AN: The last upload of A Man of No Tribe. We made it.

This first section is the document that Jaune acquired from Torchwick back during the V2 arc. We read it in the story through Pyrrha's eyes, but that was a redacted version. I've been waiting so long to show you guys the full version. I have only changed one thing, and that was renaming one of Jaune's sisters from Susan to Saphron to line it up with the show. That detail is irrelevant in the big picture, as all you guys saw before was 'S. Arc,' but hey, consistency with the show is good.

Birds of a Feather

Operator: James Ironwood

Designation of Operator: Specialist; Atlas Academy Headmaster

Report Type: Intelligence Compilation – CLOSED

Subject: Arc

Security Level: Atlas Academy Headmaster's Eyes Only

Tags: Arc; Foreign Espionage Agents (FEA); Mistral; Haven; Maiden, Spring; Grimm; Vale; Archived; Assassination; Magic; Great War, the;

Persons: Witch, the; Wizard, the; Lionheart, Leonardo; Arc, Julius; Arc, Turquoise; Arc, Kathryn; Arc, Rebecca; Arc, Saphron; Arc, Vernal; Arc, Joyce; Arc, Belle; Arc, Kaitlyn; Arc, Janna; Unknown #1; Unknown #2; Unknown #3; Unknown #4; Unknown #5;

This report is to serve as the sealing document for the entire topic of 'Arc,' in accordance with Atlas protocol. This document will be redacted heavily.

The first verified use of the term 'Arc' was around 200 years ago as a designation, although common theory speculates that the term is older than that. It is known that 'Arc' is a family line dating back to Vale's earliest protectors, to the time where knights served in roles occupied by Huntsmen today; it is speculated that the Arc lineage is related directly to an incarnation of the Wizard, though unconfirmed.

As knights were phased out of use, the Arc clan largely disappeared from the public eye, and strong intelligence suggests that this was to form Remnant's oldest active espionage society. This is speculated to have happened 60 to 70 years prior to the Great War, and seeing how very little is known about the Arcs from the inception of their espionage society until the Great War, it can be assumed that they were successful. Common speculation puts it that the Arcs were the greatest spy ring Remnant has ever seen, and that they worked as the left hand of the Wizard.

During the Great War, one man with the name 'Arc' publicly emerged to play a significant role for Vale's forces: Julius Arc. Julius Arc's weapon has been the subject of much exaggeration, but most accounts of it confirm the double-crescent symbol used by the Arcs in the time of knights, providing the only definitive link between the Arc clan symbol and the descendant Arcs.

After the Great War, the Wizard focused his energy on building four Huntsmen Academies across Remnant; during this time, early Mantle intelligence reports document a break between the Arcs and the Wizard. The cause of this development is unknown, but from this point on, the Arcs refused to work with the Wizard, and as a result were susceptible to targeting by the Witch.

In the 80 years since the erection of the Huntsmen Academies, Mantle and Atlas intelligence reports tracking the Arcs show a record of dwindling numbers, leading up to four years prior to this report. After that point, Atlas has no further record of any Arc activity. It was known that the Witch's forces had increased their efforts to hunt down the remaining Arcs, and conventional wisdom suggested that the Arcs had gone completely underground in hiding.

At the time of their disappearance, nine Arcs remained in one family unit: Turquoise and Kathryn, and their seven daughters, Rebecca, Saphron, Vernal, Joyce, Belle, Kaitlyn, and Janna.

It is known now that their disappearance was facilitated by Headmaster Leonardo Lionhart of Haven Academy. Despite his connections to the Wizard, Lionhart worked to facilitate the disappearance of the Arcs alone. Proprietary Atlas reports suggest that Lionheart's Spring Maiden was Vernal Arc, offering insight into Lionheart's decision to keep his involvement hidden. It is believed that the Wizard was unaware.

On August 12th of this year, Atlas was notified by Beacon Academy and the Wizard that the Arcs had been located in a remote location in Mistral, and aid was requested in their recovery and protection. On August 13th, two of Beacon's agents arrived on location to find a cabin burnt to ashes, with 13 corpses found in varying states:

The bodies of Turquoise, Rebecca, and Saphron were found on the ground surrounding the cabin; analyzation of their wounds indicates death by impaling.

The body of Kathryn was found on the ground surrounding the cabin; cause of death is confirmed as beheading, though her leg and arm were severed before this.

The bodies of three unknown persons, designated as Unknown #1, #Unknown 2, and Unknown #3, were found on the ground surrounding the cabin. #1 had been eviscerated, #2 had been impaled through the throat with his arm severed, and #3 had been cut in half at her waist.

Six sets of charred remains were recovered from the burnt cabin. Three are confirmed to be the youngest Arc girls by their small size, with two more assumed to be the middle Arc twins, Vernal and Joyce Arc. The sixth set of remains is assumed to be a fourth assailant, designated as Unknown #4, as this one was still pinned upright against a stone fireplace by a charred Fire-dust blade, missing its handle.

It is important to note that no DNA records of any Arc member exist, so verification of identities of the charred bodies is not possible. Neither Vernal nor Joyce Arc are confirmed dead, though it is the opinion of this organization that they are. Unknown #4 did not match any records also.

The lack of survival of any Arc, in tandem with tracking evidence from the scene, suggests that at least one assailant survived, designated Unknown #5. It is possible that Unknown #5 could be more than one person.

No evidence from Atlas or her allies suggests that the Maiden Powers have been captured by the Witch; their inheritor is believed to be random, and a search across Mistral has been enacted as a joint operation between all Kingdoms. It was reported than an inordinate surplus of high-level Grimm were found within the area, and Grimm are suspected to have interfered in the attack, but any involved Grimm evaporated before arrival.

It is the opinion of this agency that all members of the Arc family lineage have been killed. As such, this topic has been officially sealed as a closed matter, pending further redactions.

Qrow sighed to himself as he made his way into the low-end bar. He was freely willing to admit that while being the high-functioning alcoholic that he was brought him to establishments like this often, his work for Ozpin brought him to places like this almost as often as he would go anyways. Not just a bar, but a known hang-out for criminals, and almost certainly a criminal front. It was the sort of place criminals went because they knew they could cut loose or talk business, since they practically ran the place and had most of the patrons on their payroll.

Qrow went to these places a lot back when he was undercover. The sign on the door caught his attention. No Faunus. Given that this place was rumored to have been chosen by Roman Torchwick as a watering hole ever since staking a claim on Mistral's criminal empires, Qrow found this sign funnier than he did revolting or sad. It was about as far as the thief could have gone from running the White Fang, to the point that it had to be deliberate. "Guess the kid's stories about Torchwick weren't wrong…"

He walked in and immediately felt eyes on him. Ugly types, mostly, and the looks he received matched that. Thugs and ruffians didn't stop what they were doing to stare at him, but things certainly slowed down as he strolled forward to the bar. The bartender noticed him and moved to receive him wordlessly, and there was a tension to his movements. Everyone here had no doubts that a Huntsman had just walked into their hangout. What they didn't know was that as long as they left him alone, he didn't care what they were up to.

He had far eviler things he was prepared to deal with.

