It's been a while since I've posted.

Here's a 9300 word chapter to assure you, I'm not even close to done.

Enjoy!


Day 1


Raven had always been one to wake up at the crack of dawn. She rose with the sun, quite content to greet the day by herself from the roof of Team STRQ's dormitory while sipping a mug of tea. It was her morning routine, which is why none of her teammates was ever unsettled if they awoke to find her gone. In fact what was more unsettling to those that roomed with her, was the one day that each of them was up and ready for the day before she even opened her eyes.

In short, it was enough to cause a bit of alarm.

Instead of Raven, it was Summer who woke first. She barely noticed that Raven was still huddled beneath her blankets, so she began her morning routine comfortably, grabbing a towel and shower caddy and heading towards the bathroom to wash up for the day. When she returned, wet hair dripping onto the floor, Qrow had already woken up by then, which left only Tai.

The wake-up time of one Taiyang Xiao Long was enough to send Summer into a tizzy since Tai didn't really 'wake up'. Instead, he was forced out of his bed at an appropriate time in the morning by Summer, who had the nasty tendency of pushing him right off his bed if he didn't meet her standards of early-rising. Standards which Qrow had already learned about in his first week at Beacon, but Tai couldn't seem to get a hold of.

Today was no different.

Fifteen minutes later, and the three members of Team STRQ were up and ready for the new day ahead of them, except for one they suddenly realised. They stood around Raven's bed, trying to decide which one of them was brave enough to wake her.

"Qrow should do it," Taiyang stated.

Qrow gawked at him, "Hell no, the last time I tried to wake up my sister she put me in a choke hold in under five seconds. I couldn't speak right for two days."

"Maybe she's sick?" Summer suggested, much more worried about Raven's health than the other two were.

They all jumped back a step when all of a sudden, Raven violently woke up. She gasped as the top half of her body rose quickly off the bed, as if something at frightened her from her rest. She continued to catch her breath as droplets of sweat rolled down her forehead. She brought her hand up to her eyes, blocking them from the light as she squinted in pain.

Her team surrounded her in a flash.

"You alright, sis?"

"Are you feeling okay, Raven?"

"What's wrong?"

Qrow, Summer, and Tai all began to speak over each other, making the pain in Raven's head pulse harder than before.

"It's just a headache. Your concern is not helping." She grumbled, quieting them with a simple crimson glare. Immediately, everyone fell silent and backed away from her bed. Without another word, she got up, grabbed a towel, her shower stuff, and some clothes to change into, and left the room, leaving behind her dumbfounded teammates. The three of them exchanged glances, silently questioning one another about the status of their teammate. After going through an entire conversation with just their eyes, Summer finally sighed and followed Raven out of the room, jogging to catch up with her.

"You sure you're okay?" Summer asked again.

"I shall be fine, Summer. It's just a headache." Raven reminded her, walking a little faster to pass Summer.

"Are you sure? 'Cuz if you're not feeling too good, we can wait until next weekend to do our field mission. I'd rather you be 100% than anything less." Summer said as Raven opened the door to the bathroom.

Raven sighed, stopping just inside the doorway, her clenched fist braced against the door frame, "This weekend is too important for us to miss. I promise my condition will not disturb the performance of the team."

Summer's left hand grasped her wrist as her eyes shifted to look at the floor, "That's not the only reason I'm asking, Raven."

Raven rolled her eyes, slightly irritated now, "There is no need to be worried about me. You have more important things to focus on." And with that, the conversation was over. Raven slammed the door behind her as she disappeared into the washroom, leaving Summer by herself in the hall. Slightly angrier than she had been five minutes ago, Summer stormed back into the room, where Tai and Qrow had started to pack their bags.

She huffed as she walked into the room, throwing herself onto her bed. She raised her arm over her eyes with dramatic flare, "I don't understand her, sometimes."

Qrow scoffed, "You just need to practice."

"Practice what?"

"Practice getting through a conversation with her, without pissing her off," Qrow shrugged.

"Got any tips?"

Qrow chuckled, "Hell no. I've been attached to her since day one and I still manage to annoy her."

"That's because you're actively trying to piss her off," Taiyang interjected, throwing something across the room so Qrow could catch it and put it in his pack.

Qrow smiled to himself, "Heh, right."

"Ugh, you two aren't helping," Summer groaned.

"You ain't doing much either, Sunflower," Qrow told her, gesturing to the still-empty pack on her bed, compared to his full one. She rolled her eyes as she got off her bed to pack, just as Qrow started to pack Raven's stuff for her. Raven returned after all the packing had been finished, looking no less grumpy than she was ten minutes ago. She didn't say a word as she stormed into the room and started to clean up the area around her bed. Wordlessly, Qrow handed Raven her full pack. Summer tried to read the expressions from the corner of her eye. The twins tended to have silent conversations with each other using only their eyes, something that unnerved Summer to no end. Suddenly, the alarm on her scroll went off in her pocket, indicating that it was 8:30.

She took the device out of pocket to turn the alarm off, "C'mon, we should head to the dining hall to pick up something to eat before we get our weapons." She stated, grabbing her pack and hefting it onto her shoulder. She then grabbed her cloak, wrapped it around her shoulders, and lead her team out of the door.

As they walked out of the dormitory and across Beacon campus towards the dining hall, Summer couldn't help but feel a tiny sense of dread for the upcoming weekend. While Team STRQ had certainly individually improved since coming to Beacon, their teamwork was still lacking something to be desired, and Summer felt that her leadership qualities were similarly underdeveloped. However, they were only supposed to be shadowing a Huntsman over the weekend, not necessarily doing anything particularly life-threatening.

