Reclaiming in Black
Chapter 15: Family Drama
Rose, Qrow, Ozpin, and Glynda sat around a small table enjoying a tasty dinner out on a balcony attached to Ozpin's office. The air was fresh and slightly brisk, the sun had dipped below the horizon about an hour ago, and night's chill was starting to creep in. Rose was feeling particularly relaxed, all things considered. It had been a busy few days and the chance to decompress after a week of her new job as a teacher was welcome. Small talk filled the gap between bites of fish, salad, and sips of chilled white wine.
"Ozpin, what is your stance on teachers murdering students in a blood rage?" Qrow asked mildly, the question hanging in the silence of the night, broken only by the clinking of cutlery and Rose's slight snort at his question.
Ozpin hummed, chewing slowly and looking thoughtful. After a few, long moments, he swallowed. "Not positive," He answered plainly.
"What if they were getting rid of only the stupid ones? Raising the standards of the school, as it were."
"You'll find my lack of support in your endeavor to cull the student population to be unchanged, unfortunately," he told Qrow, looking suitably apologetic.
That is, not at all.
"And here I was, thinking to ask you how your first week of teaching has gone," Glynda murmured, reaching over grab another slice of grilled fish. Rose did her best not to stare at the bespectacled Head Mistress had her fourth helping of dinner. Aura was tiring to use in large quantities, mentally and physically, and fine manipulation compounded the issue. Glynda harbored a strength of Aura that a select few could hope to match, and with control that Rose was fairly certain, none currently did. She was also very active physically - an understatement considering a Huntresses' lifestyle, had a high-stress job and was quite a bit taller and larger a woman than average.
She burned through a lot of energy. Rose had seen Weiss put away a surprising amount of food before, almost as much as Yang, which was outright astounding when one considered just how stunningly petite she was. Glynda was many things, petite was not one of them.
All this meant that Rose understood why Glynda ate as much as she did, but it was still boggling to watch a woman with such an incredible figure eat enough to shame her father on his hungriest day. Especially considering she ate near as much as this consistently.
"You must spend a fortune on groceries," Rose mumbled absentmindedly, before pausing after she realized what she had said.
Glynda, to her credit, barely paused and nodded slowly as she chewed delicately on her fish. "One of the benefits extended to me as Deputy Headmistress is that I don't have to pay for food or lodging."
"The Council is rather strict in what sort of salary I could offer my employees," Ozpin said with a small, pleased smile, "But they are rather generous with other 'smaller' benefits."
"The extra pay I was pushing for probably wouldn't make up a fifth in what it takes to keep me fed," Glynda admitted unashamedly, actually looking vindictively happy with herself. She made a gesture toward Qrow, who had begun laughing quietly at the short story, and he passed her the last of the food on the table, a small serving of pumpkin salad.
"That's so beautifully passive-aggressive I might cry," Rose sniffed, before betraying her true feelings as she too laughed softly.
"We do our best," Ozpin told her nonchalantly, lifting his mug - which Rose would have sworn was another room entirely ten seconds ago - in salute, before turning his attention to Qrow. "I must admit, however, I am interested in your thoughts regarding your first week as a teacher."
Qrow grimaced, leaning back in his chair and scratching at the scar on his face he'd received in the battle with Izhar. "It could be worse," he said summarily. Ozpin, looking interested, gently prompted him to continue by rolling his hand. Qrow obliged, "For a lot of these kids, the most espionage training they've had is watching some old spy movies on late night specials. For some, it's obviously coming naturally, other not so much. I'm probably going to have a lot of kids wanting to drop out or change courses. I say we let em'."
"Why?" Rose asked him, he seemed so passionate about teaching his new class, but also very free with allowing students to leave.
"I don't need a hundred Hunters-in-training with aspirations to be spymasters, just a few. It also isn't something I'm going to encourage them to pursue if they don't have an obvious talent for it." He replied, lounging back in his chair with a contented sigh. "Right now, I'm still coverin' the basics, and everyone should know them. Field handles, ID'ing friendlies and enemies, basic infiltration countermeasures and blah, blah, blah." Qrow finished quickly. "Easy stuff, but necessary. I'll let the kids that want out walk once we tear into real the sticky business."
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Ozpin agreed. "And yourself, Rose?"
"Combat Class was always going to be simple," she shrugged. "I help them with forms, I set up spars, I run PT, the whole works."
"It is a little more involved than that," Glynda chided.
"Well yeah, but nothing that really bears repeating. They've already trained for years to develop fighting styles. I can offer the standard Hunter package: experience, refinement, maybe some recommendations on new tricks, but the only thing I'm really going to be teaching is some cardinal Hunter Techniques, like using your Aura to enhance your body, improved Aura shielding, using your Aura as a light source and blah, blah, blah." She finished, gesturing with her hand toward Qrow and nodding at the same time, as if in agreement.
"Unsurprisingly, the one you'll have the most to teach will be Ruby." Glynda pointed out.
Rose shrugged, "I never master fighting with a sword, or a mace, or needle pointed sandals or any of the weird shit that works for some of these kids. They've developed the styles themselves, a lot of the time. But, you all know this, Combat Class is pretty general."
