May 29th

City of Atlas

Atlas

Downtown

10:01 PM

"Ooo...she's such a cutie!" Genevieve Sieben squealed, having just been let in with Devin Katt and Grace Wile to see Ivy and her newborn daughter, Hope. "Hi, baby!"

"Oh, be careful," Grace scolded, pulling Genevieve back a little. "The girl's only like twelve hours old, don't scare the shit out of her so soon."

Ivy laughed weakly, holding her cooing daughter close to her.

"It's okay," She said, letting Hope wrap a tiny fist around her finger. "I think she likes the attention."

"Have your parents come by?" Devin asked, almost harshly. "You texted us around noon telling us that she'd been born fine around nine this morning. If they haven't -"

"I saw my mom," Ivy said, sighing. "My dad had to stay at Beacon to do some work but she came up briefly to see me and Hope...I think she's still trying to process having a granddaughter while she's still in her forties. Jake came with her...and he was excited, to say the least."

Devin relaxed considerably, his bright pink tail flicking less irritably.

"Her little horns are cute," He said with a smile. "And she's got hair like yours."

"She looks a lot like Ivy, huh," Grace agreed, tightly embracing her teammate. "Hello, Hope. How are you? You look cute."

The little girl stared at her, bright blue eyes wide in confusion while the huntress gently booped her nose. Hope started giggling, and Ivy smiled, relieved that her daughter was at least being calm around her closest friends. A fresh wave of sadness, however, washed over her when she remembered that she hadn't so much as gotten a text back from her sister when she had told her about her newborn niece and sent pictures. It seemed, as Ivy had feared her entire pregnancy, that her sister had let her own anger subsume her and wasn't going to show any sort of interest or affection any time soon. It was upsetting, at any rate, and Ivy wished things had played out differently. She knew she had fallen for Adam because she had always been endeared by the person he had been when they were teenagers. She had made the mistake of setting aside everything he had gone on to do, and, she feared, her sister was right. He was not misguided in the slightest: he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Has your sister stopped by?" Devin finally asked.

Ivy shook her head. "I haven't heard from her."

"That bitch," Devin spat, looking more angry than he ever had.

"She has her reasons," Grace countered, sending him a dark look. "Give her some credit, I mean, with everything that she's been through -"

The door opened suddenly, and nobody objected to the small, blonde, bespectacled woman entering. Much to her credit, Caitlin Ironwood-Goodwitch didn't just hover in the doorway and say nothing to her sister after seeing her niece. She did, however, look rather uncomfortable, knowing as well as everyone else in the room that she was a little more than unwelcome there. The disdainful look that Devin Katt was giving her said it all. She herself felt rather awkward. There was a lot of anger she still held towards her sister for ever being involved with the kind of person she had been, and some of it, if she were being completely honest, was a result of her own misgivings in the past. Bitterly, she pushed away the thought of her ex-boyfriend and reminded herself that he had, for one, been human and, for another, played her well and kept his cards hidden until he decided to threaten her life.

"Hi," She said, her faintly southern accent coming out in her high, clear voice. "I…" She trailed off, fidgeting with her purse, and struggled to meet her sister's gaze. "I thought I should...meet my niece."

"Which is funny," Devin Katt said dryly. "Coming from someone who hates the kid's father."

"Don't be a twit," Caitlin snapped. "I'm trying to do what's right -"

"You've had all day and you didn't even text her back!" Devin roared. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Hope began to cry, causing Devin to jump back. He was startled by her reaction and stepped out of the room, albeit sending Ivy a sympathetic look as she tried to comfort her daughter.

"What a dick," Caitlin muttered.

"He's a dick?" Ivy said, her voice slightly hoarse as she began to nurse Hope. "That's rich, coming from a woman who castigated her own sister for almost a year...excepting, of course, your interrogating."

Caitlin flinched. "I'm still angry, don't get me wrong."

Ivy sighed. "And, yet, you're here."

