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Chapter 7

Qrow Branwen sometimes managed to convince himself that he could take to civilian life. It wasn't difficult, truth be told, especially during nights like this one.

He downed what was left of his beer before leaning back in his chair, propping his feet up on the porch's railing with the same motion. Patch was peaceful relative to the rest of Remnant, and there were actually people here he could stand to be around for more than a couple minutes at a time.

Not that he was against this life outright. On the contrary, there had been a brief window of time when he'd thought he could live like this, a time before he had realized how much this life was against him.

Summer came to mind, as she so often did, which instinctively led to his gaze drifting back towards the house. More specifically, in the general direction of Ruby and Yang's bedroom, and he once again forced himself to remember that those times were past.

Thankfully, an arm swatting at his legs snapped him out of his thoughts of what could have been.

"Hey, feet down!" Tai barked. "I just finished sanding that!"

Qrow smirked and sat upright. "My bad, Mr. Home Improvement. I'll try to be more careful."

"I think we both know you won't," Tai grumbled, sitting in a nearby chair and taking a sip of his own beer.

"No, probably not."

"Sometimes I feel like I'm raising three children." Tai's tone remained the same, though Qrow knew better than to take him seriously. If his former teammate really didn't want him around, Qrow wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the house.

"So, you got any other projects going on around here?" Qrow asked casually. He'd thought about being more direct in asking his friend how he was, but he found himself unable to follow through. To Tai's credit, though, he was able to pick up on the subtext.

"Nothing but the usual busy work. How about you?"

And there it was: a reminder of the main reason why a quiet, peaceful life would always be out of the question for Qrow. Ozpin's war was coming one way or another, and Qrow knew his place was on the front lines, or behind them as was often the case when he was given a new mission. Whatever the case, he knew he had to stay the course, if not to protect to the world, then to make sure Ruby and Yang wouldn't have to fight in this conflict.

"It's been quiet," Qrow answered, eyeing the treeline around the house as he spoke. "Salem hasn't been making any major plays, at least as far as I can tell."

"Calm before the storm?" Tai knew the patterns of these things. It was sometimes easy to forget that he fought this very same war before before choosing an early retirement.

"I guess it would be too much to hope that the old witch could keel over on her own." Qrow knew better, but still liked the thought. "Either way, Oz wants me to head towards Mistral tomorrow to look into some strange reports."

"Tomorrow, huh?" Tai's tone shifted again, and Qrow knew the topic of conversation was about to change.

"Is something wrong?" Qrow eyed his friend, looking for any clue as to what was about to be sprung on him.

Tai drank again. "No, I just had an interesting chat with Ruby this morning."

"Did you now?" Qrow didn't have to search any further for answers, though he did wonder if he should have asked Ruby to keep their earlier conversation a secret.

"She seems to have it in her head that you've agreed to teach her how to use that thing." Tai gestured at Harbinger, which was leaning against Qrow's chair.

"That's probably because I sorta did," Qrow confessed. He looked at the empty beer bottle in his hand, wishing he had something a little stronger in its place.

"Unbelievable..." Tai threw his arms in the air as he stood up.

"What?" Qrow stood as well. "She asked me. What was I supposed to say to her?"

"You could've said no, for starters."

"Really?" Qrow rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Historically, has that worked for you?"

Tai hesitated for a brief second. "We're not talking about me."

"Whatever..." Qrow kept himself from laughing. Ruby's determination meant she usually got her way in the end. "I still don't see what the big deal is."

"I just don't think this is a good idea." Tai shook his head dismissively, which added to Qrow's frustration a bit.

"What's wrong with teaching her to defend herself?"

"That's not the issue and you know it," Tai protested as he took a step forward. It wasn't, of course. As a huntsman, Tai knew the dangers of the world just as well as anyone and didn't want either of the girls to go out into it unprotected, but Qrow sometimes had to provoke him to get a straight answer.

"Then why are you against this?"

"Because I don't like you only being her father when it's convenient for you!"

