Author's Note: I'm on vacation until Monday night so it may take me extra time to respond to any comments.

Chapter 2

The following day effectively turned the Xiao-Long house into the new Beacon. Seven warriors focused on their training. The morning started with a long run through the forests around the house. Pyrrha and Yang had been doing that for two days already and were now joined by the rest. After that it was time for unarmed sparring and impromptu weight training. There were no proper weights to lift, but there were plenty of heavy objects in and around the house. Then came lunch. Taiyang put together a suitable meal, high in carbs and protein, that also happened to taste great. Cooking for the large group was a challenge, but one he had no serious difficulty with.

In the afternoon it was time for weapons practice. Yang and Pyrrha went back to abusing the local trees, today joined by Blake and Ruby. If they were not careful to restrain themselves, deforesting the area would soon become a real concern. Weiss focused on her glyphs and fenced an imaginary opponent. She tried to summon something to fight, but found it impossible without the stress of real combat. Ren set up an agility and shooting course for himself in the forest. He scattered small targets around then leapt from tree to tree shooting them. Nora went with brute force. The flora was clearly no match for her, so she set about reducing some rock outcrops to gravel with Magnhild.

It was not normal, but it was a routine the group could imagine becoming normal. Beacon was gone forever as far as they were concerned but they could live their lives. They all dreamed of becoming proper Huntsmen and Huntresses, and that could still happen even without professional guidance. Today Qrow stuck around and supervised. He made the occasional comment. "Nice form Ruby." "Bend your knees more Blake." "Nora, watch the shrapnel." Taiyang was there too but remained silent. He was still suspicious of Qrow's motives. A call he received on his scroll that afternoon only reinforced his concerns.

"I got an interesting call today." Taiyang said to Qrow.

"Yeah, what about?" Qrow asked. He took a sip from his flask.

"Apparently there have been a lot of Grimm sightings nearby." Taiyang replied. "Since last night as a matter of fact."

"Grimm wander around here all the time." Qrow said. "That's why you set up the alarms."

"Not this many." Taiyang replied. "Not since Ruby first woke up. Then it made sense. Yang was at her lowest point, Ruby was not much better, and who knows what was going through Pyrrha's head. It was all weighing on me pretty heavily too."

"What are you getting at?" Qrow asked. He took another sip, longer this time.

"We know Grimm are attracted to negative thoughts." Taiyang said. "Pain, fear, despair. It seems there's been a sudden spike since you brought four broken individuals to my house."

"I guess I underestimated how much of a difference they would make." Qrow shrugged. "I held off on bringing them until things were more settled with Yang, Ruby and Pyrrha. I guess I should have waited longer."

"Don't give me that crap Qrow, you knew exactly what you were doing." Taiyang accused. "Don't bother denying it. You went out this morning to clear the Grimm out. What are you up to?"

"I'm not up to anything." Qrow said. "I brought them here because it's the best thing for everyone, like I said yesterday. Their dark thoughts will clear up faster if they're among friends. Until then I'll deal with the Grimm. If you want, you can help out."

"You're a bad liar." Taiyang said. "For one, I can already tell you're building an army. Your assistance in their training tells me that. I can't imagine a sane purpose for that right now. The one thing I can't figure out is why you'd do that here. You could take them to Signal to train. It's much safer and the facilities are far better. They'd have real targets there. And don't give me crap about it being empty and lonely."

"I know you're being protective of your daughters." Qrow said. "You want them to lay down their weapons and be like normal kids their age. You want them to be safe at home with you. Well guess what? That's never going to happen. And that's not because of me or Ozpin or anyone other than them. They won't stop and there's nothing anyone can do about it. They're going to put themselves in harm's way. They're going to fight monsters. That's the choice they made. That's what makes them feel alive."

"It's too dangerous." Taiyang sighed. "I can't risk losing them too."

"You're right, it is dangerous." Qrow said. "It was dangerous when we were their age too but that didn't stop us. Do you think your parents could have stopped you? Of course not. All I'm doing is making sure they're ready. When the time comes, and it will come, and the danger is real, they need to be ready. Being ready goes beyond their skills. They need to be ready body and mind. If they're not, they won't last long. Not with the world the way it is now."

"I don't want you putting them in danger." Taiyang said.

"I already told you, if I don't they'll do it themselves." Qrow said. "If they're here where you and I can watch them, we can make sure they're not in too much danger. We can step in if things go wrong. If we try to stop them they'll just run away, and then who will protect them?"

"I will kill you if anything happens to them." Taiyang threatened. He was making that threat a lot lately. "That includes their friends too. They trust you. Don't abuse that trust the way Ozpin did."

"I'm not Ozpin." Qrow said. He drained what was left in his flask. "I won't watch passively while the world burns. I don't know why he did what he did, but I will not repeat the mistake."

The doorbell rang. Since word had reached Atlas of Weiss' probable death at the hands of the White Fang, a steady stream of friends, family and business associates had been stopping at the Schnee estate to offer their condolences. No one else was around to answer the door, so Winter walked over. She took a deep breath, put on a brave face and opened the door. Instead of a mourner, it was a courier. "Package for Winter Schnee." The courier said.

