This story investigates how Raven became the Maiden, the lack of confidence of the previous Maiden and will also deal with the fall of Kuroyuri and Raven's friendship with Summer.
For new readers, while this story is set in the universe of my stories under this and the Muskrat2 name and is designed to be consistent in overall terms with it, it is a prequel, so there is no need to have read those stories. For old readers, it is broadly consistent with the previous stories, but no doubt some details will not entirely be on all fours.
It will be multiple POVs, but primarily Raven's and the Maiden's. It is set about ten years before the first series of RWBY.
One other thing: in my version of the universe, students at Beacon/Haven start at age 18, and the drinking laws are UK-based, so students can get drunk legally.
I have amended this chapter and retconned some references to the Headmaster of Haven. I decided it was better to make him more nuanced, even if not entirely trustworthy.
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Raven was circling the Malachite villa in the exclusive holiday resort of Le Piquet. An hour's drive from Mistral City, it was the gambling and beach destination for the crème de la creme of Mistralian Society (or, as her brother would say, the scum which had risen to the top). She had a meeting with Little Miss in an hour's time. She planned to be early for it.
She had met with the woman around ten times before but normally dealt with her through agents. She had been a reliable and mostly honest go-between for ransom negotiations and fencing the more valuable bits of stolen property. Raven had no use for the luxuries which the Mistralian wealthy prized and she'd rather convert them into lien. Little Miss knew who would buy, no questions asked.
It wasn't that they were friends as such, but they were very careful to act as though they were and respected each other. While Little Miss would never give a sucker an even break, she had accepted that it wasn't worth trying to rip Raven off, and Raven found her too useful to threaten too overtly. They could both pretend that they were no-nonsense women who didn't have to prove who was the toughest to each other.
The next part of her grand plan required someone to money launder, make investments on her behalf, and be trusted with significant sums of money. Raven needed to ensure that Little Miss did not get tempted to cheat Raven and the Branwen Tribe or to arrange and that she made it clear to her subordinates that private enterprise would be discouraged.
In some ways, it suited her that Malachite was spending time with her family at the Villa. Her minions had spent the last two hours having a final security check, sweeping the rooms for bugs and having sniffer dogs detect explosives or hidden assassins. The woman would be confident that she and her family were safe.
Even better, the maids had aired the house this morning, and Raven had been able to fly in and check that the design matched the plans. She wanted to ensure that her planned entrance concentrated the woman's mind. Raven waited for the best time to make her entrance and as she did mused about her semblance.
Originally, she thought her semblance was as useless as her brother's (which occasionally worked to the disadvantage of his opponents). Her semblance's only use seemed to be for ensuring that Qrow was kept in a state of high anxiety at all times, especially when he went on a date. Oobleck, Goodwitch and Ozpin had told her that the more you used or needed to use a semblance, the greater the chance it would evolve.
To her surprise, it had. She found that she could open portals to Taiyang and Summer in the second year. Still no use for fighting and the Team decided to make a virtue of the fact that their semblances were either unknown or useless. Well Taiyang's was useful, but it wasn't one which could be used in the Vytal Arena on prime time TV.
It was only when she had returned to the tribe that she found that she could make a portal to more or less everyone from the original tribe. Admittedly, that was then only a few hundred adults most of whom she had known as a child.
Well, either that or her father and grandfather had been Taiyang-like in their animal magnetism for the tribe's women. No, she could rule that one out. Besides, the tribe had worked out a century ago that inbreeding was a problem. Typically, they had dealt with the problem by adding attractive young women and men to the tribute they levied from villages, farms and small towns they raided.
It was just as well her semblance had evolved, as the Mistral Bandit Affairs Division had been close to wiping the tribe out before she returned. It was only because she could intervene as soon as any part of the tribe came under attack that the tribe had survived. Not even the MBAD's hunter members had signed up to face a Vytal Festival Champion who knew how to fight dirty, could appear out of nowhere and disappear if the fight turned against her. Not that she had needed to disappear much unless it was to evacuate the children of the Tribe to safety.
Ok, enough reminiscing. Miss Malachite was going to have a shower, and when the door closed, Raven opened a small portal and arrived in the bedroom in bird form. Just in case the woman had cameras in her bedroom, she transported herself inside the wardrobe. She then transformed, stepped out of the wardrobe and waited for Little Miss. Great. It did work when she knew someone and they were important to her. Admittedly, she had made it easy by being able to see where she wanted to be.
