I was gonna save this for later, but then I realized I could make a Discord server to chat with people about this and other fics, and that I'd have to update the chapter to actually let you guys know about that. Haha, whoops. Anyways, PM me or review or whatever to tell me your Discord if you wanna be added to my server!
In answer to several people asking last chapter about why I'm bothering to wait for V9's explanation of the portal-void before continuing my fic instead of just...powering on through, its less that I want to fit with canon, and more that I want to use canon to explain my AU. I want the story to conform (as much as possible) to Remnant logic, in much the same way that everyone still has Aura and Semblances –and RWBY has a tendency to subvert expectations, so I can't rely on my assumptions for what canon'll be in V9. Now, I'm almost certainly NOT going to use the actual canonical explanation in this fic, but I want to account for it in my plans so that I at least don't directly contradict the series canon.
For example, if it turns out that there's an expository aside in V9 about time travel being PREPOSTEROUS and IMPOSSIBLE even by the logic of the mysterious beach everyone landed on –much in the way Ambrosius's one-liner about "not being allowed to resurrect people" was probably a sly jab to block theorycrafting about how CRWBY was totally going to canonically bring Clover, Pyrrha, etc. back– then I'll obviously have to tweak my fic exposition a little so that its not time travel, its, uh, something else, something that totally conforms to Remnant logic and yet somehow has pretty much the same effect as time travel. Whoooo, how mysterious.
I'm basically being cautious and waiting so I can use/show in-canon math for my out-of-canon plans. Barring anything totally bizarre happening in canon, its not going to actually affect the framework of my story plans at all.
Oh, uh, and since this is rapidly becoming the most popular thing I've ever written by a wide margin, its totally cool if anyone wants to do fanart or whatever. I always ABSOLUTELY give my readership permission to draw stuff related to any stories I write, though its only ever happened twice (two different people for two different stories). Still, its such a warm and fuzzy feeling to know I inspired someone creatively. All I ever ask with that is to let me know so I can see the pretty picture(s) too!
Rather to everyone's surprise, Neo had refused to drop her illusion of Ilia the moment they had gotten off the boat and crossed over into Mistral territory. It didn't matter that they had boarded another sleeper train and there weren't really any cameras except out in the corridor –Ilia's face and form never wavered, despite the Aura drain that must've been. Tersely, Neo had typed out a few grudging words of explanation, describing a Lil' Miss Malachite and how she was the strongest crime boss in Mistral and especially near Haven. Her organization, the Spiders, had hands in nearly everything, and sooner or later, they knew everything. Neo had had past encounters with the Spiders, and she'd not left a favorable impression. She wanted to avoid letting them know she was here at all costs.
"I, uh, I think I might've met some Malachites." Yang had replied, pushing her hand through her hair. "Twins? They worked at Junior's bar, where we got information that one time. Are they related?"
Neo had sucked her teeth and written something out, her expression sour.
Melanie and Miltia?
"That'd be them."
They're Lil' Miss's daughters. Watch out for them.
"Pssh, I kicked their asses when I was a first-year trainee." Yang had scoffed, and a complicated emotion had danced over Neo's face –a mixture of pleasure, apparently, at their defeat, and annoyance that it was Yang she was feeling positively towards. "But yeah, okay, I'll be more careful in the future. Information dealers can bite ya."
Still, having Neo on their side was useful for some things. Using her Semblance on Pyrrha changed the famous champion's hair to an unassuming black and her face to something a bit rounder, and so no one even noticed as RBY, Pyrrha, and Neo disembarked.
"We'll text you our location when we get to the city." Jaune promised, leaning out of the door. According to the maps they'd made with JNPR's research efforts, the stop nearest to where they thought Raven's camp might be was only two stops away from Haven, which seemed a bit risky of the bandits before one factored in the immense distances between stations in Anima. "You guys will call back every hour on the hour until you find Raven's camp?"
"Yup!" Ruby saluted him, Crescent Rose hanging ready on her back, prepped and prepared with some last-minute maintenance. "You guys'll call everyone if we don't make it back?"
"Yeah." Jaune bobbed his head, then swallowed and looked around. Everyone else was busy: Blake and Yang were giving Yang's bright yellow motorcycle a once-over, making sure that the small luggage cart they'd rented to carry everyone else would stay attached. Pyrrha was watching Neo, who was flicking her way through the candy machines near one of the ticket booths, and the rest of Jaune's team was holding down the fort in their cabin with Weiss.
Jaune stepped out of the train, leaning down slightly to wrap Ruby in a bear hug as she stretched up onto her toes to meet him.
"You guys be careful." Jaune said softly, his voice almost choked. "We're not losing anyone else."
Ruby shifted her arm up from its place over his shoulders, curling around the back of his neck and firmly pulling him in.
"We're not losing anyone ever." Ruby said back, her voice fierce. "Not Pyrrha, not Penny, not anyone. We can fix this."
"Yeah." Jaune said, audibly forcing confidence into his voice as they both let go and stepped away. He raised a hand, swiping a finger under his eye to wipe away the moisture there as he gave her a brave smile. "Yeah, we will."
Ruby giggled and offered him her fist.
"Vomit Boy."
Jaune's grin softened and he reached out, bumping her fist with his own.
"Crater Face."
"Jaune!" Nora's voice came from inside. "Quit radioing your dark puppetmasters through the CCT satellite and your tinfoil implants and get your butt in here! The train's gonna be leaving soon!"
