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Ruby let out an aggressive growl of frustration and kicked viciously at a mound of snow that had accumulated at the base of a tree trunk. Her boot sank deep into the dense pile, barely shifting the heap. Ruby yanked her foot out, knuckles clenched in annoyance.
‘I can’t believe they would do that,’ Yang exclaimed disbelievingly. ‘After everything we’ve just been through to get the relic.’
‘Ozpin’s barely even talking again, but somehow Oscar is allowed to join their secret “debriefing”,’ Weiss huffed in agreement.
Ruby glared hard at the icy ground, her fists shaking in anger. Blake’s voice seemed to rush by on the wind that blew into the park, almost lost to the rustling of leaves. ‘Something’s going on here in Atlas. Ironwood must be afraid of something . This isn’t the time to be keeping more secrets.’
‘And Qrow promised!’
‘Why tell us everything about Salem and then suddenly cut us out?’
‘I’m starting to wonder if they were even telling us everything in the first place.’
‘How can we not know though? Jinn told us the whole story right?’
‘Only the parts we asked about.’
Ruby’s scowl deepened; the wind whistling past her ears.
‘Qrow seemed reluctant to leave us out.’
‘He also seems to be feeling the pressure. Maybe even he doesn’t know everything.’
‘We can’t keep going on like this. We’re only ever seeing half the picture.’
A sudden crack broke through their venting. It took Ruby several heavy, ragged breaths to realise that her fist had made contact with the thick bark of the tree, driving splinters of wood to the ground with a pattering of displaced snow.
‘Ruby?’ Weiss tentatively questioned, taking a cautious step forward. ‘Are you okay?’
The small park had grown exceedingly quiet in the absence of their bickering. Situated only a couple of blocks away from Atlas’ central military complex - where they had just been shut out of a confidential military meeting by Ironwood, Qrow, and a bewildered Oscar - the park wasn’t a spot frequented by many casual passersby. It allowed for a pretty, picturesque scene; still as a forgotten snowglobe. Even the wind seemed to have quieted and Ruby wondered if perhaps she had just been imagining the gale that blew by only moments prior.
‘Ruby?’
She clenched her eyes shut and slowly pulled her hand away from the tree. There was a stinging coldness against her cheeks and she abruptly realised that the sensation traced two wet tracks on her face. She quickly brushed aside the tears in irritation and turned to face her team; steadying her breathing.
‘Sorry,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s just getting to me is all.’
Her team approached her from all sides, trudging through the ankle deep snow. The shuffling of their steps broke through the oppressive silence that had blanketed the park. ‘We know,’ Blake said comfortingly, ‘We’re all feeling a bit abandoned.’
Ruby sucked in another breath that wasn’t quite as calming as the last. ‘I just… There’s so much we still don’t know. It feels like we’re starting from square one in a war that’s been going on for centuries.’ She glanced up at the tower in the centre of the military base, shielding her eyes from the bright sun glaring out behind it. ‘What are they even talking about?’ She asked through gritted teeth. ‘The past? The present? Something that will happen in the future?’
The other three shared wary glances, all with varying expressions of dissatisfaction. Ruby felt the words tumbling from her mouth; thoughts that had been brimming at the surface of her mind for months finally finding an opening to be spoken.
‘Everyone seems to be relying on us, but at the same time, they’re trying to keep us in the dark. They cut us out, but I don’t see any other warriors fighting for the cause. Ironwood has his army, but they can’t possibly know what’s truly at stake. If we’re the only ones they will trust to get involved, why can’t they trust us completely?’
She heard her own voice rising with each sentence. Every word was another doubt plucked from her late-night thoughts and hurled out into the wind. ‘I mean, what else aren’t they telling us? If we want the truth apparently we have to ask the Relic of Knowledge, but we don’t even know what questions to ask!’ She angrily kicked at the heavy snow again, gripping the edges of her cloak to hold back the impulse to swing for a second time. ‘I can think of at least a few things that we could start with. How about the other relics? What do they do? How have they been kept safe all these years? What about the other maidens? Are they on our side, and if they are, why haven’t they been helping us?!’
Ruby found herself stamping through snow, unable to ease the sudden amassing of thrumming energy, her voice echoing out across the quiet street. The others stood statue-silent, poised to help; tentatively waiting for the storm to wane.
‘And the silver eyes! I’m only just learning how to use them and what they can do, but surely their little inner circle already knew. How could they not? Mom certainly had them, was she in on this fight too? Was she their first silver-eyed warrior? If Salem took Maria’s eyes then what…’ Suddenly, the angry tears were back again, ‘... what happened to Mom?’
She heard Yang’s sharp intake of breath beside her, and Ruby felt the thundering energy dissipate, now abashed by her angry outburst. Her cloak felt too tight around her neck and Crescent Rose felt too heavy on her belt. She hastily unclipped the weapon and dropped it into the snow, hands brushing past the weightless relic. With another surge of bitterness bubbling up in her throat, she tugged the lamp off her belt and threw it deep into the slush at her feet.
‘Ruby…’ One of them began.
She shook away whatever sympathy was coming next, unwilling to go down that path. She wearily closed her eyes with a sigh. ‘How are we supposed to fight this thing, when we don’t even know what’s been tried before?’
There was a long pause in which they could hear distant traffic and the yelling of military sergeants. Ruby unclenched her hands, the cool air clinging to the clamminess of her palms.
‘You think your mom might have been involved?’ Weiss finally asked quietly. Ruby shrugged helplessly, unable to look at any of them directly.
‘It... seems pretty likely,’ Blake began hesitantly, ‘given that she had the silver eyes as well. But you don’t know what... happened to her?’ Blake and Yang caught each other’s eyes, and Yang sadly shook her head.
‘Just that she didn’t come back from a mission, is what Dad said. He doesn’t know anything else though. I can tell because he always gets so frustrated when he thinks about it,’ Yang replied with a faraway look. She shrugged, and her lips twisted into a grimace. ‘It could have been any mission that went wrong though. I guess it’s always dangerous being a huntress.’
Ruby turned to face her sister and caught her gaze intently. ‘You really think that’s what happened?’
Yang’s eyes fell away. ‘No, I don’t,’ she said softly. ‘Not anymore.’
Ruby turned back to look out over the evenly snow-coated park; their heavy tracks marring the simple prettiness of the small space that was caught between stark military buildings and barbed wire fences. She sighed and cast her eyes around for Crescent Rose, landing instead on the relic. She froze; a small treacherous thought bubbled up in her mind. Ruby shook her head slightly and reached down for the relic, hooking a finger in one of the ornate handles. The loose snow slipped off its sheen surface as cleanly silk. Sitting in her hands, the blue glow seemed to hum at her, and Ruby couldn’t quite shake the question still hovering in her thoughts.
Weiss’ boots stepped into her peripheral vision. ‘Ruby?’
They both knew the actual question being asked in that word, and Ruby furrowed her brow, contemplating for just a moment what the outcome would be if she allowed herself to indulge. Blake and Yang had also stepped forward, now able to see what Ruby was staring down at so intently.
