Raven

Raven Branwen is a woman of many talents, observant, quick-witted, strong, fast, and an unholy terror to the common man. But she is also stubborn, quick to anger, and remarkably easy(for some) to taunt into a disadvantageous position.

Right now, she feels that disadvantageous position very keenly. Because she is on the receiving end of Summer Rose's full-on patented and trademarked "puppy eyes". And she is trying very hard to put her foot down.

"Summer… we're here to track down a serial killer and you're conducting a deep dive into Atlesian child laws because… why, exactly?"

Summer flashes a beautiful smile that only half bares her teeth to the world, and Raven feels a sinking pit in her stomach as she recognizes that look. That look tells her that Summer has had an idea. An idea that might make her adoption of half a dozen kittens in their second year of Beacon look like a joke in comparison.

"Summer-"

"Relax Rae~ They won't even know she's gone, especially by the time we're all finished here~!"

The pit in Raven's stomach twists as her partner of near 10 years flashes her that same radiant smile, baring her teeth fully to the world. It is in this moment that Raven truly understands that she isn't going to win, and she turns the dialogue away from this topic before Summer can use her weaponized cuteness on her again.

"Fine. Any leads on Tyrian while you were entertaining a small child?"

Summer's smile never leaves her lips as she nods once.

"Of course, the girl was on the roof, an actually perfect place for me to observe, and yes, I did not only mark where he likely is staying, but where he's able to escape from."

Raven grimaces, her reply pouring forth from her mouth.

"Not the awful warehouse jokes… please…"

"Oh~? And here I thought you were practically raised in them Rae~ Shouldn't you be right at home?"

Summer's reply, accompanied by a feral grin as if the cat had not only caught and eaten the canary, but had then framed the dog for such a grave misdeed, catches Raven completely off guard.

"They're awful! As if I liked being raised in the damned places!"

Summer's laughter catches Raven's flustered, slightly angry tone and face and accentuates them wonderfully as the other woman steams in her frustrations.

"But Raven, it's no wonder you hate them so much~!"

"Summer, don't you dare, don't you dare."

"Corvids love to fly high, afterall!"

Raven let out a mighty groan as her partner fired up one of the worst puns she'd ever heard and sent it screaming into her ears. Because of course Summer had taken Taiyang's puns and her brother's bad jokes and combined them into a weapon of supreme teasing that deprived the rest of team STRQ of any sense. When even Taiyang Xiao-Long, self professed pun master, was tired of it then it was truly awful.

"On a more serious topic, I scouted the warehouses. all in and out, barring the windows on the upper level and the large doors and small entrances, there are four ways in and out for windows leave large open spaces where one could leap through if you don't mind tanking your aura."

Raven's tone is much more composed now, as she recalls her earlier patrol and the results of it.

"Also, likely he's targeting the poor and disenfranchised on purpose, found another murder."

Summer raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, already reported it to James as well."

The eyebrow moved further up.

"No, I took pictures and samples."

Summer cackled loudly.

"That's my partner~! Always one step ahead. lets see those pictures, yeah~?"

Raven sighed, rolling her eyes, but she couldn't help the slightly giddy grin that crossed her features. She pulled her scroll out and extended it into tablet form, she was no detective, but certain magical properties lended her a unique ability to get high quality photographs from places the police would need ladders or a bullhead for.

"Vagrant woman, young, my guess is probably about 29. Track marks and deep stab wounds on the upper chest."

Summer frowned, passing over the scroll and thinking, before she pulled her own out.

"Local transfer from scroll to scroll, wouldn't do to have someone else watching."

Raven pulled a cable, sealed and still in its plastic from her bag, hooking it to Summer's scroll. she transferred the files over and her partner and leader began to look over the photographs. Idly placing a finger at her lips and furrowing her brow as she did so, Raven had to stop herself from catching a few of Summer's bangs as they flew idly down from the top of her head.

"She's not only young, but she's at least fairly athletic, look at the muscle definition, she's either ex military or a huntress dropout. If… so, why no family?"

"Could be highborn? The elites of Atlas aren't exactly known for their hospitality to their dropouts."

Summer chewed her lip for a moment.

