Reflection
The blistering heat of the desert dug into the skin like a thousand red-hot needles. The rampant coughing that permeated the ranks of refugees was unceasing, the dust-clouds kicked up by their travel column making it difficult to breathe even without the thick heat.
Tai felt none of it. The cold wall of numbness that had imbued itself within him following the news of his daughters disavowed the idea of ever feeling anything again. It was the same numbness that had filled him after Summer had disappeared.
His daughters had been the reason he'd gotten through it the first time, alongside a punch in the face from Qrow. Tai hadn't been paying attention, too lost in himself, and his girls had gone looking for their mother. Little Ruby pulled along in a little cart by a toddler. Yang.
It had been Qrow that had saved them. Tai hadn't been there. He had sworn on that day, in front of Summer's grave, that from then on he always would be.
A vow he had failed to keep, and because of that failure, his girls were gone.
A firm grip on his shoulder drew a measure of absent attention. Flavian. The man said nothing, instead guiding Tai to a watering hole their segment of the refugee column was due to rest at.
The dull sound of bullhead engines told him that half of Team CVFY were still skyward, keeping an eye out for Grimm. Fox and Yatsuhashi were leading the front, as they knew the way back to Vacuo. What was left of the Valean huntsman and emergency services held up the middle, doing their best to corral and wrangle a horde of nervous yet eager people and prevent strays.
Tai and Flavian had taken up the rear, simply because it was the easiest place to be. Flavian was too old to be running back and forth from the front, ensuing there were no stragglers, and Tai just did not have it in him to do anything other than put one foot in front of the other.
"Drink, lad, you'll need the strength."
Cupping his hands, Tai plunged them into the bucket of water drawn up from the desert well, casting it over himself and into his mouth. The man's body continued unconsciously where he could not, and it screamed for water. Another plunge, and another, allowing the cool, liquid freshness to take hold over his hair and flow down his throat.
It did not make him feel better, but eventually he was sated.
Flavian insisted his daughters drank before he did, despite their protests that he was older and a fighter and needed it more. Tai could not help but watch them. The older, a platinum blonde with her hair in a messy bun, and a strawberry-blonde with hers in a basic braid folded up so that it did not sit on her neck. Both toted the dated dust-rifles of the Vale Police Force, having grabbed them in the panic. Maybe it was the hair, different but close enough, or the obvious affection they had for each-other, for their father.
They looked so different, but still they reminded him of Ruby, of Yang, and it just twisted the knife deeper.
The older man looked at him and whispered something to his daughters. They both looked at Tai softly, nodded to their father, and began walking off ahead.
Tai watched them go, eventually turning to Flavian.
"I'm sorry, I don't- I didn't mean to make them uncomfor- I'm sorry."
The knight of Vale shook his head, sitting down in the sand next to his fellow blonde.
"Don't be. They're good girls. They understand."
Tai nodded, starting into the dirt.
The man to his left swallowed, opened his mouth a few times as if searching for the words.
"For what it's worth, I'm so-"
"Don't."
Tai cut him off harshly, jaw clenched, before he immediately back-pedalled.
"I'm sorry I- I just can't hear that. Not yet. I can't."
He felt Flavian nod next to him, the older man gripping Tai's shoulder supportively.
"You know, you remind me of my son."
Tai looked up at the sky, just listening. Anything to distract from the thought of his daughters.
Folding his arms over the top of his shield, Flavian leaned over it to stare out over the Dunes himself.
"A lot younger than you, admittedly."
The shot at his age might have been an attempt to make Tai laugh. It didn't work.
"Growing up he was a bit of a cry-baby. To be fair to the lad, having seven merciless sisters can't have helped, but I digress. I was still a Knight, as dated as the idea was with you Huntsmen running around. Still touring, doing my duty, so I was seldom home. But whenever I was it always struck me how much he seemed to… feel. Everything. His sisters' insults cut more than they should have, my absence affected him more than it should have, his grandfather's passing…"
Flavian shook his head, as if shaking off the memory of his own father, and continued.
"In my youth I thought it unseemly. When I retired, I resolved to show him otherwise. To teach him how a man behaves. Not to feel it, or at least behave as though he didn't. To maintain his composure."
The older man chuckled.
"I failed utterly. The boy could not control himself. Rising to every remark, buckling under every critique. It infuriated me. Constantly espousing how he wanted to be a warrior, a knight, like me. Like his grandfather, with none of the self-control needed to do so. I disavowed the idea, refused to allow him to train. So he stole my weapon, the weapon of my forefathers, and fled into the night. My own son, a thief."
Tai raised an eyebrow.
"Is… this supposed to be making me feel better? Because you're terrible at this." He remarked flatly.
Flavian smiled softly, holding up a hand to ask Tai to wait for him to finish.
"I was furious. Livid. But I respected it. I thought he had done it to get a rise out of me in turn, that he would come home and flaunt his disrespect as a means to challenge my own control. I thought it was his way of standing up for himself for once."
The man's gaze softened.
"But he didn't. He never came home. I grew even angrier. How dare he steal from me. Abandon his family. His sisters were miserable, I thought initially because of his abandonment, but then my youngest, weeping after a nightmare, came to me in the small hours of the morning."
The man gripped his shield hard.
"I tried to give her to her mother, to console and handle. I assumed that my wife handled such things while I was away, that she was used to it, that my daughter would be more comfortable that way. I was wrong, instead, she asked for me. To hold her and sleep next to her like her big brother used to."
Sighing, he continued.
"Since that day I, as a father, have sunken into and filled cracks in my family that I did not know where there. My son had been filling them in my stead, even when I was present. Helping with homework. Consoling over nightmares. Threatening boys who came sniffing around. 'Dad, Jaune used to help me but… do you know maths? Dad, I had a nightmare! Dad, don't try to chase Crimson off like Jaune used to, it's not cool it's just lame…'"
Casting sky-blue eyes back towards the retreating backs of his daughters, Flavian looked morose.
