Raven

Raven and Helena struck as one the moment the portal snapped closed behind them. There was no time to speak, no time for deliberation, they hated each other, and they knew that, Raven knowing that there would damned well be hell to pay after this. If they survived.

She focused on that, focused on the memory of the joy and pride in Cinder's face when that portal had cracked open, focused on that strength, on how it filled her with joy to see her daughter so happy to see her.

Even the memory of what she'd done to Yang couldn't strangle that joy, as Raven's eyes snapped open and violet flames burst to life on the corners. She felt the maidens sing with her, and… for once, Raven let them examine the memory of her second daughter, of her first daughter as well, she let the spirits examine them, felt them coo and murmur over the two girls. From Yang's sleeping face, to Cinder's defiant one, and for that single, one moment.

They were aligned in body and purpose.

Tyrian would not be allowed to claim another on this night.

Raven surged forwards in the blink of an eye, passing Helena's daggers as they flew towards Tyrian, the woman shifting her posture to a crouched one, firing a rifle at the scorpion faunus as he darted and ducked and dashed back and forth.

The slam of Raven's body into his caught him by surprise as she slapped his tail aside with Omen's sheathed blade, before drawing an icy line of magic down his side, the shards of ice carving deep and blasting him apart as the scorpion faunus tumbled end over end.

He stood, briefly, spitting at her.

"You Bitch~!"

But… a chime from his scroll, and then he was running away, tossing over his shoulder.

"Chase me, chase me if you must, dear birds~! But be aware, that one stifles and dies the farther she is from medical help~! And your little fangies will suffer without your intervention, dear mama raven~!"

His insane babbling snapped both Raven and Helena out of their murderous stances, and with regret, Raven relaxed her hold over the maidens, and they faded into her body.

Another line crossed for her daughter. How much more would she risk? How many more of her lines and codes would she break and shatter in the path of making Cinder feel at home, of providing for that girl in the same way that Summer once provided for her.

The answer didn't surprise Raven as she stood in front of the downed form of Pyrrha Nikos.

Protecting her from harm, even as Helena leaned in and began examining her.

"How did he get here?"

She'd barked at the other woman, snarling at her. Raven didn't initially respond, thinking over it.

It didn't make sense. Tyrian would have, should have won against them, there was no real reason for him to retreat unless…

Raven stiffened, her sword carving a portal open. She roared through it.

"Vernal, the camp is compromised, flee to the Fang, as quickly as you can!"

She didn't wait for a response, cutting off the portal and reaching for another portal. One she'd made long ago, one that she'd thought the connection had died off, one that was now reciprocated gently as Sienna Khan allowed the portal to snap open.

Raven didn't wait, leaping through as Omen snapped free of her sheathe.

And landed right in the middle of a damned warzone. A bolt shot past her head as Sienna grabbed her and dragged her down behind cover, hissing.

"Really pulling the miracle worker shit here, huh Rae?"

She nodded once, leaning back and asking quietly.

"Situation?"

Sienna's ears were flat to her skull, and she gave a hand signal over said shoulder, with a white fang soldier lifting what looked like an anti tank weapon to their shoulder. They checked their rear, noting no other fang, before snapping out from cover and squeezing the trigger.

The deafening blast of the rocket announced its presence as it soared towards the entrenched position.

"So, Nightingale has some serious defenses around this area, we walked right in before the killbox closed. Been pinned here for a hot minute now, and it's a damned good thing that you showed up."

Raven shook her head.

"Tyrian Callows was here, trying a decapitation play on the seneschal of the house Nikos, dunno what else, but it might be that Nightingale's been cut off from her supporters and is now fleeing."

Sienna nodded.

"That would explain the crowds of confused people flooding out of that noxious cloud. You and the little brat were successful, then?"

"Up until she got kidnapped by Helena Nikos for a moment. Had to bust her out, which was when we ran into Tyrian. But… it wasn't him, I suspected you were in trouble, so I came here, but I've got nothing now, dunno where Tyrian is at this point and I've got nothing, maybe Salem's withdrawing for the eon now?"

Sienna flashed her a grin.

"Maybe she is, can only hope."

The sounds of automatic weapons fire slowed, eventually ceasing, and the surviving White Fang began to pick themselves slightly out of cover, carefully inspecting their surroundings before they made their way towards Raven and Sienna. Of the dozen and a half that had gone with her, 6 or so were left. None were unwounded.

"Ok, we clear?"

