AN: Slightly shorter chapter this time. I really appreciate all the love this story has gotten, and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 3
Aqua slowly opened her eyes in response to the morning light coming in through the window of her hotel room. For some reason, she had a fairly substantial pain in her back. As she took a look at her surroundings, she remembered why. She had slept on the couch the night before, since Ruby and Yang had slept in her bed. She got up slowly, raising her arms and stretching her back out as she did so. She felt her joints give a satisfying "pop" and the pain in her back subsided. She gave a satisfied grunt as she put her arms down. She looked over to her bed and saw the sisters cuddled up next to each other. Aqua gave a small smile at the adorable scene and looked at the book on the nightstand next to Yang. It was the one the older girl had read to her sister the night before. The Four Seasons.
Since she was sleeping in the same room as them, she listened as well as Yang read the interesting story. Aqua found she liked the story about four sisters that convince an old wizard to leave his cabin and restore his faith in the world, and they were rewarded with special powers corresponding to one of the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. As much as she enjoyed the story, she couldn't escape the problem that was her lack of knowledge of anything related to Remnant. If she was going to train Ruby, she was going to have to learn all she could about her apparent new home.
She was taken out of her thoughts by a small moaning sound. Speaking of Ruby, Aqua looked and saw the little black-and-red-haired girl slowly start to wake up, her silver eyes fluttering open. She took a look around, clearly surprised to be waking up in a strange location, but quickly remembered where she had slept the night before.
"Good morning, Ruby," Aqua greeted the girl. Ruby looked up at the blue-haired woman and smiled brightly.
"Morning, Aqua," she returned the greeting.
"Did you sleep well?" the older woman asked. Ruby nodded her head in response.
"The bed was super comfy."
Evidently, their talking was a bit too loud, as they could hear Yang beginning to stir as well.
"Good morning, Yang!" Ruby yelled suddenly, wrapping her arms around her older sister, startling the older girl in the process.
"Hey, sis," Yang greeted. Then she saw Aqua standing nearby smiling at them. "Morning, Aqua."
"Good morning," Aqua greeted.
"Thanks for letting us stay here last night," the blonde girl said. "It was a lot of fun."
"You don't need to thank me," Aqua said for what felt like the thousandth time. "Anyway, why don't you girls get cleaned up? I'll get us some breakfast." The girls got up off the bed and walked into the bathroom of Aqua's room to get cleaned, and Aqua walked over to the nightstand to pick up the small white device. According to Qrow, it was called a "Scroll", and it was provided by the hotel for the duration of her stay. Luckily, Qrow had shown her how to use it the night before when he came back with the girls' stuff.
The technology in this world really was something else. She never would have imagined such a little device was capable of all the functions that these so-called "Scrolls" were. From long-distance communication, to computing, to video games, it seemed that there was nothing these little devices couldn't do. And none of its functions were in any way familiar to the blue-haired woman.
She recalled the crash course Qrow gave her on how to use the communication function, and called the front desk of the hotel to have breakfast brought up to the room for herself and the two sisters.
Aqua was seated at the table with Ruby and Yang, and the trio was enjoying the bacon and eggs that the hotel staff had brought to the room, when they heard a knock. Getting up to open the door, Aqua was surprised to see that it was Qrow.
"Hey there, Wonder Woman," he greeted.
"Qrow?" she asked. "What are you doing here so early?"
"I wanted to talk to you." She stepped aside to let him in, and he smiled at his nieces. "Hey, girls."
"Hi, Uncle Qrow!" they greeted happily.
"How was sleeping here?"
"It was really fun," Yang said.
"Yeah!" Ruby agreed. "Aqua's super nice!" Qrow sent a quick glance Aqua's way at the praise, while Aqua smiled sweetly at the girls.
"Anyway," the older Huntsman said, "Let's get down to business." He sat down at the table, and Aqua sat down across from him, with Ruby and Yang on either side. "So, before I talk to Tai, just to make sure, your offer still stands?" As if there was ever any doubt in Aqua's mind.
"Of course."
"What offer?" Yang asked.
"Yeah," Ruby said. "What are you guys talking about?" Aqua and Qrow shared a glance for a second before turning to the younger girl.
"Wonder Woman here offered to train you to use that special weapon of yours," Qrow told the girl.
"Really?!" she asked, with stars in her eyes.
