Yo!

How's everyone doing? I'm currently no-lifing Final Fantasy 16, which is, I have to say, perhaps the most dissapointed I have ever been with a game that I do still technically enjoy playing. It's all just so very... fine, y'know? There's nothing wrong with it, but there's nothing there that I haven't seen a hundred times, either.

Ah, well, at least Trails into Reverie comes out on the 7th. I will be advanced-no-lifing that game.

Anyways, I've talked about video game releases enough, time for the story, no?

Start Chapter 34

And so the ultimatum comes in.

"You will be going to the Branwen tribe," Salem declares to the lot of them as they sit around the large, imposing table inside of the many-windows-room. "Cinder, I will trust you to lead negotiations. The rest of you are going because frankly, I have little else to make you do."

Jaune feels Salem saying that is refreshingly honest, all things considered.

"Make sure this goes well. As much as you managed to overthrow Taurus and still earn the White Fang's allegiance, I would prefer if our movements were a little more opaque next time. What happened in Menagerie was reported the world over."

Jaune winces, but otherwise nods his head.

"Again, Cinder, that will be your job."

Cinder just nods. "As you say."

"Hm. Good. That will be all. Report back to me once you have an answer from the Branwen's – good or bad. If they deny you, retreat and report back to me ahead of time, and we will discuss things further."

They all nod, and they stand and make for the door. As they exit, Emerald's face crinkles somewhat.

"So… I guess Ilia's coming along, too?"

"It seemed as if she was telling all of us to go," Ren massages his chin. "I would therefore assume Ilia is included in that as well."

"She's certainly safer with us than alone here." Cinder muttered below her breath, before shaking her head and sighing. "Go and get her, then, Emerald. We leave as soon as everyone is prepared to."

Emerald nods, and the next thirty or so minutes are spent packing. Jaune doesn't have much to pack – given that he's yet to acquire any new pieces of clothing since they'd fled Beacon all that time ago, and he'd only really come here with a single pair of pants and a shirt and hoodie – but he decides to spare no expense when it comes to cleansing products, feeling that a bandit tribe is probably not going to have a particularly grand shower.

"Our first order of business," Cinder begins as they all arrive at the air pad, where a single long-range bullhead – which, if Jaune's right, is just their bullhead that they'd stole from Menagerie – sits waiting for them. "Will be to gather information about the Branwen's location. We had a lead as to where to start, but they're a roaming tribe. I'm told they move quite often. Our job will be to track them."

"A question," Ren raises a hand ever so slightly in the air. "This tribe, they are related somewhat to Qrow Branwen, are they not? Are they an honorable sort, like he is, or–"

"I am told they are some of the worst reprobates and miscreants within Mistral." Cinder states, and the atmosphere plummets. "That they believe the world is quite simple. That the strong rule, and the weak kneel. That, because they are powerful, they are liable to take anything they wish from those less so."

Ren and Nora, alongside Pyrrha and Jaune himself, really, all frown at that. He'd been okay working with Sienna Khan because he could understand her reasoning, and even in some places agree with her, even if he didn't necessarily find her methods entirely agreeable. But working with a veritable crew of bandits, people who robbed and stole and took from those weaker than them…

It isn't exactly sitting right with him.

It seems that feeling extends to a few of them, and it is enough for Cinder to notice it. She sighs, before looking up at all of them with a slightly stilted expression.

"I'm not going to pretend like this is something we're all supposed to be happy about. To do otherwise would be making a mockery of a very real concern. I will not ask you to act positive, or joyful around the bandits, but I would ask you to only get violent with them if they attempt something first. We are, after all, asking for their help."

Nora raises a hand as if asking to be called upon in a classroom. Cinder stares at her for quite some time, just sort of drinking that in, before she sighs a second time and says, "Yes, Nora?"

"Once we have what we need from them, can we go back to their camp, steal all their stolen stuff back, and then break all their legs?"

Normally, Jaune might curtail such a question from Nora before she had asked it, but this time, he feels his friend is actually making some fairly decent points.

Cinder takes a moment.

"…I don't see why not."

Nora's gives an almost feral grin.

"Y'know, I'm really starting to like you, Cindy."

/

Getting to Mistral takes them two days of nonstop flying. This is done in shifts, because, thankfully, Ilia actually knows how to fly a bullhead.

"You guys should really learn how," Ilia had commented as she took over steering in the nocturnal hours as Cinder laid down in the back to sleep. "It's like a month-long course if your instructor is quick about it."

Cinder's eyes had narrowed. "Our instructor taught us for six months."

