Prologue (Volume 1)

"What do you mean, 'she's not coming back', Qrow?"

The rain was pouring down heavily outside the Xiao Long-Rose family home. On the inside, Taiyang Xiao Long, a Hunter and father in his early thirties with pale blonde hair and blue eyes, sat on his couch in his living room with his two daughters, looking with confused eyes at the drenched person standing in his doorway, who had just brought him important news in the middle of watching television; Qrow Branwen. At the same age as Taiyang, he stood exactly six feet tall, had spiky black hair with bangs that looked suspiciously like feathers, dark crimson eyes, thin eyebrows, and a slim yet muscular build. His grey dress shirt that was folded at the collar and folded back by a lot at the forearms, his black dress pants, and his black combat shoes were all soaking wet due to the rain. The rain also hid the fact that he had been crying on his long journey here.

The youngest of the two daughters, a five-year-old with black hair falling to her neck that was dark red at the tips, a round face and big, round silver eyes jumped off the couch and walked up to Qrow. "Uncle Qrow? What's wrong? Where's mommy?" she said, looking up at him with curious eyes.

Qrow couldn't handle the guilt from looking at her, as she was a spitting image of the mother she had just lost, and moved his gaze back up to Taiyang. "It's exactly as I said, Tai. Summer's gone. She was…taken. By them. Probably for her eyes. They ambushed us on our mission. In fact, I think the whole point of the mission was a façade set up by them. And you know what happened the last time someone was taken."

Tai was still in shock, in denial. He just couldn't believe his wife, the loving mother of one of his daughters and the equally loving step-mother of the other, was just gone for good after not seeing her for nearly a week. And then, he was frustrated. Angry. Upset. At the thought that he would never get to see her next to him whenever he woke up in the middle of the night, never eat her delicious cookies, never receive her love or see her care for her daughters anymore. A passing thought directed a part of his anger towards Qrow.

"Do you think…you're partially at fault here?"

"What?"

"Your Semblance. It's simply misfortune, isn't it? I knew it was a mistake for Ozpin to send the two of you together."

Qrow stared at Tai, wide-eyed, in disbelief at what he just said. But, before he could respond, he thought about what he said, and was even more depressed, because it could have been true. "Heh. Knowing my bad luck, you may even be right." he said, looking down with a sad smile.

The two daughters were looking back and forth between the men. While the daughter next to Qrow was too young to understand, the other one on the couch was older and seemed to have picked up the situation. Her lilac eyes got watery and her voice wavered. The seven-year-old turned her head to look at her father, with no regard to her blonde hair partially blocking her view. "Dad…is mom really gone?" she mustered, stammering, tears beginning to flow out of her eyes. Tai turned to her and teared up from the look on her face, too.

"Yes, my little dragon. And I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything."

***

The downpour was as heavy on the day of the memorial, at Summer Rose's favorite place; a cliff with a gorgeous view of nature, mountains, and sunsets. However, this view was blocked out by the mist and clouds from the rain. Many people, all wearing black, stood around a stone block embedded onto the ground of the cliff. It had Summer Rose's emblem and words below them. Below her emblem, it read:

In honor and loving memory of

Summer Rose

"Thus Kindly, I Scatter"

Taiyang kneeled at the stone, remembering how Summer had told him one time during their time at Beacon about how she thought it would have been 'cool' to have "Thus kindly, I scatter" written on her gravestone, and that memory formed a sad smile on his face. He watched as his older daughter, Yang, placed white roses next to Summer's grave. When she returned, he gave her a tight hug, both of them tearing up. This hug was released as the younger daughter, Ruby, accompanied by Qrow, ran up to them. "Go on", Tai said. "Put your roses on the other side of Yang's, okay?" Ruby nodded at this and walked up to the stone, placing red roses to the right of the stone, opposite to the white roses her sister had placed before. She then stood there, remembering the warm smile of her mother, and cried silently. When Tai called her back, she ran up to him and hugged him, to which Tai responded by wrapping his arm around her, holding her close. 'You seeing this, Summer?' Tai thought. 'Your daughters really loved you, just like you loved them.'

'And if…by a miracle, you're still alive…I hope you stay safe, so that you can come back to us.'

