I do not own RWBY or any of the characters.

Family

Fox smiled as he watched Argus finally growing closer before them. It had been a long, exhausting journey, and they hadn't found anywhere to rest since they had left the last town, so Maria had told them her story on the way. She had once been a legendary huntress called the Grimm Reaper, who used a pair of scythes, which her staff was one of, apparently, along with her silver eyes, to slaughter grimm on a level that apparently made Crow decide to use a scythe to try to be more like her. However, one day, after killing a Nevermore, a group of assassins sent by Salem had attacked her, the leader of the group, a woman with sharpened metal teeth who fought with a pair of cutlass, had managed to carve out Maria's eyes. Maria had then used her scythes' ability to magnetically attract each other to plant one in the woman's back and behead her, then explained that she went into hiding, too afraid to continue being a huntress, even after receiving surgery to get her mechanical eyes implanted. Once she had finished, she admitted that she was happy some of them, namely Fox and Qrow, were already stronger than she ever was, and that she regretted not doing more to leave the world in a better state. Ruby had then countered by saying that she could by teaching Ruby to control her eyes. About thirty seconds later, Ruby had gotten a call from Jaune, and they had found that Argus was visible just over the next hill. And now, they were almost there.

"It's been so long," Blake smiled. "I can't wait to finally be able to sleep in a bed, and shower."

"I'd give up the bed for a shower with warm water and some food that isn't canned beans," Fox said.

"Seconded," Ava said from her place beside Wulfe.

Wulfe grunted an agreement, busy eating a can of beans. Fox shook his head.

"How can you complain about having to eat canned beans as you're shoving your face with canned beans?" Fox asked.

"I like food," Wulfe said. "Plus I'm always hungry. Ever since Beacon."

Ava and Fox both fell silent, Fox nodding slowly.

"What?" Ruby asked. "Did something else happen at Beacon?"

"Wulfe died there," Fox said. "He fought Adam and lost."

"But then...how is he..." Weiss trailed off, staring at Wulfe.

"Wulfe's Semblance is to create living, breathing clones," Fox said. "Exact replicas. To the point that if the original dies, the clones, any that survived the fight, are still alive to take his place as the original. And they can use the Semblance too. They have all of the originals memories and abilities. For all intents and purposes, they are the original."

"Oh," Weiss said.

"I'm sorry," Blake said. "If I had just had the guts to deal with Adam back then, you wouldn't have had to go through that."

"It's alright," Wulfe said. "By the time I fought him, I was in the process of going feral anyway. I started during my fight with Leon. I had mostly calmed down, but the next fight I got into, it would have happened. That fight just happened to be Adam. I went full feral, too. Fur, claws, snout. Everything. Adam was just too fast."

"We'll make him pay," Blake said. "Whenever we find him again, we'll make him pay. For you and Yang."

Fox nodded. "And for you."

"He never did anything to me," Blake said, confused.

"Yes he did," Fox said. "He hurt you worse than anyone. So I fully intend to hurt him back. After all. He doesn't really need his fingers intact, does he?"

"You are not torturing him," Blake said forcefully.

"We're here," Yang said as they reached the gate.

They were allowed in without much trouble, Qrow using his Huntsman ID to get their weapons through, then continued to a storage complex where Yang stored her bike and the trailer. Almost as soon as she had locked it, Nora tackled Oscar with a hug. Fox laughed as the rest of Team JNPR rushed over, greeting them all, though not as excitedly as Nora.

"Are you all alright?" Ren asked.

"We're fine," Fox smiled. "A lot to talk about, but we're fine."

"We have quite a bit to talk about too," Jaune said.

"So where have you guys been staying?" Ruby asked.

Instantly, Jaune's face fell into an embarrassed grimace and Pyrrha's lit up. Fox grinned.

"Please tell me it's his parents' house," Fox said.

"Close," Pyrrha said just as a woman off to one side, who was holding a baby on her hip, called out to them waving.

Fox looked over at her and his eyes widened as he instantly saw the family resemblance. He laughed, several of the others doing the same as others cheered and ran over to see the baby, mostly meaning Weiss and Yang, Ruby more concerned with the fact that she was meeting Jaune's sister. A few minutes of a bus ride later, they were at Jaune's sister Saphron's house, watching as Saphron teased Jaune about being her baby brother, and humiliated both him and Pyrrha by complaining about how loud they were during sex, which, of course, made everyone else keel over laughing. Not too long after, the door opened and Saphron introduced the woman standing there, a brunette like the baby, as her wife, Terra Cotta. Fox looked between the two for a moment before looking to Blake who gave him a "don't you dare" look, knowing he was considering teasing her more about Ilea and Yang.

