-Legend 35-

-The Witch Hunt-

….

"...And with those parameters in place, and all other things going smoothly, our princess should be up and about in just over a month."

James Ironwood digested this report from Vector's top R and D technician. "Thank you, Miss Uzuki," he said. He perused the relevant data sent to him upon his Scroll as he nodded in slow satisfaction. "And what of our newest Witch-to-be?"

Shion grinned, no more than a smirk of superiority really. "Amitola is performing exceptionally well in her trials. She breezed through phases one through three." Shion paused here, for optimistic contemplation. "Part of me thinks she's ready for phase five…"

"The girl is talented, I agree," said James, rising from behind his desk. In front of his partner companies' representative now, did he angle his head down to meet her eyes. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves here." He took to his Scroll again, tapping various keys. "Have Amitola shipped to Earth; The Tower. Let's have her shadow Belladonna for a week. She'll make a report on her progress at the end of said span, and we'll plan her next step accordingly."

Shion nodded. "Aye, aye, sir."

Shion then turned to leave, but her departure was stayed slightly by…

She looked about the spacious confines of Ironwood's office here at the pinnacle of The Dust Palace, her eyes narrowed behind her bifocal lenses. Goose flesh erupted along her body and she decided then that the feeling was not worth perusing. "Um..good day, Mister Ironwood…"

"Good day, Miss Uzuki."

Left alone, Ironwood turned about fully and beheld something there in the center of the room. "You may come out now, Raven."

And there, in the very spot on which Ironwood focus his gaze, did The Steel Witch appear.

"Hiiii James." Raven's voice was comically singsong; her posture endearingly feminine- hands clasped before her; feet crossed at the ankles. Her smile put Mar's sun to shame as she batted her eyelashes with reckless abandon.

All of this elicited a chuckle from Ironwood as he moved in on his girlfriend. "Stop that at once," he said, locking his arms around her waist. "It's unbearably adorable."

After placing a kiss upon her lips did he say, "You're getting quite sloppy, Raven. Normal people are sensing your presence now."

"Mmm…" Raven traced a finger down the man's broad chest.

Hugging her this close, Ironwood had a prime view of Raven's pale and tastefully exposed cleavage here in her casual dress. Not that he didn't know what the prizes underneath looked like in full, but something left to the imagination was always enticing.

"Perhaps your nearness can be blamed for my lack of composure," Raven all but purred.

Ironwood made said nearness all the more intimate between them as he pulled her to him even tighter. "You are in need of discipline, Miss Branwen," James said, his eyed locked on Raven's own.

The color in Raven's face rivaled that of her eyes. "Are you going to punish me?" was her whisper.

"Indeed." Ironwood fisted a handful of her bushy ponytail. "Very, very hard."

A guttural moan escaped Raven's mouth, her leg lifting to wrap around her lover's hip, the stiletto heel of her open-toed sandal digging into his thigh.

"Cortana," Ironwood said to his AI assistant. "Arrange transmat to my-"

"Transmat my ass," Raven growled. Taking command of the situation, did she push Ironwood, walking him backwards until he all but fell into the ornate guest chair just behind him. Raven followed up on her advantage, settling herself into glorious cowgirl position in his lap.

"Cor-tana-lo-ck tha dhoors." James could only speak this command in muffled intervals as Raven's mouth crashed upon his own with mounting intensity.

"At once, sir," did Cortana comply.

Said intensity then was abruptly halted as Raven sat up straight in Ironwood's lap.

"Whatever is the matter?" James asked.

Raven only stared into space, at some apparent abstraction just over Ironwood's shoulder. "Traveler dammit…" she moaned.

"Glad to see you to, big sis."

"Q-Qrow!" James craned around in his seat as best he could, while doing what he could to hastily removed the sister of the most dangerous man in the universe from his lap.

Raven stayed his efforts then by pushing down on his shoulders, giving James a 'don't be ridiculous' look.

