Obligatory Disclaimer: Rooster Teeth owns RWBY.
Blanche looked around in wonder as she stepped off the airship, the moment was ruined as the boy who had been sick on the ship scrambled off to further empty his stomach into a nearby trash can. Blanche wanted to explore the campus a bit before the welcoming ceremony and so made an excuse to Noir about meeting her friends and rushed off. She knew it was a flimsy excuse; she was the only one of her friend group from Siren to make it into Beacon, but Noir knew she was just trying to go off alone and would respect that.
As Blanche wandered, she lost track of her surroundings, not noticing the huge pallet coming up behind her until it knocked her over.
Blanche quickly got back to her feet before rounding on the offending cart operator. "Watch it you could have killed me with that." Looking at the cart, she was glad it had only clipped her, not run her over; it was piled high with steel ingots strapped down with red ratchet straps emblazoned with a rosebud emblem with the bottom half resembling a gear. "What are you doing charging down the main path with cargo like that!"
From behind the massive stack stepped one of the tallest girls Blanche had ever seen at least half a foot taller than her sister. She had wine red hair and wore a long cranberry combat dress accented with black armor pieces. The other girl's eyes narrowed down at Blanche, "Or, maybe you should watch your surroundings better. What are you doing up here anyway I thought families had to be left at the dock in Vale, did you sneak onto the ship behind your brother or sister?"
"I'll have you know I am 17 years old. I'm just vertically challenged. I have every right to be here."
"Clearly you don't seeing as you don't even have the spatial awareness to notice several hundred-pound pallet carts. It's not as if it's the quietest thing around."
"Well, I didn't expect weapon-grade steel to be delivered through the front door on the first day of school. Why would I be looking for a cargo trolly in a crowd of people?" Blanche was getting seriously angry at this girl, "What kind of princess do you think you are running innocent girls down and then blaming them for being in the way."
"Not princess, heiress actually," a new voice but into the argument. "Corundum Hesperrhodos, heiress to Hesperrhodos Manufacturing, also known as the second richest girl on the planet." Blanche turned toward the voice and saw a blonde girl maybe an inch or two taller than her sister wearing a yellow gold martial arts robe tied together with an orange sash
The look on Corundum's face was somewhere between pride and annoyance, "Look, it's not that big of a deal I'm only the heiress so long as my brother stays without kids."
"The same company that is known for following the SDC's example with their labor practices."
"Okay, that's not fair the SDC controls Atlas's labor laws, we're forced to play by their rules or our dust supply mysteriously drys up." The girl continued to murmur something to herself, but Blanche couldn't catch it. "Anyway, I need to get this dropped off before they start orientation." Corundum then stepped back behind the cart, its motor spinning up as it began gliding towards Beacon.
Blanche turned back to the blonde to thank her for defusing the situation, but she was already walking away. Sighing, Blanche turned back towards the path and promptly ran into someone else and falling back on the ground. Blanche closed her eyes and just lay there for several seconds. Eventually, a somewhat timid voice called out to her, "Are-are you okay? I didn't kill you, did I?"
Still keeping her eyes closed, she responded, "No, to both. I'm perfectly fine to just lie here for the rest of the day. The world has made it abundantly clear that this is where it wants me."
"Are you sure, I mean, don't we need to get to orientation soon right."
Mentally grumbling Blanche opened her eyes to see who was standing over her, jumping to her feet and backing away when she saw it was the kid who had puked all over the airship. "You're all better, right, Vomit Boy?"
Blanche could feel the pain in his voice as he responded, "It was just a little airsickness, my name's Jaune."
"Fine, Jaune, let's get to orientation." Blanche only half paid attention to their conversation as she followed him to the theater.
Eventually, Blanche noticed that they had passed through the same courtyard twice before, "Stop Vomit Boy, we're going in circles."
"Look, airsickness is more common than people let on."
"Look, I'm sorry, but is that seriously that was the least important part of what I said."
"What if I called you Timber or something else related to falling over."
"Really, Timber is the best you can come up with, and anyway, I bumped into you by accident, and that other girl ran me over."
"Well, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue - ladies love it!"
"Do they?"
"They will! Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... Never mind."
"Anyway, I'm Blanche Neige, so I can do this" Blanche drew what appeared to be a thick cylindrical bar of steel from her waist. As she brought it forward, it seemed to liquify in her hand and formed into a staff topped with her snowflake emblem. Her off-hand flipped open a blue capsule on her belt as she dipped the base into a nearby fountain a circular glyph shimmered on the water's surface before the entire fountain froze solid.
Jaune looked stunned, "Was that magic?"
Blanche rolled her eyes, where had this guy trained, "That was just some fairly basic dust manipulation," as she talked, Blanche allowed her staff to melt back into the metal bar and clipped it back to her waist. "That last bit was just my semblance I can take any metal infused with dust and change it like it was a liquid. What do you have."