"We'll...let the two of you talk," Grace said, dragging a rather reluctant Genevieve from the room.

A heavy silence befell the two sisters, and neither of them seemed particularly eager to break it.

"I don't know what to think or say," Caitlin finally said. "But I know we have a lot to talk about."

Ivy nodded shortly. "That we do…" She murmured.


June 1st

Branwen Territory

5:47 PM

"You have the Spring Maiden, don't you?" Emmett said darkly, watching Yang, his daughters, and niece and nephew leave Raven's tent after she had given them yet another lecture about Ozpin's morality. It was now only him and Emmeline alone with Raven, and the two of them were more than a little annoyed with the woman that they were trying to forge an alliance with.

"Well?" Emmeline finally exclaimed in exasperation. "Do you have anything you'd like to say for yourself?"

"You're clever, both of you," Raven said simply, setting down her sword and turning to smirk at them while Emmeline tried to restrain herself. "I mean, I figured as much but this only proving that to be true. Yes, I do have the Spring Maiden but I sure as hell won't be giving her to you and your cause. I want Atlas' protection…but I want it on my terms, not yours."

"You could always come back to the group," Emmett argued, crossing his arms. "Yeah, I get it, you have the tribe, but do you want to protect them from Salem or do you -"

"What do you honestly think about Ozpin, Emmett?" Raven asked, and he stared at her for a moment before sighing. "Well?"

Emmett hesitated but glared at her. "Look, Ozpin is flawed just like everyone else. But he's not her and he's my brother in law."

"And the lesser of two evils?" Raven suggested and she laughed when he only stared. "Sorry, but…"

"Raven, do you really get off to being a royal bitch?" Emmeline snapped and she rolled her eyes. "I think you have a tendency to assume that -"

"You should see your faces, really, it's hilarious," Raven said, laughing still. "But in all seriousness, I am curious as to your answer. Both of you."

"I told you," Emmett said, trying to keep himself even. "Ozpin at least wants to save people. He's not after power, he's trying to stop her from continuing to go after power. All Salem wants to do is to continue -"

"And after this, after she's gone assuming that ever happens," Raven countered with a glare. "Then what will Ozpin do?"

"I don't know," Emmett admitted. "But he has Chrissy, so -"

"So what?" Raven challenged, thinking briefly of Tai. "What's he going to do? Live and die like the rest of us? Or is he going to take Salem's place as our world's primary psychopath?"

"That's not Ozpin," Emmeline told her though she didn't want to defend Ozpin as a result of the things he had suggested over the years as solutions. "Okay, here's the thing: Ozpin's got issues, he's not above putting people in danger to continue his fight against Salem and he's known for being a -"

"Ozpin…" Raven shook her head. "Here's the thing: Ozpin takes people's lives when it suits him and he also forces people into a fight that they simply cannot win! How many times do I have to tell you that there is no beating Salem? I left because of my tribe, but even more so because I knew that there was no way I could win against her! That none of us are able to beat her!"

"You're not wrong about Oz, but we can beat Salem!" Emmett insisted, wanting to believe it was true so that it would also be true that they could defeat Cinder. "Ozpin's -"

"A manipulative bastard?" Raven suggested and Emmett and Emmeline stared in surprise even though they knew that, in many respects, she was right. "See, you only know the surface of the things Ozpin's wanted people to do. He's always wanted people that were close to him to become maidens because he could keep them under his thumb. That is why he let Glynda take on the powers, and that's why he suggested that your daughter take them on, that's why he suggested Caitlin take them on, and that's why he suggested Ivy take them on."

"How did you even know about that?" Emmeline demanded, glaring at her as she rolled her eyes and turned away from him. "Elizabeth didn't even know about that until -"

"Elizabeth Morell knows about all of this?" Raven screeched, gripping the edge of table and closing her eyes to try and calm herself. "Since when does -"

"Ozpin brought her into the group, Ronnie too," Emmett informed her, watching her as he kept his arms crossed. "Because he trusts her."

