Here we go
...
This couldn't be happening.
This couldn't be happening.
Raven struggled for breath as she gripped her shoulder hard, as if by some miracle she could squeeze the infection out her it.
It burned. The bite marks burned like acid on her skin and it was as if her arm was about to tear itself apart from the inside out.
One bite.
All it had taken was one bite, and all of her skill, all of her training, experience and abilities had been made irrelevant.
This was going to kill her.
Lycanthropy was going to kill her!
What were the chances? What were they damn it?
She couldn't access the Odyssium to find the answers. Her mind was racing far too fast. Was it her own fear? Her panic? Or was it already taking effect?
Raven grit her teeth, screwing her eyes shut tight as a spasm jolted through her body.
Damn it all to hel.
Lycanthropy was a disease. It infected its host and attacked them with all sorts of pathogens that even normally would be dangerous for a human, deadly even under the right circumstances.
She'd never seen it in person, the transformation, the sickness. Raven had no idea how this would work.
Someone might though.
Ozpin.
She needed to see Ozpin.
He could help her, reverse his somehow with his magic.
He'd know what to do at least.
He had to.
With that in mind, Raven dragged herself to her feet, forcing past the pain that singed underneath her skin. Her legs wobbled jus from standing.
The faster she got to Ozpin the better.
Hysterically, she lifted a hand, calling for a portal to Summer, if she'd help. Of course she would. Her partner would know what to-
No!
She snatched her hand back.
What was she thinking? She couldn't go back like this! Not in the condition she was in now. Ridiculous. Her mind was lardy leaving her. At least she hadn't summoned it yet. Her portal to Summer hadn't opened. With her level of concentration right now, it had just fizzled out.
Good. She couldn't make that mistake.
She'd fly to Ozpin, like always.
She took a breath, fighting past the aching running down her back. There was a pull, a drag like her magic was grinding against something else.
Her face scrunched in concentration, willing past it with as much force as she could muster.
Something clicked, and she felt her body morph into feathers.
That was…. Right, it was messing with everything wasn't it? Her body was freaking out.
That was normal, she told herself. It had to be for something like this. People got fevers when they're bodies fought diseases. This was just the same thing right?
Oz would be able to fix this how. She knew he could.
She spread her wings and shot into the sky, rising higher and higher upwards pat the trees, past the mountains around her and the clouds above until below her was a sea of white.
She knew which way Vale was, the higher she went the faster she could get here. She needed to get there. Fast.
The sky screamed past as she sped up, the wind whipped around her, blasting currents of wind under her feathers.
Her corvid body showed no damage, but Raven had to do everything in her power to keep herself focus. If she lost consciousness for even just let her control slip for half a second she could go crashing back to the earth.
In the back of her mind, the signatures she had bonded with grew closer. Patch was growing closer and in turn, Vale.
Sill so far of, Raven flew for hours, until the sun began to fall and the moon began to rise.
Not a full moon.
Thank the gods for small mercies.
She had time, however much that might have been.
She descended, down below the clouds where she could see Beacon tower, shining in the night. The lights were still on that meant Oz was still up.
God. She could talk to him the-
Raven cried out as she felt a stab of pain in her chest and her concentration slipped.
She transformed back into her human form mid-air and careened towards the ground.
Her body locked up, and she braced for the impact as she crashed right down into Beacon's courtyard.
The remnants of her aura that had recharged during her flight were all she had to shield herself from the landing, but they served their purpose.
I flared brightly as it broke again, and she groaned in pain as she came to a messy stop, dust floating up from a mini crater she'd made. Raven wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball until the pain passed.
But it wouldn't, not if she didn't do something.
She had to ride it out, push her way through brute force style.
So she pushed herself up once again, stumbling up to her feet, and rushing inside Beacon tower as fast as she could, practically falling into the elevator, and when the doors opened again, Ozpin stood there, his back to her, staring out the window.
"Oz!" she gasped. "I need your help!"
