Chapter Six: Twilight
Raven's First Day as a Mother
She looked a lot like Raven herself, save for those wider cheeks and that longer forehead. She'd taken something from her father at least… something more than those little yellow barbs lining her head that would grow into thick blonde hair. Her eyes were an almost perfect blend of Raven's and Tai's, though a bit fainter, a bit more blue… a bit more like her Dad.
Raven couldn't bear to let her go. She wanted to do nothing but lie there and look at her, taking in every detail, listening to her tiny breaths and feeling her little heart beat against Raven's fingers. When Tai asked to hold her for a moment, Raven had missed the beautiful little girl, even though she'd been only a few inches away. When she held her again, Raven found contentment, a feeling of comfort… of completion she'd never known she'd needed.
Resting with this little life pressed against her, Raven thought she needed nothing else but this life she'd found. Let the tribe find its own way, let Summer remain alone, let Qrow continue on in whatever fool's errand Ozpin assigned him… she had her child, and she couldn't imagine why she should ever devote herself to anything else but this beautiful little girl in her arms.
Then, sometime in the night she heard something… like a whistle in the wind.
She knew that sound. She knew what it tried to say, of terrible wonders that awaited, if only she'd let the darkness through its seal…
Then she felt scratches against the back of her head, clawing through her hair and trying to force themselves out her flesh. Raven ignored it, tried to focus on this point of light in her hands, tried to will the darkness away…
A gust of air. A portal opened beside her bed, and she saw them poke their arms, wings, and tendrils out…
Raven concentrated, tightening herself. She squeezed so hard she woke her beautiful child, who wailed at the intensity of her grip.
Raven had never heard anything so terrible as that little girl's cry.
And had no thought that had ever terrified her more than that little girl crying while monsters from the darkness reached out towards her.
Today- Late Morning
Qrow was beside himself. "How… why…"
Ruby was a little more sympathetic, but still quite concerned. "Are you sure about this?"
Nora was all for it. "Hit her where she's wounded!"
Ren was much more subdued. "While I am concerned about your strategy, now appears the most opportune time to put it into practice."
"It'll never be an opportune time, kid," Qrow argued. "Yang, please… I know her better than anyone; better even than your Dad. She's set her mind on something, and she won't stop until she gets it. You're in her way, and she'll break you if it's faster than going around you."
Ruby was quiet as she thought on her Uncle Qrow's words. She knew Raven had been on the team with their Dad at Beacon, but why would he know her any better than her twin brother would?
But her silence was deafening compared to the torpor Jaune was in, just listening to things playing out. He'd become a bit quieter and more subdued in general, but it was odd he offered no opinion.
Fortunately, Yang didn't seem bothered by it. "I've decided," she said simply. "Jaune stays with me –with us- and she can just find another way to solve her problem. Maybe she just needs someone to knock some sense into her; maybe that's all she's ever needed."
"Kid," Qrow began, massaging his temples. "You don't get it. She's made up her mind and you're in her way. It doesn't matter what gets put in front of her, it doesn't matter who they are or what ties she has to them: she knocks them down. She thinks she has to do something and she gets it done- that's just who she is."
Her Dad told her something similar when Yang was sparring with him. He tried to persuade her not to follow in the same example, but rather take from it the grit and persistence her mother possessed without emulating her brutal directness. Yang had something in mind to take advantage of that mindset, but there was no reason to reveal that just yet.
"We're not so different, then," Yang coolly replied. "Because I know what I want, and she's in the way of that. I told her she wasn't taking Jaune, and she isn't."
Qrow grit his teeth. "Yang," he spoke softly, trying to maintain some of his composure, "You can't beat her."
"I'm getting really sick of people telling me what I can't do," Yang told him. "You got anything important you want to add, or should I just let you rant for a while?"
"She'll kill you!" Qrow finally snapped. "Don't you get it, firecracker?! If she thinks that's what it'll take, she'll do it!"
Yang had considered the possibility. She looked down at her right hand, and flexed her fingers back and forth as she thought on all that had led her here. Then she glanced back at Jaune, and thought of his hand never gripping hers' again.
"That's the life I chose," she reminded her uncle. "Every time we go outside the kingdom and fight the Grimm, that's what could happen. Every time we put on our combat gear, that's what could happen. Every time we decide to do something difficult instead of something safe and easy, that's what could happen. There are a lot of things in this world that'll kill us, Uncle Qrow. All I've ever needed to go out and fight them is something worth fighting for."
"And that's him?" Qrow demanded, jerking his head at Jaune.
"Him," Yang agreed. "And me."
Qrow continued to fume. Ruby, sensing danger, reached over to her sister and started slowly edging her out of the hotel room. "So, you need to scout out a place, right? Why don't you guys go find something?"
