Ugh. Got myself a lovely winter flu. Throat feels like a gravel road, poor sleep, and constant neck pain. I'm definitely McLoving it.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 57

Ozpin's moving fast, Qrow thought, as he was summoned to meet with the not-yet-headmaster in his office. He'd barely had the time to be checked over, thrown into a sling by the doctor who was not yet Tsune – Glynda's odd and famously sadistic friend who worked as Beacon's future nurse and resident torture expert – and get a night's sleep, and he was being called to a meeting.

It was downright reckless of him to namedrop Tsune in front of Ozpin but, in all fairness, he'd been half-conscious at the time and dealing with a lot of pain. It turned out that one's pain sensitivity was more physical than mental, and this body wasn't quite as worn as his old one. Same as how his tolerance for alcohol had plummeted. Not to mention Tsune was a nickname and not her real name, so it probably wouldn't backfire.

Still, it'd be fine. He could write the name off as someone from the tribe and say he was delirious at the time. It wasn't difficult to believe. That was if Ozpin even asked, because he surely had bigger things on his plate.

Qrow made to knock on the door, winced, and kicked at the base of it instead.

"Come in." Qrow Shouldered the door open and slid in. "Ah, Mr Branwen. Alive and well, I take it? What's the damage?"

"Dislocated shoulder." Qrow noted the old woman in the room. Maria was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, taking very much the same pose Qrow had on numerous occasions. "A hairline fracture on my other as well."

For a civilian, that'd put him out for twelve to sixteen weeks, but kids wouldn't ever finish learning to be huntsmen if that were the case in the academies. People picked up injuries all the time, and aura was a wonderful panacea. It permeated into bone and could make you heal quicker, and bone didn't actually take a lot of healing. It was just that it took forever normally.

"Doctor says I should be back to training in two weeks but shouldn't fight seriously for another week after."

The downside of that, of course, was that getting any time off school when you had aura was painfully difficult. Unless you'd lost a limb or were stricken with the literal plague, aura kept people good for lessons. There was no getting out by pulling a sickie in Beacon.

"I'm glad to hear it. Officially, I must reprimand you for being so reckless and rushing into danger without knowing the situation or those involved. Obviously, I'm very pleased that you did given the circumstances. Maria Calavera is an associate of mine—"

"Old girlfriend?"

The woman choked. "Him? He's old!"

Qrow knew exactly what she meant by that but, in the interests of not giving it away, grinned and said, "Really? Because you look like you're in your forties. I'd peg Ozpin as mid-twenties at best."

Her eyes blazed through the eyeholes of her skull mask.

Ozpin chuckled. He couldn't really defend Maria without having to explain why he – officially below thirty in his current body - was older than her. The easiest answer was to play along, and Ozpin did just that. "I'm twenty-eight. I'm not sure where Maria gets off saying I'm older. Perhaps she's still woozy from the fight."

"Or she's saying you're too old for her tastes and she likes them especially young. Should I be worried for my virtue?"

"Brat!" Maria snapped. "I should have let that bitch kill you!"

"Let her? I'm the one who saved you." Qrow grinned and leaned in to whisper loudly to Ozpin. "I don't know what she's been telling you, teach, but she was screwed without me. Don't let her convince you she had it under control."

He wasn't normally one to play the cocksure attitude but it was fun to tease someone his old age and get away with it. Plus, it was all deflecting from the questions they really ought to have had about him. About how he was that good, how he adapted so quickly. The longer he could keep them distracted, the more time he'd have to think up excuses for those things.

Qrow couldn't quite stop glancing at her, though. The fact she was here listening in on this had him fairly sure Maria was his equivalent back in this time, one of the loyal members of his inner circle.

My predecessor…

It was oddly exciting to meet the person who had come before him. Obviously, there were many of the, probably stretching back hundreds of years, and yet he'd be lying if he said he'd never wondered about the teams that came before Team STRQ. He almost wanted to laugh at the fact she used scythes, since that meant she, him, and then Ruby had all used them. It was almost like Ozpin had a type. Had she died to the faunus in the original timeline? If so, this was a fate he was pleased to have averted. More assets on Ozpin's side was always a good thing.

"I won't let her badmouth you," Ozpin agreed, still laughing. The sounds of Maria's teeth grinding away filled the room. "But that aside, we wanted to ask you a few questions about the fight. Fill in any blanks Maria might have missed in the heat of the moment. I've heard her side of it but a bigger picture is always better. Tell us first how you detected the combat."

