Lots of thanks to Eric Philippe for Commissioning this chapter! Hope ya enjoy it bud!


"Eric! Robert! Get everyone the fuck out of here!" Qrow roars through the horrifying screech of the mutated Cenitaur.

His other two teammates blink in shock, snapping out of the fear caused by the enormous Grimm, it's glowing belly casting an eerie sickly green light upon the surrounding opening.

They both share a quick glance, then swallow their fear. "What about you?!" Eric shouts right back, but flinches when Qrow turns a nearly murderous glare towards them.

"I can handle myself! Just go! Protect those guys!" They both grith their teeth, but nod nonetheless and rush back to gather the bandit's panicking slaves and lead them far away from the enormous monster.

Raven grunts and turns her head towards Willow and Glynda. "You two go with them too. Leave this fucker to me and Qrow." They snap back to attention, and Glynda goes to open her mouth, but Raven stops her with a well placed glare. "Grimm will be swarming the place soon, so go protect the slaves." She orders, then turns back to face the giant Grimm.

She breathes in, then straightens her back. "Summer!" Her bellow echoes across the clearing, and it's soon followed by a shart whistling sound.

One that grew increasibly louder until a bright flash reached them, and slammed directly against the Cenitaur's head with horrifying force.

An immense explosion shakes the forest and lights up the darkness, the pained screech of the Cenitaur echoes soon after as it's limbs stumble and stab deeper into the ground.

Raven clicks her tongue, sending another sharp glance towards her teammates before slamming Omen back in it's sheath, then pulling it out with a different Dust blade.

A bright crimson one.

The temperature instantly skyrocketed once that blade came out from the sheath, the air warping and twisting around it as Willow's eyes widen at the sight.

"Is that… Military Grade Dust?" She whispers to herself, wondering how in the hell did Raven manage to put her hands on such a highly powerful weapon.

Dust is divided into four grades, with the Low Grade being the lowest, and Military Grade being the highest. In between them are the Medium and High Grades.

Military Grade Dust is incredibly pricey, and also incredibly hard to handle and use, hence Huntsman only focus on buying the lower three grades, mostly the lowest grade if they use rapid fire weapons.

And medium or high grade if they use explosives or high caliber weapons.

"Bringing out the big guns, eh?" Qrow muses, unfolding his scythe with a scowl on his face, glaring bloody murder towards the Cenitaur, who had now finally regained it's footing and senses.

The bone plates around it's head were quite cracked, but other than that, it didn't seem to have taken any kind of damage at all.

Willow blinks as Glynda grabs her shoulder, and they both share a look before deciding to follow Raven's order, knowing damn well that they won't be of any help against something of that size.

Especially since they had no prior training towards taking down such a thing.

They swiftly rush through the forest to join up the others and keep the rescued slaves safe, leaving behind Qrow and Raven, a bit relieved knowing that they'll have Summer covering for them.

"So, how are we going to deal with this thing?" Qrow asks, relaxing his stance slightly as he spins his scythe around, his vicious glare still in place.

Raven grunts softly. "I'd rather not share." She spits out, drawing her brother's attention, which makes her nod towards the mutated Cenitaur.

Qrow raises a brow, but turns to stare at the monster in confusion, only to hiss when he realizes it.

"Please tell me that this fucker isn't smart and is listening to us…" Qrow begs under his breath, and as if on cue, the mutated Cenitaur moves moves and slashes out with one of it's forelimbs, the deadly bone scythe cleaving through the air, aimed straight towards Raven.

She clicks her tongue and twirls her sword, then pour her Aura through her arm as she slashes Omen against the incoming Scythe.

The scorching blade instantly turned white-hot at the point of contact, and swiftly cleaved and melted through the deadly limb as if it was butter.

The Cenitaur screeches in pain and pulls back, but a sharp whistling sound makes it stiffen before it swiftly raises it's damaged scythe-like limb to block the incoming projectile.

Another powerful explosion rocked the clearing, destroying the rest of the Cenitaur's already damaged limb and making it stumble back a bit.

"Since when could Grimm understand human speech?!" Qrow shouts over the sound of the explosions, using that chance to rush forward and out of the Grimm's field of view.