"Jaune was still looking at her like she had grown an extra head, but he managed to draw a sword from his belt, "I have this sword."
"Okay," Blanche was trying very hard to seem impressed; maybe he had a really cool semblance.
"Yeah, and I've got a shield, too!" Jaune grabbed his scabbard, and as he affixed it to his arm, it expanded into a kite shield.
"So, what do they do?"
"Well, that's pretty much it. I mean, the shield folds up, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just put it away."
"I guess that makes sense. I'm more interested in dust, and how to use it, weapon fabrication isn't really my thing. And it's not like I really have to learn it anyway. I can create any weapon I can imagine given enough steel."
"So let me get this straight your weapon is a stick." Jaune seemed like he was trying not to laugh.
"So what if it is. I hated the smithing class, white dresses, and soot do not go together."
"Wait, other students made their weapons?"
"I mean yeah all combat schools have their students make their own weapons. Didn't you?" Blanche was getting very confused by this guy. He seemed amazed by dust manipulation and had questions about weapon construction. He must have been homeschooled.
"It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."
Yep definitely homeschooled, "Well, sounds like a family heirloom, I guess I can appreciate the classics."
Jaune seemed sort of defeated, "Yeah, the classics."
"Anyway, why were you right behind me out there in the courtyard?"
"You seemed like you were having a bad time so I was gonna offer my help, my mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'"
"So back to what started this conversation, where are you going, 'cause I was following you."
Jaune looked a bit stressed, "But, I was following you. Y-You think there might be a directory? Maybe a food court? Some kind of recognizable landmark? Is, uh... Is that a 'no'?"
Blanche let out a little desperate laugh, "That's a no."
17 Years Earlier
The voyage to Anima was reasonably uneventful. There were surprisingly few water-based Grimm, and most of the ones that did exist were massive territorial beasts that claimed vast swaths of ocean making running into them very unlikely. The journey on the small cargo ship was longer than Raven had anticipated. It had taken almost three weeks to complete the trip.
Once she was onshore, Raven made her way into the forest and attempted to shift into her bird form keyword being attempted. As she tapped into the magic, Ozpin gave her a burning pain flared in the base of her stomach like the magic hit a wall and violently bounced off. Sitting against a tree, Raven began thinking through possible reasons why.
Had the old man removed the ability from her when she ran? No, that couldn't be it Ozpin had made it very clear that once his power was given, he could not recall it.
Maybe he had altered it, leaving the magic but removed its purpose? No, that didn't make sense either; he had had to touch her and Qrow when he gave the powers. Thus, it stood to reason that he would have to be that close to her to change it since, once given, his magic had no connection to him anymore.
If the power itself could not be changed, then it stood to reason that something about her had changed instead. The more she thought the more an idea formed in her head, an idea she very much did not like. It had been five weeks since she left Patch, and she realized she had missed her cycle, and the placement of the pain in her lower abdomen pointed to one thing. Taiyang had left her a little present that night.
Not quite accepting it, yet Raven made her way back into the little port town and stole a test from a local drugstore. Sure enough, it confirmed her suspicions.
While she first thought about getting rid of the baby, it wasn't really practical, and she would need a kid eventually to follow after her in the tribe anyway, why not this one. Taiyang wasn't weak at least physically speaking, so as long as the kid inherited her personality, it would be fine. Of course, she could always wait to give birth and then drop the kid on Taiyang via a portal. Ultimately though, Raven decided to keep the kid, a little Redwing Branwen, to be her successor.
The biggest problem she now faced was travel. If she couldn't find the tribe soon, she would be too heavy to secure her place at the top. She needed to decide if it made sense to go out and look for the tribe now or go to Mistral and wait out the pregnancy there and then find the tribe.
Raven asked around town to see how safe it was. According to several young women, there was a group of bandits that often raided the area; however, they couldn't be called a tribe. It was maybe about ten people that raided outlying farms. She once brought up the Branwen tribe with a guardsman though he had never heard of them. The tribe had always operated around Mistral anyway, so it wasn't surprising that they were unknown out at the coast.
Raven decided her best bet was to find a way to Mistral. To that end, Raven made her way back to the port to talk with the freight master there.
He proved easy enough to find the old man was lounging in front of the single warehouse by the pier. He turned his head as she approached him, "I don't sell to individuals Miss. If it's not in the store, you'll have to wait until they restock it themselves."
"You misunderstand, I'm not here to buy anything unless you have a bullhead or airship in there, I'm looking for passage to Mistral."
"Unfortunately Miss, we only get one airship supply drop a season out here. You already missed this season's a few weeks ago. Most of our shipping is done by trucks. A caravan is scheduled to arrive in a few days, depending on how smooth their ride has been. You may be able to land a place with them. We don't have much to ship back to the kingdom, so you could probably even go as a passenger."
