Encroachment III

Qrow had been caught and tied upside down to a tree in the backyard. He was tempted to use his bird form but he knew it would hurt so much more when Raven and Yang eventually got him. As he was right now, they were using him as a human tether ball and hitting him around the tree. All the while he was doing his best not to puke. After the fiftieth time around he finally yelled.

"Okay! Okay! I-urrgh.. I learned my lesson!" Qrow managed to get the words out.

"Have you now, Brother? Hm.. Fine. Yang, go get a knife to cut him loose" Raven smirked at seeing her brother's pale complexion as he was spun around upside down.

"Ha! You made a great Pinata, Druncle Qrow!" Yang snickered and walked inside to get a knife.

Raven stilled upon feeling something from that resonating connection she felt with the woman in armor. Feeling an incredible amount of hate and anger for a brief moment before it was quieted and replaced with adoration?

~Strange..~ Raven briefly wondered what she was doing before paying attention to her brother.

Raven simply cut him down and let him fall. Qrow managed to avoid falling on his head and took a few breathfuls of air before looking up at Raven with an actual serious expression.

"Good to know we can still communicate without explicitly saying so.." Qrow hoarsely commented.

"You wanted Yang not to hear this so I'd hurry up if I were you. Is it Ozpin?" Raven asked while sitting on a stump.

"Yeah.. He wants to send me to the Grimmlands. Where you-know-who resides" Qrow rubbed his head and said.

"To scout? What exactly is he trying to scout..?" Raven muttered as she looked at Qrow's helpless expression.

"You know he knows you come along with me. This is definitely bait" Qrow replied, leaning against the nearby tree.

"I was thinking the same thing.. Something involving Salem for sure. But what's the scheme here? Hope we fight her? That doesn't make sense, Qrow" Raven looked at her brother, who only shook his head.

"I can't even begin to guess a logical reason he'd send us out. But since it involves her.. He probably knows you'll go. Maybe he knows you have a bond with her..?" Qrow suggested as Raven's eyes lit up in calm anger.

"That.. or he's trying to get us away from Patch" Raven replied with barely concealed wrath.

"Woah.. I know Ozpin's been.. weird lately but I don't think he would.." Qrow left the rest unsaid as he watched tiny crimson embers emerge from his sister.

"I will not risk their safety on 'I don't think', Brother" Raven shot back with a glare.

Looking up at the sky with a sigh, Qrow replied, "Yeah.. Yeah, you're right. Too much bad could and would have happened if you weren't around. Can't let our guard down now. I take it you have something in mind?" Qrow asked, seeing the embers die down as Raven nodded.

"Fuyuki. Until we figure out everything. I don't like the feeling I've been getting lately" Raven responded as she stood back up and looked over to the house.

"Yang, come on out. I already know you're listening" Raven ordered sternly.

-Yang, five minutes prior-

Yang went to go get a knife but the moment she walked in she realized. Her Mom had her sword with her. Hiding by the door, she quietly listened and watched her Mother through the crack.

~Why does Mom always get so... weird when she's mad..?~ Yang hadn't told anyone this but she noticed something weird about her Mother when she returned from her job five years ago.

That fact wasn't the obvious pale complexion and complete pitch blackness of her hair. It was her eyes. Within her crimson irises she noticed them. Three small circles around her pupils. And they were moving, albeit very slowly. She was convinced something pretty drastic must have happened to her Mother so she'd been trying to look for clues ever since she took notice.

Being the curious twelve year old she was, she always asked to see her Mother's powers in her demonstrations. Given that Raven was pretty much a sucker for her kids, she easily agreed. Yang saw the crimson flames being showcased in a small way. But the important observation she made was in her Mother's eyes. One of the tiny rings was faintly glowing. Upon seeing its glow, she finally made out the shape of the ring. It looked like the mark on her chest. It was shaped like a snake.

Hearing her Mother call her out, she knew she was in trouble for snooping. The whole thing with Ozpin possibly trying to hurt her family made her really uneasy and is likely what gave herself away.

"Mom.. I'm-" Yang looked away from her Mom and was wholly unprepared to be embraced by her Mother.

"I'm not mad, Yang. I just want you to gather up your Dad, Summer, Ruby and Zwei for me okay? You're going to a safer place. Just for now" Raven told her daughter as she looked into her lilac eyes.

"Y-Yeah.. okay. You'll be okay though.. right?" Yang asked, trying to hide her anxiety.

"Of course I will, Little Dragon.." Raven responded with a smile as she rubbed the top of her head.

"Now go" Raven gestured with her head.

Yang hesitantly went back inside as Raven looked over to her brother once again with a tired look in her eyes.