"I'm sure we can perform a suitable exploration of the terrain," Ren confirmed.
"Yeah, we'll find a place where you can put on a show!" Nora agreed.
Jaune didn't share their strange mixture of efficient logic and enthusiasm. He merely shuffled outside in silence, his teammates following after. Yang curiously watched Jaune's departure before turning her attention back to Qrow and Ruby. Her uncle calmed himself down a bit, leaning up against the headboard of his bed and maneuvering into a better sitting position. "He really must've done a number on you."
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby snapped.
"Not like that," Qrow quickly amended. "I mean… he's affected you. More than I was expecting he would."
"You sound like Dad," Yang observed. "It doesn't suit you."
"Someone should," Qrow argued. "Because I've seen this before. And the last time didn't end well."
Yang's eyes abruptly narrowed at Qrow's implication. She didn't deign to reply, scoffing and leaving the room, leaving Qrow to Ruby's tender mercies instead. Once Yang was a good distance away Ruby began slapping at Qrow's shoulder, just hard enough for him to wince with each strike. "What is going on with you?" she inquired, much fiercer than Ruby would normally be capable of being to her beloved uncle.
"I'm just trying to figure out why she's acting like this," Qrow tried to explain. "I get that she likes the blonde kid, but does she really like him enough to risk her life for him? When did that happen? How does that even happen?"
Ruby had the same thought, not that she let her uncle in on this fact. "You can't just be happy your niece found a nice guy to be with?"
"I can't be happy because my niece is being dumb and not listening to reason!" Qrow growled.
"I wonder where she gets that from," Ruby quietly uttered. Not so quietly it'd be missed.
Qrow glared at her. "And what happens if she goes through with it? What happens if Yang does fight Raven and she comes up short?"
Ruby wanted to answer that challenge. She wanted to mention all that Yang was fighting for, of the importance of her deciding for herself, of her not letting them get pushed around by a criminal who happened to be a former huntress.
In truth, she just wanted to be supportive of her sister and wanted to keep Jaune out of Raven's clutches, even if her need for him was serious and tangible. She just wanted there to be some other way; she just wanted everyone to work together against all the common threats and not have to waste time and energy fighting each other instead of their real enemies.
But she'd grown enough in the past few months to know that wasn't how things worked. If they were, Ruby would still have Weiss and Blake as her teammates, Yang would still have her original arm, and Pyrrha-
No, that wasn't a thought Ruby wanted to dwell on. She didn't want to think about what could have been, only what could still be. Maybe Yang was being foolish to challenge someone like Raven, but maybe a show of strength was what they needed to convince the bandit leader they could make some other arrangement.
Ruby worried for her sister. But she rationalized that in the lifestyle they'd chosen to lead, she always would. Yang knew what she was fighting for, and that was justification enough to let her proceed.
Mid-Day
Yang and Team JN_R found their way out from the kingdom's walls, out into the surrounding hills, littered with trees and obscured by mists from the central waterfall of Mistral. Nora was constantly offering suggestion after suggestion based on elevated areas so Yang could attack from above and rapidly close distance and shower her enemy with shotgun pellets. Ren was offering advice on the terrain, down to minute details like soil composition in order to accurately measure how the ground would affect the pace of Yang's strides. Both were quite determined to help Yang in her goal of keeping Jaune with them, and each had something to contribute to her plan.
Jaune himself, however, had mostly just kept pace behind Yang. While she was glad to have his company, Yang was becoming increasingly troubled by his silence, and eventually she found an opportunity where both Ren and Nora were conspicuously busy (perhaps deliberately so) and she turned her eye to him. "You okay?"
"I'm just worried," Jaune answered. "I fought with her in the dark pathways; I know she's strong. Maybe not invincible -maybe not even as strong as she pretends to be- but she's very powerful, Yang. And the last time I knew a girl who ran off to challenge a powerful woman…"
Yang understood why he was concerned. The thought had clearly haunted him, given how he'd clung so desperately to a single recording of Pyrrha and continued to use her example for guidance. Yang might well have been jealous of the devotion Jaune still showed her, were she not very much aware of the hangups still following her around: how she still needed to find Blake and bring her back, though Yang wasn't sure she wanted to ask Blake why she left, given how Raven had chosen to answer the same question.
And any feelings of jealousy were also muted by Yang's memory of Ruby going through the same trauma; recalling Pyrrha's death and being haunted by it. Of all the things Yang regretted in her life, no memory stuck out more than being so depressed as being unable to answer her sister's declaration of love when Ruby had so badly needed the reassurance.
She tried to rationalize Jaune wasn't worried because of Pyrrha, he was just worried about Yang. He was worried about her because he cared about her, not just because he'd been here before.
