Sheesh, I was so scatterbrained last week. I apologise for that.

At least today is a free—

Mobile goes off.

What? My mom's car has failed its MOT so bad it needs to be gotten rid of, and now she wants me to help her go around dealerships and help her buy a new car because she's worried she'll be pressured into one by a salesperson because she's a 76-year-old woman…?

Sigh. Of course I'll help. RIP my free time.

On the bright side, I've booked Mon-Wed off work next week, so even if my weekend is a bust I'll get half a week of relaxation.

Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 53

"The Mountain Glenn operation is being delayed."

It wasn't the news Qrow wanted to hear. "I assume there's a reason for that."

"A visiting group of generals from Atlas are coming for a tour and will be spending a week and a half there to check up on their investment." The person on the other end of the line sounded irritated, so at least Qrow wasn't the only one.

"Isn't that a perfect opportunity for us?"

"While we'd love to be there to listen in on whatever is being said, it's certainly not a good time to be caught infiltrating the facility. Security will be through the roof. This isn't the right time to take a punt on someone as untested as you. We have time." They did not. "Patience is a virtue."

"A week and a half. Will we be back on after that?"

"Yes. Once the officers have gone, the facility will likely enter a period of low security. It always happens that way after a period of heightened security. Teams relax and kick back once it's over, dropping down to a level below standard. That's when you will enter."

That should be fine. Qrow couldn't remember the date the city fell, but he could remember it being in the spring. Right now, they were coming onto Winter, only a month or so into Beacon. There was enough time for this.

"We won't be inactive, either. We'll be focusing our efforts on listening in on conversations with these officers, and a few of our own agents will be meeting with them to discuss matters of international security. As wine flows, they'll bring up Mountain Glenn. It is a joint venture for us, after all."

Qrow was curious as to why they were telling him this, especially since they'd done their best to be cagey before. Were they thinking about recruiting him permanently? He wasn't against helping Vale from the shadows – it was what he'd done before – but he didn't want to split loyalties between them and Ozpin, even if both wanted the same thing.

"You're fine telling me this?"

"Operational Command feels you're a worthwhile asset." Not at all ominous. "And there are concerns you will act on your own if you feel we're not doing enough."

"I'm a loose cannon, then."

"You're not considered as such. It's just that there is a risk you might become one if you feel we're dragging our heels. Ultimately, keeping you abreast of the operation's progress poses minimal risk." There was a hint of amusement in the man. "Besides, you have your own matters to worry about at Beacon."

"Oh? Something I should know?"

"You have a field trip coming up. Best you focus on surviving it."

A field trip…? He didn't remember— Oh. Oh, he did remember. It had just been buried in the back of his mind since it had been mostly uneventful. Looking back, it was when he and Raven had started to grow closer to Summer and Taiyang, but not much other than that had happened. It was little more than a footnote in history.

/-/

Ozpin announced the field trip two days later after combat class, before everyone could head to the changing rooms to shower off. He chose the timing on purpose, knowing the students would be too excited to concentrate if he'd told them beforehand. Doing it now let him dump the news on them and let them gush over it through dinner, saving him having to deal with it.

"The field trip will last three days and will take you deep beyond the Emerald Forest, out to an area known as the Bloodstained Ridge. There, you will be conducting a live survival exercise in which you will all be expected to camp, forage, hunt and survive for the weekend." Hands were raised. Ozpin rolled his eyes. "Yes, you will be given the following Monday and Tuesday off. Heavens forbid we rob you of a weekend."

The hands fell.

"You're allowed to prepare equipment to take but food will be rationed and given to you by Beacon. There will not be enough of it. That's rather the point. You'll all have emergency beacons to signal if you struggle or need rescue, but anyone who does will be put through remedial lessons and then taken out at a later date for a repeat test – that time without receiving any days off schooltime as a reward."

Anyone who failed the second test wouldn't necessarily be expelled, but they would be given a warning. At this point, partway into Beacon, the chances of being expelled were actually very slim – barring any crazy nonsense like someone breaking the law or endangering another student intentionally. Remnant needed all the huntsmen it could get, and with only forty per year as the intake, they couldn't afford to drop an entire team – 10% of the year's population – just because they sucked at wilderness survival.

