Jaune ducked only to be hit in the stomach. He rolled only to be struck in the head. He parried only to be kneed in the groin. Raven Truly had no mercy when it came to training him.

He brought his Practice sword up, a sturdy thing made of bamboo, and managed to parry Raven's strike. As her knee came up to hit him he stomped on it pushing himself away from her. She quickly recovered and was on him again. This time with a sideways strike, Jaune held out his arm taking the hit with a grunt, it hurt like hell since he wasn't allowed to wear any armor of any kind during training. It was part of hardening his body. Nearly daily he would be stripped and put through hellish iron body training. But it had only been two years since Raven had taken him from his father. His body was still soft and his nerves still registered each painful hit. But to show weakness in front of Raven would ultimately be worse than the pain of her training.

As he took the hit on his arm he thrust out with his own blade, aiming for her throat. Using her superior strength she pushed past his arm pushing his blade aside before easily swinging it back into his cheek. While he was dazed she sweeps out his legs and drives the tip of her sword into his ribcage.

"Never use tactics that rely on strength if your opponent is stronger than you!" she yells, she kicks him in his side "Up! Well do this till you do it right!" She continues to hit and kick his stumbling body until he stands again.

Hate in his eyes Jaune Lunges at her, his sword held low. She brings her own from above and they briefly lock blades. Knowing he is weaker than her still he adjusts his stance and lets her over power him. But he makes sure to keep his blade protecting his side as their swords fall. He then brings it up again right into her gut. But the blade never made it. She kicked him back before he could react. No matter how good he was, Raven was older, More experienced, stronger, and faster. No matter how good he was, she would always be better.

Letting the momentum guid his body like his dad had taught him what felt like an eternity ago, he falls on his back and rolls back onto his feet. Grunting he barely brings his arm up in time to block a hit aimed for his neck. Angling his arm so the blade will slide down it he brings up his knee catching it between it and his arm. Simultaneously he lashes out with a savage punch for her face. She catches it and twists, it forces him with a grunt to swing his sword down at her wrist to free his hand.

As his arm moved Raven freed her sword and guided it into his gut. With a pained grunt as she hit an already bruised spot, Jaune's sword descended on her wrist. Raven nearly pulled his arm forward so his blade hit his own wrist with a horrible cracking sound. The bamboo snapping over his arm leaving a large welt that would surely cause a horrid looking bruise. His eyes watered and he ground his teeth.

"Idiot! What did I just say about tactics that rely on strength!?" She pulls his arm and he finally yelps. She shoves him to the ground and the other members of the tribe chuckle in response. Jaune grows angry hearing their jeers. Most of them don't even have Aura, and none of them had the guts to be where he was. Who were they to judge? "Up!" Raven yells

Jaune cradles his arm to his chest but stands back up. Pure rage and determination letting him push through the pain. He tightens his grip on the practice sword and grits his teeth.

"Stop it!" a voice rings out though the camp. A girl runs out in between Raven and the staggering Jaune.

"Violet." Raven growels, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Stopping you from killing him!" she shouted back.

"I know his limits." Raven snapped, "I'll decide when he's had enough."

"He can barely stand, how beneficial do you think more training could possibly be?" Violet argues.

"You act as if your opponent would show mercy in the face of your tiredness. Besides, you're no better than him. Stop coddling my nephew with your weakness."

"Rationality isn't a weakness." Violet growles.

"Laziness is." Raven fires back.

"How is it lazy to be too injured to stand properly!?" Violet yells.

"It's lazy when he did better yesterday and seemingly overnight reverted" she yells angrily

"It's called being sore!" Violet yells back "are you too vain to remember what that feels like!?"

"He's had adequate rest," Raven hisses. " Unlike you he doesn't need days to recover from a productive training session."

"Can't you see he's a child!? No nine year old should be put through this!"

"And can't you see he's a Branwen? Raven retorts "he isn't like the other weaklings of this world, he is destined for greatness."

Violet growles seeing she won't get through and turns her back on Raven going over to Jaune who while they talked fell back to one knee. His lessons tell him to always take the chance to rest while the enemy lets you. He watches as Violet comes and crouches near him, she places her hand on his cheek worry obvious in her eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asks softly. She rubs her thumb gently over a particularly sore bruise on his face. Not speaking, he nodded, resting and catching his breath was still the main focus.

Violet is the only kind woman in the Branwen camp. Jaune hated everyone in the Branwen tribe, except for Violet, he loved her. When he was first brought to the camp she was the first person to be kind to him.

