Work Text:
"Hey, Rosebud..."
Staring at a large rockwall was a tall slender man, his dark gray hair long, spiking outwards, looking more like rows of feathers than anything. Once what was just stubble had fully grown out into an unkempt beard. He wore a red tee shirt with his emblem emblazoned on it in gold. He wore a red and black belt around the waist that housed on it a gray pouch. He kept the same black pants he'd worn throughout Atlas and the same leather belt. A jacket in silver with white sleeves finished his outfit. To cap it off, he wore a clover leaf pin and used two crosses to pin in an old tattered dark red cloak.
The man's voice shook as he spoke up again, his eyes a dark ruby red.
"I know it's been… a few days. Heh." He sat down, his hair rubbed past his shoulders. He pulled out his weapon, a giant sword. There was towards the middle point of the blade, a dark crimson, red line; a reminder of the friend that was taken by it.
"Tai told me to only come once every few days, he misses you and the firecracker a lot." He looked upwards, in the rockwall was a carving, there stood the figures of six teenagers, and below them stood their names. Penny Polendina, Jaune Arc, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. But Ruby's carving was the most pronounced and it was the one he was talking to. Below her name was another line.
The Huntress who united the world: Little Red Riding Hood.
Qrow's eyes read over the line again. "I nearly paid for your mom's favorite words, Thus Kindly I Scatter, to be added to this as well, Rosebud, but Willow stopped me. She and Taiyang have… helped me from falling back into my addiction, the one that you stopped." He pulled out his rattle can, before stopping for a moment.
In his time since arriving in Vacuo, he had added a cover over the gearset. He traced the emblem that he had put on the cover, it wasn't his own. No.
It was the one that had belonged to both Ruby and Summer.
After a moment of staring at it, he slowly unlatched it and opened it. He began to spray down the now exposed gears of the weapon with an oil like lubricant. As he watched the oil seep further into the gears, the sounds of an approaching airship filled his ears and made him look up. It was just a low flying ship doing a routine check, nothing bad but it brought him into looking at the large Amity Tower's bottom crystal, making him sigh.
"You did it, Rosebud, even though you're not here for it." he wiped a tear from his eyes. "Your message reached everyone and we all made it here to Vacuo." He took a deep breath, trying to smile a little but it looked more like a smirk. "Willow pointed this out to me while we were chatting yesterday, and it's something I think you should know." He paused to think back. "Your favorite song by Weiss, This will be the day…" He paused as he looked up at the etching in the rock before speaking up once more.
"Victory is in a simple soul."
Qrow slowly spoke those words again. "Willow said that Weiss wrote that song while reveling in the fact she had been accepted into Beacon, and had done some research into some of the teams that predated her, so of course that meant our achievements as team STRQ showed up… I wouldn't be surprised if your mother inspired those words, and yet…"
"You embody them more than her, by a long shot, Rosebud."
He waited for a sign, of anything about her acknowledgement, but nothing. There was no breeze or leaves that'd hit him in the face like with Summer's grave. He just sighed as he looked back at Ruby's face, it was a smile of hope. "I figure you've heard from the others who come to visit you six…" he finally gestured to the others a little before returning to look at Ruby's etching.
"I assume then you heard I've been helping Oscar work with Whitley as he tries to pick out a weapon, to follow in Weiss' footsteps. We actually just finished building him a sword with a revolver, similar to Weiss' weapon, he's loving it, you'd love it too, seeing how you always loved looking at other's weapons. I'm… sure they told you Rosebud, but Ren and Nora have taken up leadership roles alongside Winter." He paused and smirked a little, chuckling a little between coughs.
"I never thought it'd be possible for Raven to try to even ask for a redemption, but here we are, with that sister of mine training Winter to have a better grasp on her own maiden powers. Tai jokingly said Raven had taken Winter 'under her wing', recently, you'd like that wouldn't you Firecracker?" He paused to look at Yang for a moment.
She hadn't been the reason why he was sitting down here, but since he had brought up her father, he felt it right to at least call out to his niece. He took the moment to cap the oil can, the oil he had put in earlier should be enough. With that, he took the time to close the Rose emblemed cover, before pulling out an Atlesian Military branded rag and a scrubber, and started to transform Harbinger.
After a moment, he looked up at Weiss once more, before turning to look at Ruby's face, a small smile creeping over him before he spoke. "Yeah, it's weird, I know. I do have to thank Winter though, she was the one who nudged me to talk to her mother, she's… in the same boat as me… I'm sure you know why."