"That's me." Winter said.

"For your eyes only." The courier said. He handed her the package and rushed off before she could ask any questions.

Winter closed the door and looked around. There was no one nearby so she opened the package. Inside was a data disk. Whatever was on it was surely important so she immediately headed for her room. She loaded the disk into her computer and a video automatically started to play.

The video opened in a small window and it was initially difficult to make out what was happening. To further complicate things, there was no sound. Winter enlarged it and though it was a bit grainy, she could now easily tell what she was looking at. Weiss, bruised and bloody, was tied to a chair. Her teammate Blake was in similar condition and tied to a chair across from her. A man stepped into frame. He had horns on his head and wore a White Fang mask. All became clear.

The White Fang liked to film its torture sessions and executions, then send the videos to the families of the victims. It was another way to spread terror. Winter was watching video of her sister's death. She moved to turn it off but stopped herself. Something about the situation was wrong. First off, the White Fang didn't deliver videos via courier. That made them too easy to track. They generally preferred the tie it to a brick and throw it through a window method. Second, they would never want to limit the audience. The courier had indicated it was for Winter only. She forced herself to keep watching.

The man undid the binds around Blake's wrists and handed her a gun. Clearly he wanted her to execute her teammate. It was strange. The White Fang usually revelled in prolonged torture. There must have been something else going on but without sound it was impossible to tell. Blake and the man argued. The man stepped behind Weiss and pulled her head back by the hair, holding a knife to her face. More arguing. The man let go looking disappointed. Blake and Weiss leaned toward each other. Blake held the gun to her own head at an angle that would hit them both.

The door exploded off its hinges and a figure quickly flew in and out of frame. The man with Weiss and Blake looked up and drew his sword. He was about to execute the girls when a figure came rushing through the door and caught his blade with one of his own. Winter recognized the savior. It was Qrow! Qrow and the man from the White Fang fought briefly while Blake toppled her and Weiss' chairs to the floor to get out of the line of fire. The man from the White Fang fled. Qrow cut the binds that held Blake and Weiss in place. He retrieved their weapons and helped them up. There was a brief conversation. Weiss grabbed her scroll and smeared blood on it before tossing it on the ground. Then the trio departed.

The video cut to static before switching to a view of Qrow. There was sound now. "Sorry we made you think your sister was dead." Qrow said. As always, he was drunk. "She didn't want to be found and the best way to get her old man to stop looking was to make him think there was nothing to find. Don't worry about her, she's safe and with her friends. When things settle down a bit she'll be in touch. See you later Ice Queen." Qrow winked and the video ended.

"Qrow you son-of-a-bitch." Winter grumbled under her breath. "I don't know if I should kiss you or kill you. Maybe both."

The following afternoon training went on as it had the day before. There were a few shifts of focus but the combatants mostly stuck to what they had been working on previously. There was no adult supervision this time as Taiyang and Qrow both had business to attend to and were away from the house. That did not make the training any less productive though, if anything the students were more motivated than the teachers.

Everything came to a screeching halt as a deafening, high-pitched alarm sounded. "What's that?!" Pyrrha shouted over the din. The group all rushed together, unsure of what was happening.

"The Grimm alarm!" Yang replied. Ruby rushed to an electrical box on the side of the house and switched the alarm off. "That's the Grimm alarm." Yang continued. "My dad set up sensors around the forest to let us know if anything was getting close."

"Should we be worried?" Blake asked.

"It was probably just an animal." Ruby said. "We get a lot of false alarms."

Soon the group could hear the sound of rapidly approaching footfalls. "Maybe it's not a false alarm." Weiss said. She held Myrtenaster at the ready and faced the approaching noise.

Qrow came rushing out of the forest and headed straight for the group. As he reached them he fell to one knee. He was breathing heavily and appeared to be bleeding from his side. "We've got Grimm incoming." He warned. "Lots of them. I thinned them out a bit but there are too many for just me."

"You heard him!" Ruby said. "Get ready for a fight!" She turned her attention to her uncle. "Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll be fine kiddo." Qrow replied. "I just need a minute. And a drink." Ruby hesitated at his side while the others took up positions facing the direction from which he had come. "Don't worry about me! Get over there and fight!"

"Right." Ruby nodded. She charged off and joined the others.

"You're a madman." Taiyang said.

"You may be right." Qrow said.

"I will not have my yard become a warzone." Taiyang said.

"Where would you rather they fight?" Qrow asked. "I can lead them far away. Would that be better?"

"No, but…" Taiyang started.

"Trust me." Qrow said. "I'll make sure nothing happens to them. I'll even make sure your house doesn't get wrecked. I'll lure the Grimm in so they cluster up on the north side where there will be the most space between the treeline and the house. Then I'll thin them out a bit to make sure it's not too much. I come by playing injured, warn them, and they save the day. If things take a turn for the worse, you show up and pull their asses out of the fire."

"Is this really necessary?" Taiyang sighed.

