The grinding sound of steel against steel joined the howling wind that echoed around the mountaintop. Qrow grit his teeth as sparks flew from Harbinger while it ground along his opponent's sword at an upward angle. Finally, the boy spun and crouched down to one knee in the snow before flicking the blade of his weapon backward and firing off a series of rapid shells into his attacker's stomach. The other man's aura pulsed a gentle blue just before the last shot crashed into his abdomen, and then he fell face-first into the snow, unmoving.

"You alright over there, Branwen!?" came a call from a fair distance away.

Qrow turned his head during his momentary reprieve of combat to see Maria Calavera embroiled in a two-on-one duel with two men wielding spears. The woman deftly looped one of her scythes' blades around the shaft of one guard's weapon before using her body as leverage to snap the head clean off, while repelling the other combatant's assault all the while.

"I'm fine!" Qrow yelled back as he turned in place to survey his surroundings. "Just… keep your distance, Professor! I don't want my semblance triggering against you!"

"Yell if you need help! No shame in calling for assistance!" Maria replied before driving a hooked blade straight through the chest of one of her attackers. She slipped the blade out of his ribcage as easily as it had gone in, and her foe was replaced with two more that leapt from the nearby rooftops almost immediately. "No one at your age is fully prepared for something like this!"

Qrow considered the words carefully as he whipped his head back around, only to find himself facing down two guards. One of the men carried a tower shield and mace, while the other held a rifle with a long bayonet. Both were clad in the same robes and armor as the other defenders of the mountaintop, though the man with the mace had long, dark brown hair framing his otherwise masked face. The sight gave Qrow pause as his grip upon Harbinger faltered ever so slightly.

"…Thrush…?" the boy asked uncertainly, only for his opponent to raise his shield and hold his mace out more aggressively.

"…you made your choice, Qrow," came the muffled reply from behind the mask. "Orders are orders."

Qrow paled at the sound of the other man's voice, and noticed a second too late that the unaddressed guard had readied his rifle. A shot rang out and slammed into Qrow's chest, causing him to hobble backward as his aura pulsed an angry red. He looked up and tried to raise Harbinger to block the inevitable follow-up shot, only for the man's rifle to jam.

"Shit!" the guard yelled as he hurriedly worked at fixing his firearm.

In the meantime, the guard named Thrush let out a yell and charged for Qrow, while the teen returned the battle cry and moved forward to engage his former friend.


Raven grit her teeth as she deflected yet another spear point, backpedaling all the while. She was vaguely aware of Arowana circling the open floor of the temple, his weapon trailing sizzling smoke as he held it in a reverse grip.

"Hm," the old patriarch mused as he finally came to a stop. In one smooth motion, he transferred his sword to his other hand while pulling his dominant arm into his sleeve. Suddenly, he thrust the arm up and out of his robe, letting half of the upper portion and its sleeve dangle behind him before shifting his weapon back to his right hand. "Keep Ozma occupied, for a moment. I'll deal with Raven first."

Professor Ozpin bristled at the instructions and flourished his cane to knock back the spear of one of the two guards that had chosen to engage him.

"Raven, don't fight him alone! I'm coming to you!"

Raven let out a growl as she took a quick swing at one of the guards she had started to duel, only for the man to leap backward and begin to run for Professor Ozpin. The second guard took the initiative to stab toward her before turning and following his companion, leaving Raven wide open in the center of the temple floor. She had only a second to breathe before her father appeared above her, dropping from a cloud of swirling smoke and holding his formless blade overhead. He slashed downward as he fell, and the girl barely managed to get clear of the strike before the man touched the ground. There on the stone floor where the gaseous blade had hit was a bright red streak of heated rock, the surface sizzling angrily in protest.

"…you've gotten faster, daughter."

"Personal connections with professors who care about their students go a long way toward helping someone learn," Raven spat as she sheathed her sword and drew forth a cerulean blade.

Arowana let out a malicious laugh as he stole a quick glance at Professor Ozpin, who was weaving and blinking in and out of range of the three remaining spears that were constantly assaulting him. One of the guards had already been dispatched, and Arowana smirked at the sight.

"Is that what they've been teaching you?"

"I'm not here to talk," Raven barked. "And I'm not scared of you. Not anymore."

