Chapter 32

Team PRVN along with Glynda had been in Domremy for close to three days at this point, and the more Vernal saw of the frontier city, the more she was convinced that this would be a perfect target for the Branwen tribe. It was currently night, and after they finished up their extermination tomorrow, they'd be back on their way to Beacon. Vernal laid in the bed of the room she and Pyrrha were sharing, looking at her phone.

The night of her arrival, she'd taken a dagger and poked her palm a few times, a way Raven devised to alert her for different situations. The girl did as she had at least a dozen times before as she waited, before getting a message on her scroll from Raven, no doubt using a burner scroll in the case of anyone monitoring their scroll activity, who was pretending to contact her like a concerned mother.

'How are you?'

Vernal responded in character.

'I'm great, Mom.'

'I'm happy to hear that. What are you doing right now?'

'I'm on my midterm expedition with my team.'

'Oh? Aren't you a bit young to be doing real missions?'

'We have a professor with us. Professor Goodwitch is making sure none of us get hurt and that everything goes okay. She's a bit strict though…'

'Well, just try and get through it, Dear. Did you already eat?'

'I don't think I've ever seen so much food at once before. I went back for another plate and ended up having to throw away most of it since I suddenly felt how full I was. Luckily, the people who made the food didn't seem to mind.'

'You shouldn't take more than you can eat. Oh well, are you staying outside or?'

'No, me and my team are staying in a hotel while we're here. I was surprised though, there's enough hot water for my partner to take a long shower after I took one.'

'You do take pretty long showers. Anywho, it's getting late, but one last thing Dear. I was thinking of coming to see you soon, when will you be back at Beacon?'

'After we finish up one last extermination tomorrow, we're leaving town and heading back to Vale and Beacon.'

'Alright then. I'll let you get some sleep. Stay safe okay?'

'You don't have to worry mom, it seems really quiet here. Plus, I have my teacher and my team with me, I doubt we'll have anything to worry about. Goodnight.'

'Goodnight, see you soon.'

Vernal nodded to herself as she reread the messages. She'd told Raven that Goodwitch was with her, that the city had plentiful resources to raid, and when her and her team, and by association Glynda Goodwitch, would be gone. Vernal put her scroll away as she looked over once she heard the door open to see her partner walk out of the bathroom in her nightwear.

"Bathroom's open."

Vernal didn't respond as she watched the spartan girl sit at the desk of the hotel room and pull out a maintenance kit for her weapons. A familiar silence fell across the room before Vernal shattered it.

"Hey, Cherry-head."

Vernal watched as Pyrrha let out an annoyed sigh as she continued to inspect her weapon, as the way she addressed her was but one of many nicknames she'd come up with that overtime grinded on the girl's nerves.

"...What, Vernal."

"The guy who was on the team before me. Who was he?"

Pyrrha's meticulous inspection of her weapon halted when Vernal asked about her old partner.

"His name…was Jaune."

The darker-skinned girl rolled her eyes and responded.

"How very informative. I've heard his name before, but that wasn't what I was asking. Who was he? What kind of person was he?"

Pyrrha looked at her weapon before setting down the shield and spear, grabbing a bottle and preparing to wax her spear-hybrid.

"Jaune was…why do you care all of a sudden?"

Pyrrha's face was a mix of emotions, but Vernal pressed further.

"I'm trying to understand what exactly about this guy gets yours, Ren's, Bimbo's, and Ice-Bitch's panties in a bunch whenever he comes up."

Pyrrha sat there as she resumed her maintenance.

"Fine. Here's what I can say about Jaune. Jaune was epitome of not enough."

"Explain."

Pyrrha started to work on Miló as she spoke.

"Jaune was a fake. You've heard us say that before I'm sure, but we never elaborated on how bad. He faked his transcripts to sneak into a hunters' school. See, if he'd had ANY training, this might have been something I could've looked past. Something I would have kept a secret and helped him with. And before he told me, I did offer to help him. He just refused my help."

"Now, like I said, he didn't have any training whatsoever, but not only that, he didn't have any hunter knowledge, in the slightest. He didn't know what aura was, yet he snuck into a school for people who trained for years and years to fight for the safety of others. On top of that, he wasn't very smart in a conventional sense either, the few grades I got to see him receive were pathetic. He had D's. So, not only was he not trained, he didn't have any knowledge."

"Okay, what else?"

"What else? Okay, not to mention, his physical conditioning was absolutely abysmal. Maybe compared to a standard civilian, he might be slightly above average, but he had problems keeping up with what the expectations would have been for kids younger than Ruby. So there's another thing to add to the list."

