QROW
Qrow thought his life was going pretty well, overall.
Sure, his sister was banging his best friend (when they weren't tearing each other to shreds), which was awkward as hell. Sure, he couldn't put a finger on what, exactly, he felt about his team leader. And sure, he lived in perpetual fear that the minor disasters that always accompanied him would one day be traced back to him, and this little fairy-tale adventure would collapse like a house of cards.
All of that, somehow, just wasn't so bad. Compared to life in the tribe, it was a cakewalk. (Qrow had never understood that phrase. Who walked around with cakes? Were the cakes supposed to be walking? Stupid Kingdom idioms.)
He hadn't had to kill anyone since showing up at Beacon. That was nice. And the worst outcome of the school finding out about his semblance would be expulsion, rather than being murdered in his sleep. That was nicer.
Overall, then, Qrow was pretty happy with his situation. He knew how much worse it could be.
Sometimes, in the fuzzy darkness right before sleeping, when the only noises were the sleeping sounds of his too-trusting roommates, he dared wonder how much better it might get.
There was a sock on the doorknob.
Qrow knew exactly what that meant, and it grated at his nerves and his patience. "We spent a couple hours in the library to let 'em finish," he groused.
"And to study," Summer said.
"Sure." Book learning wasn't Qrow's favorite pastime. He grumpily acknowledged the necessity of it—to keep his cover, if nothing else—and he was willing to put in the work to get good at it, but it wasn't his idea of a good time.
Besides, he'd rather study in private, not in the library. A library was a public place, and a place of quiet. Those facts, combined with Qrow's semblance, meant every minute spent in the library was a minute spent tempting fate and dreading catastrophe.
At least in Team STRQ's dorm, fifty percent of the occupants were used to it, and the other fifty percent were nice enough to believe Qrow's lies.
That… didn't make him feel any better, actually.
"Maybe they're done and just haven't removed the sock yet?" Summer said with faint hope.
As if on cue, there was an indistinct but husky murmuring, followed by an unmistakable moan.
"Or not," she sighed.
"Well, can't say I'm surprised," Qrow said, trying for jovial and just sounding strained. "They'd been fighting for, what, two whole weeks this time? Imagine how pent up they must've been when they made up."
"Not that you have that problem," Summer said in perfectly neutral tones.
It was unfair. Qrow couldn't tell if she disapproved of his sleeping around or not or what, and so had no idea if he ought to deny it or lean into it. In the end, he chose the coward's way out. "Not as much as you think."
"Hm."
There was another moan from inside the dorm. Qrow shook his head. "Siblings, am I right?"
Summer blinked, her face blank. "I wouldn't know."
It occurred to Qrow, with a stab of panic, that he actually knew very little about Summer personally—almost nothing, now that he thought about it. Qrow and Raven had cover stories, which they'd thoroughly rehearsed… and even then kept to themselves. The number one mistake of imposters, they'd had drilled into them, was giving too much detail. So they didn't. When forced to talk about their backgrounds, they kept things vague and indefinite. Three semesters in, so far, so good.
And yet, Qrow realized, Summer had said even less about her background than the actual spies.
Taiyang was the open book of the team. Qrow knew more personal details about the man than he could stand, from the family histories of his mixed parentage (he got his name from his Mistrali father and his looks from his Valan mother, apparently) to how he liked to cook his favorite noodle dish. Everyone else in Team STRQ hid.
That created all sorts of conversational landmines, and Qrow (as was his wont) had just stepped on one. Summer was acting like she wasn't bothered, but Qrow didn't believe her.
That all felt wrong.
The Tribe had warned them about this. Don't get attached. These are your enemies. He knew as well as Raven did that anyone they met at Beacon might be a threat to the Tribe someday, and so was a potential enemy. Getting attached to their enemies was dangerous.
But, as another, louder moan came from inside the STRQ dorm, it occurred to Qrow that Raven was a lot more than "attached", so what the hell.
"Let's go somewhere else before I gag," he said, turning towards the stairs. "How's the roof sound to you?"
"It's as good as anywhere else, I guess," said Summer.
"And…" Qrow swallowed, committed, "when we get there, maybe we'll trade?"
"Trade what?" said Summer, a rare intrigue in her voice.
"Details," he said. Anything more he might have said caught in his throat. Summer, incurious as ever, didn't pursue. He was grateful for that.
The winter air bit as they emerged onto the roof. (Roof accesses are more common and more available on Remnant than on Earth. On Remnant, all areas of elevation have tactical utility, especially for fighters with landing strategies, and architects went out of their way to provide that utility.) Qrow muttered a curse about the weather as he brought up his Aura. Southern Mistral never got this cold, it had a much warmer and more consistent climate than this four-seasons nonsense.
