….
It was late. The kind of late where your eyes aren't coping well with staying wide for this long. You can push past it if needs must, but there's a good fifty fifty that you'll be unable to prevent falling asleep in the daylight hours.
Oh, wait, this is me I'm thinking about. 100% in favour of the worst outcome.
Qrow rubbed his eyes, and started setting aside his writing to continue at a better time, putting it into the bottom of his significant pile of papers, bookended by an empty folder labelled "Recent Findings."
He inadvertently knocked a glass off the desk, it quietly landing on a carpeted mat he bought for catching the various little things he left around in easily fall-able locations on his workspace.
Qrow leaned down to grab the glass while looking one last time at his notebook, before clasping it closed and looking at his floor.
Weird. I didn't hear it rolling about.
He stood up, nudged the table, and heard a small but familiar sliding noise. Qrow looked to his right and let out a low whistle upon seeing his little glass cup on his desk.
…I could have…
Stretching and sighing, he muttered and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, before realising the uselessness of the action. "Well, off to the bed, I guess."
… He squinted at his scroll to read the time, wincing at the stabbing.
"What time is it?"
"1:00 in the morn, Qrow."
…
...
That voice worked wonders for his current levels of tiredness, shooting him up to a good 4-5 minutes before he zoned out, or was up for the rest of the night.
"Who's there?"
A hand stuck itself out from the hallway, waved, and was followed by the rest of the body, dressed in a white cloak and pulling back their black hair. The entire person was looking slightly out of breath and even more tired than him, but they pulled themselves together.
However, pulling themselves together meant they quickly spoke in a tired mess.
"Hey Qrow. Good to be back….
…
Wow. You look… completely out of it. Get some rest, okay?"
"What?"
"You look tired. I'm also running on fumes, so it's not just you."
Y…What's happening here?
She rubbed her eyes and wandered out the door before incongruously running off so fast they literally left behind a white cloud like they were a cartoon character.
He sat there, stymied and about 80-99% convinced his body was actually unconscious on the floor.
…
… Qrow had a very valid reason to say this, because he remembers nothing after that point, having fallen unconscious shortly after having that thought.
...
...
He woke up to the smell of coffee.
Qrow had triggering symptoms tied to coffee. Although, he had similar triggers with the smells cheap alcohol, thick snow, and a highly regional variant of an Atlesian wine.
The sun was shining in the windows, and he was not having it. This feeling seemed to be shared by his floor, which had a noticeable broken surface where he had previously been slumped down on.
"Hello. Are you busy today?"
Qrow looked up and saw, to his complete surprise, someone he did not expect to see first thing in the morning at Beacon Academy.
"Hey, Oz. What's with your face?"
Ozpin straightened his glasses and looked confused. "Nothing should be wrong with my face. Why?"
"You seem too serious for your school's summer break. Have any surprise meetings with anyone?"
… "I haven't, unless you were surprised by my being here."
"I wasn't." Qrow said firmly.
… ahem. "I need you to try to do some investigations into a rather strange occurrence that happened last night."
… Huh. Figures.
…
…
...
You lying bastard.
"Where? I have a pretty busy schedule, so it shouldn't be too far away." he drawled, before trying to stand up and appear more sober than he must be appearing.
A small ding emerged on a shelf. Qrow looked up, and upon locating the specific quadrant of bookshelf, took his scroll out from in between a couple of books on the topmost shelf.
He ignored the detail that he hadn't put it there last night, or tidied his desk.
Never thought I'd miss that little light habit again.
Qrow looked down at his scroll and read the content.
He then scrolled and read further.
… and scrolled again.
…and again…
…and eventually did a single long scroll that had his eyes loop the screen several times without ending.
…. "Whew, that is a lot of options."
…
…
"Ozpin. This is basically every hunter request in the world."
"648."
"Fine, 648 then," he muttered."-and why should I care about every single request-"
"648 parts of one request."
…
…
…
Qrow stared for a long time.
…
…
…
"Fuck you."
Ozpin watched him, ignoring his faux pas, and explained the contextual details missing.
