Chapter 1: -.-.-Chapter 1-.-.-
It was a dull dusty evening in Vale as Qrow Branwen made his way down the road towards the main transport hub on Patch, the last months had been some of the roughest that everyone had been through in a long time.
Six months ago, Summer had went missing, she had just up and vanished only leaving a single message on Tai's scroll as a cryptic explanation as to why she was going but no hint as to where. When she didn't return, he and Tai had spent four months searching for her, taking turns to watch after both Yang and Ruby while the other went out looking, but in six months they had turned up no leads at all.
They would still be searching even now had Ozpin not gotten intel about her death, that had been the final stone that shattered all their hope, she was gone. In the months that followed it was clear that they were broken, more so than before when she was just missing. Tai barely spoke. Ruby and Yang never played, and him… well he was a mess.
He knew he had a slight problem with the bottle before but that was understandable given what he knew about the odds that they were facing, about Salem. But since Summers' death he had gotten even worse that he knew.
Hell, he was planning to go to a local watering hole that he knew would be open late to drown his sorrows before he trudged his way to some hotel to sleep for the night.
But his plans were derailed when he heard his scroll start ringing in his pocket. Sighing he reached into his pants and took his scroll out, oh joy Glynda.
"What do you want Glynda, I've already told Oz that I'm not up for another scouting mission for at least another…" he began to say only for the harsh woman to cut him off.
"Shut up and listen Qrow this isn't about that, there's a situation that we need your help with," Glynda said in a sharp tone making him frown.
"What kind of situation?" Qrow asked as he came to a stop in the middle of the road.
"Just a few minutes ago Beacon received a distress call from a transport from Atlas, several families were being moved from Mantle to come to Vale, Faunus families leaving the less than hospitable situation there" Glynda explained in a quick rundown.
"Grimm?" Qrow guessed and asked.
Glynda nodded, "Yes, they are too far outside of our borders for any of our lands security forces to lend aid, and right now you are the most experiences huntsmen that is available for us to send."
Qrow nodded, it sounded rough but he was used to that, "got it, send me the location, I'm only a few minutes away from the transport hub on Patch I'll requisition a lift from there," he said before cutting the call short and putting his scroll away before he ran forward his body shrinking as he did before he vanished entirely only to be replaced by a crow that took off flying towards the transport hub ahead.
-.-.-Scene break-.-.-
It was twenty minutes later that Qrow stood in the cargo bay of a bullhead that he had requisitioned from the transport hub, all he had to do was to show his hunters licence and state that it was an emergency and it was in the air within two minutes.
But even though it had taken them no time at all to get airborne Qrow was still twitching and tapping his foot impatiently, it was taking far to long for them to get there and he was worried by the time they did it would only be too late.
He was tempted to reach into his jacket to take a pull from the flash that he always kept there for times like these but restrained himself. He would need his wits about him going into the fray, and he didn't yet know just what he was going into.
"Sir," the voice of the pilot crackled in his ear peace, "we're coming upon the crash sight now…" he said his voice going silent, "it doesn't look good"
Qrow bit back a curse as he moved towards the back of the cargo bay and hit the button to lower the ramp, "Swing around and give me a view" he said back into the ear piece, wanting to see the mess he would have to deal with, and as the bullhead turned in mid air to do just that Qrow felt his stomach drop at what he saw.
The remains of the transports were completely shredded, scattered over a line of forest. From the amount of debris, he estimated there to have been at least three or four Atlas Air bus, and he could see the destroyed remains of their escorts, two Manta airships.
He could tell immediately what had happened, they had been completely overwhelmed. He didn't know how many the airships had managed to take out before they had gone down, but there were still at least two dozen Griffon still down there, and another dozen Lancers. Even against their numbers now, two Manta would have been nowhere near enough for that many Grimm.
"Crap," Crow cursed before raising his hand to his ear piece, "I'm going in, once I've jumped get this thing to a safe distance, I'll radio when I need extract" he said before stepping further out onto the ramp and began to plot his way down through the hoard of Grimm, some of which had now noticed them and were starting to take off.