"I locked the doors, how did you..?"

"He was already in the room," Raven sighed.

Ironwood looked up at her in chagrined alarm. "And you...knew that? For Traveler's sake he almost caught us-"

"-Well," Raven began in defense. "Part of me was hoping he'd go away…" she growled the latter part of her statement with strained sisterly emphasis.

"No can do, sis," Qrow said, flask in hand. After a drink did he say, "It's time."

Raven was decoupled from Ironwood in an instant. In her stride across the room, did she call to her Ghost. "Omen, gear me up." And in a flash of blue, did The Steel Witch don her battle vestments, Dark Drinker laying across her back.

Standing just before her brother did she meet his eyes unblinking. "Are we go?"

"We're go."

Raven nodded. "So I assume we're to gather The Witches?"

"Indeed we are."

"All the Witches?"

Qrow drunk from his flask, making a show of avoiding the question.

"All...The Witches?" Raven repeated with emphasis.

"Yes."

"So Taurus is…?"

"Already in orbit and waiting for the call."

Raven folded her arms. "That just leaves sleeping beauty and the Silver Bitch…"

She met her brother's eyes and wordlessly held up a fist.

Qrow raised his own in response.

1-

2-

3-

"Dammit!" moaned Raven, loser of the small contest.

"Ah, don't fret, sis. I'm sure Calavera will be delighted to see you," Qrow said, punching Raven's shoulder.

The woman huffed. "Good luck getting Valentine out of that damned coffin." She shook her head. "Honestly; you, I, and Taurus could get this done fine on our own. Why do we need to complicate the formula?"

Qrow shrugged. "Oz wants us to be more of a united front; remind us that The Night Witches are more than just Fireteam Redwing."

"If he says so," Raven huffed.

"I'll be off now," Qrow said. "Hopefully I'll return with The Chaos Witch in tow…"

And he was gone.

Raven turned back to her boyfriend, him standing with ever militant patience. "Well, I'm to be off now…"

James nodded as he crossed the room, and again was The Steel Witch in his arms. His thumb idly caressed the side of her face, his gaze upon her even. "Raven, you are a mysterious, brave, and stunningly powerful woman. I've only had the honor and pleasure of having you for a short time, but I'm positive I love you."

Raven's burning face was then lost in Ironwood's chest as she groaned. "Don't…" was her muffled moan. She battered his shoulders softly with her fists. "Don't make me all...squishy before the mission…"

Ironwood hooked a finger under Raven's chin, tilting her face up to his own. "But you are a Witch," he said. "Last I heard, you were made of steel."

Raven, her voice small, said: "Even steel can melt…"

"And be reforged ever stronger," was Ironwood's response.

Raven was just barely able to keep her blooming smile in check, tamping it down to a smirk. "I love you, James."

Ironwood leaned down to kiss his object of affection. "Go then, my love, and put an end to The House of Truth and The Fallen for good."

Raven, her smile still tempered, walked backwards out of Ironwood's arms, her eyes never leaving his own.

And then she was gone.

….

"Making final touchdown now."

Raven remained studiously inert in both body and countenance as Omen guided her ship, The Black Peregrine, down to the rocky Venusian plains beneath them. Touchdown made, omen transmatted himself and his Guardian upon the surface. Raven turned her masked face to the swirling green and white maelstrom that was Venus's stratosphere. The slight wind about the place rippled her hair and the cloth of her armor, and oddly enhanced the vibes of isolation that weighed upon her then.

"Omen, can you ping Maria's Ghost?"

"Negative," was Omen's response. "Calavera's shrouding tech is active."

"Maybe she knows we're coming…" The Steel Witch readied her firearm then, her personal variant of The Red Death; the spines lining its barrel and dorsal as deadly as they were decorative. She engaged her camo as she began her slow traversal of this rocky hillside. Raven kept her invisible body on a swivel, her pointed weapon ever changing its heading as she appropriated every and any potential threat that lay in wait for her.

