Dutiful Destruction

by Joey245

Three months after the defeat of Makuta and Team RWBY's return to Remnant, a new foe emerges with one goal: to eradicate everything on the island of Mata Nui. With Salem casting her shadow on Vacuo and tensions mounting among the refugees of Atlas, Ruby and her friends may find themselves strained as they fight for the worlds of Man, Matoran, and more. (Sequel to Destiny's Divide.)

26. Broken Wings

(A/N): This one is equal parts heavy and healing, I feel. There's been a lot of drama lately, I know, but this is where some of that gets resolved and where characters start rebuilding themselves. One of the big ships in the story also gets locked in here! …a week late for a Valentine's day chapter, maybe, but still!

Special thanks once again to Ethereal23 for helping me workshop Winter's scenes in this one! Some of Theodore and Ozpin's dialogue came right from them, actually, and I really think it adds a lot to the story and the characters. And of course, as the biggest Snowbyrd fan I know, they really helped me out with the scenes for Robyn as well haha.

---

The sound of shouting from the humans made Tahu return far sooner than he thought he would.

He snapped his gaze over to Gali and Kopaka behind him, who both nodded and took off in blurs of blue and silver. Tahu wasn't as adept at using the Mask of Speed here in Ko-Wahi, but he brute-forced his way through the snow anyway as he followed his fellow Toa. The trio arrived back where they'd left their partners just in time to see a mass of red petals shoot off into the sky, leaving a distressed Weiss and a shocked (yet angry) Qrow behind.

"What happened?" Tahu asked. "Why did Ruby leave on her own?"

Weiss narrowed her gaze and wiped away a tear. "You can ask your new buddy about that, Tahu - he's the one who decided this would be an excellent time to pick at an old family scar. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and make sure my girlfriend's okay. Kopaka, can you work with the other Toa for a bit? I don't know how long I'll be gone, but I won't be coming back until Ruby does."

The Toa of Ice blinked as his ally created a spectral Kahu, then nodded.

"What would you have us do, Weiss?" asked Gali, concern radiating through her gaze. "Should we spread out and search for Ruby as well?"

"You can if you want, but call me before approaching her." Weiss leapt onto her summoned mount. "She was pretty upset when she left…and I think I've got the best chance of getting through to her. I'll look for her from the air in the meantime. It'll be faster that way, maybe even faster than your Masks of Speed."

The gruff-looking human suddenly snapped out of his state of shock and stepped forward. "Lemme come with you to search the sky," he said. "We can cover more ground together -"

"You've done enough, Qrow."

Tahu's eyes widened behind his mask at the sheer venom in the Huntress's voice. Gali gasped, Kopaka's lenses clicked, and even the Huntsman himself stepped back. Weiss seemed to realize how harsh she was being, because her gaze softened with a sigh as she looked down at her fellow human.

"Look…" she said sharply, "I don't know what's going on between you and Ruby right now, but you'd better figure it out before you really do end up losing each other. I love her dearly, and I'll be there for her no matter what happens…but I am not getting involved in whatever fight you two are having. That's not fair to me, it's not fair to you, and it's definitely not fair to Ruby."

The Toa of Fire caught another tear falling from a scarred eye, which Weiss blinked to clear.

"I'm at my limit trying to keep my broken family together. You can't ask me to fix yours, too."

And with that, Weiss whistled twice and held tight to her summoned Kahu, commanding the bird to take off and disappear into the overcast gray sky.

---

The moment Winter woke up to a meeting request from Theodore and Ozpin, she knew her day wouldn't be much better than the one before.

She soared across the Vacuo sky on unsteady jets of flame, setting her sights on Shade Academy once more. A bitter taste lingered in her mouth and settled into her throat at the sight of the familiar building. The last time she was here, she'd ended up burning every bridge she'd built with the young Summer Maiden, and she was still reeling from the aftermath of that fight. Her head pounded from crying so much last night, her chest ached for reasons unrelated to Albus sleeping on her, and her nose felt plugged up with clots and scabs. All she wanted to do was crawl into a hole and disappear…or maybe sink into a nice hot bath and stay there until she pruned.

But duty and discipline came before desire, so off she went without even stopping for breakfast.

Even with an empty stomach, a wave of nausea swept over her as she touched down at the Academy's front steps with a stumble. A handful of students lounging around before classes glanced her way, watching her stagger and try to regain her balance like a drunken fool. She scowled internally. Why were her landings so much rougher lately? Maidens were supposed to fly like birds born on the wind, yet recently every flight felt like she was a bull being thrown by a catapult.

Winter grit her teeth and straightened her back, marching past the students without so much as looking their way. Down the familiar halls, up far too many stairs, through a pair of heavy oaken doors. If she were enrolled in Shade, she might've felt nervous entering the Headmaster's office.

Maybe that kind of nervousness would've been preferable to the sinking feeling right now.

Theodore was already there, seated behind his mahogany desk with the usual checkered coat and silver cape draped over his shoulders. Oscar leaned against the wall next to a framed photo of his past life, cane held loosely in both hands as his fingers tapped its head. The tension was thick enough to slice with Eisen Blume, thick enough to drown her if she didn't navigate the room's turbulent waters. She took a breath, almost instinctively, and swore she felt a static-laced crackle in her lungs.

Winter looked between the two Headmasters - one middle-aged, the other as young as Whitley yet also older than time itself - with a pit forming in her gut. "You…wanted to see me, sirs?"

The desert brawler scoffed and glared daggers at the Maiden. No warmth or humor in his gaze. That was a bad omen already. "Believe me, Schnee, seeing you is the last thing I want right about now -"

"Theodore." Oscar spoke only one word, but his voice contained none of its usual boyishness. Ozpin was at the helm today. That was an even worse omen.

"Right…right." Theodore took a calming breath, shifted the intensity of his glare down a notch, then spoke in a less openly hostile voice. "I found Petra here in Shade Academy's courtyard last night, exhausted and teary-eyed after your Maiden lessons. She said you and her got into a fight - a claim corroborated by Berix, who was there at the time, and Emerald, who came by to comfort her not long after you left. I've already gotten the facts from both of them, but I invited you here to share your side of the story…and to share your insight on why you think this happened."

It was a poisoned olive branch, and they all knew it. Nothing Winter could say would justify her actions during Maiden training. This was an opportunity to admit her guilt, to swallow her pride, and to face the consequences of her own actions. Knowing she'd be in even deeper trouble if she didn't, she spoke.

"There's not much else to corroborate, sir," she said in a practiced, deferential tone that almost always managed to diffuse a CO's temper. "She showed me that she'd made progress in her magic, to the extent that she was able to conjure sparks from nothing. I should have celebrated her success…should have shared her excitement…but I was worried she was growing too slowly, afraid that she was running behind on her magical prowess. Thus…we argued."

Oscar and Theodore shared a glance.

"In my rage and exhaustion, I acted…rashly." Winter swallowed the lump in her throat. "Said rash things. I…she believed that she should die during our argument, that the Maiden powers should go to someone else. That her death was all I wanted. I attempted to inform her that this wasn't the case, but my words were undermined by both my temper and my actions. I gave her the impression that I would kill her, if she didn't master her gift quickly enough. My power activated without realizing it, making it seem that I would attack. In the end, I greatly upset her…because I allowed my own emotions to get the better of me. I apologize."

The enraged brawler huffed. "You 'allowed your emotions to get the better of you,' huh? Interesting. I wasn't even sure you had those."

"Theodore…"

"You do realize that if anyone else had spoken to Petra the way you did last night, they'd either be in a cell or a shallow grave by now?"

"Theodore."

"I know the whole idea of fathers caring about their kids might be a bit foreign to you -"

"Theodore." Now Oscar - no, Ozpin - was glaring at his companion. "Focus on the issue at hand."

Winter tensed up. Dammit. When did the corners of her eyes start feeling wet? How did she still have tears to shed after last night?

Theodore took another calming breath that didn't seem to help much, closed his eyes for a moment, then snapped them open with an even harsher expression. It was overwhelmingly intimidating…so intimidating, in fact, that Winter's own gaze dropped to the floor in a reflexive show of submission.

"As the Headmaster of Shade, one of my many priorities is the safety of the Summer Maiden," he intoned with a little more evenness in his voice. "As a father, one of my many priorities is the safety of my daughter. You violated both of those last night, Winter Schnee, when I and everyone else trusted you. And then you just left, without staying long enough to resolve the situation or pass on authority to someone else. This is unacceptable."

Her throat tightened as she nodded deferentially. "I understand, sir -"

"Do you really? Or are you just hoping to placate me so that I let you off with a warning and a slap on the wrist?"

Winter's eyes widened as she finally dared to look up at Theodore.

"Oh yeah, I know all about the little 'respect games' you military types played up in Solitas," said the Headmaster with a mirthless chuckle. "Let the next person above you in the chain of command chew you out, then accept whatever punishment they give to try and stop you from doing it again. No actual support for ongoing problems. No actual consequences besides a demotion or a few weeks of cleaning toilets. Well you can save the kowtowing and the platitudes, Winter Schnee. It might've worked on Ironwood, but it won't work here."

