Remnant: Campfire Break

As Ruby stood up, she went to Clank.

"Mr. Clank. Do…do you mind if I have a copy of the picture."

"Of course, Miss Rose. Just hand me your Scroll, and I'll download the image to your device."

After handing him her Scroll, and receiving the picture, Ruby went off on her own, not even saying a word. Yang looked to Weiss and Blake, confused, before getting up after her. Oobleck leaned closer to Clank.

"Mr. Clank, I would very much be interested in some of the technology of the galaxy, so long as they don't, as they say, spoil the story."

"Of course, Mr. Oobleck."

The two walked off, leaving just Weiss and Blake, the latter falling on her back.

"Well, I don't think anyone planned on the mission going sideways like this."

"You planned on the mission going badly?"

"Weiss, when have our plans ever worked? We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose. The docks, the warehouse, here," Blake groaned, "I honestly don't know which is harder to believe: that aliens exist, or that the Grimm have a queen."

"I find it more ridiculous that the entire universe speaks the same language."

"Don't remind me. I think Oobleck was about ready to have a meltdown. But…on a serious note…do you believe what Clank is saying?"

"Well, until we ask Ozpin, there's nothing much we can do to disprove it."

"True. But that begs the question on if Ozpin tells us. For all we know, he might keep it quiet."

"That was a thought that occurred to me, but I don't think he'll do it."

"Why?"

"Ruby and Yang. If Salem's real, and is targeting people like Ruby, you know Yang's going to stick by her side, so Ozpin will almost certainly be forced to tell them."

Blake gave a sad smirk, "And then they'd tell us, dragging us along with them. Remember when things seemed simple."

"Define 'simple'."

"Oh, you know, you being a racist, me being paranoid, the only thing we had to worry about was Roman Torchwick and the White Fang. Now we've got aliens, silver warriors, Salem."

"True. I…I really wanted to compete in the tournament. It was my chance to show father I didn't need the company to succeed. But, given the stakes, it'd be too dangerous to have Ruby exposed on TV like that."

"I had my own reasons, but, in hindsight, maybe it's a good idea. I told you about Adam an-…Brothers, how long have we've been sitting here, listening to Clank?"

"A couple hours, I think."

"Well, let's just say that Adam and I didn't part on the best of terms."

"Given your previous affiliations, I'm going to assume you're referring to the terrorist Adam Taurus."

Blake merely nodded.

"I'd say that being in the tournament would've announced to him where you are, but I think your stint in the rally might've alerted him."

"True. But I wanted to be extra careful."

"Careful…yeah, something tells me that that will be the farthest thing from us in the coming weeks."

Ruby stood on the roof of a nearby building, looking over the ruined city. Looking back on everything that's happened in the past few hours…put a lot of things into perspective.

'Mom's alive. And I have a brother, a gun loving brother. Ooooh, all the weapons we could gush over. I wonder what he could do with Crescent Rose? But…'

Ruby pulled out her Scroll, opening the mirror app. She looked at herself, placing her free hand just under her eye.

'Dad always did say I was special. I just assumed the obvious, that every dad said that to their little girls. Now, though…I was born to fight Grimm. Born to fight…Salem.'

Will Opzin bring them into his circle, specifically Ruby?

Ruby gasped, remembering her mother's thoughts on the BTS.

"He…he couldn't have…Could he?"

He needed to talk to someone, anyone. Yang probably had her own thoughts, dad has gone quiet for his mission, and-

"Uncle Qrow." She quickly closed the app, and dialed his number. For a minute, all there was was buzzing.

"Come on, come on."

"Heyah, Pipsqueak." A delirious voice replied.

"Uncle Qrow." She happily responded. "Are you still sleeping? Isn't it morning in Mistral?"

"Yeah, and I wasn't sleeping. Just…resting."

"Uh huh."

"Haha, laugh at me. But it should be the middle of the night for you. Where are you?"

"On a mission."

"And you thought calling me was a good idea?"

"Well, there's actually a few things I learned. And I needed you to confirm it."

"Oh? Peter talking mad tales about me. Well, let me tell you, he underscores the-"

Ruby had to stifle a giggle, "No, no! Professor Port didn't say anything. It's…it's about mom."

"..."

"Uncle Qrow."