"I don't know. She's too rough for highborn nobility, and that mark on her shoulder, the wings and feathers… its a bit strange, right?"

It was Raven's turn to frown as she looked carefully over her own scroll, before something stuck out to her.

"Summer, look at the upper thigh, can you see the cut in the pants that exposes the right side of her hip and thigh joint?"

"Sure, what about it, there's nothing there."

"That's on purpose. That cut isn't worn unless you're Branwen affiliated and know you're being stalked. It can look easily like a rip in the clothes… if she was one of us, I need to reach out to the tribe."

Summer shot Raven a dark look.

"I thought you left."

Raven tried not to cringe as that look passed over her.

"Qrow did. I never felt that I had to do so."

"Raven…"

Summer's tone took on a warning nature, and at that moment, Raven snapped back.

"So what!? They're the people who raised me and my practical family! Not everyone gets to grow up in a safe and loving home like-!"

Summer let a smirk grow on her face.

"Like who, Rae~? Because Taiyang's home was a hell on earth, and as for me… well."

She flashed a look that Raven had only seen once priorly.

"It's not exactly like I grew up in a great place either. What, did you think stable people go to a school to learn to fight monsters? There's a reason I went to Beacon on special recommendation of Ozpin."

She smiled, baring fangs in an approximation of a predators smile that made Raven shiver.

"Raven, you were raised by a tribe of bloodthirsty bandits. A tribe of bandits who kill murder and do worse to everyone they ever encounter. And you call them family because in some way, they are family. But you would do well to remember that not everyone had that. Now, tell me about this mark, without relying on bandits who not only don't have comms, but also haven't and won't change their ways."

Raven flinched further as each mark landed home.

"I… I didn't want that for anyone..."

Summer let a flash of her teeth show in the darkening room.

"Ah~! So that's why you told Yang you were her aunt and Tai and I were her parents! Because you think you're worse than them? Is that it?"

Raven felt something warm start to slide down her cheek, and she tried to turn her head away, only for Summer to reach out behind her, gently turn her head back, and stand on her tiptoes.

"No. You are enough. You'd never hurt Yang or Ruby, right?"

Raven shook her head.

"Then you are enough. You'd have Taiyang and me right by your side. So, when this mission is over, you and I are going back, for good. You're going to cut your ties with the inlaws with one caveat. If they go legitimate, I don't mind having them around, but until that happens, you are to cease contact with the people who beat it into you that the strong are allowed to be amoral savages. You're going… going to be back with us. And we're going to fix it all. Alright?"

Raven looked at Summer, looked at her partner, her leader, her first love and second lover, she studied the face of the silver-eyed warrior, the behemoth of Beacon Academy, and some part of her found a reserve of steel she'd not known she had.

"Fine. I'll do what you ask. But only if you take the stray in too."

Summer smiled.

"What, did you really think we'd leave her behind?"

Raven casts her gaze to one side, hiding the tinting in her cheeks as she tries to refocus.

"But… on the note of our murderer, do you think it's for… that purpose?"

Summer's gaze darkens instantly, and Raven finds herself wondering if that was the purpose of this trip.

"Are all the victims the same?"

Raven shook her head.

"No, but the others were all dispatched with sadistic cruelty, from what Ironwood's police have said, these women are…"

"Killed with clean stabs to the heart, lungs, or spine. Every time."

Summer frowned, once again pursing her lips and looking over the photographs.

"So, we have a sadist looking for a maiden applicable candidate, right?"

Raven nodded, shifting her position on the bed to face Summer evenly.

"Is it Salem's pet assassin?"

Summer frowned, turning her silver eyes up from the scroll to face Raven.

"I really hope not. While I make no bones about how Ozpin isn't telling us everything, I do trust him-"

Raven's face must have darkened as Summer raised a hand to placate the other woman.

"To a limit, Rae. Why else would I come out here? Why would I trust you and follow you here? You know what he says you are, right?"

Raven smirked, before speaking.

"Let me guess, an ungrateful savage who should have accepted his teaching job over being the badass huntress, right?"

Summer let the remark crack her dark look, and a smile flashed onto her face.

"He called you an "ingrate" I didn't think people were still allowed to use that word, it felt like something out of a period drama."