Ozpin frowned, "This isn't exactly what I was hoping for when I hired you on to teach, as you may remember."
Rose blinked at him slowly. "You do understand that I've been teaching them for a week, right?"
"Yes..."
"They don't really trust or respect me all that much yet," She added. "Passing on what I've learnt from battles - what it is actually like... well, I'm going to have to work up to that."
"Is that time we have to spare?" The Headmaster asked her, and she gave him a thin-lipped smile.
"Maybe not, but what do you expect? I can't make most of these kids battle ready - not to face other people," Rose sighed with a deep weariness.
Qrow gave a slightly bitter chuckle, but the minuscule smile he gave Rose was consoling. "Look, there's no way you could ever do that. Grimm, sure, that's easy. We've been killing Grimm almost as long as they've been killing us. It's practically humanity's collective past-time." He shrugged, "But say what you will about people - we can be shitty, yeah, but most of us aren't murderers. Not deep down."
"Most of us," Rose replied softly, breaking eye contact and looking off into the distance.
Glynda chewed slowly, thinking as they all sat in the sudden pensive silence the table had descended into. Ozpin was an eerie reflection of Rose, his eyes glassy and mind obviously elsewhere. Qrow looked like he had unexpectedly swallowed something bitter, but didn't quite know what to say. "I think..." She began slowly, getting the attention of everyone at the table, "That we can only do our best, trite as that may sound. Nothing, or no-one," She added, looking to Rose pointedly. "Can truly prepare anyone for war. It's an impossible circumstance, and the truth of the matter is that it does change people, whether for better or for worse." She reached over, gently grabbing one of Rose's hands in a gesture of silent comfort. "And sometimes, more than anything... it simply leaves scars."
Rose shuddered briefly, closing her eye as she fought a back a surge of emotion. The other occupants at the table shared silent, worried glances.
"Rose," Ozpin began delicately, "Far be it for me to pry, but have you ever spoken to anyone about your experiences?" Silence was his answer. "There is a reason we have teams, more than a practical application of martial strength. Your team-"
"Is dead," She snapped, her eye flaring open. A few tense moments passed before she sagged, the anger in her frame disappearing. "Or as good as."
"That is untrue," Ozpin said firmly. "They are alive, and they are very much present, if perhaps not exactly as you knew them."
"But they aren't my team," She replied morosely, bitterness seeping into her voice. "They aren't the people I fought with, and they won't ever be - my team is gone."
"Do you think less of them for not having fought and killed as you have?" He cut in sharply, and she jerked in her seat. "Are they lesser for having experienced the pain and suffering you have?"
"Of course not!" She barked at him, her temper flaring. Qrow shot Ozpin a warning look as well, silently informing him that he was toeing a line.
"Then why do you say they are not your team? If not because they lack the same experience as you, then what?"
A startling moment of pin-drop silence.
Rose's chair clattered to the floor, seemingly cacophonous in wake of the stillness that preceded it, as she stood from the table, hands clenched. "I'm going to find my father," she said brusquely, turning and leaving the balcony before the other occupants could formulate a response.
"Oh, this is going to end well, I can just see it," Qrow muttered dispassionately, lifting his glass in grim mockery of a final salute before promptly draining the last of his wine.
Ozpin and Glynda didn't disagree, and after a few moments, followed suit.
"So, if you pull your arm back riiigggght now!"
"Haaa-WOAH!"
"Yes! Exactly like that, kid!"
"Did you see that, Ren?! I don't think I've hit anything that hard before! And it's still going!"
"Ah... yes... yes I did."
"You're the best, Master Tai!"
"I know, right?"
Funnily enough, tracking down her father proved to be an exceedingly mild challenge for Rose. Stealth had never been his strong suit in the first place, but taking into account his budding apprenticeship with Nora? Well, if you followed the sounds of destruction...
"Now, are you ready for the next level!"
"...What's the next level?"
"Explosions."
She'd obviously arrived just in time.
"Right!" Rose exclaimed loudly as she came into view, clapping her hands together to get all three gathered attention, "Dad, we've got to go."
Nora and Tai both let loose a plaintive whine that would be far more appropriate for a toddler being denied his favorite plaything than two semi-adults barred from a bout of evening demolitions. They were standing in what ostensibly used to be a training courtyard but currently looked more akin to an artist's interpretation of the final result of a smith-god's furious temper tantrum, with rampant destruction and liberal evidence of hammers being swung with unholy force. Training dummies lay trashed and scattered about in a way that would be massively more disturbing if they were made from anything other than straw. Both were absolutely covered in dust, flushed from exertion - Nora far more so than Tai - and had the most unnervingly bright smiles stretching from ear to ear.
Ren in contrast, was sitting far, far to the side of the court, and was so pale Rose swore she could see his veins popping up against his skin. He also looked unutterably relieved at the sight of her, and she got the distinct impression that he was moments away from raising a shrine in her honor. He stood up and strode over with a grace that was almost eery, walking over as much rubble as he was.
"Really, just give us one sec Rosie," Tai pleaded.
"Pllleeeaaasse?" Nora added with huge doe-eyes.