She then reached the yawning mouth of the cave that was The Silver Witch's hideout, 'The Thieves' Den' as she affectionately christened it. "Nothing so far…"

"Calavera is cocky, but she's also crafty. She may be lulling you into false security."

"Nothing secure about how I feel right now…" Raven's grip tightened on her weapon.

Into the cave now; the sun failing to pierce the semi darkness of this shallow depth. Raven's half-Hunter senses were on full alert as she stole silently deeper into the den. Just a few more steps in and…

"Spider Mine!"

An electric sphere erupted from the dirt in front of her, beeping shrilly as it spun like a blur.

TWULAT!

The thing was destroyed with a burst from her weapon.

"Watch yourself!"

Two more of the things sparked to life in front of her, as well as another behind.

Raven's weapon sounded throughout the space as she destroyed them as they appeared. Raven reloaded her weapon, the discarded magazine dropping at her feet the only sound to be heard in the cavern. "You have anything else for me, Calavera?" Raven's challenge echoed through her mask and the cavern, falling on no ear deaf or otherwise. "Let's keep moving."

Raven made through the cavern and into the connecting tunnels at its end. Her memory of this place from her raid upon it three years prior served her well as she made no wrong turns whatsoever as she entered into the true homestead of the cavern. All around her now were various crates and boxes; rations and provisions, as well as more...comfortable touches here and there.

This part of the cavern actually looked lived-in.

Raven stopped here, just off the center of the space. "Surely that's not all you have for me, Silver Witch?"

Raven's voice echoed into the relative emptiness of the place. And then…

"Shanks incoming!"

From every corner of the cavern there came a flock of Fallen Shanks. These devious devices however, were clearly and cleverly modified, the lot of them boasting silver chassis and gilding.

"You had to taunt her, didn't you?" Omen said.

Raven, her pulse rifled stowed, said to her Ghost, "Omen, get my sword."

Already in motion across the space to meet the silver Shanks head on, was Dark Drinker transmatted into the Steel Witch's hands. She expertly spun and sliced her blade through the air as to deflect the rain of Arc munitions from her attackers then. She then launched into a series of swift and blinding attacks, Shanks falling to pieces all around her. The few remaining machines closed in around her, their circle tightening as they loosed their Arc guns. Raven waited for just the right moment…

And spun in a tight circle, eviscerating the machines in the ring of her Supermassive Vortex.

Again alone in the cavern, the smoking remains of Shanks littering the place, The Steel Witch shouldered her weapon.

"Ugh. I got the girl Branwen…"

Raven turned, and there, sat coolly atop a pile of ammunition crates, did she espy The Silver Witch.

"Where's that ludicrously attractive brother of yours, hmm?"

"Not on this planet, lucky for him," was Raven's answer.

Maria took this statement for what it was, or perhaps ignored it entirely as she slid herself off her pile of crates. She fell a total of ten feet to the floor before landing with no sound whatsoever. She made for the jagged remains of her guardian Shanks, the long skirt of her combat dress rustling. "Look what you've done to my babies…" she hefted the blackened chassis of one of her beloved machines, inspecting it for anything that could be salvaged. "Have you no heart, woman?"

Raven ignored this, wanting to get to the business at hand. "Why don't you take that mask off, so we can talk woman to woman. You know, like adults?"

Maria, her wasted Shank still in hand, turned her masked face to Raven. "You first."

Raven's sword now on her back, did she remove said mask, Omen storing it transmat. "Better?"

Maria set her Shank down and made a show of removing her own mask, the silver eyes of her namesake shining with impish glee. "So let me guess; you and Qrow are out to...gather The Witches." The last part of her statement was accompanied by her wiggling fingers and theatrical deepening of her voice.

Raven said nothing to this.