Ilia coughs. "That's really neither here nor there."

Cinder had continued to stare at the faunus woman, until she'd quietly muttered, "I think I'd like to take control of the vehicle back, now."

When they do finally land in Mistral, it is to see the beginnings of spring blooming all across the land. Beautiful Sakura blossoms fall to the ground, and flowers are budding all over across the rolling green fields. Jaune finds himself smiling, despite the grim nature of their being here.

"Right," Cinder begins immediately, clearing her throat. "First of all, we should get an idea as to our location."

Ren raises an eyebrow. "We don't know where we are?"

"Landing inconspicuously in a land as lush and green as Mistral is not easy. I had to set us down in a clearing where we wouldn't clip our engines on any trees or vegetation. Believe me, that was not a simple task. Getting far enough out from any cities that we would not be spotted on our descent was more important than getting close enough to where we think the Branwen tribe is located, but I hope I've struck a good balance regardless."

"Do we know our heading, at least?" Ilia asks.

Cinder turns, and points in the direction of a nearby tree line. "We're going east. Exactly what variation and distance of east, I admit I am a tad bit lost on, but in theory, the closer we get, the more I will be able to sense a fellow Maiden's magic. At least, that's what Salem has told me. Whether or not that will actually prove to be true, well, I suppose we'll just have to see."

As they continue onwards into the forest beyond, Jaune finds himself smiling, of all things.

It's an odd reaction to have while the rest of them are gearing up for the admittedly daunting, unknown-length trek in their future, but he can't quite help it.

Cinder's growing more talkative.

It's a thing that brings a joy to his breast that he'd not really been expecting. It's a small thing, no doubt, but she'd talked, and at length, with someone other than him. Of course, some part of him doesn't hesitate to point out that such had been as a result of her being asked questions, but he can't help feeling that the Cinder of a month or so ago would've given very simple, perhaps one-word answers. Now, she gives long and drawn-out explanations, and that alone gives him penance.

Cinder looks back at him, likely sensing his emotions through their link, and sees him smiling. She cocks an eyebrow, as if to ask why, but he waves her away, letting her know it's nothing. She doesn't believe him, or course, if the round of skepticism he suddenly feels is anything to go by, but she at least sighs away and nods her head, before returning her gaze to the path ahead.

Their journey is long and arduous, or, well, it's arduous to him, Pyrrha, and Emerald. Nora, Ren, Mercury, Ilia, and Cinder all have quite literally zero of the problems that they're having, and when he laments at them about said fact, it's actually Mercury who laughs at him.

"You've never actually lived out in the wild for longer than a day gone camping, have you?"

Jaune doesn't really want to admit it, but the longest he'd ever walked had been, roughly, an hour and a half from his hometown of Domremy to a neighboring one to get medicine, and even then, his father had carried him through the latter leg of the journey.

In his defense, he'd been like eight years old.

"No, I haven't." He answers.

"Yeah, I gathered that. Still, I'm surprised you're struggling, Em, didn't you live on the streets your entire life."

Ilia shoots her soulmate a look at that, and Jaune gathers in that moment that such information hadn't been known to her. Emerald, for her part, clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and then responds with an aggravated, "There's a bit of a difference between a city street and a sweaty, mosquito-ridden, humid-as-all-hell forest, Mercury."

The man in question just snorts. "Eh, fair enough I suppose."

"We pretty much lived on the road after Kuroyuri fell." Nora exclaims, and Ren nods along with her. "So these are basically our old stomping grounds!"

"The White Fang trains it's recruits on Menagerie out in the jungles, and that holds true on pretty much every continent on Remnant." Ilia explains. "Ms. Cinder, I take it you were trained in much the same way?"

Cinders eyes dim slightly. "Something like that."

Ilia seems to have realized she's made some error, and so she coughs and changes the subject, asking something or another of Pyrrha, perhaps lightly ribbing her for her own lack of being accustomed to this kind of environment. Jaune himself sidles up next to his soulmate, and silently asks her is she's alright.

She nods back, and seems to mean it, which is good enough for him.

/

Tracking the Branwen's is hard until it isn't.

That's an odd thing to say with no signifier, but it should be noted that they had gone nearly a full week of traversing the wilds of Mistral – complete with getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, trekking through what he's fairly sure classifies as both hell and highwater, and even having to eat meals out of an Atlas army ration (something he promises himself he will never do again, if he can help it) – before Cinder, suddenly, and without warning, turns harshly towards the east, and says, "I feel it. The Spring Maiden's magic."