Rose lifted two fingers, "One, I like the nickname," she said, and her father smiled at her before she continued. "And two, no, we really do have to go."
"Seriously! Just one teensy moment, we were just getting to the good part!" Her father protested.
"You have already trained more than is most likely healthy today, Nora," Ren said calmly, his demeanor at odds with his still clammy pallor. "Perhaps it is for the best we turn in, and the lesson can be resumed at another time? Nowhere near civilization." He continued mildly, the last added in a low undertone that Rose was surprised she'd managed to hear.
In all fairness, it would probably be for the best...
Nora scuffed her foot on the floor, nodding sheepishly as she capitulated to Ren's good sense. He was, like, way more sensible than her. His senselyness was unbeatable really, which was why they made such an awesome team! With his senselyness and her unsenselness, they were unstoppable, they could take over the entir- Ow. Ok, forehead flicks meant Renny was being almost-nearly-completely serious, so she nodded again and stowed her weapon. Tai-Yang was dismayed.
"But if we had jus-" Tai began, but Rose cut him off.
"Dad, stop." He did. "Think. What were we going to do today?"
Tai-Yang slowed downed, thoroughly confused, but then jerked harshly as if he were suddenly poleaxed. "Fuck!"
Nora retreated behind Ren slightly at the sharp burst of harsh language, staring at Tai in surprise - in all the time she had spent with him, she'd yet to hear him swear at all, even in jest.
"Ah, sorry kiddo," Tai told Nora genuinely, "But I've really got to run. This is important."
"Important enough to forget until someone else reminded you?" Ren accused through slightly narrowed eyes, unimpressed.
"I tried my best," Tai told him with a grimace.
Ren immediately backed off. He didn't care for being manipulated or lied to, but by that same token, he realized when he wasn't entitled to the truth. This was either personal, above his station, or both. And judging by the distant gaze of what he'd already accepted as Nora's new mentor, and the sheer spun-wire tenseness he sensed in Rose, this seemed to be latter.
There was something entirely off about Rose, and the sudden flurry of changes and activity wrought by her arrival, but once again, he wasn't so close to those in charge or important enough himself to influence the situation much at all. He supposed he would be infinitely more worried if he didn't trust those involved. Qrow Branwen he didn't have much of a concrete opinion on yet, but he'd already learned to respect the man's cunning if nothing else - the new classes on subterfuge were immensely interesting and the enigmatic Hunter was proving to be a master of his craft. By that same token, he had already spent a significant portion of time under Glynda Goodwitch, and as stringent as she could be, she was also undeniably a Huntress of almost unparalleled caliber that meant nothing but the best for those students who didn't waste her time.
As for Rose and Tai themselves? There was an undeniable goodness to the both of them that set a deep part of him at ease. Not only had Tai-Yang raised Yang and Ruby, two of the most pleasant, dedicated and inherently just people he knew, but every member of their little family seemed to exude an air of honest benevolence that was inimitable. Their souls fairly thrummed with the light inherent in all of them, and as a young man who prided himself on his ability to detect and identify all aspects of Aura, those thrums echoed loudly indeed.
Beyond all that, however, he could tell Tai and Rose were involved directly involved also, and he'd bet good money that Ozpin wouldn't miss anything 'important' happening to his friends and colleagues. It wasn't even particularly difficult to piece together. Team RWBYO seemed more reclusive than ever recently, only truly talking to his own team and then only briefly. Rose would undoubtedly be in direct contact with her sisters, and from what he had gathered had apparently taken their entire team under her wing. There was also additional evidence - more often than not he could often spot one of the aforementioned adults walking together and talking in quiet, unobtrusive voices that would have blended into the background if he hadn't specifically began paying them more attention.
How was it that everyone else just seemed to accept a cadre of Elites like 'Duchess', 'The Man-of-many-Masks', 'The Unassailable Aegis' - and as Ruby had informed him, 'The Crimson Harvest' (and a moniker that ominous was not earned lightly in the world of Hunter's) had left on a mission together? There was stacking the deck, and then there was throwing everything you could at something in order to solve a desperate situation - but sending a team comprised solely of what were likely the most powerful men and women Ozpin could muster...?
And even then, Rose had returned half-dead by all accounts!
'No,' he thought to himself as he watched father and daughter together, the gallows walk of those about to commit themselves to the unenviable task, 'Something in this world is incredibly wrong.' And Nora was startled when Ren barked out an uncharacteristically bitter laugh, 'And on Remnant, isn't that an absolutely terrifying prospect?'
As Rose was gearing to leave, Obsidian walked up, and asked, "Is this going to be anything like your last mission?"
"Not unless something goes…"
"It might even be worse, got it." he interrupts, and she laughs. Military experience, it would seem, isn't something that differs.
He holds out a small black gauntlet, that looks almost like the Ember Celica, and Rose gasps. "A…?"
"Skellington. Speed class." He said. "I discovered them early because I had been thinking about something like it for my team after I told them."
"Is it...?" Rose asked slowly.
"No, I can't remotely control you. I can remotely monitor vitals."
