Right so… first off, I wholeheartedly apologize for last chapter's cliffhanger. I absolutely hate them but unfortunately, I needed to end the chapter early so I could better plan out what happens this chapter. And while I most certainly enjoy seeing conflicting interests in this story a choice must be made.
And so here we are.
Reveiws:
Artyom-Dreizehn: Yeah, I'm still not quite what sure what most people consider an M-rating so just trying to play it safe.
Kamencolin: Right now? No. In the future? Possibly. If I do I'll put up a poll on my profile for a pairing if people want one.
Dekuton: I know. I know. I'm terribly sorry for my sins. *hangs head in shame*
Chromaticolor: Guess you'll just have to read and find out.
Ecoolasice: Here is moar!
KnightsKing: Glad you are liking it so far!
Dazac: Yeah, I can understand that but that is also why I chose a hunter rather than a warlock or titan for this story. They are more… individualistic I think would be the right term. They spend a lot of time in the wilds doing what they want so I figured that some of them would have a rough time fitting in with normal society. Also, not all guardians stay good. Dredgen Yor being a prime example. Mason is just a Hunter Guardian doing what he wants. I'll get into why he's doing what he is at a later point in the story.
Let's get this show on the road.
Chapter 7: Revelations
...
"Take all the time that-QROW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Taiyang shouted.
Qrow stood stock still, staring at the minimalist marker.
Qrow's mouth moved but no words came out. He didn't know what to say. What could he say. After years of searching someone just takes him to his teammates grave like it's nothing.
"QROW!" Taiyang shouted again shaking Qrow from his thoughts. "What the hell is going on dammit?"
"Tai… you know that I've been trying to figure out what happened to Summer. Well here's the answer." Qrow downed the rest of his flask. "I am not nearly drunk enough for this shit right now…"
"What do you mean 'here's the answer'? It's just a pole in the ground… with a piece of cloth tied to the top." Taiyang said confused. "What am I missing here?"
"Yang really does get her thick-headedness from you doesn't she." Qrow let out a dry chuckle. "It's a grave. Summer's grave to be more specific."
Taiyang fell silent, staring at the pole with a more resigned look. "How do you-"
"CINDER! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT PRACTICING YOUR SEMBLANCE IN THE HOUSE!"
The two huntsmen jumped at the sudden shout that came from the nearby house.
"Hmh." Qrow huffed. "Guess he's got a kid. Who would've thought. Anyway, you were saying?"
"I was asking how you know it's her grave." Taiyang said.
"Technically I don't." Qrow said. "But I have a feeling he isn't lying. You don't just take two huntsmen like you and I to your house when you're a criminal."
Tai frowned. "That's another thing. If he's a criminal then how do we know he isn't the one who killed her? Assuming this is even her grave?"
"Frankly. We don't and I don't plan on leaving until I know." Qrow said.
"I wouldn't expect you too." Mason said suddenly from behind the two men.
Tai spun around and nearly punched the hunter in surprise. "Sweet Oum! Don't sneak up on us like that."
"It's my job to be sneaky. I can't exactly turn it off." Mason shrugged. "And no, I was not the one to kill your wife. She died three years, five months, and eighteen days ago of natural causes. Well as natural as being mauled to death by what was probably the largest gathering of grimm outside of the badlands."
"How would you know the absolute date if you didn't kill her?" Tai said glaring at the hunter with mounting suspicion.
Mason was quiet, unable to meet the blond huntsman's gaze.
"So you did ki-"
"I did NOT kill her." Mason growled at Qrow. "She died before I started accepting assassination contracts. Even if I was accepting contracts then, you know my policies if you contacted me. I don't kill huntsman unless I have too."
"I know the exact date because I watched her die, I watched her fall over in the snow, I saw her mangled corpse. Prior to her, I hadn't seen a corpse so torn up in years! It was a day that, frankly, started some of the happiest years of my life." Mason seethed.
"My wife fucking died and it made you happy?!" Tai growled blue eyes flashing a dangerous red color.