He slowly got to start scrubbing the blades, checking for any nicks that might cause the blades to shatter on him in combat. Thankfully it seemed like there were none. "Two former drunks, who both lost a daughter that day in Atlas." He looked up at Ruby's carving once more. "Yeah. Daughter, it feels weird to say it out loud, Rosebud."
He looked down at Harbinger once more, memories of Summer yelling at him at Beacon at least once a month over proper cleaning and maintenance of his blade. Memories of helping Ruby when she asked him to help her to build Crescent Rose. "Each day I cry, not for myself but what should have been, Ruby. I should have told you sooner, that night back in the woods when I was poisoned, I should have confessed then. I should have pulled you aside that night you graduated up in Atlas. I-I… I…" Qrow stopped as he choked on his own saliva, his vision gone by the flood of tears. "Summer was the best of us, as you were for your team, and yet, while STRQ is still standing without Summer, you and your team are all gone, Rosebud."
"And we have to pick up the pieces once more… but this time I don't… I don't have you. I don't have your little face to watch grow up, to keep me sane. To keep me fighting for Ozpin. But what I have now is your message kiddo. Your words of encouragement towards everyone, towards myself. The fact you've been such a bright light in people's hearts, pipsqueak."
"You always had that about you, how you'd lift those around you, and yet… I was always scared, scared that maybe you were more like me, with a mask at the ready. You had to inherit something from me right? Heh." He slowly looked back up at Ruby and nodded slowly. "You had to, kiddo. I miss you…and I love you Ruby. I wish you could just come back to me, same goes for your mother. I should have told you everything."
He looked down at the Rose emblem once more for a moment, scrubbing it a little. "About you being my daughter, about Summer… but I kept it quiet. I kept it a secret as I wasn't ready to tell you, even when you asked. I should have. But I didn't… and now... I'm left to win this fight… without both you and your mother." He slowly scrubbed another spot, and paused, and picked himself up, putting a hand where Ruby's heart would be on the etching in the rockface.
"I love you, Rosebud, but if I stay too long, Willow or Robyn will come grab me, or worse, Tai." He chuckled a little at that before continuing. "I'm… thankful for them, Robyn's slowly becoming more of an adopted little sister to me. It's strange, but at the same time it's not, just how ya were with Oscar, that's how we are now as well…"
"That being said, Willow, well?" He paused and thought about it, he had given some thought about this on and off but here he was actually speaking about it. "I'm not really sure, but she likes having me around… like your mother did, Pipsqueak, but I wouldn't call her a brat for it. I get where her heart is, with how we're both former alcoholics and how she has a son who needs a real father figure…" He trailed off and chuckled a little.
"And then there's Tai, but he's Tai. You know your.. Father. He was always better suited to being a father, better than I ever could be to you, without Summer. She really kept me on my toes throughout Beacon and then our post Beacon years together. But…"
Qrow just sighed as he looked at the etching. "I love you kiddo."
It was rough, to pull himself away from the Weeping Wall. Every second there was a part of him that wished to return to how he was when he first got to Vacuo, he never left his spot in front of Ruby, not unless to shower. He spent a month like that, glued to Ruby's etching, repeating the same story he had told today to it. He sighed to himself as he slowly picked up Harbinger, he only had one thing left to do.
Qrow reached for the pouch that was strapped to the black belt with red lining that rested on his waist. He stopped for a moment to rub his fingers over the custom stitched Crescent Rose patch before opening it, inside were bullets ready to load into Harbinger.
He spent a month talking to Ruby, about everything that'd unfolded since the Fall of Atlas, from the Amity Tower being chained up to the four flagships of the nations, to the work being done to protect Shade. He didn't stop until Winter smacked him across the face, something not even Nora had tried to do, but she had been there with Winter, alongside Ren and Oscar. They all cared for him. It had been that day that he had woken up and started to move on.
Ruby was gone.
It hurt him to say those words. He remembered Taiyang sitting next to him and Willow when he had to break the news to him when he arrived. That Yang was… gone, that… Ruby was gone too. Taiyang held him in for a long hug that day, they both had tears to shed.
Every day he tried to march on, to wake up to a photo taken from his scroll, of a family he never really got to have, him with Summer and Ruby. Next to it would be a photo from Ruby's graduation that he took with her, trying to hold back tears after talking to her about Summer.
He was so proud of her, even in death.
He was able to watch her take flight on her own, to lead her own teams through thick and thin. She was so much like her mother it hurt. But with each passing day he stood watch, making sure she was safe.
After all he had promised to Summer to protect her.
And it hurt, to know that even if it wasn't his fault, he wasn't there for Ruby's final moments.