Their trip to the dining hall was just a pit stop on their way to the locker room, so they didn't sit down to eat. Instead, Summer and Tai grabbed a couple of muffins while the twins stuffed a half-dozen apples each into their backpacks. A pile of dishes had toppled over on the other side of the room, sending all the of the dining hall workers over there to clean up the mess, and ensuring that the twins wouldn't be spotted while they enacted their theft. As they left, Summer handed Qrow a chocolate chip muffin, his personal favourite since he had come to Beacon.

They ate their small breakfasts on their way to the locker room, trails of muffin crumbs dropping to the ground as they walked along their path. The cool autumn air ruffled Summer's hair, sending a chill down her neck and spine. She was suddenly glad that she had decided to wear her leggings under her combat skirt today, especially if they ended up going somewhere colder than the temperate city of Vale on their excursion. Behind the group, a flock of birds came down to eat the forgotten muffin crumbs.

Once they were in the locker room, they all went to their respective lockers. Summer quickly punched her code into the keypad and the steel door opened to reveal Delicate Thorn, along with its quiver that held five dozen arrows, a mix of regular ones, as well as Dust-tipped arrows. Inside, there was also a belt that she wrapped around her waist. It was made out of a thin sheet of bendable metal wrapped in black cloth that gave the magnets in her bow and quiver something to grasp onto when they were holstered. She attached her quiver to her right hip, before collapsing her bow into its most compact state and attaching it to her back.

Across the room, Taiyang reverently put on his scale-plated caestus gloves. He clenched his hands, feeling the rough leather stretch across his knuckles as the small metal plates shifted with it. Bringing up his fists closer to his face in a fighter's pose, he struck out into the air twice, letting his Aura flow through the gold Dust-woven thread carefully embroidered into the leather of the caestus. On each strike a small puff of flame materialised in the air, travelling a couple of metres before dissipating. A couple lockers down, in the direction that Tai had aimed his strikes, Qrow was inspecting a fully extended Claw before he sent an irritated stare to the other boy when Tai's flames came just a little too close for comfort. Summer was just about to call out Tai for being reckless before Qrow decided to take matters into his own hands, when Raven appeared behind him, wrapping her giant mass of hair under a red bandana, Talon attached at her hip. With her presence, the tension between the two boys was quickly stifled under her crimson glare.

Getting into a fight with one another was never worth it if Raven would be the one to interrupt it. Bruises were unavoidable with Raven, while Summer would navigate more towards terse words, pointed fingers, and threats to stop baking her famous chocolate chip cookies. Both strategies worked, but one was obviously more pleasant than the other.

Twenty minutes later they were in the auditorium after Ozpin had given a lengthy speech of which neither of them would remember, surrounding a holoscreen, trying to pick out a mission that all of them could agree on. Summer was at the front and centre of the group as her three teammates gathered around her, Qrow and Raven to her left and right while Tai stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. Occasionally one of them would point their fingers at a mission listing that they read as Summer quickly scrolled through them, prompting her to slap the protruding finger away.

"What about an escort mission?" Summer suggested, hovering her finger over a mission that would bring them to Vacuo if they decided to choose it.

"Boring," Tai stated, taking a bite out of an apple he had stealthily stolen from Qrow's pack.

Summer rolled her eyes, "Okay… How 'bout we stay in the city? We can help out the local police?"

"Boring," Qrow repeated.

Summer sighed, "You guys are being way too picky for our first mission."

"C'mon Sum, find a Search and Destroy mission for us to go on." Tai nagged, voice muddled around the bite of apple he had just taken.

"I did, but then you found out it was in Atlas and you said you didn't want to go because you don't like the cold." Summer chided.

"Then find another one."

"They were all taken because you're being too picky!"

"What about that one." Raven interrupted, pointing her finger to a Village Security listing, "The hunters of a village north of Vale spotted a Beowolf pack nearby and they want us to clear it out. Mission length should be a maximum of five days, leaving immediately, and the Huntsman in charge is a woman named… Iris Regalia."

Tai gasped, "Oh, I know her!"

Summer turned around, "Really?"

"Well, I know of her," Tai corrected himself, "I Saw her picture in my parents' old yearbooks, they graduated in the same year as her. She was the top marksman in the class."

"She sounds exemplary," Raven remarked.

"So we're all in agreement?" Summer asked the group, smiling when she received a nod from each of them in return. She let out a long breath of anxious air as she selected the mission, and typed in their four initials to sign them up. The confirmation notice appeared on the screen, and Summer couldn't even press her finger to the screen before Tai did it for her.

A second notice appeared on screen, telling them they would be departing immediately from dock seven. With a mix of trepidation and excitement, the group of four hoisted their packs onto their shoulders and left for their first mission.


Day 2


At some unknown time the next morning, too early for the sun to be up, Sumer was unceremoniously awoken by no less the seven loud bangs on the door of the room she and Raven were sharing. She was seconds away from falling asleep again when the seven knocks were repeated on the next door over which lead into the room that the boys' were sharing.

Iris' loud booming voice echoed through the hallway outside, "Up and at 'em, rookies, we leave in twenty."

Summer could hear Tai's responding groan through the wall that separated the two rooms, followed by a few choice words directed at the Huntsman they had been assigned to follow. Summer sighed and pushed herself up onto her hands. She had slept in her combat skirt with Delicate Thorn within arms reach. Iris had told them that they would have an early start when they had arrived the previous day by hover ship, so Summer decided to forego changing so she wouldn't have to waste any time.

She slowly pulled herself out of bed, then fastened her bow and quiver back onto her person. She then trudged over to the washroom to splash some cold water onto her face, jolting herself to fully wake up. When she returned to the room, she noticed that Raven had, somehow, not been affected by Iris' harsh awakening. Instead, she continued to lay on her side facing away from Summer toward the window, curled into herself under the covers.

