Misery Loves Company III

"We better leave, before someone notices we're here. We can deal with the aftermath later." Bending down, Ozpin gently lays his cane on Argento's body as he lifts him into his arms.

Walking to the ship, Summer hesitates as she looks at the carnage around them, but shaking her head she quickly boards the ship as well.

'If the mother and father were able to do this, then how strong will the child be?' This was merely a passing thought because her own motherly instincts were now overtaking the plethora of emotions she was assaulted with moments ago.

Being handed Argento, Summer sits in the copilot seat, cradling the boy for maximum comfort.

Exiting the ship once more, with pain clearly evident in his eyes, Ozpin materializes his magic in green color, to keep the appearance of aura use, and he lifts the bodies of his fallen friends into the ship.

Opening up a compartment at the back of the ship, a blast of cold could be felt as he gently lays the bodies onto the floor, which he quickly closes to get the ship away from possible detection or danger.

"Summer I have a request for you and Taiyang, but I believe it would be best if we went to your house first."

"Agreed. Chances are that one of Salem's people is able to monitor you so now should be our best chance, especially since we were both last seen together going to your office."

"Thankfully this ship has a stealth mode better than almost any form of detection available, so no one should have noticed our departure and no one will notice us going to Patch."

With the speed of the ship, in order to stay undetected, it took about an hour to reach Patch, but as they approached a well-sized house a decent distance away from any civilization two slightly tipsy men stumbled out of the house.

They stared in the direction of the technologically undetectable ship; although it was invisible, one could never underestimate the power of the soul and aura detection.

As it landed, the stealth mode faded, showing a ship only Atlas would be able to make, and as the door slid open both men put down their weapons, which had been ready to be drawn completely, because walking down the ramp was Summer, holding a child with that touch of motherly attention that couldn't be faked.

Directly behind her was Ozpin, with a more somber face than either of the men have seen him give.

Summer saw the men showing concern at the strength of the emotion they were seeing from Oz for the first time, and she gave the first bit of positive emotion since they left Beacon, which came out in the form of a beautiful chuckle.

"If that is enough to concern you both, you should have seen him cry earlier." Though Qrow would easily be able to say he would believe Summer's words in almost every situation, he could only give a look that portrayed his feelings of 'impossible' at such a thing happening, until Oz himself butted in.

"Summer, I would appreciate if we didn't dwell on my lapse in emotional control. We should get him inside; who knows how much strain has been on his body recently."

Though both men were in disbelief that THE Ozpin actually cried, they quickly focused on the second half of his words, now focusing on the kid in Summer's arms.

With fairly long hair that matched the silver of Summer's eyes, and a black shirt and pants that were torn all over, it was impossible to miss the mostly dried blood covering almost every inch of his clothes, though somehow not a single speck seemed to be on his body.

Deeming it reasonable to change the poor kid out of his clothes and into something else, once they get inside Qrow grabs his spare cloak and a pair of spare clothes to put him in for now.

With Summer's motherly instinct not letting her leave his side yet, and since his boxers seemed to be intact and clean enough with a cursory glance, they began changing him out of his clothes, to only stop before putting on his temporary ones.

Now lying on the bed was a well-built 12-year-old, all muscles perfect for his age (meaning not grotesque child muscles, but perfectly normal top-level fitness for a 12 year old), tall for his age, but that was not what caught the 4 adults' attention.

What caught their attention was the multitude of scars covering his body, from his shoulders to his calves. Some were deeper than others, but it was the collective thought process that no child should have this many scars all over their body.

Quickly finishing dressing Argento, Qrow can't help but furrow his brow.

"Oz, just who in the hell is this kid? And where did you find him?" At Qrow's words Ozpin sighs, and signals for them to follow. Though Summer didn't follow, and instead pulled up a chair to the bed's side.

"I'll stay with Argento, in case he wakes up." Getting a smile filled with love from Taiyang, the three guys then silently make it to the ship, where after pressing a few buttons on the console all light from outside is cut off, plunging the interior to complete darkness.

This however did not last long, as holographic screens popped up at the back wall of the ship, showing the recorded footage from earlier.