"Well, it was the gunshots. We all heard them. Assumed it was another team hunting game with live fire – wasteful but could be some idiots didn't know a better way to hunt." Ozpin nodded along with Qrow's explanation. "But it became pretty obvious something was up once the gunfire continued. No deer is that big and it'd be embarrassing if anyone was so bad a shot they'd need that much ammo to down an animal—" Ozpin's lips curled up in amusement. "— so we figured it must be a team holding off Grimm. Everyone else was occupied with cooking or helping Gretchen into some new clothes since she fell in the river, so I offered to be the one to check it out."

"And that's when you saw Maria and her assailant?"

"Yes."

"What made you decide Maria was the one to help?"

Silver eyes, mostly, but he couldn't say that. No one was meant to know they were a big deal. Qrow pondered instead, sitting back. "I guess it was just the vibe," he said, using some slang he knew wouldn't be understood.

And just to buy him time to think.

Ozpin's eyes crossed. "The… vibe…?"

Bless Yang's future lingo. That kind of thing wasn't invented yet.

"Yeah, you know, like a vibration or a feeling." They didn't know, and that gave him time to wrack his mind for a better answer. "I just got this feeling she was the good one. I mean, the Halloween mask if weird—" Maria's throat rumbled out a low growl. "But the other one had freaking sharpened teeth like a shark. Not exactly a wholesome look."

"Surely you can't base it all on looks."

"No." Qrow caught something. "I think it was that the other one on the offensive. Took me a second to realise it was a live-or-death fight and not a spar, and then I had a second to decide who was the one making it that. Grandma here was giving ground and losing—"

"I swear, brat…"

"—and the other one was a psychopath swinging to cut her head off. Sure, I might have been wrong and all, but when you see one person trying desperately to murder the other you tend to assume that person is the asshole."

Ozpin nodded. "Fair enough. That does make sense. So, you entered the fight and were, by the sounds of it, overpowered quite easily."

Qrow blushed. It wasn't forced either.

"Y… Yeah. Yeah, I was." It was his turn to mumble unhappily, and Maria's to snort. Obviously, him losing to a professional huntress was no big deal from a physical standpoint, but it still smarted. He'd been one of the best huntsmen on Remnant. "Couldn't even ambush her. I got halfway there before she heard me."

"There's no shame in that, Mr Branwen. That you survived is proof enough of your skill – and to assist in besting her even more so. Maria tells me you stole her stopwatch, and that this led to her defeat. How did you know to?"

"I didn't."

His flat answer had them reeling. "You… didn't…?"

"No. How could I? Never met her, no idea who she is or what her Semblance did. I had no idea what it was all about."

"Then… why…?"

"Because it looked important." Qrow dug it out with his good hand. He'd kept it, not necessarily as a trophy but because it had already been in his pocket and he hadn't thought to dump it. He set it on the table and Ozpin took it, inspecting it for any markings or such. "The psycho made a big talk of only needing sixty seconds to beat us and then starting the stopwatch. Now, maybe she was just being cocky, but it felt odd to me. It's not what a person would normally do. And even if she did just want to mock us, why have a stopwatch on the outside of your clothing where a spare claw or weapon could smash it? Thing obviously couldn't be sentimental if she had it out where it could be smashed."

"Astute reasoning. Go on."

"So, I figured it might be important in some way. Didn't know for sure, but worth a short, right? I noticed she paid me no attention, so I snatched it when I swung at her, used my sword to hide it, then got kicked away. Turned it off when I landed so the alarm wouldn't go off. Again, no idea for sure that'd do anything, but it was the only idea I had. And she was the one who made a big deal about it. Clued me in."

"Her fighting style was recklessly aggressive," Maria said. "And her aura was impossibly strong."

"Not just strong," Qrow said. "Invincible. I stabbed her right in the cunt—"

"Mr Branwen!"

"Sorry. Right in the pussy—"

"QROW BRANWEN!"

"The taint?"

Ozpin squeezed his forehead as Maria laughed. "I get your point, Mr Branwen. You struck at the groin area and I am assuming the assailant showed no response."

"Not even a wince, man. Like, no man or woman is going to take that without at least a shriek. It's instinctual. Someone aims down there, you block no matter what. Even civilians will lock up if you do that. Not her, though. I also hit her right in the kidneys from behind and she didn't feel it."

"Curious. For you both to say it, it must have been a Semblance. One timed by the sounds of it. And Mr Branwen accurately found the weakness where a professional could not."

Maria scowled.

"To be fair…" Qrow spoke up, not to defend her but to deflect from himself. "I had a lot of time to just watch and figure it out. The woman flat-out ignored me, while grandma was being mauled by the nutcase. Not exactly a lot of time for her to sit back and think."

"He's not wrong," Maria said, accidentally supporting him and making his achievement seem less suspicious than it really was. "I've never fought someone who was so wholly engaged on offence. There wasn't a single thought to her defence, and never a moment for me to catch my breath."