Violet was a Willowy girl, about 20 or so, she had relatively pretty features, an attractive face with pretty green eyes and waist length Violet hair intricately braided into 3 braids. She typically wore a green shirt with a blue flower design on it. Black cargo pants and brown laced up combat boots covered her legs. Typically she had the broken chain from her weapons wrapped around her stomach, she had been paranoid of stomach injuries since a particularly bad battle with Raven. From years of fighting she was covered in scars but Jaune didn't think it made her look any less nice, it just showed how strong she was.

She made sure he ate, even fed him when his body was too broken to move. She gave him a spot in her tent where he could sleep, nursed him back to health when the day's training had been too violent. He was almost 10 now, and for the last two years it was really only Violet who he could lean on. Nowadays Violet had been getting stronger and stronger, her wild storm-like semblance even giving Raven a workout. As she got stronger she kept confronting Raven over her treatment of Jaune no matter how many times he warned her not to. Each time they fought she would take days to heal, once she was nearly eviscerated, another almost lost an eye.

When he still lived with his mom and dad he was always the big brother to Yang and Ruby, but with Violet it felt nice to feel like he had a big sister. As he looked at her, he felt movement and shoved her to the side bringing up his practice sword blocking Raven's swing.

Unfortunately he wasn't in a proper defective position and couldn't muster the strength to fully block the attack. His sword was pushed into his chest, the weird angle forcing it from his hand. He fell onto his back and quickly tried to get back up only to have the wooden blade slashed across his cheek. After that everything went dark.

It was a few hours later when Jaune woke up. Slowly opening his eyes the room around him was spinning. It would seem Raven had gotten him good. Closing his eyes again he let the dizziness fade before opening his eyes once more and slowing sitting up.

The very motion made his bruises flare with pain. His bones protested as he rose. Before he could fully rise a hand found his shoulder and guided him back down.

"Don't," Violet's gentle voice sounded in his ear. Instantly relaxing he allowed her to guide him back to a lying position "you should just lay still for a few hours and let your aura heal."

He obeyed but often after Raven beat him to a pulp Violet would soon share the same fate.

"What about you." he said quietly trying not to disturb his likely bruised ribs more than he needed to.

"We didn't fight," Violet says, relieving his fear. "Your grandfather returned to camp as we were about to start. As usual he whisked her away to the meeting tent and I was sent to tend to you."

She gently runs her hand through his hair, an especially pitting look on her face. He knew that look, it meant dad was close.

For the near two years she bad had Jaune the Branwen camp had moved a few dozen times. Raven would travel quickly ahead then open a portal for the camp to follow. She knew her brother was still following. Father had told her just to kill him.

"As distasteful as I find Qrow, I can't kill him." she had stated. It wasn't that she couldn't, she was leagues stronger than her little brother. Nor was it anything as noble as familial love. She knew if she killed Qrow, Ozpin and his loyal mutts wouldn't rest till they found her. Taking her nephew was one thing, but killing one of Oz's most prized attack dogs would bring his full attention to her. Something she didn't need with Spring so close.

If she hadn't known Oz as well as she did she may have hesitated to steal away Jaune. But she knew where his priorities lay. He would see it as a tragedy, but in the long run unimportant. Why would he move resources used to counter Salem for a single child? After all she mentally growled, the many before the few.

She sat across from her father at a map of Anima.

"I've heard whispers of him from my network." Lamagier says in his usual gravely tone, "that stubborn boy won't quit."

"His weakness won't let him let go." Raven says taking a sip of her drink before pausing, "sounds like he was in love with the boy's mother. She died and left Jaune to him. I'm not sure if he cares for the kid as his son, or a memory of a woman." she downs the rest of it.

"Either way he's gaining on us. We'll have to move again." her father grunt.

"I'll make preparations later, I still have to put the girl in her place again." Raven says uncaring of meeting her brother again.

"Why don't you listen to me." Lamagier growles, "Just kill him and be done with it. Kill the girl while you're at it. Be rid of both your problems at once."

Raven quickly loses her relatively carefree mood. Her eyes narrow coldly.

"Careful father," she hisses, father in her mouth sounding more like an insult than the title of a parent. "You are no longer chief, you Lost to me. You are far too close sighted, or perhaps just becoming senile in your old age."

Lamagier stood up threateningly, he looked like what an older Qrow might look like. Silver hair slicked back but still letting a few strands loose. His eyes, like his childrens were red and hard. He stood slightly taller than Raven and despite his age was still quite fit. Before Raven had taken the title of Chief he used to wear loose black pants tucked into black wrappings with brown sandals on his feet. He rarely wore a shirt showing off his muscles and a loose open white robe. But after his defeat at the hands of his daughter she always wore a black under robe covering his chest now covered in ugly and gruesome scars, a sign of shame from his loss.

