I have redone the intro to make it seem less boring. I would be grateful for feedback, especially as I don't expect it to be a popular story. I am trying to ration out the infodumps so they feel more organic, but your mileage may vary.

In defence of the cultural references, Remnant would be bound to have adventure serials and movies about hunters and huntresses and students studying to be them. Also, the Vytal Festival is clearly Remnant's equivalent of the Olympics World Cup final and Super Bowl rolled into one.

/-/

Shady supposed that not knowing what to do next was better than being dead. While he and his squad had dealt with the Boarbatusks efficiently, he had at most hoped for the mystery woman to distract the Ursas for long enough to allow at least some of his squad to escape. Instead, when he turned around, he saw that the Alphas were crumbling to dust, and the woman was unharmed. Frack, she was hardly more than a girl and yet she had just taken out three Alpha Ursa. He and the rest of the squad stared in disbelief. The woman wasn't dressed like a fighter. She seemed more like a schoolteacher or even a travelling musician—an attractive one to boot. Also, young – she could hardly be more than eighteen, maybe nineteen.

The woman seemed embarrassed by his and his squad's attention and was tapping her fingers on her quarterstaff nervously, staring at the ground, and had turned beetroot red.

She made one failed attempt to speak and finally squeaked in an accent he thought only existed in old films: "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 offered him her right hand. He worked out that he was meant to shake it and did so, saying, "It's good to meet you, Deborah. I'm Shady." The woman was looking past his right shoulder, and he was tempted to look behind him to see what she was looking at. She then shook everyone's hand, including Vernal's, as he introduced them. Ah, she was just shy then and couldn't quite make eye contact. Maybe not a huntress- all the ones he'd ever met had been downright arrogant even when they hadn't been trying to kill him or worse.

The squad was waiting for him to say something, but he didn't want to ask any questions in case he got answers that required him to do something he'd regret.

The woman broke the silence, nervously giggled, and said, "It's true, then. The Branwen Tribe do treat Faunus as equals." She nearly put her hand to her mouth in horror.

"Well. I'm one of the lieutenants and in charge of this crew." Saying a sort of yes seemed the best move. In the past, when he had explained that he was a Branwen and not a Faunus, Civilians had not understood him.

That seemed to satisfy her. "Look, I know it will be down to Raven Branwen if I can join or not, but I do have things to tell her even if she doesn't want me."

She paused, "If you let her know a young Maiden has come in peace."

He suspected that this had a hidden meaning other than what Vernal's giggles suggested. He glared at Ronald; the other squad member likely to lower the tone. Ronald got the message. After all, he knew as well as anyone that if the girl hadn't dealt with the Ursas, they would not all be returning to the camp this afternoon.

"Would you like to come back with us? The Chief is expected to be back this evening."

The girl asked them to accompany her as she collected her bike, rucksack, and map. She then handed around a packet of sweets she had in the rucksack, saying, "Fighting Grimm is good for the appetite." Well, no one was going to disagree with her on that.

As they marched back to the village, he picked up Vernal in one arm and asked her to play back the recording of the fight on her scroll. She'd understandably concentrated on the girl and the Ursas, and the footage was sort of impressive. The girl had risked her life taking on three at once, and she was lucky she had a semblance which had allowed her to hit with a lightning bolt the one which nearly got through to her. Both he and Vernal exchanged glances. They'd need to speak to the Chief and show her the tape. He could undoubtedly imagine her telling the girl her standard mantra that trying to be a hero or heroine was a good way of getting yourself killed at a young age, and dead heroes were no use to anyone but the worms.

He, therefore, wasn't ready when Debbie asked him, "Is Vernal your daughter?"

He hoped that Vernal, like him, had been staring at the girl. He was pretty certain that she would regard the idea with the same horror as he did, but there was no need for either of them to know that for sure.

Fortunately, the rest of the squad found the idea hilarious. It broke the ice as the squad burst into laughter and teased him with cries of "Does Denise Know?" and "We've always wondered." Ronald asked Vernal if she had a tail, and there was a lively three minutes as she chased after him, threatening acts of fearful revenge. Vernal hated being teased and, according to Denise, reacted badly to even indirectly being reminded that her whole family was dead, and she had been able to do nothing to save them. Raven, while far from maternal, had decided that the best thing was for Vernal to be made to feel useful.