No response, other than a twitch of his head. He'd heard her, but wasn't answering, wasn't even acknowledging her.
Raven wasn't in the right state of mind to question why.
"Oz." she coughed, gripping her shoulder as new blood leaked out of the wound. Shit, why was it not healing? "Come on Oz talk to me!"
Nothing. She could see his reflection in the window. He could see her too. She knew he could, and she could see how focused his gaze was even from here, even in her state. The mission, the- it wasn't beowolves, or it was but-" she shivered madly. "It wasn't the thing that as killing them. There was a werewolf, hiding there in the forest."
"Yes… I know," he finally spoke. "Tell me, was it dealt with?"
He was asking about that of all things? With her bleeding on his carpet? "Y-yeah. I killed it b-but Oz it- it got me. I'm bit!"
"I know," he said again. "I can feel the… infection off of you, I could as soon as you entered Beacon."
Right, magic, that made sense. He probably sensed it somehow.
"Yeah." She nodded quickly. "So what do we do? How can I- how do I fix this? What do I need to cure it?
"Cure it?" he echoed, turning to the huntress at last. All of a sudden, Raven felt the… wrongness in the air, the stillness of his features that made her skin crawl.
No, what was she thinking? She'd been bitten, she was freaking out. Of course things would feel off. She could even feel a fever coming on as she stood there.
"I'm afraid there is no cure for lycanthropy Raven." He told her, shaking his head. "Such a curse is far more rooted in primordial magic, thigs not even I can reverse, nor do I think it is even possible by mortal means."
She felt her heart spasm.
No. That wasn't right.
There were- there were people who had gotten through it hadn't here? She'd read it herself. There were cases of it recorded in the Odyssium!
"But, what about how it can clear out of a person's system. That means there a chance of something right?"
He hummed, striding over to his desk, leaning lightly against it.
"It is possible… there is a one in seven chance that you will be able to ride through without change. If that is the case, the fever should last until the next full moon. If you are lucky, nothing will happen.
The next full moon. Raven's mind raced through the days. The next full moon was two nights from now.
"However," he added, interrupting her thoughts. "That still leaves the other two options."
She looked up, staring at him. "There… are two other things that could happen?"
"Of course," she shrugged apathetically. Raven' stomach churned. "There is a four in seven chance that the infection will be too much for your body to handle, overloading your organs and bloodstream with pathogens and killing you. From what I have gathered, it is horrifically painful."
Yes. She'd known that. She hadn't expected the chances to be so high. And she didn't appreciate Ozpin's cold description of it. She was aware that sometimes you needed to be level headed, and a situation like this called for it, but couldn't he show at least a little bit of compassion?
"And then there is the last option," at this, Ozpin's face twisted into a sneer. "The infection could take a permanent hold on you, mutating until it became what lycanthropy is known for."
"Transformation." She whispered. "And… I'll find that out… at the next full moon then too, won't I?"
"You will not."
And suddenly, everything felt heavy.
"W-what?"
"Do you think I would risk the chance of you becoming a werewolf Raven? Do you think I would allow such an… infestation to take root within my ranks? To taint my city like you would? Lycanthropy is one of the sickest, twisted apparitions of magic possible, to take a man's will and warp it with the primal savagery humanity once left behind. You would have no control of yourself, and you would possess a crippling weakness to silver. I cannot have my eye weakened like that."
"What are you saying?"
"I am saying that I will not risk what you could become, but, that I am merciful enough to spare you of the pain you could feel and put you out of your misery now."
Raven took a step back in horror.
Ozpin was saying he was going to kill her.
The look on his face, the seriousness of it the- the disgust in it, was enough for her to tell that he was serious.
She'd- she'd known he had a distaste for the creatura, but she hadn't thought he would-
"O-oz you can't be serious!" she gasped falling back another step. "It's me! Raven! I'm still me, I'll still be loyal to you even if I become one of those things!"
"I will not risk it."
