Gods, I need a drink.
Qrow Branwen meshed his fingers together as tightly as he could, but he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. Waves of pain throbbed through his skull. He hadn't needed one this bad since Clover's death. Why had he been stupid enough to toss his hip flask in the disposal unit, after that first meeting with Ironwood?
His mouth and throat were parched, his ears ringing. He couldn't make out Robyn's concerned words, couldn't feel her hand on his shoulder. His eyes were screwed shut, raw patches carved into the skin below them.
As soon as he'd reached the ship and called Ruby, he knew something was wrong. All he'd heard was the ring of steel on steel, mingled with distant gunfire and the screams of civilians. Then, her voice, speaking to someone else...
"Whatever you wanted... I hope it was worth it." A sound like a clattering downpour of rain on roof shingles, unmistakably Ruby's Semblance. A soft thud, a brief roar of flames mingled with her cry of pain. And then, to his horror, Cinder's sneering tone.
"You should have never threatened me. And you... Should have never been born."
Two voices screaming Ruby's name, Blake and someone else. A second thud, mingled with a grunt of impact. Then, another rush of flames, followed by a sharp snap. A brief cry of shock from Blake. And, finally...a terrible silence.
Yang hadn't responded either, no matter how many times Qrow screamed her name and Ruby's, into his earpiece. He would have dove out the rear door of the airship, into the flooding wreckage of Atlas and Mantle, if Elm hadn't gotten him into a sleeper hold.
It was all he could do to keep from screaming now, as he lay twitching on the bench, the cord of the gravity bolas digging into his ribs. If Ruby and Yang had still been in Atlas, when it touched down... If he had to return to Patch alone, for the third and final time...
Gods, I need a drink I need a drink I NEED a drink.
Qrow forced himself to take a breath, air rasping between his gritted teeth. Forced himself to look past his agony, and see the truth for a moment, even if it was no comfort. Team RWBY and Oz had taken a chance with their plan, and he'd trusted them. He couldn't blame his Semblance for this one. For Clover, perhaps, but he hadn't been near his nieces since the Mantle evacuation.
Then again, he hadn't been with Summer on her final mission, and she'd died anyway. He'd never found her body, though it wasn't from lack of trying; Tai and the girls had needed closure as much as he had. Watching Ruby and Yang making their own plans to look for Summer, as children, had been a pain that all the liquor in Remnant couldn't numb. But he'd known from the start of his search, that his partner wasn't coming back. He'd spied on Salem for years, and she was always thorough when she wanted someone gone.
This time, he needed to see the bodies, if... His heart clenched in his chest. He forced himself to take another breath, digging his nails into his palms hard enough to break the skin. He hadn't heard, or seen, them die. Summer had died because she'd gone alone, one of her rare mistakes. But he'd heard Blake's voice, and someone else. Ruby hadn't been alone. And though he hadn't heard Yang, she would never have left Ruby's side if she was in danger. Yang had always been her sister's protector, even more than Qrow himself.
Most importantly, it sounded as though Ruby had been facing Cinder, not Salem. Salem always made sure her first task, her first opponent, was finished, before moving to the next. Cinder, however, wasted too much time gloating, which was why she'd failed to finish off Amber the first time. Why she'd failed to capture the Lamp at Haven, why she'd almost gotten herself killed by Ruby at Beacon, where all this misery had begun...
With his gift from Oz, Qrow could cover the ruins of Atlas quickly. But if Ruby and Yang were trapped in the ruined city, they didn't have long before the heat of the wreckage faded and the floodwaters froze over. And if the girls weren't there, they were either already in Vacuo or in Cinder's clutches. If she had taken them back to Salem's lair, as Tyrian had tried to do with Ruby...
GODS I NEED A DRINK.
His bound hands clawed at his bristly jaw, stretching the skin taut, an agonized sound ripping from his throat. He was trapped. He only had one slim chance to find them in Atlas' ruins, and if he was wrong, there was no telling which of the other two options was right. Either way, Salem or the Grimm would probably reach them before he could. If his final promise to Summer and Taiyang was broken... Ruby was the daughter he'd never had, the reason he'd finally thrown away that damned flask. The force that kept the group going, even as their task became more impossible. And Yang was the only blood relative he loved, stronger than him, Tai and Raven in every way...
He froze. Raven.
"You and I should have found a way to swap our Semblances at birth. I've always been strong enough to stand on my own, you were always clinging to the people who claimed to love you."
How wrong he'd been. Qrow squeezed his eyes even more tightly shut, hand pressed to his brow, forcing his breath to even, his heart to slow its' beat.
The last time he'd seen his sister, she'd been descending into the Vault at Haven, with Cinder and Vernal. But when Yang returned, she'd told him Vernal was dead and the other two had vanished. Clearly, Raven's alliance with Salem had been one of convenience, to delay the inevitable, just like Leo. Perhaps Cinder had killed her and incinerated her body, as she'd done to Pyrrha Nikos. But he doubted it. Whatever else Raven was, she had always been a survivor. For once, he was glad about that.
His hands slowly uncurled, reaching for Harbinger. He'd search the wreckage of Atlas, first. It would give him time to calm his emotions, focus his mind. He'd been ready to kill Raven, the last time they'd met, and the mere thought of her still made his anger flare. But now, she just might be the answer.
If she wasn't, he still might consider killing her anyway.