Well, on the good side, everyone was enjoying themselves. Eventually, even Vernal saw the funny side, especially after Ronald tripped over a tree root and faceplanted (perhaps on purpose). No negative feelings attracting Grimm here. Ronald told Vernal that he hadn't meant anything bad by it and that he was sorry for being a jerk. Vernal accepted the apology and agreed that he was a jerk. She then said that Shady was OK when you got to know him, but she couldn't be doing with brothers and sisters. He could live with that comment – the thought of Vernal as an older sister to his children was a gruesome one.

Well, the squad had needed that release. It allowed him to rehearse what he was going to tell the Chief. The Chief had banned hunters and huntresses from the Branwen Tribe lands on pain of death, but the girl hadn't said she was a huntress, and he wasn't going to ask her. Anyway, she was too young to be a qualified huntress. Perhaps a student, but the Chief hadn't set down any rules about student hunters and huntresses. Mainly, he suspected because she didn't believe that they would be so stupid as to get within twenty miles of her.

Besides, anyone who could take out those Alphas without breaking a sweat was either worth having in the tribe or should be left to the Chief to deal with. After all, he wasn't certain that he and the squad could take her.

Anyway, he was still alive, and when he had seen the three Alphas, he hadn't expected to be. Denise had a husband and his children a father because of the girl. What could he do to help persuade the Chief to let her live?

He needed to speak to Denise. Fortunately, she was the first person they met as they entered the village (or was it a town? It was undoubtedly the biggest place they had ever taken over). She was carrying their youngest in one hand and her rocket launcher over her back. The two older children were following behind.

The girl said, "Oh, how adorable." Well, he wasn't going to argue with that. She then said something which made his blood run cold.

Well, he would have to tell Raven that she'd said that. The one thing he knew was that the Mistral authorities did not talk publicly about any defeats that the Branwen Tribe inflicted on them. The correction was also unconvincing. Still, they hadn't even had to threaten her to get the intelligence out of her. If this was the general quality of huntresses, how the frack had they come so close to wiping out the tribe seven years ago?

In as normal a voice as he could manage, he said, "Ronald, take Debbie with you and the rest of the Squad and get some dinner at the inn. I'll join you after I've briefed Denise. Vernal, have some dinner here and then go to the Chief's tent and wait for her to get back. If she needs to talk to me, just ping me on my scroll."

The squad, including Vernal, answered with gestures indicating what they thought the briefing would involve as they took Debbie to the local inn. Vernal would be happy to have some time with the Chief.

Denise kissed him, the youngest said, "Daddy," and gave one of those smiles that persuaded you that they were worth the effort and sleepless nights, and the older children grabbed his legs.

Denise said, "Who the frack is that Shady?"

"I don't know, but she saved our lives today. I hope I can save hers in return."

Over the next ten minutes, he and Denise discussed what they could do to increase the young girl's chances of having a future.

/-/

Emma (AKA Deborah or Debbie) had mostly enjoyed the walk to the market town. Shady was clearly in charge, which she had seen while she had been stalking them. However, his squad was at ease with him. There was a sense of camaraderie, which she had rarely felt with her team at Haven. She supposed Amber Arc's team had been like that, but it was easy to be happy when you were doing better than anyone expected.

Ever since they had arrived at Haven, Martina had demanded adoration and total obedience. Nothing was ever Martina's fault, and increasingly, since Emma's parents had divorced, it was Emma's fault. One of the voices inside her head said, "Crap, not this indulgent self-pitying nonsense again."

There had been at least fifty previous Maidens, and they all wanted to lecture her. Wendy had said that if you ignored them, they eventually stopped unless you wanted some advice, but if anything, they had got worse and more distracting since she had arrived in Kuroyuri Province. Wendy had said that this was probably because new Maidens didn't normally take on anything so challenging as their first mission.

She wanted to scream at them, "I didn't ask to be a maiden. I didn't know that they were any more than a fairy tale until a week or so ago", but she had an idea of how badly that would go down. She was also worried that she would say so aloud.

Because she had been looking for a distraction from the voices, she spoke before thinking when she saw Shady carrying the small, serious girl while watching what she was showing him on her scroll. It had been so like how she thought loving fathers were with their daughters that she couldn't help asking if he was her father. She was embarrassed by the reaction to her question about Vernal. The squad had thought it the funniest thing ever, while Shady and the girl had both looked horrified before hiding their emotions.