Qrow stopped right in front of the bartender, staring him down. Before he could even speak, the bartender nodded towards the stairwell that led to, probably, some private rooms upstairs. He'd taken one look and Qrow and known who he was here for. The Huntsman blamed the family resemblance for that. Had to be the eye color.

Sure enough, the entire upstairs area was empty, save for one person. Sat at the far end was a very miserable-looking sister of his, with more than enough to drink sitting in front of her.

Qrow thought up all manner of snappy one-liners that would really dig into his bitch of a sister's spirits as he walked over. Bile boiled inside him as he got closer. This was the woman who had claimed to love their team. Qrow had believed her, and still might—to this day he wasn't sure, which was all the more reason to hate the bitch. She had loved Tai, though. He was certain of that.

She left anyways.

She'd loved her daughter, too—Qrow had seen the way Raven looked at Yang. When she thought no one was around and it was just her and her newborn daughter swindled in her arms, the look on Raven's face was impossible to fake. It was a sight that Qrow had never expected to see in his life.

She still left.

Not just that, but then she left her life as a Huntress behind and went back to the fucking tribe. As if just leaving wasn't enough, she chose to go back to what she was doing before her new life as a Huntress. Qrow had thought that there was nothing more Raven could do to live down the life she'd left behind, and that infuriated him, but he was so wrong. She didn't just leave; she tried to replace what she had with a new kid. Tried to start over, only taking the things she liked from each of her lives.

Raven tried to change the way the world worked by eliminating the need for herself to sacrifice. And it had come back to haunt more than just her. That part, Qrow was learning to hate more than anything. Despite the rocky history between him and Jaune, Qrow was willing to admit that he didn't deserve what happened to him.

And yet, instead of expressing all the hate that his sister deserved, Qrow walked up, took a seat opposite from her, and poured himself a drink.

He felt guilty, now, and that ate away at him from the inside. His anger fizzled out.

"Fuck off," Raven's voice broke the silence. It was a bit raspy and her speech was slow. She'd been drinking for a while now, not that Qrow needed the confirmation. Raven had no-showed any of the final negotiation sessions with the Council, instead sending Vernal — or whatever her real name is — in her stead. A tactical mistake on Raven's part, as the Council took offense to it and Vernal was forced to give up a few of the Tribe's demands in order to get the deal done.

"I take it you're celebrating your new position?" Qrow asked gleefully. Okay, so maybe he wasn't going to be completely graceful about this. This bitch deserved anything Qrow could give to her and more, after all. "You're basically the protectorate of half of Mistral now. Isn't that exciting?"

"Fuck. off." Raven never took her eyes off of the glass in front of her. Her cheeks were almost as red as her eyes, a sign of the work the alcohol was doing. Those very eyes seemed to be glassed over.

Raven Branwen was drowning in pervasive thoughts and whiskey. Qrow never thought he'd see the day…

"If you're looking for sympathy, you're not going to get a lot from me," Qrow stated simply, before reaching over to grab the open bottle in front of Raven. There was an empty fifth on the floor behind her, making the fact that this one was half-empty—and the fact that Raven was conscious, much less sitting upright—impressive to even Qrow. He wondered if she'd downed it so fast that it hadn't kicked all the way in yet.

Raven angrily tried to snatch the bottle away before Qrow could take it. It was petty and she was clearly lashing out, but the attempt was pitiful. In her state, Qrow had the bottle in his hand and on his side of the table before Raven even swung. Once her attempt failed, she slumped back down in her chair in some sort of angry pout, before glaring back at her glass. She made a point never to look up and make eye contact.

"If you're looking for a fight, I'll still kick your ass like this," Raven hissed, mimicking her brother's words. Maiden's flames framed her eyes, though she continued to stare at the glass instead of looking up at Qrow menacingly. He caught on that she had no real appetite for a fight, despite her anger. That anger wasn't directed externally, it appeared.

Qrow poured himself a glass and downed it in one go. He had a ways to go before he was even buzzed, and he wasn't about to let his sister out-drink him, now was he? "What makes you think I'm here for that?"

"Why else would you be here?" she asked lowly.

Not long ago, seeing his sister like this would have been one of the highlights of his life. The term 'comeuppance' wasn't strong enough to describe what she deserved for what she did to Tai, Yang, Summer…

Now? Now, guilt gnawed at Qrow. He had hated her so much for leaving Tai that he was fine to cut her out of his life completely — working with her for Oz made that hard, but it gave him an avenue to express to her daily how much he hated her for it. Once Summer died, that stance only hardened, and even thought Qrow didn't get a chance to show her his contempt daily, he liked to believe that Raven could feel how much he hated her. Call it a twin link or something.

Qrow had never stopped to ask if Raven might have needed him. He knew that Summer had desperately tried to convince her to stay, but he wasn't the same as Summer. He knew Raven, and understood the way she thought in ways that Summer just wasn't capable of. Yet it never occurred to him that maybe — just maybe — he could have helped her. After all, she ran away and immediately began trying to fill the void that she had created by doing so. What if all it would have taken to bring her back was one simple conversation with her? One act of forgiveness? If he'd swallowed his pride and anger and gone to her with the intention of helping her — of trying to get her to realize just how much she wanted what she left — would she have stayed gone? Or would she have come back?

Had Qrow gotten over himself and at least tried, maybe his team would have been whole once more. Maybe she would have brought the children she was raising in the Tribe with her. Jaune and even Vernal might have had a chance at a normal life, not… whatever it is that they got. An opportunity not explored, but one that ate away at Qrow each time he saw Yang fighting to fix Jaune. That it had taken Qrow this long in his life to see it embarrassed him.

Qrow felt guilty. It was time to at least try.

"Maybe I'm just here to check on my baby sister," he responded softly, giving Raven as friendly of a cheeky grin as he was capable of giving to this woman.

"I'm older than you," Raven responded gruffly, seemingly annoyed at Qrow for forgetting or, more likely in her mind, for trying to take the title from her while she was too drunk to notice.

"We don't know that for sure," Qrow mediated. It was the same old line he had always used, and it had always rung a little flat. That didn't matter right now as much as just getting Raven to focus on anything else did. If he had to get teased as the younger twin, well, that was fine. His pride would survive, he was sure. "Not like we ever got to ask our mother or anything."

Growing up orphans in the Tribe, they hadn't ever known their parents. It was something that Qrow and Raven honestly never cared about—or at least Qrow didn't. Parenting was apparently now a touchy topic for his sister, so he couldn't be certain that she wasn't secretly harboring resentment towards the world for her upbringing. That didn't feel like Raven's style, though; if she resented you, she let you know about it. Raven certainly didn't act like she hated the world for its cruelty. Small mercies, Qrow thought.

Raven went silent at the word 'mother,' and Qrow mentally kicked himself. Can't blame that one on my Semblance, either. No, looks like the subtle approach was out.

"I'm not actually sure if you are a better mother than ours was," Qrow pondered, acting like he didn't know the bear he was poking. "I mean, for all we know, she traded two babies for a pack of cigarettes. I certainly have no memory of our actual parents. Do you?" He knew the answer to that. They had been abandoned young — young enough that Raven didn't have a portal to their mother, or at least to their mother's final resting place like she has with Summer. Their mom had left before imprinting anything on Raven.

Raven's offered no reply other than seething silence. If she could make the glass she was staring at explode just by looking at it, Qrow was certain the thing would shatter.

