Another Hello! It's been quite a while since I published the first chapter, and to think that a one chapter story actually got some favorites and followers! Whew, that's why I write up a continuation of the earlier chapter! I'm sure from the name of our protagonist and a tidbit of her personality from the summary, you all knew that she's pretty lazy for someone so powerful. I just hoped that you didn't find it boring or redundant reading this kind of story. Anyway, just read this if you have nothing else to read!
Disclaimer: RWBY is not mine. I only own my OCs.
Chapter 2: Roses | Alone or Together
It was five measly minutes into the lighthearted conversation between Summer Rose and Squall Marlowe when her brother suddenly dropped the bomb. Mentioning the Silver Eyed Warrior in front of one was probably not the best idea, but the fact that he spoke of the Maidens right after was far worse. He had only sent a glance her way when Summer knelt before her children and told them to behave. Right now, they were at the front porch, talking with this incredibly serious look on their face as if someone had threatened to blow up the kingdom.
Now, she was looking after the siblings as they were playing around with her plushies. One lucky teddy bears dressed in princely manner was in the hands of Ruby Rose, while its evil twin dressed in the manner that screamed villain was in the hands of her older step sister, Yang Xiao Long. They were re-enacting a tale of hero and villain, fighting with a princess at stake…
Said princess was none but yours truly, hugging a pillow with a paper crown adorning her head. It was funny how the siblings decided to take control of the situation as if they were the host themselves, entertaining her with a tale of famous knight in shining armor saving a damsel in distress.
Not that she was in a distress or anything, but the sight was heartwarming enough for her to simply observe and play her part. They were annoyingly cute, so cute to the point that when they called her their big sister, she practically melted.
They were already treating her as a part of their little family.
Oh, the irony…
"Princhess?"
She was brought out of her musings when a small voice called out to her behind a brown princely plushie. She craned her neck a little bit before locking eyes with the little rose, asking what was wrong silently with a quirked brow. However, instead of the answer, what she got was a squeal as the young girl launched herself at her.
"How didchu do it? How? Your brow! How!?"
"Uh, I just do?"
"Ehh!?"
While the scene of Yang trying to stop Ruby from crying was amusing enough she had to sneak a quiet chuckle to herself, it wouldn't bode well for her if Summer heard that she had made her daughter cry. Looking around the living room, her eyes finally settled on a balloon sword Lilith often used to beat Squall senseless. How a trained Huntsman got knocked out cold by a balloon sword still escaped her reasoning, but now, it should be enough to at least get their attention.
"Say, Ruby, was it?"
"Yeah…"
"Do you like Huntress?"
That got her not only Ruby but also Yang's attention as well. Seeing as she had already got them hooked on the topic, she smiled at them and signaled them to follow as she led them further into the house – to one of the rooms that children like them shouldn't be allowed into.
Not that she was a child, just saying…
"First thing first, there are no difference between Huntsmen and Huntresses aside from their gender. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, because if trained properly, we could be even stronger than those boys who say we have cooties…"
She gritted out bitterly as some memories surfaced. Despite being old enough mentally, she still had a childish side in her that wanted to go out and see the World of Remnant with her own eyes. She travelled with her family for about a year before settling down somewhere in Mistral to get a better grasp at the situation.
It was then that she experienced how cruel children can be.
"Yeah, those boys know nothing of haircare, you know!? Hey, my hair is beautiful, right? They're not a bundle of hay, right?"
She stopped before the door and smiled at the five years old Yang before nodding, admiring her beautiful blonde hair which was tied into two separate pigtails. Slightly wavy and seemingly hard to tame, they encircled her childish expression like a frame to a piece of art, bringing attention to Yang's bright lilac eyes without fail.
Branwen and Xiao Long, those genes did the girl good.
