Disclaimer: I do not - nor do I claim to - own RWBY or any other media that may be referenced in this fic. All rights go to their respective owners. The only thing I lay claim to are my OCs.
Nearly a month of looking after his daughter, and he still struggles to speak with her.
Not once in all the times he's seen her was she ever meek, and of course, there was that time she exploded at him. Now though, it's like all the fight had been drained of her.
"You want to watch a movie?" he offers.
"I'm fine," Yang replies.
"Okay. Um… a package came in the mail for you today. Want to see what it is?"
"Not really."
The blond man sighs. He just doesn't know what to do, so he flops into the chair in his daughter's room.
"Yang, I'm… I'm trying to help you, and it's hard. I know I've done wrong by you in the past, and… you have every reason to hate me, but can you just… throw me a bone? Tell me what I can do to help you? I'm not asking for forgiveness, just... help me help you," he pleads.
"I lost an arm. What am I supposed to do? Just pick myself up and keep going with my life? How? How can I just continue on like everything is normal when I am missing a part of me?" she asks exasperatedly.
Silence hangs in the air, before Tai speaks up. "I know it isn't the same, but… I felt the same way when I lost Summer, lost Ruby. Losing you just made it worse. I'm not blaming you, just... saying what I felt. I didn't know how to function without Summer. Team STRQ had been together for years, and even after we graduated, we lived together by choice. Your mom and I got married, but Qrow and Summer lived with us. Summer and Qrow were away on mission when Raven left, and I fell to pieces. All the confidence I had built up on how to take care of you just disappeared, and… I won't lie, I was a wreck."
He sighs, eyes closed and blind to the way Yang watches him.
"Summer came back early from the mission, and she cleaned me up. She got me back on my feet and didn't even let me wallow in my grief. I ended up falling in love with her, and heck, Qrow still stayed with us when he was in Vale at that point. It was the happiest time of my life. Then, I lost Summer and Ruby, and just like when I lost Raven, every bit of ability to take care of anyone just… drained out of me. I couldn't function, and I turned to alcohol. I lost the woman I loved, my new-born daughter, and the man I saw as a brother took my eldest daughter away from me. I didn't pick myself up and keep going with my life.
"I know how hard it is, to grieve for what you've lost, and wallow in what went wrong in the past. Maybe it is something we Xiao Longs are more prone to, I don't know. But what I do know is that if you keep wallowing in what's already happened, nothing gets better. Look how long it's taken me to even begin getting back on my feet. So, while I don't know what it is like to lose a part of my body, I do know what it's like to lose a part of your life. The only way to get better is to not let the grief overtake you."
Tears well in her eyes.
"I… I don't know if I even want to get better," she admits. "What is there for me to get better for?"
"Your sister? Your teammates, your squadmates even. I'm still reeling from the fact that you got put on a squad. You've got your friends, your family to get better for. You've got your entire life to get better for. Girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever, gods know I have no right to tell you who to be attracted to. You've got your career as a huntress to get better for. I don't know why you chose that path, but if you don't get better, how are you meant to help save people? There are so many reasons to get better," he lists off.
"How are you able to list all of those reasons, when you were so bad for so long?" she asks.
He sighs. "Because there is one thing worse than grief. That's regret. I regret not sobering up sooner. I've missed out on most of your life, I've missed out on so many things I can't even name them all. I don't want you to have to live with the regret I now have to."
"I… I don't know how to respond to that," she tells him.
"You don't need to," he says. "I'll… I'll be in the living room if you want to talk more." With that, he leaves her alone in her room and he sits in the living room.
It doesn't take long for Yang to join him.
"I want to get better," she tells him.
He doesn't say anything, just lets her speak as she needs to.
"Rosa and Qrow are out there, and… I'm worried. I know they can handle themselves, Rosa is so incredibly strong, but… before they left, they all seemed so keyed up, like they were waiting for something big to happen again. I'm scared that another Beacon is going to happen, and that I won't be there to help them." She pauses, her hand picking at her limply hanging sleeve.
"Mercury seemed to think I could pick the pieces back up again, and… I need to. Not just for myself, but for Rosa and the others," she tells him.
"Okay. How do you want to start?" Tai asks.
"Maybe I can take a look at that package?"
"Sure, I'll go grab it," he states, getting up and grabbing the grey box from the table in the entryway. He places it on the coffee table in front of Yang and sits down to watch her open it.
