Glynda looked over everyone hardening her heart enough to say loudly "at this time, please go to your dorms; we'll explain anything you have questions about, but please give us time to collect ourselves"
Everyone hurried away and did as they were asked while Qrow took Ruby inside walking with yang and her friends, ozpin and Glynda walked into the tower and rode the elevator up but no matter how fast that ride went this one felt like an eternity. With heavy hearts, they walked to the large desk near the window, the quiet footsteps almost sounded louder than they thought, but that was expected in these situations. After getting notifications from the entire student body, they'd gotten into their rooms, Glynda pressed the call button to call everyone and took a deep and shaky breath and cleared her throat. It took her a few seconds to speak, but to her, it felt like hours,
"as many of you know... Cole valentine left beacon some time ago and all of remnant learned who and what he was, but not many chose to accept him as he was; a human with a deep pain and deeper past full of struggle and hardships. Most didn't treat him fairly when they should have." A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she carried on "Cole was a valued student here in these walls; he was intelligent, ambitious, a loyal friend, and a fierce warrior and a survivor...but today it breaks my heart to tell you all that-" he choked out trying not to cry and with a cracking voice, she forced out, "Cole wasn't my son...but I wish that he were" ozpin took over and let Glynda try to recover.
"He was kind, loving and had the heart of a thousand hunters; it was a fragile place...but those that lived in it, were treasured greatly, and he had protected it like they were family...but like ours," he paused to let everyone see him shed heavy tears and heard his voice break "his life was short-lived and was taken prematurely-" he stopped mid-sentence to take a breath "we failed to rescue him in Mistral and lost five council members, as well as an entire base of military personnel of all kingdoms."
Numerous murmurs and gasps were heard from every phone and computer monitor asking their roommates about how messed up it all was. Some however thought it was a lie and started saying how they all will be better off without Cole and a small portion thought Cole deserved better.
Ozpin took over again and growled "we don't know who killed them, but we do know that they used some kind of new type of fire dust crystal that turned an entire Mistralian base to glass and left the occupants in and around the area charred and burnt alive."
Ironwood took the mic and spoke, but no one expected it. "As you all knew from the start of your pursuit, we as hunters failed to save those precious souls. Ones that didn't have enough time to love, live, and grow" he began to slip in a bitter rage and kept speaking "some of them won't have the chance to have a proper loving family of their own!" Glynda decided it was best to end it with a step forward but required two steps backwards "we will be canceling school for the rest of the month to hold a funeral for Cole...except instead of digging him a grave, his room has been decided to be his final resting place, only those closest to him will be permitted in the room, others, however, will be allowed to place whatever gifts near or on the entrance-" they were interrupted when they heard yang exclaimed "but that's not fair, Ruby and Weiss were the only ones...the closest...to...him" the realization hit her hard and left her breathless "oh gods what've we done!?" Blake cried breaking down into tears of regret, soon the other seven burst out in tears.
Yang decided she'd bow her head silently crying, nora and Ren held each other, jaune was gritting his teeth and clenched his fists so tight his fingernails dug into his hands spilling a bit of blood and fell to his knees.
Pyrrha cried holding jaune from behind, Ruby hung her head walking over to yang and shoulder checked her storming out the door and slammed It hard enough to crack the frame.
Weiss walked into the bathroom mind racing regretfully and remorse with 'what ifs' and turned on the water splashing the frosty liquid in her face for a moment hoping to wash her tears away before looking up into the mirror staring blankly at herself when she saw herself say "wow snow angel, you really messed up bad this time" laughing at herself then subconsciously balled her fist tight and threw her fist forward shattering the reflection letting the glass cut into her hand deep but decided she'd forgo the towel on the counter and tore part of her skirt off and wrapped it over her bleeding hand and knuckles, No one spoke a word to let them cry with the others and more followed suit until all of beacon were either crying, hung their heads in shame or quietly apologized. "No one is to blame for their deaths except the ones that dropped those bombs in the first place" oz said before grabbing the bourbon and drank from the bottle. "Preparations for his funeral start in the morning, for now, get some dinner and rest up, these next two weeks will be busy."
three years later*
The first few weeks after Cole's death Ruby slept in his room and cried when she got back after holding it in all day, she'd help store the gifts in the closet that the other students and teachers dropped off, she completely shut out her friends and sister, when they tried engaging her about anything she only replied to them if it was about huntsman or school affairs. After losing the man she loved more than anything she changed her entire outlook on people and the world around her; she trained more seriously, studied more attentively and ended up putting Weiss and Pyrrha to shame, her fighting style almost completely mirrored her fathers except her newish weapon didn't have a gun function, so she had to build one into it as she'd done to Crescent but kept it simple, with Weiss as the exception, she became deathly cold to her team and friends outside of missions and school work, but not everyone she was friendly with got the cold shoulder.