"Yeah," Aqua said. "I'm a Master of the Keyblade after all. Part of my responsibilities as a Master is training the next generation. And you're it." The little girl practically squealed in excitement.
"That's so cool, Ruby!" Yang said.
"Yeah, it is pretty cool," Qrow agreed. "But, your old man isn't convinced."
"Why not?" Ruby asked.
"He thinks it's too dangerous," Aqua answered.
"So that's where I come in," Qrow reassured the young girl. "I'll get him to listen to reason. You'll be using that Keyblade like a pro before you know it." Ruby practically jumped out of her chair to wrap her arms around her uncle.
"Thank you, Uncle Qrow!" the girl shouted. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"You know, normally I would tell you to thank Aqua," the man chuckled, "But since she doesn't seem to want any, I'll take it this time," he said with a smirk, returning his youngest niece's hug.
"Thanks for agreeing to talk to him, Qrow," Aqua told the older Huntsman.
"No problem," he said. "You said it yourself. This is something she needs to learn how to do. I just have one condition." Aqua raised an eyebrow. What was this about? He had never said anything about a condition before.
"And what's that?" she asked.
"Start letting us thank you," he said plainly, taking Aqua by surprise. "You keep doing so much for our family, let us at least thank you for it." She looked at him for a few seconds before laughing lightly, placing her hand in front of her mouth as she did so.
"Fine," she said. "you win."
"In that case," he said, smiling at her, "thank you."
"You're welcome," she said, grinning at him.
"So, now that that's out of the way, what are your plans for today while I talk to Tai?"
"To be honest, I have a lot of reading to do. There's quite a bit about this world that I'm completely clueless about."
"If by 'quite a bit' you mean 'absolutely everything', then I'd say yeah, you have a lot to learn."
"Oh, ha, ha," she said sarcastically. "Well, do you know where I can go to read up?"
"Yeah, I know a place."
Qrow was approaching the front door to the Xiao-Long/Rose household, flask in his hand. He had shown Aqua and the girls to Patch's library, and then headed straight to the cabin to talk to Tai. He had one mission: to convince Tai to let Aqua train Ruby. If he was being honest with himself, a part of him didn't want to allow this. After all, Ruby was only five years old. Even in a world as messed up and dangerous as Remnant, they still at least typically waited until a kid was 13 and started combat school before their training began in earnest. However, the part of him that was against the idea ultimately lost out to the part of him that knew how important Ruby's training was. He had experienced on more than one occasion just how dangerous the Heartless were, and if it was true what Aqua had told him, then those monsters were instinctively attracted to his niece. Learning how to use that fancy new weapon of hers was no longer a matter of just getting a head start on her becoming a Huntress.
It was a matter of survival.
He took a swig from his flask before opening the door and stepping inside. He was greeted with an all-too-familiar sight.
Tai was sitting in his chair, a half-empty bottle of whiskey in his hand.
It was pathetic. Qrow knew that Tai was going through a lot, but he was finding it a little hard to garner sympathy for his brother-in-law. Just looking at him was starting to make the prospect of quitting drinking seem much more appealing to the black-haired Huntsman.
He walked into the living room, clearing his throat loudly to get the blond man's attention.
"Oh, hey, Qrow," Tai drawled. "How were the girls last night? They stayed with Aqua, right?" Did he seriously not remember where they were the night before? "She's really done a lot for us lately, huh?"
"Yeah, she has," Qrow said. "She actually sent me here to talk to you."
"What about?"
"Training Ruby."
"That nonsense again?" Tai asked.
"Nonsense?" Qrow asked incredulously. "She told me you had said 'no', but I didn't think it was that bad."
"Qrow, she's five," Tai stated as if it was the most obvious thing on the planet. "It's too dangerous. There's a reason we wait until kids are 13 before we start training them."
"You think I don't know that?" Qrow asked, starting to get a little bit angry. "You saw the things she's up against. I'm not crazy about the idea either, but training her is the best chance she's got."
"No, Qrow!" Tai said, raising his voice a bit. "There are so many reasons why unlocking the Aura on a kid that young is a bad idea."
"She won't be unlocking her Aura," Qrow said simply.
"…What?"
"She won't be unlocking her Aura. Aqua's isn't."
"Are you seriously trying to tell me that Aqua doesn't have her Aura unlocked? After all that stuff she did in my yard yesterday?"