The woman must have been shocked but hid it well even when Raven drawled, "I'm early. I thought that I'd let myself in."
There was a pause. "Don't blame the guards. When I want to go somewhere, no power in Remnant can stop me." By Raven's standards, she thought that was being subtle. Little Miss's one real weakness was her children. Raven had made it clear that if the woman ever betrayed her, she would take revenge in the way which would cause her the most pain before killing her. Little Miss had perhaps been trying to reassure Raven that the meeting was not a trap by saying she was bringing her heirs along, but if Raven had arrived in the normal manner, she wouldn't have known for certain that they were actually around.
Just then, the twin girls rushed to join their mother and were shocked to see a fully armed bandit queen sitting in an armchair.
Little Miss introduced Melanie and Melita to mummy's friend Raven, and Raven put on the mask for them. The two were delighted. The fact that Raven had, even though it was before they could remember it, been a Vytal Festival Champion made her mummy's most wicked friend ever. Raven could imagine that when they were a few years older, they would be causing their mother some sleepless nights.
She amused herself by imagining the carnage if she had brought Vernal with her. They were about the same age and shared the boisterousness of the adopted orphan of the Tribe. No doubt, the twins would have tested Vernal's boundaries. Unlike Vernal, their auras had not been unlocked, and Vernal didn't hold back if challenged.
The meeting proceeded as planned. The two oldest joined them for part of it. They were learning the ropes of the business, and she had expected to see them. Little Miss had indicated to Raven that she needed to delegate some of the work to people she could trust, and they needed to meet Raven to realise that their mother wasn't messing around when she said that they needed to give her the best service possible.
The son looked nervous but seemed competent and willing to work hard. The daughter was more confident but perhaps less of a details person. She was also involved with some of the Spiders' more legitimate operations. Raven couldn't help suspecting that the recruitment business doubled as an industrial espionage operation.
Little Miss did spell out to the two oldest that Raven would take direct action against anyone who cheated her or, worse, assisted the authorities in trying to capture or kill her. Little Miss spelt out that Little Miss's predecessor, as the Branwen Tribe's Mistral City fence, had not understood this fact. He'd learnt his lesson before he died, but that was too late for him. Still, that was five years ago, and people forget so quickly.
Eventually, the children were dismissed using the excuse that Little Miss and her illustrious client wanted to gossip. The oldest two knew what this meant but were well enough trained to accept their dismissal. Raven hadn't told the Queen of the Spiders that she was planning to take over Kuroyuri Province over the next two years, but she had said that she was planning to expand,
Little Miss produced a bottle of brandy, and Raven produced two glasses. "A little bird told me some interesting things are happening in Watanabe County in the Kuroyuri province" was Little Miss's starting line. She followed it up by saying, "I presume that's what you want to talk to me about, Raven?"
Good, she wasn't going to faff around, and the Spider's intelligence system was working.
The time had come to deal with the real reason she came to the Queen of the Spiders, which was information and which journalists and politicians Little Miss should bribe to take stances which ensured that Mistral would continue to take no action against the Branwen Tribe.
Of course, the recipients of the bribes would not know, at least for now, that Raven was paying them (actually, they would be described as retainers or expressions of admiration). Later on, perhaps, blackmail could be applied to ensure that they did not announce a change of view. Little Miss was known to be a safety cutout and knew who to approach with which half-truth would appeal to them most.
To be fair to the recipients of bribes, they may honestly believe the majority of the human population in Kuroyuri weren't real Mistralians because of their slanty eyes. Certainly, the argument that the cost of keeping the province wasn't worth the lien was not a total lie in the short term. The fact that 35% of the population of the province were Faunus would also make the opinion formers unwilling to support an increase of taxes to pay for military operations.
Two hours later, she paid Little Miss Malachite a generous bonus. By the sounds of it, the official reaction in Mistral had been, as Raven had predicted, a determined insistence on pretending that nothing was happening, and if it was, then it was someone else's responsibility.
Malachite even said that there was little need to pay bribes. However, she suggested having some of her more literate employees write letters to politicians and journalists to encourage them that they would be preaching to the choir. Raven agreed to this. Little Miss would get the same money as she would have for the bribes, but it was 80% cheaper for the Branwen Tribe.