"There's nothing to risk!" she cried. "I could die! I could get through this with nothing changing or I could turn! I'd need your help to control it sure but the only change would that I might get stron…ger…"
No.
Raven's eyes widened very, very slowly.
"You knew." She whispered in horror. "You knew that there was a werewolf there… you… you wanted it to kill me. You wanted it to infect me so you could kill me."
"… Quite a leap in logic, is it not?"
It was, maddeningly so. But the pieces were clicking together in her head, information, ideas and logic she wouldn't have thought made sense otherwise. One thing didn't however.
"Why…" she pled. "Why would you…"
Ozpin looked irritated, like her presence was beginning to offend him, like the past four years suddenly didn't matter. He… looked bored.
"Your usefulness ceased some time ago. It was merely a decision of when I would stop using you. That had its own issue however."
"W-what?"
"Did you really think I wouldn't use every tool at my disposal? Your presumption to limit my ability was a naive one."
Raven's blood, despite the heat she felt crawling under her skin, ran cold. "You… never stopped using them."
Qrow.
Summer.
The whole reason she'd kept herself away from them.
Raven's face morphed into a furious snarl. "You never stopped sending them on missions!"
"Of course not," he dismissed. "Qrow may not be as powerful as you, but he is still useful, and far more willing to follow without asking questions. And Summer? Did you think I wouldn't use a weapon as powerful as her eyes as frequently as possible? As rare as they are?"
Raven shook madly.
All that time. Her chances to raise her daughter. To live a peaceful life.
The blood, the sweat, the tears, all of the fear and uncertainty she'd felt, all of the pain, and the times she'd thought of just giving up, all of the times she'd nearly died.
All of it, sacrificed to protect her family. Sacrificed so that they wouldn't have to be a part of this war.
And it had all been for nothing!
"You…. Son of a bitch."
"Call me whatever you wish, it matters not to me what a creature such as you are now thinks of me."
"I'll tell them." Raven growled. "I'll tell them the truth. Do you think they'll let this go when they find out what I've been doing? That you've been lying to them and now done this?!"
"It is because of that chance that this is what has occurred." He scoffed. "Letting you return was never an option, their trust in me is too useful to damage with your return… fortunately, I've had four years to build a narrative. One you yourself agreed upon. Do you think you would have the chance to convince them otherwise? That I would let you?"
She grit her teeth.
In the silence, Ozpin shook his head. "Never mind then."
Raven stiffened as she witnessed him reach for his cane, sweeping it out before him.
"Come then Raven, let us tie up this loose end."
Raven's own hand twitched towards Bifrost's, but her heart was racing.
She couldn't beat Ozpin. She wasn't strong enough, wasn't fast enough, and like this, she had even less of a chance.
She had to run. There was no other option, but even that was nigh impossible.
Ozpin was faster than her, be it with his magic or his semblance.
She wouldn't be able to create a portal. As soon as she did her guard would be down and he'd capitalize on it.
Turning her back was even more dangerous. She'd never see her death coming but come it would.
She did have a way though, didn't she?
His own magic would be her chance.
And since she couldn't beat him, she just needed to do something he wouldn't expect.
…Like attack.
Raven rushed forward, tearing Bifrost from its scabbard harder than it could handle. Upon leaving its holder, the red blade snapped, and its momentum shot it forwards in a spinning arc straight at the wizard.
Ozpin smacked it aside just as fast, and his eyes narrowed as Raven sped towards him, prepared to counterattack.
And so he wasn't expecting, though perhaps he should have, Raven dashing right past him.
He barely had time to turn a fraction, as Raven brought up her arms to cross her face and clenched her eyes shut.
The towers glass shattered the next instant, and Raven plummeted towards the ground.
Through sheer force of will Raven's concentration held and her body twisted.
And she soared into the sky.
She kept flying, as fast as she could towards patch.
If she had looked back.
She would have seen Ozpin's face twisted with rage.
Raven flew.
She kept flying, without pause, without slowing, all the way across the sea, all the way to Patch.