"What, you think I'm just gonna give up on you already?" Yang asked, only half-joking, quietly observing him for his reaction. "Don't get the wrong idea, Ladykiller- I'm just the possessive type, and I wasn't going to let her take you until I'm done with you."
It was harsher than she meant to be. She'd tried to make light of the situation while still gleaming Jaune's thoughts. She'd overplayed it a bit, and came across as too flippant in the face of a very serious, potentially life-or-death matter, and Jaune had too much experience in that area already.
"Yeah, I got that sense when you decided to do this without telling me," was Jaune's dry response.
"I thought you wanted me to," Yang argued, replying just a little too rapidly to completely disguise her doubts. "You said you wanted to stay with me and find out where things would go."
"And I meant it," Jaune assured her, alleviating some of her doubts. "I want that. I also don't want you going off to fight your mother if there's anything else we can do. She's desperate –she has to be if she's willing to marry me- and maybe we can convince her to work with us instead."
"You really think that?" Yang asked him.
"No," Jaune admitted. "I just… damn it, Yang, I don't want you to fight her. I don't want you to get hurt. I don't even want Raven to get hurt. I really wish there was some way we could just work things out. I wish she could just be happy her daughter found someone and if she really wants my Aura so badly we could, I don't know, lend it out to her somehow and fight these monsters off until the threat's passed us by. I wish things were simple."
"They are," Yang replied. "You'll tell her just that: her daughter has you now, but nice guy that you are, you'll still help her with her problems. Once I beat her, right in front of her bandit buddies, she'll have to accept the terms we give her."
"You really think you can beat her?" Jaune asked, very pointedly focusing his eyes on hers'.
Yang knew she didn't have time to think. She couldn't hesitate in making her proclamation. "I have something important to fight for." She reached down to take hold of his hand, her cold metal fingers feeling warm once again in his hand. "I know I can beat her."
"And this is just for me?" Jaune asked her, squeezing her hand. "Not because of what she did to you?"
She'd had the same attitude when Adam Taurus had stood over Blake, his sword still freshly stained with her blood, and Yang rushed in to save her partner. She'd had the same thought when she faced Torchwick's lackey Neo, of avenging her loss of face and mitigating her own doubts, satisfying a thirst for revenge.
She'd learned a lesson after each defeat: not to rush in. Challenging her mother may have been reckless and impulsive, but Yang hadn't forgotten to check herself, to remember to have more than just a personal stake guiding her. She'd fought all her life for the thrill of it, and she'd always charged headlong into the fray because she'd never had reason to think the outcome of a battle was in doubt.
Tonight she was fighting for a great many reasons: for Jaune, for herself, and so her little circle of friends and family wouldn't have to make any concessions to a woman very much not her family. Yang rationalized that much as she wanted to prove Raven wrong and show the bandit leader the value of the daughter she abandoned, that goal was secondary to fighting for the people she loved. How could she possibly lose when she was fighting for them?
"Not just for you," Yang answered. "For Ruby, for Ren, for Nora, for Qrow…" She hesitated only a moment, without really knowing why: "…for Pyrrha, for Blake, for Weiss, for everyone that matters to me. Raven Branwen doesn't matter to me. If you believe in me, if you're important to me, that's who I'm fighting for. Now and always."
Jaune smiled at her. "Well, maybe next time you'll let me know before you challenge a bandit leader so I can get a good seat to watch?"
"Maybe," Yang agreed, holding fast to his hand as Ren and Nora very pointedly avoided returning to report to her on the terrain, even though they'd long finished with their analysis. If they had any doubts about her and Jaune, Ren and Nora had been good about keeping the thoughts to themselves. They left Yang to stand beside her lover, to feel the spark that bound them together, and be reminded once more what she was fighting for.
Evening
The place had been chosen, with Yang returning personally to deliver the message to Raven and her pair of associates. Upon hearing the news, Qrow insisted on accompanying Yang back to the battle site. Ruby of course protested, trying to convince him to stay in bed and complete his recovery and finish battling Tyrian's poison, but her uncle would not be deterred. He dragged himself out of bed and went to collect his sword and Ozpin's cane both, forcing himself to remain upright, even if he continued to sway, unsteady on his feet.
Eventually, however, Ruby relented and helped support her uncle at his shoulder, half-carrying him outside. Yang set him up on the backseat of her motorcycle Bumblebee, leaving him beside Ruby before turning her attention back to the inn and found Raven still in Yang's room, her large brute of an ally standing guard beside the door while her thin, wispy associate whispered something in Raven's ear.
Yang pulled out her Scroll and showed her mother a display of the topographical data. "This is the place," she pointed. "Do you have a Scroll or something I can send this to?"
"There's no need," Raven answered. "We know it well."
