The squad moved the caravan survivors towards Pan Animarum using the plane and what was left of the vehicles.

"Hey," Zapato said over the radio. "We're low on fuel. A lot of extra flight time. I'm gonna need to get some from the nearest city."

"Put it on Argus' tab," Raven said flatly.

"Roger. Also picking up some more grimm not that far away."

The grimm no doubt were following the distraught survivors.

"Maybe you could just get your minds off it for a short time," Yang suggested. "Just till we get to a city."

"It's hard to be cheerful when you just lost your family," one person said tersely.

"Will the bandits be long gone?" Neptune asked Raven.

"I should think so, that raid was a lot of loot. Unless they came back for the rest." Raven mused.

She shouldn't have said that, because like it was on cue, not two minutes later, they were suddenly surrounded by a group of people in dark clothes and wearing head coverings.

By now it was also nearing nightfall and the rain had finally slowed to a drizzle, but it was cold.

Neptune had rain falling around him but not on him, it was barely noticeable but he'd been getting some weird looks... he'd much rather have ridden in the plane, but he wasn't allowed.

Now the bandits surrounded them all.

"Where did they come from?" One person said, startled.

"Oh no!" Some of the people still on the ground, albeit in cars, cried, and ducked behind the dashboard.

Raven counted at least 40 bandits.

"The Baba tribe, I'm guessing," she said loudly.

"By the light of the shattered moon," one of them stepped a little forward, making everyone else tense. "Are you Raven Branwen? You match the description, but you look like a stuffy Atlesian prick."

"What's it to you?" Yang spoke up, unlocking her gauntlets.

"I wasn't expecting you to have reinforcements," the bandit, who was also a woman, said dryly. "But looks like we hit the jackpot, that fancy plane would be worth bank...and you all look important. I'm thinking ransom."

Some of the others cheered at that, or whistled.

"And I'm thinking you're all dead," Mercury said. "You don't look so tough."

"Black, stand down, I'll handle this," Raven snapped at him.

"Well, do something then," he grumbled.

Raven drew her sword.

"Let me explain something to you," she said. "You've got us surrounded and you're probably thinking you have the drop on us, right. Probably, you were planning to come back and claim the rest of the loot before anyone could find these people, and dodge the waves of grimm. But in reality, you're relying on faulty information."

The woman began using her weapon to rub her chin, not convinced.

"You don't know, for example, that all of us here are elite huntsmen," Raven said.

This was not true, Claw and Piper were not specialists, but she saw no reason to specify that.

"That we just took down a Nemean earlier in about 5 minutes, and that I can, at any time, call in reinforcements from Argus itself and they'll be here within seconds," she said firmly. "If that's not enough, that plane is carrying heavy weaponry and could blast you all to smithereens if you step one foot nearer to us."

The bandits suddenly looked up as if they hadn't realized this plane was a war one. Most fliers only carried weaponry for small grimm attacks.

"You're not Raven Branwen with that," the woman said. "Or are you? Are you serious about this?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Raven's face was like flint. "Take a step forward, I dare you."

Everyone else glared at them.

The bandits watched them warily.

"Better yet, they should just surrender," Claw spoke. "With all the advantages we have on our side, we could just take 'em all in. They deserve it. In fact, Piper, why not just do it?"

"Yeah," Piper held up his pipe and began to play something.

The bandits stared at him and some of their eyes glazed over.

"What are you doing?" Raven doubted the wisdom of this plan. "Did I order you to do it?"

Piper couldn't really answer.

"We can just take them down," Claw said. "We should leave this tribe out here. Unless you want to spare them because you used to be one of them."

Apparently whatever good impression Emerald and Mercury had made did not extend to Raven for Claw. [Anyone else notice that that sounds like Ravenclaw from Harry Potter?]

"Watch your tongue," Hazel didn't know anything about Claw, but he knew you didn't talk to a leader like that, especially in front of other people.

Claw didn't like the look of Hazel.

"Just the same, why not just take them down?" Yang said.