The lid comes off to reveal an arm.
Not a flesh blood and bone arm, but one of metal and wires.
"I think, I'll need to start training again," she says softly.
"If you need help, I was the best brawler at Beacon back in my time," Tai boasts cautiously.
Yang snorts back a laugh. "I guess the apple really doesn't fall too far from the tree. I was the best brawler at Beacon while I was there. You though, you're probably a bit rusty with so much inactivity," she jokes.
"You aren't wrong," he laughs.
They're finally starting to heal, but they've still got a long road ahead of them.
"How are you two kids going?" Elm asks as she checks in on the General's newest pet projects.
"I'm finally walking again," Nora says, a grin on her face.
"Don't listen to her. She buckled after three minutes unsupported," Ren informs the huntress, causing her to let out a bellowing laugh.
"It's better than no minutes!" Nora points out.
"That's true, kid, that's certainly true. But you also have to know when to stop. Pushing too hard too soon can cause more damage in the long run," Elm points out. "I came by to remind Ren that if he wants to, us Ace-ops are more than willing to have you join in on our training sessions."
Ren bows his head in thanks. "Thank you, but once again, I have to decline for now. I wish to stay by Nora's side. When she's up to training again, then I will return to training once more as well."
"Well then, Nora, rest up and don't push yourself until you're really ready. We're all looking forward to having more people to spar with," Elm chuckles. Nora gives a sharp salute in reply.
"Ma'am, yes ma'am," she says before devolving into giggles.
"Take care, kids," the older woman says as she leaves.
"I wanna try again," Nora says once the door closes.
Ren looks at her warily. "Are you sure you're up to it?"
"I want to try again."
"Okay."
She manages three and a half minutes unsupported this time.
"You've... got a voice in your head that doesn't belong to you?" Jaune clarifies.
"That's new," Rosa comments, giving Oscar a bowl of soup.
"Thanks, and yeah. That's why I nearly fell into the river earlier. The voice spoke up for the first time," Oscar explains.
"Hearing voices in your head that don't belong to you is usually a sign of madness," Mercury points out. Oscar gives him a light glare.
"You think I don't know that? I'm just telling you what I heard," Oscar grumbles.
"Maybe someone else was nearby?" Pyrrha suggests before blowing on her soup.
"And no one else heard it?" Rosa snorts. "No, it had to have been in Oscar's head. The question is, has he gone crazy or is this just a side effect of him being sick all last week?"
"I haven't gone crazy!" he protests. "And I feel fine."
"Hmmmm... what did the voice say?" Maria asks.
"It just said 'Hello, my name is professor-' before I lost my balance and I stopped paying attention," Oscar admits.
"Interesting..."
"Maybe you're going through what I am? Not the same thing, but something similar?" Pyrrha offers.
"I thought only Maidens did that? And I'm a boy, I don't exactly fit the criteria for a Maiden" Oscar asks.
The half-maiden shrugs. "My situation is weird. Maiden powers aren't aura, they're magic. I've got all these vague recollections of things that never happened to me, kinda like déjà vu, because of the fact that I've got part of Amber's soul wrapped up in mine. Still, we don't know how many 'fairy tales' are actually real or how much magic there is out there. Maybe there's someone else who had a weird situation with their soul."
"That's still so weird to think about," Mercury mumbles. "And I had to deal with Cinder. She never said anything about getting recollections from the previous maiden, just the powers. Then again, I tended to avoid asking questions that would direct her ire at me."
"It is still weird to think about, you're not alone there, but... I'm getting used to it," Pyrrha admits "At least I'm not sick anymore."
Mercury shrugs.
Maria mulls over the information for a few moments as team CABON bickers. "Oscar, meditate on the voice you heard before you go to sleep. See if you can locate it and speak with it," she gently orders.
"Yes, Abuela," he chimes, slurping at his soup straight from the bowl.
"And don't slurp your soup! You'll spill it and that's a terrible waste of good soup," she scolds, sending the younger generation into a fit of giggles.
"Yes, Abuela," Oscar chimes again before having to put down his bowl to stop himself from spilling soup all over himself.
Rosa snorts. "You nearly choked on your soup, didn't you?"
Sheepishly, the youngest of the group rubs his neck. "Maybe?"
Mercury rolls his eyes, attempting to seem annoyed, but the grin stretching across his face betrays him. "What sort of family did I get myself into?" he faux-complains.
"The best kind," Rosa and Oscar chime together.
