AUTHOR'S NOTES: Meant to have the fight with Funky in this chapter, but it got too long, so you get Qrow and the girls, and Funky talking some smack.
Building 91213 (Female Officers' Quarters)
Joint Base Beacon, Wisconsin, United States of Canada
11 April 2001
Qrow Branwen positioned himself carefully behind the corner. He could hear the two guards talking to each other, and waited patiently for one of them to move on. Then he drew his knife, stalked through the doorway, crept up behind the first guard, and…
…promptly got shot for his trouble as the second guard hadn't quite moved away yet. "Turn around! Turn around!" Ruby shouted in alarm.
"Don't try and stab him!" Yang yelled. "He's got a Schmeisser! He's going to light your ass up! Grab some health!"
"Where is it?" Qrow asked frantically.
"On the wall behind you—" Then the view changed, as Qrow's character, the Allied secret agent, was mowed down by the two Germans. "Dammit," he sighed. "I'm never going to get past this level. Damn Krauts." With one notable exception, he thought to himself. He was already missing Winter Schnee.
"Uncle Qrow," Ruby said, "that's the first level."
"Whatever." He set down the keyboard. "I'm more of a N64 guy anyway. I'd kick all your asses on Goldeneye."
"Ugh," Yang groaned. Qrow wasn't lying; he was deadly at that game. "Too bad we don't have a good air combat simulator."
"Too much like work," Qrow said, and leaned back against Blake's bed. He and his two nieces were the only ones in the room; Weiss and Blake were both working out at the gym. "What's the legal age in Wisconsin?" he asked, pulling out his flask.
"21," Ruby replied.
"Good. I'm old enough." He uncorked the flask and took a drink. "Yang, you want a sip? You're old enough. None for you, Ruby."
"Nah, I'm good." Yang was leaning against Weiss' bed. She'd sampled Qrow's flask before, and it was what she figured antifreeze tasted like. Ruby, sitting on her bed, didn't press the issue, for the same reasons, and figured now was not the time to tell Qrow she'd gotten horribly drunk a few weeks before.
"So how did your last mission go?" Ruby asked. "If you can tell us."
"Can't tell you the particulars, but I can tell you this one part. It's pretty scary." The two girls leaned forward as Qrow took another drink, made sure the door was closed, and dropped his voice. "So there I was. I'd flown up to Alaska and stopped at Eielson. It's the Wild West up there—cut off from us by the Pacific Coast Dead Zones and the mountains from the rest of the Remnant, and with Siberia right across the Bering. GRIMM central up there." Another drink. "So I walk into this bar in Fairbanks. Lots of lowlifes in there. A place where they drink gasoline and eat polar bears for fun." He motioned them a bit closer. Ruby hopped off her bed and sat down next to Yang. "And then…then it happened. I couldn't believe it. Hell, I still can't believe it."
Yang nodded, hanging on every word; Ruby had clasped her hands in front of her. "What…what was it?" she stammered.
"The bar girl. She bent over. Her dress hid nothing, girls. Nothing. And her panties didn't hide much either. I could see right down Main Street." Qrow grinned at them.
Yang and Ruby both covered their eyes. "Hit him," Yang said. Ruby dutifully grabbed one of Weiss' pillows and threw it at her uncle. He caught it in midair. "You're a sick bastard, Uncle Qrow."
"Yeah, but you guys think I'm cool anyway." He looked at the flask, and put it away.
"Moving on," Ruby sighed, "how much trouble are you in?"
"What, with Ozpin?" Qrow waved it off. "None. Oz and I go way back. Hell, he was here when I attended Vytal Flag for the first time."
"Is that why you're here?"
"Kind of. Part of my job is checking in with higher authority sometimes, and I needed to keep Ironwood and Ozpin in the loop." He was tempted to tell them, strongly so, about the horrendous losses the Huntsmen and Huntresses of American and NATO forces had been taking. He reconsidered. It was very much classified information, on a need to know basis, and neither Yang nor Ruby needed to know. Not right now. "We're all pros. Oz and Ironwood rag on me sometimes, but there's no friction on the operating level."