"Of course, they are not. Quite beautiful if I have to say, and I see we have a similar color scheme, hmm?" Picking the squealing Ruby up into her arms after opening the door, she gestured Yang to close it behind them as she went inside. The sense of accomplishment suddenly swelled in her chest as she almost lost a hold of the kid in her embrace. Had she not pick the girl up, heh…
"Are you a Huntress!?"
"No, of course not. I'm too young to be one, and I'm not really interested in being one either. Recognition and fame are some of the things that I loathe with passion, and those things come with being successful at Huntsmen and Huntresses career."
It was not that she didn't want to become one, she couldn't. It had already been seven years since she had woken up in this world and she had yet to age even a single day. She woke up looking like a ten years old little girl, twelve at best. Nearly a decade had passed, and she was still ten nonetheless, not even the passage of time could put an end to an undying monster she had become.
Never grow, never age, never die…
Maybe she could ask for an advice from Ozpin.
The way she had achieved immortality was because of Violet and Yuri.
First of all, Violet Hunt, the V of Team SLVE and the team Aura expert. She was a frontline fighter with a bit of masochistic tendency which led to her Semblance being the ability to take hits, and converged that kinetic energy into Aura. However, what saved her from death was the passive aspect of the Semblance which accelerated her Aura Regeneration to a ridiculous degree.
Then there was Yuri Farran, the F of Team SAFR (Saffron) from Shade Academy. She was a loving and caring fox Faunus with an auric flame that could both burn and heal as a Semblance. If she had to hazard a guess, Yuri was the most valuable asset for Shade Academy due to her Semblance's passive ability that could be dubbed as Hyper Regeneration.
The two abilities working in tandem had granted her an eternal youth and an unending life force. She gathered Aura with Violet's masochistic Semblance and Yuri's own prevented her from aging further than she naturally was.
The problem in this case was her nature.
She was created, not born.
THAT was her nature.
She tested it, not really an experiment but she had tested it nonetheless. One night when she was left alone to hold fort, she had decided that she had had enough and stole a replica of Slumber from Squall's Workshop and BANG! The next morning found her bawling her eyes out under Ariana's scrutiny as she scrubbed her blood and brain matter off the floor. She had never known until that morning that Ariana – a part of her soul – could be so scary when she wanted to.
Speaking of Slumber Replica, that was the same firearm that Ruby was reaching for until Yang pulled her away from the worktable back to the computer. She could still remember its steely roar and its furious blaze, the pain it had caused, the sorrow it had brought, and the eternal slumber it had denied her…
"You zoned out a little bit there, what's wrong?"
"Ugh, it was just a simple headache, and I really want to *yawn* go back to sleep soon. But let's put that aside for now and continue where we left off, shall we?"
Operating the computer terminal before them, she pulled up a file of recording and opened it for the kids to see. It might not be as grand as the tale of a knight fighting for some righteous reasons, but it should be enough for the children as young as them. It was a record of a friendly spar between Squall and Ariana in the woods just behind their log house, one that will surely blow these two away.
It was then that she felt a small tug somewhere in the back of her mind. It was a familiar sensation that came along with a serious headache whenever she felt her connection between her and her family become taut. Someone wanted her attention, and from how they were pulling, she realized that it was Squall.
She shook her head a little before tugging at the sleeve of Yang's t-shirt.
"Can you look after your sister for a bit?"
What she got as an answer was a simple nod as those lilac eyes were glued to the screen, leaving her blinking at the attention the fight between her older siblings had gotten. Surely the fight was not that impressive. Ariana could do some interesting things with her Semblance as well while Squall was simply devastating with his.
But she had seen what Lilith was able to do.
Her favorite big sister and big brother literally had no chance.
Closing the door quietly behind her, she let her bare feet dig into the soft carpet on the floor before making her way toward front porch. Squall was good at this thing called socializing and shouldn't have trouble dealing with Summer, why he needed her was something she couldn't fathom. Their connection was not severed by any means, and it brought up a question why he couldn't just ask her by using it?