"You get used to it," said Summer behind him, to his surprise. "You can get used to anything after a while. Or I can, anyway."
As even-keeled as Summer seemed, Qrow believed that. "Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I have to like it. Gods forbid I ever wind up in Solitas. Freakin' ice cube."
"It's better along the coast," Summer said.
Qrow felt his mouth go slack and his brow crease.
Summer's face betrayed embarrassment. "You said we'd trade. I guessed you meant we'd trade information about ourselves. Was I wrong?"
"No," said Qrow, his mouth getting ahead of his brain—but then he shook his head, gathered himself, and plunged after it. "No, that is what I meant. So… you moved around a lot as a kid?"
"Let's put it this way," Summer said, walking past Qrow towards the edge of the roof and gesturing out at campus. "If I make it to my third year here, it'll be the longest I'll have lived anywhere."
There was so much to unpack there—it was more revealing than anything Summer had ever said about herself—but Qrow had tripped over the first word. "'If'? Who says you won't?"
Summer didn't answer. She was faced outwards still. Qrow had no idea what she was looking at, or looking for.
Even without specifics, though, dread was rising in Qrow's guts. The way she'd spoken… his heart spoke that way, sometimes. Whenever it seemed anything was going well, he knew right to his core that something would screw it up. He didn't believe he'd make it all four years, either; his only hope was that he'd be able to survive and escape when the worst came and it all blew up.
So why was he picking up that same feeling from Summer? Why did a Kingdom brat resonate with that sensation?
He had to know more. "That's a lot of moving around."
She nodded, though still without looking back at him. He had to see her face, so he stepped up alongside. Her eyes were unfocused, the shattered moon reflecting brightly from their silver surface. Whatever she was looking for, he realized, he'd never see it.
"And without any siblings, you mentioned that," he added.
She nodded again. "Just me and… well."
She blinked, breaking the spell, and looked down, like she'd already said too much.
It made Qrow feel like he should be doing something. Summer had gone as far as she could, and he had promised that he would share, too. "That's not how it worked for me. Well, us. We were stuck with the same people growing up almost all our lives."
"No moving around?"
"I didn't say that." Qrow thought hard on if there was a way to explain bandits moving from place to place in search of prey without saying they were bandits. "Our group would move around looking for work. All of us together, kids included. We were all expected to carry our weight."
"That's good, I suppose," said Summer. "It means you've got to stay with your friends, doesn't it?"
"Friends?" repeated Qrow. "Who said I had friends? It was Raven and me against the world, most of the time." Because the Tribe had viewed sympathy as weakness before the twins unlocked their Auras, and then feared Qrow's curse afterwards.
"Well, at least you had family, then."
"Yeah," said Qrow, looking away. "Family."
He knew his voice didn't sound very convincing, but what could he do? The Tribe had used the word 'family' a lot, but the more he was around Kingdom people here at Beacon, the more he realized that no one else used the term the same way the Tribe had.
And why was it that he could only tell Summer one sentence from every line of thought? This sucked. Lying sucked and he hated doing it.
"I know family matters to you," said Summer, her eyes going out of focus and her hand straying to the emblem she wore at her belt. A stylized rose, picked out in silver. Qrow had always thought it was Summer's emblem, but for the first time he wondered if others had worn it before her. "And it matters to me, too," she added quietly, as if to fuel Qrow's suspicions.
He couldn't resist. "Is that your dad's emblem?"
"It was my mother's-"
Summer caught herself off mid-word. She didn't look embarrassed, though. She seemed on the verge of panic.
"Hey, I'm sorry for asking," said Qrow. "Didn't mean to touch a sore spot. I won't ask again."
Summer's eyes were wider than Qrow had ever seen them, and they stayed that way for a long moment. Summer's thumb was tracing the rim of her insignia, over and over, in a way Qrow might have thought of as comforting except for how little it seemed to calm Summer down. At last, she swallowed and gave a herky-jerky nod. "Yeah," she said. "There's a reason I don't talk about it with other people. So… thanks."
"Don't mention it. For what it's worth, I'm not exactly proud of my parents, either."
For a moment, Summer's expression became furious. Then it was over, and she twirled away to hide her face under her hood. "I just realized…"
"Yeah?"
"That's the most I've talked about my mother in five years."
Qrow was about to mention that Summer had barely said anything about her mother when he realized that was the point. "Oh."