Everyone else was treated the same unless someone annoyed her. Like the time when yang cornered her in the locker room of glynda's sparring class and tried forcing her to talk about it, so she threw yang over her shoulder and broke her nose and wrist in one swift motion; like a cop taking down a criminal but more brutality she had said to her "you were part of the problem Xiao long, don't think I chose this without thinking it through!"
After everything began to calm down at beacon, Blake left to rejoin her parents and try to make amends to hopefully get the white fang back and make it peaceful again but that only ended up angering yang to the point that her tantrum landed her in jail with a fifty thousand lien bail with promise of probation and community service if someone had chosen to pay, but she'd be waiting a long time.
Weiss was removed from beacon by her father for 'disgracing the Schnee name' for becoming a huntress and assumed to have helped kill a classmate. She was devastated to say the least, but obeyed with hidden intentions. Weiss had stayed ruby's friend and was given the crystal Cole adorably called: citrine's charge; she found in a box with his name on it to put in a hole she didn't know where it went but kept it regardless. Ozpin slipped her a scroll he made specifically for her to keep, and it was kept a secret.
JNPR stayed at beacon, but they weren't any better off, jaune's family took clades from him and disowned him. He wasn't completely defeated, to prove it he created his own sword and shield, but both were simple in design but thanks to Pyrrha's help he could throw dust attacks with a click of a button and swiping his sword through the air.
Pyrrha lost a lot of her sponsorships, so her parents became her managers after her previous one quit on her and had to help jaune get a teacher to help him with hand-to-hand combat.
Unfortunately he got ciri and geralt the latter teaching medicinal skills while ciri helped with his job, but her actual job was to substitute Classrooms that needed her and her favorite was Grimm studies since she was liked by all of Peter's students since she had great lessons to talk about in her stories and most were of geralt.
Geralt had given ozpin a proposition to keep him and ciri around as teachers but agreed that they stay out of his schemes for the most part , that was agreed upon and weirdly enough the students he taught actually had a blast talking with him and followed along to his projects and would try everyone's concoctions and told them that his body was built for the harshest of environments and not to be worried about poisoning him considering he never had them use the terrible poisons he'd collected and never had to use Grimm entrails since they all just smoked our as soon as they were dead.
Ren and nora tried to help Ruby with anything, but every attempt was met with a death glare and said, "you two didn't try last time, why start now?" her tone was colder than frost dust crystal and cut deeper than any blade in all of remnant.
All in all? Ruby -in beacon's opinion- became 'the fiery red reaper'.remnant knew Cole was dead; there was nothing she nor anyone else could do to reverse it. She lost him before Cole snapped and well before she knew he was too far gone, she guessed was a week after he took her prototype bodysuit.
One day when Ruby was talking to 'hard light Cole' on the training floor, ozpin walked in and deactivated it using his scroll, and behind him was Glynda and qrow.
"Wha- Dad, professor, I can explain-" she exclaimed
Qrow smirked and hugged her and Glynda said, "we know Ruby, we just came to see if you were going to visit your sister today"
she scoffed pushing Qrow away and grabbed the droid and placed it in its storage case "I don't see the point; I'm not a kid waiting for her to be more mature"
Ozpin sighed and said, "she has requested that you visit and today is her first day of community service, since the council was notified of her good behavior and I felt it best to have all of them at your side when you are on a special request mission from the council."
She turned to the trio and saw right through the proverbial 'mic drop' question and replied, "no, they all helped pushed Cole to leave the way he did. They are far from forgiveness. Much less her"
"Pedal, I get what you're feeling" Qrow said, walking her away from the others and gestured to them that he had this one. He gently grabbed her hand and sat her down in front of him as he did the same, "when your mother died...I was a total wreck. I pushed you to live with tai a yang, I drank myself unconscious and even buried myself in work- do you know what I was really doing while I was gone?" he asked, wiping a tear from her face with a rose embroidered handkerchief.