"The boy knew what was wrong with a look sometimes, according to the girls. Sometimes they'd come to him with a big, horrible problem, or something they'd done, and he'd just nod and fix it, or take the blame. Even when it earned him nothing but my ire. So, as it turns out, the boy feeling everything had been a godsend for my family. He was only ever trying to look after people, including me, by taking things off my plate I hadn't even known should be on there. I struggle with that fact every day. It forced me to realise, to… come to terms with why he'd had to do that for us."
The man scratched his beard for a moment.
"I guess what I'm saying is… let yourself feel it. Don't go numb, lad. I did when I lost my father, and I took it out on my son. When I lost my son, initially I ignored my family. Numbing it out just causes it to fester like a poison, and it will not just wound you. It will wound everyone around you."
Tai exhaled harshly.
"There's no-one left around me. My family is gone."
Flavian gestured toward the masses of people sat in the sand around the desert well, handing each other cups and sharing water around between them.
"There are plenty around you, going through the exact same thing. You will never find as much understanding in one place as you will this day. Orphans, widows and widowers, and they need every Huntsman they can get to protect them on their way to rebuild a new home. To the promise, the idea of a family yet after."
Sky-blue eyes scanned the people around him, and in them Tai did see a reflection of himself. Many hands accepted water, bodies turned toward someone to share it with, only to be surprised. Eyes cast to and fro before recognition, remembrance, of their loss hit them again and the lit-up eyes at the prospect of water died into a haunted grey as they fell again to the sand, the life-saving water in their hands forgotten.
Understanding, huh? I guess I do, now. But…
"It's not enough, Flavian. It's just… not." Tai responded, and to his surprise, Flavian nodded.
"I know. It never will be. But it's a reason, and I'm afraid that's the best I can give you, lad. The best anyone can give you right now."
Neither man moved, and Flavian did not speak further. It was a long, contemplative silence before Tai asked.
"What happened to your son?"
Flavian's wizened face suddenly seemed far older, a dark sorrow permeated his eyes and caused them to sink into his skill, emphasising the man's wrinkles and weathered skin almost worryingly.
"He never came home. I had some old acquaintances try to track him, they managed track him to a black market. Most likely to pawn what he stole. Someone tipped the place off about the presence of Huntsman and the crooks ran, so they found nothing else. I've no idea about after. An old friend said they saw someone that looked like him on one of the broadcasts from during the Vytal Festival."
The man's wizened face fell yet further, if that were even possible.
"I pray they were wrong, for his sake. The boy was never a fighter. The Fall of Beacon would have been the death of him."
Flavian sighed.
"It most likely was. I'll never know, will I? It's been years, and I've heard nothing. With the tower gone, I doubt I ever will."
Watching the man gaze out sorrowfully over the sand, understanding came over Tai. Flavian believed his son dead, most likely killed by Grimm while travelling. Much like Tai, he had failed to protect his child, and it weighed on him exactly the same way.
"He made his choices. As did your daughters. We have to live with them." The older man muttered, sadness in his voice.
Tai said nothing for a moment, before rising to his feet.
"ALL RIGHT! That's enough rest time! If we hustle we can get to the city and shelter by tomorrow! Pack up, let's shift it along!"
Walking into the crowd, calling out orders, Tai felt no better than he had minutes ago. But Flavian was right, these people were a reason to keep going for at least a few more hours, and a good one. His girls had died fighting to save people fleeing Atlas. What kind of father would he be if he didn't honour their example? The same example he, Qrow and Summer had taught them to uphold themselves?
Flavian rose behind him, barking his own advice and orders, and before long they were back underway, making up time toward the rest of the refugee column.
"IF YOU WANTED TO AVOID ME, A THE BIGGEST DUST MARKET IN THE CITY IS NOT THE SMARTEST PLACE TO DO IT IN!"
Weiss' voice carried over the roar of haggling merchants and customers. The black halls teemed with them, and Jaune was well and truly lost in the annals of this unending nightmare of a market. Three times he'd nearly hit someone, thinking they were attacking him, only for them to thrust some kind of fruit or dust crystal in his face with one hand, the other reaching out as if expecting some lien in response.
The appearance of their resident Ice Queen could yet be his salvation from this wretched place.
Grasping her by the shoulders, Jaune pulled Weiss toward him. Up close, inches apart, he could see the poor girl was flushed from the heat of the place, her cheeks coloured a deep pink that contrasted with her normally snow-white complexion.
"DO YOU KNOW THE WAY OUT?" He roared at her, trying to cut over the din of the place, even someone jostled past him to get closer to an impromptu auction that was suddenly and randomly taking place behind him.
"WHAT!?" Was her response, her gaze was pointed at his face but lowered from his own eyes, and the fact that she could not hear him even this close betrayed her lack of focus.
Heatstroke. Cursing internally, Jaune cast his eyes skyward. Cramped as the corridors of the Blackened Hall were, they were tall. Grandiosity had clearly been one of the main themes the original architect had been going for, and the immense pillars that held up the roof had overhangs large enough to perch on.
They had been favourite hiding spots of thieves and pickpockets until the Huntsman in charge of keeping crime out of the place had sussed out their little hiding spots and taken them for themselves.
Jaune needed to get the attention of one of them, get some directions-
Something caught his eye, a silvered gleam.
Flynt Coal sat on the overhang, playing his music above the roar of the crowds as he feigned keeping an eye on the heaving mass of bodies below.
Jaune raised a hand and started waving, but Flynt, focussed on his music as usual, noticed nothing.
Bending down, one hand still on Weiss so the crowd didn't carry her off in her dazed state, Jaune picked up a piece of loose debris from the dusty, loose floor and pelted it at his fellow Huntsman in the rafters.