Raven was a bit irritated at the infrequency of air travel. Still, since Mistral didn't care about the outlying villages, it made sense, "I am perfectly capable of carrying my own weight. The caravan trip about how long does it take?"
"No more than two weeks, but that's only if they encounter bandits. In general, it takes about a week and a half." The old man replied
As Raven turned to leave, she asked, "And I can meet the caravan here?"
"Yes, they will offload here."
If Raven was honest with herself, she hoped the tribe would attack the caravan, it would make everything so much easier.
Raven checked the port every day following the man's suggestion; however, the day the caravan was supposed to arrive came and went. When two more days had passed, and the caravan still had not arrived, the freight master began to get worried, "If it takes much longer we'll have to call our suppliers in Mistral to tell them that the caravan's gone and we'll have to eat more of what we catch to survive until the next caravan arrives."
However, early the next morning, a series of damaged trucks lumbered into the village. The last vehicle was being towed by the one in front of it. Raven only made it to the docks in time to catch the end of the story of what had befallen the travelers.
"... and so Marigold here braced herself against the fridge truck and let loose on the bastards."
The girl, the leader, indicated waved around what looked to be a cross between a mace and an anti-tank gun. "I got one guy in the face broke his aura in one shot at that point he and his buddies realized they weren't gonna get these trucks from us and so they all retreated. The weirdest thing, though, was that they had a flag some kid in the back had a pole with some sort of winged emblem, like a dragon or something, and they all grouped around this kid before they ran off. I tried to shoot out the flag just to spite them, but something with that many holes in it already is hard to hit."
Raven chose this moment to break into the conversation, "Are you sure it was a dragon, not some kind of bird?" Under her father, the tribe used to present a standard with a blackbird with dripping wings before attacks. It gave the weak a chance to surrender instead of being slaughtered.
The man who was speaking first turned to her, "What's got, you all antsy young lady?"
Raven needed to think fast a cover for how she knew about the tribe's habits. Putting on what she hoped was a meek face, she pulled a story together, "It's just when I was younger, my family lived in a small community outside of Mistral. Several years back, we were forced out by a large bandit tribe before they attacked the displayed a banner with a dripping bird on it and told us everyone who ran wouldn't be killed. I was wondering if this could be the same group?"
"Makes sense not many would forget a run-in with the Branwen Tribe at its height, but there is no need to worry. About a year back, a group of close to twenty huntsmen was contracted to take care of them. The disguised a bunch of armored cars as SDC transports and drove straight through Branwen territory. The bastards couldn't resist such a lucrative prize and attacked it. The huntsmen cut them down, including their leader. The huntsmen took the banner as a trophy. It's hanging up in Haven Academy now. While I suppose it's possible some of them escaped and maybe even scrounged up a replacement banner, the tribe may as well no longer exist, nothing to be worried about."
It took all of Raven's willpower not to let her rage show on her face. She needed to keep up the lie, "I guess I just wish I could have gotten a piece of them." Raven hated the way those words sounded, but she supposed she could direct them in her head to the huntsmen instead. She had assumed that the tribe would be down on its luck, but to find out it had been nearly wiped out while it meant more work to put it back together, the huntsmen had likely done her work to secure the top spot much easier assuming most of the veterans were dead. "Anyway, I was hoping to get a place with you when you head back to Mistral. I don't have a huntsmen card though, my family ran out of money before I could finish school."
"Legally, I can't sign you on as protection then," the bigger man responded, "However if you have some money, we can take you on as a passenger. If you don't, I might be able to find you a place as an alternate driver if you at least have a driver's license, but the pay would be little to nothing."
The only license Raven had was her huntsman one as it was a sort of all-purpose permit that could be loaded with whatever qualifications she had. "How much would you charge for a single passenger?" Raven only had the one choice her previous lies had made it impossible to show the caravan any official documents lest they see her real name.
"I think a hundred lien should suffice."
"I can only pay seventy-five," Raven retorted.
"Ninety."
"Eighty."
"Eighty five, final offer."
"I'll take it, but I'll only pay forty now the rest when we get to Mistral."
"That's fair." The man stepped up to her and offered his hand, Raven shook it.
"I have one more question," Raven said as she let go, "When can I expect you to leave?"
The leader looked over to the woman, Marigold, "Well, insurance will cover the busted truck, and we still got its cargo here, so if we just write it off, we could leave in two days the repairs to the rest of the fleet won't take long."
"Sounds good," the leader turned to the freight master, "Where can we leave the truck for you to break it up?"
The old man indicated a spot on the side of the warehouse, "If you just leave it around there, I'll deal with it."
Raven spoke up again, "So should I pay you now or when we leave?"
"Pay us when you join up at the gate, and we'll get you squared away then. By the way, I don't think I caught your name."
"You never introduced yourself, either." Raven shot back.