Arowana lightly ran his free hand along his wispy beard as he turned to face his daughter fully once again. His steel blue eyes seemed to pierce right through Raven, and her heart stopped momentarily as he spoke in a voice of eerie calm.

"…yes, you are."

Raven swept her sword upward in a rising slash in the space between herself and her father, scattering a rapidly expanding wall of ice in midair. The wall began to liquify the moment Arowana's sword ripped through the area, and Raven could feel an unstable, dangerous heat against her arm as the translucent blade passed just by her flesh. She cried out as she reached out with a simple thrust, only for Arowana to easily sidestep the effort and slam the hilt of his sword into her back, sending her to the floor on her hands and knees.

"Predictable. I expect better of you," Arowana snapped.

Raven rolled to the side just as the extended trail of smoke crashed into the ground once again, but she was too slow to get completely clear of the impact. The roiling gas crashed down against her left arm, causing her aura to flicker violently before the ever-present shield of energy broke open along the area. Raven screamed in agony as she felt her flesh began to sear, and she dragged herself sideways along the floor to get clear of the torturing sensation as quickly as she could.

"Raven!"

A sickening crack rang out within the main hall of the temple before another guard fell to the floor. Before either Arowana or Raven could move, Professor Ozpin was rocketing through the air in a series of afterimages, his cane held behind himself as he drew his arm up and around his other shoulder. Arowana disappeared within a puff of smoke from his pipe just as the headmaster landed with a forceful blow, only to reappear between his two remaining guards. He watched with amusement as Raven struggled to return to a standing position, her breathing ragged and face streaked with sweat as trails of steam rose from her arm.

"Perhaps I overestimated you as threat, Raven," the man taunted as he bent and picked up the spear of one of his fallen guards. "Your semblance was powerful enough to bring you to me, which should have been impossible… but it won't help you survive this fight."

Raven let out a shuddering cry of pain as Professor Ozpin helped her to her feet. She looked down at her left arm with a horrified expression and whimpered softly at the sight. The flesh was impossibly shiny and smooth, with patches and whorls of bright red all around her bicep. Even the act of simply flexing the limb caused shooting pain up her entire arm, and the area around the wound appeared waxy. Her aura was beginning to thin as it gently encroached over the burned area once again, though the effort did little to soothe her pain. She swallowed hard as she tried to focus through the throbbing agony, and secured Omen's sheath to her belt before raising her icy blade toward her father with one hand.

"You said I was worthy with no semblance, not too long ago. Tonight, I'm going to prove you right."


Qrow stared down at the motionless bodies before himself, his mind entirely blank. The chill of the mountain air felt as though it had permeated all the way to his core, and the distant sound of his professor's scythes clashing against other weaponry didn't fully register to him. It wasn't until he saw the lifeless eyes of his former friend that the gravity of the situation caught up to him, and he found himself paralyzed.

Suddenly, the whizzing noise of a flying scythe snapped Qrow back to a focused state as the weapon flew past his ear, missing his head by mere inches. The projectile sank into the shoulder of an armed guard that Qrow hadn't even realized was right in front of him until that moment, and the man grabbed at the weapon with a howl of pain. Unthinking, Qrow took the opportunity to dash forward and push the scythe deeper into the man's shoulder, before shoving him to the ground and embedding Harbinger into his stomach with a downward thrust. Blood sputtered from the guard's mouth as he cried out in pain, and then he was still.

"Get your head in the game!" Maria yelled from a closer proximity than Qrow thought possible.

Qrow's breathing quickened as he whipped his head around, only to find Maria standing with her back nearly touching his own. Out in front of her was a trail of corpses, and one of the nearby buildings was burning out of control.

"I… I-I'm sorry," Qrow said nervously as he yanked the scythe from the fallen corpse and handed it back to the older woman. "I knew one of them. I grew up w-"

"No," Maria interrupted. "You grew up with who they used to be. They chose who they became, just as you did, and in your time apart, they became someone else. Let your pleasant memories be memories, and get the job done. Otherwise, you'll be incapable of protecting yourself. Honestly, it looks like you're already there."

"…right," Qrow agreed as he readied his sword and looked out ahead of himself for more targets. "But… still, I… Professor, I'm worried."

"About Raven?" the woman asked as she looked over her shoulder at Qrow.