"Roger that, good hunting" the pilot said, and once he got his confirmation Qrow jumped pulling his sword from the small of his back as he did and began to spin as he shot down towards the incoming Grimm.
Moving with practiced ease Qrow activated his sword as it grew and shifted into its scythe form as he began to spin in the air deflecting two hooked stingers fired by two of the lancers before throwing himself at them and cleanly bisected the pair of them as he fell past them towards the others, each meeting similar fates as he used them to slow his fall as he neared the Griffons coming at him.
Turning his scythe he hooked the first one that came at him around the neck and used his downward momentum to throw himself into a standing position on its back before pushing off pulling his scythe with him decapitating it as he threw himself into a freefall again.
One by one the Griffons came at him with their talons and beaks at the ready but he was just as used to being in the air as them, shifting into his animal form to evade their attacks only to shift back and go in for the kill all the while slowing his fall as one by one they fell until he grew close to the ground and came in with a roll coming back to his feet with his scythe at the ready encase there were still more around.
After several seconds of nothing but the crackles of flame from the wreckage and the wind overhead Qrow began to relax as he shifted his weapon back into its sword mode as he began to make his way towards the wreckage to start his search for survivors.
But as he got closer to the wreckage his footsteps faltered, he knew immediately that the chances of finding any survivors would be next to impossible. He could see remains scattered through the wreckage, limbs and bodies half eaten by the Grimm, others killed on impact, even more burned alive from the flames of the crash.
It was truly a gruesome sight, one that he had seen a few too many times before, and it never got any easier. Turning his head away from the crash he let out a small sigh as he reached for his flask, "too late again" he muttered as he took it out and began to unscrew the top.
But just as he was about to raise it to his lips to take a drink there was a cry from further down the line of wreckage and Qrow's eyes widened, there was no mistaking that kind of cry, a child.
Not pausing for a second Qrow turned in the direction of a cry dropping his flask and took off as fast as he could, he could still save someone from this nightmare.
-.-.-Scene break-.-.-
In one part of the air buses that hadn't been totally destroyed three Lancers were circling the wreckage spearing the sides of it with their stingers and swooping in trying to push their way inside to get to their prey, each time a panicked scream of the young child within cried out in fear as the wreckage around him shook.
One lancer swerved around and launched it stinger again trying to aim this time for the opening in hopes of spearing their prey to pull it out. But as its stinger neared the opening it was suddenly cut off as Qrow arrived, his sword spinning in his hand as he moved forward cutting the first lancer down the middle as the other two heard its death cries.
They moved in to attack but Qrow wasn't in the mood for playing games as his sword shifted in his hands the blade pointed down and as the two Grimm came at him, he unloaded both barrels of his shotgun attachment into them at point blank range blowing them away.
With his breathing heavy from having sprinted practically all the way there Qrow looked around being vigilant for more Grimm in the area when apparently, they hadn't all come to him when he was falling.
Hearing the sobs of the child in the wreck behind him Qrow knew exactly why that was, the Grimm closed by had been drawn by the kid's negative emotions, more precisely his fear.
Seeing no more Grimm around Qrow moved to the wreck, it was a complete mess, the front half had been crushed and broken off leaving the back section of the bus half crushed in the process, the only way in was a narrow opening that the Grimm had been trying to get the kid through with the back end of the wreck stuck in the ground and the narrow opening up in the air, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. No wonder the kid was terrified, he would have had no way to run and nowhere to hide with monsters all about.
Shoving his sword into the ground Qrow crouched down and gently rapped on the outside of the wreck, "Kid, can you hear me, the monsters are gone now" he told him wanting to try and calm him down so that he wouldn't attract more Grimm.
He could still make out the sounds of sobbing from inside for a few moments after before a small voice spoke up, "Please, you have to help, my parents are hurt, they aren't moving"
Qrow frowned and stood up, "Okay kid," he said as he pulled his sword from the ground, "move away from this side of the bus, I'm going to cut you out" he told him as he began to look for the weakest spots to cut.