‘There are three questions every hundred years,’ Weiss gently reminded her. ‘There’s only one left.’
Ruby nodded slowly, fully aware of the intent behind Weiss’ words. Don’t waste it. She felt a tremor in her hands and wondered for a brief second if she had the strength to do the responsible thing, when there was an answer literally in her grasp.
‘But...’ Weiss continued, and Ruby looked up to catch the serious glances that were being shared between the other three. ‘You’re our leader, and we’re always with you. If this is what you need to do…’
Ruby opened her mouth silently, knowing she should protest and refuse. Thank them for their generosity but resign herself to austerity. Blake swiftly cut in.
‘If it has anything at all to do with Salem, it could help us. We have to be able to learn from the past.’
Permission disguised in a neat justification. Ruby’s lip trembled and she looked to Yang, her steady older sister who had always been the comfort to fill that particular void, and who had been searching for answers about a mother for an awfully long time. Who would just as easily come undone as Ruby would once the knowledge was out there. Yang gave a small nod, that was both resolute and yearning.
Ruby sucked in a quick breath and looked back down at the relic.
‘Jinn?’
God, her voice was quiet. Did she always sound that small?
There was a rush of blue smoke and the jingling of gold.
‘What happened to my mother?’
-
For a moment, Ruby thought she was looking at herself; a vision of her first day at Beacon. She heard Yang to her right, letting out a low breath of air.
Summer was so much younger than they had ever seen her. Pictures that Tai and Qrow had shown them from those early days didn’t quite capture the impact of seeing their mother as a teenager, dressed neatly in her Beacon uniform and being buffeted about in halls between hurried students.
She was short, but not as tiny as Ruby had been. Her dark brown hair shimmered red when it caught the sun streaming through the hall windows, the ends gently skimming the shoulders of her bright white cloak. Her eyes were a bright, freshly minted silver, keenly searching for a path through the milling crowd.
‘Wait,’ Blake voice’s carried a distant ethereal quality in the vision, ‘this is a long way back, right? She’s at Beacon.’
‘Well, the relic wasn’t necessarily so straight forward when she told us about Ozpin either,’ Weiss replied uncertainly.
Jinn’s melodious voice startled them as she began.
‘A young Summer Rose had wanted nothing more than to become a huntress: a defender of the people. She had trained diligently and tirelessly in her home village to pass the academy exams. But upon her acceptance to Vale’s prestigious school, she found that the expectations of Beacon were greater than she could have prepared for.’
The illusory hallway abruptly blurred and the young Summer was propelled backwards through the fading crowd, landing squarely on her back in the middle of a sparring mat. The tall sandstone walls of a Beacon classroom billowed out around her, the smoky image taking solid form. A tall faunus boy stood above her, two short knives dancing in his hands. Summer shakily tried to pull herself up, visibly dazed and leaning heavily on her weapon.
Ruby’s gaze zeroed-in on the combination polearm-warhammer; a silvery bec-de-corbin with a projectile chained-head that could be swung like a flail and retracted at the press of a button. It was strictly for close-combat melee with no long-range capabilities; an aspect that Ruby often thought limiting. She had studied the weapon as closely as she could from old photos but, when packed away, the weapon folded into a rod the length of her forearm, leaving few pictures that showed clear detail of its appearance when extended. She had then only her father’s and uncle’s recollections to listen to; the weapon had never returned.
Perennial.
Summer steadied herself against Perennial, which at full length was as tall as she was; her opponent seemingly puzzled but polite enough to let her stand. She took a calming breath and peered at him searchingly, looking for some kind of weakness. He raised an eyebrow, and when she darted forwards, he simply caught her weapon between the cross of his daggers and redirected her strike to his side. Unbalanced, he easily dug an elbow under her arm and into her ribs. With a casual mid-air flip, he slammed his heel down into her exposed side and sent her flying back across mat again.
A buzzer belted out a tone to signal that the match was over, and the faunus boy bashfully rubbed the back of his head and stepped away awkwardly.
‘That was… not good,’ Weiss commented.
‘That was terrible,’ Yang agreed with a cringe.
The vision panned up from Summer’s prone form to three members of the audience that remained seated as the rest of the class packed up. A young Tai held a hand up to his mouth in concern, while Qrow winced uncomfortably. Sitting to the side of them, Raven glowered and crossed her arms across her chest.
‘ Struggling and failing, Summer had difficulty in earning the respect of her team and proving herself to be a worthy leader.’
The vision again shifted, and Team RWBY suddenly found themselves amongst the familiar trees of the Emerald Forest, amidst a swarm of grimm that were skulking in from the shadowy trees and pressing in on all sides.
Qrow’s scythe swung widely to hold back the line while Tai ducked in to land three solid punches that dusted two grimm and knocked back a third. Raven made quick work of another two with swift slashes but was forced to suddenly backstep when Summer’s broad swing encroached on her approach.
‘Watch it!’
‘Sorry!’ Summer called back blindly, successfully making contact with the head of a beowolf with the blunt of her hammer as it lunged. She pressed forward and stabbed with the tip of Perennial, which sank satisfactorily into the creature’s body as it crumbled away. Summer’s elated expression was enough to elicit a whoop from Team RWBY on the sidelines.
‘Woo! Did you see that? I-’ The paw of a second beowolf battered her ferociously from her unprotected blindspot and Summer went tumbling back, colliding heavily with Qrow and bringing them both to the ground.
‘Argh,’ Qrow grunted from beneath Summer, ‘What are you- look out!’
They both scrambled to untangle as the grimm charged in with an ear-splitting howl, claws pounding the ground and sending soil flying. Summer’s face was flooded with panic; she lunged forwards with her weapon from where she fell. The beowolf knocked aside the polearm with an oily black paw, jaw gaping with a dripping snarl. Summer and Qrow threw up their arms up as a last defence as the creature’s teeth came hurtling towards them. Ruby reached out instinctively, before quickly remembering that the events were long since past and that she knew they would both make it out.
There was a deep thud as Tai’s brass knuckles landed squarely into the shoulder of the beast, propelling it sideways onto Raven’s waiting blade. The sword was promptly sheathed amidst fluttering ashes, and Summer hesitantly glanced up to see that the remaining enemies had already been slain.
Tai reached out two sturdy hands to Qrow and Summer and pulled them both to their feet with ease. Summer gave a wry grin. ‘Thanks, Tai. And I’m sorry, Qrow, for taking you out like that.’
Qrow shrugged and ran a hand through his hair to regain its precise ruffle. ‘Hey, we survived, that’s all that matters.’
‘What?!’ Raven exclaimed in disbelief at her brother. ‘We’re weeks into our training here, and she still thinks killing one grimm is something to cheer about.’
‘Raven,’ Tai warned with a frown, ‘give it a rest, okay? We’ve had a hard day.’
Ruby glanced over at Yang. Her sister wore a deep frown, and Ruby realised with a start that this was the first time she was watching her parents interact. Turning her gaze back onto the scene, Raven seemed like kind of a jerk. Ruby bit her lip. I guess we already knew Raven was kind of a jerk.