The rock nearly whacked Flynt in the head, and the boy's head started darting around, trumpet in weapons mode, looking for his attacker. Thankfully, in a desert full of dark-haired and tanned citizens, the bright blonde and white hair of the couple below him were easy to spot.
Jaune started signalling in Atlas Academy combat-code with his hands, asking how the actual fuck a sane human being was supposed to navigate their way out of this deafening hell-hole.
In Atlesian combat signing, that basically boiled down to jerky hand movements angrily signing three words;
"Query: Way Out."
Flynt just pointed further down the hall confusedly. Jaune looked the way he was indicating, around the corner from the wall he his side was leaning against, and saw a rather obvious doorway in the side of the building, light pouring through from the desert sun on the other side.
Thrusting the palm of his hand into his forehead exasperatedly, he pulled Weiss with him on his crusade to get out of the place, the stuffy heat, darkness and noise gave way to sunlight and a thin rope & plank bridge out of the structure and onto the rooftop of another.
Muscling his way through the throng trying to get into the bizarre place he'd spent the better part of the last hour trying to get out of, he and Weiss finally found themselves somewhere with a reasonable volume and a measure of shade. A soft breeze carried over the rooftops, though the incessant shouting continued in the streets below.
Jaune sighed, leaning against a building as he gathered his breath. Fighting past the crowd had taken it out of him, and without his armour it was harder than he'd thought.
"I am never going in that place again." He panted, lifting a waterskin from his hip and drinking from it audibly.
Weiss looked confused as he handed her the skin, but drank slowly. A tiny noise that sounded weirdly like an 'eep' emanated from her throat as he pressed the back of his hand to her forehead.
"You okay? Dizzy? Tired?" He asked, concern filling his face.
"What? No, you dunce. Stop touching me!" Weiss slapped his hand away embarrassedly, though her heat-flush remained. Jaune leaned back into the a wall.
"You sure? You're all flushed, and you weren't focussing too well in the Hall-"
"I am FINE!" The girl snapped, crossing her arms in that way that Weiss did when she did not want to be challenged, even as her flushed skin seemed to creep even wider across her face.
"Uh… Alright then? I'll see you later, I gotta find somewhere less crazy to shop." He returned, turning toward one of the more secure, stone-bridges to other buildings.
"Oh, so that's it then?" The barb caught him in the back, causing him to turn around again.
"I'm sorry?" Thoroughly confused, Jaune's brow furrowed.
"You!" Weiss growled, hand moving to point at him accusatorially, her finger mere millimetres from his chin. "Have been avoiding me!"
"Oh. I thought you were joking when you said that." The young night replied, leaning his head back slightly and scratching the back of his head.
The move caught Weiss' eye. Between his odd behaviour and the darkness of the hall, she hadn't initially noticed certain things about him. Like that, in the last three months, Jaune had re-grown his beard. It was trimmed relatively short, the desert heat would not allow for the mess that had been on his face in the Ever After and still let him be comfortable, but a full beard it still was. Salted with white amongst the blonde, it made him look far older than his nearly-twenty years on Remnant. His hair had grown out, though he'd shaved the sides and lower back of it to better cope with the heat, and folded his lengthening hair into a mistralian warrior knot at the back. Obviously planning on regrowing his wolf-tail. Platinum-white streaks much like her own flowed through his locks like they had in the Ever After, ageing the boy yet further beyond his years.
It seemed Alyx's wish had not fixed everything.
Mature. The word played in her head in her own voice like a curse. Ruby had mocked her about it incessantly. The one thing the redhead had over her.
"I'm not joking. You, are avoiding me." The accusation left her tone, now it was just… hurt. Jaune's face fell.
"I'm not avoiding you Weiss, I just… need time." The boy? Man? Muttered, hand again rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"You've had it, three months of it." Weiss returned harshly. "Why won't you talk to me? What did I do?"
"Nothing! I just-"
"Jaune Arc, you tell me why you haven't spoken to anyone in weeks this instant or I will personally see to it that you never see any form of trade with any dust vendor ever again. I'm a Schnee, I can and will make it happen."
That was probably a bluff, especially in Vacuo, where no one respected any form of real authority other than Huntsmaster Theodore's. That said, the black-market here did not have as strong of a presence as Mistral, so getting around a Schnee embargo would be challenging, and knowing Weiss' ability to be profoundly stubborn, Jaune wouldn't put it past her to at least make it exceedingly difficult to procure what he needed.
Sighing, he dropped his arm from his neck and looked at the girl properly for the first time that day.
The defiance in her face he'd expected. The pain in her eyes less so.
"Can we… go somewhere quieter? I'd rather not have a heart to heart near a hundred people haggling over crap like lizard-jerky."
Weiss nodded and stormed off ahead, in the general direction of the Library of Alyx.
It as so weird, knowing that that was a thing. Lewis had to have built it, after returning home, after he wrote The Girl Who Fell Through The World. The quiet, sweet little boy had lived an entire lifetime in the space of time that he, as The Rusted Knight, had been trapped in the ever after. Jaune had visited the place once. A great stained-glass window bearing the likeness of the girl the library was named after ran up the front of the building, illuminating the whole interior. Another window on the rear was the Lively Carpenter. On the sides, facing each other, perhaps poetically, perhaps darkly, were the images of the Curious Cat and The Rusted Knight.
The last one wasn't accurate. Staring up at his own likeness from the ground, Jaune just could not find it within himself to marry the knightly image Lewis had clearly had of him with the reality. With his own failures, own inadequacy.
Eventually, Weiss found a quiet square full of silent artists, each sitting around it, gazing in completely different directions for inspiration. The soft sound of brush on canvas barely registered in Jaune's ears as Weiss sat herself down by the fountain in the middle of the square, crossing her arms again and tapping her foot at him impatiently.
