Author's Notes: Moms are fighting

Music Choices: Slingshot by Good Kid, King by The Amazing Devil

Eclipse

Chapter 17

The Dangerous Art of Punching Upwards Part III

After Raven had explained as much as she could to her mothers, Ciara had declared that priority one was ensuring the children got out of the reach of the King's Service, and were properly cared for until their parents and tribe members could be rescued. With some coaxing on STRQ's end, the Macmillan children had been successfully shuttled through Raven's portal to Mistral; and they were now under the watchful eye of Ciara, and the other Branwen skinchangers, until further notice.

Initially, the little Macmillans had been understandably hesitant about all this. However, Ciara had quickly put them at ease, being well versed at wrangling seemingly unmanageable camp kids. The last Raven had seen, before being unceremoniously booted back to Vale to set up a meeting with Arc, the Macmillans had firmly attached themselves to Ciara's hip.

Which brought her to their present situation. Currently, team STRQ was sitting about in various states of anxiety within the walls of their dorm room, waiting. They were not alone.

Professor Arc sat like a stone in one of the room's two functioning chairs, fingers folded in her lap. To be honest, she was handling things with much more grace than her counterpart had, and had not appeared surprised to learn of Nwyfre's less than happy response to her request at a meeting.

In fact, the little Professor had arrived promptly on the hour given, claimed her seat, and had yet to even unfold her legs or even scratch her nose. Thirty minutes had passed since then. At this point, Raven was almost positive that the older woman was actually more anxious than the lot of them combined. However, Raven also possessed the sense to say absolutely nothing about this.

"Fuckin hell, what's taking her so long," Qrow groaned, splayed out on Raven's bunk. "She said five right? She's never fuckin late."

"It isn't a problem," Joan declared. "I imagine she's just scoping the area for any sign of betrayal like a complete paranoid."

Taiyang bit back a surprised laugh as Summer's mouth parted in blatant shock. Raven felt her brow twitch in irritation, but realized that that was perhaps a fair assessment. Her twin cocked his head to stare shrewdly at their Professor. The room remained utterly silent for a heartbeat or two.

"Ya'll got bad blood, huh?"

"No," Joan inspected her fingers. "I don't hold grudges. There are better things to do with one's time."

Raven spotted a brief flicker over by the dressers nearest the window. Her eyes narrowed at the movement.

"Uh huh," Qrow drew out suspiciously. "Ya'll aren't exes are you? Cause I gotta admit, that would make things really, really gods damned weird-"

"Damnit, Qrow," Taiyang sighed, rubbing his face as Summer bit back a giggle. Raven coughed, her cheeks burning slightly as she glared at her brother.

"Whaaat? I know I'm like the 'unofficial team shrink'," Qrow said, making lazy air quotes. "But I'm not equipped to deal with this level of uncomfortable."

The room fell silent again. Raven dryly considered if her twin had some sort of death wish.

"Mr. Branwen?" Joan clipped after a cool pause.

Qrow smirked mischievously.

"Yea, teach?"

"Don't be daft," Joan smirked in return, glancing over the back of her chair. "Also, keep in mind that I can still give you detention."

Qrow shook his head, tossing stray locks out of pale red eyes.

"Nuh uh," he chuckled. "This is neutral territory, Joan. You left your teacher privileges at the door, that's how that works."

Taiyang coughed nervously, glancing between his partner and the Professor.

"Dude?" Tai started. "I don't think that's how that works at all."

Qrow rolled his eyes, mimicking Taiyang under his breath. The blonde retaliated immediately by tossing a pillow across the gap, smacking Qrow in the chest. Qrow responded only with an extended middle finger.

Raven snorted, hiding a smile as she glanced around the room. Another flicker in the corner caught her attention. Nwyfre's aural duplicate manifested for a brief second and gave her a quick nod. Raven noted that she was wearing the Nevermore helm, peaking her curiosity. She hadn't expected that Nwyfre would come to meet with an old acquaintance in her full capacity as both the Morrigan and Branwen chief.