Rose looked down on the gauntlet, and remember the power this gave Cinder's human forces. An armband that expanded into an organic exoskeleton, hence the name, that used aura to forcibly replicate the semblance of someone Abyssal had taken a sample from. Rose remembered her first time dueling someone using Summer's Wind against her, it wasn't fun. Nor was Rage, Yang's semblance.
It also had several different physical forms, built around different fighting styles. These were mostly limited to three easily crafted forms. 'Power' hit like a Paladin and some could bench one, 'Speed' could almost double natural speed, and as several spymasters and their agents reported apparently zero friction on any surface. And 'Stealth' was a chameleon effect that seemed based on Emerald's illusions.
"What is it set to?" Rose asked, putting it on.
"Haven't set a semblance yet." He said, "But I was thinking that for a combat mission, Yang's or Taiyang's. For stealth, Qrow's. Or for hell in a Grimm damned handcart, I can load Ozpin's. Or I can try doubling yours."
Rose pauses to consider. An army with the power equal to the Wraith King. She shivered.
"I only have one right now, but I figured you would appreciate the first look. That, and I needed my aura sampling test run. You interested?" He asked.
"Yes…"
Click, snap, click click, snap, thud-
Tai-Yang put the headphones of his music player in his ear, and the sounds of his team gearing up faded away... well, maybe not so much faded as drowned out by a thunderous tsunami of heavy metal clamoring for his attention. But for once, he was a little too preoccupied to really get into his meditation.
He wasn't stupid.
Things weren't alright. They hadn't been for a while. Before the woman out of time - his own daughter, no less - had delivered the fate of Vale's imminent destruction, even. They hadn't been alright for years if he was honest with himself. Better than they had been than in those dark times after Summer's death, perhaps, but never quite as bright as they had been when he still held his daughters mother in his arms.
It had taken countless arguments, and more literal blood, sweat, and tears than either man would admit to before he'd mended his relationship with Qrow. Love was the glue that held his family together, and by some terrible irony, it was the same thing that had almost torn it apart. Qrow and Summer...
Qrow and Summer. Hell, he'd admitted it to himself years ago, nevertheless, it still shamed him that he'd nipped that in the bud. His late wife had always admonished him for saying so, quite rightly telling him that her choice was just as important his, but what if the choice hadn't ever been available. If... if Raven had never left, had been the mother to Yang that she always should have been, would it still be so impossible?
He didn't think so. There had been a spark of love there, just as true as the one between Summer and himself, and he'd snuffed it out before it could flourish. And it was the fact that he didn't regret it that had hurt Qrow most of all.
But how could he? His time with Summer had undeniably been the happiest in his entire life, the joy of raising your child with the woman you loved? Indescribable. And then there was Ruby, and dear Oum, he couldn't remember loving someone more. If the joy of parenting could be indescribable, then the moment he still remembered, when Yang greeted her sister to the world with those brilliant lavender eyes, a sloppy kiss and massive smile, outshone only by the radiant joy of Summer... that was unimaginable.
And now his little Ruby was hurting. His eyes flickered to her form, black/red plates from head to toe, smooth and menacing, hunched over as she was, intently taking in the state of her unquestionably pristine weapon. 'Not so little anymore,' he amended. He could still see it, plain as day like he'd always been able to. How could he not? He was her father, no matter how old, clever or badass she got. She would always be his little girl. And he could read her like a book.
And he was waiting. He wouldn't with Yang - not anymore. Not since she'd taken gathered her things, put them in a trolley, and determinedly walked out in the middle of the most Grimm infested section of the woods on Patch and nearly gotten both herself and Ruby killed in the process. Yang could be fiercely independent at times - probably a result of her effort to help raise Ruby, bless her soul. This was a blessing and a curse. No man was an island, but Yang wouldn't ever extend her hand first. He knew now that she would open up to him, she loved him just as much as he loved her after all, but he had to make the first move.
Ruby was different. She'd never hesitated to come to him with a problem, or a thought or just a request for a shoulder to cry on. Whereas Yang always strove to provide more support than she received, Ruby gave and took in equal measure. She was fully herself with her family and accepted everything of those she loved in return
He got the feeling Rose hadn't outgrown that particular trait. Buried it, maybe, deep down where it wouldn't hurt as much after almost everyone she considered family had died, but not lost completely. She was every bit the full-grown Huntress, an Oum damned warrior of legend if he ever saw one.
And she was his little girl, so he'd wait, and she'd come to him. It might be ugly, shit, it'll probably end in absolute catastrophe, but it was inevitable. When she came to him, he'd be there.
So he ignored the sidelong glances Qrow and Glynda sent at Rose.
Ignored the slight pause and tightened grip whenever Rose caught them at it.
He'd wait.
"Operation Maskfall is now underway, godspeed." Ozpin's voice crackled over the earpiece Tai-Yang wore, and he sighed as his team made their way onto Qrow's airship, the Corvus.
It seemed now that he'd come to terms with issue of deep mental trauma of his battle-scarred, warrior-general daughter that had come from the future, he had about two hours to prepare himself to go and rescue the woman who had abandoned him and their child from a group of zealous, militant terrorists lead by a woman hellbent on world domination, or in spite of that, the complete genocide of the human race.
