Music Choices: Rain in Soho, Up The Wolves, Love Love Love by The Mountain Goats, Can You Feel The Sun by MISSIO

Eclipse

Break Chapter

The Conversation Part I

Yang had never seen the ruins up close before. None of them had. She'd read about Mountain Glenn in school, of course. They'd learned about it in elementary class on Patch and at Signal; it was, after all, pretty recent history. Though she'd always, unintentionally, thought of it as being some relic of the past. Yang thought ten days ago was ancient history, though; let alone twenty five-ish years or so. That was practically another dynasty all together.

The bullhead hovered over a mostly flat, wide patch of beat up concrete, what was left of a bustling intersection. They weren't going to go lower, in the event that Grimm tried to snag the bullhead. Uncle Qrow, who had slipped into a broody silence earlier, gave them an inscrutable look before stepping to the edge of the open bay door and casually dropping out.

Team RWBY scooted to look over the edge and watched as Qrow completed his landing with a surprising amount of grace. Their uncle had his scythe out, and was sweeping the area below before giving a thumbs up to the four girls above.

Yang and Ruby exchanged glances, before Ruby took the lead, dropping down the fifty or so feet in a shower of red petals. She took up on the opposite side of her uncle, checking for threats while staying out range of Qrow's Semblance. Yang, Blake and Weiss quickly followed suit, each dropping down with practiced ease.

Yang spun the shotgun cartridges in her gauntlets, habitually checking that all the chambers were loaded and ready to go; she had plenty of spares on her belt for easy access, and in her pack. However, she really wished she could carry even more without weighing herself down; like, her dad's Semblance? He could probably tote a Atlassian Paladin around in a backpack or something and no one would ever know. Until bam! Paladin time! Yang could technically pick a Paladin up - she had checked already- but that wasn't the point. She was supposed to be the team's bruiser, but what if she ran out of bullets?

Perhaps Ruby could help her come up with a more economic solution, or maybe even Weiss?

She realized she had gotten lost in the sauce thinking about explosives and combat logistics again. It was comforting to think about things like that; real, physical problems that she could solve and improve upon. This other stuff couldn't necessarily be solved with physics or shotgun blasts or any combination there in.

The four girls wove back together, weapons out as they scanned the area for Grimm or other threats, while checking on one another habitually. Besides running drills in the forests around Beacon, and in Forever Fall Forest, they had not ventured far outside the Kingdom together.

First years only had one real mission together, and it was this one, near the end of the second semester. In years previous, it had been two missions, once a semester; but it had changed for some reason. A large portion of their total grade actually depended on how well they performed; which, Yang wasn't finding herself particularly concerned with at the moment.

Qrow was watching the skies intently, barely giving the smattering of Grimm in the distance the time of day. Ruby approached him, eyes questioning, when he held a finger up; she paused. There was total tomb-like silence in the bones of the dead city.

Until, a bird called in the distance. Qrow turned towards the noise immediately and...cawed back at it.

A look of surprise and suspicion crossed Blake's face as she studied Uncle Qrow, sniffing the air lightly.

"Hmmm. Ok," Weiss observed. Her tone implied a lot.

Ruby didn't comment on her uncle's odd behavior, instead keeping an eye on the Grimm darting in and out of the buildings in the distance; her silver eyes were narrowed, confused by their odd behavior.

Yang turned towards the noise. All birds were the same in her book, feathery jerks who chased you if you accidentally got too close to their nests or stole your sandwich and fries at the beach; but that noise was familiar. Which, you know, big whoop, she'd heard a bird like that before; but no, it wasn't just familiar. She knew that call, that note in particular.

Qrow was rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath, and actually cawed again. He sounded pissed off, in fact. The bird called back. Unwavering.

"Paranoid mother-" he cut off, brushing his hair out of his eyes in frustration. "She's gonna make us walk all the way out there- come on, then."

Ruby followed him wordlessly, though she kept shooting the distant Grimm odd looks.

"O...k," Weiss hummed, following after her partner. "This is…. interesting."

"Say what you mean, Weiss," Qrow droned without looking back. "This ain't Atlas."

"Well," the Ice Queen started delicately. Myrtenaster was in her right hand as she kept shooting their right flank concerned glances. "By interesting I suppose I mean that this is all very, very strange. Also, why aren't those Grimm swarming us?"

"Kid, it's about to get a million times weirder, so you better get used to that feelin now," Qrow glanced back at her, before jerking his chin towards the Grimm. "Also, she's probably got the area warded. Any Grimm in the region aren't gonna give us a hard time unless we go lookin for trouble. So, heads up. Don't fuckin shoot at them or approach them unless I tell you to. Got it?"

Team RWBY shared confused glances, though Weiss took the crown in terms of sheer bewilderment.

"...No? I don't think I do?" Weiss admitted.

Qrow chuckled slightly, but he didn't sound amused. He also didn't say much else to that.

The group fell into nervous silence, the feeling amplified by the inexplicable behavior of the Grimm flitting in out of sight of their periphery, and the graveyard silence that followed them through the empty streets. The partners all drifted instinctively closer to one another, eyes widening as they reached what was clearly the remains of a toppled skyscraper; the rubble was covered in plantlife, and several black, flitting forms of winged Grimm that made Yang instinctively lift her fists.

The Grimm were giggling, tittering amongst themselves as they watched team RWBY with big eyes and even bigger smiles. Qrow grimaced, but waved at Yang and Blake to lower their weapons. Blake's pupils were nervous slits, and she kept trying to position herself on the group's periphery, so she could chuck Gambol Shroud or take a pot shot at the laughing Grimm at any moment.

After a tense moment, the giggling little creeps turned in unison towards something, staring and cocking their bony, childlike masks before taking off together. They disappeared into the rubble, and seconds later, it's like they hadn't even been there.

"Were those….were those Unseelie?" Ruby prompted Uncle Qrow, her gaze still glued to where they'd disappeared.

"..Yea," he gruffed irritably. "Sketchy little bastards. Hate em."

"I thought the area was 'warded against Grimm' or whatever?" Yang said sassily, throwing in some air quotes for good measure.

"Unseelie are made of smarter stuff than most Grimm," Qrow sighed, and kept moving. "Basic wards won't work on them. So keep sharp, and don't let them bait you into doing something stupid."

"By wards, what precisely do you mean?" Weiss finally asked. It had been pretty obvious that she had been dying to. "Are you referring to some sort of experimental hunting tech or maybe Raven's Semblance?"

Yang's eyes widened at that. She realized she didn't actually know what her mother's Semblance was. She didn't really know much of anything.

"Nope!" Qrow popped, clambering over some chunks of fallen tower and clearing the debris field, before letting them follow him. With his Semblance, he didn't want to trigger a landslide, or some other calamity that the girls could get stuck in. "Talkin about magic, Weiss!"

Yang and Ruby shared a look, before shooting suspicious glares at the back of Qrow's head.

"Ok, well now you're just making fun of me," Weiss groused, using her glyphs to create a safe platform chain for her teammates to follow after. "That was an honest question."

"I'm not makin fun of you," Qrow drawled, shaking his head seriously. "But you're the kinda person who needs to see it to believe it. So...come on."

Before them lay an intact block of downtown apartment buildings and restaurants. Cars were scattered, abandoned in the street; some bore the claw and teeth marks of various Grimm, though Yang couldn't identify what types.

An alien feeling of dread was settling across Yang's shoulders, sinister and silky, as she stared around at the buildings. The apartments still looked almost lived in, but there were clothes and random items thrown about in the parking lot and street; as if the people had suddenly had to sprint out the door, carrying what they could and dropping what they could not.

Yang hesitated as she looked down at her feet, where a child's toy lay abandoned in a stagnant puddle of water. Next to the puddle was an ancient, violent trail of Grimm ink, which had somehow stood the test of time. After a moment, Yang looked up and into the eyes of her partner. Yang hadn't even noticed her get so close; not that she would have heard her anyways. Her partner held her gaze, before glancing down at the toy.

"This place is…" Blake trailed off, trying to find the right words.

"A tragedy," Weiss murmured.

"Haunted," Ruby finished. Her eyes kept flickering towards random locations, as if catching the tail end of a motion, or the passing of a shade.

"It's chilly as all hell," Qrow snarked over his shoulder. "Now quit being broody and let's move; that's my job anyways."

Team RWBY collectively rolled their eyes and followed after the Huntsman as he scoped the parking lot carefully, before moving under one of the five storied apartment's covered walkways and strolled around the back to yet another deserted parking lot.

There was overgrown shrubbery and trees surrounding the forsaken lot, creating a small, almost natural looking glade. Give it a few more decades, maybe a hundred years, and who knows? Maybe it would be a little forest full of tiny life, instead of a tomb full of ghosts?

"We weren't followed, ya know?" Qrow called roughly after about thirty seconds had passed, shaking his wrist. The odd bracelet made of teeth and trinkets rattled. "Could give me a little fuckin credit, at least."

Silence. The wind in the trees and dead leaves. Yang, who was not ok and who was not accustomed to the bitter flavor of anxiety, briefly felt her skin break out in goosebumps.

"Oh? Are you certain about that?"

Team RWBY nearly jumped collectively out of their skins, spinning around with weapons raised. Between the four of them, especially with Blake and Ruby, it should have been nearly impossible for someone to get the drop on them. Even if they were pretty distracted by everything else going on. However, there someone was.

She felt her fists clench, though she had enough awareness to not accidentally trigger her gauntlets. Her Semblance pressed against her, looking for an exit; the kinetic energy she stored up just from her normal activities at school was enough to level the building behind them; and that would just be her getting started.