Giving the kid a few moment to do as he said Qrow raised his sword and with three precise cuts he tore through the sides of the wreck, and with the final stroke plunged his sword into the top part of the area he cut and used his sword as leverage to pry the sheet metal down to get inside the wreck.
The sight that greeted him tore at his heart, there at the back of the bus was the quivering form of the young Faunus boy, he couldn't be any more than six years old with how small he was. He was very thin and looked extremely pale, made to look even more so with his silver hair that was almost white with how pale it was and the large bush of silver tail that came out of the base of his back.
But the sight that struck him most was where he was, his parents, a young man who couldn't have been much older than himself with similar coloured hair and fox ears was on one side of the boy, and a young woman of similar age was on the other. It was obvious what had happened, they had both shielded their son when they knew they were going to crash. Both were obviously dead; they had given their lives for his.
Steeling himself Qrow retracted his sword and put it onto his back again before crouching down and climbing into the wreckage to get closer, "Come on kid, let's get you out of here" he said softly not wanting to scare the kid any more.
The boy shivered and sobbed as he clung to his mother body, a sight that made Qrow's heart break as he was reminded of his two nieces back home, how they had cried when Summer never came back.
Gently, taking his time, Qrow slowly moved the young boy from his mother's body and took him into his own arms. The young child clutched at him after only a moments hesitation, seeking comfort after having survived through such an ordeal.
"Please, please" the young boy sobbed into his chest.
Qrow felt for the kid, he really did, as he placed his hand on his back to comfort him, "I'm sorry kid, their gone" he said softly as the young boy's sobs grew louder for a few moments before softening as he passed out in his arms, obviously exhausted from the whole ordeal.
Climbing out of the wreck after only a few moments Qrow held the young boy close as he walked a bit away from the wreckage before raising his hand to his ear.
"This is Qrow, I need a pick up," Qrow said softly into his ear piece before glancing back at the wreck, "and a radio Vale to dispatch a search and recovery team, we have two sets of remains to bring back but the rest of the wrecks will need to be searched for more"
"Roger that, on our way" the pilot responded in his ear a moment later before the line went quiet.
Qrow sighed as he began to look around for a moment before making his way over to a small rock to sit down on with the boy to try to examine him for wounds that would need to be treated. He knew there was also the chance of internal injuries but there was little he could do for those, he would just have to hope for the best.
Sitting down on the rock Qrow began his examination and after a few minutes let out a relieved sigh, aside from a few light scratches and bruises the boy looked to be fine, aside from being exhausted and likely traumatized from this whole ordeal he would live.
During his examination however he found only one thing strange, he had thought the kid only had one large bushy fox tail, but when he went to check it for any broken bones he was shocked to find that he in fact had three tails. He had never heard of a Faunus having more than one.
Shaking his head and putting that fact to the back of his mind for now, Qrow waited patiently for their ride to get there, it didn't take long before two of the bullheads crew came through the trees.
"We couldn't land here so we landed in a clearing just a bit back that way" one of the men said softly after seeing Qrow with the small boy.
Qrow nodded his thanks as he got up, before gesturing to the wreck, "the boys parents are in there, see about bringing them back, and if you can find some forms of IDs on them, I want to give them a proper burial for the kid" he said having decided that he could at least do that for them, they had given up their lives to make sure their son lived, they deserved a proper burial.
Both men nodded and went to work, already coming with body bags, while Qrow passed them and made his way to the clearing where the Bullhead was in, greeting the pilot who stood on guard with a rifle as he walked up the ramp and took a seat in one of the pull out chairs from the side of the cargo bay.
He didn't have to wait long before the two crewmen came back with the bodies of the boy's parents in black plastic body bags taking them to the front of the bullhead to lay them down before one came back and handed him the IDs they had found.
Qrow took them with a nod of thanks and it wasn't long before they were in the air once again returning to Vale and the safety of the walls.
As the boy slept still clinging to him, Qrow glanced at the IDs he had been given to see the boys name and nodded seeing it, it suited him, Wyn Moon.
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