"We're gonna have to explain to Summer and Tai. Plus that kid and the old man you got on the other side. Yang and Ruby've been dyin' to meet him anyway" Qrow shrugged.

"I know. After that, we go see what that old bastard wants. I'm not risking Salem's safety.. even if it means falling into a trap" Raven replied as she folded her arms.

"I'm with you all the way, Rae" Qrow stood next to his sister and responded resolutely.

-Twenty minutes later, Castle Evernight-

After a lengthy explanation to Summer and Tai about their situation, Raven opened a rift to Fuyuki. Being from a world with some similarities, the shock of being in a populated modern city wasn't too daunting but some things threw them for a loop. For one, the lack of Grimm. The second being the copious amount of carefree people. Once they met Shirou and Kiritsugu, along with a now far more stable Illya, they hit it off immediately. Though Raven would have loved to see them interact more, she had to bring Akame and Kurome there as well. That was easily done, as she made individual trips to them while they were in their dorms, preparing for the school day.

Esdeath was unknown to Ozpin and much of the world as a whole so Raven left her where she was. Though she knew Esdeath would be annoyed if Raven implied she needed protection. After one more goodbye to Raven's family, she left to see Salem with a nervous Qrow.

Upon leaving the rift, there was no time for pleasantries. The castle was in flames and both Branwen's saw Salem with a magical barrier being held up. Behind her was a dead Hazel, an injured Cinder and both corpses of Tyrian and Arthur Watts. Meanwhile, Salem was keeping a woman with light hair and gold eyes at bay.

"Salem!" Raven didn't have time to think before she helped her Lover withstand the flames from the woman dressed in black armor.

"Oh!! You're the one I gotta kill! Those guys gave me some decent XP.. I wonder how much you'll give?" The woman mocked with a malicious grin.

"Qrow.." Raven glanced at her brother, who nodded and turned into a bird, flying out the broken window.

"Aww.. sacrificing yourself to save him? So noble of you" The woman laughed, but only got a grin in response from Raven.

"What the fuck are you grin-" She was interrupted as Qrow flew through a nearby window and transformed back into a human before drop kicking her head and making the woman stumble back.

That was all Raven needed. The flames concentrated on Salem ceased and Raven rushed out to the woman, punching her down straight through multiple floors of the castle and hearing the woman scream and curse on the way down, to get her away from Salem. Turning back to Salem and Cinder, she saw Salem was exhausted, though her wounds were recovering, albeit slowly.

"What.. kind of flames are those..?" Salem grunted out and looked thankfully at her lover.

"I don't know.. Thankfully you're healing. I need you to explain what's happening here, now!" Raven held her arms gently, asking urgently.

"There's.. another. My Castle.. it's been under siege for at least a full day now" Salem stated tiredly.

Salem took another breath, regaining her bearings before getting up and looking at Raven.

"There's that woman, Jeanne D'arc is her name. The other one found us 'too vile' to give his name to us. He's been fighting with Jeanne over who gets to kill us. It's why we made it this far. They're strong, Raven.." Salem looked to the injured and unconscious Cinder and the dead Tyrian, Hazel and Arthur.

"I'll say.. that chick shrugged off a kick that'd break a full grown man's neck in half.." Qrow grumbled.

"Take Cinder and get in" Raven opened a rift as Salem nodded and picked up Cinder.

Hearing and feeling the destruction below them, Raven and Qrow got ready. Though Raven quickly turned, just in time to be punched straight though several walls by a human sized draconic fist carrying more power in it than Heracles himself. Qrow took a knee to his stomach and was thrown violently through the castle stone walls, aura on the verge of shattering just from one exchange.

A man with silver hair walked in and noticed Salem trying to go inside the rift. Spreading his silver dragon wings, he dove at them both, claw reared back and ready to bisect both Salem and Cinder. Seeing the imminent danger, Salem threw Cinder inside the rift and was swiftly chopped in half by the dragon man.

"Fuck! I missed.." Vali growled, seeing the woman he'd killed several times now begin to regenerate again.

Feeling particularly frustrated, he wanted to cut up her regenerating body, only to recieve an urgent system notification.

[VALI!! BEHIND YOU!] Immediately checking, he hastily blocked Omen from cutting him with his spear. He was about to thank his system when he saw Raven's face, shrouded in the darkness of her hair were her ominous and furious crimson eyes.

"Wrath.." Raven spoke as a jetstream of crimson flames engulphed Omen and started to burn Vali despite his dragon scales.

Biting down on his urge to scream out in pain he pushed off her blade, ducking a giant extension of the flames that blew the roof off the room with ease following Raven's swing. Taking that as the perfect time to intervene, Jeanne rose up from the lower floor and slammed her spear at them, both Raven and Vali dodging the attack as all three entered a deadlock.