All the way to her home.
She was in her human form before she touched down.
She landed badly and stumbled, falling to the ground before she scrambled back up, clawing her way to the front porch.
"Tai!" she cried. "Tai it's me! Qrow! Summer! I'm back!"
No response.
She coughed painfully, her chest constricting as she shivered.
"Please open up!" she yelped out. "Tai! Sum! I can explain everything! I'm back!"
Still nothing.
Raven looked around, disorientated. The…. The lights were off. Were they asleep?
She closed her eyes, searching for their presence.
No. They weren't in the house.
There were close though, and together.
But… something was wrong.
She shook her head. No, she doesn't need to focus on that now. She needed to find them, she needed to talk to them.
Her legs felt like they were about to give out.
She ran.
Her heart beating wildly.
This was her chance.
To hel with what Ozpin had done. The bastard didn't know what he was talking about. They'd accept her back. They were her family.
Raven barrelled through the forest, closer and closer she got, closer.
Closer
Raven felt a smile break across her face.
This was it.
She could set things right.
Everything was going to be-
Raven skid to a stop, right at the edge of the treeline.
She could see them.
Tai, Qrow, even her daughter, holding her father's hand.
They had they're back to her and…. They were wearing black.
What were they…
Oh.
Oh gods no.
Raven's legs gave out, and she fell against a tree.
"No." she begged. "No this can't be real."
Her husband, her brother, her daughter stood there on the edge of the cliff.
In front of a gravestone.
Summer Rose.
Thus kindly I scatter.
No.
No, No, No, No, No No No No NoNoNoNo please No!
Raven crashed backwards onto the ground.
This couldn't be happening. It wasn't realty. Not a chance.
There had to be some mistake.
Desperately, she reached for Bifrost, freeing it and focusing on Summer's signature.
It was still there. It was still there in her mind. She had to be alive.
She brought the blade down and-
Nothing.
No portal.
It was like- it was like her semblance had reached out for an anchor and found nothing.
That…
She did it again.
And again.
And again and again and again.
Nothing.
Nothing
Nothing!
This couldn't be happening.
This wasn't really happening.
This was some… twisted nightmare.
She was hallucinating, going crazy.
That had to be it, because the other option was-
Raven grabbed both sides of her head in fistfuls of hair.
"No." she choked out, tears streaming down her face unaided.
This wasn't fair.
Summer wasn't supposed to die.
Not when she'd just decided to come back.
This wasn't-
She shouldn't have died because she should have been there instead of wasting her time with-
A scream threatened to tear open her throat.
Her leader, her partner, her best friend was fucking dead!
She should have been there to stop it!
But Ozpin.
Ozpin had sent her on a mission, sent her on mission's right under her nose for years.
No wonder why he'd acted.
He'd know.
He'd known Summer was dead and knew she'd find out.
Oh gods. Tai, Qrow, Yang, Summer's own child. They were dealing with this right now without her.
Her head turned to them as they stood there, Yang was weeping openly about the woman that had raised her in Raven's place.
She needed to be there. She needed to talk to them, to help somehow, to do something.
She stumbled forward, ready to break the treeline as her eyes scanned over them looking for Summer's own. There she was in Yang's arms, a look on her face like she didn't truly understand what was going on. She-
Was a parasite. The spawn of the one that stole my mate from me!
Something inside Raven's head broke and her eyes widened as she froze.
Something inside of her snapped savagely, insanely as her eyes locked onto Summer's little girl, and her chest burned with the desire to tear her apart and take back what was hers. To erase the proof that her mate wasn't her anymore.
"Stop." She groaned, fingernails digging into her scalp. Why? What was happening to her?!
Desperately, her eyes sought out her brother.
A threat. Competition to my status as the alpha. Someone I need to eradicate to keep control of-
"Stop it!" she sobbed, blood staining her hair as it oozed out of her scalp.
The Curse. It was twisting her thoughts, forging up this savage rage in her, this twisted craving to wipe out her own family.