Both of them fell silent. Part of Qrow wanted to lash out, tell Tai he had been content to keep his distance until he let the girls wander off that night. He bit his tongue though, partly because he knew that wasn't a fair assertion. Yang had left with a mission to find Raven, and however misguided that was, she was too much like the woman in question to let anyone stop her.

There was just the simple fact that Qrow chose to be around more often following those events, even taking up a teaching position at Signal as an excuse to be nearby. He had told himself it was only temporary, but had underestimated how much he would take to being in more regular contact with the only family he had left. That was no one's fault but his own.

"I know," Qrow conceded, looking downward as he spoke.

"Look..." Tai replied, his voice betraying the regret he likely felt because of the outburst. "The last thing I want to do is keep you from her, but you left her here for a reason."

Qrow looked forward again. "You sayin' I should just let her go?"

Tai's regret became resolve. "Or tell her the truth."

"You know I can't do that." The last thing Qrow wanted to do was turn Ruby's life upside down.

Tai shook his head. "The only thing I know is that the way things are now isn't fair to Ruby."

"What isn't fair to me?"

Almost in sync, Qrow and Tai snapped their attention towards the door, finding Ruby staring back in their direction. She looked back and forth between them, a mixture of confusion and curiosity on her face as she waited for an answer.

"Ruby..." Tai began. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"Your yelling woke me up and I wanted to check on you." If she had overheard anything, she didn't let on.

"Oh..." Tai looked to Qrow for help, but only got a shrug in return. "Sorry about that, but we're okay. You can head back inside."

"You didn't answer my question." Ruby continued to eye both of them, he trademark determination keeping her from leaving. In that way, she was exactly like Summer.

"Right..." Tai continued, no less confused than before. "We were talking and, uh-"

"Are you mad at Uncle Qrow?"

Tai paused to come up with a response, and Qrow knew it was time for him to speak.

"He's not mad, Kiddo," Qrow explained calmly. "He's just a little upset is all."

"About what?" Regardless of her curiosity, Ruby's sense of empathy also kept her from walking away when her family was in distress. Again, exactly like Summer.

"Well, I told him I have to leave on a mission tomorrow, so we're gonna have to put off starting your training til I get back."

"Oh..." The disappointment on Ruby's face not only told Qrow she bought the lie, but also made him feel like an even worse parent than he already was. "When will you get back?"

"I don't know yet." Despite his words being the truth, they didn't come any easier than the last.

"Okay," Tai cut in, without a doubt to spare both Qrow and Ruby from any further hurt. "Now that that's settled, can we finally get you back to bed?"

"Alright," Ruby answered as she started to follow Tai back inside. She paused, however, to look back at Qrow one more time. "You'll be careful, right?"

Qrow put on a confident grin. "C'mon, Kiddo; what kind of amateur do you take me for?"

A small smile found its way onto Ruby's face as she disappeared back into the house. Qrow, on the other hand, dropped his grin. Part of him said it would be best to never return, but he now knew he would never have the strength to do so.

"We got company."

Qrow brought his thoughts back to the present, lifting his head in the direction of the approaching footsteps. Taking a second to listen for the pace and the weight of the steps, there was only one person on this vessel that it could be.

"Someone wanna tell this guy that there are Grimm with lighter feet than him?"

Qrow thought about standing, but decided against it. Despite the shackles on his arms and legs not being so constraining that they made getting up difficult, there was no benefit to doing so. He had examined every square inch of his cell, from the energy barrier sealing the entrance to the walls lined with cutting edge Atlas tech. Between the cell and his restraints, Qrow couldn't come up with an obvious means of escape, or at least not yet.

For now, the best he could do was bide his time. For whatever reason, he was being kept alive, and he planned on taking full advantage of it.

"Breakfast already, Hazel?" Qrow taunted, though he knew this wasn't the case. While his cell's lack of windows made discerning the exact time of day difficult, his time in the field had tuned his internal clock. It hadn't been more than an hour since he had been brought his last meal, which put them sometime during the evening. No, Hazel had come down here for a different reason.

"He wants to talk."

Hazel came into view, looking down at Qrow with an emotionless stare. "I came to talk."

"I knew it!"

