Raven's New Summer
Chapter 1: A Cautionary Tale
It was Saturday in Beacon and Yang was heading towards her team's dorm. She was coming back from a trip to Vale, where she did her usual thing of going to clubs and bars and getting into fights. After a good day of drinks and fights, the blonde was hoping to end the day with a relaxing evening with another one of her favorite hobbies, playing video games.
Finally arriving at her dorm, Yang opened the door to see only one of her teammates there, her partner, Blake Belladonna. The cat faunus was sitting on her bed with a book in her hands, but it was obvious that she wasn't reading it. Her eyes weren't moving along with the words on the pages, but seemed to be stuck on a single point. Blake's face was also in a deep frown, like she was glaring at something that was in the book.
The cat faunus was so lost in thought that she didn't notice Yang, until she went and snapped her fingers in front of her partner's face. Blake finally seemed to get pulled out of her daydream and she turned to look at her partner.
''Yang! When did you get here?'' the cat faunus asked.
''Just now,'' the blonde replied. ''What's up with you? You were totally spacing out.''
Blake turned to look away and simply muttered, ''Nothing. Just thinking about something.''
''Thinking about what?''
''Something I can't talk about.''
Yang really wanted to push for answers, but decided against it. She looked around the room and noticed that her other two teammates were missing.
''Where's Ruby and Weiss?'' the blonde asked, which seemed to make Blake's frown deepen.
''They're still in Vale, having their ''partner day,'' the cat faunus answered in a displeased tone, which her partner noticed.
''Something wrong with that?'' Yang asked curiously. ''If you wanted to have a partner day like them, you could have just-''
''No, Yang. That's not it,'' Blake said, cutting off the blonde. ''It's something a bit more... complicated.''
Yang started to think about what her partner just said. What could she possibly have against Ruby and Weiss going to Vale to spend time together? It couldn't be about her wanting to do something with the whole team, she wasn't childish like that. And the cat faunus didn't want to have a partner day with her own partner, so what was the problem?
Then it hit Yang. It was not about the partner day itself, rather it was about WHO was having the partner day. Blake didn't like it that either Ruby or Weiss was spending time with the other, as she wanted to be the one to do that.
A mischievous grin spread over Yang's face over this realization and she asked, ''Which one is it?''
Blake's eyes went wide and she looked at the blonde, ''W-What are you talking about?''
''Which one is it that you wanted to spend the day with? Ruby or Weiss?'' Yang asked. She was already enjoying this. ''It's obvious that you don't like them spending the day together, so which one did YOU want to spend the day with?''
The cat faunus frowned and looked away from her partner and said, ''I can't tell you.''
The brawler sighed and walked up to her partner's bed and sat down on it. It seemed like she would need to take this seriously and not joke about it. While she was disappointed that she couldn't have her usual fun with this, Yang knew when it was time for jokes and time to be serious.
''Blake, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings or anything like that, but I'm seriously trying to help you,'' the blonde explained. ''I know that I might get on everybody's nerves every now and then, but I am your friend and I want to be there for you when you need me. So please, talk to me, okay?''
Blake turned to look at the blonde and saw in her eyes that she was completely honest. The cat faunus let out a deep sigh and turned to face her partner.
''I guess you could say that I'm... jealous of Weiss,'' Blake said in a depressed voice.
''How come?'' Yang asked.
''It's just that... Ruby seems to be obsessed with her. She wants to impress Weiss, be her best friend, her best partner, everything! The kind of attention Weiss gets from her is something to be jealous of. Ruby is even willing to do things that she doesn't like just to keep her happy. To make matters worse, Weiss doesn't treat her in the same manner at all! She treats Ruby like she's an idiot and a nuisance. It makes me angry that princess gets all of Ruby's attention without having to do anything, while there are others who would give an arm for even half of what she gets.''
Yang looked at Blake with wide eyes. She had no idea that her partner felt like this about her sister. To top it all off, the raven-haired girl's little speech sounded like a love confession.
