Chapter a tiny bit shorter today. Parents coming back off their holiday which means I need to go (or have already gone, as per the time I got this updated) to their place and spring clean it for them. Obviously a ball ache, but given my mom had her heart attack, etc, it's a very small price to pay to go make sure their house is spotless when they return so she doesn't feel the need to ignore all medical advice and start doing housework.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 29

Getting to their designated camping spot hadn't been any trouble for Raven and Summer. They worked well together, and Raven trusted Summer to have her back even though she'd at first thought her a little bitch. Went to show you could be wrong, which was a thing she'd known ever since Balmung thought himself hot shit and got killed by Qrow.

It was a shame the stupid rules at Signal stopped her and her brother camping out together, but she knew it wasn't against them. They just had a "same rules must apply to everyone" mentality and wanted to avoid any nasty accidents with hormonal teenagers out in the woods together. This actually marked the first time she'd been out in the wilderness alone without him, and it was an odd feeling to say the least. Not bad, and she wasn't afraid, but it felt wrong – like she'd forgotten something back home.

"And food is up!" Summer said, taking the meals off the fire and sharing them out. "Nothing special but you don't want to test yourself on my actual cooking. It can kill you. Can you or Qrow cook?"

"Hardly. We can burn meat and follow basic instructions on a packet but that's it." And it was one of the few things Qrow didn't seem to automatically know, which was a relief. "When we were young, we just sort of burned everything on purpose. Less chance of catching something that way, especially with meat or fish."

"You know, I wanted to ask about that. How did you both survive on your own like that…?"

Raven hesitated to answer. Qrow had always been clear they shouldn't tell anyone about their past, at least not the illegal details, but if there was anyone she thought she could tell then it had to be Summer. Out here, with no one to listen in, Raven felt her lips loosen. "You can't tell Qrow I told you. Okay? Promise me."

"I promise."

"Me and Qrow grew up in a bad place." It had taken her years to admit that. "It was a group of bandits. Called ourselves a tribe. We'd roam Mistral and attack settlements, taking valuables and sometimes people to ransom or sell off."

Summer looked horrified.

"That was the tribe that did that," Raven stressed. "Not us. We were kids."

"R—Right. You were just born into it."

"Yeah." Raven watched as Summer regained her composure. "Anyway, mom and dad died on a raid, and we were suddenly orphans. The way the tribe worked was that those strong enough to contribute were given more status. Qrow called it a merit-based society—"

"A meritocracy?"

"Yeah, that. The strong were given better tents, more supplies, a fairer share of loot. Those that hadn't proven themselves were given opportunities to do so. The same went for the children, especially orphans. They were – we were – drains on resources that weren't guaranteed to pay back. The law of the tribe was that kids without parents were shunted to the outskirts of the camp and told to survive by any means."

"What the fuck…"

"Yeah, it was bad. Idea was that the strong ones would find a way to win their way back in or get stronger taking off the weak kids that would just starve. Problem was our parents went and died right as winter was setting in, so we were turfed out into snow and sub-zero temperatures."

"How did you survive…?"

"Qrow, mostly. Still not sure why or how but he dragged me to a tree and hollowed it out and he fished and he sewed and he just sort of filled in the hole mom and dad left." Raven frowned and angrily stabbed her plastic fork into her food. "Probably be dead without him. Just another frozen child corpse in the snow. Plenty of those around at the time."

Summer looked horrified. "Please tell me you're exaggerating."

"I wish. Tribe saw it as a win-win. Kids without parents either get dealt with by the weather or become strong enough to become valuable members of the tribe. I don't think it was always that way but our leader at the time was a monster." Summer looked interested, so Raven continued. "Big man called Balmung. Ruled through fear. He liked to sample the women captured from settlements, often in front of the other captives."

"That's disgusting! Is he still around today!?"

Raven smirked. "No. He isn't."

"What happened to him!?"

Raven opened her mouth, the words "my brother happened" on her lips, but then she closed them. While she was proud of him for killing that fuck and his second-in-command, she understood the softer people wouldn't be. And it'd hurt her overly sensitive brother so much if Summer avoided or was afraid of him.

"He got killed when someone took over," she said, instead. "Challenged and killed him and took his place. It threw the tribe into chaos and that was our chance to slip away. We ran into Mistral and found a team of huntsmen who took us to the orphanage. You know the rest from there. Lived there a while, fought in a tournament, and got invited to Signal by Ozpin." Raven smirked. "Then I met this lame-ass bitch named after a season."

"Bitch," Summer fired back, punching her arm with a wild grin. "I say the season is named after me."

"Arrogant, too."

"Coming from you of all people?"

"Hey, I'm being humble when I say I'm the baddest and toughest bitch in Signal."

They shared a laugh. It felt easy, but then talking to Summer always was. It wasn't like Qrow, who she sometimes felt was listening to her with an odd tilt to his head, like he found something about her interesting or funny. There were times she tried to talk to him and felt like she was talking to one of the matrons – that they were listening but treating her like she was a child.

