Fourth chapter! everybody as excited as I am? This train has one destination left! All the way into the deepest halls behind the most shadowed corridors of Remnant. Let's all enjoy seeing the twin ravens find their own path through the thicket of blood and magic. Also, I kinda realized something. Rwby is actually a really good example of a magic/sc-fi story if you count semblances. Thanks to the'after the fall' book we know the world of remnant has wildlife that are basically magic monsters, on top of the grimm and they use technology to defend themselves but rely on poorly understood soul magic as their number 1 bastion. It all kinda weaves together nicely, the tech's not quite there to help defend but even if it could Huntsmen can grow to become so powerful they could tear the world apart if they could get their act together. (seriously Qrows scythe can cut through a building sized mech like butter and casually release moonslices capable of tearing actual buildings apart just defending himself in a fight with Tyrian plus his semblance makes fighting him a nightmare.) All in all they supplicate each other nicely, anyway onto my story! Also, trying new alignment.
Raven awoke slowly from bed, rubbing her face into the blanket before leaning up and yawning for all the world to hear. She felt better than she'd ever known possible, and it was drenched in this euphoria that she lazily looked around the room with sleepy doe-eyes.
Merkava was still snoring on his bed, his fin lightly opening and closing out of his bare back. She didn't remember him removing his shirt but she idly remembered how he liked to complain about it while he slept back home. Qrow was up and ready for the day, sitting on his bed watching cartoons. He turned from his shows and gave her a glance and a snort. "Took you long enough, wanted to get some extra practice using your aura? Mines called Jiceain by the way. Oh, and you might want to hold onto something." Raven had no idea what her brother was saying, until her suppressed emotions suddenly crashed into her and she fell back on the bed, shocked.
Fear, suspicion, anger, giddiness even, it all hit her full force and was near nauseating to move through. She groaned on the bed and Qrow let out a light chuckle "Yeah, all those bottled up emotions? They sting, man, by the gods they sting hard. I really can't believe the things they told us, but it's all true. Aura, Dusk, haven't seen magic yet but from what Jiceain said it seems like it really does exist." Qrow turned and gave his sister something she'd thought she'd possibly never see again. An honest, excited smile anyone could find on a 14 year old child. He was practically bouncing on the bed! It honestly made Raven pause even in her deluge of rampant and fading suppressed paranoia and fear.
It was that astonishing.
"Ray, were gonna be huntsmen! Just like the grim reaper!"
Qrow was giddy, but Raven just gave him the same red-eyed glare his mother did when she was hungover, and that shut him up for multiple reasons. He calmed down, but still smirked just the tiniest bit. "Ray, when your good, can we talk about how we're gonna handle this?" She nodded and Qrow went back to cartoons until she stopped moaning. Man, is that what I sounded like? How does Merkava sleep through this shit?
Eventually, Raven got up from her hangover of sorts and moved to let her legs dangle from the edge of the bed, facing the ground for a couple of seconds before she snapped up to look at him. "Qrow" she said. Hearing that tone of voice he turned and arranged himself exactly as she, but he didn't turn down the television though. They didn't know who else was in the hotel and this was much bigger than weapons deals or the number of grain they managed to get their hands on in a raid.
"what do you think we should do now?" Qrow shrugged, "what do you think we can do now. You heard what they said, we're in some kind of program right now and its not like they're going to just come out or let themselves be removed. I've been thinking about it while I was practicing with my aura, we can really do something here! We can grow strong enough to make sure that the tribe never has to go through what it did again. We can make mom's dream a reality! We can be huntsmen."
There was a power, a need in Qrows voice that Raven had very rarely ever heard. It was the kind he would use when he was dead set on something and nothing in the world would stop him from getting it done. She wanted to sigh with how naive it sounded right now, but she'd entertain her brothers delusion for the moment. She didn't want to get into an argument right now and needed a better grasp on the situation. "What do you suppose we do first then?"
Qrows smile grew wider at the acquiescence, but his tone got serious. "First, we need training, the stuff the phantoms wanna teach us is great, but I talked it over with Jiceain. The best bet is if we go to a huntsmen academy for resources, we're gonna need to fight a lot of people to get used to combat on that level and the only way we're gonna really be able to do that is using other people to fight against who meet that criteria. The only other option is underground fighting against people with aura but that would draw the wrong kind of attention if we got too good too fast, and we can't start hunting down other huntsmen unless we want a kingdom on our ass eventually. Plus, the resources and becoming licensed huntsmen would be good for us."