‘Of course we’ve had a hard day!’ Raven spat out furiously. ‘Because our mighty leader is more of a hindrance than a help. A hazard even!’ It was clear this was not the first of these arguments.
‘Raven.’ Summer stepped up in front of her, taking a deep breath and affixing her features into something that resembled confidence. ‘I know that I’m not up to the same standard as the rest of you, but I’m trying.’
‘Not hard enough,’ Raven scowled back. ‘There’s no award for trying, there’s dead and not dead.’
‘And today we’re not dead,’ Summer replied, her voice growing steadier with each word and belying a deep-seated determination. ‘Though I prefer to call it living, for a slightly more positive spin. And it’s thanks to you, Tai, and Qrow.’
Raven let out a low, frustrated hiss through her teeth and turned away, muttering foully to herself as she stalked through the trees.
Gazing after her teammate as the other two began to pick their way through the forest, Summer chewed her lip, confidence slipping away, and she tentatively fidgeted with her weapon.
The scene began to shrink away into the distance, as Team RWBY were suddenly tugged backwards out to the forest edge (though Ruby couldn’t actually feel a thing, which was somehow more nauseating), where Ozpin and an unfamiliar teacher stood watching the proceedings on handheld monitors.
‘She didn’t even pass the exam, Ozpin,’ the gruff-voiced man argued. ‘She wasn’t even close, and you made her leader?’
Ozpin peered down over his glasses at the screen, to a close-up of Summer’s face as she gave her team their next instructions, determination returned once again. ‘I think you’ll find that she has a lot of untapped potential.’
Ruby wondered if it was a trick of the light or her imagination that made Summer’s eyes sparkle briefly.
The forest melted away to one of the Beacon training fields bathed in a pre-dawn light that late-riser Ruby never wanted to witness firsthand again. Summer stood with Perennial, light on her feet in the gritty sand, running through basic maneuvers and stances.
‘Though she had a rocky start, Summer’s resolve and dedication pushed her to excel with the help of a frustrated teammate.’
Raven’s form lunged into the vision with a sudden strike that forced Summer to skid to the side and swing out with Perennial’s hammer-head in chained flail-form, hoping to catch Raven by the ankles. Summer abruptly retracted the head when Raven neatly somersaulted out of the way and came charging back around. Shifting her weight with a spray of dirt, Summer cleanly parried the oncoming follow up sword-slash with the pole of her weapon.
‘Not totally awful,’ Raven commented as she pivoted on one foot to maintain her balance and then feigned a strike to the left. As Summer raised her weapon in defence, Raven brought her foot up into a stomp kick that landed squarely in Summer’s chest and knocked her cleanly back onto the training pitch, several metres away. ‘But you need to work on shifting your weight better.’
‘Why does it always end with you kicking me in the chest?’ Summer grumbled as she got back up amidst the cloud of sandy dust.
To Ruby’s surprise, Raven’s lips quirked into a smile, and she placed a readying hand on the hilt of her sword. ‘Because it’s fun?’
Summer took up her position opposite Raven, back on the balls of her feet, with Perennial aimed forward. She returned the grin.
‘ And with the right training and determination, she soon grew to exceed the rest of her classmates.’
The vision of Summer and Raven sparring seemed to waver and ripple, like the delay on an unsynchronised film, and Team RWBY soon realised they were watching the same sparring match day after day, overlaid over each other. Summer’s progress over four years became immediately visible as she pirouetted and backflipped, seemingly as effortless as the fluttering of her cloak on the breeze. She swung and struck in perfectly timed hits that soon resulted in Raven being knocked to the ground more than a few times.
‘Wow,’ Yang murmured quietly.
‘Her talent as a fighter drew the attention of Ozpin, as he had kept a particular watch on Team STRQ over the years. Often encouraging their curiosity, driving their training, and developing their trust.
‘It does sound familiar,’ Weiss whispered, echoing an old conversation as she caught Yang’s eye.
‘Until one mission ignited the spark that would change her life completely.’
The image of a town spurted up out of the ground like a rapidly grown forest, but it was immediately apparent that something was wrong. Buildings had collapsed in on themselves, long stretches of pavement and road had been torn up nearby, and dense smoke blew in from one side of the village. A horrendous screech echoed around as Qrow stepped into view, pursued relentlessly by a pair of ursa. Working with a wide figure-of-eight, Qrow’s evenly-paced scythe swings made quick slashes across the beasts’ faces, and Raven materialised beside him in a twist of red light to slide beneath the belly of one of the creatures and slice it through. Tai ducked and weaved through the fight to keep the attention of another handful of smaller grimm that he tried to dispatch with a series of quick dust-powered punches to the head.
Ruby looked up to see Summer launching herself off a wobbly roof pane to stab at a nevermore that circled overhead. She watched with amazement as her mother, now at least twenty years old, managed to kick off the bird with a flip to hurl a blunt strike that snapped the creature’s head to the side. She dropped to the ground, immediately whirling her weapon around to dust through the tar-like mass of swarming grimm.
‘I don’t know if we can keep this up Summer!’ Qrow yelled out as he was edged back again by another heaving black creature.
Summer’s keen eyes flicked between the skirmishes and made a quick decision. ‘Raven! Scout for a good retreat to the east, towards the opening of the town.’
Raven stabbed through a beowolf and found herself back-to-back with Summer. ‘The north will let us draw them in through those two archways and narrow down their attack.’
‘Not if the nevermore flanks us from behind, we need a way out.’ Summer ducked down neatly under Raven’s swing and slammed her hammer down in follow up.
‘The east will let them surround us though, we’ll be worse off for exposing ourselves while we run than standing our ground here.’
Summer lunged forwards twice with two quick jabs and bounced back to guard Raven’s flank. ‘Hmm, what if we head up through the narrower pass at the north and then swing around the outskirts of town back to the east?
Raven grinned. ‘Sounds like a plan. Let’s go.’ She ducked under the swinging paw of an ursa and cut out its leg as she went by.
Summer turned back to Qrow and Tai, who were also back-to-back as they battled to stay afloat. She opened her mouth to call out to them, but faltered. The oozing black of the grimm pressed in around them. A flash of claws and a heavy pounding. She watched as they shrank back against each other, their postures growing more and more defensive.
‘Raven!’ She called out, and to Ruby’s ears it sounded slow. Summer weaved and spun around through the remaining grimm that lunged out at her, always trying to push towards her team, but the battering strikes on the two men sounded heavier and grew more rhythmic, like the beating of wings.
Team RWBY looked to their left and each began to call a warning that couldn’t be heard. Summer looked anyway, and saw the nevermore speed in low and fast to the opening that Tai had just punched through. Summer’s eyes grew wide and horrified, pushing herself forwards as though she could stop the grimm if she just got there first.
Ruby watched her mother’s expression and suddenly recognised the look in her eyes. ‘Oh.’
Tai and Qrow disappeared behind the mound of grimm as the nevermore dove, and for the first time Ruby saw what everyone else did: a bright white glow filling the edges of Summer’s eyes, wispy tendrils beginning to overflow and trail out. The light suddenly burst out and filled their vision, blindingly bright and enveloping the grimm, town, and team indiscriminately, and Ruby wondered if just moments before she had seen the light taking the shape of wings.
