AUTHOR'S NOTES: A short-ish chapter this time after all the long ones, but a big chapter: Yang meets Raven. In actual RWBY, Yang's first meeting with her mother largely happens offscreen. They have a lot more to say to each other in later seasons, as they do here. And a little bit of Arkos, because Pyrrha and Jaune deserve a moment.
Building 111713 (Officers' Club)
Joint Base Beacon, Wisconsin, United States of Canada
4 May 2001
Pyrrha Nikos walked out of the bar, up the stairs, and into the fresh, crisp air. The night air felt good after the increased fetidness of the bar, where sweat, beer and cigarette smoke were starting to form a disgusting miasma. She'd also had a bit more to drink than she had intended. Pyrrha wasn't drunk, but she wasn't feeling much pain, either.
"Pyrrha?" She turned at the sound of Jaune's voice. He came out of the club as well. Jaune had drank five beers—one for each of his kills—but didn't seem to be showing much effects. "You okay?"
"Yes, Jaune. Thanks for asking. Just heading back to my room…I'm quite tired, I'm afraid. Getting too old to drink all night and fly all day." The latter was a lie; Pyrrha was not even thirty yet.
He got closer. "Just checking. Since, you know…last time."
Pyrrha smiled. "That was very sweet of you, but this is different. I actually feel…quite good." At his look of concern, she laughed softly. "I'm not drunk, Jaune. Just…happy." She wasn't sure why she felt happy—more sentient beings had fallen under her guns today—but there was something about the camaraderie in the club. Dancing on the bar with Yang and Nora, chugging a beer with a happy Velvet, kissing Neptune on the cheek, getting kissed by Ruth—it was something she hadn't experienced since before Crete, and was sorely missed.
"I'm glad." Jaune paused, summoned his courage, and went for it. "Walk you home?"
"That sounds lovely." He put out his arm, and she took it. They laughed and separated a block later—it was hard to coordinate their walking—but they still were close to each other. Neither said much on the way; they just enjoyed the night air and each other's company. Neither mentioned the battle.
Too soon, Jaune thought, they reached the door to the female officers' quarters. Jaune was tempted to ask her for a nightcap, which might lead to something else, but that seemed too forward, too much like he was only being kind because he wanted to sleep with her. Pyrrha, for her part, was also wondering if she should ask him to her room. There was an even chance that Nora would either end up in Ren's room tonight, or passed out in the bar again, and in any case, she would more than understand if there was the proverbial sock on the door. Yet Pyrrha was also afraid of seeming too forward, and she did not want to get involved with another fighter pilot. Those relationships rarely ended well.
"Well…good night," Jaune said, scratching the back of his head.
"Good night," Pyrrha replied, looking at her boots. Then she decided. She reached up, grabbed Jaune by the cheeks, and kissed him. Not on the cheeks, but squarely on the lips. She let go quickly, smiled a gentle smile that was his alone, and went into the FOQ before she was tempted beyond reason to do anything else.
Jaune stood there for a moment in shock. Then he grinned to himself, turned, and began walking briskly back to the club, whistling the Marseillaise.
Yang got back her balance. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Raven put a hand on her chest in mock shock. "Yang Xiao Long! Is that any way to talk to your mother?"
"I don't know," Yang growled, "since I haven't seen you since I was a baby. You picked a weird time to start claiming me."
"It's also a hell of a way to talk to someone who saved your ass today," Raven snapped.
Yang once more felt like the world was about to roll out from under her. "What? You? In that…whatever the hell it was?"
Her mother smiled and nodded. "It's called a Night Raven. Well, we call it that—the Air Force was going to call it a Foxfire or something. Experimental aircraft, meant to be a high-altitude, high-speed interceptor designed to destroy Nevermore in a single pass. Made in America with experimental Russian tech recovered after the Third World War. So stealthy radars won't even pick it up. Equipped with DUST. But hey, I don't want to brag or anything." Her smile broadened. "We stole it. I understand the Air Force was quite upset. It took them years to replicate it in a B-1."
"'We'?"
"The Branwen Tribe," Raven answered. "Your Uncle Qrow never told you? Typical." Raven sat down, setting her helmet next to her, and crossed her legs.
"How did you even know where I was?"
"I was actually coming to see you. I've got the Night Raven stashed not too far away. I heard you were looking for me through the grapevine, and decided that you were right; it was high time we met again. Then I picked up the radio traffic, heard your name mentioned, and headed in your direction, just in case. You know everyone monitors Guard frequency." Raven shrugged. "You could at least say thank you."
"Thank you," Yang replied, though there was no affection in it.
"Sit down, sit down." Raven patted the ground next to her. "Let me look at you. I've seen pictures, but I admit you're even more beautiful in person. You got my figure and my face, and Tai's hair." She sighed wistfully. "At least Taiyang and I made a beautiful baby."
"Did you ever love him?"
Raven's affable demeanor disappeared. "I'm not here to talk about your father."