Yang knew what Raven looked like. Or well, she thought she knew. She'd seen the rare photographs and Summer's album, all from different points in their parents' lives. She thought she remembered what she looked like, that time they'd met in the middle of the night. Maybe her memories had changed, maybe Raven had changed, or maybe Yang's perceptions were simply being bombarded by all kinds of crap from too many directions. But...

Raven was scary.

Or well, she exuded a very intense presence that screamed 'I am deadly. Do. Not.'

Do not what , Yang guessed, was the real question here; but Yang was struggling to not instinctively flinch away from the bloody shadow that was her birth mother. She couldn't even see her face right now, which probably wasn't helping.

Raven was wearing some wildass Grimm helmet or something, and it honestly looked like livid, bloodied bone; but she could still see her eyes staring out at the five of them. They were red, like Yang's were currently, but also...not really. Yang's eyes were magma orange when she was angry or passionate, but those eyes were pools of living blood. Just, red-red.

From her presence and body language, Yang had no doubt in her heart that her mother had killed people. Lots and lots of people. That knowledge, perhaps more than anything else, was perhaps what was affecting her the most.

There was white noise building between her ears. She resisted the urge to swallow or betray any signs of nervousness or intimidation. In fact, she realized belatedly, that was likely the effect the woman was going for - shock and awe. Yang realized with somewhat nerdy regret, that she had literally failed her intimidation check.

If I let her scare me off with just a dumb spooky costume, then I am seriously not cut out to be a Huntress; let alone to handle any of the rest of the crap that's coming.

It wasn't just the costume though, and Yang knew it. It was how clearly comfortable Raven was with being seen as a blatant threat; because that was something Yang feared to be seen as herself.

Yang wasn't entirely sure how long the moment lasted, but it couldn't have been very long before Qrow came to the rescue.

"Yea, I'm sure," Qrow grimaced, waving a hand. "What's that shit behind your back, you're freakin the girls out-"

Raven pulled something around and into the light, and carelessly tossed it at his feet. Weiss screeched a little and jumped away, as the impossible, pale creature flopped to the ground in a macabre pile. Qrow started cursing instantly, not in fear but in anger. Ruby and Blake edged closer to the monster, wearing identical looks of wonder and shock; Yang just….gaped.

The thing wasn't human, or faunus, that was for sure. But it also wasn't Grimm. It was pale, grey, with insect-like wings stretching down it's back; it also had too many black eyes and limbs, with a flat face and no nose. It was maybe a meter tall, but seemed stretchy somehow. It was bleeding silver.

"I suppose that's nothing then," Raven drawled, cocking her head.

"Oh COME on! Who the hell is sending mimics?!" Qrow snapped, nearly on the verge of pulling his hair out. "Dust on a fuck, I hate mimics!"

Yang and Weiss shared a look.

What in the heck is a mimic!?

"Who do you think, brother?" Raven tilted her head. She had yet to even look at team RWBY with anything beyond a cursory glance.

Qrow looked so mad he could spit.

"Where's Forzani?"

"Laying a rabbit trail for anyone else on our heels, so," Raven turned and started walking for the apartments. "Let's get under cover for now, shall we? In case more of those show up."

More what?! What the what?! What IS THAT?!

"Um! Hey! Wait!" Ruby finally spun away from the inexplicable entity at her feet. Blake was on the verge of nudging it with her shoe, and Weiss was firmly pulling her away from it. "I have questions!? Like, so many questions!"

Raven didn't even look back at them.

"I'm sure you do. Ask them inside the nice building, where those things won't be able to find us."

Yang's eyes narrowed at her tone, but she held her tongue for now. Little bursts of plasma skittered over her skin. She wanted to scream, to throw things; to break the foundation of the buildings around them, and the ground below.

Do not just fucking ignore me!

"Yang," Qrow whispered at her shoulder. His voice had taken on that soothing tone he'd put on when she was upset when she was younger.

She glanced back at him; she felt like she was on fire, and there was a strong possibility that she was. She wasn't crying, but the potential was there.

"If this is too much….we can leave," he continued gently. There wasn't any pity in his voice, just understanding. "You don't have to put yourself through this. Ok? None of ya'll do."

She winced a little. Embarrassed that he could see her struggling so badly; and worried, briefly, if he was embarrassed of her.

"We can go home right now," he insisted, laying a hand on her shoulder. His aura kicked up a little, in proximity to the heat rolling off her. "And...like, if you gotta leave? You give me the sign, and we're gone. No questions asked. No messy goodbyes. We'll just bounce."

That almost sounded really tempting. However, Yang knew that even if he meant it, there was not a chance in hell that she could walk away from here now.

Not after some literally impossible thing had just been bodily tossed down at her feet like a gauntlet; not after she'd taken that first step out the door that morning. Not after finding out what happened to Summer; and not when she was afraid that Ruby was going to keep going, all alone if she had to.

All alone into the dark….

Yang had always thought she was the adventurer, the one who pushed the envelope and hunted for answers; but as she watched her sister's red cape get a little ahead of her, she wondered if that was actually the full truth of it.

"Thanks," she said, finding her voice finally. She met his eyes. "But I'm going to keep going."

He smiled a little at that, a melancholy half smirk.

"I figured. But remember, if you change your mind? The offer stands."

His hand dropped away, and he waited for her to move to catch up to the others, before trailing slowly after. He gave the mimic a final glance, watching as the body dissolved into a mercury-like puddle; he couldn't completely keep the dread out of his eyes.


Team RWBY was ushered inside the abandoned apartment complex, following Raven's stalking figure nervously. Ruby had given up asking questions - for now - and was instead checking on the emotional well being of her teammates. Blake seemed to be coping the best out of all of them. Weiss was, frankly, bewildered; and when she got confused, Weiss got bratty as hell, but for the most part she seemed ok. Yang was, admittedly, handling things poorly so far; but, in her defense, she could be doing way worse!

Raven led them up five flights of cluttered, but passable, stairs. She didn't pause to wait for them, or to look back. She did stop, very briefly, to check the corners and passages that they were passing and then carried on. When team RWBY copied this behavior, she didn't comment on it; nor did she stop.

Finally, they reached the fifth floor and with little to no fanfare, Raven opened a third door on their right and went inside first. The team followed cautiously, trailed by Qrow. When they had all entered the aged, but apparently still habitable apartment, Raven gestured to what was left of the living room.

"Go find a seat," she prompted, pulling several items out of the pouches at her hip. Yang noticed the Nevermore feathers and decorative beads, and raised an eyebrow. "I need to secure the space."

Yang's anger simmered and boiled, but her curiosity was perhaps an even greater force at the moment. Secure the space from what? How? Was it from things like the inexplicable creature

laying mangled outside? Yang had a million questions all vying for their chance in the limelight, some as old as she could remember and some having been born mere seconds ago.

"I….should we help?" Ruby offered, perhaps to establish a sense of normalcy. "Would...you like us to help?"

Raven started pouring what looked like black-salt and ashes in front of the door, before pulling a vial of something out, dipping her finger in it and drawing on the door, completely heedless of the girls' stares.

"I would like, more than anything in the world, for you to all go sit quietly in a corner and stay there," Raven drawled, a wry tone to her voice. "Which is most likely asking for far too much. I bet y ou just cannot do it."

"Oh yea!? I bet we can-" Ruby retorted instinctively, spinning before catching herself. "Heeey!"

Yang's eyebrow quirked once again at that, and she folded her arms. Bets were one of Ruby's mortal weaknesses. That's how Yang used to trick Ruby into doing her chores as a kid, in fact. She'd turn it into a game.

"Is for horses," Raven hummed, before setting several papers decorated with odd, bloody scribbles on fire and throwing them into the air. The bloody scribbles hung after the paper had burned, almost like a Semblance glyph, before disappearing from sight with odd, musical notes.

Ruby squinted at the back of Raven's head, before giggling openly at Weiss's expression. Blake meanwhile kept trying to scoot closer to see what Raven was doing. Raven ignored her.

Qrow started to shoo them all away from the weird tasks that Raven seemed dead set on performing and into the living room, which was really just a collection of chairs and a very suspect sofa which Weiss outright refused to let any of them sit on.

"Ya'll packed yourselves enough supplies, right?" Qrow prompted, moving their bags onto the counter which had apparently been dusted off already. "Food, water, sleepin bags?"

"Are we sleeping here?" Weiss asked, unable to hide the disappointment from her voice.

Yang chuckled a little at her tone; she knew what Weiss actually meant, even if how it came across was haughty or pretentious. Old habits die hard, afterall.

"Did you see any five star resorts on the way here?" Raven asked scathingly, setting more crap on fire. This time, incense and a dish full of weird herbs. "If so, you're more than welcome to go camp there instead."

Weiss cocked her head, her eyes getting a familiar icy glare in them. Ruby winced.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that you knew? This is one of the worst locations to mount a rapid exit if Grimm suddenly swarmed us in large numbers. Are you simply unobservant or do you just not care?" Weiss asked with equal ire.

"No, Schnee . I don't care about the Grimm," Raven turned finally, dusting her hands of soot. The air smelled like something heady but cleansing, a fragrance Yang couldn't name. "Because Grimm aren't what we need to be worried about right now."

Yang met her gaze and refused to let herself flinch or glance away in discomfort. She couldn't tell what she was thinking.

"Are you gonna take that stupid mask off anytime soon?" Yang finally asked, her voice deceitfully cool if sullen. "Or is it like your security blanket or something?"

Qrow coughed, clearing his throat as he tried to look busy. Raven's head tilted slightly as she openly studied her. Yang, this time, held her ground.

"I need the stupid helm to see the stupid mimics," Raven admitted after a moment.

"And all the other little nasties creeping around out of sight."