Most people thought the Branwen tribe would fight to the death for the right to lead the tribe. But this would be stupid. Why kill the second strongest in the group to prove superiority. Quite often the loser would only be beaten into submission. The loser would often train even harder after the battle to challenge for the right to lead again. This cycle made already strong warriors even stronger, bolstering the total strength of the tribe. This was the case when Raven beat her father.

Former chiefs were still respected by the current chief to an extent as sharing wisdom of the leader helped form a smart as well as stronger tribe, this is why Raven tolerated Lamagier to the extent she did. She hated her father, but would accept his advice when it proved useful. But at times like this he tended to step out of his place.

Before he could grab his scythe Raven already had Omen at his throat. The injuries she gave him affected his reflexes to an extent.

"Foolish girl," he growled, the tip of the blade digging slightly into his neck. "Can't you see the more you let these problems fester the more problematic they will be to remove in the future?"

"I'm aware." she says still glaring "but I can't move against Qrow without retaliation from his backers, and I can't kill the girl lest I be targeted by someone who wants her power. Both of the groups I mentioned would hunt us to the ends of the earth. And between you and me I enjoy not constantly feeling like dogs."

"Then what would you call what your brother is making us do?" Lamagier snaps. Omen digs more into his neck, his aura repelling it.

"We are not running from necessity, but because I can't be bothered to deal with that whiny bastard. Eveytime he gets close enough he either calls my old team for help, or tries to confront us himself. At this point there is no joy or honor in fighting him." Raven replies, she returns Omen to its sheath. "Besides whenever he gets near Jaune's training improves, it seems he still hopes my idiot brother will retrieve him."

Lamagier grunts and sits down again.

"I will tell you once more, do not underestimate a potential threat just because it's weak at the moment." with that he pours a drink and the two sit in silence.

The camp settled in for the night, meals eaten, final squabbles finished, loot hidden. Now it was just Jaune and Violet in their tent preparing to sleep.

"Violet…" Jaune says quietly, he still lays resting at her request.

"Hmm?" she says looking up from cleaning her weapon a black kusarigama with golden details that shifted into a powerful dust revolver.

"Violet…" he repeats "what an interesting name." a smile crosses his face.

"How so?" she says, lifting an eyebrow.

"It's a flower, a color, and a name." he says with a chuckle, "what came first? And who looked at one and decided it was a good name for the other two?"

Violet sits still for a moment slightly stunned but then she giggles, a soft and pleasing sound. Laughter lacking malice was rare in the tribe.

"I don't know, I've never really thought about that, it's always just been my name."

"I think the flower came first."

"Why's that?" She rises from her cot and moves to sit on the ground by his.

"Well it would be weird to come up with the color first then find a flower that happened to be the color."

"I guess, but the name could have come first too. Someone could have had the name then found the flower and named it after themself, or name the color after themselves too I guess."

"If the flower came first I like to think someone thought it was so pretty they named someone after it."

"I never thought of it that way." she says, leaning her head back against his cot "I think I like that. To be named after a flower, it's better than being named after a color. But I guess I'll never know, my parents never told me why they named me Violet before I left home."

"I'm glad they did, I like your name." he replies, the weight of the day starting to be felt on his eyelids.

"Thanks," she says with a soft laugh "it's a better name than Jaune." she teases

Jaune smiles lightly.

"Dad says my first mom named me." he closes his eyes thinking of the pictures he was shown of his mother. Violet cringes a little, she didn't want to make him feel any worse than he probably was already feeling. Tomorrow will be that day. Jaune will turn 10 tomorrow. Last year Raven said Qrow got closest to the camp on Jaune's birthday, it seems like that would repeat this year.

Violet knew she couldn't beat Raven, she wasn't strong enough yet. And if she died trying to help him when Qrow came, if he couldn't save Jaune then who would care for him. As It was she only confronted Raven because she knew the older woman wouldn't kill her, sure it left her with scars, but for some reason Raven always went to hurt not to kill. She hated how she was still a coward, but if being a coward ment Jaune would still have someone to depend on then so be it.

Hearing that his breath started to even out she turned to look at him.

"Dad…" she heard him whisper when she looked at him. He looked sad almost as if he might begin to cry. She had seen him angry, hurt, annoyed. But sadness felt wrong. She couldn't bear it. Standing up she blew out the lamps still alight in the tent.

Moving back to his cot she pulled his covers back and slipped into the bed next to him wrapping her arms around him. Maybe this would give him some peace. She kissed his temple and slowly fell asleep wishing to soothe his slumber.

A/N: Hey… It's been a hot second. I've been very busy as of late, work and personal stuff. But my life might be calling down a bit more nowadays so that means more chapters!!!!!!! (Idk if that's actually true but I'll do my damndest) anyways if you read my other stories my plans are to update Glynda Goodmama next. Idk if you care but those are my plans at least.