Unless he needed her to be present, for something.
That something must not be good.
He was her favorite, but he was always up to no good as well.
Especially when it concerned her, no good would come out of whatever he had planned. There was this one time they went to a fairground together during Vytal Festival and he turned shooting galleries into target practice exercise. The amount of reward he pushed upon her small form would have buried her on the spot had Violet not shown up in time. Then there was Oliver as well…
Just why did the male members of her family want to see her suffer so much? Was it because they were male? Was it something related to the last pair of their chromosomes? Or was it just that they were so good with guns?
No, Yuri always tried to embarrass her as well.
It must be the gun.
She concluded and nodded sagely to herself as she came up to the front door. Turning the knob, she was greeted by a slightly humid air of Patch's early summer and regretted letting Squall drag her out of bed earlier. Not that she didn't want to talk to Summer Rose, but she knew the Huntress can wait, really.
Why can't they just talk inside?
"It's hot," she stared at her honorary brother flatly.
He laughed dryly.
"Well, it is Summer after all."
Was that a pun?
Her apathetic red eyes took on a dangerous glint for a second before a hint of interest broke through. As her eyes roamed across the white clad figure, she couldn't deny that it was quite hot outside today indeed. This person before her was beautiful in many ways, the smile she tried to maintain, those silver eyes sharp and steady, the collected posture, the calming presence…
"What a surprise," she uttered quietly. "You have silver eyes."
The Last Rose of Summer went rigid.
"What do you want, Squall? I did leave two kids in your workshop, so if you don't have anything to say then I will go back?" It was now his turn to stood up like a rod and sent her a pointed look before booking it back into the house, leaving her alone with a woman whose presence alone made her heart pound. Having connected mentally with many people had made their personalities bled into hers.
She had to wonder if someone had a thing for a hot older woman.
Looking back at the said older woman, she found her eyes roaming once again and stared straight into those silver eyes. If she had them, what would have become of her right now? Maybe she will never be able to experience Remnant? Maybe she will never know the taste of freedom? Maybe even having a family?
Speaking of family…
"What did you talk about?"
She felt her heartbeat quickened as those eyes fell upon her, and she was sure that whatever experiment done to create her, there was no Grimm involved. What she felt was not fear, not unconditionally like how those Grimms felt under those eyes.
It was a thrill, an excitement.
One wrong answer and her head might suddenly fell off her shoulders, considering that she didn't know what kind of conversation this person and her lovable brother was having until a moment ago. The fact that she felt slightly giddy by the possible outcome that might lead to a violent confrontation didn't help. She was sure that Violet's personality just bled into hers for a little bit right there.
"About you, apparently, I didn't catch your name?"
She looked on for a second before she smiled.
"Briar, my name is Briar Rose."
She stood back and let the name sank in quietly, going back to observing the older woman's shapely figure before looking down at her own. Seven years and not even a millimeter higher, she tried everything ranging from milk to surgery, and yet nothing happened during her stay on Remnant. Her dedication to grow up aside, the fact that the passive effect of the Semblances in her control recognized this as her natural spoke of something she would rather not hear. Maybe if she could find someone with a Semblance that could change her physical appearance…
No, using Gravedigger like that was a definite no.
"Where are your parents?"
That was quite insensitive for someone like her, she noted to herself as she looked at the direction of another ping in the back of her mind. There was a chance that this meeting might go wrong, and she might be a soggy red pile on the floor at the end of this conversation. However, she knew that even if the opponent was someone strong like Summer Rose, just one of her siblings alone would be enough to hammer the lesson in.
Lilith would have to get in the queue though…
Calling Ariana overprotective was understatement of the century.
"I don't know," she offered.
Summer blinked at her answer before she slowly leaned onto the wooden railing, adopting a thinking pose with her right hand rubbing her chin. The Huntress never let those sterling silver orbs wander elsewhere but at the young girl standing before her, inspecting every fiber of her being with intense curiosity.
