"So, what was your primary hunter's academy?" Leonardo asked casually as he kept his eyes forward upon the mostly empty stretch of road ahead.

"I… didn't have one," Adam admitted. He paused briefly to spin together a satisfying scenario to cover the truth. "I'm at Beacon under special recommendation. Professor Ozpin scouted me."

"Oh?" Leonardo asked, his brows raising as he spared the younger boy a quick glance of surprise. "Then you must be quite a fighter. I hear that man is… difficult to impress."

"He is, yeah," Adam agreed as he kept his attention on the trees outside of the passenger side window. "It was kinda… unexpected, to say the least. I met him while he was abroad in Vacuo."

"Ah. I'm a Vacuan, as well," Leonardo offered with a smile. "I doubt your friends have any idea just how diffi-"

The man's words were cut off by the piercing default ringtone of a scroll. The leonine faunus scrambled to fish the device from his pocket before holding it up to his ear while keeping his other hand on the wheel.

"Hello?"

Adam strained to try to catch some part of the conversation, though he found that he couldn't make out what was being said from the other side of the line. He could tell that the speaker had a deep, unfriendly voice, but the specifics of the caller's words escaped him.

"…shit," Leonardo cursed in a low voice as his usual friendly expression twisted into a heavy frown. "What do you mean 'both of them'?"

Adam returned his attention to the nearby forest, only to have his meandering thoughts interrupted as his own scroll vibrated gently within his pocket. He brought the device up to look at the screen, only to tilt his head in confusion as he found a message waiting from Taiyang.

Hey man- are you alright? Have you started heading back to Vale yet?

Adam unlocked the device and began to type as Leonardo's conversation continued on beside him.

"Right, but I thought… no, there wasn't anyone else. I swear to you, I wouldn't do something like that! You know me!"

I'm fine. We're about an hour out from Beacon, on 701. Just passed mile marker 70.

"Yes, of course. We just got on it, actually," Leonardo said cryptically as he leaned forward to look around Adam and out the passenger side window. "I'll start looking."

Adam instinctively leaned back in his seat to give his companion a better view and furrowed his brows as he looked down at Taiyang's reply.

Good. Some of the crew is on their way and pretty close to you. Don't trust Leonardo- he may have tried to get Raven killed tonight. Some guy named Hazel was waiting to ambush us on the way home. Put your scroll away, don't do anything suspicious, and just ride it out until you meet up on the road.

Adam's thumbs hovered briefly over the scroll as the vehicle began to slow down, and Leonardo narrowed his eyes as he once again leaned to look past Adam.

"I don't see you…"

No. I can take him. If he attacked Raven, he's mine.

"Right, okay. 75? Got it."

Adam Slipped his scroll back into his pocket, ignoring the frantic vibrations coming from it as the car began to slow. Eventually, the vehicle rolled to a stop, and Adam narrowed his eye as he turned to look at Leonardo.

"Something wrong?"

"Hm? Oh, no! We're picking up a friend," the man explained with a wide smile. "He was out hiking in the area, and I offered to give him a ride back to Vale for drinks."

"Did you?" Adam asked disinterestedly as he rested a hand upon the hilt of his katana, which was wedged between his seat and the central armrest. "I don't remember you doing so."

Leonardo's smile faltered again for only a moment before his face lit up with a familiar and all too eager grin.

"Oh, well… it was his idea, actually, I mean, I agreed to pick him up, a-"

Adam jumped as the door to the back seat suddenly opened, only for a behemoth of a man to slip inside with a frustrated groan.

"Hey," Hazel's voice boomed throughout the vehicle as it began to move once again.

"Hey," Leonardo replied as he locked eyes with the man in the rearview mirror and stepped on the gas. "Good to see you."

"Yeah, I bet it is," Hazel replied as he folded his arms across his chest. The man nodded toward the back of Adam's seat, his expression unreadable. "Adam, right?"

