Punished.
To say things had gone from bad to worse after the charity event, would be an understatement. Bernadetta was currently sitting on a chair as her furious father, Count Varley, was angrily pacing back and forward, almost struggling with forming any words through his anger.
"Utterly unbelievable! Not only does that Schnee kid make a complete fool out of herself, but you just insulted everyone there!" He said while barely controlling his anger.
"They were talking bad about what happened at Beacon. Openly insulting Vale which has already suffered enough. I couldn't just say nothing to such horrible words" Bernadetta weakly argued.
"That's not what I'm mad about! Even I am aware of the idiotic insolence of those people. But you are supposed to be a proper lady. If you disagree with someone either keep silent of find a proper way to express yourself. Instead you shouted like an spoiled child and insulted several important business partners! Many of them have proper a fine sons who would make perfect husbands for you. But now it will take a miracle to convince any of them that you would make a good wife" Her father said, his anger almost making him lightheaded.
"I don't want marry them!" Bernadetta finally shouted back.
Her father looks down on her before speaking in a dangerous tone "What was that?".
Bernadetta stood up from her chair, shaking but still managing a glare "I don't want to marry someone I don't love! I love only one person! And her name is Yang Xiao Long!".
"You mean... you want to marry not only a commoner who made a fool of herself in front of the whole world... But you would rather marry a girl!?" Her father asked in utterly disbelief.
"Yes! Because she didn't see me as a tool or as a random rich kid! She loved me for who I am! And she helped me more than you ever could!" Bernadetta almost shouted, trembling in both anger and fear.
"Silence!" Her father ordered sharply "It's bad enough you made our family look bad in front of everyone! If words gets out you love a girl, no one will ever consider marrying of their sons to you! And no daughter of mine is going to marry another girl! Least of all a useless commoner!".
Bernadetta clenched her fist "She is not useless! YOU ARE! You are the worst parent anyone could have! And I refuse to even see you as my father anymore! You are nothing but a greedy monster!".
Now more enraged than before, her father raised his hand to slap her... but she caught his arm before his hand made contact. Shocked by what his daughter had done, he pulled his arm free "You've forgotten everything I've been teaching you. At this rate you will be useless to this family and I will lose everything. Your mother always said I was to harsh on you, but now it's clear I was to soft. You will learn your place and you will accept the only reason you were born. I will make sure of it".
He motions to the guards to bring Bernadetta back to her room. But despite all this... for the first time in her life... Bernadetta was able to overcome her fear of her father... And she was not going to stay here. She was no longer a caged bird who was yet to learn how to fly.
Back In the abandoned village, Oniyuri ,Tyrian pulls his tail back. Qrow turns around, swinging his weapon and holding at the ready by his side.
"As I live and breathe, Qrow Branwen. A true Huntsman has entered the fray!" Tyrian said with a mocking bow.
Ruby gets up and sets Crescent Rose on its end. Qrow glances back at her, silently asking for an explenation "I don't know, this guy's weird".
Qrow turns back to face Tyrian again "Look, pal, I'm not sure who you are, but you need to leave my niece alone".
Tyrian chortles "Why, friend, my name is Tyrian. And I'm afraid that is not possible. My assignment from Her Grace was to retrieve this young girl and her friend. So, that is what I must do. One does not upset the Queen".
"Queen?" Ruby asked.
Qrow narrowed his eyes "Salem...".
"Who?" Ruby asked again.
"Hmm, I think we've had enough talk now, don't you?" Tyrian assumes a crouching position.
"You took the words right out of—" Tyrian rushes Qrow before he can finish voicing the thought and the two begin fighting.
Qrow blocks two strikes with Harbinger, then slashes at Tyrian who jumps trying to pierce Qrow as he lands. Qrow dodges then swings but Tyrian back-flips away and rushes back in. The two clash as Tyrian goes flying, he comes to a stop digging his weapons into the ground. He ducks to avoid a slash from Qrow then leaps aside to dodge a horizontal strike. He follows up with a slash, using the force to transition into a kick that Tyrian slides under, then the Faunus tries to strike his back but it is stopped. Tyrian attacks again as Qrow parries several thrusts of his tail. As Tyrian blocks a downward strike pinning him on his knees a roof gets damaged by the shock-wave and Tyrian uses The Queen's Servants built in guns to get free. As Qrow blocks the shots with Harbinger Tyrian circles him firing a steady barrage, Ren and Nora join in, but Tyrian catches their sneak attack and dodges then easily knocks them away. He moves to chase them as the two land back near Jaune and Ruby, but Qrow intervenes to hold him back.
"Don't come closer!" He ordered before he continued to fight the insane Faunus.
"Fine!" Ruby takes Crescent Rose to the top of a building and waits for an opening to shoot Tyrian. However, both he and Qrow move too fast for her to get a clear shot. Ruby grimaces in frustration.