Jaune sat. The fountain masked the sound of the nearby painters, surrounding himself and Weiss in a veil of pleasant noise that cut off the rest of the world. It was… strangely comfortable, being separate from the whole again. Going back to what he knew.
Ice-blue eyes bored into his Sky-blue ones.
"So?"
Weiss was in a Weiss mood, clearly.
Jaune sighed.
"I'm not avoiding you Weiss. I could just do without… y'know."
Weiss' head quirked very slightly.
"Me? My company? My friendship?"
It was clear she didn't really believe he thought that, but the suggestions were barbed to hit exactly at his weak points.
Jaune knew what she was doing, yet still bit the bait hard.
"No! No! You know I don't mean-"
"Then what do you mean, Jaune?"
Jaune rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. Had talking to people always been this… difficult?
No, he just wasn't used to it. With Dr Polendina it was a few words every few hours and then the work. Maria tended to simply observe and quip without expecting a response. Ren was never one for conversation, preferring comfortable silence, and Nora tended to talk 'at' him rather than 'to' him.
Weiss was the first person to actually 'engage' him in conversation that forced him to engage back (Outside of his rather short apology to Dr Polendina) In, what, fifteen years?
"You all look at me like I'm freaking nuts or something and I could do without it, frankly."
Whatever Weiss had been expecting, the look on her face said it clearly hadn't been that.
"Pardon me?"
"You especially. You look at me like I'm cracked in the head. 'Not all there.' Right?"
Weiss' own brow furrowed.
"Jaune-"
"No. I- I get it, okay? I've been gone a while. Too long, I'm not… I'm not who you remember from way back. Way back for me, anyway. I just-"
Exhaling hard, Jaune buried the bases of his palms into his eye sockets, rubbing them to get rid of the burgeoning headache.
"I'm not right, Weiss. Okay? I'm- I'm tired. I'm just really, really fucking tired. Of all of it. Everything is exhausting. I barely even remember how to talk to people. I've forgotten how money works, we didn't have that over there, the food tastes all wrong but also weirdly familiar, the days are different, they're so much longer here, and god, people here actually make sense. Mostly. I'm not used to it, I'm always expecting them to do or say something stupid, or crazy, or just try to attack me. It's all… familiar, but strange, and it's tiring."
The pressure on his eyes caused the darkness to light up with kaleidoscopic, random patterns that were only making his head hurt more. Dropping his hands, he instead just stared at the glistening water of the fountain.
Gods, this navigating an actual conversation shit was exhausting.
"More than anything I'm tired of losing people. Pyrrha, Penny, Vine, Clover, all those civilians on the bridge, we nearly lost Oscar- look, Weiss, I know I'm not… That I'm not good enough to save anyone I know I'm- I know I'm not right, that I'm off, still getting used to being… here, but knowing you guys all see it too just makes it worse."
Gripping his own forearm hard in an attempt to bind himself to the present, he muttered more.
"I… I don't know what the hell I'm doing, anymore. With any of it. After so long in the Ever After the Afterans seem normal, and all this seems mental to me. At least before I could just plod along, follow Ruby's lead, hang out with Ren and Nora. But I can't do any of that anymore. I messed it up with Ruby. What I said after Neo's attack on the village… was unforgivable. I should never have put it all on her. Ren and Nora are all kinds of strange, and I can't even remember how I used to talk to them. I can't remember how Jaune Arc used to talk. I've been the paper pleaser's 'Hero', Lewis' 'Rusted Knight' for so long I don't even know how much of the old me is left."
He chuckled.
"Gods, I really did go mad over there, didn't I?"
"Jaune."
Weiss' hand on his upper arm brought him back to reality, and he looked at her again, dreading the look of… pity? Sympathy? Whatever word surmised how one looked at the clearly bat-shit crazy.
Instead, it was just… soft. A softness emanated from those ice-blue eyes he'd seldom seen before. The same softness she had directed at him in the Ever After, absolving him of his failure. Or, at the very least, reminding him that failure was, sometimes, okay.
Weiss waited a moment, staring into his eyes. Hand raising to place itself on his chest, between his shoulder and his heart, she was careful to maintain eye contact as she spoke.
"You, are more than enough. You're the bravest person I know. So let me remind you that you don't have to know what you're doing all the time, and it's okay to be confused. We're all just bumbling along, figuring it out. I know I am. I didn't even spend decades alone in an alternate dimension, and I still don't have a clue how to talk to my mother or brother. I struggle with the fact that my kingdom's gone every day, and now we find out that Vale's gone too? That you're all going through the same thing? After everything, you deserve time to not be okay. You've put taking care of yourself on the back burner for far, far too long. Ruby… Ruby told me about the video, in Anima. Pyrrha's video."
Jaune's breath hitched.
"It's… okay to not be okay, Jaune. You have to give yourself time to heal, okay? You've been carrying on for everyone else's sake for far too long. Please, let yourself rest."
"I don't have time, I have to get better, fix my head so I can help, figure it out before-" He started to interrupt, looking away again at the water of the fountain.
A delicate hand caught him by the chin and forced him to look at her again, her gaze carrying the familiar Weissian severity that they all loved her for.
"Do you think you're better than me, Arc?"
Again, the girl threw him for a loop.
"What!? No! You know I don't-"
"Then why do you think you should have it any more together than I do?"
The question cut through him, and he felt his resistance to her logical arguments fail. Jaune's tired brain tried and failed to come up with any decent response to her question.
"I'm older."
It was true, his time on the other side did make him much older, though it was less spent 'maturing' and more spent running around after an ungrateful Alex, a very grateful Lewis, and a double-crossing shithead of a cat. Even after that it was day-in-day-out routine with the Papers and scouting, waiting for RWBY to show up.
In summary his argument was… dumb. A Hail-Mary so stupid it might actually work.
