Time for Humanity's next step

Qrow was grateful for the rain that day, if ever there was proof of the Brother gods vigilance over Remnant, it was in the fact it rained on the day a woman like Rook Branwen died.

He also felt it was necessary, he'd never quite remembered the fact he had someone's blood on his face, nobody had reminded him. But looking at the soil where his mother lay, looking at the tombstone, he noticed the red color of the raindrops falling from his face, and he suddenly recalled everything from that day in crystal clear memory, one he now seriously questioned as he felt the pain in his chest where the nothingness was, he wondered if that baker had parents, if there was a little girl that watched his sister put a blade through her father's chest. That would certainly explain why the grimm came so fast.

Raven was sitting squat next to the tombstone, silent with her hands over it, hugging it, and though she'd never admit it, begging death for their mother back. He could hear Raven's prayers under her breath, her murmuring for the world to be right. There was a grimm mask from their father's collection over her face, he noticed. For some reason, he found it similar to the blood on his face, something wrong about them both, but he couldn't say what that was.

"Bunch of bullshit is what this is, you two still crying over that flimsy pair of tits?!" came a voice, neither of them drew their weapons, they recognized their father's drunken spiel any day. Malruk Branwen walked over to his wife's grave and sneered at his son and daughter, tears still falling from his face, and somehow both Qrow and Raven could hear them despite the rain. Their falls on her tomb somehow stronger than the raindrops.

"You two both better get your asses in gear! Forget about her! Fucking bitch was always holding us back! You remember her talk about only killing when needed? The bimbo would sometimes haggle with the villages, no bloodshed on either side if we got ransom? The bitch, that weak old bag, killed more men than I could count! Hypo-hypocrite…"

Malruk kneeled at his wife's Tomb a broken mess, gritting his teeth to stay conscious. "You, you always talked about going back, of making this bunch of jackoff's something strong enough to take back the Branwen palace right?! Well whose gonna do that now? huh! You think I can, gah…" he sobbed. "You think I can fight against, against the Huntsman alone? Those fucking freaks of nature?! Forget it! Fuck it all! You...you…why…?"

The man bent over and sobbed on his wife's tomb "Brothers why? Why did it have to end like this?"


2 weeks Later, the Branwen tribe was more than bitter about their loss, Rook was something dear to everyone in the tribe, in some senses the main reason they were able to continue what they did and still find a reason to smile the next day. Of course they couldn't be too sour about the whole thing. The creatures of grimm had come out in full force on the day of Rooks passing, thus the tribe had put up many resources to defend itself.

That was half the reason they hadn't been able to fulfill her last wish- for her body to be buried in the cemetery of the Branwen clan. Strangely enough, the cemetery was separated from the old ancestral home of the tribe, actually close enough to southern Anima that under normal circumstances they could probably manage it.

Qrow Branwen had spent nearly every second since his mother's short funeral in his tent, dead to the world. All there was, was the pain, the angry, sour, permanent despair. It was worse when he woke up the next day, and didn't hear his mother's music, her soft singing in the mourning to wake him up. They tribe had to fight more grimm that day.

That was the only time he spent outside his tent, the rest was in misery, remembering her touch, her laughter, her anger and how she'd always have time to spend with him. Always an open ear for him and Raven, her two lovely birds.

He was fairly certain he was at least half the reason the grimm were in greater numbers, but no one stopped him, not until he finally started to think on other things, things more worrying and distracting.

Inside of his tent at the moment, Qrow was seriously trying to figure out a way to move his mother's coffin to the cemetery, but always came back to the fact that the grimm would shred him long before he made it there. He silently looked over the poster of the grim reaper that lay torn in a heap on the ground now, the same state most everything he owned now shared.

He wished he had her strength, her power. With it, he could've saved his mother. With it, things would be so much different...