"Sure. Ok," Yang shrugged, her tone flat as she turned away and moved to take a seat in the living room first. "We gonna get this over with or what?"

Ruby met her eyes briefly, concern apparent. After a moment, Ruby raised her hand.

"Yea, um, question! About the creepy little bug dude!"

Qrow started chuckling before he plopped down on the floor, sitting only on a blanket he'd laid out; Weiss gave him a horrified look, but wisely kept any comments about the filth to herself. Raven finally deigned to grace them with her attention, after checking the boarded up windows.

"Yes, Ruby?" Raven prompted tersely.

Her voice reminded Yang of an obsidian blade wrapped in sable cloth. Soft for now, but underneath was the threat of something terribly sharp and cutting. Something that could flay a person to the bone so fast, they might not even notice they were bleeding out at first.

"What?" Ruby raised her hands expressively. "Like - what are they?"

Blake perked up in interest, having moved away from the door where she was studying what Raven had been doing with distinct curiosity and slipped around to Yang's side. Weiss, who was seated on a folding chair with her hands folded in her lap, glanced at her partner. Qrow sighed, scratching the back of his neck.

"Entities of the hedge between," Raven replied coolly. She had yet to sit down, and had positioned herself in the room where she could keep an eye on both the door and the windows.

"Is that supposed to make sense?" Weiss asked automatically. "Or are you being intentionally obtuse?"

Raven turned to stare down at Weiss briefly.

"Are you capable of letting her ask questions without interrupting her?" Raven asked after an icy silence. "Or will you continue to make this conversation all about yourself, like you do everything else?"

Weiss looked as if she'd been slapped, and Yang and Blake immediately tensed up, with Yang more than ready to start yelling. Ruby, however, held her palm up.

"Hey, no," Ruby said, staring at Raven directly. Putting on her leader face. "Weiss just likes to ask questions, and that's why we're all here right? To get answers? She's not interrupting me. Please be kind to her."

Weiss, who had rapidly tried to save face, still sent Ruby a brief, thankful little glance that pained Yang immensely.

Raven did not respond to this request, but didn't say anything else directed Weiss's way. Qrow was studying the group from the sidelines, ready to intervene if needed.

"So," Ruby glanced around at her teammates. Yang continued to glare at her mother. "Ok. There is….a lot going on. A lot of things need to be answered. And it's all pretty overwhelming, to be honest. So I think it's best if we focus on one issue at a time, or try to."

Raven, again, did not respond to this. She just waited.

Ruby looked Yang's way, and they shared a quick, silent conversation based on sibling-ese alone. Ruby nodded.

"I think it's best if we start at the very beginning then, and build off of that," Ruby confirmed. "Why did you leave the family after Yang was born?"

Qrow cursed softly in the corner, and Yang sent him a sharp, questioning look. He pulled his flask out of his vest and took a fast swig.

Raven stilled momentarily, as if calculating how much she should say. Yang's chest was hurting. The woman couldn't even look her way.

"I didn't leave directly after Yang was born," Raven finally replied. "It was when she was six months and-"

"Oh come on!" Yang barked, popping out of her chair. "You know what she fucking meant!"

Her teammates stared at her with wide eyes. She didn't curse much.

"Yang," Qrow started softly, and she rounded on him. Flames were rolling off her.

"What?! Are you on her side, now?!" Yang shouted. Tears were threatening to break free again. "You promised me! You said you didn't know why either-"

"Yang, I didn't," Qrow insisted hoarsely. "I - things have changed. Ok?"

Yang glared, fighting the urge to sneer.

"Do not yell at him," Raven said calmly. Infuriatingly. "If you need to yell, then yell at me."

Yang's fingers were clenching and unclenching.

"Don't tell me what to do," Yang growled. "Don't ever think you can tell me what to do."

Raven barely even blinked at that. There was no discernable reaction, and gods, it was going to drive Yang completely, totally up the wall crazy.

"You don't get to sit there and hide behind some stupid mask and then try to TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" she yelled. Her voice felt raw in her mouth. Savage. Alien.

Blake and Weiss were shuffling nervously in their chairs, and Yang felt like utter Boarbatusk poop; because she was terrified now that she was accidentally scaring them . Which made her even angrier. Because the person who was supposed to be upset, the one standing in front of her? Was not reacting in any way that Yang could visually interpret.

She felt like she was screaming at a brick wall; a chunk of carved marble instead of a person.

"Rae, take the fuckin helm off," Qrow sighed from the sidelines.

Raven shook her head, tresses fluttering. Odd trinks rustled and chimed in her wild mane of pitch black hair, like stars in the night sky.

"No."

Yang scoffed, folding her arms.

"Raven," Qrow tried again, before the woman cut him off impatiently.

"That's tactically unwise here, and you know it," Raven insisted dryly, completely unimpressed.

Unflustered. Unconcerned. Just, totally disaffected.

It isn't gods damned fair!

"What's the matter, mom ," Yang sneered. "Scared to look a couple of teenagers in the face?"

Even after she said it, Yang instinctively knew that she'd miss stepped. Raven's crimson met Yang's own magma unwaveringly, as if they were the most normal thing in the entire world. Then with quiet firmness, she pulled the frightening Nevermore helm off her head, shaking her hair out. She didn't look away though.

Yang stared at the pale face, which looked so much like her own and yet so, so different at the same time.

"I'm not the one who flinched, Yang," Raven said softly. Her tone was without condescension, malice or judgement. Just clinical acceptance. As if it was inevitable, that Yang would look at her in person and be afraid of what she saw.

Yang's mouth parted slightly, before her teeth clicked together. Anger and embarrassment, rage and fear; all the ugly things that the world didn't want Yang to feel or express were swarming up from the ocean floor where she'd left them chained for so long. She felt genuinely helpless and she hated it.

Of course she'd noticed that. Now she isn't even going to take me seriously!

An uncomfortable silence that lasted for too long, and for two seconds at most.

"You left when she was six months," Ruby started gently. "Because...of what?"

Raven's eyes flitted back to Ruby briefly. The woman's face was almost as stoic and grim as the bony looking mask she'd worn; her expressions were practically microscopic compared to the broad emotional strokes that would cross Yang or Ruby's faces.

"Because the price of me staying," Raven drawled, her voice detached. "Was far too high."

Yang winced, assuming…well, she assumed that Raven had meant the cost of raising her. Or perhaps being with a normal family, or any manner of conflicting things. Nothing was making any sense right now, and the woman refused to give a straight frickin answer!

"Please be more specific," Ruby insisted with quiet firmness. "This is a good faith discussion. We'll be forthcoming with you, but we expect the same treatment."

Qrow groaned miserably and rubbed his face. Raven's brow twitched, perhaps in irritation. Then a very slight, sardonic chuckle.

"Good faith, is it?" Raven tilted her chin. "Fine. I left so that Yang and the entire family wouldn't die gruesome deaths in their beds. Or worse."

Yang blinked, confused. Ruby's mouth dropped a little, several questions waring for dominance as she tried to figure out what to ask next. Raven continued before Ruby could ask them.

"I left because there was, at that time, no other road for me to take," the woman admitted, almost casually.

"Gruesome deaths from who?" Ruby prompted again. "The person who killed my mother?"

Stillness, save for curling fingers, mostly hidden at her side.

"No, surprisingly enough," Raven admitted.

Qrow stirred, shooting his sister a questioning look that neither Yang, Blake or Weiss missed.

"So it was a person?" Ruby jumped at that, zeroing in. Another brow twitch and Raven itched her wrist briefly.

"Not exactly, no," the infuriating woman met Ruby's eyes. "Listen, this...line of questioning isn't going to give you the answers you actually want-"

"The answers I actually want?" Ruby repeated, tripping over the words as she got more emotional. She stood up and moved next to Yang, her eyes big and watering. "We just want the truth! Why won't you, or anyone -why you just-"

Raven took a deep, quiet breath and her eyes skirted away for a second. Yang gave her little sister a distressed look, but Ruby wasn't falling to pieces; she was ok. She had tears in her eyes, but she was ok.

"Just tell us the truth! Please! Why not-"

"Because the truth FUCKING KILLS PEOPLE!" Raven snarled suddenly, gutturally, whipping on them with a ferocity that most Kingdom people just are not accustomed to. Ruby and Yang both winced, but they stood their ground.

"What part of that isn't sinking in for you yet?" Raven asked, her bloody gaze flicking between them. Almost baffled by them as much as they were by her. "Do you two think that the rest of us are just complete fucking geriatric imbeciles? Doddering around and keeping secrets from a pack of four year olds because it's FOR FUN? Or out of spite?! Does this seem like a fucking game to you?!"

Yang and Ruby didn't get a chance to get a word in as Raven paced slowly.

"Seriously? Are you two genuinely incapable of considering the position that you're putting us in?" Raven asked cuttingly. "Do I need to fucking spell it out slowly?!"

Ruby sniffed a little.

"Rae," Qrow cautioned from the sidelines. Raven ignored him.

"We haven't told you everything, because we don't want you to die ! What about that isn't translating?!"

Raven waved a hand towards the boarded up window. One of the boards had a big enough gap that you could see outside at the bleak, tragic landscape; at the bones of a dead and forsaken city.

"Did you enjoy the view on your little walk?" Raven hissed, fiercely. "Was it pretty, walking here through the ashes?"

"Raven. Dial it back," Qrow insisted, leaning forward on his knees.

Raven shot a terribly scathing look his way, and he glared back, unflinching. She sneered before turning back to her daughters.

"The people responsible for assassinating your mama?" Raven cocked her head to the side, nodding slowly. "Wanna know what else they're willing to do? Wanna know just where their limits lie?"