"Gotta go." Jaune said with a what-can-you-do shrug and smile, and stepped back onto the train, giving Ruby one last wave. She waved back, then turned to her shortened team, skipping over without a backwards glance at the departing train.
"We good to go?" she asked, watching Blake jostle the coupling between cart and motorcycle one last time before straightening up.
"We should be." Blake said, pushing a loop of hair behind one of her human ears, her eyes still fixed on the bike. "Yang pointed out that the bandits have tents and luggage to transport, so they probably won't be picking their way through game trails. We can follow the roads and not have to worry about roots and rocks."
"Thank the gods." Pyrrha said, strolling back over with Neo in tow, who was rolling a lollipop around and around in her mouth with a faint clacking noise.
"Ruby will be riding with me." Yang said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Blake, you, Pyrrha, and Neo here can all ride in the back, since Pyrrha can use her Semblance to grab onto us if the trailer comes loose for some reason. Everyone cool with that?"
Neopolitan gave an extravagant, mostly-silent sigh, but she didn't argue as they all started to move through the crowd, Yang pushing her bike in front and everyone else following in her wake.
Once they got out into the small town proper, Yang paused to sling a leg over her bike as Ruby slotted herself in neatly behind her, clearly used to traveling this way with her sister as she locked her arms around Yang's waist. There was a moment of arrangement as Pyrrha, Blake, and Neopolitan all got in the back, since the small cart they'd rented was only barely big enough for all three of them, and both Blake and Pyrrha made a point of sitting closer to the bike, but they all made it, right enough.
Conversation was basically nonexistent as they cruised through the cobblestone streets, heading for the town walls. Yang, naturally, was focused on driving, and everyone else was either too awkward, too wary of eavesdroppers, or too focused on their future plans to start up a conversation.
"What happens if we can't find Raven Branwen?" Pyrrha finally asked as they neared the edge of the city. "I mean, we only have a week or so to stay near Haven before our cover starts to lose its credibility."
"Bandits mostly take their safety from mobility, but they still need a secure place to live and recover from their raids, especially out in the wilderness like this." Blake said, raising her voice a little over the thrum of Yang's engine. "They'll find a good campsite, someplace where they can cover a large territory with their raiding, and fortify it against Grimm. After they've milked the area dry, they'll move on to another place, but usually not before –not unless the villages they've been raiding have banded together or called in Huntsmen."
"Or a really big Grimm shows up." Ruby said over her shoulder. Blake nodded.
"Or that." she agreed, glancing back to Pyrrha again. "You guys were looking up bandit raids in Mistral these past few days, right? We've picked out the attacks that were most likely due to the Branwen tribe, and we can extrapolate their current location from that. It'll be rough, but it's enough to give us a small stretch of wilderness to search, and that shouldn't take too long."
"Hmm. And I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult to find a human settlement at night, since people light fires and they can be seen for miles, even through the trees." Pyrrha said in satisfaction, settling back against the low wall of the cart. "I see."
Worst comes to worst, you can pay Lil' Miss and the Spiders for her location. Just do it when I'm far, far away from them. Neo typed out, her expression bored, before she turned and spat the empty stick of her lollipop into the dirt road as they rumbled out of the city. She was still wearing Ilia's face, and she still had her illusions up on Pyrrha as well. Blake glanced towards the walls, and the sentries on them, waiting until they were entirely hidden by the trees before turning back to Neo.
"You can drop your Semblance, now." she said. "You need to save your Aura.
Saving my Aura's worthless if a straggler sees me out on the road. Neo said stubbornly. I know how fast rumors and information travel in Mistral, alright? Unless I'm a paying customer, Lil' Miss has a bone to pick with me.
One of Blake's eyebrows inched upwards.
"And if you are a paying customer?" she asked.
Then I'm her new, temporary best friend.
"Mistral's like that, I'm afraid." Pyrrha sighed lightly. "You get used to it."
"Speaking of getting used to things, I think we're getting far enough away from the city and any spidery eavesdroppers that we can actually start to plan things out." Yang called over her shoulder, and Ruby wiggled a little, settling herself against her sister's back.
"We're all going to follow Yang's lead." she said. "She's got the most influence with Raven, even if it's probably not a lot. The rest of us should be ready to back her up if we need to, but we're not going in there with weapons drawn. We need to look like we're ready to fight, but not challenging them to a fight."
"We'll be texting JNPR every hour on the hour to update them on our condition." Blake said, hand dipping to her belt to pull out her compressed Scroll and wave it at the other two in the cart with her. "When or if we find the bandit camp, we'll send them another message to let them know the countdown's started."
"We're gonna just try to walk right in." Yang continued, swinging the motorcycle smoothly onto the right-hand road in a fork, heading towards where they guessed the bandit camp to be. "Assuming Raven isn't a total bitch, we'll meet up, and we can have our little discussion or whatever in private. It shouldn't take more than an hour, so that'll be our time limit. If JNPR doesn't hear back from us by then, they're slamming the panic button to Ozpin and everybody."
"If we change our plans, like if Raven wants to thrash out the deal over a couple days, we'll text them to let them know." Ruby added. "And we'll go back to the every-hour updates, of course, in case Raven's trying to throw us off so she can eliminate us or something."