He kept going. He needed to keep digging in the wound until he found the bullet. That was the only way to get it out.

"Yeah, I thought not," Qrow drawled, pretending to be upset that she wasn't answering. Raven's hatred grew. "She definitely gets no points as a mother. You left Yang behind too, though, so maybe the shit's genetic or something…"

Qrow almost flinched as he said the words. An angry, hot breath of air shot out of Raven's nostrils as she tried to find some way of being any angrier without spontaneously exploding.

"If that's where it ended, I would say it's a tie, but you had to go and make things interesting." He paused and checked in his target. The pot boiled, but he needed it to spill over. He kept going. "Raising a second kid after leaving the first? Shit, you lose points for that but get some back because you're still raising a kid. So… still at zero, I'd say."

Raven let out another angry breath, this time struggling to maintain control of her breathing. The table popped from where she gripped the rim.

"The shit you put that poor kid through, though, that's gotta make you lose points. So I guess our mom wins."

She was so close. Qrow needed more than just a push.

"Actually, Jaune might not turn out that bad, and that's coming from me. Could even end up doing some good for the world if he sticks with it."

That got a reaction out of Raven. Her neck twitched in his direction and she had to fight her impulses to continue glaring at her glass. He was under her skin now, that much was clear. Time for the final blow.

"I guess that, if your children are kept far away from you as possible, then you aren't a fucking horrible excuse for a mom, sis—"

Raven exploded out of her seat at him, with one of her spare knives in her hand. The absolute fury in her eyes was only dulled by how much alcohol swam there still. Her move would have had no chance on landing even if Qrow had been surprised, but seeing as he was waiting for it, it failed spectacularly.

She tried to stab his face in a fit of rage, and Qrow caught her wrist easily, stopping it in mid-air. She was out of position and had no business throwing that attack so recklessly, and would have been embarrassed of the effort if she were even a little sober. Qrow crossed that arm across her body as he slammed her wrist down on the table, forcing her in an awkward state. His other arm snaked out, grabbed her glass, and threw the contents in Raven's face.

Raven's cry—either surprise or pain from whiskey to the eyes—was cut off as he folded the arm he had a grasp off and slammed Raven's face down onto the table. He put his weight into her back to keep her on the table, but to his surprise, she didn't fight back or struggle. The knife she'd gone at him with was in his free hand now and he could have ended her right there, and Raven Branwen wasn't fighting back against it.

Her eyes were squeezed shut, and he could feel sharp sobs wrack her chest as she tried to suppress her cries.

Qrow had no fucking clue what to do from there. He'd been hoping that he'd knock some sense into her with the tough love approach, because honestly, he didn't think he was capable of any other love for his sister. Even his tough love approach had devolved into him twisting the knife in her wounds — figuratively — before throwing alcohol in her eyes and slamming her against a table.

With a sad sigh, he released his pressure and helped Raven back into her seat. Some part of him couldn't bear to see his sister like this. He'd never, in his life, expected to see his sister like this. Qrow tossed a napkin over to her to wipe the tears and whiskey from her face, making a show of standing up and walking around with his back to her as he did so. It was to protect what little pride in herself that Raven had left, and they both knew that, but Qrow couldn't bring himself to take last shred of dignity from Raven.

He wanted to. He just found that he couldn't. Not even Raven deserved for him to stoop that low.

Qrow returned to his seat a minute or two later, once Raven had recollected herself. His mind had been spinning the whole time, and the theories he had held about his sister as recently as when he strolled into the room were unraveling. She was hurting, which meant that she did, in some way, care. That she recognized what she did was wrong, or that she regretted it, or that it was a mistake. That didn't fit with any of Qrow's theories on who Raven Branwen was prior to just now.

"You saw nothing," Raven stated bitterly. It came out limp and pathetic. Her voice was not smooth by a long shot, and at least she could blame it on the alcohol, even if they both knew that wasn't why her voice had hitched.

Still, he played along. Humored her. "Saw what?" Raven glared at him limply, thinking him to be mocking her. He wasn't, and he was going to let her have whatever dignity she held on to, but Raven clearly didn't trust him on that.

Qrow wanted to press her on it then and there, but decided against it. Instead, he shifted the topic in a way that he could still get a point across, but also let Raven calm down a little further before getting to why he was here.

"Do you remember when Ozpin gave us our powers?" he asked leadingly.

Raven's lips drew into a tight frown and she looked at him with flat irritation. "I'm not in the mood to have this story thrown in my face again."

"I'm serious, Rae," Qrow pushed sincerely. In the past, he had loved to tell the story as a way to humiliate Raven, but he was going somewhere else with this. "Do you remember it?"

"Hmmph," Raven responded gruffly.

"Ozpin gave us the ability to turn into birds. I remember flying down to peck at Tai like the asshole I was." Am, Qrow's mind supplied helpfully; the asshole I am. "You? You flew straight up, higher than any normal Raven would ever fly. You went so high that you ran out of oxygen and passed out."

Qrow tried to make his voice light and humorous in a way that wouldn't come across as mocking, but Raven seethed at him, still expecting this to just be about him rubbing salt in her wounds.

"Can't use Aura if you're unconscious, and I wasn't good enough as flying to catch you out of terminal velocity. If Goodwitch hadn't been out there in Beacon's courtyard, you would have died as a bird, not ten minutes after being granted that ability."

"Is there a point to this?" she growled.

"Just because you're free to do something doesn't mean you should," Qrow answered, summarizing what he was getting at because he could tell if he went any longer, Raven would tune out. "That, and it shows who you are. You push boundaries almost as if you need to push them. You fly higher than you should, you grow stronger than you should—" Qrow tapped besides his eye to make it clear what that implied, "—you take more than you should, and you try to control the world around you more than you should."

"And?" she asked resentfully. He knew that she could see his point. That last line was too obvious not to.

"Sometimes boundaries push back."

"You must be enjoying this," Raven accused, snapping out of her trance to glare at him. He was on the right track if he was getting under her skin like this. That she felt the need to make Qrow the subject instead of herself meant that she didn't want to examine herself. She knew what she would find. "Seeing me like this. After all I've done to make you hate me, this must just be glorious for you, huh?"

"I thought it would be," Qrow answered gruffly. Raven couldn't detect any lie there, but found herself struggling to reconcile with that. Qrow wasn't enjoying this? If nothing else, at least he wasn't the only one who didn't understand the other now. "You actually liked the kid, huh?"

"What sort of stupid fucking question is that?!" Raven raised her voice in reply. "Did I 'like' the kid? The one I raised, despite Salem hunting for him and the risk that put on me? The one that I restructured my whole fucking Tribe just to try to keep around?!"

Qrow let her settle down from her outburst, and Raven realized that she was making a point through her response. It wasn't the point she was trying to make, though.

"So why'd you do it?"

"Do wha—?"

"You know what," Qrow cut off her stupid deflection before it got out of her mouth. "The kid's sister."

Raven went silent. Her eyes trailed down guiltily until she was staring at the whiskey stains on the table from where Qrow had thrown her drink in her face.

"Why'd you kill her?" Qrow asked. He wasn't sure he knew the answer to that one, but he knew that he had to find out.