"How about a name, I might know them."
Briar cocked her head a bit before shaking. She had no plan on making this a headache for Summer, especially when she was one of the few immediate family the Huntress could ever have at the moment. The lore of RWBY didn't speak much of Summer other than being a member and the leader of Team STRQ.
Summer Rose was a stranger to Briar Rose.
For now, at the very least.
"I'm sorry."
It was then that she felt warmth enveloped her and a faint smell of rose that she might not mind letting her indifferent façade slip. She was no stranger to hug and kiss, her six older brothers and sisters had made sure of it after her suicide attempt that one night. So, it was not awkward for her or Summer when she was pulled into a hug as the Huntress drowned her in this sweet, sweet scent.
"I had no idea that there was anyone left out there. I'm so sorry."
She had no idea what kind of conclusion she had come to, but the feeling of the hug was more than enough to glue her lips shut. Basking in the comfort of the others like this was something she had always experienced when the girls were around. Oliver and Squall often filled in the role, but it's not like this…
"You're crying."
She could feel the tears through her cloth.
It's fine for her to cry, but she didn't like seeing others do the same.
Her red eyes stared straight ahead at both of her hands that had yet return the shaking embrace of this sobbing woman. It was this abrupt development that caught her off guard, especially so when someone like her could do nothing but slowly bringing her arms close to entrap this person inside a hug of her own.
"Briar," was all she got before her eyes were full of silver. Those unshed tears only made them more beautiful. So entrancing that she forgot about her character and nuzzled back against the palm cupping her left cheek.
Whether it was this life or the one before, she had never truly known what a mother love felt like. While it was true that she did have parents in her past life, the truth that they needed to work to keep her alive was not lost on her. They were family. They loved her unconditionally. They really were, but for someone who was nothing but a burden to them, she felt as if she didn't deserve even an ounce of their love.
However, she wasn't alone in this life like she had found herself in inside the confine of a hospital room. She had her brothers and sisters beside her, but they were just that. Ariana and her devotion came close to be something like a mother figure for her with how much she cared, but she just wasn't.
It was this warmth she felt from Summer Rose.
This person really was a Super-Mom.
"You're a good mother."
"Eh, thank you?"
She brought her hands up to her chest, as close as she could possibly get to her aching heart. It pained her to see a frown etching upon Summer's face as she stepped away from the opened arms, but she couldn't steal her from Ruby and Yang. While they were family, they weren't that close yet.
"I don't know if it was pity or not, but I'm not hopeless, you know."
For someone who was not hopeless, she was far too familiar with suicidal thoughts than she would care to admit. The pain she had seen in their eyes when she woke up next morning after a bottle of sleeping pills was still a fresh memory. Someone had to be with her all the time for almost two months after that incident with Squall's gun only to make sure that she would not try something like that again.
Knowing what would come to her in the future with how she was created, she made a mistake and let her imagination run wild. It was a tragedy of long life that drove her into despair. With her Semblances, she was unable to see everyone around her as anything but a form of coping mechanism. She had dreamed them back to life after all, what was to say that it wasn't just her own subconsciousness talking? That she wasn't all alone for the entire time? And that everything wasn't just a dream?
She was hopeless, she was still hopeless even now.
"It's not that! I just… I don't really have anyone left aside from my husband, my daughters, and my team. The only real connection to my parents was my daughter until I saw you with your brother, so I just… I can't…"
Summer looked down onto her lap before allowing a quivering sigh through her lips. She was showing more and more of her weakness to a stranger than she had done with her teammates. The girl standing before her was a perfect match to a picture of her grandmother that her parents had once shown to her. The hair color, the skin complexion, the facial features, they were all the same.
Especially those eyes, those lustrous red eyes.
"You look just like my grandmother."
Her half-lidded eyes widened for a fraction before the detached look quickly returned. It was a quick transition, but not quick enough to escape trained eyes.