Later that day, the clouds had cleared up, and people were leaving. A slender man with silver hair and small, shaded, circular glass spectacles, standing six feet and three inches, an inch taller than Tai, shook his hand and patted his shoulder. "We humans can move on from even the toughest of times. I hope you and your daughters find the strength in yourselves to do so.", he said, before departing.

"Ever the optimist, huh?" said a familiar voice to Tai. He turned to see Qrow looking at him with a soft smile. He returned it with an irritated expression. Qrow sighed, and said, "Look, Tai, I kno-"

"Qrow. I know it's not your fault. Or at least, entirely. And I'm aware of how immature and illogical it is of me to blame you. But inside my heart, I can't help but feel you're partly responsible for all this." Before Qrow could finish, Tai interrupted him. "This won't ruin our relationship, but to be perfectly honest, it could interfere. But, anyways. For now, I'm just going to say a few words for the future. After these two and I are done being sad, I'm going to push them forward. I'm going to give them all the happiness I can over here, and then prepare and strengthen them for what awaits them in the future. I already know very well they're both going to aim to be Hunters, regardless of the risks. Besides, I'm sure Ruby is going to try to follow in your footsteps. She admires you and wants to be like you, even at this age. And Yang…after what happened last year, I'm sure she's going to go out looking for Raven. Just please…keep doing what you did back then, even when I'm not around, and do your best to not let your burden get in their way. Protect them. Keep them safe. That's my only request to you for the future. And, if possible, let's not discuss this loss any more than we need to."

Qrow looked at him with shock. "Tai…thank you. Honestly. I was going to do my best to protect them even if you hadn't mentioned it. It's the only way I can make it up to Summer and you."

As Qrow watched Tai and his daughters leave, he saw him turn around and look at him, intending to speak. "Oh, and one last thing. When it's time, be sure to train Ruby the best you can. I can't teach her all the fighting when she wants to be like you, right?" Qrow smiled back at him to this. Once Tai could not be seen anymore, Qrow heard the familiar croak from a familiar corvid.

"Raven…why couldn't you have just showed up like a normal person?" said Qrow, to the corvid that was now flying around him.

It shapeshifted – or rather, reverted – into a human form in front of him; a woman with a fair complexion, jet black messy hair, dark crimson eyes, and a cowlick at the top of her head – which, in Qrow's eyes, threatened her serious image – who was wearing a long black dress and black heels.

"You know I can't allow myself to meet Tai and Yang. But, more importantly…you think this was your fault, right?" said Raven, pointing her chin to the stone.

"Least you could do is respect the stone, Rave. Especially after all this time. Wasn't she your favorite?" Qrow replied, scowling at her.

Raven looked at him, and then back at the gravestone. "I'll take that a yes. Even though there wasn't a body, you guys just set up a gravestone and said she was dead."

"What else should we assume, Raven?! She was taken by that woman, for crying out loud!"

"While that is a fair argument, it doesn't rule out the possibility of her still being ali-"

"So, what, we should've just let Tai and his daughters continue to suffer with the infinitesimal hope of her still being alive for the rest of their lives?!"

Raven sighed, and then moved on. "I'm not going to say this isn't your fault at all, because I know better. Besides, you leaving the tribe for Ozpin has left a sour impression of you now. None of us want you back anymore."

"Save the emotional blackmail, because we all know the real reason they never wanted me in the first place. Besides, that's perfectly fine with me. I'm not interested in joining in on your selfish ways when there's a bigger fight going on here."

Raven sighed again. "Qrow…fine, whatever. Now, Summer…honestly, I'm still a little surprised myself. But…she was like the glue of Team STRQ. Without her, none of us would have been able to work together. She really was a reliable and dependable leader, not only in a fight, but also for your heart…With her gone, I doubt the rest of us in STRQ will ever be able to come together again, considering all our...little conflicts. So, I'm here to say goodbye. To Tai. You and I will probably meet from time to time, but Tai…like I said, I can't allow myself to meet him, and STRQ isn't ever coming back together again, either."

Qrow simply scoffed. "Should've saved that for an honorary speech. Oh, right, you didn't attend." Raven glared at him before transforming into a corvid again and flying away. As Qrow was walking back, he pulled out a hip flask he had kept in his black coat.

"Never knew alcohol could be so good." he said, as he chugged from the small flask.