"So that's why y-you're here," Raven slurred, starkly reminding Qrow of how inebriated she was. The fact that it hadn't been obvious until now meant that she'd been fighting hard to appear normal — to hide weakness. Now, either her control had been broken, or the alcohol had finally won out. "Find me when I'm weak and… and pry it out of me. Anything I say's going right back to them, isn't it?"

"No, it's not," Qrow stated softly. He knew Raven wouldn't believe him, but he meant it. As much as he wanted to get Raven to say something that would perfectly fix everything for Jaune and Yang, he wasn't here for them anymore. This was a Branwen matter. He was here for Raven's sake.

A shiver ran down his spine as he admitted that to himself.

"I'll give you my word that nothing you say here is ever mentioned again, to anyone."

Raven stared at him curiously, her vision struggling to focus on him. She might have even believed the offer.

"S-Swear it," she demanded, "on Summer's grave."

Despite her state, Raven could still stare her brother down to see if he would fold.

"Do you mean that literally…?"

Raven pushed herself to her feet—which was a bad idea, as she very nearly bit the dust, catching herself on the table at the last second. Once she realized that she couldn't stand, she gave up on her plan to dramatically cut open a portal to Summer's final resting place. "If you need to, we can go visit it."

"That won't be necessary," Qrow dismissed, failing the fight to hide a smirk at Raven's drunkenness. "I swear on Summer's grave that everything said in this room between us stays in this room and between us," Qrow stated, only giving in to dramatic theatrics because Raven appreciated that sort of stuff. He made sure to slowly and thoroughly spell it out to her.

Raven was suspicious, but she was also drunk as hell, so that was good enough for her.

"Why'd you kill his sister?" Qrow asked, knowing that he'd either get a confession or he'd get her to set the record straight.

"I didn't," she answered back, still seemingly angry over being accused of it in the first place. "She killed herself."

"Sure," Qrow drawled, preparing to deconstruct the situation to make it painfully obvious why no one believed her the first time. "You just happen to be in the final thoughts of a suicidal ten-year-old, and then take the brother that no one knew she had and kind of raised him as your own, but hid who he was and who his sister was from him for that whole time without any apparent reason." Qrow stared at her flatly, and Raven gave in to sheepishness as she shrunk down. "That's a lot more likely than you, being the brutal Darwinist that you are, killed this child and stole her powers, and didn't want the kid you'd grown attached to finding out about it for fear he'd resent you."

Raven's silence spoke volumes. She sat there guiltily, refusing eye contact.

"Does he?" she asked weakly.

"Resent you?" Qrow asked to confirm the question. When she nodded, he shrugged. "Unclear."

That wasn't the answer Raven wanted to hear, but it was probably the best answer she could have hoped for.

"I-I really didn't kill her."

"Then why hide it?"

Qrow's question was simple, and Raven didn't want to answer it. She shied away from him, but couldn't overcome the compulsion to answer. To get it off her chest. The alcohol worked in his favor there, too.

"I hated her for it," Raven answered quietly, staring down at her lap.

When she and Qrow agreed to split up to cover more ground in their search, Raven had no intention of actually searching. She had a meeting with the Tribe soon. It was supposed to be the first step for her to come back, and once they realized how strong she'd become, it wouldn't take her long to ascend to the top. There was a chance it was an ambush, though, and Raven wanted to be fresh just in case, so rather than tire herself out by flying as fast as she could over the endless trees of Mistral, she glided lazily and drifted far out of the range she had agreed to search.

Qrow would hate her for it, she knew, and she also knew that she'd convince herself that her brother's opinions didn't matter to her. Tai would be another story, but he and Summer were already engaged. Why would he even bother coming after her, especially when Raven makes it clear that she's leaving Yang behind for good?

To Raven's surprise and distress, up in the distance a small explosion went off. More smoke followed out of it.

Raven froze. Lionheart had narrowed down their search area with reliable intel, and Raven was specifically not in that radius. They weren't supposed to be way out here, and what are the odds that this was just an unrelated explosion and fire? She couldn't afford this. She had places to be and a life to leave behind — wasting time and energy saving this stupid family that didn't want the help could cost her. Not to mention that this was no small ambush. Raven was leaving Ozpin's service entirely; why go out of her way to piss of Salem?

It didn't sit right with her on a gut level, though. Back before Beacon, she would have never had the instinct to rush in and help someone who was dying. If anything, she'd jump in on the other side and try to get some loot for herself. That was going to have to change if she really did go back to the Tribe — she couldn't afford to be soft and pathetic. Raven needed to let that part of herself die.

Curiosity, she told herself, was the reason that she investigated anyways. She made a choice not to radio it in as a compromise with the part of her that wanted to leave entirely.

There was carnage out front, pure and simple. Dead bodies and severed limps strewn all over the place. There was more red, blood-stained grass than there was green grass, though the dying flames caused by the explosion she'd seen didn't help that. Not all of the bodies were blonde Arcs, either, meaning that they'd taken some of the bastards with them.

Raven wanted to look away. The body of the family's patriarch, Turquoise Arc, struck a resemblance to Tai. Seeing him lying there lifeless and mangled made Raven's stomach turn. She forced herself to look at it, to take it in and memorize it. To let that softer side of herself die, she told herself. She didn't like it, but knew it was necessary. She needed to harden.

A scream from inside the burning cabin tore Raven's attention away. She was sprinting inside before she even realized why.

It was a little girl's scream. A pained, horrified, dying scream. All Raven could imagine was a helpless blonde-haired girl with gorgeous lavender eyes dying a painful death at the hands of Salem's assassins. It was as if the universe mocked her pathetic attempt to harden herself.

The cabin wasn't engulfed in flames yet, and had enough ventilation that smoke didn't choke Raven out as she entered. She rushed through the cabin until she came across the source of the scream.

There was a man standing in the middle of the room, with his side to her. Raven didn't know him by name but recognized him from her service to Ozpin: the man worked for Salem, if that hadn't already been obvious. The man held two twin girls in the air, one by a choking grasp on her throat and the other impaled on a spear of some sort. Blood poured down the chest of the impaled girl, and rage rose inside of Raven. The sight hit too close to home.

"Now, which one of you is the Maiden?" the man asked the girls tauntingly, looking between them expectantly. The one on his left was the only one conscious — alive — enough to recognize the question, but refused to answer.

Raven perked up at that one word.

The man watched with a malicious grin as the girl on his right very obviously expired. Her neck went limp and her head rolled forward. The sight horrified Raven. "Well, it appears that it wasn't Joyce." His eyes shifted to the other girl, who had her eyes squeezed shut. Light from the fires reflected off tear tracks for the girl. "I guess that leaves you, Vernal."

"P-Please—" the girl—Vernal, a Maiden?—choked out, only to be cut off as the man squeezed her throat tighter.

The man made a show of dropping his polearm and the body of the girl it held up. It plopped on the floor with a sickening sound.

Without warning, the man drew a dagger and plugged it into the diaphragm of the girl he held, up under the ribcages. He twisted violently as he did so, ensuring as much damage as possible. It was a technique designed to kill Aura-users, as no amount of the stuff would heal that wound fast enough to prevent death.