"Elizabeth is strong, she's a survivor, yes," Raven commented though she felt her bitterness rising. "I still know, though, at the same time, that she's not nearly as skilled as the others in the group. She can fire a gun, sure, but she can't hit her target when it counts."

"What does that mean?" Emmeline darkly asked her, confused though he knew that Elizabeth was still learning to fight from Tai who had been helping her for years. "That makes no sense whatsoever except for the fact that Elizabeth is not a huntress -"

"Not a huntress, exactly," Raven told him, trying to steady herself though the distraction from her point about Ozpin angered her and her hatred for the man was only rising in her. "Yes, Elizabeth Morell is an Atlesian political figure, not a huntress. She didn't start training until after she got involved with Tai and that's not the point! The problem is and always has been Ozpin!" Feeling her hands growing hot beneath her, Raven tried to stop it though it was no use. "And -"

"Raven, there is smoke rising from the table," Emmett dryly told her and she turned around angrily, fire treading out of her hands and her eyes flaring and they were also surrounded by the pale sparks of her maiden powers.

"So," Emmeline said, drawing out each word with a bitterness that even Raven could not surpass. "All this time bouncing around the question, and you're the Spring Maiden!"

Realizing what she was doing, Raven let her anger possess her and she threw a ball of fire at Emmett's head while he jumped out of the way, startled.

"Fuck you, Emmett!" She snapped. "Both of you! I...I -"

"You can't even deny that you're the Spring Maiden!" Emmett shouted, while Emmeline helped him get off of the ground to which he had fallen. "Since when have you been -"

"A while, okay?" Raven said. Emmeline sighed and shook her head. "What?" Raven hissed.

"You're such a hypocrite," Emmeline said, glaring at her again. "You criticize Ozpin for taking lives which is fair but -"

"The girl who had the powers before me would have been hunted forever for them and she wasn't strong enough! What I did was mercy, what Ozpin did was kill a dying girl to ensure that someone close to him, someone he trusted, could take her powers!" Raven snapped back. "And all so he could force them on Glynda -"

"Glynda made a choice to do that, she wasn't forced," Emmett sighed again and tried to steady himself against his wife, who seemed unnerved at best. "And, I told you, it was a desperate measure that none of us felt right about or feel right about. You know that it tortured her, right?"

Raven's eyes widened in shock. "What?" She said, her voice far softer than she had intended it to be. "I thought that -"

"The transfer...it was painful," Emmett told her, remembering that night and how he, Emmy, Cristal, and James had been scared about her. Emmeline tensed against him, and he started to lightly tread his fingers through her hair as he went on. "She was screaming, and she was struggling to walk...she literally fell into James when she was released from the pod. It was transferred to her synthetically and -"

"Oh my God," Raven said, looking at him and seeing how worried and upset he was just by recounting that. "You love her, don't you?"

"What?" Emmett demanded, horrified. "No, and not like that. She's family to me, and I've never wanted to be involved with her."

"Whatever," Raven said, staring at him before moving towards him. "Emmett, Emmeline, listen to me. Ozpin may be better than Salem...sort of...but he's done things that he'd rather keep under the wraps, things I've figured out or learned on my own. For example, Ozpin granted me and Qrow the power to turn into corvids. So that we could spy for him, mind you."

"Oz…" Emmett stared at her in shock. "He didn't."

"He did," Raven told him. "Are you surprised?"

"Well -" Emmett began.

"Raven," Emmeline said, stepping towards her and extending a hand. "You don't have to trust Ozpin, but if you trust Atlas, I promise, you'll be protected."

Raven stared at her for a moment and said nothing, inclining her head slightly towards Team SAML and Yang as they, however nervously, re-entered the tent.

"Alright," Raven said with a heavy sigh. "I suppose it's time I stop being vague, isn't it?"

Emmett glared. "It's time you make a decision and stop acting as if -"

"Shove it," Raven told him, nodding to Vernal who began to pour them all steaming Earl Grey. Sitting at the small table on the plush cushions, they all waited as Raven finally sat down, looking back at Vernal. "You can wait outside, thank you."