However, the real reason for the bonus was that, towards the end, Little Miss said, "I had one piece of intelligence from Watanabe which I don't know what to make of. It may be just a coincidence, but I thought I should pass it on."
Raven hid her surprise, but as she left the Villa, this time through the front door with the security guards looking at her with a mixture of hatred and fear, she was worried and intrigued. What on Remnant was a special agent of the headmaster of Haven doing in Watanabe the night before anyone could have known that she had taken over her first large village in Kuroyuri province?
While she knew coincidences happened, it was unsettling. For them to be sniffing around in Watanabe, even on the off chance something was happening, did it mean that there was a part of the Mistral Security Forces that could organise a piss-up in a brewery and had worked out that she had plans for expansion?
On the other hand, how stupid or unimpressive was the agent that they needed to produce the letter from the Headmaster of Haven to get past the reception desk of a provincial town hall? Perhaps they were just incompetent.
However, the head of the Atlas military in Watanabe province had told the two receptionists not to tell anyone about the letter immediately after they had finally told him about his visitor. Right idea, bad luck that one of the receptionists worked for the Spiders.
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Around the same time as Raven's meeting had started, Shady, a lieutenant in the Branwen Tribe, was leading a patrol hunting for Grimm but hoping that they wouldn't find any. The tribe had just taken over another large village. The villagers were starting to calm down, but they'd been understandably crapping their pants beforehand.
There was a part of Shady that missed the old ways. Rushing the village, slaughtering those who fought back, burning the crops and houses, stealing the booze, valuables and food, and then enjoying the fruits of victory and all that entailed had been exhilarating.
The current Chief (a second cousin and a niece of sorts – family trees were complicated in the Tribe) said the Civilians should be treated like sheep rather than wild boar—if you sheared them regularly, you would get more in the long term. Less killing and regular tribute, sorry, payments towards the protection plan.
Well, he wasn't going to argue with the Chief. In part because that would be bad for his health but mainly because he remembered how bad things had been before she had returned seven years ago. He trusted her to keep the Tribe, him and his family alive. It just felt odd taking over settlements without any bloodshed and staying around afterwards and shaking hands.
Nowadays, the Chief persuaded villagers that it was in their best interests to sign up for the protection plan. In this case, she had spent two weeks softening the villagers up. First, she sent in "refugees" with stories of Grimm attacks and bandit incursions further west. They had told lurid stories in the inns, making the listeners anxious, who had then gone home and upset their friends and relatives. The Grimm had started to become attracted, and people panicked more, attracting more Grimm. It was a vicious circle. It didn't hurt that one member of the tribe could cast illusions which persuaded people that they saw Beowolfs prowling.
The next set of "refugees" had included a big shot from Mistral city with his guards. He had complained about being kicked out of the county he had been in charge of by a tribe of bandits, insulted and generally irritated everyone before going to bed early. Two of his guards had stayed in the pub and told the villagers "the truth" that the man was corrupt and inefficient even by Mistralian standards. They hinted that one of the reasons for there being so many more Grimm was that the Branwen Tribe had been driving them out of their normal hunting grounds. This was all to plant the seed for the thought that if you were going to have to deal with people who took money from you, you were better off dealing with the Branwen Tribe than the Mistral Government. The Mistralian bigwig had been an actor, but the lines were taken from real life. They'd actually toned down some of the entitlement in his voice. Real life is not always plausible.
When the Chief with Shady and his company in tow turned up to offer the Tribe's services, the villagers almost bit their hands off. Shady did like the phrase that we are going to make you an offer you cannot refuse. He couldn't argue with the result, but it felt weird relying on the Tribe's acting ability to take over a village. The Chief had insisted that they had always relied on bluffing and intimidation, and that was a form of acting, but it still felt wrong.
In this case, the Chief had timed it so that it was the day before the tax collectors from Mistral were due and offered both to take less than the tax collectors would want as an introductory offer for joining the Branwen protectorate and to deal with both the tax collectors and the Grimm problem.
