AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry about the week delay there. I hit a bit of writer's block, and I was starting to dread working on the story, so that meant I needed a break. I didn't think I was going to finish this up tonight, but then the muse hit and I got it finished. A little shorter than the norm, but a planned meeting between Willow and Qrow I decided to wait on until a later chapter, as I'd pretty much said what I wanted to with the meeting that does happen.

Anyway, after this little interlude of feels, we get back to the trial next time. My plan is to finish that up in a chapter or two (or three, maybe), get the verdict, and then finish up ORW VI. Though we naturally have no news on V10, I've got an idea for ORW VII that would still fit into canon (sort of) and still move the story forward. I think I'll need a few months as a break (I really want to get back to my Battletech story), but something resembling a story is starting to come together. I'm also thinking very strongly about posting Seven Nights in Atlas here, a RWBY "between the seasons" crime noir/spy thriller I'm currently posting on AO3, starring one Marrow Amin and a few OCs. I'd have to edit out some of the more steamier sex scenes, though...Marrow seems to get laid a lot in my stories these days.

Now on with the show...

Asheville Regional Airport

Asheville, North Carolina, United States of Canada

29 September 2001

"Yang?" Ruby said in a trembling voice. "I think…I think maybe I just had an orgasm."

Yang snorted in laughter. The two of them were both in flight gear, standing next to Pops' P-51 Mustang. "Need a towel?"

"I might." She ran her hand over the warm, silvery bare metal of the old fighter.

Yang laughed again. "Well, let's see if we can go for two. Backseat for you, sis." Both went up the wing root and climbed into the two-seat cockpit of the modified Mustang. They got strapped in, closed the canopy, and Yang ran through the preflight with Ruby's help. She switched on the engine, which coughed once, then the propeller spun up and the Rolls-Royce Merlin gave out its characteristic whine. Yang checked the instruments—everything looked fine—then checked in with the tower as she followed Pops' hand signals out to the taxiway. Ruby was silent, just enjoying the feel of being in the cockpit of one of the most famous aircraft in history, one considered possibly the ultimate of World War II fighter design. Once cleared to the active runway, Yang ran up the throttle. "You ready?" she called out on the intercom.

"Hell yes!" Ruby exclaimed. "Let 'er rip!"

"Here we go!" Yang let off the brakes, and the P-51 surged forward. She had to be careful, she knew—the Mustang could be too eager, and she had to watch the torque of the engine, which wanted to pull her to the left. If she didn't stay ahead of the aircraft, she could easily go off the runway or stand the fighter on its nose, neither of which was conducive to long life and non-injury. Okay, Yang, easy, she chanted to herself. She had only taken off in Pops' P-51 twice. Let the tail come up first…there you go…watch the RPMs…damn that torque, compensate…okay, we're good! She pulled the stick back, and the P-51 lifted gently into the air. Once the runway was behind her, she raised the landing gear and turned west for the mountains. It was a beautiful day, with broken clouds below. Yang made sure the transponder was on and throttled back; the Mustang now flew serenely.

"Wow…" Ruby looked out the bubbletop canopy, so like her F-16—not surprising, as General Dynamics had based elements of the F-16's design on the P-51. "I can't believe Pops let you borrow this baby. He's got to have a quarter of a mil sunk into it."

"Try half a mil," Yang corrected. "Let's just hope I can land this thing. I've only done it once, and that was with Dad backing me up." Of course, Yang considered, that was also months ago, when she was still getting used to the artificial hand. Now it should be relatively simple…she hoped.

"Well, I'm glad he let us take it up. She's a beauty." Ruby paused. "Naturally, I will be flying her today. You know that."

"Duh, Rubes. I would've left you on the ground if I didn't want you to fly. Just don't wreck it, okay?" Or put it into a spin like Dad did, Yang thought ruefully, with a twang of remembered pain from her knees. "But I'm flying it for now. Just put your hands in your lap like a good little WSO."

"Eat shit, Yang!" Ruby yelled, but it was with humor in her voice.

"Besides…" Yang leveled out the P-51 and put it in a lazy circle 7000 feet above the wooded mountains below them. "I also came up here to talk."

"Yang, we could've talked in the car," Ruby told her.