"You said that you were out on missions for oz" she said, wiping the others that fell when she remembered all those years of loneliness of not having a mother anymore. "Well, what would you say if I told you that I went rouge to kill those responsible for killing summer?" he asked, sitting down next to her.
"I'd ask if you got your revenge" she replied softly. "But I know you probably didn't"
He hugged her and ran his fingers through her hair and said, "I did actually, I lost myself to the feeling while cutting them down. The rage I felt consumed me. When they were all dead I was left with a feeling so hollow I knew it wasn't even worth it in the end" he let her go and wiped her tears away "after avenging her death I felt so hollow I forced myself into teaching, so you could to defend yourself. But sometimes while you were in school I swear you took so much after her, it was terrifying...but you also took after me and I couldn't be prouder; just try to be better and forgive your family" feeling his tears flow, Ruby felt the need to wipe his away before he added "and I'm not just talking about yang either"
When Ruby heard that, she looked at the scorch marks from Cole's lightning and took a few shaky breaths and stood up. "You want me to let him go, don't you?"
Glynda stepped forward and said, "no Ruby, he wants you to heal, but before you ask, I'm here to tell you that we want you to find someone, and you need to take JNPR with you"
Ruby grabbed her dual scythes to holster them on her back, and locked them in place with an audible click and looked at her "no, I'm going alone" but froze at ozpin's soft steps that echoed through the entire room.
"It wasn't a request Ruby, they're your protectors as we are your teachers, their orders will come from you and only you" he reached out and handed her Cole's old phone and added "and just so you know yang and Weiss are coming with you on this mission; for yang this'll be her community service and to ensure her good behavior. For Weiss this'll be our way of keeping a dust crystal specialist near your team when you find any".
Watching them all come into the room, she saw all four members of jnpr had changed, and it was pretty noticeable.
Jaune had a sword at his waist, a simple mech-shift kite shield on his left arm and a pauldron, no armor adorned save for the front and back of his torso shoulders and left arm, his boots had separate plates that overlapped to compensate for mobility and a few plates on his thighs.
Nora wore no armor but wore what was similar to a dusters coat and hat with her hammer fixed to her back and a grenade belt across her chest in an X
Pyrrha looked unchanged save for more armor over her chest, thigh boots with plating, a full armor sleeve and pauldron on her left shoulder like jaune but small and sleeker and a helmet not just a circlet.
And lastly was Ren, he wore a mistralian Shinobi uniform he and jaune had recovered in kuroyuri from his father's trunk under the house. His smgs had longer blades and could fuse to make a sword, he was the only one of the group that had a duffle bag the size of a tree trunk and likely all their survival stuff and nora had decided to carry it.
She felt a myriad of emotion and the ones she felt strongest were despair, anger and longing, her mind went into overdrive when she heard those words. Well, that and visibly trembling, it but vanished when she looked to her left noticing Ren using his semblance on her with an apologetic expression. He let her go and stepped back, "ruby, you're going to need us...all of us, I just hope w-we can work to make things-"
"I don't need any of you, this is just another mission; you're all just strangers to me" she said sternly clenching her fists showing the skin had started turning white. "Why are they here again?!"
"Because the man we need to look for is responsible for this" ciri said handing her a file with a sad look that Ruby felt uneasy with since knowing her she knew by the sympathetic eye glance she wasn't normally like this.
"What is thi-" she stopped mid-question when she saw the pictures: a Faunas woman with a missing cat ear, heat burns in her stomach and a hole the size of a baseball in the same area, her left arm was twisted and mangled, like someone had broken it when an escape was attempted, her legs were missing from the knees down, but worst thing that caught Ruby's attention was the body was being held in place against the wall by a broken black blade and the hilt, both buried in her shoulders and large railroad spikes in her forearms, fortunately her face was covered by her blood stained hair, so she couldn't see who it was. Her gut twisted with uneasiness and horror while silvery steeled eyes wetted with burning tears showed when she noticed there was a note behind the picture, turning it over it read:
Ash to ashes dust to dust
you left her to die
now prepare to say goodbye
I'm here to make you cry
-The Reaper-
Normally, she wasn't the type to be scared of a cliché like that, but what did scare her was that the note was written in what looked to be blood. Her hands dropped the file and trembled "wh-who was th-that in the picture" she exclaimed backing into Qrow and fell to the ground in horror shaking.