''Blake, do you like Ruby?'' Yang asked, making her partner blush like Ruby's cloak. ''Like a lover, I mean.''
The cat faunus started stuttering and babbling like a drunk, showing the blonde that she had hit the nail on the head. Her partner was in love with her sister and was getting jealous over Weiss. Yang put a hand on Blake's shoulder and stopped her babbling.
''It's okay, Blake. I'm not mad at you for liking Rubes,'' the brawler said in a comforting tone. ''In fact, I'm pretty glad that you like her.''
''Y-You are?'' the raven-haired girl asked.
''Of course! I mean, if you were to ever hurt her, I would be forced to skin you alive for punishment,'' Yang said, causing Blake to pale a bit. ''However, I know you're a good person and that you'll treat her the way she deserves. I honestly couldn't think of a better person to get together with her.''
''But even if I have your blessings, it doesn't matter,'' Blake said with a depressed tone. ''She obviously likes Weiss.''
The cat faunus had expected her partner to offer comforting words, saying that she still had a chance. However, she had not expected Yang starting to practically roar with laughter. This angered Blake, as she felt like her partner wasn't taking their conversation seriously.
''What the hell is so funny!?'' the raven-haired girl asked angrily.
''Sorry, sorry! It's just that you clearly don't understand Ruby,'' Yang managed to say while laughing. ''She's not in love with Weiss. She just takes her role as her partner way too seriously.''
''What do you mean?''
''Ruby has a bit of a habit taking things too far. When she became Weiss' partner, she saw it as her duty to become her best friend and partner. While most of us would just hope to get along and find understanding with our partners, Ruby thinks she needs to become friends with her partner. She feels it's her duty as Weiss' partner. It doesn't help that she is also the team leader and got into trouble with Weiss over that.''
''...So what you're saying is that she doesn't love Weiss, but just wants to be friends with her?'' Blake asked as she thought about what she just heard.
''Exactly, so don't worry about it,'' Yang said as she stood up. ''Just ask her to hang out with you, when she comes back. I can guarantee that she'll be happy to join you in anything you suggest. Then you can just buil up your relationship from that.''
The cat faunus smiled as she thought about what her partner just said.
Meanwhile in Vale, Ruby and Weiss were walking around a more secluded part of the city. The redheaded leader had taken her partner to a small movie theater, where they played old animated movies. The two girls were right now making their way back towards Beacon, with Ruby leading.
''Well, I'd say that our partner day has been a complete success!'' the redhead said cheerfully. ''Thanks to my plan of going to watch movies, our Saturday has been spent perfectly!''
''I'll admit that it was... more enjoyable than I imagined,'' Weiss said, not really willing to admit that she had fun watching animated movies. ''But I think that we should start to hurry, before we miss the last Bullhead to Beacon.''
''Not to worry, partner! I know a shortcut that will take us to the Bullheads just in time! Just follow my lead!'' Ruby declared happily.
''...Why don't I feel all that confident about your words?''
However, the two girls didn't know that a pair of eyes were observing them. And they were watching Ruby especially.
Back in team RWBY's dorm, Yang and Blake were waiting for their two teammates to return from their trip. While the blonde was able to wait calmly, the cat faunus was obviously unable to do so. Her eyes kept glancing away from her book and towards the door, almost like she needed to check every five seconds if Ruby had come back. When there was finally a knock on the door, Yang had to hold back her laughter as Blake almost sprinted to the door.
The raven-haired girl opened the door while expecting to see her two teammates on the other side. Instead she was greeted with the sight of an unshaven man, who smelled like alcohol, standing there. The man also had a frown on his face, like something terrible had just happened.
''Hi. I came here looking for my two nieces,'' the man said before Blake could say anything.
''Uncle Qrow?'' Yang called out from her bed, having recognized the man's voice. ''Is that you?''
''In the flesh, firecracker,'' Qrow replied while looking over Blake to see his niece. He then looked at the girl in front of him and asked, ''Can I come in?''
Blake stepped out of the way, letting the unshaven man into their dorm. Yang got off from her bed and went to hug her uncle, who returned the gesture.
