"Ragh!" Raven shouted and swung her sword at her opponent, who blocked it with one of her circular blades and counter with the other. Raven leapt back to dodge them and thrust forward aiming for the stomach, only for the blade to get deflected again. With a small humph Raven used the deflected momentum to spin around and land a kick to the midsection, which threw her opponent off enough that she barely blocked a follow up sword strike and completely missed the second one. Raven felt her sword swipe across Aura and leapt back to get her footing again.

Once she was ready and holding her sword in front of her, she locked eyes with her opponent and charged ready to strike.

"That's enough!" the two blinked, skid to a stop, and lowered their weapons. Raven sheathed her sword and turned to face the tribe leader- her father- as he walked over to her lightly brushing his clothes. "You're improving significantly Raven. It won't be long until you're ready for the Academies."

"Yes sir," Raven answered flatly with a nod.

"And my thanks to you for taking time out of your day to train her Vernal. The push you give is just what they need at this time."

"Sir," Vernal said simply and stowed her weapons behind her waist and turned back to Raven. "There's still some daylight, so we might as well get Qrow's training out of the way. Go get him and bring him here Raven."

"Leave it to me," Raven nodded and started walking to the tent where she and Qrow stayed in. On the way she overheard Vernal say 'I don't know why we bother with the boy,' which caused Raven to clench a fist and let out a small growl, but kept her pace nonetheless. As she walked through the camp the tribe was staying in today several tribesman waved at her, sometimes she returned the wave but most of the time she didn't. Once she reached her and Qrow's tent she ducked under the flap and let out a sigh as she took her sword's sheath off her belt.

"Qrow! It's time for your training with Vernal, so get out there!" she looked up expecting to see her twin either resting at the table or sleeping in one of the beds. He was in neither and, after a quick look, Raven could see that he wasn't in the tent at all. "Dammit, every time," she muttered and set her sword in the storage area near the door, where Raven saw Harbinger was lying as well. She quirked an eyebrow at the work in progress scythe and slowly walked to the other tent flap.

"Qrow, get out here!" she called as she lifted the other flap and walked through it. "You're really- what the-?!" Raven stopped when she found that their tent was on the other side of the flap, mirrored to reflect the tent she was halfway leaving. She glanced back and forth between the two tents for a moment before she slowly walked into the 'mirror' tent. "Qrow?"

"What?" Raven let out a sigh at the sound of her brother's voice and marched to the other side of the tent where she heard his voice.

"It's your turn to train, so get out there!" She lifted the flap again and found a hallway made of tent fabric instead of the open camp she had expected. "What the?!" she stared into the hallway and the bend partway into it and shook her head. "To hell with that, not without my sword." She let the flap go and looked to the storage area next to her, which was empty, and turned to go back through the other flap where she knew her sword was.

She walked over and lifted the flap only to find her way barred by a wall of earth.

"What?!" Raven grabbed at the wall and found it crumbled under her grip like real dirt. She quickly checked the surrounding walls next to the entrance flap and found similar walls of earth blocking the way. "Oh no," she said stepping back from the impossibility in front of her. "This… this can't be real…"

A gunshot pierced through the air and Raven felt a chill run across her skin as she remembered when she last heard that sound. She backed away from the fabric just as it burst into flame and she watched as the fire spread to the other walls before she ran to the other tent flap and pushed her way into the hallway. She felt the heat of the flames behind her as she ran and turned the corner, which was when she started hearing the roars.

'Oh no, Qrow!' she thought and grit her teeth as she pushed harder through the hall. The flames pushed her on and the twists and turns of the hall were starting to make her dizzy. One last turn and she saw that the hallway ended in a sliding screen door she had seen in several Mistral villages and, with the only other choice being the flames behind her, Raven braced herself and jumped through the door. She hit the floor hard and put her arms over her head when she felt the fire shoot above her before it stopped just as quickly. She looked behind her to find a mirror had replaced the door she had come from, her image reflected back at her covered in black soot. She pushed her confusion down at the impossibility as she scrambled to her feet.

'I have to find Qrow,' she thought looking back at her reflection before walking further into what she recognized as the tribe leader's tent and changed course for the exit. Or at least she was until she saw two photographs sitting on the tea table that sat in the center of the tent. "You don't belong here," she said quietly to herself as she walked over and picked up one of the photographs. The tribe didn't have that kind of luxury so, out of curiosity, she turned it over to see herself, Qrow, and Vernal, the latter holding the younger twins in headlocks with a wide smirk while the twins tried to fight out of her grasp.