Summer wasn't like that. Summer and she just sort of… fit. No insults ever felt like insults, and they could – and did – say the worst shit to one another with smiles on their faces. It felt like the one way they could ever really hate one another would be to give no insults at all, and to just walk away and never talk again.

And the thought of that made Raven feel sick in her stomach.

"Qrow is a weird one," said Summer. "Isn't he? Being able to survive all that with you…"

"Tell me about it. I always figured maybe dad took him aside and taught him some bits while I was training with the other kids. I mean, it has to be something like that, doesn't it? What other explanation is there?"

"He's really strong."

"Yeah."

"And neither of you had any formal training before Signal. Less than most of the students you're both better than now."

Raven wanted to say she was strong too so Summer's point didn't stand, but she knew a large portion of why she'd improved so much was because she got to test herself against Qrow every day. Her strength was a product of her own willpower and training, but she wouldn't have been at the level she was now if Qrow had been too weak and needed training up himself. It would have slowed her down. The same as how training her up had probably slowed him down.

That thought pissed her the fuck off.

"He must be one of those once-in-a-lifetime prodigies…"

"You've been watching those dumb cartoons too much," Raven grumbled.

"Bitch, you like those cartoons! You watch them with me!"

"I like the martial arts one where they have to keep training to get stronger."

That shit was great, especially because it taught such valuable lessons to kids. Less of the `friendship and hugs` from other shows and more of the `get strong and beat people's faces in if they piss you off` lessons. Now those were morals to teach kids – that there were no problems you couldn't solve with enough violence.

"But Qrow is a genius," Summer continued. "I mean, people older than us have been paying for his weapons."

"And we got ours for free."

Summer touched her axe. "Yeah…"

The fire crackled on silently.

"Hey," Summer eventually said. "Can I… Um. Can I tell you a secret and have you keep it?"

"Sure."

"I… um… I… well…" Summer poked her food around the little metallic tray for the longest time. "I think I like your brother…"

"Hm. I like him too.

"No. I mean… I mean I think I have feelings for him."

"Yeah. So do I."

"Raven!" Summer groaned. "I mean I think I'm—"

"Geez, enough already." Raven was smirking. "I knew what you meant the first time, idiot. I'm just messing with you."

"Bitch!"

"Yeah I am." Raven chuckled. "And it was kinda obvious to be honest. You'd have to be an idiot to not notice the way you look at him sometimes." Raven closed her eyes, smirking. "You can't beat me in a fight, but I think I can make an exception and approve you even without proving yourself."

"Thanks. Um. Do you think Qrow… Do you think he knows…?"

Raven considered that. "I mean, he'd have to be pretty dumb to have not figured it out."

"What do you think boys talk about when they're camping anyway?"

"Same as us, probably. I bet they're gossiping even worse about us," she said, snorting. "Or talking about all the girls at Signal."

"Do you think Qrow is talking about me…?"

"Maybe."

Summer blushed.

/-/

"Crap food," said Rosebud.

"Yeah," Qrow replied.

"I snuck chocolate bars into our travel bags when the teachers weren't looking."

"You're a damn hero, Rosebud. Got any booze?"

"Sorry, man. Raven would have my balls if I gave you any."

"True." Qrow sighed. "So, you want first or second watch?"

"I'll take first."

"Cool. G'night then."

"Night man."

/-/

It didn't make sense to Qrow that people actually managed to fail the camping trips and leave Signal, but some had. Yet again he had to remind himself that there were a lot of kids who thought they wanted to become huntsmen but knew nothing about it – who were encouraged by parents who wanted to be supportive without making sure their children had the right mentality for this line of work.

It only got worse come the Grimm trials.

One-on-one fights, at least for the less capable anyway, and the Grimm were carefully selected by the teachers, with the bigger and aggressive ones isolated for the most able students to deal with. Most were tasked to kill a single Beowolf, average-sized, with teachers on standby to intervene if necessary.

It was a tense moment for students and teachers alike and he got to experience both sides. As a teacher, he knew the panic gnawing away at you as you tried not to let your guard down when a good student came up. Everyone made mistakes after all, and you didn't want to be the one to let a child die on your watch because you got complacent.

Qrow got to face off against an Ursa – no accident there. He smelled Ozpin's interference. Still, what would have been a terrifying foe for the average teenager was just one of many to a huntsman. He was able to capitalise on its aggression and slowness – compared to a Beowolf, anyway – to get in under its armpit and drive the training sword into its ribcage from the side, right through where its heart should have been.

No one knew for sure after all, given the fact Grimm didn't stick around to be autopsied, but the way the thing jerked and fell over made it kind of obvious they had something there. Be it a heart, some other organ, or even some metaphysical well of energy. Whatever it was, what worked on a human typically worked on a Grimm. You just needed more force.

"Pass," said the instructor, sounding relieved. "Good work, Branwen."

"Did my sister pass?"

"You think she wouldn't be here cussing up a storm if she failed? Don't ask stupid questions."

