Legal Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY, Red vs. Blue, or any of the shows' characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.
Chapter One:
The temple was built at the highest point possible overlooking the twin cities of Atlas and Mantle, a location that resulted in a persistent cold that bit through clothing. Qrow Branwen grimaced as he looked up at the night sky overhead, the twenty-nine-year-old wishing he could be back with the tribe in the hotter climates of Vale. However, he had a job to do, a mission assigned by the famed General King no less.
Truth be told, the bandit tribe depended too much on its deal with Atlas to ever go back on a request made by its ruler, so here he was: facing the large double doors of the entrance to the Temple of Salem the Destroyer. The towering, very much open imposing double doors. Qrow sighed. He seriously wasn't paid enough for this shit. He wasn't getting paid at all, really. Still, he knew how important it was that they ensure that the use of magic was strictly relegated now in the wake of the Fall of the Gods.
The story was well-known throughout Remnant. After all, the two immortal beings known as Salem and Ozpin had been locked in combat for as long as anyone could remember. Salem wished for nothing but destruction, while Ozpin sought to protect the world from her desires. Eventually, Ozpin managed to gain the upper hand, though it hardly counted as a victory seeing as how, in order to seal Salem's power away for good, Ozpin also had to suffer the same fate. Relics of Salem and Ozpin's power remained in the form of gigantic crystals that floated over their fallen spots, one near Atlas and the other near Mantle. The relics were referred to as the Destroyer's Relic and the Protector's Relic, respectively.
Ever since the Fall of the Gods, the world of Remnant had been plagued by the appearances of the Creatures of Grimm as well as beset by magic. Indeed, there were people being granted mysterious magical gifts called Semblances, to even rarer magical abilities such as those found in ones born with silver eyes or who could shapeshift. The Kingdom of Atlas was the most blessed by magical energy given the fact that the Relics were located there and, naturally, it wasn't long before someone came along and weaponized the damn things.
Still, they also developed a barrier from the relics that kept the encroaching Wastelands, a by-product of the combat between the two gods referred to as Salem's Grievance, from growing and swallowing up more of the land. It wasn't unexpected that Atlas would want to hold onto the power balance following these advancements with something of an iron fist and, while they offered their Atlesian Golems and other magical creations to help ensure borders remained safe, they also employed the various bandit tribes of Remnant to keep an eye out for any potential misuse in said magic.
Which is the roundabout reason behind why Qrow was freezing his ass off in front of a temple to a long-gone goddess of literal destruction due to the insistence of Atlas' current leader and something of a tentative friend/comrade-in-arms, James Ironwood. He glared over at the man in question, "Your info had better be good, Jimmy." He gritted out of clenched teeth, shivering in the cold environment.
Qrow was maybe just a little salty that he hadn't received the tip first, given his role as a spy and all, but he tried to remind himself that he'd been traveling to Atlas just a few days ago and hadn't been in a position to gather intel on the area right off the bat. Before Ironwood could tersely respond, which was a given if his raised eyebrow was any indication, the older man with them named Sarge, decked out entirely in the odd fashion choice of pure red, scoffed and clutched his shotgun even closer to his person, "Of course the info's good! Robyn gave it to ya, didn't she?" Sarge was an agent of Mantle, the nearby city where the Temple of Ozpin the Protector was located. He'd tagged along with them at the behest of the city's de facto leader, Robyn Hill.
"Sarge is right, Qrow." Ironwood told him succinctly, "I might have my differences with Miss Hill on occasion, but her information is most often solid."
"Because she doesn't live in an ivory tower like some people." Qrow grunted under his breath, but intentionally loud enough to be picked up by his two companions.
"Perhaps you're right." The General King said as Ironwood's shoulders slumped briefly, "After all, I wasn't even aware this was happening right under my nose."
And shit, Qrow hadn't expected that kind of remark to his sarcasm. Now he kind of just felt like an ass as he shifted awkwardly on his feet, "Listen, James..."
Sarge harrumphed at that moment, cutting what Qrow was about to say off, "As entertaining as ignoring everyone talking about feelings can be, if we're here to investigate a misuse of magic, we might want to get to it."
The old man was right, of course. Qrow caught Ironwood's blue gaze with his red one and nodded, the two men quickly moving into the temple proper with Sarge hot on their heels. The temple itself was an impressive building with a spiraling staircase built around the swirling purple and black crystal that was the Destroyer's Relic. A figure was hunched at the top of the staircase, at the crystal's very tip. As the trio ascended the steps, a viscous red liquid started seeping down to greet them.
Qrow didn't want to think about what that meant or how he just knew he'd be wanting a damn drink or twelve after this night was over with, the breath burning in his lungs as they made their way up the staircase, Harbinger in its scythe form in his hands as James cocked Due Process, "Malcolm Hargrove!" the General King shouted when they were closer to the top and its viewing platform, "That is far enough!"
