Chapter 1: A Lost Soul

The forests were ablaze. How could she have known? She had gotten too cocky, too predictable and now she paid the ultimate price as she led the few survivors from their camp. They started with three hundred and sixty-eight, now they were down to seven. A strong, proud clan of mercenaries, cutthroats, anarchists, freedom fighters, bandits, all wiped out by the Grimm. The horde surrounded the camp; they were able to hold them off for so long, but they just kept on coming, killing anything they could get their claws on. Men, women, children, all torn apart by the vile beasts.

Her people, torn apart before her very eyes. She managed to cut a swathe through the horde to lead the handful of survivors into the mountains at the cost of the rest of the village. Rule number one: The strong live, the weak die. She reminded herself as she led the last of the clan up the rocky path.

She scanned the rocks through her Nevermore mask, her hand on Crimson Wing, her trusty dust blade odachi. She stopped a moment, waving the survivors on as her eyes lingered at the forest ablaze, smoke rising up from the forests. There was a pang of regret leaving them behind. She let out a sigh Rule number two: As long as one of us lives, the tribe continues on. She mentally recited the mantra that her parents passed from their parents, and so on, and so on. She turned her back, hefting her cylinder sheath as she covered the rear.

The light of the sun slowly faded away heralding the darkness that was to come. The woman with the Nevermore mask finally made it back to the camp, carrying a deer on her back. Her red and black kimono combat clothing hid the blood fairly well. She was never one for style, fashion, or appearance; such things were mundane. Weak.

She dropped the dear by the fire. "Master, what do we do now?" One of the younger tribesmen asked.

"Survive." She said caustically as she wiped her hands with a cloth. The survivors looked at one another. This was their leader. The one that had been leading them for two years. The leader that had constantly launched risky raids. But this raid was too much, they bit off more than they could chew. They warned her, but she failed to heed their advice.

Now they paid for it. "What about the others? Should we not search for them?"

"If they were meant to live, then would have done so. If they died, they were weak."

The survivors grumbled in discontent. That might have been true for the stragglers, but for the entire tribe? No, these were unusual circumstances. "You caused this!" An elderly man stood up, his pockmarked face contorted by the pain of his family. "You have doomed all of us. We knew Qrow should have led us. He was always the smart one."

The woman's reached towards the hilt of her sword as her red eyes shown with fire through the mask giving the image of a demon from hell. "He betrayed the clan. I did my duty." She growled.

"By what?! Getting us all killed?! Your mother wasn't even this careless." The old spat at the ground in front before her thigh high black boots. Without any hesitation she drew her blade, a long red blade odachi blazed through the air pointed at the man's throat.

"Question my authority again." She dared quietly. "And I'll cut you down myself." The only sound that was made was that of the wind being funneled in the snowy mountain top. "I am the one who will guarantee the survival of our tribe. No one else."

The old man did not back down. He pressed himself up against the blade. "The tribe's safety or your own? Raven Branwen, I denounce you as the leader of the clan. I invoke Negare." The survivors gasped at the old man's audacity for challenging the leader's authority. For countless generations, the Branwens had been the leaders of the clan. Now… she would have to fight them to remain in control. The old man held out his, not caring about the tip of the blade at his neck. Something in the woman broke away, she conflicted, so incredibly conflicted, confused, and something that she never felt before. Scared.

It was as if who she was just shattered. She tried to remain as calm as possible as the dam broke from within her. Of flood of emotions, memories, and thoughts came rushing, mixing and swirling, threatening to drown her in her own thoughts. She could feel herself, see herself as if in out of body experience. Then nothing. As sudden the flood was, it simply ceased.

Nothing. No feelings, no thoughts, just an empty feeling, a hollowness, a black hole that threatened to consume all of her, literally. She inhaled slowly trying to calm herself as she brought back in the real world. She blinked, looking at the old man, her sword at his throat.

"No." Why did she say no? She would have said yes! She would have risen to the challenge. Raven took a step back, taking the mask off, revealing a youthful, yet pale face that only enhanced her crimson eyes. She hitched the mask to her belt as she sheathed the blade. She would have cut him down without hesitation for this, yet she couldn't do it. She didn't understand. She couldn't understand. Much to her anger and horror, she found her blade, her hand, her arm unwilling to move. She took several steps back, slicing through the air, realizing she couldn't summon her portals. What the hell! How couldn't she use her semblance?! In fact, she couldn't even feel her aura anymore. It was if she lost her aura.

She took a few more steps back as the old man kept approaching her, his eyes transfixed on the mask. She looked at the pass; there were only two ways to go. Back down the mountain, and into the possibility of running into the horde of Grimm, or continue up the mountain pass.

The old man kept approaching her, Raven Branwen, the one that does not run away from a challenge, ran. She ran up the mountain. She climbed as far as she could as the snow continue to fall the ground. First a few flakes then a downpour.

The one thing echoed in her mind as she trudged on hour by hour as she attempted to warm herself. Eventually, the sun rose, offering some warmth, but it didn't help the coldness she felt in her core. She truly lost everything. There was nothing. No family, no tribe. The normally stoic, calm, and cold woman felt something deep in her a certain yearning that she never experienced. She came up to a fork in the pass. She stopped feeling something was off, terribly off with her.