"It wasn't Aura that lets her do that. She told you that fancy Keyblade of hers is what let her do all that. She wasn't kidding. She did all that without her Aura unlocked."
"How do you know?"
"She took a hit from a Beowolf out in the woods the other day. Its claws cut right into her back. No protection at all. Plus, she doesn't even know what Aura is."
"Well if she's going to be learning how to fight and won't have any Aura, I'm definitely not letting her."
Damn it.
"Tai, what the hell?" Qrow asked incredulously. "You didn't want to do it with Aura, and you don't want her to do it Aura-less. Make up your damn mind."
"Qrow, she said that those monsters are going to come after her."
"Which is why she needs to learn how to protect herself."
"And what if there's an accident? She won't have Aura to protect her."
"I really don't think that will be a problem. I've seen what Aqua can do. I think she can keep her safe."
"I won't allow it!" Tai finally shouted.
"Why are you being so paranoid?" Qrow practically growled.
"Can you blame me?" Tai asked. "I just lost Summer. I won't risk losing Ruby too." Qrow's fist clenched and his mouth contorted into a snarl. "Qrow? Why are looking at me like that?"
"You selfish prick," Qrow practically growled.
"What?!" Tai asked. "How am I being selfish?"
"Because, Tai," Qrow said his name with pure venom in his voice, "you aren't the only one that lost Summer!"
Tai just stood there, mouth open in shock.
"You love to act like you're the only one that's hurting," Qrow continued. "That you're the only one that misses her. Well you're not. Ruby and Yang miss her, too. They've needed you now more than ever, and you're too caught up in your own grief to help them with theirs. And I…" He trailed off, clenching his fists.
"And you what?" Tai asked.
"I've spent the last five years of my life missing Summer."
"What do you me—" Tai began, before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh."
"Yeah," Qrow said bitterly. "'Oh'."
"Is that what this is about?" Tai asked. "You're still mad about that?"
"No. It's my own fault that I never told her how I felt. She fell for you and you needed comfort after Raven left. I don't blame you for that, and I decided a long time ago that as long as she was happy with you, I could get over it. But now that she's gone, you can't be bothered to take of the daughter that she left behind for you. Hers or Raven's. They are all that either of us have left of those two. Now, as someone else that loved Summer and loves those little girls, listen to me when I tell you that what Aqua is offering is the best option. So please, Tai, let her teach Ruby." Tai sat in silence for a few seconds.
"Qrow," he said finally. "I'm sorry. I know you're right, but I'm just too scared. I don't know what the right answer is."
"You remember," Qrow said with a smirk, "back at Beacon, whenever we got into an argument, how we'd settle things?"
"Yeah, I do," Tai said.
"Since you're still on the fence, why don't we let fate decide? If I win, then Aqua trains Ruby. If you win, she doesn't."
Tai sat for a few minutes before sighing and standing up. "Fair enough," he said. "Let's do it."
Aqua was sitting at the table of her room, a pile of books in front of her that she got from the library. Ruby and Yang were once again on her bed, reading comic books called "X-Ray and Vav". Aqua had spent the last several hours reading all she could about Remnant.
The first thing she read about was this so-called "Aura". She had heard Qrow and Ozpin mention it enough times that she definitely had to make sure she knew what it was. According to the book, Aura was the power of one's soul made manifest. It provided a level of protection from harm, enhanced one's abilities, healed injuries quickly, and even provided enhanced senses. The concept of power originating from the soul rather than the Heart was admittedly a foreign concept to the Keyblade Master. She began to consider how she could unlock hers, which the book stated could be done by someone else that had theirs unlocked. Despite all the power the Keyblade granted her, Aqua couldn't deny that having one certainly sounded helpful.
Especially since she learned that having one's Aura unlocked could eventually lead to unlocking a Semblance, which is a special ability unique to the individual, shaped by his or her personality. Aqua began to wonder what her Semblance might be if she had her Aura unlocked. If both herself and Ruby had Auras and Semblances, then they could quite possibly become the strongest Keyblade wielders to ever exist. It was certainly tempting.
More disturbing was the creatures of Grimm. They were, on the surface, fairly similar to the Heartless in that they are attracted to negative emotions, but while the Heartless attempted to steal Hearts, the Grimm's sole purpose seemed to be the wholesale slaughter of any humans and Faunus they could find.