He loaded the bullets into Harbinger before collapsing the weapon into its carrying mode, slotting it on his back. As he got up, he took a good look at Ruby's etching one more time and spoke. "I miss you, kiddo, I'll be back soon." With that he slowly started away from the Weeping Wall until he paused, noticing someone standing at the entrance. His crimson eyes could see the white hair of one of the Schnee's a mile away, and here one was, poking over the wall. He sighed a little as he turned to face them. "Guess you heard everything, Willow?"
Willow Schnee, Matriarch of the Schnee Family, was standing there and nodded. She had chosen to wear a dark blue dress that fluttered outwards into a soft light blue skirt, atop of it was a light gray vest that had matching sleeves. "Hmm. Was coming to speak with Weiss for a moment, but stopped when I saw you were speaking to Ruby."
Qrow just looked down. "Yeah… I needed to get it off my chest." He looked up to see her glaring at him and made him sigh. "Again. It's… the fact I hid it from her even after everything."
Willow just put a hand on his shoulder. "Whitley still cries every time he practices with the sword you and Oscar helped him make… I know he wishes she was still here, to help him train so he could better honor her memory."
Qrow paused and smiled. "So, do you want me to leave so you can speak to Weiss or-"
A ping came from Qrow's scroll.
Normally it'd not be a concern but this was the Aura Reader, that meant something was wrong.
Qrow paused and Willow looked curiously to Qrow's pocket as Qrow pulled out his Scroll to open it up. He quickly checked it, already fearing the worst. Had Ren or Nora gotten hurt out in the desert? Had Marrow run into Tyrian-. His eyes widened as they suddenly watered. He choked as he nearly dropped his Scroll.
"Qrow!" came Willow's shout as she reached for him and held him up. "What happened, speak to me-" Qrow could only watch her eyes trail to the Scroll, ending with a soft gasp.
The Scroll had picked up the Aura Readers from team RWBY.
Qrow's heart had stopped as he checked it again. It was showing them nearby… alive.
Alive.
Ruby was alive.
Willow was quick to grab his hand as she brought another hand to his face and smiled warmly at the dusty old crow before her. "Give her a call."
Qrow slowly moved to his contacts and hit the call button. He was shaking as it started up the call. One ring. Two rings. Click. Qrow took a deep breath before taking the first words. "H-Hey Pipsqueak?"
"Hey Uncle Qrow. W-we. We, uh, made it."
It was Ruby's voice, clear as day.
Qrow and Willow both smiled at each other, their eyes teared up, as Qrow brought himself to speak up. "That's… great k-kiddo. Where are you?" Qrow coughed up saliva as he looked back at her memorial once more, tears flowing now of joy. To be able to say those things that he never got to before. To tell her about everything. To be there for her.
Weiss' voice perked up instead. "We're… maybe a mile outside of the city? Near the main road into the city by the looks of it, Qrow."
Qrow watched Willow start to hold back tears as he nodded. "Right, sit tight, and don't move, which side of the city is Amity Tower?"
It wasn't Ruby nor Weiss that perked up next, it was Yang who spoke over Ruby's scroll "On our left, Uncle Qrow!"
Qrow just smiled at that, before speaking up. "We'll be there shortly." Without another word he ended the call and looked at Willow, who just pulled him into a hug, which he happily returned. "Our daughters are alive, Willow."
"I-I know, it's… a relief." She slowly broke the hug after a moment. "So, I've got the truck right here." She motioned behind her, there sitting was an former Schnee Dust Company pick up truck, one of the few Whitley had discovered were at the closest Vacuoan mine. They had rebuilt it by hand, but left its paintwork the same. Sure it was rusted but adorning the hood was an older rendition of the Schnee Family crest in what used to be a long time ago: a bright red. It was the same one used during her father's time, and so Willow was hesitant to remove it.
Qrow just nodded as they got in and Willow started it up. She'd never been the best driver, having grown up an heiress herself, so she was always driven around, even into her adult life. But at least she'd take the wheel compared to her companion. Perhaps it was her newfound freedom, but she and Whitley were bonding over just driving around the city to keep themselves busy, sometimes offering the truck bed for other citizens of Vacuo City to travel around in.
It only took a few minutes but sure enough, as they reached the top of one of the sand covered hills, there were five teenagers. They all looked as if they just arrived from Atlas, gods.. Atlas. It'd been nearly nine months since then. The only thing that'd clue they may have aged was the fact the blond boy had a couple of white streaks in his hair. Willow slowed the truck down to a stop and they both poked their heads out of the side windows.