One faunus, heavily scarred and bleeding from a puncture to her arm, rabbit ears carefully peeled, nodded once.

"Machines clicking dry, but still dry, no more traps, the rest of the building was empty, was all we heard before the advance team got torn up by the mines."

Sienna nodded, closing her eyes in grief.

"Then… we will have to mourn. Can we recover the dead?"

The woman shook her head.

"Very little is left, and the despair will be worse if we take them out of the walls. Let Ironwood have them, and we'll see what happens next, hmm?"

The tiger faunus nodded once. Sitting up, she wobbled to her feet and Raven took in the destruction around them.

The Theatre they'd thought Nightingale had taken refuge in had turned the entire street into a charnel house, dozens of innocent civilians had been hit and killed in the crossfire, and even more were simply chunks of froth and meat.

"Did she open fire into the crowd?"

Sienna grimaced.

"No. She had a human shield. She opened fire when she detected our people close to them."

"Fuck…"

None of them could adequately respond. The pain was… vicious and unpleasant. A grief and dull, sincere longing at the sheer waste of such things.

"Nightingale?"

Sienna shook her head.

"Gone before we even arrived, left a mocking laugh behind on the audiowaves. She's… so broken, so gone."

Raven had forgotten, Sienna had been one of the few who'd attended Nightingale's concerts seriously, back when she'd been a small time singer. The woman now reviled as a horrible monster had been a very different person once.

A person worthy of respect and adoration from her fans.

The loss was painful, but it meant nothing to Raven, who had long ago made her peace with very few people in the world truly mattering to her. But it meant more to Sienna, who co-led the Fang with the help of the Belladonna's.

"Get our people out of here, we'll be able to rely on Atlas to cover literally all of this up, but its better to escape before they can scapegoat us."

The group proceeded into the tunnels beneath the city, with her warning about Tyrian delivered, Raven stood up and made her way to an abandoned and deserted alleyway. The walls opened wide, and she sliced an opening into thin air after just a moment, letting her stride through the portal and directly into a small clearing where Vernal and Cinder were making food.

The small fire crackling, and the smell of stew cooking and roasting meat made Raven's stomach growl heartily as she strode out and took a seat near the other two. She smiled at them, the effort splitting her dry lips and making her wince, the motion distinctly unpracticed.

"Well done. Did you manage to scavenge from another cache in the city?"

She watched as Vernal winced and Cinder flinched.

"Ironwood hit them, all of them. Cinder managed to sneak us in ahead of a squad, but not by much, so we've only got the emergency grab and go stuff. They also definitely know we hit those locations, we weren't exactly subtle. So they'll know that we know the cache's are compromised."

Raven grimaced, the sudden dearth in emergency supplies for other elements of the Branwen tribe would be… rough, in a word.

Difficult to replace as well, which was another issue. With the tribe preparing to run for Vacuo, they would have needed those supplies.

Raven was going to catch hell for it in the only way the Branwen tribe acknowledged such an insult.

Incredible, unrestrained violence.

In that case, there was only one response.

"Before today, Little Kite, Vernal, we would mark the Branwen Tribe as allies. That is no longer the case, consider them enemies and shoot on sight."

Cinder flinched, and Raven scowled inwardly, the girl was still far too unaccustomed to the grim reality of their situation, and until they got to Taiyang, it would not be safe for her to emerge openly as the little ones sponsor.

Wait.

By the brothers…

Ozpin.

She'd forgotten about the largest barrier to entry. Cinder had no papers, and neither did Vernal, and she'd be able to fool most people, but that damned wizard wasn't one of them.

Which meant she'd have to entreat with him to keep Cinder and Vernal safe.

The thought rankled at her, she didn't trust Ozpin at all, didn't trust anything about the man, and his background. She knew he was hiding more than he said, let alone what he'd done with the fight against Salem.

She didn't want her kids in that mess, but… there weren't that many other options, were there? The tribe was out, she'd pissed them off something fierce by getting their stashes discovered, even if she arrived now. Which would only have been further exacerbated if she brought 2 mouths to feed along with hers.

Which left Taiyang, Qrow, and herself to care for two more kids.

This… wasn't good, wasn't a good idea, really at all.

So then what should she do next?

Taiyang was the obvious option, but that meant putting herself back under Ozpin's orders for the chance that her kids would have a good life and a chance at as much of a normal life as two huntresses could lead.

Because it wasn't as if Cinder was crowing about opening bakeries and Vernal wanted to design pretty dresses.