In all the years he spent being a bandit with the rest of the Branwen's tribe, not one time had he encountered a Grimm that could understand human speech, and even hide it so to listen in on their plans.

He has encountered many smart Grimm, but no intelligent Grimm.

The Cenitaur screeches once more, and seeing that it's game was up, it instantly started retaliating, especially now that it had lost a limb.

It has a total of twenty-four long limbs, twelve on each side, and it swiftly lifts six of them from each side and start slashing out with them.

Two of them aimed at Raven, while the rest stabbed out randomly around it, trying to keep Qrow at bay.

This only makes the teen smirk darkly. "Tryna keep me away from yer back huh?" He muses, his eyes trailing up the fearsome legs and stopping towards the fat and large, glowing green belly.

He ducks under a wild, aimless slash, not parrying it so to not give away his position and drawing the focus of all the other limbs.

He looks down and meet's Raven's gaze, then points at his eyes, then at the glowing belly, not speaking aloud so to let the Grimm hear their plans.

Another sharp whistle is heard approaching, but this time the mutated Cenitaur instantly lift it's gaze towards it's direction.

Then cuts the incoming thin projectile in half out of the air with one of it's limbs.

It ends up going past it's sides and explode against the sides of the mountain, by the mouth of the tunnel where it came from.

Raven instantly pales. "Summer! Get the fuck out of there!" She bellows as loudly as she could, only for the Cenitaur to screech and start stomping forward with impressive speed, cleaving through anything in it's path with it's thin and sharp limbs.

Raven clicks her tongue, a furious snarl on her face, and instantly stomps on the ground to give chase, swiftly followed by an equally scowling Qrow.

"We need to kill it as fast as possible." Raven tells Qrow, glaring bloody murder at the massive Cenitaur in front of her. "Take a left and got to Summer, tell her to use 'that' and aim for the belly." Qrow raises a brow, but then his eyes widen when he sees Raven twirl Omen menacingly.

He sends a pitying look towards the Grimm ahead, then takes a sharp left to put some distance between them before heading straight forward once more.

Raves waits a couple of seconds, then grips Omen with both hands, stomps on the ground, and swings the blade down with as much force she can muster.

A roaring boom echoes out as the white-hot blade releases a titanic arc of roaring crimson flames taking the shape of a crescent moon.

Trees and grass turn to ashes as it passes by, and the Cenitaur barely has any time to even realize what is happening before the approaching wave hits it in the back and explodes in an enormous blast.

The shock-wave ruffles Raven's hair as she charges forward, her blade slightly dimmer than before as the stench of ashes fills her nostrils.

The Cenitaur's body soon comes into view, with the lower back hanging slightly lower than before, the bone plates having been mostly destroyed and charred black from the immense blast that hit them.

Especially the limbs in the back, with three of them being completely mangled while two were missing.

Raven smirks when a flare blasts into the sky, not even two dozen meters ahead of the Cenitaur, meaning that Summer got the message and simply needed an opening.

She reaches the Cenitaur and jumps, easily reaching it's back in her leap, then using it as a stool to jump even higher in the air.

The air warps as Omen starts glowing with immense heat once more, and the Cenitaur roars in fury and pain, lifting it's head to glare at Raven.

Only for her to smirk and release another massive arc of flames towards it.

Aimed straight at it's lower back.

The arc connects and explodes, the shock-wave sending Raven flying further in the air, but the power behind it being great enough to do the job.

The Cenitaur's back collapses on the ground, and it's front rises in the air, exposing the belly.

A blinding flash erupts a few dozen meters ahead of it, followed by a horrifying sonic boom that obliterates the surrounding trees from the origin point.

A beam of purplish-orange light cleaves right through the forest and the Cenitaur in it's way, splitting it in half from the sheer heat and force behind it as it goes even further beyond, piercing through the mountain wall and leaving behind a large, human sized molten hole behind.

Raven whistles as she lands, watching as the beam of purplish-orange light fades away and the Cenitaur crumbles, a third of it's body having been obliterated on impact.

Qrow swiftly approaches it and buries it's scythe into the thing's skull just to be safe, then throws a bewildered look back towards the approaching Summer, her hair a mess and her face incredibly pale. "What in the flying fuck was that?!" He shouts, and she gives a shaky grin, stumbling on her feet as she does so.

