Qrow and his drink found a comfortable spot on the Inn's front porch, covered by the eaves but with a view of the night sky. The half-moon and its meteoric tail cast pale light across the village of Shion. It was the only familiar thing in the sky, so Qrow toasted the nocturnal guide and took a drag of whiskey.

Yang walking down the lane, dragging a toy wagon and the supplies she'd gathered from the ruins. She reached his side, nodded to the wagon- an exact replica of what she'd run away from home with- and grinned at her joke. "Since Ruby's not here, I figure I can take you with me, Uncle Qrow."

Qrow raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? Where to?"

Yang nodded at the distance. "Back into that darkness. To find Ruby."

Qrow grinned at her enthusiasm. "Sure. Long as I get to ride in the wagon."

Now Yang laughed, hard giggles like drumbeats in her chest. The tightness around her eyes, too, made the expression look like a sob. Qrow winced as he noticed this. And he saw that she saw he'd seen.

They were family. They knew each other, and weren't on their guard. The meta-conversation of body language dimmed their spirits again. Her eyes kept flicking to his bottle, his crutch. They were both broken, and they both knew it, and they both knew that they both knew.

Qrow had clearly finished moving for the day, so Yang took a seat beside him.

She asked her uncle, "When's the last time we looked at the stars like this?"

"Back when the stars were familiar," Qrow grunted.

Yang raised an eyebrow. "You're getting awful poetic, Uncle Qrow."

"Nope. Take a look."

She stared at the new constellations. "Oh." They really had changed.

She pondered the silence where an emotional reaction should be. But being lost in the cosmos didn't mean anything to her. She could go anywhere, as long as she had her friends. Without them, she didn't belong anywhere. She rolled her attention back down to Remnant. "How are we gonna find Ruby?"

"Still workin' on that," Qrow murmured.

Yang looked up and down the road.

"Didn't you say Jaune's here?"

"He'll be back." Qrow wobbled his head side-to-side. "Unless he's lost."

"Where'd he go?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Yang flared her eyes. "I think I'd believe anything today."

Qrow shook his head. "This one's is a big fish to swallow. He'll tell you when he comes back."

"If he doesn't get lost," Yang corrected.

Qrow shrugged. "That's life."

"Uncle Qrow… Sometimes you're hard to talk to."

He'd earned that. "Yeah," he grimaced.

They sat in silence, Qrow wondering if Jaune would return alone. Aqua could fly to other worlds, so what would bring her back to Shion? A promise? Nobody lived by their word anymore; he couldn't believe that.

Yang tried another topic. "What is that dark place?"

"Dunno." Qrow took another swig and thought about it. "It's not a place," he realized.

Yang looked at him. "Huh?"

Qrow scratched his beard. He was just past the edge of sobriety, where rationality was untethered by inhibition. "Places have rules. They have… Shape, at least. That darkness is more like a state of being."

Yang squinted at him. "We had to *go* to get there, and we had to *leave* to get back, right? Isn't that what a place is?"

"Sure," Qrow nodded. "No." He shook his head. "If that was right, then what direction is it?"

Yang looked out into the forest, where their portal had been. But that doorway was closed now. She tucked a dimple and looked into her lap.

Qrow shook his head again. "It's an anti-place. That's the problem.

"This seems like something to ask Professor Oobleck."

Qrow nodded into the inn. "There's a Faunus here. He says he can see giant chains in the sky. Like we're being pulled. So… I guess that place was always here. And we moved. Which explains the constellations changing."

Yang rolled her eyes. Uncle Qrow had always nay-sayed her formal education. "Uncle Qrow… That's now how my science book said planets work."

Qrow looked at her sideways, but didn't argue. Another swig. After this one, he saw sparkles in the sky. He tried to blink them free, until he realized it was just Aqua and Jaune returning from their magical outer space adventure.

Yang keened her eyes and tensed. She pointed at the light show. "What the heck is THAT?"

Qrow grumbled, "What, they don't have that in your textbook?"