That would have been much easier than a life fighting grimm.

Of course the two had chosen the only life liable to make her blood pressure rise.

To say nothing of Yang. Of her firstborn! That girl was growing up to be a fighter, from everything that Summer had said.

Damned kids, taking after their mother. Could almost bring a tear to her eye.

Wait, the White Fang, wouldn't they-

She banishes the thought before it has a chance to finish, not because they wouldn't, Sienna might grumble about it, but Kali and Ghira would accept Cinder and Vernal on principle alone. But the rest of their faction could likely care less about the two girls and could very easily arrange for them to be… disposed of if they proved inconvenient.

No, if Nightingale had been pushed out of the city, and with Tyrian's (if that had been him) objective incomplete, they weren't as successful as Raven had liked, but that was fine, because Cinder and Vernal were ok, and by extension so were the Belladonna's and Sienna.

Now? She just had to cross literally thousands of miles of contested territory and get her kids into the arms of the one man who would potentially be ok with taking them in, but also might just spit in her face and demand she get out.

Which, as she reflected on Summer's last angry rant… was his absolute right as a parent, he'd been furious with her for abandoning Yang, and now… a part of Raven wondered how she'd ever gone through with it in the first place.

Having the contemplate abandoning Cinder like that hurt, hurt so badly that she had to stop and pause for breath, but she'd do it, she would do it and she'd smile through the tears because the alternative was so much worse.

If she had to become the crazy, scary bandit queen to stay free and stay off of Ironwood's radar just long enough to see her kids grow up?

Then fuck, she'd damned well do it.

So, as dawn turned to dusk and then to night, Raven strode free of the camp, and cut open a hole into the air, a portal forming to the one man she'd not wanted involved until things had stabilized, but no longer had a choice in the matter.

"Hello Tai."

Cinder

Cinder had lain in her cot, trying to sleep for what felt like hours until her mother began to move through the camp. She wasn't going on patrol but because Vernal and she weren't on watch, the woman would have to be staying close enough to camp that she could reach their sides in an instant if need be.

The amount of grimm in just the outskirts of the city that they'd cut down was absurd, so vastly higher than anything Cinder had seen before, Vernal and her had handled the minor pack of juvenile beowulves, but they'd had to skulk through the woods dodging the alphas that came after them and desperately hunkering down after a trio of ursae discovered their tracks.

It had been very good luck that Raven had found them when she did.

But now she was elsewhere, and Cinder stole out of the tent, taking her bow, the good one, the one that let her hunt grimm, with her.

She wasn't that stupid.

"No, Tai, please."

The voice is a whisper, deadly quiet, and coming from the still open portal in midair, the one that remains open even now, because Cinder can tell that Raven is scared.

Her mom is scared.

In all of the indignity she's capable of, Cinder bull rushes through that portal, bow raised to the ready position, arrow nocked, and ready to let it fly the moment she locks eyes with whatever's making her mom hurt.

Stupid decision on hindsight, but frankly she can't be assed to care.

Out of the portal Cinder is stepping into a cozy… living… room. There's her mom, standing right next to the portal, Omen drawn, and now staring at Cinder with that expression she's never quite been able to figure out if it's her mom approving or disapproving of her actions.

And standing next to her, is the most stereotypical huntsman Cinder has ever seen. He's tall, blonde and blue eyed, and rippling muscle binds his frame. He looks down at her and he smiles and it's the smile she's seen on all the poster ads for Atlas' military, except this smile is real.

"Hey little one, defending your mom?"

And his voice rumbles out of his chest and Cinder's face feels hot and flushed because really, charging into an unknown situation like that is exactly what would have gotten her killed if this was a lethal encounter.

"Little kite-"

Raven starts, but the man looks to her and cuts her off without a word, Raven doesn't react, except to let her shoulders droop down and a sight make it past her lips.

"Fine. Cinder, wake Vernal, if you can, its about time we had this talk."

She points to the portal.

5 minutes later, Vernal is trying very hard to stare at the floor grain and not at the man, who's name is Taiyang's biceps.

Cinder is staring at her mom, as her mother acts… like an utter fool.

Raven is sitting there, wearing her mask with the eye attachment taken clean out of it to allow people to see her eyes, but Cinder knows damned well she's only wearing the lower half of the mask because she's blushing like a loon.

It doesn't click immediately, until a sleep filled, exhausted voice comes from the stairs above her.

"Daaadd…. Who is itttt? Is mom back yet?"