The white glare retreated as quickly as it had appeared and Ruby’s sight returned in time to see her mother thrown backwards by the force of the blast as though punched by some unseen assailant, colliding heavily with the wall of the building behind her. She dropped down to the ground in an unconscious heap, her aura fizzling away sinisterly.
‘It didn’t get rid of them,’ Yang whispered urgently, and Ruby wrenched her eyes away from Summer to see only a few grimm, closest to the source of the light, turned to a crumbling stone. The rest were beginning to shake themselves from a daze and turn to the limp figure on the ground, and the nevermore looped up into the sky to circle back around and begin its dive again.
Several rapid gunshots were accompanied by brutal slashes of a scythe as Qrow skidded out from his entrapment to stand in front of Summer. Raven tore through a portal beside him and dispatched the closest of the grimm that were beginning to make a move.
‘What the hell just happened?’ Raven yelled out, taking a defensive stance.
‘I have no idea, but we need to get her out of here,’ Qrow replied, as Tai dodged in behind the twins’ protective line and scooped Summer up with one fluid movement.
‘Let’s go!’
Their retreating forms began melting away.
‘That was the first time,’ Ruby murmured.
‘Was it like yours?’ Weiss asked.
‘I was knocked out, but not thrown backwards. And the wyvern wasn’t destroyed, only frozen.’ Her mouth twisted into a grimace. ‘They’d seen it happen before, why didn’t they tell me what would happen?’
‘Dad’s always been overprotective,’ Yang reasoned as the new scene began to form, ‘I don’t think he ever wanted either of us to grow up.’
‘At first confused and scared by her new power, Summer came to understand it…’
The open courtyard of Beacon bloomed before them, where Summer was sitting by the statue as Ozpin approached. She looked up as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.
‘And in time, she mastered it too…’
A wheat-yellow field burst open before their eyes, where Summer stood at the edge of a sleepy town in the fading afternoon light. A cluster of grimm pawed closer, darting forwards and back, looking to break through the town’s singular defence. Summer calmly wielded Perennial with a smooth grace and vicious precision, crushing a deathstalker that snapped forwards, and stabbing through an ursa with a fluidity Ruby was sure only existed in her childhood cartoons. Summer glanced up to catch a chimera suddenly plunging. Her eyes gently shifted into pools of white, and the light bloomed out serenely, blanketing the scene. The grimm in her immediate vicinity crumbled away as delicately as wind blowing pollen from a flower.
Summer’s face remained passive and cool, and Ruby was almost unnerved by the detachment she saw there. And then a twitch of her lips brought out a pleased little smile; Summer clicked the button that released the flail-chain of Perennial’s head and began to casually swing it in circles as the next row of grimm charged towards her.
Ruby could sense the awe emanating from her teammates as they watched the showdown blow away in a smoky haze.
‘But her newfound abilities brought with them a terrible truth and a heavy responsibility...’
Ozpin’s office shifted into focus; great cogs turned with a heavy pounding overhead, louder than Ruby remembered. Summer sat in the chair opposite Ozpin, hands neatly folded across her lap, and looking the oldest she had appeared so far. Tai sat on one edge of the desk, his body twisted slightly to face Ozpin, while Qrow stood to Summer’s other side listening intently. Raven hovered further back, with a calculating expression on her face.
‘And now you understand,’ Ozpin concluded sombrely, ‘ why I have pushed you to your best. And why I must now ask for your help.’
His piercing gaze landed on Summer, whose brow creased uneasily. Tai let out a low whistle and Qrow shook his head in disbelief.
‘... that began to drive a wedge through Team STRQ.’
Raven’s eyes narrowed dangerously, her gaze fixed on Ozpin.
The vision rippled and reformed in a Beacon dorm room that had been stripped bare. Suitcases and backpacks lined the walls, the odd piece of clothing laying about waiting to be folded. Summer sat at a desk, sorting a pile of paper into two separate stacks, Raven leaning on the wall beside her.
‘I don’t really understand why it has to be you again.’
‘Because Ozpin asked me. Have you emptied out the bathroom yet?’
‘Yes, it’s in all in Qrow’s bag. But you just got back from that village down south. He has other huntsmen at his disposal.’
Summer chuckled, ‘I don’t think the idea is to dispose of them, Rave.’ She flicked quickly through part of the stack and then swiftly moved it into the left pile. She glanced up at Raven who was chewing on her lip, and shrugged. ‘I don’t know, I guess he doesn’t have to worry as much if it’s me and my eyes. Besides, not too many people know about Salem and it’s probably best to keep it that way.’
‘That’s what he says, yes,’ Raven mused quietly.
‘Anyway, you’ll be coming with me this time,’ Summer said brightly. ‘And who’s going to get in the way of this dream team?’
Raven looked down at Summer’s cheery expression and snorted. ‘Dream team?’
‘Of course.’
‘You’re such an idiot.’ Raven punched Summer’s shoulder affectionately and walked away.
The dorm shifted away to be replaced by Tai at a dining table, peeling potatoes. Their dining table, Ruby realised with a jolt.
‘Come on, Raven. Summer’s got it under control.’
Raven paced across the kitchen irritably. ‘She doesn’t even know what she’s doing to have it under control.’
‘Um, hey? I’m right here,’ Summer pointed out, annoyed. She stood leaning back against the counter, flicking through a battered recipe book. Ruby recognised it as the one Yang used to bake cookies from, and felt a sorrowful lurch in her stomach. ‘And I know enough. If there’s suspicious grimm activity to investigate, then it should be investigated. If we already knew what was there, then there would be no need for an investigation.’
‘And you think that’s it?’ Raven stopped pacing abruptly and whirled around. Ruby felt knocked off balance to see that she was ever so slightly pregnant, and quickly glanced to her sister. Yang’s eyes had widened and they both seemed to acknowledge that despite knowing Raven was Yang’s mother, seeing the proof was another matter entirely. ‘What about the last “investigation”? That one didn’t exactly go to plan.’
‘That wasn’t even Summer,’ Tai pointed out calmly as he shook a piece of errant peel from his knife. ‘It was that maiden lady.’
‘Exactly!’ Raven said furiously. ‘What did she even find out? Ozpin kind of skimmed over the details there.’
Qrow strolled languidly into the kitchen and sat down, throwing his feet up on the table and earning himself a pointed scowl from Tai. ‘There didn’t seem to be much to say; it was a drop point for some low-level henchmen. I don’t need to read their bi-weekly lunch date communications.’
Tai quirked an eyebrow. ‘Lunch date?’
‘Come on, there’s always sexual tension between the henchman.’
‘Huh.’
Raven growled. ‘You really don’t think it’s odd that he trusts team STRQ enough to rally us in his fight against Salem but won’t run us through all the information?’
Summer sighed, ‘Raven, it probably wasn’t important or he would have told us.’
‘Since when do you start acting without having the whole picture?’ Raven shot back with an accusatory glare. ‘This is something we used to agree on: making informed decisions.’
