Winter knew that this was going to be rough. Standing next to Qrow in the clearing, weapons drawn, it was clear that they were substantially outnumbered, even if few of these bandits were a serious threat to trained Huntsmen—much less an elite Specialist—but their numbers and knowledge of the terrain made them a threat. And then there was Raven…
She seemed so self-assured as she stepped forward in her ridiculous mask. Qrow had told Winter they wouldn't be able to ambush her, but that she'd know they were coming and probably meet them with a show of force of their own. Which, Qrow explained, was good—it'd give them a chance to talk, even among all the posturing. Still, being told that this would happen was different from experiencing it.
"Specialist Schnee. And my brother..." she began, obviously savoring the moment, "What could bring you to visit me? Asking for the Tribe's blessing for your nuptials?"
As a trained Specialist and a Schnee woman, she'd gone through a lot that made her understand the value of iron discipline and total self control. Few things in this world could break Winter's cool.
But implying an attraction, much less a relationship, with Qrow Branwen was one of them.
"You know why we're here, bandit! Give us the-"
Qrow pulled her back with an annoyed look. Winter tried to scowl at him, but… she knew she'd been got the better of. Still, how dare she suggest they- they-
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down (and ignoring the tittering laughs of the assembled bandits), she let Qrow take the lead. But still—she had been on edge ever since she learned that her sister was dating this- this unknown variable, and now she'd spent a week traveling with Branwen. Winter's reserves of patience were legendary. They were also exhausted.
"Come on, Rae!" Qrow hollered, "Even for you, this is weird, stupid, and needlessly aggressive! Just give the kid back and go back to whatever it is you do out here."
"Maintain the family business?" she quipped back. This was already annoying to begin with and now Winter was seriously wondering how long she could wait for the Ace-Ops to get here before she just started blasting, just to shut everyone up. "Besides, I wouldn't want to turn the boy over so soon," she smirked in a way that really made Winter want backup, "Not before everyone's had a chance to arrive..."
Qrow sighed, a deep and weary noise, "Gods- I- Rae, come on, this is just like when we were kids and you had to make a production of everything. You've got us out here, we've got money, you've won. Just give us the-"
"Oh, look, they're right on time..."
Winter's eyes flicked to where Raven was looking, to see a group of… students? Coming out of the woods, armed and ready. And some… very familiar faces…
Oh no. Oh, no.
"Ruby? Wait- Yang?" Qrow asked in sudden horror, "Oh hell, Raven, did you-"
"Weiss?" Winter gasped, "What are- Is this-"
"Jaune is my boyfriend," Weiss said in a tone commanding enough that Winter struggled not to feel a little emotional, "And I expect you, Raven Branwen, to hand him over before I have to introduce you to what a 'hostile takeover' means."
"How terrifying," the bandit queen nonchalantly replied.
Pyrrha Nikos, of all people, stepped forward with a vicious growl. "If that's not enough… my Lord tasked me with," wait what, "removing your head from your shoulders, witch. I am going to skin you alive-"
"We all have reasons to want to start shooting you," the girl in fashionable sunglasses and carrying a minigun said to Raven, "And we'll be here all day if we list them, so how about you just hand Arc over before we drop enough firepower here to level the forest. Also, that mask? Hideous, there is no way to make that thing work."
Raven removed the mask to scowl at the girl. "It's ceremonial, you brat."
"Show of hands, anyone actually like it?" The girl glanced to the bandits, "That includes you guys, too..."
A brown haired bandit glanced awkwardly to Raven. "It's… it's not your best look..."
Raven scowled at everyone before resuming her look of superior disdain at them. "Well, anyways, besides my mask, I'm sure you all have very many fine reasons to want to take the prize… but do you all have the same outcome in mind? Once he's out of my hands, well, are you ready to make sure he doesn't end up with your so-called 'friends?'"
"That's dumb, Rae!" Qrow argued, "We're not idiots, we're not going to fight over who gets to rescue him before-"
"He belongs in Atlesian custody," Winter growled, "We know he's more than just a Beacon student and global security demands-"
"You will not touch him," Nikos—who was apparently a cultist of Salem—spat, "No matter how much Atlesian blood I have to spill to keep him safe, I swore by St. Tock-"
Weiss threw up her hands. "Guys, we are literally doing the thing she just-"
"There's too much talking and not enough shooting!" the orange haired girl with the grenade launcher shouted.
But they were all cut off by an unexpected voice.
"This is why you don't send a girl to do a woman's job."
Wait… was that… violin music? Was somebody making an entra-
She was cut off as, indeed, somebody made a dramatic entrance. In a swirl of dancing sparks, a woman in a red dress stepped forward from the forest, presenting herself more like a catwalk model than… whatever she was supposed to be as behind her, a green haired girl played the violin (?) and a gray haired boy just… looked somewhat bored- who were these people?
"Stand down, Nikos. Let the adults handle this," she said with an arrogant smirk.