"Is… Was she beautiful?"
"She was," smiled the Huntress.
Letting a smug smile surfaced a bit with an accompanying triumphant sound, she fell back onto one of the rocking chairs as Summer showed her a tiny grin of her own. Surely, the Huntress got what she was trying to say.
"In case my brother didn't tell you, I'm actually twenty-two."
It's quite funny seeing someone do an actual double take like that, even more so when it's from the Summer Rose of Team STRQ. She allowed a few throaty chuckles to escape before sitting down on one of the rocking chairs on the porch.
"He told me that you have a weird Semblance… Is this a side effect?"
That was a cover story all of them had agreed to use whenever someone noticed that she didn't exactly act her age, especially when said someone went by the name of Qrow Branwen or Professor Ozpin. Since it's not technically a lie as it's half-truth, it'd be more believable when presented to those with good head on their shoulders. Not that she would stop milking it though, since it seemed children got so many leeway from her experience living on Remnant.
"Well, it's a bit over the top? Someone I know is a walking bad luck charm because of his Semblance so I'm not that surprised but… well, you wouldn't see something like this every day either. It's tough having that kind of Semblance, isn't it?"
Well, she did look at the mirror every morning, but that would be a bit too childish for the self-proclaimed twenty-two years old to answer with. Eyeing the form fitting outfit beneath Summer's cloak a little bit, she sniffed before looking away from one of the two blood relative she had on this world. Sure, she was at home, but for someone like the last Silver Eyed Warrior to walk around unarmed…
"It was, being treated as a kid got old really quick, but being able to charm those gullible 'adults' had gotten me out of troubles more than I can care to admit. For example, I always get some extra when I'm out shopping! Pretty neat, hmm?"
That last bit got a wry smile out of the Huntress. Summer shook her head at the girl's unnerving exterior before sitting down on the rocking chair next to her. Looking out into the woods, she narrowed her eyes slightly at how silent it had become. If she remembered correctly, her husband should have thinned down the Grimm population on Patch just yesterday. However, there was still a chance that he had forgotten with how his teaching job at Signal had taken quite a toll on him.
"I suppose we're somewhat related, huh?"
She stole a sidelong glance at Summer before humming in an agreement. With how her DNA sequence was cooked up, she was sure that she was related to many prominent figures in Remnant. Maybe if she dug hard enough into the files they had salvaged from whatever was left of the lab, she may have been related to the Arc as well as many more of the main casts. Was she a part Schnee though?
That's something to think about later…
"Your daughters, do you want them to become Huntresses? Little Ruby seemed fascinated with weaponry, and Blondie had this look in her eyes that screamed bad idea when she looked at a video of a spar between my siblings."
She heard a chuckle from Summer as she finished, and it was not long until an answer befitting of a Super Mom surprised her. It may not be appropriate with how small their age difference was, but the more time she had spent with Summer, the more her desire to see this woman as a mother figure she had never truly loved.
"It's up to them whatever they want to be in the future, I mean, that would be what I want if I'm in their position. If Ruby wants to be a weapon engineer, I wouldn't stop her. If Yang wants to become a model, I wouldn't stop her either. Not every kid needs to grow up to become a defender of mankind, it's our job as an adult to ensure their happiness and future that is to come."
She tilted her head to one side, slowly smiling.
"It is their lives, after all."
Their conversation ended just like that, and it was a comfortable silence that followed as they both rocked back and forth on the chairs. The heat of summertime was not something she found pleasant, but being able to relax in the shade with some company was not a bad idea for her either. It was at time like this that she wanted to crawl back inside and get that watermelon in the fridge out…
"Ngh," she grunted, at the tug from the direction of the town.
This was something out of her expectation, but it seemed like her beloved sisters had encountered a sizable horde of Grimms on their way back from grocery run. Considering what she had seen of their shopping list, it was expected that they would have some trouble dealing with all those pests.