Raven was on him half a second later, but it was too late. The man never saw it coming and she made sure it would be his last mistake, driving a red fire-dust blade straight through the man's heart. She rammed into him and forced him back several yards until he hit the wall of the cabin. Raven disengaged her hilt and let the man dangle there on the wall, impaled through the heart.

She hadn't realized the furious scream she let out as she did so until after the fact. Clearly, Raven had a lot of work before she had cleansed herself of any softness for her old life.

Scratching on wood snapped Raven out of her thoughts. The girl, Vernal, was trying to crawl over to her dead sister.

"She's gone," Raven said, not knowing what else to say to the girl. Raven was never a very comforting person to be around, but for one of the first times, she regretted that fact. The girl's sister wasn't the only one who was gone, as Vernal would bleed out within minutes with a wound like that. It was something that nothing could save her from.

The girl looked up at her with a mix of fear and resolve in her eyes, as well as desperation. Honestly, Raven was surprised that such a small child hadn't curled up on themselves at the pain. She looked to be maybe nine, yet held Raven's gaze.

"A-Are you here to…?"

"No," Raven answered simply, sheathing her handle back in its apparatus to put the girl at ease in her final moments. "I'm not with them."

Never will be, Raven told herself. She was leaving The Game entirely.

Vernal pointed weakly towards a table. Raven followed with her eyes and spotted the huddled form of a small boy, unconscious, underneath the table. The child was the same size as Yang and was wrapped around what appeared to be a shield. Raven figured the child had been given an old shield to hide behind or hold on to while his parents fought outside. It was the last thing he'd have of them, her mind unhelpfully supplied. An image of Yang huddled under a table, crying as she held onto Raven's sword tormented her momentarily. She shook the thought away violently.

"No o-one knows about Jaune," Vernal explained weakly. Her voice was losing strength fast. "W-Will you p-protect him?"

Raven looked down to find the girl staring up at her hopefully. Raven couldn't look the girl in the eyes. She was leaving, after all. She needed to tear the softness out of herself. Bringing a child along would be the opposite of that. A child couldn't live with the Tribe, not one that was that young. She couldn't drop it off with Qrow or Tai, either, because they'd know that she found the Arcs. Raven wouldn't be allowed to leave peacefully, because the timing would forever convince Ozpin that Raven had learned something that made her leave. Or that she had been involved with why no one else had found the Arcs.

No, she was leaving and couldn't afford anyone coming after her. This wasn't worth the risk.

"P-Please!" the girl pleaded, blood starting to slowly pool in her mouth, making her cough. "He'll die!"

"Okay," Raven finally let out. She didn't look down at the girl immediately—she didn't want the girl to realize that Raven was only saying it to shut her up, and didn't mean it.

She thought that if she just waited a few seconds, the girl would be dead and Raven wouldn't be on the hook for what she was about to do: act like nothing happened. It was the only way to ensure that her plans would still work.

When she looked down, the girl was still there, still holding on to some tiny bit of strength. They met eyes briefly.

Vernal took a tiny dagger from her waist and cut her own throat, never breaking eye contact. It sped up her final moments by only a handful of seconds.

There was a flash and a rush of heat consumed Raven's body, sending cold chills down her spine that didn't make sense to her. Her muscles were rigid like she'd been electrocuted, and air swarmed around her, pushing smoke out of the way. Raven knew exactly what had just happened.

The girl had just cursed her to inherit her powers.

Powers that would haunt Raven for the rest of her life, she knew. That would ensure that both Ozpin and Salem hunted Raven endlessly once they found out.

This fucking nine-year-old had just undone every fucking thing Raven was trying to do.

How dare she? Did she think Raven wanted those powers? Strength was one thing, but strength that ensured an impossible fight always followed you was a curse, and one that she'd just been given. All because she had to investigate. Because she had to see for herself. Because she had to find that scream.

She glanced over at the unconscious boy under the table. Fuck that kid. She'd show this stupid girl. So you want to curse Raven and die before Raven could get revenge? That's fine, Raven will just let your brother die. He was low enough to the ground that the flames would get him before the smoke would, too, making it even more painful.

Raven backed away and cut open a portal to her contact in the Tribe. Fuck it, if she had these powers, then there was no reason for subtlety. It was time to burn away the chaff, both from the Tribe and herself.

She turned her back to leave through the portal, but hesitated. A small, guilty voice gnawed at her. Her soft side, she recognized. The very thing she sought to rip out of herself.

She also knew from experience that doing this would embolden that stupid guilty voice in her head by giving it real fodder to torment her with. She'd never cut out her weakness if she emboldened her conscience like this. Any time she tried, thoughts of this moment would always flash in her mind and undercut her resolve.

With a frustrated sigh, she walked over and scooped the small boy up, shield and all.

Silence settled over them. Raven hadn't told Qrow a story so much as she had just confessed something to him. Her eyes had remained locked onto the bottle on the table the whole time. She hadn't dared look him in the eye, or even risk looking in his direction. And once she had stopped talking, Qrow let the silence hang.

All things considered, what Raven did wasn't that bad, at least not by Qrow's standards for her. The thought crossed his mind that Raven might have lied, but he dismissed it. Why would she lie to him now? All she could gain were sympathy points from Qrow — which she clearly didn't care for — and all she could lose was sympathy — again, from Qrow. And Qrow knew his sister. She didn't do 'guilty' often, but it was unmistakable when she did. She wasn't lying.

Besides, she was drunk.

"Why hide it?"

The question left Qrow's lips unintentionally as he expressed his thoughts out loud. It took him a second to even realize he had said anything, because Raven didn't react. She continued to glare into the bottle, lost in her own world of introspection.

"Why didn't you tell Jaune what really happened?" Qrow asked, a little more forcefully now that he actually intended to speak. "That his sister gave you her powers, or that you avenged her?"

"It wasn't that simple," Raven let out lowly, her voice warning Qrow to back off. She already regretted opening up this much, seeing how her brother had instantly decided to criticize her.

"What's not simple about that?" Qrow asked incredulously. "You lost both him and Yang because you didn't tell him a very harmless truth. How did you not see this coming?"

Raven bristled, but refused to take her eyes off the bottle.

"I didn't—" Raven began to speak, and Qrow could tell that he was about to get an honest answer until Raven cut herself off. She bit back the words and chastised herself for even considering answering truthfully.

Qrow pushed. "You didn't what?"

A low, irritated grumble emanated from Raven, likely realizing that Qrow was going to push until he heard the rest of that answer. Begrudgingly, she gave in. "I didn't know what I wanted, okay?"

Raven spat the answer at him, hoping that her frustration and resentment would distract Qrow from how significant her words were. Her brother — wisely — bit his tongue, letting Raven feel the compulsion to explain herself. Had she looked up at him, she would have realized what he was doing, but the label of the bottle in front of her still had Raven's eyes glued to it.

"I know who you think I am," Raven growled at him. "I'm some heartless bitch who has a scheme for everything and knows exactly how to get what I want."

Raven looked up from her bottle to glare at him, challenging him to say differently. She honestly didn't expect him to challenge any of it.

"You're not heartless," Qrow corrected. Not long ago, you wouldn't have gotten him to say that with a gun to his head. Raven flinched in on herself, looking hurt by his words somehow. She looked like she didn't believe him or, maybe worse than that, that she didn't agree.

