Chapter 17 – The Canary Wharf Catfight

Soundtrack: The Dance Of Eternity – Dream Theater

7th of September, 1890.

As the clock neared twelve o'clock at night-time, Raven Branwen was alighting from a small rowing boat she'd acquired for her purposes. As the attempted theft of the Autumn Maiden took place, Raven placed a letter through the door of her old boss in Special Branch; the letter asking him to meet at the Charlotte's Web to discuss something potentially world-shattering that she wished to prevent. A telegram that Raven fetched the next evening confirmed his attendance, and Raven breathed a sigh of relief.

Though her boss had sworn not to do so, Raven still feared she would get arrested for her crimes. She had been sent in March 1885 to work undercover within Vernal Fausse's crew – which started with ensuring that Vernal didn't steal two dozen prototypical Dust missiles from an SDC shipment between Oslo and London. She achieved that by diverting Vernal's attention towards New England, and she made sure that whatever raids she partook in after the fact didn't affect the SDC too harshly. Eventually, Raven found that she enjoyed life on the sea with Vernal and their crew, and went rogue.

However, once Cinder came into the picture with her plans for domination, Raven decided that she couldn't be allowed to control any part of the world's Dust trade – lest the world's economy remain at the whim of a Triad princess who'd orchestrated the bombing of the Clockwork Pavilion at Atlas Gardens the year before. Raven also knew that Vernal was a lost cause, having been coerced into doing Cinder's bidding – still, part of her wished to help her captain and lover to escape to France once she betrayed Cinder.

After tying her ship to a handy bollard, Raven dashed out of the wharf that sat next to Tower Bridge and up Lafone Street, never stopping until she reached the corner of Lafone and Tooley Street. Collecting her breath and placing her mask over her face, the Special Branch detective finally approached the Charlotte's Web with two hundred pounds ready in her left hand, and knocked firmly on the door with the right.

"Can the black wolf howl?", a voice rang out.

"Only when the white moon whistles," Raven exhaled.

The door opened, and Roderick was there as always.

"The king of jackals, if you please," Raven requested, remembering to affect an Irish accent as part of her disguise.

"You're nearly late," Roderick replied, "but I'll call all the same, Miss Brennan."

Raven nodded, then entered into one of the three booths along the wall her lot entered. Not a minute later, Chief Inspector Jonathan Warren entered in his guise as a local grass.

"Does the red rose wilt?"

"Never under the yellow sun."

Warren sighed in relief as Raven took off the mask. "Good to see you again, Sergeant. I trust you have the important blueprints you wired me about last week?"

Raven opened her jacket and revealed a manilla binder filled with Ironwood's missing plans. "Indeed I do, but I need to know something."

Warren nodded uncertainly. "What do you wish to know?"

"Is the Spring Maiden's theft on your radar – and if so, is Constable Qrow Branwen handling it?"

Warren shifted uncomfortably, before responding in a whisper. "Yes; Inspector Branwen was alerted to it earlier today by one of the regulars."

Raven gave an approving nod in response. She hadn't spoken to Qrow in five years, and she was happy to hear that he'd been promoted in her absence. Despite their differences, she still cared for her brother.

"Capital," she replied. "These blueprints are to be stored in your safe until the morning of the 9th – if either myself or Qrow doesn't request their release by midday, hand them over directly to Johannes Schnee without a single person looking within the files."

Jonathan nodded emphatically. "You got it, Sergeant. Happy hunting."

Raven shook Jonathan's hand, then replaced her mask and left the manilla folder on the table as she left the Charlotte's Web for good. I'd better get a promotion for this, Raven hoped silently as she journeyed back to the wharf.

8th of September, 1890.

Cinder glared at Raven. "You dare steal my birthright from me?!"

Raven glared right back at her mark. "It was never yours to begin with, you crazed harlot. The Chinese government would never accept a Triad princess's claim to property, let alone a considerable fortune in Dust mines. Your efforts are forfeit – as is your life."

Cinder was furious and lost for words at Raven's revelation. She dropped the bloody harpoon, flicked her double-jointed wrists backwards and pulled. The seams in her jacket were torn as a rapier arrived in Cinder's right hand, and a gauche was spotted in her left hand. Raven placed her badge within her trouser pocket, and settled in a fencing stance.

With a snarl, Cinder lunged suddenly. Jaune and Qrow had just made it to the corner as the fight erupted. Onlookers ran for it as Raven and Cinder began their deadly dance. Raven was forced on the backfoot and parried hard at Cinder's wild swing, then released her odachi from Cinder's gauche and rolled to avoid a strike from the rapier.

"What should we do?!", Jaune fretted.

"Let them duel this out," Qrow responded. "But if the one with the big sword gets overwhelmed, shoot the one with short hair. She's the one responsible for this mess."

Jaune nodded hesitantly, clearly wishing to have no blood on his hands, and both he and Qrow readied their service pistols with a group of crimson-golden Dust rounds chambered. Meanwhile, General Ironwood and Weiss Schnee both spotted the brawl unfolding on the South Quay bridge from the Spring Maiden's prow, where they and the others were handcuffing the criminals they had just defeated.

"What the hell is going on?", Weiss whispered in disbelief.