"No, we should run, now," Raven said. "They won't follow us. Everyone keep moving."

The campers looked at her uncertainly.

"Are you really a bandit?" One of them said.

"Was this whole thing a setup?" said another.

Jasmine looked at Raven closely but then she said. "I think we'd better just do as she says, they're clearly legit."

"We have a medal and badge and everything," Neptune held up his scroll. "See?"

That seemed to convince the campers.

"Move it," Raven almost yelled at them.

They started to move.

But Piper, already tired, suddenly expended his aura and gasped.

At once the bandits unfroze and looked around.

"It was all a bluff!" said the main one. "They're just trying to get away!"

The entire clan charged the caravan and huntsmen.

Well, that was a huge mistake.

Exactly what Raven predicted happened, the huntsmen leapt into action and the bandits were no match for their skill.

On top of this, Jasmine, ever resourceful, pulled some rock dust out of a container and used it to pin one of them down when they came close.

Raven easily beat a few herself.

By her calculations, only a few of them were well trained enough to compete with huntsmen.

She knew the type. She'd been able to launch more effective attacks because of being the Maiden, but without that, bandit tribes usually couldn't attack cities, they were too well defended. Small towns maybe.

Zapato circled around and shot at some of the bandits that were further back.

They ran for it.

Most of them ran, but the leader suddenly pulled some fire dust out.

"You win this round, Branwen," she called. "But at least let us go out with a bang."

"Was that a pun--?" Yang began.

"Get down!" Raven realized what she meant.

She jumped to push Jasmine and one other person off the truck carrying dust.

The leader bandit shot the fire dust onto it and the entire truck exploded.

Thankfully, most of it was ice and rock dust, which was more natural to Mistral to begin with, and except for raining down on the others, it didn't do much.

But there'd been some fire and electricity dust left and they blazed up fiercely, nearly setting Jasmine, Raven, and the other campers on fire.

Raven was a little dizzy from the impact.

"Mom!" Yang dashed in to try to tug her out, some of the rock fell in front of her and started to block her path.

The bandit leader laughed as she ran off.

"Hey!" Claw shot after her and just missed.

"Hey, you've done enough," Mercury yanked her gun down.

Suddenly grimm came rushing at them out of the trees.

Zapato shot a few of them, and then Mercury quickly fried the rest.

This really took it out of him though and he fell to his knees. "Too many times in one day...

Hazel had rushed to help Yang move the rocks.

"Someone put the fire out!" he called.

The others looked around for something to do that with.

Neptune stepped forward. He looked kind of wan. But he held up his hands, aura shimmered over them.

He murmured a prayer like he was nervous.

But the rain...bent around him, like it had become clay or dough almost, and pushed itself away, then it collected into a large orb around the fire and then it burst and fell down onto it, dampening most of it. Steam went up.

Emerald yanked a blanket off one of the other trucks that had been covering something, but was soaked from the rain, and slapped it on the rest of the flames, smothering them. Mercury helped her.

Hazel and Yang finally got the rock to move.

Jasmine was holding her ankle. "I think it might have broken," she winced. "The rock hit it. Though it could have been worse..."

Thankfully the camper was fine, but dazed.

"Mom?" Yang tugged her up.

Raven blinked and looked up. "Thank God for Aura," she said sincerely. "That was close..."

"Yeah, it was," Yang said crossly. "I could have done that you know, I'm practically fireproof."

"You weren't fast enough," Raven sat up. "Ouch... I think I'm burned."

"That was a risky move," Qrow had been too far away to do anything, chasing some of the bandits off. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Raven started to stand and found she was still off balance.

Emerald moved to help Jasmine and the other Camper.

"Those piranhas came back," Jasmine said, through gritted teeth. "Dirty, rotten scoundrels."

"Bandits are all scum," said the other camper angrily. "The scourge of the world's people."

Hazel helped Raven stand up.

"Do something for me," she said.

"What?" Hazel asked.

"Punch that guy," Raven said. "I would, but I can't."