As cynical as it sounded, Vale would rather have a team of huntsmen who might starve than no team at all. They could always use the team for direct in-and-out missions and make a note on their records not to trust them with anything that required foraging for themselves.

That didn't mean Beacon was wrong to try and teach them it, though. Beacon's whole job was to prepare them as best they could so they'd survive as long as possible. If you were accepted into Beacon, you were pretty much guaranteed to become a huntsman already. What Beacon did was try and make it so you'd serve the kingdom for a long time, and not just become another statistic who died in their first decade on the job.

"You'll be dropped a distance from one another and barriers will be erected to contain your zone," Ozpin continued. "This will prevent cooperation between teams. This is a test of each team's ability to adapt and survive. There may well be Grimm in the area. It's called the Bloodstained Ridge for a reason."

Qrow smirked as everyone else began whispering. Ozpin was being a little misleading there. It was called that for a reason, but the reason was the abundance of copper deposits in the rock giving the place a reddish hue. It wasn't known for being any more or less dangerous than any other part of Vale's wilds, which wasn't to say it was safe, because it wasn't, but it also wasn't the epicentre of murder and bloodshed either.

Amusingly enough, Qrow's primary line of thought as everyone else whispered in excitement was how much more risky field trips were back in the day. Insurance claims and finicky parents in the future had led to schools being unable to get cover for such treks. Signal, especially, had suffered due to having so many children of civilian parents unwilling to let their kids get anywhere near a Grimm despite training to be huntsmen, but Beacon hasn't come out unscathed either.

He'd heard how Ruby and Yang's version of this very field trip was to go out and collect sap from a forest, under the watchful eyes of Glynda. Not even two hours in dangerous terrain, and with a professional huntress within shouting distance. Ridiculous. What could you learn from being sheltered so much? Qrow accepted it in Signal where some kids didn't even have that great aura control, but Beacon's field trips should have been so much more demanding.

Like this one would be.

"Survival in the wilds!" Peter, ironically enough, was perhaps the most excited member of the team. "My family used to do this all the time. My sister and I would camp out at the back of the garden and eat wild plants and mushrooms."

"Without killing yourselves…?" asked Gretchen.

"Ha Ha Ha!" Peter's booming laugh earned them several glares. "My mother taught us which plants and mushrooms are safe. I'm actually quite the forager!"

"Enough of one to feel confident about this?"

"Absolutely." Peter didn't hesitate. "I know a lot of safe plants and roots and, should I not recognise any, we'll simply not eat them. I also know how to skin and cook an animal."

Qrow did as well, but he was a professional huntsman. It was actually quite impressive that Peter knew it at his age, especially when most kids at Beacon had grown up with the convenience of supermarkets and fast food. Ruby and Yang knew the basics of cooking, as in roasting meat over an open fire, but Yang was incredibly squeamish at the idea of gutting an animal, and Ruby burst out crying the one time Taiyang tried to show her how to cut the guts from a rabbit he'd caught. Had people just become softer in the future? Qrow wasn't sure. It felt easy to say it, but not everyone had grown up in a bandit camp.

"I didn't peg you for such a survivalist," Nessa said.

Peter blushed. "Ah, well, my sister and I grew up on fantasy stories and the like, and they always have the heroes camping and living out under the stars. Our parents thought we'd grow out of it if they let us do it a few times. That didn't quite work out as they expected it to."

"This is perfect!" Nessa said. The girl grinned and rocked on her heels. "If Gretchen and I gather plants while Peter sets up the tents, he can tell is which are safe to eat. Qrow, can you do anything?"

"I can hunt."

"Reliably…?"

Qrow smirked. "Yes. I've hunted and trapped wild game before."

"Wow…"

They looked at him oddly, as if wondering how a child would learn and catch wild game. Gretchen knew a little bit of it, enough to know it wasn't as happy a tale as Peter's. He'd have offered to fish as well, if there was any water there. Qrow knew there wouldn't be.

"We might just be the most capable team there," Nessa said.

"Oh, I'm sure the teachers will have something planned to test us if we are," Qrow drawled, with an eye toward Ozpin.

The combat instructor looked far too amused for his liking.

/-/

"Will you guys be okay…?"