"That's a good, solid plan." Pyrrha said with a nod. "What if anything goes wrong?"
"Assuming Raven tries to attack us because she doesn't want to get involved, we'll try to run." Yang answered. "She's powerful, and she's got an entire tribe of experienced fighters at her back. No matter how awesome you are, Pyrrha, that's not a fight five Huntresses can win on their own, never mind when four of us are first-years."
Neopolitan's Scroll beeped angrily, but everyone ignored her text, since it was mainly a protest against being labeled a Huntress.
"We'll try to make our way to Haven or the last town, whichever's closest." Ruby continued. "If anyone gets separated, that's what they should head for. If we don't find the camp in the first few hours, the others should be able to text us where they're staying in the city, so that's where we'll all meet up. Any questions?"
There were none.
Yang's memory, as it turned out, was not necessary for guiding them towards the Branwen camp. It was Pyrrha that spotted it first, having scaled up a tree and used her rifle scope to pick out a thin stream of what must have been smoke from a cooking fire in the distance. They'd been doing that every couple hours, stopping the bike and then spreading out, leaving Yang with Bumblebee while the others climbed trees or poked around in the dirt for tracks, trying to find a sign of the bandits' passing.
A good camp would be near water, perhaps on a slight incline to help with defense, and by Yang's memory of the camp she visited and Blake's experience with living in the wilderness as a large military group, probably in a clearing made by felling trees, which were then sharpened into stakes and lashed into place to form a crude defensive wall. Bandits in particular would also be near one or two good paths and roads, to give them a way to drag their booty back to camp.
Such a place was easier to find than you might expect. The forest was not a featureless vista of nothing but trees: the ground dipped and rose, and while water wasn't exactly as scarce as it was in Vacuo, it came from streams and springs, lakes and ponds. There were, naturally, a limited number of ones big enough to serve a tribe scattered about the landscape, which meant a limited number of places to set up a camp. Add in the necessity of defense against Grimm, and the available areas shrank even further. After that, it was really a matter of guessing based on the roads and the location of both attacked and unharmed villages.
The Branwen camp wasn't exactly hidden. It didn't need to be: villagers couldn't threaten them unless they banded together, and as untrained in combat as they usually were, most villagers wouldn't stumble out into the wilderness after a bandit attack to try and bring them down. Besides, most villages were wiped out entirely when the Branwen tribe moved through, the survivors razed by the Grimm that were drawn to their sorrow and suffering. Villagers were not a threat, not until the news of a bandit tribe in the district had them banding together and actively hunting down the intruders –at which point the tribe could simply move.
And a lone Hunter? Whether they stumbled across it by chance or were sent by victims of past raids, a lone Hunter would never dare to trouble bandits –not an entire tribe. They might set the location down in their mind and go off to get reinforcements, call in their team or several friends, but even then, it was dicey. According to Ruby, Qrow had been willing to fight his sister's tribe with himself, RJNR, and Lionheart as his sole backup, but that was accounting for the world-famous Huntsman Qrow Branwen on their side, as well as the presumably-skilled Headmaster of a Hunter academy. Yang knew very well that Ruby and the others would've been assigned to deal with the chaff, fending off the bandits while Qrow and Lionheart tackled the presumed Spring Maiden and Raven herself.
So yeah, one team, two teams, it wasn't a good idea. Raven and her tribe were on the move every few weeks or months because aside from running out of villages to destroy, if they stayed in one spot, let their location become more widely known, a political push to help improve Mistral's safety could happen at any time, and Lionheart would send in multiple teams of experienced Hunters to wipe them out. They didn't have to hide, but they couldn't afford to linger for too long.
It was odd to think that this might've been her life, somehow, Yang thought as Bumblebee rumbled down the path, heading for the wooden gate ahead of them, guarded by several bandits. She'd seen a few sentries rushing back through the trees, and wondered if anyone had recognized her. Not from last time, obviously, but by her hair, her face, her build. She and Raven looked a damn lot alike.
"Who's got the call?" she asked as she started slowing them down, not daring to glance away from the camp in front of them.
"Me." Blake answered, and there was a moment's pause, then a chime from her Scroll. "Jaune says message received."
"Alright then. You guys keep quiet for the rest of this, yeah?" Yang asked as they neared the wall of the camp, glancing behind herself towards the others. Neopolitan cheekily raised her hand and mimed zipping her mouth shut, making Yang roll her eyes before she glanced ahead again.
As her bike slowed to a stop, trailing the cart behind her, the bandits all somewhat nervously raised their weapons, aiming them towards Yang's group. After all, they might all look like mere Huntress trainees (even Neo, who was certainly short enough to look their age), but they were riding up to the Branwen camp without a qualm. That wasn't normal trainee behavior, to say nothing of how they'd managed to find the camp –presumably on their own– in the first place.
There was a moment of silence as Bumblebee rumbled to a halt and Yang kicked out her bike stand. Everyone dismounted, stretching their legs a little, keeping their weapons within easy reach and their movements slow. Yang stayed in front of the others, who hung back, settling into a rough line behind her and Bumblebee.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" one of the bandits finally asked, aiming a battered old pistol in Yang's direction. He wasn't the same guy that she'd beaten up before at the gas station –this was some brunet dude with his long hair in a ponytail, wearing a burgundy vest that went down to his thighs and a bandolier slung across his chest.