"But I am the others," Raven stated, skating around the disagreement to push her greater point. "I am a ruthless bitch who will get what she wants through any means necessary."

Again, she looked to him to challenge her words. Qrow remained silent this time, though he gave her a tight frown. He might have challenged the word 'will' in that sentence given the events of this week, but he knew there would be better times to bring that up.

Raven looked away guiltily, staring off at the floor opposite from Qrow. "I just… don't always know what I want."

Again, Qrow let the silence compel her to explain, and again, she didn't catch onto this because she couldn't bring herself to look her brother in the eye.

"I didn't know what I was doing back then, okay? I know you had this idea of me back then as the heartless woman who wanted to leave, but I didn't know what I wanted. I just know what I hated and… and what I feared." Raven struggled to say that last word, and it wasn't from any intoxication-induced slurring. Admitting fear had always been difficult for Raven, even in situations where only the insane wouldn't have been intimidated. It was a pride thing for her, and it came with their genes; Qrow struggled with it in other areas too. "I feared… I-I feared…"

She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Salem," Qrow filled in for her finally. She looked up at him in surprise, as if it had been some great secret that no one was supposed to have known. "We knew, Raven. I knew. Do you think I don't recognize the look in your eye when you're about to flee?"

Raven dropped her head.

"I feared—I feared her," Raven said finally, still avoiding a true confession of 'weakness,' "and I hated leaving. I hated being alone. I hated not having what I was giving up."

"A family," Qrow interjected softly. The pieces were starting to fit into place for him.

Raven scoffed. "I thought I was weak for wanting it. Still might, honestly," she said, her voice dropping low. "So when I had a kid who was a target for Salem and a huge reminder of the other kid I'd just left behind, you'll have to forgive me for hating the fucking thing."

Raven tried to get angry, and Qrow couldn't tell if it was at her old self for hating Jaune or if she was trying to hate Jaune. If it was the latter, she was failing at it.

"I didn't tell him because I didn't think I wanted what I ended up wanting. His sister cursed me and his existence just rubbed salt in my wounds. Why would I tell him anything? I thought I hated the kid."

"But you didn't…"

"No," she answered softly, with a hint of fondness at the memories, despite her chagrin for having to admit that she didn't know something so important. "But by the time I finally admitted that to myself, I had already dug a hole."

"You still could have told him," Qrow cut in. "He would have understood eventually."

Raven laughed darkly at her naïve brother. The sound unnerved Qrow.

"You're overestimating just how recently I realized all this."

That shut Qrow up. He'd been thinking that after a few years, Raven found herself liking Jaune. After all, she had bonded to Yang fiercely in those first few months, back before she started having doubts. For a time, it had been her and Tai happy together, and Team STRQ was on top of the world.

But if Raven really did try to live that down, then there was no telling how long she would have tried to hold it against Jaune. If it wasn't until recently that she realized her attachment to him—say, when she sent him to Beacon or just before—then the situation was a bit stickier.

Normally, Qrow would have left things there. But Raven was drunk, and if there was ever a time to push her to say more, it was now.

"When'd you realize it?"

Raven looked up at him, eyes doing their best to focus. Even drunk, she recognized an obvious fishing attempt for what it was, but after a few moments to stare him down, she gave in anyways. "A year ago," she answered with a shrug. "Or two years ago. Maybe four? It was hard to tell, okay?"

"Hard to tell? Sis, we're talking about the difference between hating someone and liking them. This isn't rocket scie—" Qrow cut himself off abruptly at the guiltily, tormented look that flashed over his sister's face. She didn't know the difference, or wasn't good at distinguishing it. Had she deluded herself that strongly since leaving?

That thought made Qrow's stomach turn, because it made it crystal clear to him just how desperate Raven was for some sort of emotional connection during those years. And all he had ever done was hate her from afar, and make sure she stayed away from Tai, Yang, and Ruby.

"I didn't know what I wanted. I did things for him without realizing it, but I also went out of my way to push him for existing more than once," Raven said guiltily. She was hiding behind the words, and little else. "We butted heads so much while he was growing up that I thought he hated me. He certainly thought he did. It took me a long time to figure out how things stood, and by then… by then, all I could do was send him to Beacon."

"And the rest is history, huh?" Qrow asked. He'd heard bits and pieces of the story from there on in, and had been involved in part of it. He had no doubts that he'd have a full recounting eventually, and since Raven knew that, she let the conversation fall silent.

They sat there, sharing the silence for a few moments after that. Qrow was glad that he wasn't inside Raven's head right now. He wasn't exactly sure how she was taking the events from earlier that week, but how hammered she was right now certainly didn't bode well. He knew from experience that Branwens weren't able to drown their sorrows in alcohol. No matter how many sheets into the wind you got, memories still swam in your head. Hell, he'd been drunk since Summer's death and could still feel the flap of her cape standing right next to him sometimes — though it didn't help when Ruby assumed that same position during battle without realizing it.

Whatever Raven was trying to ignore would not be ignored. She may try to drown her demons, but, unluckily, they're champion swimmers.

"How is he?" Raven asked finally. Her voice was low and defeated. It sounded like she was asking out of curtesy more than curiosity. She knew how he was doing; she'd been the one to hurt him.

"Not… horrible," Qrow answered, trying to spin things positively for a change. This room was already depressing enough with the two of them there.

Raven looked up at him, a surprised expression on her face.

"He's attached to Yang at the hip, not that I can blame him. Every now and then, he gets lost in his thoughts and wears that sort of blank face that—" that Raven's wearing now, "Yang brings him out of that."

"Glad to see something good came from my parenting," Raven mumbled as she poured herself a new glass, having a little bit of trouble with the hand-eye coordination aspects. "Or in spite of it."

"He's gonna pull out of it. Kid doesn't really have a choice, what with Yang and Tai forcing his hand…"

"Tai?" Raven asked, her emotions unreadable even to Qrow. That was a can of worms he wanted to stay sealed indefinitely.

"Tai's taken a shining to the kid, surprisingly," Qrow explained, taking a sip from his own glass to match Raven's. "I thought he'd go all papa bear on the dude who bedded and then basically eloped with his oldest daughter, but I guess he figured that Jaune had been tortured by Yang's parents enough."

Despite himself and everything he was trying to accomplish by being here, Qrow couldn't help but give Raven an accusatory look at that. She shrunk down guiltily.

"Nah, Tai's always been a softie. Yang gave him puppy-dog eyes once and he gave in," Qrow pivoted, letting any pressure off his sister. He watched her carefully for her reaction, just in case. "Figured that if anyone was equipped to help Jaune deal with being lied to and manipulated by you, it was him and Yang."

"That's good," Raven commented idly. Her eyes had that thousand-yard stare to them as she had gotten lost in her thoughts again.

"You know, we're leaving for Atlas tomorrow," Qrow stated tentatively, watching his sister's reaction closely. Her eye twitched slightly, but she made a conscious effort not to react. "We're taking the Argus Express in the morning."

"That's nice."

This wasn't working. He'd have to be direct, though he wasn't sure how she'd react.

"You should talk to Jaune before we leave."

To Qrow's surprise, she didn't react at all, instead hiding behind that distant stare. She didn't respond, either.

