The Ultimatum

A/N: Jaune gives Raven an ultimatum. Yang finally gets some agency.

-x-X-x-

Jaune is quiet for a moment, long enough that Raven takes that as permission and leans in again to try and take him back into her mouth. Unfortunately, he has to stop her. Because… he can't give her what she wants. Not like this.

"Running away from your problems isn't the answer, Raven."

The red-eyed woman looks up at him at that, frozen in place. After a moment, she flushes and scowls.

"I-It's not that simple… I already screwed up with them! What right do I have to t-try and make amends?"

Honestly? That's a surprisingly mature point. Fair enough. Jaune himself had been wondering if it was right to force Yang and Vernal to reconcile with Raven. But at the same time…

"Have you even tried? Have you apologized to either of them?"

Raven's silence and the way she looks off to the side are answer enough on that front. At her heart, Raven Branwen is still a fucking coward. Worst of all, she's a prideful coward. Meaning that not only did she find it incredibly difficult to admit she was wrong in the first place, but she also CERTAINLY couldn't admit she was wrong to the people she HAD wronged or apologize to them for her past misdeeds.

Well, that just wouldn't do. Luckily, Raven had given him the perfect carrot to entice her with. Pulling away from her, Jaune steps to the side and tucks his cock back into his pants, leaving the former bandit leader kneeling there looking at him with a stricken expression. He almost feels bad for her, but it's not like he's completely rejecting her as she's naturally assuming.

"You want me to knock you up and give you another chance at being a parent, Raven?"

His leading tone has the Spring Maiden perking up, nodding her head jerkily as she stares at him with wide eyes.

"… Then you'll have to earn it."

"O-Of course… just tell me how and I'll-!"

"Silence. You probably think I mean sex. That's on me, honestly. But that's not what I'm talking about. I don't want you to debase yourself for me. I don't want you to degrade or humiliate yourself to please me sexually. I want you to apologize to either Yang or Vernal. I want you to make an honest try at making things right with at least one of the two young women who SHOULD have been able to count on you to be a mother to them."

Raven freezes up again, but Jaune doesn't let up.

"I'm not asking you to make them forgive you. In fact, you'd better not try to force this if you know what's good for you. I'm telling you to try and connect with either of them on an emotional level. I want you to make one of them truly believe you regret your actions. Even if they don't forgive you, so long as you put in the effort, I'll know and you'll have earned the chance to be a mother again."

For a long moment, Raven is silent. She looks like she wants to argue the point with him, but her fear is holding her back. She shivers under his gaze as Jaune stands there, waiting for an answer, all but silently demanding one. Finally, she bows her head in supplication.

"I… understand."

With one sharp nod, Jaune turns and walks away, leaving Raven to it. He'd have some of the Seers keep an eye on her in the same way they were keeping an eye on Pietro in his lab. Just to make sure Raven didn't try to wiggle out of this, to make sure she was actually putting in an honest effort. But other than that, he was washing his hands of this until Raven delivered some actual results.

-x-X-x-

Yang Xiao Long wasn't an idiot. And she definitely wasn't a fucking kid anymore. That said… she was glad to have her mom back. Really glad. And Summer Rose WAS her mom. Maybe she didn't give birth to Yang, but she'd been there for her when her birth mom hadn't been. And she DID give birth to Ruby, Yang's beloved little sister. So yeah, Summer was her mom.

But when Summer had disappeared… Yang had gotten this stupid idea in her head that maybe she could be replaced. Not just for Yang, but also for Ruby. She knew how dumb it was now. She knew it was impossible and for more than one reason. Not only was Summer impossible to replace and indescribable in all the ways she was the best mom in the world… but also, the woman Yang had thought to replace Ruby's mother with was a total crapshoot.

Raven Branwen, the woman who had carried Yang around in her womb for nine months and then abandoned their family the moment Yang was born, was not mother material. Full stop. But when you were the big sister and had to watch your little sister cry herself to sleep every night while holding her in your arms, you looked for any and every opportunity to fix things.