Vernal did as she asked, but Yang narrowed her eyes at her mother.

"So," She said tartly. "What's the 'truth'?"

"You know," Raven said, taking a sip from her cup. "It's better when it's hot."

"You know," Weiss retorted, matching her tone perfectly. "You're really obnoxious,"

Emmett laughed before he glared at Raven again. Emmeline took his hand in hers and squeezed it comfortingly while Lysithea and Samara glanced to their parents worriedly.

"You all have no idea," Emmett remarked dryly.

Raven rolled her eyes before replying to Yang rather than him.

"The truth is that 'truth' is hard to come by," She said shortly. "A story of victory for one person is a story of defeat for someone else. By now, your uncle has surely told Ruby and her friends plenty of stories."

Lysithea stared at her as she twisted her hair in her hands. "Well, that's because 'history is written by the victors'."

Annetta smacked her cousin on the back of the head. "Quit quoting famous politicians all the time, would you?"

"Neh," Lysithea said, sticking out her tongue and crossing her arms while the others began to laugh. "Shut up, Annie."

"Okay, still," Yang said, looking at her mother. "Qrow's never given me a reason to doubt him before."

"That doesn't mean those reasons don't exist," Raven told her in spite of her daughter's glare. "You know, you and your teammates might as well be the poster children for the huntsmen academies. Your motives may vary, but you all enrolled to try and make the world a better place. It's adorable. Team SAML too...though I would say to a lesser extent. And, I suppose, although much to my consternation, that I can even say the same thing for Team JGED..."

"Shut up," Emmett told her, slight anger rising in his voice.

"Why?" Raven demanded, standing up and stomping over to him though he was still taller than her. "Because I'm right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Roman Torchwick was on your team -"

"Raven -" Emmett started warningly.

"Well, my brother has too much faith in fools like Ozpin and takes that whole shiny happy world idea to the next level because he wants it to be the reality, even though that's not going to be the case," She shook her head. "Huntsmen and huntresses defend the world, sort of, but that doesn't mean they can bring peace. Peace isn't attainable, which is something you all need to understand."

"It's just what huntsmen and huntresses do," Yang snapped, angered by her mother's view in that particular case.

"Not all of them," Raven told her, her voice growing dark. "Some people are just in it for the money and the fame, but there's even more that are just looking to grow stronger. Your uncle Qrow and I didn't attend Beacon to become huntsmen, we did it to learn how to kill huntsmen."

Yang and Weiss gasped in shock and both Emmeline and Emmett seemed distinctly unnerved.

"Nah," Matt Mar-Ciel said, scowling at her.

"That's ridiculous!" Annetta exclaimed, her powers as a sorceress starting to ice over the floor. "And how can you think that my dad –"

"Why would you waste your time to -" Lysithea protested.

"That's irrelevant," Raven told her, turning back to her daughter as she began to pour herself another cup of tea and paced. "Daddy and uncle and Eliza left that part out, hmm? Aside from grimm, huntsmen were the only ones capable of ruining our raids and hunting us down. Our tribe needed a counterforce, and Qrow and I were the perfect age."

"No," Yang breathed, abjectly horrified.

Raven snorted. "The entrance exams were child's play compared to what we'd already been through. We were good. So good, that we caught the attention of Beacon's very own headmaster, Professor Ozpin. Had we been in Atlas, we would have probably caught the Council's interest too...but that would have probably been for the opposite reason. See, even after we were put on a team, I could tell he was keeping an eye on us. Back then, I thought it was because he knew, but it was Team STRQ he was interested in."

"What do you mean by that?" Samara asked, raising an eyebrow.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Constant attention, extra training missions, turning a blind eye whenever we happened to break the rules and get into more trouble than we should have. Sound familiar?"

Yang, and Weiss glanced at each other uncomfortably, as did Team SAML.