"Okay, Ruby. What do you want to know?"

"Did mom have…special eyes? Eyes made to kill Grimm."

"Who told you-?"

"And…did mom tell anyone about where she went, on her last mission?"

"(Sigh) I'm guessing Oz told you."

"He didn't. But I did learn about it."

"Well, you're just as inquisitive as your mother. Yes. Just like Summer, your eyes have the potential to kill Grimm. Turn them to stone at the very least. However, she never told us how they worked. Even Ozpin, for all his years, isn't entirely sure how they work. As for her last mission, your father says that Summer was on a mission for Ozpin, but Oz never gave out such a mission. To this day, none of us know where she went."

"Yang's mom knows."

"Well-I'm sorry, what?"

"Raven knows what happened the night mom left."

"Kid, I don't know what you're-"

"Ask Raven what happened, twelve years ago, on February 12th, at the village of Kuroyuri. If she reacts at all, it means that she was with mom that night."

"Ruby…how would you know this? How did Ozpin know this?"

"He didn't."

"Then, how did you find out? Who told you?"

"Someone mom trusts. If you want, I can show you the picture."

"..."

"..."

"...No need, kiddo. I can tell by your voice you're utterly convinced. I'll ask Raven. But, if what you're saying is true, and Raven did have a hand in Summer disappearing, you and I are going to have a talk about how you learned this."

Ruby sighed with relief, "Thanks, Uncle."

"And, one more thing. You better kick butt in the tournament."

Ruby flinched, "I'm thinking of dropping out."

"Is this related to our mysterious informant?"

"Yes."

"I guess I better double time it."

"Bye, Uncle."

"Bye, Pipsqueak. Stay safe."

Qrow ended the call, and Ruby put her Scroll away.

"Good thing you didn't say everything."

Ruby jumped in terror.

"Gah, Yang! Where did you come from!?"

"Downstairs. I got up in the middle of your talk with Uncle Qrow. He's probably worried sick that you know about your silver eyes before he or dad could tell you. If he learned that we know about Salem, not to mention the whole mess with Clank…Well, I don't think our Uncle will appreciate having a heart attack in his late thirties."

Ruby rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, I didn't want to tell him, but, if he didn't believe me, I was prepared to."

"But talking with Uncle Qrow can't be the only reason you're up here," Yang sat down next to her, "What's wrong."

Ruby sighed, sitting back down. "The first thing Ozpin said to me, that night I fought Torchwick, was that I had silver eyes."

"Right, you said that earlier."

"Well, you heard what mom said, or, I guess what mom thought. She was worried that Ozpin would bring us into this war against Salem. Did…did Ozpin only bump me two years because of my eyes? Did he hope to, I don't know, groom me or something."

Yang was initially going to rebuke that, but, after hearing about Salem, and how silver eyes worked, she couldn't dismiss the idea completely. She reached her arm across Ruby's back, gripping the opposite shoulder to pull her in.

"Look, even if that's the case, do you still think that you don't deserve to be at Beacon."

"I…I don't know."

"After going through initiation, dealing with Weiss, Blake's secrets, the food fight, and, to top it off, fighting a Paladin in the middle of a highway, do you think that you haven't earned your place here. I mean, for Brothers' sake, even Jaune has earned the right to stay here."

Ruby puffed her cheeks, "That's not fair to Jaune."

"My point is, maybe Ozpin was preparing you to join his cult. If that's the case, I don't care if I get expelled, or if I get my butt handed to me, I'm going to smash that mug of his into his mug."

Ruby shrunk down in embarrassment, pulling her hood up, "Please don't do that. The team name will sound weird without the Y."

Yang chuckled, "But me, Blake, Weiss. We wouldn't have anyone else as our leader."

Yang could barely see Ruby's smile through the hood.

"But, let's forget about that. Let's talk about how much we're going to torture our little brother once he gets here."

At Beacon Academy, Glynda Goodwitched walked to the edge of one of the landing pads, overlooking Vale. Her old friend, James Ironwood, was already standing there.

"Trouble sleeping?" She softly said.

Ironwood gave a soft huff, placing a hand on his left arm. "Arm was acting up."

Glynda scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Of course, so, logically, you got out of bed, dressed yourself completely, and decided to gaze menacingly out into the distance…What's wrong?"