She felt light headed, almost sick to the stomach with blurry vision. She brought her hands up in front of her eyes noticing a similar dark red glow. She knew going left meant off the mountain, yet she found herself being pulled to the right, further up the mountain. She wanted to head left, down the mountain, out of the snow, yet she found being pulled to her the right, towards the snow covered path that led further up the mountain.

She shook her head, her black mane of hair, spiked as if crest of feathers, swooshed back and forth. What the hell is going on? She thought to herself. Why would she be compelled to climb the mountain? Why the hell was her aura reacting the way it was. Something is horribly off.

Then she heard it. A whimper of pain that struck her to the core. Reviving some kind of feeling that she lost. She felt something never felt: fear and panic. Something irrational, something almost primal to it which knocked the wind out of her.

She collapsed on the snow covered ground, clutching her stomach as she panted. "What…. The… hell….." She breathed as she sucked in the air. She closed her eyes trying to settle this new feeling.

She managed, but she had to bury it with all of her willpower as she pushed herself off the ground. She sighed realizing that she had to follow her own creed. Everyone gets one save. She gripped the hilt of the sword hearing the howls of the beowolves up the path. She ran towards the cries for help only to happen across a small encirclement of three beowolves howling and clawing at a rocky outcropping.

Her crimson eyes narrowed on the sight of a rare snow tiger with a pure white fur coat. Grimm don't attack animals…. She thought to herself as she watched the cub hiss and cry out weak meows. By the sound of it, it sounded only a couple of weeks old. It shouldn't have been able to cry out to the point where she heard down the mountain pass.

She watched the small feline paced in circles along the outcropping crying as the Grimm viciously clawed and howled at the baby. Then it happened, it's winter blue eyes locked onto her crimson eyes.

"Please….."

Raven instantly drew her sword. "HEY!" Her voice boomed out as she walked confidently as she found her very soul, her aura, freely flowing outward as if coated in a dark fire. She stepped closer and closer to the beowolves as her aura glowed in even more intensity with each footstep as a new color was introduced ever so slightly. A light blue. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" She called out pulling her sword out. The Grimm slowly turned, their red, glowing eyes staring right at her.

How did I know it was a boy? It didn't matter though as the three Grimm charged her together, snarling for an easy kill.

Easy. She dashed forward and with one graceful slash, disemboweling all three Grimm, their remains falling to the ground, disintegrating in black smoke. She sheathed her blade as the snow-white cub continued to hiss and whine as if he were terrified.

She took a few steps forward only to be met with even more hissing and clawing at the air, his blue eyes filled with fear. She should leave it. She wanted to. Why the hell was she wasting her time with this animal? Yet her aura reacted so strongly to this baby.

Realizing he was terrified of the blade, she sheathed it slowly which seemed to calm him down a little bit. She took a hesitant step forward as the cub watched carefully. She could almost feel his heart pounding. She could almost feel its fear. "Hey…" She said gently, slowly lifting her hand up. "I'm not going to hurt you." She tried to reassure her.

Why the hell was she talking to this cat? It's an animal, it can't understand what she was saying.

"You promise?" She heard a young almost child-like voice ask, causing her to freeze in her tracks. No, she didn't hear that. She wasn't going insane. She blinked at the cat as he brought his paws over his flattened ears as if trying to protect himself, its two eyes looking at her inquisitively.

She couldn't believe she was doing. I didn't hear that, She told herself. "It's alright. I'm here to help." She slowly reached her hands up as the cub perked up, his ears perking up as he stood up on all fours.

To her surprise, she found herself able to lift the cub up easily off the ledge and brought him in closer. Sensing the fear of the animal, she gently cradled him as if a newborn. An image flashed in her head of a certain blonde baby. Yang…. Her baby. Her child that she abandoned.

A small paw clawed at her shoulder dragging her out of the new memory. Her stoic, cold red eyes looked down at two small blue feline eyes staring at her. For some reason, she found herself doing something she hadn't in a very very long time, smiling. As if responding, the cub started to purr causing her own smile only to grow. She could see something happen to the cub, the snow white fur on his head started to develop small streaks of black as the woman cocked her head questioningly seeing the black streaks continue to develop over the once pristine and pure white fur. Yet the cub didn't seem to mind or even notice. He just simply nuzzled his head to her causing her smile to grow even slightly larger.

For some reason, she knew that this animal wasn't going anywhere now. For good or bad.


A/N

Hey guys! So... I had an idea for a story...

Yes this story will be centered around Raven, but we will see other characters such the rest of STRQ, RWBY, and JNPR. This will be an AU. That being said, this chapter starts two years after Yang's birth. Let's keep that in mind.

And Negare is Welsh for banish (or so I've looked up...) I'm sure Welsh speakers could correct me xD.

Soooo... hopefully you guys enjoyed this new idea... and we'll see where this goes. If you liked the story, please feel free to leave a fav, follow, pm, and/or review. All these things help to gauge where I'm at as a writer. I would to hear reactions, thoughts, questions, predictions, criticism, any and all are welcome.

Thanks for reading, always appreciated.