The way Qrow saw the entire situation in Patch at the moment was horrid. Tai was taking the news of Summer's case hard and Yang was at an age where she could more or less understand the context, making everything worse.

It was gloomy, everything just seemed so bleak to the point that Qrow found it almost unbearable. He couldn't believe it, and perhaps he didn't want to. Summer was the mother of Ruby and the surrogate mother of Yang. On top of that, she was an outstanding Huntress, better than him even, and he and Tai were on a class of their own.

STRQ of Beacon Academy. The old team of the Golden Days.

It wasn't hard to bring up old memories, yet it was because of them that it made it impossible for him to acknowledge that anything could have had gone wrong on Summer's mission.

The sound of the wagon he was pulling echoed in his ears, along with a gurgling sound as Ruby entertained herself by blowing bubbles with her saliva, the brat. She couldn't take the silence and had to distract herself, and the scenery had been doing little to alleviate her boredom. Simple trees and shrubs lead to the path home, something that she must have had seen numerous times already accompanied by her mother or father.

She was too happy, her personality making it difficult for her to remain sad for too long, and yet Qrow knew that things would change when she eventually realized that her mother wouldn't be coming back.

His hands balled into fists, the world really was a shitty place; it didn't help that for some reason it felt as if a still wind was following him all the back to Tai's house like a cloud over his head.

Then again, it was probably just his imagination induced by too much stress.

He scratched at his head, expression bleak but determined.

The alcohol could wait, what he needed to do now was go and find his own answers.

Barely two hours had gone by before the tiny home he was familiar with came in view. It wasn't large, nor was it small, instead it was homely, having just enough space to support its occupancy. The walls were made of stacked logs and supported by thick beams that ran throughout the infrastructure. A dirt path led to the front door where the four-panel windows were placed on adjacent sides, flower beds beneath them with wilted petals.

To Ruby, the sight was home, the brat shutting up and staring.

It was a pleasant change in his opinion. She had begun droning on and on about things he could hardly relate to after her mouth grew tired from blowing bubbles. It was to the point that he was considering just giving her a weapons magazine to at least stem some interest in her regarding objects with a practical world use. Summer had spoiled her with too much talk of roses and flowers.

While considering the idea, he rolled the wagon by the house's storage before tying it securely to a metal hook so that Yang wouldn't be able to pull it out again. Thereafter, he gingerly picked up Yang and Ruby in his arms and walked them towards the house.

Opening the door, he wasn't surprised that the place was empty.

The musky, yet cozy smell of wood permeated around within the house; the clutter of toys and crayons on the floor making it all the more depressing that neither the father or the mother was there to clean it all up.

Qrow wasn't in a pleasant mood as he navigated through everything before entering Yang's room where he deposited her on the bed. Thereafter, he placed Ruby down before tucking Yang in, gently ruffling her head in a mix of concern and relief.

Ruby watched silently, a thumb making its way into her mouth before Qrow remembered that he wasn't alone and took his hand away from Yang. He coughed dryly before he picked Ruby up and walked her towards her room where tucked her into bed in a similar fashion as Yang.

"Go to sleep alright?" He said, making sure that Ruby heard him.

"I'm not sleepy," was what he got in response. That, and blinking eyes.

Qrow's brow twitched, a smile not quite reaching his eyes appearing on his face. The current time was already passed noon. In the roughly two hours Qrow had spent pulling Yang and Ruby on the wagon, the skies outside had already darkened. Based on a child's constitution, this was precisely the time to sleep. To be more accurate, Qrow wanted her to sleep.

"Just try, alright?" He asked.

Ruby nodded her head, but Qrow already felt a headache coming.

As a top Huntsman in Remnant, he was adept at determining one's stamina based on their expression, and Ruby's was raising all kinds of signs. Unfortunately, Qrow didn't want to deal with it. As such, instead of just closing the door of Ruby's room, he took out the high play-pen and latched it over the door frame, watching as Ruby's face blanked.

