A/N – I've had a pair of reviews from a guest viewer who's having issues viewing the story. Apparently they've run into a message saying its been deleted before it reappears. I'd just like to advise that I have also run into that error message.
Originally I encountered it when I was porting the story over in chunks. At the time I'd imagined it was due to some sort of anti spam check that locked the uploads for review. It did pass with time so I forgot about it.
But upon finding those reviews and searching I have found its apparently happened to quite a few people over the years. I have reached out to FanFiction support but haven't had a reply as of this update. As much as I'd have liked to reply to them to advise them about the issue being with the site I'm unable to reply to guest reviews.
I could report their reviews but they're not abuse in my mind just the results of a technical issue. To my knowledge this story has not been deleted at any point since I started posting it. The original publishing date remains the same 06/04/2023. With that message squared away on with the story.
Qrow was running as hard as his legs could go. Why was he running? A sense of deja vu hit him as he tried to remember what he'd been doing. Then it hit him, the girls of course how could he forget!
Fallen logs or boulders were bypassed with a boosted leap. Anything light enough he slashed through with Harbinger. His mind was muddled but he knew where he was going.
That stupid photo must have slipped out of his pocket. He'd been trying to speak with Tai about… something. Trying to remember what escaped him.
It wasn't important, he reminded himself. What was important was getting to that derelict homestead. Yang and Ruby would be there… Why would they be there? Weren't they at Signal?
No. That wasn't for years at least! They were just kids weren't they. Ruby could barely talk and Yang couldn't take care of herself yet. But he'd found Tai passed out and the photo was gone along with the girls and a cart.
He had to get there before something happened. He'd sworn not to let anything happen to them. Qrow Branwen would not let another person be snatched away.
There was a howl nearby. One that he knew wasn't from an animal. He screamed as loud as he could.
'YANG! RUBY! I'M HERE! JUST HOLD ON!'
Qrow saw the collapsed roof of the house. The cart flipped over on its side by the open gate. He didn't slow as he ran through the puddle of blood on the path and into the house.
Inside he found the Beowolf pack feeding. The black hide of their arms and white masked maws stained red. One turned to him a few traces of blonde hair in one of its claws.
'NO! NO! DON'T YOU TOUCH THEM!' Qrow roared, cutting the Grimm to shreds. It felt good to vent his rage. To let himself go.
As the last Grimm fell and started to fade he finally looked at their meal. Two bodies one smaller than the other. A dull silver eye looked out of one tear stained face. A clump of blood stained blonde hair atop the other.
'No. No no no no. Please no,' Qrow's uttered trying to find a pulse.
Both of them were still and cold. He lifted them and held them close weeping. This wasn't right. It wasn't right! It should ha-
'-ve been you,' Ruby's voice finished in his ear.
Qrow flinched back. Ruby's remaining eye was looking at him. It was a cold gaze one he'd never seen her use.
'Uncle Qrow. Reliably unreliable,' Yang's corpse added its head turning to look at him.
Qrow started back his mind reeling, 'What? How? Stop that.'
'Stop what Uncle? Telling the truth? You could have saved us,' Ruby said, her head turning with a crack of bone.
'Meaby if he didn't drink himself under the table he'd have been fast enough,' Yang suggested.
'Or if he'd spent more of his time off with us instead of going to the Inn,' Ruby offered.
'What no. I… I' Qrow mumbled trying to respond.
Ruby's voice reached him regardless, 'Oh I know. What if he stopped abandoning the people who care about him?'
'Who would care about him? Some useless drunk who brings bad luck everywhere he goes. How many people have to die for you?'
'I never asked for this. I don't want to lose anyone else. I'm sorry. I-' Qrow stopped.
Something clicked in the back of his mind. This wasn't right. Something was just wrong with this. All of this in fact.
He had saved them hadn't he? It was why Ruby had picked a scythe wasn't it. And he'd taught Yang at Signal. This wasn't re-
His mind surged as the room evaporated. Vague flashes came to him. Tunnels, caves, mountain passes, a train tunnel and more. They vanished just before they came into focus.
Qrow snapped back to reality screaming. His arms and legs were bound and his vision blurred. Sound was muffled and shifted between quietly distant and deafening close.
He thrashed and cursed, still crying out in a mix of fear and pain. Something grabbed his head and held him for a moment as a blinding light was pointed into his eye. On reflex he closed it and the light moved to the other one.
There were a few more moments, or was it minutes of disorientation until things started to settle down. Qrow's vision started to come back into focus and the sounds started to become recognisable. Mel was speaking loudly.
'-ow? I said can you hear me Qrow?' Mel's voice asked.
'Hmm. What. I… I…' Qrow mumbled as his awareness returned.