It was probably a little arrogant for him to worry about the safety of Team SWRT. It wasn't as if he'd been the sole reason for their survival last time. If anything, he'd been a burden on the team from what little he remembered. It had always been Raven who was the strong one, and him the runt, and yet Team STRQ had come out of it completely fine.

And yet he wouldn't be there this time, and he couldn't help but worry.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raven crossed her arms and shot him a narrow-eyed scowl. "Why wouldn't we be okay…?"

"It just doesn't sound like it's going to be easy," he defended.

"We survived winter alone."

Qrow, wisely, did not say that was mostly because of him. "We had a river nearby for fishing in. This is going to be different. Plus, three quarters of your team isn't from Vale, so who is going to know what plants are safe to eat? You and Taiyang are from Mistral, and Willow from Atlas. And I somehow doubt Summer was raised by her grandparents to dig for tubers and roots in the ground."

Raven uncrossed her arms, her temper fading in the face of his sound reasoning. And, importantly, in the face of him not having questioned her strength in any way. He wasn't worried about them being hurt by Grimm anyway.

"We'll just have to manage," she grunted. "What makes your team any better?"

"Peter is apparently some whizz-kid survivalist who knows how to forage."

"That weak sack of shit is useful for something?"

Qrow frowned. "Don't call him that."

"He is what he is." Raven rolled her eyes. "And do you really think he's as capable as he says? It's probably just another boast."

"Raven…"

"Oh, whatever." She waved her hand, dismissing his warning tone along with the idea she was in any way in the wrong for insulting his team leader. "We'll be fine. Not like there's any real risk to this trip. I have a plan to fix the foraging issue, anyway."

"Oh…?"

"Yeah. Watch." Raven coughed into her hand and then started talking in a raised voice. "I don't know how to forage plants or pick what is safe. I think it'd be really cool if someone knew about that. They'd be amazing if they saved the whole team!"

At the back of their dorm, Willow and Summer looked over with raised eyebrows, but they weren't the target. Taiyang was on the floor between two beds doing push-ups, and he suddenly pushed up and held, eyes wide and fixed on them. He collapsed a moment later, mumbled something and slipped out the dorm.

Qrow slapped a hand to his face. Damn it, Taiyang.

"Raven!" Summer chastised. "Don't be mean to him!"

"How is this mean? He studies, we profit."

"You're leading him on," Willow pointed out.

"Nah. I said it'd be cool if someone knew. It will be cool." Raven kicked back with a lazy grin, completely immune to their disapproving stares. "Cool that I don't have to worry about eating poisonous food. You're welcome for me saving the team's lives."

"You're awful," Summer said.

"Scum," Willow agreed. "He idolises you."

Raven grunted out a, "Not my fault he has shit taste."

"You admit it, then?"

"Sure. I never claimed to be little miss kindness. But hey, maybe this'll save his life one day. He's here to learn to be a huntsman. This is useful shit. If anything, you should be praising me for pushing him to study more."

"I'm sure we would be if that was your intent," Qrow said. "But, since you're leading him on like this, I think it only fair you put your money where your mouth is and reward him for it."

Raven's smile died. "You fuckin' what?"

"I agree!" Willow chimed. "Qrow's idea is an excellent one."

"Oh, piss off! You'd fawn over any idea from my brother's mouth!"

Willow blushed and scowled at the same time. "That has nothing to do with this. Taiyang puts up with far too much abuse from you. Not returning his feelings is fine; abusing those feelings to make him do things you're too lazy to is not."

"Seconded." It was a rare moment of Summer agreeing with Willow. "And, as team leader, I'm the one who makes the rules."

"What…?" Raven pouted. "And my team leader gets to whore me out…?"

"Not that kind of reward!" Summer shrieked, partly scandalised but mostly worried Raven, with her odd way of thinking, might take that seriously. "We mean you have to be nice to him if he does this. Right?" she asked of Qrow and Willow.

"Yes," Willow said.

"Agreed," Qrow added. "They're not saying you have to take him on a date or anything, but you have to thank him. Properly!" he added, when Raven smirked. "And you have to mean it!" The smirk fell. "You have to tell him it's cool that he learned so much in such a short amount of time, and you have to thank him profusely for any food he gives you."

It was such a small thing, hence Willow and Summer's nods.

And hence Raven's immediate question. "Just to check, I don't have to do any of this shit if I die of food poisoning, right?"