"We're pros too," Ruby insisted, and for a moment, Qrow didn't see his nieces as the grown women they were now, but as the children they once were.
"Oh?" he asked with a mocking smile. He needed to get rid of that memory in a hurry, before he started crying or something. Thinking of Yang brought memories of Raven. Thinking of Ruby brought memories of Summer.
"What, you don't watch the news?" Yang pointed to herself and her sister with weighty importance. "We sort of saved the day over La Crosse last week. Rubes helped blow up a train and wiped out the White Fang, and I made ace."
Qrow laughed. "Yeah? You want a medal or a chest to pin it on? Ruby almost blew herself up with that train and you almost bought the farm against a F-22." As soon as Qrow said the words, he regretted them. Not because it wasn't the truth, but because it was an abrupt reminder—to him—of his nieces' mortality. They had followed their parents, and him, into a very dangerous job. He'd already buried too many friends, and too many friends that had been practically family.
Still, it needed to be said, he supposed. Yang and Ruby were good—damned good—but they needed to be reminded that they were pointed rather than anointed. They were getting cocky. "I'll grant you that you did a hell of a job," Qrow continued, "but if you think the White Fang's been wiped out, you're wrong. You killed a bunch of them, but they're like a fucking hydra. And we never did find out their leaders." He caught something cross Yang's face. She knew something, but Qrow wasn't going to press her. It was doubtful she knew anything he didn't already.
They were looking down, now, he thought, so it was time to pick them up again. Qrow was aware that the girls tended to worship him; why, he had no idea. They didn't need a father figure; Taiyang had been a great father to them both. "All right," he said, "I'll stop with the red-assing. I'm really impressed with what you people have done with Ruby Flight. Top scoring flight at Vytal Flag ain't nothing to be ashamed of." He winked. "Of course, you still got a ways before you equal the best flight ever to come out of the exercise." Qrow pulled out his wallet and brought out the photograph, looking at it for a long moment before handing it to Yang. "Strike Flight. Simple name, but best that ever was, best that ever will be."
They'd never seen the photograph before. Taiyang Xiao Long and Qrow were both kneeling on one knee in the foreground, their helmets in front of them; they looked piratical, with "bulletproof" mustaches—Tai with a thick blond one, Qrow with a thin black one. Behind them, leaning on their heads, grinned Summer Rose and Raven Branwen—Summer behind Tai, Raven behind Qrow. Summer's russet hair was trimmed to regulation length, just above her shoulders; Raven's was far out of regulation. Behind them was Tai and Qrow's F-4E, nose and gunport festooned with a sharkmouth; just barely visible to the left and right of the Phantom was Summer's F-16 and Raven's F-15. Back home at Patch, there were several pictures of Summer in her dress uniform and Taiyang in his, but Qrow and Raven were notoriously camera shy. Yang ran her thumb over Raven's image.
Qrow nodded. "Figured it was high time you knew what my sister—your mother—looked like, Yang." He knew Tai had destroyed every picture he had of Raven, after she'd abandoned him and baby Yang. Even now, Tai rarely spoke of her, and never around his daughters.
Yang wondered if she should tell her uncle she'd met her mother. Ruby remained silent: she knew about Raven now, but it was Yang's secret, not hers. She handed the picture back to Qrow; now, she thought, was not the time. "Nah, you can keep it," Qrow said. "I've got another copy." He stared at his flask. "What Raven did wasn't right, Yang. Believe me, I've talked to her about it. But she…I think she was afraid she'd be a bad mother, that she wasn't good enough."
"She was right." Yang's voice was flat and emotionless, but there was no disguising the bitterness in it.
"Don't hate her, Yang," Qrow told her.
"I don't hate her, Qrow. I'm just really disappointed in her." Yang shrugged. "Like I told Blake: Summer Rose was my real mother. She treated me like I was her own."