"I know, but…call me superstitious, or whatever, but I thought maybe this was more appropriate. Up here, in front of the naked stars and all that shit."

"You've been reading Dad's Star Trek books again, haven't you?" Ruby said. "But whatever, my fellow Klingon. What did you want to talk about?"

Yang took a deep breath. She checked their altitude and speed automatically as she talked. "Ruby, I haven't been a good sister."

"What?" Ruby laughed. "C'mon, Yang, that's silly. You've been a great sister. Always have been. I love you, you know that."

"And I love you too, Rubes. It's just that…" Yang sighed. "Look, I should've seen what was going on with you before that bullshit back in Banska. You've been carrying a big load on your shoulders as flight lead, ever since Beacon. You've done good with it, but that's got to be rough on you. And then everything goes to shit with Ironwood, and Poland, and Oscar getting captured by Salem, then we all get shot down. And then we all get fucked up on kerasine, you get tortured by Neo, and all of that…and then as soon as we get back, boom! We get court-martialed. I know Forrest thinks he's got this airtight now, but I'm afraid one of us is going to fuck up the testimony."

"He's putting me on the stand," Ruby said. "Did you take a look at what he sent us on witnesses for the defense?"

"Nah, who's he got?" Yang realized she probably should have looked at that, but she wanted to forget the trial for the weekend.

"Me, Oscar, Glynda Goodwitch—not sure why—Miguel Calavera, Uncle Qrow, and this March guy, Ironwood's JAG. He's even got Robyn in there, if she shows up…and Rissa Arashikaze."

"Holy shit, he got Arashikaze?" Yang gave a low whistle. "Damn. Nice to have her in our corner." She reversed her turn gently, starting another orbit. "But don't change the subject, Ruby; let's get back to you. I didn't see all that shit that was on you. I didn't see how much pressure was on you, and I probably made it worse."

"How so?" Ruby asked.

"Jumping into Warsaw with Delta, for one thing."

"You went after Oscar," Ruby said. "That was pretty brave, Yang—and you did that for me."

"And Oscar, but yeah." Yang snickered. "And to stick it to Weiss' sister a bit. But anyway…I overrode you in Poland, and I did that dumb shit with Blake—telling Robyn about the Commando Solo. It sure seemed like a good idea at the time, but looking back…we should've just shut up about it. Ironass would've come around eventually. That put more pressure on you. And then with what happened…with Neo. You needed me, and I wasn't there."

"And I flew off on my lonesome with Little like a giant fucking idiot," Ruby argued. "Kind of hard for you to be there for me when I run off."

"Well, yeah. But then being all lovey-dovey with Blake in Silac…"

"Oh, c'mon, Yang," Ruby repeated. "I was just bitchy that morning with everyone. So what. I don't care if anything's happening between you two-"

"It isn't. Not yet," Yang said. "Hell, probably not ever."

"Doesn't matter. For that matter, I should've told you I was banging Oscar after Algiers. I was just afraid you were going to stuff him down an intake or something."

"Yeah? And I should've just realized that you're a grown fucking woman—no pun intended, for once—and you can have sex with who you want."

"Yang, you're just being a big sister. I get it. And if you think you're a bad sister…" Ruby let out a long breath. "I remember someone taking a Sidewinder that was meant for me at Leszno." Yang almost answered that she'd done that without thinking, but wasn't that the definition of being a big sister, and a friend? She remembered seeing the missile headed for Ruby's F-16, and not even hesitating before throwing her F-23 in front of it. It was her life for her sister's, and that was all. "I also remember that someone flying halfway across the world, nearly getting killed by Raven's air pirates over California, and confronting her head-on, just for me." Ruby reached forward over the front seat and squeezed her sister's shoulder. "Yang, you're a great big sister, and you always have been. And you've got your own life, for God's sake! I don't expect you to drape yourself over my shoulders 24-7. That would make sex with Oscar really awkward." Ruby got a brief mental image of Yang, stark naked, watching her and Oscar go at it, offering advice the whole time. The thought made Ruby giggle.

"What are you laughing about?"

"Nothing…just picturing you giving me and Oscar advice while we're getting it on."