She couldn't do it. She couldn't put them in that sort of danger if this was how she was-
Her eyes fell on Yang, her own child.
A traitor already stained by the thief. She's already tainted with her scent. Starting over would be better, getting rid of the corrupted cub would-
The idea, the notion that she wanted to hurt her own daughter, the way she was now, how these twisted thoughts that were not her own made her body groan from inaction.
The realisation of what she was about to do. To the one thing above all else that she'd been fighting for.
Was too much.
Raven fled.
…
…
Two days.
Two days of running.
Of Raven fleeing blindly.
Of feeling like every moment could be her last, most agonising.
She didn't know where she was going, just that it was far away from her home. She was sick, delirious and half-dead but not once did she stop.
No, that was wrong.
She knew she needed to go somewhere. Somewhere safe. Some place where she could get help, or barring, that, shelter even.
It was…
It wasn't home.
But it was someplace she'd called as such a long time ago.
Which was why she'd come to a stop, just breaking out of the treeline in a clearing in front of a wooden gate. It looked like it'd been built just recently… a replacement? Had… had it even been there when Raven left? She wasn't entirely sure. Her head was… fuzzy.
She tried to call out, to get someone's attention but to no avail. It was like her throat was filled with sandpaper, each breath she took felt like it might rupture her windpipe.
It was getting worse.
"Who's there?"
Her head snapped up to the voice, to the man atop the wall glaring down at her with his hand in a gun strapped to his hip.
A lookout.
A second later his eye locked onto hers and widened. Almost immediately he spun around, shouting back into the camp.
The gate creaked open all of a sudden, and a dozen men and women – armed to the teeth – stream out, surrounding the weakened huntress. The weapons in their hands are directed straight at her.
The message is clear.
If Raven tried anything, she'd be put down like a dog.
Wasn't that ironic?
Being led in by gunpoint wasn't the most welcoming method they could have used, but honestly, it was better than she'd been expecting. Whether they were giving her a pass because she looked like she might drop dead at any moment, or because they thought she still might be a threat was anyone's guess, but right now she'd take it.
At least they were guiding her through the camp. Surrounded as she was, it was definitely drawing a spectacle.
It struck Raven in that moment how… different things looked.
Not just the camp itself, for as fortified as it was now, so much more so than it had been when her and Qrow had left for Beacon but… the faces. Everywhere she looked, there were faces of people she didn't recognise. Newcomers, outsiders, or just those who'd grown in the time she'd been away. It was like looking at an entirely different species. And the looks on their faces. They knew who she was.
Without a doubt.
And they weren't pleased in the slightest.
"Stop." One of the men escorting her spoke, the man who'd been on top of the wall. They'd come to a halt next to a deserted campfire, on with empty tents around it and separated from the rest of the Tribe. Why there was even something like this, she wasn't sure. "Wait here." He ordered. "You don't move from here until we come get you, understand? One step out of line and I'll put a bullet through your skull myself."
How kind.
She nods, dropping herself down onto one of the logs by the fire.
She was lucky he'd told her to stay here, otherwise it would have made her look weak when her legs couldn't keep her up anymore.
He grunted and motioned to the others around him to follow as he left. Raven's eyes followed.
They were on their way to the leader's tent.
It left her alone. Thank the gods for small mercies.
Raven bent over, clutching her stomach weakly as aches threatened to force a groan from her lips.
Damn it. She felt like she was going to pass out. Something wet leaked from her lips, and when she raised a hand and pulled away, her fingers were red.
"I guess he had every right to be confident." Raven murmured. "It doesn't look like I'm making it out of this one." She let out a stuttering breath and shut her eyes. "Shit… I didn't think I'd go out in such a pathetic way."
Sickly, bleeding and on her last leg with none of her loved ones around her, none that would remember her kindly.
Raven thought she would have been okay with dying. She'd come close to it plenty of times over the last few years. She would have been fine with it she thought, so long as it meant her family was safe, that they'd finally get to know what had happened to her, that they could understand how sorry she was.