"That's what family is, Merc," Jaune points out. "Take it from the guy with seven sisters, family is teasing each other, driving each other crazy, but knowing exactly how to push all the right buttons. Having jokes that no one else can understand, but your family knows them and always will. Family is… its supporting each other, no matter what."
"He's not wrong," Maria admits. "My brother and I were… we knew each other on a level no one else ever could, at least until I stopped going home. Despite how long I've been gone, I know that if I ever did go back, he would welcome me with open arms."
"Why did you never go back?" Pyrrha asks. "If you don't mind me asking."
Maria sighs. "I didn't leave on the best of terms. Jayden, we had a row over my decisions. He didn't have the same abilities as I did, he couldn't understand the urge to protect that came with it, no matter how much our father tried to explain it. He wanted me to stop, before it got me killed. I told him that I couldn't, and I left. Two years later, I nearly died and had my eyes cut from my head."
The old woman doesn't meet any of their eyes as she continues speaking. "At first, I was completely blind, and I didn't know which way to go. The thought of going home didn't cross my mind. Then, when it did, I was too proud to admit that he was right… then I was ashamed that I had failed so spectacularly. It kept me away for so long. When I had Plata, Mercury's mother, I considered it, but decided against it. I thought that Jayden might think badly of me having a child out of wedlock, of not even knowing the name of my daughter's father."
"Abuela…" Rosa lowly whispers, a hand reaching out to Maria. The older woman grasps it firmly and gives her a strained smile.
"Not long after Plata left me, I tried to go home, I thought that I had nothing else to lose. My pride was all but gone, and my shame could not be made any worse. I carried the failures of my choices with me into the Vacuoan desert, and it was the sandstorms that chased me away. The sand got in my prosthetics, and it felt like I was being blinded again. I ran away, and I haven't tried since… My brother probably thinks me dead," she finishes her tale.
They sit in silence, sipping soup and mulling over Maria's words.
Oscar finishes first and excuses himself to go meditate as Maria had suggested.
The others finish the meal and ready themselves for the night. Jaune and Mercury staying up to keep an eye out for any Grimm.
Blake lounges in the Menagerie sun, soaking up the light in a way she never had time to in the past.
She didn't do this as soon as she got home, too afraid to let her guard down, but right now, she's alone in her family's home.
Sun's out, exploring the town again, and her parents are busy with work, so she's safe to do this in the confines of her room, her large windows open to let the light flood in.
She's missed this.
A sigh of content escapes her lips as she begins to drift into a nap.
This is the only way she truly wishes to recuperate.
No pains from battles long since passed, and the warmth of the sun keeps away memories of the dark tunnels of Mountain Glenn and the night of the Fall.
Menagerie is a far cry from the chaos and bloodshed she ran from. Sprawling homes of faunus, all bustling with life. The sea breeze rolling off the ocean, the scent of fish and salt filling every breath. No tall buildings jutting into the sky, no towers to be brought crashing down, and no tunnels filled with Grimm.
Peaceful. Warm. Thriving.
Home.
Her door slams open and she groans out of her idyllic state of being. Eyes open and see Sun flopped onto the floor just inside her door.
"Sun? What have I told you about knocking? What if I wasn't dressed?" she snaps roughly at him.
"Sorry!" he quickly says. "I just… this is big!"
"So big that you couldn't even knock?"
"The White Fang are here!"
Blake sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "We already knew that, Sun. Corsac and Fennec-."
"I'm not talking about those two weirdos! I saw a Grimm Mask in the market! She had horns and was wearing an outfit more suited for combat than anything I've seen the other locals here wear!" he rambles, Blake's own eyes going wide.
"What?!" she yells, bolting up to her feet.
"She wasn't out in the open, she stuck to the edges and I don't think anyone else saw her, but she was definitely there!" he continues telling her.
Blake lets out a groan. "I came here to get away from the mess, away from the Fang. Looks like I can't even have that. Of course, Adam would send someone after me."
"Sorry, I just thought you'd want to know," Sun says, backing towards the door just a step, his tail wrapped around his leg and eyes looking down at the floor.
"No, you're right. I'm glad you told me, I'm just… I didn't want this," she sighs. She picks up Gambol Shroud from her desk and walks to the door. "Let's go tell my parents. They'll want to know as well."
"Okay."
For months he's been searching for the little traitor, and he has nothing to show for it. He has to admit that the little mercenary must be smarter than he originally gave him credit for, but he won't let down his queen, his goddess.