Summer dropped the book down on the counter slightly harder than was necessary. ‘I trust that Ozpin, who’s been alive for centuries, knows what he’s doing. And he trusts in us to help out where we can.’ She returned Raven’s gaze determinedly. ‘I happen to have a particular skill that can help out a lot, and I’m happy to use it where I can for the greater good.’
There was a finality in her voice. Raven pursed her lips and shook her head, walking away. Summer’s shoulders deflated a little as she watched her go.
The kitchen blurred swiftly into their living room, counters and cupboards folding into couches and coffee tables. Beyond the window, an auburn autumn landscape had evolved into chill grey winter.
‘You can’t do everything, Summer,’ Raven warned in a low voice from beside the window ‘That last mission was enough for a full team.’
‘And I don’t happen to have a full team right now, Raven,’ Summer replied tiredly. ‘I know you like to have my back, but you’re definitely too far along to come with me on missions.’
‘Then another team should go. Or one of Ozpin’s many inner circle friends could rustle up some subordinates. You can’t keep going on like this.’
Summer looked up from the couch and searched for the eyes of her teammates. Tai gave a gentle smile. ‘I know Raven has her doubts, and maybe for good reason. But I have total faith in you, Summer. If you trust in yourself, you can do anything.’
Raven let out a frustrated hiss, and Summer turned to meet Qrow’s gaze. He grinned and shrugged. ‘Hey, if you can’t do it, then probably no one can.’
Summer nodded slowly and then grew more resolute. ‘Look Raven, I’m sorry and I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t really have the luxury to take a break. I promise this is fine.’
Team RWBY were suddenly pulled outside, and rushed rapidly through the sparse forest past that surrounded the house and lurched onto the side of a cliff face where an angry Summer was gesturing aggressively and at an equally furious and very pregnant Raven. Ruby inhaled sharply as she recognised the spot, and heard Yang do the same. On her shoulder, she felt Weiss’ hand, warm and solid in the intangible vision.
‘ I need you to trust me, Raven. Tai and Qrow have faith in me, why can’t you? You’re supposed to be my best friend! My partner!’
‘You used to trust me !’ Raven retorted savagely. ‘When did that stop?’
‘Maybe about the same time you stopped listening to me! We used to be a team, Raven.’
‘So why do you keep pushing to do everything yourself? You can’t do it, Summer!’
‘Why are you so determined to believe I’m not good enough!?’
‘Damn it, Summer. I’m not just going to stand on the sidelines and watch you get yourself killed!’ Raven’s voice echoed across the clearing, her shoulders heaving in anger.
‘Well,’ Summer spat back with a vitriol that Ruby hadn’t thought her capable of, ‘that works out fine, because I need people around me who actually support me.’
Raven’s glare narrowed, and her next words came seething out through gritted teeth. ‘I guess we know where we stand then.’
Summer’s eyes widened a little in surprise, and Raven stalked back into the forest before she could get out another word.
‘Yang?’ Blake’s voice asked quietly. Ruby glanced to her sister, whose eyes were wide with shock.
They were tugged back into the living room of the house, rushing past Summer’s distressed face to see the living room again in a cool morning light; shadows pulled starkly across the room. On the couch, Tai sat with his head in his hand, the other hand resting on a soft fabric bundle. Ruby peered closer to see what was resting in his lap when it suddenly wiggled.
‘Is that… me?’ Yang asked quietly; rhetorically. Ruby’s gaze drifted back to her father; his messy hair, rumpled pyjamas, and the tender but shaky way he smoothed down the blanket on his lap. She bit her lip, realising what they were seeing.
Summer wheeled into the doorway, shoulders heaving, having clearly been running. Her gaze landed on Tai and the young Yang, sitting still but emanating exhaustion. ‘What’s happened?’
‘She’s gone,’ Qrow’s scratchy voice rumbled from the otherside of the room. Ruby gave start, not having realised he was in the scene.
Summer’s face dropped. ‘What? No.’
Tai let out a heavy sigh, as though to speak, but he just shook his head in his hand and continued to tug the blanket more securely around Yang.
‘No,’ Summer repeated. ‘No, no, no.’ As quickly as she had arrived, Summer whirled out of the room and ran out of the house. They watched her sprint down the side path, her head twisting in every direction as though hoping to find Raven in a field to the left, or amongst the treeline to the right.
‘Yang?’ Blake asked again, reaching a hand out. ‘Are you okay?’
‘A wedge that would eventually break the team apart entirely.’
Summer burst out into the cliff face, and found nothing but the lush bloom of spring, coating the landscape for miles. She dropped to her knees as the scene faded. ‘No.’
Ruby took a moment to turn to Yang, whose jaw was clenched with an otherwise deliberately restrained expression. ‘We can stop if you want. At least I think we can stop.’
‘We’d all understand,’ Weiss added and gently reached out her other hand to Yang. Ruby suddenly realised that Weiss was still clutching her shoulder comfortingly.
Yang shook her head and took a deep breath as the colours of the next vision began to take shape. ‘No. I’m… I’m glad in a way. To know.’
‘And with the sudden loss of her closest friend and ever growing responsibility in the war against Salem, Summer clung to the comfort of the only family she had left.’
Their backyard fell into place, the normally bright green grass somewhat wilted and faded, blowing in a light breeze that rustled up browned leaves and carried the first snowflakes of winter. In the middle of it all, sat a pram with a small hand reaching out and violet eyes full of wonder.
Summer stood by the backdoor, a bandage on her cheek and a solemn look in her eyes.
‘She looks so much like Raven,’ Summer said quietly to someone over her shoulder. Wispy yellows and browns solidified Tai’s form as walked into the vision behind her. Summer’s lip quivered. ‘I miss her so much, Tai.’
He reached out and gently took her hand, with the same wistful faraway expression on his face as he watched his daughter. ‘Yeah. I do too.’
Summer’s let her fingers interlace tightly with his and leaned against him.
The snow began to fall heavily, beating down until the scene was drowned in a sterile hospital-white. An exhausted Summer smiled up at Tai, while a squirming Ruby belted out the wailing tears of a newborn. The fully-grown Ruby cringed in embarrassment, hyper aware that her whole team was watching.
‘I’m glad I got to be here this time,’ Tai said through a happy, watery chuckle as he brushed a feathery strand of dark hair from Ruby’s face
Summer grinned back, ‘You should go get Yang from Qrow. She’s probably driven him crazy by now.’
‘Yeah,’ Tai replied softly, his eyes fixed on Ruby as she began to slow her crying with his fingers trailing across her hairline. ‘One more minute.’
‘Oh look,’ Summer laughed and looked up at Tai again, ‘It takes Dad’s touch to calm her down. Hopefully this isn’t a sign that she’s going to have favourites.’
Tai gave her a cheeky smirk as he began to get up. ‘I might be the favourite, but she looks a hell of a lot like you already. Look, she’s even got your eyes.’
Summer’s silly, happy smile faltered. ‘What?’
Her gaze dropped back down to the baby, now no longer crying, staring up at the room with large solemn, and very silver, eyes.