Mason growled back at the huntsman. "You better calm down so I can finish explaining. I am hardly telling you all this because I want to. I'm doing this because I owe it to her as a father."
"What are you talking about?" Qrow quirked an eyebrow.
"Follow me. There's someone you need to meet." Mason ground out before turning around and marched towards his house.
The two veteran huntsman looked at each other before following Mason towards his house.
The trio of men reached the front door before Mason paused. "Remember to duck."
"Wha-" Tai started to say but Mason had already opened the door and dodged to the side.
Three knives flew through the doorway at the huntsman. Reacting quickly, Qrow drew his sword and deflected them into the ground.
"Not bad." Mason nodded before walking into his house. "Cinder. I told you we had guests. Mind telling me why you thought it was a smart idea to try and kill them?"
Cinder came out from the other side of a chair tossing another blade around in her hand.
"Well when you said real huntsmen were coming over I wanted to see if they were the real deal." She said sheepishly.
"So you thought it was a good idea to throw knives at them?"
"Yes."
Mason was silent for a moment before laughing and rubbing Cinder's head. "That's my girl. But your form was off. Remember its index and thumb holding the blade while the middle finger guides the knife."
"Okay." Cinder smiled and peaked around the hunter. "So these the huntsmen?"
"Yep." Mason turned around and looked at the two shocked men standing outside his door. "You know you can come in right? We don't bite."
Qrow was the first to regain his composure. "But you have no issues throwing knives at us."
"Eh semantics." Mason shrugged. "Make your selves at home. We have A LOT to talk about."
Mason and Cinder walked into the kitchen to get some food while the others stepped into the living room.
The room was cozy. A coffee table surrounded by a couch and chairs facing a fireplace took up most of the room. Wooden lamps rested on two side tables giving the room a warm glow. A window showed the outside porch and front yard. On top of the fireplaces mantel several candles and a showcase holding a long, worn, wooden rifle with Iron Sights.
"Huh kinda reminds me of home." Taiyang said.
"Yeah but his cabinets aren't twelve feet off of the ground." Qrow said as he looked around the room.
"Oh come on! Are you still going on about that!? It was an honest mistake!"
"Nevermind." Qrow sighed as he sat down on the couch. "Did you see how Phantom's attitude completely changed when we came inside?"
Taiyang sat down in one of the chairs. "Yeah, like he seemed a lot more happy and carefree? I think."
Qrow nodded. "Probably has to do with the kid. She's most likely his daughter. He likely gets all happy and nice around his kid but it is all business when she isn't around. Kinda reminds me how you get with Yang. Outside your normal but once Yang comes around you get all protective."
"I do not." Tai denied."
"Yes you do."
Tai huffed "Whatever."
The two sat in silence for a moment before Cinder wandered in with water for them.
"So you guys are huntsmen?" Cinder asked, placing the water on the coffee table.
"Yup!" Tai smiled. "Some of the best! You want to be a huntress when you grow up?"
Cinder pouted. "I am all grown up. I'm nine years old!"
"No you're not!" Mason shouted from the kitchen.
"Shut up dad!" Cinder shouted back.
"Oh yeah, he's just like you." Qrow muttered to Tai.
"So what do you guys do? Dad says guys like you fight crime and kill grimm." Cinder looked at the huntsmen.
"And look cool doing it!" Tai said.
Qrow pinched the brow of his nose. "Tai…"
"So you're basically glorified police?" Cinder took a knife that was resting on a table nearby and began to fidget with it. "Sounds boring."
Tai's face faulted from being shut down. "And why does it sound boring?"
"Cause you guys only get to fight thugs and kill grimm. My dad does all sorts of stuff since he's not bound by stupid laws." Cinder shrugged tossing the knife at a dart board that hung on the far wall.
A knife flew out of the kitchen knocking Cinder's knife out of the air. "Oh come on dad! I was gonna get a bullseye that time!"
"No you weren't." Mason said from the kitchen. "You were going to hit the lamp nest to the target."
"And how would you know?" Cinder huffed.
"I'm just that good." Mason snarked back.
Cinder rolled her eyes. "You always say that."
