This is Raven and Summer's prequel story set in the same AU as the RWBY ' Days of Our Lives' fic that I wrote! You should check it out if you haven't yet ;) but it isn't needed to make sense of this particular fic. It's going to centre around the Rose/Branwen Family and their history. So don't expect other characters (such as the other half of RWBY or their parents from this AU) to actually show up. At most, they may be casually mentioned :P
Anyways... without further ado:
Leggo.
"BREAKING NEWS! We have just been informed of a sudden terror attack on the dust mines located in the Southern outskirts of Mistral City!"
A certain dark-haired woman flitted her eyes towards the TV screen at the corner of the room. Her body tensed up at the mention of the terror attack and its location. She didn't even realize that she basically halted the game everyone was playing at the table where she sat. Nor did she care. One of her tablemates grunted at her in annoyance, and she took that as her cue to get up and leave the stupid game.
The woman walked towards the TV, and watched what was going on in the outside world.
"It has been confirmed that this is, indeed, an attack executed by The White Fang! O-Oh my god-! It has also been reported that the mines were hosting a family event located in the general vicinity! There have been no confirmations regarding injuries or fatalities with the workers family members as of yet..."
"Oi! Raven!"
The dark-haired woman jumped slightly at the jarringly deep voice that beckoned her. She sighed heavily, and turned around to face the man that the voice belonged to.
"What is it, Hazel?"
The tall, brown-haired man gestured for her to come back to the table, "Come play a round of Remnant: The Game. There's no point in keeping up with what's going on outside."
Raven was about to respond to him, but then her eye twitched when she heard a different person bark out a laugh.
"Ahahaha! Rainhart, she gets out in a week! She's trying to 'get with the times' so she won't be too confused when she finally leaves."
"Shut up, Yuma." Raven spat.
Hazel became quiet at the information that Yuma disclosed, but then smiled warmly at the Branwen. "Well... that's all the more reason why you should play the game with us, Rae! Our time together is limited."
Raven snorted, but nevertheless returned the smile. She made her way back to her spot at the table. "Alright! Alright! I'll play one last game with you guys."
Her statement was welcomed with a round of amicable cheers that came from everybody sitting at the table. She playfully rolled her eyes, and turned her back on the TV to go play the game. However, when she caught the last part of what the news anchor said in the report, she became uneasy.
"Unfortunately, there have been fatalities suffered from both Faunus and Human workers alike! Stay tuned for more information later on tonight..."
Raven's breath caught in her throat.
God, I pray that they're all okay...
"Raven!"
She snapped out of it and turned her head to face her companions. She exhaled sharply in mock annoyance, and placed a hand against her right hip, "Chill out, guys! Don't get your jumpsuits tied in a bunch."
Hazel let out a booming laugh at that, "Well, since you're going to be out of your jumpsuit in a week... we gotta make memories!"
"Whatever..." Raven playfully scoffed. Shortly after, she perked up, "I call being Vacuo!"
"That's the spirit!" Yuma exclaimed. Soon, the dark-haired woman exasperatedly watched as the man abruptly stood up and made a spectacle of himself. "Ey Everybody! Rae gets out in a week! Lets make sure she gets a proper Mistral Grimm State Penitentiary Goodbye!"
Suddenly, the entire room erupted in various cheers, and good-natured hollering from the friends that she made in the past decade. She wouldn't admit this out loud, but in that moment she felt an immeasurable amount of gratefulness for the people around her.
These bastards totally made this place suck a little less.
Raven smiled once again, and took her place at the table.
"Alright! Let's do this!"
After three hours of playing Remnant: The Game, Raven finally decided to call it quits. Each game became repetitive, as either Hazel or Raven would end up 'conquering' all of Remnant by the end of their rounds. Yuma and the massive brown-haired man decided to take care of putting the game away while Raven continued to lounge around on one of chairs in front of the muted TV. She watched the screen intently, and looked for any signs of an update on the bombed dust mines in Southern Mistral. However, her concentration became interrupted when the sounds of receding footsteps filled the room.
Everyone started to slowly file out of the D-Block commons area, with a couple of people patting the dark-haired woman's shoulder as some form of 'goodbye.' She acknowledged them all absentmindedly, making sure she at least seemed like she was listening to the good friends and acquaintances she made for the past couple of years.
Soon, the commons room was essentially empty. There were a couple of stragglers, but she payed them no mind.
She then took it upon herself to unmute the TV. Right at that same moment, the news anchor that was covering the Mistral Dust Mines Bombing suddenly popped up; with a devastated expression on her face. A sense of dread slowly engulfed Raven, and she held her breath.
