I'm going to be honest, this chapter was originally part of the previous one but I decide to separate them for two reasons, one, the chapter would have been pretty long and second, I feel that they looked better as separate chapters, that's everything, now we can start.

The Mistral mission group spent another hour on Patch before deciding to return to Vale. The trip wasn't long, only 10-15 minutes and, when they arrived, Raven went to who knows where. She probably went looking for Summer while Yang went to search her father and sister. Blake followed the blonde leaving Mia and Qrow the only ones still on the ship. Mia had called Silver to inform Winter, and the soldiers who would be accompanying her, that they could retrieve Cinder and her subordinates. Winter embraced Weiss as a sign of goodbye, and noticed that Silver had disappeared shortly after Mia's call. Now, after getting her soldiers together, Winter Schnee was now standing in front of Qrow Branwen while Mia was giving instructions to the soldiers about what to do with the three criminals.

"The black-haired women won't wake up for a few months. The other women will most likely wake up tomorrow. Her semblance is "Illusions" so, please don't remove the bandage covering her eyes. The man should wake up in a few hours, but he has some broken ribs, please tell General James Ironwood about them." After that Mia watched the soldiers carry Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury away before turning to look at Grunkle and aunt. "Well, that's all. I'm leaving gru… I mean Mr. Branwen."

Once Mia left, Qrow and Winter were completely alone. Winter didn't ask about the purple-eyed girl's identity, she just stared at the man in front of her. There wasn't a single bad word, there wasn't a single sneer of hate or disregard, there wasn't a single sign of a fight… nothing. They didn't do the normal things that they always did when they saw each other, they just did… nothing.

"I heard what happened" Winter said. "My deepest condolences."

"Hearing that from you is pretty strange." Qrow said.

"Listen, I could hate you, but I know the pain of losing someone you love. It's because of that I give you my condolences."

"I see, thanks."

The only other thing Qrow said was to repeat Mia's instructions about telling James about the three criminals and, if everything was going well with him right now, he must be free from blame for what happened at Beacon. After that, Qrow left and Winter started her trip back to Atlas.

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When Yang found her father and sister, the first thing that she did was hug them. Unlike Taiyang and Ruby, she wasn't crying. After a few seconds, like Summer had done, she didn't give many details about what had happened. She didn't talk about the maidens or Salem, she didn't even talk about how Raven had died. She just said that Raven had died protecting her and that Qrow decided to bury her on Patch next to Summer. She also talked about the conversation that she had with Raven a few days ago and, again, she didn't say anything about Salem. She just said that Raven told to her that someone had threatened her, and that was the reason why she had to leave her family. Also, Yang said that Raven was the one who left the white roses on Summer's grave every month. After that, the Xiao Long-Rose family returned to their embrace. Yang was sad but, even so, she still didn't cry, she had already cried all she needed to in front of Blake.

In the distance, Weiss and Blake were watching their partners. They didn't talk at all but, without knowing it, the two were sharing the same feeling. Watching their respective partners made them feel useless, and neither of them had felt so useless in their whole life.

Unlike Yang, instead of going with his family, Qrow decided to go to Ozpin's room. He found himself pretty surprised when he saw that Glynda was outside of the room, waiting for him.

"Summer told me what happened." She said. "My deepest condolences, by the way. Summer and the others locked themselves in the next room."

"You were waiting her just to tell me that?"

"Kind of. You're mad with the headmaster and so I am. Like you, I also wanted to tell him what I think about the secret he kept from us."

"I see."Were Qrow's words when he opened the door of the room. After opening the door, Qrow heard, "My deepest condolences." three times in a row. Qrow didn't try to hit Ozpin again, he didn't shout at him, Qrow didn't do anything, the only thing that he did was tell Ozpin that he felt cheated and he won't be able to believe him for a while. That was all, then Qrow left the room to let Glynda tell Ozpin whatever she wanted to say. The first person that Qrow saw when he left the room was Taiyang.

"I believe that you were with Yang and Ruby."

"I was." Tai responded. "But Yang asked me to leave her alone with her team, so I decide to search for you. How are you feeling?"

How are you feeling? That was the last question that Qrow wanted to hear. He covered his face with his hands and he leaned against the door, slowly falling to the ground until he was sitting on it. Qrow had never felt so bad in his whole life. He had lost someone who had been with him since the beginning, he watched helplessly as the life of his sister was disappeared without be able to do anything about it. He couldn't do anything for her; he couldn't save her and, yo make things worse, he had to bury her. His tears, and the feeling of emptiness in his chest, only got bigger and bigger.

"I know that I could have done more for her." He said "I know it…"

"So we are in the same situation." Tai said "A dragon and a crow who could not help a dear member of team STRQ, again."

Eleven years ago, after Summer's death, they had peace that team STRQ was team _TRQ. Now they had become team _T_Q.

The rest of that day, and the next one, December 3rd, nothing relevant happened. Taiyang, Qrow, Yang, and Ruby received condolences from almost everyone. Ozpin, Glynda, Nora, Ren, Jaune, Pyrrha, nobody knew how they learned about what happened. As for team SSMR, the girls locked themselves in the room next to Ozpin's and they didn't leave it.