"Good night Ruby."

When the door closed, Qrow's expression turned somber.

Heading towards the living room, he promptly took a few blocks of wood and set them by the hearth before starting a fire and placing them within the fireplace. The dull orange light of the flame illuminated the room, creating flickering shadows that danced as if alive. Embers began to rise and fall along with a steady crackling noise. In the midst of it, he stepped away from the fire place and sat on a recliner, waiting.

Two more hours soon passed before the audible clicking of the front door's lock echoed out. Qrow's lips shifted into a thin line as his resolve and determination swelled to the forefront. He turned the recliner around, facing the very man who had just walked into the living room.

It was a tall and confident looking man. His blond hair in disarray and stubble over his chin doing nothing to take away from his image. It was just that right now, it appeared as if something had died within those lilac-blue eyes.

"Tai," Qrow called out softly.

"Qrow," Tai said in greeting, taking the satchel he had over his shoulder and placing it on the ground too forcibly. All kinds of miscellaneous objects rolled out of it, the foremost being a Scroll that Qrow noticed with keen eyes depicted the last mission Summer had ever gone on.

A silence descended within the living space as Tai hurriedly began recollecting all that had dropped. The spaulder he kept over his right arm was significantly damaged and other parts of his body were scratched or bruised. Even his clothes were no exception. The brown belt he used to secure his cargo pants were threads away from snapping, and the bandanna he wore on his left arm had long since been lost along with the parts of the torn shirt he had on.

"You went out again," Qrow stated, a grimness in his tone.

Tai paused, swallowing.

"I can feel it, Qrow. That she's there waiting for me," he said while putting item after item back into his satchel. "I've already dug up some information on which direction she had gone, but it suddenly disappears at the western outskirts."

"The outskirts are passed the Kingdoms walls, Tai. You alone can't search all of that without risking yourself entirely," Qrow crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing. "How far did you make it this time before the Grimm nearly killed you or worse, Elder Grimm? A kilometer? Ten? A hundred? What you're doing right now is suicide."

Anger flared in Tai's eyes, veins popping over his neck before he slowly let it go.

"She would have had done the same for me," he seethed.

Qrow became more subdued, gaze shifting towards the crackling flame of the fireplace.

"I can understand what you mean, but Tai, you can't keep doing this," Qrow said, shaking his head before standing up from the recliner. "We're friends Tai, teammates for life. That's why I have to tell you. It's not just yourself you need to care for, your kids need you. How long has it been since you've stayed in this house for longer than three hours?"

Tai didn't have the heart to answer.

Qrow ran a hand though his hair, traces of frustration making him slightly irritable.

"Listen Tai, if you keep going out there to search for her, what are you going to do when you find her, and it's Yang and Ruby who go missing instead?"

Tai stiffened, nearly dropping all of the things he had just picked up. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before speaking.

"That won't happen," he said as if trying to convince himself. "They're good kids."

Qrow merely shook his head.

"Follow me, I have something I need to show you."

When Qrow left in the direction of Yang's room, Tai was already feeling a plummeting sensation. He had known Qrow for years, and unless a situation truly called for it, he would never be actively serious.

Ignoring the way his satchel dropped on the ground once again, Tai slowly moved in the direction of Yang's room, the trepidation causing him to tremble. When he eventually reached the room and saw what was inside, his breath hitched.

"Although kids aren't very smart, they can feel the atmosphere more. Even if they don't understand completely, they can tell that something is wrong and get it into their head that they can do something about it," Qrow said somberly from the side. "This is the result, Tai."

On the bed, Qrow had lightly pulled off Yang's covers and revealed the injuries beneath, the most striking being the bruises formed in the shape of a claw.

Tai nearly screamed out, but instead, all his body did was step forward and hug Yang's body against his own; his arms rocking back and forth in the same manner he had done when Yang was just a baby.