Her heart froze in her chest. "It's not just platitudes, sir. I do regret my actions. Headmaster, you must know that I would never do anything to intentionally harm Petra. To harm any ally, Maiden or not."

The Headmaster gave a derisive snort. "Really? I wonder if Ironwood ever gave a similar promise to Councilman Sleet -"

"Theodore!"

Oscar's reprimand came too late, the dagger of words had already twisted deeper into her gut. A haunting gunshot echoed in her mind, and it took all her will to dismiss it from her thoughts yet again. Theodore took another futile calming breath, then somehow managed to furrow his brow even further.

"Do you know why I've never been 'keen' on Ironwood?" His words were slow and measured, a sharp contrast to his scathing glare. "Because that man never. Actually. Listened. Not to Ozpin, not to his colleagues, not to the people he should have trusted. He always went behind our backs to get what he wanted done, always asked for forgiveness instead of permission. If he ever asked for forgiveness at all. Sure, we all had our little side goals…we all kept our secrets. But he went beyond that. He kept secrets that shouldn't have even been secrets, and that ended up costing us everything. You should know that better than anyone."

"Theodore -"

"Dammit Oz, let me finish for once!" Now the Headmaster was shouting again, eyes burning with months' worth of rage and frustration. "I'm not trying to snipe or needle here, I'm trying to make a point! Ironwood messed up big time, a lot of times, and it all let Salem take him out from the top down! Take you out from the top down! Just look at everything that happened at the Vytal Festival when he took control! He brought the fleets to Vale! He locked down Atlas's tech and projects tighter than a camel's nose in a sandstorm! He let Penny compete in the tournament without telling anyone else about her true nature! What kind of sane, rational man even does that?! Who would ever force that sweet little ball of sunshine and bolts to hide who she really is? And I know I have no right to throw stones here, but if he'd just let everyone else know from the start that this poor girl was made of circuits and wire instead of blood and bone…who knows what we could've done to stop the panic before it began? Maybe we could've kept her from getting torn apart live on stage! Maybe we could've screened the contestants better and seen the trickery happening under our noses! Maybe we could've stopped the matches before she ever fought a stressed-out girl with a gods-damned magnetic Semblance!"

Twin fists slammed against an old desk to punctuate an outburst years in the making. Miraculously, it remained standing - which was more than Winter could say about herself as her knees trembled. The action managed to purge some of the fury, at least, as Theodore's words took that same measured, angry tone from before.

"But he never said anything…never told us anything. Why would he? Ironwood was the general of Atlas, the strongest nation of our time, so of course only he knew best. Only he could bear the weight of the world on his shoulders. Only he knew how to save Remnant. And all that pressure he put on himself…all those choices he made for the greater good, regardless of how others felt about it…it broke him. It shattered him. And it left us to pick up the pieces of the mess he made on the way out."

Winter was desperately trying not to cry, a task that got harder when those old eyes locked with hers yet again.

"When I look at you, Winter Schnee, all I see is a woman walking down that same doomed path," finished the Headmaster of Shade. "You are the only ally I'm wary of, the only person on my side I fear. Because I look at you, and I see a ghost. His ghost. The ghost of a man who squandered every bit of might he claimed to stand for, who made every wrong choice with the power he wielded…and in the end, who proved there really was no victory in strength, no safety in the one thing he said could protect us. Right now we have enough problems without that specter looming over us. Say whatever you want, but my mind's already made up. Far as I'm concerned, the biggest threat to the Summer Maiden's safety - to Petra's safety - is you."

Oscar finally tapped his cane twice against the ground, letting the floorboards speak louder than his last interruption. "Theodore. That's enough."

This time, the other Headmaster in the room relented with a slump of his shoulders. "Yes, Ozpin…" he said morosely, giving one last look at the Winter Maiden who was too cowardly to meet his gaze. "It's enough."

A tense silence settled across the office, drowned out only by the pounding of Winter's heart in her ears. Her legs were shaking, her eyes were watering, and her lower lip was twitching something fierce. It took every bit of self-control she had to keep standing there, to take the harsh words and the judgmental glares. She'd been yelled at before. She'd been disciplined before. All she needed to do was last until the end of the meeting, and keep a tighter control of her emotions than before, and she'd be fine.

Oscar dispelled that notion with a few taps of his Scroll and a somber expression. "Winter Schnee," he intoned in a voice with wisdom beyond his age, "in light of this recent incident - and after evaluating concerns made by several anonymous parties - we've made the decision to temporarily suspend your Huntress license."

Her emotional mask shattered.

"Wh-what?" she asked hoarsely, tears welling up in disbelief and shock. "Sir, you…you can't do that. Vacuo needs me -"

"It's because you're needed that we're doing this," Oscar intoned. "It's as Theodore said - I won't stand back and watch you destroy yourself trying to bear the weight of the world. Not again."

She didn't bother concealing the waterworks anymore, as she felt hot and angry tears stream down her face. "B-b-but I have to -!"

"You…" Even with the softest of tones, he still managed to keep her quiet. She wasn't just standing before Ozpin, the old soul in Oscar's body. She was standing before Headmaster Ozpin, the stern but fair authority figure. "…are clearly emotionally compromised. You've taken to your duties as both Huntress and Maiden admirably, but you have done so without rest. Without temperance. Without concern for yourself. Ever since we arrived in Vacuo you've been on a crusade of self-penance, consumed by your own grief and guilt and a desperate need to make things right." He showed some guilt of his own. "And because our circumstances demanded that we do everything in our power to survive, I overlooked it. For that, I am truly sorry we ever put you in that position…but you need not carry that burden anymore. It never should have been yours in the first place."

A ping from her own Scroll sealed her fate.

"We are no longer on the brink of extinction, Winter Schnee. We have clean water, food for all, and communication with the outside world. Yet even in the face of all this progress you've continued to strain yourself, continued to act as if this Kingdom will fall apart without you. If this is what it takes to disabuse you of that notion…then so be it."

"Please…" she pleaded with a whimper. "Please don't do this, sir. I…being a Huntress…this is all I have. All I know how to be."

The look on the ancient wizard's face was far from unkind, but gave no indication that he'd change his mind. "Then I suggest you use this time to find something else to fill that void. This is not intended as a punishment, nor is it permanent - you will have your license restored when it's deemed that you are in good mental, emotional, and physical health. But we will be the ones to determine that. Not you. Understood?"

Between the sobs and the heaves wracking her chest, Winter was amazed she managed to nod numbly.

"Very well, then. Consider this a formal discharge, if you must. Will you need someone to escort you out, or to monitor you?"

She shook her head. The last thing she wanted right now was to be someone else's problem yet again.

"Do you feel as though you are a threat to yourself, or others?"

After a pause that felt a little too long for her liking, she once more shook her head.

Oscar cast his gaze back to his colleague. "Theodore, do you have anything to add?"

The other Headmaster looked like he could keep ranting for hours on end, but he shook his head as well.

"Then you are dismissed, Winter Schnee. Both from this meeting, and from duty." Oscar's eyes softened yet again, and some attempt at an owlish smile reached his face. "If I may offer one final bit of advice…you have many people who care about you, even if you can't see it. People who love you, people who want what's best for you, people who have been worrying about you for several months. If you truly want to be better…if you truly want to keep this from happening again…then seek them out, and allow them to help you. Allow them to guide you. Allow them to aid you in finding who you are."

To Winter's own amazement, she managed to leave the office without stumbling over herself too much. Deep down, she knew this was necessary. She knew that she deserved something far worse than a temporary suspension. She knew that the Headmasters just wanted what was best for her. And she knew that her own actions had driven her to this point.

But all that knowledge was cold comfort to the feeling of her world crumbling around her.

---

"Ruby! Ruby!"

Weiss's voice echoed across the mountain below her as the summoned Kahu surged through the sky. Pressure mounted between her eyes as she swept her gaze over snowy slopes, fighting against the headache that came from using the Mask of Vision for long periods of time. But she didn't care how much her head hurt, or how much her eyes strained - she refused to see the world any other way until she saw some sign of her partner on her thermal vision, or any other mode of enhanced sight that would reveal her runaway rose.

The winds are picking up, and the sun's going down, Weiss thought to herself as she chewed on her lips. Her Aura must be low from that chase, so if the cold night hits before we find her…before I find her…

She shook that thought out of her head. No. No. She was not going to lose her beloved Ruby because of some big shouting match and a little hypothermia. Weiss had to believe she was going to find her partner. Had to believe that things were going to turn out okay.

Ten gut-rending minutes later, her faith was rewarded.

Even in the low visibility of the snow-laced winds, the patch of red fabric against the mountain was unmissable. Weiss toggled off her channeled mask power and dove toward Ruby, dismissing her Kahu and touching down with a graceful landing. She ran the rest of the way over to the cloaked rose, who was sitting with her knees hugged against her chest and an empty stare in her silver, tear-stained eyes. Her partner didn't move to look at her. Didn't react to the sound of her footsteps crunching in the snow. Didn't even smile.