Raven can't stop herself and giggles a bit, snorting freely in the low light conditions of the hotel. She looks out the window, to the sparkling lights of Atlas, to the surroundings of everything and she, in that moment says something that she should have thought more about, at least… she hopes.

"When I come back… are we swearing off Ozpin…?"

Summer looks at her, a curious, strange expression on the woman's face as she does so, she takes a breath in and then exhales it slowly. Before she speaks quietly and carefully.

"I think we give him one last chance. One final time to explain everything, and if he doesn't mention Salem, or her followers, or why he recruits only the strongest students to be teachers. I think he owes us an explanation for everything, and if he doesn't give that over…?"

Summer's grin turned and slipped from her face.

"I've always heard Menagerie is a lovely place to settle. The Belladonna's do still owe me a drink, after all."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Opening your own school over there?"

Summer shot back a defiant look.

"Why not? Sure, SDC is largely dominant in the market, but I'm sure we can find something of value dust wise on the continent. Maybe even a type no one would expect to be there? Besides, it's not as if we can go to Atlas, my morals won't allow it, regardless of Ironwood's promises."

Raven smirked.

"Well, I have boats, and a very in-depth knowledge of smuggling things into and out of secure areas~"

Summer stood up and stretched out her arms.

"Then it's decided, hmm~?"

Raven nodded her head and stood as well.

"Joint patrol?"

Summer only nodded.

"After you~"

The two women made their way out of the hotel room, moving through the corridors until Summer, tapping gently on the walls as she walked, found what she was looking for. She tapped once, twice, three times, before pressing her hand, palm first, on the wallpaper and running it up and down.

"In the walls, then?"

"Yep~ She had to make her way from the roof without me seeing her in the stairs, so I'm looking, and- There."

Summer pressed lightly on a section of wallpaper, and a slight, small door swung open, it would fit the two of them, albeit barely.

"Tight fit, huh?"

"Sure, but Rae, if you make a Taiyang quality joke here, I'll take your Katana and dull the blades myself."

Raven gasped outwards, inclining her head to duck into the small space, following the faint glow from Summer's aura deeper into the passageways.

The walls were thick and reinforced here, made of thick, rough-hewn stone of a gloriously deep shade of red, likely a relic from when the hotel was first built years prior. Raven ran a hand across the smooth stone, wondering if the little runaway kept these halls clean for herself or because she was made to by her awful family.

When the two women emerged, it was outside, into an alleyway, a grinding crash of stone announcing their presence as they exited into the soot stained, dirty alleyways of Mantle. Yet, even that grinding crash was completely drowned out by the very presence of Ironwood's troops and sirens a few blocks over. Summer moved quickly and quietly, but it was Raven who stuck to the shadows as the two women fell into an easy rhythm they hadn't practiced since Beacon. Not that they needed to practice such a thing. Neither needed to truly practice it, it had been ingrained into their muscle memory so deeply that they would never forget it.

Raven took point, sticking to shadows while Summer drove attention to her, to her confidence and walking, any studying them might have caught the occasional glimpses of Raven, but they were likely focused on the civilian who was so clearly pretending to be a huntress. After all, Summer did not look like, or carry herself like a huntress.

Raven rolled her eyes as a young police officer approached Summer Rose, and the woman skillfully wove around him without even trying, leaving a flustered, incredibly uncertain young police officer in a swirl of white rose petals. When Raven caught up to her a moment later, she chuckled and spoke from a shadow to the left of Summer.

"You know, you really shouldn't make a habit of messing with Ironwood's lieutenants."

Summer smirked evenly.

"Please, he's got the report on what we've found in his pocket. while he might be an idiot, he's under Ironwood, who will notice that slightly out-of-shape pocket the moment he sees it. The man is career military and has a stick so far up his rear if you looked into his mouth you'd see the wood."

"Of course, but wouldn't it be safer to just let him have the thing personally?"

Summer rolled her eyes.

"You know our best asset here is stealth, and avoiding Ozpin's attention as long as possible, better Ironwood believes that we're just in the area recovering and took a brief look at the scene."