"I guess… I guess being around all of you is making me loosen up some."
Loose was a relative term, Qrow thought.
She turned so that the edge of a smile and the corner of her eyes were visible beneath her hood. "Lucky you," she said.
The words cut Qrow to the quick. "Lucky," he repeated with a mouthful of ash.
She hid again, and Qrow faced away too. He had the sense that Summer wasn't just naturally shy, but someone who had learned shyness, who'd been raised on privacy and suckled on secrets.
In a way, that was comforting. That was how he and Raven were operating, after all. On the other hand, it saddened him. He'd hoped that other people wouldn't be in situations as messed up as his. Taiyang really was the best of them.
But if all that was true, and she still was opening up…
…that was overwhelming.
They stood there like that, alone together, for what might have been quite a while. The two were too lost in thought to fret about how long that took.
Few people were walking around campus, only one or two going to or coming from the CCT tower. In the distance, the last airships of the night were landing at Beacon Cliff. It was all so far away, though. It was all foreign. Qrow didn't belong to any of it.
Neither did Summer, he realized.
"Wanna start on Bridgestone's homework about rules of engagement?" she said, breaking the quiet.
"Not really, no," said Qrow. "I don't think I could get my head in the space for any more studying tonight."
"Me neither," said Summer. "But at least it would give us something to do while we waited."
"No kidding." Qrow stomped on the roof beneath their feet, as if sending a message to the lovebirds somewhere beneath them. "We're gonna have to get a room of our own if they keep at it like this."
"'Get a room'? Like you 'get a room' with other students on campus? I didn't think you thought of me that way."
"Well, I don't," said Qrow in a rush. Summer had turned towards him and fixed him in place with her eyes. Those strange, silver eyes, that seemed like they didn't quite belong to this world. He'd seen a lot of faces over the years, but never a set of eyes like that. He felt, for a crazy moment, that she could see right through him.
"Unless I'm supposed to," he blubbered. "Should I be thinking of you, um, like everyone else?"
She kept him transfixed a little longer. "No," she said at length. "I'm kind of different. I like that you think of me differently."
Qrow felt lighter all of a sudden. "Oh, good."
"I think you meant we should do something to get us off the roof," she said with what was almost a giggle.
"Brat," he said without rancor. He felt a sudden, inexplicable urge to mess with her hair, except that her hood kept her safe from his attentions.
"Is that any way to talk to your team leader?" she fake-pouted.
"Team leader? Where?" said Qrow, pantomiming looking around at his eye level for something he couldn't quite see.
"Jerk," she said cheerfully. "But yeah, let's head back to the room. We've given them more than enough time. If it's still a problem I'll invest in a spray bottle."
"We should call you Summer Interruptus," Qrow said lightly. "Even if they're done, we'll still have to deal with the smell."
"I came prepared," said Summer. She reached into her pack and pulled out an aerosol cylinder that rattled as she shook it. "I'll hose them down with this. We'll see how sexy they feel with 'mountain glade fresh scent' stuffed up their noses."
"Ah, there's my team leader," said Qrow. She smiled bashfully and looked away to replace the air freshener spray, and Qrow, his complete surprise, felt his stomach do some flips.
By the end of their fourth semester, Qrow knew something was up.
Raven did too. They compared notes from time to time, when they could isolate themselves away from the rest of their team. Some of it was subtle, things he didn't recognize until he talked with other students, like lenient team discipline.
For all that he and Raven were supposed to be keeping a low profile, they kept finding themselves in hot water, or at least what they recognized afterwards as hot water. What, where they supposed to have known in advance that scuffles in the dessert line in the cafeteria were not supposed to turn into all-out brawls? Or that an increasingly destructive series of pranks, culminating in two variety packs of Dust being ignited and then thrown through a dorm window, was out of bounds?
Qrow took comfort in knowing that at least the other teams were getting in trouble too, it wasn't all STRQ… until, in the aftermath of a hookup with a member of one of those teams, some new information came out.
"I'd better be on my way," Qrow had said to his paramour of the evening. "Gotta be up bright and early tomorrow. We're going into the forest to serve detention."
"You got detention in the forest?"
Qrow frowned. "You didn't?"
"No, we got assigned lunch line duty in the cafeteria for a week. The headmaster seems to think that was thematic or something. Ugh, I almost think I'd rather go into the forest."
Qrow didn't have to think about it. He knew he'd rather go into the forest. Camping out in the wilds was something close to home for him and Raven, and they were very comfortable with it. Even Summer and Taiyang seemed to be getting the hang of it. Now, going into the forest was very nearly a reward for this team.
