"The City of Mistral…"

Nora groaned dramatically. "It's about time!"

Ruby nodded, "I can't believe it took eight months, even by foot."

"Trust me," Qrow reassured his niece, "The experience you kids gained will be worth it."

Jaune smiled softly, but hopefully, "Here's hoping."

Qrow grinned impishly "hey, at the end of the day, only one of us almost died. I don't know what you kids are complaining about."

Jaune and Ruby gave strained chuckles while Ren avoided looking at Jaune. Nora gave his hand a quick squeeze, and he smiled softly at his girlfriend.

"So," Jaune interjected, anxious to change the subject, "How much farther to Haven Academy?"

"Almost there, but I imagine you kids haven't gotten a good look at the place since arriving here and being cooped up in that hotel, so I thought we'd take the scenic route."

The timid man gave a welcoming smile to Team RNJR. "Ah, you must be the students Qrow mentioned."

Ruby smiled back, "Yes sir! We're team RNJR!"

"A pleasure to meet you all, Leonardo Lionheart, at you're service. I'm afraid most of my staff is currently away until classes resume, but—

"What?!"

Qrow voiced Ozpin's thoughts, "What? Leo, you can't be serious. Who's guarding the Relic?!"

"Somethings not right. Don't let Qrow tell him about me!"

"Qrow, the children."

"Already know." Qrow began to turn towards Jaune. "In fact-"

Jaune quickly interrupted him. "Qrow told us everything himself." His eyes met Qrow's in a quick glare, and he shook his head.

"…Yeah, I filled them in. What do you mean your staff is away?

Sienna Khan looked down at her protégé "I was one of the first to suggest violence where violence was necessary. Peace bred complacency and acceptance of our place in the world. I will not allow humanity to push us down without pushing them back. But the destruction of the Huntsman Academies crosses a line! The loss of the CCT has brought global communication to a crawl! And the Faunus population is more of a target now than ever before! You have justified humanity's campaign against us, and for what?! Empty promises from a group of humans? Humans, we still know nothing about, and come and go as they please! These are not examples of strength, Adam. They are examples of your talents being diminished by shortsightedness!"

Adam frowned, "The organization that made the Fall of Beacon possible wasn't just comprised of humans."

He looked back as the door to the chamber opened, and Tyrian Callows, prosthetic tail and all entered. "Pleasure to see you again, General Khan."

Sienna shifted uncomfortably in her throne, "Its High Leader Khan now, Callows."

"Really? Because according to young Adam here, you still can't make a single decision without first seeking advice from you're predecessor."

Adam growled as Sienna shot a glare at him. "I never said that!"

"But, it's what you and everyone else is thinking." Tyrian smirked, "Despite seizing control of the White Fang and turning it in a new direction, you still fear the disapproval of you're old comrade in arms."

Sienna glared daggers at the man. "I respect Ghira Belladonna and his contribution to the cause of Faunus rights. I even respect his efforts to resolve things peacefully. But he has no bearing or control over my decisions as High Leader of the White Fang. He is no longer a concern of this organization."

Tyrian's grin widened as the entrance to the chamber opened again, and Ghira Belladonna entered.

"Prove it."

"There was nothing to check in about until the fall of Beacon. Since that day, Mistral has been in chaos! Vale wasn't the only Kingdom to suffer that night. Everyone was watching. Every house in every Kingdom saw that girl, or robot, start running amock, saw monsters crawling over the city, Atlesian Knights attacking citizens... and then nothing. You could feel the dread in the air. With all that negativity, you can imagine what it was like when the Grimm came for us. Mistral's territory is the widest-reaching in the world, you know, and that makes it infinitely harder to protect. We lost so many great Huntsmen, teachers from this very institution. And it's only gotten worse."

"What do you mean?"

"We may have dealt with the Grimm, but the Mistral council's still at odds with representatives from Atlas. First, it was the Dust embargo; now it's the closing of borders. I'm not sure what happened to James in Vale, but it seems to have only worsened some of his more unfortunate tendencies. And, on top of everything, we still don't know where the Spring Maiden is."

Qrow interjected, "All the more reason we need the Huntsmen and Huntresses here!"

Ruby interrupted, trying to calm things down. "Okay! Okay. Things are bad; they're bad. But we can figure this out. What happened to the Spring Maiden?"