The two made flowing through a crowd easy, passing through a train of exhausted faunus workers on their way back from industrial positions and the like. Faces stained by soot and lined with the exhaustion of working in the worst, most dangerous places in Atlas. Raven felt a part of her cringe that she wasn't doing anything to help them. She cast her gaze to Summer, a good 30 feet distant through the crowd, and she could see the way that her forehead twitched, the vein popping out a moment later.

Summer hated this place. She hated Atlas, and Raven wondered at some level how hard it must be for the other woman to actively repress her desires to commit a war crime on the elites above, or heavens forbid within the hotel.

"Marked the guy, from the looks of it."

Summer spoke quietly and carefully, Raven hearing her, and the woman, even though she didn't move, she nodded once, ever so slightly.

"Tailing now. Tall, open long coat, long braided brown hair, yellow eyes."

Raven saw him and nodded once. Before she turned her back and walked away, darting into an alleyway, the woman sniffed at the air, and reached out with her aura, finding nothing other than a few animals that were not paying attention to her, she concentrated and drew on that power that had been given.

The experience of turning into a bird was quick, but it was not painless. Raven gritted her teeth as every single bone and part of her body felt wrong for seconds that dragged like minutes. Until finally, she'd fully incorporated her form into that of a large corvid, a very quick hop and jump into the air left her soaring up and over the city, and for a moment, she really thought that she could get lost up here in the warm currents of air.

Then reality crashed back in as she saw Summer trailing their target, and the corvid disguised form of Raven circled over to them. Trailing people as a bird was an entirely separate skillset than as a human, and while Summer was quite effective at tracking people on the ground, she couldn't boast Raven's supreme command of the air and the utter insanity that was her birdlike vision.

She picked out their target easily enough, and watched the lackadaisical way he moved, studying his movements and motions, she searched him up and down for any sign or semblance of a weapon. Surely there had to be one on his person, or was he something unique? Perhaps a semblance generated weapon? She was uncertain, and that uncertainty bled into her flight and her motions.

Summer disappeared to one side, and Raven cursed inwardly as she followed the man down an alleyway and watched as he approached a girl on the street, he offered the bare footed woman a hand, and when she refused to take it, a hushed argument broke out into the open. Something that led to the woman snapping her hand away and crying out.

Raven was aware that Summer was probably watching, but her not having stepped in was strange.

The alleyway, upon the outburst, became something akin to dangerous, as now the shadows flowed off the walls, blending together on the floor and reshaping into half a dozen cloaked figures. Each was a dirt covered ragamuffin like the first, but this was their alleyway, and as the man held up his hands and began backing away, Raven let out a brief sigh of relief.

There would be no bloodshed right now, at least, not immediately. However, this person, they were walking away, and it was only now that Raven saw Summer step into view. Her white cloak drawn up far on her face, and her lips set in a determined, terrifying rictus. She knew that look, and gently fell from the building, arriving to perch delicately ontop of her head, whereupon she cawed once, loudly.

That single exclamation had Summer stepping to the side, all before the man turned around as he reached the edge of the alleyways, and in that moment, as Summer turned around and Raven took flight, she made eye contact with their quarry, and saw a simple, awful yellow gaze of pure and utter lunacy.

Those yellow eyes held nothing, there was no sight, and even as Raven soared past him, low in the streets, she reflected on how… empty, they'd been. There was no mirth, no emotion, no… anything in those eyes. It was, Raven reflected, as if she'd looked into the eyes of a wax sculpture, there was nothing but a facsimile of life there, nothing but pure, emptiness in a void that left her feathers puffed out and a shiver running from head to tail pinions.

That was pure, animal panic, and she'd only ever encountered that, once before, when a large eagle had tried to make dinner of her in one afternoon, or… when she'd fought Summer.

By the time she landed safely on a rooftop nearby, Raven returned to her human form and gasped for air. She still felt those chills running through her. Still felt them coursing her blood and gelling her bones in a haunting embrace. She gritted teeth and shrugged briefly, standing taller and rolling her shoulders back before slamming an open palm into her chest and steeling herself.

"Summer."

The comm in her ear was tapped once, and she felt the slight pulse of feeling run through her bones as she spoke, before the reply came, slightly broken up by small amounts of static, but almost nothing else.

"Here. Safe, tailed him to a warehouse 1 or 2 streets over from The Glass Unicorn, shouldn't have been noticed."