"What's your point?" Emmeline pressed her.

"How much do you know about Professor Ozpin?" Raven asked her, and Yang hesitated. "About his past?"

Weiss responded instead of her. "He was...a prodigy. One of the youngest headmasters to be appointed to a school."

Annetta scowled. "And he married my mother shortly after."

Raven ignored her. "All of that happened because that's how he planned it," She said darkly. "Because the man you know as Ozpin designed those schools and has followers inside every academy on Remnant that are loyal to him and no one else."

"That doesn't make sense!" Yang exclaimed. "How could he have...no. Why would someone even do that?"

Annetta clenched her fists. "Raven, you are a lying piece of -"

Raven cut her off and looked solely at Yang.

"He did that because old man Oz has a great and terrible secret, one that could spread fear across the world," Raven laughed dryly. "One that he eventually entrusted to our team, and, once I knew, there was no going back. I needed to know more, but, with every new discovery I made, the more horrifying the world became."

"Okay, then tell us," Yang snapped. "What's the big secret? What's so crazy that the rest of us don't know about?"

"The creatures of grimm...have a master named Salem," Raven told them, raising an eyebrow when Team SAML didn't flinch but Weiss and Yang's eyes widened by the second. "She can't be stopped, she can't be reasoned with, and she will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet."

"What?" Weiss asked, trying to comprehend.

"You know," Raven said nonchalantly, sipping her tea as Yang stood up. "You two haven't even touched your tea."

"Why should we believe any of this?" Yang demanded, crossing her arms.

"She's not lying," Annetta said weakly. "About Salem, at any rate."

"Ha," Raven said though she was a bit surprised that the rest of Team SAML already knew.

Emmeline looked at Yang and Weiss. "Raven used to be a member of our little group with Ozpin that includes me, Emmett, Glynda, James, Elizabeth, Ronnie, Qrow, Tai, Cristal, Ozpin, Leo, and…Rose. Caitlin, Sam, Lily, Matt, Annie, and Ivy know too."

Yang turned to him in shock. "That's insane!" She yelled. "Why didn't any of you -"

"It wasn't in our place to tell you -" Emmett began as calmly as he could

"So, now you know," Raven said, cutting across him. "What are all of you going to do about it?"

"I'm going after Ruby," Yang told her with finality. "Nothing you say is going to stop that."

A heavy silence befell them and Raven glanced to Emmeline.

"Will my people actually be safe?" She said.

"Yes," Emmeline replied. "Have them disperse and –"

Raven called in Vernal, who came quickly yet gracefully. Several tense moments passed while the former huntress whispered a plan to the young woman. Then, Vernal nodded and, seconds later, they could all hear her ordering the tribe outside to pack up camp and split up until the end of the summer to reconvene at Haven, where things would be safer. Raven stood up, and the rest of them did as well. She picked up her sword, holding it in her hands almost as if she were testing its weight, and slashed open a portal. Yang grabbed her motorcycle and drove through it with Weiss, Annetta, Matt, and Lysithea. Raven raised an eyebrow upon Samara staying behind but then shook her head. Once the first portal had dissipated, she slashed open another one to Tai and she, Sam, Emmett, and Emmeline stepped through to where they all knew he would be in Atlas.


June 2nd

Mistral

7:45 PM

"So," Weiss said, half glaring at her cousins who were avoiding her gaze in slight shame now that the heiress and Yang had been fully exposed to the same knowledge that the others had. "The Maidens. Magic. Salem. It's all true?"

Qrow took a long drink from his flask. "Uh-huh."

"Believe me, there are times when I wish it wasn't. Apart from the fact that...well… Salem's more dangerous than you know..." Annetta told them, sighing heavily and running a hand through her hair. "And my powers as a sorceress haven't made things easy on me."

"What?" Yang said, just as shocked as the rest of them, including Qrow. "That...what?"

"You know," Qrow said, vaguely amused as Yang buried her face in her hands. "You really do sound like Glynda when you say that..."