While the footage speeds up, it splits into three different screens, all showing different things. The first one to be addressed is the vast expanse of blood and bodies.

"What the…"

"I had been in my office, and as you both know Summer came to me with information from her last mission, but while we were discussing it an alarm went off."

Ozpin then went on to explain the alarm, what it was for, and just who this family was. This level of dedication to keeping a single family safe, his history with them, it was both a big surprise to the men but also a saddening thought.

None of them had ever been told about these two people, but from how Oz was talking about them they were just as strong and hated by Salem as he was.

"Their bodies are in the back of the ship…" Oz's voice broke slightly, causing him to stop and take a deep breath to steady his emotions again. "They're being preserved to give them the proper burial they deserve, for whenever Argento is ready."

"They sounded like good people. I wish I could've met them." Qrow, trying to cheer Oz up, went to him and put his hand on his shoulder, receiving a sad smile in return.

Trying to move forward, Oz swiped the screen to the side, pulling up the next one. This was of a small clearing, barely able to see through the trees, but there were signs of a battle occurring.

"The two dead bodies have similar outfits to the rest of them, but who killed them?"

"I'm not sure. I wasn't told about anyone else that went with them, so maybe the last one will…" As Ozpin was talking, he swiped away the second image, and pulled up the third, but his voice trailed as he saw statues of Grimm.

"Oz, are those what I think they are?"

"Taiyang, stay with Summer. Qrow, you're with me." With a nod, Taiyang jumped out of the ship as soon as the doors opened, it turned invisible, and sped off as fast as stealth mode let it.

Sighing, Taiyang went inside to tell his lovely Summer about what they saw, though he was not against being left more out of the action.

Now arriving about an hour later at the location of the petrified Grimm, an invisible, hovering ship opened its door, and a person and a crow could be seen going to the ground.

As Ozpin approached the ground a gentle ring of green surrounded him, slowing him down as he reached floor level, and the crow dove downward, stopping abruptly above the ground-level where he transformed back into his human form of Qrow.

Looking around, both men could immediately tell that these were petrified Grimm, and when they checked the two adults they found them both dead, and without silver eyes.

"Does this mean Salem has them? But when has she ever taken someone with silver eyes alive?" Trying to figure it out, Oz begins going through every silver-eyed warrior he could remember, looking around at the Grimm, and eventually resting his eyes on the two on the ground.

'Their rings match… married? Male and female, about the age of parents… could it be a child that was taken? Psychologically speaking, children are easier to indoctrinate, especially after such a traumatic event, but with their eyes it could simply be something she wishes to experiment with on a live subject… if anyone heard my thoughts they would think I was a villain.'

"Qrow, it's best if we assume that whoever was taken is very well dead. Could you destroy these petrified Grimm? She may already know, but we should try to keep others from finding them and asking questions; it could put them in danger."

Without answering, Qrow pulls out Harbinger, sets it to scythe mode, and begins looping the blade around the Grimm and throwing them at each other, shattering them on impact.

As they were getting shattered a green aura spread from Ozpin's body, enveloping the married couple, and began floating up to a seemingly empty point in the sky, which slowly 'opened' to show the inside of the advanced ship.

As he landed, opening the low-temperature container in the back, a sad look fell upon him as he lay the couple down next to the other two. The sound of wings flapping brought him back, and exiting the cold he found Qrow setting in the directions to leave.

'When will all this fighting finally end?'

<~20 hours later>

Having gotten back, Oz recommended no one leaves until Argento wakes up, so the three members of STRQ that were there spent the most time they ever have with Ozpin, not just in a meeting but actually WITH him.

It was an interesting experience for them all because their image of Ozpin was morphing, but it was in the right way.

They were seeing sides of him they had never seen before, and it was reminding them that despite how he normally seems and feels, Ozpin was only human.

At some point within the day, another invisible ship showed up, this one being a smaller-sized one, and out came Glynda.

This got questioning glances from Summer and Qrow, as Taiyang was busy entertaining the children, but Ozpin gave the understandable reason that keeping her in the loop would be for the better.

Now all collected in the room where Argento was still asleep, Oz found it time to talk about what they would do.