'He's coming out of it.'
'You sure? I don't want to let him up if he's going to hurt himself,' Rodriquez said from his left.
'Ahh. What the hell happened?' Qrow asked, blinking away the last of the fog over his mind.
'You got stung by some Swarm critter,' Mel replied from his right, 'Thing dosed you with some wild neurotoxin cocktail. I think the worst is over. We'd best let him up.'
The hands pinning Qrow in place let go. Sitting up he felt a dizzy spell and paused to let it pass. They were back in the car.
'What happened after I got stung?' Qrow asked.
'I'd called for Mel and Noah to bring the car close. Figured the roof gun would help finish those things off. The one you were fighting tried to drag you off,' Rodriquez said, passing him a canteen of water.
Qrow took it and took a few sips, 'So what little bed rest and I'm all good?'
'Not quite,' Mel said, packing the medical supplies away, 'We gave you an antitoxin shot. No clue what that stuff was but you only started to improve after we followed it up with a stim dose.'
'That's some stuff you can't get more of right?' Qrow sighed and tried to relax into the seat.
'Not unless you want to tell the COG why we need replacement military issue trauma meds. And I don't think they'll like us saying we lost them all.'
The drive back was quiet. They'd stuck one of the new Swarm into the rear of the car. James would have someone who could cut it up and tell them how it worked.
Qrow leaned back and tried to sort out that nightmare. It seemed so real. Like someone had taken one of the lowest times and twisted it further.
Then there were those other images. What were they? Did he know them? It was like recalling a flash card that you'd only seen before blinking.
When they got back Qrow headed into the briefing room and started one of the displays. Pulling up a map he started with where they'd found the Swarm adding pins to the locations. A strange series of seemingly random marks appeared.
Not helpful at all. He played with the settings, adjusting them to show the icons in date order. Lighter red was older and darker was more recent.
There was a pattern in this. Most of the old icons were near the coasts closest to the Dragon's Tail. That made sense. The Swarm must have arrived somehow and spread from there.
But there was more to this. They'd lost whole towns without a call for help. At face value it was a blessing since it avoided the COG finding out. But what if it wasn't just the speed and ferocity of the attack? Those new Swarm they'd run into would let them take out communications and capture the townsfolk quickly.
Overlaying a new filter Qrow added every outage of a CCT relay in the last half a year. Dozens of icons appeared. He sorted them down to ones that hadn't been fixed or had repair teams sent that didn't return.
Then for good measure brought up the range of the relays in question. His hands froze over the keyboard. Jagged zones showed on the map. Split between Sanus and Anima. Dark spaces where no one could call for help.
At one end of each was an early Swarm icon now faded. Along their length were the icons of Swarm battles. Qrow added the reports of missing persons and villages that had lost contact. A wave of new marks filled out the zones and spread ahead of them.
One Sanus the zones split and moved around the mountains towards the east. Two to the south one to the north along the coast. The southerly ones were almost to the end of the mountains. If they were now headed north east they'd be heading straight for Vale.
The one in the north was of greater concern to Qrow it was halfway around the northern mountains and could be heading south now. If the Swarm kept going they'd bypass Vale's main defences and attack through the Forever Fall and Emerald forests. Directly into Beacon. They'd been played. This whole time they'd thought they were stopping or slowing them down.
They weren't fighting the Swarm. They were hunting down scattered decoys and diversions. The Swarm wasn't running and hiding from the COG. They were advancing towards the capital! Qrow pulled out his scroll and called Fortune or whatever his real name was.
He answered on the second ring, 'Qrow? I thought you'd be resting w-'
'Shut up and listen,' Qrow hissed, 'This is all a ruse. We're not containing them. We're just chasing shadows. They're alre-'
'Qrow you need to slow down. What are you talking about?'
'Come up here. I've got it all laid out clear as day.'
A few moments later the door opened and Fortune entered with Rodriquez just behind. Qrow showed them the map and the pattern. Unfortunately they weren't impressed.
'This is interesting. But we'll need to investigate further,' Fortune said looking at the map.
'Investigate? It's right there. How can you say that,' Qrow asked pointing to the screen.
'Qrow you're asking us to risk a major panic. The villages closer to Vale are much larger and better connected. If we show up and order an evacuation word will get out.'
'Word is not getting out because we're running around like idiots. People are dying out there or having worse done to them!' Qrow shouted.
'He's right Qrow. If you're right we're not set up for this. And well…' Rodriquez paused.
'Well what?'
Rodriquez sighed, 'You've been acting weird since you woke up.'
'So. Perhaps I'm more motivated. A near death experience will do that to you,' Qrow said waving his arms.