What was both impressive and unsettling was that the Chief then went about proving that the civilians were not being cheated (or at least got a better deal than the Mistral central government had previously provided). Well, let's face it: no one paid the tax collectors enough for them to risk their lives. They soon retreated, minus their trousers, books of accounts and weapons. The Chief did arrange to get them home in one piece. As for the other threat, well, the Branwen Tribe had a lot of practice at dealing with Grimm.
Three days ago, the Chief had taken one of the village elders with her, Shady, and seven other members of his squad on a Grimm hunt. Well, strictly three of the patrol had belonged to the Redwing Tribe until four years ago, but he had to consciously remind himself of that nowadays. The elder had been suitably impressed (at least when he hadn't been vomiting) and was able to tell the other villagers that the Tribe could protect them from Grimm. It helped that the Chief had been a Vytal festival champion and looked as fit as she had been back then. The fact that Vernal had filmed the Chief and Shady's group in action helped remove any residual doubt about the ability of the Tribe to deal with Grimm.
Today was the first time since the annexation of the village the Chief had not been around, and the villagers had been a little skittish this morning. After all, the Branwen Tribe were bandits. It was one thing for them all to be on good behaviour when the Chief was around and another for the bandits to keep to this when she wasn't there. Besides, perhaps the Chief had been suspiciously reasonable in the tribute she had asked for.
Even worse, the delight the villagers had shown in the tax collectors' humiliation was beginning to worry them. If the Branwen Tribe left them alone and the tax collectors returned with the military, then things could get unpleasant. Understandably, stress levels were up, and the Grimm would be attracted.
As the Village was a Faunus village, the Chief had chosen Shady to be in charge of the settling-in process because he and his second-in-command (and wife) were well suited to reassuring Faunus Civilians. Denise was more naturally amiable than Shady, so she had been left behind in the village with the other half of the squad and the children while Shady had gone on patrol. Denise also knew how to fire the Surface to Air Missiles, which the Tribe had stolen from an army base.
There were two downsides to today's expedition (well, apart from the risk of actually running into an Alpha Grimm). First, he had Vernal in the party. A small nine or was it ten-year-old girl with a bad temper and an unlocked aura was not someone you left to play with civilian children. The Chief usually kept the girl close to her, but not today. Denise's theory was that the girl reminded the Chief of herself at the same age, and Shady could see that.
Shady suspected that the Chief was dealing with the Civilians and had taken the view that bringing Vernal along was not a good idea. Therefore, Shady was landed with her. He liked the girl in small doses, but the trouble was that she would want to fight any Grimm they met. The Chief had got her to film the fights for training and intimidation purposes and convinced the girl that she was being useful without having to fight Grimm herself. Shady did not have the same control over the girl as the Chief had, although she would obey a direct order. He needed eyes in the back of his head to predict when he had to tell her not to do something before she did it. Luckily, his hearing was good, so he could hear her try to sneak off.
Second, for the last hour, he had been having an uncomfortable feeling that the hunting party was being watched or even stalked. This instinct had saved his life a few times in the bad old days when the Green and Tans had been hunting down the bandit tribes so he was not going to dismiss the concern out of hand. It was just that for the last four years, there hadn't been any real threat to the Tribe, which would be likely to be tracking them.
The Mistral military posted to the west of the Kingdom kept themselves to their bases and certainly were not interested in seeking out the Tribe or provoking the Chief. They'd had their butts kicked too often to take the risk.
Hunters and huntresses also avoided the Tribe for similar reasons. OK, the Tribe was moving into Kuroyuri province, but they were only just over the border. Besides, their spies on the main road hadn't reported any military traffic, and no Bullhead had been seen or heard.
Grimm were always a risk, but the Tribe was able to deal with smaller Grimm and normally could avoid larger ones. That left the concern that there might be an Alpha Grimm tracking them. The Chief's view was that the older Grimm got, the better they were at surviving and the trickier they were. She said that provided the Tribe looked like they were ready to fight, the older ones would normally wait for easier prey. While perhaps she was right on that. Shady just wished she was here to curb-stomp them if the Grimm were feeling lucky.
A sound from behind him had made him prick up his ears forty minutes back. He could have sworn that it was a broken twig. He pretended not to notice but headed for a clearing he had noted yesterday as being on the normal Grimm trail. He held up his hand, and his patrol stopped and were absolutely silent. He listened, and while there were no more breaking twigs, he was almost sure that something or someone was keeping very still behind him.