"Raven." Summer said her name, slightly louder than her normal speaking voice. She hoped that it would be enough to jolt the other girl awake, but it didn't seem to work. Summer walked closer to the bed and repeated Raven's name, this time a bit louder. Once again, it didn't work. Sighing, Summer steeled herself, she walked over to the other side of the bed and hunched down so that her face was level with Raven's. She hesitantly reached out towards Raven's face, her fingers just grazing Raven's pale clammy skin. As soon as they touched, Raven jolted awake, although less violently than the day before. Her hand jumped up to grasp Summer around the wrist, and she opened her eyes to reveal that they were glazed over and unfocused.

Both girls sat in the silence for a couple seconds before Summer spoke up.

"Raven?" She asked, trying to look directly into Raven's eyes.

"Sum-Summer?" Raven stuttered, squinting her eyes as her irises started to gain focus. The grasp she held around Summer's wrist loosened, allowing Summer to pull her hand away.

"Yes?"

"You're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Summer said, quite confused.

"That's good."

Summer was hopelessly confused. She shook her head, trying to steady her racing mind, "Raven, are you okay?"

Summer watched as Raven sat up in the bed. The other girl looked around the room as if she didn't know where she was. She took a second before she answered, "I'm fine. I've been having increasingly... peculiar dreams as of late."

Summer was surprised that Raven had confessed what had been bothering her, "What about?"

Raven tilted her head, looking into the distance and squinting her eyes, "I am unsure."

"Oh."

Raven turned to her, "Has Iris already come around to wake us up?" She asked, quickly switching the topic.

"Um, yeah." Summer stammered.

"Then we should not leave her waiting," Raven replied. She then threw her sheets off of her body, revealing that she too had left her clothes on to sleep. She hurried to attach Talon to her hip, then she put on her gauntlets and tied her hair back into its bandana. Without another word, she exited the room, leaving Summer behind to contemplate Raven's odd behaviour.

Summer waited an extra second before following her. She walked out of the room into the hallway, where five other doors lined the walls. The inn they were staying at was small, but appropriately sized relative to the village it served. It boasted six rooms, with a small restaurant and bar downstairs, where Iris and the others were no doubt waiting for her. She rambled down the stairs to see that the other's had gathered around a wooden table in the centre of the room. A large map of the area had been spread out on the table, and a plate with some pastries had been pushed to the edge of the table to accommodate it. When she went down the last step, the others turned to watch her.

"Good of you to join us, Miss. Rose." Iris said. She was either irritated or welcoming, but Summer couldn't tell. She quickly joined the group, grabbing a croissant from the plate of pastries, and Iris went back to her briefing.

"As I was saying before," Iris began, "Hunters from the village have reported seeing a large amount of Beowolves amassing in this area." She pointed towards a spot on the map, about two kilometres south-west of the village.

"They seem to have moved into a system of caves carved into the mountainside. At first, the villagers noticed only a couple Grimm, but their numbers have increased greatly within the past few days, so we have been called in to assist in removing them." Iris stated.

Tai spoke first, "So what's the plan? Go in, clear them out, and we're home by tonight?" He asked, cracking his knuckles from within his caestus.

Iris turned to look at him, raising one extremely displeased pierced eyebrow, "That would be inadvisable, Mr Xiao Long. While I'm sure you and your teammates are up to the task, we have little to no knowledge of what we will be getting ourselves into. We don't know the Beowolves' numbers, or if there are any Alpha's in the mix. We don't even know the terrain we will be fighting on, and whether it can be used to our advantage. Today, we will only be scouting the situation. We will return tonight, come up with a plan of attack, and then finish the job tomorrow. Understand?"

"Of course, ma'am." Tai nodded.

"Good. We have about an hour's hike through the forest before we reach our destination. Keep your weapons at the ready at all times, we don't know what we might encounter." Iris instructed. Team STRQ nodded in response. They spent the next five minutes stuffing themselves with the pastries before Iris rolled up her map, and lead them outside.

The sun was just about to make an appearance over the distant horizon, and the damp chill that had been dispersed through the air awaiting its arrival sank deeply within Summer's bones. The exhale of her breath made itself known in the air as she pulled her hood up over her head. She then took Delicate Thorn from its place at her back and extended it before retrieving a few arrows from her quiver. She put four of them into her bow hand, holding them between her hand and the grip on the bow. The fifth arrow she brought up to the bowstring, nocking it so that it was ready at a moment's notice. Ahead of her, Qrow extended Claw to its broadsword form, and Iris unholstered the twin pistols that sat at her thighs, leaving her shotgun and assault rifle still on her back.

Iris lead the group through the half-asleep village towards the forest that stood at its western border. As they strode beneath the canopy of the trees, what little light there was almost completely disappeared and it took Summer a couple of minutes to adjust to the new darkness. The forest seemed to be quite old, layers of dead leaves crunching beneath her feet as ferns brushed against her knees. The trees rose to heights of fifty or so metres above them, so tall that when the wind rustled through them they creaked as they swayed from side to side. Other than the creaking of the trees, the forest was as silent as the dead, and Summer couldn't prevent the shivers that escaped down her spine, or the weariness that she felt as she trudged along with the rest of the group.

Ahead of her, Tai blundered through the underbrush of the forest like a blind Goliath. He held his hand spread out with his palm facing upwards in front of him, a small ball of flame floating within his grasp. His head moved every which way, trying to see past the darkness that surrounded them. Meanwhile, the twins moved with silent proficiency, barely making a noise as they crept along the path Iris lead them on.

Over the past day, since she had met her, Summer couldn't help but admire the Huntsman that they had been following. While Iris hadn't been the leader of her own team (which Taiyang had pointed out as something he remembered from his parents' old yearbook), she still exuded a commanding presence with no space left for any of Tai's or Qrow's nonsense. And she made it seem like it was all so easy too. Summer was big enough to admit to herself that she was jealous, but that didn't mean she was going to say it aloud anytime soon.