Despite the angry tears in Yang's eyes, understanding was sparking in the back of her mind. Some of what the thumbdrive had said had strongly suggested what Raven was getting at; but the scope of everything was honestly something that Yang hadn't really absorbed yet, and she felt that she wasn't alone in that.

"I…" Ruby started, struggling to keep up.

"Look outside," Raven said softly. Intently. "Did you actually fucking look? Did you really, actually look at what they did? It's a little different, isn't it? When you see these things in person instead of read about them. It's different, for the people who were actually there. They offered up this city on a silver fucking platter, while we all died and bled trying to save it. And they'd do something like that again in a heartbeat if it meant getting what they wanted."

Ruby swallowed. Tears were rolling down her face, and Yang realized with some chagrin that she was crying too. Blake was hovering behind the pair of them, caught between trying to be supportive and trying to protect them from pain. Weiss, meanwhile, had an odd expression caught on her face as she sat frozen in her chair.

"This shit isn't a fairytale out of a storybook, Ruby. It's very, VERY real, and it very much wants to hurt you. You think these people give a damn about a couple of baby Huntresses?" Raven asked, glancing between them. "You think they wouldn't make the four of you disappear off the face of this planet? More accurately, do you honestly think they aren't in a position of power to do so?"

"Question," Weiss primly raised her hand. Raven ignored her, but then Weiss started talking anyways. "Sorry, but how do we know that you aren't a part of this mystery cabal that's running around murdering people and potentially destroying entire cities?"

"Weiss!" Qrow snapped in warning, his eyes flashing angrily.

Yang's own eyes rounded immensely as she turned back towards the Ice Queen. Weiss didn't look at her, trying to pin Raven with her own icy glare.

"It's a legitimate question," Weiss insisted, folding her hands again. She was using her corporate Schnee voice, and Yang felt briefly panicked as she looked back and saw the look in her mother's eyes. "You're a part of what I can only deduce is some kind of terrorist cell in Anima, you are allergic to telling your family the full truth, and are performing bizarre ritual practices because you believe in magic. So, you're likely either a murderer, a conwoman, or a member of the criminally insane. Possibly all three."

There was a deadly pause in the abandoned apartment; and then Raven smiled at Weiss, and Yang knew in her heart that that was the most dangerous thing the woman could do.

She looked like she was hunting her.

"Well. Schnee ," Raven grinned. That smile was an act of violence of itself, a knife glint in the dark. "I suppose someone with your impressive title would be an expert at spotting any of those things. In fact, my, I forget my manners! I am in the presence of a truly...blood-drenched legacy."

Weiss lifted her chin, ready to dive into verbal combat, something that she excelled at more than anyone else that Yang knew. Yang also knew, for absolute certainty, that Weiss was in over her head.

"I could burn a thousand colonizing Settlements and string up a thousand thousand slavers," Raven with venomous certainty. "And I would never even make a scratch compared to the violence your family has perpetuated. And I could never, ever compete in manufacturing the sheer amount of suffering you racist pieces of shit have."

Weiss's facade of cold began to crack, and completely shattered once Raven gleefully plunged the verbal knife in.

"Here's a question for you! Did you get a little angry? When you found out that you had a faunus on your team? Or better yet! Did you get, oh, just the teensiest bit upset when you found out about Ruby?"

Weiss floundered for half a second, and that's all Raven needed for confirmation.

"Awww. What's wrong?" Raven tilted her head, smiling hungrily. "Oh, here's another question, while you chew on that last one! How many faunus had to die in your mines for you to buy your way into Beacon? And then, have the balls to sit here and accuse me of murdering my wife, who was also faunus? I really... really , want to know the answer to that. Do you have it?"

Weiss looked away, visibly distraught and wrestling with her emotions.

"Why are you even here, actually?" Raven asked, facetiously. "I mean, it's not like you would have probably even seen Summer as a real person-"

"Stop it," Ruby snapped, silver eyes flashing angrily. "That's not true!"

There was another, aching silence in the room.

"Oh, sweet baby," Raven turned towards her. " Of course it's true."

Ruby made a heartbreaking little noise, and Yang's skin broke out in rolling bursts of plasma as she glared at her birth mother.

Raven exhaled slowly at the sight, before turning away towards the door and waving.

"I see you all need to take a break," she droned, picking the helm up and carrying it under her arm. "I'll be on the roof. Come get me when you're ready to start again."

Strange symbols around the door flashed as she opened it and closed it behind her. There was a heavy pause in the room, broken only by snuffles and people wiping their eyes. Blake was possibly the only member of team RWBY not crying, but she also looked very distressed and had promptly pulled the two sisters into a hug; after some gesturing on Blake's part, she incited Weiss to join them. The four girls just….held each other for a while.

"Well," Qrow grimaced from his spot on the floor, drinking liberally from his flask. "That could have gone worse."

Yang shot her uncle a glare, but he shrugged.

"What? It could have," he sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"She's being a real jerk right now," Ruby grumbled into the arms of her team. "Bein a big ole turkey-jerky butt."

Yang snorted in dry amusement, still feeling sulky and off key.

"She's….not exactly lying to us, though," Blake said after a pause. "Just uh…"

"She's not being all that forthcoming either," Yang growled. "She clearly doesn't even want to be here or talk to us. Like we're wasting HER frickin time with this."

Ruby sighed, squeezing her teammates tighter.

"It's a bit like pulling teeth, yea. Or clipping Zwei's nails," she let out a soft huff. Yang chuckled a little at that.

"At least Zwei pulls his punches a little. She doesn't, at all."

Weiss winced, a soft sigh escaping her.

"No, she doesn't," the Ice Queen admitted. Ruby's head shot up as she stared at her partner.

"Weiss, that stuff she said-"

Weiss shook her head.

"Is harsh yes, but," Weiss started, pulling an odd face. "I can't say how wrong she is about some of it. I... definitely had ugly, and well, racist beliefs when I first met you all. It would be cowardly of me to say that I didn't. Or that I am incapable of perpetuating them accidentally even now. And that's not even mentioning anything else she brushed on."

Blake and Ruby shared a glance. This hadn't exactly been a conversation any of them had expected to be having today. Or well, Yang certainly hadn't expected it.

Mom, what the fuck ?


Weiss dusted her fingers nervously over the hem of her combat outfit, again. It was a silly action, a compulsive one born from years of obsessive grooming and fixation on her physical presentation. She knew it didn't make a lick of difference to the person sitting outside the door to the apartment roof.

Ever since they had hopped off that bullhead, Weiss had felt completely flatfooted. Nothing here was meeting her expectations, and she had not been quick enough to adapt before making an ass of herself. From the bizarre behavior of the Grimm they'd seen so far, the possibly mutated insect Yang's mom had thrown at them, to well, everything else.

At the same time, Weiss knew that this is what she'd chosen when she'd held Yang as she cried; and Ruby's hand half the night. So, she wasn't going to back down now; just because she was a little...

Unsettled.

Weiss held her head higher and pushed the door open, keeping Myrtenaster readily available as she scanned the sky and surrounding buildings. She noticed the figures of Grimm immediately in the distance, and her grip on Myrtenaster tightened reflexively. The shapes she could see were flying peacefully overhead, while others sprinted over the rooftops half a mile away. None of them gave her the time of day, despite her own tumultuous emotions.

In fact, it was a total miracle that nothing had tried to come smashing into the pitiful little apartment complex after that smorgasbord of negative emotional energy. Yet, none of the Grimm haunting the bleak landscape ventured any closer. In fact, they didn't pay them any mind at all.

It was more than miraculous, actually.

It was completely unnatural .

Weiss had been researching Grimm behavior as part of her studies for years. What she knew, and what she was seeing right now? Didn't add up.

Now that didn't believe it was the result of 'magic' or whatever nonsense Qrow had tried to sell her, but it was downright eerie. Made even more so by the woman sitting on the edge of the apartment roof, watching as the sun sank further and further out of sight.

Raven Branwen looked like she belonged out here. Beyond the walls of the Kingdom kilometers away, surrounded by ruins, monsters and feral things. Not anywhere near Beacon or Vale, or the people Weiss cared about most in the world.

Weiss had found herself repeatedly trying to compare Raven to Yang, and found herself unable to do so. Besides their facial features, but even those were irreconcilably different because of the emotions portrayed there.

Yang was joy, love and acceptance. Yang was the dawn after a nightmare, she was everything right with the world.

This person...well, Weiss wasn't sure just what she was.

"Did you need something, Schnee?" Raven drawled lazily, without bothering to look back.

Weiss tried to pick up the undercurrent of emotion in the words. Was it anger? Resentment?

No, it's dismissal . She's already written me off.

Which was extremely frustrating, but also, not totally unexpected. Weiss realized she had blundered earlier with her insinuation. Not because Weiss thought it was completely unfair, given their wild circumstances and the way Raven presented herself as some kind of homicidal outlaw; but because Weiss had gotten a little too comfortable at Beacon.

She'd forgotten that she wasn't the only person in the room constantly sizing people up. She hadn't considered that Raven would see her only as her title as heiress to the Schnee fortunes and the SDC, and not as, well, an individual.

It was careless of her, but Weiss had grown accustomed to interacting with her fellow students, most of whom didn't know or care about her title; people who were blissfully ignorant when it came to being aware of things like social power and status. About the games the rich and powerful of the world played in the clouds above Mantle.

This person, whatever she was, was extremely aware of such things; and held it all in contempt.

"They're ready to start again," Weiss replied, her voice smooth and detached.

Years of practice kept her inflection from wavering or revealing too much, as she tried to carefully gauge Raven's reaction.