Their approach was rapid, but the deceleration and landing was subtle. Without blasting wind or kicking up dust, the glider shirked its momentum and then dissolved into sparkles, depositing Aqua and Jaune at a walking pace across the street.

Aqua sauntered with more weight on her shoulders than before. She was tired.

Qrow introduced her. "Yang, this is our new friend, Aqua. Jaune found her in the darkness. She's promised to help us find Ruby."

"Thanks," Yang nodded.

"Nice to meet you, Yang." Posture-perfect, Aqua bent at the waist the way Ren bowed. Not quite. She kept her chin above level, like a noble from Atlas. Oh. Yang lit up with a realization. Aqua had a lot in common with her Uncle's old flame. She rolled a judgmental look to him.

But Qrow didn't notice. He was giving Aqua his attention, and wore a real smile when he talked to her. Really put on a happy face. "Any luck?" He gestured to the sky.

And Aqua smiled back. "We'll check the scores at the coliseum in a few days. The games are on, and they'll recognize one of the competitions. The games master knows to look out for them, too."

Jaune retched.

Everyone turned to look at him across the street. Instead of joining them, he'd leaned over a burned-out wall. While they watched, he finally mustered his gut muscles and launched the bulk of his stomach's contents.

Aqua turned back, to give him his privacy.

Qrow drank and watched.

Yang found Aqua's attention. "So the plan is to sit and wait?"

Aqua took a moment to compose a pleasant response. Yang had seen this steely expression before on Blake. Questions like "Where are you going?" or "Do you think we'll be together forever?" always met this sociopathic gaze.

Aqua's lips parted- a false start- and then the easiest half-truth came out. "Tomorrow, we'll go looking for someone else I know. She might have some answers."

It was easy to recall Blake locking pinky fingers and promising "forever."

Yang had fooled herself, and Blake had merely played along. No such advantage existed here. Yang checked Uncle Qrow's reaction. He glared at Aqua, and looked sober for the first time in ten years. So they both knew she was being less-than-honest.

"Alright," Qrow grunted.

Aqua continued, still lying and manipulating. But as her lips parted- just before Yang snapped at her to shut up- Qrow interrupted. "You look tired."

Aqua nodded, and let her posture sag farther, revealing how much of it was willpower and composure. "Yeah, actually. I am. See you tomorrow." She paced into the inn to escape the conversation.

Yang watched her go, and when the doors swung closed behind her, noted, "There's one room and we're not in it?"

"She's a friend," Qrow scolded. "She saved my life, and she's helping us find Ruby."

"She-"

"Friends have flaws. I have flaws, Yang." He jiggled the bottle. "You have flaws." He pointed at her. "And Jaune has flaws."

Jaune found his way to the patio and thumped down beside them, wiping his mouth, watching the moon traverse the firmament.

Yang and Qrow watched him expectantly.

"So…?" Yang asked.

Qrow added, "What happened?"

Jaune swallowed and gasped, catching his breath. "Had too much chicken."

"Did you look for Ruby?"

"Yeah. We uh…" Jaune blew air out his mouth. He, too, looked overwhelmed by the day. His eyes focused on the distance as he tried to recall it without being undone by the scope. "We went to this place where they didn't have any Dust. They make everything out of stone, so they're crazy fit and everybody oils their body. And guys wear dresses there."

Jaune swallowed and calmed his breathing. With unfocused eyes, he continued, "We uh… We talked to a goat. He knew Aqua. He saw Mercury Black. Mercury's on another world called Traverse Town. Cinder isn't with him."

"Ruby," Qrow reminded him.

"Yeah, they haven't seen anyone else we know. They host tournaments, though, for heroes. So we told them about Pyrrha and they're hosting a special event in her honor. People fly around in space doing these tournaments, so word will spread. Aqua's really good at it."

This got Qrow's attention. "She fought in the tournament?"

"It's not a fight. You smash a bunch of barrels. Aqua has the fastest time. I didn't see her do it, though."