''Did you come to visit us?'' the blonde asked her uncle happily. ''Ruby's not here right now, but she should be back soon.''
''That's unfortunate. I came here because I had something important to tell you two. Hope she gets here soon,'' Qrow said with a frown, which caused Yang to become concerned. Her uncle was like this only if something very serious was going on. ''I guess I can start by telling you first.''
''Would you like to be left alone?'' Blake asked. ''I can leave if you want.''
''No. In fact, I think it's better for you to hear this as well. As my nieces' teammate, this might concern you as well,'' the scythe-wielder said.
''Uncle Qrow, is something wrong?'' Yang asked. ''You're almost never like this.''
''I'll explain, but let's get seated first, okay?'' Qrow said. Yang and Blake went to sit on the cat faunus' bed while Qrow sat on Weiss' bed. ''Yang, I want you to listen to what I'm about to say and try to keep yourself calm. I only mean the best for you with what I'm telling you.''
The blonde girl nodded, wondering what was going on.
''You have to stop trying to find your mother,'' the unshaven man finally said.
''WHAT!?'' Yang screamed in anger, which shocked Blake. ''How can you say that to me!? Do you have any idea how long I've searched for her!? I have a right to see my own mother!''
''Woah, woah! Calm yourself, firecracker!'' Qrow said in an attempt at calming down his niece. ''I know that this is hard for you to accept, but I'm honestly telling this for your sake! Just let me explain and you'll understand!''
Yang decided to listen to her uncle, but she was still visibly upset. She had a frown on her face and her eyes seemed to be switching to red every now and then.
''The reason why I'm telling you to stop looking for your mother is because not only is finding her extremely hard and dangerous, but if you actually do find her, you might be in even more danger than before,'' Qrow explained.
''What are you talking about? How could my own mother be dangerous to me?'' Yang asked, not really believing what she had been told.
''In order for me to explain you that, I need to tell you about Raven, your mother, from even before we came to Beacon,'' the unshaven man said. ''You see, the Branwen family isn't your ordinary family. While most people won't recognize that name, almost anyone that has connections in the criminal world will recognize it. The Branwen family is a known family of assassins.''
Both Yang and Blake went wide-eyed from this revelation. It was shocking to hear that the man in front of them was from a family of assassins. It was especially shocking to the blonde, as the man had been close family to her for her whole life.
''Now hold on a second!'' Yang called out. ''In my search for my mom, I've come into contact with all sorts of low-lives and none of them said anything about the Branwen family of assassins!''
''Yeah! Even I have had some connections with such people and I have never heard of that family!'' Blake stated.
''By your ''connections'' are you talking about the White Fang?'' Qrow asked the cat faunus.
''H-How did you-?''
''I did a thorough background check on my nieces' teammates. You can't be too careful these days. Don't worry though. I don't see you as any kind of a threat,'' the unshaven man explained. ''As for neither of you ever hearing about the family, there's a reason for that, but we'll get to that in due time.''
Both girls nodded and were now listening carefully to what they were about to be told.
''The Branwen family had two children as candidates for the next head of the family. Those were me and my sister, Raven. Even though the family had pretty much forsaken me after learning about my Semblance, they still followed their tradition of giving each of the children that were up for inheriting the family a chance. It was still obvious that the one that would be chosen was Raven, as she had been trained at an early age to become the perfect, emotionless killing machine. I guess they found it amusing that I was ''competing'' with her,'' Qrow said as he thought about his childhood with his sister. ''For our last test, we were sent out to hone our combat skills at Beacon. Whichever one of us came back as the superior warrior would become the next head of the family. However, the family could have not expected what would happen to Raven in Beacon.''
''What happened to her?'' Blake asked, completely taken in by the story.
''Thanks to meeting Summer, she started to have feelings again,'' the unshaven man answered. ''Summer always had an incredible gift of making everyone around her happy. For the first time in years, I saw my sister smile. From that point on, our time in Beacon went with nothing but happy memories and good times.''
''So my mom stopped being an emotionless killer? Why is she dangerous now?'' Yang asked.