‘I’ll go get Yang and Qrow.’
Summer’s face was frozen in an unreadable expression as Tai left the room, her gaze fixed upon the eyes staring back. ‘Oh.’
There was a tightness in Ruby’s throat at the blankness on her mother’s face as the vision faded away. Just moments before she had seemed so happy for the first time since the visions from Beacon.
‘But family and duty left her conflicted as the years passed.’
They returned to their dining room table on a still mid-morning. The house was quiet, apart from Summer gently stirring a cup of tea in front of her, frowning contemplatively into the ripples she made. Ruby guessed that she was probably in her mid-twenties, sitting opposite an Ozpin who had to be at least a decade younger than when she’d first met him. His hair was still an even grey, but his face less lined and his eyes a bit brighter.
‘What do you think is down there?’ Summer asked, breaking the silence.
Ozpin lowered his cup from his lips. ‘Iona tells me that the rumour is that it’s a recently abandoned facility, likely used by a Dr Watts from Atlas.’
‘Ah, he’s the one we think has been supplying Salem information about the Atlas technology,’ Summer nodded along. ‘If it’s abandoned there’s not likely to be anything of use leftover though.’
‘We think it was abandoned rather suddenly, what with the civil unrest in Atlas. Not to mention Iona heard reports that that area is now swarming with grimm,’ Ozpin continued. ‘Seems like they would like to deter anyone from going down there.’
‘Even still,’ Summer looked up from her tea, ‘they wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave anything vital down in the cave. If they had the time to encourage grimm into the area, surely they had the time to destroy any significant intel that we could use.’
Ozpin sighed and put down his cup. Outside, the sounds of gentle spring wildlife chirped away in the breeze. The house seemed to be empty other than the two of them. ‘It’s possible, yes,’ he conceded trying to make eye contact. Summer’s expression had grown distant as she gazed out the window down the front path. ‘But we also have to consider that we have no other leads. There is perhaps no smoking gun, but uncovering any sort of link to Salem may give us some desperately needed information.’
It was Summer’s turn to sigh as she turned back to Ozpin. ‘Okay, but it’ll have to be someone else. It’s Yang’s birthday in a couple of weeks and I don’t want to risk missing it by travelling to Solitas.’
Ozpin’s eyes grew sad. ‘I wish it were that simple, but with the intensity of the grimm that Iona reports, the most ideal candidate for this mission is you.’
Summer frowned at his words. ‘Surely another team could be sent? Ironwood is moving up the ranks in the Atlesian military, he must have access to people and technology that could be far more effective than just me.’
Ozpin met her frown with a steady gaze. ‘The same military that Dr Watts potentially has a hand in? There is a good chance they would see it coming and then we can guarantee there will be nothing left to find. We have an advantage in that they don’t know we know about this base.’ Ozpin reached out for Summer’s hand in a comforting gesture, but she surreptitiously moved it out of the way as she lifted her cup again. ‘I know you want to be there for your family, but the fight against Salem is in their interest too. There is no one else that we trust that is as effective and reliable as you are.’
Summer dropped her head into her hand. Ruby caught a hint of movement outside the window and saw her dad walking up the path to the house, a small bouncy Yang holding his hand as they walked, and a toddler-version of herself tucked into his other arm playfully poking at his cheek. They were laughing, and Ruby felt a strong longing even though she could barely remember anything from that time. She couldn’t remember much laughter from her early childhood at all; the three of them had been marred by the grief of losing her mother. And with that thought, Ruby abruptly remembered that she already knew where this story was headed.
Ozpin looked out the window and slowly stood. ‘I truly wish this wasn’t a war we had to fight, but I hope it’s one we can fight so they never have to.’
‘Summer was forced to make choices. And she always chose to do what she thought was right.’
Summer lifted her head and followed his gaze. A series of rapid emotions flitted over her face, landing finally on resignation, a far cry from the face of resolve that she used to wear. ‘Okay.’
‘No,’ Ruby whispered, and Weiss’ grip on her tightened.
The front door opened and Yang came racing in, charging straight for Summer’s knees, and Tai following in behind her. He caught sight of Summer’s serious face, and his smile faltered. ‘What’s going on?’
‘We were discussing a new mission that has come up,’ Ozpin replied politely, ‘but I’ve taken up too much of Summer’s time this morning. The four of us will have to catch up again soon for a proper morning tea.’
Tai glanced to Summer for confirmation, and she gave him a reassuring smile, swooping the giggling and rambling Yang up into her arms as she stood.
‘There was this cake in the window of the bakery that had a truck in the icing!’ Yang announced enthusiastically, as Summer brushed back golden curls from her face. ‘I want it for my birthday.’
Summer grinned and raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought you wanted me to make you a cake?’
‘Yes, but this one had a truck!’
Summer laughed, ‘How about I try and draw a truck on my cake too?’ Ozpin smiled kindly and nodded to Tai and Summer as he left. Tai looked inquisitively at Summer, but she continued her cake negotiations with Yang, avoiding his gaze as the scene blurred away.
‘I remember that,’ Yang said sadly, confirming what Ruby already suspected. ‘She wasn’t around for my birthday that year. I remember being really upset about the cake.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ Blake murmured and pulled Yang in closer.
Ruby squeezed her eyes shut, suddenly not wanting to know what happened next. ‘She didn’t want to go. She should have just not gone.’
The vision flashed out into a sharp, glacial white; the shapes and figures were fuzzy and indistinct. Ruby went to rub her eyes to clear the image, but soon realised it was the vicious snow storm that pulled at the tall sinewy pines and coated the topography of what was undoubtedly a Solitas landscape. A dramatic, stark mountain range towered above them, thickly wooded around its base. Any more specific features were too difficult to make out between the swirling sheets of snow.
‘Where is she?’ Weiss asked, her voice almost raised to speak above the sound of the storm, though it came across to them clearly.
The scene glided through the storm, following a deep trudging trench left in the slush, which was filled in almost as quickly as it was made. They drew closer to the mountain range, and a dark, gaping slash in the otherwise white rock face came into view. Before it, they could make out a huddled figure pushing forwards, and ducking into the lip of the cave.
‘Even when those choices led her to her last mission, in the snowy wastelands of Solitas, where she hoped once again to find some lead that would help them prevail in their struggle.’
The vision lurched forwards, through the winding narrow cave, where grimm howled and crumbled before a bright beacon. They caught Summer’s face; her calculating gaze as she looked around the cave site between the futile lunges of grimm. Perennial swung with a precision that made it appear as though it struck on its own, and Summer simply held it for effect.
They lurched forwards again, deeper into the cave, though the path grew no wider. A beowolf fell apart into stony dust, and Summer reached down, brushing aside the light coating to run her fingers across the ground. Her eyes drifted between the walls on either side of the jagged corridor.
‘Though no matter how deep she went, she could not find the answers she was looking for.’
‘It’s not wide enough for more than a person,’ Weiss observed. ‘Not wide enough to be transporting anything in and out of a facility.’
