I have recycled an incident mentioned in Jaune Applies to Beacon towards the end. Thank you to those who have commented and those who are reading. There is an element of butterfly wings in this story.

/-/

Emma returned from the meeting with the village Matriarchs to find the camp being dismantled. It looked like this would be complete in about thirty minutes when this part of the Tribe could be ready to move. Raven Branwen was striding around the area, Vernal was following behind her, and Shady and his lieutenant were gathering the fighters.

The current camp was on the Watanabe side of the village next to the road. The rationale was that there were more Grimm and that they needed to be reduced in numbers. There were also some newcomers who seemed to be civilian Faunus wearing suits or overalls, plus their families. The old Faunus Alice, plus five armed teenagers, was delegated to take the newcomers to the village.

Raven called Emma over. "Refugees from Watanabe. They drove up the road pursued by Grimm until they met our advance guard. We should expect other people on foot in the next few days. They will attract Grimm like honey attracts bears, so we will have a pre-emptive cull of the Grimm in an hour. I've had reports of Nevermore in the area, and I want you to be ready to use your powers against them."

She paused, "Grimm, in a hurry, will travel by road rather than through the forest. We are going to make them hurry and trap them in a killing zone. This will be a good test of your lightning semblance." They had agreed in advance that they would pass off the Maiden powers as a weather semblance.

Emma looked around and saw that the old and the young had gathered together and looked ready to move out. They seemed confident that things were under control but were keeping close together.

Raven saw her looking and said, "Yes, this is standard. They know that provided they aren't stupid, they are in no danger from the Grimm." A grin, "It's also good to get the children used to the reality that the Grimm are both dangerous and can be killed."

She followed Raven to a teenaged Mole Faunus with a set of scrolls around her, who launched six drones into the air when Raven nodded at her. Raven told Emma, "I want your feedback on what we do in the next two hours. Don't flare your aura until I specifically tell you to."

Raven and her lieutenants spent the next thirty minutes checking arrangements and organising their forces. Some snipers with Dust rifles had set up position in the lower branches of trees overlooking the road.

Finally, Raven clapped her hands. Vernal produced a bell, which she rang loudly, and everyone fell silent. "On the count of three, Team 1 flare your auras." Vernal provided the countdown, and whether it was her new maiden powers or the novelty of thirty of the elders, the pregnant and the physically disabled members of this part of the tribe obeying the command to make themselves into a Grimm magnet, it felt like a forest fire of raw power had been unleashed. It was contrary to all protocols she had ever been taught.

Vernal introduced Emma to Amand, the young woman controlling the drones, and she watched the scrolls showing pictures from the drones. Over the next ten minutes, it was clear that the nearby Grimm had been attracted and that they were concentrated on the road. Not all of them were, but Shady and Raven distributed the fighters so that they would be ready to meet the Grimm when they arrived from any direction.

The first flare lasted another five minutes until Raven signalled Team 1 to return to a standby level. A moment later, the first Grimm appeared and charged at the Branwen Tribe. Raven commanded the fighters to flare their aura and then got out her sword, Omen.

The first arrivals were easily disposed of, mainly by the snipers using ordinary bullets. The Grimm that arrived first were either the fastest or the nearest to the Tribe. The latter must have been well thinned out already by the patrols of the last week. The amount of aura directed at them had made them suicidally reckless. It didn't help the Grimm that they arrived piecemeal, and so far, there were no aerial Grimm.

Team 1 repeated the aura flaring process, and at the end of another five minutes, Raven smiled and, with a flourish, waved Omen in the air. For want of a better description, a huge hole in the fabric of reality appeared. Team 1 switched off their aura and headed towards the hole together with the toddlers and babies. Emma looked at the hole and saw that it was a portal leading to a large field where a squadron of fighters were waiting for the escapees.

If she were spying for the Headmaster of Haven, then the information she had already gathered about Raven's semblance and her tactics would be invaluable. She wasn't sure what he would be able to do with it, but it was now clear why the Branwen Tribe had been able to expand as much as it had and why it had been able to avoid the military force which Mistral had sent at it a few years ago.

There was no time to think further as the second wave of Grimm was upon them, and these were more concentrated. Still, the warning given by the drones meant that the Branwen Tribe could concentrate its firepower where needed.

