hey everyone just wanted to let you know that I am not dead my laptop was KIA and I had to get a new one but I am back and can finally return to my work thank you for your patience and have fun reading.

Qrow was waiting for his food when his scroll rang. It was Shiro so he picked it up without a second of thought and answered. He knew that the time difference would mean that it was about lunchtime for Shiro. "Hey, buddy what's up?" Qrow asked.

"I need your help in finding some stuff on a student in my class. What do you know about someone named Jaune Arc?" Shiro expected an answer but instead received the sound of his father gagging on his drink.

"Did you just say Arc?" His father asked.

"Well yeah, what do you know?" Shiro replied.

Qrow leaned in a little closer and spoke a little quieter. "If you have an Arc in your class then you watch them carefully. The last time an Arc left the Arclands the damn world almost ended. They are freaking omens man."

"Damn," Shiro muttered. "I have two in my class."

Qrow's eyes bulged slightly when he heard that. "Two?" he asked.

"Yeah, and one of them is on my team," Shiro continued.

"You mean to tell me that your team leader is an Arc!" Qrow asked somehow more shocked then he was before.

With a poorly hidden smirk, Shiro replied. "No I have an Arc on MY team, I'm the leader. She's actually my partner."

Now it was Qrow's turn to smirk in the way that only a father can do. "you're the team leader and partnered to an Arc?" he said.

Shiro nodded his head to answer which lead Qrow to asking. "Is she cute,"

Shiro rolled his eyes. As soon as he said the word "she" he knew that this question was coming. "Yes but she doesn't have any interest in me and even if I had any in her I wouldn't act on it. I think her brother hates me."

Qrow nodded understandingly he had once loved a woman whose father was less than approving. It was a real shitshow. Qrow turned back to Shiro in order to take his mind off of his past.

He was about to speak when the bell that signaled the end of lunch rang. "Alright I'll talk to you later, love you, buddy"

"Yeah sure bye," Shiro said before he dropped the call.

Qrow felt another part of his soul crack. His own son couldn't say that he loved him. Not that he could blame Shiro. Qrow had never been a major part of Shiro's life. He was too afraid of being more of a curse than anything else.

"Who was that," the bartender asked him. She was a pretty girl and Qrow would be lying if he hadn't had a few thoughts about her, but the end of that call had killed any thoughts.

"My son," he answered.

Her face seemed a little shocked and now she looked like she was worried that she planning on hitting on a married man. "Your wife must be a lucky woman?" she said.

"Yeah," Qrow muttered looking at the lock screen on his scroll. He had loved his wife and then he had killed her with his fucking semblance. She died to give birth to Shiro and in a way, Qrow had died with her.

Shiro was all that he had of her now. And he saw so much of her in him. That was for the best Qrow had killed the only woman who could have ever loved him so the fact that his son didn't take after him was a good thing.

The bartender seemed to realize that something was wrong so she asked him. "Can I get you anything, sir?"

Qrow shook his head slightly saying. "No, I'm gonna head to my room for the night." with that he headed for his bed. He had lost his appetite about two sentences ago.

…

Blake couldn't sleep after the argument she had had with Weiss. It had started out petty enough but soon her and Weiss' radically different political views came to the surface. Soo they were both screaming and Blake ran away to avoid committing a felony.

She was making her way to the docks when she heard something that she wasn't expecting. Someone was reading in one of the small gardens that dotted the school and they were loud enough for her to hear and she knew what was being read.

Blake gently pressed herself to the cobblestone wall of the garden and listened/

Ferocious, untamed. this beast has no master

It has only carnal wants and needs

Enslaved by such things, to be owned by a spell while being its caster

These beasts, These monsters are not beholden to anybody else's creed

Not knowing the worth of honor or respect

Only bowing down to greater power

This beast has a soul that would be barely worth the effort to detect

A soul that left to its own will someday soon begin to sour.

Corrupt at heart undeserving of mercy.

This beast is cruel not caring for others

of love and affection, this beast is wholely unworthy

truly an only a primitive thing is capable of such horrors wrote on its own brothers

there are those who would slay this beast at any chance they think they can

to them I give a warning, this very same beast is The Beast of MAN!

There was a short pause before she heard Jaune speak. "You said you know who wrote this.?'

It was Shiro who answered. Saying. "Yes, that was Joshua Dunstal," he said.

Blake was a little shooked that Shiro would know about Joshua Dunstal. He was a lesser-known writer from several generations ago. His works often highlighted the need for humanity to have some manner of higher authority dictating right and wrong to them.

"What does it mean?" Jaune asked.