'Bugger me, poppa wasn't kidding when he told me life wouldn't get any less complicated.'
Then he turned up his music, lifted his hammer, zipped his fly and got on the fucking ship.
The team arrived at the drop zone. They could just barely see the lights of the complex in Mitralian wilderness. As they approached the team avoided a majority of the patrols, and occasionally needed to have Qrow and Rose eliminate some, and they quickly approached the base.
As the Grimm were spotted, exactly on time with Cinder's plan, the base went into high alert. In the wilderness of Mistral, the lights and sirens from the White Fang base were more than enough to cover their approach. Rose rounded a building and saw Raven. Her powerful swings and the almost instantaneous jump between two points was shocking to see in person. Beside her, Qrow whistled. "She has gotten faster..."
Raven abruptly disappeared, and Rose felt a blade at her throat.
'Once. Once I would love if a mission didn't go tits up immediately.' Rose's internal monologue huffed.
Rose accelerated backward and drew Crescent Rose, backward in a defensive stance. She looked at Raven, long ice blue sword standing, the large mask obscuring her face, and muffling her demand, "What are you?"
Qrow appeared out of the bushes, scythe held high, and Raven froze, and then all but yelled, "What are you doing here!?"
"Rescuing you." Qrow growled.
"This is too…" Raven began.
"Cinder is going to have you killed!" Qrow yelled, freezing Raven again.
After a moment, "What?" She slowly lowered her blade.
"Cinder is going to kill you. After this, she is going to summon you to a base in Atlas. She is going to detonate bombs she had buried around the area, killing the second white fang group, and you." Rose explained.
Raven turned back to Rose, "And why should I trust you, Grimm?"
Rose focused on revealing her face, and the smooth mask retracted leaving her exposed, and after a moment Raven charged, swinging in a powerful overhead.
"How dare you take Summer's face you monster!" Rose was actually struggling to keep up, Raven stabbed and swung from every direction, appearing and disappearing without warning. Rose didn't want to hurt her but knew she couldn't stop her without something drastic.
Then she felt a slight pull from her aura, and Raven slowed, as well as a deep echo reverberating in the back if her skull, 'Sorry.'
Rose realized what happened, Obsidian has used her aura to empower the suit, and bring speed her up. She put aside the anger at his blatant lie and moved. As Rose moved, she left a solid outline of petals in her wake, and as Raven's overhead connected with the afterimage, Rose struck. One powerful stroke to the upper arm and Raven was forced to drop her weapon.
Rose grabbed the sword as it fell, demanded, "Stop."
Raven froze, the massive scythe below her and her own blade pressed into the base of her neck holding her still. Rose explained, "I'm not Summer."
Raven looked over at Rose. She saw a look similar to her own staring back at her from Summer's eye and knew this wasn't the women she had known.
Qrow walked up, "Tai and Glynda are cleaning up the Grimm. Let's get her to the bulkhead."
Rose nodded and extended Raven the hilt of her sword.
Raven sheathed her weapon and followed Rose and Qrow to the bulkhead.
When the three sat down, Raven asked, "Who are you?"
Rose paused, and began bluntly, "I'm Ruby Rose, Summer's daughter."
"I know I haven't been gone that…" Raven began, and Qrow grunted.
"I'm from 7 years in the future after Cinder's insane bid for power almost succeeds. We're going to stop her long before she gets far enough to be newsworthy." Rose finishes, prodding the suit, attempting to remove it.
Raven asked, "What exactly is that suit?
Rose went to explain until Tai and Glynda walked into view. "Did you f…" Tai began, until he saw Raven sitting on the bulkhead, and his face went from expressive and open, into a nearly glacial sheet.
Ravan looked up, even though her mask the shock was evident in her, as was the pain.
Tai slowed in his pace, and Glynda walked past, confusion and some irritation on her face. She sat, and said simply, "Raven."
"Glynda." Raven said, softly, not looking away from Tai.
The silence was almost overwhelming. The tension between Raven and Qrow had been stressful, but between the three of them, it became almost a tangible force, keeping the silence, and escalating as time passed.
Rose called some attention to the situation, and said, "Let's get back to Beacon." Before signaling to the pilot.
Taiyang and Qrow sat very still on one side of the bulkhead, looking between each other and Raven, who sat very still and tilted her head down slightly.
After several long moments of silence, Qrow snarked, "You can take off the mask, sis."
Raven looked up, and slowly, almost like she was scared to do so, she slid the mask off over her head, shocking the three who knew what she had looked like before. Her face was pale, her eyes bloodshot, and she had several scars, both burns and claw marks, not horrific, but clearly not the picture of health.
Taiyang looked struck before the cold rage fell back over his features. Qrow, on the other hand, looked even more murderous.
Qrow asked, softly, anger prevalent in his tone more than Rose had ever heard, "That's a brand."
Rose looked at her more closely, and after a moment, saw that the burn mark had a smooth center and that it was exactly in the shape of Cinder's famous tattoo. Rose almost felt sick, remembering the pictures of those how failed Cinder, typically one of her "loyalty" tests.
"I…" Raven began slowly, holding her hand over it.
"Cinder's tests?" Rose asked, knowingly.