"I haven't managed to get every specific part, yet. I have been getting quite a few more since the first sightings came in. Practically, this appears to be one main event, with two others that appear to be relevant."
…
"It's examples of her?"
… "Possibly." Ozpin said.
…
"Tell me, then. What's the thing, and how are you cataloguing six hundred separate parts in…"
"One night."
….
What? One NIGHT?
"Slow down and talk about the lesser two." Qrow said.
Ozpin wiped off his glasses and quickly explained. "Firstly, one of our teams sent an emergency message saying they encountered a hooded figure 'with glowing brown and silver eyes' that advised an armed hunter "don't try" when firing an incendiary harpoon-
"A harpoon?"
Ozpin looked at him. "A harpoon that releases a focused jet of fire into a wound. It's a rather interesting weapon, albeit not perfect, it is effective against single targets."
Qrow waved it aside. "It's a hunter being told to not shoot someone."
"This was before vanishing. The same figure was seen outside a village wall, and standing in a forest just north of two villages close to Atlas, and in a river running through a town, and in a street in Vacuo, and…."
"This repeats six hundred and forty eight times?
"No. Less. This figure has been seen all across Remnant, all events being reported or photographed tonight, and tonight only."
"How… is that one of a lesser two?"
"Because there was a large Grimm-like dog encountered in significantly more places, with this figure appearing shortly after it in many cases. The dog itself seems to be benign, as this dog, or these dogs, were responsible for the safety of a great many people, suggested by the few who began their digital queries with 'I was in danger.'"
…
…
…
"Why?" Qrow muttered.
"Pardon?"
… "It seems you already came to a conclusion with this information. Why do I have to go out and further investigate it if you already have information on it?" Qrow said.
"Because those are the lesser two. I need you to follow up on an old man's questions and learn as much as you can about a third individual that appeared during all the hectic running about that must have been going on."
…
Qrow stood up and walked to stand by the door.
…
Information gathering? He could do that easily. "Where do I need to go, and who do I need to meet?"
"They put their name blank, and the address is "a town right of Shion."
… Ozpin you bastard.
"I presume you actually know where they are? I can't just go to a seperate continent without any knowledge on where I have to go. Every town is right of Shion in that kingdom!"
… "Yes. Although, I need to impress upon you how significant this information is."
Ozpin's voice slowed as he said that.
"How about… you just tell me?"
…
…
…
"A man needs to get his wife's coffin buried where she had always wanted to go to with him."
…
…
…
…
…
Qrow wracked his brains to try to remember. Is it a code? Some hidden message? Oz, I'm really not having a good day.
"Perhaps I should have waited… Should I just… tell you how this message is relevant to you?" Ozpin said, frowning.
He said it in a way that seemed insulting, like Qrow should have known this instantly off the top of his head.
Qrow knew exactly what he was referencing as soon as Oz finished the sentence. It just… didn't make any sense.
"Tell me why you're sending me to talk to someone in Higanbana?"
Ozpin spoke quietly.
"Because of who he met."
Ozpin handed him a sealed envelope, and left the room.
..
..
Qrow opened it up and read the contents of an old mission, and a piece of paper with handwritten text. The stiff document paper was rather unusual, since not many physical documents were used when a digital document was more legible, faster to deliver, and could reach more people.
By the request of the individual, a specific team was chosen for this mission.
Escort mission from Higanbana to Shion, escorting Hajime Saiyuke with a personally significant transport.
Requested Individuals: Team S.T.R.Q.
…
… What? All this-
… "It's the same person again, isn't it."
Qrow looked at the second paper, feeling the writing slightly, noticing it was flat.
This appeared to be a printed picture of a handwritten message.
"Hello. I hope this message finds the path to the right young hunter. I am not sure how long it has been, since my memory has been lacking, but I am grateful for your help, and thank you.
I apologise if the cloak is badly stained from the encounter, and I am planning on sending a stain retardant one as a reward, although none had been asked for.
Also, if this reaches anyone else in your group, I would advise that she be told to check her pocket, because she may have left a bone in it."
-Saiyuke Hajime.
… weird…
Qrow tried to cast his mind back to that mission, but couldn't recall everything about it.