"I don't know, and I don't care." Raven muses as she approaches the dissipating corpse of the mutated Grimm. "I just know it's packs a fucking punch. It's like a damn Railgun." She gives her partner a big thumbs up, one Summer swiftly returns before she sighs and slumps against a nearby tree, clearly having taken a toll from being hit by the sonic boom point blank.

Hell, even the barrel of her rifle was busted, glowing white-hot and with half of it missing.

Qrow chuckles and shakes his head, viewing Summer in a new light before kicking the Grimm's decaying corpse. "Not gonna lie, I expected a far harder fight from this thing." He scrunches up his nose, then spits to the side, clearly disappointed.

Raven shrugs and sheathes Omen, glaring at the dissipating corpse with a glint in her eyes. "It wouldn't have been hard either way. We both could have easily chopped off it's limbs with ease, the problem was going to be the Acid." She hums, nodding to the left, where the lower part of it's body was dissipating, releasing the highly corrosive acid all over the forest floor.

Qrow muses, then shrugs.

The group's attention soon drifted towards the sky as two whistling sounds rang out, followed by a soft explosion as two blue flares exploded in the sky.

"The other teams are already here, that's good…" Raven nods, then blinks and looks around. "Where's Tai?" She asks, and Qrow snorts while Summer blushes slightly.

"Didn't have his Aura up, the sonic boom from her shot knocked him the fuck out." Raven blinks at her brother, then snorts and shakes her head as Summer regains her footing, her Aura shimmering to life around her.

"Shall we go back and join the others?" She asks, and Raven opens her mouth to answer before closing it and furrowing her brows.

She ends up shaking her head. "Go grab Tai and join the others." She tells her partner, earning a confused look from her. "Qrow, come with me. I want to check out the cave from where this thing came from?" Her twin raises a brow, but shrugs nonetheless and gathers his weapon.

Summer blinks, but decides not to question Raven and blinks away with the use of her Semblance, earning a whistle from Qrow.

"So, why the interest in the cave?" Qrow asks, swiftly following into steps with his sister as they walk around the large patch of ground drenched in corrosive acid.

Raven glares ahead of her, her red eyes all but glowing with growing anger. "Tell me, this first… Did Ozpin come to give this mission to you?" She asks instead, surprising her brother.

He furrows his brows, then gives her a look. "No, he didn't. We were just sent the mission details on our Scroll. Like everyone else." At that, Raven's scowl grew even bigger.

"Yeah, well, not us." She spits out through gritted teeth, her fists clenched tightly. "Ozpin came to us personally, 'debriefed' us on the mission, then sent us on our merry way." She snorts. "A debriefing that held no fucking information at all other than just some fucking useless assumptions."

Qrow paused at that, giving his sister his full attention. "Are you implying that he knew about that fucking thing?"

Raven stops and gives her brother a look. "I'm not implying anything. I fucking know that he knows about that fucking thing, and omitted the information." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her Scroll and unfolds it. "Look at this." She taps on it a few times, then turns it towards Qrow, showing him a song being played.

He gives her one of the dumbest looks in history, so she groans. "We have internet connection all the way over here." She points out, and Qrow's dumb expression swiftly fades away. "I mean, yeah, it's shitty, but we still do." She shakes her head and point down the direction they came from. "That thing is fast, but merchant caravans are huge, and it'll take it a while to slaughter everyone, especially if they make a run into the forest."

"And everyone has internet connection and a Scroll in this day and age. So in all of the attacks that happened so far in all these months, at least a few must have captured a picture and sent word back before dying. Hell, even got a call in before the thing got to 'em."

She gives her brother a hard look. "Even with how good we were back at the tribe, and with how perfect our ambushes were, there was always a guy that managed to get a call or picture out. Always." Qrow hisses softly, seeing the logic.

"Why the fuck would he hide this information then?" He asks, and Raven throws her hands in the air.

"I don't fucking know! I just know he's obsessed with Summer!" A disgusted look spreads across Qrow's face at that.

"I hope he ain't tryin' to groom her or some shit…" Both he and Raven shudder at that, but she swiftly shakes her head.