‘But she persevered to its depths…’
They flashed through the cave alongside Summer, watching as she grew more weary and her movements less precise as she beat back another grimm, their vision truncating what must have been hours into mere seconds. The cave here was dark, and Summer crept slowly though using the light of her scroll hooked onto her belt. The pathway had widened, and as they blinked through, larger and larger chambers had begun to emerge. Spidery, stalactites hung from the ceiling, sometimes forming fragile columns as they met their counterparts from the ground. More than once Summer paused abruptly to listen to the sound of pebbles clattering down from the ceiling around her, skittering along the path.
She stepped out into the largest cavity yet, though in total it couldn’t have been larger than the entirety of their house. Summer’s expression was grim as she pulled out a couple of metallic rods and flicked their switches. Bright, white light glowed along the lengths of the rods, and she tossed them out across the cavern, illuminating the uneven, jutting rock formations with sharp shadows. One rolled down to her left; the floor was steeply tilted and was lined by crevices the width of her arm.
Summer experimentally tapped the edge of one of the crevices with Perennial, and the brittle rock crumbled and echoed softly as it fell deep into the inky blackness. Her curious frown made it apparent that she had gleaned something from the experiment, but Ruby wasn’t sure what.
Summer sighed wearily and gave the space a final, doubtful look over. ‘Maybe there was another passage somewhere back there?’ Her voice sounded abnormal in the quiet of the cavern, accompanied only by the sandy scuffles of small cave creatures, the gravelling sliding of old rock falling away, and the occasional dripping of water. ‘There weren’t any walkable passages Summer, don’t be ridiculous. This is pointless.’
She seemed small and defeated amongst the unwavering stone, and leaned her arm against a column. The white of her cloak lay heavily over her frame with an unearthly illumination amidst the light sticks.
‘And found not what she was seeking, but something else entirely.’
In the space of a heartbeat, Summer was suddenly rammed forwards with a terrifying force, crashing headfirst into an emerging wall of ice. She dropped to the ground, only just finding her feet as she instinctively scrambled to regain her balance. A figure clad in fluttering layers of grey and pale blue came hurtling across the cavern through the air, two deadly hand-axes gripped at either side.
‘Who the hell is that?’ Yang asked urgently, fists clenched. Summer threw herself out of the way as the axes made explosive impact with the ice, sending shards scattering across the cavern floor.
‘She’s a maiden,’ Blake replied with the same note of panic in her voice.
Summer grasped at a jutting rock to pull herself to her feet. She flicked Perennial out to its full length and found a second to take on a well-worn combat stance, as the maiden whirled around to face her again.
Ruby’s heart shuddered at the way her mother’s face fell; the determined, analytical huntress slipped away to sorrow. Summer let out a shaky breath. ‘Oh.’ The word came out quietly. Heartbroken. Accepting. ‘Iona.’
‘What? Isn’t that Ozpin’s winter maiden?’ Weiss asked in shock, as the two faced each other. Summer seemed small and hunched amongst the jagged columns. The maiden hovered above her, eyes glowing sharply in the gloom and catching on the deadly edges of her axes with a sinister white glint.
‘The one gave him the tip,’ Ruby whispered, an iciness spreading through her stomach.
In the feeble light, there was a watery shine at the corners of Summer’s eyes, but she pressed her lips together fiercely and tightened her jaw in resolve. ‘Right.’
‘Right.’ Iona’s voice was deep and melodic, and rang out clearly across the cavern; impassive if perhaps a little grim, a far cry from Cinder’s gleeful spite. Summer grit her teeth.
An abrupt burst of orange light illuminated the cavern in a fiery meteor; an explosive bang echoing around them. Summer leapt up and kicked off from the nearest rock face, aiming directly for Iona. Two circular, glittering swings of the axes were met with a clanging parry of Perennial that threw both figures back. A roaring blaze still churning beneath her, Summer latched the sharp point of her weapon into the rock, using it as a pivot to throw herself back into the air with greater momentum. Shards of stone crumbled away from the column and scattered amongst the flames.
She slipped through the air to meet Iona’s blades; ghostly cloak floating behind her in the lowlight. The sudden impact of their weapons drove them apart again, and Summer landed with a quick roll past the dying flames, already spinning back around to see her reflection in the gleaming steel of the axe face. Summer melted away from the strike like a ribbon in the breeze, doubling back rapidly for a flurry of aggressive stabs that were parried just as quick with the ringing of metal. Ducking under the arc of a boot, and skidding out of range of a downward slash, Summer managed to keep herself clear of Iona’s strikes but struggling to land more than a glancing blow on the ornate robes from the ground, and all the while her breath growing heavier.
With backflip over a horizontal slice, she kicked up off the column of stone and then a hanging stalactite to propel herself down at the maiden from a new angle, hammer-head poised to strike with the momentum of a full-body swing. Iona threw up a hasty wall of ice, that Summer came clumsily crashing through, awkwardly rolling across the shattered pieces and swiftly lunging forwards with her own follow up strike to the gut, just as Iona brought her blades down against Summer’s shoulder. Their simultaneous collision threw them both back into stone with a thunderous quake.
Iona was quicker to recover and released a burst of bullets from the hilt of one of her axes, forcing Summer to back down and take cover. She followed it up with another blast of fire and thrust herself towards Summer’s hiding place. Iona split through the obtrusive stone with her weapon, unleashing a cascade of rubble, but the spear of ice that followed sliced through air alone, and embedded itself into the far wall of the cavern.
Summer sprang out from behind another column with a vicious stabbing lunge. The maiden quickly side-stepped as the spear tip flashed past, mere millimetres from her face, and spun around to face her attacker. With a soft click, the head of Perennial shot out on its chain and flung back around to catch Iona in the back of the head, in the same breath that icy fingers grabbed at Summer’s ankles and held her firm. Iona stumbled forwards with the blow, but found her balance and thrust her blades against Summer’s torso; an unnerving crunching could be heard behind the fizzling of a weak aura.
Summer landed hard on the uneven ground, skidding down towards the narrow crevice. She managed to roll up and out of the way as a stream of crackling blue energy whipped the ground where she had been moments before, blasting chunks of stone into the air with a cloud of dust. Summer swung out with Perennial into the dim haze, missing her target wildly and instead cracking through a misshapen pillar.
A torrential gale blasted Summer back into a column with a brutal crack. Blinded by the grit blown into her eyes and the hard gravel loosened from the ceiling, Summer barely managed to raise her weapon to knock back a glancing blow, and the second strike that came from below battered at her aura. She thrust out aggressively with a groan of pain, urgently rubbing the silt from her eyes. Blue sparks crackled behind the clouds of dust and slammed Summer through the pillar at her back.
A downward strike and a blast of white-hot flame, Summer stumbled and skidded. Sparkling of razor-sharp icy shards slashed through the darkness and tore at her cloak. With a nasty crack, the flat of an axe struck Summer across the face and knocked her to her hands and knees. She gasped for air, and was slammed again with ice into her gut.
Iona stepped forward, lips pursed with resolute coldness. She batted away Summer’s weak counter strike, and again drove the flat of her axe into Summer’s chin to knock her upright onto her haunches.