Slipping off her bunk, Raven drew her blade and swiped, focusing on her Semblance's bond. The vortex sprang open, whirling and crackling powerfully before settling into a stable rotation. Joan, to her credit, did not so much as blink. After a few moments, Nwyfre strode through calmly, dressed in full raider garb; without speaking, she circled the room, appraising it through the slits in her helm before finally settling on Arc.

"Nwyfre," Joan said coolly. "Thank you for coming."

"What in the blaze blue fuck have you involved my kids in, Jo?" Nwyfre hissed through the helmet slits. "I'll admit it. You really pissed me off with that little trick with the glyphs last semester, but I managed to let it go. But this? Have you lost your damn mind?"

Raven tensed, remembering the incident with the glyph that had interrupted Nwyfre's Semblance connection to herself and Qrow, and prompted her to come to Vale to seek them out in the first place.

Surely Arc isn't the type, though?

Joan rolled her eyes imperiously, and Raven fought an instinctive wince.

"I had nothing to do with that and you bloody well know it, Fre."

"No, I do not bloody well know it," Nwyfre insisted, pacing like a lion in a cage. "Just like I don't bloody well know you aren't trying to lure me into a trap with this complete dumpster fire of an idea of yours."

"Oh please, I haven't tried to arrest you in years," Joan scoffed, waving her hand. "And if you think I didn't notice that string of reports about your little escapades during Mountain Glenn, then you are not only obtuse, you are the donkey's entire ass."

Team STRQ glanced in unison at the Morrigan, eyes rounding. Nwyfre had finally paused in her pacing, cocking her head.

"Such unfounded accusations. I was absolutely nowhere near that horrible tragedy."

Summer squeaked in protest, but managed to contain herself; meanwhile, Professor Arc's glare could have frozen fire Dust.

"You do realize that I am the only reason you aren't twiddling your thumbs in maximum security right now, yes?" Arc droned. "Both the BTF and the Witchfingers had factions that wanted to pin that entire fiasco on you-"

"As if any of those apes could actually catch me," Nwyfre hissed. "The BTF is a fucking joke, who do you think you're kidding? I'd eat your smarmy little bootlickers for breakfast!"

"No actually, I imagine you'd ask your pet Grimm to do that for you?" Joan smiled coldly. "I wonder, who exactly inspired you to enslave monsters to do your dirty work?"

Nwyfre actually snarled, her shoulders tensing as she stepped forward.

"Hey!" Qrow interrupted.

The women looked at him in glaring unison.

"Can you two fucking not?" he rasped, waving to the room in exasperation. "We don't know ya'lls history or trauma or what the fuck ever, and we don't have the time or energy to fucking fumigate that whole mess. Because we have some actual, pressing bullshit going on and are apparently the only ones invested in stopping it. So, either put your baggage aside, or resolve it, but stop flexing on each other in my nice clean safe space, thank you very much!"

Raven sighed tensely through her nose, glancing between her twin and the two so called adults caught in a pissing contest.

"You're right. My apologies, Mr. Branwen," Joan nodded abruptly. "Nwyfre-"

Nwyfre interrupted the other woman with a growl, gesturing sharply to the helm.

"Morrigan. That is my current title, Professor . I'd like you to use it."

Joan squinted, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration as she exhaled loudly.

"Very well, Morrigan . I wanted to talk to you about the situation involving the abduction of tribal skinchangers in the greater Vale area-"

Nwyfre interrupted her again, picking up her pacing once more.

"Oh, but it's not just the greater Vale area, is it?" Nwyfre drawled, her tone laced with poison. "It's apparently all of Saunus! And there have even been reports of missing shifters from Menagerie and Mantle as well. We were fool enough to think it was just the work of the witch's forces-"

Raven felt her interests peak and shot her mother a worried look, but Nwyfre moved the conversation along relentlessly.