"Yang Xiao Long." she answered. "This is my team, and some extra unwanted baggage."
Neopolitan offered a middle finger, kindly making it clear to whom Yang was referring.
"Are we supposed to recognize the name, kid?" a woman with her auburn hair hacked off at the ears asked with a sneer, stepping closer and raising her notched cleaver in a somewhat threatening way.
"Probably not, no." Yang sighed. Damn, she really hadn't expected anything of Raven, but it still stung a little that she hadn't even told her tribe Yang's name. Heck, they probably didn't even know who dad was, since Yang borrowed almost half of his name and there was absolutely no recognition in the eyes of any of these people. "I'm Raven's daughter, and I'd like a word with her. She in?"
The bandits exchanged somewhat wary glances.
"Does the hair and the face not tip you off?" Yang drawled, pointing to her aforementioned face –and deadpan expression– with both index fingers. "If not, I can prove to you I'm my mother's child by kicking all of your asses on my way in."
Some of the bandits tensed angrily, raising their weapons, but the others flinched a little, looking wary.
"Fine." said the ponytail guy after a few seconds, since he seemed to be the most senior amongst them, stepping aside and gesturing curtly at the interior of the camp. "You wanna go in? She'll skin you alive if you're lying –and maybe even if you aren't."
"Duly noted." Yang said, lowering her hands and stepping forward as the others followed. Blake had one hand on Gambol Shroud, eyes tracking warily from one bandit to another, and Ruby was fidgety, keeping her hands close to her sides in a conscious effort not to grab Crescent Rose and escalate the situation by having multiple Huntresses visibly ready for a fight. Pyrrha, likewise, had her shield on one arm, but her spear-sword was still on her back. Neopolitan, naturally, skipped along beside them without a care in the world, her parasol over one shoulder.
Yang paused at the gate, narrowing her eyes and leaning just a little closer, dangerously, to the bandit that guarded it.
"Touch the bike and you die." she said, before continuing onwards.
The camp was pretty much the same as she remembered it –tents everywhere, some cages for human prisoners, a large open space before the platform and huge tent atop it that demarcated the Branwen tribe's leader. Yang could smell smoke and grilled meat from the cooking fires, mixed with what she was fairly sure was booze, sweat, and blood-scent from the tents, the people, and their clothes. Ragged and scarred people were everywhere, sharpening weapons, messing around with what was all-too-clearly trinkets from raided villages, watching the intruders with narrowed and measuring eyes.
Almost instinctively, the girls spread out a little as they came out into that main grassy area, facing the main tent and stage. Ruby was on the right-hand side, meaning that she'd have to pull left –her natural direction– if she wanted to sweep everyone up with her Semblance and run for the exit. Blake was flanking Yang, ready to back up her partner if need be, and Pyrrha and Neo were standing off to the side a little on the left, giving themselves room to move and fight.
Murmurs had followed them as they strode through the camp, and now those murmurs quieted into an expectant hush as they faced the tent and waited. Within a few short minutes, the flap was pushed open, and Raven Branwen stepped out, her low heels clacking against the wooden boards that formed the floor of her platform. She had her Grimm mask on –the one that would hide her identity if she used the Maiden powers, and Yang wondered sardonically if Raven greeted everyone like this –with this fear.
"…Yang." Raven said after a moment, her voice low and calm, but with a faint hint of genuine surprise. She took off her mask, raising her voice with her next words, almost performatively so, as she spoke to them and the gathering bandits. "I must say, I'm impressed that you managed to find me so soon. That took guts, and strength enough to back them up."
Yang rolled her eyes a little. Strength, strength, strength –that was all Raven cared about. It was the mask she used to hide behind, the bravado she used to lead.
"I've been looking for you for a long time." she said, taking her cues from Raven and speaking loudly enough that their audience could hear. "But right now, I'm not here for that. I'm here because I wanted to ask you something."
Raven's eyebrows moved upwards, just a little.
"Are you, now?" she asked thoughtfully. "And what might that be?"
"I wanted to ask you about the Vault beneath Haven."
Yang had the satisfaction of watching alarm spark in Raven's eyes as her hand almost automatically flew to grip her sword hilt, dangling at her side in the enormous rotating cylinder full of Dust blades. The bandits, taking their cues from their leader, murmured nervously, bristling all around them. Raven was strong, and so her automatic anger and reaction meant that she had perceived a threat to her –and by extension, their– wellbeing.
"I see Ozpin has gotten his hooks into you early." Raven sneered when she had recovered herself from that reflexive grasp at her sword. "It figures that the old man still sends people who don't know any better to do his dirty work-"
"I'm not here for Ozpin or who he's working against." Yang snapped, cutting through the alarmed chatter as dead silence fell through the camp. "I'm here for me."
Raven's eyes narrowed a little, and she straightened up slightly, her shoulders pulling back.
"Ozpin doesn't know about our little unlicensed field trip." Yang said, spreading her arms slightly to indicate Ruby and the others on either side of her. "I figured I owed you that much. If I count as your daughter, or a member of your tribe, or whatever, I want to cash in my one favor from you now. Open the Vault for us after we've snuck in through Haven, and you can leave me for dead for the rest of my life."