Tyrian is relentless in his attempt to find the deserter, and yet, not a single establishment he's visited so far has seen anyone matching the description Cinder's minion gave him.
All isn't lost though, and he still has good news to deliver to his queen even if he hasn't managed to find the little traitor.
The irony isn't lost on the scorpion faunus that the moment he stopped actively searching for Spring, he's finally able to narrow down where she is.
The Branwen Tribe.
Those bandits thrive in battle and bloodshed almost as much as he does, and while he respects them for that, their lack of loyalty to his goddess grants them no favours in his eyes. If it weren't for the fact he knew his queen would not be happy if he went in and bathed in their blood - if he did so, the powers of Spring would once again be lost - he would happily slaughter the queen-less bandits for hiding Spring.
He flicks his tail behind him as he tries to make a choice. Does he return to his goddess now with his discovery of Spring? Or does he keep looking for the deserter?
He snatches a flower from the grass and begins pulling the petals off.
"Deserter." pluck "Spring." pluck "Deserter." pluck "Spring." pluck "Deserter." pluck "Spring." the last petal floats to the ground and a maniacal grin stretches across his face.
"Oh yes, she will be most pleased with this news. Deserters like little Mercury can wait, can always be hunted down later, but Spring is of such importance," he says to himself.
The faunus turns tail and begins the journey back to his goddess's palace.
Now, if only he could find his original quarry to bring back even more good news to his queen.
"You okay?" Whitley asks as he quietly enters her room.
"What do you think? Father just… he grounded me. By Atlesian law, I'm an adult now, he can't keep me here against my will, and yet that's exactly what he's doing. Not to mention that sham of a charity gala. It's like, like he just wants a pretty and talented thing to show off," she rants before sighing. "That's not new though."
The boy closes the door behind him and goes to sit next to her.
"And then he, now he's claiming that I'm mentally unstable, that I'm unfit to be the heiress."
"Are you?" Whitley asks. "What happened at Beacon, and what you've told me of what's happened to your squad, I would be surprised if there wasn't some mental trauma."
Weiss sighs. "I probably do. I… I can't get the memories out of my head, they make it hard to sleep, but I'm not mentally unstable. I'm working through it, albeit on my own. I'm getting better."
Silence hangs in the air for a few moments before Whitley sighs.
"I… I overheard Father in his study earlier. He was… he was talking to someone about... bride prices," he reveals.
"WHAT?!" Weiss screams, leaping off her couch. "First, he grounds me and takes away my position as Heiress, and now he's organising an arranged marriage for me? He has no right!"
She storms around her room, grabs her rapier and stabs the portrait of her father that hangs next to her door.
"How dare he?!" she rants.
"I'm on your side, Weiss," Whitley tells her. She barely hears his second sentence, his voice much quieter. "But it may not be you he's arranging a marriage for."
"Who else could he be- … oh…" she trails off. "He wants to secure the Schnee line by having his only remaining heir reproduce."
Whitley nods grimly. "I think that's going to be the case. Like you said, he can't force you to do anything now that you are an adult. I'm still under his care, and he could absolutely force me into marriage once I turn sixteen."
"I hope for your sake that you're wrong," Weiss tells him.
"Regardless of who is right and who is wrong, you need to leave. If Father does force you into marriage, it won't be someone who will respect you, it will be someone who only sees your name and wealth, and a victim to break. I don't have to worry so much about that happening to me," Whitley urges her.
"I can't just leave you here with Father," Weiss hisses.
"I'll be at boarding school the majority of the time. It will just be the holidays I have to spend at home. You on the other hand can't stay here if you value your freedom," he reminds her.
"But-"
"But nothing. I'll be okay, Weiss, but you staying here… it won't do you any good," the boy pleads.
She lets out a sigh. "Okay. I'll get Klein to help me. I'd rather you didn't know any details, plausible deniability and all."
Whitley lets out a breath and nods in satisfaction. "Thank you. Do you want help packing your things?"
"No, I think I'll practice my summoning for a little while first, see if I can't make a spectacle of myself to bring Klein running," she muses before giving a weak smile. "I think I'll aim for breaking a window."
"Alright then. In case this is the last time I see you, goodbye and good luck, dear sister," he says, awkwardly holding a hand out to her.
She bypasses his hand entirely, instead electing to wrap her arms around him. "I'll miss you."