"Cinder..." Pyrrha growled, "We have this in hand. I am his bodyguard, it is my duty to-"
"Wait, hold on, time out," a monkey Faunus from Weiss's group jumped forward, "I am so lost. Can we all just introduce ourselves and explain what our deal is? I'll start: I'm Sun, and-"
"I'll introduce my fist to your face!"
Winter whirled to see even more idiots now joining this party. Three Mistralian youths, who Winter wasn't even going to pretend to care about, entered the clearing looking as angry as Winter felt right now.
"Oh, hey guys!" the mostly-shirtless blond waved, oblivious to the anger on clear display, "Did Lionheart send you to-"
He was cut off, though, as one yelled, "You ditched us at Haven you jag! Do you have any idea how much paperwork team leaders are supposed to do for the Vytal? And Neptune is totally useless for- dammit Neptune!"
"Hey there," the blue haired boy seemed to have teleported next to Weiss. Winter had no idea how he managed to do that without her noticing, but more so, his… flirtatious manner enraged her, to see him so casual with her sister. "Can I just say, I have never seen a Snow Angel in such a warm-"
"I'm here to rescue my boyfriend," she growled.
He raised his hand in an apologetic gesture. "Hey, I respect your no, Neptune Vasilias finds nothing sexier than consent. But as for you," he turned to the next girl, the blonde one Weiss had complained about so much, "You interested in getting a personal tour of Haven, and then maybe a little bite to eat?"
"Well, damn, I do like your confidence..."
"Gods dammit Yang!" the dark-haired Faunus girl cut in, "I swear, we are in a hostage crisis and you're trying to-"
"Guuuuuuuuuys!" Ruby Rose, Weiss's partner, interjected, "You're making us look bad in front of the Bandit Queen!"
Said Bandit Queen merely shot them all a satisfied grin. "Oh dear, is Summer's brat upset about my failure of a-"
"That's too far, Rae!" Qrow suddenly exploded, a level of anger and directness that shocked Winter to hear it, "I know you've got your issues with Summer and Tai, but for Brothers' sake, they're just kids! It's not their fault you can't go to therapy like a normal godsdamned person!"
"Oh you're one to talk!" Raven spat, the first time Winter had seen her fully lose her mask of composure, "Oh, boo-hoo, how many times did you come crying to me because the woman you were in love with was in love with your best friend!"
"Wait, what?" Ruby asked, "Uncle Qrow, are you-"
"Ummm, I don't want to interrupt, but…" a rabbit-eared Faunus spoke up, only to immediately turn a furious red as everyone looked at her. "I, um, I… there's another person who's here now? I'm sorry! You can go back to fighting now! I won't interrupt again!"
Everyone turned to see… a man. Brown haired, and with a long scorpion tail revealing him to be a Faunus. He was cut up by brambles and had a wild look in his eyes. He did not seem… stable.
"Unhand the captive, you blaggards!" the scorpion Faunus—wait, was that wanted fugitive Tyrian Callows?—roared at the three Mistralian teenagers.
"No, no!" the orange-haired girl cut in, "They're cool, it's the dark haired lady-"
"Cinder?" he asked in shock, "You traitor! After all-"
Cinder placed a hand over her face. "No, you incredible buffoon, Raven Branwen! We've been briefed on her! She has the Spring Maiden-"
"She is the Spring Maiden," Pyrrha Nikos quickly cut in, revealing surprisingly critical intelligence that nobody but Winter apparently cared about.
"She's the one who kidnapped Jaune. So follow your idiot niece's direction and fight..."
But her words trailed off as even Winter felt the air grow cold and merciless.
"What did you just say," he growled.
Cinder stared back at Tyrian, unphased by the look of molten fury barely constrained behind his face. "Oh?" she asked, "Did I hurt your feelings when I told you that your precious little brats bungled their assignment? Did it feel bad? Like losing months of work and seeing your destiny robbed from you just so a teenager could flirt? You and your idiotic cult have set me back too much for me to hold back now!"
A vein on his forehead bulged. Winter didn't know what history these two had, but this seemed to be well over the line.
"Uncle," the dark-haired boy cut in, "We do have a crisis situation-"
"Oh don't mind me," Raven taunted, reminding Winter that she was still here, "Just watching you idiots fight each other. I think that's all of you, correct? Or are there any other oddballs who want to show up now? Like that Atlesian Commander in Argus, what's her name?"
"Cordovin?"
Winter winced at the familiar voice. She'd asked them to handle this professionally, but of course, as everyone turned to see where the new voice was coming from—everyone who wasn't already in the midst of a personal argument, at least—Clover had to make an entrance. Because he'd seen everyone else get to make one.
At least there weren't violins this time.
"Sorry to interrupt your little conversation," he said, as casual and lackadaisical as ever, "but I've got orders to retrieve a young man from some bandits, and I think," he nodded at Raven, "one of them bandits is you."
Oh gods, he was going to embarrass her, wasn't he? Winter knew she should have made Harriet her subcommander...
"I take it you're Atlesian?" Raven asked, "And so I should expect more of you, encircling us right now, probably hoping to cut me off as I attempt to flee from this melee? Those seem to be the usual tactics for Specialists..."