"First he gives her a pass to Beacon a year early for doing something normal, that anyone could do." She stops, her eyes narrowing slightly. "The team placements… he decided them…" She points out slowly.

Qrow swiftly catches on, his own eyes widening slowly. "He put you guys close to it, and us too so to offer support just in case… While the other two teams were kilometers away, nowhere near the reported attack area."

Raven's fist clench hard enough for her knuckles to audibly pop. "I'm gonna have a talk with that son of a bitch once we are back."

Qrow pales slightly. "Try not to kill him sis…"

"No promises." She snorts, then nods, resuming her walk and heading towards the cave entrance.

They reach it a few minutes later, and Raven brings out Omen once more, using the glowing crimson blade as a light while Qrow fishes out a small pearl of Light Dust out of his pocket, using it to do the same.

Their steps echo through the cave tunnel, until the tunnel expands into a large opening.

Qrow furrows his brows, then fishes out another Light Dust pearl and swiftly chucks it across the dark room, watching it as it soars through the air, and hits a wall around three dozen meters later.

"Just a nest." He hums out. "Were ya hoping to find somethin'?" He asks his sister as he looks around, using his light to ward off the surrounding darkness.

And then he looks down and stops.

"I was hoping to find nothing. I'm glad that we did." She sighs softly, only to perk up when her brother chuckles nervously.

He turns towards her with a nervous grin on his face and aims his light down on the ground. "Then please, tell me that this is yours…" He nearly begs, and Raven's eyes widen in slight shock at the large pair of footprints in front of Qrow.

They were clearly too big to be either hers or Qrow, or even of any of the bandits since none of them were massive giants.

"Let's just get out of here." Raven states, and Qrow swiftly nods, throwing one last glance at the large footprints before following after her.

Neither of them noticing the jellyfish-like Grimm staring at their backs from the other side of the cave opening.

XxX

It's been three days since we fought that mutated, intelligent Cenitaur.

Once the night passed and we managed to form a perimeter around the slaves, we called in our rides and stood watch as the freed slaves were loaded in and taken away somewhere, together with the few captured and still alive bandits.

Then it was our turn during the afternoon, where we were taken to a nearby outpost and put in a nice inn for the night.

None of the girls ate anything or even managed to get a wink of sleep as everything settled down and their minds fully caught up with what happened, what they witnessed, and what they did.

Summer is far better off than the others, and I know that she already experienced death and had seen many die in front of her – though I still don't know the circumstances behind it –, she just had never taken a life before.

Glynda and Willow instead are far worse.

Willow's hands are constantly shaking due to the fact that other than Summer, she had the most kills thanks to her summoned fake Grimm, which tore the Auraless bandits apart with ease.

Glynda instead had just a few kills, which happened during the escape, where she had to snap the neck of several bandits that tried to grab a slave and use them as hostage.

She could have taken them out non-lethally, but the rush and adrenaline didn't make her think straight, and so she went straight for the instantaneous kill.

And I can only watch, hug and hold them for support, completely out of words to say to soothe their minds and feelings.

Due to my fusion with Raven, I'm a cold-blooded killer and don't bat an eye at taking a life. Be that of a civilian or a bandit.

I've done things far worse that killing. Be it enslaving, torturing or throwing someone in a pit together with someone else, then watch as they fight to the death with their bare hands, just to amuse the bride.

I wonder when me and Qrow had a mental agreement of just getting the fuck out of there, because after all… at first we enjoyed doing those things.

We enjoyed the power, the rush of having control, of being strong and feared.

And then it just disappeared, and we decided to just fuck off and leave those morons.

Once back in Vale, I didn't bring the girls straight back to Beacon until late at night. Instead I bought them around, seeing the sights, shoving food down their throats and just distracting them as much as possible.

Once back into our dorms, they instantly crumbled on the beds, and I stayed awake all night to make sure none of them had nightmares.

They did have some, but nothing that a gentle squeeze of the hand wasn't able to help.

Once morning came, I left the dorm to go and snoop for some information before we had to go and deliver our report.

Because yes, the moron wants the report delivered straight to him.

I don't know if this is a twisted version of him, or his approach with Summer is different than the one he had with Ruby.