"I'll go and deal with that," Ironwood averred. "Have the criminals all seated against a wall by the time I get back."

"Agreed," Weiss replied. Ironwood then clambered down the stairwell at the stern of the cargo flagship and jumped onto Millharbour. Steadying himself, he took off in a dead sprint towards Marsh Wall with murder in his eyes. That scoundrel Branwen had better be keeping civilians safe from the carnage, he icily prayed.

Cinder swung hard to the right, aiming to catch Raven in the neck, but Raven parried with her odachi at the last second. Snarling, Cinder then tried to use her gauche to gore Raven, only for the Welsh detective to headbutt Cinder and knock the offending blade out of her hand, scoring a gash on Cinder's left arm.

"You bitch," Cinder snarled, before tying a torn strip of jacket around the wound to stem the blood flow. It wasn't easy, given how she was running across the bridge away from Raven at the same time. Once it was done up, Cinder strafed left and narrowly avoided a lunge from Raven. Raven then jumped back towards the bridge railing as Cinder came for her.

Raven then had an idea. She backed up against the railing, as if slightly winded from the fight, and Cinder fell for the feint and charged. Raven sidestepped at the last minute and tried to trip Cinder over the railing into the river. Instead, Cinder fell forward and knocked out a couple of her teeth on the metal railing. Qrow, Jaune and even Raven winced at the bloodied, shattered enamel that Cinder spat out spitefully on the ground.

"You'll pay for that," Cinder growled, before tackling Raven to the ground. Both women dropped their swords as Cinder began to punch Raven in the face. Raven then kneed Cinder between her legs, and the resultant yelp of agony distracted Cinder enough for Raven to reach for a loose piece of the pavement.

Cinder was knocked sideways off of Raven by the brick's impact with the left side of her face. Raven then caught Cinder by the throat and headbutted her again, bloodying the Asian's nose before throwing her a few metres away to her left. Looking up, Raven saw the stunned expression on her brother's face, and chuckled at the even more agog blonde man next to him.

"Watch and learn, boys," the Welshwoman purred teasingly before getting off the ground.

After she got to her feet, Raven conceded that Cinder was powerful, and had doubtlessly learned her swordsmanship from a handy samurai in her family's employ. But Raven also knew that Cinder was enraged – and therefore prone to making mistakes – and that she had far less experience than Raven herself did. Stepping backwards, Raven settled into her fighting stance, and played her master stroke.

"All that training and you still can't hurt me. So much for the power of the Triads."

Cinder roared as she arose, then swung her rapier with her left hand in a wild overhead strike – trying to catch Raven off-guard with an improvised move. But it wasn't to be; Raven effortlessly swivelled half a metre to the right, leaving Cinder exposed with her sword over-extended, pointing downwards. Without hesitation, Raven lunged forward and sliced Cinder's left eye into two.

Blood spurted out of Cinder's blinded eye as she shrieked in pain. With her depth perception now gone, Cinder's subsequent swipe at Raven stopped short, and Raven seized her chance. Without hesitation, Raven grabbed Cinder by the scruff of her neck and poured a vial of azure Dust down her throat.

"This is for Vernal," Raven hissed.

Once the azure Dust entered Cinder's stomach, the reaction was lethal. Cinder screamed in agony as her movements slowed, her shriek petering out into silence as she froze from the inside out with a rictus of fear upon her face. With one heft, Raven threw Cinder's cooling corpse off the South Quay bridge, a jet of water reaching Raven's height as the villain crashed into the murky waters of Canary Wharf.

Qrow and Jaune stood there in stunned silence for what seemed like an eternity, before Ironwood caught up with them from behind.

"Don't stand there gawping, like you haven't seen someone freeze to death before!", Ironwood bellowed as he approached.

Raven turned to meet the onlookers, with a cold, hard expression upon her face. This expression shifted to a termite-ridden smile as Raven recognised one of the newcomers.

"Sergeant Raven Branwen reporting for duty, brother dearest," she said mockingly, saluting with equal frivolity.

Qrow groaned as his powers of speech returned.

"The boss will have a fit over this."

"Mine as well," Jaune averred with equal ruefulness.

Ironwood cackled mirthlessly. "Just wait until you meet mine."

"If you're looking for the stolen blueprints, General," Raven continued calmly, "Special Branch has them. Due to all the paperwork, it will take time for my superiors to release them on my request."

"Nonsense!", Qrow snapped quietly. "All it'd take would be an inspector or someone of higher rank to fetch them."

"So you'll have no issue in fetching those and bringing them to Ironwood over there?", Raven teased.

Once again, Qrow had let himself be tricked into doing something he didn't want to do, for someone he hated.

"Fine, I will," he groused while facepalming. "I'll be sure to get them to you by morning."

Ironwood's smile was predatory. "You'd better live up to that."

Despite the grim situation, Raven allowed herself to smile at her brother's misfortune. Perhaps things can finally return to normal, she thought to herself.

A/N: There wasn't a ton of Maidenbowl moves that could've been featured in this AU, so I again hope the combat wasn't too dull.

And yes, Ironwood's reaction was an intentional nod to Monty Python.

Stay tuned for the next chapter, which will feature the aftermath of the fighting. As always, feel free to review, follow and/or favourite the work.