Six Years Ago.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Knock. Knock.

Glynda Goodwitch pressed open the oak door, glancing back down the enclosed hallway she had just come through. She paused to bring outwards her layer of composure, stepping slowly into the office.

Tick. Clocks. Tock. Everywhere. Tick. That ridiculous man. Tock. Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose to try push the sound out of her head, as she had to do every time she entered this place. All four walls were lined with timepieces, analogue, digital, mechanical, pendulum, a cuckoo or two. Every single one of them in perfect synchronization, producing the bellowing noise reverberating through the occupants skulls.

Each had a label; a place, mission name, even people. Everything and indeed everyone, it seemed, was on a schedule. Looking through the labels, Glynda found the one she was searching for on the right wall, her muscles tensing for a fraction of a moment before she made to close the distance to it. Her walk like that of a friend behind a hearse, unsure yet determined, a walk of respectful purpose.

Tick. She met the timepiece waist-high,running her fingers along it's top. Tock.

"We've lost another sir." Tick. Glynda let out as she turned her head to the figure sitting at the desk across from her, having swiveled his chair to reveal himself. Tock.

"As I had feared." Ozpin sighed, clearly disturbed by the revelation. Tick. "Make preparations for the daughter,she must come to no harm." Tock. The chair swiveled back to turn from Glynda as she herself turned back to the clock. Tick.

"Requiscat In Pace" she whispered. Tock. Her hands moved under the clock until her fingers found a switch. Tick. A slow, smooth press. The clock was turned off, a life had come to a close. Glynda took one more look at the clock's nameplate: "Summer" before turning and leaving the room.

Tock. The rest of the clocks sang. Life went on. The world moved forward. Ozpin bowed his head.


Present Day.

The coin sat between thumb and index finger, poised, the stylized 'A' glinting from a bedside lamp. Middle finger raised it's head with a flourish as thumb pulled away. The coin dropped limply to the floor. How do the guys on tv make it look so easy. Ruby had been attempting the same coin trick for more than half an hour in an effort to curb her thoughts from frazzling to pieces. The coin the man Ozpin had given to her was supposed to roll seamlessly across her knuckles, it simply found a way each time to end up rolling across her dormitory.

As she perched on the edge of her bed, hands clasped around her bent-up knees, Ruby focused as hard as she could on the little coin sitting there, taunting her with the secrets of her past. Ozpin hadn't said much in his reveal; "All I can offer to you Ruby, is answers. You may not like them, but you do want them". His meandering words wound there way through her head like smoke, not searching, but finding every nook and cranny none-the-less, occupying the space until she couldn't think of anything else.

Answers. Ruby had never known why her mother had died. There had been no legal case, a funeral had been held but only attended by men and women Ruby did not know, men and women wearing sunglasses on an overcast day. A nine year old had wanted answers from everyone, pleading to know why Summer had been taken away from her. An eleven year old realised the need to fit in with the other kids at her new home and so pushed it to the back of her head for a later time. A thirteen year old sealed away the questions behind a brick wall in her consciousness, knowing she would never get her mother back no matter how hard she looked. The odd man with his peering eyes had tore down the barriers with his statement and let the questions out, flooding her being.

Why. Who. How. Why didn't she run. Why would she leave me. Who had THE RIGHT TO DO THAT. They all flashed by, too fast to individually consider. Her eyes still intensely focused on the coin, world shrinking around her. *Knock knock* The real world popped back with a rap at the door, it's relative silence in contrast to the buzzing Ruby hadn't even realized had been consuming her ears. A small head poked it's way around the door.

"Ruby, dinner's ready and Ms. Lara wants to know do you want any of it maybe", the shy little eyes of seven year-old Jada also asking the hidden question: "What's wrong Ru?".


Lithe hands pulled her from her knees, preventing her from sinking back into the black hole of despair surrounding the bloodied corpse of Summer Rose. Hands that snuck past her clawing defenses and lifted her from the waist.

"NOOOOOOoOOoOoaaOOOHH!" a violent shrill erupted from her mouth, like the last cry of a savaged beast, desperate to live on. Streams of tears rivuleted down her face, separating and crashing together again in a patchwork of terror and confusion. Legs kicking. Arms mauling. Little Ruby could not get loose. She watched her mother's corpse be swallowed back in to the crowd as her captor tore her from the scene.

There was a car door opening and the sudden burn as her body was forced along the interior seating face first. Lashing out blindly behind her, she felt her foot make contact. "Arrgh, fu-".

The door slammed behind her, encasing the terrorised girl in a makeshift prison. Twisting and turning, she righted her body and found herself in the back seat of a sedan. Attention suddenly whipping her head around to the shadowy figure passing the vehicle's side, it loomed towards the drivers door before bursting itself into the car.

Greys, blacks, pale skin. Red eyes. "RUBY! You need to calm down!" A grizzly voice prevailing over the shrieks and screams of the now orphaned child. The eyes met and the girl froze, caught in the headlights of this terrifying man. Angles in his face softened as the burning eyes faded to a soft glow. "I'm here to help you okay, it's gonna be alright, we're gonna get you through this. I'm your mom's friend and I'm gonna get you through this."

Ruby twitched out of her statued shock to press her entire body away from the man, attempting almost to push back through the seating, an injured cub in an evaporating corner. "Wh- who are you?" Squeezing her eyelids shut over and over as the words trembled out of her mouth.

His hand reached back towards her, ignoring her discomfort and placing his palm against the side of the girls face. Again his features relaxed, trying to will the child to do the same. Ruby stopped blinking and met his gaze, she did not find in it the terror she expected, but instead love and worry. So much worry.

"My name is Qrow, it's gonna be alright."