Here we go.

Cover Art: Aristeo Storm

Chapter 54

It turned out that they couldn't just visit Ghira at the police station. He hadn't technically been charged, and that meant he wasn't technically afford visitation rights as a criminal would be. It was some nebulous halfway-in-the-middle sort of deal, the likes of which were meant to afford a possible criminal time to lawyer up, but which were all-too-often used as excuses to keep people beyond what would normally be allowed by the law.

That was how Qrow summarised it anyway, but the others, with all the worldly awareness of teenagers, saw it in a much simpler way.

"This is bullshit!" Raven pointed at the police officer. "You're bullshit!"

"I'm an officer of the law," said the man behind the counter, who quite clearly didn't want to have to deal with angry teens. "I don't make the laws; I just enforce them. Speaking of which, if any of you cause a ruckus here then you will be arrested."

Raven crossed her arms. "Try it, fat-ass."

"Excuse me...?"

"She means sorry, fat-ass!" Summer interrupted, pulling Raven back while laughing awkwardly – and missing her casual repetition of the insult. The officer grunted and rolled his eyes, deciding it wasn't worth the effort to deal with them. "Come along, Raven. Before the nice Mr fat-ass arrests you."

"He'd have to get up to try."

Qrow helped drag his sister out while Willow made passive-aggressive apologies to the watching officers. Taiyang just looked frustrated, but he was smart enough not to cause trouble. Smart enough not to try and drag on Raven either, since she'd have kicked him in the balls.

"Fucking scum!" Raven swore up and down. "All for the law except when it comes to arresting the shitheads that attacked the protests before."

"It is what it is," Qrow replied. "Let's go see what Kali has to say."

It didn't take them long to find Kali. Of course it didn't. The woman was leading a protest right outside the front of the police station, protesting against the unlawful arrest of Ghira Belladonna and several other leading members of the group. Close by to them was a counterprotest, though to say they were "protesting" anything would be a misnomer.

"Go back to Menagerie!"

"Stop causing trouble!"

"Arrest them! Come and arrest them all!"

Kali stood up on a soapbox, held out her hands, extended her middle fingers and roared, "FUCK YOU ALL!"

"Atta girl," said Raven, smiling fondly.

"Humans!" warned a faunus, as they approached.

"Nah, they're good ones," Kali said, hopping down off her box.

A few of the faunus didn't look convinced, and Qrow was sure he heard one of them mumble, "no such thing" under their breath. It looked like the violent side of the White Fang was already spreading its roots. One or two of the faunus were whispering behind Kali's back, though they shook their heads and pointed back to the counter protestors.

Maybe he was paranoid; maybe they were just whispering about who they were; maybe it was something completely innocent. Any of that could have been true but, knowing what he did about the future, it was easy to jump to the conclusion these people were already plotting against Ghira and Kali's peaceful ways.

Though Kali wasn't exactly pacifist.

"Thanks for coming," she said, shaking Raven's hand and then the rest of them. "They wouldn't let you see him either, huh? Makes us wonder what they're doing to him."

Summer gasped. "You think he's being tortured or killed!?"

Kali spluttered, then snorted. "No! Geez, girl. No. I reckon they're hiding what damage they did to him. The police hit us hard once the rocks started flying. Ghira was calling out for calm but they tackled him down to arrest him. Probably knocked him up pretty badly, and that won't look good if you know what I mean."

The others didn't get it. Qrow filled them in. "She's saying they're waiting for the bruises to fade and cuts to heal before they release him, so he can't claim they were violent with him."

"That's ridiculous!" Willow snapped. "He should sue."

"Wouldn't work," Qrow said, shaking his head. "They have qualified immunity." He knew from a couple of instances in the past. Some were of huntsmen and police genuinely making use of it in the prevention of crimes. Others were of assholes using it to get out of their own poor decisions. There were always as many rotten cops as good ones. "Since the damage was caused in the heat of the moment, they can argue they acted to prevent a crime – so it was part of their job. Unless they went seriously overboard and killed him, he wouldn't stand a chance." Qrow looked to Kali. "And was it warranted?"

"Qrow!" Raven snapped. "The fuck."

A few of the faunus with Kali bristled and went bright red.

Kali waved her hand. "It's fine. He's only asking. I won't lie and say we didn't defend ourselves, but I guarantee you we didn't throw the first stones. Didn't throw any, in fact. It's not like Vale is built in the middle of a quarry. Those people—" She nodded in the direction of the counter protesters, "—brought rocks from elsewhere and started chucking them. We tried to weather the storm at first and expected the police to put a stop to them, but they didn't."

Summer gasped. "They ignored it?"