Ah, yes. The Faunus. The most interesting find out of all the books she took out. The Faunus were a race of humans with a single animal trait, be it an extra set of ears or a tail. Sadly, they faced discrimination by the humans simply for being who they were. The state of the Faunus disgusted Aqua. Nobody should be treated like trash for the crime of existing. That was why she found that she had a lot of respect for the White Fang. According to her books, they were a fairly recent group that only appeared a few months ago. They were a Faunus-rights activist group that protested and boycotted to show the humans that they were equal. Aqua admired people willing to stand up for what was right.
She put the book she was reading down and looked at the sisters on her bed. They were sitting next to each other, Ruby reading the comics out loud and Yang helping her with any words she missed. Yang really was a great reader for a seven-year-old. While she watched them enjoy the antics of the two incompetent super-heroes, Aqua heard a knock on the door. She got up to answer it, and was not at all surprised to find Qrow on the other side.
No, what she was surprised to see was the older Huntsman with a black eye and a split lip.
"Qrow?" Aqua exclaimed in surprise. "What happened to you?"
"Tai and I got into a little disagreement," Qrow answered with a smirk. "I won, by the way."
"Hold on," she said, summoning her Keyblade. "I'll heal you." She raised her Keyblade and was about to cast Cure on him, but he held up his hand to stop her.
"Nope," he said simply.
"Why not?"
"To be honest, the thought of magic healing kinda freaks me out a little. No offense."
"Oh," she said, dismissing her Keyblade. "Well, at least let me patch you up the old-fashioned way." Again, he held up his hand to dismiss her.
"That isn't necessary. Once my Aura recharges, I'll be good to go."
"Well, how long does it take to recharge?"
"A few hours. At worst, I'll have to wait overnight."
"Does it hurt?" she asked.
"Well, yeah, of course," he said.
"Well then, come on," she said, grabbing him by the hand and beginning to drag him into the room. "I should have something here for the pain."
"Hey, wait, stop," he stuttered. She turned to look at him, sending him a glare that made him shiver in place for a second.
"Qrow," she said sternly, "You got injured because of what I asked you to do. The least I can do is treat your injuries. Now get inside."
"Yes, ma'am," he said sheepishly. She dragged him into the room and sat him down at the table. He sent a greeting to his nieces, who returned it and went right back to reading their comics, completely tuning out the world around them. He then looked at the pile of books on the table in front of him. "Damn, you really went all out on the research, didn't you?" He asked Aqua, who was retrieving the first-aid kit from under the kitchen sink.
"Well, of course," she said. "I have a lot of learning to do." She pulled out the kit, walked over to the table, pulled up a chair next to him, and placed the first-aid kit on the table. She opened up the kit and pulled out something that was labeled as an "instant cold compress". According to the directions, all she had to do was bend it half, and it would instantly become cold. She bent it, hearing a snapping sound come from the object. She handed it to Qrow. "Here," she said. "Put this on your eye." He took it from her and placed it over his bruised eye.
"Thanks," he said simply. She then reached back into the first-aid kit and pulled out a needle and some string. Qrow raised an eyebrow when he saw it. "You know how to stitch a wound closed?"
"Yeah," she said with a small laugh. "Ven used to go overboard all the time when we were training, so I always used to have to patch him up. Our Master wouldn't let us use magic to heal minor injuries during training, so we had to learn basic first aid. Well, more like I had to learn basic first aid." Qrow chuckled at that.
"Well, have at it, Wonder Woman." She held the needle in front of her face and attempted to thread it. However, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't for the life of her get the string into the head of the needle. She tried several times before grunting in frustration.
"Ugh, what's going on? It hasn't been that long since I've done this."
"It's not your fault," Qrow said, and Aqua could've sworn she heard a hint of sadness in his voice for reasons she couldn't understand. "Probably just some bad luck. Here, let me do it." She handed him the needle and thread, and he got it on his first try. He handed it back to her, and she spent the next several minutes stitching the gap in his lip closed. He felt at the wound, nodded with approval at her handiwork, and sat back in his chair.
"So, what happened?"
"To make a long story short, Tai still wasn't convinced that you training Ruby was a good idea. We decided to settle it with a fist fight, and I won."
"Wait, so that means—" she said in excitement.
"Yup," he said with a smirk, "he agreed to let you train Ruby." He was suddenly almost knocked out of his chair as Aqua practically tackled him in a hug.
