Chapter Beta - DioRezi

"Thank you for joining me on such short notice, Schnee."

"It was no trouble, General. Honestly, I only wanted to return home to check up on my sister."

"Ah, Young Weiss. How is she doing?"

"She was indisposed," she lied, "I haven't had a chance to speak to her."

"I thought that was the case, considering we had a report not two days ago from Haven Academy of four groups in fighting on the school grounds. One witness has even gone on record to say that they saw students fighting, including a 'fair haired girl who looked a lot like a Schnee'."

"I… I apologize for misleading you about her wellbeing, General, although I do still stand by the fact that it was her I returned home for."

The high ranking General sighed. "Whilst I normally dislike my men blatantly lying to me, I knew exactly where she was and what she was doing, whereas you were unaware of her status, and so I am willing to be slightly lenient."

"Thank you, sir."

"But why lie?" he inquired. "Why not say that she wasn't there?"

"…It's a ridiculous reason sir, no need to fret over it."

"And yet here I am." The Specialist gave in; that's why he was the General, not her.

"I didn't want you worrying about her safety as I had been." With another sigh, the General lay a hand on her shoulder.

"Winter, you and Weiss are incredibly strong individuals, both of the mind and of the body. In following your ambitions as either a Huntress or a Soldier, you have shown that you already possess more of a positive drive than your Father. And you've proven to be a much more entertaining sight than him too. Your little demonstrations, while destructive at times, are always a good laugh for me, at least."

"I have no idea what you're talking about sir, I do no such things."

He chuckled. "A sense of humour on both of you as well, more than Jacques ever had, and probably ever will." Ironwood moved around the table once more, looking out to the azure horizon of the day. "My guess would be that she would have wanted to tell you this story herself, but during the time she was still at home, Weiss managed to summon a Boarbatusk to her aid in the middle of a gala and made it charge at one of the patrons attending."

"Weiss summoned?" she checked, a prideful smile growing without restraint.

"She did. Effortlessly too. My guess is that this wasn't her first either, considering what you mentioned your first summoning experience was like."

"Well, I'm glad she managed to do that. I will congratulate her myself when I next see her."

"Right, there was a reason I asked you here." The high ranking military man sat back at his desk, grabbed a file from the top of his pile and handed it to the Specialist as he began briefing. He prefaced it with a quick comment of "the reports I mentioned earlier are in there too." She took note, then waited for her mission.

"As I said, there was a battle at Haven Academy last week, on the night of the full moon no less, with what seemed at the start to be four seemingly separate groups battling. The battle actually ended up being two sides on two fronts; your sister and her friends battling with armed Faunus, seemingly just the civilians, from Menagerie against the same group of individuals we believe to be those responsible for the Fall of Beacon: The Black Queen Group, as they have been dubbed thanks to that stunt at the Vytal Festival, and the White Fang.

"Now, there are reports going around that Sienna Khan, High-Leader of the White Fang was murdered by a Huntsman, specifically a human one. Whilst there is no solid evidence for or against that claim, what is true is that Adam Taurus is now High-Leader after taking her place. Atlas' borders have shut, no one gets in or out without my permission. And you are going to be the one exception to the 'going out' part of that."

Having been following through in the file with what General Ironwood was saying, Winter looked back up to the man. "The mission, sir?"

"Capture Adam Taurus, and bring him back alive." She didn't need to hear any more than that, but the General felt the need to justify. "Having been in talks with Sienna herself, I know she was not the type of person to give up power. So, we can assume that her death was deliberate, and our most likely candidate is Adam. He was a person of power back in the Vale branch of the White Fang, so why he would have been in Mistral remains a mystery until you start putting two and two together."

"Of course. It appears like it's the only logical explanation."

"There is no solid evidence, only guesses and assumptions," he reminded her. "Without Adam, they are without a leader, and that could aid in our capture of more people in power around the organization. Making a martyr of him won't do us as a people any favours, so we need someone who can match him and eventually better him in combat to bring him in alive."

"I am honoured that you think me suitable for the job at hand, sir." The secret cyborg chuckled briefly.

"Winter, you know you're probably the only one suitable for the job. The rest of the specialists don't have the skill you do." She could only remain straight faced for so long; the tiniest of smug smirks graced her face.

"I won't disappoint you sir."

"You never do."

An afternoon of release was well needed for the ravenette. Nothing sexual, nothing intimate, just Taiyang and her in the cabin Team STRQ built themselves on Patch, essentially catching up, though not as friendly as that. It was much more of Tai telling Raven what Yang, and to a lesser extent Ruby, had done in the times when she wasn't staring at them as a bird through the window.