'Qrow. Perhaps you should take some time to rest up. We'll see what we can find out and reassess the situation,' Fortune said, holding up a hand.
'Reassess? Are you cra-' Qrow winced holding a hand to his head.
'Qrow? What's wrong?' Fortune put a hand on his shoulder.
'Ah. Nothing just. Headache I... I need to lie down,' Qrow pushed the hand away.
Stumbling to his room he dropped onto his bed. Head pounding he pulled up his scroll. Those visions or whatever they were had him worried.
Opening his contacts he updated his messages. Qrow like many Huntsmen, kept a block on his personal messages. The last thing he wanted was a ping to go off at a bad moment.
A series of chimes played and he found Ruby and Yang had been messaging him. That was good. He opened the latest message from Ruby.
It was an image that caused his heart to stop. Ruby was at Beacon's firing range holding a rifle above her head. A Lancer GL rifle to be precise. Next to her was a young woman in COG armour with pink trim and bright orange hair. The caption read: "Gun-gun!"
What the hell had he been missing these last few weeks?
Ruby sighed and glanced at her note book. A few scribbles of the history of Kingdoms and doodles. Lots of doodles in fact.
She glanced over to Weiss' notebook and saw row after row of perfectly neat handwriting. The only images were sketches of maps and crests. Why wasn't her note taking that good?
She looked back at the board and tried to focus on the lesson but it was all just so… Boring. Like one of those documentaries people would watch to fall asleep. Why would they ever need to know this stuff?
Unfazed by anything Dr Oobleck was shooting about the board pointing to it as he spoke, 'The current Kingdoms are just the latest to form on Remnant. There have been many before the current four. The history of some has become entwined with myth and legend.
The sunken Kingdom of Flora, hidden Kingdom of Umbral and others are tales. But they also teach us lessons that are important today. Can anyone tell us about them? Miss Nikos.'
Pyrrha lowered her hand, 'Flora was said to have been built on reclaimed land. But due to its constant growth their resources became overstretched. During a storm its systems of dams and levees broke. The water rose and washed it away.'
Oobleck nodded so fast his head turned into a blur, 'Yes. They tried to tame their environment but by not remaining aware of their limits they overreached. Now Miss Schnee, what about the Hidden Kingdom?'
Weiss stood and coughed into her hand, 'They were said to depend on secrecy to avoid being found by both Bandits and Grimm. No one outside a small group of merchants was allowed to know where they were located. During a time of crisis too many of those trusted merchants were lost. Those who remained were not able to bring enough goods back to survive. According to legend once the merchants were all gone, it simply collapsed as its people lacked the knowledge of how to reach the other Kingdoms.'
'Yes that's correct. They believed by hiding from the world they'd be protected from the dangers in it. But it only meant they were unable to call for help when they needed it most. Please remember that these stories are passed down for a reason. The information they contain is still valid today. No-'
Oobleck paused as the bell went off, 'That is the end of class for today. There will be a quiz next week so please study your notes properly. Miss Rose, could you please stay behind for a moment so we can speak.'
The others picked up their things and left. Yang said she'd save her a plate from the cafeteria. That was good, being kept behind was not good.
'Miss Rose,' Oobleck sighed and cleaned his glasses for a moment, 'Ruby, I can tell you're having some trouble with the class.'
'What no. I'm uh. Fine really. Lots of information and uh stuff,' Ruby said fidgeting in her seat.
'Can I check your notes then?'
She waited for a moment then opened her book, 'I have my own method. You know it's sort of. Interpretive.'
'Ruby you're two years younger then the rest of the class, ' Oobleck said flicking through the pages, 'Technically Beacon has no minimum age for an applicant. A hold over from when Huntsmen were trained from childhood. But you're trying to move from a first year at combat school to a first year academy student. If you're struggling in any way don't retreat and hide. Ask for help. If not from me then from your team. Miss Schnee seems quite studious and she's your partner.'
Her shoulders slumped, 'But I'm the team leader. Weiss already dislikes me being in charge. She'd never let me live it down if I had to ask her for help.'
'Ruby you can't let your fear of an outcome prevent you from acting,' Oobleck said, stepping back, 'Consider what would happen if you were in the field and lacked knowledge that Weiss had. Would you hesitate to ask?'
'Well no. But that's on a mission that is different.'
'How so?' Oobleck asked, sipping his coffee.
'Because it's class and everyone else is able to… to focus. But it's just so… so…' Her voice went quiet.
'Dry.'
'Yes. Thataaaa. I mean no,' Ruby winced.
'Ruby. I'm aware my classes are dense. But I'm only trying to make the best use of the time that I have you here. Even if you only use one percent of what I teach you. It could be that one percent that helps save your life or the lives of others. Now I don't want to keep you any longer so just one more question,' Oobleck turned the page to a doodle of himself, 'Do my glasses really look that big?'