The fighters had arranged themselves into lines and fired at the Grimm, thinning out their lines significantly. Still, it was a concentrated horde, and some were tough enough to survive the barrage.

Raven stepped forward and motioned her and Shady's preferred team to join her. Emma fought back an initial sense of panic. It was one thing fighting three of four Grimm and another facing an army of charging Grimm. It didn't help that they seemed focused on her in particular. Still, she would trust that Raven knew what she was doing. Once the fighting started, Emma found her training at Haven taking over, and that, combined with the suggestions from the old Maiden Wendy and her sessions with Raven, meant that she forgot about her doubts and fears in the joy of fighting.

After that charge had been dealt with, they spent a couple of minutes regrouping and checking where the nearest Grimm were. Raven then ordered the second team to flare their auras. This consisted of the Tribe's mothers with young children. After another two assaults from the Grimm had been dealt with, they left with their children. Margaret waved at her as she accompanied Denise through the portal.

Just then, Raven shouted at Emma, saying, "Debbie, incoming Nevermore. Unleash your aura and use your lightning semblance."

Fortunately, the Nevermore were not alphas and dived directly at her. The lightning hit them, and she even managed to use chain lightning to weaken more than one at once. Between her and the snipers, the threat was quickly extinguished.

Gradually, the tribe left the battlefield through the portal Raven created. The nature of the Grimm threat changed. There were fewer small Grimm, but those who were coming were alphas. Raven later explained that her theory was these had more willpower and sensed that something was wrong with the blast of aura. "You don't get to be an old Grimm or a fighter without sensing when something is a trap."

Emma focused her chain lightning on the bigger ones and either killed or weakened the ones she hit sufficiently for the snipers and other fighters to finish them off.

Weirdly, at this point, a small car was driven through the portal and parked. Vernal, who, despite being only eight or nine, had stayed put and continued filming the fight, smiled at Emma with a look of satisfaction. The remaining fighters retreated towards the portal, and the ten or so remaining Alpha Grimm followed them.

Most of the drones followed the Tribe out of the portal, but two were left behind, and one landed on the car. On the other side of the portal, Raven called for one last flare of aura and then closed the portal so that it was only a foot or so wide just before the Grimm got close enough to use it themselves. Vernal pulled Emma over to the teenager with the scrolls and then shrieked with joy as one of the screens went blank and the other showed a flash as the car exploded.

Raven widened the portal, and the snipers mopped up the few Grimm which had not been destroyed by the fire dust explosion.

Wendy and the other past maidens expressed their opinions of the tactics in the back of Emma's head. There was grudging approval of their effectiveness, although the majority were still appalled that so many tribe members had unlocked auras. One expressed concern that the tactics and the strategy relied too heavily on Raven's semblance. If the Tribe looked like being overwhelmed, she gave them the option of running away with minimal casualties.

Emma also wondered how expensive the operation had been. The car bomb must have had a lot of dust in it, and having so many fighters firing dust bullets wasn't cheap.

The Tribe looked like it was about to celebrate, but Raven ordered, and Shady soon persuaded them that they needed to rebuild the camp first but promised a party tonight. Vernal and the mole Faunus were both avidly watching the footage from the drones and seemed to be putting together a highlights reel.

Emma sought out Denise and asked, "How often do you do that?"

"Once every few months. The Chief does it once every two weeks with different squads."

"What? Always like that?"

Denise chortled. "OK, that was bigger and longer than normal. The car was a new touch. It might be that your semblance gave the Chief the confidence to draw more Grimm in than usual."

She paused, "Actually, everyone was more emotional than normal. Those strangers in suits and working overalls are from Watanabe. Something is happening in Watanabe, and according to those who were here when they arrived, they were in a bad way. They must have been pulling Grimm up the road behind them."

A further smile, "Anyway, if we are going to have a party tonight, we need to get the camp ready. Come and help me dig the hole for the additional latrines."

"What?"

"You haven't had the Chief's lecture on disease yet? Some teacher of hers at Beacon said that historically armies lose more soldiers to disease than Grimm or the enemy. She insists that her lieutenants show that digging the holes in the right place and depth is important. And the best way to demonstrate that is to oversee and help dig ourselves."