Weiss simply looked at him nonplussed for a second before she started laughing. A genuine laugh. Not the socially-acceptable controlled laughter of an heiress she still usually fell into out of habit, but Weiss's actual laugh.
Jaune found himself smiling as he watched her shoulders shake with her short, uncontrolled giggles. He was still good at being a clown at least.
Collecting herself but still smiling, Weiss replied.
"Oh, gods, Jaune, you idiot. Ruby's younger than the rest of us and twice as smart, so that argument, you dolt, is definitely the dumbest one you could've come up with."
Jaune just grinned wider as she shook her head at him, smiling softly again.
"I've missed you, you know." Weiss finally said, smile slipping off her face into a more serious but caring expression.
"I'm sorry." He replied, meaning it. Thinking about his absence' affect on others wasn't something he'd considered. So much time without them had led to… an apparent absence of empathy. Worryingly like his father.
A small fist hit him hard in the arm.
"Don't make me worry like that again." The snow-haired girl said sternly, eyeing him as if daring him to argue.
"Yes, dear." Was his response, staring once more at the way the sunlight danced off the water in the fountain, missing the blush that spread over her cheeks.
Weiss herself turned and slid off the bench, rising to her feet.
"To make up for your rudeness, and in the spirit of resting, you are buying me ice cream. No arguments."
A soft sigh, then a chuckle from behind her told her he didn't intend to.
"Of course, dear." Jaune muttered softly and sarcastically. From behind her could not see her reaction. Walking on ahead slowly, he missed a lady approach Weiss.
"Excuse me, miss?"
Weiss snapped out of her own little world, her blush fading.
"Uhm, yes?"
The 'Uhm' spoke to her distraction. Her elocution tutors had beaten it into her with rulers not to use 'Er' or 'Um' as a pause while growing up. A typical Jacques Schnee lesson.
The woman, clearly only a few years older than Weiss, passed along a canvas wrapped in cloth.
"I speed-painted it, so it's not my best, and it's lacking a few details but… Well, I only paint for fun, and I'd only paint over it to reuse the canvas but… It seemed like a memory you might want to keep."
The woman smiled and moved off, Weiss thanked her confusedly as she left, unwrapping the cloth around the piece.
It was light on detail, that was certain, but done beautifully. The backdrop of the library and fountain were near perfect, and had clearly had a lot of time spent on them. What caught Weiss' eye, however, was the couple on the bench before the fountain. A white-haired young woman's hand held the face of her blonde-haired boy inches away from her, sharing an intimate moment as fading sunlight danced off the fountain water, the sky starting to darken into a beautiful lilac-orange haze above them.
Mortified, Weiss cast her gaze around the square, meeting the inspired eyes and knowing looks of several sketch artists and painters who'd witnessed (and possibly artistically recorded) their little scene.
"WEISS! You coming or not?" Called Jaune, only to immediately be shushed quiet by artists and passers-by alike. Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, he gestured at her to come quickly.
Weiss strode toward him at speed, head down and face such a brilliant red that even Jaune noticed.
"Weiss? You alright? You sure you're not too hot?" The idiot boy asked concernedly, once again placing his hand against her forehead. He failed to notice that his action was only making her blush darker.
The former-heiress slapped his hand away hard.
"Ow! What the hell!?" The boy whispered harshly, trying to keep his voice down.
"Dunce." She muttered, before grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him along behind her toward the parlour as the sun set past the buildings. The art remained covered in her other hand, and, much to Jaune's befuddlement, the smile never left Weiss' face that night.
"They're fucked." Qrow stated, staring in horror at the tactical map displayed before him.
A thin series of extremely small, green dots dotted the screen. The Valean refugee column was making good time across the wastes, but it was the angry-red and much larger Grimm presence bearing down on said refugees that had him worried.
"Not quite. They are making good time, there is hope we can get them under the shelter of the city before the Grimm catch up." Came the response, from a cadence far too old to be falling from Oscar Pine's mouth. Oz was in control.
"I can call up the rest of the Ace Ops, we can-" Marrow started, only to be cut off by Qrow.
"The Ace Ops are a strike team, an all-out battle isn't what you guys are used to, even if you were at full strength, which you aren't. Harriet and Elm are still a mess, and you're…" Qrow cut himself off. He eyed the green clover badge in his hand, stroking it softly. "...You're not at full strength. Going out in your condition would be suicide."
The dog-faunus grit his teeth, biting back;
"We can't just sit here!"
"I'm afraid that's exactly what we must do."
A low baritone cut through the argument. Huntsmaster Theodore was not a large man, but he was an imposing one. Despite his youth he carried himself with the air of a man who had seen far more fighting than someone of his age should have. An air he shared with Qrow.
"If we sally out into the desert, we lose. The panic of organising refugees while fighting Grimm would be difficult even before we account for potential sandstorms. That, and the fact that we would be leaving Shade and Vacuo, both of which I call home, undefended. It is a trap, and even on the slim chance that it is not, it is not worth the risk."
"As much as I hate to have to agree Qrow, Theodore," Ozcar ignored the twitch in the man's eyebrow at having his full name used. "Is correct. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing. Both they and the people within these walls will be safer if we prepare to meet the Grimm where we can break them upon the cities defences."
Qrow stared at them both incredulously.
"Those are people down there Oz. They'll die if we don't do something."
"I'll go."
All eyes shot to the speaker. Winter Schnee. The Winter Maiden.
The woman was daunting, even now, but it was clear that she was far from her best. Inheriting the maiden powers would be taxing for anyone, and always included an unstable period as fragments of the old soul attached themselves to the new one. Sadly, that alongside inheriting the mantle of General of the Atlesian Armed Forces and the constant fighting she had seen since arriving in the Vacuoan Desert had clearly taken their toll. Dark bags wreathed Winter's eyes, skin pulled taunt over her face from dehydration. Her normally stoic, straight-backed posture had sagged very slightly into something much less intimidating. Sand, dirt, and many nicks and scratches covered her normally pristine-white uniform, her spares too damaged to wear.