They all let out a breath of relief at that, because that means their journey is to be over soon, and in Jaune's eyes, that can't quite come soon enough.

It still takes them the better part of a full day to track that signal to the Branwen's camp, but they don't really have to rely on Cinder's magical sight any longer once the smoke on the horizon becomes visible.

A sure sign of human life.

They follow it to a large encampment, which seems to have been built around one giant bonfire in the center. Whether that's for warmth, or for ambience, Jaune's not certain, but what he is certain of is that the two – presumably – bandits who walk up to their group like they have any chance in hell of possibly stopping them are about to receive a rather rude awakening.

"Hey, kids," One of them starts, flashing a smile and showing off a few of his missing teeth. "How'd you all wind up out here?"

"Don't'cha worry about nothin' no more," The other laughs. "We'll take good care of ya', now."

They make a single move towards Nora – who has, erroneously, been picked out as the weakest of their little crew (Jaune says a small prayer for the man who's currently stretched his hand out towards her) – before the two men are suddenly face down in the dirt, a good few inches deep, with Nora's hammer drawn and primed above them to act again if need be.

"…We are supposed to be making allies, here." Cinder mutters.

"Eh, I doubt people this weak are in anyway important," Nora says, quite literally stepping on the two men like they're the very earth they'd taken to reach this encampment as she walks up to the makeshift door of the bandit's camp. "Now, I suppose we should let them know we're here, no?"

Cinder stays silent a moment. Then another. Finally, after what feels like at least ten seconds, a small, almost entirely absent smile appears on her face, and though she shakes her head, Jaune can feel through their link the amusement she feels then.

"Well, we do want them as allies, but it is said that the Branwen's respect strength above all, so…" Cinder clears her throat. "Yes, sure. Nora, give them a taste of ours, why don't you."

Nora's already feral grin goes – frankly – savage.

"Reeaaaally startin' to like you, Cindy!"

And then Nora slams her hammer into the 'door' of the encampment.

A lot of things happen very quickly over the course of the next five seconds.

For one, the large logs that had made up the haphazard door to the Branwen encampment are sent hurtling into said camp. They hit the central fire that resides within the middle of the camp, and knock the still-burning logs astray like an opening break in pool. Not one moment later do the first brays come out from the camp, who have now cottoned onto the fact that they are, seemingly, being attacked.

That's not entirely the case, but then, Jaune gets the feeling that Nora won't be entirely sorry if she gets to beat up a few of these people before negotiations actually begin, and really, Jaune can't help it if he's just too slow to stop her, can he?

A crowd of bandits at least fifty large come crawling out of the woodworks, emerging from small tents, out of larger structures, and a single one even exits from what Jaune is sure is the leader's tent, a much larger edifice smack dab in the far back of the encampment, centered almost perfectly.

This girl – and he says girl because she can't be any older than he and Team JNPR – struts forward with all the confidence of a Mistralian gangster, and loudly yells out, "You fucks got a lot of nerve comin' around here! State your business or die. Or hell, state your business and die, I'm not picky."

Jaune motions towards Cinder, giving her a cue to step up, but she's already moving long before he's done so.

A single bandit, perhaps two, seem to recognize Cinder's appearance, for they immediately take a step or two backwards, cowed. The rest, however, seem blissfully ignorant. A few even laugh and yell out rude, discriminatory language at her.

Jaune has half a mind to beat them senseless, but then, if Cinder isn't reacting, he'll do his best not to, either.

"My name is Cinder Fall." She spoke, and at that, quite a few more members of the Branwen's seemingly realize their error. "I believe you may have heard of me."

The lead bandit – or perhaps the second in command, given that this young girl looks nothing like Qrow at all, and also isn't forty or so years old – scoffs at that. "Should I have?"

"You should, yes." Cinder says, and she somehow manages to say that without a hint of ego in her voice, as if such is completely objective.

"Psh, you don't look like shit, girl. But hey, if you want me to kick your ass from here to next Sunday, I'm all–"

"Enough, Vernal."

The voice that rings out across the Branwen camp, then, is enough to silence the quiet murmuring that had begun to grow within the bandits. It causes every head in the area to turn back towards the giant tent that Jaune had noted earlier, and out from it walks a woman with a bony white mask. Through it, Jaune can barely make out sharp, crimson eyes, alongside a massive-looking piece, which seems to be some kind of sheathe for a sword, on her hip.

Her steps are entirely controlled and even; her gait lacking any hesitation. Instantly, even though he cannot see her face, Jaune pegs this woman as Raven Branwen, Qrow's sister.