OK, he would ensure that whoever or whatever it was had to come to them and that they were ready for it. Two of the team with the weakest auras took to the trees to snipe at any Grimm that arrived. Vernal was kept firmly by his side, and the rest spread around to give him maximum flexibility.
Was he being paranoid, or was someone and something really there? Finally, he had had enough and signalled the team to raise their aura and ready their weapons. He hoped that this would result in any human deciding to retreat. However, he usually did this to flush Grimm out, and the team assumed that was what he was up to.
If that had been his intention, it worked a bit too well. Grimm charged from the opposite direction to the area he had been concentrating on. There were three Ursa Alphas, some Beowolfs and a pack of Boarbatusks. Frack, this was going to be a hard fight, and he could sense Vernal deciding to charge them. In four years' time, yes, but not now. He shouted at her that the Chief would want her to film the fight and hoped that she would obey him.
From the area he had been worried about, he heard a battle cry – it was some form of wild ululation, and a young woman charged towards them. Was he about to be ambushed by both sides?
To his relief, the woman leapt over his and his team's heads toward the Ursas and also threw metal discs at them.
Frack, it must be a huntress. Still, as she ignored Shady and his team, he was predisposed to leave the Alphas to her while he and his team concentrated on the Boarbatusks and Beowolfs. If any of them were still alive afterwards, they could decide what to do then.
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Emma had been following the group of armed bandits for an hour now. She was almost certain they belonged to the tribe of the woman Headmaster Moriarty wanted her to find and kill. Part of her suspected that he wouldn't mind that much if she failed, provided that her dying thoughts were of someone he approved of. He had tried to hide it, but he had not been pleased when Wendy had chosen Emma to inherit her powers. Strictly, that was more his and her team leader Martina's fault than hers. It wasn't that she'd known that there were any powers to be given away.
The Headmaster had asked Martina to start visiting the old lady in the hospice at Haven for dying hunters and huntresses along with seven other women in the first and second years of high birth and combat skills. Martina couldn't be bothered to and, as Team Leader, had ordered Emma to take her place. It wasn't Emma's fault that the Headmaster had not told Martina the real reason he wanted her to visit the old lady or that the old lady had thought that Emma was the best option.
She had told herself that she had to concentrate on the group of bandits and stop feeling sorry for herself. The bandits were more competent than the headmaster had led her to believe that they were. Certainly, the leader was alert, and his team was spaced out in a manner that suggested that it was from experience. What was it Professor Pink said, make sure that you don't get in each other's way, but be able to lend each other support?
She had been surprised to see that the squad leader was a Faunus. Perhaps the rumours about the Branwen Tribe were true. Professor Aqua had almost frothed at the mouth when talking about their degeneracy. She was distracted by that thought and did not look carefully enough at where she was going. A small branch snapped in the tree she was in. The squad leader must have heard something as he wiggled his ears and signalled the others to take more care. She wondered whether the Faunus attributes actually did have some of the advantages of the animals and birds. Professor Aqua insisted that they didn't, but Amber Arc had asked Professor Pink in class that if Faunus had inferior brains because they were part animal, then why wouldn't they have the upsides of their animal side? The Professor had sidestepped the question but spoke to Amber privately at the end of class. He had mentioned the night vision and the inadvisability of attacking Faunus at night.
She also noted that they had all unlocked auras, even the little girl. She nearly sniggered at the thought of telling Martina about the Branwen Tribe version of Bring Your Child to Work Day. One of the voices in her head sternly told her that between her and the bandits, the Grimm would be attracted to this part of the forest like moths to a candle in a pitch-black dungeon.
She knew she was panicking, but she hadn't expected to be in a position to make contact so quickly. Two days ago, she had been in the market town of Watanabe, fifty miles away as the crow flies and seventy by road.
That had been a weird day. It had started with her turning up at the reception desk in the Town Hall which also housed the tax office, police station, Local Grimm Defence Force and military liaison for the county. The people at the reception desk did not take her seriously when she asked to see Major Ultramarine. One man obviously thought that she was there on a dare and warned her that the major was a very busy man, while the woman said that if Emma had left her scroll number, she would pass it on to the major and that she was certain that the major would give her a call that evening. It took some time for her to clock what the woman was insinuating and she went bright red at that point.
