Filling in and a new Variable

As William is sitting on the ground next to the door and starts taking swig after swig from the bottle of whiskey trying to suppress the memories of his family he'll never see again. His mother and sisters not wanting to face that reality right now but failing miserably.

William "God damn it why now why now." through his sorrowful-filled voice as he takes another swig finishing off the bottle like it was water. As he starts to smoke the entire cigar to feel the nicotine rush but is later filtered by the old blood coursing through him.

(POV change Ruby)

I was surprised to see Yang and Weiss here. I was scared that Yang was mad at me which she is but doesn't hate me for leaving. After hugging for a bit Weiss joined in for a group hug as everyone else is happy that Yang and Weiss are safe and sound.

Ruby "I'm so glad you're here Yang and Weiss. I'm glad to finally see you again." Ruby quickly gives another hug to her sister and partner and they reciprocate the gesture.

Yang "Same here little sis." Yang quickly head locks ruby with her left arm and gives her a noogie as Qrow chuckles as Ruby tries to break out from her predicament failing miserably as everyone gives a good chuckle at Ruby's expense.

Ruby "Yang please stop I get it I'm sorry for leaving without telling you and dad face to face." Yang finally relents after getting the answer she wanted and lets Ruby out of her headlock.

Yang "Good you gave dad and me quite the scare little sis. If it wasn't for Uncle Qrow contacting dad that he was watching over you then he would have rushed out the door just to drag your little butt back home." she says with an older sibling's tone of worry and relief finally able to see Ruby was safe.

As the siblings are catching up Weiss and the rest of team juniper catch up talking and laughing about their experiences since they last saw each other.

Ruby "Well since we made a lot of food why not catch up over dinner?" Everyone unanimously agrees after Ruby cleaned up the broken tea set and apologized to Ren for ruining his set.

Ren "It's okay Ruby I can always buy a new one. Nora, can you help me set the table?"

Nora "Can do Ren." she speeds to the kitchen and grabs plates and utensils as Ren and Jaune help.

After setting the table Everyone catches up as they happily eat Ruby explains their journey with Nora adding exaggerated details that Ren corrects, as Jaune adds more accurate details that Ruby glossed over including the fight with the nuckelavee.

Yang "So William helped Uncle Qrow and put his life in danger for you all?" with a guilty expression as she scratches the back of her head.

Nora "Yeah he even helped us train and helped Ruby think of a way to keep crescent rose."

Ruby "Yeah because I still suck at hand-to-hand so I made this gauntlet" she rolls up her right sleeve revealing her gauntlet that has a purple glow in the center it being Ruby's signature red color.

Weiss "So what does it do Ruby?" as she looks at the gauntlet with curiosity.

Ruby "Well if I ever get disarmed from crescent rose I can do this." Ruby gets up and places crescent rose on the other side of the room she goes to the other end and presses a button on the gauntlet. Immediately the compact form of crescent rose glows purple and flies towards Ruby as she catches it and transforms it fully. Leaving Weiss and Yang surprised by it.

Jaune "Yeah Ruby spent a couple of days designing it and then putting it all together."

Yang "Wait you made that Ruby? Aw, I'm so proud of you." Yang quickly gets up and squeezes Ruby into a bear hug.

Ruby "Yang… to… tight." Ruby is being crushed by Yang and she lets Ruby go out of the bear hug.

Ruby "And I wouldn't have done it if William didn't recommend it to me." while scratching the back of her head.

Weiss "Wait he suggested you do something like that? What was his reasoning behind it?" [I need to figure out why William seems so ingrained with Ruby, Jaune, Ren, and Nora. They have been talking about him a lot but seem to be walking on eggshells trying not to bring something up.]

Ruby "Well he said 'Ruby I think there is a solution to keep crescent rose with you even if you're disarmed.' and he said something about using gravity dust which I was skeptical about it at first but did some trail runs. And it worked so I upscaled it with William helping here and there."

Yang "So what did he do to help? Besides, give you the basic concept." Yang checks out the gauntlet as Ruby puts away crescent rose.

Ruby "He gave me some rough sketches and some brainstorming sessions to fine-tune it."