"Fair, my name's Rowan Steele, my partner here is Marigold Heartwood." He looked back at Raven expectantly.
"I'm Raven," she paused for half a second to judge their response and see if they would expect the last name, they continued to stare, "Branch." That would do for now. The duo seemed to accept it anyway.
—
The truck Raven had been residing in lurched to a halt they were about halfway to Mistral there was shouting outside, and a few weighty shots rang out. Raven assumed it was bandits but was more curious about who it was that was attacking them. It took her a second to find her sword before she jumped out of the truck and then vaulting on top of it to get a better view, surveying the tree line she spotted a tattered red banner the middle was mostly burned out. Still, enough of one wing was visible that Raven recognized it as her father's banner. She hadn't dared hope it would be this easy that they would attack the same caravan they had already hit on its way out.
Regardless she drew her blade selecting a red cartridge the blade extended to its full length, which she swiftly drove through the roof of the cab, impaling the driver before he had a chance to notice something was wrong. Raven jumped to the next truck. Rowan and Merigold were busy attempting to drive off the bandits with gunfire into the forest their backs to the caravan.
Raven examined the two huntsmen Merigold's heavy rifle while individually more damaging Rowan's combat rifle's sustained fire would be more dangerous to have at her back.
Waiting until Merigold to begin reloading her massive rifle Raven dove off the truck at Rowan while his aura stopped her from killing him outright it knocked him over and sent his weapon flying into the bushes. She had landed on his back with her blade pressed to his spine the constant pressure quickly wore through his remaining aura, and the crimson blade sunk down into his neck.
Merigold had reacted fast enough to the new threat Raven had heard the click as the other woman reflexively tried to fire the empty weapon at her but then stood there seemingly stunned as Raven finished her partner and turned to her.
"But, what… How could you?" Merigold was sputtering.
"I'm not the one who accepted a strange woman into their midst with no knowledge about her."
A flicker of rage sparkled in Merigold's eyes she abandoned the shell she had been attempting to load and charged Raven with a broken scream the rifle shifted to the form of a large mace Raven evaded the wild attack quickly landing a cut across the other woman's side as she moved past. Merigold rounded on Raven again, charging at her. Raven dashed to the party, but this time, Merigold had managed a feint, and Raven ran square into the mace's head, tossing her back into one of the trucks.
Raven's aura held, and she recovered quickly, ducking under a follow-up swipe at her head. The wide swing left Merigold's right side open, and Raven darted for it slamming the point of her blade into the other woman's abdomen she was rebuffed by aura again.
Raven pivoted back to Merigold, "You certainly put up a better fight than your partner. I was worried about you after he went down so easily." She smiled as she opened some distance on her opponent, "You are clearly strong. I'd offer you to join me, but unfortunately, you seem rather attached to your friend."
"Join you, and what the two of us become outlaws holding up caravans for the rest of our lives?" Merigold's laughter "Yeah right, how about I kill you now and keep my job."
Merigold charged Raven again, aiming a strike at her stomach, "Your loss. By the way, I can't remember, did I mention on the trip I'm pregnant?"
Raven smirked as she watched a look of panic cross the other woman's face as she tried to both decide whether Raven was lying and redirect her attack just in case she wasn't. The clumsiness left Raven exactly the opening she was looking for as the heavy mace dropped to swipe her legs. Raven dashed at Merigold, slashing the blade across the huntress's throat. She was rewarded with orange light crackling across her opponent's body.
Raven advanced on Merigold, who attempted to make a last-ditch effort to keep her at bay, though without her aura behind it, the strike was slow and clumsy. Raven jumped to the side and cut upwards, removing the other woman's hands, leaving the mace to crash down somewhere behind her as it followed her backswing. "Before I kill you, I suppose I should tell you who you really let into the little group." Raven kicked Merigold in the chest, forcing her to crash backward with nothing but stumps to catch her. "My name is Raven Branwen," Raven chuckled as Merigold's eyes widened even as they dimmed from blood loss, "Yes, exactly like the bandits, you really should not have trusted me oh well your loss." With that, Raven plunged her blade into Merigold's throat, the remaining light faded from the woman's eyes.
AN: Hey I'm back it took me way longer to be satisfied with the Raven section then I thought it would I had like eighty-five percent of this chapter complete the day after I posted the first one but then college papers and the aforementioned writer's block got in the way. Thankfully I'm done writing the Raven parts I'll be switching to a different Team RWBY character for the section of next chapter in the past I have much better planning for her new life.
If you are curious yes Raven is pregnant with Yang however since I don't think Raven would name her daughter after Taiyang her daughter will be called Oriole Branwen when she appears in the main story. Don't worry Yang is the only character name I will change. I initially planned to write up to her birth but I decided that it would be both boring to read and tedious to write so I'm moving on from Raven/Yang.