"Winter-" Qrow started, hoping she would listen.
"No. I have the power, I will go." She cut him off, trying and failing to keep the tiredness from her voice.
"With all due respect, Miss Schnee-"
"General." Marrow growled out, the military grunt in him forcing him to remind Ozcar of his CO's rank.
Ozcar coughed into into his hand, before placing both his hands on his staff. The same stance he fell into lifetime after lifetime.
"General Schnee, my apologies, but you cannot go. It is clear that the numerous Grimm attacks and taking on James' title have…"
Oz tried to search for a way of saying it that would not make the woman look weak in front of her soldiers, or her peers.
"Stretched your attentions thin. This is something for others to handle. Huntsmen and Huntresses are the one thing we have in abundance."
Winter gritted her teeth and pulled herself back up to her full height, clearly doing her best to put on a brave face.
"My attentions are perfectly proportioned where they are needed. I can handle a horde that size myself, and quickly-"
"That I don't doubt. But, if it is as Theodore suspects, and is in fact a trap, do you believe you can face that horde and Cinder Fall at the same time?"
Winter's breathing hitched. As stubborn as the woman could be, she was not a fool, nor was she stupid. Cinder was not an opponent she could fight in her condition. That woman was well on her way to becoming a fully-realised Maiden, and Winter was only just really starting to properly understand and utilise her powers. Even if she could force a way to make it simply a contest of martial skill, Winter would not win. She was exhausted, much as she was trying to hide it, and what the Fall woman lacked in training and self-control she made up for in with savagery and unpredictability.
Even without the Grimm in the equation, it would be the battle in the passageway between Atlas and Vacuo all over again, and that could not be allowed.
Winter's eyebrow quirked irritatedly. Ozcar was right. That did not mean she had to like it.
"What would you suggest then, leave them to die?"
"Hardly. The horde is not upon them yet, they have time, and as I understand it, they have several competent Huntsmen and Huntresses protecting them, most of them trained at my school. Which, before its tragic fate, trained the best fighters Remnant has to offer."
The derisive snort from Theo and the highly-raised eyebrows from Winter meant that clearly neither agreed with Oz's assessment, but neither contradicted him either. Beacon had not earned its reputation as having the best training program without good reason.
"Be that as it may, those Huntsman have been running on fumes for days now Oz. Most of them were there when Vale fell, they lost friends, family at in the fighting, and they haven't had time to rest since, too busy looking after civilians. They're not in the best state to-"
"I know." Came the cool, ever-unchanging tone from Ozcar's mouth.
"But they have been reinforced by Team CVFY, per our earlier plan, who are some of the finest students that have ever passed through both Beacon and Shade's hallowed halls."
This time, Theo did not snort at Oz's claim. In fact, he nodded solidly in agreement.
"They will escort them toward Vacuo City. By best estimates, they will arrive past daybreak tomorrow. From there, it will be up to the Huntsmen on stand-by and the Atlesian Navy to break the horde. A Navy that will need to be organised from here. By its commander."
The look Winter shot Oz at his less-than-subtle point about her having to stay here was positively venomous, but he was right. James wasn't here anymore, she could not just run off to fight and leave him to do the manoeuvring.
Perhaps that was part of the reason why it had gone so wrong in Atlas.
"If anyone has a better plan, I would whole-heartedly like to hear it. I do not like this either. Sadly, I do believe it is for the best." Ozcar finished.
The uncomfortable silence that followed spoke volumes.
"Very well then, Huntsmaster Theodore-."
"Theo, Oz. We've been over this time and again."
"Yes, of course, sorry. Huntsmaster-"
"Just Theo."
"Theo." Oz sighed out, growing exasperated.
"Please put out a city-wide alert for Shade Huntsmen to be on standby."
"I did it twenty minutes ago."
The unamused look from the childish face of an ancient, immortal wizard may have been intended to be slightly intimidating, but both Qrow and Theo exchanged a highly-amused, wry grin at Ozcar's attempt to be frightening with baby-fat still on his cheeks.
"I will organise the Atlesian Specialists and the Navy. I estimate full operational effectiveness inside of three hours." Winter stated, nodding at one of her officers to get the preparations started.
"Very well then." Spoke the boy again.
"Good luck tomorrow, all of you. I shall see you on the battlefield."
Oscar's form crumpled. Qrow caught him on the way down.
"Sorry, thanks. Separating is… getting harder.
Qrow nodded, looking at the boy concernedly.
"Don't look at me like that." The kid muttered grumpily, standing under his own power and dusting himself off.
Those assembled filtered off quickly, the evening's business done. Oscar, as himself this time, gave Qrow a less-than-subtle knowing look and moved off toward the bullhead bay of the ship.
The ageing man was left alone with Winter. The freshly-adorned General was doubled over a holographic planning table, moving ships into place, planning tactics in her mind. Cursing when she noticed flaws, her fists clenching an unclenching in frustration.
Qrow watched for a minute. Just watched. They'd all noticed it eventually, but he had seen it first. The… weight she seemed to be carrying. The way her shoulders slumped now, the worry that carved itself into the wrinkles now forming around her eyes. The bags from the lack of sleep, the hoarseness of her voice from giving so many orders in such a short time frame.
She was too young for this. It wasn't fair. This was supposed to be James' fight. Their burden. Leonardo's. Theo's. Oz's. Glynda's. His.