"Yang," Annetta began awkwardly. "I'm sorry, but I really have told you all everything I know."

Yang didn't respond, feeling almost numb. Weiss answered for her.

"To them?" She said dryly. "For the most part."

"You forgot something," Yang put in with a glare. "You forgot to tell everyone what your father did to Qrow and my mother."

Ruby gasped, though Jaune was the first to speak. "What is she talking about?"

"Oh, great," Qrow groaned. "Raven of all people told you that?"

"Look," Annetta said irritably, throwing her axe halfway across the room in anger. "I agree, that's not a secret I thought she would give up so easily and, as my dad would put it, your mother must trust you a great deal," Even though Yang scowled, she went on. "Yeah, my dad reincarnates and, yeah, he has magic. That got passed down to me and my siblings, and it's similar to the power of maidens or, you know, fucking Rosalinde Varna's magic. So, yeah, he has quote unquote magical powers. He used it to give them the ability to 'see' more, to move freely and be unburdened by their natural bodies. I mean he gave them the ability to turn into birds. Sure, it's ridiculous, but still. It's the fucking truth."

"Dad..." Ruby pressed him and Qrow sighed.

"You turned them..." Ren stared in disbelief. "Into birds?"

"Alright," Nora scoffed. "Now you're just messing with us."

"What else is new?" Jaune demanded angrily.

"That's...wrong!" Matt exclaimed in horror.

"She's telling the truth," Weiss informed them. "We saw it. Yang's mom… changed, right in front of us even though we didn't know it at the time. "

"Why would you do something like that?" Yang demanded of Ozpin. "I mean, what is wrong with you?"

"Yang, that's enough!" Qrow snapped, unusually sharp. "We made a choice. We wanted this."

"Listen to me!" Annetta shrieked, standing up with her fists clenched. "Giving them that power was no trivial task, and I can assure you it was not done frivolously! Daddy told all of us this, and mommy knew it too! He needed help getting information on Salem's plans, not to mention searching for Maidens when their hosts became unclear."

Ruby processed before nervously asking another inquiry.

"Okay, but has he done this with others?" She said weakly. "Like General Ironwood? Or Professor Goodwitch?"

Qrow laughed bitterly. "Oh, that's an interesting story..."

Annetta stared at him in horror, knowing what had happened from her mother's own description.

"She could have died -"

"Glynda was perfectly fine," He countered. "And James -"

"Yes!" Annetta screeched, her voice shriller by the second. "Glynda's currently...she currently possess half of the Fall Maiden's powers my aunt having the other half. And daddy's power is finite, and, according to mommy, dwindling. The amount that he gifted to Qrow and Raven was, all things considered, rather miniscule. Okay? Centuries ago, he sacrificed a great deal of magic to four young women, who he had hoped would use my gift for good. They were the first Maidens." A heavy silence rang out before she angrily continued. "He never meant to lie to anyone, there are just some matters that he wants to be careful about."

Qrow laughed. "Yeah…but…okay, all of us in the group had a choice. Raven and I chose to accept our powers and the responsibilities that came with them and, later, she chose to abandon her duties in favour of her own self-interest. Now, all of you have a choice. If anyone wishes to leave, now is the time. There's no shame or disgrace in abstaining, only in retreat."

Annetta, Matt, and Lysithea scowled at everyone and Annetta sighed, feeling like shit, even more so when Yang stood up suddenly.

Ruby stared at her in shock. "Yang?"

"If Ruby sticks around, then I will too. If there's one thing I know about her, it's that she somehow always knows the right thing to do," Smiling at Ruby, Yang sighed. "But if we're going to help, if we're going to keep risking our lives, no more lies. No more half-truths."

Silence passed again.

"Cool," Qrow said with a shrug.

Yang sat back down as Jaune spoke. "So...what now? I mean, what can we do?"

"Hmmm...that is a difficult question," Qrow admitted, reaching for a drink. "One that I believe is best answered tomorrow."