The Shack in

The Forest

Ruby knocked on the door to the house in the woods.

"Come in. The door's unlocked." Ruby opened the door and walked in. She looked around and saw boxes and papers piled up against the walls on either side of the room. She noticed bookshelves trying to hide behind the clutter. On the other end of the room there were two hallways, one on each side with a window on the far end.

"Hello. Where are you?" She continued to look around.

"I'm in the kitchen, down the hallway to the right of the window." Ruby strolled down the hall until she entered a room that had a stove and oven in one corner, a TV, couch and a few chairs in another, a dining table in the middle and bookshelves lining almost all the walls. The books on the shelves filled them up and they all looked hand-made. Other than that, the floors were covered in stacks of boxes, used paper waiting to be bound and unused paper waiting to be written on.

There was some open space in between the massive piles of clutter, just enough to walk around, no clutter in front of the couch and chairs. There was also a nice ring around the dining table. In the corner of the room that was the kitchen, crouching in front of the oven, was a man of about the same build as Qrow but one to two feet taller. He also had black hair with red tips. He looked at Ruby and stood up.

"There you are, Ruby. It's been a long time since I've seen you. Sorry about the clutter, but I've got some cookies in the oven. I know you like them." He picked his way across the room to her.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you too, uncle Vara." She wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him for several minutes. "I missed you Uncle."

It had happened several years ago, when Ruby and Yang had still been children. Team STRQ had been called off for a mission in the west. Summer, Tai, Raven and Qrow.

The mission had failed. There had been a traitor placed in the academy that was a part of the strongest team in Beacon history; team VLCRY. The only five-man team ever to come out of any school.

The people who made this team were, Vara Rose, elder brother to Summer, Laura Star, Cinder Fall, Roy Winchester, father of Cardin Winchester, and Yael Arc, father of Jaune Arc.

Cinder Fall had been placed into Beacon by Salem to destroy the remaining silver-eyes. Summer and her team were called to a town at the sea to combat a giant grimm. Back at Beacon, Vara and his team were called up north to keep a giant horde of grimm off an evacuation.

However, when they got there, Cinder disappeared. The grimm were coming in and they couldn't worry about where she had gone to. Unfortunately, Cinder had gone to team STRQ to kill Summer. This is what happened.

"See you when we get back brother." Summer said as she hugged Vara. They let go of each other and Summer knelt down in front of Ruby.

"We'll be back soon, okay?" The little girl nodded and jumped into her mother's arms. Summer hugged her back and picked her up. She set her down next to Yang.

"Take care of each other, you two." The group of nine people walked through the trees so they could catch a train into town. When they got to beacon they split up into their respective teams, STRQ and VLCRY. Summer went west and Vara went north. After about a day of flying, Vara and the others landed and got out of the airship.

What they saw was a burning town. There was grimm everywhere. The four of them ran into the village and killed grimm, took children out of the town and into the airship so they could get away. Somewhere along the flight, Cinder had disappeared. At this point they didn't notice she was gone because they were too busy dealing with the grimm to worry about her.

Vara was pushing the grimm back into the mountains. The other three of them were still trying to clear out the town. They got into the airship and they told the pilot to wait to take off until Vara got there.

He had noticed that Cinder wasn't anywhere nearby so he decided to search through the kingdom for her. He found out where she was.

She was all the way in the west where Summer was. Cinder was attacking them, but going for Summer the most. She would knock the other three back and attack his sister.

Cinder stabbed her and Vara absolutely lost it.

His eyes glowed silver and energy pulsated off of him. He fell to his knees and held his head in his hands trying to contain his rage, but it didn't work. All the grimm within a twenty mile radius of him were obliterated. The force of such a blast sent him off the ground and through the sky, all the way to his sister.

He landed with a concussive force that left a crater in the ground. Qrow and Tai grabbed Summer and drug her away from the battle that was about to start.

"Cinder. You tried to kill my family. Now, you die."

Cinder charged at him. She held her sword above her head for a downward slash. Vara threw himself to the side and as he was flying he knocked her feet out from underneath her.

She fell to the ground and Vara sped past her, blasting through several trees as he barely missed her. He came back for another attack. Cinder brought her blade up for a block. Vara whipped past her, smashing her sword to pieces and throwing her a few dozen feet through the air.

Cinder started to run away from him and he went after her.

"Brother. Stop." Summer yelled as loud as she could. Vara tumbled across the ground. He was on his hands and knees, with his head nearly touching the dirt. His eyes still glowed, but they were fading. He caught a glimpse of her and his eyes went out. He got to his feet immediately and ran over to her.

He kneeled down next to her and covered her wound with both his hands. He pushed down to try to stop the bleeding.

"You're going to be alright, Summer, you're going to be alright." His voice weakened as he said it. The bleeding wouldn't stop no matter how hard he tried.

Summer put her hand on his face. "Don't worry about me, Vara. I'm alright now that you're here. My wound is too bad to heal. Tell Ruby and Yang I love them."

"No, come on Summer. You can tell them yourself when we get back there."

"I wish I could, brother, but, I'm not going to be able to. I won't be able to see my two beautiful daughters grow up, not with these eyes anyway. Don't worry. I'll be watching you from the other side. Tai, Vara. Take care of them for me." And with that, she closed her eyes and exhaled her last breath.

Vara screamed, as loud as his lungs would allow. He had lost his sister, one of the few people who were alive that loved him. He held her close to him as he wept uncontrollably. He was upset that he had lost her, and angry at himself for not being there to protect her. There was one thing that he did know. He would not let this happen again. For his sister, he would protect her daughters, and give his very soul if it meant that they lived.

Him and Tai came back a few days later. They went to the cliff where Summer and Vara would look at the world. The two of them buried her there and made a gravestone for her that they could come to when they needed to talk to somebody. Yang was distraught, and Ruby? She was too young to understand what was happening, but old enough to remember her loving mother.

Ruby was sitting on Vara's couch. He had just told her what happened, because she had asked, and he wasn't going to keep anything from her if she wanted to know.

"Y-you were there when she died?" Ruby asked him. He held his head in his hands. He hadn't just told her what happened, he had relived it. He sat up, hearing the distress in her voice.

"How did you find out where Cinder was that day?" He didn't look her in the eyes. He looked over to the TV and turned it on without using the remote or his scroll.

"My semblance allows me to read and mildly control energy flow. I can find out anything that has happened and is happening in this world. Thats the reason for all this clutter. I've been reading the world like a book, writing down everything that I find out."

She took a cookie from the plate in front of her and took a bite out of it. These tasted a lot better than her dad's did, and his cookies were delicious.

"I know why you came here Ruby, and it wasn't just for a visit, though it was good to see you." He stood up. "Well, come on Ruby. Let's go."