"Thank you, Qrow!" She yelled. "Thank you so much!"
"Hey, easy," he said in pain and with a blush. "You just patched me up, don't undo it." She let go of him and backed up, blushing profusely.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly.
"What's going on?" Yang asked. It seemed that the commotion they just made had finally gotten the girls' attention.
"Yeah," added Ruby. "How come you were hugging Uncle Qrow?"
"Well," Aqua said. "He gave me some really good news."
"Really?" Yang asked. "What was it?"
"As I was just finishing explaining, your dad is letting Aqua train Ruby to use that fancy Keyblade of hers," Qrow said with a smirk.
"Really?!" Ruby face instantly lit up.
"That's right," Aqua said. "Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be your teacher."
"YAY!" Ruby yelled and tackled Aqua in a hug. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Well, I'm glad you're so excited," Aqua said with a giggle.
"That's so cool, Ruby!" Yang said with excitement.
"You've got a pretty awesome little sister, huh Firecracker?" Qrow said, patting Yang on the head affectionately.
"Yeah, I do," Yang said with a huge smile on her face.
"Oh, Qrow," Aqua said. "Can I ask one more favor?"
"As long as it's not too much trouble."
"Don't worry, it's simple."
"Lay it on me."
"I want you to unlock my Aura."
In the forests of Mistral, there lied a bandit camp. It was full of members of the tribe drinking, sparring, playing games of chance. They were all minding their own business, having a great time, when a red and black portal suddenly opened up in the middle of camp and a woman strode out.
She had long black hair that reached her waist, held back by a red bandana. She wore a red and black top with a short black skirt. She had a bundle of black feathers hanging from her skirt, a red pouch on the right side of her hip, and red arm guards on her forearms. She wore black heels underneath black tights that reached her mid-thigh and flared out at the bottom. Attached to a black belt around her waist was a sheathe containing a very long sword. She wore multiple black necklaces around her neck, and most strikingly, she wore a white bird-like Grimm mask over her face. She took off her mask to reveal her blood-red eyes.
Her name was Raven Branwen, twin sister to Qrow Branwen, mother of Yang Xiao-Long, leader of the Branwen tribe of bandits, and, as of a few weeks ago, the new Spring Maiden, not that she was willing to let anyone find out about that. It really was a shame that the last Maiden had to die, but she more than proved that she couldn't pull her weight, so why shouldn't Raven have just taken her powers for herself? After all, the weak die, and the strong survive. She stepped out into the center of her camp, and the bandits around her stopped what they were doing to greet her. One of the senior members approached her.
"Welcome back," he greeted his leader. "How was your trip?"
"Enlightening," she said with a smirk. "That worthless brother of mine may have found something useful for once." She began walking towards her tent with the member of her tribe, walking past a cage with a young girl in it. They had found her wandering around in their territory, and were keeping her until they figured out what to do with her. She had black hair and amber-colored eyes. She was wearing a red dress that had torn in a few places. Raven approached the cage and took a look at the prisoner within. The girl was sitting with her head up against her knees. "And how is our little friend doing?" Raven asked, causing the girl to look up at her with a glare that could have melted stone. There was something about the girl's eyes that intrigued Raven. There was a certain spark that made Raven think that this girl could potentially be a valuable member of the tribe one day.
She just had to break her defiant attitude first.
"She still refuses to talk to anybody. We still don't even know what her name is," the tribesman said.
"I'm sure she'll come around in time," Raven smirked at her. The girl just glared. She turned around and began walking towards her own tent. "Get everyone packed up and ready to move. We're going to Patch."
AN: So There's Chapter 3 in the bag. This chapter is mainly short because I decided to cut out the fight between Qrow and Tai, mainly because this chapter was already taking too long to be finished in my opinion. So, Aqua is going to start training Ruby, and Raven seems to be planning something. I have plans for the girl in the cage, and I'm pretty sure you guys can figure out who it is.
So, now that Aqua asked Qrow to unlock her Aura, there is just the question of what her Semblance could be. I'm going to leave that up to you guys. Send me some suggestions for what you think her Semblance should be, and I'll decide which one I like best. Also, do you think Ruby's Keyblade should just be called Crescent Rose like her scythe in canon, or should we go with a new name?
I hope you guys enjoyed, thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you all next time.