Ozpin was checking the latest reports from the CCT Agency meeting. James had managed to join in, though his camera view had been from the neck up only. They were strictly observers in the event.
The CCTA oversaw the CCT system as a whole. Ranging from which towers got priority for repairs and upgrades to when the main towers were shut down for maintenance. Such things had to be closely coordinated.
The COG and UIR were jointly proposing the creation of a space division. Their proposal had been met with a great degree of concern. Seran's had militarised space on their last world and having satellites overhead controlled by someone else had been a point of contention.
To try and assuage their worries the Serans had offered to have the CCTA involved from the outset. They'd be permitted to inspect the satellites from the design stages through construction and right up to launch. That offer alone was enough to plicate most of them.
Though Ozpin guessed that James would have any inspectors from Atlas do what they could to learn how the technology worked. No doubt there was already some attempt to create non-dust based technology going on. That was one thing about Atlas if anyone beat them to anything it became a point of pride to do it better.
His terminal chimed. A call from Oobleck? He didn't usually call during school hours.
Ozpin accepted the call and Oobleck's face appeared on the screen, 'Hello Doctor. To what do I owe the pleasure?'
'It's about Miss Rose,' Oobleck replied, 'I'm concerned about her. She's quite young and given the sudden shock in moving schools. I'm worried as to how she's adjusting.'
'Has she reached out to you?'
'No,' Oobleck said in a tired voice, 'And that's the problem. She's not reached out to anyone as far as I can tell. I've tried to direct her to ask her team for support. But she seems to think it would diminish her position as leader. I know you're not one to alter teams but…'
'You're wondering if it would be better for her and her team if she stepped down?' Ozpin asked.
'Yes.'
'I'll consider it. But first we'll see if we can help them bond better. This weekend the students are taking assignments aren't they?'
'Yes. But only some basic ones. Nothing we'd oversee directly, 'Oobleck shrugged.
'That should be enough of a chance. Team RWBY impressed us during initiation. It may be that their best side comes out during the heat of battle. There should be something that will give them a chance to bond,' Ozpin said, bringing up the assignment listings.
Clearing Nevermores from buildings, too low key. Police request for students to help search for missing persons in the southern districts, not likely to involve a fight. Some of the security monitors in the Emerald Forest were on the fritz, that should prove suitable.
'I think we'll ask them to take the patrol of the security monitors. It's likely the weather has just knocked something around. Should be simple and give them a small challenge,' Ozpin said.
'If that's what you think is best,' Oobleck tilted his head, 'Though we might want to send JNPR as well. Mr Arc is quite well trained already and Ruby might pick up some things. It would also help if the repairs are more complex if they bring that JACK of theirs.'
'You're right. I'll make the calls and give them their assignments. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Doctor.'
Oobleck hung up the screen going dark. Ozpin stared back at his reflection wondering if he'd kept the mask up. Arc was well trained, too well trained.
The old saying "A cup is most useful when it is empty" was true. Arc was a product of the COG army. He'd been trained as a soldier to follow orders, their orders.
Whilst Miss Valkyrie and Mr Ren had both been trained at the Lodge combat school. They still seemed to have less of a firm outlook. There was the chance they'd grow into their roles as Huntress and Huntsman.
A chance he didn't want to risk being wrong with. Three aura users with military training and equipment were not something to be disregarded. Not the least when their loyalty wasn't certain. Which was why he'd built the teams the way he had.
Most considered the initiation random, that anyone could be partnered with anyone else. That was true for most students. But much like team STRQ there were ways to guide fate.
In the case of partners and teams the launch pads were not just spring loaded platforms. The internal mechanism could be calibrated to launch students nearly anywhere in the forest below. Which gave him the ability to pick and choose teams whilst making them believe it was all chance.
How else to ensure that the heiress to the SDC was teamed up with the daughter of a once High Leader of the White Fang. Making them partners would have been too much strain. But using Yang and Ruby's bond as siblings to bridge the gap?
The fact their skills complemented each other was a boon in itself. But he needed Ruby to grow into a proper leader. At some point in the future she'd be needed to take up the banner in the fight against Salem. Once she'd come of age of course. He didn't want to risk one of the remaining silver eyed bloodlines dying out.
Ozpin turned his attention to team JNPR. He had considered separating the transfers from the COG. To limit the risk they might influence other teams. But in the end he'd opted to keep them all together. Along with insurance against any unfavourable outcomes if the need arose.
He brought up the assignments and added teams RWBY and JNPR to the patrol mission. They'd have some time out of the classroom, let off some steam and be back before the day was out. What was the worst that could happen?