"Ruby," she panted as she flopped down into the snowbank next to her. "I found you…thank goodness."

No response.

An icicle stabbed into Weiss's heart. Had the cold already gotten to her? No…she could see that her partner was still breathing, shallow little frosty breaths spilling out of her lips. So she wasn't frozen in a physical sense. Just in every other sense of the word.

Not a problem. She'd found the little rose despondent before, usually after a stressful day in Vacuo. It was just a matter of soothing her soul, of letting Ruby know that Weiss was there for her.

"Ruby? Please…talk to me. Look at me. I know you're upset, and that's okay. I'm not mad at you for running. No one is. We're all just worried about you, okay? We care about you. You're going to be okay."

No response.

"Oh, Ruby…" Weiss wanted nothing more than to pull her beloved into a hug and kiss her tear-stained eyes, but she held herself back. While Ruby was generally fine with touches and cuddles, when she got like this it often did more harm than good. So instead she scooted a little closer and gently touched her hand, pressing her palm against Ruby's in an invitation for further contact.

No response.

I've seen her disassociate before, but never this hard, thought Weiss with a frown. Is this an autism thing? A trauma thing? A Ruby thing? Ugh, I wish I'd asked Yang what she did whenever she got like this…she has a lot more experience helping her through these episodes than me…

A bitter chill washed over her, and the heiress suddenly remembered that they were on a cold and snowy mountain with lots of wind and not much Aura left to combat them. They needed to get warm, and they needed to get somewhere safe. But Weiss couldn't move Ruby like this, even if she wanted to. Not without further upsetting her and making things worse.

But maybe…maybe I can bring the shelter to us?

Weiss slowly withdrew and softly patted the back of Ruby's hand on the way out. "Excuse me for a moment."

Myrtenaster flew into her hand as she spun the Dust chambers and waved it like a magic wand, letting a kaleidoscope of colors glow along the rapier's edge. Pale green summoned a small tornado that drilled a hole into the snowy slope. Sky-blue laid down a sheet of ice that coated the sides and bottom of said hole, giving it a surface as smooth as a porcelain bathtub. Amber created a twenty-foot-wide stone tent, with little slits along the sides to let natural light filter in. Sapphire filled the icy pit with fresh water and snow. And finally, burning orange formed tiny glyphs in the bottom of the pool that heated the surrounding fluid, bringing the water temperature up until it was just shy of scalding. It wasn't perfect, and it was hardly as elegant as Weiss would have liked, but it was functional. If only just.

The smell of steam wafting in front of her face finally got some reaction from Ruby, who turned her head just enough to stare at the miserable excuse for a hot tub.

"Welcome to Hotel Schnee, home of the famous Ihu hot springs!" Weiss put on her best saleswoman grin as she knelt next to her partner again, an expression she let falter a moment later. "Well…it's actually more of a hot spring, singular…and it's more like a glorified hole in the ground…but hey, at least there's no booking fee!"

Bleary and bloodshot silver eyes stared and blinked once, twice, three times before the most wonderful sound broke the muffled wind.

"Snrk. Pfft. Hehehehehe…"

A sigh of relief escaped Weiss's lips as Ruby finally smiled.

"Taking a soak in a hot spring sounds great right about now," said the little rose, already unclasping her cloak. "Especially after…well, all that. Would you…would you like to join me, Weiss?"

"I didn't make it with much extra room, so we'd have to snuggle," said the blushing heiress, pulling the well-used swimsuits out of her satchel and trying to keep her eyes off her partner's incredible legs.

"You make that sound like a bad thing."

Ruby shamelessly stripped down and changed from her small clothes into that red-and-black bikini, not caring one bit if Weiss peeked as she did the same. Once their clothes had been folded away, and once the heiress laid some towels out to sit on, the little rose was the first one into the bath, wincing for a moment before letting out a nice, long sigh of contentment.

"Mmm…" she said with a small moan. "That's the perfect temperature. Not too hot, but so much warmer than the rest of the snow. You always know just what I need, Weiss."

"That's why I'm an amazing girlfriend," said Weiss as she slid into the makeshift spring, pulling her partner onto her lap and hugging her around the waist. "I'm just glad that I was able to find you…and get through to you."

Silver eyes blinked several times as their owner nestled deeper into the water, her face dipping under to blow bubbles for a pensive moment before surfacing. "Oh. Did…did I do the thing again? The thing where I shut down and ignore everything?"

"You did," admitted Weiss as she cupped water in her palms and poured it over both of them, then lowered herself until the steaming surface touched her bare shoulders. "But you came back to me. That's what matters."

"No. What matters is that you found me. In…in every sense of the word." Ruby leaned back and rested her head against Weiss's warm, inviting shoulder. "Thanks, Weiss…I'm sorry I ran away. I'm sorry I made you worry."

Weiss accepted the apology with a hum and a soft peck on her cheek. Gods, she wanted so badly to cover her dolt in sloppy wet kisses, to pull her underwater and share a single breath as they made love once again…but she could tell that Ruby, for all her smiles and blushes and small moans, wasn't up for that right now. She needed an emotional release, not a physical one, so she kept snuggling up with her partner and settled for occasional smooches. (Besides, the spring was far too shallow for that kind of fun.)

After a little while of soaking in both silence and the spring, Ruby looked up from the little duck she'd been sculpting out of snow. There was a heavy look in those silver eyes, as though they burned with a question she was ashamed to even consider.

"Ruby?" Weiss gave her girlfriend a gentle squeeze around the waist. "You can always talk to me. What's going on?"

Her little rose looked down at the water with a guilty expression. "Weiss, do you…do you think Qrow was right? That we shouldn't have left Vacuo? That we shouldn't even…be here?"

The heiress bit her lower lip. She wanted to reassure her girlfriend that no, her uncle was full of crap and that the whole argument was just him taking out his own insecurities and fears on her instead of dealing with them like a healthy adult. But it wouldn't be fair to the older Huntsman, who was clearly hurting in his own right and had legitimate concern for the family he'd almost lost. Plus, he was more worried about his home than the island of Mata Nui - which, considering he didn't have the same experience or level of attachment with this place as Ruby and Weiss, was perfectly understandable.

But defending the person who'd set Ruby off wouldn't be a good move, either. So she chose to reframe the situation instead.

"I think…" she started, lightly sloshing water over her girlfriend's arm. "I think he's just worried about the world he left behind, like we were when we first got here. He was out of line in how he said it, of course…but honestly, I think he's scared of losing his home. Or things getting worse without him there to know about it."

A scoff escaped Ruby's lips. "He should've stayed behind, then, if Remnant's that important to him."

"No argument there," sighed Weiss. "But…I think he came here because you're more important to him. That has to mean something, right?"

Ruby went quiet again as she processed the answer. Weiss didn't say anything else, content to just hold her close and let her know that she wasn't alone through touches and cuddles and light smooches to biceps. Eventually her partner broke the pensive silence with an emotional little sigh and a small sob.

"…yeah, I know," admitted the little rose. "I know he cares about me…I know he loves me, and wants to protect me. And maybe I do need protecting sometimes, maybe I do just rush into things without thinking. I just…I just wish he'd look at me as me, instead of projecting his memory of Summer onto me…instead of seeing all her mistakes in me…"

Weiss planted a soft kiss on her girlfriend's neck, to no reaction. "Ruby…"

She could feel her partner's chest heave beneath her arms. "I'm not…I'm not trying to be my mom, Weiss. I know I can't save everyone. I know I can't always save the day nice and clean like in the stories. But…that doesn't mean I shouldn't try, right? That's all I know how to do…that's all I can do."

Another choked sob rang out. "A-and if I don't, if…if I'm not doing stuff or helping people or fighting, I get all anxious. I keep worrying that someone…that someone else is gonna get hurt or suffer or die because I wasn't there to -"

"Hey." Weiss aimed her next reassuring kiss a little higher, tilting Ruby's face towards her and pressing her lips gently against her jaw. "We talked about this, remember? It's not fair to put that kind of pressure on yourself. No one can save the world alone. Not even you. That's why we form teams. That's why there's six Toa and not just one. Unity, Duty, and Destiny. Which one of those comes first?"

"…Unity…" mumbled Ruby through trembling lips.

"And what does that mean?"

"It means working together…" whimpered the little rose with a slow sigh.

"Exactly." Weiss gave her hair a gentle ruffle. "No one is expecting you to single-handedly take down these Bahrag Queens and cut every single Bohrok to pieces. No one but you. I'm here for you. The Toa are here for you. Even Qrow, in his own stupid way right now, is here for you. We saved the island of Mata Nui once before, and we can do it again. We will do it again. The same way we took down Makuta…though preferably with less shapeshifting this time around."