"Who... the fuck are you people? Why attack this place?" Raven asked, barely holding back her fury.

"Hoo.. that's some dangerous fuckin' aura you got there" Jeanne commented before replying halfheartedly.

"Cause my god wants to kill or subjugate ya. Now be a good little bitch and lick Brother Darkness' feet" Jeanne mocked as she stuck her tongue out.

"I am the same. Though the God of Light only wishes you dead. You are a stain on his world" Vali replied with disdain evident on his face.

Raven didn't respond.

Jeanne and Vali were immediately assailed by a violent aura of three different kinds. One a burning wrath, another an all consuming hunger and the last, a spiteful envy. Raven attacked them both, Omen sweeping out and hitting both of their spears as they hurriedly guarded against her. Though not expecting the raw speed and power increase that almost decapitated them both. Managing to move out of the way of its unstoppable trajectory, they saw the entire castle's roof being blown off by her attack.

Jeanne was the first to recover, smiling maniacally, she engaged Raven once again and fought fire with fire. Vali picked himself up and joined, putting some pressure on Raven. Raven kept weaving between spear thrusts and moving away from swings before countering with Omen.

Jeanne and Vali quickly found she was not easy to pressure, even if they both worked together. Both gave each other an uneasy glance and made a truce before going all in on their attacks.

"La Grondement du Haine!!!" Jeanne screamed, activating her Noble Phantasm as flames swept across the Castle and dark spears emerged up at Raven.

"Dragon King's Nova Bomb!!!" Vali yelled and unleashed a compressed sphere of draconic energy.

Seeing the raw destruction they were unleashing and looking over at the recovering Salem, Raven opened herself to attack. Something the two attackers did not expect to see was part of their attacks being devoured by something as soon as it touched Raven, leaving only ten percent of their attack to actually hit her.

Raven was bleeding in numerous places from mild cuts with slight burns in other places. She stepped forward towards the two, her mana copying a certain woman she held a connection to.

-Gods of Light and Darkness, Grimmlands-

"Brother" The brother of Light called his brother, who responded with a gruff grunt.

"I know. She's dangerous.. Too dangerous. I'd rather not have another person like that one Lilith chose.." The Brother of Darkness snarled.

"Then it's agreed?" The Brother of Light asked.

"Yes. This is both our creation. Even if we abandoned it, nobody else can have it. There's already some meddlers from each of our faction in other Remnants.." The Brother of Darkness spat before looking at his brother and nodded.

-Castle Evernight-

The battle had been steadily going poorly for the two. Especially when Qrow recovered and started peppering them both with shots from Harbinger. Not like they could do anything to stop it though. Raven's attacks were intense and threatened to kill them if they let their guards down. Spamming all their strongest attacks would only spell their deaths, as Raven seemed capable of devouring their powers.

That's when the Castle was shrouded in a bright light and abyssal black. All looked up as the Brother gods descended in pseudo human bodies. Raven looked at her dumbstruck brother and spiteful Salem and tightened her grip on Omen. Just as she was about to attack, Salem looked at her.

"Love.. No. You'll simply die at this rate" Salem muttered as she stood tall and unleashed a massive wave of mana.

"That is what we desire. Die, interloper" The Brother of Light raised his hand with his brother, both aimed at Raven and unleashed a divine attack that threatened to obliterate Raven's soul.

Salem's magic came to life once again, a shield wall halting the attack.

"RAVEN, GO!!!!!" Salem screamed.

Raven looked at her lover with a very difficult expression and opened a rift, quickly pulling her brother and herself in, right as the barrier broke and the attack reached to where they previously were. Anger bubbled up in both of the Gods as they turned to Salem, only to see her laughing hysterically.

"You... You fucking human..!" The Dark God cursed as his destructive power flared.

"Hahahahahaha! What? Going to grant my wish now and destroy me? It will change nothing.. Raven 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 kill you" Salem mocked, prompting the Dark God to move towards her, only to be stopped by his brother.

"No.. Not destroy. I'm going to 'save' you, Salem" The Light God spoke in an eerily calm, sinister voice.

-Other side of the rift-

Raven and Qrow fell out of the rift and hit the ground roughly. When she made the rift, she pulled on the resonance she had with that woman she saw before. Whether she would actually help or not remained to be seen but she was out of options and Salem was back there alone. Hitting her fist to the ground and standing up, her body wreathed in wrath's flames, she looked in front of her and saw the woman. Though with her were three women, looking as if they stepped in the Grimm pools, as she did.

"I need your help.."