Yang laughed. "That's super weird, Ruby." She laughed again, louder, as the absurdity of it hit her. "'C'mon, Oscar, put your back into it! Fuck her harder, you little shit! Don't you hear her moaning? Use those hips and that great ass, boy!'" Ruby was now nearly screaming with laughter. "You're not going to get that out of your head, sis!"

"Nope!" Ruby sighed, becoming serious again. "Yang…I forgive you, okay? If you can forgive me for blowing up like that. It was stupid. I already apologized to Pyrrha. Everything's kind of a blur back there…I may have said I was sorry to you before too. But I am sorry. If we get out of this with our careers somewhat intact…I won't let it get like that again. I'll come to you, or Blake, or Weiss, when I need help. I'll lean on my subordinates. I won't be like Ironwood and—" She suddenly stopped.

"What?" Yang asked.

"Nothing…I just realized that I kind of acted like him," Ruby said. "You know, keeping it all inside, trying to do everything myself, not asking for help."

"It killed him," Yang said softly.

"Yeah. Well…I won't be like that anymore, okay?"

"Okay." Yang put the stick between her knees and reached back with her metal hand. Ruby took it and squeezed. "Love ya, Rubes. I always will."

"I love you too, sis. To the moon." Yang had put her hand back on the stick, but she felt Ruby take hold of it. "Speaking of which…"

Yang let go. "Your aircraft, bitch."

"Hold on to your tits!" Ruby hauled back on the stick and stood the P-51 on its tail, pushing the throttle up at the same time. The Mustang roared into the sky, and just as it started to approach the edge of a stall, Ruby hammerheaded the nose downwards and went into a dive. "What's the hard deck?" she yelled.

"The ground!" Yang yelled back. She had the very uncomfortable sensation of the Great Smoky Mountains rushing up at her face, held hostage to her lunatic little sister, who had never flown a P-51 in her life. Then Ruby came out of the dive, converting the kinetic energy built up in it into another climb, with several rolls thrown in. Ruby rolled out upside down, did a slightly more shallow dive, and then climbed again. Yang watched the altimeter go past 15,000 feet. "Ruby, you dipshit! We're not wearing oxygen masks!" Aside from their flight suits, they wore a backpack parachute and that was all.

"Okay, okay—geez." Ruby leveled off, then dropped into another dive. Yang grabbed the throttle and the side of the cockpit as she was pulled upwards off the seat, in a brief moment of zero-G. This time Ruby didn't bring the P-51 out of the dive until they were barely a few feet off the trees, and Yang bit back a scream as, for a wild moment, she thought Ruby was going to dive into the ground. She cleared the trees, but Yang still saw one tree top go past above her head. They were over the national park itself now, and the tourists on Clingman's Dome got an impromptu airshow as Ruby gave them a knife-edge pass over the visitor center, the Merlin singing with power. Then she pulled up, turned around in a hard four-G turn, and got them back on course for Asheville. "Your aircraft," she called out to Yang.

"Greaaat," Yang groaned. "And now we're going to add some FAA unsafe flying charges to the court-martial."

"What, did they say we couldn't do aerobatics?"

Yang sighed, because Ruby knew as well as she did that had been exactly in the flight plan: the FAA had cleared them for aerobatics in the area, though she was sure that Asheville Center didn't include roaring down the Appalachian Trail at twenty feet AGL. "No."

"So what's the problem? We're fighter pilots! We can't do this shit in a F-15 or a '16 right now."

"Fine," Yang said. "But you tell Pops what we did."

"No way," Ruby replied. Yang looked in the rearview mirrors set into the canopy bow. Ruby was grinning. Yang grinned back. The two of them were in the air, and all was right with the world.

Yang managed to land back at Asheville with no problems, after doing a quick beating-up-the-runway pass—with the tower's permission, of course. They taxied in, stopped the engine, and complimented Pops on a wonderful aircraft. During postflight, Ruby stood on tiptoes and kissed the Mustang's propeller hub. After a quick, cold shower at the flying club, they changed back into casual clothes and began the drive back to Patch, using a loaner from the garage in town.