With Ruby it was just sending her to Beacon two years early, with Summer instead it's that… and then extra attention and very fucking dangerous missions.

Is he trying to awaken her Silver Eyes or something through emotional distress and whatnot?

He probably didn't do that with Ruby because Qrow and Tai would have folded his ass like a fucking towel the moment he tried to do some bullshit with the poor young girl.

But here Summer is alone. No family, no siblings… no one. Other than me and the rest of her team.

At first I thought I was just being paranoid and doubted the guy too much… but then the information I managed to gain from upperclassman instantly told me that I was right.

And it pissed me off.

It wasn't until two hours later that we were finally called to Ozpin's office to give our report, and on our way there I was barely keeping my anger in check.

We take the elevator to the top floor, and once it opens up we find ourselves in a long hallway full of fancy looking windows, and a pair of giant doors at the other end.

A bit overboard for just a damn office, but who am I to judge.

The secretary sitting behind the desk near the doors perks up once we approach, a fake and practiced smile spreading across her face as she lifts the phone to her ear. "Sir, they are here." She states simply and directly, then nods and puts the phone down.

"You can go in now-" I storm towards the words at that point, slamming my hands against them and loudly pushing them open, nearly making them smash against the walls on either side.

My eyes land on Ozpin, who perks up in surprise at the loud noise.

He looks neither young nor old, but his sense of fashion is clearly shit.

Big ass black scarf and ugly ass cyan colored suit with a white tie. And to not forget the familiar mug in his hands.

He goes to open his mouth, but I reach his large desk before he could, and then proceed to grab it, and hurl it across the room with enough force to pulverize it on impact against the wall.

"Raven!" Both Glynda and Willow scream as I grab Ozpin's necktie and force him on his feet, so I can glare him in the eyes with all the hate and disgust I can mutter.

Through all of this, his eyes widen just a little bit.

"The next time you omit information about any mission me and my team go on, I will hang you with your own guts." I growl at him as Glynda tries to pull me away from the moron in front of him, but I barely budge even a centimeter.

"I don't know what's up with the special attention you're giving us, and I don't give a fuck to be honest… But start meddling with our missions and life, and we're going to have a problem." His hands raise up in a gesture of surrender, and I sneer and let go of his collar, which he proceeds to calmly fix.

"What makes you think I omitted information about the mission?" He asks calmly, his voice smooth and so relaxed that it ticks me off even more.

He's been doing this for who knows how long. There's no better actor than this motherfucker.

"Because merchant caravans always have Huntsman protecting them, and the normal civilians and merchants they were protecting would obviously send back-up calls the moment that massive fucking Cenitaur pops out of the forest and starts cleaving through Huntsman like they are butter."

"All you gave us was a bunch of what-ifs when I am very fucking sure you have picture and video proof of the mutated Cenitaur. To not talk about how you sent us, first years, to do a bandit extermination mission when those are given only to second years and above."

"Smart Grimm take downs are for third years and above, and Ancient Grimm's take downs are for accomplished huntsman. The upperclassmen helpfully gave me such information." I can feel the girls all freeze at my words, their eyes landing on Ozpin now, containing various kinds of negative emotions.

Anger, doubt, disgust, fear, hate.

"Now, I'm not worried about myself. I've killed more veteran Huntsman than I remember, and just as many smart Grimm, even a couple of Ancient ones… I'm worried about my team."

"So I'll say it now, and won't repeat myself." I lean in close, staring straight into his eyes and putting my foot down. "Leave us out of whatever the fuck you are planning, or trust me… You won't fucking like what I'll do to you." I spit out, then reach into my bag and pull out some rolled up papers and slam it against his chest, then let it drop on the ground.

"Here's your fucking report, principal." I sniff, then turn around to storm out of the office and back down the hallway, with the rest of my team joining me a few seconds later.

The elevator ride is quiet and tense, which makes me sigh softly.

What I did is stupid, but I don't care. I'm keeping my team safe, and putting my foot down against that moron.

I'm not letting him use Summer like a fucking tool for his dumb war against the immortal bitch.

"Right, your rifle got busted, didn't it…?" I hum and turn towards Summer, who blinks, then instantly sulks and pouts angrily at the elevator doors just as they open.