The joking, and especially Vernal and Ronald's feud, allowed her time to consider the choice she had to make later today. A choice she was only required to make because her Team Leader, Martina, told her to start visiting the old lady in the hospice at Haven rather than Martina. She dwelt on this further until all the voices in her head shouted at her to stop being such a self-pitying drip and pay attention.

Emma looked up and saw that they'd reached a village. In front of her was a six-foot-tall blonde human woman carrying a missile launcher on her back and the cutest long-eared Rabbit Faunus toddler imaginable in her right arm. Behind her were two young children, one a human boy and the other a Faunus girl with the most perfect ears.

In retrospect, Emma was mortified by both of her reactions. Her first one was to say, "Oh, how adorable." Well, they were, and his family was glad to see Shady. Shady responded in kind. She couldn't remember her father being that affectionate with her. Let's not go there right now, she told herself before the voices could get started again.

Her logical brain took over, and she thought, "Oh, they thought back at Watanabe that you had the SAMs. They don't want to send any bullheads here because of that." One of the voices told her she was a stupid girl. She realised that she had said it aloud and blurted out, "Well, that was what the gossip in the hotel was." The others accepted that, and she relaxed.

Shady sent her off to dinner with his squad while he talked to his wife. The squad joked that it was probably time for another child.

Dinner was appetising. Not gourmet, of course, but killing Grimm meant she had an appetite, and she enjoyed the stew. The innkeeper smiled at everyone and served them quickly. He may be a good actor, but he did not look that scared. Vernal had finished first and had left to go to camp. No one had felt it necessary to accompany her.

Ronald had explained, "It's only half a mile, and she would be upset if we thought she needed looking after. She also needs some sleep."

Shortly after, Shady and his wife (and children) walked in. Seeing Shady with a child in his arms and her hands around his neck, it was clear he was this one's father. It also explained why the rest of the squad had found it so funny to imagine him being Vernal's dad. Shady ordered his dinner and told the squad to go on patrol in the village and to be pleasant to the locals. They could also tell them that they had killed some Grimm today, provided that they didn't make it sound like a big deal.

Denise handed the rocket launcher to Shady and told Emma (AKA Deborah or Debbie) that. "I'm going to take you back to the camp to wait for the Chief. Because of the unlocked auras, we don't stay in the village any more than we have to. Attracts too many Grimm." The reason for keeping to the camp made sense to Emma.

The woman picked up the youngest and held the next youngest's hand. The eldest (who perhaps was five) had the most gorgeous ears. She offered her hand (or was it paw) to Emma, said her name was Margaret and shook hands. "Daddy told me that means good to see you where you come from."

With her other hand holding her push bike, she kept hold of Margaret's hand and walked with the tall woman.

Twelve minutes later, they were at the camp and had sat down just outside it. Well, Margaret could only be expected to go so fast. In the middle, there was a large, but not enormous, tent which Emma assumed was Raven Branwen's. Emma was shocked by how small the camp seemed to be. If this was the whole tribe, then why was the Mistral military so scared of confronting them?

She asked Denise this, who looked carefully at her and said, "This isn't the whole Tribe. We have other camps dotted around the Branwen Protectorate. After all, if we are going to charge the villagers a tribute for defending them from Grimm, we need to be around to do so."

Well, that made sense. They may also be reasonably competent. Shady and his men had dealt with the Boarbatusks and the Beowolfs while she had dealt with the Ursas. That may also make the conversation with Raven Branwen different than she and some of the voices in her head had imagined it.

The oldest Faunus child was so cute. Emma remembered what Amber Arc had told her about etiquette and said, "Do you mind if I cuddle her? She is so adorable."

Denise looked at her and shrugged. "Provided she's happy, I'm happy." Margaret was happy to be made a fuss of. She had the look of an oldest child who was used to her two younger siblings taking attention from her because they needed it more. She understood why and didn't take it out on the younger ones, but she was still upset by it. Having an adult around who was quite happy to listen to her talk and play games with her was an opportunity to be seized.