Raven raised an eyebrow, not exactly comfortable with her brother using this event as an excuse to live out his fantasy, but nodded. He wasn't wrong. "Sounds as good a plan as any. Dad already wanted to find a way to fight against the huntsmen, and this should work. Should make raids a cinch and we can start out with underground fights anyway, there are tons of rings in the greater cities of Mistral and If I recall, the main capital of the kingdom is practically lavish with backroom deals and the biggest underground fighting circuit on Remnant." The Branwen brother was silent at that, still excited, but contemplative thinking of a further plan of action. It gave Raven time to look over what he'd said, and she snapped back to him.
"Wait, you said Dusk and Aura? Did you have yours unlocked?" Qrow froze at her words, he looked down at the floor for a little bit and pursed his lips. Raven couldn't even imagine what was going on in her brothers head, but when he looked up at her it was with a matured look. Someone who'd gone through the ringer and learned something from it. It reminded her of how her father would look sometimes.
"Yeah...trust me, I can see why people don't use this stuff and don't know about it, it's definitely powerful, but it's rough." Raven raised an eyebrow, but it was Merkava who got up and gave him a questioning look.
"Rough how? Also, what is Dusk, and what is Aura?" Both of the siblings gave him wide stares. "You were awake?" said the two of them, to which Merkava laughed. "Hard not to be, Qrow was moaning and groaning so much while he was asleep he could wake the dead! I was just listening in to get a feel on the mood, and I gotta say, either you two are crazy or I'm deaf, mind explaining what you heard?"
The two then brought Merkava up to speed, and when done the fish man whistled, his spine flaring out from the action. A sign he was really stupefied. "Man, So to sum it up, this Lanam guy drugged you two to force you to handle his job? That's..man okay so let me get it straight, this stuff we're feeling right now, it's some kind of power coming right out of out souls? Called Aura? Okay, we can confirm it by talking to a huntsmen or somebody who deals with them at some point. But this Dusk stuff? Magic? Ahhh" Merkava dipped his head and both siblings were silent while their friend digested this new information. Like they expected, his head snapped right back up and there was a gleam in his eyes. "Well, there's enough weird stuff in the world I can kinda sorta believe it, but ah, Qrow can you show me this Dusk stuff? You said it was rough? How so? Right now three new things were introduced to: Aura, Dusk, and Magic. We should try to learn as much about them as we can. "
Hey dad, this guys got a serious head on his shoulders. I can't believe he actually just accepted magic and that he was given the power to become a huntsmen right out of the gate, people would be reeling with that info most of the time.
Qrow smirked at his sons words, gaining weird looks from both his sister and friend. He sighed. "Jiceain was talking in my head, he can do that. He said he was impressed with how you're taking all this Bro." Hearing that, Merkava gave a bashful smile and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, we've gotta do what we've gotta do right? If this stuff is all real, then at least..I've gotta be able to do something with it right? Especially to help the two of you. Besides, magic might be real! How could I not be happy about that?!"
Raven sighed, and gave her brother an annoyed look. "Make sure you don't start making faces whenever they talk, that could be annoying to deal with when you're talking to someone else. Now, show us Dusk." She was more than a bit curious about what Malaise had said, and more than a bit worried about her brother wielding the power of the Grimm themselves.
Qrow pursed his lips, but he still closed his eyes and looked within, looked to the dwelling of his soul. Right now the light was strong, burning and flowing through his whole body bright and clearly. But he looked further within it, the deeper he went into the light, he found a dark, thin, and nearly unseen strings of black all throughout his aura. If the light was the radiance of a star, the shadow was an impossibly thin bolt of lightning striking out from that very same star in all directions outside of it. The veins of a heart dyed pure black.
Qrow focused on it, and with a slight bit of discomfort allowed the Dusk to overtake the light of his Aura.