"Qrow, get up" came a calm voice from the tent flap, recognizing it, after a grunt and figuring out a path through the rubble, with a hop Qrow was at his feet and walking towards Raven. She had gotten to wearing that mask more often, and right now she was staring at him from behind a plate of bone and red markings strangely in a goats form. Qrow shuddered to ever meet a grimm with a goat's head, but only half in fear, and half in rage that the thing was still on her damn head! She was dressed in a black leather vest and greaves.

"Yo, Rav, how about we talk face to face? Like, you know, actual fucking people?" Raven was undeterred, and he only got more pissed when he realized he couldn't see her face, but knew it was blank, knew she was trying to put up an emotionless stare.

"I am perfectly fine speaking as I am" she responded in a toneless deadpan. Hearing that, Qrow glared hard at his sister, and wordlessly he walked up to her and took off her mask. Meeting her dead look head on, and noting her eyes were red from both crying.

"Give. It. Back." "You think mom wants to watch you spend every hour with a damn Grimm's head? Let's make a deal, you lose the mask, I get out of the tent." Raven's dead look broke, and Qrow smiled and felt butterflies in his heart as she looked absolutely murderous, thank the gods, she wanted to kill him again! "Qrow, you have been here for two weeks and probably more than half the reason we're still getting light grimm attacks, do not-" "Listen, please, just don't wear the damn mask all the time."

The two stared each other down, but with a hiss, they both released their anger, the grimm would not be kind to their grief and their mother would not appreciate their behavior. Raven took the mask back and put it at her side as she left the tent, and Qrow slapped himself in the face at her work around.

He walked out of the tent to the eager face of the second person he'd abandoned during his self-imposed exile, Merkava. He was dressed in a long poncho and baggy clothes with a pirate hat on his head and his mouth covered by a piece of cloth, white pants and combat boots ready for the day. Qrow honestly thought he looked pretty cool, especially when compared to Qrows own simple sorta red dress shirt.

It was basically a robe but slimmer in the arms, and with said arms made out more like a regular suit than baggy like some kind of wizard, with a yellow sash around the middle. His mother had called it a Qi pao before Qrow ripped the edges of the arms and made it into what she called a joke.

Not a funny one now.

"Buddy, you heading out? What for?" hearing that, Merkava blinked at his friend "The big Grimm attack that kinda happened? New supplies for the tribe? The fact I can't exactly show up in a village anywhere on Anima without being attacked thanks to the fact Menagerie decided to go ballistic? you're coming with, too."

Oh, in Qrows defense, his job was just to loot anything not nailed to the ground by any means necessary, everyone knew about the war, but the only people not thinking about it every second were, ironically, the people who probably profited the most out of the fact the kingdoms couldn't do shit to defend themselves when every faunus on the planet was out for blood.

"By the way, Happy birthday man."

Qrow blinked, that was right wasn't it? Today was his and Raven's birthday. They're father had made plans for the tribe to celebrate it alongside their mother's-aaand it was time to think about other things. Anything else. Mission? Mission was good, Mission kept the grimm at least only attacking him.

"Raven coming with? Which village we headed to anyway?" "Soichiro, good place for food and we can get in touch with Jackai up there. You think we could grab a mecha-shift weapon?" Qrow snorted, he'd sooner see a boarbatusk grow wings and eat nevermore for breakfast. "Did you suddenly start shiting exploding gold, enough to kill the grimm and get paid like a huntsman? No? Then hope for the good guns pal. That's all we can hope for...but If I could grab a scythe..."

Merkava whooped and patted Qrow on the back. "AHHH! Yes! Qrow, the man on the mission is back in the game! Who knows? Those Atlas bubs are spilling new gadgets every second, if Jackai to point us to a military base, you think they'd care if they lost one new toy? One in the huge pile?"