It was a long shot, but maybe it might work. Raven was a bitch and for all her power and cunning, something of a coward, but Yang knew that there had to be some finer feelings in there, somewhere. Raven was her birth mother. She had access to Yang with her portals, which meant that there was a bond between them, somehow. Yang denying Ozpin, denying Salem, that meant that Raven didn't have to pick a side in this –she could just dish out a quick favor and forget about it, continue on with her miserable life of robbing people for personal gain.
And since Yang was also on her own, that in turn meant (if she was telling the truth) that by granting her this favor, Raven would be spitting in the eyes of both Ozpin and Salem, something she seemed keen on doing if she thought she could get away with it. There was almost no risk to this, and a fairly high return ratio. Raven could slip in and out within minutes, carry out her task and be done. Unless they were asking her to plow through the school, there wasn't much that Raven actually had to do to help them.
Yang didn't bother wishing, hoping, thinking that Raven might do this for her because she cared for her only daughter. Raven had made her feelings on that clear when she left Yang and the others to the mercy of Cinder and her allies: she had made them clear when Yang had demanded and gotten the Lamp beneath Haven. Raven was a survivor, and survivors were pragmatic. Whatever she felt for Yang was less important to Raven than getting what she wanted, ensuring the survival of herself and her tribe. She might feel guilty, she might shed a tear, but when it came to standing with Yang and challenging Salem or fleeing back to her tribe –she'd chose her tribe. She'd leave Yang behind.
Again.
"You're joking." Raven scoffed, an incredulous smile curling her mouth. "Maybe you haven't figured this out, Yang, but one of the reasons I came back to the tribe was that I was sick of the old man's games. I'm not getting involved, so run along home and keep training as a Huntress if you want to die in his endless crusade that badly."
"I figured you might say that, too." Yang said, lowering her arms. "And that's fine. Ozpin doesn't know about us being here, but he could. He could learn all about how we know exactly who can open the Vault, and how it isn't your decoy, Vernal."
Yang watched Raven's lips tighten, going bloodless, as her hand twitched towards her weapon again. Yang held her birth mother's gaze without blinking, knowing that they might be seconds away from starting a bloodbath.
"He will, if we don't come back, and you don't cooperate with us." Yang finished calmly. "We've got friends on the outside who'll warn him. He'll know, and so will Salem. So you can help us out, follow us into the Vault, and we'll forget all about it –or you can drag this out, and we can drag you back into Ozpin's crusade whether you like it or not. The choice is yours."
"Tch." Raven's mouth twisted to the side, bitterly. "Family. Only coming around-"
"No." Yang's voice rang through the camp, unintentionally harsh. "You don't get to play the family card, Raven. You ran out on us, you left us behind, and you never came back. My mom is Summer Rose, and nobody else."
"Odd, considering I'm the one that gave birth to you." Raven huffed.
"Tough shit. If you wanted to mean anything to me, to Qrow, to dad –well, then maybe you shouldn't have fucked off to Mistral and stayed there for my whole life." Yang spat back. "Family isn't worth jack shit to you, so don't start acting all high and mighty like it suddenly does. Don't use that as your excuse to be a coward."
"Excuse me?" Raven asked dangerously, taking a single step forward and laying a hand on the hilt of her sword again.
"What, did you not hear me?" Yang asked, jabbing a single finger towards her ear as Pyrrha's eyes flicked over to her, somewhat nervous at how Yang was provoking someone they were supposed to be bargaining with. This was fine, though. Yang knew how Raven thought, and now that appealing to her sense of ethics, her sense of mercy, had failed, it was time to up the ante and hit her where she was most vulnerable –her desire to appear always strong, always in control. Much like Yang, Raven refused to back down from a challenge, to be perceived as weak, and so by calling her out on her perceived cowardice for not opening the Vault, Yang could try to manipulate her into making the decision they wanted.
"I said you're a coward. We have a way to sneak into the Vault without accessing it through Haven, so literally all you have to do is open a portal to me, step through, put your hand on a door, and fuck off again. That last part should be easy enough, considering how much practice you have at it."
Raven took another step forward.
"I'm warning you, Yang…" she began dangerously, and Yang huffed, throwing up both arms.
"Oh, you're warning me! Wonderful! Good! The woman too scared to open a damn door is warning me!" she sneered, glaring up at Raven. "This is my question to ask, my plan, my shit that you're getting involved with –not Ozpin's, not Salem's, not anybody else's. We plan to sneak in and out with no one the wiser, so there is literally no downside to doing this! What the hell are you so scared of?!"
The hairs on the back of Yang's neck rose as she sensed the slight breeze ghosting through the camp building up, growing subtly in strength. Raven wasn't using the Maiden powers enough to make her eyes flare and burn, but they were certainly responding to her agitation as she stood like a statue on the central platform, one hand on the hilt of her sword, the other on her scabbard.
In response, there was the tiniest scuffle of dirt to Yang's right, Ruby subtly adjusting her stance and sliding one foot out as she got ready to whisk anyone who needed it out of the firing line. Yang heard a nearly-inaudible chak beside her as Blake loosed Gambol Shroud in its sheathe: she caught a flicker of movement to her left as Neo's legs bent slightly, ready to spring off in whatever direction she needed to. Only Pyrrha was calm, only Pyrrha was unaware of what the strengthening breeze meant, but even she reacted to the mood as the others readied themselves for a fight, her head shifting slightly as she slowly looked around, counting enemies, her elbow tensing as her arm bent inwards, hand inching towards her weapon.