That got a small laugh out of Ruby, yet even that mirth was short-lived as silver eyes stared at Weiss's shoulder scar once again. The most prominent wound she'd gotten in the fight against Makuta, the one that got the most questions whenever she went sleeveless in Vacuo (which ended up being almost every day). Yet much like the one on her face, Weiss wore that mark with pride. And all it took to remind Ruby of that was a gentle squeeze around the waist and a kiss on the back of her head, pulling her out of yet another negative thought spiral.

"Yeah…yeah," she finally admitted with another whimper. "You're right. My head knows you are. But my heart…it hurts so much. I'm so tired of hurting. I'm so tired of losing people. I'm so tired of things going wrong. I'm so…I'm so…"

Ruby shifted around and buried her face halfway between the water and the heiress's chest.

"…I am so tired, Weiss…" she wailed miserably, tears once more spilling down her face.

Weiss smiled and tilted Ruby's face out of the water by her chin, pulling her up far enough to deliver two tender little kisses to those silver eyes she loved so dearly.

"Then rest, my dear knight," she whispered as her fingers combed through soft curls of red and brown. "Rest here for as long as you want, and for as long as you need. The world will still be there when you wake up…both of them will. And so will I."

That was a very tempting prospect for the exhausted little rose, who mumbled a quiet "I love you" before nuzzling against her shoulder and doing just that. Weiss smiled and gave one final little kiss to her forehead, then held her close and slid into a more comfortable position for the both of them. The warm water lapped against her skin and sent tingles down her spine, but those sensations were nothing compared to the warmth of Ruby wrapping her arms around her trunk, reaffirming that love even in her sleep.

There were other things that needed addressing, of course. Ruby needed to be told once again that she didn't have to keep carrying the weight of two worlds on her own shoulders, over and over until she believed it in her heart of hearts. She needed to know that she was more than enough as she was. And that maybe, if she wanted, it would be best to mend bridges and smooth things over with Qrow once he'd calmed down.

But all that could wait until her beloved partner woke up.

---

Useless. Worthless. Not good enough.

Those words echoed through Winter's mind like a trained mantra as she stood at the highest peak of Shade Academy, slumped against the chest-high walls that ostensibly kept people from falling off. Her eyes, having run out of tears hours ago, were red and splotchy as they stared at everything and nothing all at once. Ironically enough, the very top of the pyramid-shaped school gave no reprieve from the scorching sun; some part of her mind kept screaming at her to get inside, to find cool relief before she got sunburnt at best or boiled alive at worst, but she was too tired to heed it. What did it matter? What did anything matter? If she couldn't do the one thing she was trained to do, the one thing she knew how to do…what was even the point of comfort or safety?

This never would have happened if you'd acted sooner. If you'd come to your senses sooner. If you'd sided with Weiss earlier, instead of with him.

Her fingers dug into the stone slab, her sole support as her sense of self crumbled around her. Tired eyes squinted through the sunlight and focused on a distant structure beyond the academy courtyard, on teams of Agori and Faunus putting the finishing touches on an apartment building made from wood. Timber from an Earth Dustfruit tree, if she had to guess - a sturdy, beautiful, and safe material that generated its own rock-solid foundation with no cement or drilling required. She knew that some of the spent Dustfruit trees had been chopped down and used for wood, giving eager construction workers supplies they needed to start building new houses within the city itself. People were finally starting to move out of the Glass District. This should have been a celebration. A miracle.

And yet, all Winter felt was hollow inside.

Whitley is doing more for the city than I ever did, she mentally intoned with a heaving sigh. He's building a new future brick-by-brick for this world, while Weiss is off saving another. And what am I doing? Making everything worse, just like always. Ruining lives, my own included.

Winter's brow furrowed as it rested against the scorching sandstone, almost welcoming the burning sensation boring into her head. Why? Why was she like this? Why couldn't she just move on, like so many people seemed to do? Like Robyn seemed to do?

Ozpin had said there were people that cared for her, people she could rely on to help her out of this pit she'd dug for herself.

But who'd want to waste their kindness on a broken soldier too exhausted to even cry anymore?

"Hey, Winter. Room for one more in the brooding zone?"

The hairs on the back of Winter's neck instantly stood up straight, as her gaze snapped over her shoulder to the voice behind her. Her hand reached down to draw Eisen Blume from its sheath, only to grasp empty air - she remembered a second too late that without a Huntress license, she wasn't allowed to carry weapons at all times anymore. And even if she still had her swords, she certainly wouldn't have been allowed to aim them at Yang Xiao Long, especially not when she was leaning against the door leading back into Shade Academy.

"What? Surprised someone as sunny as me comes up here to get all angsty?" Her grin was maddening and infuriating, just like the rest of her. "I've got my cloudy days too, like anyone else. Like you."

Winter's stare hardened.

"Jeez, if looks could kill…" Yang chuckled softly and shook her head. "You must be dealing with a full-on storm today, huh? Heard you had a meeting with Theodore and Ozcar after what happened last night. I'm guessing it didn't go well for you…or maybe it went exactly the way it should have."

So people were already talking about her demotion, and some were even celebrating it. Wonderful. As if she wasn't already feeling horrible enough, now she had the court of public opinion to contend with. Again. She turned up the intensity of her glare and speared Yang with a deathly look, hoping the blonde would get the message and leave her alone like everyone else.

Naturally, Yang didn't take the hint. In fact, she stepped closer and rested on the parapet next to Winter, leaning against her palms and letting her smile fade just a little bit. If the broken Maiden's mouth weren't so dry, she would have growled at the woman invading her space. Maybe she did, and it just came out as feeble little sighs.

"Look…I get it." Yang's words were softer now. Less aggravating and full of bluster. "You're pissed off, you're tired, and you've got no idea what to do next. I'm probably the last person you wanna see right now, the last person you want to take advice from. I don't know everything you've been through, I don't know your problems, hell I barely even know you as a person."

"Maybe it's better that way," Winter finally rasped.

"Better for who? You, me, or your pride?" The lilac-eyed woman shook her head. "Point is that I do know what it looks like to light a candle at both ends, and to keep holding onto it until it burns you. I've seen a lot of people hurt themselves trying to do everything on their own - my uncle, my partner, my sister, my friends…even myself. I don't wanna see the same thing happen to you. Nobody does."

"It's a little late for that, isn't it?" spat Winter. "I've already lost everything, Yang. My home. My job. My purpose. My rank, my titles, my pride…the entire reason I even have these powers."

"You've still got your life, don't you?"

"For what little that's worth," she muttered darkly.

Yang gave her a soft glance, before sighing and pushing herself away from the parapet. "C'mon. Walk with me, Winter - I wanna show you something."

The blonde brawler started making her way down the steps, not even bothering to make sure Winter was following her. Part of her was tempted to just let Yang walk away on her own, but the rest of her had a hunch that if she didn't follow, Yang would come back up and drag her. So she reluctantly decided to fall in behind her, while she still had some dignity left to lose.

They walked for what felt like hours under the baking sun. Yang led her back through Shade Academy and into the city of Vacuo itself, pausing only to grab some water-filled gourds from the Dustfruit Orchard. Landmarks and buildings seemed to pass Winter without rhyme or reason, and she couldn't quite describe how they were all connected. Buildings being reinforced with logs of elemental wood. Open-air stalls selling wares to eager customers. Lots and lots of maze-like alleyways. Hanging gardens suspended from hooks integrated into nearby arches. Even a boba tea shop with a cartoony mascot on the signboard. Throughout the entire trip, the former Huntress felt her feet ache within her boots and her calves burn. When was the last time she'd walked somewhere, rather than flying? She used to be able to march for miles without even breaking a sweat…had she really done such a poor job taking care of herself?

Eventually, Yang stopped at the threshold to a section of the city both women knew quite well.

The Glass District.

Winter shot a wordless glare at Yang, who just raised her hands innocently.

"I know what you're thinking. 'Yang, I'm already super depressed and hurting right now, why are you bringing me to the refugee slums?' But I've got a point I'm trying to make. Just trust me on this, alright? And if you really don't think you're up for going in there, if it's too much for you to handle right now, we can just go hit up that boba shop instead. You know, drown our sorrows in sugar and syrup like healthy adults."

She weighed her options for a moment, then sighed. "Very well. Into the Glass District, then. I suppose I can hardly feel worse."

"That's the spirit. C'mon, it's not much farther in."

With that the pair entered into the overcrowded, underdeveloped slums of Vacuo City. Winter knew this place well, knew that it was full of too many people with too much fear and too little hope. There weren't proper streets or landmarks so much as there were aisles between identical hastily-built residential units, and the spaces between buildings were rife with litter, rubble, and sand. Nobody came here willingly. Nobody wanted to come here, much less stay, yet often there was no choice in the matter.

Only…something felt different as she and Yang walked paths that should have felt familiar. Had the streets always been this clean and well-maintained? Had the buildings always been painted with vibrant, colorful murals along their walls? Did the air always have the smell of sizzling meat and roasting fruits? And was that…laughter filtering around the corners?

Winter snapped out of her haze for what felt like the first time as she and Yang turned a corner to see something she never expected within the Glass District.

