Chapter Text
Clover wakes up with a sinking feeling in his gut and knows immediately that today is Monday. He half-slides, half-falls out of bed and stumbles over to the closet to put his uniform on.
Halfway across the room, he remembers that he graduated two weeks ago and is instantly relieved. Even if the trauma from Monday never leaves him, he’s glad to have the extra sleep. Gods know he needs it. Clover lays back down and closes his eyes, ready to go back to sleep.
A loud bang breaks the silence, forcing Clover to sit up and look around for the source of the noise. Seconds later, something black hits his window.
Harriet, Clover mentally groans. What could she possibly want this early-
The mission.
Suddenly alert, Clover grabs the folded uniform he laid out yesterday and starts changing out of his pajamas as he gropes blindly for his Scroll. It starts ringing the second he picks it up.
The only thought going through Clover’s head is that he’s supposed to be lucky as he picks up the phone. “I know, I know-”
“You can’t stop my lecture just by saying you know! We were going to have breakfast together!” Harriet says. As she launches into a long speech about how everyone’s been waiting for him to get out of the house, Clover finishes getting dressed. Doing his best to drown out Harriet’s voice, he pins his lucky charm- a Clover pin that his dad gave him- to his shirt and runs downstairs.
Clover opens the front door and his team comes spilling in almost immediately. Normally, there would only be three other people, but General Ironwood said they would “work well together.” So instead of Team CHRY, he and Harriet joined the Ace Ops. He’s not sure how he really feels about them yet- both teams lost at least one team member, and another of Team CHRY ran away. Since they lost their leader, Clover now leads the Ace Ops.
“You promised us breakfast,” Marrow explains as he slips into the kitchen, snatching a banana from Clover’s fruit bowl. “Do you have waffles?”
Sighing, Clover checks his Scroll. They still have thirty minutes before he planned to leave, so he pulls out his frozen waffles and sticks them in the toaster.
The other Ace Ops wait in anticipation for the waffles to be done. Clover senses what Harriet’s about to do and leaves the kitchen. She zips by him and snatches all four waffles from the toaster, not bothering to put in the rest.
Vine stands up almost immediately and uses his semblance to grab one of the waffles from her plate. Once Marrow joins in, it’s absolute chaos as he stops them in their tracks. Clover makes eye contact with Elm. They both roll their eyes as Clover puts the next batch of waffles in the toaster.
Thirty minutes later, when Elm and Clover have gotten the Ace Ops to see sense, they leave Clover’s house to see General Ironwood. It’s not a long walk, considering that his office is in Atlas just like Clover’s apartment. The entire way there, Clover tries to ignore Marrow and Harriet bickering over who should have gotten the last waffle. Thankfully, he’s had a lot of practice.
The Ace Ops reach Ironwood’s office only to be stopped by a dark-haired officer before they reach the door. She holds out a folder to them. “General Ironwood is at a last-minute meeting. He requested that I give this to you.”
Even if she doesn’t specifically say it, Clover knows that Ironwood’s been called away by Ozpin to discuss the ever-growing threat of the Grimm and witches that live on their borders. It’s common knowledge that Lionheart and Theodore aren’t the best to rule their kingdoms, so Ironwood is often absent.
Harriet takes the folder for him and flips it open as the officer stalks off. Her eyes grow round immediately as she holds the folder up to the Ace Ops. “We’re supposed to hunt down the Branwen Coven!”
“That’s not what it says,” Vine sighs. He tugs the folder from her grasp and holds it out to Marrow and Elm. “We’re hunting down Team STRQ.”
Everyone goes still. They’re all familiar with Team STRQ- everyone in Remnant probably is. They were famous for having two members of the Branwen Coven that had supposedly repented. On the day they graduated from Beacon- the same day the Ace Ops graduated- the entire team left the kingdoms to return to the forest as witches. Even the two humans were corrupted and willingly went with them.
Ozpin refused to reveal more information on them, but in the file the Vine holds up are their profiles. There’s relatively little information, as it seems that Ozpin still won’t give Ironwood everything on Team STRQ.
Vine hands the folder to Clover. “Team STRQ- Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen, and Qrow Branwen,” Clover reads to them. “We’re supposed to hunt them down and arrest them all. Ironwood doesn’t want them to have the chance to join the Branwen Coven in Mistral.”
“That doesn’t seem much harder than the usual missions we went on in our last year,” Harriet shrugs.
“These are trained Huntsmen,” Clover reminds her. “And they have magic on their side.”
“Five of us against two witches and two Huntsmen?” Elm laughs. “They don’t have a chance.”
“I wouldn’t underestimate them if I were you,” Vine says. “The Branwen Coven is notorious for having powerful witches.”
Clover keeps going through the file while his team discusses Team STRQ. The only thing they have besides Team STRQ’s names are pictures of the humans, blurry photos of the witches and short weapon descriptions. Wonderful.
As he stares down at the pictures, the red eyes of the Branwen twins seem to glow. He watches in awe as the people in the photos slowly start moving.
Harriet nudges him and Clover blinks. When he looks back down at the photos, they’re as still as ever. “Are we going to the hangar or what?”
“We should probably hurry,” Clover responds, snapping out of his stupor. “They were last seen close to the border of Mantle.”
The Ace Ops follow him to the airship, passing the folder to each other as they walk. Within ten minutes, they’re heading down to Mantle.
The air is tense despite Elm’s attempts to lighten the mood. Marrow fidgets with his weapon the entire way down to the forest while Vine sits in absolute silence. Harriet occasionally shoots Clover a look, but mostly keeps her eyes on the window.
After what seems like an eternity, the airship doors hiss open. Clover steps out first and shivers from the cold. Some days, he really wishes that his uniform had sleeves, and today is one of those days.
Harriet voices what they’re all thinking. “I’ve never been this far from the kingdom before.”
“The most dangerous Grimm are supposed to live here,” Marrow adds, his tail tucked in close to himself. “Did everyone bring extra dust?”
The Ace Ops nod and step forward, looking out at the forest. There’s something eerie about the entire forest, Clover decides. “Ready?” He calls to his team.
“Somehow I don’t think it would matter if I said no,” Marrow mutters.
Clover grins, but doesn’t reply. Making sure his team is behind him, he takes the first step into the forest.