As Ruby and Yang are talking everyone else starts to clean up as things start to wind down and an arm wrestling match later. Qrow comes down with Oscar.

Qrow "How can six kids possibly make so much noise eating dinner?" Qrow looks somewhat annoyed as everyone looks at him with a happy smirks on their face except Yang who reciprocates the same expression as Qrow.

Qrow "Where's William? Is he still outside?" Qrow looks around for him but ends up empty-handed.

Yang "I thought he went with you and why is he outside?" Yang says that everyone looks at the front door.

(POV William)

As Willaim sits next to the door there are now at least six empty bottles of alcohol laying around him with his face being obscured by his cap except for the occasional tear that drips down to his lap to the occasional onlooker walking by they can feel the dejection from the scene and Williams posture.

[How long has it been a couple of minutes an hour? I don't know if I've already gone through a couple of bottles or more, I lost count.]

As he sits there eventually the door opens but William is lost in his thoughts and doesn't hear it eventually he notices that his left arm feels like it's around someone's shoulders as William is hoisted up.

Qrow "Damn and I thought I was an avid drinker." William hears Qrow chuckles a little as William gets to his feet with Qrows help.

William "ehh bite me." he replies with some venom as he picks up the empty whiskey bottles. While Qrow chuckles a bit.

Qrow "Come on we're going to be filling in Yang and Weiss since you and Raven spilled the beans."

William "Yeah I did so let's get this over with." Qrow and William enter the house getting looks from everyone with Ruby, Jaune, Ren, and Nora looking at him with pity but Weiss looks at William in disgust with the amount of alcohol he consumed. While Yang looks at him with some shock. As everyone else is sitting on the available chairs and couches in the living room.

Oscar sees William and feels a pain in his heart for William but it doesn't last long as Ozpin takes over. Oscar/Ozpin "I believe I should start as William is going to be a moment with Qrow." Qrow is still somewhat pulling William along so he can clear his head. As the explanation is started, William comes back halfway through with both Weiss and Yang just sitting there with a multitude of expressions from surprise to anger and finally confusion and understanding.

After Ozpin's long speech, William has his with both Weiss and Yang having mostly anger and confusion on their faces but also worry too but they both stay quiet until the end.

Weiss "So the maidens, magic, Salem, and a whole other world that saw us as entertainment?" with a dejected look in her eyes.

Qrow "Yep even that last part which I'm still trying to wrap my head around." he looks at William as he nods his head in understanding.

Oscar/Ozpin "Miss Xiao Long is this roughly what your mother told you. besides William's story?"

Yang sits there quietly in her thoughts with a contemplative expression and doesn't respond to Ozpin's question. With Weiss looks to Yang sees her expression and answers for her.

Weiss "For the most part besides the Relics and Williams story."

Yang "But you forgot one thing that you did to my poor excuses of a mother and Qrow." after that question there is now an awkward mood until Jaune breaks it.

Jaune "What is Yang talking about?" as he looks at Oscar.

Oscar/Ozpin sighs slightly "That's not a secret I thought she would give up easily. Your mother must trust you a great deal." Oscar/Ozpin looks at Yang with she looks back with a scowl.

Oscar/Ozpin "My ability to reincarnate though a curse isn't without a few key benefits much like the maidens I to a certain magical power." Oscar/Ozpin rises from his seat and starts to walk around and continues talking. "Using this power I was able to gift the Branwen twins the ability to see more. To move freely and be unburdened by their natural bodies." Finally he stops next to Qrow as everyone has a look of anticipation except Yang who still has a scowl. "I well.. Gave them the ability to turn into birds, rather ridiculous sounding out loud isn't it." as he chuckles a bit near the end.

Ruby is mostly confused and looks at Qrow with a questioning expression as Ren speaks up "You turned them into birds?" as he also has a questioning expression as well.

William interrupts and answers for Ozpin "It's more than likely they transform into birds not turn into." he rubs his brow and yawns from the stress of today.

As Jaune and Nora voice their opinions on how that isn't possible with Weiss agreeing with William and Ozpin saying it is. As Yang now questions Ozpin why he would do something like that.