Now it had fallen to… literally everyone, especially those he himself had tried to keep it from ever burdening. Yet, none felt it as much as her. The one with the biggest target on their back. A known maiden, stuck in one place. Raven could run whenever she wanted, her Semblance could get her anywhere on Remnant she wanted to go in an instant, depending on where she put the She most likely would, given her nature. Winter had taken on all the responsibility. It was Winter that roared out of the city at speed when the Grimm attacked. It was Winter that was organising the resources for the relief effort aimed at the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. It was Winter that was trying to rebuild and reforge what was left of the greatest army in Remnant into something that might stand a chance when whatever fresh horrors Salem was working on came calling.
Qrow didn't know what he was supposed to do here. The others either thought the woman could handle it or they expected him to know. Truth was, he didn't know shit about Winter. He liked to poke fun, wind the girl up enough that she cut loose a little, for her own sake. But that was it, that had always been their dynamic. She was the Ice Queen, perfect, beautiful, cold. Until an old Crow came along and started pecking at the ice until it cracked.
Winter was close enough to cracking without his help, and not in their usual 'letting off steam' way. The problem was she had no steam left.
"You should rest."
The words came unbidden from his own mouth. He hadn't intended to say them, but something in him couldn't stand to watch her tiredly and frustratedly swipe at hard-light holograms of ships all night.
Winter jumped, turning to him. The bridge was largely empty, many staff having run off to prepare for the morning, so they were largely alone. Perhaps she hadn't noticed he was still there, having assumed he'd left with the others.
"I'll rest when I'm dead." Came the response, even terser than usual. She did not turn to look at him.
"That'll happen a lot sooner than any of us would like if you don't start taking care of yourself, princess."
Her fist clenched. She hated that nickname, and he knew it. Too much comparison to a life she'd worked extremely hard to distance herself from.
"I'm fine. I need to-"
"Rest." Qrow repeated, forcefully this time.
"Qrow-" She started, finally wheeling around to face him. "If you were one of my men, I'd have you thrown off the ship for insubordination."
"If I were one of your men I'd have thrown myself off." Came the retort.
A flicker of a smirk pulled at the corner of her lips. A call back to another time, when they thought they were safe, though they had a chance.
When James had been with them.
The look was gone before it even fully formed.
"Qrow." She started again, looking up at him, trying and failing in her exhaustion to find another threat to throw. Qrow had taken a few steps closer. Their voices started to drop.
"Winter." He replied.
The woman sighed tiredly, leaning back on the planning table. She was doing that more these days, leaning on things. Always it had been drilled into her, by her father, by the etiquette teachers, to stand up straight, tall. Atlas Academy had drilled it further with the constant calls to attention. Now she was leaning against things like a commoner in the street.
Not that she cared, anymore. She was too tired to care.
"Will you just… get lost?" Came her eventual response. No haughty language, none of the superior, in-control tone that she usually used.
"No." Qrow replied flatly, his voice like gravel, as always.
"I have to organise-" Another of her excuses.
"You have people for that. People who know naval warfare better than you." He cut her off.
Winter's head snapped up angrily.
"What the hell do you know about what I can or can't do?"
Gaze holding level, Qrow did not give an inch.
"You're Winter Schnee, you can do anything. Sometimes, though, even you have to admit when someone else is better at something. Let a naval officer handle this, General."
The point about her rank was one he knew would get through. Winter led ground forces, she always had, and she'd even led them against Monstra during the battle against Salem. Naval warfare was not her forte.
"Then I'll plan the ground-"
"-Defence around a city you don't know with Huntsmen you don't know and resources don't know anything about. Theo has a plan set up and ready to go, and he has enough knowledge of the city and its defenders for me to guarantee it's a good one."
Winter just glared at him.
Qrow sighed.
"Look, Ice Queen, this isn't all on you-"
Winter whispered something under her breath, looking away from him.
"What was that?" The words came from his mouth quicker than anything, eyes narrowing at her.
Winter turned back to him with a cold fury he'd never seen from her before.
"Of course it's on me! Who else would it be on!? I'm the reason we're here! Why people are suffering!" She hissed at him.
"What!? No! James-" Qrow tried to respond.
"I didn't stop him." Winter's rage continued. "Me. I did nothing. I had so many opportunities, so many chances, to change it. To tell him he was too hard on Mantle, to stop him from ignoring the council, from going too far. Instead I sat back and watched, did as I was told while he did exactly what that witch wanted him to do!"
Turning away again, Winter looked out of a massive observation window toward Vacuo.
"Too used to being Daddy's good little girl to question orders. Again." She spat, and finally Qrow understood. All of this, the overwork, rocketing out to face every Grimm threat that hit the scanner, cooping herself up in her flagship, running around like a madwoman to try and help the refugees.
Winter was punishing herself. Guilt for something that wasn't her fault was driving her insane, but worse was the idea that, even after well over a decade of intense effort, she was still Jacque's easily manipulated little tool. The disastrous dinner at Schnee Manor had planted the seed, and the fall of Atlas had allowed it to grow like a weed in the back of her mind. Under the guise of helping others, she was doing everything she could to push herself to breaking point, because she wanted, needed to break. To let the Ice Queen melt for a minute and just be a girl who'd lost her home, her father, her mentor, her men, her friend and her sense of self in one night, because she thought it was, on some level, her fault.
Qrow stared at the enraged defiance in her eyes.
"You and me, training room, right now." He stated.
Winter grit her teeth.
"I do not have time for your silly little-"
"Afraid I'll kick your ass again like at Beacon?"
It was an obvious goad, but Qrow had a way of getting under her skin at the best of times, let alone when she was this frazzled.
"I am a Maiden you utter fool-"
"Oh, so you admit you need magic bullshit to beat me?"
Icy eyes narrowed into venomous slits. Winter turned and stalked toward the elevator.
"I will have you begging for mercy inside of a minute, you dusty old crow." She grit out.
Qrow simply followed.
The elevator down was comfortable, this late it was just them on it. Qrow's calm on the ride down only seemed to enrage Winter further.