And Ruby told Yang about her meeting with Raven. At first, Yang was slightly angry that Ruby had gone alone, though she acknowledged that Yang probably would have punched her biological mother again. Then Yang listened as Ruby told her about the final mission of Summer Rose. When she was done, Yang pulled over at a gas station, parked, and burst into tears, leaning against the steering wheel. "For God's sake," she sobbed, "why? Why did Mom do that? I get going with Raven, and why…but she kept going…fuck, Ruby, she was probably hit, but she kept…she kept trying…"

Ruby reached over and pulled her sister into a hug, made a little awkward by their seatbelts. "Because she knew it was a one-way trip at that point, Yang. She knew she wasn't going to make it back."

"She left us alone, Ruby. She left us all alone…you, me, Dad, Uncle Qrow…alone." Yang straightened up, wiped her tears off the wheel. "She…I don't understand."

"She wanted to get Salem once and for all, Yang. She wanted us to grow up in a world without Salem." The words didn't sound right to Ruby.

Yang leaned back and looked at her sister. "Ruby…I would live with Salem forever if it meant having Mom back."

"Maybe she punched out," Ruby said into the silence that followed.

"Raven's right about that," Yang replied. "If Salem captured Mom…then I hope Mom didn't get out. We saw that Hound. Maybe Salem would use Mom for some kind of medical experiments or some kind of Nazi Mengele shit like that. She'd be there almost 20 years now, in Yamantau." She shuddered. "Salem would break her, Ruby. She'd…God, I don't even want to talk about it."

"Then let's not." Ruby dried her own eyes, though she hadn't cried, just gotten a little misty-eyed. "I just…you know, I just hoped…"

"We all did, Rubes." Yang leaned over and kissed her sister's cheek. "We all did."

They got back to Patch, gave back the loaner, and were picked up by Taiyang. Willow Schnee being at the house was a surprise, but a pleasant one. Blake and Oscar got back an hour later, and that night, the eight of them had a cookout. Taiyang was always something of a frustrated gourmet, and he went all out: fried chicken, corn on the cob, okra, hominy, and cornbread—with a little bass on the side for Blake, who drooled openly. At first, Tai brought beers out, but with Willow and Qrow there, he quickly apologized, returned them to the freezer in the garage, and brought out sodas instead.

They were gathered around a fire pit in the backyard of the house, down the hill from Summer Rose's empty grave. Willow held up one of the sodas. "What is this called?" she asked.

"Sunflower Pops," Yang explained.

"Mein Gott. This is nothing more than orange-flavored caffeine!" Willow laughed. "A few more of these, and I won't sleep at all, I think."

"Then," Qrow said with a flourish, taking away the half-finished Sunflower Pop, "ma'am, allow me." He poured her some tea instead—iced tea, with a bit of lemon in it. Willow took a drink and nodded with a satisfied smile.

They talked around the campfire, taking care to avoid the trial, or what had happened in Poland or with Neo or Cheshire. None of them wanted to talk about that. All but Willow were fighter pilots, of course, so they talked about fighter pilot things. She listened in rapt fascination at the stories, for the first time peering into the world that her daughters lived in. They talked about the now-legendary party at Beacon after the Lake Michigan Massacre, with Ruby having to ruefully admit to her father that she didn't remember a lot of it, and that she had thrown up everything but her digestive tract the next morning. Yang told them about the game of Crud in Las Vegas with the Jolly Green crew, Neon Katt, and Flynt Coal; Blake told them about her pool game with Ilia against Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasillas in Japan. Weiss blushed as Yang and Blake ribbed her about Marrow, to which Willow's eyebrows went so far up that her daughter wondered if they would disappear into her hair, at the idea of her youngest daughter having a Faunus lover. Weiss deflected onto Oscar, who smoothly changed the subject from sex—not with Taiyang across the fire from him—to a county fair in Nebraska that had gone disastrously wrong when a bull had gotten loose in the midway. Finally Willow came out of her shell, to tell of a time when Winter and Weiss, as children, had gotten so angry at each other that they had found sabers for a duel. Klein had luckily broken it up, but the group howled with laughter at the thought of Little Winter and Littler Weiss trying to fight with swords. Finally, Qrow told the story of how Raven and Summer had gotten drunk one night in Texas and ended up in a nude mud-wrestling contest. Yang and Ruby glanced at each other at the mention of Summer, but now was not the right time to tell either their father or their uncle about what Raven had told them—if ever there would be a right time.