This can't be good.
"I-It is with a heavy heart that I inform you all that there were n-no survivors in the Dust Mines-" the news anchor choked back a sob, "t-there were also fatalities amongst the worker's families too. Some of which were children. The youngest fatality being 10 years old- Oh God, I can't do this..." Raven watched as the news anchor stood up from her post, and walked out of view. It seemed like the camera-men didn't know what to do for a moment, but then the news anchor's coworker suddenly came into the picture. Raven briefly noted that it was a dark-haired, wolf Faunus. He didn't seem that much better off than his partner. However, he took in a deep breath and continued the report in her stead.
"We will now be paying tribute to the lives lost to this horrible terror attack."
Raven's heart stopped.
If there weren't any survivors in the mines, then-
The dark-haired woman's heart tore in two when she saw an all too familiar face pop up on the screen. Seeing his deep blue eyes, and signature blonde hair filled her with a sense of nostalgia. But when she realized what seeing his photo meant, the dark-haired woman felt a crushing weight - slowly suffocating her lungs.
She gasped out loud, and held her hand against her mouth.
"Taiyang Xiao Long: Age 30." the anchor man began, "he had worked in the mines for about 8 years and was loved by all of his coworkers. His family..."
"Oh G-God..." Raven's voice nearly broke. She remembered that the youngest fatality was 10 years old, and she prayed to the Gods that the kid was okay.
No... Please, Gods. No...
"They survived. However, one of his daughters was severely injured and-"
Raven shut the TV off.
She... She didn't need to know the rest. She was just relieved that the others came out safe.
"It's a shame what happened to those poor families," another voice suddenly chimed in.
Raven took in a deep breath and composed herself before addressing the man who had spoken to her. She gave him a sidelong glance, and noted that it was one of the older inmates. If she could recall correctly, everyone referred to him as Shopkeep; mostly because he was in charge of regulating the sales at the prison's commissary. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder how long he'd been at the prison. His hair was greying, and he seemed to have gained a number wrinkles during his time here.
"Oh.. I'm sorry, were you watchi-?"
"No. You don't need to turn it back on. I already know what my daughter looks like..." he smiled sadly. Raven's eyes widened marginally in shock when she caught onto what he revealed.
Her gaze softened, "I-I'm sorry for your loss."
"Don't be, child. In a sense, I already lost her a long time ago when I set foot into this place."
Raven nodded, and stood up from her seat on the couch. She took a couple of steps towards the exit, but then the old man decided to pipe up again.
"Did you have any family involved in the incident?"
She stopped walking.
"No."
Her chest tightened when she denied them, but she forced herself to keep walking forward.
The old man sighed heavily, "I see..."
Instead of dwelling on the topic further, the woman simply turned her head to face the man. Raven smiled at him, "I'll see you around, Shopkeep."
She walked out of the room before the man could offer a goodbye of his own.
As Raven walked throughout the halls of the prison, she started to feel light-headed. She leaned against one of the cement walls, and pressed her forehead against its surface. She didn't know that she was heating up until she felt some relief from the cool sensation of the cement on her skin. Her body began to tremble.
All at once, Raven's repressed emotions broke out like a flood.
WHAM!
Her fist hit the wall with so much force that she knew she bruised it badly. She tried to ease the pain by holding the limb close, but right now it wasn't her physical pain that she wanted to alleviate. She clutched at her chest to try and claw these emotions out. She hated feeling vulnerable.
"D-Dammit!" Raven turned her back against the wall, and leaned down on it until she was on the ground.
T-Tai...
She stifled a sob, and buried her head into her good hand. This was all too much for her. This was one of the last things that Raven expected to happen to them, of all people. All she could think of was the well-being of the others; how was the kid? How was she doing?
Summer...
"God Dammit!"
Thud!
Raven blankly stared at the bag that the C.O tossed onto the counter. It was a transparent, decently-sized bag that seemed to hold her belongings. Namely, the virtually useless stuff that she had ten years ago before she was thrown into this prison. She stared at the bag, and then back at the C.O; she repeated the process about three times and hoped that the C.O was getting the memo.
What the hell do they expect me to do with this shit?!
She honestly didn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this! For the past week or so, she had been channelling all of her energy towards her release date. She needed a distraction from everything that was going on at the moment. Unsurprisingly, the prison staff kept her completely in the dark about the transition, which annoyed her to no end.
She continued to stare at the man behind the plexiglass protected counter.
"So-?"
"The Penitentiary will only drive you to a destination of your choosing." The C.O deadpanned, "Other than that, you're on your own, Branwen."