"Hmm. And you drew the short straw then?" Raven asked, still leaning back on her hands. "Well, you can run away now, Schnee. I'll be down shortly."

Utter, wry contempt.

She has no respect for me - no, my title- at all. She's not actually talking to me. I might as well not be here as far as she's concerned.

What would the best approach be, then? This person clearly thought Weiss was just a sock-puppet for her father and the SDC, and could not think for herself. Or...feel things or form genuine connections with other people-

Oh, duh .

"My friends and I did not draw lotteries, no," Weiss said, forcing herself to drop the 'corporate automaton routine' as Yang had called it once. "Though it may have been a little tempting."

No reaction.

"I wanted to apologize, actually," Weiss tried again. "For earlier, I mean. I framed my concerns...very poorly."

A bemused flicker.

"Grimm, you should have been a lawyer, Schnee," Raven sighed, standing fluidly. "Poorly framed concerns my fucking ass. You said what you meant."

Weiss gave the taller woman a flat stare, as she tried to regain her conversational footing.

"Ok, in that moment, I did. But, to be fair-"

"To be faiiiiiir," Raven drawled in a mocking Atlassian accent.

"To beee faiiiir," Weiss rolled with it, sounding a bit like her aunt. Raven's eyes flicked to hers.

"You are intentionally presenting yourself, as far as I can tell, as this very strange and dangerous person. So if I am admittedly a little suspicious of your involvement in all this-"

Black eyebrows raising out of sight.

"-because I want my friends - people I care about a great deal, in fact - to be safe….then is that really so unbelievable?" Weiss asked frankly.

A skeptical smirk.

"Your friends hmm?"

Ah, ok.

"Yes," Weiss affirmed confidently.

"They're your friends here, maybe," Raven tested, folding her arms as she reevaluated her. "But I wonder? Would you claim them if people back home were actually watching?"

"Yes," Weiss said instantly.

"Hmm. Well, I'll guess we'll see how that actually plays out, won't we?" Raven said, rolling her eyes.

She thinks I'm going to throw them under the bus to save face in front of my father and the Board.

Well. To be fair . The Weiss of yester-year probably would have.

But it was a bit rich coming from someone who had doggedly spent the last eighteen years or so avoiding her children; potentially good intentions or not.

"I'm being serious," Weiss repeated persistently. "I know my father and the SDC while under his control have done tremendously ugly things. I'm not going to sacrifice the people I care about to earn his approval! I don't want to be anything like him or his spineless goons! And I don't know the full extent of what he has done, unfortunately, but I do know that some of the things you said must be true. And when I inherit the company, I plan on changing it-"

Raven, whose focus she'd kept until that last sentence, finally brushed right past her.

"So you think Jacques is the exception," Raven droned condescendingly. "And not the rule . How utterly….mediocre."

Weiss spun around, wrestling with her own temper. She had to give the woman credit; she was exceptionally good at getting under other people's skin, and fast. A very useful skillset to possess in Atlas, and something Weiss absolutely knew better than to point out.

"You can't scare me off, you do know that right?" Weiss finally snapped, refraining from placing her hands on her hips. "I'm going to be here for them, whether you like me or approve of me or not! And I'm not going anywhere, unless they want me to!"

Weiss was prepared for a variety of nasty retorts and insinuations. She had dealt with far worse before, and felt that she could handle it. However, she was not prepared for Raven to come to a complete stop and start laughing. To say Weiss was confused would be an understatement. To say Weiss believed that the older woman was perhaps a bit mad would not be far the truth.

"What- Why is that funny? I am being serious!"

Raven continued to snicker at some apparently private joke, as she actually wiped her eyes and grinned at her. It was a much kinder smile than the one from before. In fact, the emotional shift in the other woman was genuinely noticeable; and Weiss realized that Raven was actually looking at her as a person now and not just as 'the heiress'.

What did I say? I don't get it-

"I know," Raven chortled, pulling herself together. "It's just, it's so funny."

"It is not!" Weiss reared up defensively.

"Awww, does someone have a little crush on one of them?" Raven prompted mirthfully, her head cocking to the side.

The cogs in Weiss's mind came to a screeching, horrible, unpleasant halt. The twins anxiety and dread both burst out onto the stage of her mind and started gleefully shaking her down. Weiss's entire face lit up like brighter than fire Dust.

"Uh oh," Raven droned, before breaking out into further laughter. "Pfft hahaha!"

"N-no! That's just - hey! I don't appreciate such slander-"

"Slander?" Raven snickered. "You maybe wanna rephrase that a little?"

Weiss was on the brink of thermonuclear meltdown. This was a nightmare.

No literally, she'd had nightmares very similar to this, but reality was apparently far, FAR worse.

How did this happen?! What just happened?

For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what she'd said that could have given her away.

"Ok, look, please don't throw that concept around, then," Weiss pleaded, waving her hands nervously.

Oh, how embarrassing.

"I haven't...I haven't had a chance to properly...sort everything out yet, and-"

Raven snorted, shaking her wild mane out of her face. Not dismissing her this time, no; now she was treating Weiss like a teenager, and not a walking, talking corporation.

It seemed that the price of humanizing myself around this woman was that she could see far too much. I'm not sure that's better.

"Dust, relax. I'm not going to snitch on you," Raven exhaled, shaking the last of the chuckles out of her bones. "I'm mean. But I'm not that cruel."

Weiss struggled mightily to save some semblance of face, but Dust help her, she couldn't stop blushing. It was her greatest mortal weakness.

Then suddenly, the door that led down into the apartment complex below slammed open.

"Hey," Qrow said, his face slipping from concern to an amused smirk. "Quit bullyin Weiss and come on already."

"Oh, she's fine," Raven sighed, drifting down into the stairwell. "A little bullying from me isn't going to scare her off. Like she said - she's not going anywhere . Are you, Weiss?"

Weiss tried to interpret just what on Remnant that meant, while Qrow gave Weiss a dry stare.

"Uh oh," Qrow droned, shaking his head.

"What?" Weiss yelped.

"Fucked up, Weiss" Qrow shook his head ruefully. "You told her."

Weiss stared at Qrow in bewildered terror. He just smirked at her.

"I...what?!"

The other Branwen twin looked just as amused by this as Raven had. Qrow started to snicker a little, and the other boot dropped.

"Shouldn't have told her you had a crush on Ruby, Weiss, that was dumb-"

Weiss's eyebrows shot upwards.

What is happening! What?! Why?

"Oooh it's Ruby!? I thought it was Yang!" Raven hooted up the stairwell.

"Nah, totally Rubles," Qrow laughed, good naturedly.

Weiss stopped in the dark stairwell, before finally throwing her hands up in confusion and despair.

"How do you people know this stuff!?"

The Branwen twins promptly started cackling in unison, shining through as totally mischievous and completely unrepentant hooligans; and in that moment, Weiss could finally see the familial connection - mostly between them and Yang. But also Ruby.

Weiss sighed loudly in utter defeat. This was all so deeply unfair.

However, perhaps in the long run, her embarrassment here might pay off.

"Fine. Ruffians," she huffed, trailing after them as they hooted playfully at the monicker. "You caught me."

"Yea, we did!" Qrow cackled.

"You did tell on yourself," Raven taunted, unable to keep the new current of amusement from her voice.

Well, partially, she had, yes. However, she hadn't told them everything.

After all. She totally had a crush on Yang, too.


Ruby watched as the twins and Weiss reentered the apartment, and some of the anxiety she'd had at letting Weiss go to fetch Raven slipped away. Her partner had volunteered - or insisted, really - and Ruby had acquiesced, sensing that it was important to Weiss.

Seeing how the twins still had the remains of relatively playful looks on their faces and how flustered Weiss was, Ruby deduced that they'd just been teasing her a little; which was a proud Xiao Long-Branwen family tradition. About what, though, was a mystery.

Meanwhile, Yang promptly bristled back up the moment Raven entered her field of vision again. However, Ruby had noticed earlier that Yang woud subconsciously mirror the older woman's posture; and when she caught herself doing it, she would fold her arms to close herself off again.

She kept trying so hard to look tough, but to Ruby she just looked like the saddest of puppies.

Ruby wanted to hug her sister, and squish all the pain away; however, she knew the best way to make it better was to keep pushing forwards with this conversation. Which she feared was going to take half the night, or maybe all of it.

Suddenly, there was a chin on top of her head.

Ruby bit back a short giggle as she glanced up at Blake, whose chest had begun to vibrate as she started purring loudly. Blake apparently also believed in the practice of squishing discomfort away; but she had the advantage of having her own rumble engine.

"Thanks," Ruby smiled up at her.

Blake smiled back, patting her shoulder before slipping away and back to her spot in the living room. She was making food at the moment, using their camping stove to cook some of the dehydrated meals they'd brought.

Qrow promptly moved to assist her, while Weiss, who was still rather red in the face and neck, moved back to her own chair. Ruby smiled at her partner, trying to ascertain that she was alright without asking. Weiss could get a little prickly when her vulnerabilities were pointed out in front of people, so Ruby had taken to memorizing her nonverbal cues over the past school year; so they could talk without having to like talk-talk. It wasn't perfect, but it worked ok! Like right now, Weiss was apparently just super embarrassed, but otherwise she was handling things.

Ruby plopped down next to Yang, who was still trying very hard to appear tough. Her sister, whose eyes had been burning red all day long, glanced down at her; Ruby nudged her arm with her elbow, and Yang smiled, before half-heartedly shoving her shoulder.

Yea, Yang was still very upset, but she was managing. Which was all they could hope to do at this point.

Ruby inhaled, trying to put herself into the right space to be who she needed to be to continue all this, and exhaled. She opened her eyes, and noticed that Raven had taken a seat on the ground across from them, some feet away.