"-but of fucking course it wasn't. Your friends have been running quite the trafficking gig, it would seem. It's nice to see that the Kingdoms are keeping some traditions alive in these modern times."

"They are not my friends," Joan squinted dangerously.

"They're your colleagues then, which to you people is the same fucking thing."

"You people – excuse me? You do not get to lecture me about guilt by association! Let alone friendship!"

Raven picked up a bottle of window cleaner from the table besides her, left out from when Summer had been anxiety-cleaning, and sprayed a jet at Professor Arc's pant leg. Joan blinked, her face incredulous, as she stared at her. Nwyfre started chuckling, a sly rumble in her chest, before Raven promptly spritzed her too. Her mother glared at her in shocked betrayal.

"Stop it," Raven insisted firmly. Summer swallowed a snicker behind her hand, silver eyes gleaming impishly, while Taiyang buried his face in Summer's shoulder.

After a moment, Nwyfre huffed sulkily.

"….You're grounded."

"You're grounded," Raven smirked back. "This is my house."

"Yea!" Qrow cracked up, chuckling wickedly. "You're both in time out."

Taiyang looked up from Summer's shoulder, laughing nervously.

"I am so very uncomfortable right now."

"You knooow," Summer started playfully. "I can call my dad? If you two need like a moderator to help you hash out your feelings or something? He's surprisingly good at it."

Nwyfre scoffed, shaking her dreads over her shoulder.

"NO!"

"Absolutely not!" bemoaned Professor Arc.

"I'll do it! I'll freakin call him right now!" Summer waved her scroll menacingly. "No? Huh? Alright then! Be civil, you both agreed to this and you are both supposedly mature ladies."

The supposedly mature ladies looked to be on the brink of revolt. Nwyfre was grumbling a vitriolic string of words under her breath, while Joan simply seemed to wall away any actual feelings she had on the subject behind an impenetrable hard light barrier. Raven studied their body language, the way they were stiffly trying to resist mirroring the other person's movements, the still tender edges of an old betrayal and drew her own conclusion.

"You two were partners weren't you?" Raven drawled wryly. "Once upon a time?"

There was an uncomfortable silence, before Joan sighed again, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Nwyfre said nothing. Qrow started chuckling on the bed, while Summer's fluffy ears flipped up, bouncing a little on Tai's mattress as she held his hand. Taiyang kept staring between the two opposites, face skeptical as he tried to buy the concept.

"We…were yes," Arc admitted, tipping her head towards her. "But that is hardly relevant-"

"Oh no, not relevant at all," Nwyfre spat venomously.

Raven gave them both a long, unimpressed stare.

"It seems a little relevant," Raven hummed skeptically.

"I'm detecting a lot of relevance here, actually. And maybe, just maybe, some….hurt feelings?" Taiyang licked a finger and held it up to the 'wind'. "Yup. Lot of that going on right now."

"Do we need to do trust building exercises?" Summer teased, unable to hide her shit eating grin. "I can get the paintball guns?"

Joan winced slightly, and Summer's ears flicked in recognition, a regretful expression falling over her face. Nwyfre shook her head, her beaded dreads clattering softly over grey and red armor.

"Don't start with me, Milkshake, I'm not in the mood to play nice."

"You'll play nice so long as you're in my friggin room, missy, and that's that," Summer glared back.

Nwyfre hissed through the slits in her helm, and Raven interrupted before the situation turned uglier.

"Let's focus please," Raven said, waving the spray bottle laconically. "Will you two be able to actually work together effectively in this sort of scenario? Or not? Because if not, then we need to come up with a better option, that appropriately utilizes our resources."

Joan had been the one to suggest they work together in the first place, meaning that she at least wanted to believe it was possible; and the fact that Nwyfre had actually bothered to even show up said a lot. There was obviously hope there, on both sides.

However, there was also a lot of pride and hurt involved for both women, and neither of them seemed ready to set that aside yet. Whatever had happened, both clearly held the other as being ultimately responsible; and if they were both waiting on an apology from the other, then they were never going to get anywhere.