Qrow looked around his cell and shrugged. "Sure, I guess I could make time."

Hazel didn't flinch. "I see you've kept your sarcasm."

"Kinda hard not to, all things considered." Qrow eyed his captor more closely, looking for an indication of why he had come. "Is that why I'm still alive? So we can have a long discussion about my attitude?"

Hazel crossed his arms. "You're alive because I take no pleasure in taking lives."

"Might want to tell that to this ship's crew."

There was a brief pause before Hazel's reply came. "Their deaths were... not by design."

"He's telling the truth."

Qrow agreed, now getting a better idea of what had transpired before he had arrived. "That's the thing with bringing kids into this line of work. Sometimes they're a little too eager to prove themselves."

"Don't compare me to Ozpin." While he didn't raise his voice, Hazel did take a step closer to the cell.

"Struck a nerve."

"Why not?" Qrow asked calmly. If he couldn't break out himself, he could at try to provoke Hazel into opening the cell. "The only real difference is that Oz only ever trained kids to kill the monsters your old boss used to create."

"And how many of those hands stayed clean once the war truly began?" Hazel took another step forward. "Our side wasn't entirely soulless Grimm, or have you chosen to forget that detail?"

"Don't pretend you know anything about the choices we had to make," Qrow growled. He had to keep his cool for his plan to work.

"I know what happened to Tyrian."

Qrow froze, his mind calling up images of his scythe's blade covered in blood and Tyrian Callows' head being separated from his body, with a maniacal grin somehow still plastered on his face. Their last battle had been a long time time coming, from thwarting the serial killer's first attempt on Ruby's life to watching him run Clover Ebi through with Harbinger. It was only appropriate that their final fight end in death as well, and continue to haunt Qrow long after the fact.

Qrow forced the memories from his mind. "That bastard deserved worse than he got."

"Agreed," Hazel replied, his demeanor having calmed. He paused, then knelt down to be at eye level with Qrow. "You asked why I spared you. It was out of respect for my sister. She died fighting for Ozpin, without knowing better or having any choice in the matter. I felt obligated to offer you the courtesy she never got."

"Great, he's monologuing..."

"As for why I came to speak with you, I wanted to make my intentions clear. I have no ill will towards anyone but Ozpin, but I will not hesitate to cut down anyone who stands in my way."

"I am bad guy, hear me roar!"

Hazel stood to walk away, but held one more brief moment. "That goes for you and any members of your family that try to interfere."

Hazel marched away before Qrow could respond, though he didn't have much else to say at this point. The giant had information he didn't, though it didn't take much to guess what he was hinting at. Someone had shown up to look for him, and in case that someone turned out to be Ruby, he had to come up with a way to escape before-

"Are you really gonna keep pretending you can't see me?"

Qrow sighed, before turning his attention towards the corner of his cell. Standing there was a small figure, wearing a white cloak with the hood pulled up and looking at him with bright, silver eyes.

Or at least that was what he saw. Qrow knew all too well that the figure wasn't actually standing there, being nothing more than a delusion brought on by his own guilty conscience. Nothing more than a ghost.

"Fine, don't talk to me," the ghost huffed. "But we still have to find a way out of here."

She moved to the cell's barrier. "Let's see... No more magic, which means no shape shifting which means no slipping right out of those shackles. No weapons or anything like that to remove them..."

No doubt she would continue like that until she found a solution or accepted that she needed a break. After all, that was what the real Summer Rose would do.

Blake knelt down in the hopes that she had finally picked up the trail she was looking for. Instead, all she found were tracks belonging to either a large animal or some species of Grimm that inhabited the area.

She wondered if a continued search wouldn't yield similar results, though she wasn't ready to give up either. After all, it had been her suggestion to scout Holzfäller's perimeter for some indication of where their assailants had escaped to, and she wasn't sure she wanted to be the bearer of more bad news to the group.

"You're not going to pick up a trail there?"