Snorting, Qrow moved on and into the next room. Many students looked haggard and exhausted, with some throwing up and others almost crying. Many, but not all. Around half of those that remained were utterly chill, chatting with one another or idling around on their scrolls, completely unaffected by what they'd been through. Those were the children of huntsmen families.

Grimm were nothing new to them and nothing to get worked up over.

More admirable were the ones not raised by huntsmen who had mastered their fears. The ones without the advantages who had crawled their way this far on merit alone. Qrow felt they'd go far, and that it took a lot more to excel despite the odds than because of them.

"Yo. Over here."

Rosebud used his height to signal where the others were and Qrow headed over, exchanging a high-five with the boy before facing Raven and Summer. All of them were unharmed, though Raven's uniform was soaked through and clinging to her.

"Spray?" he asked.

"I'm not that dumb," she countered, clicking her tongue. "This was from the bastard falling in a puddle and splashing me." Raven sniffed at it. "You think it's the blood of students that got torn apart?"

Summer smacked the back of her head. "Don't be stupid. The whole tests would be postponed if someone had died, and they definitely wouldn't make us fight in the same place someone just got killed in."

"Was raining last night," added Rosebud, killing Raven's mood.

"We'd have heard a commotion if anyone had died," Qrow added. It was more likely people had failed and been saved by the teachers than they'd died, which was a failure on both accounts but at least they'd live. "I'd say… what… a quarter missing? That sound about right?"

"Looks it," said Rosebud. His impressive height gave him a much easier angle to count heads. "I see a few of the lowest ranked aren't around – though one or two look to have made it. Good on them. Must have taken the combat instructor's remedial courses. Man, I feel like we've lost half our entire year in the last month."

Quite possibly. The weening was in full swing, and the teachers weren't messing around now. If you weren't ready after years of training, you weren't going to ever be ready. Harsh, but for the best of those who would absolutely die in the field without this. There was even a chance some people who had been rejected by the academies would improve enough to scrape grades and apply again, though it was a rough road for them.

"Sarna didn't make it," said Raven, and she sounded furious.

Qrow couldn't even remember the name but figured it was one of her posse – an outside member of Raven's little schoolyard gang. Rosebud was really the only one to have ever clicked in Qrow's mind, and mostly because he never treated Qrow like he was an anomaly. The big guy just acted like he was any other kid, and never took Qrow's anti-social tendencies to heart. The others? Well, they just became attachments of Raven in his head. Hangers-on who didn't really deserve remembering any more than future Raven's tribespeople did.

"Maybe she had bad luck—"

"Don't try it, Summer. You know luck has piss all to do with this." Raven glanced his way but only to silently acknowledge the secret of his Semblance. This Sarna had no such excuse. "I told her she needed to spend more time training and less time going out with her boyfriend." Raven tutted. "This is what she gets."

"A little harsh," Qrow said.

"I'm not saying she can't date, moron. I'm saying she could have held off until she was in Beacon first and then gone back on dates."

"Ah. Less harsh."

Raven nodded. "Exactly. Priorities. These are our last months here – this is what counts. No one can afford to muck this up and waste the last years of their lives."

"Well, well, well," boomed a loud voice. "Do my ears deceive me or is that Raven Branwen giving an inspirational speech about the virtues of being studious." One of their teachers sauntered in. "Wonders never cease."

"Fuck you!" Raven shouted.

"That's `fuck you, sir`." The teacher didn't lose his stride. "And hypocritical as her words are—"

"Oi!"

"—they're still good. This is it, ladies and gents. Those of you that remain are the best of this year's crop, the ones we feel we could graduate without living the rest of our lives wondering if we sent you to your deaths. You can and should feel proud of that, but you should not let it get to your heads. What remains now is the final exams. These are theoretical and physical. No secrets, no bullshit, no obfuscating. You'll be told what each exam is ahead of time because we want to see you at your best, preparedness and all. I am proud of you all for making it this far but please don't let me down now. Each of you has the potential to become a huntsman, but each of you has the potential to trip and fail now as well – even the best of you."

He glared at Qrow as he said that, and Qrow knew it was nothing personal. It was the typical feeling of having watched that smart kid in class somehow screw it all up at the end, and to see all that wasted potential.

Luckily for his teachers here, he intended to ace this.

Beacon awaited.

So damn close, too. Just one more set of exams and they would have their grades – then it was the holidays between the years, and finally they'd be off to Beacon. Team STRQ reunited at last. And he'd managed to do it without screwing with the timeline, too.

I'd best get my head in the game before that, he thought. It'll be embarrassing to assume I know every answer and fail because my knowledge is almost thirty years out of date.

"Hey Qrow," said Summer. "Would you mind helping me revise?"

"Sure. Anyone else want to join?"

"No—"

"Yeah, I'm in," said Rosebud.

Raven slapped a hand into her face. "You're training with me, Bud."

"I am?"

Raven glared.

"I mean, yeah. I totally am. Gulp."

Qrow watched the man sweat. "What's that all about?" he asked Summer.

"Aheh. I have no idea."

Next Chapter: 11th May

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