Yang wasn't surprised to hear that, though she'd have preferred to catch her mother off guard. "My friends are waiting for us there. They're eager to see how this plays out."
"As long as they're ready to give me Jaune Arc when I've finished with you," Raven passively replied. "I've already taken too much time in this matter; if my brother wants to haggle for a better price, he'd best decide the terms now."
"I think you know what he wants in return," Yang coolly assured. "Not that it'll matter."
"No," Raven agreed. "It won't."
Yang headed out. Debian leaned down to speak to Raven, whispering: "Your brother is wounded and the others are no threat. We should just take the boy and go."
"You will do nothing and let me handle this," Raven flatly instructed. "Jaune Arc will come with us of his own accord, and we'll give his loved ones a fair price for his head."
"And be their errand boys when they call for us," Amaranth grunted.
Raven shook her head. "You don't yet realize the gift Y- that girl has given us." She hoped her error had gone unnoticed. She'd prefer her subordinates not realize that Raven recognized Yang by name, lest they look too closely and find the connection. "When Arc joins our tribe, we'll have to pay far less than our brother wants us to."
"And how –pray tell- will you manage that?" Debian inquired.
"I told you," Raven reminded him. "Let me handle it."
Twilight
The sun fell below the horizon. Light still illuminated the area surrounding Mistral -still scattered in the cloudy layers above- but the mists from the kingdom's central waterfall became thick and obscured the field of battle, and the tall trees surrounding their clearing blocked out certain light sources, leaving the terrain full of scattered shadows, with long lines of black separating batches of bright dirt. The clearing was almost perfectly circular, with a single entrance from just off the dirt road, and a slight change in the elevation of the ground just slightly off its center, giving Yang the jumping-off point Nora had recommended.
Ruby, Nora, Ren, and Qrow waited just beside that dirt path entrance, Qrow propped up slightly against Yang's motorcycle. Jaune was waiting a few feet behind Yang as she stood near the center of the clearing, looking for Raven and her men to emerge from the treeline, even as the mists and shadows gradually became deeper, casting more of the battlefield into dimmer and dimmer light.
Eventually, however, Raven did emerge, walking slowly and deliberately as she exited the forest. Amaranth and Debian stood above her on supportive tree branches, watching the clearing with a bird's eye view. Yang took careful note of where each man was positioned before turning her attention squarely on Raven, transforming Ember Celica to a firing state, flexing the metal fingers in her right hand and preparing them to discharge.
Raven stopped walking about twenty feet from Yang, reaching to draw her great sword with her right hand. Yang took careful note of how she shifted her weight and slowly drew the blade; Raven may not have been holding her side, but the wound was clearly still bothering her.
Yang took one last moment to glance back at Jaune, flashing him a confident smile. Jaune returned it as best he could, but couldn't quite manage to conceal his worry. Yang rapidly turned around, raising her fists as she stared her mother down. "Ready?"
Raven's only reply was to pull on her mask and level her sword forth.
Yang took that for assent and reared back with her right hand, testing her jab. She fired off the first round from Ember Celica straight at Raven, testing to see her opponent's response. Raven waved her sword and cut the projectile in two, barely moving, barely investing the slightest effort.
Yang hoped that was a deliberate choice, that Raven was investing as little effort as possible to compensate for her wounds. Her strategy depended on it.
Yang started to move to her right, strafing around and firing several more times at Raven's wounded left side. Raven was forced to respond now, actually changing her position and cutting each projectile down. At range, the pellets wouldn't impact her with any force, but forcing Raven to exert the effort was revealing where she'd be slowest, and Raven's efforts to guard her weak point allowed Yang to observe the range of motion her armor pauldrons would allow, and where to focus her shot.
Yang finally started to close the distance, continuing to unload pellet shot. She took careful count of how many, anticipating she'd be vulnerable when she reloaded… and that Raven would attack opportunistically like the bandit she was. Raven cut away the shots again and again, swinging faster, and Yang kept her focus on Raven's wounded side. She didn't want to reveal her trick just yet.
Raven finally started to move herself, though slowly and gradually as she drew nearer to her daughter. Yang was reeling her in, and now she had to put her primary strategy into motion. She fired off shot after shot, seemingly with abandon, all the while counting down the bullets until her stock was nearly exhausted.
Nearly exhausted.
Yang opened each bracer to discharge from Ember Celica, releasing spent shells. Using a vibration function in her right hand, she kept a single, unspent round in place. Unless Raven had made the same effort to count Yang's shots, she wouldn't notice the discrepancy; only a crowd of red shells launched outwards and landing in the dirt as Yang reached into her coat for a new string of rounds. She stepped closer to the center of the clearing, towards the slight change in elevation that would position her for the final strike.