Ruby didn't startle at this, but it was an interesting shift. Before, Raven had been moving and projecting physical presence as if she was trying to drive them all back; sharp gestures, agitated fidgeting that she overcompensated for, pacing, withholding her own emotions, wearing a mask so they couldn't connect with her emotionally.

If I'm a big spooky, I can scare you away from me! And all the things that actually want to hurt you.

Which, of course, hadn't worked. Now, she was sitting across from Ruby, and mirroring her body posture to establish….what? An actual dialogue? Some kind of understanding?

Maybe they weren't the only ones who had needed to take a little break from everything, huh?

A memory drifted by, something from forever ago, that she'd lost to the ebb and flow of time; but it lined up with the image in front of her here. Only now, they were in a decaying ramshackle in a haunted ruin; and not on a moonlit hillside overlooking an island forest and gravesite.

Ruby remembered that she hadn't been scared then, or sad, really. At the time, the moon had simply been too bright for her to sleep, and the music in her head had been too loud; so she'd gone to visit her mom, and there Raven was. Like she was supposed to be there.

Ruby chewed her lip in thought, as she squinted at her.

"...I remember you," Ruby said after a moment.

Raven snorted, a lip pulling into a fraction of a smile.

"Well, I was just in here only thirty minutes ago," the older woman smirked a little.

"Ok, no," Ruby chuckled. "Butt! You know what I mean! You made us cereal one time!"

"Wrong," Raven said, a black brow arching. "You blackmailed me into making you cereal, under threat of using your Semblance to go sprint around Patch in the middle of the fucking night."

Qrow perked up at this, while Yang glanced down at her in surprise.

"Excuse me, what?" Qrow drawled.

Ruby tried to look appropriately innocent and regretful, and knew immediately that she was not fooling anyone.

"That is one way of interpreting it," Ruby chirped. "I prefer to think of it as a, uh, negotiation strategy!"

"Uh huh, sure," Raven leaned back on her palms, utterly unimpressed. "I see that your 'negotiation strategy' hasn't evolved very far since you were five ."

"I meaaan. If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Ruby wheedled impishly, a tooth catching on her bottom lip.

Raven and Qrow did not look as amused by this as she was. Yang looked marginally impressed, which made her feel a teensy bit better.

"Ok, tough crowd," Ruby coughed into her fist. "Sorry. Um. I guess we should pick it back up where we left off?"

Raven stilled, her face slipping into inscrutable and stoic, from wryly amused. Qrow sighed and went back to helping Blake with the food and boiling water for tea.

"Soo. You left because of some threat to the family, and you didn't explain why because you were afraid it would get people killed," Ruby held her fingers up, as if counting down. "Then um…"

Here comes the hard part. Come on Ruby, you can do this!

"Theeen. My mom got involved with this investigation," Ruby carried on, managing to keep her voice from cracking. "And whatever drove you off had...nothing to do with the people who killed her? And then, there was this big gap of time. In which people weren't looking into what had happened."

Raven was completely stock still, like one of the gargoyles on top of the palace or the old buildings around Vale.

"Because these people covered it up?" Ruby prompted.

Raven nodded once.

Ruby took a moment to breath. A million questions, trying to overwhelm her, but she only focused on for now.

"How?" Ruby asked softly. "I don't understand how something like this could have been allowed to happen and then, just. Like, from her notes to you-"

A very, very subtle wince; one she wouldn't have caught perhaps even a year ago, but she caught it now.

"-she seemed to believe she couldn't trust anyone . Other Hunters, the BTF, Professor Ozpin, like. The entire system around her," Ruby held her hands apart. "And she thought she was all alone - I just, I'm trying to understand. Because you say it's a secret group of people who did all - all of this."

Ruby waved a hand behind her at the boarded window, towards the lengthening shadows of the dead of the city.

"But I don't understand how a secret group could get away with this for so long, and have no one challenge them? Or have no larger organization catch on to what they were doing and warn everyone else?" Ruby carried on, even as her voice strained. "How or why would anyone in their right mind cover this stuff up? Where did they get the resources? How are they so powerful and yet no one know about them?"

Raven and Qrow shared a quick glance, perhaps speaking in their own version of sibling-ese, before her other mom exhaled quietly, fidgeting with the feathers at her hip.

"The reason no other organization in the Kingdom is pursuing them," Raven started softly. "Is because what they're doing is ultimately supporting the Kingdom's own goals."

Yang and Ruby froze at the same time.

"No Valish authorities will pursue this. It goes directly against their own interests," Raven inspected her nails, before looking back at them. "And the few good individuals that are a part of that entire system? Like your mother, like Joan Arc and like a dozen or so other people Summer probably named on that thumbdrive? They are either threatened into silence by their peers, reassigned, or outright eliminated. Usually the last one, for people who were too much of a threat."

Weiss was making noises like she was struggling not to say anything, but Blake finally spoke up, pausing from her cooking.

"So a faction within the Valish government had Ruby and Jaune's mothers assassinated?" Blake asked carefully. "Because they discovered what they were up to? And all the other agencies who could hold them accountable, won't; because they support whatever they're doing?"

Raven nodded after a brief pause, glancing away from Yang's partner to meet her daughters eyes.

"Yes."

Ruby felt like static was building up between her ears, and she scrunched her knees tightly under her chin, as she tried to process everything. Yang laid a comforting palm on her shoulder and squeezed a little.

"Do you understand now?" Raven asked quietly. "Why I need you two - or you four - to let this go?"

Ruby willed herself to calm down and find her center, before meeting Raven's gaze. The ferocity from earlier had dimmed into something less toothsome, maybe, but not less determined. Raven was not here to negotiate with them.

Whatever she had planned? She wasn't keen to include them in it. Which, considering what little Ruby knew of the woman so far, that wasn't very surprising.

Raven had cut herself off from the entire family, apparently in an attempt to protect them from some nameless bad thing; but in the end that hadn't actually worked. It was something that Ruby still didn't fully understand, because she didn't have all the pieces and Raven wasn't going to just hand them over to her or Yang. Not yet.

Which was…..really, really frustrating. Good intentions or no, Ruby wasn't ready to just give the woman a pass for everything, or to give up on getting all the answers her team needed to go forward. Raven's actions had caused a lot of radiant pain that had affected their entire family. Severing her ties with Yang especially had caused her sister all kinds of hurt, stuff that she had been carrying for years and years.

However, Ruby also wanted to achieve what she felt was the best possible outcome, for everyone involved. And while it would be really easy for her to lash out in anger or blame in this scenario, Ruby understood that doing so wouldn't lead to that outcome. Or long term healing; which, if Raven was practicing self-isolation, she likely needed as well.

Self-isolating was something Ruby had actually learned quite a bit about in her own studies into human and faunus psychological behavior, something she had picked up a while back and continued to this day. Largely because understanding her teammates emotional and mental states was a vital part in becoming a leader for a team of Huntresses.

Self-isolating behaviors were actually extremely common in struggling Hunters; it was something Uncle Qrow practiced frequently to this day, and her dad used to do as well, before he got help. Ruby knew that this was typically a trauma response, or a symptom of depression, anxiety, or PTSD. To cope with feelings of alienation and rejection, a person might physically withdraw from loved ones or society to avoid more pain. Hunters who have suffered extremely traumatic events, experiencing violence or terrible things on a scale that most Kingdom civilians can't empathize with, often self isolate from their families to cope with feeling misunderstood.

Ruby and Yang had seen and experienced the other side of this first hand; and it had been bewildering and painful, every time. It was bewildering and painful to watch your dad just disappear into himself and not fully understand why. It hurt to watch your Uncle drink himself into a stupor or disappear for months, and not know why. And it was painful to listen to your sister cry under her blanket at night, because she thought her mom didn't love her. Because her mom wasn't there. And she didn't know why.

All of that was the other reason Ruby had thrown herself into learning about the mind and the invisible struggles that Hunters dealt with. So that she could finally understand where some of their hurt was coming from; and if she couldn't fix it, she could at least come to comprehend it.

However, her understanding had shifted, now. Whatever STRQ had gone through as a whole? Had left them all deeply injured. It wasn't just the loss of Summer that had caused such profound hurt. An entire generation of Ruby's family tree had been left crippled, and it hadn't apparently been an accident.

So, with all of that in mind, Ruby needed to change tactics.

Strong arming Raven wouldn't get them all the results they needed, and frankly wouldn't work. However, Ruby also couldn't just surrender and pretend that none of this had happened. Team RWBY had learned the truth of things, and they were forever changed by it. There was no going back to the way things had been, and frankly, Ruby didn't really want that.

She wanted things to genuinely change, and hopefully, one day, for the better.

"I think that I do understand where you're coming from," Ruby started carefully, keeping her tone even. "Because this is all really terrifying, awful stuff. And I believe that you've just been trying really hard to do the right thing and keep the people you love safe. Even if you haven't exactly gone about that the best way."

A surprised fidget, as Raven's body language shifted. Yang had even tensed, but Ruby kept going.

"But I'm gonna ask that you try to understand my perspective here, ok?" Ruby continued, her tone compassionate. "From what I've seen? Keeping secrets and holding things back from each other, despite our best intentions, is doing way more damage to ourselves than it is protecting us. Secrecy and division are their allies, NOT ours."

A skeptical look, but Ruby persisted.

"If we continue to divide ourselves like this?" Ruby gestured quickly between them. "Then we're going to make it easier for these people to hurt us."

Raven inhaled, on the brink of interrupting, when she glanced at Yang and stopped. Ruby continued, sensing that she was making some kind of progress.