The radiance of the sun within was obscured and consumed in the violent growth of the dusk, each vein growing larger and larger until the light was near completely gone, but rather than the veins of the shadow the light simply glowed brighter in Qrows center, stabbing random rays out into the night of the Dusk. The transformation over Qrow physically was quite simple, the Dusk moved over his body like a viscous liquid, only unlike aura rather than being invisible it gave his entire body a slightly darker tinge to it. as if he and everything he wore were just a bit shadowed.
The real problem was the more negative vibe he was giving out, both Raven and Merkava leaned back more than slightly from Qrow, noticing there was a strange feeling he generated. As if he was only slightly kinder than an enemy combatant in the middle of a warzone and that he could become infinitely more dangerous in an instant. His eyes also gained a strange effect: black veins, nearly invisible, pulsed through the sclera of his eyes.
He sighed and gave both Merkava and Raven an irritated look. "You happy? Here's the prize! A whole load of emo and edge, ripe for the taking! But this shit comes with some perks. According to Jiceain, this stuff is a bit sturdier than aura, and it's a lot more harmful to anyone who touches me if I want it to be. I can even grow armor like a grimm if I want, eventually. Like those guys in the fantasy novels dad likes to buy. There are some other things but according to Jiceain I'll need a hell of a lot practice before this shit does what I tell it like it should. Anyway, that's it for now."
The shadow receded, and day returned to Qrows core. At once everything was as it should be, the enemy receded and Qrow was himself once more.
Raven was blinking at her brother, half in irritation and half in admiration for the danger he'd presented. "Well that was a bit impressive, and more than anything else interesting. How exactly does Dusk work Qrow? Malaise, my phantom heart, said it was both yourself and not. The 'enemy' whatever that means and the power of the grimm themselves. Malaise could explain it to me more but you've actually used it."
Qrow was quick to reply and Merkava was intimated but listening: "Well, it's pretty much what the cover says, its almost exactly like aura in how it makes me stronger and gives me a bunch of powers, but its a lot harder to control. Aura is like moving a limb you just realized you had but Dusk is like letting a copy of yourself take over who was made to hate everything you think is wrong with you and everything that actually is. On top of hating a lot of yourself to. You don't control it much at all really, it just works in your best interests and listens to you if you listen to it, while trying its best to make you wanna kill yourself. You know how in a raid sometimes dad or mom would partner some of the others to make sure they could get more done? Imagine that but everyone's a worse version of Lampton, not just an asshole who seems to get off of pissing everyone they can, but one tailor made to fuck with you in particular. Another thing is that it's a bit weirder is in that it tries to cover up all of the weaknesses you have, but it also works on making you a lot more deadlier than you would be with Aura. A good way to put it would be that Aura lets you do you, but Dusk is kinda more narrow than that. The only objective it has is attack everything wrong with you, turn you into a killing machine and make sure anyone going against you wont get up again from the attempt while making you wish you were the guy whose corpse is cooling on the floor if you're not careful."
Everyone was silent, but Merkava was the first to speak up: "Ah, Qrow? that sounds terrible. Like, fucking horrible to go through."
Qrow nodded, this was the truth. But he also narrowed his eyes. "It is, and it isn't. I don't really feel I've got the hang of Dusk at all so this is just how it feels right now. But it'll work for the moment, right now its something on top of my aura to help out in a fight if things go south. Raven, what do you think?"
Raven had an irritable look on her face, and was completely ignoring her brother. "No, your going to unlock it right now...yes I can handle it, what do you mean It's not something I can handle? I-"
Qrow snapped his finger in front of Ravens face, and she snapped her head to look him dead in the red's. He had a grin on his face, a very high quality one of the shit-eating variety. "Talking to your phantom heart? Raven. You know that's seriously annoying to do when your talking to someone else, not to mention rude. Really hard to stomach."
Raven batted his hand away and got off the bed, huffed and started walking towards the door. "Glad to know it dearest brother, now if you don't mind we do have an appointment with uncle Soichiro, and I believe it'd be better to come early than late. We can talk on magic after we've got our new weapons and secured supplies for the tribe. At the moment it's the thing we know the least about and can do the least about at the moment, so before we head off into it lets secure what we'll need to make anything count. Agreed?"