"I could go on, and on, and on about him, Vernal. But no matter what I bring up: his intelligence, his physical conditioning, his lack of skill, his lack of talent, the constant flirting with Weiss, letting someone bully him, refusing help from his team in dealing with said bully. None of those were dealbreakers."

That got Vernal to raise an eyebrow.

"Oh? So then what was?"

"The dealbreaker for me was that he constantly talked about how he'd always wanted to be a hunter, but was denied by his family, and yet? He took NONE of the steps to try and take that decision into his own hands. He spent how many years, just accepting being told no, only to graduate from civilian highschool and then decide, on a whim, that he was going to cheat his way into something that people like us trained for almost half our lives for? And you know- maybe, and I can't stress that enough, maybe if he had been some kind of one-in-a-million monster that could just miraculously keep up with us and the people around us, things would've been different. But that's not real life. He survived initiation off dumb luck and the strength of the people around him. He didn't even give his all once he was finally where he wanted to be. So, that's who Jaune was to me. A lazy, selfish, liar. The one thing he had going for him was an abnormally large aura."

Vernal said nothing as she watched Pyrrha sit there and finish working on Miló, but once the redhead started on Akoúo̱, the bandit girl spoke again.

"You know, while I do think someone has to be pretty stupid to break into a hunters' school, and some of what I'm hearing would have made me kick this guy's ass, it doesn't sound like he had nothing going for him."

Her words got a reaction out of Pyrrha who accidentally put too much polish on the cloth that would be used for the shield. Pyrrha looked up from her task and gave Vernal a look that she couldn't quite decipher, but continued speaking anyway.

"You say he wasn't enough, that he basically had nothing going for him, but he did pass the school's initiation. Doesn't matter if he got carried through it or not, he did what was required. Plus, I don't buy that he was some run of the mill idiot with no drive. He snuck into Beacon Academy with fake transcripts. Transcripts that would have had to have fooled people, competent people, like Goodwitch and Ozpin. And according to Ruby, he stood up to his bully when he tried to pull a prank that would've got people hurt."

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes as she listened to Vernal.

"What are you getting at?"

"Maybe, he wasn't as bad as you think he was. He was untrained, which means that whatever you decided you all needed as a team, you could have molded him into. Same with his pisspoor conditioning. He clearly wasn't dumb, and you all could have just, oh I don't know, taught him what he needed to know? Now his shit taste in women should be illegal, but that's neither here nor there. He did take care of his bully in the end, just not quickly or how probably anyone else would have, but from what I've been told, his bully isn't a total dickhead anymore. Now, that last point? Yeah, that'd piss of any hunter student who's been training forever to do this, but…Oh fucking well, that's life. It isn't fair to damn near anyone, and sometimes, guys who do nothing get to the finish line all the same."

"So you don't see any problem with the things he did? He was putting himself in needless danger."

"It's his life to lose. Either he makes the cut or gets cut off. Besides, it's not supposed to be you who makes that decision for him."

"He put us, his team, in danger."

"True, but was it any more dangerous than it would have been in anyways? We all fight grimm for fuck's sake."

Pyrrha glared at her partner as she spoke, Akoúo̱ on the table and her arms crossed.

"So that's it? You're gonna make excuses for him and say that he did nothing wrong?"

"Oh, I'm not saying he did nothing wrong. I'm saying that at the very least, he's got some balls. And he's lucky. And the more I listen to stuff about him, the more I think I wanna meet him. Officially."

"What the-Why?"

"Nothing appropriate, that's for sure. From what all of you were saying, I was expecting him to be some scrawny little punk, but instead, I saw a tall blonde drink of water in the club before you scared him off. I'll have to break him outta that…"

Pyrrha just shook her head and resisted the urge to throw her hands up before going to her bed and laying down, but as she did, her partner's words started to replay in her mind. She thought back to when she saw Jaune in the club dancing with that short ginger he'd been there with, and realized that the more she thought about it, the more she realized that he hadn't been sitting on his hands since he was expelled from Beacon. He was putting in work doing something, because just from his shoulders alone she could tell he'd put on some muscle.

But, quickly, she dismissed these thoughts. If it turns out in a year that he put himself through some hellish training routines and managed to reenroll at Beacon, then she'd be willing to bury the hatchet, but that was about as likely as it was that Vernal was seriously into her former leader.

The night came and went, and after an early breakfast team PRVN had quickly set out to finish what was to be their last extermination in the surrounding area. The four had split up with Goodwitch even assisting today as it was obvious that she didn't want to be here any longer than necessary.

