Chapter 2: Family

It was a normal day at Beacon. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the majority of Peter Port's students were asleep at their desks.

Ruby was only a little embarrassed to admit she was almost one of them. She was seated in the back row, as usual, alongside her team.

Wiess was diligently taking notes on her leader's right, while on her left, Blake was hiding a book under her desk. Yang, seated on Wiess's opposite side, made no effort to hide her boredom, doodling in the margins of her notebook.

Ruby glanced at the clock. Had it really only been a half hour?

Port himself didn't seem to notice his class's disinterest. He continued his story with the same jovial tone of a proud parent.

"And so, once again victori-"

Port paused as the door to the classroom quietly clicked open.

It was a teenager, roughly Yang's age if Ruby had to guess. He was wearing a Beacon uniform with a bag over one shoulder. His hair, a deep blue, reached his ears and his crimson eyes shifted uncomfortably as he made his way towards the professor.

Port didn't seem to notice.

"Ah, glad you could join us at last." He welcomed warmly as he was handed the note.

"Yes sir. Sorry for the interruption. I was held up."

Something was nagging at the back of Ruby's mind, some quiet voice nagging that this newcomer looked familiar.

"Just don't let it happen again." Port gestured to an empty chair. "Take a seat, Mr. Branwen."

"Branwen?" Yang snapped up immediately.

Ruby shot a worried glance at her sister. The newcomer had taken a seat directly in front of Yang and, as Port resumed his story, seemed oblivious to the blonde's curious glances.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the bell sounded, signalling the end of class.

"Remember, your papers on Grimm Anatomy are due on Monday." Port called as everyone packed up and left class.

Yang immediately tried to reach the newcomer, but quickly lost sight of him in the moving sea of school uniforms.

"Really, Yang?" Wiess chided, clearly unimpressed.

Ignoring the Schnee, Yang pushed her way through the crowd, disappearing from view.

"Yang! Wait up!" With a blur of rose petals, Ruby chased after her sister.

"What was that about?" Blake asked as she snapped her book shut.

"Who knows?" Weiss shook her head. "Lets just get back to the dorm."

Cobalt had taken a seat in the cafeteria near the end of a table with a tray of noodles when he felt a familiar presence. Smiling, he glanced up.

"Shouldn't you be on a mission, old man?"

"Don't call me old." Qrow grumbled.

"Last I checked, you have a seventeen-year-old kid. That doesn't exactly help your case." Cobalt laughed gently as he looked up at his father. "But really, shouldn't you be on a mission?"

"I'm on my way out." Qrow chuckled. "Just wanted to know how your first day was."

"Really?" the younger Branwen sighed. "Dad, I'm seventeen."

"I never sent you to school before. Let me have this."

"It was fine." Cobalt assured his father. "Uneventful and over quickly."

"So, you met 'them'."

Cobalt frowned, stirring his noodles with his fork. "Not yet."

Qrow shook his head with disappointment. "Kid, you know you'll have to talk to them eventually, right?"

"And I will." Cobalt assured the older Huntsman. "When I get the chance."

Before Qrow could come up with a reply, something short and very fast slammed into his side, throwing it's arms around him.

Ruby giggled as she came to halt against her uncle's side, rose petals dissipating behind her.

Qrow chuckled, ruffling her hair. "Hey, kid."

Before Ruby could respond, a very loud voice called from the cafeteria entrance.

"There you are!"

Cobalt flinched as Yang made a beeline for him, ignoring every student and stationary object that could get in her way until she reached her target.

"Hi." Cobalt greeted the blonde, turning his attention back to his noodles.

"Hey. I hear you're the new guy." Yang smiled flirtatiously. "I'm-"

"Yang Xiao-long." Cobalt cut her off. "I know."

Yang's smile changed from flirtatious to confidant. If this guy knew who she was, then he might have the information she wanted.

"You do?" Ruby asked as she released her Uncle, confused.

Cobalt glanced towards his father.

"Little help?" He mouthed.

Qrow shook his head with a small smirk.

Sometimes, Cobalt needed a little push.