"No. And there is no we here, kids. I appreciate you telling me about what is going on. I will continue to look into it, and I will have others that I can actually trust investigate this as well. But I will be acting separately and would greatly appreciate it if you dropped it and went back to your actual schoolwork. Please," Nwyfre sighed heavily, crossing her arms. "Your Professor here, if she really cares about you, should be able to recognize that involving you in something like this is extremely irresponsible and not in your best interests."

"They're already involved, Fre, whether you like that or not," Professor Arc clipped. " Heavily involved if they've been having conversations with Set and know about the different magical castes. They are also some of the most skilled young Hunters I've ever seen, with fine moral compasses to boot. They can come to their own decisions, with or without our approval."

Raven gave Joan an appreciative glance.

"Our approval? Save it for the fucking choir, Jo!" Nwyfre snapped immediately. "They don't even have their licenses yet! If our positions were reversed, I doubt you'd react so Dust damned well! Imagine, just fucking imagine , if I tried to drag your daughters into some hairbrained scheme like this?! You'd call me a monster and you know it! Not that you haven't always believed that, you self-righteous fool!"

Joan's face hardened, her body radiating a cold anger even as she folded her hands in her lap.

"You think you can just, what? Snap your fingers and dangle my children's safety in front of my face and I'll come dashing to 'help' you with your little crusade? Like your personal Beowolf, bouncing about your heels? I do all the dirty work and you get to maintain this ridiculous image of yourself as somehow being the good guy in all this?!" Nwyfre stepped forward again, her voice full of fury. "We both know that in the end, that's all you really care about!"

Raven and Qrow shared anxious looks. Neither of them had ever heard Nwyfre sound like this, especially wearing the mantel of the Morrigan.

"I have never thought you were a monster, Fre," Joan said after a quiet pause.

Raven couldn't see her mother's face, but she could hear the sneer in her voice.

"Who's the liar now?"

Joan's face was unreadable marble as she stared at the woman who used to be her partner and probable friend. She took a slow, tired breath, and exhaled.

"I'm sorry."

Raven's brow rose. She couldn't determine who was more surprised.

"You're right. Were our situations reversed, I would be angry, incredibly so," the blonde Huntress admitted. Her voice sounded genuine. "I jumped the gun, and I'm sorry. It wasn't fair of me to put you in this position."

"No, it wasn't," Nwyfre droned. There was the slightest question in her tone, leaving room for Joan to continue.

"I know, and I wasn't trying to. But Fre, there's a reason I wanted to reach out to you on this; and it is because I knew you would give a damn. And when you give a damn, there is a not a force on Remnant that can stop you. There never has been," Joan continued with near gentleness. "And that being said, I…genuinely would like your help; because I know that I cannot do this by myself."

"No shit you can't. It'd be a suicide run," Nwyfre grumbled after an awkward pause. No one was fooled by the fact that she studiously ignored Joan's previous compliment. "Not that that's ever stopped your dumb ass before."

Joan's mouth twitched in a half smile. The Morrigan huffed in irritation.

"Stop smiling. I'm still extremely pissed off at you."

"True, but how is that anything new?"

"Enough," Nwyfre grit out. "Look. Even if I agree to lend a hand, I don't want STRQ involved in this."

Raven winced visibly, giving her mother a hurt look. Nwfyre scoffed.

"Don't look at me like that. You four combined have as much subtlety as a Goliath in a china shop, and for this to work, I need people who can actually infiltrate high security Kingdom prisons without getting caught, destroying something, confronting every person involved or throwing a fucking parade in the midst of it."

The team immediately began to make noises of protest.

"Qrow and I have led plenty of successful raids, that isn't a fair assessment at all," Raven insisted over the chatter.

Joan promptly plugged her ears, whistling to herself as she bobbed her head comically.

"Yea, we can be plenty subtle when we wanna be," Qrow chimed in.