There was a pause. "You can ask the Chief why we to dig extra ones, but my bet is that we are going to bring more of the Tribe in just in case the problems in Watanabe boil over."

/-/

Raven paid lightning visits to the main camps where the Tribe's fighters were currently based. She warned her lieutenants that she would be calling for them to dispatch a third of their fighters to her direct command within the next 48 hours. She would also need to make sure that there were a majority of humans, but not to the extent that she would frighten the Faunus inhabitants of Watanabe.

She had expected to have more time before she acted at Watanabe. She'd hoped to take over a town where the people desperately wanted some semblance of order to be imposed and would greet her with relief. She did not want to go in and crack heads and shoot people while the majority of the population would be more scared of her than the chaos. She desperately needed some reliable information about what was happening in Watanabe and how the powers that be regarded the situation. In particular, would the army and the administrators hold or fold?

Still, at least she had known that she would be making a play, and she was virtually certain that the Governor and Mistral Central Government had been caught totally by surprise and had no contingency plans in action.

Raven was still not convinced about Emma. She had the essential ability and seemed to be a quick learner, but Raven didn't think that she had what Port liked to call testicular fortitude. Maybe she was being unfair; that momentary look of panic had quickly passed, and she had done what she had needed to do. After all, Raven had been sceptical about Summer when they had met socially, but in the arena or fighting Grimm, she had been fearless.

That might be it. The girl had done well as soon as she had no time to think, just as Summer had lost her self-doubt when fighting, training, or designing weapons. The lesson might be to keep her occupied and reacting to things.

There was, of course, an advantage to having a Maiden who doubted herself. She wasn't likely to think she would be better at running the Branwen Protectorate than Raven.

/

Emma enjoyed watching the Tribe wholeheartedly celebrate surviving the fight. To her shock, there had been no deaths or serious injuries. Those who had been hurt said that a week of gradually drawing on their aura would make them as good as new, and she believed them.

Many congratulated her on her lightning semblance and her control of it. Some of the older women of the Tribe intervened when the young men of the Tribe became too poetical or too tongue-twisted in their admiration to prevent terminal embarrassment.

After the feast had finished, Raven called Emma and Vernal to join her in the tent with Shady. Emma changed into her Debbie costume and was given a guitar. Raven had said that her disguise would have been better and more plausible if she had pretended to be a travelling bard or minstrel and carried an instrument.

Raven also wanted the refugees not to pay too much attention to Emma. Fortunately, her voice and guitar playing were good enough to make it plausible that she was simply entertaining the Chief. She and Vernal sat on the floor. Emma strummed the guitar while Vernal watched footage of the fight until Raven asked her to fetch Alice and the refugees.

Alice and Vernal led four of the Faunus refugees in. Two of them were in suits, and two were in working clothes. They expressed gratitude to their reception by the Tribe. It was clear that the three men and the women were intelligent and in a state of shock. They had all been in decently paid jobs (well paid for Faunus) and had lived outside the Faunus quarter of Watanabe and, until two nights ago, thought that they got on with their neighbours.

Rumours were rampant in the town that Raven Branwen was going to take over, that the Faunus would be placed in charge, and that the humans would be massacred. It was further rumoured that the police had been ordered not to deal with Faunus criminals or fifth columnists, and it was unlikely any help would be forthcoming from the rest of the province or Mistral Central.

Two nights ago, civil disorder had broken out in the centre of town. The military and police defended the town hall, but the largest Faunus-owned businesses had their windows broken and were looted, and the police had left the rioters to it for the most part. The morning afterwards, the mayor resigned and fled for Kurohari, along with the head of the LGDF.

This had not quelled the riots. While things were quiet during the day, the lack of police response and the mayor's resignation had encouraged the hotheads. By early evening, crowds had gathered again, and there was more rioting and looting.

The LGDF and the part of the police force based in the Faunus quarter were trying to prevent anyone from coming into the quarter to cause trouble, and most Faunus had not left the quarter yesterday and presumably not today.