"Well it's been fun, but I've got to run."

Cobalt's eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare."

Qrow smirked, turning to the door. "Have fun with your cousins, Cobalt."

Yang froze, looking towards her uncle's back as the key word of his statement clicked in her mind.

"Cousin?!"

Cobalt pinched his eyes in frustration.

"Damn it, dad."

By the time Yang and Ruby spun around, Cobalt had vanished.

"How much does he know?"

Ozpin frowned at Glynda's question.

"How much does who know?"

"Qrow's son." The headmaster's deputy clarified. "How much has Qrow told him?"

"From what I've been told, just what he needs to know, and only a cut down version." Ozpin replied, taking a sip of his drink. "His parentage has had an…unexpected side effect. Unfortunately, that will also make it much more difficult if he needs to be misled." The headmaster shook his head. "He knows there are things Qrow won't tell him."

"Does he-"

"He doesn't know about the Maidens, or 'Her'." Ozpin interrupted, placing his cup down. "But it's only a matter of time until he puts the pieces together.

Glynda nodded, looking at her scroll. "Then what can we do?"

"Train him and get him ready for what lies ahead. I believe that Cobalt will be a great asset to us, but if we attempt to restrict him too much, he'll only struggle harder to uncover the truth."

Ozpin's logic was sound, but Glynda still found one issue.

"He'll need a team. Even if he's as gifted as Qrow claims, he'll need support from his peers."

Ozpin chuckled slightly as he tapped an icon on his desk, bringing up an article.

It was a news report. The majority of the page was taken up by a picture of three men bound in thick rope to a street lamp. At the top off the image, the headline read: Vigilante Archer foils robbery.

"I believe," Ozpin began. "that Mr. Branwen will handle that himself.

"So, the new guy is your cousin?" Blake asked for clarification, looking up from her book.

After Cobalt's vanishing act in the cafeteria, Yang and Ruby had dashed around Beacon, finding neither hide nor hair of the blue haired youth. By the time the duo had returned to their room in defeat, the shattered moon had already risen high in the black sky.

"Yep." Ruby nodded.

Wiess frowned in confusion, setting her notebook aside. "And you've never met him? Why?"

"We don't know." Yang shook her head in frustration. "He just took off before we could grill him."

"Have you tried knocking?" The heiress asked.

"Knocking?"

"On his door?" Wiess clarified. When her teammates still didn't seem to understand she clarified.

"Third door on the left from us? I saw him going in there. I'm assuming it's his room."

Yang and Ruby stared blankly for a moment before Yang stormed out the door, her violet eyes turning a few shades closer to red as Ruby dashed after her.

Finding the door in question, Yang hammered her fist against it, the metal creaking in protest.

There was a quiet shuffling on the opposite side before the door slid open, revealing a completely unsurprised Cobalt.

"What took you so long?" He asked, rolling his shoulders.

"ARE YOU REALLY OUR COUSIN?!" Ruby exclaimed loudly, prompting Cobalt to sigh. He turned back into his room, gesturing for the siblings to follow.

The room was of a similar size to the girl's own, with three of the four beds pushed against the far wall and the one remaining settled into a corner. A pair of chairs had been set up, both facing towards it.

Cobalt led the red and yellow duo towards the set-up, taking a seat on the edge of his bed and gesturing to the chairs.

As the girls took a seat, Cobalt began.

"So, I assume you have questions?"

"Yeah, just who the hell are you?" Yang demanded, folding her arms.

"My name is Cobalt Branwen. My father is Qrow Branwen." Cobalt replied without looking away.

"So… you really are our cousin?" Ruby asked hesitantly.

"I am."

"That…is...AWESOME!"

Before either of her elders could react, Ruby launched herself forwards, throwing her arms around her newly introduced cousin.

Cobalt flinched at the contact, but Ruby didn't release her grip, clinging to his torso with vice-like strength.

"But why did we never meet you before?" Yang asked with a frown. "Where have you been?"

"There were…circumstances." Cobalt shook his head. "Look, I can't tell you everything. I don't know everything myself, but my dad said it was for my own safety." Before Yang could interject, Cobalt raised his hand. "Look, it's late and we have class tomorrow morning."