A barbecue.

Dozens of people - Atlesians, Faunus, Vacuans, even Magnans - had set up tables and chairs at an intersection between four houses, feasting and laughing and talking excitedly. Lean cuts of camel meat were sizzling on a grill manned by an apron-clad Marrow Armin, while Joanna Greenleaf and Ghira Belladonna carefully rotated spits of mole crabs over an open flame. May Marigold was flipping omelets alongside her infamous cousin, cracking sandgull eggs open on a sheet of metal and letting the desert heat fry up meals for people with keratin allergies. Fiona Thyme and Elm Ederne stood in front of a steel drum filled to the brim with punch, the former pulling Dustfruits out of her palms and the latter squeezing them into fresh juice. Metus was playing tag with a gaggle of children half his height. Ackar and Azina were dicing up Dustfruits with speed and precision, which they systematically slid down towards Kali to fold into hand pies and arrange into fruit salads. Neon danced flirtatiously with a dark-haired Vacuan girl while Flynt played the trumpet. Gresh was bringing plates of rolls out of a house alongside a Faunus woman and her daughters, sneaking a few off only to be playfully chided by the familiar fox-eared mother.

And at the center of the party, flitting between groups and conversations like a social butterfly, was Robyn Hill.

"What…" Winter's mouth felt like it was full of cotton as she just stared, unnoticed by the crowd. "What is this?"

"It's a party, obviously." Yang cracked a smile as she folded her arms over her chest, nudging the former soldier in the side. "Let me guess, you didn't have many of those back home?"

"Not this…casually," she admitted. "And not without a good reason. What's the occasion?"

"They're alive, and not in danger. Sometimes that's a good enough occasion." The brawler smirked. "Robyn messaged me this morning and said she was putting this together. Called it a 'no good reason' party. She wants to make it a thing."

"Of course she does." Winter's eyes fell on the incredible blonde in question, watched as she mushed up an icy banana for a hungry-looking toddler, and felt weak at the knees. How did this woman keep finding ways to capture her heart? And why couldn't she make half the difference that Robyn was making?

Perhaps she would have made a better Maiden than I ever could, she thought bitterly to herself.

A pair of metal fingers snapped in front of her face. "Hey, don't go brooding on me. This is a brood-free zone. I didn't bring you out here so you could keep feeling sorry for yourself. I brought you out here because you needed to see this. You've had a birds-eye view of the city for months…time for you to see it from the ground level, Winter."

The former soldier looked at Yang with some annoyance, which quickly faded as her gaze returned to the party. She watched Neon dip her partner mid-dance and kiss her full on the lips, earning cheers from her teammates and gags from the nearby kids. Metus stumbled on a clump of sand and fell onto the floor, loudly proclaiming defeat as his playmates dog-piled him with giggles and squeals of delight. Marrow deposited three well-done steaks onto Fiona's waiting plate, blushing furiously as she reached up on her tiptoes to sheepishly smooch him on the cheek. Kali pulled a tray of fresh hand pies out of a portable stone oven, much to the delight of all. And Henry, to the surprise of absolutely everybody, sat with a platter of eggs between a burly Vacuan Huntsman and a slender snake Faunus, offering them omelets and smiles that were quickly accepted.

"This place was a pit of misery and despair three weeks ago," said Yang as the pair watched the crowd. "You'd know that better than anyone. Thousands of Vacuans and Atlesians and Faunus were all crammed into crappy box houses like cans of sardines, all hungry and miserable and constantly at each other's throats. But now? Now it's a community. Now it's a culture all its own. When we finally started building the houses we promised everyone months ago, these are the folks who chose to stay in the Glass District. To them, this is where they belong now. To them, this is home.

"It didn't happen overnight, and it wasn't any one person that made it happen. Your little bro might've cracked the cheat codes for infinite food, but we wouldn't have the orchard without folks who had Aura to grow the trees. Oscar may have flown the Amity Satellite into place, but he never would've gotten into orbit without our resident alien guests giving him the wings he needed. And every person here made the choice to reach out to the ones around them who were hurting, to lend a hand instead of a fist, to share sorrows and pains that were too heavy to bear alone. A lot of people all making small differences in their own way, building a better world one brick at a time. All without magic, or titles, or even half the combat experience we've got. The world keeps spinning not because one person's carrying it, but because everyone wants to see the sun rise again tomorrow."

Yang turned and seemingly stared into the Maiden's soul. "Do you think any one of these folks could've kept Vacuo together all by themselves?"

"Of course not," she muttered. "It's unfair to expect any of them to bear that burden -"

"Then what makes you think you can?"

Winter didn't have an answer, so she opted to stare down at the tips of her well-worn boots instead. Yang took her silence as permission to keep going, patting her shoulder with a palm of warm metal. She expected herself to collapse to the floor. Somehow, she stayed standing.

"There's this ideology over on Mata Nui that the locals follow," continued the blonde brawler, "something me and the other girls have been following since we got back. It's not really a religion, per se, more like a set of principles that the Matoran and Turaga believe life should be lived by. They call those principles the Three Virtues - Unity, Duty, and Destiny. Simply put, it boils down to 'stand together,' 'take pride in what you do,' and 'have faith that there's a bigger plan than just yourself.' You've had those last two locked down tight all your life, but you haven't paid much attention to where it starts. It starts with Unity. It starts with reaching out. It starts with you."

Her gaze once again fell on Robyn, who'd moved to occupy the empty spot at the egg station and playfully bump hips with May. Perhaps that was her secret, the reason she was so kind and warm and caring to everyone regardless of whether they deserved grace. She, like these Matoran and Toa that Yang spoke of, saw the value of unity and collectivism, saw that true strength came from many hands instead of one mighty fist. Saw what Ironwood had refused to see until it was too late. Saw Winter for who she really was, not for whatever the former soldier kept trying to convince herself she should be.

Yang saw where she was looking, and smiled. "And maybe you can start with her. You two haven't seen each other since that interview, right? This might be a good time to catch up, get that fire going…if you catch my drift."

Winter understood immediately, yet wished she didn't. "And what…" Her breath hitched. "What if she thinks less of me? What if they all think less of me? What if Robyn won't even speak to me, because of…everything?"

"She's seen you at your worst this whole time, and that still wasn't enough to drive her away." Lilac eyes gave her a skeptic glance. "You think this will?"

"No…but, that's just it." She shook her head. "I…Robyn deserves better, Yang. Better than me."

"And Blake deserves better than me, too, yet here we are." Yang nudged her side. "Listen…take it from someone who was so convinced she wasn't worthy of love, it took falling into another world for her to finally make a move. If you love Robyn, and if you know she loves you…then go for it. Take a leap of faith. Who knows? You two might just soar together, broken wings or not…and even if it never takes off, you'll still have a friend there to catch you."

Winter gulped. "And…you're sure it's a good idea to do this now? When I'm so…broken?"

"Flowers of love blossom best in vulnerable soil." Yang's face heated up. "That's, uh…that's a quote from one of Blake's books, so take that with a grain of salt -"

"Cold Heart, Hot Passion," breathed the Maiden with a hollow little laugh.

"Oh, you've read it? Nice. That's one of her favorites."

"Mine, too." Tired eyes looked once more at Robyn with a wistful longing. "And…hers."

Yang grinned as she gave her a pat on the back. "Go on, Hawke - your Isabela's waiting for you."

Despite every nerve in her body going numb with fear, she did just that.

Winter tried to ignore the gazes of everyone on her as she walked through the party, tried to ignore how the conversations stalled and the laughter faded and the air seemingly chilled. Some of those glares held contempt. Others held confusion. But when they saw how broken she was, how pathetic and blotchy-eyed and exhausted their Maiden had become, almost all of them softened with sympathy.

Somehow she made her way over to Robyn, who looked up from her half-baked omelet in surprise, and pushed a question out of her trembling lips without crying again.

"Is…is there room for one more?"

The smile she got in return was like the most gentle soothing rain.

"We'd love to have you, Winter," said Robyn. "Welcome to the party."

Other voices called out as the party came alive once more, as the crowd swept her up like the tide rolling back in. It was almost overwhelming, but Robyn didn't leave her side for a moment. Speaking with people and making small talk didn't feel like a challenge, so long as she was there.

"How do you take your steaks, Eltee? I make a mean medium-rare!"

"Mama, Crim, look! It's the lady who saved us! She's so cool!"

"Hey Flynt, wanna go three-for-three on making friends with the Schnee kids? Me and Umbra don't need music to dance!"

"You should try the punch, Winter! I picked out the Dustfruits myself! It's electrifying…not literally, though. Well, maybe a little bit literally."

"Huh, looks like you managed to defrag your internal hard drive after all. Good for you!"

"Humans still don't have one of those, Metus."

"I never did get a chance to thank you for saving our caravan a few weeks back. We would've been Sulfur Fish chow without you…me and my boys owe you one, Schnee. Thanks."