"Vernal…" she whispered while running a thumb over Vernal's image. 'When Qrow and I were growing up in the tribe, there were very few people we would consider ourselves 'close' to. Vernal was one of those few; she was the closest Father had to a 'right hand man' in the tribe and the one he put in charge of training me and Qrow for the plan. When we had finished our time at the Academies and I returned to the tribe to wrest leadership from Father, Vernal would have stayed right where she was. Good skills like that are rare outside the kingdoms.'

"Not anymore though," Raven shook her head slightly as the photo slowly set alight in her hand, Vernal's face curling and blackening, and she let it fall to the ground. "You can't go back to what isn't there. You can't lead a pile of ash." Raven looked at the other picture and slowly reached out and picked it up to look it over too. On the other side she felt a sharp pain in her heart at the sight of her and Qrow standing in front of two adults, their father dressed in his usual white and brown ensemble and…

"Mom," she whispered looking at the woman. 'Of course she's not my real mother, the tribe probably took care of her when they picked up Qrow and myself. This woman was probably just as bad as the others in terms of deeds done. Still, she did her best at that particular job and, along with Father, taught us all we needed to know.'

"You're either strong or you're dead. That's how it always works in the world, isn't it? You taught me that." Just like last time, the picture set on fire in Raven's hand and she let it fall to the ground. "I guess none of you were strong enough then, huh?" Raven looked from the burning picture to her hand and clenched it into a fist until it shook. Then she heard Qrow yell outside and, after a moment to process it, Raven bolted for the flap and found herself outside in the camp's center.

She found it engulfed in flames and she was in the center on top of a pile of corpses. Raven slowed to a walk when those red eyes landed on her and she threw another bloodied corpse at her, which stopped her completely when she recognized the black haired boy through the blood on his face.

"Qrow?"

"Just another weakling." Raven looked up at the blonde monster walking down to her, stepping on the bodies of fallen tribesmen. "Nothing but weaklings everywhere I go."

"You…" Raven grit her teeth and charged at the monster, not caring if she had a weapon or not. That ended as well as she figured it would, with the monster rushing toward her just as fast and punching her in the gut hard. While she was reeling from that, Raven found the monster's massive right hand wrapped around her neck and lifted her up into the air. She clawed at the black hand gasping for air and stared at those red eyes piercing into her.

"Did you really think you could kill me Raven? You will never be able too. You can't save anyone. You're just not strong enough." Raven felt her move her 'thumb' up to the side of her head and start pressing hard. "If you're not strong, you're dead right?"

Raven felt nothing but anger up to when her neck snapped.


Raven shook as she woke up, her sheathed sword held tightly against her as she sat up. The fire was almost dead and, in that dying light, she saw Qrow lying on the other side of the fire. Raven sat up, took a breath, and took a spare log to carefully place in the fire. She watched it come back to life over the course of a few minutes while the shakes slowly went away.

"You ok Raven?" Raven looked up as Qrow rolled over to look at her. He ruffled his messy hair and added, "It's still pretty early."

"I just had a bad dream. I'll be ok." Raven took a deep breath and looked around the forest as Qrow sat up and stretched his arms over his head.

"They're here," he said and picked up his weapon. Raven focused her hearing and heard the growls coming around her. "You ready?"

"Yep," she answered and pushed her sword out of the sheath with her thumb.


"All of them?!"

"Yup, these two kids weren't just boasting. By the time I got to where they were camping, they were just finishing up. We did the standard sweep and the whole pack was taken care of."

"Damn," The local huntsman looked at Raven and Qrow with the exact same look of envy that Raven was rapidly getting sick of. The same could be said of what he said after, "and you kids aren't even real Huntsman yet. A couple more years and you could be real killers."

"Haven't heard that before," Raven said before turning around and looking at Qrow. "You finish up, I'll be outside at the town gate." She barely offered a wave, which her brother returned, as she left the village's Huntsman office and walked outside. The village itself wasn't noteworthy, just another of several villages that Raven had seen while wandering Mistral, and she barely paid any mind to the local merchants calling their wares and the few children playing on the sunny day. She managed to successfully dodge around these 'hazards' and stopped under a tree near the village exit and sat down, placing her sword on the ground next to her.