Qrow blocks a jab from Tyrian"s tail then counters, Tyrian parries before retaliating with a slash followed by a kick. Qrow ducks before swinging three times as the Faunus avoids them all, before using his tail as a spring to gain altitude as he opens fire again. Qrow blocks the attack then fires a shot of his own then dodges another thrust. Tyrian manages to uses his tail to disarm Qrow flinging the sword away as he rubs his wrist. This slows things down enough for Ruby to repeatedly shoot at him from the roof, but after the first shot misses an amused Tyrian just deflects each with his tail.
Qrow curls his hand into a fist then shrugs as he switches to punching Tyrian in the face. He groans in pain backing up before Qrow lands a few more hits to his face and gut. With a final kick to the chest, he manages to send Tyrian flying and casually moves to retrieve Harbinger from where it embedded in a wall. A frustrated Tyrian waits crouched until Qrow has his back turned before striking, but Qrow merely leaps on top of his own weapon and partially changes it to scythe mode. Using the gun barrels he propels himself to a roof top, Tyrian follows as their battle continues. They appear evenly matched until Qrow notices a damaged beam. He tricks Tyrian into landing on it and the Faunus descends into the building and uses his tail to drag Qrow down, too. As the two land, the remaining roof collapses inward.
This is enough to make Ruby decide to no longer stay back. Staring at the dust cloud in concern she descends to street level. Just as she reaches the building, Qrow comes crashing out through a wall, his body bouncing. He tosses Harbinger which lands with its blade in the ground, and Qrow perches atop it. Red flickers of damaged Aura move over his body twice.
Tyrian comes out of the floating dust and grime inside the building, purple flickers moving across his body. As the two begin to strike again, Ruby jumps in between and deflects Tyrian's blades with Crescent Rose.
"Ruby!" Ren holds Jaune back from moving forward.
"Do you wish to be taken?" Tyrian asked.
"No! But I won't stand by and watch someone get hurt!" Ruby declared.
Both Qrow and Ruby move in to attack Tyrian who parries both weapons and the three clash. He kicks Qrow away then shoots and jabs at Ruby with tail, she blocks and tries to counter but the blow is knocked aside. His eyes purple again, Tyrian closes in and almost gets her with his stinger, but Qrow blocks it.
Qrow glances at his niece "Ruby! What did I say?! Get back!".
"This is my fight, too!" Ruby argues before attacks Tyrian while he's still locked blade-to-blade with Qrow, but his legs arch away from the swing of Crescent Rose.
"No, it's not that. It's—" Qrow began but didn't get to finish what he was about to say.
Ruby attacks again, and Tyrian moves to her. He flips and sends her back with a two-footed kick. She slides closer to the building and gains her ground, but the wooden beams near the roof have been shaken up too much and a heavy one breaks and descends upon her. Qrow slices it in half so it falls in pieces to either side of Ruby without touching her.
She smiles at him in gratitude and affection, and he raises his head from his stance to look at her, only to gasp in pain as he is immediately cut in the abdomen by Tyrian's stinger.
Tyrian chuckles while everyone but Ruby pauses in shock. Lucina had finally recovered from her earlier beating and decided she was done watching someone she cared about being in danger. And she could tell Tryrian had been weakened by his battle with Qrow. She grips her sword and rushed in. Tyrain noticed her and blocked his strike before moving his tail back to sting her with it... But paused when he noticed Lucina smirking at him.
Confused, Tyrian didn't realize he had left himself wide open as Ruby places Cresent Rose on his tail, and used the recoil from it's gun function the top of his tail of. It lands on the ground, leaking Purple fluid.
Tyrian reels back and cries out from the pain, barely able to even remain upright. Standing, he whirls to face Ruby, now utterly enraged"You bitch!" He takes a step or two forward but is off balance. Lucina, Nora, Ren and Jaune all move to block his path to Ruby and Qrow. Tyrian takes a few awkward steps, not engaging, slowly realizing he couldn't keep fighting like this "She'll forgive you".
With his Aura depleted and his stinger cut of, Tyrian has no other choice but to run away as Qrow, who had still been upright with his weapon at the ready, collapsing to one knee and clutches at the wound, panting heavily. Now that the danger was over for the time being, he could finally catch his breath.
Ruby rushes to his side "Uncle Qrow! Are you okay?".
"I'll be fine. He just grazed me" Qrow said as he pulls his shaking hand away to show the blood on it. The other four arrive at his side.
"Who was that guy?" Nora asked.
"How did you get here?" Ren added.
"Why are people after Ruby?" Jaune asked.
"And who is Salem?" Lucina added.
Ruby looks at her uncle with worried eyes "Uncle Qrow? What's going on?".
Qrow breaths heavily and clutches his abdomen again before finally looking up with a weak smile "What's your favorite fairy tale?".
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Note: Bernadetta's father's name hasn't been revealed, so I just called him by his title.
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Tell me what you think.