Adam swallowed hard as he lifted his hand from Wilt and lightly placed it back in his lap.

"…yes. And… you're Leonardo's friend, right?"

"Right," Hazel confirmed. "Hope it isn't any trouble."

"No," Adam replied quickly as his pocket continued to vibrate. "No trouble at all…"


The bitter cold air bit at Raven's bare arms as she emerged from the portal. The crunch of densely packed snow beneath her feet brought back memories both pleasant and unwelcome as she looked around herself, finding the scenery familiar. A mountain path of logs embedded into the snow-covered dirt led upward at a sharp angle, and large wooden towers were barely visible beyond the rocky outcrops far above.

"This is it," Raven said breathlessly as she brushed her hair from her eyes. The freezing wind of the mountaintop immediately brought the strands back into her face, and she worked at moving them aside once again as she walked forward. "This is home…"

"Yeah, if you put 'home' in the biggest air quotes imaginable," Qrow quipped as he moved to stand at his sister's side.

Maria made an amused noise as she stopped just behind the twins, her smirk just barely visible beneath her skull-shaped half-mask.

"I know that feeling all too well. We'll need a game plan… and I also need to know that you're up to this, Raven. You looked like you'd been through a war before our little spat back at Beacon."

Raven slowly turned and faced the professor, though her attention fixated upon Professor Ozpin instead. The man stood next to the blood red portal as it slowly closed, his hands atop the head of his cane while the point was hidden down in the snow.

"I… was out on a job," Raven admitted. "I guess keeping secrets doesn't matter, anymore. We've all been taking side jobs this semester, and something finally went wrong. It was only a matter of time."

"I am aware," Professor Ozpin said plainly as he slipped the cane upward and grasped its center with one hand. "I've known for quite some time."

"…you have?" Qrow asked while blinking away flecks of snow from his eyes.

"Ever since the robbery that some of your number thwarted in downtown Vale City, members of the faculty have been watching the streets rather closely- Professor Calavera among them," the headmaster answered as he closed the distance between himself and the teens.

"We know about Johnathon… or 'Jacques', as he prefers to be called, now," Maria added. "We also know which members of STRQ and OKRA have been running jobs for him."

"Yet you didn't stop us," Raven said flatly. "Why?"

"Many reasons, actually, and we'll discuss the smaller ones in time," Professor Ozpin answered as he moved beyond the pack and cast his eyes up the mountain path. "The primary one, though, was to get a decent measure of your skills while you're not restricted by arbitrary rules. That way, if an opportunity like this arrived, we would know whether or not you would be fit to get involved directly."

"…you couldn't have planned this," Qrow protested. "I'm calling bullshit."

"No, of course not," the headmaster agreed as he looked back over his shoulder. "However, I do like keeping my options open… and we knew we would have to deal with the pair of you one way or another before the year was out. Fortunately… it seems that we've reached the best possible scenario, far beyond what I could have hoped for. Now, we simply need to capitalize on the opportunity offered to us."

"Professor?" Raven asked, her voice wavering slightly. She waited for the man to turn around and face her fully before continuing. "What… exactly are we planning to do, here? Are we going to kill him? You're in this to protect yourself, right?"

"You're close, yes," Professor Ozpin replied with a nod. "But this isn't about 'protecting myself', Raven. Your father- your clan has become the wardens of a powerful artifact. The item in question is far too dangerous to leave with a man such as Arowana, and so, our primary goal is actually to secure it… once we find it."

"The door," Qrow said immediately. "There's a door in the central temple, behind his throne. It's made of some sort of golden metal and has a woman in chains embossed on the front of it. He carries the key, and no one is allowed inside. It's gotta be there."

Professor Ozpin exchanged a meaningful look with Maria, and the woman nodded as she moved to stand.