Things had gotten very awkward, and Qrow knew it. He got to his feet. "Well, I'm getting too old for video games. Think I'll head for my rack." He scratched Zwei behind the ears; the corgi had perversely climbed onto Blake's bed. "Just remember you guys have a ways to go. No need to rush it. And when Vytal Flag's over, there's still your career to worry about…and wars to fight." He grinned at them to show them he was still proud of them, still loved them. "But you're gonna do just fine. You got good genes." He threw them a half-assed salute and headed for the door. Yang waved absently at him, lost in her thoughts.
Ruby jumped up and ran to meet Qrow in the hallway. "Uncle Qrow," she said in a low voice, "please don't be mad at Yang. I think she's just…got some, well, issues with Raven."
"She has a right to be pissed," Qrow replied. "Let me guess. They met."
Ruby's eyes went wide. "How did you know?"
"Just a feeling. That and Raven flies a prototype aircraft she stole, the prototype for your friend Penny's aircraft. It's called the Night Raven, and it's been spotted over the Midwest. Visually—it's radar proof. It has some kind of weird computer that captures radar beams and scatters them to hell and gone. Your radar won't even show that it's there. I bet she landed somewhere near here and infiltrated the base. She's heard that Yang was looking for her." Qrow stared towards Ruby Flight's room and shook his head. "Shit, I bet that went pear-shaped in a hurry."
"Sure as hell did. Yang told her to go eff herself. And what she said about Mom—about Summer Rose? She threw that in Raven's face."
Qrow sniffed. "Jesus. There's not much that would make my sister lose it, but that would be it. I think she always resented the fact that Summer was a great mother to you two, and didn't have to sacrifice her career for it."
"Uncle Qrow…" Ruby didn't want to ask the question that had popped into her head, but she had to. "Did Raven…kill my mother? She went down on a mission to the West, right?"
Qrow shook his head vehemently. "No. Raven may have resented your mother, but they were still friends. They were as close as sisters. Summer was heartbroken when Tai proposed to Raven, but she was still her maid of honor at the wedding. She wouldn't have killed Summer. No way." He hugged Ruby. "Take care of your sister, Yang. I think she's down a bit right now, and not just because she met Raven. Whoever that F-22 pilot was that she ran into over Minnesota, she came close to getting her, and that's always hard on a pilot, when you realize you're not invincible anymore." He kissed her hair. "Now go in there and kick her ass at a game."
"You got it." Ruby stood on tiptoe and kissed her uncle's cheek, then walked back to the room. Qrow watched her leave, and felt his eyes get a bit moist. "You'd be damned proud of them, Short Stack," he whispered. "Both of them."
Squadron Dispersal Area A
Joint Base Beacon, Wisconsin, United States of Canada
12 May 2001
"This feels weird," Ruby said. She stood next to the ladder attached to Ember Celica. "I feel like I should be up there with you guys."
Yang finished strapping on her lifejacket. The fight was going to be back over the Yooper Range, but it could end up over water, and anything close to water required the lifejacket. "Pretty sure that would be cheating, Rubes." She winked at her sister. "Though I won't tell if you won't."
Ruby smiled. "Glad to see you're feeling better."
"Ahh…" Yang shrugged. "I just let that stupid picture get under my skin. No sweat. Slept good last night, and ready to kick the shit out of Funky Flight today. Tonight we'll drink some beers, and maybe I'll pick up someone at the bar." Ruby was shocked at that, and Yang needled her some more. "C'mon, Ruby. I haven't gotten laid in months! A girl's got needs!" She raised her voice. "I mean, even Weiss' tight ass is starting to look good!"
Weiss, who was walking by with Blake on the way to Myrtenaster, graced Yang with a glacial stare. "I am way out of your league." She grabbed Blake and thrust her forward, as if the Faunus was a slab of meat for inspection. "Why not Blake?"
Yang considered Blake, rubbing her chin. "Maybe. The Bellabooty is pretty awesome." She turned to Ruby, who was red-faced. "Hey, don't ask, don't tell, Rubes." She turned serious—somewhat. "You good to go, Weiss?"