She was looking at Piper.

Hazel obliged. Piper was so surprised by it that he forgot to dodge.

Hazel knocked him into a tree and he rubbed his jaw in shock.

"You ever pull that s--- again and I'll kill you myself," Raven yelled at him fiercely. "I know Bandits, and that would never have worked. Not with your short endurance. You just made us look like we were tricking them, we could have beaten them easily enough, but they pulled that stunt out of spite, and it could have cost us more than dust. Next time you make a decision like that unauthorized, you're out of the Argus huntsmen, I don't care what the reason was."

Piper winced.

"He could get seriously reprimanded for that, right?" Neptune said.

"We'll let Schnee decide that," Raven sniffed. "I'm sure she'll do enough damage. And Claw, you're not in the clear either, you encouraged it."

"I didn't realize they'd do that," Claw said meekly. "I'm sorry. We seemed to have the advantage."

"What's the big idea? Aren't you supposed to be a team?" said one of the campers.

"All right, everyone calm down," Qrow held up his hands. "Let's sort this out in Argus, not here. The grimm won't stop following us. If we want that plan to work, we need to get these people out of here so they'll not have a target anymore. That other plane is coming back to get us right?"

"Yeah," Raven rubbed her face. "For now let's just move what's left of the cargo... there went that dust. Another few thousand lien."

"Whitely will be pissed," Yang tried to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"Well, anyway, that was awesome," she turned to Neptune. "With the rain? I didn't know you could do that."

"My first time, to be honest, I just thought with the control I've gotten, it might work..." Neptune said sheepishly.

"You're so overpowered, man," Emerald said.

"Heh..." he looked nervous.

"One of them bends water, one of them lights herself on fire, one of them can kill grimm with his eyes, and one of them can cloud the mind," Piper muttered. "What even is this team?"

* * *

The other plane found them not that long after that and was able to speed up their journey enough to get them to Pan Animarum.

Raven was out of aura for a while after that impact, so they had to wait to return to Argus.

Some of the kids would have to go with them, they couldn't stay in Pan Animarum, it had no shelter for them.

"I know it's weird but this kind of makes me think of Cinder," Emerald said, while they were waiting by the airship. "I mean, I don't know that much about her, but I think she ended up the way she was because no one could take her in except these awful people. And I was alone."

"Cinder is that one woman who basically destroyed Beacon right?" Royal asked, lifting his ever present magazine.

"Yeah," Mercury said. "She was a real basket case at the time... I guess she's a little different now."

"I don't know, we haven't seen her since Vacuo, it's been over a year," Emerald said. "She could be dead...I mean she had the most enemies out of anyone."

"I wouldn't count on it, one thing she's good at is not dying," Mercury said. "For better or worse. I doubt she stuck to the straight and narrow."

"Oscar said she was planning to," Emerald said.

"You trust what she said?" Mercury said.

"It wouldn't hurt you to trust people a little more," Emerald said.

"Yeah, well, look what happened today. We could have been literal toast if our stupid teammates had done any worse," Mercury said. "Seems like not that many people are reliable."

Royal looked up. "I know this is none of my business, but isn't that what some people would have said about you not that long ago?"

Mercury frowned at him. "Your point is?"

"So if you've changed because of other people, and making different choices," Royal said. "Isn't that what they have to do, I've heard of you heroes. Your story is you have a God and you won against the gods of Remnant because of that. That's a pretty wild claim. If it was true you'd expect it to change you. But you seem pretty much the same as other people. I admit, I was expecting a little more."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Yang spoke, hearing this.

"I'm not disappointed," Royal shrugged. "I think I expected the wrong thing. You must have been people like the rest of us, but you got a chance to do a thing for the world, and you did it. Whatever led you to that , you changed your path. Not many people do that in life. Just sounds like you don't think anyone else but you can."

"He's got you there," Emerald said to Mercury. 

Mercury frowned.

"So, what was it like to meet gods?" Royal asked.