"Or how you left him with a baby? Alone?"
Her lips peeled back in a snarl. "Oh, he wasn't alone, Yang. He had Summer Rose. Tai didn't exactly let the grass grow under his feet. I wasn't gone two years before he'd already knocked Summer up." Raven closed her eyes and took a breath. "Not that I blame him, I suppose. Short Stack was a catch."
"She was there and you weren't."
Raven shrugged again. "All right. I was hoping for something different than this, but all right." She got to her feet. "I didn't just come here to see you, and I certainly didn't come here to argue about something that happened twenty years ago. Taiyang and I had our time in the sun together, but those days are over—"
"Why did you leave him?" Yang demanded. Her fingers tightened on the wrench. "Tell me, or I swear to God I will stave in your fucking skull!"
Raven blinked at the venom in her daughter's voice. "I see you inherited the Branwen temper, too. All right. I'll tell you, say my piece, and then I'm gone."
"Unless I have the air cops throw your ass in jail."
Raven laughed humorlessly. "Yang, I got onto this base without anyone knowing. I walked down the flightline and people barely looked. The Branwen Tribe exists by stealing, looting, and surviving any way we can. I attended Vytal Flag here four years running, back when Summer, Tai, Qrow and I were in Strike Flight. I know more ways in and out of this base than Ozpin does, and that includes what's under it."
"I'm not hearing you talking about why you left Dad yet." Yang took a step forward and raised the wrench a bit higher.
"Hmm. I'm beginning to think you'd do it." When Yang took another step, Raven put up a hand. "I left your father because I had to. Not because I didn't love you, Yang. I did. I still do. And I loved Tai. But the tribe was more important."
"You threw away your career, your marriage—me—for the fucking tribe?" Yang shouted.
"I'd prefer the entirety of Joint Base Beacon not hear our family spat, Yang." Raven got closer and dropped her voice. "Yes. I did. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Darwin was right. Only the strong survive in this world, Yang. And the tribe needed strength. They gave me and my brother everything. Was I supposed to just turn my back on them?"
"Nice words," Yang said. "But was that the real reason—Raven?"
Raven seemed taken aback at Yang's use of her name, and didn't answer at first. "I've had enough of this. I'll come to the point." She waved a hand at the flightline. "What happened today was nothing. It was probably an accident. Your flight—I know it's yours, even if your half-sister leads it—probably tripped it early. But the White Fang aren't destroyed, Yang, and even if they are, there's more going on than you realize. They will try again, and this time, I doubt you'll even see them coming. Ozpin has quite a few blind spots, and he won't acknowledge them. I know; I used to work for him." Raven shook her head. "There is a storm coming, Yang. This was just the leading edge of it. And I'm not going to be around to save you next time."
Yang stared at her mother. "So what should I do?"
"You should run. Get transferred out of here, back to Signal. You and Ruby—I owe Summer that much. We were good friends, once. Then, when you can, fly out to California and see me."
"There's nothing left of California."
Raven gave another snort of a laugh. "That's what the government tells you. They're lying, as usual." She reached out and put a hand on Yang's shoulder. "We control the California coast. Fly out there. Make up an excuse. You'll have a place in my tribe. For that matter, so will Ruby. I doubt she'll accept it, because she's got Summer's martyr complex, but I'd welcome her too. Being an air pirate isn't easy, but it beats being dead. Which is what you'll be if you stay here."
"So we should run, huh?" Yang was motionless for a moment, then slapped her mother's hand away. "No, Raven. That's what you did. That's all you've ever done."
Raven's temper flared, and she stabbed a finger into Yang's chest. "Don't talk to me like that. I'm still your mother."
Yang met Raven's gaze without flinching. "No. Summer Rose was my mother." Then she turned and began walking down the hill, tapping the wrench against her thigh.
"I won't save you again, Yang!"
Yang thought she detected tears in Raven's voice, but she didn't care. "So what else is new?" she said over her shoulder.
Yang returned to the club. Ruby Flight was sitting at their table. Weiss and Blake were well on their way to being pleasantly inebriated, and Ruby—having finished her one beer—was now just drinking soda. Yang stopped by the bar, got a beer, and took the remaining seat.
"Hey, Yang!" Ruby greeted her. "Where'd you go? You've been gone awhile. You missed Ruth Lionheart proposing to Scarlet David!" Yang said nothing, only stared at the beer. "Which is funny, because Scarlet doesn't like girls, and…" Her sister still said nothing, just reached forward, popped the top off the beer, and took a drink. "Yang?"
Blake reached out and took Yang's hand. "Yang, what's wrong?" Weiss' eyes were filled with concern as well.
Yang took another drink, then her lips began to tremble. She set the beer down, then put her head down and started to cry, her whole body shaking. She pounded at the table with a fist, unable to stop. No one noticed in the bar, but Ruby Flight stood as one, came around the table, and hugged Yang as she continued to cry.