One of the men in overalls had had his house burned down because there were rumours that he would use his position in the water treatment plant to introduce a poison which killed humans and left Faunus alive. A deputy head teacher had been accused of corrupting the minds of the young and being a FJW. The other two had similar stories, although the humans who had told them to leave had plausibly been doing so to save their lives rather than to threaten them.

The teacher said, "Most humans in Watanabe aren't bad people. They're just frightened and don't think anyone cares for them. Unemployment is high; no one wants to invest, and there's no overtime unless you work for the police. They feel poorer than last year and blame us for taking jobs."

The water technician grunted, "My wife's parents had relatives at Kulsa. It's amazing what good people can convince themselves is the right thing to do. I don't think we will ever want to go back."

Raven asked, "I assume that you were the highest-ranking Faunus in your organisations."

The four exchanged glances and nodded. Raven continued, "I know the score. You are resented by the humans who work under you and feared by those who are your superiors because you are better at the job than they are."

An even more vigorous set of nods. She would need to ask Raven about some of the implications later.

Shady asked, "Why didn't you go to the Faunus quarter?"

A Faunus, who was a consultant engineer in dust mines, said, "When push comes to shove, we don't believe that the LGDF or the police will shoot to kill other humans. We don't have guns or unlocked auras. Besides, the Grimm will be gathering, and no one believes that the LGDF have enough ammunition to repel a real attack, and to the extent they do, they will prioritise the ."

The four said that they, their families, and the others who arrived today had cars and had fled to the Branwen Tribe. If they intended to do what the police and violent humans in Watanabe said and take over the town, it needed to be done quickly. If not, they hoped they and their families would be safe with the Tribe.

Raven nodded to Shady, who said that the Tribe was integrated and not an instrument of Faunus' vengeance. Raven then added that the Tribe was, despite its reputation, a good neighbour and would not tolerate behaviour which attracted Grimm from scores of miles around.

Raven looked at them and said, "The Badlands is still poor overall, but things are better than when I took over. We are establishing schools and trade. I want to help the people of the Badlands develop some infrastructure. The Badlands need people like you who can run schools, manage water supplies, establish a power grid, and keep Dust mines working. If you work, you will be well-fed, have good jobs, and be safe from Grimm. Accommodation is available for people with skills like yours, which I believe you will find satisfactory."

The Faunus looked minded to accept the offer but asked for time to consider it.

The teacher said, "I think others will be fleeing on foot in the next few days."

Shady said, "And you will be worried about the Grimm?"

"Yes."

Raven said, "If they reach the forest, we can protect them from there if we can use your cars to ferry them up the road to this camp. We will see what we can do about protecting the roads before they get to the forest."

A pause, "There's enough work to do in the Badlands for double the people who live here now, and we are expecting good harvests. If anyone who flees is prepared to work, then they will be fed and protected from Grimm. We have plenty of tents, and depending on what work they can do, we may be able to find them flats, houses, or barracks to live in."

A pause. "I am responsible for the Tribe and the Badlands and take my duties seriously. It's a tough love because there was no other option when I came back, and it's better that people know where they are with me. Simple rules. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. I tear people off a strip if they muck up, but I allow them to redeem themselves, provided that they don't lie to me and work diligently. I don't promise much, but what I do promise, I deliver."

After they had left, Emma turned to Raven and asked, "What are you going to do about Watanabe?"

"It's a town of twenty thousand people, most of whom think that I am an evil woman. What I said to those civilians was true. We need well-educated, well-trained, and hard-working people in the Badlands, and if Faunus flee the town, we will take most of them in."

She smiled ruefully, "Between the Tribes and Mistral, this area is so impoverished that the only way is up."

"But can you really let the town destroy itself?"

"If they aren't willing to do the minimum that would force Mistral or the governor to help them, why would they listen to me? I don't want to have to kill three thousand people to establish order. What was that quote from King Oswald a thousand years ago – they make a desert and call it peace?"

Emma must have failed to hide her surprise at the Bandit queen quoting the classics. Raven laughed, "I enjoyed the history and politics lessons at Beacon. Most students were comfortable enough and were treated well enough that they either regarded the status quo as being basically OK and just needed tweaking or thought that they could have a polite rebellion which changed the bad things and kept the good. My brother and I didn't come from that background and had fewer illusions. Life is hard, and you can't have a revolution without killing thousands."