"…yeah. I have a bad feeling. It's a twin thing, it's…"

"Damn it," Maria hissed before turning on her heel and walking past Qrow. "I can handle the rest on my own! We fight to the top of the steps, and I won't allow anyone but you into that temple!"

Qrow didn't bother to reply as he ran after the whirl of blades before him, his mind fixated on the other battle occurring only a few hundred feet away.


Raven circled around Professor Ozpin and Arowana as they remained locked in combat, each of their semblances firing off constantly throughout the fight. The headmaster seemed to blink and shift impossibly through time itself, scoring glancing blows here and there upon the older man. Arowana managed to deftly avoid most of the strikes through use of his own semblance, his body breaking into trailing wisps of smoke and reassembling as Professor Ozpin's cane passed harmlessly through him. Every time Arowana turned his attention back to his daughter, Professor Ozpin blocked her off, seemingly arriving at the last second to distract the other man or move her out of the way.

All the while, the two living guards stared Raven down from the other side of the conflict, each still clad in swirling armor of smoke in addition to their plate mail. Raven did her best to match their movements by circling in the opposite direction as they sought an opening, but she knew that their dance couldn't go on forever. Suddenly, Arowana leaped backward as Professor Ozpin shifted through thin air to chase him, and Raven ran for one of the guards with a furious yell.

The man was caught off guard by the girl's sudden advance, and he barely managed to get his spear up in time to block the furious series of strikes that Raven began to batter him with. Just as the guard thrust the shaft of his spear upward in anticipation of another blow, Raven quickly sheathed her icy blade and pulled out one of saffron color. She dipped beneath a spear thrust from the guard's companion and bashed her sword hard upon her primary opponent's metal shoulder guard, causing electricity to sizzle and dance along the man's shoulder and neck. It wasn't long before he took several steps backward and fell to the floor in a twitching heap, only for his counterpart to circle around Raven and try to strike at her injured arm.

The strike with the butt of the man's spear impacted her wound, and a pain unlike any she had ever felt caused her vision to dance with black dots and swirling patterns. A budding feeling of nausea and the need to fall unconscious washed over her in a wave of uncomfortable pins and needles, and for a moment, she thought that she would vomit and collapse on the spot. Raven barely managed to save herself from falling by taking several steps forward, only for a quick series of gunshots to ring out from near the temple entrance. Raven looked up from her haze of pain to see Qrow standing before the rapidly closing doors, with Harbinger's muzzles smoking. The guard beside Raven collapsed to the floor, several gunshot wounds on his leg oozing blood as he began to drag himself away from her while desperately stabbing for her neck with his spear.

Raven's pain seemed to dull as she was gripped by a sudden, overwhelming rage. As another thrust came her way, she swiped Omen through the air and cleaved the head of the spear cleanly from its shaft. The man before her had no time to speak before Raven descended upon him and raked Omen across his throat, robbing him of his final words. Raven remained crouched over the man as he gasped and gurgled to hold on to life for as long as he could, and she found herself shivering feverishly from a combination of factors. All the same, she forced herself into a standing position and held her sword aloft, surveying the room as the sounds of battle rang out all around her.

"Are you alright?" Qrow called from his place standing over the electrocuted guard. The boy pulled Harbinger from the corpse's chest before rushing over to his sister and quickly looking her over. "We need to get out of here. We're not ready for this…"

"No," Raven insisted as she looked over her brother's shoulder to where Arowana and Professor Ozpin were still fiercely locked in combat. "We have to help him. We have to fight."

"I'm getting you out of here," Qrow insisted as he gripped his sister's shoulder. "This artifact, this secret war, or whatever it is, this is on Ozpin, or whoever he really is. We got him here and gave him the tools. I'm not letting you risk your life even more!"

"…he ruined yours," Raven said simply as she shivered once again. "And now, with an opportunity to end this permanently, you want to walk away?"

"…if it keeps you alive, I will."

Qrow turned and stood beside his sister as he followed her gaze. He watched silently for a moment as Arowana used his stolen spear to deflect Professor Ozpin's cane before sweeping his formless sword through where the man stood. The headmaster disappeared a moment too late and reappeared off to the side, his dark coat sizzling as the enchanted smoke began to eat its way up the fabric. Professor Ozpin shuffled out of the garment and cast it aside without a word as Arowana finally caught sight of Qrow, and his eyes narrowed.

