A/N: 293,000 words is a lot. Let's at least make sure we're all on the same page...


Reflections of the Red Sun


It was calming, in a way. Despite how much crazy stuff had happened or how many times Ruby Rose and her team were in danger, Patch hadn't changed. The early autumn sun beat down upon Ruby, but its warmth couldn't fully bat away the chilly winds rushing by. She stood atop one of Patch's highest points: a cliff giving a view of the nigh-endless field of trees growing gold, the dawn sun above and the quaint little town just barely able to be made out in the distance.

And at its very edge sat a lone, marble grave.

Her dad finally made his way back to her. He took a deep breath, then clapped a hand on her shoulder and managed a grin.

"Sorry about that, Ruby! Didn't mean to hog all the time," Taiyang said.

Ruby rolled her eyes but smiled all the same. "You say that every year, Dad."

She walked across the drying grass until she stood in the same spot she had the year before that, and the year before that. Sometimes, it was still hard to look down at the words engraved upon that stone.

Summer Rose

Thus I Kindly Scatter

Weirdly enough, now was not one of those times. The cold winds of early morning whipped by, and Ruby pulled her cloak closer. She liked to think that she could feel that little fragment of her mother's aura left behind in her cape get stronger here. She wasn't naive enough to think that was really the truth... but it was nice to dream.

For a moment, all there was to hear was the wind and the buzzing of cicadas.

The wind died down, and slowly, Ruby pulled her hood back.

"Hey, Mom!" Where to even start? "Sorry that Yang and I haven't been by in a while. Things have been... well, pretty busy. Crazy, more like it. I'm sure Dad's told you all about it, but apparently he's been taking missions again, lately! It's still kinda weird to think of him as a Huntsman instead of a dad... don't tell him I said that, though!" Ruby giggled.

She rocked on her heels, letting the peaceful silence surround her again.

"I think... I think he misses adventuring with you." Ruby smiled down at the simple site. "I miss you, too..." She brushed aside some of her hair and tried to focus on happier things. God knew that the last time she was here, she managed to bring a whole pack of Beowolves. Come on! Nice thoughts! Good things!

"... I haven't gotten kicked out of Beacon yet!" Good enough! "And I still have no clue why! I just don't get how you led Team STRQ around so well. Especially with the stories Dad used to tell. I mean, my team's not bad, they're just... unique! And angry. Really angry. I think when we first got together, we spent more time arguing than just talking. Well, er, more them than me."

She stood upright, eyes wide. "Oh, duh! Silly me: I kinda forgot to mention who they were! Weiss—yep, the SDC heiress and my best buddy, no pressure!—and Adam. He's a faunus, and he's... um... let's go with reformed. And, we~ell, try as Yang might, she isn't getting rid of me that easy! Of course she was gonna be my partner. I want to say she really helped me reign the other two in, but..." She thought back to the numerous fights her sister and Adam had almost immediately gotten into. Idly, Ruby wondered how long it took for Beacon to fix up the locker room after the last time.

"Sis kinda got dragged into it too. But it got better, though! Sure, we might've needed some upperclassmen to personally come in and help us, but we're friends now! Weiss just so happens to be my best friend, and Adam's almost like a big brother now! It kinda helps that he and Yang are kind of alike. Enough to really make ya wonder..." She tapped her chin.

"It almost wasn't so easy, though. Things had gotten a little crazy when we found out Adam was..." She cleared her throat. " 'Reformed.' "

She was sticking to it!


And here was where she hit a wall. Again.

Weiss groaned and tapped her pen against the desk already covered in crumpled-up rough drafts. All had come falling apart in the same spot. How in the great world of Remnant was she going to dance around the issue of 'one of my teammates was a terrorist' and not come off as though she were hiding something?

Well, she certainly was hiding something, but the point was to make it less obvious. She had a feeling Winter would see through it with ease, but the less clear it was, the less reason she would have to worry.

Weiss frowned. After all, she had been lucky to only feel the aftershocks of the war between her family and the White Fang. Winter, however, was at the forefront.

Right, then. Second plan!

"While I am sure that you have heard of the heist performed in Vale a few months prior at the dockyards, you may be surprised to hear that I was the very reason it had not become an international crisis!" Ignore that little problem completely. "Father may not have been pleased, but I did well to uphold the Schnee family name against that treacherous hound, Torchwick. Although, I am forced to admit that it was by luck alone that I had stumbled across the incident."