Winter glowered at the bandit. "You have no idea what you're up-"
"And yeah!" Cinder Fall's shriek cut her off, "I have never respected you, you- you illiterate! The only reason you were allowed to raise children is that nobody cared enough to take them from you! Anyone with half a brain could see you're an unfit parent!"
"You do not," the dark haired boy with the pink stripe suddenly snarled with an intensity that even the trained Atlesian operatives had to take a step back, "talk about my father like that!"
Even Cinder's eyes seemed to go wide for a flickering moment, before her face snapped back to a cruel grin. With a flourish of flame, she conjured a glass sword to her hands. "Then how about we move past talking and just let our weapons speak for us?"
"Hell yeah!" the orange haired girl cried. "Atlesians or Salemists or Sun, we'll take you all on!"
The monkey Faunus—evidently Sun—wailed, "Wait, what'd I do?"
"They literally told you!" Weiss cried, flinging an arm towards his Haven teammates.
"Yeah, Sun, you jag!" one of his teammates added.
All the while, Raven had been content to watch, but now her voice broke out over the din, "Well if you're all content to fight among yourselves, I'll just- ulghk!"
Winter barely had time for her eyes to return to Raven before she saw Qrow's fist streak forward and hit her right in the face. Shock, more than anything, took her off her feet, the raw inexplicable shock that her perfect plan had hit a hiccup when her brother looked past all the infighting and socked her right in the cheek.
Everyone was paused at that, but only for a second. Nikos was the first to regain her bearings, and as she shot forward, Winter knew not to take the optimistic path that she was aiming for the bandits. She signaled Clover to move to intercept, and with that…
The fight was on.
It seemed like the whole camp had left. Which, to Jaune's mind, was not how a bandit camp should be run, but, in fairness, Vernal had been teaching him that he didn't even really know the basics of how banditry really worked. Still…
He felt disrespected by being left unguarded. His hands were tied to a pole in the tent he was being held in, but Jaune was pretty confident he could undo this knot. It wasn't even that… that… just a little… little more, and…
Okay, he wasn't making any progress with the knot.
But for all he knew, he had plenty of time! And for all they knew, he was really good at knots! It was entirely plausible this might be a skill he had—and he could have been faking his limits earlier to lull them into false confidence. They really should have left a guard for him, or, if they apparently put no value on him whatsoever, Jaune was sure they had other stuff they ought to protect!
Ugh. It had reached the point where he was aggrieved on behalf of their other loot more than him. Aaaagh, dammit! He just thought of himself as loot! This was embarrassing.
Leaning back against the pole, Jaune sighed. With everything he knew now about his family, about his… about his friends, he was realizing that this was what he was without the perks of having a supernaturally powerful family member looking after him. Without trained agents pretending to be students to protect him, without his aunt's connections to the criminal underworld, he was just a guy.
Being beaten by a knotted rope.
Hard not to feel utterly pathetic, and harder still not to feel angry that everyone had lied to him! Was all his hard work just for… for what, indulging the idiot nephew who wanted to be a hero? Who had no idea he was still in his comfy, secure bubble even as he tried to get out of it? Those grueling nights training under Pyrrha and Nora and Ren and Weiss and- what, were they going easy on him? Was it only grueling because he was weak? And they watched him and struggled to hide their-
No.
No, he was not doing this. Now was not the time to be feeling sorry for himself and it was especially not the time to start turning that self-pity into anger at his friends. Yes, they had definitely lied to him, and it was okay to be mad about the deception, but, hell, Jaune owed them a chance to explain things. Because they were his friends, and they'd done so much for him that he owed them a chance. And even if it had all been forced, he really liked his friends. And… he hoped they liked him to, even if he was just Aunt Salem's idiot nephew.
On that note, Jaune resolved not to give up on the knot. He twisted his arms and tugged, trying every angle he could, stretching his fingers as he tried to grasp the strands. He could feel the coarse fibers of the rope dig into his wrists, scratching them raw, but the pain was a small price to pay—he wasn't going to quit until his hands were untied. He'd prove that he could stand on his own two feet!
"Don't worry, I'll get you out of here."
Jaune tensed at the voice from behind him, the first he heard of his sudden intruder. Jaune was shocked that he'd been ambushed like this, but more so, it was… a very familiar voice...
"R-Ruby?" he asked.
"Awww, that's sweet of you to say," the voice said with a musical giggle, "but not quite." She snapped the ropes binding him. "Let's just say I'm someone who knows your aunt."
Thanks to Renarde for feedback on this chapter!
Been a while, hasn't it? Anyways, we finally get the huge, messy confrontation of all sides colliding! ...Just in time for Jaune to get slipped out the back door by yet another faction in this incredibly messy conflict. Gives some sympathy for Sun asking that everyone calmly explain who they are and what their agenda is to make sense of it all. But hey, next chapter: violence!
And because this is a Sokal fic, you should already know that the next chapter involves Pyrrha bringing the thunder on everyone around her.