Qrow and Merkava were right behind her, mostly because they recognized the mood she was in, and also because she had a point. Magic seemed to be the biggest subject out of everything the phantom hearts had spoken about, and the one thing they could do the least with at the moment. Ergo, before they tackled it they might as well go through their business in Soichiro. Along the way, Jiceain and Malaise both told Qrow and Raven to practice feeling the presence of the people around them through their aura, a skill called aura sensing, they said it would become insanely helpful later on.
They all bid Annabelle a goodbye and walked across Soichiro trying to 'sense' people for a bit. It didn't really work as all they could feel were vague and fuzzy 'pullings' in certain directions very rarely, and when they were able to sense anything the signatures were always incredibly weak.
They eventually walked over the forges Jackai would use. In a way these could be seen as a sort of sacred ground for the Soichiro clan, right next to Jackai's home like a giant Garage. And accordingly it was surrounded by a large white gate where they met a girls unfriendly frown.
Aundre Sochiro crosses her arms at the bandits before her, and the kids all frowned back. "What do you think your doing?" said Merkava, on a low voice. She raised her eyebrows but stayed firmly in place. Qrow sighed.
"Aundre, What are you doing here? You're pops gave us the okay." She shook her head, and it gave everyone who saw it a faint sense of sadness from the girl they'd grown up with. "But I didn't, listen guys, it's nothing personal but I can't just let my dad keep getting mixed up with thieves and killers when we probably can't give all of those thieves and killers what they pay us for if we do. We've got only ourselves to rely on for defense, and no matter how you cut it, working for Mistral for arms means we'll be taking in less and less work from cutthroats, we don't have the manpower to do both at full capacity. We can't afford to go behind Mistrals back with how much the scales are tipping because of the revolution, because if they think we might go over to the other side we're done. The illegal forces we supply aren't gonna be happy with a reduction in said supply, and some of them might choose to 'cut us out' if they think they can get away with it and make it work for them or they could turn us towards working for themselves entirely. Doing this might guarantee that happening, but it'll make it easier to be ready for it when it comes, plus I don't like the idea of my babies being used on people instead of Grimm. You guys know that."
Qrow had to admit, the girls reasoning wasn't perfect, but it had some weight behind it. He could think of a couple tribes and mercenary groups that would try and do the Soichiro dirty for not having the weapons to back their talk anymore and would totally think of taking them for themselves. Yeah, no one wanted to get on one of the best weapon dealers bad side, but these people hide from the kingdoms for a living. Turning away from those forces, especially during a war the kingdoms weren't set to win, would be taken in a bad light, but the other option was basically assured destruction from a paranoid Kingdom that probably couldn't have afforded to allow any arms dealers to possibly work for the faunus and practically assure their defeat.
But.
"I think you underestimate your pops, he wouldn't make this move unless he had a plan. Besides the contracts already made and we've paid, just let us in Aundre." The girl pouted, as if thinking, she eyed Merkava for a bit, much to everyone's displeasure, before she sighed and moved away.
"Alright, just meet me at noon at Annabelle's alright? Before you leave. You may work with animals but the name Branwen means something, and we could work something out." Raven scowled, and Merkava was gritting his teeth, but what Qrow did next blew everyone away.
Suddenly, a dark feeling came over everyone. Like all of the horror, doubts and evils in their hearts decided to wake up and start using their souls as a dance house for a party. The cold, raw threat present made everyone freeze and turn to look at Qrow. His Dusk was enveloping his body, as if a nearly invisible river of pitch black water was flowing over his entire body, coloring everything about him a slightly darker shade. It seemed to only truly manifest in the light tendrils of black smoke leaving his skin.
He had a completely emotionless look on his face as he stepped towards Aundre, and she, for some reason, could not find it in herself to move at all. The terror had frozen her to the spot, as in it seemed to literally be telling her to stand still. There was also a strange sense of comfort she found particularly bizarre, like the worry itself was telling her she'd be safe and it was best not to move.
Like a close friend Qrow walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder before whispering in her ear: "I have no problem working with you Aundre, you know that and I know you're worried about your family. But Merkava is family to. You don't diss my family, understand?" With that, the Qrow released his Dusk and opened the gate behind her, Raven and Merkava walking in behind him, but not without Merkava sticking his tongue out at Aundre on their way out. The girl herself seemingly crushed.
