A Raven's Flight
I
Summer screamed out in pain as she clawed her way out from underneath the decaying body of the Griffon she had barely managed to slay as rain poured down around her. She dug her fingers deep into the wet mud and gritted her teeth as she kept pulling her body with her right arm. Her left arm had been torn from her body at the elbow during her close quarter fight with the large flying Grimm while her right leg was crippled from the large gashes she received in her thigh. She usually hated getting her hooded cloak dirty but for once that was the furthest thing from her mind as she pulled herself further through the muck. Blood poured from her arm and leg and left a sickening brownish red trail to the steaming corpse of the Grimm as it mixed with the mud and wet grass.
I have to get back. I have to get back. I have to get back! She screamed in her mind as she tried to block out the intense pain. She was only feet away from her scroll and it would take only a single message or phone call to Taiyang to get him to come find her. All she could think about was Ruby, Yang, and Taiyang's faces as she inched closer and closer to her scroll. She couldn't leave them like this. She needed to feel the warm of Taiyang's kiss, the long thick mess of Yang's hair, and the sweet tiny hugs from Ruby just one more time.
As she thought about her family the thought of Yang's mother, Raven, crossed her mind. She cursed aloud as she thought back to their competitive friendship. She had promised Raven that she would look after Yang while she was gone. There was no way she could die like this and break a promise to that old bird. She cursed again as she thought about how different this mission would have gone if Raven or Qrow was there to help.
She stopped for a moment to rest, laying the side of her face in the warm mud and thought about Qrow. All she could think about was how this all would destroy him. She had always known his feelings for her and it broke her heart to think about how she never gave him a chance. She quickly shook the thought out of her mind as she looked back up at where her scroll had landed during the fight and continued to pull herself towards it.
The pain in her leg and arm had all but disappeared as she felt a numb sensation fill her body. She quickly began to feel an ever growing sense of weakness as every inch she moved felt like a mile. Her vision started to blur and slowly grow dark as her body began to shut down from shock and loss of blood. Summer stopped with her fingertips on the scroll's call button before weakly pressing it to call Taiyang. She then smiled gently before allowing her face to fall back into the mud. A few seconds later she heard Taiyang's voice and she slid her finger to tap the speaker phone button.
"I'm…sorry…babe. The Griffon was a little tougher than I thought it would be. I'm pretty beat up." She struggled to say.
"Summer? What's wrong? Where are you?" Taiyang said in a panicking voice.
"In…in the clearing I told you about. I got the son of a bitch but I think he may have taken one last victim before I managed to kill him." Summer replied with tears filling her eyes.
"Don't say that! I'm on the way right now, I'll leave the girls with Qrow until we get back home to them!" He replied loudly.
"It's okay, Tai." Summer replied gently. "Just please promise me that if I don't make it that you'll be good to the girls. And please, if you see Raven, tell her that I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise. Tell Qrow not to beat himself up too much about this. And lastly tell the girls that momma loves them and that I'm sorry." She continued as her breathing became weak.
"I will, baby. Just hold on as long as you can. I love you." Taiyang replied with a crackling voice as Summer could hear him begin to cry.
"I…I love you too, Tai." Summer replied with a weak smile.
As Summer fought to stay awake for a few more minutes she heard the howls of Beowolves in the distance. She shook her head to fight off sleep as the rain pelted her body but she knew that there was no use fighting her fate anymore. She closed her eyes and gently smiled as she let out her last breath.
Three Days Later
Taiyang held Yang and Ruby as they cried. It had been a hard three days as he tried to explain to them that Summer wouldn't be returning from her mission. He watched with tears in his own eyes as her empty coffin slowly descended into the ground. By the time he had reached Summer's body there wasn't much left of her due to Grimm feasting on her. He knew that it would be best if he burned the body and had an empty casket at the funeral. As he watched the coffin lower he felt the strong grip of Qrow's hand on his left shoulder. He looked up at his best friend with a sad smile before Qrow leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"Raven is here. I'll watch the girls. You should talk to her." Qrow said gently before nodding in the direction of the tree line away from the edge of the cliff. Taiyang nodded reluctantly before kneeling down to look at his daughters.
"Girls, Uncle Qrow will be watching you for a few minutes. Daddy has to go talk to an old friend of his, okay?" He said to Ruby and Yang who both just gave him sad nods before hugging their uncle.
Taiyang approached the tree line where he found Raven leaning against a large tree. She greeted him with a wave and a forced smile but once she saw the glare in his eyes she quickly frowned. She stroked her long black hair nervously as he stepped up to her.
"What do you want?" Taiyang said sternly.
"To pay my respects, what else? You know she was just as close to me as she was to you, right?" Raven hissed as she could feel the tension between her and Taiyang beginning to instantly rise.
"Pay your respects?" Taiyang replied before forcing a laugh. "You got to be kidding me. You leave without saying a word to either Summer or I, without even so much as a hug for your daughter, and go off on some secret mission that Ozpin has for you and suddenly when Summer dies you want to show back up?" He continued, anger filling his voice.
"You know damn well I can't discuss my mission with you. Hell with anyone except Qrow, Glynda, and James." The young woman snapped back at her ex-lover. "And how dare you throw our daughter in my face like this! You know she was too young to remember me and should never know about me. It would endanger her life if she knew anything about me. She has to stay ignorant to my very existence or…" She pointed at Taiyang before he interrupted her.
