Summer's Mission

Raven was brought back inside with Summer. Tai had began to make breakfast and Yang was trying her hardest to reach the plates. Ruby was seated at the table and drawing on a piece of paper with a red crayon. Tai soon finished and gave Raven a pointed look but Summer gestured him to follow her upstairs for a talk.

"Oh, Raven why don't you meet my little Rose? I just need to talk with Tai about that thing" Summer said, ushering Tai upstairs.

"Nnnn! I can't reach-" Yang complained and stood up on the counter but was pulled down by Raven, who grabbed the plates for her.

"Don't go climbing up counters, little one. I thought you were a little dragon, not a little monkey" Raven put Yang down, who huffed while Ruby giggled.

"I am a little dragon! They're waaaay cooler than monkeys!" Yang got in her seat as Raven put pancakes on their plates and put the syrup down on the table.

"Thank!" Ruby said and started eating while forking the pancake entirely and taking bites out of it.

"So who are you, Lady? You have cool clothes like our Uncle!" Yang talked with pancake in her mouth, making Raven chuckle.

"Ah.. well. Qrow is my Brother" Raven didn't want to thrust 'I am your biological Mother' in the six year old's face.

"Woah! Cool! I've never seen you before!" Yang was excited, which made Ruby excited, though the four year old didn't completely understand why.

"Well.. I was in a bad place until I got here, you can say" Raven scratched her cheek and watched the two kids fondly.

"Ohhh.. like with Grimms?" Yang's face was still awestruck if not a little scared.

"Something like that" Raven closed her eyes as the memories of her actions as a bandit flashed in her mind.

"Grimm bad.." Ruby made a growling noise to impersonate a Grimm.

~They're both adorable~ Raven smiled peacefully as she watched the two eat and talk to her about whatever popped into their heads.

Tai and Summer returned after ten minutes, though Tai had a complicated expression. He gestured his head to the front door and walked out. Raven, knowing he wanted to talk to her himself got up and walked over to him. She wasn't looking forward to the conversation they would have but it needed to be done.

"Raven. Is what you told Summer the truth?" Tai sighed and looked anywhere but at Raven.

"If she told you about my past life? Yes. I don't want to be the old, ignorant me any more. I know I have no right to want to be in yours and Yang's life since I left for such a.. stupid reason. But I came to realize what I tossed aside after experiencing a.. lifetime of memories" Raven rested her arms on the rails of the porch and said quietly.

"I've moved on with Summer.. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt even now. But I can put that behind me. I want you to tell Yang who you are and what you did.. Not now but.. Ten years old, I want you to tell her. If she wants you in her life, I'll accept it all. If she doesn't.. Then please, respect her wishes" Tai turned to her resolutely.

"That.. is more than fair. Thank you, Tai" Raven sighed with a slight smile.

"Now about where you'll live.. You said you weren't going back to your Tribe so you can either stay with us or travel with Qrow. Knowing him and Summer though, you'll probably have to see Ozpin again and prove to him that you changed" Tai mused on the last part.

"Right.. Probably. I take it Qrow is coming here soon?" Raven stood up once again.

"Yeah he'll be here tomorrow. He's probably gonna be the one you'll talk to the longest. Given your.. situation. Who were you in your last life anyway?" Tai curiously asked.

"I lived as a man. Went through a world war.. I lost a lot of people. I was bitter until I was in my nineties. I let my spite and anger control me for so long.. I let so many opportunities to be happy go by, Tai. I changed in the twilight of my life and decided to change things around. Make friends, let my grudges die. See what the new generation was into. I made enough mistakes already. In my past life and this one. I want to turn things around before it's too late" Raven sighed and saw Tai's face light up.

"Good! Don't forget those words, Raven. Summer and I haven't been on dates for so long.. I can't leave Qrow with them often out of fear he'll say something inappropriate.. Seeing how well you got along with them..-" Tai spoke hopefully.

"I'd love to spend time with Ruby and Yang. I may not have had kids before this but I have plenty of experience dealing with children" Raven looked confident.

"Yes! Great. I'll let you know when I arrange that with Summer" Tai happily walked in as Raven stayed outside and looked up at a tree, where a crow was perched.

"Yeah I take it you heard everything? We can sense the magic used to transform into birds, Qrow" Raven shook her head and Qrow transformed back into a young man as he walked right up to her.

"You can't be Raven.. You're too damn nice to be.. Who are you?" Qrow sharply inhaled with an expression of what Raven might call hopeful.

"I am. I can tell you I know why you chose your weapon. You idolized the Grimm Reaper. You had a poster of her in your room when we were kids. Let's see.. Oh, I know you have a thing for Glynda. But Ironwood keeps flirting with her whenever they meet. There's also the time I caught you and Tai looking up porn on your scro-" Raven listed off and Qrow interrupted with a yelp.

"WOAAH okay! I believe you.. jeez, way to twist the knife.." He sulked but seemed happy.

"I'm going to do better, Qrow" Raven pat his shoulder.

"Well you know what's gonna happen now, right?" Qrow gave her a look.

"Ozpin wants to see me, yes? That's fine" Raven just nodded.

"The sooner the better. Now come on, let's get inside" Qrow walked in, followed by Raven, who saw Ruby and Yang run over to them.