A blonde girl, about the same height as Cinder, turns the stairs and locks eyes with her, and Cinder smiles the grin of someone who's just discovered blackmail material on their worst enemy.

Raven's looks aren't clear in the girl yet, but they'll be there one day.

She looks to Raven, and catches her mother looking away from her in embarrassment.

Cinder giggles, Vernal snorts as she catches on, and even big Taiyang chuckles just a bit at Raven's discomfort.

The mood is immediately ruined when the weight of the words that the girl says sink in. And Raven looks away from Taiyang's penetrating gaze.

"Yang… can you take this girl and go upstairs to play for a bit?"

Cinder sees the tears in the mans eyes as he speaks, and the way that his tone slightly wavers as the truth sinks in. But she does as is told, and follows the girl upstairs to the small room at the very top.

"I'm Yang, what's your name?"

Cinder searches the other girls gaze, careful to look for any tricks or deceptions, and finds… nothing, instead seeing the other girl's genuine curiosity in a hand outstretched. Sleep still dulls her lilac eyes, and yet inside them Cinder finds no traces of anything resembling deceit, manipulation, or violent intent. Just slightly sleepy curiosity.

"Cinder."

She finally answers, and the other girls eyes open wide.

"Cooolll! Why'd your parents call you that?"

Cinder wants to lie and say she doesn't remember, but she does, the faintest of voices trickling back into her mind, faint words.

"I'm fond of autumn, Cinder, for the colors of the roaring fire I named you after what's left over, just enough to start and spark the next big blaze."

She says as much to Yang, and Yang smiles at her, a slight gap in her front teeth, gently smacking Cinder on the shoulder.

"That's a cool name~!"

Neither of them are prepared for the gasp of shock, or the cry of agony from downstairs in the voice of Taiyang. A cry of agony that is only perpetuated as Raven takes it up as well.

Grief is a terrible thing, remarks Cinder. She had only gotten to know Summer very briefly, and she suffered as much in the early days after the woman died.

She tries to stop Yang from running down the stairs, but does not need to, as the tiny blonde runs face first into Vernal's stupid chest and the older girl stops her cold.

"Sorry little one, can't let you down there, Cinder's mom and your dad have a few things they need to talk about."

Yang looks at Cinder and her eyes flicker to red.

The sudden shift is so jarring, especially as Cinder realizes just how much of Raven is in Yang.

Her mom's eyes also darken in color when she's angry.

Their mom… if Cinder's correct about Yang's parentage.

The first punch catches Cinder completely by surprise.

The second does not, and, with some satisfaction, Cinder remarks that while Yang is naturally talented as a fighter, she has the edge in practical combat.

They kick and scrabble about on the floor, biting and scratching, occasionally landing one hit on each other, but neither of them stops it until the sound of heavy footfalls coming up the stairs announces itself to all of them.

Vernal watches on impassively, as Taiyang and Raven round the corner and stare accusingly at Yang and Cinder.

In perfect unison, both roar out.

"She started it!"

Raven

It is sometimes hard to stare at my daughter after she's gotten into a fight. Harder to stare at my… Well, both of my daughters. Yang bears a split lip and puffy eyes, holding back tears but not wanting to shed them. Cinder is roaringly defiant, and despite a slightly chipped tooth and clear bite marks on her shoulder, she's standing strong, her aura flickering around her, she won't be caught off guard again.

I look at Taiyang, slightly ahead of me on the stairs, and I'm forced to concede that putting Vernal in charge of the two brats was… not a wise decision.

She had been raised as a Branwen, and… that meant her attitudes towards what was acceptable behavior were vastly different from other peoples.

I realize this in one fell swoop and directly suffer from the realization as Taiyang shoots me a thoroughly unimpressed glare.

In the tribe, fighting like this would be encouraged among the brats, with whomever triumphed being rewarded. It is hard to remind myself of the horror of such things, having grown up with them. Earned my scars from such brawls.

Vernal is no exception, and the girl stands at the stair tops, blocking my daughters from charging down, and she positively withers under the slightly disappointed glare that my Tai- No. Not anymore, that Taiyang Xiao-Long, gives her. Because at her heart, Vernal is still just a girl, and Taiyang has an infuriatingly patient, infuriatingly annoying way about him that melts teenage girls into puddles.

I should know, he did it to me and Summer.

It takes… time, to get the girls to bed, to get Vernal to calm down and realize that she's not going to be stabbed. It takes enough time that Taiyang is yawning by the time we're done, and I can't help myself.