"Your majesty," the withered old man called Hargrove and the chairman of the magic union known as Charon in Atlas turned to face them then, a smear of crimson staining the front of his shirt, "I'm afraid you're too late."
Ironwood stared down in horror at the blood-covered body on the floor of the platform, "What have you done, Hargrove?" He asked in a tone that indicated he already knew he wasn't going to like the answer.
"A simple experiment, really," Hargrove explained as he cocked his balding head to the side, staring at the brown-haired corpse indifferently, "One that unfortunately failed."
"Unfortunately?" Sarge asked, his weapon still pointing at the other man, "That's your son, ain't it?"
Qrow wasn't exactly privy to all the details, but he knew that just about seven years back Malcolm Hargrove had adopted a teen from Mantle. Evidently he hadn't had much in the way of affection for the young man if the gaping wound in his chest was any indication. "Ah, yes. I believe Miss Hill and Clover were at the same orphanage weren't they?" Hargove asked uncaringly, "I suppose this news might upset her."
"You sonova!" Sarge yelled, having to be held back by Ironwood to prevent him from lunging at Hargrove.
...Clover Ebi was only twenty-three, according to the reports. Still practically just a kid. To go out like this? Life was definitely not fair. Qrow knew quite a bit about that. Silently, as the words being spoken by the other men drifted away from him and into the background, Qrow couldn't help but approach Clover's body to examine it closer.
There was a bloody clover pin lying in the pool of blood by his side. Qrow bent down to gently pick it up, his hand briefly touching the young man's stiff shoulder as he did so just as he "felt" a sudden surge of energy all around him. The raven-haired man glanced up as the crystal glowed for a brief moment, and a warmth seemed to flow from inside his body down to his fingertips, to...
There was a shuddering breath in the body nearby and somehow Clover's chest was whole again, albeit with one very nasty-looking scar, and scared teal eyes suddenly bore into Qrow's own.
"What in tarnation!" Sarge exclaimed loudly nearby.
"Hargrove." Ironwood's voice was barely above a whisper, "I won't ask again. What did you do?"
"C-Clover?" Qrow couldn't help but ask quietly at the gaping young man sitting upright before him.
"Hmm." He distantly heard Hargrove muttering, "So it seems like the experiment was successful after all."
Just as suddenly, Clover Ebi reached up and wrapped shaking, muscled arms around Qrow's frame, pulling the older man down so that his knees were wet with the blood on the floor too. Qrow froze at the sudden contact, though he quickly realized that Hargrove's adopted son was no doubt suffering from extreme shock given everything that had happened. He closed his eyes briefly, letting out a weary sigh as he wrapped his arms around the other's frame to offer him as minuscule an amount of support as he could, "Easy there, kid," Qrow murmured into a brown head of hair, "We've got you."
"He was chosen as Salem's Inheritor."
James Ironwood's voice spoke up from behind Qrow who had just left the room that Clover was currently resting in back in Atlas. Not sure what to do given the situation, Ironwood had the younger man resting in one of the Grand Palace's wings. Sarge had long since gone back to Mantle to give Robyn a rundown on the events at the temple, though the older man in red swore he'd be back to check in on how Clover was doing as quickly as he could.
"Hargrove tell you that?" Qrow asked, raising an eyebrow. They'd also brought the old man back with them for Ironwood to question, though why that son of a bitch wasn't in a jail cell or the dungeon was beyond the bandit's reasoning given what he'd pulled.
"Technically speaking," Ironwood said calmly, holding up his hand as if to stave off Qrow's ire, "It would be hard to actually punish Hargrove for anything given that Clover is still alive."
"Not through any help of his!" Qrow couldn't help but snarl, "If my Semblance hadn't somehow reacted to the Relic, then..."
...Then things would be different, wouldn't they? He paused as he thought that, realizing that he'd somehow cursed someone back to life. And make no mistake, it was a curse: the history books showed that being an Inheritor for one of the gods never ended well.
Qrow let out a weary sigh, "I thought you wanted to punish any misuse of magic, Jimmy." He finally said, "Isn't what happened here a pretty blatant example of that?"
Ironwood cast a considering look at the closed door over Qrow's shoulders and placed his hands behind his back in his perfect soldier posture, "What happened was unfortunate, yes, and very well could have been tragic too if not for..." He paused to stare at Qrow for a moment before moving on, "Something occurring. But that doesn't change the fact that Clover is an Inheritor now. We have to make sure his amplification abilities are put to good use."
Qrow scoffed, "For the betterment of Atlas, you mean?" He spat out, hating that he knew the answer already.