'Stumbled' was almost quite literal, considering how distraught she was at finding out her own partner was a head of the faction waging war against her own family. And all of humanity, for that matter. She found it easier to simply... not think about that, these days. Did they get along? Quite famously, now. Did that stop her from sometimes seeing a terrorist and not her partner? Not exactly. 'Fresh start' or not.

"As for your request on friendship, I believe I have explained much on Ruby"—and how 'unique' she was as the surprise team leader—"but there has been another! Someone I had discovered on the way to that bout at the dockyards: Penny Polendina! She's..."

Weiss paused. Definitely not going to lead with 'a robot.'

"Also unique and perhaps a touch sheltered. Nonetheless, she is a wonderful companion! I think that you would like her. It was definitely a smoother relationship than with the remainder of my team. It took quite a long time to warm up to them, but we've managed. We are even at the top of the sparring classes now." Her writing was halted by the buzzing of her Scroll. Ah, and speak of the devil: Penny was the one who was calling her!

The letter could wait. She needed to have someone know about the mixed news. Someone she could trust to tell about her father coming to town.


"Perhaps you wouldn't believe me, but they are actually good people," Adam said, staring up at the simple, black monument set up on the outskirts of the ward of Vale known as Ildaite City. Just beyond the little plaza it sat in, the walls thrown up to 'quarantine' the government district loomed overhead. Built from the stone and steel of the buildings around it, the wall stretched around an entire district that the Council of Vale had deemed fit to seal away during the Breach. Twenty thousand doomed to death. Over one hundred thousand more only truly able to escape or find safety because of students and foreign powers. Atlas. White Fang. Even the defectors that he led.

Not that it made up for the fact that each life may as well have been taken by his own hand. Each and every name, faunus and human, White Fang and Vale civilian, carved into the black stone. Because he had chosen to save the lives of the White Fang and the lives of his team on the train barreling ahead towards suicide over Vale. Because he'd destroyed the only barrier.

He would tell no one.

Adam withstood the autumn winds, gloved fists curled tight in his pockets.

Could tell no one.

"In fact, even knowing exactly who I am, they could be worried for me. Not over something that would help them, but over me trying to find out just why the White Fang would be working with a criminal like Torchwick. That Xiao Long girl, especially... I believe you fought her on the train. Were she a faunus, I have no doubt in my mind she would've been among our ranks."

Only another rush of wind and dust answered him. The petals of flowers left against the monument rustled, already beginning to wilt.

"If it were up to me, Cinder Fall would already be dead. But it's not that easy. She's been holding Blake hostage. Keeping her as her unwitting 'teammate' just to rub it in my face that she had run off to leave me rather than work together in a plan of her own making." He snarled. "And so I've been left to pick away at her empire from the shadows. From the wrong side."

The symbol carved into his blade, just above the hilt, burned against him even in its sheath. Chuugi. Mistrali for 'loyalty'. And how loyal he was, slashing away at the White Fang he himself had built.

"The dockyard. The bases in Vale. The Paladin Torchwick used to try and strike down my team. It was to strike at her. To find what she wanted with my people, because all I'd done—all I do—is for the faunus." The silence began to gnaw at him. "Even when you sent that assassin to Beacon's doorstep, I let my students escape, even when they were 'defecting' from the side I fought for. I know who our true enemy is: not the White Fang, not even Torchwick. It's Cinder." Finally, he pulled his hands from his pockets and twisted to face the man beside him.

"Don't you understand that, Almond!"

Captain Edward Almond, commander of the Vale branch of the White Fang, only turned a glance his way. Free of his mask and wrapped in a heavy, gray coat rather than a uniform, were it not for his massive stature, he'd have looked like any other person paying respects. He had a new scar, now: a trio of ragged claw marks ran down his face and missed his eye by grace of the Brothers alone.

"Would Tacet have understood?" Almond spoke slowly.

"Tacet was attacking Beacon. Students!" Adam bit back.

"I sent Tacet to attack you. To drag you back. I wasn't going to have him spare humans in his way." Almond finally turned to face him.

"Then you knew you were sending him to his death."