Raven looked over, shock written over her face. "Yes."
Rose looked over, "I can't say I don't understand hiding the scar."
Raven looks down, shame wrote across her face, and Qrow asks, "Tests?"
Rose explained, "Cinder Fall has a well-documented habit of ensuring the loyalty of her elite circle by testing their loyalty, if she is in a good mood, failing once results in a brand, failing again always results in cremation. We know that the test tends to be brutal and that the marked are typically disposable to her."
"What kind of tests?" Taiyang's voice called out quietly.
"Killing someone, a group of people, hitting a target solo." Rose said diplomatically.
"What…" Qrow began, before stopping, looking pained at Raven.
"Summer." Raven said slowly.
As that information slowly permeate Qrow and Tai's brains, and the rage on their face built into something that couldn't be contained, Tai demanded, "WHAT?"
Raven all but cowered at his rage, and Rose realized something, one of the reasons Raven couldn't come home.
Rose gave her father a glare, settling him down, and turned to Raven, "You took this assignment for Summer, so she didn't need to face this darkness. Then when she demanded you kill Summer you felt like the world was targeting her anyway?"
Raven looked up, into Rose's eye, and nodded, all but breaking down.
Rose strode over, and held her shoulder, as she crumbled, saying softly, "Throwing everything into saving someone, only for them to die anyway. It shakes your whole world."
"Then they took her anyway." Raven cried.
Rose, still holding her close, cradled the other wartorn woman into unconsciousness. Behind her Tai and Qrow, both had a little though burrow into the back of their mind, one that was far more terrifying than anything Rose had ever said, '...took her…'
Ravan awoke in a bed, in a thin white bed, one that reminded her of Qrow's more boneheaded adventures at Beacon. A she looked around she realized she was at Beacon, and the last night's event came back to her.
Raven slowly stood up, she looked down, an unflattering hospital gown across her form, and she realized she must have passed out. Ravan reached out, grasping at her power, and reaching out and drawing first a new set of clothes from her 'home.' She dressed for the day, and grabbed her weapon, feeling naked without its comforting weight.
Raven left the medical wing and began walking the school, taking in the familiar architecture. She turned a corner, and a red blur almost slammed into her. The blur of red and small wave of petals that she associated so strongly with Summer threw her for a moment. Then when Rose came fully into focus, she realized what happened, Rose inherited her mother's mother's semblance. The small weight settled in her stomach seemed heavier thinking about Rose, and the still younger Ruby, who had both been through so much pain.
Rose said, almost casually "We knew you were up when your weapon disappeared into a swirling red vortex. So I came to get you. We're having a briefing in Ozpin's office."
Raven nodded, and smashed her sword, and opened a portal to where she felt Ozpin sitting. She gestured and Rose stepped through.
Raven followed and quickly sat in the offered chair.
"So, Raven, I understand that you are probably still exhausted, but we were hoping you could tell us about Cinder's plans. The notes Mrs. Rose has from the future are must informative, but sometimes a more personal view is best." Ozpin said calmly.
Raven looked to Rose, "Currently, her plans revolve around getting the required supplies to supply her troops for the conquest of Vale. She is also looking for more powerful and useful servants."
Rose nodded, "It's certainly going to be harder this time."
"Have you already done enough damage to delay her?" Raven asked, confused.
"In my timeline, she had a man capable of controlling the Grimm wholesale. Made the war nearly unwinnable."
"Cinder had someone under her that could command the Grimm?" Raven asked.
Rose nodded.
"How did you find him?" Raven demanded
Everyone was shocked, Rose most of all, "What?"
"Cinder and her elite were told to be on the lookout for a boy, a teenager with the ability to create and command Grimm." Raven explained, "She needed him for the Spire."
Rose asked, horrified "Cinder knows…"
"Not Cinder, Salem."
Rose felt the wind get sucked from her lungs. The news seemed to still every person in the room, especially Ozpin, who palled in a way not reminiscent of horror, but recognition. Rose quickly demanded, "Ozpin…"
He looked over, regaining his coloration, and saying "I had always thought her a myth."
"Who?" Tai demanded, angrily.
"The Queen of the Grimm." Ozpin said slowly, horrifying everyone but Raven.
"What do… How could… But…" Tai began, again and again, trying to understand.
"I think we should get Obsidian." Qrow said. "He should know, especially if they're actually hunting him."
Raven looked over, confused, "Who?"
"You asked how we found the boy who can control Grimm." Glynda explained, "The answer is that we did not. He enrolled and is attending Beacon."
Raven froze. "What?"
"He is a relatively well-behaved student, more so than I can most first years, especially Yang." Qrow said, his typical sarcasm back in force.
"He is here!" Raven demanded, "How could you let this happen? You have no idea what he is capable of!"
Rose rose to her challenge, "I lived through the worst he could produce! I watched his burn down Patch! I saw the fields of slaughtered Atlesian troops! I had to watch as he hacked limbs off my partner! I found his mark and name carved into the broken body of the women I loved! Don't you tell me for a moment that I don't know what he could inflict on the world!"
Raven stepped back, taking in her grief, and responded, colder than anyone had ever seen her, "If that is truly the worst he inflicted on your world than I count you lucky. The power he is capable of is beyond what can be fathomed."
