There is too much small lore pieces I'm not diligent enough to keep track of. Forgive me if I stray from canon! Correct me if I get a detail wrong (or like, anything constructive you'd like to offer)! And I will! Totally get a detail wrong! And if it's not now essential to this story I'll totally change it!

Also, italics: backflash!

Raven wasn't sure how it worked. Not at first. When she'd first connected with Qrow, all those years ago, they had still been innocent. But now she remembered the Grimm. She remembered the red and fire and how all she could think about was her brother, the tether to something outside of fear, and so she followed it. Curled on the ground, cries quiet, she looked up to find the red and black rip beckoning. So she stepped into it and found herself staring down at her brother, dirt-smeared and ashen, and she'd held a hand out to him. If they left, they left together. So she learned that it was not simply connection that built it, but love. A weight she bore proudly then that felt damningly heavy now.

"You can only open one portal?"

Raven looked away from Ivory, facing down the wall of the hut and the shadows that swayed from the flame's light. Ivory sat on the mat, the table between them, her mug set primly atop the wood. She sipped at her tea idly. "When did you first know of your semblance, Raven?"

Prying her gaze from the wall Raven looked up at Ivory, still disturbed by the mask that shielded the upper half of the Elder's face. It was a sight she was growing used to, by frequenting their main hut, the masks and the people that adorned them. The question was separated from immediacy when Raven took her own cup, no longer steaming, and drank.

"I…don't really remember." She lied.

"At all?" Ivory said. "Curious. Most people remember the first use of their semblance. It's part of us. As natural as lifting a hand to pick up a spoon." She demonstrated that fact and Raven watched, unimpressed with the metaphor, even as Ivory smiled and wriggled the metal utensil. "Once you do it, you know you can keep doing it. Unless you are like your brother. Then it becomes a different affinity. Or, in his case, as good as a curse."

A curse. Raven glanced away. That's why they had been given their names, after all. Her brother's semblance had been an easy deduction for Hale and Armon, considering the latter's sensitivity to semblance use, and she imagined the former had a good laugh over naming him after the very things that were meant to be harbingers of misfortune. Her name, although less apropos, served its own purpose and she quickly aligned herself with the black birds that circled their camp. They were smart, resourceful, and they never forgot.

"How long can you keep them open for?" Ivory asked.

Raven shook her head. "I haven't tried to measure it."

She had, though. When she first began to train with the other fledglings in the tribe. She tried to see how far it would open, how long she could sustain it. A minute, she realized, was her limit. It left her sweating and tired on the forest floor, panting. Qrow had watched with a vexed breed of pride. His own semblance was something of an elephant in the room, unaddressed and hardly practiced. Passive semblances, she learned, were tricky in that the Elders said you could not master them. Rather, they often mastered you. A balance had to be struck, and her brother had been working on that balance under the tutelage of a man named Armon. That left Raven with Ivory and it was a partnership she was reluctant to agree to.

"But I think I can hold it. Thirty seconds. I can try."

"Do." Ivory commanded. So Raven stood and spun, slashing her hand down like a drawn sword as the bloom of red opened behind her. Qrow was likely out near the edge of the forest again and so she held it for Ivory with a determined expression. She held it for as long as thirty seconds seemed, maybe a few longer, until she let it fade with a sucking of air. She sank to her knees, feigning exhaustion. Ivory bought it completely.

"Interesting. Not long. But you're still young, you can learn." Ivory set her cup down. "We'll practice more."

Raven nodded with conviction.

It was the only truth she kept from them.

"So…this is an…escort mission?" Qrow asked, arms folded before his chest. The team stood in Ozpin's office, the gears overhead turning with faint clicks and whirs. Raven watched the Headmaster as he leaned along the front of his desk, casually sipping at his coffee. He hadn't offered them any and, frankly, she was a little pissed about it, considering he'd woken them up at the crack of dawn. It was mission day, a time for the newly established teams to get together on low-level assignments with the help of select teachers. Raven had seen a few teams talking about it the day prior, including CRLN. She'd even pulled aside Sea Calin, their leader, in hopes of understanding what to expect. There had been mission boards put up that gave a sampling of the expectations but most of the assignments had so many training wheels she didn't imagine being able to move the bike. Most in the city of Vale, guiding students or helping with tours or other civil service requests. She'd seen a few escort missions for upperclassmen but even those seemed, to put it in Qrow's terms, "lame as hell."

Tai and Summer stood beside her, the latter stifling a yawn and the former far more awake and eager than she wanted anyone to be at this time of day. Qrow echoed her exhaustion, his next words blurred by a yawn. "Who are we escorting?"

"A new shipment of dust and supplies, along with the men and women on board for the trip. You are to protect them all. Professor Lidell will accompany you."

"We don't need—" Qrow started but Summer elbowed him to quiet.

Raven stepped forward. "When do we leave?"

"This morning." Ozpin glanced down at his watch. "Right…now."

The chime of the elevator drew their attention and they spun to see a small, older woman standing at attention behind them. Her long hair was tied neatly with a black bow and her delicate face was set with eyes wide and doll-like. She brought her smile over all of them. "Team STRQ. I'm looking very forward to assisting you in your first assignment." Raven raised a brow at the teacher. She liked Professor Lidell well enough. She was soft-spoken and often prone to bouts of absent-minded clumsiness. But she knew her stuff and, contrary to most of the assumptions Raven had heard made about her slight form and quiet disposition, she was a formidable fighter with a…mysteriously frightening semblance.

She shared a glance with Qrow and, being that he was standing beside him, Tai, who shrugged at her questioning look. Ozpin moved from behind his desk, projecting a display of the mission overhead as Professor Lidell came to stand behind them. "There are quite a few contractors in Mountain Glenn," he began, "looking to get it up and ready as soon as possible. These materials will need help getting there until the rail is finished construction or, er, begins it. There are two vehicles so two of you will be riding in the rear and two in the front. Preferably, for this mission, not your immediate partner. Just to…mix it up a bit." Raven saw Qrow turn to Tai and draw a finger down his cheek to mimic a tear. Tai, theatrically frowning, mirrored the motion. She rolled her eyes. Ozpin clicked at his keyboard as the image faded. "I'll send the information to each of your scrolls. Be sure to keep them on you during this mission, Mr. Branwen, and not back in our dorms."

"I—" Qrow began but as all of their scrolls dinged or vibrated with the incoming message, his was soundless. "I could have it on silent."

"Please, Mr. Branwen, I don't think any of our staff can ignore that obnoxious ringtone of yours." Sheepishly, Qrow rubbed at the back of his head.

Raven pulled hers up to see a letter come in with details on the mission. It was a higher class than the other first-year missions, but nothing like Ozpin's last mission for them.

She stowed her scroll as Ozpin cleared his throat to address them all. "Remember: keep you emotions in check and your weapons at the ready. And protect each other."

Protect each other. Raven was usually on the opposite end of these supply runs, part of the reason they needed the defense of huntresses. But this wasn't the wilds of Anima. She thought about the irony as the team turned to leave, not even looking up to see that Qrow noted that fact too.

Into the UNKNOWWWWWN