"It was... honestly, not like you'd think," Emerald said. "They were horrible. But when I faced them, I knew it was the same power that had kept Remnant in bondage for thousands of years, because when they used it on me, the god of darkness, especially, I felt it inside me. It was like I knew it, all the fears I had, all the darkness I'd seen in the world, it wasn't all because of the gods, but they embodied it. The god of light embodied all the stupid things we do to try to prevent the darkness, but they're empty things. I guess it took me a while to figure out why they were so weird, but so familiar... In the end I learned you have to not engage. You can't sink to their level to win. You have to choose not to be a part of their world at all. Don't serve foreign gods or anything like that... Then they let me go."

"That's quite a story," Royal said thoughtfully. "People say Remnant is different feeling since you all did that. But some say that's just people imagine it because of seeing the gods leave...I saw some of your fight earlier today. I'd say things are different. There's a fear in the grimm there wasn't before. Whatever you guys have, it's pretty real. Even that angry blonde girl was saying she's seen some things differently."

Yang shot him a look.

"And a bandit leader? Working for Atlas' military force?" Royal said. "Get real. That's like something out of a book. How does something like that even happen? Bandits used to attack Atlas. She was one of them. I heard about it in Argus plenty of times. I just don't see how people can mistake that."

"Huh... you know, you're pretty cool, Zapato," Emerald said. "Honestly, hardly anyone sees it that way."

"I think they're not looking hard enough," Royal said. "But also, maybe you're not showing it to them. I saw you step in to save Piper, and you seem to rely on each other. But that fleet footed kid doesn't exactly recommend himself to people."

Mercury frowned at him.

"Maybe if you changed your approach a little and didn't act so defensive, people would second guess their assumptions about you all," Royal suggested.

"Huh, you sound like our teacher, Shine," Emerald said. "She says we tell people how to treat us. I guess we're telling them the wrong thing... I just feel so guilty when people bring it up.

"Maybe that's a good sign, but you saved people today," Royal said. "If that's how you are now, there's no reason not to tell them that. Not everyone is going to like you, not much point worrying about it. Anyway when the shoe's on their foot, you see how they act? No better."

Claw and Piper were looking pretty deflated right about then.

"There's some lesson in this," Mercury said. "If you're a prick to other people, you end up screwing up...I can't believe I just said that."

Raven listened to all this, though they didn't know it, and she wondered if Royal was correct.

Not many people had been open minded to her. She had had to instill discipline in the Argus troops by force, they didn't like her right off. Some of them had gotten used to her and even seemed to acknowledge she was good at he job...but others still resented her.

"I wonder if it's too much to change," she spoke to Hazel. "Maybe it's asking too much of people to forget what I was before. I never felt ashamed of it, really...except just once or twice, thinking about what happened to the people after we left and the grimm came...or about the Spring Maiden...But you know, I've made peace with all that, for me. It's gone...wiped out." She looked at her hands. "But people will not forget. It's too much to ask them to trust me. I doubt this will be the last mission this happened on."

"Are you going to quit?" Hazel asked.

"I don't know, would that be the responsible thing to do?" Raven asked.

"It sounds like letting them win," Hazel said. "At the end of the day, either you're the person to run this, or you aren't. People won't like it, but Schnee gave you the job for a reason and if you quit you're leaving her in a fix as well as the Argus base. Sounds to me like running from the problem."

"Easy for you to say when you don't have to deal with this crap," Raven said. 

"There's been some things people have said, but I don't really care," Hazel meant that. "I never set out to make people like me."

"People like you anyway," Raven said. "You've got that aura of being a good guy even with the intimidating part. I don't have that. Sometimes I understand Black and Sustrai a little too well."

"It's been one year," Hazel said. "People are still reeling. In more time, who knows? I let go of my grudge with Ozpin after 30 years, I no longer think it's impossible for people to change their minds. But it happened slow."

Raven considered.

"I guess it's another choice," she said slowly. "Between fear and courage. Being hated isn't an easy thing to just accept...then again, Shine and Wally put up with it for weeks and weeks from different people and the most they did was yell at us."