"Yes, probably enough to gut you both." Said Raven, accompanying them with a quick stride out of the tribe. "Come on, we'll need to move quickly and we're not just stopping at Soichiro, a huntsmen came to the attack on Murasakino and made things… difficult, we lost Abner, Gretta, and Gold tongue, some others as well. We would've lost more if the Grimm hadn't come in so early. Dad wants to make a plan to kill the huntsmen, and these weapons are a beginning." Qrow was silent at that, in the tent he'd had much time to think, think on everything…

Nevertheless, both he and Raven left the tribe with Merkava in tow, riding on a stolen buggy on the road towards the town. Merkava was the oldest of the three by two years, and drove. Leaving Qrow and Raven to rest together in the back.

Qrow gave is sister a look, took a deep breath, and talked: "Raven, do you think it's a good idea to keep killing?" Merkava stopped the buggy, and gave Qrow an incredulous look over his shoulder. Raven turned and gave Qrow a look that was begging to believe he'd grown a second head that had said that. "This is it? This is when you wanna pussy out? Of course we have to keep killing! we kill, we get food and supplies, not exactly hard science here Qrow."

Gritting teeth could be heard from one angered red-eyed boy. "No, but, that feeling we had when we buried mom? Is that what everyone feels like when they lose their mother? Dads too? I don't want to make others feel that. Besides mom wanted to take back the old Branwen home, how are we gonna-" A loud smack could be heard all throughout the clearing. The red mark on Qrows face testament to it's passion.

"Qrow, listen to me, There's only one rule I know, if mom had been strong enough, if dad had been strong enough to block the blow, she would still be here. But she's not, and-"

"Did you just call mom weak?"

In very soft, very low and sub-zero tone, Qrow asked his sister. There were tears in her eyes, but to his utter dismay, she nodded.

"Yes! In terms of heart, in terms of love there was no one better but that didn't save her! the same reason that was able to happen, is the same reason we live by. The strong live, the weak die. We're bandits, even if it's not always true that means we are the strong and everyone else? They're weak. How many men have we killed? Woman? We've never held back and we've always come out on top because of what we are. If you go down that path, of holding back and running away from every fight because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings, you'll be weak Qrow, and I won't allow that." Raven's eye's were hard, but glistening with unshed tears.

"You hear me? You don't get to leave me by wimping out-" "RAGRAH!" an Ursa jumped from the foliage on the left side of the buggy, ready to crash into it and kill its occupants, there was a maniacal glee behind it's red eye's, a sick joy that turned the stomach. Qrow could only gape and try to shield his sister, but luckily for him, equally loud was the bang from the rifle that not only shot it in the head, but threw its body sideways mid air like a rag doll harmlessly behind the buggy.

All three occupants froze, and after a moment, slowly turned to the woman who'd shot it. It was an incredibly beautiful woman, her hair was stark white but ended in gold tips and her eyes were a soft but bright orange. She wore a peculiar but mostly viable armor, a silver paldron covering the front and back of her neck as well as her shoulders, folded slim plate armor over her arms and a miniature shields on both her forearms. Her dress was actually near a black version of Qrows Qi Pao, but given her voluptuous body, obviously made for a woman and a warrior. The stomach and lower body were armored as well, leading into a trailing, ripped at the edges coattail that reached the ground and covered both her greaved legs. She was also wearing a Cowboy hat.

She gave the children a warm smile as she as the sword she wielded, a Mistralian Jian blade, had its two halves of the blade come back together to cover the muzzle of the gun inside. Qrow noted the two wicked daggers at her side and the poleaxe on her back, and he gulped. This was a huntsman, and if she had 3 Mecha-shift weapons instead of the one? To Qrow, that showed skill beyond the norm by a wide margin.

Raven slowly exited the Vehicle, Merkava and Qrow both got out of the Buggy at the same pace and bowed their heads to the Huntress, kneeling on the ground in case this was one of those…'affected' by the war. "Thank you a thousand times over esteemed huntress, we will cherish-" The huntress laughed as Raven just began her only half bullshit speech, they all raised their heads but the huntress raised her left hand to keep them quiet.