"…the prodigal son returns," the man mused. "And it would seem the pair of you managed to relieve me of my entourage. It matters little- there are many more ready to come when called…"

"They can't," Qrow said firmly as he began to advance. "The temple door is being guarded by a professional huntress." He paused and took a deep breath before looking to his sister and having a silent conversation in the span of only a few seconds. "…it's the three of us against you, and we're not going anywhere."

Arowana's lip curled into a confident smirk at the boy's words.

"You're looking worse for wear, Raven, in both body and mind. You look like you don't even want to be here, yet your misguided affection for your brother compels you to remain."

The patriarch slowly backed his way up the steps toward his throne as the teens moved to stand beside their headmaster.

"And Ozma- we both know that time dilation is a rare, powerful, and costly semblance. For how much longer can you keep it up? As long as I can maintain my supply of smoke?" Arowana asked as he tossed his spear to the bottom of the steps and brought his pipe to his lips once more.

"You're stalling," Qrow accused as he watched his father blow out a steady stream of dangerous, dark grey clouds. "You know you can't handle all three of us at once."

"…and then there's you," Arowana continued as he brought his pipe down to his side. "Just how long do you think it will be before your semblance gets one of them killed? How close can you stand to your allies before you become their enemy?"

The trio paused momentarily as Qrow narrowed his eyes up at Arowana. Without a word, he led the charge forward, and snapped back Harbinger's blade in mid-swing to fire off rounds for his father. Arowana's body swirled with smoke as the bullets passed straight through him, only for Professor Ozpin to grab the man's arm holding his pipe from the side and put it into a lock around his cane. Raven grit her teeth as she ran up the steps, Omen's hilt pressed firmly to its sheath as she rotated the mechanism to draw out a blade for the killing blow while Arowana was momentarily immobilized.

A second later, as she drew forth an empty hilt, she realized that the rotating mechanism had landed on her one missing blade.

The thrust of Arowana's smoke-lined sword was swift and merciless, tearing through Raven's hair and grazing her head as she tried to dodge at the last second. She could feel the flesh on the side of her face begin to sizzle as her aura flashed and shattered, and her scream of pain was stolen from her as Arowana's foot impacted her chest. She could feel several ribs shatter as she was thrown backward down the steps, only to watch the man rake his blade along Qrow's chest, tearing his shirt open and leaving a searing welt. Qrow, too, fell backward down the steps and off to one side as Professor Ozpin tried to break Arowana's arm, only for the man to disappear entirely. Professor Ozpin let out a frustrated growl as he frantically searched the room, only to finally catch sight of the man.

Arowana stood over Qrow, his pipe once again replaced by a borrowed spear. The implement's point was touching the boy's throat, a bead of blood already forming beneath the metal.

"One move, Ozma, and it ends," Arowana warned as he turned his body away from Qrow and locked eyes with the man at the top of the steps. "Do not test me."

Professor Ozpin stood very still as he weighed his options. He watched as Raven writhed in pain on the floor a good twenty feet behind and to the right of Arowana, clutching her face as she drew her knees into her chest.

"…what is it that you want?" the headmaster asked in a calm tone as he met the patriarch's eyes. "They may be legally adults, but they have no idea of the conflict they've gotten themselves into. These are children, in the grand scheme of things. Your children."

Arowana bristled at the words, hesitating as he held the other man's gaze without blinking.

Arowana's reply wasn't clear to Raven as she kept her eyes closed and simply tried to fight through the pain. She knew she had to will herself to move, and she knew exactly what needed to be done. The overwhelming, all-encompassing pain coursing through her body seemed to rob her of any ability to move, though still she tried to find something, anything to hold on to and allow herself to push forward. Her breathing quickened as she thought of her brother, and what was likely to happen to him if she didn't get up and move.

She thought of Kali, and the girl's playful smile and insistence on becoming her 'bestie' despite being met with resistance for weeks. She thought of Summer, and the girl's cryptic words and allusions that they were both meant for something greater. She thought of Adam looking at her as any student would regard a highly respected instructor, hungry for knowledge and full of admiration. She thought of Taiyang's cheerful smile, and at that, felt one last, tiny spark ignite within her, which she latched onto desperately like a fraying lifeline. Raven sucked in one last deep breath as she felt her aura weakly coalesce around her once again, and then, she moved.