Leading the front of the group, Iris raised her hand, signalling to stop. She holstered both of her pistols, then took the map out of a pouch on her hip that was attached to her belt. She unfolded it and walked over to Tai and his ball of flame so that she could see it better.

"We're going to continue the rest of our journey from the treetops." She stated, folding the map back up again.

"What?" Taiyang interjected.

Iris marched over to Tai, tall and foreboding. Even though she was still an inch shorter than Tai, she was still menacing enough for him to have to take a step back as she stared directly up into his eyes, "Did I misspeak, Mr Xiao Long?"

"No, ma'am." Tai shook his head.

"Good," Iris nodded, and turned to the rest of the group, "There is a clearing of trees up ahead another half kilometre, which is where we will find our prey. We can use the trees as a place to scout from, without alarming the Beowolves of our presence. Mr Xiao Long and Miss Rose will come with me to the right, the Branwens will go left. Do I make myself clear?"

Quiet nods were the only thing that answered her, and then the teenagers started to follow her orders. Off to one side, Qrow kneeled down with his hands clasped, offering a boost for his sister. She placed her foot into his open palms, and he threw her up into the air so that she could grasp onto a low hanging branch. Raven pulled herself up, then reached down to grab Qrow, hoisting him up with one hand. They continued to jump between the branches of the trees, higher and higher until they disappeared into the canopy of leaves. Looking over, Summer noticed that Tai was doing the same for her. She too was boosted up onto a low hanging branch and was just about to turn around to offer a hand to Tai, when she saw that he was climbing the trunk of the tree by himself, digging the metal-plated fingertips of his caestus into the bark. After he joined her, Iris followed them, jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk to propel her upwards. She then gestured to them to follow her, and they made their way through the canopy of tree branches.

They continued until they got to the clearing, when Iris told them to find a place amongst the branches, and get comfortable, as they would be staying there until evening. Summer found a large branch that seemed comfortable and sat down with her back against the trunk. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Qrow and Raven poke their heads out of the leaves of a tree on the other side of the clearing. Tai sighed heavily and sat on a branch on Summer's left. Meanwhile, Iris started to take her guns out of the holsters attached to her back. Summer watched as Iris put each of the guns, realising that she was assembling a sniper rifle. Once she was done, she looked down its scope, getting a closer view of their prey.

"Is there anything we should be looking for, ma'am," Tai asked snidely. Summer sent him a glare, wordlessly telling him to kerb the attitude.

Iris just chuckled, "You don't approve of my methods, Mr Xiao Long." She stated.

"I just don't like the idea of waiting another day to finish these monsters off. What if they attack the village before then?" Taiyang replied.

"Hmm," Iris hummed in response, "Your gloves seem familiar to me." She changed the subject.

Tai looked down at his hands in surprise, "They were my mother's." He whispered, clenching his fists.

Iris smiled, "Right, Chi Xiao Long. That's where I heard your name before. You look like her too, if I remember correctly. You have the same fire in your eyes."

"Did you know her well?"

"No, but I didn't have to. She made herself known."

"So I've heard."

"She was brash when she first went to Beacon. Had a nasty penchant for starting fights and landing herself in the medical ward."

Tai chuckled, "Yeah, that's what Gran said."

"And now that you wear her gloves, I wonder if you'll share her fate as well."

Tai's jaw dropped, stunned into silence by Iris' statement. Summer decided that this was her chance to indiscreetly change the subject.

"Is there anything, in particular, we should be looking for?" Summer asked, breaking the uneasy silence.

"We should be counting numbers, mostly," Iris answered, "It will be difficult to know just how many of the Grimm are in the caves, but if we can get a rough estimate that should be enough. Take note if there are any alphas among them, they'll need to be taken out first. Also, take note if there is any part of the terrain we can use to our advantage, or that can be used against us. Those caves, for example, will likely be very dangerous if we decide to enter them."

"Right." Summer nodded, focused on her assigned task.

"And what of you, Miss Rose?" Iris questioned, turning around to look at Summer through the corner of her eye.

"Pardon me?"

"A bow is a hunter's weapon, not a Huntsman's. Why choose a bow when a gun is readily available to you?"

Summer shrugged her shoulders, "I can't really use a gun."

"Were you not trained to?"

Summer chuckled, "Of course I was, I've just always been able to shoot better with a bow than I have with a gun. It's part of my Semblance."

"Explain."

"My Semblance allows me to hit any target I can see as long as I focus hard enough, but I have to feel the projectile in my hand, I have to be able to see its trajectory. Guns are just too… impersonal."

"What happens if you don't focus hard enough."

"Nothing too bad most of the time, an arrow a couple centimetres off target maybe. Although I have had some mishaps that haven't ended so well."

Iris looked pensive, "Hmm, you have an interesting responsibility, Miss Rose. I do not envy you."

Summer didn't know what to say until she suddenly realised something, "Shouldn't you already know all of this? You got our transcripts when we signed up for the mission, didn't you?"

Iris shrugged her shoulders, "Yes, but I didn't read them."

"Why not?"

"We're going to be stuck in this tree for the next few hours, we might as well have something to talk about." Iris murmured, returning to look down the scope of her sniper rifle.

Summer decided that there was much more to Iris than she previously assumed.

On the opposite side of the clearing, Qrow and Raven were sitting in complete silence, which was only broken by the sound of leaves being ruffled by the wind. A couple of metres away, they heard the crack of a tree branch falling down to the forest floor and the accompanying sound of the squawking birds that were disturbed by it.

"This remind you of anything, sis?" Qrow asked Raven, trying to get her to bite onto the hook of conversation. Raven, being Raven, didn't seem to get the hint.