Storming off ahead, Winter throw the door open to one of the large training rooms. She almost missed Qrow setting up the session on the console, turning off cameras, closing the observation hatches.
"Afraid that I will send your nieces a video of you getting your…. Your…." Winter struggled with the word, eventually grinding out-
"Prosterior kicked?"
"Nice one." Came Qrow's sarcastic response.
The room sealed itself for a training session, a few random blocks rose slowly around the room to seating height and stopped. Qrow drew his weapon, and dropped it onto one, walking over to the woman before him.
"What? What are you-" She cut off as he drew impossibly close. One hand on her weapon, she just stared at him.
"What are you playing at, Qrow? What's your game?"
"No game." He said.
There was a moment. He held her gaze and her hand fell from her weapon.
"What-"
"It's okay. It's just me. No cameras, no observers, and you can tell everyone you were beating me senseless, even my nieces."
"I- I don't under-"
"You can let it out, on me, like we always do. You trust me enough for that. I know you do. You say it every time we fight, if not in words."
Winter's mouth opened and closed, confusion etched across her face.
"It's just me, Winter. No one else. I don't rely on you. It's okay. I don't need you. I don't want anything from you. I don't want you to do or say anything for me. So you can just… be you."
Winter's mouth closed, her face went rigid, her lips became a thin line.
"It it… really okay?"
"Yes."
For the first time in over a decade, something behind Winter's eyes started to loosen.
"If this is a trick-"
"It isn't."
It loosened further.
"If you tell anyone-"
"I won't." It was the most honest he'd ever been. This, he would take to his grave.
"Shut up. I will kill you, Qrow Branwen. Do you understand? I will kill you, and I will not be sorry for it."
Her voice held venom and fury, so much of it that anyone who didn't know her would run screaming, but the usually-icy eyes of Winter Schnee held something else. For as much of a guarantee on the faith she was about to put in him as he knew how to give.
Qrow chuckled softly.
"I would hope you would, Ice Queen."
Winter's intimidating gaze faltered with a smile of her own at his chuckling. The smile turned to a laugh, a throaty, hoarse laugh that, very quickly, turned to a sob.
Winter's hands like vices wrapped around the lapels of his shirt, so tightly that it bunched up in her fists, his skin pinched underneath. Snow-white hair and skin crashed into his chest as she drove her head into him, using him to hold her up as she wept.
Qrow's arms came down around her, and as she lost more and more control, they both slid to the floor, leaning on a nearby block, as Winter screamed and howled bloody vengeance one moment, then wept with grief the next. Qrow felt his shirt soak through from the tears and phlegm, he did not care. Instead he held onto her for dear life, letting her scream herself out into him.
The Winter Maiden wept for a fallen kingdom, a damned father, a sister thought lost, a friend now gone, a mentor turned madman, and, most of all, for herself, and a lifetime of trying to live up to the expectations of all of them, in the arms of the one man who had never expected anything.
A/N Hehehhehehe. Emotionally charged chapter right? Wait till the next one, Chapter 7 is reunion time baby. How will it go? Read it and find out! (Hint: Not the way you think but holy fuck is it fun writing it.)
I know, I know, you're going to accuse me of pushing for White Knight, but in reality I'm just giving Weiss and Jaune a moment in the sun before it all comes crashing down at the realisation of Pyrrha's return. Plus it gave me an opportunity to flesh out the character of the city itself some more. That, and they needed to fix their slight falling out at her calling him crazy, and I don't think it can be argued post Vol-9, alongside several other moments over the volumes, that she's not interested in him now. Equally, the two have clearly grown much, much closer as friends. On the Jaune side, well, the man's never explicitly expressed interest in anyone post-Beacon, and seemed to be very uncomfortable with the whole mums-fancying-him thing in Atlas. Like I said, I'm leaning Arkos, but I also said slow burn, and I don't want to give anything away definitively. As anyone who writes knows, things almost never go according to any sort of plan. You have one, then it goes wildly off kilter, so I'm not making any definitive comments either way.
Tai's going through the motions but having his daughters alive will fix that up pretty quick. Winter's a fucking mess, though, dude. I get she's a stoic as fuck badass, and she absolutely is, and will remain so, but the woman lost her father, (Yes she hated him but ask anyone who has a bad relationship with their parents, it's always far more complicated than they'd like.) friend, men, and mentor in one night and thought Weiss had died too. That's some fucking raw emotional damage if ever I've seen it. I toyed with the idea of her turning alcoholic like her mother and in a strange foil to Qrow, but decided the daughter of an alcoholic is extremely unlikely to take the same route to self-destruction. That, and she didn't seem to be an alchy in the post Vol 9 animatic. Over-working herself seemed more in character, and given that Winter has been shown to drop her self-control around Qrow on a few occasions, (Primarily Vol 3's It's Brawl In The Family.) in much the same way that she does around Weiss and her Father, coupled with the fact that he, unlike Weiss, doesn't rely on her to be any kind of role-model, Qrow would be the best one to get her to break the persona of Ice Queen and give herself time to grieve. That, and the man's secretly a giant softie and would absolutely do this for her. It also makes sense given their obvious sexual tension, which is reinforced in RWBY Chibi. It's a real shame they didn't explore that aspect more in Vol 7/8 and instead had Qrow running around with Clover and then Robin. Really unnecessarily added to the character bloat problem. That, and I'm a sucker for the kind of woman that would actually straight-up kill me.
Speaking of! As you've noticed, some characters have made cameos, others have perspectives, and others still have been name dropped. Sadly, the nature of the character bloat issue that the RWBY writers started means that I either kill people off or ignore them completely / just use them as brief cameos. I will be doing both. Not necessarily 'soon', but it will happen. You have been warned. Combat is the nature of the game in this world, and they are at war. There's a fight coming at them already.