Raven moved in, blade at the ready as she aimed to take advantage of Yang's vulnerability. Yang tossed the shells upwards above her head and closed her right bracer, leveling her hand forward, using the same vibration function to accelerate the velocity of her pellet round as she aimed at the dirt right in front of Raven, firing the pellet right in her mother's path. The devastating attack sprayed dirt up into Raven's face, splattering over her mask and armor and even her sword.
Raven stopped and tried to gain her bearings, reaching her free hand up to wipe the dirt from the thin slits in her mask. Yang moved backwards, catching the errant bullet strings and reloading her left bracer, knowing that she'd only have time to counterattack with one arm.
Yang measured her step, moving up to the higher ground. It was barely two inches of elevation, but it gave her the springboard she needed. Yang fired behind her with her left arm, giving her a slight boost upwards from the shot, adding another two feet of air for her to work with.
Yang struck with her right hand to the hilt of Raven's sword, using her own weight and momentum to push the tip of her blade down into the dirt. The strategy done, Yang switched tactics, unloading pellets at close range into Raven's midsection and wounded side, striking again and again with her left hand while her right kept her enemy's weapon pinned.
She heard Raven grunt in pain, but the real trigger she was looking for arrived as Raven's Aura washed over her body, eventually disrupted by the sheer force of impacts in rapid succession. Once the barrier had been removed, Yang aimed for Raven's wounds and punched with all her strength, and she saw the blood splatter backwards as Raven received a terrible hit, and at last Yang heard her mother howl in pain, reverberating under her Grimm mask.
Yang finally released her grip on Raven's sword and struck Raven in her midsection with her right hand, flinging her back and driving her into the dirt. Before Raven had even landed Yang set to reloading each gauntlet, even if she hadn't burned through the entire clip in her left.
"Give up," Yang instructed her. "You're hurt, and if this keeps going, it'll only get worse."
It was partially true. Yang had used her big surprise attack already and didn't have anything comparable left to use –save her Semblance- but she'd achieved the desired result and given Raven an even worse wound and showed her just how dangerous her daughter could be. It may have been cathartic to dole out this savagery, but Yang sincerely hoped Raven would heed her advice and turn back.
Raven, however…
Raven rolled over onto her stomach and forced herself up, even as blood continued to dribble down her hip, turning her black cloth as red as her armor. Once successfully reoriented, Raven turned to face Yang again, her sword once more at the ready.
Raven was slowly rebuilding her Aura, reestablishing her defense. Yang hoped the blood loss might level things out a bit there, but Raven seemed undeterred. That mask betrayed no fear or pain, and though her breathing was ragged, she wasn't offering Yang any terms of surrender. She intended to continue the fight.
Yang moved in and began to fire the shotgun pellets at close range, aiming all across Raven's body. Either Raven would exhaust herself deflecting each shot or the collective impacts across her body's frame would drive her back. Raven was already bleeding, all Yang needed to do now was wear her out.
But Raven didn't respond to the onslaught of projectiles. Raven slashed to her right, darted in the same direction… and vanished inside a portal of red and black.
Yang quickly glanced around for where Raven had fled to, only for a second portal to open at her back and Raven to emerge rapidly from within. Yang fired from each gauntlet of Ember Celica to the ground, launching herself skyward and narrowly avoiding a slash from Raven's sword when she leapt out.
"I underestimated you," Raven quietly admitted. "I didn't think I'd have to resort to this."
Raven cut at multiple sections of the air around Yang. As Yang slowly began to descend, pulled back by gravity, she watched more and more portals encircling her… and then Raven emerged from one at her left, finally landing a slash on Yang's flank, knocking off a huge chunk of her Aura. Raven darted past Yang into another portal, emerging from yet another above Yang's head, moving straight down and slashing her again, disrupting Yang's Aura further by slashing at the exact same point, actually managing to nick Yang's upper arm before her Aura could completely rebuild itself. Raven zipped around like Weiss using her glyphs, moving through one gateway after another, always aiming for the same location and leaving one cut after another on Yang's arm.
Yang fired Ember Celica again to move out of the trap Raven had set, crashing hard on her back into the dirt, but out of the path of Raven's blade. Raven pursued her with stunning speed –blood trailing behind her- but Yang managed to roll backwards and right herself before Raven could cleave her while she'd been prone on the ground.
Her mother wasn't pulling any punches: Raven was actively trying to –at the very least- seriously wound Yang. Yang's Aura was already drastically reduced, and she needed to counteract.
Yang offered Raven mercy after taking the time to humble her. It was time to abandon that tactic.
Yang's eyes burned over red as she called upon her Semblance, letting her anger fuel her with a renewed sense of energy. Yang felt herself revitalized and rejuvenated by an infusion of energy, but knew she had to use it quickly, because no matter how strong the roaring fire was, it'd burn out very quickly.