Blake looked up at Raven, who had had her expertise volunteered by Tai after Blake had suggested they try to track their attackers. Blake's arrival at the battle for Haven all those years ago had been timed so that she didn't encounter Yang's estranged mother, and she still wasn't convinced she had missed out on any beneficial experiences. During her brief time with the group so far, she had managed to put Yang on edge and send Ruby into a near catatonic state using nothing but her words. Blake, for one, was a bit unnerved by how closely she resembled Yang yet had an almost completely contrasting personality.

"They likely traversed the treeline during their escape," Raven continued, not giving off much emotion. "Probably anticipated we'd try to track them to their base."

"Then I'll search a little higher." Blake prepared herself to climb to a better vantage point.

"Don't bother," Raven said, her tone seeming to indicate a command rather than a suggestion. "They could have left the village in any direction."

"You're suggesting we give up?"

"I'm suggesting we not blindly run around the forest at night."

Blake crossed her arms. "I'm fine working in the dark."

"But the rest of your team isn't." Raven took a moment to look over their surroundings again. "We can start of up again tomorrow, maybe even learn the lay of the land so we can figure out where to start looking."

Though the suggestion wasn't an unmerited one, it still didn't sit well with Blake, which was likely less to do with the idea itself than the person who delivered it. Raven's presence had been to help the mission, yet her most notable contribution so far had been to shatter Team RWBY's already fragile morale. Specifically in Blake's case, this led to an increased sense of hostility, which apparently led to glaring that did not go unnoticed by Raven.

"If you have something else to say, best get it out of your system now." Raven's tone said she had an idea of what was coming.

"Why did you tell Ruby that Qrow's dead?" Blake asked, mostly succeeding in remaining calm.

"Because it's a possibility."

"But not a certainty!" Blake exclaimed, though she tried to collect herself as she continued. "Hazel has an airship full of Atlas technology, likely capable of manipulating and suppressing aura. There's more than a fair chance that Qrow is being held in a place your semblance can't get to."

"True, but what happens if he is dead?" Raven questioned, though likely having already decided the answer for herself. "How do you think Ruby, Yang, or even Tai will react if they get that confirmation?"

"I imagine they'll mourn like functioning human beings." It was far from lost on Blake that Raven had not included herself in the list of people who would be affected by her own brother's death.

"Exactly," Raven replied without skipping a beat. "It's better they accept the possibility and mourn now so they don't become a liability later."

Blake's glare returned. "That's cold."

"Maybe from your point of view." With that, Raven turned to walk away, apparently having decided that she had made her point.

Blake, however, was not done with this argument. "You know, I've always wondered what kind of woman would abandon her newborn child to lead a bunch of criminals." She spoke with as much venom as she could muster. "Now I don't."

Raven turned back around, slowly returning to her spot to face Blake. "Criminal is a bit of a hypocritical label coming from you."

"Excuse me?" Blake was less confused about what Raven was referring to than how the woman knew to refer to it in the first place.

"In fact, I'm pretty sure terrorist is how most people would describe the White Fang." Raven finally glared back.

"How do you-?"

"Information gathering is my specialty, and before you even think it, no, my husband wasn't the one to betray your secrets."

"So, I've made mistakes," Blake countered, still not ready to back down. "That doesn't change your own history."

Raven held her stare for a second. "No, but it does take away your ability to pass judgment, especially where Yang is concerned."

Blake didn't stop Raven when she walked away this time, knowing that her partner's mother had decided that this debate was over. Regardless of whether Raven had been right or wrong, the damage was done. Blake reluctantly started following Raven back to town, knowing there would be a lot to sort through in order to complete their mission.

Yang had to take a break from being angry. Not that she thought for a second that she was done with the emotion, but she knew blind rage was a quick way of burning herself out. She tried breathing slowly, which didn't always help, but she figured it was worth a try given that she hadn't brought her motorcycle on this mission.

She reflected on Raven's declaration, that Qrow was likely dead. Maybe she was in denial, but Yang wasn't ready to accept this possibility as fact. Her uncle was tough and stubborn in equal parts, and she refused to believe that he would let even Hazel Rainart end his career. Team RWBY just had to recharge before getting back to their search.