Fox raised his hands in surrender as Saphron and Terra put the groceries Terra had brought home away Team JNPR began to make everyone sandwiches. Terra welcomed them all to their home, lifting her and Saphron's child into her lap and sitting on the couch.

"You all risk so much to keep people safe, it's the least we can do," Terra said after Ruby asked if she was sure it was okay for all of them to stay there. "Especially for such an elite huntsman like yourself." She turned to Qrow. "Although, I will say I was surprised to learn you had students helping you. Is that even legal?"

Qrow didn't answer for a moment, being lost in thought about one thing or another, most likely their current situation regarding Ozpin, so Ruby jabbed him in the side with her elbow.

"Uh, of course," Qrow said. "Think of it as an extended training mission. Trust me, I was a professor. Even went to the same academy as them. Let me tell ya, these kids are way better than we were at their age. Well, not better than me, specifically, but a lot of students-"

"Shut up there's food!" Ruby cheered, team JNPR having brought in the sandwiches.

"Not better than you, huh?" Fox asked, grinning and taking a sandwich. "I'd actually like to test that one."

"No," Qrow said, glancing at the two women who were looking at him curiously. "He's a bit of a special case. He has a semblance that gets passed down through his family, and the Semblance transfers all of the skills of the inheritor's father up until the point of the child's birth to the child. So he's actually pretty good."

"Careful Qrow," Fox said, grinning. "That almost sounded like a compliment."

Qrow rolled his eyes as Fox took a bit, gently squeezing Blake's hand as she leaned on his shoulder.

"Well, that sounds like a very useful Semblance," Saphron smiled.

After a few minutes, Terra's phone vibrated and she sighed heavily, excusing herself to answer it.

"Is everything okay?" Blake asked, picking up on the negativity in Terra's voice as she answered.

"Oh, yeah," Saphron smiled. "Uh, it will be. Terra's a technician for the town's relay tower. Unfortunately, the military's radar system is also housed there." She bent down, looking at the baby and adopting a baby talk voice. "Guess what's been on the fritz lately and who's getting falsely blamed."

"Me," Terra whispered from the door to the kitchen.

"That explains why Ironwood couldn't come and pick us up," Fox said. "He's be worried about an invasion."

"Yeah," Qrow nodded. "Just my luck."

"So, what's your plan for tomorrow?" Saphron asked.

"Well," Ruby said. "We're trying to make our way to Atlas. We'll probably start with the military base."

Nora and Ren exchanged a knowing, unhappy look.

"Let me guess, you guys were denied entry?" Fox asked.

"Yeah," Pyrrha said. "They're locked down tight."

"Come on, it couldn't be that bad," Yang said.

"Atlas completely sealed its borders after Beacon," Fox said. "Ironwood's not a fool. If he wants the borders closed, they're probably almost airtight. Maybe not back when Weiss ran away, but now for sure."

"Well, we'll just have to give it a try tomorrow," Ruby said.

"True," Blake said. "We won't know until we try."

"Debatable, but sure," Fox said. "We've got no other plans for tomorrow, so why not."

They all continued to eat, Saphron continuing to tease Jaune, before eventually everyone decided to head to bed. They all found a place to sleep, Fox and Blake ending up on a blow-up mattress in the living room with Qrow, Oscar, and Ruby. And for the first night in weeks, Fox was able to sleep without nightmares or memories assaulting him.

Fox crossed his arms, staring at the gate guard. "You don't seem to understand. We have to talk to General Ironwood. It's a matter of life and death for the entire world, that includes Atlas."

"You don't seem to understand that you're not getting inside," The gate guard said. "I wouldn't care if you were General Ironwood's long-lost son. My orders say no one gets in, so no one gets in. Now have a nice day."

And with that, he pulled a lever, the gate slamming shut and locking magnetically.

Leave a review.

I'm accepting applications for any OCs to have either cameo or maybe join the group for a while, depending on how detailed the description of them and how the story progresses. Don't forget, Fox's team still has an open spot. I'll keep the best one as a replacement. Oh, also, any original Grimm you want to appear in the story, feel free to leave that in a review as well.