''I knew from the start that what Raven was feeling towards Summer was love. Unfortunately for her, she had been living without emotions for years, so she didn't know what this new sensation was. All she knew was that she liked it and wanted more of it. Raven started following Summer almost everywhere and I even caught her watching her sleep one time,'' Qrow told the girls.
''But... if my mom was in love with Summer, why would she end up with my dad?'' Yang asked out of confusion.
''You're starting to see the problem. While Raven loved Summer, Summer loved Taiyang. And while Raven knew she wanted to be close to Summer, she didn't understand why. She didn't understand the concept of love at all, which led to her never confessing her feelings,'' Qrow answered. ''This made me worry over what she might do, as she was completely unpredictable. I feared what she could do to Tai, if she ever saw him as an obstacle. My fear only increased once I found out what Raven did after we graduated.''
''What did she do?'' Blake asked with a hint of fear in her voice.
''Remember when I said that there was a reason that neither of you had ever heard of the Branwen family of assassins? Well, once we graduated from Beacon, I pretty much abandoned the Branwen family. I knew that I would most likely get assassins sent after me, but I decided to simply face them when the time came. However, none ever came and I didn't even hear anything from the family for a long time. I decided to do something that I thought I would never do and went back to them,'' the unshaven man said and shuddered a bit at the next thing he was about to tell. ''When I got there, I found out that Raven had killed the whole Branwen family. I looked at the corpses and determined that they had been killed soon after our graduation.''
''Wha- Why would she do that!?'' Yang asked, pale and horrified over what her mother had done.
''When I asked her about it, she just said that they got in her way. I was guessing that she had told them about her thing with Summer and they had not been happy about it. I considered taking her to jail, but decided against it. Raven was still my sister and the world was honestly better without the Branwen family,'' Qrow answered. ''Raven went back to pursuing Summer, but she soon found a big problem in front of her. Summer was pursuing Taiyang, which didn't sit well with her.''
''So what did Raven do?'' Yang asked, not willing to call Raven her mother anymore. ''And how did she end up with my dad?''
''Like I said before, Raven didn't understand love nor did she understand feelings in general. She didn't know how she could get close to Summer with her pursuing Tai. Luckily for us, she did know that Summer would be upset if she ever harmed Tai. When she couldn't solve her problem with violence, she simply got together with the guy Summer liked, which was easy as Tai always had a thing for her,'' Qrow said. ''To this day I have no clue why she did that. Maybe she thought that she would somehow impress Summer or she hoped that Summer would still try to get together with Tai and end up getting together with her as well. Whatever it was, Raven was probably shocked to see that her plan didn't work. I think she stayed with Tai for as long as she did only because she hoped that Summer would eventually come to her. When it didn't happen, she simply left.''
''So what happened after that?'' Blake asked.
''Once Summer got together with Tai, I feared that Raven would try to harm them in some way. I stayed close to where they lived, hoping that I would stop Raven, when she would attempt it. However, all she would ever do was stare at them from the woods without doing really anything. She would do it once every week, just stand still and stare at the family living their happy life. Nothing would make her move even an inch, whether it was me, the weather or even Grimm. I had to save her life a few times while she did her thing. This only stopped once Summer died,'' the unshaven man answered.
''Oh God... What happened to her then?'' Yang asked, already fearing the answer.
''Honestly, I don't know for sure. Raven suddenly just... disappeared. I didn't see her or even hear about her for a long time. It was like she had vanished from Remnant along with Summer. I eventually gave up on looking for her, thinking that she was probably better left on her own anyway,'' Qrow said. ''That is until I recently found out that she was still alive and active. And it was this discovery that made me come here to warn you and Ruby about her.''
''W-What do you mean?'' Yang asked as she felt chills run down her spine.