"What can he supposedly do," Qrow demanded.
"Do you know the story of the First Darkness?" Raven asked.
Ozpin frowned, and shook his head, Glynda and Tai both followed suit, but Qrow looked like he had seen death. Rose slowly spoke up, "The origin of the Grimm, and fount of all death in the world."
Raven nodded, "Salem spoke of the story a little differently. She told of a narrow opening being created from powers unnatural and untenable. She spoke of traveling through, to carve a path through for her children. She spoke of the army of hunters who sacrificed themselves the close the largest of the breaches and preventing any true openings to the other side. She spoke of forging minor beings from her concentrated essence, what we know as the Grimm, and of using this prophesied child to open a gateway large enough for her husband, bringing about the end of life."
All five people listening to her story sat quietly, propelling the ton of bricks that was just dropped on them.
Raven created a portal, "I'm going to speak to my daughter. Then I'm going to speak to this Grimm child. If I don't agree with your assessment, I'm going to stop him myself." before stepping into the portal. And coming face to face with a parody of a young man. He was slightly shorter than her, with solid black skin, piercing white centered, blood red eyes, and one arm completely composed of tentacles. Said arm was suspending Yang against a wall. Raven lost it.
Three minutes ago:
Yang smirked, after finding that she needed to know if it was possible.
She lept down from her bed and walked into Obsidian's corner.
He turned, his neck doing a full one-eighty to look at her, and muttered, "Sure Yang, come on in."
Yang just smiled, and held up her scroll, "Can you do this?"
Obsidian sighed, Yang had been presenting him with fantasy monsters and asking him to emulate them and it was getting old.
He stood, and looked at the strange paused mass on her scroll, and she hit play. He was intrigued at first, recognizing the mass as tentacles, and sighed, he morphed his arm to match, and as the screen slowly faded to black he waved them at her, asking, "Was this all you…"
The screen began to display the title of the work, and his eyes went from normal red to the targeting white center. It Came From Below: A Grimm Pornamentary.
"Yang…" He began.
"Yes?" she answers cheekily.
"Did you just have me emulate porn?"
"Yup."
Obsidian nodded, and suddenly Yang was pinned against the wall by his tentacles, some of which here rapidly growing hooks at the ends.
Then a red oval burst into existence, and a woman stepped out. As the five now highly awake people stared at her, Yang asked, "Mom?"
Rose looked up, realizing what Raven said as she left and that her meeting Obsidian without a chaperone was going to go badly. Rose activated her semblance and ran down the stairs, hoping she could reach them before any accidents happened. As she approached the door, a fully Grimm Obsidian being thrown through the door shattered that belief. Raven growled, "This is the not so evil Grimm child you have hidden away?" Obsidian visible retracted at her words.
Rose defended, "He isn't the m…"
Ravan slashed open a portal, and grabbed Obsidian, and dragged him through the portal. Rose did the only thing she could do, jump blindly into the portal.
Rose learned then that Raven's portals are exceedingly disorienting. As she landed, on a plane of sand, she looked around and could see a beach. The ocean to her right, and the green water to her left, and a large circular ring in the sand, and quickly realized that she was somewhere she really didn't want to be again.
The northern tip of Vale, the land famous for the green water, completely contained by the coast. Green Bay, or as she knew it from her time, Red Bay, for the slaughter of the joint, Atlas/Mystral/Vacuoen expeditionary army, by one man. Abyssal Fall.
Rose looked up and saw Raven standing over Obsidian, who had already given up.
"Fight me monster!" Ravan demanded, her sword pressed to his neck.
He looked over at Rose and looked to the sea to his left, and the bay to his right. He looked at Rose again, and she knew that he understood exactly where he was, and what he had done here.
"Fine." Ravan said, drawing back her sword. Rose reacted and threw herself between Ravan and Obsidian.
Rose felt the sword lance into her back and learned that she was much weaker than she had realized. She felt her aura, already weakened by the lack of sleep last night, and the stress and fighting she and done as well as the emotional conflict in her weakening it. She law in the sand, and felt Obsidian shift below her, and demand, "Why?"
"You are not the same man that I needed to kill to end his monstrous rampage." Rose said weakly, "You didn't deserve to be cut down like that."
Obsidian stiffened at her words, "You… You don't blame me?"
"No." Rose said, "Having come to know you, I feel bad having tried to correct you from a path you weren't on."
Obsidian left a weight lift from his shoulders. His empathy had only grown stronger over the past months. He had begun to feel a pain whenever Rose had looked at him, he had felt like he was becoming more and more like Abyssal, as her negative feeling grew. Learning that she had seen his stress and unhappiness and that was why she was upset was liberating. Obsidian cared for his team and was rapidly growing to think of them like the family he had never truly. Rose had claimed a special place in his heart, someone who cared for him despite knowing the entirety of the evil he was capable of, someone willing to sacrifice herself for him.
He felt the wound on her back, and reached out with the healing abilities he has been slowly perfecting, and closed the newly opened gash on her back. He looked over at Ravan, rage filling his being. This woman sauntered into his team room, abducts him, and nearly kills Rose.
