I fell behind a little bit so I decided to add both chapters 38 and 39 at once. Make sure you don't miss one!
Of all the things in the universe that James really couldn't stand- Jacques Schnee, grimm, hospital visits, people that abandoned their teammates, and hangovers being just some of those things, spending entire mornings stuck in meetings ranked pretty high on his list of things he didn't want to do. Ever. Despite his office and his position, it was something he'd never quite managed to shake.
So needless to say that having spent all morning wrapped up in a meeting, James was a little annoyed. The circumstances didn't help much, since they left him feeling like a fish out of water. Ozpin had called himself, Qrow, Glynda, and some other faculty members into their office so that they could talk. He had elected to bring Winter along, since she was the closest thing that he had to an aide-de-camp in Vale.
In the aftermath of the meeting, James was left sorting through the relevant information to try and make sense of things. The night before had been strange, after all.
Fact: All eight members of Teams RWBY and JNPR had arrived at Beacon Academy early in the morning. Nobody knew exactly when they had left the night before.
Fact: Blake Belladonna had been retrieved out of the forest unharmed.
Fact: The group of eight students had come into combat against a giant Deathstalker and had apparently beaten it down.
Fact: When placed in context of the spawning pool that had been located in the forest, the grimm was too large to have reasonably come from it. It was entirely possible that there was another out in the forest, but at that moment the resources and opportunities needed to investigate the matter hadn't yet arisen.
It was a lot to think about, and for that reason James was bent over the map in his office. Seated nearby by was Winter, though she was more observing for the moment while James thought. He didn't mind having her there. Really, she was one of his most prized students and always had been. Now that Winter was a Specialist, being able to work closely with her was a treat.
Even if she did remind him of a lot of opportunities that had passed him by.
"Sir." Winter said, standing in the space just beside James. "Is there anyone monitoring the cameras that we set up yesterday?"
James nodded and and tapped on his desk. Just like that, a couple of camera feeds of the area where they'd found the pool appeared. James took a half-step back and sighed because nothing was there that was new.
"If any of the cameras detect movement, we'll be immediately notified of it. I also have someone in Atlas viewing them remotely." James said calmly as he stepped back from the projections. "I am hoping that we will be able to go out on a patrol later on in search of another one."
Winter nodded, but she looked entirely too nervous. "What do you want me to do, sir?"
James hesitated. She was looking for an order, that was obvious enough. The problem was that as things were, James hadn't yet come up with the best possible choice of action. When it came to Vale, there was only so much that he could do independently.
He stood up tall and sighed. "I am planning to call in a few more Specialists to do what they can to aid in our efforts here." That was something that James could do easily enough as things were- Ozpin was likely to allow for his actions to slide for a little while when they were on higher alert. He was willing to bet that Vale was going to have amped up security for some time as well.
Winter nodded. "Do you think that..." She hesitated, her eyes flickering away from him a moment. There was something in the way that she was holding herself that was making it hard for James to figure out what she was thinking. "Has there been any word from Atlas?"
"No." James mumbled. "The reports that I've been receiving have suggested that there isn't anything near Atlas as of right now. The same goes for Mantle, and so if there is anything, we can only guess that the cold has stunted the arrival of any grimm."
WInter nodded along, but she looked upset. James couldn't be too surprised by it. He let out a quiet sigh and turned to face her. "If something happens, we're going to rush back to Atlas and take care of things there." James held his head high. "That's where our loyalties ultimately lie."
"I just can't help but… worry, sir."
"You know that you don't have to call me that right now."
"Officially speaking, I am on duty." Winter replied looking back at the screens, her blue eyes scanning for something that James couldn't quite name on his own. "Even if we were to go back to Atlas, I would still worry. My sister is here. She fought a Deathstalker last night, and I feel like I'm expected to just ignore that it ever happened."
"Nobody is asking you to do that." James responded, though he understood. Winter had been cut off from her family, and while she did try to maintain whatever contact she had left, Weiss was about all there was left for her.
James tried not think about that one too much, for both of their sakes.
"I know that Weiss is capable." Winter said, holding her head up high. "The report that we heard about last night was proof enough of that. I just can't help but worry."
