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Chapter 12

"I got in! I got in! I got in!"

Ruby started screaming into her scroll the second her call was answered, having completely lost her ability to hold in her excitement. The few people loitering around the entrance to the VPD building stared as her giddiness caused her to start jumping up and down, but Ruby didn't care one tiny bit. She was happy to share the greatest moment of her life with anyone and everyone.

Of course, complete strangers weren't who she would ideally like to share her news with, hence why she had turned her scroll back on the second she had been released from her interrogation/interview. Part of her had briefly worried about making the call in the middle of the night, as well as potential time zone differences, but said worry came and went before she had realized it.

"Into what?" Qrow answered calmly. "The cookie jar on the top shelf?"

"Sh-Shut up!" Ruby felt her eye twitch as she stomped both her feet on the ground. "I can get into that just fine, thank you very much." Ruby paused to relax and smiled again. "I'm talking about Beacon."

The line went quiet for a couple seconds, causing Ruby to double check her scroll to make sure the call hadn't dropped. She liked to think she was pretty good at reading Qrow's reactions when they spoke, but the fact that she couldn't see him made that talent kinda useless at the moment. She imagined he would be happy, or at least would do the Qrow thing where he pretended he was too cool to be happy, but she couldn't help but feel a little in the dark until he spoke up.

"Refresh my memory, Kiddo, but I'm pretty sure I didn't miss your last couple of birthdays."

"You didn't." Ruby smirked and started walking down the sidewalk. "I'm just getting in two years early."

"You're gonna have to backtrack just a little bit." Qrow didn't sound upset, but was definitely confused. "How did this happen?"

"That's a bit of a story…" Ruby scratched her cheek with her free hand. "Basically, I stopped a robbery and the right people noticed. Also, you never told me you knew Professor Ozpin."

"Oz was headmaster when I was at Beacon, so it'd be kinda weird if I hadn't met him at least once," Qrow commented, his sarcasm not as confident as it usually was. He was holding something back.

"Well, Oz made it sound like a little more than that," Ruby pushed back, though didn't expect much of an explanation.

"That's a bit of a story too," Qrow summarized, and she could easily imagine the grin on his face. "How'd your dad take the news?"

"I, uh…" Ruby stopped at a street corner, his question tripping her up a bit more than it should have. She paused long enough to pick her words. "I haven't told him yet. Figured I'd tell you first, since you're the reason I got this far."

"Don't sell yourself short." Qrow's tone was suddenly a lot more serious. "You put in the work."

"Hopefully it was enough work."

"You nervous?"

"A bit," Ruby answered, running a hand through her hair. "I mean, I'm excited too, but feeling the pressure a little bit."

"I guess you would."

"But this is what we've been working for. A chance to live up to what I came from. To be like you and Mom." Ruby hesitated for half a second. "And Dad. And Yang's mom, I guess…"

The line went silent again, and again Ruby felt like she was in the dark. Not that she expected anything negative from Qrow, but she didn't like accidentally leaving him without some kind of comeback. She should have known not to bring up Team STRQ, and her mother specifically.

"Alright, I'm still on the clock, so better get back to it," Qrow said finally, trying his best to sound like his usual cool self. "You get home safe."

"Copy that." Ruby smiled, knowing better than to hold his sudden change in mood against him.

"I'm proud of you, Ruby," Qrow concluded before the call finally ended.

Ruby pocketed her scroll, taking a glance up at the moon and the rest of the night's sky. While part of her knew they both had more to say, she didn't let those thoughts stick in her head for too long. After all, they still had plenty of time.

Ruby splashed one last handful of water on her face, hoping that this was the one that did the job of giving her the mental kick she needed to get their day started. Slowly bringing her hands down, she leaned forward, inching slightly closer to the bathroom mirror. She looked functional as far as she could tell, even missing the dark circles under her eyes she had gotten used to finding every morning, likely due to a combination of her aura and getting a normalish night's sleep.

Despite feeling alright physically, however, Ruby's brain was still dragging a bit, a familiar sense of exhaustion not quite ready to leave her alone. She was still committed to the goals she set when she woke up, to being the leader everyone needed her to be and focusing on the mission, but it was becoming clearer that it was going to a little extra time to work up to that.

Knowing she needed to start somewhere, Ruby returned to the present, turning her attention to the muffled voices just outside the door. It was against her nature to snoop, but she made an exception given that she herself was the topic of their discussion.