"I'm really sorry I called you a fascist puppet that one time, that was not cool of me. At all. I've clearly got some stuff I gotta work through. Dip?"

And through it all, before she even realized it, a faint smile was starting to break through her sorrow. If it felt like her world was falling apart hours ago…now it felt like it was finally falling into place.

---

Qrow was pissed.

He marched around the snowy mountain with no clue or thought as to where he was going, stewing in his own anger and misery to keep himself warm. Dammit. Dammit. Gods damn it all. Why couldn't things go right for once? Why couldn't Ruby just listen to him without having a meltdown? Why'd he keep pushing and pushing until she blew up and ran away? Why did it feel like every family meeting ended with a shouting match these days?

And why did he keep screwing things up with everyone he cared about?

Another growl escaped his lips as he kicked at another snow bank. This kid…she was definitely Summer's daughter, and right now that wasn't a compliment. She might've inherited his former partner's bravery and optimism, sure, but she'd also gone and inherited her hardheadedness and immaturity and savior complex. That friendship had ended when Summer Rose disappeared in the night, never to be seen again, and if Ruby didn't shape up she might suffer a worse fate. Why couldn't that kid see just how important she was to Remnant? How important she was to her girlfriend, her sister, her dad, and so many others? How important she was to him?

And of course, if anything happened to her here, Qrow knew everyone would blame him. Himself included. And keeping her alive was a lot harder when she kept throwing herself headfirst into every mess like an idiot, especially when she obviously wasn't taking care of herself in the downtime.

Not like he had any room to judge on that front.

Why do I even bother sometimes? His thoughts darkened and spiraled as he furrowed his brow. Why should she listen to me? Why should anyone listen to me? I'm just the old asshole everyone's too nice to cut out of their lives. The drunk idiot who stopped drinking but stayed stupid. A magnet for trouble and problems and ruined lives. Maybe if I'd stayed behind, the kids would've been luckier. Maybe Penny wouldn't have disappeared. Maybe they'd actually be able to go home. But no, I just had to get involved and ruin everything. Now they're paying the price of having me around, and so am I.

A tired sigh escaped his lips as he finally slowed to a stop. Snowflakes from the wind fell on him and his hair, stinging his skin and worsening his already-foul mood. It was a pity that his flask held only water these days. He really could've used some hard liquor right now.

No, he scolded himself. Don't even think about that. You know what the end of that road looks like…and it looks like an old farmhouse burning down while unkillable Grimm chase after the kids. Not again. Never again.

Still, old habits came back with a vengeance as he went through the motions of pulling out his flask and unscrewing it. Maybe a swig of water would clear his head? He moved to take a nice, long sip, only for a few pitiful drops to splash onto his lips. His brow furrowed as he shook it upside-down, confirming his suspicions.

"Empty again," he muttered under his breath. "Just my luck."

"I can help with refilling that, if you wish."

A female voice from behind made him turn around, coming face-to-mask with a ten-foot-tall blue robot. Great. Just what he needed. Qrow shook his head and stowed his flask, tucking his hands into his pockets. He could always just stuff some snow in there and wait for it to melt. No need to give the nosy Toa of Water the satisfaction of helping him.

"And how long have you been standing there?" he groused.

"Long enough to understand that you are upset," said Gali. "I had come to inform you that Weiss has found Ruby, and that both are safe and sound…but I suspect that is only the most recent of your troubles."

Qrow scoffed and rolled his eyes. That kind of news could've been sent in a text message, and Gali was a terrible liar. "Well, good on you for noticing the obvious. What do you want, a medal?"

The Toa of Water furrowed her brow, but didn't get mad. "Why do you insist on masking your misery in unpleasantness? You scorn Tahu's attempts at companionship. You snap at me. Not even Ruby is immune to your barbs and insults. You know this cannot continue, Qrow, yet you push away anyone who has reason to care. Is it your wish to end up alone and bitter?"

"Maybe it is, you ever think about that?" He scowled. "Look, Gali, you don't know what I've been through. You think you can just spend a few months around seven kids and suddenly learn everything about humanity? You wouldn't understand half of what's happened to me, half the stuff I'm dealing with."

"Then enlighten me." Gali sat down in the snow with her legs crossed, staring at him with inquisitive yellow optics. "I may understand more than you think, Qrow, and even if some specifics escape my comprehension I will try my best to open my mind. If it will help you, then speak. I will listen."

He snorted. "So what, we're just gonna have a therapy session right here on the mountain? Is that what you're saying?"

"Unless you have a more suitable destination in mind, yes."

"No, no, this is perfect. That way I can piss in the snow and tell you what each blot looks like. It's a common Augur test back home." He huffed and turned his gaze to the skies. "While we wait for my bladder to kick in, we can practice with the clouds up there. See that one? That looks like a bird to me. That one there looks like a Grimm. And that one looks like the face of my good-for-nothing sister who refuses to lift a finger to help us. Oh, that last one? You don't even wanna know what I think that last one looks like."

The Toa leveled a flat stare at him. "You are not taking this seriously."

"And you're wasting your time!" Annoyance surged in Qrow. "Ruby's the one who had a meltdown and ran into the mountains, not me! You should be helping her, talking her down from the ledge, because she's clearly more important! She's the big hero of Mata Nui, right? The whole damn world spins around her, no matter how reckless or stupid she acts! And you sure as hell don't seem to be doing much for her this time!"

Gali just looked at him for a silent moment, then turned her gaze downward with a sigh.

"You…are not wrong about that," intoned the Toa of Water. "She has a great Destiny, both real and imagined, and neither of them are easy burdens for her to bear. I have seen her confidence and joy crumble with each passing day, watched as fear and uncertainty cloud her judgment and darken her mind. Ruby is suffering in ways I cannot help ease, drowning in a sea of stress where I cannot reach her. I wish that I could do more to aid her, that I can once more be the gentle wave that soothes her anguish, but time and circumstances are against us. And yet, of all the things that weigh on her soul and bring her misery, you are chief among them - perhaps even more than the Bohrok and Salem put together."

Qrow balked. "Excuse me? I'm trying to keep her alive, keep her from doing stupid stuff that gets her killed."

"That may be your intention, but your methods are counterintuitive." Gali's gaze snapped up again at him, optics narrowed. "You berate and needle her, second-guess her when even she is not sure what to do, and use her missteps as an opportunity to vent your own frustrations. Is it any wonder, then, that she has come to resent you? That she may one day grow to hate you? Can you accept that, Qrow?"

A hollow ache formed in his heart, which he did his best to silence. "Better she hate me and stay alive than the alternative," he muttered, though the words weren't nearly as convincing out loud. Not that it was all that reassuring in his head In the first place.

"So you value your own pride and bitterness over her, then? Would her death bring you validation?"

Cold shock ran through him. "What? Hell no! Of course not! I care about her -!"

"Then tell her that, Qrow." The Toa's words were firm, yet somehow gentle. "Show her that. Be the wings to lift her up, not the stone around her neck. She is already struggling under the weight of the world, fairly or not. Could you truly live with yourself if you were the weight that broke her?"

Deep down he knew he'd hate himself even more than he already did, that he'd never be able to forgive himself if Ruby was added to the list of people he'd gotten killed - a list that was far too long and had too many people that were all better than him. But the lump in his throat and the angry tears pooling in his eyes kept him from saying those things out loud, so he responded the only way he could.

He slumped down in the snow, not caring that his ass would be cold and wet, and started weeping.

Gali's gaze softened as she watched him cry for a moment, then she moved to kneel next to him and lay a hand on his shoulder. The metal was warmer than he thought it'd be, and gentler in its touch - he half-expected her to pull him into a bone-breaking hug, but the Toa kept herself at arm's length and didn't initiate more contact than this. He wondered how many times Gali had been there for Ruby during her breakdowns…and how many times he hadn't done the same.

Gods, he really was the worst uncle ever.

"Sounds like she's got plenty of 'wings' already," he sputtered with eyes squeezed shut. "Like Weiss, and you, and Tahu, and all the other Toa. What the hell does she even need me for anymore?"

"The same Duty she has always needed you for," intoned Gali gently.

Memories flooded into his mind in rapid succession. A baby, bundled in red, looking up at him with curious little silver eyes. A toddler with a blanket cape swinging a stick in the backyard, proudly announcing each monster she "killed" and checking to make sure he was still paying attention. A child soaring into the sky on a newly-discovered Semblance, taking flight on wings of rose petals and beaming excitedly down at him. A teenager carving up adolescent Beowolves in a snowy field not far from her mother's grave, never even noticing him watching from a bird's eye view. And a Huntress walking bravely and defiantly toward a giant robot commanded by an even bigger ego, begging him to trust her with those same silver eyes that were all too familiar.

Why was he jealous? Why was he trying to compare himself to everyone else in Ruby's life? They were all important to her, sure. But he was something else to her. She was something else to him.

Family.

