A Slave to Better Days: Absolute Zero | Male Reader x Raven Branwen

Epilogue - Part 2 (Final)

Yang had a script in her mind she had practiced until now, but when she saw Raven her mind went blank.

"Hey." Yang's mouth said on its own.

"Um, would you like to come in?" Raven said after a long silence.

"Sure." She looked back at Qrow.

"I'll wait out here." He said.

The inside was, unlike the outside, was clean, not a spec of dust anywhere. It looked like a regular apartment. There was a couch in the center of the main room with a coffee table in front. Bookshelves lined the walls behind it, and there was a small hallway on the other side that branched off into two other rooms.

"Here, have a seat." Raven pointed with an open hand to the couch. Yang sat and Raven got a tea kettle with two cups and sat in a chair opposite of her. "I happy you came. You've gotten so big." She waited for Yang to say something, but she kept her mouth shut. Raven poured tea in their cups before speaking again. "I don't know what to say here." She admitted. "If you have questions, or if you just want to yell at me, please go ahead."

"Why?" Yang asked. "Why did you leave me?"

Raven gulped. "I didn't want to." She said, holding onto the ring a chain held around her neck. "It was after your father died. And you had an older sister." This caught Yang by surprise. "Her and your father died suddenly at the same time." She took a deep breath. "I was a reck after that. I left you with Tai and Summer because I knew I couldn't give you a decent childhood after that. By the time I recovered, you were eight. I wanted to be in your life again, but you had already seen them as your family. I would've done more harm to you than good. I've been sending them money the entire time."

Yang wanted to be angry, and she was, but she was finding it harder and harder to hold onto that anger. "What happened to them?"

"They were murdered." Raven wiped a few tears away from her eyes. Yang's face completly fell.

Both sat there drinking their tea in a comfortable silence.

"I have some things for you that your father would've wanted you to have, but only if you want them."

Yang looked up at her. "What kind of things?"

"Well, a lot of stuff."

"Okay."

Raven disappeared into one of the other rooms. During the few minutes she was in there, Yang heard items being moved and a few loud bangs of items hitting the floor. She came back with a decently sized box which she set on the table. "This is everything he had."

Yang pulled out the box's contents. It was some random items, including a piture of (Y/N) holding her as an infant, a rifle that had seen better days, but was still maintained pretty well, a mask that felt like metal, and a scroll.

"The code to that is 80647. He has an audio journal he said he was going to give to his child."

"Why did he have this?" Yang holds up the mask.

"He said it was a prostedic. He did have some noticable scars on his face." She pulled out a stack of Lien and also puts it on the table.

"He wanted me to have this?"

"He would've. He saved a lot of money before he died, and I don't need it." Yang counted the stack. Her eyes widened when she finnished. "I'll give you more when you graduate from Beacon."

"How do you-"

"You're carrying those gauntlets on your wrists."

"But, why are you giving me this?"

"Like I told you, I don't need it. Also, I wasn't there for you. The least I can do now is give you a life your father and I could't have." She sat down in her chair again. "That's all he ever talked about after you were born. It was the happiest I had ever seen him anytime he held you." Tears lined her eyelids. "Him and I were only able to spend a year together, but it was the best year of my life."

"You mentioned I had a sister?" Yang said.

"Y-yeah. Your father took her away from her negleful parents, and she just started calling us mommy and daddy." Now the tears fell onto her lap.

After an hour, Raven and Yang where exchanging goodbyes. Raven hugged Yang, catching her by surprize. "I love you." She kissed Yang's forhead. Yang returned her hug.

It was night when Yang returned home. The rest of her family was already asleep. She snuck her way upstairs with everything Raven had given her. She was going to sleep, but remembered the journal her father had made. She told herself she would only listen to a couple of his entries, but ended up staying up the entire night listening to it. She was listening to someone who was a stranger to her, but was still facinated nuntheless. His first entries were awkward; it was just him talking about events that happened at Beacon. He sounded full of energy and seemed like a guy who just enjoed life, but there was a massive time skip in the dates. The next entry was made by a whole other person. "They're dead. They're all dead." He said at every begining. At one point Yang started crying. He described the event as if he was watching from outside his body. She had only gone through a quarter of the entries when she fell asleep.

As Summer exited her room, she saw a light on in Yang's room. She crept her way to the door and slowly oppened it. Inside was Yang sleeping, still in her clothes, and a box with... (Y/N)'s old rifle sticking out of it? After staring for a minute, not believing it was really there, she slowly walked to the box and took out the rifle. (Y/N) had made it when he was thirteen, completly on his own. He would never let anyone else touch it, but he let Summer shoot a few shots out of it one day, that's how she got a massive bruse on her shoulder. It was clear as day that someone was well maintaning the gun recently. After her nastolga trip, Summer looked over to Yang to make sure she was asleep. She felt bad for going through her bother's stuff, now Yang's, but couldn't help her curiosity.

Three Months Later

Yang and Ruby finally arrived at Beacon Academy. Both looked at the tall building with astomishment and wonder. As Yang left Ruby and followed her friends, she saw a giant stone slab with the words 'In Memory of Team (Team Name)', and it listed ever team member's name, one of them being (Y/N) (L/N), which looks fresher than the other ones.

"Did they seriusly fix his name again?" She heard a studnent say. She turned around to see a team of stundents (probably third-years) looking at the memorial. The studnet walked up to (Y/N)'s name with a knife. Just as she was about to make a cut, Yang grabbed her wrist.

"Leave it alone." She said with nothing but veniom in her voice.

"Why are you protecting him? He murdered his entire team!" Yangs eyes turned red and started crushing the studnets hand. "Okay! I'll leave it! Just please let go!"

As students started launching off the side of the cliff, a certain bird watched the young brawler from a distance.

Can you see her, (Y/N), Laura? Our little girl has grown into a stong, beautiful, and determaned young woman. I know you're worried, but I promise I will look out for her until the day they put me in the ground. I know you'd ask me to look after your niece as well, (Y/N), and I will, but I know I won't have to do much; Summer and Tai have taught them well. Oh, there she goes. That means I have to go as well. I love you, both of you.

The bird flew from the tree, heading deeper into the forest.

THE END