New Divide
With Qrow, somewhere in Mistral-
He had entered a small tavern in the middle of Mistral sighing heavily. It had been a hard journey after his time in Atlas and he had just found out this was the general area to where this 'Oscar Pine' kid lived. However the time being what it was, he opted to spend the night in this rather…quaint tavern, "How may I help you friend?" He looks at the man that spoke behind the counter.
"Do you have a room available?"
"Sure do. Not many travelers coming into these parts anymore. Say you look like you could use a drink." What gave it away? Qrow thought as he shot the man his signature smirk, "What's your poison?"
Qrow took a seat, "Whisky on the rocks."
"You got it. This is on the house and then we'll discuss lodgings." The man walked away to prepare his drink.
Qrow sighed and fought the urge to bury his head thinking about what he needed to do. He had to find this Pine kid, then take him to Argus; however he had messages to deliver to his niece and to the Ice Princess, who are most likely in Haven by now. Just thinking about that brought his mind into a swirl of a mess that it already was, "You are really not believing me, are you?" He had asked the white haired specialist.
"What kind of dumb question is that?!" She had yelled as she had stood up abruptly when he finished his explanation, "There is no way Atlas falls victim to this supposed madness." Ruby hadn't exactly told him how Atlas fell, just that when she had mentioned Ironwood to him, there was an unfamiliar glimmer in her eyes.
"Here ya go friend." Qrow was snapped out of his thoughts when the glass was placed in front of him, "Now then about your room…" The man pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to Qrow before pulling a book out from below the counter, "Name?"
"Qrow." He said taking a long gulp of the liquid, "Branwen."
"Well Mr. Branwen, how long will you be staying?"
"Two days, maybe. Three the latest." He said swirling the glass now as the man jotted the information down.
He nodded, "Ok that'll be seventy-eight lien." Qrow dug into his pockets and pulled out the money and gave it to the man, "Alright you are all set."
Qrow toasted the man, "Thank you. By the way, do you know of a farm run by a family with the last name...Pine?"
"Uh…" The man thought for a moment and whipped the rim of a glass with this clothe, "Pine huh? Unfortunately I do not, but if it's a farm you say then you'd have to go more rural. There are about three to four farms a bit north of here." He pointed in the general direction.
Qrow sighed and drained the rest of his glass, "Thanks again." He left a tip and went to his room, running a hand through his hair before rubbing the back of his neck.
"I know this sounds impossible but-"
"But nothing!" Winter's angry and disbelieving tone now filtering into his mind as he unlocks the door to his room, "Atlas has been the leading kingdom in technological and scientific advancements! The very idea that it falls is just…ludicrous!"
Qrow shook his head and laid back on the bed staring up at the ceiling. He thought for sure that Winter's sound logic and reason would triumph in the conversation, however her blindness for the Atlas military had clouded that on the emotional front, "Look I am grateful for Ironwood's trust in this matter;" he had been referring to his letter of authorization, but this was apparently before everything goes south if Ruby's response was anything to go by, "but something happens to change him. I don't know what, because Ruby didn't say. However I am just trying to relay a message that it sounds like-"
"General Ironwood somehow causes the fall of Atlas? Really Qrow? You know what you sound like?"
"Like a madman." He sighed out answering her phantom question.
She had been about to leave the room, however he felt like he needed the last word, "Winter please I am-"
"No! You said you wouldn't stop me from leaving. I am leaving now, don't come looking for anymore favors from me again."
"Can I at least say one more thing?" This made her pause and sigh with resignation, "Just be safe and look out for yourself." She had given him one last look before walking through the door.
He sighed heavily and sat up, reaching for his now full flask. He swirled it before taking a long swig. He knew that Winter didn't particularly care for him, but he had figured she would at least hear him out more, "Sorry kiddo." He muttered darkly, as if Ruby was in the room with him. He was apologizing for speaking her secret out of confidence, and yet apologizing for not being able to fully convey the warning he had tried to deliver, "I tried."
When Ruby had told them about Atlas's fall, his first thought was of Winter and Ironwood. He had lost many friends and colleagues over the years, but the very idea that he could lose two people he worked more closely with in the last decade…it hurt more than he would care to admit. He took another long gulp, and sat back down. He would use this night to mourn for his colleague's blindness, and then start fresh in the morning.
-Ruby POV-
Time is a lot of the things that people say their own deity is. There's the preexisting and having no end. There's the notion of being all-powerful, because nothing can stand against time, not mountains, not armies. Give anything enough time, and everything is taken care of: All pain encompassed, all hardship erased, all loss subsumed. At least that is what I once believed.