Raven made it painfully clear that she wouldn't be staying, a remark Tai countered with the fact that she was almost treating this like her own personal therapy session. For once, the woman answered back with a joke, saying that it would take more than one therapy session to fix her.

That was the Raven Tai fell in love with; the one who would make small jokes from time to time, even at her own expense on rare occasions, the one who laughed and loved and, despite not willing to openly admit it, cared. The one who, even after openly confessing to himself and Summer that she and Qrow were only at Beacon to learn how to kill Huntsmen, seemed like she had a change of heart.

But Tai relented, agreeing that just reappearing back into his and the kids' lives wouldn't exactly be the best. Especially when she mentioned that they now all knew of and about Salem, and that Yang made her realize how much the world wasn't the same as when she left for the Tribe and the former Spring Maiden.

"She called my bluff Tai," she admitted as she finished her tea, "our daughter stood there with tears in her eyes and, without anything hindering her, told me what I didn't even want to admit I knew of myself; I am afraid of Salem."

"Having never seen her myself, but from what I heard, that's justifiable."

"But Yang's afraid too, and yet she, and all the others, are taking one of the Relics. Her reasoning was that I already have a target on my back. She might as well make it harder for that witch to find the Relic by making it a moving target."

"I'm not sure I approve of her ideas knowing that it might get her killed, but I've got to give her props for being that gutsy."

"She is our daughter," the bandit leader admitted. The blonde nodded to that. "I must be off Tai, I promised that I'd retrieve the body of Vernal and return it to camp so she could be cremated as we move on."

"It's nice to see you caring again," he mentioned, a twinge of sadness in his voice. She shook her head at him.

"I never stopped caring. This wasn't meant to be like this, but the Spring Maiden just showed up at our old camping grounds and they needed someone to train her. When I ended up killing her out of mercy, I sealed my fate."

"You couldn't return," Tai continued on from her, "because doing so would make things easier for Salem to pinpoint you. So you kept moving, constantly changing locations to throw her off, never staying in one place for too long."

"Exactly."

"I wish it could have been different," he confessed.

"Part of me thinks the same." Raven stood from her seat and started heading to the front door, but her ex called for her once more from his seat.

"Why did you come here? Don't get me wrong, it was an unexpected arrival from you, but not unpleasant."

"…If the Tribe and I are moving, then we can use this time to mourn and release everything emotionally, then we can leave all of that at the old site and start again at the new place. But I needed to do things on my own. As the leader of the Tribe, I need to stay strong for them and take time for myself out of their sights. Seeing me weak makes them weak, and that loses morale and cohesion, which makes everything sloppy." With a fond smile, she turned to face him again. "Remember when Summer got angry at us all right before that mission to Vale's Southern border?"

Taiyang chuckled. "We were so unsynchronized that day, she was shedding petals everywhere in frustration. I'm pretty sure one of us almost died."

"Where do you think your scar came from?" she teased. Absentmindedly, he rubbed his lower right side, over the raised tissue on his body at the scar from an Ursa Major that somehow managed to sneak up on Team STRQ after their mission was over and they were all low on energy and Aura. "I have to go now," she sighed, "I have been away for too long." He nodded in understanding, then lowered his head as his way of accepting this as a goodbye. "I will be around," she offered, "just look up." With that, she shifted and flew out the door, portalling herself back to Vernal in the Vault.

Coming through the rift to see a dead body was never nice even after being desensitized to it all from years of killing. But when the body was one of the people you were close to, it made the situation so much worse. The tan skin of the woman she once knew was now far less appealing in colour, being a murky grey/brown mix as all of her blood stopped circulating eventually. She still looked peaceful, even with the pool of now dried blood underneath her, after it all.

The bandit leader let another tear fall for her lost comrade, but only the one. She couldn't be seen being weak in front of the rest, it would make things much more difficult for her to reign in the Tribe if they saw weakness in her. Calming herself down and fighting her expression back to neutral, she gathered the Decoy Maiden's weapons and her body, lifting her up to carry her through the portal she had made for her return.

"Raven, you're back!" came the first cry from a bandit as she left her crimson rift in space. "You'd been gone for so long, we weren't sure what had happened to you." His hand was freshly bandaged up from a cut, most likely coming from a piece of something as they were packing away the camp.