Raven paused, "I want you to join the Tribe. You still have a lot of work to do on your powers, but you will get there. From what you have said about your predecessor, she was a brave woman but spent too much of her time postponing the inevitable by fighting in areas which were failing anyway and with only one other person at a time."

Raven looked steadily at Emma. "Culling Grimm regularly as part of the Branwen tribe's forces can really make a difference to the lives of all the people in the Branwen Protectorate. You and I, working in tandem with my fighters, can keep the Grimm under control and give the people a chance to build a better life for themselves. They will be better off, be better protected, and they will pay less in tribute to us than they did in taxes to Mistral."

Emma had no hesitation in saying, "Yes, at least for the next few years. I want to make the best use of my powers."

Raven nodded, "You do know that I trusted you today by showing you my semblance. It's called Kindred Spirit and originally only worked on my brother and parents over a limited difference. Now, it works on many members of the Tribe, and as you see, I can use it over a few miles. It is still mostly a secret, mainly because no one outside the Tribe knows it for certain and because there are so many rumours about my semblance that it gets lost in the mix. The tribe started most of them as it amuses them. It's best that it stays that way, for similar reasons to why it is best that people assume you have a weather semblance which is evolving rather than the living incarnation of a legend."

She nodded. She didn't quite understand, but she would trust Raven's judgement.

Raven relaxed, "I'll call Vernal in and get her to bring us some more wine and perhaps some cheese on toast."

She did so and then asked, "I'm curious about what Wendy's apprentice and that professor said to you that night after you became a Maiden. You seemed ready to admit that I wasn't as evil as my publicity makes out, but it was clear that they warned you not to come here."

Raven then paused, "You did say, Professor Pink? Not "Tally Ho" Pink? Does he still dress us in his foxhunting gear and blow the horn."

Emma laughed, "Yes, but only on special occasions and when commentating on the Mistral regionals."

"And he's a professor now? Well, no doubt he's better than most and at least he isn't up himself. He should have studied at Beacon."

"Why do you say that?"

"The costume was a steal from the upper middle class in Vale a century ago, and anyone who introduces himself as "almost a gentleman" has far too much self-deprecation to belong in Mistral."

"He respects you as a fighter and a person. He told me I shouldn't go to the Badlands and that you had good reasons for not trusting huntsman and huntresses."

"I believe that he respects me as a fighter and that he told you not to come here, but I wasn't expecting him to respect me as a person or to think that I was justified."

Emma thought back to the evening in Haven. Instead of going to the Black Widow, she and Lilian had gone to Professor Pink's suite in the Academy. He had opened a bottle of wine and said, "Lilian here tells me that Gwendolyn was encouraging you to go to the Badlands."

"Yes. She said she was worried about how, without hunters or the LGDF, the people could survive against the Grimm."

"I worry about that too. Even knowing what I know about the Branwen Tribe, I don't see how they can patrol that size of territory. They don't have bullheads or the mechanics to service them. It's just that she has good reason not to trust Mistral or huntsmen. I wouldn't if I was her."

Lilian said, "I know you've hinted at that in the past, and you were there when the army went in three years back."

"My uncle also worked for the MBAD in the Badlands for six years, and I joined him after I got my license. Fortunately for both of us, we resigned six months before Raven Branwen came back."

"Resigned?" In retrospect, she wondered whether Lilian and Pink had rehearsed this bit.

"We thought that the new leadership were murdering thugs and that we would either have to disobey orders or betray our oaths of service."

Emma had said "The Headmaster said that while you can't make omelettes without breaking eggs, he did think that the chickens should survive the process."

Pink nodded, "My uncle said that there is a difference between bending the rules and ignoring them entirely. He also said the changes were unnecessary as we were winning in the Badlands using Headmaster Moriarty's strategy, which his successor had continued. We were reducing their sphere of influence, had a network of informers who told us where they were planning raids, played the four tribes against each other, and were encouraging desertions. It wasn't as though the Bandit tribes had popular support. Perhaps the headmaster's successor bent the rules more than the headmaster did, but he did not break them."

"So what changed?" Again, Lilian must have been feeding him the lines.