"That's likely the vault we're looking for, then. We should move to secure the relic as quickly as possible and dispose of your father in the process. Then, the two of you will be free, the relic will be under our protection, and we can go from there. It's a net positive for everyone... and all of Remnant. Did your father ever make mention of using it?" Maria asked.

"No," Raven replied immediately. "He never told us what was behind that door, but he did say that it should never be used."

"Then we're in luck," Professor Ozpin offered. "But to be absolutely clear… there is no backing down from this once we reach the gates. Are you ready and willing to do what needs to be done?"

"I've been ready for years," Qrow affirmed as he turned his attention to Raven. "I want to be free. I want Beacon and all it stands for to be real to us."

Raven took a long, deep inhale as she hugged her arms and kept her eyes downward upon the snow.

"…I'm… ready," Raven said slowly. "All of our lives, there have been no other options than the ones ordered to us. There has been no family outside of Those Above All for us, and no future beyond one of mindless, targeted killings. We were trained, beaten, and broken into becoming ruthless machines, until Qrow unlocked his semblance…and then suddenly, he was no longer good enough. We were told that our blood made us special, and that as Arowana's children, we were destined to lead the clan one day… but that 'special blood' suddenly meant nothing the moment Qrow became an inconvenience."

Qrow moved closer to his sister and put a hand upon her freezing shoulder, only for the girl to shake her head as she kept her eyes downcast and continued to speak.

"He tried so hard to keep me loyal and build me up as some kind of avenging force, and his eventual successor. He wanted to sever the ties between Qrow and I and reverse everything he had taught us about family the second that Qrow posed a threat to him. But… I'm a good student, and always I take lessons to heart. I couldn't just cast my brother aside like that and focus only upon myself. I refused to believe that I had been lied to, and that it had all been manipulation. Because of that, I grew closer to my brother… but also closer to Arowana's teachings. Closer to the mission of serving the clan. I deluded myself into thinking there was no other path, and that someday, all of it would make sense. All of it could be changed, once I was finally in a position of power, and all of it would come back around and tie itself together in a neat little bow. I wanted it all to somehow be true, and figure out that I was just misinterpreting his orders to distance myself from Qrow."

"…but then we met Summer and Tai," Qrow added as he gave Raven's shoulder a squeeze.

"…yes, we did," Raven agreed with a ghost of a smile. "And that changed everything. I've been fighting against the idea that there could be any other fate for us beyond what Arowana planned. I couldn't convince myself to break away and trust in a different path. But, over time… it's all started to wear me down and make me question ideas that have been beaten into me since I was a little girl. That friction only made me fight harder, and close myself off even more. Now, though? Standing here, and knowing what I know? Having the family that I have with STRQ, OKRA, and Willow, and seeing what could be? I'm ready to fight back against it and take the future into my own hands. I don't care what I look like right now. I don't care that I'm exhausted, my nerves are shredded, and that facing him is going to be the most difficult fight of my life. I'm willing to stand up to him, and I'm willing to die for something greater than what that man put on offer for us if need be… on one condition."

"And what would that be?" Professor Ozpin asked as he inclined his head downward to lock eyes with Raven over the rims of his glasses.

"…never call him 'our father' again. He doesn't deserve that title," Raven spat. "He's Arowana, and nothing more."

Professor Ozpin offered the girl a silent nod before turning and looking up the mountain path once again.

"As you wish. Steel yourselves. The real fight begins the moment they know we're here."

Qrow transitioned his hand down to grasp Raven's, and found that her fingers tightly encircled his the moment that they touched.

"…c'mon, sis. Let's do this."

Raven narrowed her eyes as they set out together at a brisk pace.

"Let's."


Author's Note:

A short chapter, but don't expect that trend to continue. There are three more chapters in Volume 1, and the next two are going to be loaded with action and insanity. The last one will be much more chill and likely on the short side, but we'll get there when we get there. For now, though, look forward to the biggest and most complicated fights in the story yet, as well as a few more surprises that will start to reveal where this is all going.

-RD