Now. She couldn't even have that. They'd hate her, Ozpin would make sure of it. He'd ruin any chance of forgiveness they might have given her, and she wouldn't be able to stop him.
And Summer.
Oh gods. She died, not even knowing why her partner had left her behind.
Raven raised a fist to her forehead and screwed her eyes even harder as she hissed through her teeth.
"I'm sorry Sum. I… I'm so fucking sorry."
"Who are you talking to?"
Raven would have jumped in her seat if she had the strength but in her stated settled for a stumble, even so, her head snapped up to the voice that had spoken.
And came face to face with a little girl with bright blue eyes.
"Ugh." Raven blinked in her deliriousness. "What?"
"Who were you talking to?" The child repeated. "Are you crazy or something?"
The huntress frowned. "No. I'm not crazy."
A scoff escaped the girl's lips. "Sure. Crazy people talk to themselves you know? And here you are just sittin' by yourself and talking."
Raven's frown twitched. "What do you want kid?"
"I just said." The girl pointed out. "I want to know who you were talking to."
Raven sighed, feeling a headache coming on for entirely different reasons now. "Fine, I was talking to myself, you happy?"
"Why were you talking to yourself?"
"Because I wanted to apologise."
"To who?"
"A friend."
"But you're by yourself."
"It's the act of doing it kid!" Raven snapped. "Who the Fu- Hel even are you anyway?"
The girl tilted her head slightly, crossing her arms. "Did you just stop yourself from saying fuck?" She raised an eyebrow when Raven flinched back. "Seriously?"
Raven scowled. "Kids shouldn't curse."
"Why the fuck not?"
"Because it sounds bad," she said. "And it doesn't suit you."
"Oh yeah? You're saying you know what suits me then? Bullshit."
"Would you stop?"
"Why? You got a problem with it? You some pansy that can't handle a few bad words?"
Raven groaned. She's been trying her best not to wear herself, so that when she finally came back to Yang she wouldn't slip up in front of her. Now here she was back with the Tribe for ten minutes and hearing it from another child's mouth. "What business do you even have speaking like that? You're too young for that stuff."
"Hey!" the girl growled. Actually growled. What kind of little girl growled like a feral animal? "I'm plenty old enough to say whatever I want!"
"You're a child."
"I'm already ten!"
"Oh gods you're basically a toddler."
"What was that bitch?!"
Raven groaned again. "Never mind."
The girl scowled, crossing her arm. "Yeah that's what I thought."
A silence settled between them as the fire crackled, and the murmurs of the Tribe could be heard around them. Just far enough away that Raven couldn't make out what they were saying.
She looked around at the soft glows of the campfires dotted around the place, and the men and women sitting at them, drinking together.
It was starting to get dark.
"So why are you over here?" Raven asked, hoping to distract herself.
She got a grunt in return. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how there's plenty of places you could be, probably hanging out with anyone else, talking, telling stories, laughing or literally anything else, but you're here, with me, the one people are glaring at."
The girl glared at Raven, though the Huntress wasn't sure why.
"I want to know who you are."
"You can't have just asked?"
"You don't just ask someone stuff." She scowled. "It doesn't work like that."
What, people couldn't ask each other what they're names were "That's stupid."
"It's unnecessary." The girl shot back, though from the way she pronounced the word, it felt like she was just parroting back something she'd heart from another. "And besides, what would a weakling outsider like you know about how our Tribe does things?"
"A lot I'd think." Raven grunt. "Considering I used to live in it."
The girl stiffened. "What?"
The older woman rolled her eyes. "I used to be a part of the Tribe a while back. Before you clearly, since I don't remember your face. What, did they pick you up somewhere along the way?"
"None of your business!" she snapped. "You're lying anyway! There's no way a weakling like you could be a part of the Branwen Tribe!"
Oh boy.
"What's with the weakling shtick?"