As Vernal finished off the last grimm in her area, she looked around before using an aura technique she'd learned from Raven. She closed her eyes and pulsed her aura out, waiting to see if any of her teammates or her professor were near, but upon getting nothing, she quickly pulled out her dagger and poked her thigh a few times. Waiting only a few moments before a crimson portal appeared, and seconds later, out came Raven Branwen in her grimm mask and battle attire, Omen at her side and ready for battle.

"What's security like?"

"Lax. For a city similar to Argus in size, I don't understand how they make it out here with just so few guards and defense systems."

"Anything critical?"

"There's this HUGE opening to a dust mine behind the big house at the foot of the mountain."

The woman nodded and looked at Vernal's scroll as it began to buzz, a message from Ms. Goodwitch on the screen, which once opened, was signalling that it was time to return to Beacon. Vernal gave a small look to Raven before running off to rejoin her team, leaving the raid in Raven's hands. Raven waited till she was gone before changing into her bird form and flying towards the walls of the city, eager to find a nice place to summon in her bandit clan in a way that would give the people little time to respond properly.

As Vernal regrouped with the rest of her team, Glynda looked them over before nodding to herself.

"Team PRVN has conducted itself in a manner satisfactory to the expectations of Beacon. All of you will receive individual passing marks, as well as one for the team as a singular entity. Normally, this is where we'd go to report that the mission is complete, but I met with Max today so that we wouldn't have to interrupt our way home by going out of our way. We'll now return to the bullhead station where our transportation is waiting, and be back to our own beds before dinner. Any questions?"

Seeing none, Glynda led them back into the city of Domremy, and within the hour, Vernal was watching out the window of the transport as the city became a smaller and smaller spec, silently hoping for Raven's success in her raid.

Raven watched as the bullhead climbed higher and higher before she flew over the city, looking for somewhere to touch down and transform back into her human form so that she could open a portal to where her best and most loyal warriors could be most effective. As she flew around the city for a short while, eventually she saw the clearing with the lake inside the city's walls, and descended to scope the area out.

The more and more she flew around the clearing, the more she was satisfied with it. It was currently roped off with some signs to discourage entry, and it had enough tree cover that she would be able to have her bandits get close before causing a panic. She went to the edge of the clearing inside the walls and shifted into her human form before cutting open a portal, watching as her warriors appeared one by one. They gave her silent nods as they came through and surrounded her as they waited for the rest of their rank to come through.

After a few minutes, Raven was surrounded by around forty of her men, and as the portal closed, she looked at one of the men she considered something like a lieutenant, before speaking.

"Is that all of our fighters?"

"Aside from Shay and his band of cowards, yes Chieftess, this is everyone."

Raven let out a snort at the mention of Shay, but shook it off as she prepared to give out objectives, but before she could, she started to feel uneasy. Something was making her feel strange but she couldn't put her finger on it. So far, nothing about how this was going was any different from any other raid they'd ever done. But something was just…not right.

But then she felt it.

Her senses screamed at her and moved out of the way to avoid being the epicenter of a crater, created by whatever had fallen to the earth where she'd been just a moment ago. As the dust began to settle she watched before her eyes widened as a mountain of a man, clad in armor with a massive greataxe stepped into view.

A familiar man. One that she'd give anything in the world to not be standing across from.

"Max."

"...Raven Branwen."

Of all the places she could've ended up raiding, it just had to have been the home of fucking Maximillion Clay Arc. She let out a sigh as she pulled off her mask, knowing full well it'd only get in the way of an opponent like him, before drawing Omen and staring him down.

"You could always just walk away, Raven."

"Not an option, Max. My pride won't allow it. Plus, you have so much to take, so little to stop me."

The man looked her over before sighing and raising his axe in front of himself in a form of salute before looking down at her as six figures began to walk in from the treeline behind him, all blonde women, as they came to stops just behind him in their own battle attire and their weapons drawn

"That's where you're wrong, Raven."

The woman looked at him annoyed.

"Me and my family's presence here is the greatest protection this city could ever know."

(A/N)

Hey, so randomly...I decided to pump out another chapter?

I wrote all of this right after I posted the last chapter by the way, so...I think I may have found another new system for writing and just locking in to get what needs done, done.

Also, might start addressing reviews in the note. Starting with

-You have a point NyaNyaKittyface, but I can't stop world-dressing, which is why I wanna just get more chapters out so I can have the cake and watch y'all eat it too.

-Gideon Aurum: That's not great, but oh well, hopefully the website will do something about it eventually, and if not, they still aren't getting my biz.

Enjoy!

B.J.H.