Opting to stand himself, Qrow was leaning in the corner of the room against the walls, Taiyang leaned/partially sat on a desk, Summer sat in a chair still by Argento's bedside, and Glynda stood by Ozpin, occasionally giving Qrow irritated looks that were mixed with concern.

By his side, and often in his hand, was a flask, which he would take a small sip of every now and again. He was not yet the alcoholic he would be, as he had the restraint to keep himself no less than half-sober at almost all times.

This did not stop Glynda's looks because she had seen many comrades run to alcohol to drown out the pain and sorrow this job could bring, and he was showing the beginning signs of it.

"You know, drinking that much can lead to an early death."

"Yeah, well so can fighting Grimm, other humans, spying and information gathering; and yet I'm still here, after making a career out of all 5."

"You-"

"Glynda, you can berate him all you want later, but now we have to talk about what we're going to do with Argento." With Glynda sighing at Ozpin's words, Summer finally brings her attention from Argento.

"Do you mean where we'll send him? Shouldn't we be having this conversation when he gets better?"

[Tai] - "Summer you saw that battlefield, how long do you think it would take for even an adult to get over all that?"

[Oz] - "I wouldn't put a normal child's perspective in mind when thinking about him. The Chrono family has always been filled with exceptional individuals, and they are rarely normal."

[Qrow] - "Well I vote to not be in charge of him. We all know how that would end up." As he said this, he took a self-deprecating swig of his flask, earning him a swift glare from Glynda.

[Glynda] - "Just because you have Misfortune that doesn't mean things will always go wrong; that's Murphy's Law*."

*(Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the worst possible time)*

[Tai] - "She does have a point man; just because there's some bad luck doesn't mean you can't get through it."

[Qrow] - "Who's side are you on?"

[Tai] - "I'm on the side of optimism."

[Oz] - "Though I do agree with Taiyang and Glynda on this, this isn't a forced position. If no one else would want to, then I would gladly take the position."

[Summer] - "But you can't because of Salem's surveillance, I assume?"

[Oz] - "Correct. That being said, this is what I had told you that I wanted to talk about on our way here. I was hoping you two could take him in." Taiyang looked over at Summer, motherly looking over the child, and smiled as he looked back at Oz.

[Tai] - "We would love to, but any particular reason why we are your first candidates?"

[Oz] - "A few. Firstly, you both have parental experience, so some things will come more naturally to you than others without children. Second, I can only take him in as a last resort because he will be noticed almost immediately if a single thing is done wrong. Third, no one will know him on Patch, and unless he went around screaming his Chrono heritage he should be relatively well-hidden here. And fourth, your children."

[Summer] - "Our children?"

[Oz] - "Yes, your children. People tend to underestimate the healing children give to damaged psyches. I do not intend to replace his family with others, but extending that family and giving him more people to share love with will be crucial to properly get over the grief of losing loved ones."

[Qrow] - "I think we all know the grief from losing someone that important never leaves." As he takes a swig of alcohol, to the chagrin of Glynda, they all don looks of remembrance, but are quickly brought out of it by rustling coming from the bed.

<Argento POV>

"~~~"

"~~~~"

"~~"

'Who is being so noisy this early? Man, my head hurts, did dad accidentally mix alcohol in my drink? Who am I kidding, if he did I wouldn't have a father anymore.'

Rustling around, the noise finally stopped, but an itching feeling all over my body wouldn't let me go back to sleep.

Reluctantly getting up, my body simultaneously felt like it wanted to never move again and like it needed to move. As I sat up, I rubbed my eyes, feeling my clothes being much more loose than normal.

Looking down, the first thing I notice is very big black clothes, making me think I must've somehow stretched my clothes.

But after noticing I was on a bed smaller than any I've used since my hospital trip when I was 4, I decided to look up, to find a face that looked just as familiar as it did unfamiliar; the one thing she did have though was silver eyes.

"Silver eyes…" As I kept looking at her concerned face, another face began overlaying hers, with extraordinary dark green hair, and inquisitive silver eyes. "Ivy?"

As her name left my mouth, a sharp pain rang through my head, forcing my eyes closed as I grabbed my head. I could hear some form of concerned words, but I was too engrossed in the absorption of every image running through my head.