Qrow enjoyed her laughter, and as it went on he thought he might be joining his mother sooner than he planned, by a lot, but this woman still didn't know-"Why would I believe the spiel of a bandit on saving a life? Not that I don't think you're grateful, but all of that flowery speech is grating even when you don't know the facts. when you do know the facts honey? That's painful. For me it's enough if you and your brother just take my little gift." Okay then, in his head, Qrow was already calling his mom to set up his new room in the afterlife.

The huntress shook her head, "Don't get scared now, I did save you for a reason and we can't be attracting any more grimm. Luckily save for that Ursa, I can feel this place is pretty barren of the pitch black bastards, My name is Jomcara Perala by the way, and it's nice to meet you Raven, Qrow and Merkava." They froze, they weren't appetizers they were targets! In Qrows mind that meant there was a way out! He opened his mouth-

Jomcara grimaced now, and snapped before anyone could plead, "Okay enough with thinking I'm going to kill you or do something bad to you, I can literally feel your anxiety you know? That's annoying." Merkava blinked rapidly, "How exactly can you do that?"

Jomcara gave a lively smile at the question "Oh it's a hunters skill, part of a branch of study called Aura sensing- ah, but if we get into the details of unique techniques I'll be here all day. Listen, as you might have guessed by now I have something for all of you. But, before we begin that, I'd like to say that I'm sorry for your mother's death."

Jomcara said it in such a loose manner Qrow immediatly wanted to call her a fucking liar, yet something told him she was telling the truth, crazy as that was. Like a whisper in the pit of his gut that told him she really meant it.

"When we heard about someone with the name Branwen in Anima, my associates and I, who I'll not be telling you about quite yet, immediately tried to find out more and contact her, but by the time we found her it was too late. We only found out about your mother because a lot of people were celebrating the head of an infamous bandit tribe was injured badly in rather large fight near a battlefield. But after that we were able to track her descendants down easily. Oh and Merkava, I'm not going to do anything to you. Just going to give your friends some gifts."

Qrow and Raven immediately tensed and placed their hands on their respective weapons, a bandit never leaves their weapons behind, but concealed? Qrow reached into a hidden pocket behind his sash and pulled out his axe. Raven's blade was guardless and she pulled it out from behind her back. Merkava flicked his hands grabbed his knives as they flew out of his sleeves.

Jomcara smiled.

In the blink of an eye Qrow was on his back, and his axe was in a tree about 8 meters away. He assumed the others were similarly dismantled, and the groans of both his sister and friend proved him right.

"How…?" was all that came out, he literally felt as though he'd teleported from standing to the ground, and the smiling face of the beautiful god of insanity appearing over him only made him more sure of that. Sadly, his silent prayers for mercy seemed to fall on sadistic ears as she pulled out two syringes, but maybe there was hope! At the pleading look of a dead man walking on Qrows face, Jomcara blinked and made an 'O' face.

"Sorry, nearly got ahead of myself there, first things first…." She took their arms and arranged all three of their hands to be on top of one another, then placed her hand over Qrows which was at the top of the pile. "Through shadow there is light, and that light holds its own shadow in turn, thus endlessly intertwined these forces pull at us, and make us face realities beyond the scope of our design. Together, we shall stand and find the answer, so I pull at thee to walk ahead with me, and thereby enlighten thou."

A primal, pure and warm power surged within all three of the kids, the light of their souls, their aura had been awoken. With a bright smile Jomcara took out two syringes "Congratulations! Today's the first day on your trip to truly finding yourselves, it'll be painful journey, but it'll be worth it, trust me. Now here's your second gift…" The syringes contained a glowing blue syrupy looking substance with pulsing small black chunks in it. Qrow immediatly sent his body inot panic mode, praying for teh grimm to save him from the huntress before him, or at least make his end less painful. Before they even realized what was happening Jomcara inserted the syringes into both Raven and Qrow, and emptied them out.

The feeling of some secondary force entering his body completely encapsulated Qrow, before a raw, searing pain unlike anything he'd ever felt before was the last thing he knew before going unconscious, the last thing he heard though?

"Welcome the warmasters program…"