Apart from Yang and Tai, she was the only family he still had. The only family he still wanted. The only family he couldn't afford to lose, whether by death or misfortune or his own stupidity. Not without a fight. Not without at least trying to do better. Trying to be better. Trying to be the uncle that Ruby Rose deserved and needed, especially now more than ever.

Gali was right. She was right, and he was tired of being too stubborn to admit that. Ruby needed him. Not his "advice." Not his judgment. Him.

As long as he kept that in mind, even he couldn't screw that up. And if she ever ended up forgiving him for being an asshole, well…maybe, one day, he could forgive himself, too. One day.

"I…I wanna make this right," he finally said after a moment's silence. "I wanna patch things up with Ruby, tell her all the things I've been too scared to say for months. But I don't think she'll come if I'm the one that reaches out, or if it's just the two of us. Can you call her for me, Gali? Tell her that I want to see her…that I want to talk to her?"

"I would be honored to do so, Qrow." The Toa of Water pulled out her Scroll. "Would you like me in attendance as well, then? As a mediator?"

"Hopefully we won't need that," answered Qrow, before letting a small smile slip through his crumbling emotional mask. "But…having a friend in both our corners wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

Gali paused just long enough for both human and Toa to realize the meaning of what he'd said, before she gave a smile of her own and made the call. After twenty minutes of pacing and brainstorming an apology, a mechanical bird made out of blue light flew overhead and lightly touched down to deposit two Huntresses into the snow. Weiss held a tired, teary-eyed Ruby by the waist for support, but after a nod and a quick kiss she withdrew and let her partner walk towards Qrow. He swallowed the lump in his own throat, turned his maroon eyes on his emotionally exhausted niece, and stuck his hands into his pocket.

"Kid…" Qrow shook his head and sighed. "No. Ruby. I'm sorry. I -"

But that was as far as he got before the little rose launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist and squeezing like her life depended on it. Rather than go with the rest of his rehearsed apology, he just returned the embrace and let his hands speak on his behalf. As if they could sense that things would only go better from here, Gali and Weiss shared a glance and slunk back, giving the two estranged family members a moment of privacy.

"I'm sorry too…" she muttered between shaky breaths, face practically disappearing into his shirt. "I'm sorry I worried you I'm sorry I made you mad I'm sorry I ran away I'm sorry I yelled at you I'm sorry I got us stuck here I'm sorry I'm not who you need me to be I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry…"

"Oh Ruby…" Qrow sighed and rocked back and forth. "You…you don't gotta apologize for any of that. You're doing great, really. You're a damn good Huntress, a fantastic team leader…and an even better woman. Today proved that more than anything." He let out a humorless chuckle. "I…haven't done much to make being any of those things easy, huh?"

"You really haven't…" whined the little rose.

"Yeah…I really haven't." He squeezed his eyes shut and held onto the young Huntress a little more tightly. "I'm sorry, Rubes. I've been letting you down as your uncle…as your friend. I'm not trying to push you away, or hurt you, or make you feel like you're not enough. I never meant any of that. I never wanted to…" More tears welled up in his eyes. "Dammit…I'm so sorry…"

"I know you are," mumbled Ruby as she drew back for just a moment, arms still around his waist. "And I…I even get why you were being such an asshole. At least, I think I've got a pretty good idea of why. You…you went two whole weeks thinking I was dead, only for me to show up out of nowhere after mentally burying me. Having me back doesn't erase that pain, that fear, that guilt…or the trauma of how it felt the last time it happened."

A pain as fresh as the day it'd happened fifteen years ago stabbed him in the chest, drawing a fresh wave of tears that his niece was quick to wipe away with the corner of a big warm cloak. Just like her mom used to do.

"You think every little thing I do wrong is gonna get me killed, that every mistake is gonna be my last. So you try to make sure I don't make mistakes, and convince yourself that nothing's gonna take me away again if I just act right. You're worried about me, you're scared about losing me, and all that unease and fear comes out as anger whenever you think I mess up. Because you don't wanna go through that again. Because you can't go through that again."

Silver eyes stared up at him owlishly. "Any of that sound right?"

He blinked slowly, wiping away the tears that Ruby had missed. "Huh…yeah. Yeah, that's…probably pretty close." Another laugh escaped his lips, this one a lot more genuine despite being choked with snot. "Did you become an Augur when I wasn't looking?"

"No, but I did go soul-searching with Gali last time I was here," she said with a shadow of a smile. "That's almost as good as a counseling degree…almost."

Having been on the receiving end of the Toa of Water's advice himself, Qrow was inclined to believe it. Still, he gave a thoughtful hum as he ruffled her hair. "Y'know…maybe we both oughta talk to a professional, when things have calmed down. Get some help with all the stuff we've had to go through."

"I'd like that." The smile brightened for a moment, then faded. "You…you were right about one thing, though. When we yelled at each other. Something I guess I needed to hear…even if it hurt."

"And what's that?"

Silver eyes squeezed shut with another wave of tears. "I'm not…" Ruby buried her face into his chest once more. "I'm not Mom…"

Letting out another small sigh, Qrow tucked his chin into Ruby's crown and nuzzled her softly.

"No, you're not," he whispered. "You're you, Ruby. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Despite the fact that her face was buried deep into his chest, he could feel her smiling through the tears. The cold winds of the mountain blew over the pair, yet it failed to chill either of them. And her words, small and tired as they were, made his heart feel warmer and lighter than ever before.

"Thanks…Uncle Qrow."

---

"Little further, Winter. We're almost there."

Winter huffed as she and Robyn rolled a cart of half-eaten produce down a sandstone path, bathed in the golden-red rays of the setting sun. While the load was presumably much lighter than it was when it left the Orchard, the wagon still sagged and creaked under the weight of dozens of Dustfruits piled on top of each other, juices dripping from bite marks taken by party goers who couldn't finish what they started. It surprised the former Specialist just how winded and out of breath she felt through the whole journey, especially compared to the blonde Huntress next to her. Robyn's bare, muscular arms glistened with sweat in the evening light, making Winter feel even weaker at the knees than she already did.

"How…" she panted, "…are there still so many leftovers…after all those people…ate so much?"

Robyn barked a laugh. "Yeah…I might've overestimated what we needed for the barbecue. Better to have too much than not enough, right? But at least we had you there to further lighten the load…how much did you eat, again?"

"Four camel steaks, six bowls of fruit salad, three sandgull egg omelets, a mole crab filet, eight salted rolls, five of Kali's hand pies, and seventeen glasses of punch," Winter rattled off between puffs of much-needed breath. "I was…a lot hungrier than I realized."

"No kidding," said Robyn with another lovely little laugh. "Pretty sure you managed to out-eat Gresh today, and that's saying something - I swear, that guy has a black hole in his stomach that exclusively consumes bread and sugar. But hey, no shame in cutting loose like that every once in a while! Everyone deserves a cheat day, especially Huntresses like us."

Winter was tempted to correct her friend on that point, to remind her that technically she was a suspended Huntress, but held her tongue. Robyn hadn't said anything about that, but she had a feeling she already knew. So there was really no need to bring the mood down by addressing the Goliath in the room, by bringing attention to why she was at the party and not on patrol. Why she'd shown up broken and exhausted and out of tears to cry. Why Theodore and Ozpin no longer trusted her to do her duty…and why she no longer trusted herself, either.

Besides, she needed to focus on breathing for the final push to the Orchard. So she opted to do just that, letting a comfortable silence settle between herself and Robyn as their destination inched closer. Soon they were steering the cart into a grassy grove full of trees with bark and leaves of every color imaginable, all laden with ripe plump fruit that swayed gently in the breeze. If there was anything in Vacuo that came close to capturing the brilliance of the Old Oasis before it dried up, this place was it.

And Winter had never realized just how beautiful and serene it was.

She must have gasped and gaped at the Orchard for a long moment, because Robyn smiled and laughed next to her. "Yeah…it's cool, isn't it? I come here almost every morning to get handouts ready, and I still get blown away by the sight of this place. Trees and fruits from every corner of Remnant, all charged with the one thing that lets us push back against the darkness…it sounds like magic, like it's straight out of a fairy tale, and yet we're seeing it happen right in front of us."

The Winter Maiden could only nod in agreement. Even if she fully mastered her own magic, if she ever reached the same level Fria had with this power, she doubted she could create anything as grand as an entire elemental orchard. It certainly made her own attempts to grow wheat and potatoes from nothing but sand seem so much smaller in comparison, even if rationally she knew it was just as important.

Robyn locked the brakes on the cart and reached in with a thoughtful hum, pulling out two half-eaten apples and handing one to Winter. "And if we want to keep that magic alive, it's important to make sure any leftovers get replanted as soon as possible. If it's not being used for bullets or Dust Weaves, it needs to go back in the ground before it starts going bad. Especially since some of the trees are getting used for lumber now - we need to plant two new trees for each one cut down, at least until the demand levels out. This spot right here looks nice and empty with lots of stumps, perfect for some new growth. You up for a little gardening?"

Winter hesitated for a moment, staring down at the violet-blue fruit that was suddenly in her hands. "I've…never actually grown one of these."