"Let me offer you a word of warning, Yang –you have no idea what you're asking for, getting involved in all this." Raven seethed after a moment, her teeth clenched slightly as she glared down at her only daughter. "You have no idea what's behind that door. I suggest you turn back while you still can."
"I can't turn back." Yang said, and prayed that no one but Ruby and Blake could hear the slight tremble in her voice, because only they (and Neo) knew how much meaning was in those words. "I already know too much, and I know there's no running from this."
Her voice and her eyes hardened slightly.
"So unlike you, I've decided to plant my feet and take a stand. I want to know everything I can so that I can plan to the best advantage and deal with this. I know exactly what's behind that door, and I'm going to take it and use it –not for Ozpin, but for me. If you've got a problem with that, you're an even bigger coward than I thought you were."
Raven's eyes narrowed again.
"And do your friends feel the same way?" she asked, her voice rising to the crowd again as her eyes roamed over the girls behind Yang. Yang knew what this was –a deflection. Raven was hoping that one of them would show uncertainty, weakness, disagreement, doubt. Anything she could use to weaken their position, to take back the control of this conversation.
She'd picked the wrong people to take that angle with.
"I'm with Yang." Ruby said immediately, taking a step forward and setting her chin stubbornly as she glared Raven down. "You miss every shot you don't take, so giving up against this kind of fight means you're just rolling over and waiting to die. I'm a Huntress. I'm never going to give up on protecting people."
"Yang's my partner." Blake said in agreement, stepping up as well to put a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Where she goes, I go. I'm not leaving her behind."
"They're right, too." Pyrrha said, shifting to settle her feet a little more firmly on the ground, make her stance a little more solid in preparation for the possible fight in the near future. "Every enemy, no matter how strong, can be dealt with if you have enough information on them. Considering how little you have to do to help us, it's positively cruel to refuse."
Pyrrha was what Yang was worried about –everyone but her knew the subtext of this conversation, but they'd mentioned Salem by name a time or two and if Pyrrha started to wonder on that, started to actually think about the inconsistencies that made in their story about overhearing criminals…there was every chance that she'd start to ask questions, and their cohesion would be lost. Raven would notice the cracks in their defense and she'd put a hammer to those cracks, aiming at Pyrrha as the weak link who didn't truly understand what was going on, feeding on Pyrrha's doubts and using them to play her against the rest of them.
Pyrrha didn't say anything else, and Yang felt her shoulders unclench a little. Even if Pyrrha was curious, did want to ask questions, she was smart enough to know she should wait until they weren't in the middle of a hostile bargaining situation. And she trusted her friends, too –that felt good. Better than it should feel, actually. It was a reminder that they all still cared about each other, even after everything had changed so much.
Naturally enough, there was a moment of silence as Raven turned to the mute criminal in their group.
"And you?" she asked icily. "Are you with them on this?"
Neo lifted her hand to seesaw it, making an exaggeratedly uncertain look. Yang glared at her.
Neo rolled her eyes at the look, arms still folded across her chest, and then offered the most lackluster thumbs-up Yang had ever seen in her life. Maybe it was the familiarity she was starting to have with the petite criminal, but Yang could tell just from her expression how Neo was practically cringing at the idea of publicly agreeing with them –under any context.
"So there you have it." Yang said, folding her own arms as they turned back to Raven. "They're with me on this all the way. Are you gonna help us or not?"
"It seems I have no choice." Raven sneered, and Yang's heart leapt. Raven was the seller in a seller's market –Yang and the others could put pressure on her, sure, could threaten and bribe and wheedle, but at the end of the day it was Raven who could give them what they wanted, and no one else. If she refused, they didn't have any other options to go to: it wasn't like they could find a different Spring Maiden to open the Vault for them.
Raven with her teleportation Semblance and her bandits, they could probably handle in a fight, Raven with her Maiden powers likewise, but not both at once. It was dicey enough challenging Raven just with one of those components, even when they had nine people on their side –six of whom were Hunter-level fighters. They definitely couldn't manage her as her whole self, as a Maiden who also had a teleportation Semblance and a tribe of bandits. Besides, there was every chance that even if they did manage to win the grueling battle against her, Raven would deliberately think of one of the women in her tribe, or worse, think of no one at all and let the power go to some random girl anywhere on the planet.
While there was a chance, perhaps even a significant one, that they could win in a straight fight against her, Yang and the others couldn't take that risk. Better to have Raven's consent and assistance, even if it was given begrudgingly.
"So do you have a plan beyond strong-arming me into assisting you?" Raven huffed, cocking her hip slightly and putting one hand on her waist.
"Toss me your Scroll number, we'll call you later." Yang said. "You can activate your portal to me, step through, touch the door, and then leave again after we seal it away. It'll probably be done by the end of tomorrow night."
Raven hissed out a long, frustrated sigh, but shifted to grab her Scroll –a rather outdated model– and open it. Yang could feel some of the tension in the air spike as she stepped forward, moving away from the safety of her group and towards Raven. She felt it too, a prickling on her bare arms, the disconcerting tingle in the one she had recovered, and took a deep, silent breath through her nose, trying to be subtle about it. This was fine. She had this under control. Raven wouldn't attack her, because if she did, she'd lose. That was the point of their backup: maybe they could beat Raven, maybe they could even do it without any casualties, but there was an equal chance that they couldn't.