"You yelled just now."

"That I did...maybe that's enough blowing off steam," Raven shrugged. "I don't have their trick of knowing what's really behind peoples' actions though...or if I do, I don't have the patience."

"Patience can be learned, I think the question is if you're actually willing to do it," Hazel said. "Frankly, someone with your talents can do anything they wanted, but you quit on things because you doubt you can do them."

"What the--where is this coming from?" Raven said. "You never notice anything like that."

"It's obvious," Hazel said. "What did you ever try to do that you didn't actually accomplish? That's why they want you to work for them in Argus. In some ways the entire reason that thing with Ozpin came out was because of your actions. I wouldn't bet against you, offhandedly. You're the one who decides you can't do something."

Raven glanced at him. "That is quite high praise coming from you, only I don't get impression you're actually trying to flatter me."

"Not really. I think you have a choice to make." Hazel was firm. "But if you quit, you're going to make Sustrai and Black more likely to give up also. It's clear they're watching you handle this in a certain way and if you give up, they're likely to also. And then your daughter, she'll think differently of you if you give up."

"Yang doesn't think that well of me to begin with," Raven said.

"She thinks better than she used to," Hazel said flatly. "Maybe you don't notice it, but a lot of the younger recruits seem to look up to you. Someone changing their course inspires certain people."

"You think they don't look up to you also? You've been the poster boy for self sacrifice since you busted Oscar out of that Zeppelin. Sustrai and Mercury always go back to that.

"I'm no one to emulate. I hope they learn not to do what I did."

"Except for the part where you changed it."

"That is the only thing they should imitate," Hazel admitted.

"Hmm," Raven folded her arms. "Well, I suppose this is why we understood each other so well. We're basically the same...s---."

"Because of not liking Ozpin," Hazel reflected. "That's probably the reason."

"Yeah, but you're acting like an understanding friend and that's a little weird," Raven said. "Don't tell me you actually started to get lonely working for Torchwick?"

"Don't." Hazel was never one to be in the mood for Raven's endless fretting people about their emotional lives.

"Does seem a little like you've taken yourself mostly out of the picture," Raven noted. "You think no one will notice. But they do. You saw how glad Sustrai was earlier? Maybe you shouldn't sell yourself short, since we're on the subject."

"We weren't talking about me," Hazel didn't want to talk about himself.

"I know, I know..." Raven rubbed her knee. "Still...well better get back. This took 4 times the amount of time it should have and that means paperwork...I hate parts of this job."

Hazel made no comment. At least he didn't have to do paperwork for his job.

***

Winter was not pleased that they took so long...or to hear the reason.

Raven got a lot of enjoyment out of her exploding at Claw and Piper over their reckless actions.

Winter was still hot headed and no one did much to curb her temper this time around since they were all pissed at them.

But after she'd chewed them out thoroughly and made sure the new campers they'd brought had been attended to and the few supplies sent away, she asked the team to debrief with her.

"I take it you're not seriously hurt?" She asked Raven.

Raven had already visited Jaune by then.

"Just a few minor burns," she said. "All in all, that minx did less than she intended."

"We'll keep tabs on that tribe, maybe we can take care of them once we have more manpower," Winter said wearily.

She rubbed her forehead. "I know it's been a long day, but we have to think about your next assignment, once you're ready. So I'll be direct, all of you have good reason to no longer wish Claw and Piper to be in your squad. I was going to move Miss Xiao Long and Mr. Vasilias anyway, as the volunteers will be moved around, but we were hoping to keep some members the same in order to allow more team building...but after this near disaster, you have every right to request new teammates. I would just move them anyway, except that it'll complicate things, but if you want, we'll find a way."

"Wow, that's actually pretty nice of you," Yang said.

"Yang," Qrow warned.

"I meant going that far..." Yang said. "What?"

"I'd say to move them," Qrow said. "But I guess the people this affects the most are Sustrai and Black. Raven, you're not going to lead the group again?"