"They don't even want pancakes!" Nora claimed when Ruby told her that the girls didn't want anything to eat. Although team JNPR only knew Silver and Mia, as Summer and Raven hadn't show themselves to them yet, neither Weiss, nor Blake, abandoned Ruby and Yang during that time. They had lost a member of their own families before, and the only thing that Weiss and Blake could do was give support to their partners.

And now it was 5:00 a.m of December 4th, the count down for Exitium to awaken had begun at the 11:00 a.m. on December 2nd, the hour Salem had died. So, at eleven o'clock of the morning of that day, the number of days before Exitium awakens will become three.

Inside of team SSMR's room, Mia was sleeping on the floor. She had been up late working on her twin's right-arm. While Silver was sleeping with her sister, Raven was awake. She put on Mia's sweatshirt and tryed to fasten the zipper, something that was a difficult to do with only one arm, until someone help her, it was Summer.

"So, you made up your mind?" She asked her cousin.

"Yes. Stopping him is the only thing that I can do right now." Raven answered. "I wasn't able save my grandma, but at least I can stop him from hurting my mama and mom again. You aren't even going to try to stop me?"

"Are you kidding? When you decide to do something, even Mia can't stop you. The only people who could do it don't know that you are their daughter. Are you still feeling guilty for what happened to your grandma?"

"Kinda… but what happened made me remember what Grunkle told us before we arrived here. Do you remember his words?"

No matter how much you girls prepare, remember, there is always the possibility that something does not go as you have planned.

Yes, Summer remembered those words. Preventing the separation of Team RWBY, the whole month of training, the fact that Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were hidden in the first place, Mia stealing Cinder's powers, giving Professor Polendina Penny's memories, everything was going well, too well. They had completely forgot about the possibility that something wouldn't go as they had planned. They had been overconfident and believed too much in their plan, they had acted like fools.

"Well." Raven said. "I'm leaving."

Raven went to the door, her two swords were in the sweatshirt's pockets, she was going to open the door when she hear Summer say, "Raven, wait." She turned to see her partner and she found saw her holding her right fist up with a smile on her face.

Partners in crime until the end?

Raven smiled back and she bumped her left fist against Summer's.

Until the end.

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Three red tents sat grouped together where some members of the White Fang were camping in the wilderness. Were they waiting, searching… something? In one of those tents there was an irate red-haired bull faunus.

As far as Adam Taurus knew, Roman was eaten by a Grimm during the fall of Beacon, Neo had disappeared, and the only thing that he heard about Cinder was that she had ended up unconscious under mysterious circumstances. Emerald and Mercury had told him that they will call him when Cinder wakes. All of those things had make him question his stance on working together with humans but, right now, he was more focused on another thing that was more important that his teamwork with humans, trying to found Blake or her partner. Adam really hated leaving something unfinished, and he couldn't wait to see Blake's face when he ended the life of her blonde partner. However, even though he knew Blake quite well, he didn't have a single clue of her whereabouts. Then, someone entered his tent, it was one of his subordinates.

"Adam, we have trouble."

When Adam exited his tent, he found about half of his subordinates had been knocked out and the other half were pointing their guns at the person responsible; a one-armed, blonde-haired, cat faunus girl. Adam found himself pretty surprised. That girl looked like a combination of the two women that he was searching for, but he quickly stopped caring about that. He ordered his subordinates to lower their weapons before approaching the girl.

"You must be Adam Taurus." The girl said.

"That is, in fact, my name. Care to tell me what you want?"

"I just want to join to the White Fang."

Raven had began to lie as she spoke. She said that a long time ago she used to believe that humans and faunus could live together until a human tried to kill her. The fight that ensued resulted in the loss of her arm. She had decided then to train herself in order to fight and defend herself with only one arm, but she hadn't been able to go to the last White Fang reunion to join them. Then she had heard a rumor about that some faunus of the White Fang were hiding themselves in an area close to where she was. That is how she had ended up there.

"Your subordinates began to attack me before I could even say a single word. I had no choice but to defend myself."

"Your story is interesting." Adam said. "But I doubt what you can actually do with only one arm."

"Well, I'll tell you. I know how to use a sword, I know self-defense, I'm pretty smart, my semblance is the ultimate shield…" Flames began to come out of Raven body after she said that. "And… my punches are very strong."

Nobody saw her next move coming. Raven hit Adam's face so hard that he ended up flying back in the direction of his tent, and a few cracks had appeared on his mask. The rest of the faunus there had began to shoot at her, but the bullets barely touched Raven's body, her flames were melting them. Adam turn to look up at the girl. He drew his sword and smiled while he clean the little part of blood from the corner of his mouth.

"This will be a very interesting fight." He whispered "Can I know why are you so angry with me?"

Raven clenched her fist and teeth, more flames began to come out of her body. Her red eyes gave off anger and she stared back at the redhead in front of her.

"I won't let you hurt Yang Xiao Long or Blake Belladonna ever again!"

Prepare yourself Adam because Raven is pretty mad with you and for the ones who are wondering how did Raven find him, remember that she can open portals with her Bumblebee, she just need to focus in the place or the person, okay guys this will be the first and last ocassion in which I don't going to give you the title of the next chapter, try to guess it, well, I hope everyone had enjoyed, leave a review, fav or follow and see you next time.

Atte. Kaze-chan.