"I thought as much." Maria then moved to a corner of the cavern, where she had what looked like a small living arrangement set up. She plopped herself down in the wicker chair behind the makeshift table, her boots now planted upon it.

Raven, having followed Maria's trip across the space, said simply: "Let's get to the heart of it then. Are you in or not?"

"Tequila?" Maria said in offer, holding up a glass bottle.

Raven only stared.

"Right. If it's not tea, you won't drink it." Maria went to work on the bottle itself, forgoing a cup of any kind.

"Are you with us or not?" Raven said, careful to keep any impatience out of her voice.

"Depends," The Silver Witch said. "What's the do?"

Raven heaved an infinitesimal breath through her nose. "The House of Truth and its Archon must fall. If they are to-"

"-Yeah, yeah, I get it." Maria swigged from the bottle, erupting into a coughing fit as the liquid burned a trail down her throat. "Whew! Man, that's good shit!" She looked to Raven again, "You sure you don't want any of this?"

Raven affixed her with her famous stare.

"Suit yourself."

Raven folded her arms. "Look, Maria, we-"

"-Let me stop you right there, Branwen," The Silver Witch said. "You and I are on anything but first name terms."

"You're free to hate me as much as you want," Raven said. "The fact remains that-"

"-Oh, no, no, no." Maria said with a chuckle. "You've got it all wrong. Summer fucking hated you. Me?" Maria set her bottle upon the table and rose from her chair. "I just don't like you."

"Noted," Raven drawled.

Maria then, had gone into a trance of outward introspection, her hand still affixed to the bottle upon the table. "Twenty-two years…" she said. "I was barely a teenager when Ozpin and Glynda came for me. I had made the silly mistake of standing out; of being... exceptional. If I had kept my head down, I never would have been plucked out of the academy; never forced to fight for my life against the two of them...never would have got these." She turned to Raven, the Silver of her eyes aglow with Arc Light from within.

"And then he wanted to turn me into his little brood mare; birth him an army of silver-eyed Witches…" Her voice then was as vacant as the sardonic sneer upon her lips. "Luckily, you and Summer were willing to be his little whores; and I bet Qrow gave it to Summer good!" Her humorless laughter echoed through the cavern. "Do tell me though…" Maria's statement was a questioning trail. "After Taiyang got his end off, what did you do with that little freak show daughter of yours?"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Raven roared.

Maria chuckled callously. "Right...don't mention the failed experiment…"

Raven then advanced on her target, fists and teeth clenched. "You seem to forget, Calavera, that Qrow and I were there alongside you. All of us underwent the same trials and challenges. We all endured the same pain; we all gave up our lives to serve The Traveler and the greater good." She paused here, being sure to meet Calavera's eyes pointedly. "Nothing about your pain is unique."

The two Witches held one another's gazes for a period of time. "You sound...just...like...him…" Maria said finally.

Raven shook her head. "You know what the difference is between you and me, Calavera?"

"What? The fact that you're stupid?"

Raven canted her head.

"You honestly believe everything he tells you, don't you?" Maria's sneer widened to show a great deal of her teeth. "But what of the things he doesn't tell you?"

Raven remained silent.

"You seriously don't think it strange that this insane machine called 'The Traveler' and some guy named Ozpin show up on this planet at the exact same time? And next thing you know, the system is crawling with alien pirates; time-traveling machine men; and magical mold monsters." Maria's head shook in a slow metronome. "I seriously get the feeling that Earth isn't Ozpin's first rodeo, and we're not his first experiments. And until he comes clean, gives us every detail about who he is and his past, I'm not lifting a damn finger in his name."

It was Raven's head that was now shaking. "Listen to you," she said, her statement ending in a huff of breath. "Like you've got the market cornered on skepticism." She began pacing a slow circuit around the target of her statement then. "I've had those thoughts too, yes. But given what's at stake, and the fact that Ozpin chose us to defend against what is coming, how can you see that as anything other than… Destiny?"