Pink opened another bottle. "The headmaster's successor died in a bullhead accident, and the new leadership consisted of men in their late thirties who were in a hurry. They also had a particular hatred for the Branwen Tribe. The new boss had a fixation on the evils of miscegenation and Faunus and human interbreeding. The Branwen Tribe was the only one of the four tribes with a sizeable Faunus membership. The second in command had a personal reason to hate the Qrow and Raven Branwen and took it out on the Tribe."

Emma summarised this conversation and then said to Raven. "Pink said that he believes if they'd carried on with the old strategy, you wouldn't have returned."

Raven looked at her, took a swig of wine and said, "If the Tribe had surrendered and variously became farmers, joined the LGDF or scattered throughout Remnant, then they would have been alive, and I would have had no need to return. I also believed that what Alice says about why they sent me and my brother to Beacon was correct – the old chief knew we were trouble."

She paused, "I know about the Faunus-hating stuff, and if Pink and Lilian told you that they thought the atrocities against the old and young Faunus civilians of the Tribe were enough to justify my return and my revenge, then I see no reason to detail them."

"Pink said he would have made the same call if he had been you. Lilian agreed."

Raven paused, "Two things interest me. Why didn't he whistle blow, and what did he say about the second in command?"

Emma recalled the conversation at Haven. Professor Pink had said, "My uncle and I reported to the headmaster what was being proposed and what they thought would happen. The headmaster tried to tell people that a mistake was being made and that it would be bad for Mistral's reputation."

He had taken a large sip and looked thoughtful, "The problem was that you needed to know the people involved to know that when they said enhanced interrogation techniques, they meant torture and mutilation; that when they said that the MBAD would use lethal force if tribe members resisted arrest, it meant shoot to kill and then lie that the dead had been a clear and present danger to the MBAD forces and that protecting the young from being corrupted meant kidnapping children. The tactic of divide and rule was one we had used before. Targeting one tribe to destroy totally and then threatening the other three that the process would be repeated on them also made some sense. Choosing the tribe with the most Faunus should have been a red flag."

Lilian said, "I can see that you couldn't say that they were sociopaths directly."

"We pointed out the dangers of the new policies. It was made clear to the headmaster and my uncle that they were no longer members of the MBAD, that the new leadership was going to be allowed to follow their instincts and that the government had confidence in their ability to control their men."

Emma had asked, "Why didn't they try again after the policy had started?"

"Our only chance was to nip it in the bud before it happened, according to Moriarty. Once it had started, too many people would have a vested interest in covering it up. Besides, if it worked, it would work quickly. If successful, no one would want to rock the boat, and there would be no point in crying about spilt milk."

Lilian said, "If I recall, the hardliners had the whip hand in the government at the time."

Pink nodded, "If we had made a fuss when the first reports came, it would have made no difference and been seen as political opportunism. Whistleblowers always get punished more than the people they try to expose, and our careers would have been over. We also didn't expect them to go as far as they did and certainly not to take pictures and boast about their actions as openly as they did. By the time Raven Branwen returned, even the MBAD's cheerleaders in the government were getting cold feet about the carte blanche they had been given and their lack of shame. Complaints had come in from Atlas and Vale, and Ghira Belladonna came back from Menagerie to kick-start the Faunus civil rights movement."

Raven reacted by saying, "It was worse than a crime; it was an error. Fine, I know enough about Mistral politics to see the reasoning. I don't have to like it, but at least they tried. However, if the system is broken, then men and women of goodwill are useless. The second in command?"

"His nephew on his sister's side was William Blonde. He was Professor Pink's teammate in your first Vytal Festival."

"Oh. That explains it. Still, the man was asking for it."

Emma recalled Professor Pink's description of the lead-up to and the fight itself. It had the feel of a story that the man had told often.

"In my first Vytal Festival we met Team STRQ in the quarter finals group round. We had both won our first two matches in that round, so both teams were going to the semi-finals to face the two teams coming from the other group. No one knew quite how good Team STRQ were. The Haven team they had humiliated in the first team round was the fourth-seeded team and had not been expected to progress. Still being knocked out in thirty seconds was a worse show than had been expected. They had just done the business in their previous fights other than the one against the Haven Team. It was clear that Team STRQ were pretty good."