I chuckle softly at her adorable expression, then hum to myself. "I think I may have a spare barrel for you to use." I tell her, making her eyes glow like stars as I turn towards Glynda and Willow. "You girls wanna come with?" Glynda opens her mouth, but closes it and nervously rubs at her arm, while Willow's expression remains crestfallen.

And then she shakes her head, turns towards me, and proceeds to hug me tightly, much to my surprise.

I… The hell? What am I supposed to do now?

Why is she even hugging me!?

"Thank you for taking care of us these days." She whispers softly against my chest, tightening her hug around me in the process.

I can't help but relax and smile softly, then hug her back as Glynda sighs. "I feel like I've been an idiot, with being nervous about your… past." She gives me an apologetic look, but I just wave her worries away.

It's normal that they'd have trouble accepting my past, so I don't really mind.

I'll just annoy them later as payback.

"Me and Glynda both lived sheltered lives, so it… took us by surprise, and hit us hard." Willow sighs, breaking the hug and taking a step back away from me. "We just finally understood what being a Huntsman truly means, so…" She shrugs, and I pat her head with a small smile, making her pout cutely before I pull Glynda in a tight hug.

Her face flushes up, but she does end up hugging me back.

Heh, she tries to act cool, but deep down I know she loves getting hugs!

"As for your offer, I'll have to refuse." Willow hums out with a small smile. "Yesterday I had an idea I wanted to test out, and it requires Glynda's help." Said blonde uses that chance to slip out of my hug, then coughs into her fist to recover her cool, though her ears remain a dark red.

"This is not a ploy so that you can escape Summer's weapon obsession, is it?" Willow's smile falters as said weapon obsessed girl turns and angrily pouts towards her.

Willow chuckles nervously under Summer's pouting stare. "O-Of course not…" She gulps… then grabs Glynda and starts running away with her.

I snort, and Summer swiftly starts sulking.

I can't blame those two, it's hard to keep up with Summer when she visits a weapon store.

I smile and pat her head, then take her hand in mine and start pulling her along.

The walk out of Beacon is quiet, and I use that quiet to mull the words I had with Ozpin.

It was stupid of me to lose my cool like that, but I don't really care. He needs to learn that Summer isn't a tool in for his dumb Shadow War.

I doubt that he understood his lesson though. Summer is a Silver Eyed Warrior, so he definitely isn't going to pass that on.

Hell, would he even try to have her pump out as many children as possible, so to have an army of Silver Eyed Warriors? Would he go that far?

Something tells me that yes, he'd definitely go that fucking far without a care.

How long has he been fighting this war?

He lost who knows how many times and had who knows how many setbacks, I'm sure he'd go as far as he possibly and morally can to gain an upper hand.

"Say…" Summer speaks up, drawing my attention and making me turn to look at her downcast face. "We… We were sent on that dangerous mission because of me, weren't we?" My eyes widen at that. How the fuck did she come to that conclusion?

"Honestly, I've always felt that it was weird, but I was just too happy to come here early that I just… brushed it off." She sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose, showing emotions that I've never seen on her face.

"You told me that he let you come to Beacon early after you beat up some bad guys… What happened?" I ask, giving her hand a gentle squeeze for comfort.

She scrunches up her nose and squeezes my hand back, then sighs. "It was nothing epic or wild. I was just going back home, turned the corner, and saw these four guys robbing a store while throwing racial slurs at the poor Faunus behind the counter."

"Popped in, knocked them out easily, called the cops, then left after tying them up and making sure the store had cameras that recorded the whole thing as proof." She sighs again. "Next day I am woken up by a knock on the door, and the one who knocked? Ozpin."

"He made a comment about my eyes, invited himself in, then worded his invitation in a way that implied that I'd go to jail for vigilantism if I didn't accept. But of course back then I was too giddy to even notice." Now I really want to go back up and use the Military Grade Fire Dust on me to finish the job.

I reach over and pull her into my side. "Ignore the moron. I won't let him try any bullshit as long as I'm your leader." I do say that, but I just know the fucker will keep manipulating our missions, just be less obvious about it.

Why did he even try that on our first mission?

Was he hoping for a disaster? To cause severe emotional distress in Summer by watching her team be slaughtered by an Ancient and intelligent Grimm so to awaken her Silver Eyes?