"Bad Raven." Qrow reached out and tweaked her nose between finger and thumb. Raven fell back, arms flailing, and dropped off the side of her bed. "No poisoning yourself to get out of saying something nice to your partner. If you do, you have to do a forfeit."

Her head poked up from the bed. "What's the forfeit? Maybe that'll be easier."

"It's a date with Taiyang," Summer said, instantly.

"Bitch, I thought you said you wouldn't whore me out!"

"Bitch—" Summer replied, in much the same tone as Raven had. "The whole point of a forfeit is to be bad enough to make you not default to it. It won't kill you to be nice to Taiyang. It will kill you to eat random food you find to spite him."

"But he's so laaaaaame!"

"He's handsome and strong and quite clever," Willow said. "Even I can see that and I have no interest in him."

"He's lame because he's all over me," Raven grumbled. "Can't you have a man-to-man talk with him and tell him to be cooler?"

"Absolutely not."

Qrow had already meddled with stuff and messed it up, so he wasn't setting one foot between Raven and Taiyang. His advice might lead to them never getting together. The fact that Qrow was the bachelor hardly made it any better, since any advice he gave might as well be ignored in the first place. It was like asking Ruby for advice on how to be a socialite.

"Wow. And you call me heartless."

"I'm not offering him advice because it'd be bad advice. Also, you're my sister. What would I know about attracting you?"

"You know what I like."

"You like when I do my best to decapitate you in spars." Qrow's deadpan response had Summer and Willow giggling. "I'm not telling Taiyang to try and kill you to win your love. That's creepy."

"Tch. I'd prefer it to—"

The door slammed open. Taiyang was there, "Guys—"

"Oh, fuck off!" Raven groaned. "There's no way you learned anything in five minutes."

"Not that!" he hissed. "Turn on the TV!"

"But we don't have one…"

Taiyang yanked Summer's scroll from her hands and activated an app on there, quickly changing to the news. He upped the volume as high as it would go and held it out to the silent room. The deep tones of a male broadcaster sounded through.

"—shock scenes as a seemingly peaceful protest turns violent. Faunus protestors clashed with counter-protestors in the streets of Vale, leaving sixteen hurt, four critically. Vale's Council has spoken out against the violence, saying that aggressive faunus from Menagerie were the source. Witnesses suggest the group, who refer to themselves as the White Fang, instigated the brawl. Twenty-seven faunus have been arrested, including the group's ringleader, Ghira Belladonna."

"What!?" Summer was on her feet. "No! Ghira would never start a riot."

He wouldn't, but others would. Qrow closed his eyes and sighed as the others – bar Willow, who didn't really know them – argued over what happened. Is this the beginning of the White Fang? They shouldn't formally become terrorists for almost ten years, but it'd make sense if the groundwork for the shift began earlier.

Or this could be the catalyst for that shift. It was hard to say. There'd been counter-protestors before, little more than thugs who shouted abuse and the occasional rock. They'd gotten in trouble for tackling them, with Ozpin saying it could reflect poorly on Beacon. He could see why now. Had they been there, they might also have been arrested for helping the faunus.

And Qrow knew from experience that the truth didn't much matter. The truth was what the kingdom decided, and there were a lot of very powerful people who would rather the faunus knuckle down and get to work. Jacques Schnee might not be in charge of the SDC yet, but he wasn't the one to start exploiting faunus. He'd just been the most famous person to do so. The mistreatment had existed before Jacques was born.

"We've got to do something," Taiyang said.

"What?" Qrow asked. "Break them out of prison? Get ourselves in trouble? There isn't much we can do about this."

That took the wind out their sails. He didn't like this either, but it was history. He also wasn't sure this was 100% a case of Valean corruption either. The White Fang had existed and they were going to be a thing in the future. It wasn't outside the realms of possibility that this was instigated by some faunus who wanted to push the peaceful protest group towards violence.

"We could check with Kali," Summer said. "We should at least make sure she's okay and see what they arrested Ghira on. There's no way he'd have started the violence."

"They only said he was arrested. That doesn't mean he's been charged with anything."

He shouldn't be, Qrow assumed, since Ghira and Kali needed to have Blake. But since she only needed to be born at the same age as Yang, it wasn't impossible for Ghira to suffer a spell in prison. A year or two – or as many as four or five – would have him out in time to shack up with Kali.

