Evening Orange

As Yang Xiao Long held her birth mother in place out of fear of her disappearing to who knows where Raven sighed at the complicated feelings bubbling within her. The former bandit took out her Scroll and messaged her brother, Qrow, to tell him that the girls were with her right now, then promptly turned off her Scroll after the message was sent to the reaper to avoid having to answer any annoying questions he may have. Ruby looked at the scene of her big sister hugging the black hair woman and calling her mom and voiced her confusion.

" Um, Yang, Mom went away a long time ago, and the lady you are hugging doesn't look like her..."

Yang looked at her confused little sister and reminded her with a wry smile as she didn't let Raven go.

" Ruby, do you remember that photo I showed you when I explained that we are half-sisters and what my goal is for being a Huntress?"

The little cookie monster remembered what the sunny little dragon was talking about and exclaimed.

" Oh! I remember now!"

Raven watched this interaction between the sisters and recalled how she and Summer Rose acted during their time at Beacon. Summer was an orphan child that believed in the idealism of being a Huntress, which made the former bandit show her the darker parts of the world they lived in since she couldn't tolerate her team leader being naive and ignorant. The original Rose still retained her idealism despite that, but she became more determined and slightly more realistic, which started an unexpected friendship between them. Raven shook herself out of her memories and told the girls.

" Come along, you two."

The former bandit opened a portal back to the camp she resides in through her bond with April. Yang grabbed her birth mother's hand and used her free one to hold Ruby's hand as they went through the portal. Any thoughts of seeing Silva went to the back of the mind of the two girls as Yang wanted nothing more than to find the answers to the questions that haunted her life. In contrast, Ruby was geeking out on Raven's weapon Omen as she considered its functions. The scenery and temperature changed, much to the surprise of the two girls and the younger of the two asked.

" Where are we?"

" A quiet part of Anima that I have been staying at for a while now."

Raven answered Ruby, and Yang squeezed her birth mother's hand tighter at the thought of changing continents so easily, and the former bandit called out to her subordinate.

" April! Make some extra servings for lunch. We have guests!"

April was by the fire in front of Raven's tent, and she replied respectfully.

" Yes, Chief!"

Raven leads the children to her tent and has them sit down.

" Have a seat, Yang, Ruby."

Yang reluctantly let go of her birth mother's hand as she picked a spot to sit down at the table, and Ruby sat next to her big sister. Raven started to prepare some tea for herself and the girls, but her stomach filled with butterflies as she wasn't sure how to interact with the two girls. Unlike Silva, they fully acted like their age, and while the former bandit had thoughts of reconnecting with her daughter, she wasn't sure where or how to begin. Yang, couldn't wait any longer and asked with a complex mix of emotions swirling within her.

" Why did you leave?"

Raven closed her eyes as she thought about how much she should reveal and decided to hold back on Salem, the Relics, and Magic since her daughter was only 13. The former bandit poured tea for her two young guests and started.

" That's a long story, but we have time until I return you to your father."

Ruby took a sip of the tea, and her face scrunched up as she could only see it as dirty warm water. Raven wryly smiled as this reminded her of Summer Rose's reaction to tea and gently told the younger Rose.

" Add a bit of sugar or honey to it; that will bring out the flavor more."

" K."

Ruby responded and added a fair bit of honey to her tea while Yang withheld from drinking as she looked at her mother with rapt attention. After the former bandit took her first sip of tea, she started her explanation to her daughter.

" Let me start with the beginning. Before your uncle and I attended Beacon, we were a part of a bandit tribe herein Anima and-."

" You were bad guys?!"

Ruby exclaimed in surprise, and Raven curtly replied at being interrupted.

" Yes..."

The little cookie monster shrank at the reply and drank her over-sweetened tea while Yang processed what she had just learned. The former bandit continued.

" As bandits, the only real threat to our continued existence was Huntsmen, so our parents had the idea to have us attend Beacon not to become Huntsmen but to learn how to kill them. Qrow and I were of age, so that worked out, and compared to what we went through with the tribe, the initiation was easy."

Raven paused to wet her throat and let the information sink in before continuing.

" The two of you should already know what happened after that; me, Qrow, your father, and Summer, your other mother, became a team. The headmaster, Ozpin, had a keen interest in us for some reason. I had thought he knew about Qrow and me, but it was team STRQ he was interested in, and we later learned why. During our time in Beacon, our team got into more trouble than we should've but was met with slaps on the wrist and warnings and not much else. When graduation came around, our team learned some secrets from Ozpin that changed our perspective."

Yang asked as she felt curious about what her birth mother meant.

" What sort of secrets?"

Raven sighed and warned her daughter.

" The kind of secrets that can complicate your life unnecessarily, which is why I won't go into them, but if you really want to know, I will tell you when I feel you can handle yourself."

" I can handle myself just fine."

Yang grumbled, and her birth mother sharply reminded her.

" Oh? And what would've happened if I hadn't shown up when I did?"

The blonde went quiet at the question as she knew the answer, and Raven nodded as she said.

" That's what I thought. Now, let's continue. After learning some secrets from Ozpin, team STRQ started doing some private, off-the-book missions for him. During one of these missions, I discovered another secret that... terrified me."

" What scared you?"

Ruby innocently asked, and the former bandit shook her head as she answered.

" I can't say."

" Does it have to do with you leaving?"