"Destiny?" Calavera said, deadpan. "Seriously?"

Raven shook her head, truly exasperated now. "Maybe you could see it that way, if you could get over yourself and your narrow little world view, you selfish bint!"

Maria took the insult in stride. "Ozpin's god complex has clearly rubbed off on you. Looks great next to your raging Stockholm syndrome."

"Call it what you want," Raven said, her mask now again in her hands. "But as for the real difference between you and I; I fight for the future of our system, and our worlds. You only fight for yourself."

Her mask on, did Omen transmat her back to her ship.

….

"Approaching Widow's Court now. No motion on any of the sensors."

"And there wouldn't be," Qrow said to his Ghost. "They don't call this the European dead Zone for nothing."

Coffin Nail made its final approach under Jim's guidance, settling over the wilting grass of the Widow's Court. Qrow was transmatted to the ground, as he looked about for is bearings.

The stately and imposing manner stood before him, its great relief cast in paraselene shadow by the bright Moon and stars above. Qrow's camo was already engaged as he made for the great doors to the place.

"Think they'll give us a warm welcome?" Jim asked his Guardian.

"I'm not expecting a welcome at all, but we'll see."

Inside the foyer now, Qrow found everything inside dark and still.

Just as it had been for the past ten years.

He made across the room's expanse, weaving around tarp-covered furniture. He stopped just in front of the great room's fireplace, it just as cold and unused as the rest of the space. Qrow looked off to the left side of the setup. There he saw an iron fire poker. He grasped the thing and gave it a twist. The entire fireplace then creaked and ground into motion, rotating until it intersected vertically with the wall behind it. Qrow wasted no time ducking into the dark recess revealed beyond.

The tunnel inside was narrow, maybe just a bit wider than the width of one person. There were no turns, no twists; this was not a maze, simply a passage.

Qrow suddenly stopped in his tracks, his Hunter sense tingling.

"What is it?" Jim asked.

Soundlessly, did Qrow stoop and pick up a loose bit of debris from the crumbling walls around him. He tossed it lightly down the hall…

And it was disintegrated by a web of trip lasers.

"That's new…" Qrow grumbled.

"They've stepped things up. Clearly they're tired of you just waltzing on in here."

"Well, they're gonna have to do better than that." Qrow, with a carefully thrown Skip Grenade, tripped the explosive lasers, their munitions igniting in a cascade down the candle-lit corridor.

During the rest of this journey, Qrow encountered no more traps. And not before long, did he find his final destination.

In a room as large as the manner's foyer proper, did Qrow find the resting place of The Chaos Witch.

While indeed large, the room was unembellished; bereft of anything resembling opulence or comfort. Amid this lack of hospitality, sat Qrow's singular object of interest.

A coffin.

As plainly dilapidated as the room that housed it.

Qrow, dropping his camo, approached the thing with a rather plotting irreverence. He stared down at its oaken form, his face the picture of neutrality. He then raised his gaze level with the wall behind it. After a breath in and then out of his nose did he say, "Hello, Vincent."

"Branwen…" breathed the man behind him.

Qrow turned to face the man known as The Chaos Witch. He found it no shock at all that he was staring down the barrel of the man's wicked hand cannon. He was only the smallest bit wary of being on the business end of the corrosive thorns that were its projectiles.

Qrow's only movement then, was that of his mouth. "Listen, Vincent. Why don't you put that thing down, so we can talk?"

The Chaos Witch made no motion to arrest his weapon. "Out here in the wild, Qrow, this is how we talk."

The Red Witch then reached slowly down to his side, un-holstering his knife. It's blade, as red as his namesake, crackled with Arc Energy. "Alright," he said. "Let's talk."

The two Witches then engaged in something more than a mere standoff. Their collective stillness then, was amplified by the dead silence around them. Even the air in the tunnel ceased its motion as the two held their nerve and their gazes.

And then at once….