"We are stronger as a unified group," Ruby insisted, lacing her fingers together to demonstrate. "Not cut off into little bite-size pieces. We - and I mean our whole family, team RWBY and STRQ - need to stick together and not let ourselves get scattered all over the world. Or stuck fighting and losing invisible battles, over and over again."

Another more visible wince. Behind them, Qrow cleared his throat and cursed as his Semblance acted up, nearly toppling the propane tank.

"Because otherwise, mom, I know they're going to keep cutting us down. And then everything we've already lost? Will have been for nothing."

There was an extremely heavy silence after that. Raven's face was more still than the spooky mask she liked to wear, while Yang's was a wild variety of fluctuating feelings. Uncle Qrow was making impressed noises, but whether that was from what Ruby had said or from the food he was quietly munching, she couldn't say.

"I see," Raven said coolly, despite her whole body radiating tension. "So what, exactly, are you suggesting, then?"

"Well, I know that including us directly in the investigation-"

More tension, possibly extreme distress.

"-isn't something that is maybe feasible right off the bat," Ruby conceded, holding her palms up disarmingly.

Relaxing, but still on guard.

"We haven't even started our first mission yet, and I know we have a long way to go in terms of our training," Ruby continued, eying her reactions. "However."

Raven's eyes narrowed.

"I think we can still help in small ways, at the very least. We could all work to keep each other safe. And put together a long term strategy? Something we can all work up towards, together?"

Drumming fingers dotted in little scars from years of blade training.

"Also try to, I dunno, actually get to know one another?" Ruby prompted hopefully. "Because I feel like you know waaay more about us than vice versa, but hey! Ya know, no like pressure- "

"Yea, Rae, no fuckin pressure to actually get to know your daughters or anything," Qrow chuckled roughly from the sidelines.

"Fuck off, Qrow," Raven droned automatically.

There was no malice or heat there; it was just a sibling response. Just like the middle finger he flipped her way. Raven ignored him, clearly weighing Ruby's suggestion. After several moments, she leaned forward, her face serious but not closed off like it was previously.

"I will…. consider your idea," Raven started cautiously, glancing between the two of them. "And after you complete your mission here, I will reevaluate things further. Depending on well you do."

"Seriously?" Yang snarked, cocking her head and folding her arms. "What, are you going to grade us or something? 'Here, jump through these hoops kids, and maybe I'll approve of you'!"

Raven gave Yang a flat stare, before pinching the bridge of her nose. Ruby simpered.

"I'm not here to make you jump through hoops. Or withhold approval-"

Yang rolled her eyes, mouthing 'but' before Raven could finish. Their mom blinked slowly.

" However . Like Ruby said," Raven nodded towards her. "You four haven't even started baby's first mission yet. You've run simulations and trained, sure. But that's not close to the same scale as what we're doing. At all."

"Ok, but that has nothing to do with what Ruby was saying!" Yang protested, gesturing. "You're just coming up with excuses so you can say we didn't do well enough or whatever, and then not include us!"

Raven glanced at Ruby briefly, who shrugged and nodded a little. Yang had a point.

"I get that we're inexperienced!" Yang continued passionately. "But that doesn't mean we can't handle anything at all! We can handle way more than you're giving us credit for!"

The older woman waited for Yang to finish, her expression clearly exasperated.

"I'm not saying you can't handle anything ," Raven sighed, rubbing her forehead again. "When did I say that?"

"You implied it!" Yang snapped, plasma skittering over her skin again.

Ruby glanced between them, then at Uncle Qrow, who shook his head.

"In what universe did I fucking imply that!" Raven growled back, her eyes flashing. "If I say something, you get angry! If I say nothing , you get angrier! No matter what I do, you're going to be pissed off, so just get it fucking over with already!"

"Are you seriously trying to frame yourself as a victim in all this!" Yang exclaimed, tossing her hands. Her hair was practically glowing at this point.

Raven, however, did not flinch away from this. Most people who didn't know Yang? They were, honestly, a little intimidated by her when she got mad. Her Semblance was very physically overpowering, and impossible to ignore when combined with a passionate outburst. Ruby noticed Raven leaning in, completely unfazed by this.

Her reticence is not based in fear of conflict with us. She's just scared for us.

"It doesn't matter how I frame myself!" Raven snapped, waving her hand. "You're going to see whatever you want and then react to that!"

Ruby raised an eyebrow, her empathy seeing through some of the fractures in the person across from her.

Alienation. Despair. Isolation.

She genuinely thinks Yang - that we - see her as a monster. That nothing she does will change that. We're not the source of these injuries, but I don't know how easily we can bridge them.

"What - Why would you think that!?" Yang shouted in bewilderment, popping to her feet again. She towered over the pair of them, aura and Semblance blazing. "You haven't even tried any other method, you just assume we can't communicate?! That doesn't make any Dust damned sense! You just don't want-"

"Yang," Ruby murmured, glancing up at her sibling. Yang's own pain was very clear to see, and she gave her an agonized glance.

Ruby held her hand out, smiling sadly. Yang stared at her fingers and sighed, before taking her hand and sat back down. Ruby's aura kicked up reflexively a little from the heat, but it wasn't actually necessary. Yang's Semblance knew her, and wouldn't bite, even accidentally.

Yang took a deep breath, held it, counting internally, before letting it escape. Then she repeated this procedure. Raven gave her a thoughtful glance but did not comment on this, waiting. Yang opened her eyes again, having calmed down some, but was still clearly distressed.

"Ok," Yang started, glancing away briefly to collect herself. "Ok. So, I think that we are miscommunicating here. A lot."

Raven raised a sardonic eyebrow, which Yang managed to not comment on.

"And part of that is because, I feel like you don't care about how any of this makes us feel," Yang started holding up her fingers. "And maybe that isn't true? But I literally cannot tell . I cannot tell that you care. Because you aren't expressing it in a way I can read."

Raven glanced between the two of them briefly, as if trying to ascertain whether or not they were both struggling to read her, or if it was just Yang.

"So," Yang slapped her knee, leaning forwards. "When you say that I'm just inevitably going to be pissed at you, and then refuse to express anything else at all, then it comes across as like…. you baiting me into getting mad. To validate whatever it is you already think. And maybe that's not true, but that's how it feels ."

Raven's mouth parted briefly, before she thought better of whatever she was going to say and held her tongue.

"I am mad, ok? I am very, very mad, and sad, and a million other things! But that doesn't mean I don't also want us to actually talk," Yang pleaded. "I'm not trying to totally shut down the conversation, or shout you down! I'm just really upset and want you to want to talk to me."

Raven looked genuinely awkward now; not because of this really personal admission on Yang's part, but because she didn't know how to proceed.

However, after some very obvious floundering, Raven tried.

"Yang, I do want to talk to you. I just don't know...how."

Yang looked pretty offended by this, until she realized Raven didn't mean that as a criticism towards her. The older woman was fidgeting with the feathers at her hip, which Ruby figured was a form of self soothing.

"I'm not….the best. When it comes to," Raven circulated her hand, as if trying to pull the feeling from her chest. "Expressing certain feelings. Not because I don't feel them. I just. I don't always know when or how to show certain emotions. Or the correct way. So instead, I do things. Because where I am from, doing things is what matters most."

Ruby leaned back on her palms, stretching her legs out as she listened to them actually talk to each other; for what was probably the first time in their lives.

"But I realize that isn't necessarily what you need," Raven continued, studying Yang carefully. Her tone had softened. "So….I do care, Yang. I care a great deal. I wouldn't be...doing any of this...if I didn't."

Yang's expression flickered as she processed a multitude of emotions. Raven struggled on, painfully awkward, and clearly uncomfortable that there was an audience besides perhaps just the three of them.

They might need some alone time to talk more comfortably.

"I am also not trying to...bait you into getting upset. I'm sorry, if it is coming across that way, I don't….I know that you have the right to be angry."

Raven trailed off uncomfortably, but she didn't look away. After several long beats, Ruby decided to speak up.

"Ok, soooo. I think that we're getting somewhere," she chirped, smiling hopefully. "We're just um, coming from really, really different perspectives. So that's kinda making things difficult. But, how about we take another break and eat something?"

Yang snorted in amusement, giving her a nudge.

"You go get something. I'm not hungry yet."

Ruby smiled and rolled to her feet, glancing at Raven.

"Um. Mom?"

A rather startled glance.

"Are you hungry?" Ruby asked.

A very, very slight smile.

"I will be," Raven conceded, tipping her head. "I need to go patrol first, though."

She shook her hair out before putting on the spooky helmet that maybe, possibly, helped her see ghosts or creepy mirror-people.

"...Can I come with you?" Yang asked after a moment of hesitation.

A brief, surprised stutter-stop. Then Raven nodded.

"Mhm. Come on."

Raven spun the Dust chamber in her sword sheath before stepping out into the hall, closely trailed by a clearly anxious Yang. Ruby smiled a little brighter at that, before moving to finally get some good food. Weiss was still watching the door, however.

"Should we follow them? Make sure they don't, like, kill each other or something?" her partner asked.

"Yea, Weiss," Qrow rasped, taking a slow swig from his flask. His eyes were twinkling with humor. "You should absolutely go follow after them right now. That's a really smart idea you just had."

Blake broke out into a giggle fit as Weiss squawked in outrage.

"Hey! I'm just concerned!"

"Uh huh. You're gonna mess around and find out is what, Ice Queen," Qrow muttered irracibly, spooning more stew into his mouth. "And when that happens, don't say I didn't warn you."

Weiss continued to grumble, more out of habit perhaps than anything real, but Ruby was a little concerned about her partner's intense...distrust, perhaps, of their mom. They'd probably get into a few more verbal sparring matches, until they figured the other one out; and by a few, it'd likely be like, a dozen or more. Ruby felt like they were both equally headstrong in very similar ways, and that they both liked being the smartest in the room and winning.