Raven opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it.
Where was she supposed to-?
"Do you know where you're going?"
Raven thought about that for a moment. She didn't have anybody to fall back to... well, there was the exception of him but Raven wasn't even sure if he still lived at the same address. Even when they were kids, the man wasn't really the type to stay still in one place for too long.
... It's worth a shot.
The dark-haired woman sighed heavily, "Yeah... I know where I'm going."
The C.O raised an eyebrow at that, "and that would be...?"
"Just take me anywhere in Downtown Mistral. I can walk to the place from there."
"Alright, I'll tell the driver shortly. In the meantime, change into this." They slid her a plain black hoodie and a pair of jeans, which she swiftly grabbed. "The public would probably feel uneasy if you were prancing around in your jumpsuit."
Raven didn't know if that was supposed to be a light-hearted joke or not, but she nevertheless smiled at the man. "Right..."
She walked to the nearest bathroom to change into her clothes. Thankfully, there was a single bathroom in their general vicinity, so she didn't actually have to go into a tiny stall to change. When she made it into the shabby bathroom, she set her stuff aside and walked right up to the mirror at the opposite side of the room. Raven then began to shed herself of the jumpsuit that basically became an outer layer of her skin for the past decade.
She almost laughed at how utterly symbolic the action felt.
However, she decided to not dwell too much on the symbolism behind her actions because she had a ride waiting for her at the prison's entrance. Once she donned on the clothing she was given by the prison, she quirked a brow at her reflection.
I mean... it's a step up from the prison suit, but I still look like I'm ready to jump someone at random.
She shrugged. "It won't be the first time I would be scrutinized, and it definitely won't be the last."
The dark-haired woman opened the bathroom doors after she gave herself that relatively neutral pep-talk. She immediately made her way towards the prison's 'drop-off' area located outside. As promised, a rather short man (who she assumed to be her driver) was waiting for her in front of a small, white van. When she walked up to him, the driver simply gave her a nod of acknowledgement before climbing into the driver's seat.
Raven made her way into the back of the prison's transport van, and shut the door with a hefty slam! Once she buckled in her seatbelt, the short man driving the van spoke up.
"Alright, Branwen. Where to?"
Raven leaned back into her seat, and made eye contact with the man through the rearview mirror. "Take me to the bus terminal in Downtown Mistral."
The said man simply quirked a brow at her. "Are you sure? That isn't exactly the safest place to be around..."
"Yeah, I'm sure." the Branwen answered curtly. "I've got family around that area."
That made the driver chuckle, almost mockingly. "I'm surprised that you would have any family that'd be willing to help."
"You and me both, driver man."
Although it seemed like she was nonchalant about her answer, Raven truthfully felt uneasy about who she was going to 'pay a visit' to. That man was most likely unhappy with her, especially considering the fact that she stopped communicating with him half a decade ago.
But she also had every reason to be just as angry with him.
And according to her, he owed her at least a decades-worth of lodging.
The rest of the drive continued on in relative silence, which Raven was thankful for. She was never good at small-talk, and she doubted the driver actually wanted to have a conversation with her - seeing as she was a criminal and all. So instead, she opted to take in her surroundings as she rode in the car.
The Grimm State Penitentiary was isolated from the rest of Mistral - located somewhere within the valleys and forests that surrounded the city. So for a while, all Raven could see was an endless sea of green. However, soon enough, the city's skyline came into view on the horizon. They were still a considerable distance away from the main city, but close enough that Raven could actually see it.
The whole infrastructure of Mistral was interesting, to say the least. It was basically embedded in a mountain range - with the country's more impoverished population residing at the base. The richer citizens, on the other hand, lived in the upper tiers.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to assume that there was a class issue/controversy in Mistral. But the president, who lived at the summit with the rest of the elite, couldn't care less about the masses. Raven honestly couldn't believe that she was going to be a part of that society soon.
Suddenly, the weight of her situation hit her all at once.
She was... free.
The widest grin slowly made its way onto her lips.
She began thinking about all of the possibilities for her while she was out. Surprisingly enough, she didn't really put much thought into what she would do once she actually left prison. Her mind began reeling, but then her newfound hope came to a devastating halt when she realized one thing.
WHO is going to hire a freaking convict!?
She resisted the urge to groan out loud, and rummaged through the plastic bag that held her belongings. Finding what she was searching for, Raven held up an old letter and read the address. It was one of the very few letters she received while she was incarcerated. She sighed.
If he's not at this address then I'm absolutely screwed.
Raven wondered if she should've gotten the driver to drop her off at the nearest shelter instead.
She quickly got rid of the thought.