But he didn't deserve it.

No. It shouldn't happen. The terrorist White Fang took leadership from him, which means he was still their leader at the time. If he was imprisoned, they'd have had to replace him with someone else.

"I'm going," Summer declared. "Who is coming with me?"

"I will," Taiyang said.

"Might as well," Raven accepted, shrugging. "Kali will be pissed and I'm all for cracking heads."

"I suppose I shall come along," Willow said. Given her father was alive and running the SDC in a charitable fashion, it wasn't so crazy a statement. Here and now, the SDC was seen as a wonderful company. The White Fang had no issues with the Schnee family. "If only to meet these people and keep you all out of trouble."

That trouble meant Qrow had no choice.

"Fine. I'll come along. To be clear, we're not starting any fights. That's the last thing they need if they're already in trouble."

/-/

"You want us to waste resources on a random faunus for what reason, exactly…?"

"I'm not asking you to spring him out of jail or anything," Qrow said, rolling his eyes. The operator on the line hadn't been thrilled to hear from him, and even less to hear his request. "I'm only asking you to look into why he was arrested and see if there's any foul play."

"You realise any foul play would likely be on the city's part, yes? And you realise who it is you are asking to expose this, yes?"

Asking a government spy agency to spy on their own government.

"Like I said, I'm not trying to expose anything. It's just that me and my team will be looking into this and I figured you'd like the chance to present the information to us in as biased a way as possible. Besides, don't you think this is in Vale's best interests?"

"How so?"

"The faunus are peaceful protestors right now but I'm sure you know what will happen if they face nothing but violence." Qrow hoped he did anyway, because he couldn't be much blunter than he was being. "You have a lot of faunus disillusioned with the way things are, and they won the last war. Is it really a good idea to antagonise them like this? I can't imagine it'd take much to provoke the White Fang into thinking that if words won't change your minds, actions will."

"Is that a hypothetical or are you saying they're already fermenting dissent against the city?"

"It's deductive reasoning."

"From a teenager."

"Oh, piss off." Qrow snapped. "You have your own brain so use it. They're upset, angry, numerous and capable. And they're being attacked and now imprisoned and dragged through the mud by the media. You tell me what ideas are going to go through their minds."

"…" There was a long silence. "You've made your point."

"Then you'll look into it?"

"Someone will. Don't expect the information you're granted to be everything you want. We work in Vale's best interests. Not yours or those of the Menagerie's citizens. If they do turn violent, they'll become our enemies."

"Then let's not give them any reason to, yeah? I'll try and cool them down when I see them. Talk them down. It'd be a help if city officials didn't make that job harder for me by fabricating shit against them. That way we're helping one another out. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"You have a strange concept of that. You will owe us."

Qrow winced. "Depends on what you achieve. And I'm ruling out actions against my team, my family, and Beacon."

The man on the line snorted. "We've no interest in your sister's criminal past or harming Vale's next outcrop of huntsmen. Instead, we'll call on you to do something for us at a time of our choosing."

"Only if you do a decent job here. We got a deal?"

"That's not for me to decide. I shall get back to you once I have passed on your offer to my superiors. For now, do as you wish, but keep the faunus calm. Our deal won't mean anything if they raise weapons against the city. They'll be put down like animals."

Kicking off the birth of the terrorist group early. Great.

"I'll do my best," Qrow promised.

Been car shopping. I hate it. I know a car is a big deal, so taking time on it is important, but argh, the indecision. Argh, the salespeople. Argh, the deals they try and push. "If you pay extra, we can coat it with this super-special coating that means it'll resist chips." Yeah, like hell that's how it works. And if you pay extra here, you can get cover and warranty.

Was stuck being forced to listen to all of it because my mother has the patience of a saint and hates being rushed, so she wanted to listen to all of it rather than tell the person to shut up. Of course, she didn't go with any of it, so just wasted time. Anyway, she's got an Audi A3 now. Under 40,000 miles, decent enough. It'll do. Problem solved. Car acquired.

Next Chapter: 2nd November

Like my work? Please consider supporting me, even if it's only a little a month or even for a whole year, so I can keep writing so many stories as often as I do. Even a little means a lot and helps me dedicate more time and resources to my work.

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur