrifying the world became." She said only telling them a small side of the story.
Yang was bored of hearing the same thing over and over again, "Okay, then tell us. What's the big secret? What's so crazy that the rest of us don't know?" She demanded to know.
Raven paused for a moment, "The creatures of Grimm...have a master named Salem. She can't be stopped, she can't be reasoned with, and she will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet." She said.
Weiss was confused as everyone else, "What?" She asked.
Raven pointed out something to the group, "You know none of you touched your tea." She said.
Yang stood up, "Why should we believe any of this?" She asked.
Raven became pleased, "Now you're catching on, so far you've done nothing but accept what others tell you, but you need to question everything." Raven told her daughter, "Otherwise you'll end up just as blind as Qrow..." Yang felt her ready to say something else, "...and your fool of a father." She said.
Yang flipped the table in an instant, knocking everything off, her eyes were glowing red, "Don't you dare talk about my family like that!" She demanded.
Then a click was heard, "You need to calm down." Vernal said holding her weapons to Yang.
Another sound was heard as a light came with it, "Just try something to her, I dare you." Tucker said as he held his sword near Vernal's throat.
Simmons spoke as a voice of reason, "Maybe we should just put our weapons and forget what was just two seconds ago." He said.
Raven looked at her daughter and her boyfriend, "Listen to your friend Yang, your teammates never let you down before." She said.
Yang stepped closer, "You don't know the first thing about my teammates! About me! You were never there! You left us! Why?" She asked after getting so angry.
Raven responded calmly, "I know more than you realize. Not just about you, and not just what I've been told, but things I've seen with my own eyes. I know the Grimm have a leader, I know people who can come back from the dead, I know that magic is real, and I can prove it." She said as she began to walk towards the exit, "You said Tai told you all about my Semblance, well I doubt that he ever told you what Oz did to my brother and me." She said as she left the tent.
The crew hesitated for a moment, until Vernal spoke up, "Go see for yourself." She said.
And just like that, they all rushed outside of the tent, "Mom?" Yang asked to an open area.
Weiss looked at Yang in concern, "Yang, are you okay?" She asked.
Yang looked back at Weiss from the corner of her eye, "I'll be fine once we can get her to take us to Ruby." She said.
Weiss still couldn't help but feel concerned, "It's okay if...you're not okay." She said.
Tucker asked the group something, "You don't believe what she said, right?" He asked.
Simmons had a pretty confident answer, "Of course not, Magic doesn't exist, all can be explained with science and technology. Semblances, Dust, all that. I'm 100% positive." He said.
Everyone heard a Raven caw, "A raven?" Donut asked.
Yang looked puzzled, "I've seen that bird before." She said.
Sarge pulled out his shotgun, "Well, hope you guys don't mind but I'm hungry." He said as he was about to take aim.
Tucker grabbed a hold of Sarge's arm, "Wait, does that bird seem familiar?" He asked.
The groups eyes narrowed on the bird as it began to fly through the leaves of the thick canopy of the trees. Swerving to avoid being caught by the vines until it disappeared and out came Raven as she transformed from the bird. She landed leaving everyone both amazed and confused straight out of their minds.
Sarge looked at Simmons, "Did you say 100%?" He asked.
Simmons rose his arms up, "Let's just say 95% okay." He said.
Yang asked the question on everyone's mind, "How...did you do that?" She asked.
Raven smiled, "Well, I could explain it to you..." She said then unsheathed her sword and opened a portal, "...or you could ask your uncle." She said.
Yang grew confused, "You're letting us go?" She asked.
Raven stared at here daughter, "I'm giving you a choice. Stay here, with me, and I'll answer all your questions and more. We can have a fresh start. Or, you can go back to Qrow and join Ozpin's impossible war against Salem, and meet the same fate as so many others." She suggested, "But can you really go back to trusting someone that's kept so much from you?" She asked.
Yang spoke on behalf of everyone there, "All I care about is making sure my sister is safe." She said.
Raven scoffed at the answer as Yang grabbed her bike and the Reds hopped onto their modified version of the Warthog. Tucker grabbed his own bike and was in the middle of Yang and Weiss and the Reds and their Warthog as they drove through the portal.
Raven called out to Yang making them all stop, "Yang! If you side with your uncle, I may not be as kind the next time we meet." She warned her daughter.
Yang looked back, "You weren't kind this time either." She said as they drove through the portal finally.
Raven waited till they were gone before she replied, "I know." She said.
[Somewhere in Mistral]
Locus and Qrow were going over their list to see if they missed one, when Qrow pointed out something, "This isn't right. I get one or two of them but, all of them?" He asked.
A portal appeared behind the two of them as they both remembered that sound, "Raven?" They both asked as they reached for their weapons, but came to the realization someone better arrived, "Oh." They said.
[In The Kitchen]
Team JNPR and Ruby were getting ready to feed so many people and assigned each other different jobs. Ruby was helping Ren near a large pot, Nora was chopping vegetables while Pyrrah made sure she didn't eat them all, and Jaune had set the table.
Ren looked at the pot, "Alright, the first batch is just about done." He said as he looked at the pot.
Ruby seemed to be happy to hear that, "Awesome, now we just need Qrow and we'll be all set." She said as she got some bowls ready.
Nora after eating a carrot bite joined the conversation, "Do you really think he's gonna bring that many people? This is a lot of food." She said eating another carrot bite.
Ruby kept stirring some food in a pan, "Uh, I don't know, but it sounds like we could use all the help we can get." She said.
Qrow came into the house, "I'm back!" He shouted.
Ruby kept stirring the pan, "Be right there!" She shouted back.
Ren looked over at Ruby's pan, "You're going to overcook that." He said.
Ruby who was very confident in her cooking ignored the warning, "No I'm not, shut up." She said.
Qrow continued to call out to Ruby, "Hey, uh, Ruby?" He asked.
Ruby looked back for a second, "I'm coming!" She shouted as she started a small puff of smoke, "Fine, you take over!" She said as she gave up and went to the front.
Ruby walked out with a tray of tea and multiple cups, "So, we didn't know how many people were coming, so we just cooked all of it." She stopped as she gasped, letting the tray be shattered as it fell to the floor, at the fact that she saw two of the most important people of her life. Two of her original teammates: Weiss and Yang. At first she didn't know how to respond as her older sister slowly walked closer, then the words began to flow out, "Yang, I...I'm so sorry! I-I should've stayed, and I should've talked to you more! I'd-I just...I wasn't sure if you wanted me around and-" She said nearly sobbing her eyes out, then came the moment she stopped as Yang held her close.
Everything in the room went silent as all the members watched as two sisters held that long embrace. Yang finally said three words that made everything better, "I love you." She said with tears in her eyes.
Ruby smiled through the tears in her eyes as she held her sister close, "I love you too." She said.
Soon everyone around them, from team JNPR in the kitchen, to the Reds and Tucker, to the badasses there, even little boy Ozpin was there to witness that moment. Weiss was shedding a tear as well seeing the two so close, "Weiss." Ruby called out with an open arm along with Yang's open arm as well, hoping she'd join the hug.
Weiss saw the two and leaped into the hug without any hesitation whatsoever. Finally most of the team was together at last.
Author's Note: This chapter was actually a lot closer to my life than any other chapter there was. It was a difficult subject for me to type about, but I can't let myself be selfish so this one is for you.