Blue eyes narrowed at his derisive tone, "For the betterment of everyone, Qrow." The General King stated in that holier-than-thou tone he was so naturally good at.
"You keep telling yourself that, James." The black-haired shapeshifter said, wanting nothing more than to fly through an open window right then and there and get himself a drink, "So Hargrove gets off the hook because he accidentally shoved a gift in your lap?"
"Charon also mass produces the Golems that are necessary for Remnant's protection against the Grimm." Ironwood said quietly, although the grimace on his face indicated he didn't particularly like that fact.
"So you're motivated by political bullshit too!" Qrow snapped as a sharp bark of laughter left his throat, "That's fantastic, Jimmy!"
A stricken look momentarily crossed over the General King's face as he ran a hand over his eyes, "What would you have me do, Qrow? What's done can't be undone." He said, clearly exasperated.
"So you sure as hell are going to make the most of it, huh?" Qrow sneered.
"..." Ironwood said nothing to that, merely narrowing his eyes in Qrow's direction.
Qrow stepped forward, his finger jamming into Ironwood's chest, "Have you even asked the kid what he wants to do?" He asked, trying to remind Ironwood that this whole thing involved an innocent bystander.
"If I can somehow help people, that's all that matters." A soft voice spoke up behind him then. Qrow's red eyes widened and he spun around to see Clover Ebi standing in the now open doorway, his shoulders hunched despite the determined look in his teal eyes.
"Are you sure, Clover?" Ironwood asked softly, perhaps deciding to try and take into consideration the twenty-three-year-old's feelings after all.
"Thank you for trying to look out for me, Huntsman Branwen," the brown-haired young man nodded, his gaze lingering on Qrow for a moment, "But, His Majesty is right. I have a duty to Atlas, to Remnant now."
Yeah, and Clover wouldn't have had that burden had it not been for Qrow. He would've still been lying dead at his father's feet in any other scenario. It was enough to make Qrow feel sick. Qrow pointedly looked away, unsure of what else to say or do just then. He honestly wasn't sure he could have that kind of resolve, though it looked as if the thought still pained Clover all the same.
"Do what you want." Qrow finally muttered as he shouldered past Ironwood and down the corridor, "It doesn't concern me."
"Qrow..." Ironwood began, but Qrow continued walking, the weight of Clover's teal eyes on his back causing his feet to drag ever so slightly.
Qrow's entire body ached as he stretched out in the back of the wagon heading towards Atlas. Honestly, he was getting too old for this shit. A part of him wished that he'd stayed behind in the tribe's territory, especially since it had been ten years since he'd last stepped foot in the eternally frozen Solitas region.
Ten years since he had stormed out of the Grand Palace and never once looked back despite still reluctantly taking on missions for the "greater good" or whatever in other areas of Remnant when necessary. He wondered what Ironwood would say when he showed up there now, unannounced and uninvited. He distantly wondered how Sarge and Robyn were doing.
He even momentarily wondered what that asshole Hargrove had been up to since getting away with attempted murder. Since Qrow still saw plenty of Golems and other Atlesian weaponized magic tech in his travels, he figured Charon was most likely still mass producing them. He wondered if Hargrove's son had ever truly adjusted to the new role of Inheritor that had been so unfairly forced upon him by Qrow's unintentional hand, no less.
…He supposed he'd be finding all of that out soon enough, given the direction they were headed in now. A direction that Qrow seriously thought maybe he needed his head examined to be going towards.
"Uncle Qrow! You still moping back there?" Ruby Rose's voice cut into the back of the caravan easily enough as she poked her head through the canvas shielding to appraise her somewhat sulking relative.
Soon enough, her face was joined by three others as well: a blond head of hair belonging to his eldest niece, Yang Xiao Long, along with the worried expression of young Oscar Pine and the rather bemused one of Lavernius Tucker.
Yep, Qrow was essentially going into Atlas as a chaperone for his nieces and their friends given that their father, Taiyang, had been unable to do so on account of some urgent matter amongst the tribes coming up. The blond-haired man had been distraught at realizing that they could no longer put off the summons for the girls at roughly the same time, and so Qrow begrudgingly agreed to go along with them in his stead because he sure as hell wasn't going to let them go to Atlas on their own.
It figured Taiyang would be missing their summons to Atlas, which was legally required and thus not avoidable. In order to safeguard against the misuse of magic, anyone who displayed a Semblance was required to go to Atlas and register with the government, as well as serve as a Huntsman or Huntress for that country for at least a year before deciding what they next wanted to do with their life. It was a bullshit move used to just ensure that Atlas still had a monopoly on magic, but going through with it was something of a rite of passage all the same.