William "Because he probably gave them a choice Yang and they took it sadly I never had that choice when I came here I… No, I digress." William leans back in his chair and sighs softly. As Yang just looks at William in annoyance. While Qrow voices his support for Willaim's statement.

Qrow "That's enough Yang we made a choice we wanted this." While Yang shrinks back from Qrow's statement.

Oscar/Ozpin "William and Qrow are both correct. I did give them a choice and they took it Miss Xiao Long but granting this power to them was no trivial task and I can assure you it was not done frivolously. I required assistance gathering information without using the darker side of society. To gather information on Salem's plan as well as searching for maidens when their hosts became unclear." with a darker tone but isn't picked up by the kid but William picked up on it and nods his head in understanding.

Ruby finally speaks up 'Okay so um have you done this with others too? Like General Ironwood or Professor Goodwitch?"

Oscar/Ozpin "As helpful as that might be, unfortunately, it's not that simple my power is finite and if I'm being honest dwindling the amount that I gifted Qrow and Raven were all things considered rather minuscule you see centuries ago I sacrifice a great deal of my magic to four young women who I hoped would use my gift for good they were the first maidens."

William [Wait wait wait Oz did that I mean when looking at it from how he reincarnates that would mean he was the old man from the story. Then that begs the question how old is Ozpin and how many lives did he merge with?] After that statement, there is now a silence and awkwardness in the air until it's broken by Ozpin continuing on.

Oscar/Ozpin "Miss Xiao Long it was not my intention to lie to you, to any of you there are just some matters that I prefer to… keep close to the chest. I believe that's how you phrased it." as he looks over to Qrow as he just chuckles and nods his head. "Everyone has a choice: the Branwens chose to accept their powers and the responsibilities that came with them. And later one of them chose to abandon her duties in favor of her own self-interests. Now all of you have a choice if anyone wishes to leave now is the time to do so. There is no shame or disgrace in abstaining only in retreat." Oscar/Ozpin turns his back on the group waiting to hear an answer as no one moves he turns around. "Very well them." Yang gets up while Ruby looks at her sister with a worried expression but doesn't say anything.

Yang "If Ruby is staying I am too but if we are going to help and continue risking our lives then no more lies or half-truths." She looks Oscar/Ozpin in the eyes emphasizing her point. As he looks at Qrow and nods his head and looks back to Yang.

Oscar/Ozpin "Understood." Yang sits back down and Jaune speaks up.

Jaune "So what do we do now? I mean what can we do?" as he looks around at everyone.

Oscar/Ozpin "Hmm that is a difficult question, one that is best answered tomorrow."

As Jaune is about to ask a question William beats him to the punch. "Jaune I can see most of you are tired and somewhat anxious but this is a moment to spend time with your friends since you have all just gotten back together. Take some time to relax and enjoy the moment." Oscar/Ozpin nods his head in agreement and gives control back to Oscar.

POV change somewhere in Mistral

In a very ornate room filled with people all in black robes are all praying to an altar with one individual at the altar leading everyone else in prayer.

The said individual is in an ornate black robe with golden highlights around the hood and cuffs of the robe with an ornate masquerade mask with a faded painting behind her that is of Salem.

Masked Individual "My Brothers and Sisters we have been given a holy order from our Goddess for she has foreseen troublesome individuals that wish to hinder our Goddesses plan for if they succeed then it will displease her greatly. For that we must not fail for our mission is to help the White Fang to destroy Haven Academy to take back the precious holy relic that was taken from our Goddess so she can be one step closer to the transcendence of our species." the individual sounding extremely feminine speaking with holy righteous fervor making everyone hearing the speech shout in agreement with everything.

Masked Individual "For now she was extremely displeased with us that even High brother Tyrian disappointed her for that we must work harder to please our Goddess. FOR THAT YOU MUST SACRIFICE YOUR LIVES FOR OUR PROGRESS WILL NOT BE STIFLED BY THE PROFLIGATES AND NON-BELIEVERS FOR THAT EVEN IF YOU GIVE YOUR LIVES THAT WE WILL MEET ALL OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS ONCE WE TRANSCEND." The Masked individual raised her fist showing the back of her hand revealing a tattoo that was on the back of Cinder. As everyone else raises their fist revealing the same tattoo shouting "for our goddess".