"One of my ships reported an 'unknown object' falling at high speeds. It crashed at Mount Glenn."

"Strange. Bartholomew hasn't called it in."

"What really concerns me is a detail from the report. Whatever fell there came from the east," he takes a quick look west, where the broken moon hung high, "And was higher than any recorded object in Remnant's history."

Glynda turned to him, suspicious. When she didn't speak, he continued.

"I don't like being in the dark. If Doctor Oobleck would report in, I could know what we're dealing with. I'd send a ship or two, even told Ozpin but, as he said, he wanted as little activity sent there. And it frustrates me. I've trusted him for years, we both have. For him to act so…passive…I just don't know."

Glynda placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're a good person, James. You've always done what you think is best for the people. Even against strong protest. It's admirable, but it's high time you stop talking about trust, and started showing it. Ozpin has experience the rest of us lack. If Ozpin believes Bart can figure out what's going on without drawing suspicions, then I trust him on that."

At that moment, Glynda's Scroll began buzzing. Taking it out, she smirked.

"Like I said," Glynda declared, "Trust," answering it, she put it to her ear, "Bart, is everything alright…"

Ironwood noticed how Glynda's face twisted in confusion.

"Whoa, slow down, Bart, you aren't making sense…Wha-...You're sending me what?...Tell Ozpin…Wait, how do you know that name?...Who's Clank?!" Glynda then looked at her Scroll, "He hung up on me."

"Glynda, what's wrong?"

"I'm calling Ozpin, he needs to hear this."

"Glynda?!"

"James, not now!"

Ironwood flinched. Normally, if Glynda was mad at him, she'd simply look annoyed. But that was genuine anger.

"Goddamnit, Bart." Glynda muttered, dialing Ozpin's number.

"Ozpin, we have a situation…Yes, it's related to the unknown object that crashing into Mountain Glenn…Well, if Bartholomew's telling the truth, he may have just initiated First Contact."

Ironwood blinked, "Wait…aliens?"

Beneath Mountain Glenn, an encampment, filled to the brim with White Fang soldiers, surrounded a train, slowly loading supplies. In one of the train cars, Roman Torchwick, infamous thief of Vale, was overseeing the operations.

"How's the crate?"

"Most of the vials were cracked, but none spilled."

Roman narrowed his eyes, leaning in to the terrorist. "Are you sure? That quake above messed up a lot of crates," he reached into the crate, pulling out an undamaged Dust vial, containing explosive Dust, "You know how important these ones are. My employer won't be pleased if something goes wrong. So," he pressed his cane under the man's chin, "You better hope nothing went wrong."

The man nodded quickly, "We'll triple check all the affected crates."

"You do that." And Roman removed the cane from the man's chin. As he approached the train, a pink and brown haired/eyed girl was kicking her feet back and forth.

I don't like this. She signed.

"Neither do I, Neo. No idea what happened up top, but let's hope it didn't draw too much attention."

"Sir!"

"Ah, speaking of which," Roman spun around, seeing three White Fangs approaching, "Perry! Just the animal I needed to see. Tell me you have good news."

"Well," Perry replied, "We went up top, and found the, uh, source of the quake."

"And?"

"..."

"Perry, I'm not one to like being on the receiving end of dramatic pauses."

"We…aren't sure what it is. It looks like an airship, but there's some kind of hardlight shield around it. Never seen anything like it."

"Hmm, hardlight isn't cheap, unless you're a pompous Atlesian."

"Yeah, none of us think it came from Atlas."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Like I said, we aren't sure what it is."

Roman groaned, rubbing his face before muttering, "Have to do everything?" He turned to Neo, "Well, Neo, I'll be back in a minute. If you don't hear from me in an hour…that probably means I'm in trouble. In which case, start the train."

Author's Notes: Oh, dear, slowly but surely, canon is starting to come unwound. I'm sure nothing bad could possibly happen when Roman goes to investigate the alien spaceship. Nothing at all.

We also get a little doubt from Ruby. As well as Yang's response to Ozpin potentially trying to recruit her little sister. I don't personally believe Ozpin was trying to do that. But the circumstances to seem a little sus. Which, for Ozpin, is kinda par for the course.

As always, leave a review, fav/follow, and I'll see you all next time.