"W-What happened?" Tai asked through a strained voice.

Prompted, Qrow began to recount the events of several hours prior, the more he spoke, the more Tai's complexion paled.

"Now I'll ask you again, Tai, if you insist on continuing with your plans, then what are you going to do if you find Summer but lose Ruby and Yang instead?"

Tai hugged Yang closer, a hand cupping Yang's head tenderly. The man didn't speak, didn't so much as say anything as shudders travelled down his body.

"Then what do you expect me to do?" Tai finally asked after a moment, glancing up at Qrow.

Qrow smiled bitterly.

"If I had an answer to that, I would have told you rather then resort to a lecture. I hate lectures in the first place." Qrow crossed his arms while leaning his back against a wall. "Here's the thing Tai, its time to stop. Let me do it in your stead. I'll take up the work for the both of us, and find Summer no matter how much time passes. So just promise me that you'll take care of your daughters and my nieces. Sometimes you can't change things no matter how hard you try."

Tai remained silent, before the weight of the situation finally sunk into his head.

He broke down, the sadness and unwillingness he had been barring away through desperation and action unable to be contained any longer.

Qrow remained tactfully silent, his gaze lowered as his mouth opened and closed. There was nothing left for him say.

In the meantime, the breeze that Qrow had been feeling recently disappeared, only the chiming of a wind-bell above Ruby's room to be heard.

Qrow raised a brow, glancing out down the hall, yet not noticing anything off. His lips thinned, but for a friend that was family, he still had something he needed to do.

He went back to Tai and placed a hand on his shoulder, and did nothing else, his presence alone conveying his sentiments.

Elsewhere, in the small confines of a child's room, Ruby was pressing her ear to the door after strenuously working her way to stand above the play-pen. She could just barely make out the words being said on the other side, but unfortunately, they sounded more like unintelligible murmurs if anything else. As such, her attention shifted towards the door knob, a hand reaching out.

"And that's as far as you go, little one," Shirou spoke, materializing from the air.

As a Heroic Spirit, he had the ability to remain as a spiritual body unseen or heard to the world. Not only did it allow him to move as he pleased, but the consumption of energy he needed to maintain himself was drastically reduced. The only down side was his inability to interact with objects and carry out physical tasks.

In which case, he materialized to pick Ruby up by the leg and place her back onto her bed.

She blinked at him in confusion before suddenly gasping due to his sudden reappearance. It was only afterwards that she began to pout when he tucked her back into bed.

"Go to sleep," he said before gradually dematerializing once more with his job done.

There were things that a child shouldn't see nor hear, and there were also times when even fathers could be at their weakest. He couldn't understand the situation entirely by standing next to Qrow, but he had enough knowledge to come to his own conclusions.

As he fully faded away, Ruby instantly sat up, thinking that he was gone. His voice changed that.

"Go to sleep."

"You're still here?" Ruby looked around stiffly, yet finding nothing.

Still, knowing that she had been caught in the act, she quickly pulled the covers over her head and lay still. Five minutes later, she moved again.

"Still here," his voice replied flatly.

"…"

Another five minutes.

"Don't even try."

Ten minutes later.

"Ruby, just because you're hiding under your blanket doesn't mean that I can't see you. Go to sleep, or I won't tell you anymore stories."

"…"

In the next few days, Ruby felt that something had changed in her home. Her father no longer went out and instead started spending most of his time learning to cook and clean, and Yang was already getting better. After the experience in the woods, Yang didn't dare go anywhere near the wooden wagon.

As for herself, she had been immersed in the stories of Heroes and adventures Shirou told to her, and yet when she went to share them with Yang, it felt to her that Yang didn't believe in the heroes spoken of.

"But they're real," she argued.

Yang was wrapped up in a few bandages and was still limping a bit from her recent injuries. Currently, she was sitting on her bed while Ruby was playing by the side.