"I still don't see why I can't come with you," Weiss said adamantly, her demeanor having not dropped since their morning visitor had explained her intentions.

"This is a family matter," Raven answered dryly, clearly not about to budge in this instance.

Knowing that things could very quickly escalate in that instant, Ruby stepped forward and pulled the bathroom door open.

Weiss glared in Raven's direction. "Don't you dare proclaim yourself to be more her family than I am."

"Weiss…" Ruby said softly, though she was still able to instantly grab her partner's attention.

Despite pausing, Weiss never lowered her eyes, only briefly turning away from Ruby to look back at Raven. She had made up her mind, and wasn't going to easily change it. Not wanting a repeat of any of the episodes they been through the day prior, Ruby knew that it fell on her to diffuse the situation.

Ruby looked to Raven. "Give us a minute."

Raven shrugged and moved to leave the room. "Meet me in the alley next to the inn."

Now alone, Ruby directed all her focus to her partner. Though her eyes held on to her conviction, Weiss' shoulders seemed to relax. Knowing better than to assume everything was resolved, Ruby waited, giving the former heiress a moment to put her thoughts together.

"I was told to supervise you," Weiss eventually said, though her words weren't as forceful as they had been with Raven.

"Is this still about your reputation?" Ruby instantly regretted the snark in her voice, mentally kicking herself for her lousy impulse control.

Weiss looked downward, the fight in her eyes finally falling away and revealing hints of vulnerability. Looking at the mix of sadness and regret in her partner's eyes, Ruby had a very difficult time questioning how much she cared.

"I'm supposed to take care of you." Weiss closed the distance between them, placing a hand on each of Ruby's shoulders to start pulling the wrinkles out of her cloak. "Protect you in a fight, catch you when you fall."

Ruby smiled and tilted her head. "As an authority on your Ruby catching skills, I'll have you know they're top notch."

"Sometimes I'm not so sure." Weiss paused, resting both her hands on Ruby's shoulders.

"Why's that?"

"I feel like I've just been making things worse between us since we arrived here." Weiss kept her eyes averted from Ruby, glancing just off to her left. "I want to help you, but I can't figure out how."

Ruby sighed, averting her own eyes. "That's at least a little bit on me."

"Well, obviously, you dunce!" Weiss suddenly sprang back to life, reaching forward and flicking Ruby dead-center of the forehead.

"Ow!" Ruby recoiled a couple inches.

Weiss took a deep breath. "If there's something I can do to help you, you need to tell me. I can't learn otherwise."

Ruby recovered, her eyes meeting Weiss' once again and the determination that came with them. More than anything, she wanted to match it, to tell her partner how different things were going to be from this point forward. A voice in the back of her head stopped her, warned her against making empty promises. She didn't want to let the voice win, but again, she knew she needed to work up to that.

"I'm gonna try to better," Ruby said instead. "Try to be better."

"I don't need you to be better," Weiss replied softly, her hands finding their way back to Ruby's shoulders. "I just need you to be you."

Ruby smirked involuntarily. "You know, I'm pretty sure I've heard that exact line in a book Yang used to read me as a kid."

"I will flick you again."

"Noted," Ruby squeaked, though didn't pull away from Weiss just yet.

They both seemed to go perfectly still for a moment, and Ruby noticed something else come over her partner's eyes. A weird mix of conflicting emotions that Ruby couldn't quite pick apart, coupled with Weiss leaning half a hair closer while gripping the hem of Ruby's cloak just a little tighter. Ruby's conscience told her to take a step back and let the moment fizzle, that there would be plenty of time after the mission if they were both set on going down this road again.

Of course, her conscience seemed to have nothing on her lousy impulse control.

Ruby gently wrapped arms around Weiss' waste, pausing just long enough to make sure she wasn't misreading the moment. When Weiss closed her eyes and leaned closer still, Ruby closed the gap, effortlessly pressing their lips together.

As Weiss moved her arms around Ruby's neck to hold them closer together, Ruby felt her mind go blank and her chest fill with a warmth and contentment that she had felt traces of earlier that morning. Eventually and almost simultaneously, however, they broke off the kiss.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Weiss asked, her face now red and her arms still affixed to Ruby's neck.

Ruby thought hard. "I, uh-"

"Then get to it." Weiss finally disentangled the two of them and took a single step backwards. "Before you make us both late."