He paused, "My team leader was seen as a real contender that year. The fact that the Branwen twins came from a bandit tribe was seen as a scandal, and there was a lot of anger directed at Beacon from Mistral for allowing them in as students and then entering them for the festival. William had been impolite to their team leader before the festival. When the quarter-final draw was announced, William insisted that our strongest team should face Team STRQ. When they chose the Branwen twins to fight us, it was seen as a grudge match. My partner started the trash-talking by announcing that he would make the criminals grovel and eat Qrow Pie."

Emma did not get the reference and asked, "Trash talking?"

"Professional wrestling and boxing were popular at the time, and it helped sell tickets if the opponents insulted each other. I was embarrassed by it and apologised to their Team Leader about my partner having started it. Certainly, in any interview I gave, I was scrupulously polite about Team STRQ and the Branwen twins. After all, I am almost a gentleman."

Lilian nodded, "Perhaps you should tell Emma where that phrase came from?"

"I only got into Haven because Commander Moriarty (as he was then) pulled strings as a favour to my uncle, including persuading William's uncle that I would be a good best-supporting fighter to get his nephew through to the Vytal Festival semi-finals. Someone insulted me by saying that I wasn't a proper Mistralian gentleman in my first term. Rather than complain or be offended, I tried to make a joke of it by saying that I was almost a gentleman, and the college bar laughed with me rather than at me."

A rueful smile, "I never expected it to catch the popular imagination, but it connected with people. It did mean that I had a sympathy for people who were taunted for being inferior in some way."

Emma asked, "So how did the Branwens' respond?"

"Qrow Branwen responded in kind to William on the day of the fight. William came from a more politically important family than mine and did not react well to not being treated with the respect he believed he was due."

Emma had said, "I was too young to really take in that fight. I do remember that you lost, but they didn't show much of the fight on the highlight show the morning afterwards. I don't remember William at all."

Both Lilian and Pink laughed, and Pink said, "In the pre-fight interviews, William should have ignored Qrow Branwen when he called him Wee Willy Bland. When he tried correcting him, Qrow just put his hand up towards William's face and said, "It doesn't matter what your name is", and gave him a look which suggested my teammate had farted."

Lilian giggled, "The Vale audience lapped it up, and I remember William went bright red."

Pink continued, "Qrow then announced that Wee Willy was oven-ready and would be trussed and stuffed in the fight. He finished off by saying, "Do you smell what the Qrow is cooking."

Lilian said, "That fight was the most watched one of the Vytal Festival that year in Mistral. Everyone wanted to see the bandit duo forced to eat Crow pie."

Pink laughed. "Didn't work out that way. I faced Raven. I quickly knew that I was going to lose. My technique was as good as hers, but she was stronger and faster than me. There was no initial sparring. She was straight in my face and never allowed me to use my ranged option. She did not humiliate me, although she could have if she had wanted to. She almost went out of her way to make me look good."

Lilian said, "Really?"

"Oh yes. It was clearly her brother's show. When she eliminated me after about seven minutes, she shook my hand and, instead of playing the numbers game, took out a letter from her pocket and ostentatiously began reading it. She did make it clear that I should not interfere with Qrow and William's battle."

"But you'd been eliminated?" Emma had expostulated.

"My partner might have preferred it if I had ended the fight by disqualifying our team. Qrow Branwen destroyed William that day. I only saw part of the fight but watched the footage afterwards. He disarmed William four times and, each time gestured to William that he should pick up his weapon. While William was doing so, the man took a swig from his hip flask. He even moved that horrifying weapon to his left hand after the second time he disarmed William, and one time used it to prevent William from being rung out. After that, he took care not to allow William to get anywhere near the edge of the arena. He kept taunting William about his promise to make the Branwen Twins grovel. He would make a gesture with his hands, suggesting that William should attack. Each time, he had a smirk on his face."

Lilian said, "It was quite a feat humiliating a hunter for twenty minutes without taking their aura below 15% level."

"In the end, Raven just shouted out "I've finished my letter, brother," and Qrow disarmed William for the fifth time and threw his weapon to Raven, who then passed it to me to hold and asked me to step outside the ring-out zone."

