Strangers: Become Lovers
Act III
BRANWEN
LOADING…
LOADING…
LOADING…
ANALYSING…
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS…
-COMPONENT HD: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
-COMPONENT TR: FUL|\|DIAGNOSIS SKIPPED
ANALYSIS SUMMARY: ALL SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL
BEGIN BOOTUP SEQUENCE
-NAME: Qrow-
-MODEL: B74NW3N-
-PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: PROTECT NIECES-
See 'Ruby "Squirt" Rose' and 'Yang "Firecracker" Xiao Long'
-SECONDARY DIRECTIVE: *undefined*-
BOOT UP COMPLETE
-BEING PROGRAMMING-
"Ahem."
"…"
"Qrow. I know you're awake."
The android sighed. "Yeah yeah, just… just gimme a minute." He opened his eyes and checked his surroundings. They were in an advanced-looking lab, filled with all of that techno bullshit and-
Wait...
Did it say his systems were fully operational?
-[LOG]-
-[SYSTEM SCAN]-
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS…
-COMPONENT HD: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
-COMPONENT TR: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
-COMPONENT CR: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
-COMPONENT RMS: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
-COMPONENT HNS: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
-COMPONENT LGS: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
-COMPONENT FT: FULLY FUNCTIONAL-
ANALYSIS SUMMARY: ALL SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL
His systems were all fully operational?
Qrow quickly stood up from the weird not-so-comfy vertical bed, checking himself, ignoring the voice that came from behind him that worriedly yelled, "Be careful!"
His body… was different, he noted as he looked down on his unshaking arms. He felt better. Like he was rejuvenated, refreshed. Like he'd been transferred into a new body.
Had he been transferred into a new body? Because he wouldn't be surprised if he had.
"Holy shit. This must be the best hangover I've had in years!"
"Androids can't have hangovers, Qrow." The longer Qrow focused on that voice, the more dread filled his artificial gut. He turned just in time to see the old and mighty Ozpin scratching his chin, saying, "Although it is an interesting thought…"
"The fuck are you doing here?" Qrow was no longer in a good mood, even with his body feeling fine as fuck.
Bzz-
"C'mon, Dad. Put the gun down." Yang's voice was loud, loud enough for the entire harbor to hear.
He felt someone grabbing the sides of his face, forcing him to look at… whatever it was he was looking at. "Stay with us, Qrow!"
-zzt!
… The hell?
Did that… No, he was one hundred percent sure it meant that his head was, at some point, damaged.
There was a ninety percent chance the damage was caused by a bullet.
… Fuck.
Now he was the one having amnesia.
Looking back to the old human, Qrow was whelmed that, to the bastard's credit, Ozpin did look a little sheepish - or maybe his vision wasn't fully operational. "This is my lab, I believe I have the right to be here." Qrow snorted. He kept going, his tone picking on a more somber note. "When they brought you here… Qrow, I- how are you able to survive this long?"
He wanted to retort with sarcasm, telling Ozpin that his nieces were geniuses who'd pull him apart and put him back again piece by piece, barely managing to keep up with the rate at which his body was deteriorating. But he didn't, and instead asked a simple, "What happened?"
Ozpin looked shocked, but then he nodded to himself as if his words made sense. "You did take a hard blow…"
Qrow gritted his teeth and clenched his hands. He asked, again, a simple, "What happened?" He refused to be left in the dark, especially when his nieces were involved. Speaking of- "Where are the kids?!"
"Calm down." Oz was raising his hands to Qrow, asking him not to rush himself. But Qrow couldn't slow down, not until he was back with the kids. "Glynda has them. She's taking care of them. They're safe, Qrow."
"Glynda?" He racked his brain and then blinked. "Oh, G00DW1TCH's got a name, now?" Ozpin nodded, expressionless. He barked a laugh. "Wow, that's great. Took you, what? Twenty years to name her? Oh, and do you know she's supposed to pick us up at the harbor? But then when we were there-" he chuckled "-you're not gonna believe this, but when we were there, Taiyang Xiao-fucking-Long was standing there, waiting for us!" He slammed his fist to the nearby desk, still maintaining his happy-go-lucky smile. "Can you believe that, Ozzy? The bastard's there, looking like a reformed man and trying to fucking convince the kids that he's no longer the abusive bastard that he is!"
"... I'm sorry, Qrow." The android opened his mouth, but Ozpin held out a hand, so he wisely closed it, interested to hear what he'd like to say. "I should've listened to you, all those years ago. I should've known you were telling the truth. After Summer died… I thought Tai would pull himself together, I trusted him to pull himself together…" He sighed, adjusting his glasses, his posture no longer straight and perfect. He'd never looked more tired. "Tai used to be such a good man, Qrow. I… I'm sorry."
[ACCEPT]
[REFUSE]
He blinked, feeling his blue heart tightening.
Oz was looking at him and he looked sincere and sad.
The options changed.
[FORGIVE]
[DON'T FORGIVE]
"It was hard fixing you, with all of your old scars and the new." Ozpin paused for a moment. "We now have the technology to remove scars. We've offered the same treatment to the SCHN33 android, yet she refused."
Oh. So Ozpin's technology was more advanced than, well, literally everyone else's technology. Who would've guessed?
"Qrow… do you forgive me?"
[FORGIVE]
[DON'T FORGIVE]
In the end, Qrow wasn't able to make quite a big decision in such a short time. He ended up shrugging and asking, "Where are we?"
Ozpin chuckled. He looked sincere… sincerely amused.
"Is it not obvious?" he asked. "We're in Beacon."
Author's Note
Sorry for the late update, guys. School's been driving me mad. After this, there are 2 more chapters, and then it's the end. Planning on making a Behind the Story thing for this, too, as well as a review of this story from my point of view, 1 year after writing this.