…
….Wait.
We'll be fine as a trio, Sir. You can just get everything done on your side and we'll get the legwork without risking your life!
That confident attitude… he knew that part well… but what then?
…
He went to his scroll and selected one of his fastest locatable call options.
"Tai. Remember that mission we took to Higanbana back in the day?"
…
Taiyang looked at the device before replying, sitting back in his bedroom. "Higa- wow. That one was a while back. What's brought this on? You really don't mention that sort of thing often."
"It's part of a job. Listen, did you have to do any significant stain treating then? Or find any body parts with Summer?"
….
….
Taiyang stood up and looked at his scroll. "Are you severely hung over? I'm trying to tell if I should leave you to rest it off."
"No, no, I'm sober. I just have a really strange letter that's supposedly from the same person as that old mission."
Oh, wait. "I can send it to you, actually. I'm about 90% sure there's some annoyingly hidden code somewhere in it." Qrow muttered, and took a photograph of the letter, thus making it one of the weirdest messages he had ever sent.
Taiyang glanced at the photograph and calmly said his opinion.
"Raven. This seems like the kind thing she is into."
… I know that, Tai.
"...Although, that doesn't work in the end. Qrow, you thought about the line about the cloak?"
… {"Yes. Stain retardant as a reward. It's taken a long time, hasn't it?"}
"Stained from the encounter. I remember us trying to cheat our way to Shion. This makes no sense."
…
…
Cheat our…
"We went as a trio and left Raven." Taiyang recalled.
… {"Because if we used Raven to escort, she wouldn't have gotten her outfit stained.
…. Wait.
That also explains why she had been so pissed off around that period."}
…
Qrow leaned back on his chair. "So… what's the code, then, because the logic behind Raven also works for Summer. No observer."
{"Qrow. I have no clue at the moment. Can we put this on hold for later? I just had to have a long talk with the girls."}
He leaned forwards and stared sternly, like his gaze could be detected by his nieces. "Why?"
The sigh sounded akin to a wave of static.
"That bad? What, did they try to sneak out last night?"
{"…"}
{"At the rate they were going, they weren't even going to make it to Patch by now. They hadn't even gotten onto a boat, Qrow."}
Qrow stood up and went to get a coat on. "Where are they?"
Taiyang turned around and leaned on the wall, staring at the closed door.
A small sound of breathing was audible, though incredibly faint.
{"At home, trying very badly to listen in on me.
… Actually, while you are near Vale, can I get you to look into something for me?"}
"Gladly. What is it?"
{"Their partners both mentioned dogs that appeared out of nowhere, and they also decided it was a good idea to chase after a white cloaked person who had been running towards Beacon. That seems like the kind of weirdness that's up your experience avenue-"}
Qrow froze.
…
{"Qrow? You unconscious?"}
"That's my job."
{…"How? This was an unprompted and… rather bizarre event."}
"I'm already starting to look into that. Did this person they meet have a skull mask?"
…
…
…
Taiyang looked at the photographs that the kids had taken last night. "No, there's no mask. Her face is completely in view."
Qrow unfroze and started running down the hallway, occasionally pausing to say a few short words before returning to full momentum.
{"Mrs Belladonna did say they saw a similar person by her house, though."}
Turn a corner.
"White cloaked."
{"…Yes."}
Run up a flight of stairs.
"Black hair, slightly grey in sections."
…
…
…
{"Yes."}
Slide into a courtyard entrance.
"Taiyang, do you have a person in your basement right now? It's weird how you're getting everything right. How did the girls catch this woman?"
…
{"They did-"}
"They didn't, yeah, I know. Probably because she moved ridiculously fast and vanished in a white blur like a cartoon character."
…
…
…
Taiyang stared at the wall, rather surprised at the current conversation.
{"Did you lose your semblance?"}
Qrow ran at a breakneck pace down a long stretch of empty hallway. "Nope. I'm just having a good day, Tai."