I was never one for matters of religion initially. Faith? I had faith in myself and others in general, never praying to any entity to make things better. Hope? Again, looking inward and having hope in others that a situation would work out. Love? Well, that's easy. I had once loved myself and my friends and family. That all had changed instantly once the war had gone south and things had started to get bad.
'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Remember, Man, thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return', echoes of a prayer said many times over in front of funerals and memorial services…the last being spoken in solidarity from my own lips in front of a memorial that had been crafted from my own hands. I suppose if time is anything akin to a deity, then it is easy to assume that memory must be some kind of devil.
"Ruby? Who is this guy?" Yang asked shaking me from my thoughts as I stared into the hazel eyes of the young man in front of me.
"Ms. Rose?" He scratched the back of his head nervously, "Uh…I'm sorry…but I am supposed to ask you something…" I closed my eyes, having a feeling of the impending question this boy was going to ask me, "May I have my cane back?"
There was silence as I sensed my team giving us strange looks. Sighing, I pushed my plate away and stood up, moving past the boy and going towards the door, "Ruby?" Jaune called out in a questioning tone.
"No." I said stopping and answering our new comer.
"Excuse me?" He asked confused, before muttering under his breath and then out loud saying, "But why? It's supposed to be mine."
"What cane? Just who the hell are you?" Yang demanded standing up, giving him a predatory like gaze.
We were starting to draw attention now, and our server came over, albeit hesitantly, "Is there a problem?"
Swallowing a lump that now formed in my throat, I cursed the Brothers and turned around, taking charge now, "No ma'am. No trouble at all. In fact there are matters that we must attend to. Urgently in fact." I shot my group a hard stare, daring them to contraindicate me. Seeing their silence as a form of compliance, I continued, "May we please have the check and to-go boxes?"
"Sure thing." She gave me the check and started to gather our plates, mentioning that we could pick up our orders at the register near the door.
"Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren. Why don't you order your dinner and meet us in the room." I suggested gently allowing JNPR to go in front of us, "Oscar, feel free to join them, then we can talk."
"Wait you know my name? How-?" He fell silent for a moment, and looked contemplative, however having known him for years, I knew exactly what was going through his head: he was having a mental conversation with Ozpin, "Ms. Rose-"
"Ruby." I corrected, "Unless you'd want to play formalities O-"
"No!" He reacted, startled before coughing and saying more softly, "I mean not here."
I smirked, knowing I won this battle, "Then get your food. We'll talk somewhere more private."
"Then I can have my cane?"
I saw the waitress coming with our to-go boxes in a bag, motioning to the guy at the register my team. He waved us up and I looked back at Oscar, "I'm still afraid that is not possible, but I will explain what I can."
He gave me a look but followed an unhappy team JNPR to go order their food. I managed to pay for our meal before leaving, "So Ruby? Who was that?" Weiss asked.
"An acquaintance."
"Boyfriend?" Blake asked.
"Wait boyfriend?!" Yang's eyes flashed red, she looked about ready to kill, "How in the hell have you had time for a relationship?! What else are you hiding from us?! I'm going to go break his legs!"
I couldn't help but chuckle at this as I grabbed Yang's arm to prevent her from walking back the way we came, "Don't be absurd." I said in a tone that made Weiss's eyes nearly bulged out of her skull and even Blake did a double take to make sure it was me that was talking and not my white haired partner.
Sure Oscar Pine had been endearing and even charming once he had found his confidence; however there was just one problem that I couldn't ignore…a certain soul sharing his body, "He is an acquaintance, nothing more." At least for now anyway. Oscar did become a close friend in the end, and to an extent Ozpin had redeemed himself too.
I started leading them back to the lodge, not looking to see if they were following along. Weiss came up closer to my side, "Really? That is hard to believe seeing as he acted like he knew you more than just an 'acquaintance'." Then she placed a hand on my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks, "Seriously what is going on?"
"Look its part of the reason that I sent Qrow on the mission after seeing you guys." I said reminding them, "He was supposed to see Ironwood at Atlas, then find Oscar, and then together they were supposed to go to Argus." In fact after saying all of that, why that hadn't happened? Where the hell was Uncle Qrow?
I pulled out my scroll and continued to walk, tapping in my passcode to pull up Qrow's information, "But why?" Blake demanded.
"I already explained it to you." I said in a tone that now resembled frustration, "I will review it again if I have to but I want to explain it at once." I tapped the call icon, but I received an error message 'Local Communication Only', "Shit." I shoved my scroll back into my pocket.