"Or what, Raven? What kind of mission are you on that you had to abandon your own daughter while she was still a baby? What kind of mission forces someone to leave her family and disappear for years just to show back up at the funeral of her best friend?" He asked with tears forming in his eyes.
Raven stood in silence, the wind blowing her long hair slightly as she thought about a response. It wasn't like she didn't want to tell Taiyang about her mission. And despite what he thought, Raven had always been nearby Yang in one way or another. She just couldn't force herself to endanger the lives of everyone she loved by involving them. Eventually she pulled a black rose from a satchel that hung at her side and handed it to Taiyang.
"Put this on her grave for me, please. And you know if Yang asks anything you'll lie to her, okay? She's still young and hopefully doesn't remember me. Keep the idea that Summer was her mother in her mind and she will be safe." Raven said before opening a portal behind her and quickly dashed into it before Taiyang could stop her.
The young man stood in silence as he looked at the rose before clenching it, tears dripping onto his fist as the thorns dug into his flesh. After a few more minutes in silence he returned to the funeral and his family. He placed the black rose on Summer's grave as Raven had wanted and held his daughters close to him.
Many Years Later
Come on kid, think with your head not your fists! Raven coached inside her mind as Yang tried desperately to strike at Neo. The smaller, and much more agile, Neo danced gracefully away from and around every punch that Yang threw while skillfully striking the infuriated brawler. Raven knew that she was putting herself in a lot of danger by being so close to her daughter like this. However, she couldn't help herself but to keep tabs on her during such a risky mission.
"What the hell was Barney thinking, letting you girls get in the train?" She whispered aloud as Yang was knocked unconscious by Neo. "Fuck, come on kid get up." She hissed.
Neo approached Yang, blade ready to strike home the killing blow. Just as Neo raised the blade above her head, Raven was through her portal and charging the small woman. She swiped at the young woman who gracefully stepped away. After a brief moment she entered a fighting stance and slid her long sword back into its scabbard where its Dust infuser spun to the red crystal. As she slowly pulled the blade back out the young woman had a flash of fear enter her face before she in turn vanished.
Raven stood still for a second before letting out a heavy sigh. She was secretly hoping that she wouldn't have to fight the small woman. Allowing Neo to live would clearly put a lot of suspicions on her but she couldn't risk fighting Neo with the chance of the fast moving woman sneaking in a strike on Yang. As Raven stood in silence and looked over her daughter she couldn't help but smile under her mask. Although Yang was a skilled brawler she had much to learn if she would ever be able to defeat a fighter like Neo, or someone much worse.
Raven shuttered at the thought as Yang started to stir. Sensing that it was best for her to make a quick exit, Raven sliced open a portal before giving her little girl one more look over to ensure she wasn't severally hurt. After a few more precious seconds she walked into the portal and arrived at Summer's grave. She dropped to her knees with a thud before ripping the large Grimm mask from her face and screamed with frustration. It had been so many years since she was able to get that close to Yang and yet she couldn't stay long enough to even stick around long enough to hear her voice. Raven breathed heavily as she tried to get herself together. She placed her mask on Summer's grave before sitting next to the headstone and leaned against it. As she sat in silence, staring out over the cliff's edge, she sighed before smiling.
"I saw Yang and Ruby today. Ruby looks just like you did at that age. She has your eyes, your smile, hell even your hair. She's even wearing a cape. I guess you and Qrow are to thank for that." She whispered to the tombstone as she looked out into the distance. "I sometimes think back to when we were in school. The stupid shit we would do. The amount of times we ourselves almost got killed because we wanted to prove ourselves. And now look at us. Tai hates me, Qrow is a drunk, I'm certainly not winning any mother of the year awards, and you're…well…at least you're at peace." She continued, tears forming in her eyes.
"I guess you've finally lost it, sis." Came the voice of Qrow, whose sudden interruption nearly made Raven have a stroke.
Raven spun around to see that without her hearing a sound, her twin brother had snuck up on her. He even had his flask sitting on the tombstone with two shot glasses. It was unclear if he had planned to meet her there or if he had just wanted some alone time with at the grave. He poured some of the contents of his flask into the two glasses and reached out with one to give to Raven. She took it and shook her head.
"It's not like you to share your stash, brother." She stated with a very matter of fact tone.
"Well, it's not like I was planning to see my dear sister tonight. I was hoping to have a moment alone with Summer. But it seems that you were doing exactly that." Qrow replied, patting Summer's tombstone gently. "What's up, Raven? It's not like you to show such emotion." He said, referring possibly to Raven's outburst.
"I just stopped my own daughter from being killed, Qrow. I stopped the very people who I'm working with from murdering my daughter and I couldn't even stay long enough to ensure her safety." She replied, looking into her glass solemnly.
"Jeez, sounds like you've had a better night than usual." Qrow replied before drinking the contents of his glass. "I guess now you're in the running for being runner up to mother of the year."
Raven chuckled before taking her own shot. She had missed her brother greatly. However, she had almost forgotten about the amount of lip he could give people for just existing.
"You're an asshole." She replied.
"Truth. But enough banter, tell me about what happened." He stated before sitting on the other side of Summer's grave and poured two more shots for him and his sister.