"Copy that." Ruby started walking away, but paused mid-stride. "Wait, aren't we going down the same way?"

"Go!"

Ruby instantly ducked out of the room, though the warmth and contentment in her chest remained.

Yang was certain that she had picked the most uncomfortable chair in the inn's lobby. It didn't matter whether she leaned back, forward, or to either side. This seat just did not agree with her.

Granted, she had to acknowledge the possibility that her discomfort wasn't the chair's fault. Blake was seated in the chair next to her, and neither of them had spoken since greeting each other when Yang had originally sat down. Not that Yang had anything left to say, having said her piece the night prior. All that was left was for her to keep the peace and wait for Blake to give any kind of response before the mission ended.

On the bright side, they didn't seem to have much longer to wait. Weiss was the last holdout they were waiting on to get started, Ruby and Raven having already explained their intentions and departed. That, of course, was a whole other situation that Yang wasn't happy about, but she accepted that as a problem she would have to deal with later.

She looked off to the side, to where her father stood. Tai eyed her up and down as she fidgeted, almost like he could see right through her. Yang had to admit to herself that she was grateful that he hadn't said anything, though couldn't shake the feeling that wheels were turning in the back of his head.

"Guess that means we're all ready to go?" Tai said suddenly, his words directed somewhere past her.

Yang turned in the direction, finding Weiss approaching them. Yang stood, as did Blake at basically the same second, and the four of them moved to stand in something resembling a circle.

"Do we have a plan?" Weiss asked, her voice firm but calm.

"Raven's following up on her lead," Tai answered. "We haven't discussed much beyond that yet."

"With all due respect to your…" Weiss paused, clearly searching for the word to describe Raven. Eventually, she shrugged dismissively. "I don't fancy waiting for the mission to occur around us."

"No, I agree." Tai nodded and crossed his arms. "Question is whether or not we have anything solid to go on."

Blake stepped forward. "I might have a trail for us to follow, but it leads out into the woods."

"Should we all go?" Yang asked, eager as everyone else clearly was to do something constructive.

Tai snorted. "Not if we don't want to get caught."

Yang shot him a sideways glance. "Appreciate the faith, Dad."

"Hey, that goes for me too." Tai's hands shot up defensively. "Sneaking and spying fell squarely into Branwen jurisdiction back in the STRQ days."

"I'll go with you then," Weiss said to Blake, sounding determined to end the discussion.

"And what?" Yang asked, fully aware how impatient she sounded. "We just sit on our hands in the meantime?"

"There are still a couple people in this town that I didn't get to question yesterday," her father answered. "You and I can do one last round to be thorough."

"Alright, now that we have a plan, let's execute it," Weiss declared, already on her way out the door. "We've wasted enough time as it is."

Blake quickly fell into step behind Weiss, leaving Yang to exchange glances with her father. She eventually sighed, deciding to focus on being grateful that she was no longer stuck in that rickety old chair.

The sound of metal scraping against metal wasn't one that bothered Qrow all that much. He had been a part of all kinds of fights throughout his life, none of which he would have been all that effective in if he flinched every time he heard a noise he didn't like. Actually seeing the source of the noise, on the other hand, was a different story entirely.

Upon turning his head to the source of the scraping, it took almost all of Qrow's willpower not to leap up and dive at his cell's door. The Rainarts' daughter, Hana, approached while dragging Harbinger on the floor behind her. She stopped in front of the cell and tried to lift Qrow's weapon up to present to him, though her obvious lack of physical strength resulted in the blade crashing into the floor again.

"How do you make this thing change modes?" Hana casually asked.

"Pass it here and I'll show you." Qrow tried to reply in kind, though he felt his eye twitch a couple times.

Hana rolled her eyes. "Did you really think that would work?"

"Did you really come all the way down here to ask me that?" Qrow sat up straighter, wanting to make it clear he wasn't going to fall for any amateur mind games.

As he expected, Hana paused and looked him over. If he had to guess, she was reevaluating him, trying to find some weak point or button to push. Qrow would never make any serious claims to being infallible, though he had no intention of letting her find any.

"I met Team RWBY." Hana held Harbinger up vertically and leaned against its pommel. "I was not impressed."

Qrow shrugged. "They must have been having an off day. You won't get so lucky a second time."