She supposed that she should be interrogating Denise but didn't really know how to. She'd also put her foot in when she moved beyond talking about how old the children were and what their names were. She had asked, "You're Human, aren't you? Forgive me if I'm being…"

Denise said, "Yes, and so what. Don't ask questions about that sort of thing. It's a sore point. The last chief allowed some "researchers" from Atlas here twenty years ago." She paused, "They reported that humans and Faunus breeding would result in humans being replaced with half-breeds, and the MBAD went after us first because of that,"

The woman looked at her children and said, "My mother and my mother-in-law both say that they are their grandchildren, and it doesn't matter whether or not they have ears." She tickled the youngest's ears and said, "I think they're right."

The headmaster had ranted about miscegenation, bestiality, and the Faunus replacement theory, but she was looking at a human mother with two obviously Faunus children and one human child. She clearly loved all of them, and Emma could not say that the child without ears was better than the others.

"I'm sorry, it's just that things are different in the part of Mistral I come from."

"Fine. Look, I'm sure you are a lovely woman, but the Tribe doesn't have good experiences with people who talk like you do."

"Just let me know when I say something stupid."

The woman looked at her and nodded, "OK. Just engage your brain before speaking."

"You were carrying them around while you were on patrol. Is that normal?"

The woman smiled, "No. I was glad of an excuse to have them with me. I normally leave them with one of their grandmothers."

"And today?"

"We have only just offered the villagers our protection, and they have just debagged the Mistral tax collectors. They are worried about whether we are going to leave them in the lurch or behave as we would have done five years ago."

"And so? Oh, I get it. They can feel that you are not that different to them. And, er…" She was scared of saying the wrong thing again.

"Yes, almost all the villagers are Faunus, and the rest are very poor humans. Seeing me with my Faunus children walking around the village calms them all down. The fact that I'm second in command after Shady when the Chief isn't here and that we are a loving couple gives them hope that they will get out of this alive and even with most of their goods."

Emma nodded and played pat-a-cake and then "I spy" with Margaret while chatting with Denise. The woman suggested that she delay any questions about the tribe as a whole until she met the Chief.

She was cuddling the child when Denise had a ping on her scroll, looked at it, and then said, matter-of-factly, "The Chief will be along shortly. By the way, if you think you can beat the Chief or spy on us, you are kidding yourself."

"Oh!? Why do you think I would want to do that."

"Shady isn't a fool, and neither am I. You turn up on a pedal bike looking like a civilian and then take out three Ursas in less than two minutes. You talk posh and ask to join the tribe. You must have spoken to the military at Watanabe to know about the missiles. Spy or volunteer – which would you think is the most likely option if you were in our shoes?"

Put like that, who could blame them? She must have looked miserable as the woman continued.

"Ok, you may be top of the form at Haven, but Raven Branwen is the best there is, the best there was, and the best there will ever be. You saved Shady's life today, and I owe you the chance to get out of here alive. Besides, if you are a spy, then you are really bad at it. Everyone knows that the Mistral military would not admit that we managed to break into one of their armouries and loot it."

Emma nodded miserably. "Do you mind if I stroke Margaret's ears?"

Well, she wanted to, and if she was going to fight for her life or even die soon, she might as well enjoy herself.

Denise laughed, "Ask her; if she agrees, tickle, don't pull."

Margaret agreed that Emma could touch her ears, provided she was gentle. She was dozing and not really listening to the grown-ups talk.

There was a pause as Emma started to gently tickle Margaret's ears, who seemed happy about it. Certainly, the noises she made were happy ones.

Denise said, "The Chief is a hard woman, but all of us owe our lives to her. She doesn't promise many things, but that is because she is a woman of her word."

"Do you think I should leave?"

"Too late for that. Just tell her the whole truth when she arrives, and Shady and I will do our best to persuade her to let you go or ransom you."

"I understand why you are suspicious. You are right to be. Raven shouldn't trust me, and I will not complain if she flares her aura to the max when she meets me. I will switch mine off. However, I do want to join the Tribe."

For once, the voices in her head concurred in saying that was the right call. One of the voices in her head said, "Play along – it increases the chance you may catch the bitch off guard." A vocal minority who agreed with the voice said that Raven knows she can take out anyone but a Vytal Festival finalist without breaking a sweat, but the powers of a Maiden would (almost) certainly overwhelm her. The almost wasn't comforting. Some of the voices made it very clear that they thought Wendy had made a mistake choosing Emma.

The majority did not believe in Maidens killing any humans and thought it was sensible to do anything that reduced the risks of a fight. Even some of those who had been wavering about whether killing Raven was justified were sufficiently impressed by what they had seen so far as to suspend judgment.