Qrow picked her up and said, "that woman was your old teammate... Blake belladonna "
Ciri picked up the file and added "and she's not the only one" she turned on and flipped through his phone pad to show some hologram pictures of people tied to Cole's suffering and the pictures were vast. Jacques schnee, a man shown using hard light holo-screens, but we did have a name just yet, jaune Arc, Pyrrha nikos, Weiss Schnee, yang Xiao long, Blake belladonna, siena Khan, and...you professor ozpin" she looked at the headmaster and let out a heavy sigh but kept the last bit to herself about Cole being on the list too.
"We don't know how many more are on this man's list, but we do know who is on it but..."
Ruby stood up shakily, "but what?" she looked everywhere in the room for an answer when a woman rose from Glynda's shadow and said "but the list was incomplete when I stole it"
Everyone either went to attack stances or backed off when seeing it, what they all saw was a beautiful 5'11 women with raven black hair, green and blue eyes just like Cole's, light brown worn leather armor with pieces missing from her shoulder, stomach, and one of her boots. Her skin was smooth and pale like Weiss' and had a few burn marks on her face and looked as if her looks had frozen in time.
"you're rayla, Cole's long-lost sister right?" she exclaimed pulling out a picture and ran over to her and gave it to her. "This is you, right?"
rayla looked over the weathered picture and gasped seeing it. In the picture showed small rayla holding a baby Cole both smiling brightly at the camera with their mother holding them both in her arms. Behind them showed a huge field of flowers and fauna running around.
Rayla smiled and pressed the picture to her heart and let a few tears fall into her shirt. The pain was miniscule compared to what it was like knowing Cole was dead or missing since his remains weren't found "my father took this two years before he lost his team to a bandit attack and became an abusive alcoholic," she put the picture in Ruby's hand and asked "where'd you get that picture" putting it back in her left cargo pant pocket and replied "he gave it to me and Weiss; along with everything he owned in his will he had us specifically in it and were told to divide amongst ourselves"
rayla looked at everyone in the room and turned angry as she growled walking over to jaune and the others, used her shadows to grab the ones present by their torsos and said loudly, "if you pathetic excuses for hunters know what's good for you, you'll listen to Ruby and do as you're told!" she got frantic 'yes ma'am's' and nodding.
"Good" she let them go and slapped every one of them, jaune a bit harder than the others, and said "that's for causing so much trouble for my brother!"
Calming a bit she looked over at Weiss and walked over to her with a blank expression hugged her as tightly as she could and smiled "thank you for trying to love him while he knew you" letting her go rayla watched her suppress tears and smiled back, but few did slide down as she took a deep breath to get her composure back.
Turning to glynda she shook her hand and said, "after he lost me, and our mother he needed a woman to love him like a mother...even though you were faking it for his sake, I'm sure you love all your students but, I think being a pseudo mother to him was something he needed most"
she looked back to Weiss and said "this was in his pocket when he died" Weiss caught a silver chain holding a gold ring designed to like a collection of vines holding a literal tiny white snowflake made with moonstone wrapped together with black wire. Her eyes filled with tears and a devastating surprise to see Weiss tightly hug rayla -a stranger- like this so suddenly and only got more surprising when she bawled on her shoulder apologizing. The guilt and pain was too much, facing down her crush's sister and just let go.
"She truly loved him, deeply and completely" Glynda said holding a hand over her chest.
After a few more minutes they got off the floor, Weiss put the necklace around her neck and said to professor ciri, "you I've never seen before, who were you to Cole?"
'For someone who lost your entire life, you seem oddly content' she thought while giving her report to ozpin.
"Im understandably pissed that Cole is dead too; I knew about him since your village was glassed over, but you're a bit too torrent with blaming them for a handful of mistakes, y'know that?"
Everyone was visibly shaken, professor rivia never talked like that to anyone except for professor geralt and that was because they were known family.
"Regardless, miss Goodwitch I'm going with them to ensure they stay safe and don't cause any problems; bullhead leaves in thirty, so I hope you don't lag behind." With that, she left to get ready, leaving them all stunned and confused.
Thanks for reading I hope to improve the next chapter.
I'm limiting each chapter to 4000 words or less from here on.
Comment anything you think could be worked on at:
H6pp1n355_in_misery.
Criticism is appreciated