"Oh, it's really easy!" Robyn's smile and enthusiasm were as infectious as ever as she snatched up a trowel left in the dirt. "It just takes a bit of Aura and some digging, nothing too fancy. Here, let me show you how it's done."

Despite her apprehension, Winter watched as the blonde woman got down on her knees and plunged the trowel's business end into the soil, scooping out a few handfuls of dirt before dropping the half-eaten fruit into the hole. After replacing the dirt and packing it down, she laid both hands against the ground and allowed lilac energy to flow from her palms into the buried core. Seconds ticked by before silver light shone through minute cracks in the earthen mound, and Robyn withdrew an instant before a purple-indigo oak tree sprung into existence with a crackle of bark and a rustling of leaves. A ripple of water droplets were flung from the branches and floated in an invisible force field, creating the illusion of a frozen rainstorm and splitting the sun's rays into a momentary rainbow of light.

Robyn grinned and looked back at Winter. "Ooh, that one's pretty…must've been both Water and Gravity Dust in those seeds. You can never be sure what'll grow or what form it'll take, but at least the planting process is always the same. Easy enough, right? Now you try."

Her own attempts to dig a hole were shaky at first, but with Robyn's encouragement she soon had a pit big enough for her fist to fit inside. Winter mirrored the actions she'd seen and packed a tight little mound, at which point Robyn took her hands and guided them to press against the compacted soil. With the blonde's guidance and instructions she pulsed her own Aura and reached out to the seeds below, giving it just enough of a spark to erupt into a verdant explosion of elemental energy and life. She almost got smacked in the face by the tree as it sprang up from the ground, saved only by her friend pulling her back and nearly tackling her to the grass.

"Whoa, that's a big one," said Robyn with a laugh as she lay on top of Winter, looking over her shoulder to see a tree that dwarfed the one she'd planted. "You're a natural at this!"

Winter was a bit too flustered to respond, on account of the fact that her face was pushed against Robyn's chest. Her warm, generous, very comfortable chest…

The blonde seemed to realize the position they were in, and sat up quickly with her own burning blush. Maybe a little too quickly for Winter's liking.

"U-um…so, anyway, yeah, that's all there is to it," mumbled Robyn with about a tenth of her usual confidence. "Wanna help me plant the rest of these? If it's not too much trouble, of course…y-you don't have to."

"I don't exactly have anywhere else to be right now," said Winter with a nervous cough as she rolled into a sitting position. "I'd be honored to help, especially if it means spending more time with you."

Her face burned as her own words reached her ears. Gods, her mental filter really was fried, if thoughts like that were no longer being caught and properly contained. But Robyn's smile quickly overpowered any shame or embarrassment she felt, making her stomach feel full of butterflies instead of a proper meal.

It only took less than an hour to replant the leftovers and grow new trees, yet part of her selfishly wished it had taken longer. As they worked, it became obvious the result of her first planting attempt wasn't a fluke; the trees Winter created were often larger and bore more fruit than Robyn's, leading the Happy Huntress to joke about how the Winter Maiden had a secret green thumb. Perhaps her magic was affecting the growth, somehow? It was something to look into, at the very least.

Maybe I can work here in the Orchard until my Huntress license is reinstated, mused Winter as she washed her hands of soil and juices in a nearby basin. I have plenty of Aura and plenty of experience in channeling it, and it would be a shame to let either of those go to waste. Tending the trees would be good manual labor, too, an efficient way to get back into shape…and if Robyn comes here every day to gather handouts for the Glass District, that means I'd get to see her on a regular basis…

Her heart thundered in her chest, unrelated to the gardening work she'd just finished. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she dried her hands and looked back at Robyn. The blonde woman was standing in front of the copse of newly-grown trees, taking inventory of what had been planted and what kinds of Dust were used. Light from the setting sun shone down on her through a kaleidoscope of colored leaves, seemingly bathing her in radiance and making her more beautiful than she already was.

If there was ever a time to tell her how she felt, surely this was it.

Mustering every bit of courage she still had, Winter walked up next to Robyn and stood by her side. The blonde seemed to sense she had something to say, as she put her Scroll away and looked at the Maiden expectantly.

"These trees…this orchard…" she began with some uncertainty in her voice. "They remind me of a lesson I wish I'd learned sooner. A lesson I've had to learn the hard way this morning, when I was at my lowest. A single tree growing and standing alone is just that - a lone tree. It can easily be cut down by an axe, or struck by lightning, or torn free by strong winds. But so many different trees standing together like this make a forest, a living world that can't easily be erased or destroyed. No matter how much it's damaged, it will regrow. No matter how many trees fall, new ones will spring up to replace them. In a lot of ways, the same is true for Remnant and its people…and until now, I've been nothing but a single tree digging its roots into the highest hilltop, trying to convince itself it was as strong as the forest it should've joined sooner."

Robyn's gaze softened slightly, and the Maiden wasn't sure if she could meet those eyes. So she looked at the distant sky instead, at the horizon she'd so often flown toward without ever pausing to see the world between her and the unrelenting sun.

"For as long as I've had an Aura, I've always stood alone," intoned Winter with a sigh. "I didn't have anyone to teach me how to fight when I was under Jacques's roof, so I learned it myself. When I entered Atlas Academy on my own merits, I was hand-picked by Iron…by the General for Specialist training before Initiation even started. I never had a partner, or a team, or any sort of camaraderie with my fellow students. No one to share the burden of being a Huntress with. Not even a unit under my command after I graduated, like the Ace Ops. I was always expected to be strong and independent, so that's what I became. What else could I become?"

She dared to reach out and take Robyn's hand once again, feeling a sense of relief when she didn't pull away.

"But maybe…maybe I don't have to stand alone anymore. Maybe I don't want to stand alone. Maybe what I want…what I really want…is to be worthy enough to stand with someone I love. To stand with a hero that makes me want to be a better person. To stand with a Huntress who wields a bow and words with equal skill. To stand with a brave, caring, beautiful woman who never gave up on me. To stand with you, Robyn Hill. That's what I want more than anything, more than any duty or role or title. I want to be worthy of your kindness. Worthy of your trust. Worthy of your feelings for me, and worthy enough to…"

Winter swallowed the lump in her throat, made herself look at the woman at her side, and forced out the word before her mind could stop her.

"…to return them."

Robyn gasped and withdrew her hand, spinning to face her. Winter's eyes lingered on the other woman's lips for a moment, then flitted downwards to stare at the grass under her boots. A silence settled between the two, whatever words left to say carried away by the desert winds. She felt a pair of gloves brush against her shoulders, and for a harrowing moment she thought the taller Huntress was going to ask her to repeat that while her Semblance was active.

But what she did next was far more terrifying - she pulled Winter into a hug and delivered a soft kiss to her crown.

"Winter…" whispered Robyn. "That's…that's what I want, too. You never have to think you're not worthy of anything. You're worthy of these powers, you're worthy of the life you claimed for yourself…not because of any titles or feats, but because you're you. I'd consider myself so blessed that someone as strong and incredible and wonderful as you would want to stand with someone like me…so I'll stand with you, too. You're worthy of love. Always."

Pale blue eyes laden with tears dared to look up hopefully, and found a warm purple gaze waiting to meet them. One of those gloved hands slid under her chin and tilted her head further up, while Robyn's lips parted and descended cautiously. Winter took a hesitant breath and reached forward to close the gap between their faces, closing her eyes and trusting that her companion would be there to catch her.

Her trust was not misplaced.

The taste of Robyn's breath mingled with her own as the pair lost themselves in the kiss, months of tension and awkwardness melting away with each sharp gasp and contented sigh. Winter wrapped her arms around the taller woman's neck and shoulders just as her knees finally gave out, letting herself be held in the arms of the Huntress who'd been the wind under her broken wings. A soft giggle rang out between them - Winter wasn't sure who it came from - and soon the Maiden found herself lifted off the ground, supported by one gloved hand around the waist as the other dug its way through her hair.

And when they finally parted, when they finally pulled their lips away only to remain joined at the nose, Winter Schnee could have sworn she was still flying.

"…you have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that," said Robyn with a breathy giggle.

An awkward laugh escaped the Maiden's throat as she toyed with the golden hair brushing her cheeks. "I…I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so long," she said with a soft blush.

"It's alright," said the smiling, beautiful blonde. "All the best things in life are worth waiting for, and being yours is definitely one of those things. Although…"

"Although?"

Robyn grinned. "If you really wanna make it up to me, you could always just kiss me again."

Winter didn't need to be told twice. Or three times. Or even a fourth.

Under the rays of the setting sun, she gave Robyn as many kisses as both women could have ever wanted.

---

(A/N): Awwww, how about that! Ruby and Qrow reconcile, and the Snowbyrd ship finally sets sail! All juuuust over 16k words…not bad, not bad!

The next few chapters are gonna be much more lighthearted and much less angsty, as we embark on a desert adventure with some of our favorite Hunters in Vacuo. Stay tuned!