"There was still a couple of pockets of resistance on the surface that I had to deal with before getting to Vernal," she lied, "and even then, getting into the Vault was difficult because I had to find the key on Leo Lionheart's person." No one else knew that the Headmaster of the academy had perished by means of Seer, so his pierced and impaled body still lay on the floor of his office.

"But all is well?"

"Yes. Have you made progress?"

"We have indeed, all bar three tents have been dismantled and packed away, and the supplies have been rounded up. We should be done within the next hour or two."

"Good." She handed the body of Vernal off to him, the physical weight not affecting her much considering she was using her Aura to supplement her muscles, but the emotional weight of carrying a fallen friend was. "Make sure that her pyre is in the middle of the grounds, get men to put it together while the rest clear up. We light the fire as the sun passes the treeline and leave soon after at sundown." The man nodded, taking the body away from her to delegate to someone else. Raven glanced down, seeing faint splotches of red on her otherwise black gloves. Those faint traces of wet blood from the bandit's wound now stained the now deceased woman's body again.

Seeing that reminded her of something, and her fists clenched in frustration. Tai mentioned to her earlier that day about Yang's nightmares soon after she woke from her coma. Tai said that she was always replaying the moments from the Fall where she was incapable of doing anything against the person who eventually took her arm. Raven knew of this person's existence before but paid them no mind; they weren't affecting her just as she wasn't with them. But now, having learned that the same person was responsible for Yang's lost arm, she was overcome with a feeling she hadn't felt for a very long time, revenge. It was too strong to ignore, even overtaking her need to keep her tribe safe, and she gave in and began plotting for it to be enacted.

Her Maiden powers blossomed in her eyes, the crimson fire burning as she stared off into the distance. She would make Adam Taurus pay for what he did.

Acting alone rarely made Winter nervous. Even now, it wasn't the fact that she was doing this mission solo that was sending her nerves into overdrive, it was the idea of taking on what could possibly be the entirety of the Haven group of the White Fang by herself.

…Okay, so her being alone played a small factor in her nerves running amok in her system.

In her defence, it wouldn't exactly be considered a wise battle strategy to send a Schnee, a name synonymous with batting heads against the Faunus for many years, to face off against the White Fang. Not only do you risk providing them with more of a reason to attack you with increased ferocity than they normally would because you - or in this case, your father - had caused unspeakable atrocities to their kin, but you are also offering yourself up on a silver platter to them should you lose.

Winter dared to think about it, for the head of a Schnee would be worth a very high price for the terrorist group, whether it was attached to the body or not. The Specialist shuddered, that wasn't the image she wanted to be imagining as she entered enemy territory. In the three days of preparation she was given, she had formulated an airtight plan on how she planned in getting in, getting Adam Taurus subdued and getting him out in… no more than three pieces, that was the target. She was told he needed to be alive, there was still room for slight losses of limb.

And part of the formula of it being airtight was the fact that she was going in alone - the only one to blame about it going wrong was herself.

Her in-ear communicator rang, and she clicked the button on it to answer.

*Good to see you're en route, Specialist. ETA?*

She glanced out of the unmanned plane's cockpit. "40 seconds horizontally, about 30 seconds of flat falling without a chute."

*I need you to go for a low chute, Schnee. The less time they get to attack you when you're vulnerable in the air, the better.*

"Understood sir."

*Coms will be monitored, abort mission on my command without question.*

"Yes sir." After one last *Good luck*, the line went to nothing but static. Bracing herself, she opened the bay doors and stepped near the edge, teetering on the line between a metal foothold and the sky, void of anything but clouds, below. With an exhalation, the Specialist leaned back, and fell.

The dusk setting as Winter plummeted to the ground from 15,000 feet made her speedy descent all the more majestic. Her outfit, her usual attire of predominantly Atlas White with blue and grey/silver accents and a splash of red around her neck, shone as she let gravity take its toll on her. With her approach, the automated private Bullhead was coming in from the West. This, providing that the trajectory was perfect, meant that she had the sun as a natural cover. It also meant that no one would be able to see her leaving the vehicle for her descent.

One thing she didn't have for her fall though, was a parachute. But that was made up for by her semblance, the woman summoning glyphs to slow her fall significantly. She could only use them sparingly, as she was very aware of the large noise they make when being used and while dissipating, and unfortunately for her she was dropping in on an area that comprised entirely of Faunus. The likelihood of at least one of the guards having an animal trait that improved their hearing was very high.

It was a risk she planned for, and one that she was taking regardless of anyone else's opinion - this was her mission after all.