Both of them couldn't help but cry as they saw the smiles on their daughters faces as they slowly walked up. Qrow and Willow both took the chance to hop out, and while Weiss slowly embraced her mom, Ruby was a bit more of…
"Did you miss me? Did you?" Ruby was hanging off Qrow's arm like she had back during the Beacon Vytal Festival, making Qrow only cry more as he slowly came to know what to tell her.
"N-Nope." he softly teased, his eyes tearing up, as if he hadn't spent days staring at the carving of her. He started into her bright silver eyes and smiled a little. "You think disappearing would make me miss you? We-"
"Hmmph." Willow interjected, causing Qrow to look directly at her icey blue eyes. "Don't lie Qrow. I didn't put down everything for you to just lie to her."
Qrow sighed and looked at Ruby while Weiss, Blake, Jaune, & even Yang looked on curiously. "I missed you more than you know Ruby. I'm so thankful that you're back. Now let's all hop into the truck, you and Weiss take the backseats, the others can ride in back."
It wasn't long until they were back on the road and Qrow noticed something, Willow had grabbed his hand as she drived. "Thank you Qrow." She said softly. "For not giving in."
Qrow just smiled as he grabbed Clover's four leaf clover pin with his other hand. "Yeah." It was a somewhat quiet ride for a bit until Qrow felt his scroll buzz and saw Oscar's face on it as he answered. "Hey Pipsqueak?"
"Hey Qrow, just checking in if you need anything, are you still at the Wall or do I need to send Willow out to get you again?" Ruby leaned over the seat in front of her to try to look at the scroll more, wondering who Qrow'd call pipsqueak if not her?
He chuckled. "She already found me Pipsqueak… but you can go ask Ren and Whitley to set up for a feast? Some friends from Vale have arrived and they're eager to catch up."
Oscar smiled. "Sure." He turned away from the scroll to shout. "Hey Whitley! Can I borrow your scroll to call Nora?" Qrow could see Oscar get up and grab his partner's scroll off the desk and get up to call Nora away from the camera.
"But-" Weiss perked up, clearly also trying to look at the scroll with Ruby. "We came from-"
"S-Sister?" Came a voice from Oscar's scroll, for Weiss and Ruby to look at each other and Weiss spoke up first. There walking onto the screen was a slightly older looking, maybe a bit taller, Whitley Schnee. He froze as he looked at the camera, no doubt seeing Weiss and Ruby poking out from behind Qrow.
"W-Whitley?" Weiss was shocked by the sound of that voice, and could barely croak out a reply. "You… sound more like f-father."
Whitley just chuckled on the other end. "That's what mom said." He brushed some hair off his forehead and kept speaking. "But…g-glad to have you back…" He paused and looked at the camera. "Are Blake and Yang with you?"
Ruby perked up, taking the moment to speak her words. "They're in the back with Jaune."
Oscar's voice came back, walking into view once more, he'd grown too by the looks of it. "Y-Yeah Nora, tell Ren to set a feast, and by feast, I mean it." He paused and looked at the Scroll feed, which Qrow had moved so Weiss and Ruby could be seen, his eyes widened as he started crying.
"Ozzy, why are you cryi-" Nora started to speak when Oscar pushed a button and suddenly Ruby and Weiss could see Nora's face on the scroll along with Whitley and Oscar. "O-oh my gods." Her eyes widened, filling up with tears as she spoke up again. "Renny! Book the Academy Training Grounds, this feast got a lot more important!"
"H-Hey Nora." Ruby spoke up, holding back tears of her own as she tried to smile at Nora.
That broke the wall Nora was holding back from full on screaming. "TEAM RWBY'S ALIVE!" There was a pause, as Weiss and Ruby could see the realization hit Nora's face, and then they heard another scream from Nora. "JAUNE'S ALIVE TOO RIGHT?!"
Ruby smiled and nodded. "He's in the back too!"
Qrow sighed and relaxed his shoulders, cutting Nora off before she could scream. "Kiddo, we're right… right outside of the Academy. We'll all be inside soon. I've… I've got some calls to make, we're gonna have a full house for our heroes."
Ruby and Weiss both frowned a little and looked at each other as Qrow ended the Scroll call. "Cheer up kiddos. You five will lift the spirits of everyone." He paused a little as he looked outwards, towards the Shade Academy itself, now looming over them. His eyes slowly trailed back to the rearview mirror, and towards one person sitting in the back seat. Ruby. He spoke softly to himself, but Willow heard it.
"I know you already have lifted mine, Rosebud."