Fortunately, things had somehow fixed themselves. The impossible had happened. Summer Rose was back from the dead. Or rather, she'd never died… she'd just been taken and out of their reach all this time. To never see her adoptive mother's warm silver eyes gazing down at her with love and adoration… it sucked. But a blind Summer was better than a dead Summer. A million times better.

Still, as much as Yang knew that Summer didn't consider her a burden OR an outsider… she still felt like Ruby deserved more time with their mother than she did. Ruby was the baby of the family, after all. And Yang wasn't a kid anymore. So she was willing to let Ruby and Summer have as much alone time as they wanted. And… when Raven had come by and offered in a gruff voice to give her some training, Yang had jumped at the chance.

Grunting as she hits the floor for the umpteenth time, the blonde groans for a moment before pushing herself to her feet. She's sore all over, but she still can't really regret taking Raven up on this opportunity. She might be exhausted, but it's a good kind of exhaustion. And while Raven is a bad teacher and hasn't said more than three words since they started fighting, she's making an exceptionally good punching bag.

Not that Yang has landed many blows, but then, Raven has mostly been on the defensive, letting Yang take out all of her anger and frustration on their spar. It's… strange. But not as strange as Raven acted that one day before the Grimm King, Jaune, had taken her and Ruby to see Summer.

That part was still hard for Yang to wrap her head around. The King of the Grimm had saved Summer Rose. That's what Summer said anyways. But from who? From Salem? Summer hadn't said THAT, but it was sort of implied. Especially because, once again, Yang wasn't dumb. Headmaster Ozpin had sent her and her sister here alongside Specialist Schnee and the android Penny Polendina to kill the Queen of the Grimm.

But he'd never intended for them to survive. Instead, Ozpin has very clearly been depending on Ruby's silver eyes and whatever magical bomb he'd put in her head to do his dirty work. He'd tried to turn her little sister into a fucking bomb in order to take out Salem. That alone still incensed Yang something fierce but setting it aside… it made it possible to put two and two together. Summer's silver eyes also could have hurt Salem. So Salem had done away with them. And then… Jaune had saved Summer?

Yang still didn't have all the answers. But she knew one thing, her and Ruby's mother absolutely adored Jaune and trusted him implicitly. She was devoted to him in a way she hadn't even been devoted to their father, Yang privately thought. It certainly seemed like Summer no longer thought about Taiyang much, which was weird to think about. But… she wanted her mother to be happy. And if Jaune made her happy, then so be it, right?

"Well?"

Torn from her internal musings, Yang looks over to see Raven raising an eyebrow at her, sword at the ready, waiting for Yang to attack her again. Huffing, the lilac-eyed blonde shakes her head.

"Got lost in thought. But I'm done. Aura's low and I'm tired. Good fight."

Raven hesitates at that… and then slowly nods. Yang narrows her eyes, peering at her 'incubator' carefully. She wasn't acting AS weird as their first meeting. But…

"You have something you want to say to me? Because it sure seems like you do. You're just too afraid to say it."

The older woman stiffens at that, a furious scowl appearing on her face for a moment before she quickly wipes it away with a grimace.

"I…"

Yang raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms over her chest pointedly. She starts counting down from ten. That's how much more of her time Raven gets before she turns and leaves the bitch standing there with her mouth open like some idiot.

She gets down to three before Raven finally manages to speak.

"I am sorry."

It sounds like saying that was akin to pulling teeth. Yang is thoroughly unimpressed.

"You're sorry."

Raven flushes and looks down at her feet.

"Yes."

The word is bitten out through clenched teeth and Yang rolls her eyes.

"Sorry for what?"

There's a pause, but briefer than Yang is expecting this time.

"I am sorry for having been such a shit mother to you."