Having Jaune and the others ready to call Ozpin and alert Lionheart if Yang and the others didn't come back meant that even if Raven and her bandits completely wiped them all out, she'd still lose.
That was the security Yang was banking on as she stretched her hand out and received Raven's Scroll number, holding the older device next to her own as she typed it out in her contacts list. It was getting to be pretty robust, with SSSNI, JNPR, and Penny's numbers as well as her usual friends list.
"Right." Yang tossed the Scroll back to Raven, who caught it one-handed. "You don't show up when we call, we'll tell Ozpin anyways. Got that?"
"I'm hardly likely to forget." Raven drawled, and flicked her hand in a dismissive motion at them, turning away. "Leave. You can force a bargain with me, but don't expect any hospitality. If I see any of you after this is over, I'll treat you like I treat all the enemies that try to draw me back into Ozpin's war."
"Whatever." Yang muttered, tucking her Scroll back into her belt pouch. "We don't want anything to do with you anyways."
She turned to leave the camp, and as they made their way out, Ruby pressed in close by her side, silver eyes darting everywhere. Blake dropped behind slightly, covering her back, while Pyrrha took Yang's other flank. Neopolitan was on the alert too, thankfully, her mismatched eyes sharp as she lightly twirled the parasol she still held daintily over one shoulder. Neopolitan probably knew better than anyone that this was the most ticklish part of the mission: leaving after they were done and the air was crackling with hostility all around them.
None of the bandits moved.
Yang caught sight of Vernal on their way out, watching them with narrowed eyes and folded arms. It was debatable how much she'd heard.
Bumblebee looked unharmed when she caught a glimpse of it through the wooden gate, still in the same position it had been when they had arrived. The sentries let them pass with noticeably less hostility than the rest of the tribe, since they probably weren't aware of what exactly had just gone down yet, and there was a universal, if slight, easing of tension as everyone stepped outside the walls of the bandit camp.
"Gimme a sec to check her over." Yang said, as they reached her bike, eyeing the connection between Bumblebee and the cart –still apparently intact– and then running her hand over the exhaust. She wouldn't put it past someone from the tribe to sabotage her baby just for the hell of it, or to fuck with them as payback for forcing Raven into the position they wanted.
The others clambered onto the cart as she gave her motorcycle that once-over, and Pyrrha swung her weapon off of her back with a sharp click, transforming it into rifle form and holding it cuddled against her shoulder as she aimed over Yang's shoulder, at the bandits standing sentry at the gate. Out of the corner of her eye, Yang saw Blake bracing her back against the low wall of the cart, Gambol Shroud in pistol form as her sharp amber eyes scanned the forest around them in swift, practiced flicks. Neopolitan was similarly tense, her eyes roaming more slowly, perhaps committing the area around them to memory so that she could use her Semblance to its fullest.
Everything seemed to check out with Bumblebee, and Yang straightened up.
"Alright, let's go." she said, moving to straddle it as Ruby quickly slotted in beside her. Moving slowly, Yang started up the engine and started to turn the bike, noticing in her mirrors that Pyrrha and Blake shifted correspondingly to stay on alarm.
The rumble of her Dust engine filled the air as they pulled out and away, the forest starting to rush by.
They'd done it.
"So, that went well." Ruby said brightly as they all waited at the train station back in town, watching the sun set over the trees.
"I must admit, I was worried there for a second when you started insulting her." Pyrrha agreed with a sheepish little laugh, once again under Neo's cloaking Semblance. "But Ruby's right. Everything did turn out the way we wanted to."
Neo clicked her tongue loudly in what seemed to pass for agreement, wearing Ilia's face again as well. No one knew how high her Aura reserves were, but evidently they weren't high enough for her to feel confident in maintaining a similar disguise in Raven's camp, potentially for an hour or more, before she would possibly engage in a fight with a Maiden. Appearing as herself was a calculated risk that Raven wouldn't remember or care what she looked like if someone on Ozpin or Salem's side came by to question her or force her to open the Vault again.
"Still, you can't call that a perfect run." Yang sighed, slouching back against the bench they had commandeered, both hands in her pockets. "We got her to agree to come open the Vault, yeah, but we burned all our bridges as far as Raven's concerned. She'll sure as hell never help us with anything again, so we better ask both our questions now, or bring the Relic with us when we leave."
"Considering you're not Weiss, I think you did well." Blake told her with a warm smile. "It's harder to get a 'perfect run' than you might think. People are complicated, and even though she's your birth mother and you know a lot about her, you're not going to be able to understand Raven completely. You're not exactly a diplomat, either, so you don't have the practice to get her to do what you want without incurring a grudge."
There was a moment of silence, and Ruby glanced over to Pyrrha, who was watching the sinking sun with a thoughtful expression.
"You message Jaune yet?" she asked, and watched the redhead brighten.
"Yes. He said that he and the others rented an apartment in the middle of the city of Mistral, so it'll be easier to get in and out."
"How's that work if it's right in the middle?" Yang asked.
Without looking away from the clouds above their heads, Neo reached out, thwacking the blonde on the stomach as Yang jolted and sat up straighter with a yip of surprise and anger mixed. When she turned to glare, Neo flashed her Scroll at her.
She means middle as in middle, high, low on the mountainside, idiot. Higher you get in Mistral, the richer they are and the tighter security is. You go too low, it'll be too risky for us trying to hide what we're doing, especially since you're all amateurs.