…
…
{"You already met them, didn't you."}
"She told me to get some sleep. Weird, right? A random woman appears out of nowhere, spies on your kids, escapes towards the worst possible place to hide, takes time out of her escape to tell a stranger to get bed rest, and nobody talks about that? Instead, I have to deal with interrogating an old man that sends a letter giving thanks to something that happened years ago through one of the most insane methods of letter sending I have ever seen in my entire life!"
{"Is there a greater point you want to tell me, Qrow?"}
…
… Dogs, skull headed person… and something that's more important, which is an old man.
…
..
.
No. Who the old man met.
…
"Ah."
Qrow grinned and leaned back against a wall, looking up as he cheerfully waited there.
"Hey, Taiyang. I'm not going to Anima, in case you were wondering."
…
{"You realised something. That was your 'I just messed up' sound."}
Qrow pushed a button embedded into the wall.
"I-don't have a… Actually I can't argue with that. Who's important to the old man? Why is he being questioned? Simple. It's because of who he met. Not the old man himself. It's another obnoxious word game, and I fell hard for it."
Qrow stepped into the small elevator.
The lights flickered out as soon as he entered.
…
…
…
Qrow thinly smiled.
Just. Had. To. Say. It.
{"Qrow. Do you need anything from me?"}
"How did we do the mission?"
We arrived, we went to Shion, and Raven brings over the old man. That's the idea I recall.
…
Taiyang stilled and recalled the events.
…
"Ah. We went over to Anima, met the man, and then we used Raven's semblance to bring him over." Taiyang explained.
…
{"… Raven brought him over by portal-ing to us. Right? He was with Raven?"}
Hm?
Taiyang fixed the issue. "No. You, me and Raven went to the destination, and Summer stayed with the requester. We went there, Raven went to Summer, and brought them both with her to us. Raven was pissed after that because she got in a fight with Summer over something."
The lights flickered in Qrow's eyes as he blankly stared at the closed door of the elevator.
He breathed in slowly.
.
..
…
He exhaled out slowly.
.
..
…
"Taiyang. I'm going to have you wait for… ten seconds, then tell me the color of this mysterious person's eyes. If you're right, you're going to win the grand prize."
{"Just… tell me what you're planning."}
He smiled, stood silently for four seconds, and spoke.
"We're going to have a family discussion."
Qrow walked out of the elevator, and watched Ozpin at his desk.
He held up his scroll and pressed down the increase volume button.
{"Silver."} Taiyang said, echoing slightly as he spoke.
...
...
...
...Qrow stared straight at the other man in the room.
"Oz never tells me everything. A man has to keep some secrets, after all.
…
Here: Taiyang, would you keep a secret from Ruby if it was important? Also, by extension, would you tell others, let's say… me, that secret to keep it going?" Qrow asked to the air, and so, Taiyang.
{"Ozpin. What is this all about? Qrow's trying to make sense of the letter you gave him."}
Ozpin blinked at that. "It was exactly what I had said. There's a man in Anima that wanted to talk to you about him giving thanks to you for helping him."
{"Why now?"}
"I don't know why it is happening now."
Qrow raised his other hand and spoke.
"Taiyang. Would you reveal a secret if there was no significant reason for keeping it secret anymore, or would you keep it hidden?"
{"…That depends."}
He smiled. "Everyone, thank you for humouring my speech. Do you mind if I get some audience participation?" he said, before realising this needed some extra clarification.
"Taiyang. Can you get the girls to join in? This is a family discussion."
… Ozpin continued to watch him.
"Qrow. This is rather… unusual. Did you get the information I was trying to send you to get?"
"I did, actually. You're probably going to like this, in fact."
"How?"
"Ah. It was just a quick call and a few questions. It really wasn't that hard to get done." Qrow explained.
He stood as the loud shuffling coming from his scroll quieted down, and Taiyang spoke again.
"Qrow. How… important is this? This may not be a situation for… everybody to hear, you know?"
Oh, very important. You're going to love this, in fact.
"Qrow. What did you find out?"
Qrow ignored him, and spoke to his scroll. "Ruby! How are you! Break going well? People chased after, I heard. Was it fun?"
{"You know we didn't catch them. Did Dad tell you to rub it in our faces?"}
"Nope. He didn't."