" Poetry has no true meaning but if you want to know what Joshua Dunstal meant by it I suppose he saying that when left unchecked Mankind will always fall to their lesser instincts. Forgoing all honor and dignity. In effect making themselves into monsters. I think Dunstal is saying that this is man's natural state." Shiro replied.

Blakes Surprise grew more with each passing word. Shiro may not have known it but he just came to the same conclusion as many of Remnants' greatest thinkers, Including her own father.

"I don't know if I agree with him?" a third voice chimed in. Blake hadn't heard it before but she didn't move into the room that they were in to see who it was.

"People are at their core good but they can be pushed to evil when acted on," the voice continued.

"So what your saying is that something out of the individual's control is what dictates right and wrong and that if that thing didn't exist then their idea of right and wrong wouldn't exist either." Jaune countered.

"That's worth thinking about," the third voice said.

Jaune could be heard standing up as he said. "That should do it for now. I need to go look for Blake apparently she has run away."

Shiro could also be heard standing up asking. "Can I borrow that book?"

Jaune responded with "Sure in fact I think that you might like to read what's on page 762"

Blake was still hiding from the outside of the when Jaune walked out of the nearest gateway and looked at her. He leaned in close and whispered "I am going to wait for you at the docks. I will also be going back to my dorm in about three hours. If you still want to run off then you can but you need to think about it"

With that he headed off to take his vigil leaving Blake with her thoughts. What if Weiss was just like man from the poem. She had only ever known evil. That plus her own nature would make anyone into a monster.

She needed to think about things but she didn't get the chance to since she heard Shiro reading again.

Love

loves purpose, what would it be

who would want such an absurd thing as love

But when you look and think, I hope that you will see

that Love was the greatest of gifts given by the Lord up above

it makes the sane go insane

turns smart men stupid

the true form's power is strong whether on your hands and knees or walking with a cane.

the only two who escape its power live with the pain of the wound or lose the soul that they hid.

love, what purpose could it have

All the pain it can cause

Why would any every chose to enter the embrace of a burn for which there is no salve

would you ask a knight to battle with no armor, or a carpenter to work with no saws.

what is love purpose, are we to always to look upon its secrets like peasants upon wizardry

that question has but one answer. it is meant to bring peace and order to our savagery

Blake found herself leaning close to the shrubbery in order to hear more clearly. For better or worse Shiro seemed to have a voice that was meant for reading. When he was done Blake was in awe. She at first failed to even remember what he had read.

When she heard him moving she quickly hid behind a corner of the garden. As he was passing by she felt a branch snap under her foot. Just as Shiro's gaze snapped to where she had been hiding she managed to get her footing onto silent ground and lurched back out of sight.

Holding very still Blake prayed that Shiro wouldn't investigate the sound. When he turned back to the path and left she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Now that she was alone she finally thought about what Shiro had read. It had taken her a moment to remember what the moral had been when she had read it with her father years ago. Then she had thought that love made you weak, less than you could be.

Her father had said otherwise and now with the wisdom that comes only with experience she knew that he was right. Love was what made man into something more than a savage beast acting on every instinct.

But the more she thought the more it worried her. Did that mean that Adam had a path back to being a good person.

Blake knew that her ex-boyfriend was far from stable but if love's purpose was to calm the very anger that seemed to be ruling his life had she in effect made him into a worse person when she left him.

Adam had become a monster but he wasn't always like that. He started his journey with a heart of gold. He wanted to save the world but after a while he saw how awful the world really was and decided that it wasn't worth saving.

If Blake saw all the awful things that Adam has done and decides that he wasn't worth saving was she any better than him.

Blake knew that parsing out the right and wrong of her ex-boyfriend was not going to get her anywhere right now she turned to her next problem. Weiss, if she ran away would she do to Weiss what Adam had done to the world.

She may not be able to help Adam but she could still try to help Weiss. With a new determination Blake returned to her dorm and opened the door. When her team saw her they all started to talk but Blake ignored them all. Instead she walked straight up to Weiss and threw her arms around the Schnee Heiress.

"I know that we don't agree on a whole lot but I know that the problem with this world is that too many people don't try to love each other enough they grit their teeth dig their heels in without trying to help one another.'' She didn't know when she started to cry but that didn't matter. Something seemed to register with Weiss because somewhere along the way she started to cry and wrapped her own arms around Blake.

This turned into a group hug where Ruby somehow weaseled her way into the middle and Yang wrapped her arms around everyone. They stayed like that for a while they were going to have to do a lot of work to fix their broken team but they just might be up to the task.