James nodded and sighed, looking to Winter and locking his eyes with hers. She blinked, and her stance and expressions began to soften significantly. "Sir?"
"Go see her." James said, hoping that Winter wouldn't take it too much like an order. That was about the last thing that he wanted for Winter to do. "If you're needed, I'll call you."
Winter nodded, going to the door and lingering by it for just a moment, clearly thinking it over. She stood there, with her hand on the doorframe and James watched her look back at him once more. Looking for guidance, most likely.
James nodded to her, and Winter smiled softly.
"If I may, sir-" She began, locking her eyes with his own. "If Weiss wants to train with me later, would you feel open to attending?"
"I would be glad to attend if I am wanted there." James smiled at her. It was true, after all. He'd always liked teaching more than he'd liked leading.
Winter smiled and slipped out the door, closing it behind her.
James felt an uncomfortable tug of something in his chest that he didn't let himself acknowledge for a moment too long.
He forced the feeling away and turned back to his work, studying the maps and cameras intently and trying to figure out what the best possible path to search might look like.
"Dad!" Yang called as she and Ruby walked into their family's home. Zwei was already there bothering them, excitedly bouncing around both of their ankles. Ruby dropped almost immediately to scratch him behind the ears. "We're home!" Yang shouted, closing the door behind the two of them and taking the moment to kick her shoes off.
"In the office!" Their dad called back, and Yang smiled before heading off in that direction.
When she came in, their father was sitting at his desk, halfway reclined with one of his ankles up on the desk, while the other foot rested on the ground securely. He looked relaxed, and considering the night that she and Ruby had had, it was nice being somewhere that felt calm.
Yang was pretty sure that Taiyang's calmness meant that he didn't know yet.
"Hey." Yang said, stepping inside. "How's it going?"
"Ah, you know-" Tai responded, bringing his foot back down to the ground and sitting up properly now. "Trying to do my job. Not doing my job." He smiled up at her and then looked to the door, clearly expecting that Ruby was going to come in any second. "Been trying to grade papers all day, and I've gotten nothing done."
"Right." Yang said, dropping onto the small loveseat along the wall. "Have you heard from Uncle Qrow at all?"
"Would it surprise you if I said no?" Taiyang asked, raising an eyebrow and staring at Yang like he was looking for something from her. "Because I haven't heard from him."
Yang grinned, because that meant that she and Ruby were going to have a chance to tell him what had happened the night before without Qrow doing it first. It wouldn't have been the first time that they hadn't been able to spread the news of the things they'd done before.
Hopefully he wouldn't freak out.
Ruby bounced into the room, carrying Zwei in her arms and smiling wide. She set the dog down before approaching their dad. "Hey, dad."
"Hey, Ruby." Taiyang said, smiling wide as ever. "How's school been for you two?"
"Oh, you know-" Ruby said, looking over at Yang like she was trying to see whether or not there was something that Yang wanted to say. "We've had classes."
Taiyang raised an eyebrow. "Why do I get the feeling that there's more than you're telling me?"
"Because there is." Yang said cooly. "We had the craziest night."
"Boys?"
"What?" Ruby asked, her eyes bulging out for a second. "No! Gross."
"Girls?" Taiyang asked again, clearly treading carefully.
"Nah," Yang said, rolling her eyes. "Way cooler."
Her father's expression shifted as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. Yang just smiled and watched, waiting for him to ask again before she or Ruby took the chance to just tell him what the two of them had gotten up to.
"You know that whatever it is-"
"It isn't about us dating or something, dad." Ruby interjected, smiling. "It really is way cooler."
He shrugged. "Well, then I guess that I just don't know." Taiyang said, making himself more comfortable. Yang and Ruby both looked at each other, both waiting for one of them to say what their night had been like.
For a moment, Yang couldn't help but wonder whether or not telling their dad about it was a good idea or not. It wasn't as though the two of them had been given any sort of confirmation that they could talk about the grimm that they'd fought. If anything, every indication had been that the exact last thing that they needed to do was talk about what they had been doing.
But their father was a huntsman. And he was their father. It was probably for the best that he knew.
"Okay," Yang said, already making decisions to trim down the story of the night before for their own sake. Their father probably didn't need to know the parts about Blake, or that they had snuck out themselves on an impromptu rescue mission. "So we got to do something really cool on a mission and we probably shouldn't even tell you about it." She leaned back into the couch, allowing for her legs to stretch out in front of her.