"Uncle Qrow! Aunt Raven! Can you teach us some moves? Mom and Dad said you used to be in a team. Were you Huntsmen?" Yang asked and Ruby seemed excited. She was nodding repeatedly as Yang barraged them with questions.

"Well.. Qrow over here is still a Huntman, like your Mom. I stopped for a while.. but I'll be back at it again soon, hopefully" Raven put her hands on both of their heads.

"Ah ah. Our moves can only be used by super cool Huntsmen in training. When you go to Signal in a few years I'll teach you a thing or two, Firecracker" Qrow nudged Yang with a grin.

"Just focus on being a kid for now. We'll need to make you big and strong before you can start swinging around dangerous weapons. You know? Drink lots of milk, eat your meat and vegetables" Raven tried to console a pouting Yang, but her pout deepened at the mention of vegetables.

"Aunt Raven is right! Remember to eat your veggies and drink milk, you two" Summer chimed in with a motherly tone.

"Bleugh! Come on, Rube. Let's go play Hero versus Badguy" Yang raced Ruby upstairs but not before Ruby waved bye to them enthusiastically.

"Cute" Raven slightly smiled.

"Well she is my little Rose after all!" Summer proudly puffed her chest out.

"Ah, right. Ozpin's sending me on an important mission today. He wants me to try and spy on 'her'" Summer whispered the last part.

Raven's stomach dropped at this. From what Lawrence can barely remember, he knew that Ruby's Mom never returned from a mission when she was a young girl. Suppressing a shiver, Raven spoke up while Summer was requesting Qrow to stay here to watch the kids with Tai.

"I'm going with you, Summer" Raven spoke in a cold, absolute tone that reminded them of how she spoke when she was angry.

"Well.. I suppose that can't hurt? It's a recon mission and I could use your cool bird magic!" Summer said with a happy nod.

"Good, it's dangerous and I'd rather be nearby in case we get into serious trouble" Raven sounded as casual as she could.

"Good thinking. We'll head out after I tuck the kids in to bed tonight" Summer ushered them to the couch as Tai finished the dishes and took a seat. All of team STRQ seated together once again. They spent the rest of the day talking about their days as students and asking Raven about Lawrence's life. She spared them the bloody details and talked about her time in the retirement home, where she made friends and got into anime.

Then, she realized something. Something that had slipped her mind this entire time. She was wearing Japanese clothing. She wielded a Katana. She wore exclusively red and black. She had seen this online in Lawrence's world but it hit her like Truck-kun hitting an Isekai protagonist.

~Am I an.. edgy weeaboo..?~ Raven shivered and paled as beads of cold sweat ran down her back.

She remembered in private times during her teenage years she would pose in front of a mirror with her katana. Clutching her face, she almost died again, this time from embarrassment.

"Raven?" Tai sounded concerned.

"What's wrong, Rae?" Summer shook her arm.

"Just.. reflecting on something I did that's cringey" Raven groaned as she recalled all of her weaboo tendencies and how when she was 15, she bandaged her arm and acted like it was a Grimm's arm, much to Qrow's confusion.

Raven almost fainted from the cringe and decided right there that she would buy some regular clothing that had more colors than black and red.

"Hehehe!!" Qrow snorted in amusement seeing his usually stoic sister lament in shame like this.

"Oh you want to laugh, Qrow? Let's laugh.." Raven got a crazed look in her eye and the rest of the day team STRQ kept roasting each other by bringing up their cringiest and most awkward moments.

-Night-

Summer finally packed up her things and tucked Yang and Ruby in bed. She stepped outside and saw Raven waiting for her.

"Good. All ready, Rae?" Summer enthusiastically pumped her arm.

"I'm ready to go. We taking a Bullhead?" Raven asked as she walked along with Summer.

"Yup! Though we'll only use it to get as close as the boat that'll take us to the Grimmlands as possible" Summer knew flying a bullhead into the Grimmlands was a surefire way to get Salem to notice you.

-Grimmlands, 8 days later-

Finally reaching the desolate lands infested by Grimm, Raven had to think of what she knew of the timeline back when she saw the show. She died after volume 3 so her knowledge of the future stops at the fall of Beacon. Raven's own knowledge helped fill in some gaps as to how some things happened. She wanted to avoid running into Salem's forces at all costs though.

As Summer and her walked cautiously through barren and Grimm infested land, they both made very sure they were as calm and collected as possible. Raven was in her bird form, perched on Summer's shoulder. Summer had been busy avoiding the swarms of Beowolves and Ursai on the ground while avoiding moving too fast for the Nevermore to spot them in the sky.

"Whew.. So many of them here. I see a Castle ahead, over those hills, see?" Summer pointed out a large gothic castle that fit right in with the landscape.

Summer got down on one knee and took out her binoculars as Raven kept a keen eye on their surroundings. They were currently near a rocky formation they could effectively hide in. She was wondering what Ozpin could possibly want to know out here so important it warranted risking Summer's life.

"This is top secret but Ozpin says he's gotten reports.. disturbing reports about talking Grimm. He thinks Salem is experimenting with the black pool somehow.." Summer muttered as Raven nodded her head.

~I suppose that answers my question.. Talking Grimm? What the hell is this woman doing?~ Raven asked in her head but received no answer.

Instead, she heard a voice that sent dread into her and Summer's souls from behind them.

"Oh my. I only invited one guest.. Oh well. I can accommodate two" Salem clasped her magically charged palms behind them.