Yang picked her spot, savagely attacking Raven with punch after punch, each impact hardened by a direct extension of her Aura encircling her fist and the release of shotgun pellets into Raven's frame. Yang struck with a fury, watching as Raven's Aura flickered and then aiming for her wounded side to give the fight a quick, definitive ending.
Exactly as Raven predicted. Yang had gone to the well once too often, and her attack had become very angular… and easier to counter.
Raven slashed the ground before her, kicking up dirt in Yang's path. Combined with the sudden movement of her hands to shield herself and the muzzle flash of her shotgun rounds, Raven saw her opportunity and slashed straight upwards, cutting through Yang's directed Aura, bisecting her protective barrier.
And then Raven drove her blade right into Yang's midsection. Her blade popped straight out through Yang's back.
Yang gasped in shock as she glanced down at the sword poking through her. Raven reached up with her less-steady left leg and pushed against Yang's stomach, shoving her down into the dirt with her exposed, gaping wound.
Yang reached down to hold her stomach with her left hand, looking down at the blood lining her fingertips. Raven stood over her, flicking Yang's blood off the surface of her sword and slowly drawing closer. Yang tried to raise her right hand to fire at point blank, but Raven stomped down on her wrist with her left foot, keeping Yang's arm pinned beneath her heel.
Near the entrance to the clearing, Qrow shouted: "Raven, stop!" He took hold of the nearby Ruby before she could try to intervene, summoning his strength to keep at least one of his nieces out of harm's way.
Nora had no such impediment, however, readying Magnhild and dashing into the fray, Ren a single step behind her. Raven's subordinate Amaranth moved with surprising speed from the tree line, descending from above and unstrapping his axe from his back, striking the dirt before Nora and Ren, the shockwave of his impact sending them both flying back.
Jaune reached to draw his sword, only for Raven's other bandit ally, the wispy Debian, to seemingly emerge from nowhere and stand over Ren and Nora with his dagger drawn, pointedly shaking his head at the blonde knight.
Yang glared up at Raven, eyes still blazing red. As blood dribbled down her chin, she tried to bury any fear she had and keep up a defiant front. She tried to taunt her mother, to egg her on and dare her to finish her attack, only for no words to leave her mouth. She continued to glare up at Raven, her mask unreadable.
Ruby continued to struggle in Qrow's grip, but he would not let her join the fray. Jaune glanced at Debian, releasing his grip on the hilt of Crocea Mors before stepping slowly closer to the center of the clearing.
Raven moved her blade to Yang's neck, cutting a tiny nick on the bottom of her chin. She seemed merciless as she drew nearer, offering even her own daughter no quarter.
She'd said sentiment was what had led her to intercede and save Yang's life at Mountain Glenn. If she hadn't done so, they'd never have fought this battle today. If Yang had simply died then, Raven would have never suffered these wounds and shown her vulnerabilities in front of less-than-trustworthy underlings.
Sentiment had made her save Yang once before. But now… defeated in single combat… there was only one fate for Yang her captains would accept. Anything else they witnessed they'd gleefully spread around, undermining Raven further.
The survival of their tribe was at stake. Sentiment had been nothing but an excuse to behave selfishly, and compassion now would be construed as weakness by her captains. She had to carry this task through. Compassion was for those who didn't have the burdens she did.
Compassion was for people like him.
"Stop."
Exactly as Raven hoped, and not a moment too soon.
"Jaune…" Yang breathed from the ground. Raven glanced over at him as he approached, unarmed, his palms facing Raven in supplication.
"Please stop," Jaune begged. "Please let her live."
"Why, Jaune Arc?" Raven asked him, not removing her blade from Yang's neck. She couldn't break the façade just yet.
"I'll do what you want,"Jaune answered. "I'll marry you. I'll go with you and fight the monsters threatening you. I'll bind our Aura together. I'll do whatever you need me to do if you'll just let her live."
"No!" Yang called from the dirt, still struggling to free her arm from under Raven's heel. Raven's response was to press her blade a little closer to Yang's neck.
"She challenged my strength," Raven reminded him. "Letting her survive my blade is more than just a request for mercy, but an insult to my rule. Her life is a high price."
Jaune dropped to his knees, placing his hands in the dirt and bowing his head low. "Her life for mine. Please."
He prostrated himself just as Raven had before him. Exactly as Raven hoped, he submitted to her, and came just in time to save her daughter's life. The only downside was she'd been forced to rely on her Semblance to finish the battle, and may have alerted more of the dark denizens to her wounds and her location, but that would soon be mitigated... if not finally dealt with for good.
Raven removed her blade from Yang's neck and slashed at either of her gauntlets, cutting off each bracer from her wrist so Yang couldn't fire at her any further. Raven stepped over her daughter's body and stood over Jaune. She gestured with her left hand for him to rise, and then extended her arm towards him.