"Claim they didn't see. That they never noticed." Kali hawked and spat on the floor. "Bullshit. There were faunus with blood running down their faces. There were kids hit. Course, the moment we had enough and fought back, the police noticed. On us so fast you'd think they were waiting for the chance."

They probably had been. At forty, Qrow knew enough about the world and how it worked to know that "justice" just meant adherence to laws set by corruptible people. That wasn't to say every government were corrupt monsters, but every government was an entity that weighed the pros and cons of every action. They were a self-serving organism that looked out for their own interests, because, at the end of the day, politics was about staying in power.

And upsetting your local voter base to protect some uppity foreigners come to complain about how your kingdom is run was not a vote-winning move. Neither was alienating every faunus in the city by kicking them out, but the Council wouldn't be against ignoring a few ruffians driving them out the city. Oh, they'd bemoan the violence on "both sides" but that was all they'd do. Easier to let the plebians sort this out themselves and focus on the economic benefits of Mountain Glenn.

If this had happened in his first life – and Qrow assumed it had, and that he'd just not cared enough about faunus rights to notice it – then it was likely any fallout from this had been swallowed up and forgotten once Mountain Glenn fell. What was a little civil unrest compared to a tragedy like that? Besides, every politician in the city pretty much had resigned, run away or been driven out after Mountain Glenn. The fall of a city and all its inhabitants wasn't the sort of political disaster you got to walk away from.

"So," said Raven. "What's the plan?"

"We're protesting."

"Other than that, I mean."

"Well, we're doing it here in front of the police station." Kali gestured back. "Aside from pissing them off we have a lot of people taking video. If the counter protesters get violent again, there's no way the police can fail to see it this close. If they choose not to act, we'll go public with the footage. Cause a stink."

Raven grinned. "Then you need us to infiltrate them and start a fight?"

"No!" Summer slapped the back of her head. "Bad Raven! Bad!"

"Hilarious idea but no. You lot are known allies of ours. It'd never work. Thanks, though." Kali offered her fist, which Raven bumped her own against. "Honestly, it'd be best if you got out of here. Not that we don't appreciate it, because we do, but having a bunch of armed huntsmen around is probably spooking those racist assholes too much to attack us. Better if we look nice and vulnerable."

Qrow took a look at the crowd. There were no kids here this time, he noticed. No younger people either. This was all adult faunus, and they looked grim. Each and every one of them was aware that they were bait today. Qrow had to admire their determination. He just wished the world could be a little less shit about it.

Ozpin had, too. The number of times Ozpin had complained about the pettiness of racism and how much it interfered with his efforts to unite people against the Grimm was too high to be counted. Ozpin was all about stopping Salem, and faunus rebellions and wars and terrorist groups weren't helpful – especially not when they were shacking up with Salem to attack Beacon.

All the more reason for me to try and prevent the White Fang. The violent one, he reminded himself, since these people were still calling themselves the White Fang. I just need to be careful not to un-alive Yang's teammate.

Not that he'd even seen her. The bitch had up and fled after the fall of Beacon, abandoning Yang with minus one arm and a whole lot of unresolved trauma. Qrow had been furious, but Yang had begged him not to make a big deal of it. That this "Blake" girl must have had her reasons. To Qrow, a black-haired teammate running away on her blonde teammate tripped too many memories for him to forget entirely.

He'd hoped to have a run in with Blake later and have some choice words about what was and what wasn't responsible behaviour toward a teammate and best-fucking-friend who risked her life to protect you from a terrorist. Not that he'd get the chance anymore.

Ah, forget it. Maybe without the terrorist group, she'll grow up to actually be a responsible fucking person. That'd be good.

"Are you sure there isn't anything we can do?" asked Taiyang. "It just doesn't feel right to do nothing. Ghira is our friend as well."

One of the faunus beside Kali spoke up. "They could hand out leaflets in Beacon, couldn't they? The more people who hear, the better."

"Huh. I suppose they could. If you all don't mind...?"

They didn't. A few faunus left to pick up a box of them and come back, and Taiyang offered to take them. Raven, meanwhile, promised to force the leaflets on every student who'd listen – and force them to eat them if they refused to take one. Summer calmly explained she would prevent Raven from doing that, since the material was to be digested by the eyes and mind, and not literally digested.

"Heh. Thanks." Kali winked at Raven, absolutely giving her the go-ahead. "I'll drop you a line if we get anything on Ghira. They won't dare do anything to him with how public we're making this. He's fine, the great big idiot. Honestly, I'd leave him there if I had my way, but this is an attack on the White Fang, so we've got to stick together. Seriously, though. I'm going to take the piss pout of him when he's free. I'll hold this over his head for years."

Qrow rolled his eyes. "You two are perfect together."

"The fuck—? Ew, no. Raven, take your brother to a doctor. He's got brain damage."