{"…"}
…
…
…
{"I don-"}
"Wait. You were here for the entire call?" Qrow asked his niece as she was starting to question his motives.
Huh, a lot of people are doing that today.
…
…
{"Yeah."}
Qrow smiled at that. "Good. I lied to you. I've lied an awful lot, actually."
He heard her mood drop when he said that. {"Un-"} she replied, but he interrupted her with a continuation.
"I believe I do know now. I mean, you would as well, as you did chase them across Vale. Summer's great, right? Enjoy while it lasts, kid! Have a good break, and I'll talk to you later. G'bye!"
…
…
…
Qrow closed his scroll like he just saw a pub sale and slid it into a pocket. His grin melted into a grim line.
Ozpin sat silently.
"I'm going to go after this, just so you know. I'm going to take a break as well." Qrow said.
"What did you learn?" Ozpin asked, idly. "It seems you're trying to explain your findings in a rather roundabout way."
…
…
"How does it feel, Oz?"
…
…
"You aren't doing it well, Qrow."
"Good. I'll cut to the end. We, in fact, do have confirmation on if Summer died."
….
Ozpin choked.
…
"How exactly did you get this?" Ozpin stood and walked over to stand in front of him.
He had suspicions, of course, upon reading the full message sent by this man, but he had been very clear with his demand. Coincidence was far likelier, but…
She was always stubbornly defiant when she had to be.
…
This, however, wasn't entirely uncontrollable.
At least they hadn't appeared in Vale. That would have been a disastrous-
"You don't have to hide it all. You already know it, Oz." Qrow said. "She said hello while I was working last night, told me to get some sleep, and went off."
…
…
She.
Did.
What?
…
… The two men watched each other in the silence.
"Qrow. I presume you never actually talked to Mr Hajime? She cannot just appear on a completely different continent in mere hours."
Qrow whistled, and released a long exhale. "Okay… you didn't see anything on the security cameras last night then?"
"No."
..."Nothing."
"I met nobody last night, Qrow."
… Qrow's face fell down and he groaned softly. "I just hallucinated all that, didn't I?"
Ozpin was unsure of how to react to this sudden shock.
"You are saying that Mrs Rose was here, last night?"
Ozpin made a quiet hmm. His voice was the subtle judgement of listening attentively, but knowing that the other party's information was flawed by a single irrefutable point.
Qrow watched him in chagrin.
"Interesting. I will have to… look into that. You can go, Qrow."
Branwen nodded, and breathed softly. "You… were not suggesting that this man had met Summer?"
"I was not sure, Qrow. I asked you in order to have you try to secretly investigate the matter."
Ozpin silently thought past the brief moment of rage going through him, and calmly tried to hypothesise the reasons on how this might have been able to theoretically happen…
White in the air currents.
That would suggest a significant change to what I thought her semblance had been. I suppose the ability was hereditary, then.
…
Hmm… It saves me from having to finance a trip to Anima, at least.
"Brothers. Excuse me, I need to get a ride to Patch so Tai can beat me up."
Qrow turned to leave, quickly entering the elevator.
"That assumes that he doesn't already know you're wrong."
Qrow turned around in the elevator and stared at him as the doors closed.
Ozpin glanced down after a few seconds and watched him… hesitate and start to slowly walk along the grounds like he was at a funeral.
…
"Although… that begs the question of why, if she was around, she would choose to nullify all the effort put into her continuing existence for… this."
He scoffed, and muttered complaints on her childish behaviour as his hands slid across his desk.
A quick glance and glasses adjustment focused his finger's positioning to the security recordings.
He turned his body fully to his screens, and moved upwards in dates from his last selected day, a few years prior.
After activating his auto-scrolling feature, he quickly arrived at the security logs for last night.
…
{"Hey, Qrow. Good to be back…
…
Wow. You lo-"}
He skipped ahead for a few seconds, watching for…
There. A still frame of her rotating to look away, down the hallway.
…
Ozpin looked away from the screen, gestured to close it, and silently clasped his hands together.
…
"She has silver eyes."
….
…
…