Of the four teens traveling with them, Oscar was the only one who had yet to show signs of a Semblance, though Robyn had entrusted the scarred boy into Qrow's care a few years ago, largely due to suspecting him of being Ozpin's Inheritor after he recovered from a trauma he most likely shouldn't have. Robyn knew he felt somewhat responsible for what had happened to Clover, and trusted that Qrow would watch over the equally shellshocked teen as a result. Qrow wasn't exactly keen on Oscar coming to Atlas with them, but Oscar had insisted that he didn't want to stay behind while his friends were potentially put in danger.
...Besides, maybe being closer to Ozpin's Relic could help Oscar learn to better control his amplification abilities. The dark-haired boy's use of them was sporadic at best. Qrow pulled himself out of his thoughts to roll his red eyes at Ruby's question, "I'm not moping, pipsqueak." He said, hoping that would be the end of the conversation.
"Sure doesn't look that way to us." Yang remarked with a smirk, and it was so similar to the teasing one his sister used to give him that it hurt for a moment.
"I'm just thinking." Qrow muttered as he ran a hand through his black-and-gray hair, "It's been awhile since I've been in Atlas, you know?"
"Think it's changed much?" Ruby asked conversationally.
"Yeah, some of us have never been!" Tucker spoke up then, shivering slightly, "It sure is fucking cold though!"
"Language!" Ruby admonished, her hands quickly reaching through the canvas to cover Oscar's ears.
"I totally and completely stand by what I said." The dark-skinned young man in teal responded matter-of-factly. Tucker was another child of the bandit tribe, who just so happened to develop his Semblance around the same time as Ruby did despite being a few years older than her. Yang, Ruby, and Tucker often got into mischief with one another growing up, so he'd been something of a familiar face in Taiyang's household.
"Better get used to it sooner rather than later." Qrow informed the young man, "Solitas has only two temperatures: cold and colder."
"No wonder my mom kept talking about layering." Tucker mused, his hand clutching the teal scarf his mother had knitted for him.
"Smart lady." With that, Qrow thought the conversation over and done with. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the side of the wagon, feeling the vehicle's movements beneath him.
It wasn't long before Ruby was by his side in a swirl of red petals, suddenly grabbing his hand, "C'mon, Uncle Qrow, you're going to miss it!" She said excitedly.
"Yeah," Yang clamored in agreement, "You sulked all the way past Mantle."
That was because Mantle was a bit of a depressing sight to see these days. Atlas had been keeping it in a tight grip even before Qrow had left, and from Robyn's missives and what Oscar had told him, that had only increased during his absence. Qrow raised an eyebrow at Ruby's exclamation and reluctantly allowed her to pull him up, "Miss what?" He asked, though he had a feeling he already knew the answer.
Ruby swung her free arm in a wide arc as Tucker and Yang drew back the canvas shielding, allowing more of the biting cold air of Solitas to enter into the space. "Ta-dah!" Ruby exclaimed in delight as the gleaming city of Atlas came into view, "Isn't it beautiful?"
It truly was, despite all of the nastiness that Qrow knew lurked under the pristine surface. His eyes took in the altogether familiar towers and buildings coming into view, remembering what it was like to fly high above them and look down on the city below. He saw the excited glimmer in the kids' eyes despite themselves, and he couldn't bring himself to ruin the moment for them with a sarcastic remark considering this place would be their home for the foreseeable future.
"Yeah, it really is." Qrow told her, his mind already running full-tilt on just what he might find within the city walls this time.
Author's Notes: I'm a bit nervous writing this story as it is my first time writing for the RWBY characters, but I hope that you all will bear with me and that you'll at least enjoy some elements of this bizarre crossover AU that I've come up with. The main focus will be on Fair Game because I became hopelessly enamored of that ship following Volume 7, but I want to try and incorporate moments with the other characters as much as I can because I love them all. Considering the direction RvB is going in now (so looking forward to Red vs. Blue Zero!), this might be one of the last times beyond my WIPs for that fandom where I write for the original RvB characters, so hopefully I can fit them into Remnant well.
Beyond Qrow X Clover, the other pairings in this story will be Grif X Simmons, Blake X Yang, Tucker X Washington, Robyn X Winter, Carolina X Kimball, Ruby X Penny, Doc X Donut, Weiss X Ilia, Jaune X Pyrrha, and Ren X Nora. I'll try to have moments with all of them sprinkled throughout the piece! There will also be some one-sided Ironwood X Clover in future updates too FOR THE DRAMA.
Anyways, I suppose that is about it for this note. I hope to have fun with this project and see it through to its completion. I can't promise when the next update will be as it will all depend on my beta's very busy schedule, however I hope to not have too significant of gaps between updates since I already have a good portion of the story brainstormed! :D