"It's your turn to say it," Raven told him. "Speak the words, and seal the pact… and I will honor your wish."
Jaune was slow to rise, glancing around the clearing. Ruby was frantically shaking her head from her uncle's tight grip, Nora was trying to shout something to him before the wispy Debian moved in closer with his dagger. He looked up at Raven's arm, knowing what he would have to do.
Jaune wasn't sure what he'd rather look at: his friends trying to wave him off, or Raven waiting for him to take her arm. Jaune steeled himself as he looked straight ahead at his bride-to-be, taking hold of his wrist and drawing upon his Aura, thinking back on his time in the Emerald Forest, when Pyrrha embraced him and began the chant.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality."
He thought on Pyrrha's green eyes. They were a better memory than this Grimm mask staring him down.
"Through this we become a paragon of glory and virtue to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death."
The dark red of Raven's Aura found the yellow tint of Jaune's, mingling there at their joined arms, then flowing back into one another, with the yellow of Jaune's light moving down to Raven's side, the breadth of his pool of Aura patching up her gaping, bloody wound.
"I release your soul…"
Jaune took one last look at Yang as she struggled to lift herself out of the dirt, her eyes turning from fury to sorrow as she watched him speak the vow.
"…and by my shoulder, protect thee." Jaune finished, turning his attention back to Raven as she drew more of his Aura into her, healing all the damage done by Yang and the monsters of another dimension. He continued to hold Raven's wrist, waiting for her to relax her grip.
"Say your goodbyes," Raven instructed, releasing her hold on his wrist. "We're going home."
Jaune lowered his head as he glanced back at his friends. Debian drew away from Ren and Nora, and they both immediately raced over to him. Ruby dashed to Yang's side, trying desperately to help her wounded sister as Qrow staggered after her.
"Jaune-" Ren began, but was quickly cut off by his furious orange-haired compatriot. "Jaune, why did you do that?!"
"Listen," Jaune interjected. "You have to keep helping Ruby, okay? You have to stop Salem. She needs you, and you have to keep fighting."
"If you think for one second I'm letting you leave with that woman-" Nora began, but again Jaune interceded.
"I made a promise, Nora," Jaune reminded her. "Raven gets me, Yang gets to live. And I'll make another promise: I'll help her stop these things on the other side and never let them threaten you. All you two need to do is keep each other safe, just like you always have. You don't need to protect me anymore; just let me protect something now."
Nora was struggling to find words to keep arguing, tears forcing their way out even from her. "Jaune…"
Jaune pulled her into a tight hug. Nora seemed willing to protest further, but relented, embracing Jaune in turn. Ren reached over to take hold of Jaune's shoulder, firmly nodding.
"If you see my family, tell them where I ended up," Jaune requested. "And then tell them you're my first brother and eighth sister, and that I love both of you very much."
Jaune released his grip on Nora, her hands still firmly wrapped around his back. She squeezed him tight and then released him, turning her eyes towards Raven, furiously glaring at the bandit leader who took one of her dearest friends away.
Jaune turned his attention to Yang and Ruby, the younger sister slowly helping the elder into a sitting position on the elevated ground. Yang glared up at him. "You shouldn't have done that. You idiot… you…"
Jaune knelt down beside her. He reached over and took hold of her right hand, squeezing her fingers tight.
"You…" Yang said again, struggling to insult him. Tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to compose her thoughts, Jaune waiting patiently before her.
"It's not fair," Yang whimpered. "I just got back, I just found out how much you mattered to me… why? Why does it have to be like this?"
Jaune squeezed her hand tight, leaning in close and pressing his forehead against hers, indifferent to the sweat and messy blonde strands brushing against him. Yang continued her soft whimper, squeezing Jaune's hand tight.
"No matter what, I'm glad we found each other again," Jaune told her. "I'm glad… I'm glad it was you."
He slowly pulled his hand away, and Yang clamped down with her fingers. "No, please don't. Jaune, don't go-"
She could feel the spark growing fainter. She felt her fingers becoming colder already…
Jaune turned his attention to Ruby. "Take care of her. And whatever happens next, Ruby… you never needed me. You'd have saved the world and kicked the bad guy's butts whether I was there or not."
Ruby was tearing up too, but she wouldn't allow herself to break down. "I'll let them know they were lucky you weren't there to fight too."
Jaune extended his free arm and Ruby hugged him too, Yang, Ruby, and Jaune each supporting each other with either arm. They held the embrace for several moments as Jaune finally rose up, whispering to himself as Yang's fingers slid from his grip.
Jaune turned and stepped towards Raven, Amaranth and Debian on either side of her. Raven turned her attention to Qrow as he stopped a few feet behind his nieces, glaring across the clearing at her.