"Hmm. Good thinking and the mistakes of our assailant, then," Ozpin said. "We're fortunate she saw fit to disregard Mr Branwen, though if she were on the clock as it were, then I suppose that explains why she couldn't waste time dealing with him."

The good old "my enemy underestimated me" card, so very useful and applicable in so many ways – especially when he was a seventeen-year-old sure to be underestimated by almost everyone. For now, anyway. He'd been underestimated by Vale's spies and they were onto him and unlikely to do that again, and now he'd gotten away with it to Ozpin and Maria, but they also wouldn't take him so lightly next time.

"So, do we know who she was?" Qrow asked.

"Hm? The assailant?"

"Yes. Who was she? Who does she work for? Why go after grandma?"

"Brat—"

"I'm afraid that's something it's best for you not to worry about," said Ozpin. "I'd rather you focus on recovering and your lessons. Leave issues of rogue huntresses to us."

Damn. It wasn't so great s feeling to be kept out the loop for his age. Did this mean it was Salem—? It might have been, but it also might not have been. It wasn't like Salem was the only bad person on Remnant. Qrow's knowledge of this time outside of Beacon was limited, so there could have been other, just as believable answers.

And there were no Grimm around to back her up…

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Qrow tried a last-chance fish for information. "But it's not something that'll backfire on me or my sister, is it?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Just that if this is some criminal group after Grandma here, are they going to be upset I got involved and hurt me or Raven?"

"That will not be a problem. Your involvement will be kept out of any reports, and no one else was there to witness it." Ozpin was too smart to let anything slip out. Shame, too. He'd been hoping for Ozpin to drop a "she" or some hint to it being Salem. "You and your sister will be perfectly safe."

"Right. Cool. So, can I go? I kind of want to take some painkillers and crash."

Ozpin smiled. "You're free to go. Ah, but I'm sure Maria has something to say first."

The woman's head tilted. "Do I…?"

"Yes." Ozpin fixed her with an arch look, eyebrow raised. "Something I mentioned…?"

"Tch. Fine. Brat, I'm thinking of teaching you a thing or two. Or at least testing you. Get well soon and we'll spar."

"Wait, really…?" He hadn't expected this. "Like, well, not like an apprenticeship because I want to stay in Beacon but… like that?"

"Only if you're good enough."

"All very good," Ozpin interrupted, staring at Maria. "But that was not what I meant. I was implying you should thank young Mr Branwen for risking his life to save yours, and for quite possibly managing just that."

Ah, that. Qrow smirked.

Maria locked up unhappily. "Tch. F… Fine. Thanks, brat." Under her breath, she added, "Even if it wasn't necessary. I'd have held out for sixty seconds no problem."

"Heh. No worries, grandma."

"I'm forty-two!" she snapped. "That's not old!"

It was. He still had the phantom aches and pains to prove it.

/-/

"We understand you've been injured."

Qrow wasn't overly surprised his new allies had found that out. Information was sort of their job. He was surprised they'd reach out to him over it though.

"Should I take this as a sign the doctor here is one of yours?"

"We wouldn't be having this conversation is that were the case. We need to know how long you'll be out for."

Not the doctor, then. They'd have that information. Their spies could have been among the teaching staff or students – or even both. That was still a whole lot of people it could be, and it wasn't really his job to find out. If they were trying to stop the fall of Mountain Glenn, they were on his side.

"Only about three weeks in total."

"That's workable. We don't want to move while the Atlas delegation is here anyway." The man on the line changed the subject. "We've looked into your faunus friend for you."

Ah, so that was the reason for the call. "Great. What have you found?"

"A junior politician was responsible for the sudden arrest. He wanted to curry favour and show how proactive he could be to his superiors. It wasn't entirely his own idea, however. It was put in his head by another, the plan being to offload the blame should it be discovered onto this junior. If this were exposed, they can blame the younger one and say no one else approved, when in truth it's a small group among the senior politicians who wanted it to happen."

Politics, then. It was cute that the spy felt the need to explain it in such detail, but the man did think he was talking to a child straight out of living in the wilderness. Smart or not, Qrow Branwen's experience with politics should have been little to none. Hell, the concept of democracy should have been novel to him.

"Sounds like a bunch of assholes," he said, earning a hum from the man. "There's a reason you're not giving me names. Isn't there?"

"Having you expose them will destabilise Vale. Politicians are parasites, even from our point of view, but they're a necessary evil."

"And the illegal suffering of a single faunus is a worthwhile sacrifice?"

"I didn't say that. You've already made your point clear about the White Fang's frustrations – and yes, we're aware of the arguments Ozpin has brought to the council. You should be pleased to know he argued quite fiercely against Ghira Belladonna's treatment."