Ruby nodded in understanding, looking at her sister. "We should get some sleep too, Yang."

As the girls left, Yang paused in the doorway, looking back at her cousin.

"Cobalt?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to ask, do you know anything about my mother?"

Immediately, Cobalt's fists clenched. "Yang, I'm not going to help you find her, but if you're smart, you'll listen to me now. Raven Branwen is a selfish bitch that isn't worth a moment of your time."

Before Yang could say anything, Cobalt's hand snapped to the button beside the door, causing the cold metal to slam down, the lock-light blinking into existence a moment later.

It was a cold night, the small box heater doing very little in such a large space.

It was a large, abandoned warehouse outside of Vale's primary city that, for the past several years, a single man called his home.

He was older, closer to elderly then he would ever admit, with a thick, untrimmed beard and only a few thin, gray hairs atop his head.

He was standing at a metal bench, left behind when the warehouse's previous owners had left, typing furiously at a laptop computer. A thick cable ran from its side, towards a large container a few feet away, a faint green light emanating from between metal blinders.

"Come on…almost…"

Moments later, his compute began emitting a loud beeping noise, an error message flashing red on its screen.

Error: Insufficient Power.

"Oum Damn It!" The man roared, smashing his fist down on the bench.

He heard the door creak open behind him, but paid it no mind. The lock had been broken when he found this place and he hadn't the time or money to have it fixed.

"Having trouble, Doctor?"

The scientist spun on his heel, almost shielding the computer with his own body.

Strolling casually towards him was a young woman at the late end of her teens. She was wearing a thick, purple jacket that matched her shoulder length hair. Across her back was large shield, with what was obviously a weapon hilt sticking out the top. Her gaze didn't linger on her host, instead drifting casually around the room as she approached one of the abandoned shelves, swiping a fingertip of dust off the surface and rubbing it between her finger and thumb.

"Who are you?!" The scientist snarled. "How did you find me?!"

The teen didn't react to his harsh delivery as she turned her, of course, purple eyes towards him.

"I know who you are, Dr. Lazrin. Former highly respected member of the Atlas Military Robotics division. Designer of both the AK-130 and 200 models."

Dr. Lazrin's eyes narrowed, his hand reaching towards the pistol he had under his computer.

"Accused of unethical experimentation and exploitation by your superior. What was his name again?"

Dr. Lazrin's hand closed around the gun.

"Oh yes. Dr. Morrison Quill."

Immediately after hearing that name, Dr. Lazrin roared in fury, swinging his weapon to aim at the young girl.

But as he did, he felt something smash down on the gun, throwing off his aim.

The girl had closed the several meters between them in an instant, a hand going to her weapon hilt and, in one smooth movement, sliced the pistol cleanly in half.

Before the scientist could realize what had happened, the blade of a broad, toothed sword was next to his neck.

"Touch a nerve, did I?" The girl asked sweetly.

A cold sweat broke out on Dr. Lazrin's brow as his guest removed her weapon, slipping it back into its sheath.

"Let's try to prevent any bloodshed here, okay." She said as she took a step back. "Now, if I wanted you dead, Doctor, you'd be dead. In fact, I'm here to ask for your help."

"Help?" Dr. Lazrin hissed in disbelief.

"Yes. You see, I represent a…group that sees the potential in your research. The power it could unlock. The future. And to that end, I was told you approach and, hopefully, recruit you to our cause."

"And what would I get out of this…arrangement?" Dr. Lazrin asked warily.

"Resources, for one. The chance to finish what you started before Dr. Mor-"

"Do not say his name!"

"-Before you were cast out." The girl corrected herself, offering a hand. "So, what do you say? Will you meet my superior?"

Dr. Lazrin's eyes darted to the girl's weapon as he weighed his options before slowly reached out and accepting the offered hand, giving it a firm shake.

"And what do I call you?" He asked as he followed after the girl towards the door.

"You can call me Amethyst."

A/N: Sorry for the delay, but life happens, regardless of our intentions.