Lilian said, "Qrow then placed his foot on William's back and called upon him to grovel and say, "I Quit." Eventually, William did so after Raven had produced a length of rope and had trussed him up as Qrow had promised. Well, he only quit when Qrow threatened to debag him and put his underpants in his mouth."

Pink said, "William was never the same afterwards. We'd already qualified for the semi-finals, but he insisted on me fighting in the semi-final round against the Atlas champion. I was half relieved when I lost that after thirty minutes by having 2% less aura left than my opponent. I did not want any part of fighting either Branwen again."

He smiled ruefully, "Instead, of course, they brought out Summer to fight in the final that year. Wouldn't have made any difference to the result, but it would have been nice to be a Vytal Festival Finalist."

Lilian said, "Who do you think was the best fighter?"

"Summer was the best technical fighter. Raven was the strongest, and Qrow was the trickiest opponent."

Emma asked, "What happened to William?"

Lilian and Pink looked at each other, and Pink said, "He dropped out of Haven and has never left the family home since. Our team was disbanded, and we were assigned to other teams. They made me the leader of the team I was assigned to. They didn't include me in the proposed super team that would defeat Team STRQ next time, as I wasn't enough of a gentleman. We all know how badly that went."

/-/

Raven hadn't made the connection between Blonde and the deputy head of the MBAD before. Now that she thought about it, she supposed that there had been a family resemblance, but she'd only briefly seen the man in the fight, and afterwards, the grandmothers of the Tribe had taken their revenge on his body. Alice had taken his ears, but none of his extremities had escaped attention.

Qrow had decided early on that if he fought Blonde, he would teach him a lesson after he had upset Summer at the Vytal Festival Eve Ball. She didn't think there was any need to repeat to Emma what the man had said to Summer. Only Summer and the asshole knew what had happened for sure. Perhaps Pink did as he had intervened before things got really ugly, but if he had not gone into the details, neither would Raven.

That incident had resulted in her and Qrow going out of their way to make any competitor from Haven look bad. Well, not all of them. Summer had told them that Pink was one of the good guys, and she and Qrow had taken her word for it. Besides his intervention at the ball, the man had been polite in his dealings with Team STRQ and was self-evidently not part of the Mistral elite. All of Team STRQ had been happy for Qrow to humiliate William Blonde. They hadn't expected it to end the man's career but would have been delighted that it had. They'd chosen Qrow because he was better at getting under people's skins than Raven.

She knew she was interested in learning from Emma/Debbie what Pink had to say about the army intervention three years ago, but it was getting late. She had enough on her plate tomorrow already without raising more ghosts from the past. Besides, she might need that conversation to happen later to deal with any doubts that the new Spring Maiden might have when the Branwen Tribe took over more of Kurohari province.

She looked out of the tent and called Vernal to bring Shady and her other lieutenants into the tent for a meeting. The young girl raced to obey her. Not for the first time, Raven doubted her insistence to herself that Vernal was not a surrogate for Yang. Not for the first time, she dismissed the thought immediately.

She told herself that she would do what she was going to do because it was best for the Tribe if Watanabe could be taken without any more looting and with as much of its original population alive as possible. She needed to know what was happening in the town to achieve that.

Before Shady arrived, Raven said, "I do have a potential plan for saving most of Watanabe from itself. It may involve you going to Watanabe and speaking to that Major you saw five days ago. You'll have to pretend that your disguise as a travelling musician worked and that you haven't met me but that Shady has asked you to pass on a message. That Major doesn't sound like a total jerk and may prefer to save lives more than he wants to protect his career."

"What do you think went wrong?"

"My bet is that the police chief obeyed the letter but not the spirit of his instructions. He was told not to arrest Faunus "Troublemakers" to avoid raising tensions in the town. He probably told his men and mates what had been said at the meeting, that the government was selling them out and was too soft on the Faunus. He should have known what that would do to tensions in the town."

"You can't be serious."

"Too many of my best fighters are Faunus or poor humans from towns where the police are the most ruthless gang in town. Not all are like that, but enough are. Wouldn't surprise me if the mayor was a reform candidate who was trying to rein in the police chief."

"Oh."

"If I had to be charitable, he may not have expected things to get out of hand, but he should have. He probably did not think at all."