"Of course."
Blake folded her arms across her chest. "Remember what I told you about the F-14. Neon and Ivori are flying a D-model. It's not going to have the same problems like the A, but the Ds haven't been wired for AMRAAMs like my Gambol Shroud. Flynt is going to handle the long-range shots, but you know how the Tomcat is at close range. You know what to watch for, right? The wings?"
Yang nodded. "Yes, Blake. I was paying attention when we talked about it this morning. Besides, I've waxed your butt up there, haven't I?" She pointed to the sky.
"That's unfortunately true, but I was also tired." Blake wasn't quite conceding the point. "And with Ivori in the backseat, that gives Neon another set of eyes to watch the sky. You're not going to sneak up on them as easily as you did me that time."
"Hey!" A new voice interrupted them, and Ruby Flight turned to see Flynt Coal, Neon Katt, and Kobalt Ivori: Funky Flight. Flynt and Ivori both looked like the typical fighter pilot—muscular, lean and handsome—and seemed cut from the same cloth, although Gray's skin was pale and looked like he needed some sun, while Flynt's was the color of coffee. Both even wore the same style of sunglasses. It was Neon, however, that would make people stop in their tracks. Not because she was attractive, which she was, or because she was a Faunus—her tail swished behind her, giving Ruby Flight an abrupt reminder of Ruth Lionheart. It was her hair: it was bright pink, tied into two pigtails, with two turquoise stripes dyed in it. To say it was not regulation was an understatement. Ruby's eyes went to the patch on her flight suit and Ivori's—VF-143, the infamous World Famous Pukin' Dogs, known to be a somewhat unconventional unit. Flynt, Ruby knew, was from the USAF base at New Orleans, hence the flight name; he did look as if he'd be comfortable in a French Quarter jazz club.
"Hey yourself!" Ruby waved back, and Funky Flight walked over, stopping about a pace from Ruby Flight.
Flynt nodded towards Weiss. "You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress."
Weiss steeled herself; references to her family's company were rarely complimentary, especially with a Faunus present. "I am," she replied.
"My dad knew yours," Flynt said. "Until Old Man Schnee ran his company out of business, of course."
Weiss sighed inwardly, not sure if Flynt was actually angry or just trying to get under her skin. "I'm sorry to hear that." She threw some penitence into her voice, which was not entirely faked.
"Yeah, right. Sure you are."
Yang stepped forward. "Hey. Let's save it for upstairs, huh?"
"Yang Xiao Long, right?" Neon popped her gum loudly.
Yang smiled back, though there wasn't much humor in it. "Let me guess. My dad screwed over your dad too?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that." Neon's eyes traveled up and down Yang's body. "You must work out. Ever rollerblade?"
"Can't say as I have."
"Yeah, I can see that. Top-heavy as you are." Neon put her hands below her own bust. Even under the flight gear, there wasn't much there.
"At least I got boobs—"
"Okay!" Blake stepped forward. "This sounds like a great conversation, but everyone but Ruby and me is flying, so let's get to that, huh?"
Neon turned her attention to Blake. "Oh look. Another glum Faunus, ashamed of what she is." At the shocked look on the other girl's face, Neon just smiled. "I can tell what you are, Belladonna. I can smell it."
Blake smiled back, and scratched her cheek with a middle finger.
Flynt put a hand on Neon's shoulder. "See you up there, Ruby Flight." He steered her away—they'd all noticed how rigid her tail had gotten—and Kobalt followed them. Sorry, he mouthed over his shoulder.
Weiss and Blake stared daggers in the departing Funky Flight's direction. Yang laughed. "They were abused children. C'mon, Weiss, let's show them who's boss." She hugged the former Schnee heiress.
"Right." Weiss stalked off towards her Typhoon.
"Good luck," Ruby said to Yang as the elder sister mounted the ladder.
"Fuck 'em," Yang grinned and tossed her a Qrow-style salute.