Almond stood more than a foot taller than him, and without aura could break nearly every man or woman he saw with ease, yet Adam matched his glare all the same. Though the plaza held only the two of them, they knew that they were not truly alone. Masked men of the White Fang lurked in alleyways. Former students with black armbands waited atop rooftops. Both out of sight, neither out of mind.

It was Almond who broke the silence: a deep sigh.

"Change your name all you wish, Adam Minier, but I guess that part of your father will always be there. Anything for those you care for."

Adam grimaced enough to show teeth, fingers biting into his palms through his gloves. "I cast that name away a long time ago."

With a snort, Almond shook his head. "For a name given to you by a human that isn't here. But we are, Adam. I am." Almond turned away from Adam and the memorial both. "And when you get that into your head, I'll make sure your rank is waiting for you." He walked away, and Adam could feel the presence of both of their armies slipping away with him. Now, he was truly alone with his thoughts and the simple offer to just return to where he'd come from.

Adam looked back at the memorial one last time. A black raven stood atop it, staring down at him with red eyes. It felt familiar. Like he had seen it somewhere before. He shook off the feeling: Adam doubted even he could recall a specific bird from memory. Even Raven's pet bird looked like any other raven. Adam grimaced. It reminded him that there was more than one option to 'escape': Raven's own offer on that train to join her.

He turned away and left the plaza, looking back neither at the raven nor the shrinking form of Almond returning to the cordoned off, occupied zone of Vale.

It would have been an offer worth considering if he would not have needed to abandon everyone. Even Raven's own daughter.


"What about her?"

Yang's fist sank into the punching bag hard enough to tear the leather. It hadn't been the first punch to do so, nor the first bag she'd done that to. She frowned as she pulled her hand back and looked out of the window. The empty gym was close to the edge of Beacon's campus, and it had a great view of the cliffside and massive river beneath. It also had a great view of the gargantuan coliseum hovering over the city: Amity Coliseum, supported atop a building-sized crystal of Dust. That was where the Vytal Tournament would take place, and that was where she could finally prove herself.

She rolled her shoulders and launched herself into a furious set of punches against the tearing bag. Did Mountain Glenn count? Not really. Not for more than training. The fact of the matter was that she was slipping and she could feel it. Ever since she was knocked out by that White Fang assassin—Tacet... Something—and woke up to find out he'd been killed right in front of her little sister, she knew she was slipping.

Or was it when Adam told her that Ruby was the one who had to do it in the first place?

Her next hook left a streak of shriveled, burned leather in its wake.

Not like it mattered, Yang thought. She had a chance to bring it back: Mountain Glenn. Ripping through Grimm was one thing, but it was against the White Fang itself that was her test. It had already started in failure when Ruby was kidnapped by that son of a bitch, Mercury. What she wouldn't have given to wind up fighting him. Instead, she wound up against an ice cream midget who proceeded to hand her her whole ass. She'd needed to be saved. Not by Adam. Not by Ruby.

"What about her?"

Mom. She knew it was her. She'd had scavenged recordings of old Vytal Tournament footage. Raven might've been turned into an unperson in the public eye by the Kingdoms after turning her back on the law, but the CCT was a hard place to scrub truly clean. Especially when what they were trying to scrub was a champion and two-time finalist. She knew that voice. Had it memorized.

And the very first time she'd ever heard it in person, it was talking to him. The first time she'd ever heard it in person, it was to reveal she knew Adam this whole time. The first time she'd ever heard her own mom's voice in person, it was to try and get Adam away. And as for her own flesh and blood?

"What about her?"

The bag was sent down in a heap of scorched stuffing and still-burning leather.

He'd lied to her about not knowing Raven. She was going to find out why. But first, she was going to prove something to Raven: she wasn't just something to save only to throw away like a piece of trash. The Breach wasn't enough. All she'd really done in comparison to her friends and sibling practically raising entire armies was help take out one head of a mutated King Taijitu controlling the Grimm. And call some friends in, sure, but that fight was already over by then. What did it matter? The district was already being sealed off and the White Fang was already taking a hold.

No. She'd make Raven notice her whether she wanted to or not: she was going to crush that record of hers. Raven Branwen was the first freshman since the first Vytal Tournament to reach the finals. Only two other people had gotten there before: one of the very first finalists was a freshman. And, funnily enough, the second was one of their little chaperones for that first semester: Coco Adel.