It was just another piece of evidence that Team STRQ wasn't treated like the others. That went double when Qrow found out that no other teams were getting called into the headmaster's office for end of semester interviews. Just them.
He didn't understand it, but he knew to dread it. Raven did, too. During the semester break, she floated the idea of them not coming back.
"They suspect," said Raven. Her shoulders were squeezed in and her head was stuck down, like she was trying to fold herself up to take up as little room as possible and maybe go unnoticed.
"What do you think it is they suspect?" Qrow asked.
"Something, I don't know," said Raven fearfully. "We shouldn't go back."
"Yeah, because that wouldn't prove all those suspicions right, no," said Qrow.
"Shut up! Okay, what's your big idea?"
"We stick to the plan," said Qrow simply. "We've gotten stronger and smarter for being here, you know that. You know we'd be at least even odds against anyone in the Tribe by now. Give it another two years and no one there will be able to challenge us when we get back."
"You really think the tribal elders sent us here to get stronger without a plan to keep us in check?" Raven said morosely.
"I think they sent us here to get stronger, without realizing how much stronger we'd get," said Qrow. "And that gives us the edge for whatever comes after."
Raven looked him in the eye. "You want to stay," she accused. "And not just because of the mission. You want to stay because you like it here."
Qrow didn't answer the accusation. He'd sensed for a while that his and Raven's attitudes were starting to diverge. She was still plenty okay with the idea of banditry as a career choice. Qrow, even when he'd been living it, had never loved it; and now, having tasted another life, he loathed the idea of going back.
"You're getting soft for these kingdom brats," Raven went on. "You have a soft spot for them."
"And you don't have a soft spot for Taiyang?" Qrow shot back coldly.
"Of course not," Raven said unconvincingly. When Qrow rolled his eyes at her, she added, "I'm just pumping him for information."
"I'm pretty sure he's the one pumping you," said Qrow, still annoyed at how long the dorm room had been shut the other night. "And the only 'information' you're getting is how you like your buttons pushed."
"I don't care about Taiyang," Raven stormed, drawing herself up to her full height in her fury. "Not the way you care about Summer."
That caught Qrow flatfooted. "How I care about Summer?" he repeated in confusion.
"Please, you worship the ground she walks on," said Raven. "Any order she gives you follow immediately. Any direction she gives you snap to it."
"She's the team leader," Qrow replied, "we're supposed to be doing that."
"You were never like that in the Tribe," Raven said accusingly.
"Hey, I followed orders in the tribe!"
"To survive, because you'd earn a beating if you didn't. You follow Summer's orders with enthusiasm, like you can't wait to obey. It's pretty disgusting, honestly."
Qrow barely stopped himself from making an unfavorable comparison between Summer and the leaders of the Tribe about who deserved to be obeyed. Raven, by twin telepathy or whatever means, seemed to know what he left unsaid anyway. "This is exactly what I mean. You're going soft for these Kingdom brats. It's a mistake. They're not the Tribe. They're not family. They won't be there when it counts. They're not strong enough."
Qrow looked at Raven, trying to gauge her, trying to see if these were things she really believed or if she was speaking purely from fear and stubbornness. He couldn't tell. Raven instinctively hid her true feelings beneath aggression, and she was doing a good job of it this time.
Even if Raven believed all of that, Qrow didn't. Not anymore.
Besides, Raven was back on her bullshit. "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"
"You, obviously," she said haughtily.
"I saw the sparks between you and Summer," he countered.
"You need your vision checked," Raven said, with too little cool to be convincing.
"You sass her, but you obey her orders, too."
"It's called 'keeping cover'. You should try it sometime."
Qrow couldn't stand it. He left her; she didn't pursue.
Raven spent so much time lying to herself, as if she could change reality if she repeated falsehoods often enough.
He wondered if the same was true of him.
The twins came back for their third year after all. Their grades were better than ever, try as Raven might to keep them average, and their combat scores both individually and as members of a team were the highest in the school now that Glynda Goodwitch had graduated. Summer was the exception, of course, in both directions: her individual rating was below average for their grade level, but as a member of a team she had the highest ranking in Beacon.
No student team in Beacon could push STRQ anymore, and increasingly their training took the form of instructor matches and practical, in-the-field exercises. Qrow didn't have to ask around to know that they got more of those than any other team in school.
And it was on one such trip that all of the Misfortune Qrow had been sitting on, all the bad luck that had been building for as long as he'd attended Beacon, finally came due.