"What?" Yang asked annoyed.
"Local calls only apparently." I stated as we entered the main lobby of the lodge. We headed over to the elevator and I pressed the button. Doors swung open and we got in as Blake pushed the button for our floor, "I was going to see about calling him to find out what the hell was happening."
Weiss gave me a look of concern now, "Maybe he is still with Ironwood? Perhaps something happened and Ironwood needs his help too?"
I frowned deeply as the elevator came to a stop and we got off on our floor, making our way over to our room, "Perhaps…I just hope not."
Yang and Blake too their seats on their beds, while Weiss went over to hers. For my part I sat at the desk pondering over these events. Picking up a pen I began to doodle, trying to ease the mental storm that now started in my head, "Well I am going to freshen up. Let me know when this all important meeting is going to take place." Yang stated giving me a glare, before heading into the bathroom.
I barely acknowledged her and I heard my other teammates sigh. Instead I focused on my doodle while trying to still quell the storm. It was like a spider-web of sorts. My pen kept flying over the page, making an intricate web. At times, when I would be by myself near our house on Patch, I used to stare at spider-webs, watching and waiting for an insect to become caught.
Now though, the webs took on a new meaning as realization came to me as to what else these death throes also meant. Just like the way the tiniest vibrations in the web would signal the spider that her prey was near, it could now be argued that time is the spider in this case. My pen paused in this doodle and now I started to pull out my journal and flipped to the events that befell Atlas in my timeline.
I know I was changing things and accelerating things. This in consequence made the timeline want to correct itself. However on the same plane, I was also creating an alternate reality. Things had gone to shit since the fall of Beacon in Atlas and Mantle back in my timeline. Weiss hadn't mentioned things, but again she had been trapped with her…father. We didn't know how bad things were until we arrived…so what if, things are accelerated there now? What if that was why Qrow hadn't reached Oscar before this moment?
There was a knock on our door as I continued to stare hard at my notes in my journal. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Weiss get up and answer it. JNPR, with Oscar in tow, entered the room and Yang exited the bathroom, looking like her face was washed, "Interesting doodle Ms.-uh Ruby-I mean." I now looked to see Oscar hesitantly standing near my desk.
Everyone else gave me an impatient look, but waited as I acknowledged him, "Spider-webs can me fascinating." I closed my journal shut and looked at him, "Wouldn't you agree?"
I noticed how his posture shifted as he looked at me. Lack of confidence still shown though the façade he put on, attempting to channel an inner power that was still fairly dormant even with our headmaster's presence within him, "Sure. Uhm…I mean I suppose." I saw his eyes shift downward and a look of focus crossing his mind before he responded with, "Makes you also wonder if time might be some sort of web for a deity." I watched him now like a hawk as he made his way to my bed.
Pyrrha noticed my shift and was now watching Oscar, I saw her shoot me a look and I discreetly raised my hand to her, "The silk strands stretching through time, the mildest touch setting off vibrations that echo through the eons?" He finished now. He then coughed and looked at us nervously, "Look I'm sorry I suppose I should introduce myself."
"Wish you would." Yang growled out threateningly.
"Yang please." I said and she glared hard at me. I didn't flinch, instead choosing to meet her challenging gaze.
Blake and Weiss stepped between us now, "She told us your name was Oscar." Blake said in a gentle yet cautionary tone.
"Oh well then…that makes things a bit better." He responded.
"I still want to break your legs." He jumped at Nora's comment, "You ruined our night off!"
"I-I-I'm sorry!"
Ren placed a hand on Nora's shoulder, "No I'm sorry. It's just been really stressful. I assure you that no harm-" At Yang and Nora's glare he back tracked a bit, "well only minimal harm…will come to you."
"Guys seriously? Leave the kid alone." Jaune cut in now looking at his group and then at my team, "Please continue."
Oscar nodded, "Thank you. Uhm…well I would just like my cane back if I may." He looked at me now.
Eyes were now on me and I took a breath, "See about that spider-web before. Is that deity the spider, embracing us through our death and resurrection;" I saw Oscar squirm, "or are they simply the spinner of the web, watching as the silk shimmers and vibrates through the cosmos?" Before anyone could comment, I answered his inquiry, "I don't have your cane. A…dusty old crow has it." Ha, you cannot play that 'you have silver eyes' card on me now, "And he is not here."
This time Oscar's posture straightens and his hazel eyes flash, the hesitant appearance vanishes, "Ms. Rose, care to explain?"
"After you reacquaint yourself with your former students, Headmaster Ozpin."
"WHAT?!" Came the collective shout.