Hesitantly, he wraps his arms around her as well. "Me too."
"You two are going to keep each other from doing something monumentally stupid, right?" Glynda Goodwitch asks as the Xiao Long duo pack up supplies onto their respective motorbikes (Bumblebee and Blackbird).
"Glynda, have more faith in us, we know what we're doing and we're going to stick to our plan," Taiyang drawls.
"You've been a drunkard for over a decade and a half, and your daughter broke an arm and then lost her other arm in the space of a few months. You aren't exactly the most combat ready of hunter duos," she points out.
"Ah, but Ms Xiao Long has been a rather exemplary huntress since before she arrived at Beacon. She and her squad were the best of their year after all," Dr Oobleck points out. "And Tai has been making strides in recovering from his alcoholism. On top of that, both have been training exceptionally hard these last few months to get back into fighting shape. I have a great deal of confidence in their abilities."
"Thanks, doc," Yang smiles. "We've got a solid plan. There's no way of knowing if Qrow and the others have made it to Mistral yet, and going all that way, even with our motorbikes to speed up the process, is going to take forever even if they are there. So, we're going to be tracking down my mom."
"Raven's semblance can send us to Qrow, and it means I can finally get her to sign the divorce papers after all these years. We'll just need to follow the trail of Bandit-style destruction, and we should be able to find her and her tribe. Shouldn't be too hard," Tai adds.
"And if she doesn't cooperate?" Glynda asks.
"We'll take it as it comes, you don't need to worry about us," Tai assures her.
"Stay safe, out there, Ms Xiao Long, after the tragedy of Beacon, I do not wish for any more of my students to lose their lives so needlessly," Dr Oobleck implores her.
She gives him a strained smile and a thumbs up with her prosthetic arm. "Don't worry, doc, I'm not going to let anyone take me down."
A few more well-wishes and reminders to stay safe later, and Yang and Tai are on their way, motorbikes chasing each other along the dirt path.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Glynda mutters almost under her breath.
"We can only hope that they can rise to the challenges they may face, Glynda. We can only hope," Dr Oobleck replies.
"Tyrian, back so soon? I do hope you have good news for me," Salem croons as she watches the scorpion faunus burst into her throne room.
"Oh, my queen, I have only the best of news for you," he laughs.
"You… killed… the… trait…or?" Cinder manages to rasp out.
He sends a pitying look her way. "Oh, no, that I have yet to accomplish. The little deserter is quite adept at hiding, but that is not the news I have returned with so triumphantly," he crows.
"Well? Speak it," Salem commands.
"My goddess, my queen, after a long search, at long, long last, I, your most faithful, dutiful follower, have found Spring," he prostrates.
The grimm-esque woman's eyes widened for a split second in surprise, before a smile – a smile that would be beautiful were it not for her shared likeness with the Grimm – grew on her face. "Is that so? Well done, Tyrian. I shall have to find a way to reward you for your achievement. Now, where is Spring?"
"With the Branwen Tribe. Spring has grown more brazen with her powers and is using them more to attack the villages the tribe preys on. The survivors tell hushed tales of a goddess with power over the weather, and I knew it must be Spring, so I went and spied on them. I could not tell which of the tribe is the elusive maiden, but she is among them, I know this to be certain, my queen," he rambles.
"Emerald, go and fetch Dr. Watts. The lot of you are being… reassigned," Salem orders.
"Yes, ma'am," the green-haired woman meekly replies, ducking out of the room to Tyrian cackling with laughter.
A/N: Welcome back to the Grimm Reaper! Things are happening now, that's for sure. We got Ozpin incoming (thanks to the anonymous reviewer who gave the idea to have Oscar get sick when his and Ozpin's soul 'merge', I liked that but decided to leave it off screen for the most part because I wasn't rewriting this chapter again); Yang and Tai are on the move; Weiss and Whitley are being forced appart (it kinda kills me to leave him behind, but I have so many characters as it is); Blake's gearing up; Tyrian's found Spring; and we got our first mention of Jayden, Maria's brother (spoiler, we are going to meet him eventually, and not just in a flashback in how we are with Plata, oop wasn't meant to say that).
Let me know your thoughts with a review (I read them all, as does one of my friends and he lectures me on the issues highlighted there as if I don't already know about them, he hasn't even read past chapter one) or send me a PM if you want and/or need someone to chat with. Otherwise, I'll see you next week with another chapter.
- RebeccaMagic9