Raven took note of how Qrow was slightly paler than usual, and how he seemed to up his pace a bit more than when it was relaxed. It would seem he wasn't joking when he said Dusk is a bit harder to use than aura, but she certainly could appreciate that it had some power, even if she'd probably never be able to use it, as she had concluded she had no weakness to admit. She also pointedly ignored the sigh from a certain phantom who would teach her anything about it in the first place.
The trio walked assuredly into the large white building made to look like a giant shed, and even a couple meters from the entrance they could all feel the heat from within, which they welcomed it as they walked through the open double doors.
The Soichiro name had meant something for a long time, and they'd been able hands with weapons for a much longer time. As weapons moved up in the world, and mecha-shift became more widely accepted, they too evolved, but distance from the Kingdoms and a refusal to leave their ancestral homes in the wild kept them isolated, and from the success many felt they'd practically be drowning in if they'd changed locals.
Nevertheless, they still profited making weapons, just for darker half of humanity which thrived more easily beyond the kingdoms walls and especially in Mistral. Jackai Soichiro had a vision however, one he was known for, for the day the Soichiro name would become famous throughout the world. Many people who knew him believed getting a contract with Mistral was the first step towards that, but they also agreed he definitely had bigger plans in the works.
Right now, that plan involved showing a group of kids he had fond memories of, who used to play with his little girl until he made the biggest mistake of his life and left her with his uncle for 3 years to get a better handle on the craft, around his workshop where he paraded some of his best weapons.
"This here is a real beauty, you sure you kids don't want a halberd in your lives? These things cut like butter through grimm! People won't stand much a chance better." He showed them a pitch black halberd, but they shook their heads, very well aware of the fact Jackai never showed the the real goods first. In response he shrugged, just meant the kids knew what they were doing if they didn't grab his dollar store stuff.
Qrow coughed and gave Jackai a pointed stare. "Listen uncle Jackai, we were wondering if you had any mecha-sift weapons?"
Hearing that request, Jackai blinked and slowly gave the kids each a harder stare. One each of them grew hesitant seeing.
After his face seemed to take on a calmer appearance, He slowly began to put the halberd back, until he suddenly gripped it tight, and the kids completely failed to react before Jackai swung hard at Qrows exposed arm. All he was able to get out was a surprised "Gack!" before his aura flared up and blocked the hit, and in response Jackai slowly whistled.
"Man, when did you kids start using Aura? Your mom get a rogue huntsmen to unlock yours? Ah, must have been your dad, your mom would've gotten it herself too and...I'm getting off topic. Sorry for the test Qrow, but I had to know if you could handle a mecha-shift weapon, most are made to handle Grimm and the ones I bust out, at least now, are a cut above that! Can't just give them out to anyone, but knowing you kids you'll be taking names like there's no tomorrow!"
He ignored the fact Qrow was not so silently swearing much worse than any sailor, and both Merkava and Raven pointedly ignored him as well. Raven herself was curious about what her uncle had said. "You said your weapons are a cut above the rest? How exactly? Something about your advanced gear Aundre was talking about?" Jackai grinned hearing that, and began walking deeper into his forge with the trio following. "The best mecha-shift weapons are made in Atlas, no one can disagree with that. But, there is something most weapons made for hunters don't have that lesser weapons can handle. You saw how my halberd was black right? What Huntsmen uses a black halberd? No…"
They approached a place blocked off by a tarp, Jackai's grin grew wider as he pulled it back. "Most huntsmen weapons aren't able to utilize the colored types of weaponry, which are dust-forged with dust outside of steel and stone, for unique effects. For instance the most commonly used are red weapons for most mooks, like that joke of an axe Qrow uses."
Qrow grumbled hearing that, "it's not useless…" Which he regretted saying as Jackai turned to face him with an enormous and pitying grin. "Yes, Qrow, it is trash, oh it is the worst of trash, but don't worry a hair on your head, uncle Jackai has your back for this one. He will cleanse you of your addiction to garbage with wholesome, genuine instruments of murder and destruction."
Chapter 4 done, and if your looking for something with a bit more 'oompf' in the next chapters, it'll come soon.