Qrow considered Aqua's prowess. Yang imagined goat-man bodybuilders in dresses throwing barrels.

Qrow nodded. "Alright. Anything else happen?"

"Oh, yeah. We went to this other planet. Everyone was dead and it looks like robots built their own city into this big city, but then they died too. There's this big tower that reaches all the way into space, and there were paintings of Aqua everywhere. Aqua said her friend destroyed the whole world and turned everyone into Grimm. Anyway, we followed all these blast marks up the tower to the top, and there was a HUGE fight up there. Aqua said she thinks it was a dragon's lair."

Qrow chewed the inside of his check.

Yang shook her head. "Next time, one of us should go."

"Yeah," Jaune agreed. "I'm just glad Aqua brought me back. I don't wanna get lost like that again."

"I think you've got it the wrong way round." Qrow drank.

Jaune waited for him to finish, then asked, "What?"

Qrow licked his lips and picked his words. "Aqua said she was lost in the darkness for a long time. She was lost. But you walked in and walked out. I walked in and walked out. Yang here got in and out. Aqua got lost."

"W-well, I mean, we didn't go there today."

"You went into the big scary universe. Easy to forget places like Shion when you're on a tower to heaven. But you were there to remind Aqua of her obligations. You brought her back."

They pondered his words. A light breeze moved the flowers in the field. Ashes drifted off of the burnt village.

"I dunno," Qrow decided. "Maybe you didn't."

A star flickered in the sky, then extinguished.

"Chains in the sky," Qrow said to no one. He scratched his beard.

"None of this makes any sense to me," Yang complained.

"Chains are man-made," Qrow noted. "That's an unnatural force, pulling Remnant into darkness. Aqua said Remnant's heart hasn't fallen to darkness, so Remnant shouldn't be in there. Seems to me… She's saying that natural forces are pushing Remnant out, and unnatural forces are pulling it in."

Jaune picked up on this. "You think Cinder's involved?"

Qrow grumbled, "I think natural forces spit us out of the darkness. But they didn't spit Aqua out. I think there must be a reason that Aqua promised to help us. She's tight with information, and I'm starting to wonder why she really came back here. I think whoever wanted Vale destroyed didn't just want Vale destroyed. I think helping Aqua and finding Ruby and catching Cinder might all have something to do with each other."

Yang had finished absorbing the earlier part. "Uncle Qrow… You walked into the darkness and got us back home."

"Sure, but don't ask me how."

"But that means you can find Ruby, right?"

Qrow nodded his head sideways, frowned, and swigged. "I walked in there looking for my Niece, Yang. Not the kid Tai and Summer had. You and I are blood. Ruby's…" He sighed, lifted the bottle, and took two more gulps. He was ashamed to admit, "I try to love her. But I think I got in when I was looking for you, and I got back by looking for this drink."

"Well… What if I go in looking for Ruby?"

Qrow shook his head. "Then you'll find Blake. And you'll do something you regret."

He offered her the bottle. She glanced at it, then up as if asking permission, and then took it and swigged like a sailor.

Three quick gulps of bad liquor went down like water. She wiped her mouth and handed it back.

Qrow grunted, "Huh. So that's not your first drink?"

"Dad never locked the cupboard."

They sat in silence again.

"I'm gonna go find a cot," Jaune groaned.

When he was gone, Yang sniffed up her resolve and looked her Uncle in the eyes. "You can tell me. If you think Ruby's dead."

Qrow smirked. "I don't think Ruby's dead."

"Why not?"

"Because of what she did to that big Grimm in Vale."

Yang nodded. That was a good answer. Still, she was alone here and her sister was alone somewhere else. Yang looked back to the sky. "What do you think she's doing right now?"

The inn's doors swung open, and Rufus emerged with two bed rolls.

Qrow flared his eyebrows as greeting. "Hey, Rufus. I was just telling Yang here about those chains in the sky."

"I've been meaning to tell you, Mister Branwen," the faunus answered, "that it looks like one of them's broken."