"Raven, you made a mistake. A lot of them, by the looks of it. Letting him leave without trying to make up will be another one."

"What am I supposed to do, apologize?" Raven scoffed at the word. That Branwen pride reared its ugly head once more. "So what, I say I'm sorry and that fixes everything? Makes my kids not hate me and makes everything go back like it was? Brings back our teammate, restores Vale to its former glory, and slays Salem as if by magic?"

Qrow was familiar with this. It was the same thing he used to do, back in the STRQ days. Give all the reasons that apologizing wasn't going to work as an excuse not to apologize. Summer used to cut right through him with one question:

"Are you sorry?"

Raven looked up at him in surprise before scowling at him. Qrow hadn't been the only one Summer had torn into on occasion. Raven's glare told him she knew exactly who he was quoting, and that she didn't appreciate having Summer thrown in her face like that.

"Don't bring her up like that," Raven hissed at Qrow, not even acknowledging her hypocrisy. "It cheapens her memory."

"Oh?" Qrow chimed in. "Do you want to go there?"

It took Raven a second to process the words, but her expression paled.

"N-No," she let out weakly, realizing that bringing up Summer was a losing battle for her. Something fragile in her voice told Qrow that Raven wasn't in any state to bring that up either.

"You're lucky she isn't here to straighten you out," Qrow said sternly. Bringing up Summer was a sore topic for him too, but he pushed past that for now. Raven bristled under his words. "What would she think of what you did to Jaune? What would she do to you for it?"

Summer was one of the nicest, most even-keeled people Qrow had ever met. It took a lot to get her furious. What Raven did to Jaune, who was just a child, would have made Summer lose it.

Summer would have killed Raven for it by now.

"I get it!" Raven yelled at Qrow, desperate to get him to shut up. Whether or not the alcohol in her system exaggerated it, Raven was not in control of her emotions right now. Flames danced wildly around her eyes as a threat of what would happen if Qrow pushed the topic further. "I get your damn point, now shut the hell up and let me drink."

Raven reached out for the bottle on the table. Qrow beat her to it, unceremoniously knocking it onto the floor. Glass shattered and the amber contents of the bottle soaked into the floorboards. Raven glared up at him, but was losing the energy to be angry quickly. She was struggling to even focus her eyes on him now.

Qrow was fine to drop Summer as a topic, and return right to the other one, punctuating his words slowly and deliberately. "Are. you. sorry?"

Raven's head dropped as she tore her eyes away from Qrow's once more. Not for the first time, Qrow did not envy her for what had to be swimming around in her head. Whatever combination of guilt, remorse, anger, resentment, self-pity, or any other emotion was battling there kept her from answering.

She was sorry. Qrow could see that much plainly. His sister was drinking her night away alone when she could be celebrating becoming a legitimate army and earning a large paycheck. As hard as it was to admit, she had outplayed Salem's lieutenants and taken their heads, leaving the Grimm Queen's forces likely crippled. She might have just bought peace for a generation while Salem rebuilds, all because she played the game that she had avoided for so long.

But she played herself, too, and that cost her more than she's likely to admit. Too clever by half, so the expression went.

"I don't know," Raven let out softly, refusing to meet his eyes. Qrow might have believed that once.

"Yes you do."

Raven's head dropped lower out of shame for being caught lying so easily. That confirmed it to Qrow that Raven was sorry and she knew she was sorry. Apologizing wasn't a matter of admitting to herself that she was wrong. It was a matter of admitting aloud that she was wrong.

And that damn Branwen pride stood in the way.

"I-It doesn't matter," Raven let out, rattled. She was desperately and transparently looking for an excuse now. "Even if I go to him, I won't get close to h-him." Raven hiccupped and nearly lost her balance as her intoxication started to hit her in full force. "They'll attack me t-the moment… that they see me."

"I'll help," Qrow offered, surprising Raven with his words. They kinda surprised Qrow, too. "Leave it to me to keep the others back. I can make sure you get a chance to apologize. Tai, Ruby, the teams, Yang... none of them will ever know, if that helps."

Raven's surprise turned to fear as she realized that she was out of excuses. This could actually happen. She had no way around this, try as she might.

And she did keep trying.

"E-Even if I do, what would i-it matter?" she asked desperately. "H-He'll still hate me. I-I'll go to him and m-make a fool of myself, only t-to have him spit in my face?"

"He's angry," Qrow confirmed. "He's earned the right to be angry. He's also earned your apology, and the right to spit in your face if he wants to."

"S-So what? I go and a-ap—" Raven hitched on the word apologize, as if the very concept wounded her pride too much to say. "—say that word and w-what do I get from it? Nothing will fix this, Qrow. Th-They're not coming back. Why even try?"

"Apologies aren't for the other person. They're for you," Qrow answered, reciting some old proverb he vaguely remembered Summer babbling about. Or maybe it was Ozpin; Qrow wasn't certain. "It alleviates the guilt, and it is a lot better at it," Qrow said, pulling out his personal flask and making a show of setting down between them, "than this is. Trust me."

Raven scowled at him, clearly not buying it, to her own detriment. Qrow got the sinking feeling that he wasn't going to be able to fix this. At least he tried this time. It was better than nothing, though knowing now what he did about Raven's state when she left the team, he was likely to hold his inaction against himself for a long time.

"If that's true, why are you s-such a fucking mess?" Raven growled venomously, nodding towards the flask. A low blow, but Qrow would never pretend like he was the model of someone who had it together. If Qrow was the standard Raven judged herself by, then that was just pathetic; even worse was that Raven was failing to live up to that standard.

Qrow shrugged the words off, taking his flask and uncapping it. "I don't have any other way to deal with the guilt," he said simply and honestly. He sounded detached from reality. "Believe me, if I knew who I could apologize to, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Raven's expression softened slightly, but not enough. She wasn't convinced, and he hated to leave it there, but he'd played all the cards he had. He waited around a moment longer, hoping some inspiration would strike him, or Summer's ghost itself would reveal to him how to get through to Raven.

It never came. With a sigh, Qrow took a defeated swig from his flask, before capping it and rising to his feet. Raven looked up at him in surprise, nearly swaying over as she did so.

"Don't do this, sis," Qrow said in a final, desperate attempt to convince her—though he knew it was doomed to fail. His voice was raw with emotion that he rarely displayed, and some part of him hoped that this aspect would be the final straw that broke Raven. "Even if Jaune and Yang still hate you, even if he humiliates you for even trying to apologize, even if he tells you he never wants to see you again, it won't hurt as much as not trying will. It will devour you, sis. Please don't do that to yourself. You don't want that."

Raven locked eyes with him the whole time he spoke for what felt like the first time that night. Qrow's words cut into her, too, whether by the emotion they conveyed or by the fact that she knew what he was telling her was right. He could see it in her eyes that he was getting through to her, and for the first time she let him see the pain in her eyes. The self-hatred, the anguish, the self-pity, the regret, the torment, the sadness, the depression, the rage, the sheer terror — all of it reflected in crimson eyes, glassed over by alcohol and a little more moisture than should be there.

Raven dropped her head just before Qrow could finally convince her. In a final stroke of bad luck, a poor word choice had distracted Raven just enough to steer her off course.

"I don't know what I want," she mumbled, ashamed.