He slowly put Rose down on the sand, and stood, he almost didn't feel his form shift. He looked down and saw his flowing white and black armor, the one he had worn during the battle at Green Bay, and when he had unleashed Olympus on the world. He looked over and could see Raven's sword. As a drop of blood fell from the sword, he felt a new wave of rage burn through him and unbeknownst to him, his eyes shifted to black, with a burning red center. He called to his power and morphed his arms. Gold rings with colored Grimm script melted into existence, four of the possible twelve bands; the twelve elements of dust; Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Ice, Light, Darkness, Shadow, Gravity, Time, and Chaos. Each ring for the twelve heads of Olympus. He recalled the twelve heads, casting effects of all twelve powerful primary dusts, individually powerful, and terrifying in combination. He lifted his arm, and activated Lightning and Ice, forging a massive arcing blade over his arm. He lifted his other arm, and activated Shadow and Fire dust, and forged a massive claw, one of a burning darkness.
Obsidian looked up, the power and rage he presented far in excess of anything he had even channeled before. His eyes connected with Ravan's, and he charged.
Ravan could never have anticipated that Rose would follow, she also couldn't have predicted that she would sacrifice herself for the monster. She also was confused by the lack of resistance that he had when she attacked him.
Then as she looked at Rose, she felt the guilt rose within her, attacking Summer's little girl, and she was about to go to help, she could see the monster holding her, and healing her. She saw him stand and shift, like a living body of water, reshaping into a new form, a monstrous form, almost seven feet tall, with white and black plates merging into each other. She could see the red coloration nearly fade in his eyes, as it morphed into a black eye, with a small red core, one that shifted around like liquid at a boil. Then his arms grew gold bands with different colors of glyphs wrapped around them, she quickly realized he had four massive dust bands surrounding his arms.
He thrust his arms out, and the massive blade that formed from another were shocking and intimidating. The claw, even more so. He looked at her again, and it felt like his gaze was boring into her soul. He roared, his insides glowing a dark red. Raven raised her sword, and his blade slammed down on it, bringing her to her knees.
He drew back and swung with his sword in a long horizontal arc, Ravan used her portals to jump behind him and met his claw face first, the fire was painful even through her aura.
Obsidian's claw wrapped around her face only grew hotter, until she portals out of his grip. She continues to fall back, unable to block his powerful slashes, and now knowing that he can intercept close proximity portals with his burning claw.
Raven attempted to get in strikes where she could, and with his berserker fighting style it wasn't tremendously difficult to do so, but they all seemed for naught, as he kept coming, slashing wildly. After several short minutes of her complete inability to slow him down, he abruptly stopped. He pointed his claw at her and sent a beam of black fire arcing towards her, after several failures to strike her, he smirks and the fires twist into the portal, striking her from behind. She cried out and was thrown to the ground. He approached again, with another overhead, but she was ready.
She leaped to the side and created a series of portals, one-way portals, completely encircling him and stabbed into them, knowing that this was unblockable.
She withdrew her portals and stepped back, only to find him once again leaping at her in a devastating overhead. She couldn't dodge and took the blowhard. Her aura shattering completely under the massive blow.
Ravan looked up, the towering form of the Grimm child standing there, blade and claw ready to strike, and knew she was going to die. It was fitting, she thought, going out not to the forces of evil, but to someone that was fulling willing to die until she attacked Rose, the spitting image of the women she failed to protect.
Then, she heard a voice, "Stop."
Rose groaned as she sat up. She reminded herself that swords hurt. She turned toward the almost familiar roar. She could see Obsidian standing over Raven, who was sprawled on the sand. As he drew back to finish Raven, she called, "Stop."
Obsidian froze. He looked toward Rose, and slowly retracted the forged weapons, and the gold/yellow bands. He slowly retracted from a towering figure to a normal sized man, and slowly regained a human coloration, startling Raven. Obsidian gestured to his fallen foe, "She attacked me, she nearly killed you! You were willing to risk your life for her, and she nearly killed you in spite of that! Why would you spare her?"
Rose slowly stood, "It is unnecessary, and think about Yang. She might even understand why, but it would destroy her."
Obsidian looked down. Anger and grief in equal measure. Then he morphs a somewhat familiar pincer and grabbed her shoulder. Ravan gasped in pain, and Rose began moving over, "Obsidian?"
Obsidian growled, "I not waiting for her to recover."
He walked over to Rose and offered his hand. Rose looked to Raven, and then back to Obsidian. She saw the hope on his face that even with the pain he inflicted on Raven, the monstrous nature he revealed, she would still trust him. Rose nodded, "You know we can't just leave her here."
Obsidian grunted, "Stop ruining my fantasy."
He waved his hands. A white oval burst into existence under Raven, and she fell through, and another portal opened almost immediately after hers faded, before them. He snapped his fingers, and her katanas flew into his hands. He waved elaborately toward the second portal, "Coming?"
AN: Anyone who has read Black Paladin will know that this chapter was kinda cathartic for me, after the train scene.
AN2: After season 4 and the fairy tails being true, I wanted to have my own.
AN3: Finally, we have reached original content!