Ultimately, she had to get out the official letter that the Headmaster had given her for use when local officials were obstructive. If she had been a nastier woman than she actually was, she would have enjoyed the looks on their faces when they realised that they had just been condescending to the personal representative of Headmaster Moriarty of Haven.
One of the voices inside her head sniggered and told her that she should have been able to get past the reception desk without using her weapon of last resort. This was meant to be a low-key mission. The Headmaster had said that he didn't trust anyone other than the major to keep their mouths shut, and even then, she should pretend that this was an intelligence-gathering mission only.
She had been speaking with the major, who was the military liaison for the district, when he received an emergency call on his scroll. He had apologised, taken the call, swore and then showed her a video showing eight men walking into town without trousers and their hands tied behind their backs. He instructed the police to find the men some trousers and bring them to the Town Hall ASAP.
He explained to Emma that the men were tax collectors and their escorts. They had been collecting taxes from a Faunus village near the border with bandit country. He agreed with Emma to a story that would explain her presence at the meetings that took place throughout the day without making her unduly important. She was a student from Haven who was travelling around Mistral and would report back to the Headmaster. The headmaster was afraid that Mistral City did not understand the realities of life in the provinces and had asked one of his protegees to test the reality. To her surprise, they all accepted this and thought that it was a great idea.
She didn't think they were holding back much for her benefit and then realised that the fact that she was the headmaster's protege meant they assumed she had the same view of life, Remnant, and the universe as they did. It also helped confirm Wendy's point that the Headmaster was a politician who let everyone he came into contact with think he mostly agreed with them. It also confirmed his contention that the Mistral military was afraid of Raven Branwen and did not want to fight them.
It was an unedifying experience, and she was glad to make her excuses and leave. Raven Branwen, or at least part of her tribe, was in a village that she could travel to.
Her Haven Credit card was good for a mountain bike, a tent, three days rations, and a map, and she had started cycling along the road to the village. She hadn't expected an advantage of maiden powers to be enhanced bike riding skills.
She'd been keeping half an eye on the bandits when the Rabbit Faunus suddenly flared his aura to full and unfurled his weapon. Bother had she made a noise, and was she going to have to fight them? Then, to her horror, three Alpha Ursas appeared, as well as some Beowolfs and Boarbatusks.
Instinctively, Emma wanted to make a tactical withdrawal, but she was now a Maiden and meant to be brave and fearless. Most of the voices inside her head told her, "You take out the Ursas." To overcome her terror, she remembered her favourite program while growing up, "Tina, Bandit Queen". She hadn't even been self-confident enough as a child to be Tina but instead was Deborah (AKA Debbie), the loveable sidekick. Screaming, she leapt over the head of the young girl and the leader of the squad and placed herself between them and the Ursas.
She wasn't certain what happened during the next couple of minutes. She suspected the remnants of Wendy had been responsible for the lightning bolt. She hadn't expected that her quarterstaff would be so effective against Alpha Grimm, but all three were vanishing into dust. The bandits had dealt with the charging Boarbatusks and presumably the Beowolfs.
She turned around, and all the bandits were staring at her. Well, they'd fought alongside her, and if she wanted to kill anyone (and she doubted she was), she wasn't going to start with a father and daughter.
She had to say something to continue her mission of infiltrating the Branwen Tribe. Staring at the ground, she felt herself turning bright red. She tried to speak but failed to do anything more than mumble.
She channelled her favourite childhood TV Programme again and tried again. This time, in a voice which could have been that of an announcer for the Mistralian Broadcasting Service, she said, "You are from the Branwen Tribe, aren't you? I've come to join up. I'm called Deborah. You can call me Debby."
She then shook them all by the hand and tried hard to look them in the eye. The leader looked almost as flummoxed as she was and was lost for words.
She then looked at his ears, "It's true, then. The Branwen Tribe do treat Faunus as equals?"
The man looked a little taken aback by the question but said, "Well. I'm one of the lieutenants and in charge of this crew." It was almost as though he didn't understand the question or, better still, thought it irrelevant.
She soon learnt that Raven Branwen was expected back this evening. Well, the first part of her mission had been a success. She now had to decide whether she wanted to carry out the mission the Headmaster had given her or the one the old Maiden, Wendy, had suggested to her.