Opus
The question is slight, innocuous. He does not mean to ask it of James, and yet, the words filter out before he can doubt himself, the curiosity which fills his heart spurring him onwards despite the increasingly-paranoid sense of dread which raises the hairs upon his nape at the mere mention of the Relics. After all, Mistral's Relic still remains with Ruby and Oscar, and the secret behind Salem's invincibility and Ozpin's true mission still remains a secret from James and his men, so Qrow has been doing his best to steer clear of any conversations regarding the Relic at all.
Yet he cannot help but allow this question to bubble forth as they look over inventory of gravity-Dust, Qrow's mind turning towards the Staff of Creation which helps hold the Academy aloft. "How in the world does the Staff create anything, though?" he wonders aloud, the words creeping under his breath before he has even understood them.
To his surprise, James thinks nothing of it, not an ounce of hesitation in his reply. "Oz told me briefly once," the elder hums, eyes lifting from the spreadsheet before him to look glassy-eyed out of the window. "He wasn't able to tell me much, but I did learn that as long as you have a detailed plan of how to build something, and as long as you're not asking to create new life, the Staff will grant you enough power to achieve your goal."
For some reason, Qrow's mind latches onto precisely one word in this simple, almost off-handed explanation: resurrection. There is a singular moment when he does not understand why, the significance of that concept falling upon deaf ears.
Then, he understands. Resurrection is the name of the demon that had begun all of this, after all. Qrow sighs, allowing his head to loll backwards, arm covering his eyes to block out the light, preventing his increasingly-more-noticeable headache from growing even stronger thanks to the piercing blue lights which illuminate the hall, casting their cold, unfeeling hue across the entire building. Resurrection is the root of all of this; Salem had wanted to bring Ozma back, had defied everything and everyone, had turned the world again her over and over again until she was all that was left.
In the end, she had been left with nothing.
His fists curl tightly, scarred knuckles growing white in frustration as his brain supplies him images he truly wishes he could forget; Ozpin sneaking Salem's children out of their castle, Ozpin turning against Salem and inciting her wrath-
If anyone had tried to ever take Ruby or Yang away from him and Tai the way Ozpin had betrayed his wife…
Bile rises up into his throat, thick and nauseating and searing. He wants to retch. He cannot, however- cannot shake the fact that his heart goes out to the blonde, broken woman who Salem had once been. Now, she is a monster.
But he, too, knows what it is like to lose the most important people in one's life. He has lived through it over and over again. Their memories still haunt him, their presence in his life lingering in his rings, in his blade, in his dreams-
In the silhouettes of his nieces.
When Clover taps him on the shoulder and asks him what is on his mind, Qrow merely chuckles and shakes his head, brushing off the concern in favour of redirecting the conversation towards the Ace Ops and their next mission. His heart, however, refuses to stop turning around the image of Salem's plea to the gods again and again.
Salem had gone against the gods. Salem is now a monster, and even if he cannot stop her, he shall not give up until his nieces are safe. Understandable or not, he cannot support the demon which has taken away everyone, everything, everywhere, which he has ever loved. He has no sympathy for someone who brought the rest of the world down with them due to their own selfishness.
…am I any different, though? My Semblance-
-was not his choice. He knows this. Everyone who has suffered at his hands thanks to his powers was merely a casualty of coincidence, he tells himself.
Qrow is lonely. He wishes he wasn't all alone in looking out for them. Ruby and Yang are taking on the darkness itself, and legendary Huntsman or no, Qrow doubts he will be able to keep them safe any longer. They are in it too deep now, and although Clover smiles at him with more camaraderie and affection than he could've ever expected from an Atlesian soldier, and although James' eyes are trusting and kind as he dismisses them for the evening, Qrow knows that there is no one who will stand by his side should things fall apart. They have different goals, after all; they serve the world, alongside the image of Ozpin that lingers in James' memory.
Qrow just wants his nieces to be happy. He wants his family to be whole again, but to do so, the world as they know it is going to have to give, and Qrow is far too broken to handle this on his own.