Yang then asked, and Raven nodded, then reassured her daughter.

" Yes, but things have changed."

"How?"

The blonde asked, and the former bandit answered with a slight smile as she gave a vague explanation.

" Let's just say, what I thought was impossible actually wasn't, and I now know that with certainty thanks to a certain someone."

" Who?"

Yang asked, and Raven smiled as she knew Silva planned on eventually telling her daughter about his relationship with her and said.

" Someone you will meet at a later point in time."

While the blonde was curious about who her birth mother meant, she focused on her original question.

" So you left dad and me because you were scared?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that."

Raven answered, and Yang asked while looking determined to find the truth.

" Complicated how?"

Ruby kept quiet as she saw how the conversation was going. She felt slightly awkward as she knew this was important and private for her sister and continued to listen to the former bandit.

" When I found out this terrible secret, I tried to distract myself the same way your uncle does from his problems, through drinking. Naturally, my team got worried and tried to help me. One thing led to another, and I found myself pregnant with you after a night with your father. By the time I found out, I was already considering returning to my tribe as I wanted to wash my hands of everything."

Yang processed everything she learned and asked her birth mother with despair and tears in her eyes.

" You didn't want me?"

Raven froze at the hard question and racked her mind on how to answer it without hurting her daughter. Then Ruby answered to assure her sister.

" Yang, she's here, and she saved us; of course, she wants you!"

The former bandit made a promise to herself to treat the little cookie monster to all the cookies she could eat later for the save. Yang looked at her mother hopefully, and Raven continued her explanation.

" While pregnant with you, I considered what to do and decided that you deserved a better childhood than me. So I left you with your father after getting him to sign the marriage contract so that he could be your legal guardian so you could have a normal life. And in all honesty, I would've been a terrible mother compared to Summer."

" How do you know that?"

The blonde inquired, and the former bandit answered as she refilled her cup of tea.

" I might've kept my distance from you, but I did check up on you every now and then, so I know how you grew up. Plus, now... with my fears dealt with, I want to make up for lost time if you want to, that is, Yang."

Raven felt nervous as she awaited her daughter's answer and Yang had a lot on her mind. The blonde said as a swirl of emotions filled her.

" I need to think..."

" Take your time."

Raven said as she felt hopeful at the neutral response, and April came in to let everyone know that lunch was ready.

" Lunch is ready, Chief."

" Thank you, April."

Raven's subordinate nodded in acknowledgment and left. The former bandit told the girls as she got up.

" Let's have something to eat for the time being."

A rather uncomfortable and solemn lunch took place as various emotions swirled and twisted about.

***

" Just what is your problem, punk?!"

Elm Ederne demanded of me as I kept a standoffish approach to the Ace-Ops as I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them, which ironically would be pretty far. Clover and Vine got in between the heavily muscled woman and me. The leader of the Ace-Ops asked while trying to play peacemaker.

" What is the issue this time, Elm, Silva?"

I answered plainly without caring about how I am viewed.

" I ignored Ederne's questions; that's all."

" Is that true, Elm?"

The muscle woman glared at me as she answered Clover's questions.

" I WAS trying to get to know the kid better, seeing how we are working together for the time being, but he completely blew me off, AGAIN!"

Vine then asked me with a neutral tone.

" I have noticed that you are not particularly receptive to us, Silva Branwen. Would you please explain why that is?"

I considered the question and decided to be blunt with them as we will be working together until the bandits are dealt with, which may take a while since there haven't been any recent movements from the Hati and Skoll tribes in Mistral's black market.

" The fact of the matter is that I don't trust you and probably never will for the simple reason being that you are soldiers through and through and who you take orders from."

They looked at me in confusion, and Clover asked me for clarification.

" What do you mean by that, exactly?"

I might as well see how they react to my thoughts about Tindick and see if they have blind loyalty to him or not.

" While James Ironwood's heart might be in the right place, it doesn't matter as he can flat out ignore his feelings and use logic and reason that only he can understand to fulfill his goals regardless of consequences. His Semblance gives him the potential to be a tyrant and dictator that operates with little to no mercy or care towards others. While potential might only be POTENTIAL, I have no doubts about the sort of monster he is capable of becoming if pressed into a corner. So my issue is that I want to finish the missions he wants from me as soon as possible so I can give him a wide berth."

The Ace-Ops just stared at me with dumbfounded silence, and Vine was the first to ask.

" Do you not think your thoughts might border on being paranoid?"

" I won't deny that, but I still don't trust your general on principle based on his past actions in unifying the military and huntsmen academy and granting himself a lot more power than compared most people in the world, as I believe power corrupts absolutely."

My opinion on the General is based on his future, maybe somewhat possible, actions mostly, but after using Soul Archive on him, I got a clear understanding of how he rose through the ranks, which is mainly based on politically burgeoning his opponents despite the consequences. I will admit he got things done, which made him popular with the people but not in the best way he could do it, as he made no shortage of enemies. He has his good and bad points like everyone, but still, the fact he decided to bomb Mantle in the canon disturbs me to no end and makes him someone I wouldn't want to ally with, and if he became my enemy, I would end him immediately.

My thoughts aside, the Ace-Ops decided to drop the matter as I was being stubborn in my opinion and thankfully kept their distance. Once I am done with what I need to do in Atlas, I will focus on Salem and end things. One way or another.