Her partner's voice was warm, but it was forced warmth, the kind that resembled electric heaters restrained and kept tightly contained. As if to prevent their warmth from scourging the rooms they resided within.

"You?"

The question comes so suddenly that Raven almost stumbles over herself before she replies.

"Fine. Safe. Made eye contact, he's either blind or the best actor on the planet."

Summer didn't respond initially, a crackle of slight static coursing through the bead as she moved from her position.

"Best actor before blind, then."

Raven stood from her crouched position, casting her red eyes out across the city and staring towards the location of the Unicorn first, then the warehouse Summer had marked. She could see it, an older, dilapidated thing left from when Mantle still had functioning docks for her fleet of skyships, before the construction of Atlas, before everyone and everything who considered themselves better moved to the floating travesty above her.

"Fits our guy though, no visible weapons, possible semblance?"

Summer asked quietly, Raven choosing to reply after she had leaped down from the top of the building, here, the static was noticeable, and not exactly ideal, but she could understand her partner's words in the calm of the alleyways.

"Doubtful, anyone with a semblance that generates the wounds would have variety and training at a scale that would rival my own and Amber's. You know how hard that would be."

Her partner's voice, a slightly irritated tone, replied to her a moment later.

"Yes, I know Miss Spring and Fall maidens got the entire monopoly on training and focus. But still. Perhaps its a telekinetic semblance?"

"Like Glynda?"

"Yeah. She's a monster in the actual ring, remember how she threw around that deathstalker like it was nothing?"

"The big overgrown one?"

"Yeah, well, you can imagine how my attempt at dueling her went."

Raven couldn't help herself, she burst out laughing.

"Really Summer, had to take up Tai on that fools bet?"

Summer's frustrated huff, as inaudible as it was, could be felt in the way she responded.

"Raven Branwen, so help me dust, if you tell a single other soul about this I'll claw my way out of this scroll and rip your feathers off myself!"

Raven, in mock scandal and with the laugh still blurring her tone, responded instantly.

"Not my pinions~!"

"The very same!"

The two women dissolved into giggles for a moment, before Raven tapped her bead once and spoke quietly.

"I think I'm going to visit James, see if he can give me any files on the recorded semblances of all known violent criminals in Atlas. Hopefully he'll forgive me for you putting a karaoke machine through the window of his destroyer…"

Summer's embarrassed choking noise was quite audible as she shyly replied.

"Tai got me drunk and told me to do it…"

"Summer… you and I both know very well you were not only the one who did so, but that it was Taiyang's karaoke machine."

She pulled the bead from her ear as Summer's frustration manifested into angry yelling for a brief moment before fading back into laughter.

"I will return to the hotel as soon as I am able, meet you there?"

"Mmhmm"

Summer's quick reply ceased, Raven shrugged her shoulders and disengaged the commbead from her ear, sealing it into its small, protective gel case. A moment later and a painful crackling sound echoing, a large raven took flight over Mantle and moved to the upper decks of the small airfleet that continually patrolled even Mantle.

While the pride and joy of Atlas' navy were the battleships, arrayed out in trios in the upper orbit of Atlas itself, the working horse destroyers that made up much of the navy often spent time docked to the rocky core of Atlas' floating self. It was there that Raven briefly flew, searching for a particular destroyer, although she was not surprised to find it not at dock, and instead hanging low over the city of Mantle, the gentle hum of its thrusters illuminating a few of the densely packed buildings beneath it.

Even now, Raven could see a cluster of smaller gunships, weaponized bullheads that formed the small vessels airwing, casting low in sweeping patrols over the streets as she came in low and slow for a landing. The bird set down on the deck, and gritting her teeth, Raven blurred back into being with a slight crack of bone reasserting itself.

She idly stepped once, twice, three times on the hull, before leaning over and looking in through the porthole of the massive skyship's windows. There, sitting with his back to her, was Captain Ironwood. He was currently receiving a report from a rating who looked up at her, back down to Ironwood, then jumped visibly and pointed towards her. Raven shifted her body slightly and dropped to the gangway outside of the captain's ready room in response.