"And is that why you decided to start by asking if I'd talk to your uncle?"
"Uh..." Ruby spoke up, picking up a hand and rubbing at the back of her head awkwardly. "Yeah, that's why."
Their dad was looking at them both and looking wholly unsure of what was about to happen. He raised an eyebrow and focused his gaze on Yang, and there was an unspoken question there. For a moment Yang almost wanted to answer to it- she knew her dad. He was reminding her that she was technically the one in charge of looking after her sister.
It wasn't something that Yang had ever resented him for. If anything, she understood why he worried.
"So," Taiyang said with a sigh. "What happened?"
"We got to fight a Deathstalker." Yang said, letting the words out as calmly and as coolly as she could. She glanced over at Ruby out of the corner of her eye, and just saw her little sister smiling wide. When she looked at their father though, there was something else written across his face.
He looked, at least a little bit, horrified. Mostly horrified. And a little like he was about to pass out. The same way that he had looked when Qrow had dragged Yang and Ruby back home when they'd been kids and had decided to sneak out. The same way that he had when Summer-
His mouth was open, and he let out a quiet noise before leaning back in his seat, his feet dropping back down to the ground.
Wordlessly and probably a little bit afraid, he looked from Ruby to Yang before nodding. "You two fought a Deathstalker?"
"Well, it wasn't just us." Ruby said, and Yang was glad for it because otherwise she knew that the two of them wouldn't get him to calm down much. "We had help! From like.. two teams. Ours and another one. But it was super cool!"
Taiyang nodded. "And you said that this happened on a mission, right?" Just like that, he smirked and locked his eyes with Yang's. That alone made it obvious enough that he had just seen through their story on at least some level.
Yang felt some guilt for it, but if he was already seeing through the story then it was probably for the best if they came clean. She looked at Ruby, who looked a little bit worried herself before letting out a quiet sigh.
"Uh..." Yang started, doing her best to figure out what she wanted to do. "Yeah, it wasn't on an... official mission." She sighed, because yeah, if it had been an official mission it would have only been two whole teams, and they definitely would have been with a Huntsman. "Something had happened so we'd needed to go out and see if we could fix things..."
Ruby nodded along, her expression falling as she looked down at her hands where they were resting in her lap. "We were trying to find our friend." She explained quietly. "And we took some friends to help, and then they ended up running into the Deathstalker so they called us to come and help them. So we did."
The look on their father's face was still unsure. If it weren't him, if they had been talking to Qrow instead, she is sure that he would have gotten up and gone to get a drink or do something. He would have wanted to put some sort of distance between himself and them for a little bit so that he could have time to just process what had happened.
"You two... fought a Deathstalker." He repeated the words, clearly trying to make sense of them. "Where did this happen?"
"Out in the Emerald Forest." Yang said. "It wasn't the first grimm that we'd fought out there." She hesitated, wondering if going into all of the details on what they knew was a good idea. The pond of sludge was something that made her a little bit sick to think about, so she could only wonder what her father would feel if he heard about it.
"You've fought other grimm?"
"Yeah." Ruby said, her eyes flicking over to meet Yang's and that was when Yang came to the realization that Ruby was just as unsure of what was happening as she was. It was a great comfort, in some way. "We ran into a Beringel with Uncle Qrow a few weeks ago, and then the Deathstalker last night."
Taiyang nodded, but his brow remained furrowed the entire time. Yang saw him turn in his seat, reaching over to jot something down on the notepad on his desk beside him. Yang craned her neck just slightly, doing her best to see what he'd written.
He caught her though, giving her a look with a raised eyebrow that Yang rolled her eyes at. She leaned back into the couch again.
The room was quiet, all three of them clearly waiting for something to break. There was a certain sort of nervousness that settled over the room, and Yang shifted uncomfortably in her seat because she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be able to break. Not easily, at least.
Taiyang sighed heavily and placed his hands onto his stomach, with his fingers interlaced between each other, looking at them both with his expression deathly serious. He hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"How many people know about this?"