"Qrow. Qrow."
"Huh?" said Qrow.
A disheveled-looking Summer was peering at him at close range. She seemed fuzzy around the edges. "Are you sure you don't have a concussion?"
"I'm sure," said Qrow.
"What my mother's name?" said Summer.
"What kind of question is that?" said Qrow with irritation. "You never told me your mother's name."
Summer nodded. "Right answer. I'd say it's about two-to-one odds you're not concussed." Qrow was almost certain that was not how the concussion survey worked, but he was also sure this wasn't the time to argue about it.
First things first, he had to figure out where he was and how he'd gotten there. With Summer out of his line of sight, he saw enormous trees growing above them and blocking out the sky, and heard the snapping and popping of a fire to his side.
So, the forest. Which they'd been traveling over by airship.
And the crash!
The jolt of realization brought him to his feet. Sure enough, there was a crumpled mass of metal and plastic that used to be an airship as the centerpiece of a crash site. Parts of it were still on fire. Looking around, Qrow saw a dirtied but composed Raven looking through their supplies. Summer had moved in that direction and was speaking in a low voice with Raven. As Qrow scanned around, he finally saw Taiyang walking directly out of the fire in the Bullhead, carrying a scorched but somewhat intact crate. Once Taiyang was clear of the fire, he untensed, and momentarily vanished in a blast of steam.
Qrow never got used to seeing Taiyang using his semblance. Taiyang could block all heat transfer between him and his environment, which let him make liberal use of Burn Dust or walk into hazards that would stop his teammates, but that semblance was almost as dangerous to Taiyang. The heat his body built up had nowhere to go until he dropped his semblance. If he used it for too long, he risked cooking himself alive. That was why he carried almost as much Ice Dust on his person as Burn Dust: Burn Dust for his enemies, Ice Dust for himself.
"Nothing else is worth saving," Taiyang said, his body shimmering with heat haze as he rapidly cooled down. "I'll go get the pilot now."
At Qrow's look of alarm, Summer said, "We checked her first, of course, and she was unconscious but alive. After that, our priority was making sure none of the cargo blew up."
Qrow nodded, which was a mistake; his vision swam when he moved his head too quickly. He walked gingerly towards Raven, in time to overhear her as she reported to Summer.
"This was supposed to be enough food and ammunition for two weeks for us and our contacts, plus emergency supplies for four more days," said Raven. "We saved most of the ammunition, but half the food is gone."
"That's not too bad," said Summer. "We won't starve in a week."
"Not if our activity level was low," said Raven. "But the whole point of this mission was for us to help clear out a heavy grimm infestation. We're right in the heart of grimm territory. They won't let us conserve energy. They'll keep us hopping, and we'll eat our way through these rations in no time."
"Especially if we're feeding her, too," said Qrow, pointing at their pilot. Taiyang had carried the woman out of the wreckage, though she was pale and limp. If Summer hadn't told Qrow the pilot had survived, he would have believed the alternative.
"I accounted for that," said Raven crossly. "This food was supposed to support us, our Huntsman supervisor, and a local guide. Even without them and with a pilot, it's still only half. One week, ten days if we're stretching."
Summer retrieved a neatly folded map, which she spread over the top of one case of supplies. "Where do we think we went down?"
An argument ensued as different people claimed to have seen different landmarks or different terrain features. No one had been looking all that closely, since no one had expected to have to remember in high fidelity because of an airship crash, yet here they were.
After entirely too long, Summer made a sharp gesture which cut everyone off, then drew a circle on the map. "We're somewhere in here," she said. "Good enough?"
It did include everyone's guesses as to their position, but it was also a very large circle, a day's walk in any direction from the center. That was a lot of room for error, and they all knew it.
"So," said Summer, "here are our options. I already tried calling for help, but we're in a CCT dead zone until we're much closer to the village. We can sit and wait for rescue, or we can try to get to our destination on foot."
"Walking would take a while," said Taiyang, "especially since we don't know the lay of the land. It would be easy to get lost and go in circles. And it would be extra slow carrying the pilot." When the others looked at him, he explained, "Her leg's broken in at least two places. She may have other injuries, maybe not, but she's not going anywhere under her own power."
"Then we'll have to leave her," said Raven curtly. Summer and Taiyang shot her enraged books, but she held her ground. "If it comes down to a choice between one person dying because we left the pilot behind and five people dying because we tried to take her with us, the answer is obvious."
"I wouldn't just leave you to die if it was you, and I won't leave her either," said Summer with a rare ferocity.