They both have the same 'I'm in charge, deal with it' walk, after all.

"Cinder Fall, is it?" Raven speaks, her voice slightly tinny as it emerges from out of her mask, which seems to have been carved into the likeness of a Grimm. "I have heard your name. I assume from your being here that you have also heard of mine?"

Cinder nods her head. "Raven Branwen."

"Mm. Good." Raven barked out a laugh. "It seems your mistress has not forgotten me, yet."

Jaune flashes back to his conversation with Salem some week or so ago, when she'd mentioned that alongside her team, Raven Branwen had been responsible for eliminating a good few of Salem's old enforcers, and dwindling her numbers to where they sat today. It explains, at the very least, the giant table in the many-windows-room – he has to stop calling it that – that only he and his team's arrival had truly begun to fill.

"Nor have you, her," Cinder voices, and maybe Jaune's crazy, but he swears he sees the smallest bit of a jump in Raven's body, as if a chill had coursed across her. "So you understand that I do not approach you today, without a blade in hand, for an unimportant reason."

Raven stays silent a moment, seemingly studying them. "No, I do not. Why have you come?"

"We wish to negotiate terms for usage of the Spring Maiden."

Jaune thinks he notices the tiniest of glances towards the girl from earlier – Raven's second in command – at that. He catalogues the possibility that she herself is the Spring Maiden, this young girl, which would explain her importance within the group – given she'd exited out of the woman's tent.

"Such is not at all an easy ask." Raven Branwen sneers. "You would have me disassemble my entire camp, and move towards Haven, or send one of my number with you, perhaps my most important member, with no guarantee that they will return."

"We are open to negotiations." Cinder replies to that.

That seems to be enough for Raven Branwen, who sighs and mutters something under her breath too quietly for Jaune to hear, before she turns away from them, and towards the crowds of bandits watching them.

"You've had show enough, maggots!" Raven screams, and the crowds cringe, but otherwise begin dispersing. "Mannie, Rodgers, you two work on repairing the gate. Prissy, Danny, get the two idiots out front to the medical tent, and then fill in for them. You've got their job until they're healthy again."

To Jaune, it seems as if every single member who's just been called out wishes to complain about their lot, and yet, they hold their tongues, and nod their heads.

Rule of the strong, Some part of Jaune comments. They will not question her. Not when such could cost them dearly.

"Cinder Fall, and whomever else you wish to bring for negotiations, with me to my tent. The rest of you," Raven Branwen turns back, "Can intermingle among my number. If anyone gives you shit, feel free to teach them a lesson. Don't kill them, and don't hurt them so bad that they can't do their jobs, but otherwise, you may act as you wish."

Cinder motions towards him, and, surprisingly, Ilia of all people. The others seem to gather that that means they won't be needed for the negotiations, and begin to plot out exactly how it is they're going to exist within a confined space with a bunch of literal bandits.

Jaune has a feeling they'll figure something out, even if that something is 'beat everyone up until they flee from us on sight'.

And hey, his dad had always told him, 'it isn't stupid if it works'.

They follow Raven back into her tent. It's a rather homely thing, which feels at odds with her entire persona – and the entire nature of the camp around them – but he can't really think to describe it any other way. There's a nice red rug, a few shelves that seem to hold clothes, and even a table that it seems they can all sit around.

Raven takes one side, and, without asking, Cinder takes the other.

"Well, then," Raven speaks, even as she takes off her mask, and reveals a face underneath that looks a lot like Yang's. Honestly, he can't help but think that Yang will look almost exactly like this in twenty or so years – minus the hair color. "Let's not mince words. We have something you want. What are you willing to give us for it?"

"We only ask that you open the vault within Haven Academy. We take what's inside, and you go about your merry way. You never hear from my mistress ever again."

Raven's posture shifts somewhat, although Jaune can't quite tell why.

"And you believe opening a… whatever it is you're talking about – a vault in the middle of Haven Academy will be easy?"

"I'm not going to reveal every piece of our plan to you, but suffice it to say that getting to the vault will not be an issue."

Raven snorts. "Yeah, that's not vague as hell at all. I suppose this is the part where you say 'you'll just have to trust us', when you're quite literally the least trustworthy people on the planet?"

Cinder doesn't say anything, but Jaune gathers that that's about the crux of their argument.

"Right… should've known." Raven Branwen lets loose a tired sort of sigh, shaking her head and muttering again beneath her breath. "Right, well, alongside you not bothering me or my people ever again, I'm going to make a few others requests of you."