Night fell slowly, and the fireflies came out, unseasonably late in the year. Everyone watched in rapt fascination as the luminescent insects danced in the dark, lit by a crescent moon. Then Ruby cleared her throat and stood. "Everyone…I want to say a few things."

"Speech, speech!" Oscar yelled, and they all laughed.

Ruby smiled, but she waved them down. "Look…we all said some things that we wished we hadn't. I know some of you feel like you weren't there for me, and I damn sure feel like I let all of you down. I'm sorry. I don't know what's going to happen to us after next week, or whenever this stupid trial ends, but…I wanted you to know that."

"We've all made mistakes," Blake said. "But we're all still here. We'll learn from them, and grow stronger." She smiled. "Whatever air force we end up in."

"Anyhow…I just wanted to say that," Ruby told them. She bent down and picked up a bottle of water. "And make a toast." She lifted the water. "To the honored dead."

Blake and Yang had been ready to lift their soda, and the others with tea, but they put them down and grabbed water bottles from the cooler. A toast to the dead was to be made with water, by tradition. "To the honored dead," they intoned.

"To Jaune Arc," Weiss said.

"To Ruth Lionheart," Blake added.

"To Vine Zeki," Yang said.

"To Clover Ebi," Qrow intoned.

"To Hazel," Oscar said, which surprised all of them, but they raised their water all the same to the man that had saved his life and Yang's.

"To Ozpin," Taiyang said.

Willow hesitated; she was next before Ruby. Then she raised her water. "To my father, Nicholas Schnee, der Grosse Nicholas…who would be very proud of his grandchildren." They raised their waters again; Weiss smiled.

Ruby was last. She took a deep breath. "To Penny Polendina." She had been thinking of Penny all day, and the fireflies had made her think of the toast. She could never apologize to her now, but Ruby also thought of General Gale's words: Penny had no business being up there, covering the convoy, but had gone because Ruby was her friend and that was what friends did. Maybe I don't need Penny's forgiveness, Ruby thought, as they made the last toast. Maybe I just have to forgive myself. Penny died doing what she lived for. She died to save others. No greater love hath no person who lays down their lives for their friends.

At that moment, Ruby put Penny behind her forever, into the box of memories that held all the other dead friends, and a dead mother she had never really known.

The party went on for a few more hours, until Taiyang announced that all the food was gone (which sent up a great groan from everyone) and that they should be getting to bed. They kidded Weiss about having Marrow hidden somewhere in the house, to which she gave them the finger and marched inside. Yang threw a yelping Blake over one shoulder and announced she was having her wicked way of her friend, to which Blake just sighed elaborately and said she wanted to be on top this time. Ruby nervously took Oscar's hand—nervously, because her father was looking at them—and led him towards the tent. Qrow went for a walk, which he usually did before bed.

Taiyang began cleaning the dishes, smiling as Yang and Blake went at it—on his old Nintendo 64, in a savage Goldeneye deathmatch. He wondered why Ruby and Oscar weren't joining them, and remembered why. He tried to accept it, tried to accept that the little girl he'd bounced on his knee and played horsey with was now grown, had a lover, and was probably taking her clothes off at that very moment in front of her lover. His hands bunched into fists, unseen, then unclenched them: Oscar Pine was a good man, more like his father than he wanted to admit, and there was no reason to be angry. "None at all," he told himself.

"Would you like some help?" Tai turned and Willow stood there. She smiled. "I apologize for not asking sooner, but I'm afraid that wonderful dinner came back with a vengeance. I have—what is the term that Yang used earlier?—blown up your downstairs toilet."

Taiyang laughed. "Yeah, that happens. Sure." He had a dishwasher, so they merely rinsed and scrubbed some of the worst dishes before loading the machine. Once that was done, Tai stretched. "Well, ladies, I'm going to hit the sack. It's been one hell of a night."

"Thanks, Dad!" Yang called out, then spat a vile curse as Blake shot her through a wall with a Moonraker laser.

"Thank you, Mr. Xiao Long!" Blake said, with a triumphant grin at Yang.

"I should retire as well," Willow said. Weiss had made out a sleeping bag in Ruby's room, leaving the bed to her mother. "Guten abend, all."