"The last fight these kids have in their heads is a loss, and a catastrophic one at that." Qrow said. "It's eating them up inside. As long as that's the last fight they had, they'll never get better. They need something to boost morale, something to celebrate. Offing a few Grimm kills two birds with one stone."

Taiyang mumbled something about killing birds. "I'm staying nearby." He said. "I'm stepping in at the first sign of trouble."

"You do what you have to." Qrow shrugged. "Just remember, they need this and they need it to be their victory."

Ruby took up a position in the center of the defensive line with Weiss on her left and Yang on her right. To the right of Yang were Blake and Pyrrha, to the left of Weiss were Ren and Nora. The seven formed a shallow arc across the field between the treeline and the house, enough distance between them to allow each room to fight. There was a dull rumble accompanied by the snapping of twigs, the rustling of foliage and the occasional roar. The Grimm were closing in. Ruby swung Crescent Rose around, the weapon unfolding as she did, and slammed the blade into the ground with the muzzle aimed at the forest. The others took their stances and waited.

The first Grimm to emerge were Creeps. They were small and fast, easily able to navigate the dense foliage, but they were weak. There were dozens but they faced a firing line. Shots from Ruby's sniper rifle tore through multiple targets, Nora's grenade launcher blew clusters to pieces, sweeps from Ren's auto-pistols mowed them down and even at range Yang's shotguns were deadly. A few bodies flopped to the ground past the treeline but none made it out of the forest alive. The last few stragglers were easily picked off. It was only just the start. With their easily identifiable howls and roars echoing through the forest, the next Grimm to arrive were Beowolves. Some were felled by the defenders' bullets but they were stronger than the Creeps and almost just as numerous. The pack soon closed and it became a melee fight.

Ruby swung Crescent Rose back and launched herself forward. Her trailing blade sliced a Beowolf in two before she skidded to a stop and brought the weapon swinging around into another, bashing it in the midsection with the side of the shaft. She immediately fired. The blade slammed back and bisected the Grimm as the shot she fired blew the head off another.

Yang delivered an Ember Celica boosted punch from her Phoenix Wing to a Beowolf's chest. Her fist passed cleanly through it and burst out its back. She charged forward with the Beowolf's corpse still on her arm then stopped short. The corpse kept going and hit another Grimm, knocking it off its feet. Yang punched the downed beast's chin and the top of its head exploded in a spray of black and red. Another Beowolf slashed at her from the side. She caught its claws on Phoenix wing, spun around and punched it in the side of the head with her left, separating its head from its shoulders.

Blake lunged forward and ran a Beowolf through the chest with her blade. With a violent upward motion she ripped the weapon free as the dead monster dropped, almost split in half. Immediately another Beowolf swiped at her with its razor-sharp claws, but it got only her shadow. She pumped three bullets into it before lopping off its head with a spin. Another leapt at her but she dropped it with a single headshot before throwing her blade to hit a Beowolf that was attacking Yang squarely in the back.

Pyrrha thrust her spear up through a Beowolf's chin as it attacked her, the blade emerging from the top of its head. Another leapt at her but she lifted her shield and bashed it in the face. The Grimm staggered back, Pyrrha freed her spear from its fellow, then threw it. It penetrated the stunned Beowolf's chest, pushed it back, and impaled another behind it as well. With her semblance Pyrrha retrieved her weapon, only to throw it again, ending another beast.

Weiss did not wait for the Beowolves to come to her. She skated forward on her glyphs, running Myrtenaster through a pair of monsters. She leapt back as a third lunged at her then lanced a line of fire at it. The Beowolf burst into flames, squealing in agony as it flailed before falling dead. Ruby had missed one and Weiss was suddenly under attack from the flank. She drew a column of ice out of the ground that caught the attacker midair. With a strike the ice shattered and the Beowolf with it.

Ren ducked as a Beowolf slashed at his head. He hooked the beast under the chin with his blade and threw it at another that charged at him. The pair tumbled to the ground and Ren pounced, decapitating one with each of his weapons. Another attacked him from the side but Ren edged toward it, and caught it by the wrist. With one blade he severed its arm, then used his newly free hand to drag a blade across its throat.

Nora hit the first Beowolf squarely in the chest with her hammer. It exploded into a cloud of body parts. Keeping Magnhild in motion she slammed it down atop another's head, smashing it into the ground. Now using her hammer as a pivot she pole-vaulted into a kick that knocked one Beowolf into a pair of its fellows, taking them all to the ground. Nora converted her weapon to its grenade launcher form and blew the trio to smithereens. Then with Magnhild back as a hammer, she twirled around, obliterating Grimm as she made her way down the line in front of the other defenders.

By the time Nora reached the end of her path of destruction there were no Beowolves left standing. A few had survived and though broken and wounded on the ground they kept trying to attack. The defenders executed them with cold efficiency. Bullets were not to be wasted when a quick stab could do the job just as well.

"That wasn't so bad." Weiss said. She was a little out of breath but the day's earlier workouts had been more taxing.

"How do you not hear that?" Blake asked.

"Hear what?" Pyrrha asked.

"This isn't over." Blake warned. Soon they could all hear it, stomping, growing louder with every hit. Something big was coming. Maybe more than one something.