The woman smiled. ". Look, the Tribe has good reasons for not liking hunters and huntresses. I'm not going to tell you why, at least not in front of the children. Enough to say so-called civilised people are every bit as cruel as any of the bandit tribes were before the Chief came back."

Emma nodded but repeated, "I do want to join. I think I can help deal with the Grimm."

Denise said, "If you really want to join us, then what I said before goes. Don't lie to her – don't even bother with half-truths. Also, don't have illusions about what our life is like. We move camp every few days, and we all, including the Chief, have our turn digging the latrines. We are also bandits who live off the labours of others and deal with resistance in an uncompromising manner. We offer a better bargain and are more honest than the Mistral government, but you may not feel the same way."

After dealing with the headmaster and her meetings in Watanabe, she was prepared to give the Tribe the benefit of the doubt. As she stroked Margaret's ears and told her how beautiful she was, she recalled the meetings in Watanabe with the Major.

Ten minutes later, she saw the woman, who must be Raven Branwen, approaching. If she hadn't been nervous beforehand, she would have been now. Her mind went back around ten years ago when she had been in one of the sponsor's boxes with her family at the Vytal Festival.

She had watched the woman walk out into the arena in Mistral with eighty thousand fans booing her, wearing that mask and strutting, conveying absolute contempt for her detractors. Well, they had also been expecting her teammate, who everyone liked.

/-/

Raven exercised her semblance to open a portal back to the temporary camp near the latest large village under the Tribe's protection.

She used Vernal as the anchor for the portal. This was part of testing the limits of her semblance, as although the girl belonged to the Tribe, she had no genetic connection to it.

They had come across her two years back. She was the only survivor from a small village that had been overrun by Grimm and must have unlocked her aura when the Grimm attacked. She was almost Tribe Trained now but needed an eye keeping on her.

Raven created a small portal, checked where she would be arriving, and saw that Vernal was asleep in Raven's tent, waiting for her to return. Denise had sent her there after the patrol as suggested. Good woman—she and Shady were one of the few married couples who brought out the best in each other. Also good to see that her connection with Vernal was that strong.

It was good practice to make the smallest portal she could get through and arrive without anyone noticing. She could make the portal pinhole-sized if need be if she simply wanted to spy on people. She did that with Taiyang and Yang (at least when Summer wasn't home). She owed it to Summer to let the family think that it had been an easy decision to leave them. Besides, they were better off without her.

Today, once she saw that Vernal had her eyes closed, she expanded the portal, so it was just big enough for her to get through in bird form. She did so and transformed back. Young Vernal woke up when Raven started getting changed from her city outfit to her normal clothes. Vernal stood up and saluted.

An unexpected advantage of Ozpin's gift was that it allowed her to spy on those who most resented her return and assumption of the Chiefdom. It had been a lucky break when this had allowed her to recite word for word a half-hearted conspiracy against her and behead the instigator. The one who had been suborned made a full confession. He claimed that he hadn't been tempted, and she deigned to believe him, saying that the raven who had told her had said the same. He was given a final warning and told to report any future such approaches to her before the birds did.

Considering she could create portals which allowed the Tribe to ambush their opponents and then make a quick getaway, the Tribe had half-believed that she could speak to ravens or at least were not going to dismiss it out of hand. It was good news for corvids (few in the tribe could keep the difference between ravens and crows in mind, and she preferred not to encourage them to try). This meant they all thought that any large black bird lurking around might be one of Raven's friends, so no one chucked a stone at them or discussed treason.

Vernal said, "Shady will be glad to see you, Boss. We have an unexpected visitor from Mistral City."

"And he hasn't just taken the man's money and sent in a ransom demand?"

"He's a she, and she's different." Vernal was bursting to tell her more.

"Go on, Vernal."

"She speaks la di dah, kills Grimm, and says that she wants to join the tribe. She also screams when she fights. By the way, she asked Shady to tell you that she was a young Maiden who has come in peace. I can believe it, too."

"Was she complaining or boasting? No need to answer that, but why do you believe it?"

Just as well, Atlas Social Services had no jurisdiction here. One of the few children's books Summer had suggested to her that Raven could have imagined reading to her daughter had had a line where the father had sent a scroll message letting a group of seven to twelve-year-olds go sailing on a lake together without adult supervision said, "If not duffers, won't drown. If duffers may as well drown."