The wind rushing past her and the finer details of the ground become ever clearer, Winter threw out the first of a few Glyphs in front of her to slow herself down. She opted to slow herself down as much as she could rather than trying to bring herself to a complete stop, as she was aware her Aura could cushion the fall at much slower speeds with minimal effort expended. A few Glyphs and 800 feet later, Winter weaved through the final branches in the canopy and landed with a grunt of exertion on the forest floor, doing her best to keep her noise levels down.

"General, I am on the ground."

*Very good. Report back only when necessary.*

"I understand sir." She let the line go out before making her way forward.

The White Fang base was not easily spotted. The area was swamped in a forest, with very few clearings around, in part because of the hilliness of the area. There was very little of note here except a patch of space with felled trees just outside of the cave entrance halfway up the hill. But as far as she could see, the hillside on the outskirts of Mistral was void of villagers or farmers of any kind. Considering the lusciousness of the forest around them and the trees that had been chopped down by the entrance, it was indeed odd. But it was only when you glanced past that slightly and took a closer look deeper in the cave, and then you'd see the large door leading inside to their base of operations.

The Specialist eased her way closer as silently as she could, not easy with leaves and sticks underfoot prone to snapping and making noise. The occasional guard would pass further down the hills, and she did her best to either silence them or move past without alerting them; mostly the latter option, but the former wasn't unused in her approach.

One particular guard she came across managed to spot her, not that difficult of a task with her wearing such a bright outfit against a forest of green. He was a burly fellow, it looked like he would charge her before he attempted a thought. He just so happened to shift his gaze her way and, on spotting her in the undergrowth, thought he could take her down, so with a swing of his hammer he went straight for Winter with a cry.

Not what she needed right now, trying to keep a low profile.

The Specialist dodged his first attack by jumping up and away from the hammer crashing down into the ground where she was mere moments before, leaving a large crater in the floor. Winter did her best to assess the situation fast; hammers weren't like blades, so her approach needed to be tailored for that and the fact she wanted to be silent in her approach on the base.

Well, far quieter than this.

Grabbing a hold of one vial hidden in her pocket, she hid it in her hand as she continued dodging swing after powerful - yet slow - swing. Her patience was rewarded, as he took a large horizontal at her. Seizing the chance, she ducked below it and threw the vial with pinpoint accuracy, the Ice Dust freezing the Faunus' hammer to the tree trunk he'd crashed it into.

That was half the problem dealt with. Now for the bigger, dumber half of the problem.

The Faunus still tried to remove the weapon from the tree, even with the growing Ice forming all over it. In focusing on that, he neglected to notice Winter's approach, the Specialist landing a couple of strong hits to the back and a kick to the back of his leg, bringing him down to the ground. He spun to try and smack her away to grab his weapon back, but Winter simply parried his strike away with her arm, then followed up with a strong strike to the White Fang member's jaw, dazing him and sending his head flying back into the tree trunk which, combined with Winter's strike, knocked him out cold.

The fight led Winter up towards the cave, something she was most thankful for. She knelt in an open patch of land in what appeared to be some sort of unmarked gravesite. She took the time to survey the entrance and see the best route she could take to slip through their defences and get to Adam without any alarms being raised - Gods know there'll be a fuss when she got there. And who knows whether there were escape routes she was unaware of that would let Adam get away. But her mind kept shifting from her mission and she kept looking back to the graves around her.

'Why did I manage to find the creepiest place in this forest to end my scout?' she thought to herself, glancing at the graves surrounding her. Her eyes always seemed to land on one particular grave, as if she was being watched. A cold shiver ran down her spine when she looked at it again.

Seeing all this death around her made her realize something. From what she could see, there was at least seven different gravestones in the row she was standing in, and easily ten rows. She didn't know specifics on when they died, but that's still at least 70 dead White Fang members. As fantastic as her training was, she was only human.

"General," she called in, pressing the button in-ear to communicate.

*What's the matter Schnee? Has something happened, or are you done already?*

"No sir. But I was wondering if… you had my Holo-Will on standby."

*Winter, what's brought this on?* he asked, dropping the higher-ranking Officer voice for a moment and slipping almost into a paternal voice - in her eyes, he might as well have been. *If you don't think you can do this, I can have the ship turn around and pick you up at a moment's notice. There's no shame in that.*

"Do you have it?" she snapped. Realizing what she just did and who she just did it to, she corrected herself before any reprimanding came to be. "...sir." With a sigh, the General confirmed that he did indeed have it. "Is it still going to be sent to my sister?"