It seemed to knock down Raven's defenses; Raven blinked, then turned away, looking almost embarrassed. "But we just said how hard it would be to take her with us," she said weakly.
"Then let's wait for rescue," said Taiyang. "We were supposed to be in the village by the end of the day. They'll notice when we don't show, right? At least the Huntsman will."
"Even if they notice," said Qrow, "how are they supposed to find us? They don't know where we crashed, they'd have to search the whole route, and we don't even know if we were close to the route when we went down. Besides," he said pointing upwards, "tree cover this thick means a rescue airship could fly right over top of us and never see us. Plus, whatever made us crash might get them, too."
"What did make us crash, anyway?" said Raven. "Grimm?"
"I don't think so," said Taiyang. "If it was grimm, they would've kept attacking after we crashed. Maybe it was just a freak mechanical failure?"
Qrow felt his insides twisting themselves in knots at those words. He also felt the glance Raven couldn't help but shoot him. They both knew how entirely plausible it was that one-in-a-million mechanical failures would happen around Qrow.
This was all his fault.
"Probably not," said Summer mercifully. "I was up with the pilot when it happened. The first words out of her mouth were, 'Did something just hit us?'"
"Well, then what was it?" said Qrow, as much to get suspicion directed away from him as to find the actual answer.
No one seemed to be able to answer his question, though, and the silence got more uncomfortable with every second of silence. Qrow's guilt returned with a vengeance.
"The point is," said Raven, "we can't just sit here and wait for help to show up. If we're going to survive, it will be on our own efforts."
"What kind of efforts?" said Taiyang.
Raven seemed on the point of repeating herself, except that her eyes tracked over to Summer, and she seemed to appreciate that her recommendation wouldn't get a better reception the second time. Stymied, she shrugged and crossed her arms.
Summer's eyes had been out of focus, but she pulled herself together and looked from Raven to Qrow, from Qrow to Raven. "We'll do both, then," said Summer. "Your semblance connects you to your brother, but other things can go through the portal. He doesn't have to go through himself.
"So Qrow will be like the checkpoint in a video game. He stays here with the pilot and our supplies. If we don't have to carry much, we'll be able to travel a lot faster. We'll carry the bare minimum, and check in each evening with Qrow to restock. Then, when we get to the village, we'll bring Qrow and the pilot right to us." She looked at Raven. "There's no range limit on your portals, right?"
"Right," said Raven.
"Anything else we should know about them?"
Qrow saw the slightest twinge in Raven's posture that betrayed her changing her answer at the last minute. "No."
Summer kept looking at Raven a moment longer than could be comfortable, but then said, "Okay then, sounds like a plan to me. Any objections?"
"You'll be leaving Qrow alone here at the crash?" said Taiyang with concern.
"It's fine," said Qrow. "I'm fine with it." With Misfortune acting this strongly, Qrow would probably doom them all if they tried to move together this deep in grimm territory. At least this way, when it fired off again, only Qrow and the pilot would suffer for it.
His logic was the same as Raven's. Better for two to die than five.
At the sudden stricken look he got from Raven, he knew that she understood it just as well.
"Alright," said Summer, although her expression towards Qrow was sympathetic, apologetic even. More than he deserved after crashing their airship. "Raven, Taiyang, let's get going. Qrow, we'll check in with you every evening. Keep our supplies and the pilots safe for us, okay?"
"Okay," lied Qrow.
Goodbye, he added mentally.
Qrow was almost impressed. It was just over three hours before the first grimm showed up.
It helped that for most of that time the pilot stayed unconscious. It gave Qrow the chance to set up the perimeter of the camp as best he knew how between his training at Beacon and his time with the Tribe. Tripwires and traps, cover and obstacles. Not anything that would stop the grimm when they came in real force, but enough to give him a little advantage.
When the pilot finally woke up, and saw her airship crashed and only one person protecting her instead of the four she'd been carrying, she freaked out immediately. Qrow expected that and couldn't be too mad about it, because it was a normal reaction. It still made him angry because of how swiftly it called down the grimm.
Sure enough, not half an hour after the pilot woke up to find her machine destroyed and her leg shattered, Qrow heard the first howls of Beowolves. This did the opposite of calm the pilot down.
It was a small pack, only ten individuals and with no Alpha leading them, and Qrow was able to blow through them without much trouble. At this range, his Aura was more attractive to the grimm than the pilot, which meant he didn't need to worry as much about keeping the pilot safe. But distant foes would be attracted now: attracted by the sounds of the battle, attracted by the flaring of Qrow's Aura, attracted by the pilot's increasing panic as she appreciated more and more the predicament she was in.