The inn the team had chosen to stay at was quiet, even in the hallway right outside their rooms, which was where Yang currently sat. Across her lap was her prosthetic arm, something else she had decided to take a break from. While she knew she would have to tend to it eventually, Yang felt less guilty about procrastinating knowing that she wasn't the only one with stuff on her mind.

Sitting against the wall on the opposite side of the door frame was Weiss, whose attention was glued to the closed door. Ruby was inside, having shut herself inside and was still refusing to talk to anyone. They were all concerned, though Yang suspected that prying Weiss away from their team leader would be a particularly difficult task.

"I've never seen her like this," Weiss muttered, still looking in what would be Ruby's general direction.

"She just needs time," Yang replied, not quite sure if the former heiress had actually been talking to her.

"How much time?"

"As much as she needs." Yang wished she had a real answer.

"But what if we give her too much time?" Weiss finally turned to face Yang, with what looked like fear in her eyes. "What if she needs us now?"

Yang eyed Weiss a little more closely. "Us or you?"

Weiss looked down at her lap. "I let her down."

"No more than the rest of us." They had all come out of the war with baggage, though Yang couldn't pretend her sister hadn't had the hardest time adjusting to its end. Not only had Ruby been forced into it at a young age, but also elected into a leadership role by her peers, and that coupled with all the fighting and bloodshed they had all seen was more than enough to take a psychological toll on her. No one had the right to think less of Ruby for the state she was in, least of all her friends and family who should have been more available to support her.

"But I'm her partner," Weiss said quietly, clenching her fists together as she spoke.

Yang sighed. "Yeah, well apparently there's not a lot of stock in that label anymore."

Weiss immediately turned back to Yang, her uncertainty becoming resolve. "You're an idiot."

Yang's eyes widened. "What for?"

"You really think Blake doesn't care about you?" Weiss' usual arrogant tone was back in full swing.

"I'm pretty sure she made her feelings clear." Yang was really considering going back her previous decision about not getting angry.

Weiss jabbed a finger in Yang's direction. "She made it clear she didn't care for you, which I hardly blame her given your outburst earlier."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is that instead of being mad at her for a choice she made, maybe have a civil conversation and try to understand why she made that choice."

Yang shook her head and looked away. "I'm pretty sure that's not an option anymore."

"Well, your choices are either try or let your mommy issues run the rest of your life."

Yang's attention snapped back to Weiss. "What does Raven have to do with anything we're talking about?"

"Please..." Weiss rolled her eyes. "When your mother and ex-girlfriend get back, I want you to take a long look at them both and ask that question again."

Yang found what Weiss was insinuating to be even more ridiculous than the idea of Qrow being dead, so much so that immediately called up images of Blake and Raven in her head.

A choice she instantly came to regret.

She knew them both both having black hair was a given, but it was their other similarities that caught Yang off guard. Their mysterious personalities, their hyper-lethal prowess in combat, and their potential for being emotionally distant all came to mind, and caused the hair on the back of Yang's neck to stand up.

"Yeah... well..." Yang set Weiss in her crosshairs. "You're in love with my sister!"

The blush on Weiss' face told Yang she had hit her mark. Even given the circumstances, she felt like Ruby would be proud of her marksmanship.

Don't play with fire, Schnee, Yang thought, almost verbalizing the sentiment. Even going back to the war, the stolen glances and flirty banter between Ruby and Weiss had been missed by absolutely no one. Yang remembered burning for an opportunity to tease them, but following the fall of Atlas, the consensus of the group was to not pry and let the two have their moments of peace, whatever the nature of their relationship actually was.

"D-Don't change the subject," Weiss protested. "And for the record-"

Whatever she had intended to say, it was interrupted by the door between them swinging open. Ruby stepped in between them and Weiss' face became pale again. Yang might made some kind of comment about timing had she not glanced upward as well. Yang imagined her face looked much the same upon seeing her sister's expression.

Ruby showed no emotion on her face, with the exception of her eyes. Brow lowered and gaze forward,Yang had seen that look numerous times over the last twenty one years. It meant Ruby was determined to do something reckless.

"Ruby..." Weiss began as she stood up with an outstretched hand, though all she was able to grasp was a handful of rose petals.