Qrow sighed, rolling his eyes, and continued, "You know, sitting in tree branches, scouting a mark. Just like old times. 'Cept today we're just killing Grimm, instead of villages filled with hundreds of innocent civilians."

Once again, Raven said nothing. She looked like she was in very deep thought.

"Something bothering you, Rae?" Qrow asked, slightly worried for his sister.

"I had a dream last night." She replied ominously.

"About what?" Qrow questioned.

"I don't remember," Raven confessed, "It was like what I see with my Semblance, various probabilities but clearer somehow. But I can't remember what actually happened, only the feelings that went with it."

"Must be hard for you," Qrow joked.

"Qrow, this is serious," Raven chided him, turning to face him directly to reveal desperate eyes.

Qrow realised that whatever Raven wanted to tell him must have been important, "So, what did you feel?"

Raven tilted her head, "I felt grief. Deep and lonely. Like I was drowning."

Qrow nodded, bringing a hand up to Raven's shoulder, "Well it sounds like it was just a normal nightmare then. Even if it was your Semblance, you see hundreds of outcomes a day that don't pan out, what's the likelihood that these will?" He reassured her.

Raven smiled, looking downwards to her fidgeting hands, "You're right, it's probably nothing."

She wasn't being very convincing, "I have something that might make you feel better." Qrow nagged, nudging Raven with his shoulder.

Raven rolled her eyes, figuring out where her brother was going with this, "We can't do that right now, we're on a mission." She objected, albeit not as harshly as she could have.

"Just a few minutes, we'll be back without anyone noticing we were gone."

"Qrow-"

"C'mon, Rae, it's been months since we stretched our wings." He was getting closer to her breaking. Raven sighed dramatically, trying to fight the smile that was starting to appear at her lips, and Qrow knew that he had her.

"Fine." She agreed, rolling her eyes. Qrow barely succeeded to quiet his exclamation of his excitement.

Slowly, he let go of the tree branch and allowed himself to fall forwards toward the ground. Raven watched as Qrow transformed halfway, quickly following suit.

Back across the clearing, Summer watched as two chattering corvids took flight across the light of the rising autumn sun, completely unaware of their specific peculiarity.

Summer spent the rest of the day in the same spot she had originally settled in. At noon, she ate an apple that she had brought along with her. The flow of stilted conversation between herself, Iris, and occasionally Tai prevented her from going insane from the silence. She wondered if the twins were getting along as well.

Throughout the day, she continuously wrote notes in her head of what she observed. There were about three dozen Beowolves, yet here seemed to be no Alphas. Going into the caves to attack was suicide, so it would be beneficial to lure them out and attack from within the treetops.

As the sun was just beginning to set, Iris decided that they had been there long enough and that it was time to return to the village. She signalled the twins, and they went on their way. The walk back to the inn just added to the heavy weight of fatigue that had set deep into their bones; the early wake up combined with the long day added to the fact that they didn't have much to eat. Their return to the inn was greeted by a few worried villagers, who Iris quietly calmed down so they would return to their homes. The innkeepers had made them a meal of a hearty lamb stew, free of charge, that the tired teenagers made quick work of, while each of them relayed their reports of the day to Iris.

"You've all done well," Iris remarked after Qrow had finished telling her what he had seen, "I'll spend the night planning our attack, but you all deserve a good rest. Go up to bed, we'll have another early start tomorrow morning, although not as early as today."

The four of them nodded, quietly said goodnight to her, and trudged up the stairs to their rooms.


Day 3


The time on Raven's scroll blinked to 1:13 am, but she didn't notice. She couldn't sleep, or rather, she wouldn't let herself sleep. So if sleep wouldn't come to her, meditation would have to do the job instead. Meditation was something that the tribe had taught her, as a way to mature her Semblance. While Qrow's was forged in the heat of combat and struggle, her's evolved through quiet contemplation and intense reflection. Which is why she decided to practice it once more. Qrow told her not to worry about what she had forgotten in her dreams. But the nagging feeling at the back of her head still continued, pulsing against her mind as if trying to escape.

What if Qrow was wrong?

Inside her mind's eye, a web of strings spread out before her. Thousands of outcomes, each with constantly fluctuating probabilities, which were not helped by her brother sleeping away in the next room. Sighing, she attempted to concentrate harder on the web and began to follow a string that lead her to a family asleep in their house on the east end of town.

Baby cries. Father gets up. Holds baby to chest. Sings words of comfort. Ceiling collapses.

Baby doesn't cry. Daughter gets up for a glass of water. Red eyes in the window. Blood on the living room carpet.

Daughter stays asleep. Mother goes to the washroom. Watches the village burn. Her scream never awakens the others.

Raven stumbled out of the trance, panting heavily. A large amount of sweat had started to trickle down her forehead. She caught her breath, closed her eyes, and returned to the web. She latched on to another string, the village blacksmith, still working in his forge.

Forge gets too hot. Burns his face.

Forge is fine. Remove the bucket of molten steel from the flames. Pour into mould. Growls in the distance. Gets out in time.

Doesn't hear the growls. It's too late.

Once again she was thrown out of the web. She steeled herself once more and determinedly returned. Instead of focusing on one string, she let herself wander among them all, trying to latch on to something that felt familiar.

Qrow wakes first. He hears the screams. Leaps before thinking. He is overwhelmed.

Summer wakes first. Awakens the others. Too much going on. She never sees the Beowolf's claws. Her scroll falls out of her pocket. 1:38 am.

Taiyang wakes first. The others soon after him. Not soon enough. His grief-stricken rage consumes him. So do his own flames.

She brought herself out of the trance and came to a final conclusion: The Beowolves would be attacking within the next few minutes. She leapt out of bed and ran over to Summer, shaking the other girl awake.

"What the-" Summer stammered, blinking quickly to get the sleep out of her eyes.