"If she was lying, she would be more convincing. Also, when she's not fighting Grimm, she just blushes when anyone talks to her and looks at the ground. Shady thinks she's a first-rate fighter as well."

"Well done, Vernal. Could you get Shady for me?"

There was a limit to how far she was going to interrogate a nine-year-old about someone's fighting ability and intentions. Any outsider who impressed Shady was probably huntress quality. That was interesting in too many meanings of that word.

Shady then joined them and held his hands up in defensive mode. "Boss, I thought that this was something you needed to decide on."

He paused, "I think she's a student huntress as she's very young but fights well. What's weird is that she lacks confidence when she isn't in combat." There is a pause. "I suppose Vernal's told you that she says she wants to join us."

Vernal added, "I've also told the Chief the Maiden stuff."

Shady looked relieved. For a man with three children, he was easily embarrassed. His mother had taught him to be polite to women other than during raids.

This was definitely weird. Huntresses were almost always confident (usually arrogant) when dealing with civilians. Ok, the woman probably knew that Raven was a Vytal Festival winner, but why show nervousness to Shady and his Squad? She used them on expansion missions because they were good people who happened to be bandits.

"You say she fights well?"

"She came and helped us when the Grimm attacked. She took out three Alpha Ursas in less than two minutes. She saved our lives, Chief."

Hold it, this made no sense. The woman must be a huntress and a good one. One of the things she disliked about being Chief was having to learn to restrain her natural sarcasm and actually be encouraging to subordinates. She knew it was a bad idea to be rude to subordinates unnecessarily. It was one thing to punish those who messed up, but having everyone crap their pants when you asked them a question was an invitation to be lied to. She preferred to have a reputation for punishing those who did not own up to a mistake PDQ than for shooting the messenger who gave bad news.

Thank you, Dr Oobleck, for pointing that out as a lesson from history. Indeed, thank you, Qrow, who had told her that the man was worth listening to. She doubted that either would be happy if she told them, which, of course, made it very tempting to do so. Fortunately, she had decided long ago that her best policy for dealing with Ozpin and his opponent was to avoid reminding either of them that she existed or at least to make sure that neither of them thought she was an immediate problem. She wanted to be out of sight, out of mind – she sniggered as she recalled the old joke that a literal translation into old Mistralian was "invisible, insane."

Ok, she would restrain herself and limit herself to saying with a mock show of anger, "Are you two yanking my chain?"

Huntsmen and huntresses did not venture into Branwen Territory nowadays. Too many had died trying to kill her when she had first returned to the tribe. Five years ago, she had let it be known she would assume any who sneaked in were out to kill her or a member of the tribe, and she had a shoot-to-kill policy. They had taken the hint, even the arrogant ones. A nervous one would not come within twenty miles of her.

Besides, anyone in the Branwen Protectorate knew that they called her in to deal with Grimm. After all, they paid her enough for protection; there was no point in going to Mistral City and paying top Lien for an outsider and then getting beaten up by the Branwen tribe for not obeying standard orders. She supposed someone from Watanabe might have called in a favour from the headmaster at Haven, but she doubted it.

Vernal said, "It's true, Chief. I recorded the fight."

"Chief, there is more. I'm almost certain she must have talked to the authorities in Watanabe before cycling up the road."

Raven listened in disbelief to the story. This must be the woman Little Miss had talked about. The one who was in Watanabe two days ago at the local headquarters. If she was, then why didn't she leave Shady's team for the Grimm? By intervening, she had blown her cover and ensured that Raven would only see her with her aura at full force. The best chance of taking a hunter down was when their aura wasn't in play.

The girl wasn't to know that Raven always had her aura on so that it was strong enough to slow down a bullet enough to only bruise her.

She couldn't disagree with Shady's comment that the girl was either the world's worst spy or had been set up by someone and maybe both. She certainly wasn't going to dismiss Shady's theory that Headmaster Moriarty was setting Raven up to kill a young girl with just enough important relatives to justify retaliation.

"Boss, she says she's heard that we don't treat Faunus badly. She's playing with my children at the moment."

Vernal mimicked vomiting and did an impression of the girl, saying, "So adorable."

Raven shrugged, "Fine, she's a stupid idealist. I'll see her and send her home after having got all the intelligence I can get out of her."

