Chapter Text
Maybe red's like roses? Maybe it's the pool of blood
The innocents will lay in when in the end, you fail to save them
Their dying eyes are wide and white like snow
And now they know the cost of trusting you's obliteration
“Qrow Branwen, you are under arrest for the suspected murder of Ace-Operatives Leader Clover Ebi.”
Qrow’s throat was hoarse. The most prominent thing he felt as he was dragged from Clover’s body. His hands were restrained by the gravity bolas and they sat him down in the Manta, next to a now awake Robyn.
He stared off into space as the vehicle rose to air, not acknowledging the Atlas Military personnel sitting on the other side.
Clover. Clover’s dead. Because of him.
He never should have let Harbinger out of his grip. Turning his head, he noticed the weapon leaning on the wall. Still covered in blood.
Inhaling sharply he looked away.
Fucking Tyrian. He won’t deny teaming up with him was foolish. Tyrian had this disgusting way of getting under his skin, ever since Oniyuri.
Qrow didn’t think he’d go that far, but the stress and betrayal got to him. The only thing he wanted was for Clover to stop and choose the better course of action.
Choose him.
Remembering the physical and metaphorical weight in his hands, Qrow slowly opened his palms to look at Clover’s pin. The blood on it had started to harden, but he couldn’t bring himself to wipe it off the four-leaf emblem. Lucky charm my ass.
If Clover’s semblance was more powerful, maybe it would have been him who died. Really would have been better off.
Logically, Clover’s luck should have protected himself, and Qrow’s misfortune would have doomed him. But death isn’t logical. Least of all, Tyrian isn’t logical.
Suddenly feeling a weight on his shoulder, he looked up at Robyn, who gave him a reassuring glance. That’s right, she had also known Clover personally. Qrow didn’t know much but Clover had said something about attending Atlas academy together.
She must have seen Harbinger when they boarded the ship. She should see him as the heartless murderer.
“What happened?” Robyn inquired, keeping her voice down in front of the guarding officers.
Qrow sighed. “I killed Clover.” It wasn’t the truth but, did it matter?
He saw Robyn’s eyes widen before he looked back at his hands.
“Really?” there was disbelief and grief in her voice.
“Well,” Qrow gave out a low huff, “technically Tyrian did. But he used my scythe and you were unconscious, so.”
“Plus it was my fault, so there’s no point in nitpicking the details.” Qrow was ready to blame himself and go to jail. What was the point anyway, with his perfect match dead by his own carelessness?
A “Hey, what are you doing?” from one of the guards startled him out of his bright thoughts. It seemed to be directed at Robyn.
Out of the corner of his eye, Qrow saw a single red patch of aura on his shoulder. He looked up at the owner of the hands the aura originated from and raised an eyebrow at her.
Robyn looked at him for a meaningful second, then turned to the guarding officers.
“My semblance lets me detect if a person is lying or telling the truth. As you can see, he believes Operative Clover’s death was his fault, even though it wasn’t.”
The officers looked at each other in doubt, then back at the two of them.
“My semblance has never been wrong before.”
One guard cleared his throat, “That may be true but we need to fact check that. Branwen is still under arrest for being a wanted person though, so he isn’t going anywhere soon.”
Robyn nodded and removed her hands from Qrow. He didn’t know how to feel about that. He didn’t really feel anything at the moment, least not anything he could identify.
Leaning back to rest his head on the wall, he tried to spark some friendly conversation. Redirecting his thoughts would be good at the moment, “That’s a handy semblance you have there. Could do a lot as a detective of some sort.”
Robyn chuckled. “I took on the role of a politician out of necessity, but you couldn’t pay me to be a cop.”
“That’s fair.”
Qrow looked to the ground in front of him. His shoes were wet, from fighting in the snow.
His knees were wet too, but not only from the snow.
He looked to the ceiling. What does a guy have to do to get some unbothered staring scenery in this town? Just a single thing to look at that doesn’t make him feel guilty or sad or whatever the fuck those other emotions are, that you’re supposed to feel in this kind of situation.
He should never have gotten attached. He should be used to this.
He was around to help when Tai was devastated after Summer. He probably did a lot of good for Ruby and Yang, seeing how attached they are to him.
He pretended to not realize, that when he was present, Ruby had many more accidental falls and scratches than usual. Tai kept dropping things, probably not only because of his exhaustion. Yang had never gotten gum stuck in her hair before, but with him there...
Qrow really thought they were compatible, soulmates even if such a thing exists.
Matching semblances, Clover could possibly cancel his out. He could have felt safe around people again, spend more time with his family, after they beat Salem…
If there was even going to be a happy ending for them. Ozpin doesn’t have a plan so Qrow sure the fuck doesn’t. He has no god damn idea what those kids are going to do, or how they’re going to do it.
They really could have used some luck in the hypothetical Final Fight, huh.
God, he needed a drink.