Cinder just nods her head, seeming to see no real issue in that.

"Name your terms. We will negotiate further from there."

/

It's in the middle of the night, a good half a day later, that Jaune rises from out of his sleeping bag, dusts himself off, and begins to quietly trek through the camp.

The area they've managed to commandeer for themselves for the remainder of their stay – and if Jaune has things his way, that will be a dramatically short period of time – is somewhere near the back, tucked between a medical pavilion and what seems to be some sort of trinket shop. Knowing exactly who lives here, however, he gathers the trinkets on offer are, perhaps, not theirs to sell.

He can't exactly do much about that at the moment, however, and so he shakes his head and keeps walking.

He's headed towards a particular location; one that he'd visited earlier in the day, and only managed to leave some four or so hours ago. Yes, negotiations had truly run an awful lot longer than he'd hoped for, but unfortunately, it had seemed as if Raven and Cinder had been rather similar people, personality-wise – or, at the very least, that they're both people who won't settle for less than what they feel they deserve.

Thusly, what had transpired had been a nearly six-hour period spent negotiating the exact terms of the usage of the Spring Maiden. Apparently, the maiden herself had indeed been that girl Jaune had spotted earlier. Her name is Vernal, and she's got quite the attitude. Jaune will, of course, never admit that he's always had a thing for bad girls – which, in hindsight, has the identity of his soulmate making a little bit more sense – and thinks that her stand-offish attitude is rather…

Well, he's a committed man, so he'll give no voice to those thoughts.

So he steps up onto the plinth in front of him, and tries to decide just how to go about announcing his presence to a woman who is almost certainly asleep, when a red sword at least as long as him comes sailing through the curtains separating himself from the inside of the tent, pricking him on the tip of his nose.

"What?" An icy voice calls out from inside.

"Er…" Jaune debates whether or not he should try and divert Raven's blade or not, and decides that doing so would probably put him in more danger than simply raising his aura and taking no further actions. "I came to talk with you. There's something I think you should know."

"What, you doing this against your girl's orders or something?"

Jaune winces. "Uhm… not entirely, but… I'm not really sure how she'd react if she knew I was telling you this, so I'd rather–"

"Fine," The sword retracts. "Get inside."

Jaune does so, stepping into Raven's tent to see the woman still in the clothes she'd been in earlier, albeit having set her Grimm mask – and battle armor – aside. It rests on a hook that seems to hold it, and her sword is lying beside her instead of resting inside of its sheathe.

"State your business."

"Well, uhm, I felt I might introduce myself first, given you don't–"

"I don't care who you are." Raven Branwen says, her eyes narrowing. "State what you came here to."

"I know Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long, if that means anything?"

There's a brief, almost entirely absent emotion that passes across the woman's face, then, but it is erased in the space of a single moment, and before Jaune can read any further into it, the woman before him has let out a snort, reminiscent of some muddy breed of swine. "And I should care why?"

"I… also know Qrow Branwen?"

At that, her brow furrows. "You're actually losing credibility the more you talk, kid."

"Alright, alright," Jaune puts his hands up. "I was just… sort of trying to ease into this. It's not exactly an easy thing to come out and say."

"I don't exactly care how easy it is, kid." Raven rolls her eyes. "So say what you've come here to, or leave. Pick one."

Jaune finds himself wanting to sigh out of exasperation, or perhaps annoyance or exhaustion or any other of the many emotions he's currently feeling. He doesn't, though, because he doesn't want to make this woman upset. He isn't entirely sure what Raven Branwen is capable of, but from Salem's descriptions of her, Jaune's not willing to risk that Cinder is stronger than her. She probably is, given that he's never met someone stronger than Cinder aside from the literal force of nature that is Salem herself, but again, he isn't chancing that.

After all, he has a feeling what he's about to say to her is going to do more than enough to put her on edge on it's own.

So he clears his throat, takes a breath, and then looks her straight in the eye.

"Summer Rose is alive."

And maybe it's petty, but Jaune does take some small enjoyment in watching Raven Branwen's face go paler than the shattered moon.

End Chapter 34

Jaune just comes out and says it!

Anyways, I don't have a lot to say here - or, I should clarify that I don't have anything to say here related to RWBY or this fic, I have an awful lot to say about Final Fantasy 16 and how it continuously wastes good character development and intrigue in its major villains in favor of huge spectacle fights and a super boring main villain, but I'm going to spare you the talking points my family has been forced to hear nonstop for the last few days.

Hope you enjoyed, see you all next time!