"They're just stories Ruby. It wasn't because of a Hero that we were saved at that abandoned house, but because Uncle Qrow got to us in time," Yang said shuddering, traces of guilt on her features. "I never should've taken us there."

"It wasn't Uncle Qrow, it was Shirou," Ruby argued, putting her toys down to stare at Yang.

In response, Yang rose a brow, glancing around with her gaze before retuning it to Ruby.

"I don't see this Shirou around anywhere and you said he came to our house," she reasoned.

Ruby pouted, biting down on her lips. "You just can't see him, he's in here right now. Right Shirou?"

Silence, Yang's expression disbelieving.

"Shirou?" Ruby called again.

Unfortunately, Shirou wasn't about to answer do to his own reasons. He was already at the point where he fully understood that he alone was a unique existence in the new world called Remnant. He was sure that no other Servant existed other than him, and he couldn't sense the location of any Holy Grail at all. If not for the massive upkeep Ruby was able to provide him, he may have faded away days ago.

As such, he wanted to remain fairly low-key for the time being until he could adjust to the New World and perhaps find some useful information.

Unfortunately, that meant that Ruby's calls would go unanswered.

"Well, let's just say I believe you Ruby," Yang said while yawning. It was still at the break of morning, making it natural that Yang was still tired after just getting up.

"Hero's exist, mom said so," Ruby argued back, unconvinced with Yang's words before coming up with an idea. Her eyes brightened before she laughed. "Then how about mom, Yang? We can just ask her when she gets back!"

On the mention of 'mom,' Yangs countenance withered, and in a lack of better judgement, she spoke out.

"No Ruby," Yang's lips trembled. "Mom's not coming back."

"Huh?"

It was like something shattered in Ruby's mind; the world that revolved around the woman who called her, her Little Rose breaking. She knew that it was weird that her mother hadn't returned back after almost two-months, weirder still that she hadn't been able to notice anything.

She missed her mom: She missed her cookies and hugs, and the warmth of her smile.

Moisture welled into her large eyes, and before she even knew it, she was running.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang's voice trailed behind.

Yet no words Yang could say would stop her.

She continued running, Shirou paying rapt attention as a mysterious energy surrounded her and increased her speed by several fold.

By the time she stopped running, it was to jump onto her bed and cover herself in her blankets, sniffles and sobbing noises echoing throughout. Her eyes were pressed closed, her knees pulled to her chest as tears streamed down her cheeks.

The noise attracted the attention of Tai, but his feet froze inches away from the door of Ruby's room, hesitation on his face. He had no words he could use to comfort her because he knew that the moment he tried, it would only make things worse as if in acknowledgment that Summer was really gone. At the moment, Tai himself was still unwilling to believe it. Therefore, he didn't go and reluctantly sat in the kitchen, leaning his face on a hand while the sound of Ruby's sobs were like knives stabbing into his back.

Shirou who was in spiritual form sighed. There were some things that just couldn't remain hidden forever, but as a Servant or even as himself, he wanted to console his Master in one way or another. Therefore, he materialized inside Ruby's room, staring at the quivering ball of sheets on top of the bed.

"Everyone will experience hardships at one point," he said strongly. "It's the ability to move past them that counts. Besides, how do you know that your mom really won't come back? Your uncle Qrow and father have already been searching for her."

With his words, Ruby who was on the bed suddenly perked up. Gradually she peaked her face from out of the covers, staring at him with puffed eyes and reddened cheeks.

Of all the stories of adventure and Heroes she'd heard of, she wished nothing more than for them to be real. Because that way, a Hero could come and save her mom. Rather than peak her head out due to Shirou's encouragement, she had done so because she'd remembered just who Shirou was.

A Hero. One from the story books.

The intensity of Ruby's stare caused Shirou to frown uneasily. Something was wrong here, and he knew it.

Because on the right-hand Ruby was using to hold onto her blanket, there was the distinct glow of a red Command Seal.

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