"Ideally, they're supposed to be able to lead on their own now," Raven said. "This mission was just extra hard, but I have to spend more time here, or on higher level stuff than grimm. Like the bandits for example...so I think the call should be theirs."

"So you're saying we'd be a four man squad?" Mercury said.

"That is typically the size," Winter said. "But you will get more temporary members depending on the scale of the job. We thought their skills would complement yours, but they acted completely inappropriate. I won't sugarcoat that."

"I appreciate that," Emerald said. "But honestly...I think maybe they started to change their minds about us a little. They pulled some stupid s---...on the other hand, I'm not sure anyone else would be better. We have to start somewhere with making new...alliances, like Hazel said."

Hazel was not there, as he was not a huntsmen, but they smirked anyway.

"I didn't like them," Mercury said. "But no one else is going to be any better, probably. I guess it doesn't really matter. at least if we're in charge I can boss them around."

"I trust you will not abuse that authority Mr. Black," Winter warned him.

"I guess that settles it," Raven said. "Can we go now? I'm bushed."

"Yes," Winter said. "I think we've all had enough for one day." She sighed.

"I'll wait for you outside," Qrow told her.

She nodded.

"She really needs a vacation," Neptune commented as they left.

"Yeah, but she'll never take one," Yang said.

"She needs an assistant, she does too much work," Raven said.

"Yeah, we really have to work on that," Qrow said. "But Raven, for what it's worth, I was proud of you today.

"What?" Raven gave him an odd look.

"I know, it's a weird thing to say," Qrow said. "But for me, dealing with other bandits would have been easy, I didn't have much pity for them. I thought you would hesitate. But you didn't. I guess you really have turned over a new leaf."

"It's not exactly that I can't see where they're coming from," Raven said. "It's that I now have to side with the innocent people. But the Baba tribe aren't that kind of bandit anyway. Still it's a glass house. Who is really worse? I have to stop them anyway, I'd have done the same if I was still a bandit and they were in my turf."

"You could just take the compliment," Qrow said. "You handled it well. And you dealt with some pretty s---y subordinates also. Not sure I would have handled them good myself. Maybe this is your calling."

"I'd expect you to be buttering me up for something but you're not that subtle," Raven said dryly. "Don't be weird, Qrow, you're bothering me."

"Have it your way," Qrow threw up his  hands. "I shouldn't try to be nice."

"Don't be so over-dramatic."

* * *

About one month after that incident, the Baba tribe had caused no further trouble, and the grimm had been dispersed for the most part.

Huntsmen squads from all over were taking turns dealing with them as they appeared. This would take the most time, but it was less dangerous with them being separated.

Raven had not quit--really, she probably hadn't seriously considered it. But even if she had, it was pretty clear now would have been a terrible time.

Things became a little less hectic on the grimm front.

But problems abounded with the kingdom's lack of housing for all the refugees, and more came in every time girmm attacked without warning, or bandits did.

The last would slow because it was winter, but they really needed a solution before spring, when girmm were worse, because they usually had gone all winter without feeding.

Emerald, taking the plight of the kids in particular personally, approached Raven while she was in her office (yes she had her own office! Only she and Winter did.)

"I know, but right now we just don't have the resources  to provide for them as a city," Raven said. Shuffling some papers around, as well as computer screen pages. "Too much supply cut off still because of Atlas falling. Realistically it'll take years to recover. And...we didn't have a lot of help from them before that. The weak do not survive well in Remnant."

"Yeah, you always say that," Emerald said. "But should we change that? I mean, 'Defend the fatherless', protect the weak, and all that?"

"Do you actually have a plan, or are you just whining to me?" Raven could still be quite harsh.

But Emerald was used to her by now.

She plopped down a notebook in front of Raven, and some sheets of handwritten papers.