Looking upon Summer’s fiercely unfaltering expression, Iona took both axes and sliced forwards with a single strike that ripped away Summer’s remaining aura. The white light split and crumpled away with a soft fizzing.
A flash of translucent crystal streaked up to Summer’s figure as she fell back.
‘NO!’ Ruby felt the scream rip from her throat as a jagged shard of ice suddenly skewered through her mother’s lower ribs, pinning her upright. Summer let out a spluttering cry of pain; shock rushing across her face as she looked down at the spear tip emerging from her waist.
Iona stepped closer again while Summer’s breathing became more frantic and shallow, axe raising slowly. The spear of ice melted away into dust just as abruptly and Summer dropped to the ground.
‘You betrayed us!’ Summer spat out viciously between gasps, flecks of blood spraying out into the darkness.
‘I don’t regret my choices,’ Iona replied grimly as she lifted her axe. ‘Even when it comes to this.’ Fighting back tears, Summer clenched her eyes shut in anger at the words. A sharp edge came to a rest under her chin.
‘We couldn’t let you live, Summer.’
She opened her eyes again, and tried her best to set her jaw, gripping Perennial with a fierceness. Iona lined up her strike and pulled back the blade.
‘Despite knowing she could never survive the fight, Summer had used the last of her cleverness to bring her enemy down with her.’
Summer gritted her teeth against the pain. ‘I can’t let you live either.’
With an explosively sudden movement, Summer swung out Perennial to the side. Iona pulled up her second axe in defence of an attack that never came. The hammer-head of the polearm reached out its chain and blasted through another column. The cave shuddered violently as the pillar’s stone collapsed and began sliding down the slope. A sharp crack snapped through the air and one of the rock walls split down the middle.
Iona’s gaze sharply turned to the narrow cavern entrance, where the echoing sound of crumbling stone began to grow louder. Her expression grew panicked and she quickly drew her blade back to finish the slash at Summer’s throat, but a chunk of the tight passage’s stone abruptly cracked away and landed with a bang. Iona’s steely eyes glanced back to the entrance as another boulder slammed into the ground, remnants flying into the cavern.
‘But she failed.’
Without a second glance at Summer’s quivering form, Iona rushed through the opening on a gale, blasting away at obtrusions as she forced herself back into the passage before it could collapse fully.
Summer let out a hacking cough and dragged herself onto her side, clutching the stream of blood to her torso. She caught sight of the tails of Iona’s robes vanishing as the entrance to the cavern caved in entirely. She let out an anguished cry at the sight of Iona’s escape, as the room closed into the dim illumination of her light rods.
A scattering of stones slid to a halt by her feet, and Summer gave another futile effort to pull herself along the ground with shaky agonised breathes. With every exhalation, her strength, or maybe her will, seemed to seep out of her and she abruptly came to a stop as another crag broke away and shattered in front of her, smashing one of the light rods.
‘And so Summer’s journey came to a slow and inevitable end…’
Summer dropped her head back to the ground, hand still ineffectually pressed to her wound. The shadows grew less sharp as another of the rods was hidden by a rockslide, and the light grew dimmer and dimmer.
‘With more than a few regrets that would never be heard.’
Summer’s eyes were squeezed shut, barely visible in the darkness. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’ The words were whispers as the quaking slowed and the crashing petered off into a gentle pattering of unsettled pebbles.
Ruby felt tears sliding down her face, breath held in disbelief as the last light rod slipped beneath the shifting sediment and the cave descended into pitch black.
‘I’m sorry.’
Beside her, Yang struggled to stifle her crying, and Ruby found her breathing grow difficult beneath the sudden tightness in her chest as she gazed into the nothingness where her mother’s dying form had been. She stared hard, trying to make out a hint of white fabric catching the light, or a shimmer of the red highlights of Summer’s hair; anything that would let her see her mother for just a few moments longer.
But a heartbeat passed, and the dark weighed heavily on the scene before her.
And then a small pinprick of red light appeared.
‘Well, that was what Summer thought anyway.’
The red blossomed with a spiralling, lace-like pattern that threw the cavern into an eerie, haunting vignette, draping the misshapen rock forms with delicate crimson and flushing the unconscious pale figure in soft ruby tones.
Ruby gaped with a quivering lip. ‘W-what…?’
A flash of silky red and feathery black darted out from the portal and dropped to kneel besides Summer. ‘Oh god… Summer…. This is bad, this is really bad.’
Raven’s hands reached out to inspect the wounds, but an ominous cracking shuddered the cave; with a split-second glance to the ceiling, Raven scooped Summer’s body into her arms, tugging Perennial from Summer’s unyielding grasp, and thrust herself back through the portal.
‘It was the unexpected second chance that she needed...’
The cool red shimmering swirls expanded to flood their vision and fade away like a wilting flower, to reveal a birds-eye view of a long narrow clearing in a forest. As the image expanded further, Ruby recognised the winding path that led to her home, a raven flying overhead. They soared alongside it for a moment until it dropped below the treeline on a tall cliffside, and fluttered into Raven herself.
She stood on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the forest where the Rose-Xiao Long home stood. Ruby thought that maybe if she squinted, she could make out the roof of their shed on the distant hill. Raven was still, the wind gently blustering about her, keenly gazing down on the scene below her.
Along the path, Ruby saw four small figures emerge, two short girls and two tall men. She didn’t turn to catch Yang’s eye this time as they watched their little family wander up the path. She wondered whether they already knew Summer was gone. There was perhaps a slight hunch to her father’s shoulders, the two young girls shuffling unwillingly beside him.
Raven’s expression was taut and drawn, trying as hard as ever to conceal her emotions and only betraying herself further. It was anxiety, with a hint of sadness. The grass crunched behind her, and Summer stepped up to look over the cliff. Raven’s expression grew measured and unreadable. She gestured out wordlessly to the group below.
Summer watched in silence, her eyes tracking every minute movement that could be caught from the distance. There was such a heavy relief in her gaze, but it was belied by a deep melancholy.
‘... to make the most difficult decision of her life.’
Summer’s face hardened with her trademarked determination, the expression of a fighter.
‘Time to do this your way, Raven.’
She turned and walked away. Raven couldn’t conceal her surprise as she briefly glanced back at the foursome who had almost blinked out of sight. When she looked back up, her lips were pursed into a smirk that spoke of familiarity; shaking her head in disbelief.
‘Glad to have you back.’
The image of the two walking back down the cliff path blinked away into a spec of colour on an all-white canvas; the vision gone.
‘Wait, what?’ Ruby called out, desperate to get Jinn’s attention. ‘That… that can’t be it-.’
She was interrupted by a final scene slamming into their vision, a room ridden with maps and notes. Wall height holograms rotated with infographics of people and players, lines drawn between correlation, messages popping up. At the end, a silhouette edged in white gazed over a balcony that floated high above a glittery, silvery white city.
‘Are you ready?’ Raven’s voice asked from beyond the scene.
Summer looked back over her shoulder, a decade older and more hell-bent than ever.
‘Yes.’