"Good night, Mrs. Schnee!" Yang and Blake exclaimed, and Willow followed Taiyang up the stairs. When they were gone, Blake glanced at Yang. "You think something's going on with her and your dad?"

"Doubt it," Yang said out of the corner of her mouth, as her character grabbed the rocket launcher. "But I suppose both could do worse."

"It would make things kind of weird between you and Weiss," Blake said.

"Yep. Not gonna lose sleep over it." Yang promptly shot Blake in the face with the rocket launcher. "Eat flamin' death!"

Tai and Willow stopped in the hallway; Ruby's room was right across from the master bedroom. Willow looked at the door, then at Tai. "I am not quite divorced," she said softly. "But I consider myself so."

Tai nodded. "I think you've been divorced in all but name from that piece of shit for some time."

"I suppose." She paused, then took a step forward and put her arms around Tai, hesitantly and with her hands slightly shaking. "Normally I would say this is the wine, perhaps, but I am sober—more sober than I've been in quite some time." Her English was tightly controlled, her accent slightly thicker than usual-which her children would have recognized as their mother being extremely nervous.

Tai smiled. "Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Schnee?"

Willow sighed. "I am, but I am very much out of practice."

Tai held up a hand, letting her see the wedding band on it. "Willow," he said, "more than likely my wife is dead on some mountain in Siberia. My daughters don't think I know that, and my ex-wife, Raven Branwen, thinks that I don't know it. But I do. Everyone tried to keep me in the dark, and I pretended, saying that she disappeared over the Sea of Japan…but I can read a map, and I knew my wife. I don't know where in Russia she was going, but I know that she almost certainly died there, trying to kill Salem. It took me a long time to forgive her for that, for leaving me to raise two daughters alone, but I did."

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand," Willow told him.

"Every year, Willow," Tai explained, "the US Air Force tries to get me to declare Summer Rose killed in action—like they tried to do with my daughters a few weeks ago. I always say no. They came back. Some part of me thinks that someday, though it's likely impossible, my Summer will walk up those stairs and come back too." He pointed behind them. "And so I'm still a married man. I love my wife too much to cheat on her. Not with my ex-wife, and as much as I hate to say it, not with you."

Willow withdrew her arms and nodded. "I understand. I apologize for my poor manners and being so…so forward."

"You're on the rebound, Willow. It's understandable. And I'm honored. But what you're looking for…" Tai shook his head. "Don't look for it in me."

"I understand," she repeated. "Well, now that I've made a fool of myself, I suppose I'll go to bed." She put a smile on it.

"Yeah. Me too." They turned their backs on each other, but suddenly Tai turned back. He gently turned Willow around, cupped her cheeks, and kissed her, tenderly as a lover would. Her eyes fluttered shut and her head swam, but then Tai broke off the kiss. "Willow Schnee," he whispered, "never forget you're a very desirable woman." Then he was gone into his room.

Willow let out a long breath, then went into Ruby's room. Weiss was still awake, reading a book. "Mother?" she asked with concern in her voice.

Willow leaned against the door. "Yes, Weiss?"

"You're flushed. Are you feeling all right?"

Willow smiled, in one of the largest smiles Weiss had ever seen on her mother's face. "Oh yes, Weiss. It's just the food, that's all."

AUTHOR'S NOTES, SUPPLEMENTAL: Oh, I've been wanting to tease Willow and Tai for awhile, but I never intended it to go further than that. Tai still loves Summer, and much like CRWBY clearly set up, Summer might not be dead. Sorry, Willow.

The Star Trek reference that Yang and Ruby talk about is very, very obscure, and I'm not even sure it's canon anymore. According to one of the oooold Trek novels from the 80s, the Klingons believe that promises and confessions should be made "in front of the naked stars." Yang and Ruby being Trek fans? Is anyone really surprised? Or surprised that Star Trek managed to somehow get made even after a nuclear war? That would've just made Roddenberry even more determined.

The scene with Penny made me a little misty-eyed myself. The fireflies are a reference to RWBY Chibi, which has no business shooting us in the heart. But Penny's gone, sadly, and Ruby (and us) have to move on.

Next up, we go back to the trial!