Was Qrow holding the wicked weapon know as Thorn. The Chaos Witch crumpled at his feet, his Ghost marking his fall.

Thorn's projectile only then hit the wall, burning a hole in the concrete.

"Vincent, no!" The man's Ghost cried. "Please, I'll help you!"

The little unit shone her beam over her "dead" Guardian, bringing him again into the realm of the living. She then turned the burning red of her optic upon his attacker. "Damn you!" She shrieked. "Damn you, Qrow Branwen! Why can't you just leave us be?! We never asked for this...CURSE you call a life! We want nothing to do with Ozpin and his puppets! Just leave us ALONE!"

"Peace, Lucrecia…" did The Chaos Witch say soothingly to his Ghost.

She puttered up beside him, nuzzling his cheek.

Qrow tossed the man his weapon back, it being caught and stowed away in almost the same motion. "So, now that I have your attention…" Qrow began. "I'm here to tell you about-"

"Operation Truth, I imagine?"

Qrow nodded sideways.

Vincent adopted then a countenance of outward recollection. "The most powerful of the three ruling houses. Truth…" He turned, stalking his slow way back to the casket that was his vessel. "We were created to destroy the Fallen Houses; to fell them and bring about the end of their race's unity. But…" His gaze then fell upon his precious Ghost, her settling into the palm of his gnarled hand.

"I get the feeling that it's not only The Fallen that Ozpin fears. There's something far greater; something...inevitable about that man. His single-mindedness in creating an immortal fighting force...The Guardians...The Night Witches…." Vincent's pause here was the greatest yet. "To what end is our purpose? Against who or what do we make our final- our intended stand against?"

Qrow, his head still canted, said: "Well, what better way to address any of those questions than to fight your way to the answers? They sure as hell aren't gonna come to you here like this."

"Maybe not…" Vincent grunted. "But ignorance isn't exactly bliss in this case."

"Yet you continue to bind yourself to this spell of willful ignorance. What right have you ask the questions if you refuse to seek the answers?"

Vincent's pause then was of conflicting contemplation. He moved again to his casket. "Leave us now, Red Witch. I must rest."

The conversation ended there, did Qrow turn to leave.

"Qrow."

He turned at the man's call.

"Are...sins ever forgiven?"

The Red Witch, hands in his pockets answered, "I've never tried."

And he was transmatted from the scene.

…..

Here, in the deadest hour of the night, there was only the chilling and nearly silent whisper of the wind. Even the Moon, in its brilliant fullness, turned a blind eye to the Earth as those known as The Night Witches gathered upon its face.

Adam Taurus.

Raven Branwen.

Qrow Branwen.

The collective might of their persons could stop time in its tracks.

Still the very blood in the veins of anything living.

Look Death in the face and kill it dead.

And they were on the hunt for Truth.

"So," said The Carbon Witch. "Down to just us again, huh?"

"Looks that way," said The Red Witch.

"I much prefer it this way," said The Steel Witch. "Let the others wallow in their righteous misery. It is we that will carry the fight."

The Carbon Witch nodded. He unsheathed his crackling electric sword from his back, and held it out before him. "Redwing. Once and Future," he said.

The Steel Witch copied her fellow's motion. "Redwing. Once and Future."

The Red Witch provided the third sword, completing their coat of arms. "Redwing. Once and Future." Their circle still closed did he continue: "On this night, as dictated by The Speaker of Light, we end The Fallen; and bring peace back to our world."

The others nodded.

And with no further words, did The Witches take flight through the Night.

…

-End of Legend 35-

….

A/N:

Man, work has been absolutely killer lately, been coming home too tired lately to do any writing. Just eating and sleeping for work tomorrow, you know, the American dream. Anyway, glad to finally update this thing and get it in motion again. And as always, if you liked what you read, a favorite or follow would be greatly appreciated. If you didn't like what you read, I thank you for reading this long. See you in the next update.

-B. D. Skunkworks