She leaned back against the wall, and idly waited, sure enough, the door hissed open a moment later and an utterly exhausted-looking James Ironwood moved onto the deck. He placed his hands on the edge of the railing and spoke.

"So, what brings the Masked Huntress from Mistral all the way out here?"

Raven smirked behind her mask as she saw the tips of the young man's lips quirk up.

"Is it to help or hinder?"

Her response was just as blunt.

"Help. Can you give me the files on every violent criminal this kingdom's dealt with that are currently free?"

The other man turned to face her, his long coat flapping gently in the wind.

"Those are classified files, I cannot just give them too you, no matter your track record."

"I'm not asking for anything detailed or problematic. Just a list of semblances, effects, and the like."

The man's gaze narrowed, and those warm eyes turned cold as steel as the light within winked out.

"Absolutely not. You know not what you ask for."

Raven shrugged.

"Fine then, don't give me the information and when I turn up dead, you can tell Leonardo you bear the full responsibility."

The man stepped back to the railing, looking away from her for a moment, even as she kept her arms folded over her chest.

"You place me in an irritating position."

Raven rolled her eyes and stepped towards the ship's railing, leaning against it, she felt the gentle vibration as Omen clinked against that railing.

"Of course, overriding your duty to the stuffy asshats is one thing, even if it gets a murderer killed."

The man looked at her, eyes hard.

"I will not acknowledge your presence, you will be on your own. None of my soldiers will help you with this. Expect to be disavowed if any information comes to light."

Raven nodded, this was clear cut, standard beaurocratic bullshit. She'd done work like this before for Lionheart, and even with Summer. They kept the darkness out for the world to thrive.

"Yeah yeah. Just give me the files."

"They will be transferred to a drop site that will be sent to a burner scroll in aisle 6, row 24, rack 30 of Risha's Electronics."

As Raven made to leave, the man reached out and gently took her hand, and then spoke once more.

"You play a dangerous game miss. I would truly hate having to report back to a White Rose that a close friend of hers was injured out here. Especially if I can't tell her more than that."

Raven smirked and fell off the railing.

"Please~! As if a single criminal can bring me down, Jimmy."

The word felt strange to say to the man, especially as he bristled immediately and turned on her, whirling around her to catch a glimpse of who she was as she leaned over and fell from the railing, cockily saluting Ironwood as her form dropped into the city before she rolled over and vanished into the shadows of the buildings, transforming into a raven right before she hit the ground.

Bleeding off speed and extending wings, Raven pulled out and above the buildings, soaring over the city before transforming back midway through and landing evenly amidst the crowd of Atlesians. If anyone noticed her, they made no point of speaking to her about it, and to do so would have been stupid, anyway, as the woman still carried her weapon. No one would willingly mess with a huntress, and many assumed, rightfully, that her semblance was something related to turning into the corvid.

Stranger things had occurred, after all.

By the time Raven had recovered the scroll, found the drop site, and retrieved the small stash of data within, night had fallen and she was due back at the hotel. As she trailed through the city once more, maskless and visible, she found herself willingly trailing into the night as the snow fell. Enjoying the peace and quiet and clarity that such weather provided and the break from Summer.

Summer…

How strange it was that Raven realizes they're working together again, that they're even on speaking terms. Was it her last-minute choice to not abandon Yang? Was it that single spur-of-the-moment decision, that hope, that somewhere in their hearts was just a touch of doubt in Ozpin's intentions, just a slight amount of them unable to truly resolve his decisions because of the game the man played?

Him and his diatribes about mistakes.

Raven knows she's a fucked up person, she knows that she's broken and hurting in a dozen different ways, and the splinters of that person who she is are still pricking at the fingers of anyone who gets too close.

And yet, that never stopped Summer Rose, nor Taiyang Xiao-Long or Qrow. There's a part of Raven that lashes out inwardly at this realization, but the woman simply tosses her wild mane of black hair back, laughs to herself, and saunters into the hotel.

The lobby is nearly deserted, save for a downright furious young blonde woman behind the desk, Raven recognizes this is the eldest of the woman who runs this establishment, and with a casual glance, she notes the well-taken care of appearance that hides the barest hint of calluses.