Most of all, they'd be attracted by Misfortune, because grimm attacks right now were the worst thing that could happen, so that's exactly what Qrow would get.
Two hours later, a pair of Ursai posed little more trouble than the Beowolves, although it took more time to get through their tougher hides. An hour and a half after that, four smaller Taijitu were a much bigger issue, as he only initially spotted two, only for one to ambush him while another headed for the pilot.
He ended up having to tank a full-strength bite on his arm to free his other arm to save the pilot. That, along with finishing the battle, cost him a substantial chunk of Aura he desperately needed if this was going to go on much longer.
And he wanted it to continue. The more grimm he attracted and killed, the fewer would go chasing after Summer and Raven and Tai. It wouldn't make up for stranding them in the first place, but it was a good enough apology. A good way to spend his life.
(An older Qrow would look back at moments like this and wonder how he'd survived when he was so stupid. Self-regard that low didn't lend itself to living through all that he had. Older Qrow had no sense of irony.)
The waves started coming more frequently and with more threatening grimm. It was like the video games he'd seen people playing that got harder and harder to suck your money away. He didn't mind it. Each time a new group of grimm arrived, and the pilot got that much more desperate and that much more panicked to draw in more, Qrow took comfort in knowing that was another few klicks of unopposed travel he'd bought his team.
That was a good trade, he thought. His life for theirs. That was kinda what the Academies were always teaching, wasn't it? Saving others, helping others. It was nice to see he'd internalized something from his school. He'd learned something.
But, just like with those games, you got to a boss level eventually. And when an ancient Deathstalker arrived, as drained as Qrow was, he didn't have enough left to kill it on his own.
The primeval grimm had a stinger larger than Qrow's head and claws larger than his torso. Its armor was thick, so thick that even direct hits from his sword glanced off its sloping sides. And it was experienced, too experienced to easily let him flank it, or get to its legs to start crippling it. It rotated around whenever he tried that, or lashed out with its stinger to break his momentum.
Qrow kept up the fight for a good while, but he'd started at 20% Aura. He had precious little to spend on speed or strength, and without that he just didn't have the oomph to kill something this nasty.
A swipe of a claw he couldn't quite dodge caught him and took him off his feet. He saw his Aura shimmering around him, threatening to break, and heard the Deathstalker's many legs pounding into the ground as it scuttled towards him to finish the job. He'd done all he could. This was it.
And then he heard something else, something he hadn't expected, but something as familiar to him as the sound of Harbinger transforming.
Soaring over his supine body through the portal he'd heard form came Summer and Taiyang.
They'd come back.
He hadn't expected it, hadn't asked for it, but the gratitude he felt at the sight brought him near to tears.
Using his weapon as a prop, Qrow hauled his exhausted and battered body back to his feet. Taiyang was in front of the grimm, holding its attention with bursts of flame from the Burn Dust in his gauntlets, dodging or deflecting the sweeps of its claws like he was boxing with a creature ten times his mass. Summer alternated between firing barrages of shots at its eyes and slipping around to slice at its legs. As Qrow watched, she got the first one off, causing the Deathstalker's body to pitch as it lost balance.
Its claws flailed to either side as if to manage its new weight, and Taiyang sensed that as his opening to go for the face.
Qrow could see it in slow motion, like it had already happened. This Deathstalker was old, old enough to think tactically. And even if its claws were out of the way, that still left its…
Yes, there it was, the tail curling up, not off-balance enough to affect its aim, drawing Taiyang into range while it prepared a blow strong and sharp enough to imperil even a full Aura.
But Qrow always had been faster than Taiyang. Summoning the last of his strength and squeezing his Aura dry, he threw himself forward, screaming, "Look out!"
Taiyang had the good sense to pull up his charge at the warning. Down came the stinger anyway.
And Qrow got there just in the nick of time, the broad flat of Harbinger-sword raised above them both. The stinger hit hard but slid off Harbinger's mass, punching into the ground at Taiyang's feet. The impact was savage enough to rattle every bone in Qrow's body and make his Aura flicker again, but that was far better than what would have come from a direct hit.
Qrow had about a microsecond to revel in his accomplishment before an impact and crushing pain stole those emotions away from him.
Of course. The claws.
The Deathstalker had caught him, pinning his arms helplessly up and sweeping him off the ground. It was squeezing, so tight he couldn't breathe, and Qrow felt the dregs of his Aura slipping away from him moment by moment. This was the end. His body was much squishier, when his Aura failed this much force would pop him like a grape…
"Qrow!"