"What makes you think there will be a second time?" Hana's hands tightened around Harbinger.

"The fact that you didn't open this conversation with how you killed them." Qrow leaned back and closed his eyes. "Being that you're clearly the kind of person who would."

"It's only a matter of time before we change that," Hana bit back, now with slightly more venom and impatience in her voice.

"Careful now," Qrow warned, enjoying antagonizing the girl more than he probably should have. "Your dear 'ole dad seems to think that kind of stuff is beneath you."

"He didn't protest when we disposed of this ship's crew."

Qrow opened his eyes and turned to face her again. "Bet he wasn't particularly happy about it either."

"You won't turn me against my father." Hana spoke with ice in her voice and eyes. Hazel clearly wasn't quite the right angle to attack her from. "Besides, none of it will matter once we have our revenge."

"You mean his revenge."

"I see no difference."

Qrow laughed under his breath. "Kid, do you even remotely understand what happened to your aunt?"

"I'm aware of the details, yes." Hana took her weight off Harbinger, taking a step closer to the cell.

"Good," Qrow replied without skipping a beat. "Then you know she was a huntress who died saving lives.

Hana took another step forward, stomping her foot this time. "She was child brainwashed into fighting a war."

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "Didn't your parents do the same to you?"

"Father taught us to be strong," Hana stated without hesitating.

"Yeah, strong sociopaths." Qrow paused just long enough for dramatic effect. "Your mother's word, not mine."

This time, Hana hesitated briefly but noticeably. "You spoke to my mother?"

Qrow smirked, then took his shot. "We had a chat last night. You can check the security cams. Get the feeling she doesn't trust your judgment, or like you very much."

Hana went completely silent, clearly simmering and trying to piece together a response. Again, however, it was basically what Qrow expected. He could smell bad blood between family members a mile away.

"When I kill your family, I promise to make it quick," Hana said, with what was clearly all the composure she had left. She immediately turned and dragged herself and Harbinger away.

Not disappointed with the end result, Qrow didn't make any comments as Hana disappeared down the hallway. While he had been prepared for her to open the cell to take her anger out on him directly, he hadn't been expecting her to. Instead, having now spoken to all of them, he felt like he had a good read on the Rainart family dynamics, and could clearly see that he just needed to push each of them in the right direction for the unit to implode.

Also, Hana had provided the first solid confirmation that Ruby was nearby, and had brought the cavalry with her. Overall, the day was so far off to a decent start.

Qrow let his eyes wander to the opposite corner of the cell, where Summer stood and stared in the direction Hana had left in. It was not lost on him how uncharacteristically quiet she had been through the whole conversation.

"You got something you wanna say?" Qrow asked despite knowing the answer.

Summer didn't take her eyes off the hallway outside the cell, though her expression changed, becoming a mix of disgust and disappointment Qrow had become familiar over the course of many STRQ missions that had taken dark turns. Eventually, she shook her head and looked away.

"I just want it on record how proud of Ruby I am."

Qrow could only agree with her on that point.

Ruby found Raven exactly as promised, hiding in the shadows of one of one of the inn's alleyways. While she wasn't nervous, Ruby was a little skeptical as to what the benefits of this team-up could be. They didn't know each other well enough to even claim they had nothing in common, and Raven's demeanor since walking in on her and Weiss said that this wasn't her idea.

Still, with Raven being one of the few blood relatives she had left, Ruby felt willing to take a chance and see how things shook out. At best, she could gain some insight into her own ancestry, and at worst, she could get a glimpse as why both her fathers were so set on keeping her and Yang's connection to the Branwen tribe a secret. Pausing on the thought, however, she admitted that those two scenarios weren't mutually exclusive.

"So where do we start?" Ruby asked as she slowed her approach towards her aunt, figuring that it was best to skip the small talk.

"We start by making sure you're ready for a fight." Raven pushed herself off of the wall she was leaning against and unsheathed Omen. Her methodical steps forward and lack of any obvious emotion on her face said she was serious about her intentions.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you just comment about my instincts being good?"

"Your movements were sloppy." Raven halted in place. Though her current stance seemed relaxed, it was highly unlikely that she had left herself open and defenseless. "If that was your best, you're going to be a liability in our next real fight."

Ruby sighed, realizing that there was no avoiding this. The best she was going to able to do was end this sparring session quickly and efficiently, to not waste time and make sure neither of them picked up any unnecessary injuries.