''Not too long ago, I was called in to help with tracking down a serial killer that had claimed victims all over Remnant. The victims on each case didn't have anything connecting them, with the exception that the murder weapon was a sword similar to the one Raven used. At first I didn't think too much of it. Many people use similar swords, so it was highly unlikely that it was her,'' the scythe-wielder answered. ''That is until I noticed something disturbing. On each separate case, there had always been at least one female victim, who resembled Summer in some way. They were wearing a white cloak, had similar hair or anything else like that. I started looking through a lot of unsolved murder cases that were similar and found out that they had been happening since the year Summer died. With time they had been slowly becoming more and more frequent. Once I found out about it, I managed to connect the dots and realized what was going on. I even had confirmation for my suspicions very soon, which happened about a week ago.''
Qrow was walking down a forest road in Mistral. He had just been to a small town where another murder had just happened. The victim this time had hair similar to Summer's. The unshaven man had a frown on his face as he thought about the possible killer.
'If the killer is truly who I think it is, I fear the day I have to face her. For once in my life, I hope that I'm wrong,' Qrow thought to himself as he continued walking.
There was a sudden scream from the forest and the scythe-wielder readied his weapon. He ran into the woods and headed towards where he heard the scream come from. After running for a while, he came to a small clearing in the forest. There were three people there. One was a man who was laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. The other two were women, with one on the ground and crawling backwards away from the other, who was standing over her while holding a sword covered in blood.
Qrow was about to charge the obvious attacker, but froze once he realized what was going on. The woman with the sword was none other than his sister, Raven Branwen, and the woman that was being attacked was wearing a white cloak like Summer Rose.
Unfortunately, his moment of hesitation would come with a price.
''Please! Don't kill me! I'll do anything! I'll-!''
''You're not Summer,'' Raven said coldly, cutting off the other woman's begging, before she silenced her for good by slashing her throat open with a single strike from her sword.
''Raven!'' Qrow called out to his sister. ''Why did you-!?''
''Qrow, why are there all these fake Summers?'' the raven-haired woman suddenly asked, cutting off her brother. She turned to look Qrow, who froze upon seeing the cold, dead eyes his sister had. ''I'm just trying to find Summer. Why are all these fakes getting in my way? I just want my Summer.''
Before Qrow could do anything, Raven used her Semblance to teleport away from him, leaving behind her latest murder scene. The unshaven man knew that it would be useless to go after her, so he simply went on to do what needed to be done with the newest victims.
Both Yang and Blake were wide-eyed and pale in the face as they listened to Qrow's story. It was terrifying to hear about such a horrific thing happening. This was especially bad for the blonde, as the murderer was her own mother.
''I... I can't believe this,'' Yang said quietly as she looked down on the floor. ''All this time I've wanted to find my mother and now I hear this. The only thing I wanted from her was to hear her say if she truly loved me or even cared about me. Now I hear that she is an insane murderer that only loves Ruby's mom.''
''I know this must be hard for you, kid, but you needed to know,'' Qrow said. ''I came here to tell you this in person, so that you would know for sure the truth about Raven. I also didn't think this was a conversation we could have through our Scrolls.''
''Wait... You said that she went after people that resembled Summer, right?'' the blonde asked as realization dawned upon her. ''Did you come here because you think she might-?''
''Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if she went after Ruby. She resembles Summer so much it's like she is her twin sister,'' the unshaven man answered, confirming Yang's fears. ''Once she gets here, I'm going to tell her what I told you two and then we'll figure out a way for her to be safe from Raven.''
''Summer? Is that you?'' a female voice called out from behind Ruby and Weiss, making them stop.
The two girls turned around to see a woman standing behind them. She had a long mane of black hair, red eyes and a sword strapped to her hip. The woman seemed to be staring at Ruby like she was mesmerized by her. While confused by this person's behavior, neither of the girls truly realized the danger they were in.
Raven Branwen had found her new Summer Rose.
Author's notes: And there you have it! My second horror story! Hope you enjoyed it.
After the first one got a pretty positive reception, I decided to do another one. This time it's Raven who is the crazy villain. Like always, I want you guys to tell me in the reviews if you want me to continue this or not. It's up to you.
However, now I need to go back to War for Ruby. I need to get the Halloween chapter done for it.
Until next time.
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.