"They're attacking tonight Summer, grab your bow." Raven explained without preamble, thoroughly confusing her still half-asleep teammate.

"Raven? What's happening?"

"No time to explain. Grab your weapon, let's go." She grabbed Summer by the wrist, hauling her out of bed. Summer just barely had time to wrap her free hand around her bow and quiver before Raven pulled her out of the door. As they made their way outside and across the village to its west end, she was able to properly attach her quiver to her belt. Once they hit the forest's edge, she made her way onto the roof of a nearby house, bow at the ready.

Everything stood still, and nothing happened.

"Raven, are you sure-" Summer was about to ask.

"Shhh." Raven silenced her.

"Raven-"

"Quiet, Summer." Raven chastised. Her eyes were moving every which way, trying to make something out from the darkness. Raven's fingers fidgeted on Talon's hilt, as the multi-selector holster it was sheathed in rotated continuously.

"Raven, what is going on?" Summer demanded, out of patience for Raven's weird behaviour.

"The dreams weren't dreams," Raven explained, "I looked through the web and the strings all ended the same way. The family, the blacksmith, you, Qrow, Taiyang."

Summer shook her head, Raven wasn't making any sense.

"You're scroll said 1:38 am, what time is it now?" Raven asked.

Summer took her scroll out, "It's 1:29."

Raven visibly calmed, "Then we have enough time."

"Time until what?"

"Until the Grimm attack." Raven replied.

A loud howl echoed through the endless night. Both girls started at the sound, grasping their hands tightly around their weapons. Several howls answered the first.

"Raven, go get Iris and the boys." Summer commanded, bringing her bow up to her eyes.

"Summer, you can barely see." Raven replied.

"Go!" Summer demanded. Raven hesitated for a second before running off back towards the inn. Summer then picked a different arrow from her quiver, this one tipped with bright orange dust, and let it fly somewhere into the trees. A giant ball of bright orange flame exploded when it finally landed, lighting several trees on fire along with the forest floor. She drew ten arrows and kept them in her drawing hand, nocking one of them and waiting until she saw the first hint of bright red eyes.

They came in a wave of snarling and teeth, stampeding their way through the forest floor. The Grimm came to a stop when they reached the flames, allowing Summer to fire off each one of her ten arrows, one after the other, straight into the skulls of an equal number of the Beowolves. Each of them exploded into dark, all-consuming smoke, blocking her view of the others. She waited until the smoke dissipated, grabbing more arrows in the meantime. Six more pairs of red eyes appeared, and she fired off arrow after arrow as fast as she could.

"Summer!" She heard Tai shout as her three teammates appeared on the ground in front of her, weapons drawn.

"Raven, where's Iris?" Summer asked.

"I couldn't find her."

"What do you mean you couldn't find her?" Summer demanded.

"She wasn't in her room." Raven spat back.

"Hey, can we focus here?" Tai said.

Summer refocused her mind, "Right, um, Tai you go through the centre, try to split them up but don't add to the fire. Qrow and Raven, you're on the left and right flanks. You see any of them escape your reach, point them out to me. Raven, keep us updated on anything that may turn the tide against us. Any and all arrows that you retrieve and send back to me will be greatly appreciated." She instructed. Her team leapt into action, obeying her orders.

Tai drove himself farther and farther beyond the treeline until all Summer could see was the fire of his punches, flickering in the distance. Like she said, he split the group apart, sending them into the waiting weapons of the twins. A larger group of Beowolves were running toward Qrow, so Summer released three arrows tipped with lightning Dust. They landed, and an arc of electricity arced between each arrow, killing several of the Grimm. Qrow raised a thumbs-up in thanks, but Summer couldn't help but feel as if something was wrong.

"Anybody else think that there are more Grimm than we counted?" She asked the others.

"That a problem?" Qrow shouted back as he sliced through three Beowolves with one strike from his scythe, "I think we're doing pretty well."

"It's too easy." She replied.

"Only you would think that Summer." Qrow joked.

"Not the time, Qrow." Summer chastised him, firing off an arrow at a Beowolf that managed to get past them. Suddenly, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye.

"Ursae, coming from the south." She yelled to her teammates, "Regroup back to me." The others retreated to the house she was standing, forming a tight circle around her. She fired off three ice-arrows, making a barrier around them. Not very strong, but strong enough to lend them time. She then jumped down onto the ground.

Tai was hunched over himself, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, "Did you say Ursae?"

"Yes."

"What's the plan, Sum?"

Thoughts raced through Summer's head, "We can't kill them all, so we prioritise. We can get the civilians out of their homes and send them towards the inn, then send a distress signal. We might not be able to save the village, but we can try to get as many people out as we can."

The others nodded in agreement.

"Right. Raven, you and I are going to head to the south end. We can make an ice wall with our Dust, which should give us some time to move the civilians. Qrow and Tai, you head north and start directing everyone toward the inn."

They all jumped back onto the roof just as the Beowolves broke through the wall of ice. Summer and Raven ran towards the south, leaping over the rooftops of the houses, hopefully waking some of the people living within them.

"Summer!" Iris shouted, from down below on the street, her fully assembled sniper rifle in her hands. Summer paused, gestured to Raven, and they both headed down to her.

"Iris!" Summer greeted as she ran toward her, skipping the formalities.

"What is going on here?" Iris demanded.

"A… Grimm attack, ma'am?"

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"We couldn't find you in your room."

"This was reckless, Summer, I expected more from you," Iris stated, shaking her head, "Go back to the inn, I've called for a hovercraft to come pick us up. You will face the consequences of your actions once we return to Beacon."

"But we're trying to save the village." Summer defended herself.

"The village you've destroyed." Iris accused, pointing towards the forest's edge, where many of the trees had gone up in flames, and the fire was beginning to inch towards the houses.

"We can still save the civilians." Summer argued.