What a fucking asshole.

I may be paranoid, but perhaps he hoped to put her in a full male team, so to hope that something sparks between 'em and well, she catches a kid.

Ah fuck it, I'm overthinking now.

Summer hums and melts against my side, a large smile on her face as I hold her tightly. She's such a cinnamon roll.

"Say, where did you get that Military Grade Dust?" She suddenly asks, her eyes sparkling brightly, but I can't help but wince at her question.

Something that unfortunately she catches.

"I don't think you want to know…" I sigh out, quite a bit disgusted with the past me and well, the whole Branwen tribe.

Summer's gaze grows hard, and she steps in front of me, grabs both of my hands, and holds my gaze with hers. "I want to." I'm gonna smooch the hell outta this adorable chick.

I bite my lower lip, then sigh through my nostrils and give up. This won't be nice.

"My tribe had a… thing, a sort of tradition you could say, where when we'd find a group of Veteran Huntsman, we wouldn't kill them. Especially if it was a small team of male and female. Ninety percent of the time, they are either married or a couple."

"We'd… torture them. Horribly. For two entire weeks, no stop torture, right in front of each other, making it so they'd keep each other sane, make it so they don't give up on us…"

"And then we break them. We'd kill the other right in front of them… then let the 'survivor' go, telling and taunting them to come get their revenge."

"They run away, and proceed to spend all of their money buying and stocking up on highly powerful weapons and Dust, then come find us once more… Not knowing that they had a tracker inside their skin."

"The moment night fell is the moment we'd fall on their camp, grab their things, and mock them before killing them."

I hold Summer's gaze, her face pale and her hands shaking. "That's how I got my hands on it. And a lot more stuff." She closes her eyes and breathes in, then releases a slow, shaky breath and manages to steady her hands.

"Why… did you leave?" She asks, and I blink in confusion at her question. "What made you stop and become the Raven I like so much?" I hum at that.

'Why?' Indeed.

Why did we ever decide to leave?

How did me and Qrow reach that agreement without ever talking about it?

"I don't know." I shrug, and Summer gives me a deadpan gaze. "I'm serious! Me and Qrow just… said 'Fuck it!' and left." She hums loudly, seemingly not trusting my words, but in the end decides to drop it and turns around, still holding one of my hands.

"So, where are you bringing me?" She asks, and I smile, quickly falling into steps with her.

"To one of my secret stashes. Gotta stock up on my Dust Blades and see I have a barrel that fits your rifle."

XxX

Summer whistles as Raven kicks some leaves out of the way, showing a hidden hatch hidden by all the bushes and surrounding trees.

Raven swiftly opens it with a grunt, a loud metallic groan echoing across the forest for a few seconds before she jumps down and turns on the light, lighting up the dark interior.

Summer jumps down right after, wincing at the stale stench around. "How'd you even build this thing?" She asks, and Raven gives her a teasing grin, making her pout, knowing that now she'll keep it a secret.

She follows her team leader down a tight and short hallway, where then Raven proceeds to kick open the rusty door at the end of it, revealing a large storage room at least four times bigger than their dorm room.

All kinds of boxes filled the large room, some open, other sealed up and covered in dust, with some tables having various weapon parts all over them.

"Weapons on the left, Dust on the right." Raven points out lazily, kicking a box open and revealing dozens of long and finely crafted Dust Blades, the same as those she always uses.

She puts down Omen on a nearby table, then brings Summer towards the side for the weapons, with the younger girl idly taking notice of a door by the other end of the room before following her friend.

"How good were the materials of your previous rifle?" Raven asks, and Summer winces slightly.

She wasn't well off, and since her mother's passing she had to work for her own money, lest she ends in the street.

She somehow managed to always find good jobs and low paying apartments, plus low prices for Low Grade Dust so to go about following her passion for Alchemy.

And for building her weapon, Moon Rose. Though the materials she used to make it were cheap, hence why her special bullet tore the barrel apart and left it as a molten piece of slug.

Not that a better barrel would have fared much better.

"Cheap materials, so not that good." She sighs out softly, planning on giving Willow a massive hug once she gets back since she planned on taking care of their Dust needs.