"Uh-" Ruby looked over at Yang, and Yang just nodded because if their father wanted them to tell the full story of what had happened and what they did know, then they should tell him. Yang trusted him- he wasn't going to tell anyone if they asked him not to. Although, he was probably going to say something to Qrow later. That was something that seemed likely enough.
Ruby nodded, looking at least a little bit more confident and she picked her head up, sitting up straight. "Our team, Team JNPR, Uncle Qrow, Ozpin, and General Ironwood and one of his specialists. Probably some other people that work at Beacon too."
"So not many people then." Their dad said, his voice still deadly serious. "And you two weren't supposed to tell anyone, were you?"
"No." Yang said, but she didn't allow for herself to shrink back at all when she answered. "But we figured that Qrow would tell you sometime anyways. And..."
"And you aren't a civilian, dad." Ruby offered, jolting forward in her seat a little bit. "You're a huntsman, if something happens that you're probably going to end up going out there to fight anyways."
"Yeah, you're right." There was that silence again and their father looked like he was almost... far away. Yang watched her father rise from his seat, turning and walking to one of the windows on the far side of the room. He stared out of it, his eyes scanning for something out on the horizon.
Yang got up and walked up to his side, looking out the same way and only wondering what he could have been thinking about, or what he'd been looking for. She saw the giant grimm on the horizon, and it stopped where it walked, this time rearing back almost like it had been startled.
It sent a jolt of something through Yang that told her that she needed to run or go and do something, but just as soon as the feeling arrived, the grimm turned, re-treading its steps like it had been drawn by something.
"Dad?" Yang asked, turning her head slowly to look up to him. He looked sad, and he just nodded and looked down at her, frown on his face.
"You two are... so much like your mothers." He said, his voice obviously strained and him obviously upset. "So I guess that we should all probably talk."
The mention of her mother did sting, but Yang made an effort not to let it show. It was something that she had spent most of her life feeling frustrated by. When her mother was brought up, it was only ever in passing and it was never even nearly enough to satisfy Yang for what she wanted to know.
But if they were going to talk, then they were going to talk.
"What do you... want to talk about?" Ruby asked, and Yang knew that her sister was looking at her, looking for any sign that something was wrong from her. Yang didn't allow herself to look back and find out, not when things were the way that they were.
Taiyang sighed.
"When we were your age- me, your mothers, and your Uncle Qrow, we used to... get into a lot of trouble." Taiyang explained, placing plenty of time between each word. Yang found herself clinging on to each and every one because it was a chance for her to get some of the answers that it felt like she had spent most of her life searching for. "And we did things that we weren't supposed to without realizing just how dangerous they were."
"So you're mad at us?" Ruby asked. "Because we wouldn't have gone out if we didn't know that Blake was out in the forest-"
"No," Taiyang sighed, his voice sounding gentle and soft in ways that Yang had desperately needed. "I just want to make sure that you two realize just how dangerous the things that you're involved in are now. When you said that you wanted to go to Signal, I supported you. And your Uncle did too, but things were different then. The only monsters out there were the ones so big they could beat down villages on their own. I didn't know if you two would ever see normal sized grimm."
"Are you seriously asking us to stop?" Yang all but snapped at her father because that was all that she could imagine happening from this conversation. He was going on about how things were so dangerous, but-
"What?" he asked, and he seemed to be taken aback by the suggestion that was what he was trying to do. "No, of course not. But I want you two to realize just how dangerous this life is. If grimm are going to be more common again, then it's important that you know what you're up against."
"But we know what we're up against." Yang replied. "We've fought them, and done simulations, and we've been to the classes. We haven't gone anything near that monster-" She pointed at the window, out towards the giant grimm that was lingering out by the edges of Vale. "But we know what we're doing."
"No," Taiyang's voice began to raise, obvious frustration and anger creeping up into it. "You don't know anything about what you're doing. You two went out there looking for your friend, and you didn't even think about what could have happened. What would have happened if that monster saw you, or your friends, and then none of you came home?"
Yang snapped her jaw shut because when they'd gone out looking for Blake, that hadn't been something that had even began to creep up onto their radars. They'd been so worried about Blake, and then when JNPR had run into trouble-
What would have happened if they didn't have a plan in place already to call if something happened?