"You've really gone soft, haven't you?"

His expression freezes my blood in my veins and my heart in my chest. Neither of us are the type to cry around our daughters, but I can see the tears welling up in his blue eyes as he settles into that creaking old chair that Summer "adopted" from a bandit camp we cleared in our third year. I wonder, absently, if the chips in the wood are still there from the scattered buckshot that Qrow fired at the hideous thing in an attempt to destroy it.

The dining room in Taiyang's house hasn't changed in the years I've been absent, there are many more photographs of Yang and little Ruby now, but far fewer of me. Even less where I smile as easily as I used to.

Things are different, stinging and damaged now, and I don't know how to fix them anymore.

"She… she sacrificed herself. Fighting the contract."

Tai's eyes are hardened, the kind of dull blue that sadness tempers. I remember the last time I saw them like this.

The day I abandoned him and Summer.

The memory hurts like a spear through the ribs, but I force myself to continue, for Summer's memory, little as I deserve it, and for Yang, Cinder, Vernal and Ruby.

"I'm… I'm sorry Taiyang…"

The man looks at me, and I'm there when the dam finally breaks for him, and in the moments later when my own sunders its walls and pours forth endless gallons of sadness onto that table. Still scorched where Summer's first attempt at cookies ruined the cheap, crappy paint.

I lose track of how long it takes for us to calm down, lose track of how long it takes for the tears to stop, for the dulling of consciousness to allow us a semblance of peace. I lose track of when Taiyang carries me to the sofa and places me there, wrapping blankets around me as I sob because even in his own grief and sadness, he has to be the strong man, the emotional rock that both myself and Summer relied upon.

A twist of shame pools in my gut as I lie there, hearing his footsteps pad away and into the master bedroom just above me.

I lie in the darkness, trying to let the tears fall shamelessly, to be vulnerable for the first time in years.

I began this process with Cinder, and I can't finish it here. I can't finish it without more of these people. I swore that I wouldn't be near, because it was too easy for Salem to target and slay us. That I was almost too late once was unforgivable, and Summer would never have forgiven me had I been too late again.

But then I was. And she paid the price for it.

I can barely forgive myself most days, and this only makes it worse.

This… grief. I'm not good at it, I'm not good at losing the people close to me, first it was my mom and dad, in the camp, and then a first love, and then I felt like I had to throw away the people who were closest to me because I couldn't stomach the fact that I'd put targets on their back.

Now I'm left with the shattered pieces of the woman who brought us all together, the memories… the remnants of her life.

If I slow my breath down I can still smell the strawberry scent in the air that she used in all her favorite products, can still feel the tempo of her breath, the patter of her feet running up and down the stairs, and the boundless enthusiasm she brought to my life.

I can feel her presence in this house, and all at once it's stifling and unbearable that she's gone.

It's worse because it's my fault.

I listen to the sounds of the house, the creaking and gentle tossing, the way that Summer Rose built this place with her own hands, the way that Taiyang and I and Qrow retrieved pieces of old furniture, loot from a dozen huntress contracts, and used our knowledge and skills to make this place our home.

A cracked photograph left over from when I swung Yang too energetically and her little shoes knocked it off the wall.

My eyes don't need aura enhancements to see in the dark, not with the magic Ozma gave us. But I don't need to see in the dark to know where these memories are.

There, in the corner of the living room, the carpet is smudged and stained black, it's easy to believe it's fire from the hearth, but it's leftover ink, long dried into the carpet, from when Ruby started learning how to write, got into her father's expensive calligraphy supplies, and ended up with half a bottle of ink all over her and the floor.

There's the step that's slightly creaky because Yang tried to pick up Harbinger and dropped it on the much weaker wood, splintering just a piece of it off.

There's the old table that Qrow carved in a fit of drunken inspiration to look like a modern art gallery mixed with ancient civilizations nude models.

There's the weapons on the fireplace, the ancestral Rose, Xiao-Long, and yes, even mine and my brother's own contributions in the student versions of our weapons.

Dawning Rose had been called Sundered then. Omen had been Reaper. Harbinger had been Timepiece, and Tai's stupid gauntlets had been called Heartbreaker.

Our student pieces take up space up there, and Tai and Summer never took them down, even after I abandoned them.

They didn't want the memories of their teammate to fade.

It chokes me up again, and for the third time that night I am sobbing into the thick, slightly misshapen pillow of Taiyang's couch.