"~Cause it's true~!" Mason smugly sang from the kitchen.
Tai and Qrow just watched the exchange with wide eyes. Neither felt entirely comfortable with how casually the father and daughter duo were casually just throwing knives around their house.
Tai leaned over to Qrow and whispered into his ear. "I don't think I've been nearly as bad an influence on Yang as this guy has been to his-" A knife found itself imbedded in the couch right next to the blond huntsman's neck.
"Finish that sentence. I dare you!" Mason growled from the kitchen.
"R-r-right." Tai stuttered quickly turning his attention back to Cinder. "So what sort of things does your dad do?" Tai said trying to keep calm after nearly having a knife spear his throat.
"Depends. He's guarded a few illegal shipments of dust, was hired to kill a few crime lords, collected some bounties on rouge huntsmen, robbed a few dust shops, broke in and stole information from several places, killed a crap ton of grimm." Cinder shrugged. "I could go on but then we'd be getting into some more sensitive stuff."
"Your dad is a busy man." Qrow lightly whistled.
"Not really. He spends most of his time here teaching me and my sister." Cinder said.
"You have a sister?" Tai asked.
"Yep. She's taking a nap right now though." Cinder smiled. "Hey dad!"
"Yeah?"
"They pass!"
"Oh good." Mason said walking out of the kitchen
"We pass?" Tai asked. "What did we pass?"
"My lovely daughter was analyzing you. She needs practice covertly analyzing people." Mason said before turning to his daughter. "Well what did you find?"
"Blondie is unarmed but has the muscle tone suggesting he's a brawler, his left leg is crooked slightly suggesting an old injury that never completely healed right and has a beetle crawling through his hair." Cinder pointed towards Tiayang who immediately began freaking out about having a bug run around his hair.
Shifting her finger towards Qrow. "Beer breath-"
"It's whisky." Qrow piped up.
"Same difference. He's obviously got that big sword on his back. Seeing he's a huntsman it likely shifts to another form. He's intoxicated but not to the point that it will affect his fighting abilities and has a slight lean to the left to compensate for the weight of the sword on his back." Cinder smiled. "I miss anything?"
"Just one." Mason said pointing at Qrow. "He has a knife hidden in the heel of his boot. But aside from that good job."
"So what did we pass? You never explained that." Tai asked having calmed down once the beetle was out of his hair.
"You passed judgment. You've been deemed not a threat so you are allowed to stay inside the house." Mason said sitting down.
"I didn't realize that was an interrogation." Qrow said leaning his head back.
"Eh it's not important now. Cinder can you leave us for a bit I need to speak with our new friends." Cinder nodded and left the room. Mason's tone turned deathly serious. "Now. We need to talk."
Both Qrow and Taiyang dropped their previously laxed attitude and sat a full attention.
"No kidding." Qrow crossed his legs. "So how do we know that it wasn't you that killed Summer? Frankly, what you said outside is a bit unbelievable. It would have taken a more than a few grimm to kill her."
"Oh it was more than just a few." Mason let out a dark chuckle. "At least three death stalkers, four separate packs of beowulves, alphas included, a minimum of ten ursai, and there were enough feathers littering the ground to suggest there was at least a flock of nevermore. Might have been a nuckelavee watching at some point too."
"Bullshit." Qrow spat. "There hasn't been a nuckelavee spotted in years. They don't come this close to Vale."
"Qrow." Taiyang said. "Your forgetting we don't know where we are. For all we know we could be in the middle of the badlands."
"We're not." Qrow said. "I would know."
Mason chuckled again. "He's right. We're nowhere near the badlands. But if you don't believe me that I didn't kill Summer then look at this."
Mason tossed a plain white scroll over to Qrow. On its screen was a play button.
"What's this?" Tai asked looking over to the scroll.
"Summers last moment's. I was out hunting and I ran into her." Mason said.
"Why would you record it?" Tai asked.
"I record everything that happens outside the house as a safety precaution. I have cameras all around outside. My armor also has a built-in camera that records what I see in case something ever happens on a mission." Mason said. The second part was a blatant lie though. He had no reason to tell the two huntsmen about Neir and how he records everything for his databanks.