This girl is training to be a huntress, whether or not she will be a strong one remains to be seen, but Raven's assessment, her guess tells her that she will not. Not unless she removes that attitude of hers before she meets someone capable of turning her inside out.

"Something with strength in it. Now."
Raven feels no need for courtesy with her, and as the terrified young woman scurries off, the Branwen kicks her boots up on the public sofa and stares around the opulent, beautiful lobby. It's quiet and comforting to a degree, she's not exactly dumb to the feeling of plush velvet and genuine comfort here, but it's also ruined by the awful sculptures.

When the young woman returns with a decanter of mulled wine, Raven takes the entire silver vessel from her hands and moves off toward her room, she ignores the faint, singular attempt at stopping her from taking the decanter, and the casual introduction of the girl's gaze to Raven's middle finger discourages her from following her.

The door to their room is slightly ajar, a maintenance cart in the open doorway, and as Raven approaches, she hears quiet sobbing. The woman sets the decanter down and moves to the door, pressing her ear to the wood, she knows two things immediately.

One, that is not Summer crying.

Two, Summer is present in the room, given the slight sounds of her breath in and out.

Raven opens the door silently and just in time to catch the ending pieces of a conversation.

"No… you're coming with us. We won't leave you behind, I promise."

Immediately, Raven rolls her eyes, catching Summer's silver pools with her own red as she does so, but her lips are curved into a smile even as she does so. This is classic Summer, and there's nothing that will really stop her from doing this.

So who is Raven Branwen to try and stop her?

But it is with some consternation that she notes the strange bandages and burns that trace little Cinder's arms and hands. Her gaze shifts up and down, and an eyebrow slowly raises, just enough for Summer to see it as Raven speaks.

"Little Kite."

The serving girl whirls away from Summer, her amber eyes wide and frightened as she takes in Raven's appearance and only, barely slowing down when Raven forces a smile onto her face that feels genuine.

"How did you get those burns?"

The girl looks fear-struck for a moment, but it is with a calm hand on her shoulder that Summer encourages her to speak.

"I-I"

Raven kneels down, looking up into the girl's eyes and gently, carefully placing a gloved hand on her chin, she speaks, her rough voice running out.

"Take your time. No one will hurt you."

The girl nods, swallows, and visibly calms herself down, the shuddering shoulders and remnants of tears fading away until she looks at Raven with a solid, steady, and normal gaze.

"I was laying in my room, and my emotions overcame my composure, Ma'am."

Raven softly chuckles, the sound pouring from her lips so evenly that it stuns Summer, who gazed down at her partner with something akin to genuine surprise arching her eyebrows and widening her eyes.

"Something happened and I melted the ground into glass."

Summer inclines her head to the right, and Raven stands up, looking out over to where she was indicating, there, on the dresser, wrapped in cloth, is a glass replica of the collar Cinder wears around her neck. It is fractured and cracked, but it is clear, and as Raven looks at the crown her brain begins to work over the possibilities.

"Congratulations, little Kite."

Raven's bluntness is immediate as she speaks.

"If you were searching for proof of ability to be a huntress, there it is. You have unlocked your semblance."

Raven, studying the crown, does not see the way Cinder lights up at the mere mention of huntresses, she does not notice the quickened breaths, or Summer's small, but almost proud smile as she studies the collar.

She does turn eventually, and catches Summer comforting Cinder, wrapping the girl in her arms and holding her close.

"Here, tomorrow we have a mission, but we'll be back at nightfall, you're going to stay in our room for that, ok?"

The small girl nods once, and Raven lets a coy, almost coquettish smile cross her own lips as she tugs out her bedroll, and sets it aside for the smaller girl. She indicates the spare double bed and then lays back on her hands on the floor.

She was strong.

Very strong. Raven's mind whirls at the realization of just how powerful this girl could be. Her semblance, unlocked before her 9th birthday, her drive, powerful enough to do so without aura, regardless of the burns, her unconscious will survive shaping the first expression of her semblance.

She falls asleep late that night, as Summer rises for her watch, seeing the small, sleeping face of Cinder, her body rotated all the way around to face Raven.

Notes: Chapter 2, here you all are! Comments give me life, so feel free to throw a review in if you like what I'm doing here!
Next Chapter: June 26th