He'd lost his opportunity to gain her tribe's alliance or find the Spring Maiden, and his only consolation prize was Yang's life. No doubt at the moment that was his priority, but Qrow knew what this meant: he'd lost far more than he'd gained, and had nothing to offer Raven now.
"A life for a life," Amaranth observed. "A fair trade."
"Oh no," Debian argued. "One weak little girl for our tribe's salvation? I'd call that a bargain."
Raven hoped this would curtail their coup attempts, as they'd seen her deftly maneuver them into a stronger position. It had been a very close, very carefully timed sequence of events, but things had worked out as intended.
"Come," Raven instructed Jaune, who meekly nodded as he followed after them to the tree line, already nearly swallowed up by heavy mists and shadows as the last of the daylight withered away.
"Your daughter, Raven." Qrow snarled at her back. Amaranth and Debian froze in their tracks as Raven cursed under her breath. "Your own daughter!"
Raven kept her composure. "She is nothing to me now," Raven assured her brother. "My family stands beside me. The girl bleeding on the ground is just another that dared to stand in my way."
She continued her walk, not allowing her subordinates or her new husband to see her break her stride. No doubt they were already scheming on how they might use this piece of information, but for the moment at least, they fell in line behind their leader. Jaune cast one last glance back at Yang, still reaching towards him with her right hand before he followed after Raven and disappeared in the mist.
Nora broke down, Ren quickly moving to comfort her. Qrow pounded his fist against his leg. "Damn it."
Ruby, still at Yang's side, turned to look up at her uncle. "Uncle Qrow…"
Qrow met her gaze. He saw the confused look in her eye, and it slowly dawned on him that the bandits weren't the only ones who'd just learned something.
"Why did you call Yang her daughter?" Ruby finally asked, her voice shaky and trembling.
Yang herself tried to close her hand, feeling nothing in her grasp. She looked down at her metal fingers, squeezing her hand shut as she tried to find a spark before the feeling left her forever.
Yang slumped backwards against Ruby as her eyes drifted shut. Ruby immediately turned her attention to Yang, shouting for her to wake as the last of the refracted light vanished, leaving them in blackness, the sun fading completely and giving way to the night.
Raven's Last Day as a Mother
It was a terrible thing to do.
It was the only thing to do.
Raven reached into the bedroom closet and found her armor piled on the floor. She'd promised Tai she'd leave it off for a full week and take it easy, but she hadn't even made it three days now. Raven hoped that returning from the hospital and settling in at Patch would make things easier for her, but the incursions continued to happen. When Raven had tried to sleep in her and Tai's bed with Yang on her stomach, one of the beasts had actually poked its arm through and reached its claws towards her baby. After a second sleepless night, Raven felt the claws scratching all the fiercer and the voices whispering more and more.
Giving birth had left her imbalanced, unable to control her connection to the dark pathways. Now Yang was in constant danger, and the instant Raven relaxed her guard the denizens of the dark would try and force their way through and snatch her child away.
Raven slipped on her gauntlets and strapped her scabbard to her waist. She hoped that maybe putting up a front would encourage them to retreat, to understand they'd overextended and she now meant to fight back. Instead they were emboldened further, and continued to scratch at the weak points, trying to force their way in.
Raven used to mock Qrow for being unable to control his Semblance. She hadn't had such fear of the darkness between dimensions since she was a child and her power had first manifested. Now she was that same frightened little girl, just with another little girl whose life depended on Raven to act.
She mastered this connection once before and would again. But right now her power endangered Yang, and Raven's fears for her daughter's safety only encouraged the monsters to push harder, knowing how close at hand their freedom was.
Raven looked down at Yang in a bassinet beside her bed. She hungrily took in every detail, of how her blonde hair curved up like Raven's, of how her cheeks and forehead were wide like Tai's, of how fair her skin was… she wanted to recall every detail of this moment.
Because it was the last she'd share with her daughter.
Raven wished she could speak to Tai before she left, to let him know why she had to go. He'd seen her make journeys into the dark before, he knew the responsibility she bore. But Raven couldn't stop looking at Yang, because she'd never be able to look at her enough.
Raven hoped she'd have an easier life. She hoped Yang would be happy and someone would be there to love her in Raven's stead, but if no one could take up that role, Raven took solace in knowing that if nothing else, her daughter would live.
A portal forced its way open at her back. Claws reached through the darkness into the remnant apart, trying to find a way out through the tiny hole in their prison. The time had come.
Raven leaned down to run a finger over her daughter's forehead, to feel her burning skin for just another moment.
She reached over to pick up her sword, placing it in its sheath as she turned to face the entrance to the dark pathways.
Raven pulled on her mask and stepped in, preparing to resume her endless battle.