Not that Raven needs them since she rarely fully makes use of her Dust Blades.

And because she now knows that Raven has her own enormous stash of them.

Raven hums softly, then glances around the boxes. "Well, you need something capable of handling those things you shoot, so…" She muses, then slowly starts opening and rummaging through several boxes.

Summer watches quietly for a while, not wanting to touch anything as it's not hers, no matter how much her mind is just screaming at her to grab and analyze everything and anything.

So instead, she distracts herself with something else. "Does your brother, Qrow, also use this stash?" She asks, remembering that both Raven and Qrow are brothers and came from the same bandit group.

"Nope, this is mine. He has one, dunno where though." Now that makes Summer even more curious.

"Why not?" She asks, and Raven pauses slightly in her movements.

"In case either of us go rogue." Her team leader answers grimly, sending chills down Summer's spine. "If he goes rogue and knows where my stashes are, he could steal them, destroy them, or booby trap it and turn it into a massive bomb to kill me. Same thing if I were to go rogue." Now Summer wished she didn't ask. Damn her and her curious nature.

"Ah, here it is!" Raven pipes up, pushing some objects out of the way before grabbing a large and bulky rifle barrel, one far bigger and a bit longer than the one Summer used to have.

She blows some dust off of it and checks the inside, then hums and nods. "Needs a good cleaning, but it should do." She states before offering it to Summer, who gently takes it with large sparkling eyes. "It's for higher caliber rounds, so the kickback will be a bitch. You might want to rebuild your weapon so to make it so it can handle this bad boy."

And that's exactly the type of weapon she needs, one able to handle higher rounds with ease, especially now since she has a good supply of Dust thanks to Willow spoiling her team.

And because she has a tendency of mixing Dust together and making weapons of destruction that should really be banned.

Like the one she used against the Cenitaur.

To think that she made something of that power with Low Grade Dust…

It doesn't take long for Summer to find other suitable parts and components once Raven gave her the okay to rummage through her things and grab whatever she needs.

Hence, she spent a bit too long remaking Moon Rose, but the end result left her very giddy and eager to shoot something. But that's her default mood 90% of the time.

"I'm done!" She calls out as she folds Moon Rose, then blinks when she noticed that Raven is nowhere to be seen. "Raven?" She calls out, then blinks when she notices that the additional door in the storage room was open.

"I'm in here!" Raven's voice calls out from beyond the door, so Summer walks over and peeks in, then blinks when she notices that the door doesn't lead to an additional storage room, but to a large bedroom.

One with just a single large bed, a couch, a ton of books, a table and a large lantern lighting it up.

The room was surprisingly clean, and Raven was lazing on the couch, her gear placed on the table and her boots laying on the ground, attracting Summer's attention towards her long legs.

Damn her and her love for shorts. Raven just does them justice.

"You done?" Raven asks, a lazy smile on her face as she pats her laps, and how could Summer refuse such an invitation?

She detaches her weapon from her back and her cloak, then rests them on the table before walking up to Raven. "Yep!" She hums, then smiles brightly as she gets on top of Raven's lap, then lays down on her, melting against her as her team leader's strong arms wrap around her.

Cuddling is the best.

She hums and does her best to ignore the feeling of her breasts pressing against Raven's much bigger ones, but alas… She is a bit of a pervert, so she doesn't ignore it very well.

Her smile grows bigger as Raven kisses her forehead and runs her finger through her long hair while also caressing her back, making her feel all warm and tingly.

"We should really go back before it gets too late." Summer hums out, but curses herself for saying that as she leans more against Raven, completely in love with the warmth she gives off.

Raven shrugs with a lazy smile. "Yeah, we should…" She hums, then smirks and tightens her hug.

"I'll just cuddle you for a couple more hours first."

A.N. Thanks a lot to Eric for commissioning this chapter!

No smut, but some fluff, I didn't see a way to add smut in a way that isn't forced after what happened in the recent chapters.

Either way, hope y'all enjoy this!

Lots of love and thanks to all my s! Commissions are still open, but I haven't been feeling good these days so they might be a bit slow, my apologies.

If you wish to donate or pay for a Commission, then go on my Pat re on Samurai Cheem, and you should find a thread called 'Commissions'.

Toodles!