"'Especially since you're all amateurs'." Yang sneered, repeating the words with a mincing inflection. "Would it kill you to be any less bitchy, or is this just your default setting?"
Neo rolled her eyes, not answering as she folded her arm back across her own stomach.
Sitting between the two of them, Ruby sighed. It'd taken them this long to trust Neo to be anywhere within arm's reach of Ruby, but she figured that if the petite criminal hadn't knifed her by now, Neo wasn't going to do it anytime soon. Neo was willing to wait and see what answers Jinn had to give them, so she was –perhaps temporarily– setting aside her desire to avenge Torchwick's death. Ruby might not trust Neopolitan with sharp objects anytime soon, but she could probably trust her on that much, at least.
Ruby was trying really, really hard to see things from Neopolitan's perspective and not just write her off as "bad guy, never trust, kill if you have to." Neo was a person too, after all, even if she was a murderous one. It made sense that she was snippy with them, since they were former enemies, and their mutual trust could be described as tenuous at best right now. Since Neo couldn't actually attack them, she was venting her nervous energy/aggression by a slew of petty insults instead. It was just that simple.
In all fairness, it wasn't like Ruby and her friends had really opened their arms to Neo, either. Ruby was trying to amend that as much as she could, because "killing them with kindness" was considered a valid strategy for a reason. If Neopolitan didn't like them, Ruby would chat with her and share likes and dislikes with her, help Neopolitan to open up about herself, support her goals (the non-criminal ones, of course!), and encourage Neopolitan as a person. The nicer she was to Neo, the harder it would be for Neo to find reasons to dislike her, because no matter how bad they got, people were people, and they all thought the same at bottom.
Friends became friends just by spending time in physical proximity while they were enjoying themselves: being able to make someone enjoy themselves around you was a powerful psychological weapon. When someone extended a kindness to you, a genuine kindness genuinely meant, it was the human need to respond to that.
If Ruby was legitimately nice to Neo, tried to find out her interests (she was a really good fighter? Maybe they could talk about weapons?) and give her positive feedback about them, Neo might just accept that even if she still disliked Ruby, cynically take those moments of fun or pleasure for what they were and disregard everything else Ruby did –which would still give Ruby a foot in the door to slowly, gradually increase her worth in Neopolitan's eyes. If Ruby found out the right things to do or say to make Neo feel like befriending her, Neo would feel bad about rejecting those overtures of friendship, even if that badness was just a little bit, just for a second.
The guilt trip was a potent weapon that Ruby had honed through many, many long years of being the younger sister.
So yeah, maybe Ruby didn't exactly like the parasol-wielding woman either, but Ruby was willing to murder her with kindness if that was what it took to keep Neopolitan from going to Salem's side with all of her newfound knowledge of the future. Ruby would smother her in it, bury her in it, drown her in it, pelt her with it like a particularly die-hard Spruce Willis fan trying to get autographs. She'd done worse than genuinely try to befriend someone to try and save the world –even if that someone had tried to kill her.
What was equally important right now, though, was distracting Pyrrha, and Ruby caught Blake's eye and nodded towards the sole member of JNPR. It seemed like the mention of Salem had just slipped right by Pyrrha's notice –which was natural enough, since they hadn't exactly called attention to her name, just said it and moved on. From Pyrrha's perspective, it had been more important to pay attention to the bandits menacing them on all sides and whether or not Raven was going to agree to what Yang said, not the specifications of what they were talking about. The conversation had moved on rapidly: the emphasis on the name had been nonexistent. There was no special reason for Pyrrha to even remember it.
But Pyrrha wasn't stupid, either, and she might just have had her attention caught by the mention of a name she didn't know, a name that everyone else seemed to know. It was important to keep her mind off of that, stop Pyrrha from starting to question their cover right now. Ruby knew that her team and Jaune's "cover" was a temporary thing: assuming that this all wasn't an extraordinarily detailed vision or hallucination, they'd be telling Ozpin everything when they got back to Beacon. Besides that, Pyrrha and the others would be with them when they asked Jinn their question, which meant that they'd see everything else RWBY and Jaune saw when they got their answer as to how they had gotten here –which would almost certainly involve where they'd been. It wasn't like they planned to keep her in the dark forever.
Pyrrha would know the truth soon, but as Ruby knew all too well, prematurely finding the truth, or fragments of it, could be disastrous. If Pyrrha put together the pieces she currently held and realized that Ruby and the others had to be lying about how they'd found out about the conspiracy, and how much they knew about it, her automatic –and perfectly natural– reaction would be to mistrust them. She might believe that they had been bought over to the bad guys' side, or that they were misdirecting her and the others to some nefarious purpose as yet unknown. The bottom line was, Pyrrha very probably wouldn't cooperate with them when they tried to get to the Vault to reveal the truth, and if she wasn't cooperating when Jinn came out, that could be catastrophic. Ruby and the others needed their question, and if they wanted Neo to have even a particle of trust in them, they needed both questions.
Ruby sent her friend a mental apology as Blake masterfully distracted Pyrrha from thinking about everything that had occurred at the camp with a pointed conversation about her relationship with Jaune and how she felt about camping with him and the others in Anima, watching the sun continue to bleed down over the horizon.
They just needed to hide the truth from Pyrrha and the others for a little bit longer.
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