"Look at you!" she pointed. "You look like you're about to drop dead."
That… was fair.
"Guess I do." She shrugged. "That's more because I'm really sick though more than anything… Don't worry," she added when the girl recoiled. "It's not contagious. At least not like that."
The younger girl crossed her arms and scowled again "I'm still not wrong. You've got no reason to b here."
The huntress hummed tiredly. "Hey kid, what's your name."
She received a glare. "Why?"
"Just curious." She shrugged. "If you tell me yours I'll tell you mine. You wanted to know right?"
"…Fine." She muttered. "The names Vernal."
"No last name?"
A scowl was her answer from the now properly introduced Vernal.
"Guessing that's a no then... there a reason for that?"
"You said you'd tell me your name."
She sighed. "Yeah, yeah, just trying to be polite. The names Raven. Raven Branwen."
A beat.
Then another.
Vernal blinked. "Eh?"
Raven smirked.
"Wait a second hold on!" Vernal stared. "You don't just get to gimme that look and not say anything else. What do you mean your names Branwen?"
"Exactly what I said." Raven grinned the best she could. Yeah it genuinely hurt to at the moment, but this kid had basically walked into this one. "I guess you could call me a pure-blooded member of the Tribe. Kind of gives a good reason as to why I can just walk in here."
"No way. I don't believe you!"
"Look at my eyes kid. Only Branwen's can have red eyes."
"Sounds fake."
She rolled her eyes. "You're seriously telling me you didn't know? Did they not tell you this when you joined?"
"…"
Raven paused at the silence. "What?"
No answer.
She sighed. "Okay, I answered your question. I think it's only fair you answer mine."
Vernal frowned. "What question?"
"Why are you over here with me instead of with the rest of the Tribe?"
"Why do you even want to know?!"
"Because brat, you're the only one right now that's even deigning to talk to me. Which while nice, doesn't really make sense to me."
"Why not?"
"Seriously? Are you really going to make me say it? You're a pariah, kid."
The look on the child's face, how her frown slipped away to be replaced by a near blank look, was all the confirmation Raven needed. She leaned back, crossing her arms. "I'm guessing one of your parents was a part of the Tribe… mother I'm guessing?"
"…Yes." Vernal murmured.
The older woman hummed. That wasn't good. So her mother must have had a taste of some forbidden fruit… much like her.
The Branwen Tribe had faults. A lot of them, and one of many was that Tribesmen and women weren't allowed to... 'spread' outside of those chosen to join the Tribe. For whatever reason. They didn't like it. A dilution of the proper blood or something. Or, at least that was what her mother had told her. That on its own though… even if she was only half of what could have been considered Branwen, wouldn't be enough to paint her as a derelict.
Which meant…
"Your mother," Raven strummed. "Did she…"
Vernal nodded minutely. "When I was born... They said there was too much blood."
Raven's eyes drifted shut. Another fault of the Tribe. They had an obsession with the strong. Raven knew it bled over into her own ideology but her team had mended that in her, and even more so in Qrow. They'd been fixated on it enough as it was at seventeen… the Tribes was far worse. Every facet of life was haunted by the idea of strength. If you weren't strong enough to live, you died. This truth was neurotically simple. No aid was given to the weak in the Tribe, not even your own blood.
Dying in childbirth?
A weakness.
How twisted and cruel.
Ironically, it reminded Raven of a far better time.
When she'd first found out she was pregnant. Tai had been so happy. So excited.
She'd been terrified.
Tai and Sum had been all sorts of confused.
That's when Qrow had spilt that the Tribe were the sort of people that didn't allow… well, any sort of medical treatment.
Summer had arranged a slideshow presentation of all things the next day to explain how completely safe she'd be.
Thinking back on it, it was ridiculous, but it was one of the reasons she was glad she'd left the Tribe. When she was young, she'd never even questioned it:
How the children of those who had died were seen was weak. As the ones responsible for their deaths.