With not much else to do, Raven shut her eyes and tried her best to get a nap after the hunt she was in this morning, which only lasted a couple minutes at most before someone nudged her leg. The only thing keeping them alive was the fact it was Qrow, who was holding out a loaf of bread to her. She snatched the food from him and bit into it as he sat down next to her.

"Made some good money today," Qrow started holding up a few Lien cards, "a little under 10,000 when you take away food and Dust expenses. Apparently we made a good impression, they offered to take us in as live in Huntsman."

"Pass," Raven said simply and glared back at the village.

Qrow put away the cards and shrugged. "I figured as much, so I said the same." He took a bite of his own bread and laid back to look up at the sky. "I'm getting kind of tired of these forests anyway, so I was thinking of heading east to Haven and-"

"I hate this," Raven interrupted, taking all of her self-control to keep from crushing the bread in her hand. She looked at Qrow, who was looking at her curiously, she continued, "This… hopping around and freelancing, killing small fry Grimm to earn enough Lien for a few days of food. This isn't a life, not for us! I hate this shit!"

"As opposed to what, bartending? Becoming a merchant? Fuck that, we have the skills we might as well use them." Qrow shook his head and stood up, looking down at the food in his hand with a sigh. "I'm not any happier about this either you know. Losing our home like that… it's frustrating."

"Then why are we doing this?"

"You know why." Qrow looked at her, a look that was both angry and sympathetic. Raven didn't bother trying to argue against that and instead looked away.

'The world's not as bright as it used to be.'

"I don't hear you giving any other options anyway, so what else is there?" Raven growled and took another bite as she sank into thought. It had only been a few months since She destroyed the tribe, her family, the only way of life she had ever known, and ever since then Raven had never been able to get Her out of her head. It was a sick feeling that clawed its way into her head even when she tried to focus on something else.

'And the world gets dimmer when I think of her.' It was only because of Qrow and basic survival instinct that kept Raven from throwing herself into a suicidal rush after that monster. She growled again and clenched her free hand into fist, frustrated at her own weakness. 'Just not strong enough. If only I could…'

"Wait…" Raven whispered and pushed off the tree to sit cross legged, her eyes widening at the idea she just had, "That could work."

"Huh?" Qrow asked, cocking an eyebrow at his sister.

"Strength is the problem," Raven started standing up, "We weren't strong enough to fight her, so we were forced to run away. She even flat out said 'get stronger', so why not do that?" Raven grinned and pointed her half eaten loaf at Qrow, "Let's follow the plan."

"The plan? You mean…"

"Two more years and we'll be able to enroll in a Huntsman academy. You've seen the crazy shit Huntsmen can pull off, the tribe needed a way to counter them for a reason! If we become Huntsmen, learn everything they can teach us, we'll be able to fight and kill the bitch next time we see her! Not a bad idea, if I say so myself." Qrow looked at Raven for a moment before he sighed and shook his head.

"I don't know Rae, two years is a long time. And there's no guarantee we'll even be taken into one in any case."

"We're going to have to live those two years anyway, and if paperwork worries you then I might know about a good forger in Haven. All we have to do is train, save up money, and aim for one of the Academies. I'd say we go to the best of the best."

"…Beacon Academy then," Qrow nodded. "They were planning on sending us to Beacon anyway. It'll be tough getting in, but we can handle it. We survived her after all." Raven smiled again and held up her bread, Qrow doing the same, and tapped the loaves together.

"Beacon then. They'll never know what hit 'em."


That wouldn't be the last time Raven would have that nightmare, and every time she had it the sights would always get to her: the flames, the death, Her. It hurt every time she woke up from it, and every time the world would get just a little dimmer.

After she enrolled in Beacon, the nightmare sometimes changed. The fires would extinguish, there wouldn't be any bodies or signs of Her. She would find herself in the middle of her old camp, with only empty tents to keep her company. She never understood why.

Sometimes she would hear singing, sweet as honey and caressing her like a mother's gentle arms. Letting her know that it was alright to be sad, if only just this once.

Only then, in the embrace of that impossible dream, would she let herself cry and feel the sorrow that she desperately needed to release.