And all the world was white and silver.
The pressure on him released, and for a moment he was suspended in midair. Summer had come, had flown across the battlefield from one side of the Deathstalker to the other so high no one should have managed it in one jump, with so much strength that her weapon had cut cleanly through the Deathstalker's claw, smashing that toughest of armor with a single crushing blow.
And her face-Qrow saw it set in desperate determination, creased in exertion, while her eyes glinted with the ferocity of a mother bear.
Gravity reasserted itself. Qrow fell helplessly and hit the ground hard. He had barely enough attention to track Summer as she finished her arc, and to his surprise, she landed just as gracelessly, tumbling from her feet and rolling as her weapon slipped out of her grasp. To his horror, he saw her Aura puff away from her, completely spent.
A bellowing war cry from Taiyang drew Qrow's attention back. Taiyang had used the distraction to slip underneath the Deathstalker. Now he was throwing a flurry of flaming punches at the Deathstalker's underbelly, too quickly and too hot to track, and there was a crack as the Deathstalker's armor splintered, and Taiyang was a blur of fury as he ignited the Dust he carried and surrounded himself in flames to purify the grimm from the inside out.
He called his semblance Immolation for a reason.
The Deathstalker dissolved, crumbling out of existence as if it had never been.
Taiyang put the flames out, followed that act with a blast of Ice Dust that puffed away from him almost instantly. But Qrow had no attention to pay to Taiyang.
"Summer!" he shouted, hauling himself to his feet despite every muscle complaining at the motion. He was somewhat relieved to see her on her hands and knees, heaving breaths, but looking okay enough. Okay enough for someone who had just had an in-combat Aura break.
Qrow shambled in her direction. "You alright?" he rasped.
"Yeah," she panted. "Gimme a second."
A million questions were racing through Qrow's brain, tumbling over each other and getting jumbled before he could articulate them, but one thought forced its way to the forefront. "You came back," he said in disbelief.
Even as wiped out as she looked, she was still able to look at him in a way that made him feel stupid. "We said we would," she said. "Remember? We promised to come by every evening."
The idea was foreign to Qrow; it took long seconds for it to register. Because he'd thought of being left behind the same way that Raven did, as something final, definitive. Promises to come back in a survival situation were just there to make the person feel good. They weren't real.
Except, apparently, this time.
It was such a relief, so very strange, that Qrow for several seconds couldn't do anything but laugh hysterically.
"Not to break up the comedy routine or anything," said Taiyang, "which is super strange coming from me, but we need to get our act together."
Qrow went to offer Summer his hand, and they were able to rise to their feet together. "You're right," said Summer, "but I think the plan needs to change some."
"Why's that?"
Summer looked discerningly at Qrow. "That wasn't the first attack you faced, was it?"
He couldn't lie to her. Not like this, not anymore. "That was the seventh," he said. "Or maybe the eighth? Honestly, I lost count."
"That's what I thought," said Summer. "No, we're not doing that again. We are not splitting up."
"But-" Qrow started to protest.
Her eyes flashed as she fixed him with a glare. "I will not leave you behind."
How could he argue with that? He couldn't, that's how.
From the direction of the still-open portal came Raven's voice. "I can't hold this open forever, are you coming through or not?"
Summer stumbled unsteadily but deliberately towards the portal and shouted back, "Go ahead and close it. Open a new one in five. We have to gather everything up."
There was a beat of hesitation, then a tremulous, "Okay." The portal winked out of existence.
"One more question," said Taiyang as he crossed his arms at Summer. "How did your Aura break? You didn't even take a hit as far as I could see."
"… Oh." Summer's hands retreated inside her cloak, and she bowed her head, almost concealing her visage. "That."
"That?" repeated Taiyang.
Summer took a deep breath. "I suppose you deserve to know the truth," she said. "About my semblance."
"You said you didn't have a semblance," said Qrow.
A sickly smile formed on Summer's face. "I know what I said. So I know that I was lying."
The silence that followed was full of disbelief and astonishment.
"Let's gather our supplies and get the pilot ready to move," said Summer, making her way towards their supplies. "Raven will get tetchy if we're not ready to go back through the portal when she opens it again. Besides," she added as color filled her cheeks, "I promise to tell you the truth, and she needs to know it too, but I don't want to repeat myself. It'll be easier to tell you all together."
Qrow felt like the aches and bruises of his body were a continent away. All he could process was this new revelation, and wonder-with a touch of fear-at what Summer might say next.
Next time: Qrow, Part 2