Qrow looked down at the scroll for a moment before hitting play. The video loaded and began to play.
…
"Cinder. Stay here. You can watch but I don't want you getting hurt." The video said.
The screen showed someone running forward before coming to a stop.
"Oh, there sure are a lot of you this time. Well come on! Let's dance!" Mason could hear his voice from the video.
A few moments of silence followed before a loud "HEY! DON'T IGNORE ME!" could be heard.
More sounds of running came from the scroll before they ceased. The camera panned around revealing the dissipating corpses of fallen grimm. Dozens of Beowulf corpses littered the ground. Here and there several Ursa lay slowly dissolving into smoke. Towards the edge of the clearing sat the tails of three Deathstalkers, the rest of their body's having dissolved. Long feathers peppered the clearing, the only sign that Nevermores had joined the fight.
The camera kept panning around until it came to rest on a lone figure standing in the center of the carnage, torn white cloak lightly ruffling in the wind of the snow storm
"Hooooo boy. I haven't seen this many corpses since we tried to-" a sudden gust of wind distorted the end of the sentence.
The figure in the camera turned around slightly just reveling the side of its face.
"I take it this was your doing?" the cameraman asked.
The woman said nothing. A gust of wind blew by ruffling both figures cloaks, revealing the woman's blood-stained clothing and missing arm. The woman seemed to let out a sigh before turning away. She extended something, a weapon by the looks of it, and used it as a walking stick before slowly walking off.
"Hey!" the camera ran towards the figure. "You're hurt! Stop and let me-"
A hand went to reach out but the figure collapsed not five steps from where it had been standing. The camera ran to the fallen figure and rolled it over.
"Holy…" The cameraman muttered almost silently.
The camera revealed a woman who had been wearing a red and black combat skirt. The Camera panned up and down the woman's body examining the various wounds.
"-would be able to stand after something like this…" another gust of wind obscured the first part of the cameraman's sentence.
…
Qrow ended the video so Tai could gather himself and stop dry heaving.
"Believe me now?" Mason asked.
The two huntsman sat in silence. They had both just watched one of their teammates die. After several years they finally had confirmation about what had happened to her.
Qrow let out a tired sigh. "Well… fuck. That hurts."
"Yeah no kidding." Tai grumbled. "And to think I had just given up. It's nice to get some closure. Now if we could just find her daughter."
Mason looked down. "Funny you should mention that…" He whispered.
"What'd you say?" Qrow said looking up from the scroll.
Mason let out a large breath. "I'm going to hate myself for this I just know it…" He paused. "Cinder!"
"Yeah dad?" Cinder peaked her head around the door to the hallway.
"Go grab your sister." Mason said, barely able to say the words.
"Okay?" Cinder said confused but went to grab her sleeping sister.
"You have two kids?" Qrow raised an eyebrow.
"Heh." Mason laughed dejectedly. "What? Didn't think a criminal was capable of having a family?"
"Frankly? Yes." Qrow said. "Not many women want to have kids with a criminal."
Mason let out another sad laugh. "Guess it's a good thing they both are adopted then."
"You adopted kids?" Tai asked. "Why?"
"Mr. Xiao Long, loneliness is a powerful emotion that drives people to do strange things." Mason said leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling.
"So where did you get them?" Qrow asked taking another flask from… somewhere? Mason couldn't tell.
"I found Cinder on the streets. I was out shopping for groceries when I found her being chased by a mob for burning down a bakery." Mason let out a halfhearted chuckle. "Hard to believe she used to be this thin little twig scared of her own semblance. Looking at her now you'd have never thought she grew up in alleyways and dumpsters."
"That's terrible!" Tai said.
"Life is terrible." Mason said. "But at the same time it's the best thing to ever happen to anyone."
"So what about the other?" Qrow asked. "You haven't said anything about that one yet."
Mason let out a sad, dry chuckle.
"You do that a lot." Tai said. "Why do you laugh like that?"