"Fine," Ruby said as she unclipped Crescent Rose from her belt. "Let's just get this-"

Raven sprang forward in an instant, sword swinging with a precision that Ruby had seen in few other huntresses. She barely had enough time to uncoil her scythe and deflect the initial strike. Seeing that her opponent was more than ready for a follow-up strike, Ruby propelled herself backwards.

Clearly anticipating the movement, Raven closed the distance again, striking quickly and repeatedly. Ruby twirled and swung Crescent Rose in response, managing to parry each successive strike. Fortunately, Ruby was able pick up on the attack pattern, making it easier to keep up with the senior huntress. Unfortunately, she doubted this fact was lost on Raven.

After feigning a forward strike, Raven dodged to Ruby's right, weaving around her for an easy strike to the back. Without any other options, Ruby triggered her semblance, disappearing in cluster of rose petals and reappearing several feet in the air above Raven.

As Ruby clicked her scythe's conversion mechanism and and shifted her into her rifle configuration, time seemed freeze for a split second. That same "instinct" Raven had mentioned earlier kicked in, telling her to pull the trigger while she had a clear shot. Making eye-contact with Raven in that instant, however, she let the moment and easy shot pass.

Smirking and relaxing her trigger finger, Ruby used her semblance again, this time materializing behind Raven. Her swing was wide and heavy, and Raven's lighter weapon gave her enough of a window to spin around and deflect the strike.

Seizing the opportunity, Raven took the offensive again, using a single swing of her sword to force Crescent Rose out of her way. Instead of bringing Omen back around, however, Raven kicked her left foot forward, connecting with Ruby's shin and bringing her to a knee. With the ploy successful and Ruby off balance, she finally brought her sword back around.

Despite the disadvantage and lack of leverage, though, Ruby knew how fast she was. Ducking out of the way of the swing, which lightly grazed her cheek, she managed to recover her grip on Crescent Rose. When Raven swung again, Ruby was more than ready to block, which meant the fight was basically over by that point.

As the two weapons made contact, Ruby used the conversion mechanism one more time, hinging the the head of her scythe forward, catching Omen in between the blade and the shaft. Pushing backwards one more time, Ruby yanked the sword from Raven's hand.

Seeing what looked like a flash of shock in her opponent's eyes, she came to a stop just out of arm's length of Raven. Releasing Omen from Crescent Rose's grip, Ruby deftly caught the sword in her right hand. While she kept her guard up just in case, she felt confident that she had just proven herself.

"That was quite the trick." Raven crossed her arms, her actual emotions still unreadable.

"Like it?" Ruby grinned and flourished Omen a bit. "Dad had me practice that move a bit way back when. Never had much use for it, until just now at least."

Raven rolled her eyes. "So you're a shrewd one too, huh?"

Ruby tilted her head. "Just like my mother?"

"Summer had her moments." Raven paused briefly, her eyes shifting before facing Ruby again. "But shrewdness was always more of a Branwen trait."

Ruby felt her grin fall away. Not out of sadness or even disappointment, but more a sober reminder of the potential reality she was living in. Upon further reflection on the night before, she was more willing to consider that Qrow wasn't actually dead, but that didn't mean she she had written it off as a possibility. For everything that had been pretty definitively said between them, the thought of having lost another family member still made her feel a bit empty.

"Did you…" Ruby hesitated, briefly question how to phrase her question. "…always know we were related?"

"Not for certain, no." Raven looked away from her again. "I didn't start checking in on you and Yang until after Summer disappeared. That said, I knew my teammates, so the idea of you not being Qrow's spawn wasn't a believable lie to me."

Ruby's shoulders sank as she looked upwards. "It was never exactly a well kept secret."

"Any doubts we were related ceased when we met at Haven."

"So what was the giveaway?" Ruby asked as she turned to face Raven again.

"Watching you, before and during the fight." Raven turned back as well, almost more focused on her. "You might have your mother's eyes, but you also have your father's glare."

Ruby hesitated again, though quickly shook her head, decided that she could obsess over the veiled comment later. For the time being, they had a mission to complete.

"Before we got distracted, you were gonna fill me in on the plan?" Ruby tossed Omen back to its owner.

Easily catching and sheathing the sword, Raven turned right around, motioning for Ruby to follow her out of the alley.