She liked Team CFVY, but she wasn't letting them get in her way.

A black bird landed at the windowsill, curiously gazing down at her. But Yang cared little, only having eyes for the coliseum beyond it.

Second place?

Not a chance.


"I think we're gonna do just fine, Mom! No bad guy's ever taken us all down yet, and that's how it's gonna stay!" Ruby declared, tapping her chest with her fist and grinning wide. "I heard you and Team STRQ had made it a~all the way to the finals your first time around! We're gonna do the same, just you wait! Dad's about to take me back to Beacon to get ready, and then it's onward to victory!" She pointed up at the sky.

"I just wish Uncle Qrow could watch us, wherever he's posted up this time..." She sighed. "I hope you're watching too, Mom. Wish us luck!" With a last wave and cheery smile, she skipped back off to Taiyang.

Taiyang scratched at his beard, pretending to look agitated as he looked at his Scroll. His barely-restrained smile made that hard. "Geez, Ruby, you're gonna be late, at this rate!" He snorted. "Heh, that rhymed."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Nuh-uh. I didn't even take that long!"

"I had enough time to feed Zwei."

"Uh, Dad? He's still in Beacon."

"Oh! Silly me, you're right!" He grinned. "I had time to get Zwei."

"E-erm, well, in that case I, uh..." Ruby stammered and stuttered as she tried to figure out a neat clever comeback, not noticing her father's eyes briefly flick upwards into the reddening leaves nor his smile dip.

"The one with the bow—Blake, I think?—said she was looking for you." Taiyang patted Ruby's shoulder and stepped past her. "Why don't you zip over to the car? I'll be right behind you. I was able to grab some strawberries for you on the way back." He wasn't even able to finish the sentence before Ruby went zipping off, flower petals trailing off in her wake.

Taiyang smiled back over his shoulder at the red roses left behind, but it didn't last as he looked back into the red eyes of the raven sitting atop the branch. It dropped down from it, changing mid-drop to a woman he hadn't seen in the flesh for eleven years and hadn't spoken to in seventeen. He clenched his fist and pursed his lips, yet even though he'd spent almost every day since thinking of all the things he'd say to her, he found his mouth dry and mind empty.

Raven rose smoothly from a crouch, staring into his eyes as if she'd never left at all.

"Qrow's going to be coming back this afternoon," she said, as uncaring as ever.

And despite himself, Taiyang chuckled. Sharp and hoarse, but a chuckle nonetheless. She was silent, the night Summer had died. Of course that'd be the first words she would say after almost two decades. Why think otherwise?

"Then it looks like all of STRQ's going to be watching this one after all, huh?"


I hope that wherever you are, sister, you will be able to watch the Vytal Tournament next week. I have the utmost hope in our chances of victory, and only wish for you to see the fruits of the training you assisted me with.

Signed,

Weiss Schnee

Not even a 'Love'? Winter sighed. Despite how much she tried, she just could not get her sister to drop that overly formal language around her. Still, it was charming to see her attempts to emulate her 'big sister'. She'd gotten the letter just before she had left for Vale: at least it was amusing reading material, even if she would need to squeeze out those more personal matters herself.

She leaned back in her chair and gazed down upon the other thing Weiss had sent: a photo of their team. It wasn't difficult to discern who was their leader: the girl in black and red grinning and throwing up a peace sign looked like she was still in a combat academy. Ruby Rose: their young leader. Which left the blonde one pulling her into a one-armed hug and grinning just as wide as her sister, Yang Xiao Long.

Frankly, she didn't see the resemblance.

Weiss, as always, tried to look prim and proper, hands folded over one another, back straight and a smile just a little too strained from the roughhousing right next to her. She, no doubt, had planned the picture. Winter smiled, but it was short-lived.

All that left was the monster beside her, daring to place a hand on her sister's shoulder. Adam Taurus.

"It's been a long time, Minier."

"Specialist Schnee, we will be landing in Vale in two hours," the pilot informed her over the intercom. She looked out of the window, watching the sea race by in her personal airship.

General Ironwood's orders were nothing more than ashes in the Atlesian wind, but every word was fresh as blood in her mind.

And they were very clear.


VOLUME 3 START