"Cause sometimes it's all you can do." Mason said. "The other one is… well she's four years old and a complete cookie monster. She has the prettiest eyes and hair that refuses to cooperate. She has red tipped hair just like her mother did."
"I thought you said she was adopted?" Taiyang said.
"She is." Mason said sitting up.
"DAAAAAAD! SHE'S NOT GETTING OUT OF BED!" Cinder shouted from down the hall.
"And unfortunately, she has my sleep schedule. She's a handful but she's my handful." Mason stood up and walked down the hall to grab his daughters.
A moment later Mason returned with Cinder in tow and a small sleeping girl in his arms.
She wore a little black t-shirt and a pair of white fuzzy pajama pants. Long black hair with red tips hung in a mess around her face as she gently snored in Mason's arms.
"This is my second adopted daughter. Ruby Fall." Mason said sitting down, his hair shadowing his eyes. "You might know her as Ruby Rose, daughter of Summer Rose and now that I know, Taiyang Xiao Long."
…
…
…
"WHAAAATTTT!?" The two huntsmen practically jumped from their seats.
Mason sat there with his head down while the two people in front of him freaked out.
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod." Taiyang muttered to himself as he paced back and forth.
Qrow after his initial outburst had sat back down and was just staring at the ceiling. "Sweet Oum she's alive. My niece is alive."
With all the commotion Ruby stirred in Mason's arms. She brushed away the hair that hung in her face and opened her eyes.
"Daddy?" She looked a little confused. She was supposed to be in bed. Ruby shrugged not thinking much of it and snuggled further into her father's arms. "Morning daddy."
"It's lunchtime kid." Mason said.
"Oh." Ruby perked up. "Then can I have a cookie?"
"Maybe later. There is some people you need to meet." Mason looked up at the huntsmen who were still freaking out.
"Who're they?" Ruby said looking at the huntsmen.
The two huntsmen stopped at the sound of her voice and looked at her. Qrow leaned back and muttered something along the lines of "She looks just like her mother."
Taiyang stopped his pacing and turned to Ruby. "Ruby…"
…
-2 hours and a one-sided emotional reunion later back in Vale-
…
Mason stood in the street as he watched Qrow and Taiyang walk away with Ruby.
"How do you know they won't try and arrest you once you turn your back on them?" Neir said appearing over Mason's shoulder.
"They can't arrest me anymore." Mason said. "By simply associating with me they've given me blackmail against them should they try anything."
Both the hunter and the ghost stared as the reunited family got lost in the crowd. Soon after Neir spoke up.
"You did the right thing Mason." Neir said.
"Doesn't make it hurt any less." Mason said turning back to head towards the center of Vale.
"Still." Neir said. "It's good you returned her and… Are you crying?"
"As if." Mason hung his head down to hide the tears gathering in his eyes. "The Phantom doesn't cry."
"Right…" Neir didn't believe him. "Besides, they never said you couldn't visit her in Patch."
Mason perked up at the prospect at seeing Ruby again. Wiping his eyes Mason said "You're right. I can still go and see her. Cinder can too that should cheer her up."
Masons face darkened and his hands flickered with embers. "I swear though. If I find out they hurt Ruby at all I will slaughter them."
"They won't. They're not those kinds of people." Neir bobbed. "Come on let's get you home."
"Heh." Mason sighed. "Yeah let's go. I need a nap. It's been one long ass day."
The two reached their ship and before long they were off back home.
AN
Dear lord that was miserable to write, so much so I took two extra days to actually finish the chapter. In case you couldn't tell I'm not much of a fan of writing out sad scenes like the one above above. In all honesty I feel like the end of this chapter was rushed and poorly done. I'll probably come back and clean it up at some point.
Anyway, Ruby is back home with her real parents but don't think this will be the last we see of her. She will return. Mason is training Cinder and life continues on.
Just as an FYI I'm not sure if I can keep up with the weekly updates like I wanted to because of school so I cant guarantee a chapter will be out by Saturday. I'll update when the chapter is done regardless of how long it takes but they should still come out in under two weeks.
Hope everyone is enjoying the story and don't forget to leave a review!
Have a good one everyone!
-Zeak-