"He's terminally bad at understanding women's feelings," Raven said.

Ha. The joke was on them. He knew Kali and Ghira were going to fall in love and get married. And he was going to rub that in when it happened. Qrow ignored it for now, accepting a comradely pat on the back from Taiyang. As Kali and the others went back to their group, he yet again spotted some faunus talking, and stopping when Kali got back. To anyone else, they might have looked like they were just giving her their attention.

But Qrow caught the way one of them slapped the other on the arm before Kali got close. There was no mistaking that it was one shushing the other so Kali wouldn't hear what was being said. No matter which way he looked at it, the beginning of the end of one White Fang and the birth of another was beginning.

The terrorist movement might not start for another ten years, but it was obvious it hadn't been an overnight thing. Thinking on it, it almost couldn't have been. There would have had to be a lot of secret meetings and winning over of support if they could announce themselves and cause a schism so great it would force Ghira and Kali to step down.

That wasn't the kind of thing that was a 50-50 split of ideology. To win the whole White Fang over, they'd have to win the majority of faunus to their side. And this plan of Kali's to allow themselves to be pelted by rocks for some kind of moral victory probably didn't help her side any. It'd do a good job of forcing the police to act, but the extremist faunus would use it as an example of how the pacifistic approach was only leading to them having to suffer even more indignity.

It was hard to fault that logic.

Would Sienna Khan even be alive at this time? If so, she'd be a child, so it was doubtful killing her would fix anything. He wasn't about to murder children anyway, but ruling out such options still made him feel a little better, though no closer to an answer.

Man... I really did rely on Ozpin for everything, didn't I...?

No wonder Raven always mocked him.

/-/

As promised, they handed out leaflets in Beacon – forcing them on anyone who would take them. There were more than a few faunus in Beacon, and yet, ironically, they didn't care anymore to receive them than the human students. Qrow had expected a few would thank them or be appreciative, but they were just as likely to get sharp commentary from faunus as human.

Then again, the faunus who were at Beacon could be counted as the lucky ones. Racism – at least aggressive racism – wasn't normally aimed at those who were capable of pushing back. They might have faced their share of subtle prejudice, but even the most stoned asshole wasn't going to try and throw a rock at someone wielding a huntsman's weapon. As a result, it was easy for those faunus to just assume the message from the White Fang was overblown, that things "couldn't be that bad" because they, themselves, hadn't experienced it.

Survivor bias, basically. Qrow had faced it a lot in his career – mostly from people living inside the walls who claimed that Grimm were an overblown threat because they didn't have to fear for their lives. It was easy for the lucky ones living in Vale to complain about high taxes and aid being paid to frontier villages, that the money should be used to repair Vale's roads and such because clearly those villages that were being overrun by Grimm were just faking it for the compensation money.

Every person was the centre of their own little universe and rarely saw the world outside it. Qrow knew he was no different, especially since, on coming back in time, he'd also become blinkered as to anything beyond Team STRQ.

"Working hard, Mr Branwen?" Ozpin stepped out a staffroom and into his path, and Qrow assaulted him with a leaflet. "What's this? Ah, the White Fang. I'm pleased to see you're supporting them in a more productive manner than the last time." He kindly took a leaflet. "What is this about, then?"

"The leader of the peaceful White Fang has been arrested but hasn't been charged," Qrow explained. "We're raising awareness of the injustice given the police have provided no reason for his incarceration, and because video footage shows that counter protesters were just as much at fault as them but haven't faced any legal action."

"Hmmm." Ozpin adjusted his mug and the leaflet so he could have a read. "You stressed the peaceful there. Why exactly?"

It had been mostly by accident, or because, in Qrow's mind, there was a non-peaceful version of the group that he felt it important to differentiate them from. There wasn't here, so he could have just said the White Fang. However, that gave him an idea. Qrow didn't know how to fix all these problems, but Ozpin did, and one thing Qrow did know was how to talk to his old boss.

"It's because I'm worried the White Fang won't stay peaceful if things continue like this."

Ozpin looked up. "Hm?"

"Ghira is the leader of the peaceful element, the one who pushes for words over violence, but I've seen faunus in their group trying to push for a more proactive approach. They're angry," he said. "Bitter, upset, marginalised. It doesn't help that the city is trying to frame them as the bad guys. It's enough to make a faunus think that if they're going to be labelled as criminals, anyway, why not lean into it."

"You've heard them say this?"

"No. But I've noticed it. Kali is the de facto leader with Ghira incarcerated and she's doing her best to continue his legacy, but I saw faunus in their midst whispering behind their backs. I saw them glaring hatefully at the counter protestors. I think I saw a knife or two."

Ozpin's face grew troubled. "That is concerning."