"I wrote to the DJs about the problem weeks ago," she said. "I'm sure they answered me within days, but as you know, it takes heckin' long for us to get their answer, and I expected that, so I didn't say anything to you before. But they were telling me that their world has a lot of organizations to help kids and adults who've lost their homes. Wally even works at one. He wrote out a lot about how it works. He says promoting it is really key, and that rich people usually sponsor it."

"Okay..." Raven picked up the notebook and started looking through it. Emerald had made a lot of notes. "I see... you know this would be difficult to get people to do. They're pockets are already pretty empty."

"Yeah," Emerald said. "And Shine was telling me that even with all the donations they get, it's never enough because it takes so much money to...what were her words...?" She looked at the letter. "Adequately provide for the needs of each child or adult."

"She's not wrong," Raven said. "Tai had his hands full with two. The tribe took a lot of money just to keep afloat with the basics. You have to steal more than you'd think...the point is you're from the gutter too, kid. Did you ever have enough? No matter how much you steal   it's hardly even going to break even, you have to rake in more than you need to be safe."

"Yeah, I get that it's complicated," Emerald said. "But they have this thing called a 'foster care'. People take in kids who aren't theirs...kind of like here, when they take them in to work. But it's more monitored, and they aren't for workers, they just...well adopt them."

"Adopt them?" Raven said. "I mean it's not unheard of, but it's rare. People can barely take care of their own families usually, let alone anyone else's. Again, if you're not working the kid, or using them to steal, most people don't think it's worth it."

"But it could work," Emerald said. "If people cared about just helping each other...I mean...we can't just let them starve."

"We can't help everyone either," Raven said.

Emerald sighed.

"And you'll never get people on board with it," Raven said. "They'd think it sounds stupid."

"I was hoping with your influence you could come up with a way that might make it sound better," Emerlad said.

"Well, look at it this way, Sustrai, would you take in some random kid right now?" Raven said. "You're making some salary, you've got lodgings, but do you think you'd take on that kind of responsibility?"

Emerald stared at her a long moment.

"I guess I see your point," she said. "I mean...would you?"

"Me? Oh gosh no," Raven said.

"Why not? I mean you've taken care of kids before, in the tribe, you know how it works," Emerald said "You're a mom, technically."

"Yeah, that's why, way too much responsibility," Raven said.

"You could, but you won't, that's what you're saying," Emerald said. "Isn't that the problem."

"Well, back at you then," Raven said. "It's just not feasible."

Emerald frowned. "Yeah..well, whatever, sorry I brought it up now."

"I..." Raven felt a little guilty. "I can keep this on file, I suppose I could ask Schnee if she thinks ther's anything to it. But I doubt it would shape up like what you're describing."

Emerald nodded.

Raven wondered if this idea was really worth discussing...but...

***

Winter, hearing it, had the same reaction Raven had.

But then she said. "If people would be willing to, I suppose it would help, a little. I mean...let me check the numbers..."

She pulled up a file. "We have at least 300 hundred accounted for orphans because of the grimm attacks and Atlas falling. At least half that many adults who have no home and no job. And many huntsmen still hanging on by a thread financially. We can't pay them all."

"The idea wouldn't work without people who have money," Raven said. "And we're not those people. You brother has it, but just barely enough to keep the SDC from crumbling while he's putting it back together."

"The Mistral Council itself and Vacuo's and private citizens," Winter said. "That's who has money right now. They're making bank off of us needing their permission or their supplies for everything we're doing. But we just haven't had time to turn a real revenues from people building new things yet...We need more time."

"Yeah, but these people don't have more time." Raven said.

Winter tapped her chin.

"Well, when you consider it, they are prospective workers at least," she said. "Would perhaps someone see it as an investment to keep them alive? That sounds horribly mercenary, but businessmen are what they are. I never liked them."

"I suppose that's worth a shot with the council but we'd need a better plan then that," Raven said.

"This seems important to you," Winter said. "Is it because of your own background with being an orphan?"

"It's more of Sustrai's project," Raven said. "But I admit...it would be nice if we had somewhere to send people like this other than those houses that just work them to death."

Winter nodded. "We shouldn't put it aside."