Vernal was a bastard then, and an orphan as well as being the equivalent of a half-blood. She was here with Raven not because she wanted to be, but because the others didn't tolerate her existence any more than they had to.
She sighed. "You've had some pretty crappy luck so far, haven't you?"
The younger girl sneered. "Yeah," she agreed. "It's been pretty fucking shit."
"Well I guess I can relate."
Vernal blinked. "What do you mean?"
"What, you're not wondering why I've been dropped here with you?"
"I'm guessing that you did something to piss off the Tribe. What was it anyway? Is it because you ran away?"
Raven raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think I did?"
She shrugged. "Why else wouldn't I have seen you here before? You're only just coming back right? That's why they're mad at you, because you ran."
"They're mad because I didn't come back." She corrected. "The tribe sent us out years ago, me and my brother."
The look on Vernal's face said she couldn't comprehend the notion of being let out. "Why would they do that? Where did they send you?"
"Beacon."
That piqued her interest judging from the way her face practically lit up. "You're a Huntress!?"
"I am." Raven smirked. "Sounds like you've got an interest in them."
"Well yeah!" she gaped. "They're like, the strongest there is!"
"Hm, close," Raven managed to chuckle. "There are still plenty of people just as strong, if not stronger than your average Huntsman… but yeah, I'd say I'm one of the best."
"Really?!"
She nodded. A moment later however Vernal frowned.
"You don't look that strong now."
Raven rolled her eyes tiredly. "I told you didn't I? I'm sick."
"…is it a death sickness?"
"…"
"…Are you going to die?"
"…maybe…. Probably."
"….Why did you come here?"
"I-"
"Raven." A male voice barked, startling the pr slightly. A group of half dozen men approached, armed, and faces chipped like stone.
"The leader wants you to stand before him. Now."
She frowned. They weren't saying the name of whoever this leader was. Why they felt the need to keep it secret from her, she wasn't sure, but it didn't fill her with confidence. Whoever this was, they were most likely an enemy of hers.
The thoughts gave her pause, something they didn't like, and one of the men gave her a rough shove forward, nearly making her stumble as she came to a stop in front of the largest tents in the Camp, one raised up on a dais.
A crowd has gathered around her, jeering, cursing and spewing insults her way, and in the corner of her eye she can see Vernal watching on from a distance.
It's because Raven's attention's somewhere else, and maybe because of the haze, that she doesn't see the butt of the gun until it's too late, and the sick Huntress cries out as it crashes into her back, forcing me to my knees.
"Show some respect." One of them snarls, with a face she doesn't recognise. She carves it into her memory though, and glares up at him.
"When this is over," Raven warns. "I'll make you regret that."
"No." A deeper voice declares. "You won't."
Silence settles on the Tribe in an instant and a man steps out of the tent.
His boots clack on the platform, dark marroon plated cover his arms, legs and chest, while grey fur drapes across his waist and shoulders, and spiral patterns paint his free skin the colour of blood as if he'd stepped straight out of a Norse legend.
Massive, dark, terrifying and all too familiar.
The mans eyes are as Red as Raven's own, the sign of a pure bred Branwen. Of a fighter, a killer, just like her.
They narrow at her presense, and the smile that spreads across his face is on the wrong side of vicious.
"Raven." He speaks again, voice echoing through her bones like a terible magic. "So good to see you again."
The Huntress swallows the bile building in her throat as she forces herself to meets his gaze, and her intincts scream out to run.
She knows this man.
He'd haunted her deams as a child.
"Hawk."
...
You know... I'm not happy about this chapter.
I've been going over and over it for weeks, it's the reason this took so long, but no matter how long I looked at it I was just sort of... stuck, which is annoying, becasue there was so much else I wanted to do, things I wanted to move on to. This got in the way of that, and I'm still not completely sure I like how it turned out.
I guess I'll have to see. I might come back again and rewrite this chapter on it's own. For now though, I think you've waited long enough, so here you go.
I hope it's at least good enough to enjoy.