"Oh, absolutely you can! But that's just you two , Raven and Qrow the individuals. You are not just 'you two' anymore, you are a Dust-damned collectors set," Nwyfre gestured irritably at Summer and Taiyang.

Taiyang waved back, smiling awkwardly.

"Anywhere you go now, they'll go, and the four of you combined have no subtlety, and no sense. You just don't. How the hells did you manage to stumble upon a conspiracy involving the King of Vale within the last two fucking weeks you've been at school? It sure wasn't by minding your own gods damned business! You four just draw bullshit towards you like the perfect, annoying ass storm and what's more, you possess this delusional hive-think that together, you can fix anything! And it's going to get you all killed, I swear to gods!"

"Mom, come on," Raven groaned. "Not this again."

Nwyfre spun towards her. "Oh, it's this again! You're supposed to be here to fucking learn ! Not run castle raids with a woman who would gladly see me, your mother and every other free person on the planet behind bars."

"Ok, now that is not true," Joan interrupted, unplugging her ears. "You know that's not true."

"I do not!" Nwyfre retorted. "Did you know that the BTF doesn't discriminate between free tribes and Grimm baiters? They see us as being identical!"

"And can you really blame them?!" Joan exclaimed in mounting exasperation. "The sheer amount of times you've merrily led hordes of Grimm through the streets of Settlements that crossed you is madness! And this isn't about the BTF! I am not here speaking to you as an officer of the force, nor any other executive branch! I am here as a Huntress first and foremost, and as a Huntress it is my duty to put a stop to corrupt practices that hurt the innocent! And if that corruption is coming from the very throne itself, then it is what it is!"

"Oh?!" Nwyfre waved her hand, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "It is, is it?"

She looked about the room, before placing a hand on her hip and cocking her head.

"And just how well has that glorious quest been going for you, little paladin? Been making a lot of headway, have we?"

"It's been very difficult, actually," Joan sniffed, unperturbed. "But at least I don't give up every time I get scared."

Nwyfre shook her head slowly, oozing contempt.

"I didn't stop because I was scared, Jo, you utter Boarbatusk. No matter how hard you try to sell that to yourself."

The women held each other's stares without flinching. Summer glanced at Taiyang, then Raven, before scooting forwards.

"Then why did you?" Summer asked.

Nwyfre's head tilted her way.

"Excuse me?"

"Why did you give up being a Huntress?" Summer asked. "Or a Witchfinger?"

Her tone was not accusatory, merely curious.

"Psh….That's-"

"What, not relevant?" Summer quipped.

Raven glanced at her girlfriend anxiously as Nwyfre exhaled irritably. Joan's eyes gleamed in amusement.

"You know what?" Nwyfre started quietly. Dangerously. "One day, Milkshake, you're gonna figure it out for yourself. But by then? It will probably be too late."

Summer's ears folded back.

"And I pray every fucking day that you don't drag them down with you."

Tai and Qrow both frowned in unison, while Raven's mouth opened, a sharp retort on the tip of her tongue. Nwyfre carried on, her voice echoing slightly behind the Nevermore mask.

"For the record," Nwyfre said. "I think this is all an awful idea. But seeing as you've given me little option, I suppose I will assist. But only, and I mean only, on the condition that we do things my way. This is not negotiable."

Joan hesitated for the briefest of seconds, before she extended a well callused and blade scarred palm.

"Very well."

Nwyfre took it in her own, similarly scarred digits, and shook once.

More Notes: Hey gang, sorry it's been minute. I've had a lot of life changes coming at me fast, like moving across the world, starting school and getting a pupper. But it's all good. Updates might be a little slow for while, but I haven't abandoned this series and have no plans on doing so any time soon. Anyways, thanks a bunch to Sgt Chrysalis, WhatOtherPlanet, and Shockfactor for the beta's on this chapter. If you haven't read their stuff, I highly recommend doing so. Much love, and happy season finale.