… She's surprised. She hadn't thought Raven had that in her. That said…

"You were never a mother to me. Not even a shit one."

Raven flinches, surprising Yang again, and slowly nods.

"… You're right. I'm sorry for… leaving. I'm sorry for being absent from your life."

Yang scoffs and shakes her head.

"Everything I've seen so far makes it clear I was lucky to not have you as my mom. You WOULD have been a shit mother, so I guess I should be grateful that you left."

As expected, her incredibly provocative words make Raven bristle angrily.

"You brat! I am trying-!"

But then she cuts herself off, seemingly remembering something and quickly marshalling her anger. Of course, she's too late to put the rabbit back in the hat now. Smirking slightly, Yang raises the other eyebrow, staring her incubator down.

"You're trying to what? Be honest with me for once. What the hell is this? Why ask me to spar? Why spend all this time with me? And why apologize?"

There's a long beat of silence in which Yang starts to wonder if Raven will even tell her. But then…

"I am a failure. In many ways. Including being a mother. I ran away from you and left Summer to raise you in my stead. But then I even took on a protégé… the one called Vernal. She looked up to meet. She needed me. And I treated her like shit because I thought that would make her stronger. I have been a bad person for much of my life… and only now, as I stare down the barrel of this changing world, do I realize I want to change with it."

Yang tilts her head to the side, hearing nothing but truth in Raven's tone. She has to bite out some of the words, but at least she's being honest. Of course, then Raven blows her mind with her next words.

"When the Grimm King took me and Vernal from Mistral, it was not entirely willing. Rather… I had no other choice because if I hadn't gone with him, the rest of the Tribe would have killed me for my weakness. However… it was also pushed upon me that I would survive Jaune's ire better if I offered him my body and attempted to get with his child. So that's what I did."

Lilac eyes widen at that revelation, and despite being pretty confident that Raven isn't actually pregnant, Yang's eyes dart down to the older woman's abdomen for a second anyways. But Raven just snorts derisively.

"His seed did not take. And ever since, he has not touched me. I admit… I was shamed and embarrassed to need to submit to him at first to keep my life. I was humiliated. But then… I began to grow intrigued by the idea of being pregnant. So intrigued that when it finally became clear he hadn't knocked me up, I found myself a little… distraught."

Wow. This was going way deeper than Yang had anticipated. And yet, it was like a train crash. Yang couldn't bring herself to look away. It helped that she didn't see Raven as her actual mother. Rather, the other woman had just carried Yang to term. So it wasn't too disgusting to think about the handsome, muscular, toned Grimm King dominating Raven Branwen and making him her bitch. In fact… it was actually kind of hot.

"I finally swallowed my pride and asked the King of the Grimm to truly impregnate me. To knock me up and breed me. I wanted… I wished to have another chance at being a mother. A third time where I would not screw up quite so badly, hopefully."

Yang's nose wrinkles at that. She knew the saying went 'third time's the charm' but Raven Branwen as a good mother? It was still hard for Yang to see. On the other hand… second baby sister. Or brother. On the other, other hand… Jaune and his positively yummy muscles… hm…

"In the end, he gave me an ultimatum after drawing out a similar confession to the one I'm giving you now. He told me that I was running from my failures as a mother to you and Vernal. And he tasked me with trying to make things right with at least one of you before he'd give me what I wanted."

At that, Raven falls quiet, her story told. She fidgets and squirms under Yang's gaze, clearly expecting the blonde to tear into her verbally. But Yang… Yang is contemplative instead. She's NOT a child. In fact, she's the same age as Pyrrha. Only a little younger than Vernal. And really…

Why not? Why shouldn't Yang get a little baby brother or sister? Ruby could also dote on them; she wouldn't stop her younger sister from doing so. At the same time though… Yang kind of wanted a piece of the action for herself. Was that wrong? To be considering engaging in a threesome with her biological mother and the King of the Grimm? It sounded sort of wrong. But it also sounded really, really hot…