Soooo that might take some time. A lot of time.

At the moment though, Ruby was a bit more concerned about how the conversation between her sister and Raven would go without any distractions. Or referees.

Somehow, on a gut level, Ruby felt like it was going to be ok.

Eventually.


Twilight had settled over the ruins of Mountain Glenn, painting the abandoned structures, rubble and trashed cars a soft violet. Shadows bled together, outlines blurring in a way that made the world seem less tangible than it was.

Yang trailed after her mother as they left the safety of the apartment complex, and entered the street, sticking to the shadows. Or well, her mom stuck to the shadows, moving around the edges in a way that broke up her outline without putting much thought into it. To be honest, from a distance? Raven might look like a Grimm to someone.

Raven suddenly pulled up next to a bent lamp post; Yang almost stumbled to keep from running into her and tried to play it off. She kept an eye on their periphery out of habit, but kept glancing at what the woman was doing. Which was...checking weird bits of paper and string tied to the lamp post?

The bits of paper had scribbles on them, like the ones she'd burned in the apartment; and while Yang could be a bit skeptical of things, she'd also witnessed some pretty inexplicable crap as a kid. A big part of her wondered how much of that inexplicable crap had to do with the things her mom was apparently caught up in.

"Soooo," Yang started. "Watcha doin?"

Her voice carried further than she had expected; she wasn't used to the utter lack of people and wildlife, and she also wasn't exactly a quiet person normally.

Raven glanced back at her.

"Making sure that nothing has crept up on us," Raven admitted, nodding towards one of the paper bits. It had been blackened, like someone had smeared ink over it. "Which, apparently, someone has tried."

"Ok. And that means?" Yang asked, her tone unimpressed by the vague horseshit.

"That means-" Raven darted her hand out suddenly, odd symbols igniting across her flared aura as she snagged a mirrorlike, wiggling shape out of nothing. "That I need to refresh the boundaries!"

Yang's eyes blew open wide as Raven threw a handful of something on the half visible thing, and forced it to reveal itself. It was another one of the weird, stick-bug monsters and it was squealing silently as Raven poured more salt and ash on its head. It's skin splintered like glass shards, and just as suddenly as it had appeared, vanished in a burst of silver light.

"So annoying these things," Raven growled, her voice hollowed out by the helmet.

"Uhhh, yea! They're real scamps alright!" Yang exclaimed facetiously. "Mom, what are those ?"

Raven blinked slowly, as if confused by the question.

"Mimics-"

"Yes! But what the hell is that?!" Yang gesticulated wildly at where the entity had been. "Why is that a thing?! "

Raven paused, her head tilting the side.

"They're entities-"

"I swear to Dust if you say they're 'entities of the hedge betwixt' or some more vague, sketchy crap I am going to flip EVERY TIT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!" Yang shouted, her skin sparking with plasma.

Silence met her outburst, settling briefly over the cracked asphalt.

"...Damn," Raven chuckled wryly. "That's a lot of tits."

"Yes it is!" Yang fought the very powerful urge to laugh, too.

Raven sighed, tilting her head back briefly to look at the night sky.

"Ok. So," Raven cleared her throat awkwardly. "Magic is real and mimics are magical entities that are native to the mirror-ways, which some people can travel. And mimics steal people's faces and aura and then pretend to be them in some capacity. It's a thing that magic users like myself, and your other mom have had to deal with occasionally. Like um. Like how Hunters have to deal with Grimm being really annoying."

Yang stared at her mom, trying to determine if she was messing with her or not. She didn't think she was.

"Ooook," Yang drew out. "So. That's a lot."

Raven snorted, shaking her head and turning back to whatever weird little task with the paper glyph things. She didn't say anything else.

"Are those things why you left?" Yang asked after a minute. "Were they like, breaking into our house or something?"

Another long pause. Yang was starting to realize that her mom wasn't actually ignoring her when she asked questions; she was just, maybe, taking a long time to process through all the background noise in her head.

"Not mimics, no," Raven said really quietly, before her voice got stronger. "Ha, they wouldn't have dared. Summer would have zapped them harder than vodka bottles in a microwave."

Yang pulled a face at that rather unique descriptor even as she started putting the facts together.

"She was really powerful, then?" Yang prompted again. "With like, magic or whatever?"

A quick, terse reply.

"Yes."

Uh huh. Ok, now we're getting somewhere.

"...Sooo whatever got into the house was more powerful than Summer, then-"

Raven inhaled sharply, bristling as she turned her way. Yang reared back up immediately, prepared to argue her right to ask these questions, eyes flashing brighter as her Semblance keyed up, responding to her emotional state.

She was not prepared for Raven to hug her.

Yang's eyes widened in surprise. She froze.

Raven held her even though Yang was literally on fire at the moment; and it was with some surprise that Yang realized her Semblance couldn't or wouldn't burn her. Raven's aura didn't even engage.

After several more moments of shocked silence, Yang hugged her back.

"Sweetheart," Raven said gently. "I know that the things I've done have hurt you. And I never, ever wanted that. Ever."

Yang could feel tears steaming off her face, and pressed instinctively closer despite her conflicted emotions.

"I felt like my back was against the wall. And in my fear, I did what I thought I had to. To keep everyone safe," Raven's voice tremored, but didn't break. Yang's throat felt tight. "And it did. For just a little while, it did. But it had a price, too, and I never meant for you to pay any of it; and I am...so, so sorry that things happened this way."

"I just don't understand? None of this," tears were running freely now, but she could still speak at least. "None of this makes any sense to me."

Raven rested her chin on her shoulder, hugging her tight.

"I know and I'm sorry. I'm trying, though, to explain things as best as I can. And I know that I am just fucking that right up. But I am going to keep trying. Ok?"

Yang sniffed and nodded, fighting to keep in a hiccup.

"You can be as mad as you need to be at me, or not - say and feel whatever you need to. But, I do...I do care about you and how this affects you, Yang. And Ruby too. Even if I really, really suck at showing that. And I'm trying to be better."

Yang chuckled a little at that, swallowing as the tears steamed away. She realized Raven smelled like campfire and spruce trees, and that it was a familiar fragrance that had lingered around the periphery of her memories most of her life.

She absolutely hadn't forgiven Raven yet, and wasn't sure if they were ever going to get to that point; but to be honest, Yang couldn't predict how any of this was going to really play out. Hell, she felt like everything in her life had been completely turned on its head in a matter of twenty-four hours. So who knew what tomorrow would bring?

However, a part of her felt like this was, at least, a start.

"Why-" she started, glancing down.

"Hm?" her mom hummed, rubbing her back.

"Why aren't you brisket right now?" Yang laughed over her tears. "I'm on fire."

"Oh!" Raven chuckled slightly, pulling back. "Do you know how many times your Semblance activated while I was still pregnant with you?"

"U-um," Yang wiped her eyes, grinning a little. "Once? Twice?"

Raven shook her head slowly, crimson eyes wide behind the helmet slots.

"We almost burned the house down so many times," Raven droned ominously. "By the end of it, I had to sleep on this fire proofed mattress your dad made for us. Once you figured out how to turn your Semblance on? Oh man. Most kids discover kicking. You discovered pyrotechnics and then kicking ."

"Oh," Yang snorted brilliantly. "Whoops?"

"Yea, wh oops ," Raven continued to chuckle fondly, finishing what she'd been doing with the paper bits. "Most of the time it was a reaction to, well, shit that was happening. But you'd do it on purpose sometimes too, I swear to gods. 'Hey, pay attention to me!' Karate chops my uterus and then sets the fucking bed on fire."

Yang scratched the back of her head, suddenly a bit bashful.

"Other times I'd be trying to open, say, a door. Or a lid, or pick something up - you know, regular boring stuff?" Raven continued, apparently reliving these memories as she worked. "That wasn't exciting enough for you though! So suddenly - wham! I'd rip the door off its hinges! Or just obliterate a can of fucking beans-"

"Oh no! Not the beans!" Yang gasped sassily, pressing her palms to her cheeks.

A playfully irritated glance.

"Hey, it was a lot for us to get used to, alright smart ass?" Raven said wryly.

"Baby me just wanted to keep life spicy, mom," Yang snickered, smacking her fist in her palm. "Gotta stay on your toes! Gotta stay sharp!"

"Look, my toes are fucking tired, ok?" Raven waved in sardonic admission. "I need to sit the fuck down."

Yang guffawed suddenly, wiping her eyes again.

"So no, Yang, your Semblance won't burn me. It knows me," Raven finished her task finally, shaking her head.

Yang glanced down at the shimmering heat of her Semblance, something which intimidated so many people.

"So um," Yang started, as Raven dusted salt and ash from her fingers. "Speaking of Dad…."

Her mom tensed a little, but still met her eyes.

"Are you gonna like, talk to him? About what's happened and….everything?"

Another thoughtful pause.

"Well, that's the plan," Raven admitted, waving a hand. "He deserves the truth. And... I do want to talk to him. I just….your Uncle and I needed to be sure that you four weren't going to wildly sprint off and, you know-"

"Set the bed on fire?" Yang wheedled mischievously.

Raven exhaled in relief.

"Yes! Please ! For the love of the gods stop setting the bed on fire!" Raven begged, her fingers splaying.

Yang shot finger guns her way, Semblance simmering down as they continued on their walk to 'replace the boundaries'.

"No promises!"

Raven paused briefly to glare at her through the slits in the spooky helmet.

"Kidding! I'm kidding!" Yang waved with a laugh, following after her.

She was mostly kidding.