"They told me rocks had been thrown and hit children," Qrow stressed. "What parent isn't going to feel they need to arm themselves to protect their children? I'm worried because Ghira is the voice of peace. He's the one keeping them together as a non-violent protest group, when it's obvious a lot of them want to take out their rage on the humans throwing rocks on them, and maybe even the police who are pretending not to see it."

"Violence isn't the answer."

"It's an answer."

"I'd expect that response more from your sister than you, Mr Branwen."

"I didn't say it was the right answer," he replied, with a shrug. "But you have to accept it is an answer. If the question is how do I stop people throwing rocks at my children then the most immediate answer is to hurt the people who do it so badly that no one will dare. And, you know, it's not like those parents are going to be making sensible decisions when their children are bleeding and sobbing their eyes out, surrounded by angry humans threatening to put the animal in its place."

Ozpin was a man who had seen a lot. Qrow always knew him to be calm and collected, but he wasn't – as Raven often said – emotionless. Raven just never bothered to look for the signs. Here, Qrow caught the way Ozpin's fingers tightened on the leaflet, scrunching it up a little. The man's nostrils also flared out as he took a deep and forcefully calm breath.

The man was no racist. Qrow had long suspected he'd been there for the birth of the faunus race, and that he'd probably had just as many friends and companions who were faunus over the thousands of years. Maybe even lovers and family.

Maybe even children…

"I don't want to see them turn violent over this because then they'll get in even more trouble, and that'll make them even angrier," Qrow poked. "And so on and so on – and it only takes one person who feels they have nothing to lose and this ends up as a tragedy."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention." Ozpin folded the leaflet and slipped it into his jacket pocket. "I will reach out to some old students of mine within the police forces and speak with them on your friend's behalf. If, as you say, he hasn't been formally charged, then they have no legal right to keep him. This may simply be a case of an overzealous captain overreaching. It's difficult for rank-and-file officers to question their superiors."

Polite excuses delivered to a child who ought to be naïve enough to believe it.

Qrow offered his best Ruby Rose smile. "Thanks, sir. That'd be great."

/-/

Ozpin wasn't blind to the subtle manipulations the young man was levelling on him. They were clumsy attempts, obvious from a mile away, and that was calming since it would have been far more worrying if he was good at it. Settling down in his office, Ozpin drew the leaflet once more. He took a sip as he considered it.

The situation stank of politics. Specifically, the kind of politics that had those in power making the convenient decision rather than the good one. There was an election coming up and the party wanted to ride the waves of not only Mountain Glenn, but the more patriotic groups within Vale by being seen to be tough on crime.

Protesting wasn't a crime but it could be made to look like one, so that these people would serve as scapegoats. Ultimately, the non-faunus were quite happy with the status quo, so protesting faunus came across as ungrateful and entitled. It was just the way people were, only ever caring about themselves.

The faunus were no different.

As Mr Branwen had to accurately surmised, the faunus being scapegoated this way would grow disillusioned with their peaceful ways and some, inevitably, would wonder if violence might lead to better results. Many would not and would carry on peacefully while some gave in to cruel inevitability and apathy, but, as Qrow said, it would only take one person to start a crisis in the city for faunus and human alike.

"Shortsighted politicians as usual," he remarked. "They're probably writing it off as a problem for the next administration to deal with. It won't be them picking up the pieces of a peaceful group turning violent years down the line." Ozpin sighed. "But it will be me. And we have enough problems on our plate without this adding to it."

He ought to congratulate Mr Branwen on playing his cards so successfully. Instead, he would simply do what the boy wanted and help in this matter. It served his ends anyway, and the young Mr Branwen was shaping up to be an incredible prospect for the future. Perhaps he would even be a future headmaster of Beacon, once Ozpin's current body had grown old and forced him into retirement.

Perhaps, anyway. Ozpin already had another who could fill that role.

The door opened and she stepped in. "You called for me, sir?"

"Yes. Miss Goodwitch." Ozpin set his hands before him on the desk and smiled. "I believe it's time for us to continue our private lessons, but I also have a matter of some importance I would like your assistance on."

The young woman struggled to hide her pride and excitement, trying to force a professional and disinterested air. He had told her it wasn't necessary, but she hated anything that made her seem like the teenager she was.

"Of course, sir. I'll gladly listen."

"Excellent. Tell me, are you familiar with a young man from Signal by the name of Qrow Branwen…?"

Her eye twitched. "Sir, I can assure you I am not, and have never been, pregnant with his child."

Ozpin's eyebrow rose. "What…?"

"..." The girl turned a deep shade of red. "Is that not what this is about...?"

"No."

"Oh. Um. M...Moving on...?"

Next Chapter: 9th November

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