Arowana and Professor Ozpin's words seemed to blur together to Raven as she stood up as quickly as she could, running on pure adrenaline and panic. She drew a blade of deep purple from Omen's sheath as she began to run away from Arowana, giving momentary pause to the man as he turned his head and watched in confusion. As she took another step, a swirling, blood red portal appeared before her, and within it, she could see Arowana's back. As she stepped through the door across space and time, she let out a feral yell and struck out with a thrust that sapped every last bit of her energy. The unmistakable sound of a shattering aura and steel rending through flesh filled her ears as she appeared standing right next to her fallen brother, with Omen impaled through her father's chest from behind.

Raven shook violently as she drove the blade in deeper, and Arowana's spear fell harmlessly onto Qrow's chest before rolling onto the floor beside him.

"You were wrong," Raven spat through clenched teeth as she placed her mouth directly beside her father's ear. "About Qrow. About my semblance. About everything."

Arowana lifted a shaky hand and tried to grip the blade of Raven's sword as he began to foam at the mouth. His voice came out strained as he lightly touched the steel, unable to wrench it free from his chest cavity.

"You… have no idea… what that man…"

Raven let out another cry of frustration as she tore Omen back out of her father's chest. Arowana collapsed to the floor, the smoky trail that made up his overly long weapon dissipating immediately as he hit the ground. The man twitched and spasmed as the venom from Raven's blade coursed through his system, and seconds later, he was still upon the temple floor.

"Raven!" Qrow yelled as the girl collapsed forward and began to sob. He barely managed to catch his sister as her weapon clattered to the floor, and he hissed as her weight fell squarely onto his burned chest. "Raven, don't move!"

Professor Ozpin rushed down the steps to the twins, before bending low near the girl as her portal closed beside him.

"Raven, I need to see your injuries. Are you in immediate danger?"

The girl coughed and sputtered as she raised her head to look up at the man. He reached out and gently brushed her hair from her face, only to find extensive damage across her previously flawless features. The flesh of her entire right cheek, jawline, neck, and ear was marred and twisted from where Arowana's sword had hit her. The skin on the side of her face appeared almost melted, though the wounded area stopped just barely below her right eye.

"I… my ribs… a-and arm…" Raven sputtered as she clung desperately to Qrow. "Just hurry…"

Professor Ozpin clenched his jaw and nodded, before moving to inspect Arowana's body. He began searching the man's robes before pulling up an ornate golden key on a leather strap and holding it aloft.

"I'll return shortly, and then assist Maria. Qrow, keep her safe, and get her to her feet, if you can. Raven… I need you to make one last push, to get us out of here. Can you do that for me?"

Raven sniffled and nodded, before throwing her arm around Qrow's shoulder as Professor Ozpin ran for the hallway behind the throne.

"H-help me stand…"

"…Raven… thank you," Qrow said softly as he helped his sister to his feet. "You were incredible. You are incredible, and we're almost out of here. We're going home, you just have to focus."

"I… I don't even know how I do it," Raven admitted as she closed her eyes. "I feel like I'm going to pass out."

"And you can, the second we get home," Qrow reassured. "It seems like… your portals connect to people you care about, don't they? You brought us here to… him, and you brought yourself to me. That makes sense, doesn't it? Think of Taiyang. Get us home, through him."

Raven did as instructed and focused all of her thoughts on her teammate. She squinted her eyes shut as tightly as she could and let memories of their time together play out as she focused on her aura.

"Qrow, I can't…"

"You can," the boy encouraged as he gave his sister a squeeze. "You're the only one who can…"

Qrow looked up as Professor Ozpin reappeared in the main hall of the temple. In his left hand, he carried an odd-looking spherical object seemingly made of an expensive-looking blue stone, with golden accents forming filigree wings on either side. At the top of the sphere was a circular handle, giving the object the appearance of a sort of ornate lamp.

"Is that what we came for?" Qrow asked as Raven opened her eyes and followed his gaze.

"It is," Professor Ozpin confirmed. "Any progress?"

"We're getting there," Qrow replied. "Focus, Raven. You've got this…"

Raven closed her eyes once again and pushed all of her mental energy toward Taiyang. Upon opening them, she saw a tall portal of swirling red beginning to open before her.


Author's Note:

One more chapter in Volume 1. This has been one hell of a ride, and this chapter was not easy to write at all. Hopefully the next is a bit smoother in terms of the process.

-RD