She paused, "Just in case she is Mistral's best assassin taking refuge in audacity…"

"I already have the snipers primed. On a just-in-case basis. I also told Denis to tell her not to flare her aura."

"Good man, Shady. Better safe than sorry. We'll get your family to safety before I get close to her."

He gave her an earpiece which would allow her to tell him to give the snipers the command to fire. Raven doubted that a student could last long against her, but she was not taking any unnecessary risks.

"Weapon?"

"Quarterstaff plus a revolver. Both excellent quality."

A pause, "She is human, as far as I can tell. She says she is called Deborah or Debbie."

The name surprised her, and then she smiled, "You said you recorded the fight, Vernal?"

The young girl produced her scroll and played it proudly. The footage was instructive, but if Vernal could afford the equipment, Raven would have sworn that the girl was yanking her chain. The scream as the young girl leapt over Shady's head was straight out of a TV series Team STRQ had used to watch while at Beacon, as was her clothing. She snorted – Deborah was not the girl's real name, and the girl had taken her cosplaying to extremes. Certainly, she would need more layers of clothing in a Badlands winter.

Still, it suggested that Raven should channel the spirit of Tina, the Bandit Queen when talking with the woman. She had done so when she first came back to the Tribe, as plenty of fertiliser had been needed to make them believe that the tribe had a future back then.

It was hard to argue when a woman had taken out three Alpha Ursas, but the snippets Vernal had caught were odd – the young woman managed to be tentative and impressive at the same time. That lightning bolt was a surprise, but she doubted the girl had the aura to do that more than a couple of times a day.

She sighed and said, "OK, Shady, I'll speak to her. I might even recruit her.

Raven put on the mask. Hiding her face was always a good idea, so her expression did not reveal what she was thinking. Besides, the mask was good for intimidating people. Despite Summer's efforts to be friendly, Team STRQ had specialised in making other teams believe they had no chance of defeating them. Qrow's taunts, Taiyang's confidence, Raven's belligerence, and even Summer's earnest self-confidence were effective combinations for demoralising opponents even before Team STRQ strutted their stuff.

Taiyang had even persuaded Summer to go along with the sunglasses and hats because they were cool. According to Summer, even now most TV series about Combat Schools and Academies had at least one team, which was a blatant rip-off of Team STRQ, with the Raven substitute being the chief villain you love to hate.

It had been Summer's idea for her to wear a mask for their second Vytal Festival in Mistral, especially the final. She had kept the mask when she moved back to the Tribe. Nearly everyone in Mistral had watched the Vytal Festival final. Even if the people she threatened had never seen her face, when they saw the mask and saw her strut, they realised who she was. They knew that they either cooperated fully or died.

She'd kept herself in condition, and there was no hunter or huntress apart from Glynda she did not fancy her chances against. Glynda could drop a house on you if she was pissed off, which was most of the time when dealing with team STRQ and especially Raven. Still, Glynda stayed in Vale, so she was not a problem.

There were a few she would only take on if she had to. In the unlikely event that Qrow or Summer came after her, she would retreat rather than fight them. Winter Schnee and Amber Arc were another two who she would only fight if she had to, and even then, she would make sure that she had about six snipers around to chip away at their aura or, in the Schnee's case, get rid of the preposterously large Grimm holograms she could create. This girl hadn't fought at the last Festival – Raven always watched to check in case there was anyone who might be a threat.

That left the immortals and semi-immortals. Obviously, she wanted to avoid Salem deciding that she was an enemy. She'd met the woman once, and that was once too often. Even if Raven beat an immortal once, she would just come back and have another go in a week. In Ozpin's case, she saw no need to bring back a younger, fitter, and angrier version.

Fortunately, Salem had been prepared to believe Raven when she said that she didn't trust Ozpin (or Ozma as Salem called him). She had also been prepared to take the view that if Raven weakened the Mistral central government, then that would fit in with her plans. One of her two creepy sidekicks, Merlot and Chardonnay, visited every few months.

When she found out that the Maiden fairy story was based on truth, she added the maidens to the list of people to avoid. Still, they'd sat out the Faunus Wars and the Great War, so maybe they kept to dealing with Grimm.

She'd sent Shady on ahead to collect his family. The oldest girl kissed the girl and then ran off to her father. Denise took the other two with her, and they all walked past her. Denise gave Raven a look, which Raven interpreted as asking her to show mercy to the idiot girl.