Qrow swore softly under his breath, dropping his own head as he turned to leave. He had been so close. He wouldn't have fixed things — he knew that nothing could — but he could have made them better. He could have helped.

At least this time, he tried, right?

"Raven," Qrow called out with his back still to his sister, standing just before the stairwell to take him out of the room. He turned back around just enough to meet eyes with his sister. There was one last thing he had to know for sure. "When you left the team… was there anything I could have done? To bring you back, or just… to help you?"

"Yes." Raven's single word cut deep into her brother. "I-I left Yang to make you think me irredeemable. I knew that if you or Tai had tried to… tried to convince me to come back, that I would have. So I made certain you hated me too much to try."

Qrow dropped his head out of shame. It had worked, he supposed. He did hate Raven too much to try to redeem her before. Hearing her admit as much wounded his pride, and worse than that, revealed a flaw about himself that he should have seen long ago.

He turned to leave, but guilt stopped him from going down the first step. It took him a moment to realize it, but leaving now would make him the same as his sister.

No, there was something he had to do now. The very thing that he'd been trying to convince his twin sister to do.

"I'm sorry," Qrow said lowly, after walking back to the table to stand just next to Raven. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, instead following his hand. "That I let it work."

Qrow laid a fistful of lien on the table, and then took the flask that Summer had given him long ago out of his pocket. The same flask that was both his crutch and the one thing keeping him functioning. A gift Summer had given him to commemorate the night that Summer had broken through to Qrow and made him realize that he wanted to be a part of their team and leave his old life behind. A gift that he had warped into a disease that controlled him ever since its giver had died.

He laid in on top of the lien. It was long overdue, honestly. And Team STRQ only had room for one alcoholic max. He prayed that Raven wasn't about to take that title, but he did not have faith that she wouldn't.

This wasn't for her, though. This was for him.

He took his hand off the flask for the last time, leaving it with Raven.

"Next round's on me, sis."

I'm... free. It is finished.

I'm going to miss writing this, aren't I?

Shoutouts:

This has been a lot of fun, and as much as my ego would love it, the story would not have shaped up the way it did without input, feedback, (some) criticism, encouragement, and suggestions. I'm gonna try to name them all here. If I missed one, DM me on Discord and call me silly names.

My sister - This story might not have been written without you giving me that very insistent push after hearing this crazy, overly-dramatic idea for a RWBY fic. In return, you got to be worshipped by my Discord, so I feel like you got a good reward. But, still, thanks sis.

Even though you're not reading the story anymore. :O

Avidlag/Siival/Words/Incredible Lag/Henry von Henderson - Whatever name you want to go by, thanks for suggesting making a Discord for this story. It has been an absolutely horrible suggestion and has created more stress than it's worth, but hey, it's been way too much fun. I now have a small army of people who are very good at making me the butt of a joke. It's what I always wanted.

Oh, and you're also probably my most negative beta reader, which I actually do like. You've challenged plot points, directions, intentions, and descriptions in ways that only mostly offended me as the author, but MoNT came away sharper for it. That I truly am grateful for.

Now, if you ever make me fulfill that stupid DnD host thing, all of the nice things here are null and void.

TurquoiseLeaf - Man, I don't know if I've ever had so much fun as I did back during the Turquoise Rebellion Meme days. I remember checking my email each Sunday, just waiting to see what Turquoise or Turquoise-inspired madness lay waiting in the reviews.

Plot twist: Turquoise was actually one of the first mods for the Discord. Un-plot twist: Turquoise took over the Discord (and even MoNT) for a few days and then relinquished his power. He was also a silent member of the beta group on the Discord, though I think of this as more an offering to the Leaf God.

It was fun, man. Glad we both wildly overcommitted to such a stupid joke. lol

All the members of the secret beta squad on Discord - After making the Discord, I decided to start uploading chapters via a Google Doc whenever I finished them. Originally, my goal was to let the mods read the chapters early as a reward for having to be mods in that Discord… and if they caught spelling mistakes and marked them, hey, everyone profits from that. It wasn't a real beta position, but more like beta by a very lazy committee. I wouldn't have it any other way.

So here are all of the people on Discord who contributed that way for any length of time:

Lives2DieAgain - Lives is our most active mod following the great Discord collapse, and has been around in the editing channel for a while. Occasionally, I'll even get a good suggestion from him.

Silverforest (Silvolde on FF dot net) - Silver's joins Lives and Siival as one of the longest-running members of the beta squad, and would definitely be the most consistent member. Every week, I'd see a couple spelling things caught by him, almost without fail. He's also a fanfic author in his own right, and every now and then I get to return the favor with his RWBY How To Train Your Dragon crossover fic, A New World.

Knightmare Frame Razgriz - Another RWBY fanfic writer that I sucked into the editing bay via the Discord. Knightmare's working on To Serve with Honor and the Discord keeps pestering him to upload more quickly, so if you want to pick up the story so that you can also pester him to write faster, we'd appreciate the help. Knightmare's also been a stealth mod on the Discord in the past, and has a secret role as of now.

Hemlock - Any alcohol-related things in the Discord probably got corrected by our resident beeramid expert. Such as explaining to me that Strawberry Sunrises are based on tequila, but only after I established that Yang doesn't like tequila. Come on, bro, you could have been a little quicker on that.

South Carolina - South's been a bit quiet as of late, but he also served as a mod for the Discord for a while. The most notable thing about south is that for a long time I struggled to figure out which SC was the real SC, because someone went and changed the names of like 15 inactive accounts to SC in order to make their own faction. Fun times.

Eric d'Orleans - I also haven't seen Eric in the Discord in a hot minute, but he was part of the OG squad that encouraged me finish my chapters more than a day before uploading them so this beta squad could even happen. He also happens to live in the same town as me, so anytime I missed a week, the Discord threatened to send Eric to hunt me down. Hasn't happened yet.

Dicko - Our token Brit in the server, Dicko was also by far the most dedicated spell-checker in the group. That said, I was not very good at uploading chapters more than a day out, so it was hard for him to ever have the time to check them, but when he did, the chapters became so much smoother for it. He's got two RWBY one-shots up here on under his handle Mr. Dicko, and I remember quasi-betaing one of them. Go check them out.

Jwadd01 - Our resident Aussie, though I think they're starting to multiply. Jwadd is still around some, but he hasn't been a mod since the old server collapsed. He types "REEEEEE" a lot these days. You've been warned.

Infernus Phyre - Not a member of the beta squad, but Infernus was working on a sketch/drawing of that illusion that Neo tricked Amber with. A NSFW drawing, which naturally made him many friends in the Discord very quickly. In my book, that more than earns a shoutout here.

Mallobaude - Shout out for Mallo. Cool dude, that Mallo. Does a great Raven voice while reading smut. Trust me on that one. He's also a Moose.

Eating Upside Down - I still have a screenshot of that hate review/roast framed on my mantle. It's getting harder and harder to explain what it is to each new person that sees it.

Well, that's all I've got. Thanks for the help, guys. It's been real.

One last plug for the Discord: as V7 draws near, if you want a place to hangout and shitpost about RWBY, and occasionally have some good RWBY discussion, come on down.

If not, then thanks for reading. Hope I see you guys around on reddit or RWBY Amity Arena.

Bye.