Good old Ozpin. The man had his own things to focus on but, once he could see how important something was, he was the kind of guy who wouldn't stop. "You're not annoyed I sent him in, then?"

"Not at all. It saves us the effort."

"Oh? You were thinking of taking Ghira's side in this?"

"Anger from faunus and the potential riots that could come from it would also destabilise the city. Politicians may be a necessary evil but their games are not. There are factions in politics that see the White Fang as a destabilising factor, not necessarily in terms of violence but in terms of increasing business costs by winning more rights for faunus."

"Conservative types?"

"Not even. They are ones who would vote for anything if it improved their bottom lines. The only thing they care about is where the money flows. Luckily for you, they're a minority. The Council of Vale does not hold any particular like or dislike of the White Fang. Some approve of them, some don't, most are ambivalent. Don't tar them all with the same brush."

"Fine. I get your point. What's going to happen, then?"

"Nothing from us. Ozpin is finding sympathetic voices. The matter should be dealt with quickly. We have intervened to speak quietly with the Chief of Police and warn her we're watching. She has not attempted anything untoward to the prisoner, but if you're worried she might be ordered to by those politicians then rest assured we have prevented it."

"Thanks. Guess I owe you."

"You can start paying that back quickly. We're interested in the huntress you returned with."

Qrow winced. "Maria? Why?"

"We have no reason to believe she's a threat or dangerous to you or those in Beacon. It's more that she's a blank book in every conceivable way. No one can understand why she does what she does, what her motives are, or who she works for. Until now. Ozpin's involvement makes it clear he pulls her strings."

Damn it. He didn't want them pitting him against Ozpin. "I trust the guy. He's a good teacher. It's not like he's harming anyone."

"We know. Ozpin's records are clean, his service commendable. He is expected to become the next headmaster of Beacon, and those of us involved in Vale's security approve of him taking the role." That was a relief. "But we are not in the business of having blind spots in our information networks. We are not asking you to put her in danger, nor to betray her, only to find out what you can and report on her to us. No one knows what the future holds, and even if she stays loyal, there's no guarantee the one that tried to kill her won't have allies who will come to Vale."

"It's not really Maria you're after, is it?"

"You catch on quickly. It's our job to protect the city, and we can't do that if we don't know who our enemy is. As a gesture of goodwill, we'll provide you what we have on the one who attacked her. Don't share this with Ozpin; there's no need."

"He already has it?"

"Yes. We found it because he flagged our systems when he accessed the file. Her name was Tock, her allegiance unknown and her actions as shrouded in mystery as Calavera's. They don't come across the actions of a random psychopath, however. We must know more."

They wanted to know about Salem. Qrow bit his lip, wondering if that was a good thing or not. More allies against Salem couldn't ever be bad, but Ozpin always wanted it kept a secret. Most of that was to avoid panic, or at least that was what Ozpin said, and Qrow could accept that when it came to the general public. People weren't ready to have their worldview upended so casually.

But these weren't panicky civilians. This was an organisation dedicated to keeping Vale safe, and while it could be argued they'd failed in the modern timeline where Beacon fell, couldn't that also be because Ozpin kept them in the dark? As they implied, they couldn't fight back against an enemy they didn't know existed.

"I'll see what I can do," he told them. "As long as you're not looking to get her in trouble."

"If she is a huntress defending Vale's interests, we will do quite the opposite. We would work with Ozpin as well, if he would let us, but the man is happy to play ignorant. That's not a problem, however. We're happiest supporting from the shadows."

"Geez. How can you say such angsty crap with a straight face? I'm the teenager and even I'd cringe saying that."

The call ended with a click, the spy hanging up on him. Snorting, Qrow pocketed it. He'd give them a little on Maria but hold back on Salem for now. Leaving aside that he had time, there was no point distracting them over Mountain Glenn. If they had to split their efforts, the city might fall. Best sort that out first and then decide what to do.

"Qrow!" Gretchen came sprinting up with a furious look on her face. "You asshole! We went to the infirmary and you weren't there! Nessa and Peter are furious!" She crossed her arms. "You better have a good excuse!"

"Ozpin summoned me to a meeting over the woman that attacked the huntress."

"Oh…" Gretchen's hands, and her ire, fell. "That's a god excuse. Good. Saves us having to shout at you."

"Always happy to be spared that."

"Yeah." She smirked. "You know, your sister and her team should be coming back in a couple of hours. Do you want to wait for them and laugh at them for how they got food poisoning?"

Ah, Gretchen. Still hating his sister for exposing her crush on Taiyang and hurting her.

Qrow slung his good arm around her shoulder.

"I have never wanted anything more in my life. Lead on, partner."

Next Chapter: 30th November

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