She got within fifty yards when she felt the latent sense of power from the girl. The last time she felt that amount of power was nine years ago when she and Qrow visited Atlas with Ozpin and met the ancient Lady Fria.

Raven recalled the message that the woman had asked Shady to pass on. Crap, had Mistral sent a Maiden after her? She knew the current headmaster at Haven was a human supremacist, but she thought that the Maidens were meant to keep out of politics. Certainly, they had not been involved in the Great War or the Faunus Wars.

She was a realist, and she knew that if she died today, the Tribe would be wiped out in a matter of months. Professor Moriarty would be able to persuade the Mistral military to take revenge for their humiliations, and there were enough hunters and huntresses of a certain age who would want payback for the death of their failed assassin friends if she was not around.

If her suspicions were right, she was about to meet one of the four most dangerous women in Remnant (after Salem, if she counted as a woman), who should be able to kill her easily if she knew how to use her powers.

There was a brief moment of panic, and then she decided to let the dice roll. Hell. The woman looked very young and had probably only become a maiden recently. She certainly hadn't featured in the recent Vytal Festival tournament. Perhaps Raven could take her.

Hold it, don't go straight for the fight. She'd rather not fight a Maiden unless she absolutely had to. Anyway, if the girl had wanted to take her by surprise, she would not have used the word maiden. OK, think of her as a version of Summer. Besides, better to jaw-jaw than go straight to war-war. Perhaps she genuinely wanted to join the tribe and thought that Raven was a real-life Tina.

She did send a message to Shady through her scroll. "Don't bother with the snipers. I think I can soft talk her, and she might sense the bullets trained on her."

The closer she got to the girl, the more she looked like an idealist. After all, she had been playing with one of Shady's children, and the girl liked her enough to allow her to stroke her ears—not your typical human supremacist. Also, Denise liked the girl, and she was quite sensitive to people looking down on her for having married a Faunus.

Raven told herself to channel Summer. After all, it was more likely that the woman was for real. How to play this? What had been the name of the old Spring Maiden? Fria had mentioned it.

"So, Gwendoline is dead and chose you?" Frack, she had tried to make it come out as a statement of fact, but she could hear the hint of disbelief in her voice. She'd met Fria, and this girl was no Fria.

She waited and saw that the young girl was more relieved that Raven had taken the hint than upset at her manner.

Raven then said, "Congratulations, or is it commiserations?" That was better – Summer would have said snarky but sympathetic. Definitely Tina.

"You understand!" The girl looked like she was on the verge of tears. Old Fria had looked like a sweet old lady, but she had revealed a hint of steel underneath when the then-headmaster of Atlas Academy had been a little condescending to the old dear. Even young Major Ironwood had grimaced as the man had made the mistake.

This girl was full of nerves and better suited to running a nursery school. Still, three Alpha Ursas in two minutes meant she knew how to fight. Raven told herself to hide her instinctive contempt.

How should she play this? Ok, she and Summer bonded because Summer had appreciated Raven's lack of hypocrisy and bluntness. Let's go with that. It also fitted in with Tina the Bandit Princess.

"You'll also understand that I would be suspicious if you raised your aura. I'll switch mine to standby mode as a sign of good faith. You do realise that I must suspect that you have been sent by Professor Moriarty, formerly Colonel Moriarty of the MBAD, to kill me."

"I understand. You're right. He did tell me to do so, but I have no intention of doing so."

The girl then bowed deeply to Raven. "Wendy chose me because she knew he would tell her successor to do that, and I was the only candidate she thought wouldn't obey him. She also suggested that I offer my services to you. She was worried that without hunters in the territory, the people were suffering from Grimm attacks."

There was a pause, "Team STRQ were my favourite team growing up."

"Let's talk in my tent." Raven had to remind herself that this woman was, in theory, one of the five deadliest women in Remnant, and she seemed barely able to resist asking Raven for her autograph.

Besides, she expected Shady was right. Shady may have been looking for an excuse to persuade her to let the girl live, but the more she thought about it, she could imagine Moriarty playing the odds. If the girl killed Raven, then she had proved herself and taken the revenge he wanted. If Raven killed her, then the next Maiden would probably be one of the girl's teammates, more suited for his purpose, and the headmaster could cast the girl as an innocent killed by an evil bandit.