"Get back to the inn, rookies." Iris demanded.

"No." Summer fumed. Iris was taken aback but didn't say anything in return. Summer turned to Raven, "Let's go."

Raven nodded, and they ran southward once more, leaving Iris behind them. As they ran through the streets, they banged on every door they could, shouting at the civilians to get to the inn in the centre of the village. When they got to the south end, Summer transformed Delicate Thorn into its bladed staff form and began attacking the Ursae that had already breached the village's borders. Raven worked alongside her, clearing each Grimm with one strike of her flaming sword before leaping at the next one. Once the made their way to the edge of the village, Raven swapped her red sword for one made of Ice Dust. Starting at one end of the row of houses, Raven stuck her sword into the ground and ran, dragging Talon behind her. In her trail, a large wall of ice a couple metres high sprouted upwards. Summer jumped onto another rooftop and Delicate Thorn collapsed back into a bow. She released her entire barrage of Ice arrows, equidistant apart along the inside of Raven's ice wall, strengthening it so it would buy them more time.

When they were done, they returned to the inn, knocking on any doors that they previously missed. When they approached the inn, they saw that Qrow and Tai had already returned.

"Qrow! Tai! Is that everyone?" Summer asked as she ran up to them, Raven following her.

"We're pretty sure we got them all. Do we know when help is arriving?" Tai replied.

"I don't know. Iris called for a hovercraft. Have you seen her?"

"Oh yeah, we've seen her." Qrow said, leaning on Claw to help support his weight, "She was ten seconds away from knocking us out for disobeying her orders."

"Same here." Summer said.

"What'd you do to piss her off?"

"Same thing you did, I think." Summer joked. She almost smiled, but then realised that it was completely inappropriate given the situation. Behind them, she heard the sound of the ice wall breaking. No time for them to catch their breath.

"So, Sum, anymore good ideas?" Tai asked.

"We stay here, close to the inn. We make a wall and we don't let anything passed us." Summer said.

"Agreed," replied Iris from behind her. Summer turned around in shock.

"But-"

"Your behaviour will be discussed in detail once we get back to Beacon. For now, we should focus on protecting these people." Iris interrupted, "we only need to hold them off for another half hour."

"Half an hour? Sounds easy," Qrow said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Are you sure you won't get too tired, brother?" Raven asked, egging him on.

"Why my dear sister, I do believe you've provided me with a challenge." He replied, steadying his grip around Claw, a second away from jumping into action.

Summer stopped him, "One second, guys, we need a plan first. Tai, I'm giving you permission to go all out, the village is already on fire anyways. Just try to keep the flames away from the inn. Qrow, Raven, you do what you do best, just make sure to watch out for each other. Iris and I will stay here, we do better at a distance."

The other three left with a nod while Iris and Summer jumped onto the roof of the inn. The Beowolves had cleared the forest, and they were being attacked both from the south and the west. The twins took the Ursae coming from the south, while Tai went to attack the Beowolves, with Summer supporting him from a distance. He punched flames into the air with pure destructive intent, setting houses and trees alike on fire. It prevented the Beowolves from swarming him completely and gave Summer the opportunity to pick them off from afar. She hesitated a glance towards Raven and Qrow, who seemed to be holding their own quite well. Summer was quite sure that they had turned it all into a game, keeping score of which of them killed the most Ursae.

Summer scoured the battlefield, looking to see if there was anything they had missed. As she did so, she noticed a group of Beowolves that had made their way around the flames in the forest and were coming from the south-west corner past the borders of the village.

She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Qrow! South-west corner!" He quickly broke away from his sister and followed Summer's direction.

She wasn't able to see what happened next.

As Summer had told him to, Qrow rushed over the south-east corner of the village, spotting the Beowolves she must have seen from her perch on the inn's roof. He readied his scythe in advance, switching his grip so he could take the group of the Grimm out in just one strike.

It happened in slow motion.

From behind him, Raven shouted his name. He turned his head to the right to see an Ursa charging toward him, large paw in the air ready to strike. He stopped in his tracks, unable to move. Suddenly, he was pushed out of the way of its charge. Claw was forced out of grasp so that he could catch himself with his hands, and before he could turn around to see who had pushed him, his sister's cry of pain resounded through the air. The Ursa disappeared to ashes in front of him, and Raven collapsed to her knees, her right hand still clasped tightly around Talon's hilt, her left hand cradling her stomach.

Qrow raced over to his sister, supporting her body so that she didn't fall to the ground, "Raven!"

The Grimm surrounded them, but Qrow didn't seem to notice.

"Qrow, the Grimm," Raven strangled out, trying to get up. She groaned as pain swept through her body, forcing her back to the ground. Qrow looked around, trying to figure out what to do.

"Don't worry, Rae, I got it." He comforted her and reached to grab Talon's hilt from her hand. He took it from her limp fingers, and wielded it with two hands, standing up to face his foes. While he had used his sister's weapon before, the weight behind it was different from what he was used to. The defence he put up to block the attacks from the Ursae and Beowolves surrounding him were weak, and his responding attacks were even weaker. He was almost knocked back on the ground when Tai came in to rescue them. He took the Grimm out with a couple punches each, leaving him breathless by the end of the fight. Qrow knelt back down by his sister, who had curled into herself on the ground.

"She okay?" Tai asked.

"I-I-I-" Qrow stammered as he tried to get his shaking arms under Raven's body to lift her up. His muscles wailed at the strain of trying to pick her up while under so much stress.

"Qrow," Tai interjected, reaching out to grasp the other boy's shoulder in an attempt to steady him, "You grab her sword, I'll carry her. We're going to need you to fight off the Grimm."