*It is, but with the CCT down it may take a bit longer to reach her, or the device itself may need to be sent.* There was a pregnant pause between them both, and the silence seemed to go on forever before the General spoke up once more. *Winter, are you sure you can do this alone? It may have been a mistake to send-*

"No sir, it's fine. I was merely wanting to know the position and status of my Holo-Will; it's been so long since I last asked."

Her voice betrayed how she was truly feeling; she was scared and frightened about not coming out of this mission alive. Ironwood knew that she never asked of her Holo-Will before, only to check what it was when she first started going on missions. Knowing he could do no more, he cut comms with her and let her get back to making a move on the base.

'That was foolish...' she thought to herself, letting her fear take over for even just that moment put her at risk, and she couldn't have that at a time like this with such a high-profile target to capture.

Her thoughts were brought to a grinding halt as a new sound filled the air. Her body spun and her saber was out immediately, tip pointing towards the intruding presence. Winter was expecting a person, not a swirling mass of black and red.

"Well well well," a voice said through the portal, "this is certainly an interesting twist." As Raven Branwen stepped out to introduce herself properly, Winter's eyes widened in surprise and she took a step backwards.

The pyre was magnificent, if she did say so herself. It was an incredible advantage having Maiden powers and the rest of the tribe knowing so, because it meant all the heavy lifting could be done with magic and without the need for secrecy.

Once Vernal's body had been set upon the logs, her arms crossed and her expression peacefully neutral, Raven began speaking to the tribe, the sun kissed leaves of the treetops gracing the backdrop of the scene.

"We mark the passing of Vernal with this pyre. As we lay her to rest and let her body burn, we can mourn our loss. But afterwards, we grab our things and we leave this site, and we leave our feelings here too. We are Bandits, and acting on our feelings doesn't make us stronger, only weaker. But we are not heartless. So I grant you this chance to let your feelings out." She waved her hand towards the pile of sticks and logs that Vernal was tied to, and a lightning bolt crashed into the side of it, catching one of the drier pieces of wood on fire and beginning their pyre. "We have until the flames die down or the sky starts turning to night. Once it comes, we take our leave. Nothing is to remain here."

As the golden glow of the fire burnt, a few fellow bandits added some of the smaller unusable logs from around the perimeter to the pile to keep the flames going a little bit longer, but eventually the sky shifted from a glorious orange to a peaceful, unobstructed violet dotted with stars. The Tribe gathered their belongings and headed East; Raven had used the time they were clearing the old site to scour the continent and search for another settlement area relatively close by, and she found one about five miles Northeast of their current location.

"Lead our men East for 3 miles," she ordered the bandit Captain, "then Northeast after that once you've crossed the river. By a lake, you will find a large tree standing on its own in the middle of an open field much like this. Fell that tree first, and we shall make that the site of our new camp."

"What will you be doing?" he inquired.

"I need to ensure this place is truly razed to avoid anyone potentially finding us again. Then after that, I have some planning to do. I will be at the new site when you arrive. You will know when you have reached it." He nodded with a small grin on his face; knowing he was one of the few people Raven trusted completely was quite an honour, especially with a reputation like hers.

Okay, tell a lie, it wasn't complete trust, but no one ever earned Raven's complete trust. It was very high levels of trust, as best. But that was a lot more than most got.

As the final bandit made their way past the clearing and into the trees beyond, Raven slipped on her mask and got to work. She donned a bit of tarp as a makeshift cloak, aiming to further conceal her identity; if anyone just so happened to make their way past the area as she performed her magic, anyone who knew of the Branwen Tribe would instantly recognize the Grimm Mask of their Leader, and those who also were aware of the Maidens' story could potentially start the speculation that one had become real. To top it all off, if the same group of people managed to put two and two together, they would know that Raven Branwen was a Maiden, and the only people other than the Tribe who knew were either dead, her husband and her daughter. She didn't want that, so at least it would hide the very recognizable head of hair, weapon and mask she was known for.

Ignoring all of that, she closed her eyes under the mask and began to display her power. All light seemed to fade as Raven embraced her powers. Thick clouds blocked all light from what previously was a clear night sky only a moment ago. Unlike a few weeks ago when "Vernal" was merely showing off for Cinder and the others, she kept things tame to prove a point but not show off. Now, she had a goal without the need for focusing on impressing anyone or worrying about things in a combat scenario.

It was just her and the powers she burdened herself with.

Deep thunder rolled through the clouds above her head, and the wind started growing fierce. The giant logs, former trees that populated the area, that once were the perimeter of the encampment started rising off the ground as the wind made them float, it's supernatural strength causing even the 1 ton pillars of wood to move like they were nothing.