There was a small part of her that still believed that he waited - or was waiting - for her. They were blood after all.
And he owed her. Big time.
HONK!
Raven snapped out of her reverie when the driver slammed on the breaks. She grunted as the seatbelt locked against her chest.
"Watch where you're going, dumbass!" The driver yelled out his window. The person in the other vehicle honked back in defiance.
"Everything alright?"
The stout man flitted his gaze to her through the rearview mirror, as if he just remembered she was there. "Er, yeah." He then cleared his throat. "We'll be at the main downtown bus terminal shortly... are you sure there isn't a different place you want me to drop you off?"
Raven shook her head. "No. The place I'm going is near the terminal, and I just wanted to get a general feeling of the city..."
"Alright then," he mumbled.
The Branwen simply stared out the window after that exchange, and took in the cityscape.
Downtown Mistral kind of reminded her of Upper-midcity Vale.
There were a bunch of office buildings, and condominiums that lined the streets. Although, Mistral seemed a little more 'rough around the edges' than Vale itself. Every once in a while there would be a random street market. Some of which were definitely sketchy; others appeared to hold small communities. She noted that there were also a number of entertainment facilities. Adult and miscellaneous alike.
However, one facility caught her eye.
Nikos kickboxing...
She decided to remember where that gym was located. She wondered if they offered a trial period for new members... or if they would offer a convicted felon a membership at all. She then frowned in thought.
A certain redheaded beast crossed her mind - nostalgia began to wash over her.
I wonder where that meathead is now.
Raven couldn't even dwell too much on her memories, as she was jolted once more against her seatbelt.
The driver simply looked back at her apologetically, "Sorry 'bout that." She felt the car slow to a stop. "We're here, by the way."
She looked out the window - taking in a deep, calming breath. She slowly let it out. Yup, they were there in the heart of downtown Mistral alright. She could see busybodies entering and leaving the buses, and going down to the lower levels to take - what she assumed to be - the subway. Humans and Faunus alike were walking on the streets. Although, she noted that there were more Faunus than humans out and about in downtown Mistral. She figured that the humans probably lived in the upper tiers of the city.
Raven then snapped out of it and quickly opened the van door. She didn't want to hold up the driver.
Before exiting the van, she made sure that all her belongings were with her.
She pocketed that letter with her destination on it, and stepped out of the van.
"Good luck, Branwen."
Raven simply nodded towards the driver, offering him a small smile and slammed the door shut.
She felt a sense of melancholy as she watched the van drive away. A huge part of her life had officially come to a close. Not that the prison was actually important to her or anything like that... it was just... all she knew.
And now she had to figure her shit out.
Raven reached into her pocket, and held the letter with conviction.
She walked towards her destination, and hoped to the Gods that he was at the address on the letter. She sighed, staring up at the sky.
He's gotta be there.
"Who's there?!"
The gruff man let out a groan at the incessant knocking at his door.
He contemplated flat out ignoring it, but whoever was on the other side seemed to be rather insistent. Groaning, he stood up from his couch and sluggishly made it towards the entrance of his apartment. As he got closer, the knocking began to do wonders on the headache that he already had.
Oh my Gods, I'm gonna tear this person a new one...
He lifted a hand to rub his temple before whipping his front door open.
"You must think you're incredibly important to be knocking on my door like-!"
His voice caught in his throat when he realized who he was speaking to.
Raven watched in unease as realization immediately reached the man's face.
She tried to hide the relief that embodied her when he opened the door. Truthfully, she wasn't sure that he'd be at this location at all. But thankfully, she instantly recognized him - and vice versa, it would seem.
There were some changes in him that she could see right away.
One of which was his height. They used to be about the same height, but now she actually had to look up a little at him. He also looked a lot more... tired? His eyes appeared to be glossed over, struggling to stay in focus.
She then got a whiff of him.
No... he's drunk.
Raven tried not get irritated with the man. Considering the fact that he's the only person she could rely on at the moment, she decided not to get into with him - at least not right now. There was a lot that they had to unpack in terms of baggage, and his alcoholism could stay on the backburner. Unfortunately, it would seem that was one thing about him that didn't change.
However... with everything that was going on? She couldn't blame him.
Raven awkwardly offered him a grin.
"Hey, Qrow."
I already know this one's gonna be a doozy.
LOL I hope you guys enjoyed this introduction! I've got a lot of plans for this fic and can't wait to piece it all together ;P I'm gonna try and keep the POV's at a minimum this time around. Mostly because it's moreso about the adults, rather than the RWBY kids.
Until Next Time,
MediocreWriter.