Ruby was shrinking back, like she too was realizing the actual weight of what the two of them had done.
"I thought so." Taiyang said, holding his head high and letting out a sigh. None of his frustration seemed to go with it. "Just... sit down and let me tell you two a story, okay?"
Yang nodded, deciding to let herself back down. She let herself down into the seat beside her sister, and felt Ruby inch closer to her, just by the slightest increments. "Fine."
Taiyang nodded and took his seat.
"When we were your age, team STRQ got into a lot of trouble. We went on unauthorized missions, we racked up numbers like you wouldn't believe. We were some of Beacon's best." Taiyang took his time with the story, and Yang couldn't quite figure out whether or not she wanted to hear it the longer it went on. "On our third mission, we went out into the field for an escort mission. Get someone from the city to Mountain Glenn's ruins, and then get them back."
Taiyang paused, leaning back in his seat and relaxing at least a little bit. But Yang couldn't help but notice certain things about how he was doing things- the way that he would lean back in his seat, or the way that he wouldn't look at them directly. Like there was something that was truly plaguing him.
"I bet to you two that sounds like an easy mission, right?"
"Uh..." Ruby hesitated. "I guess?"
"How long-" Taiyang said, leaning in and letting his blue eyes flick between the two of them in search of something. "Do you think that it takes for a mission to go wrong?"
And that was a question that Yang truly didn't have an answer to.
"I thought so." Taiyang mumbled. "We got distracted by a small pack of grimm. Two or three boarbatusks, pretty simple based on what we were supposed to know about grimm and what we'd done before. We lost track of our charge for less than a minute in the battle." His voice dropped in volume, and he sounded like he was beyond deathly serious. "That was all that it took. He'd ended up getting mauled by a fourth grimm that had been hiding in the bushes and we weren't able to complete the mission successfully because of it."
The words ended up hanging there in the air between the three of them, and Yang realized very quickly what her father meant. They had lost track of someone that they'd been trying to protect, and then that person had been killed for it.
Taiyang kept talking though. "You two never want to have to go through that. You don't want to have to go back to a city and tell someone that you failed, and that the people you were out there with didn't make it back. You don't want for anyone to have to deliver that news about you either. It only takes a second for everything to go to hell."
He hesitated, sighing. "I am afraid of losing you two more than anything. Students die at the academies every year. You two are taking on a dangerous lifestyle, and I just... need to know that you two are being smart while you're out there. And that you realize what can happen."
"You're afraid we're going to end up like Summer, right?" Yang asked, knowing that she probably sounded a bit more bitter than she'd wanted to come off as. Ruby seemed the shrink back from the words, but Yang sighed. "With someone only coming home with word that we won't be back."
"Of course I'm afraid." Taiyang murmured, his voice coming out as barely above a whisper. "What kind of father would I be if I wasn't?"
"I'm not the only one worrying about what happens to you girls at that academy. You aren't the only ones that people are worrying about. Your Uncle is scared too, and so are your teachers, and so are your friend's families. You two are going to be able to do great things, but I am afraid of what can happen. If you two are going to go off doing secret missions-" His voice trailed off, and Yang noticed the way that her father's gaze fell on the window, staring out it but clearly not looking at the grimm that was there, hovering on the horizon. It was like he was looking for something else and he didn't want to talk about it.
It left Yang with other thoughts at the back of her mind. "Then?"
"Then you two should do them with your team. But I need for you two to do something to make sure that someone knows where you've gone. It doesn't have to be before you leave, but... I never want to know that you two were out there alone and you couldn't come home after for whatever reason. You're my girls. The most important people in my life. I'm afraid, but I love you and... and you two are going to be amazing huntresses."
"Thanks, dad." Yang mumbled, and she watched as Ruby got up and crossed the space. She walked up to their father and reached out for him, wrapping her arms around him. Taiyang smiled softly and hugged her close, and a moment later, Yang let herself go in the same way for a hug of some sort.
It was nice, but Yang knew that she wasn't going to be able to forget about the fact that the three of them had gone through this talk.
Because at the end of the day, their father was right. They were doing risky things, and-
And it was going to be up to her to try and keep an eye out for her sister, or to look out for their teammates.
Yang was suddenly more afraid than she ever had been before about what they were doing for work.