Yet the woman remained routed, her powers moving everything around her but not paying her any mind at all. It was one of the perks of having a Maiden's power. The power of the elements themselves at your beck and call.

One by one the logs piled up in the centre, encircling the woman who was currently on the pyre, until they were all deposited in a fairly organized fashion. Not bad considering she could only barely control the wind for moving things around, not to the extent she could manipulate fire, earth or ice.

Once the secret Maiden had amassed the pile of wood, she summoned lightning from the sky to strike the pile multiple times, burning parts of it that she willed to grow and blaze hotter and burn brighter as they moved closer to Vernal's body.

'Goodbye Vernal,' she thought as the blaze grew high and harsh, ensuring that nothing would remain. 'May you find peace.' On that last thought, she threw the tarp that was shrouding her off her body into the fire, then sliced a hole in space and stepped through to their new campsite, where her own small traveling tent and a couple of her belongings had already been placed and was raring to be set up. It was going to give her something to do for a little while, so any distractions were welcomed.

~000~000~000~000~000~

"Well done on completing the journey here," Raven announced as the first of her Bandits came through the treeline into the clearing. The night was well underway, with inky black skies overhead and only glimpses of the shattered moon above them all making its way through the canopy. "I trust things were uneventful on the journey?"

"A few Grimm here and there, and one casualty, but no fatalities."

"I see." She eyed the Captain, making sure he knew she was disappointed in the fact that even one of the men was hurt against "a few Grimm" on their travels. If it was hundreds of Grimm, she may have been more lenient. But it was not, so she was not. "Have them taken to one side, set up the medical hut somewhere central. Any wounds are to be sealed, and then they help the rest of us set up. They can be seen to once we've established ourselves here. If he does not pull his weight, then he is of no use to us anymore."

"I'll go tell him," the Captain deduced, walking away to find and inform the injured party member of what would be happening, and also threaten him with what could be happening. She sighed once he had walked out of earshot, then returned to her work. She began preparing herself for her attack on the White Fang base in Mistral; knowing how Adam seemed to work based on the Fall of Beacon, he would return to his 'secret base' to lick his wounds alone and prepare for a second attack in the near future. Raven was going to use that time to get what she wanted, which was purely and simply revenge.

It really was an unfamiliar feeling for her at the moment, but her mind seemed to be focused on nothing else.

The sudden emotion confused her at first, there was no denying that, but eventually she let the need consume her. Things didn't go the way she wanted back at Haven Academy; Vernal was dead and her status as the Spring Maiden was now out there for not only Cinder - who she believed was dead anyway, but part of her couldn't shake the feeling she wasn't - but also her daughter and now even Tai, who apparently already knew even before the battle.

She was going to correct her losing streak by eliminating one of the many people that dragged her down.

The majority of that day was spent coming up with a plan. The foundation of it all was that she would be doing this alone, and that Adam would pay in blood for what he did to Yang in the past, but also for the second-hand embarrassment he caused at Haven for their cause. When dusk fell that night, the bandit camp was looking a lot more alive than when they started arriving in the predawn of that morning. All of the tents had been erected, including Raven's large tent, the injured bandit was being attended to with a glum look on his face - when you're told that Raven found the fact you were injured pathetic, you weren't exactly going to be walking around with a smile on your face - and the first of the perimeter posts had been placed. The feathered bandit leader wanted as many of the natural trees to remain relatively intact on the outside of their wall, as it gives everything a more natural and less identifiable look.

Raven let the rest of her camp start a fire to commemorate the relocation, but she would not be around for the merriment, no matter how much they wanted her to be. With a slice of the air, a portal materialized in front of her. Glancing through at what waited beyond, her eyebrows shot up in surprise, but she let her expression flatten back to neutral before she made herself known.

"Well well well," she said as the figure spun defensively, "this is certainly an interesting twist." Winter Schnee's eyes widened in surprise as Raven stepped out to introduce herself properly, forcing the Specialist to take a step backwards.

Chapter Beta - DioRezi

Moving things along nicely, me thinks. These two really are a great pairing to write, especially given their lack of proper representation in Fanfics. C'mon guys, step up to the plate! I don't want to be the only one doing this...

And now, a word from my Beta:

I'm DioRezi and I want you to review this chapter. Liked or didn't like chapter, tell me why. Follow and Fav if you want to see more. PM me if you want to talk about Kenjutsu. I will never tell spoilers though.

What he said.

As always, feedback - good or bad - is most appreciated