Lionheart sighed sadly. "She was determined, at first, when she inherited her powers, but the weight of responsibility proved to be too much for the child. She... ran. Abandoned her training, everyone. That was over a decade ago. There's no telling where she could be now."

"I... know." Qrow hesitated as he spoke up. "At least... I have a pretty good idea."

Lionheart looked up eagerly, "Are you serious?"

"It's not exactly good news."

Lionheart seized his shoulder excitedly. "What are you talking about? This is incredible news! After all these years! Where?!"

Qrow sighed, "I did some digging around. Looks like, after Spring ran away, she was picked up by bandits, specifically the Branwen tribe."

Lionheart's excitement evaporated almost instantly, "Raven."

Jaune looked to Ruby as she gasped, "Yang's mom?"

Qrow nodded as he placed his scroll on Lionheart's desk, pulling up a map of Anima, with an area about 20 miles outside of Mistral highlighted. "That's right. That's about where they've set up their main camp. It's where they fall back to after raids and scouting missions. Raven's managed to gain a lot of followers since she returned to the tribe, and I'm sure when the Spring Maiden showed up, it only made things easier."

Lionheart nodded and smiled. "Well, Qrow, I've got to hand it to you. With these coordinates, we can mount a retrieval force and head out in a few weeks."

"A few weeks?"

"That's right."

Qrow shook his head, "Leo, maybe you didn't hear me. My sister has the Spring Maiden, and I know where she is. We need to go as soon as possible!"

Lionheart glared back, "And perhaps you didn't hear me. This Kingdom is in shambles. "As soon as possible" does not mean tomorrow. It means, as soon as I can convince the council that I need Huntsmen more than they do. Unfortunately, bandit tribes aren't very high on their list of priorities when the threat of war is just on the horizon."

"Then damn the council. We'll do it ourselves. You and I are trained Huntsmen, and these kids aren't exactly pushovers."

Nora seemed to be growing more excited. "Yeah!"

Ren interrupted her, "Perhaps there's a more peaceful way to approach this?"

Lionheart looked at Ren. "Doubtful. Raven and Ozpin had a falling out years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if she joined forces with Salem one of these days, assuming she hasn't already."

"No way," Qrow interjected, "Raven may hate Ozpin, but she knows Salem can't be trusted."

He turned to Ren, "but you've got a point. Raven would be a useful ally to have, not just because of the Spring Maiden."

"And if thinks I'm out of the picture, she may be more willing to join up."

Jaune shifted uncomfortably at that thought, "I feel like that could go very wrong for me if she finds out I'm deceiving her."

Lionheart spoke up, "You and Taiyang have been trying to get through to Raven for over a decade now. What makes you think she'll change her mind now?"

Qrow smiled more confidently, "Because the one thing Raven values above all else, is strength. More than her hatred for Oz, more than her fear of Salem, she wants to be strong and surrounds herself with strength. She's not content to run and hide; otherwise she wouldn't have recruited the Spring Maiden. If we go in with a show of strength, we can win her over to our side."

Lionheart shook his head "Strength we don't currently have, Qrow. You and your sister are evenly matched. And I'm not the fighter I used to be. No offense, but these students and I won't be enough to impress an entire bandit tribe. We need the manpower to prove out strength, and prove that Raven has everything to gain by giving her aid."

"You four head back to the house. I need a drink."

As he strolled off, Jaune leaned into Ruby conspiratorially. "We're not heading back to the house, are we?"

"Nope."

The pair began heading towards Haven's courtyard as Ren and Nora glanced at one another.

"Where are you guys going?" Ren called.

Jaune turned back. "We didn't come all this way to sit on our hands. There's a board out front that lists all the off-duty huntsmen in the Kingdom. We'll start recruiting now and be out of here within the week."

Team RNJR felt their hearts sink further as they looked up at the board.

Every huntsman on the board was either on a mission, KIA, or MIA.

"Something is very wrong here."

"Lionheart made it sound like they were spread thin." Ren noted, "But this is worse than I thought."

Jaune gestured, "Look how recent some of these KIA dates are. These didn't just happen eight months ago."

"I've got it!" Ruby put a fist in her hand, even more determined "Qrow said we need a show of strength! That doesn't necessarily mean a show of numbers!"

AN: Thanks for reading, please R&R, and if you want to read something different, check out the one-shot I put out yesterday, Everyman.