"Okay." Qrow's eyes were unfocused, but he seemed to understand what Tai was saying. He picked up Talon, sheathing the sword so that Tai could pick Raven up. She looked quite pale, and could just barely keep her eyes open. When raven was settled into Tai's arms, Qrow handed Talon back to her. Her limp arms could barely wrap themselves around it, so Qrow moved her arms for her. He then picked up Claw, and they made their way back to the inn. Qrow ploughed his way through the Grimm with deadly efficiency. Once they got the inn, Tai barreled his way through the door. The villagers inside moved out of his way like a wave, creating a path for him to a table in the middle of the room. He set Raven down on top of it as gracefully as possible.

"I-is there a doctor in here?" He stammered, surprised to see the amount of blood that had seeped into his clothes. A man and a woman pushed themselves through the crowd.

"What happened to her?" The man said, checking over her wounds.

"She was mauled by an Ursa." Tai mumbled, unable to take his eyes off the blood on his arms. He zoned out as the doctor asked for any cloth they could use to put pressure on the wound.

Behind him, Summer barged into the inn, "Is she okay?" She panicked. Tai had just enough sense left in him to turn around and block her view, shielding her small body with his larger one.

"Get out of the way, Tai." Summer pleaded, trying to push her way through him. He couldn't move.

"Turn around, Sum. You don't want to look at this."

"Tai, please."

"Summer, we still have fifteen minutes before help arrives. Trust me. You're needed out there more than you're needed in here." He assured her, forcibly turning her around and leading her out the door. Qrow was still outside, fighting the Grimm like a one-man army, with support from Iris up on the rooftops. The flames grew higher and higher as they consumed more houses, but the Grimm did not seem to be deterred. Summer extended Delicate Thorn, took one final breath of determination, and joined the fray, Tai running after her.

It was a rough fifteen minutes. All four of them were close to collapsing by the time the hovercrafts arrived, like heavily armed angels descending from the heavens. Their guns took care of the rest of the Grimm before the craft were able to land. The Huntsman and the three teenagers then rushed the villagers into the hovercrafts, making sure that Raven got attention from the emergency medical staff that were on board. Summer, Tai, Qrow, and Iris were the last to get on the craft before it lifted off, leaving the burning village behind to raze itself to the ground.

Summer and Tai hovered around Raven as she was tended to. The doctor sutured the claw marks on her abdomen shut before wrapping it in gauze, then he put her on an IV drip. Words of comfort and assurances that their teammate would be okay fell on deaf ears. After Raven was in a stable condition, the doctor looked over Summer and Tai, asking questions that neither of them remembered, nor did they remember the answers they gave to him in return. Blankets were wrapped around their shoulders and they accepted them without question.

Qrow sat in the corner on the opposite side of the ship, his knees curled up to his chest, shivering. Summer glanced over at him, then nudged Tai to follow her. They stood up on wobbly knees, and slowly made their way through the throng of displaced civilians over to their lonely teammate.

"Why are you all the way over here Qrow?" Summer asked him worriedly.

"Area of effect is five metres. I didn't want to hurt her." He stammered through his shivering, his skinny body convulsing violently. The other two sat down on either side of him. Tai brought his arm around Qrow's shoulder, bringing him closer to his body so Qrow could share the heat from his blanket. Summer followed suit, leaning her head on Qrow's shoulder, and bringing her other arm over to cover his chest in a sideways hug. Neither of their gazes shifted from the prone form of their broken teammate on the other side of the ship.

"She's gonna be okay, Qrow." Summer reassured him, mumbling into his shoulder and squeezing him tightly.

"She didn't tell me who won," He replied. The others didn't understand what he was talking about.

They continued to watch over Raven from afar until the heaviness of sleep began to sift through their bodies, weighing them down. Their eyelids followed suit, finally closing no more than ten minutes later.

Team STRQ deserved their rest.


Whew! Finishing this chapter was like a breath of fresh air because holy shit it was long. I hope this explains my extended absence. Getting this chapter out, combined with going to school was a lot of work, which is why most of it was written within the past few days since I'm currently on break. I don't know if any of my future chapters will as long as this one, but I am trying to increase my chapter size to at least greater than 2500 words. This is the longest single thing I have ever written, so I'm pretty happy with myself right now.

As always, some notes:

(1) I realised after writing this chapter, that I never fully described what Iris Regalia looks like. In my mind, she is a cross between Gwendoline Christie and Zarya from Overwatch, except her hair is a darker purple instead of bright pink. She wears a purple tank top that matches the colour of her hair, as well as black cargo pants that are tucked into black combat boots. She carries two dual pistols, an assault rifle, and a shotgun that can be assembled into a sniper rifle. She has a piercing in her left eyebrow and left nostril, and has five piercings in her left ear, but only three in her right. Her emblem is a crown with a bullet hole in it, tattooed onto her right shoulder.

(2) Taiyang has his mother's name because he lives with his maternal grandmother, and everything was just easier that way. Her mother's full name was Chihong Xiao Long (Chihong meaning crimson in Chinese if Google Translate is right, if not please tell me) and his Father's name was Hickory Dale. I like the idea that Tai took after his mother because mama's boys FTW.

(3) Taiyang's weapon is a pair of caestus gloves that were once his mothers but were slightly modified to fit his hands. They are named Lin-Yan (meaning Scale-Flame in Chinese if Google translate is correct, again please tell me if I'm wrong). They are embroidered with fire Dust, so he can punch flames out of his hands, which goes along with his dragon theme. More on his semblance later.

(4) Summer's Semblance was revealed. She can hit any target as long as she can focus on it, as well as touch the projectile in her hands. This sometimes doesn't go as well as planned.

(5) Just to clarify, ST_Q are pretty much in total shock after the mission. I might have been pretty brutal to them.

An update on statistics: This story has reached a combined hit count of 2500 so as always, thanks for reading. And extra double triple thanks to those who have favourite, kudoed, bookmarked, reviewed, or subscribed.