All the blood, gore and death meshed together almost instantaneously, magnifying its normal effect it would have on me.

Then the battle finished, and it stopped at the image of my parents on their knees, bleeding profusely, smiling at me as they said their goodbyes.

So many emotions were running through my mind, that for the first time since Braxely I couldn't feel any of them. My brain couldn't handle the agony, so it did the only thing it could and shut down.

Having seen me wake up and then suddenly go into extreme pain and shaking was concerning for the others in the room, but then just as suddenly I stopped. And as I looked up, they all immediately knew why, as my eyes looked glossy and dull.

Then suddenly the smallest shred of hope bloomed in me as I remembered those that we let go first. With this minuscule hope, I looked directly at one of the two people a child would know from this group.

"Professor Ozpin, where are the others?" I looked him directly in the eyes, but seeing the look he gave back, I felt my emotions palpitate, bringing a surge of tears to my eyes. They refused to go any further, but they weren't going away.

"No… they had to have survived. We killed all those people, my parents fought for our lives while I just stood there barely surviving. We were their target. Surely you must have missed something when you found me?" My eyes refused to move from his, the hope in me slowly dying as my mind began trying to shut down.

"I am sorry Argento, but you were the only one there left alive." Though I couldn't see it, the light in my eyes faded even more, as the frown on my face became unmoving. I looked down at my hands, the blocking emotions keeping them steady even now.

"So they're gone? Just like that? Ivy and Trivia were only 12, they had so much life to live. Ivy's parents were some of the nicest people I've ever met, and my parents fought for this world as Huntsmen; they all deserved to live until old age. So why? Why am I the only one left?"

Finally looking up from my hands, a single tear finally escaped the confines of the hole I was burying my emotions in. All those in the room were finding it harder to keep their own emotions in check at seeing a child increasingly suffer more, and in particular, a motherly pair of silver eyes gained an ethereal shine to them.

"Everyone I knew, everyone I loved was on that trip. Without them, I'm alone in this world. I'm no better a person than them, so what right do I have to live? Why should I live, if none of them did?!"

Without realizing my voice had begun to raise, and more tears fell from my wavering eyes. The conviction to keep all of my emotions hidden away was swaying from the pressure it was building; like a dam about to burst.

Suddenly I felt a pair of arms tenderly wrap around me, making me flinch. My brain was in overdrive, not completely out of fight or flight, and under the assault of too many emotions to process them all.

"You are not alone in this world. We may not know each other, but we are all here for you." These words made my hastily built dam begin cracking under the truth I could feel as she said this.

"We may never know what you're going through, but you have to live, and if not for you then for them." Memories of everything I've experienced with the others began flashing through my mind. My arms began shakily moving to her back, as my tears began flowing harder.

"But in order to live, you must first let go. Remember these emotions, and strive to never have to feel them again." As my arms reached her back, I couldn't help but scrunch up the back of her shirt.

My eyes regained their usual shine, and as I let the dam of emotions fall everything came out at once, and I began crying. I cried out their names, I cried out curses, and in the end, I was just crying out noise.

My tears refused to stop as I wept harder than I ever have in either life, holding Summer tighter than I've ever held someone, afraid my only solace would be taken from me too. I've never felt more like a child, but I couldn't give a damn.

Images of my mom and dad drinking and laughing with Laela, Deagan, and Cromwell kept surfacing, fueling my tears even when they all dried up.

My throat became raw quickly, but ignoring the blood I could feel from it I continued to cry out, even when it went hoarse and damn-near silent.

And memories of all the time I spent with Trivia and Ivy caused me to hold onto Summer even tighter; I knew full well that it wouldn't bring their warmth back to me, but her warmth was the only light in my world right now.

Not once did Summer move away, readily accepting all of my grief as I poured it out of a seemingly endless pit of it.

What felt like an eternity passed: my tears had long since dried up, my voice had been lost who knows how long ago, and all strength in my body began slipping away.

As my very red and puffy eyes fluttered with my wavering resistance, I felt myself being placed fully back on the bed. I took a final look at the woman whose shoulder I cried on for however long, and with a final motherly smile sent my way, I passed out.