They had their weapons with them, but with the number of things they had bought for the party they were going to have when Oliver and Yuri come back, it will be a tad bit too hard for them to come home unscathed. She could alert Squall of the incoming Grimms that were able to escape from her sisters, but since he was taking care of Ruby and Yang, she would rather deal with it herself.
It had been a long time she had exercised anyway…
She didn't hate violence as it was one of the simpler ways to deal with problem, but to exert violence meant that she needed to move her body. However, that wasn't the only reason why she didn't like fighting.
It was the limitation of her Semblance that made the experience unbearable for her. Gravedigger had no offence capability on its own, and that left Lucid Dream as her only mean of fighting against any form of threat coming her way. While its main limitation was the surrounding, only effective in closed environment and all that, she had mastered it to a degree that she could easily bypass that shortcoming.
She could influence the reality around her to a degree.
Four meters radius around her, to be precise.
That meant she needed to be up close and personal with her enemy, and with her small stature and unwillingness to exercise put into consideration, it was best that she stayed on the sideline and looked at how badass her family members could be. It was not unreasonable for her to find that line of thought agreeable, since most of the threat they had faced was not quite pleasant to her eyes, not one bit.
Grimms were scary, some was even disgusting…
Especially that Nuckelavee, a prime example of nightmare fuel.
Had anyone ever told Salem that?
Probably not, period.
If she had to quote what Violet had called her back when they had just met all those years ago, then it would be a Little Dreamer. For someone who lived in a lab for most of her short artificial life, she had a really wild imagination, or so they had said. She loved listening to whatever story they had to tell, and she expressed the desire to experience the things she had never known. The foods she had never tried, the views she had never seen, and the places she had never been, everything they had spoken of when they were right beside her, she had dreamt of them.
It had stopped being a dream, only after the ones she wanted to experience it all together unfortunately turned into one.
Looking back over her shoulder, she narrowed her eyes slightly at the frowning woman. The Huntress had been trained in the best academies on Remnant, under one of the best Huntsmen even. She had all the experience on the field to back everything up, but people like her had one glaring flaw that will be their downfall.
The way they chose to lead their lives.
The weight of the burden they had taken, the responsibility of the action they had chosen, and the guilt of what they had done and could not atone. Everything that they had taken upon themselves will bury them alive, it will crush them at every step, and will suffocate them at every waking moment.
"Say, Summer, to you… What does it take to be a Hero?"
The Huntress only quirked a brow at that.
"That question is…"
The same one that her brother had asked, she knew it even without the actual words from the Huntress's mouth. Lax and lazy he may have been, Squall was still the one and only leader of Team SLVE. His sense of value was something she had come to respect greatly from the moment they got to talk until now.
For him, hero must not be hypocrite.
If a hero helped others so willingly then that same hero must also accept other's help as well. There was neither rule nor law stating that being hero meant that that person must be alone and shoulder all the burden by themselves. Many stories she had read often featured an end unbefitting of a hero, a lonely end that made her feel a twinge of pain in her chest. She had thought of how Summer would die, and it left a bad taste in her mouth now that she finally got to know the Huntress.
Her emotion right now, it must have lured them in like a magnet.
There was another tug at the front of her mind before the black creatures broke through the tree line on the other side of the clearing. There were four Beowolves, bruised and battered from the fight they had run away from, running straight to her with their eyes glowing red like a pair of headlights on four speeding cars.
She heard a cry from Summer, but that was it.
It all ended when the four creatures of darkness came a step too close to her, with a jungle of thorny vines that erupted from the ground and through their bodies. It was almost with mechanical precision how the two-dimensional reddish black vines shot through all the vitals, suspending their twitching bodies up in the air before her narrowing eyes. It was like a messed-up piece of art she never wanted to see.
She snapped out of it when she heard a footstep behind her.
Reigning in the defense mechanism of her Semblances, she turned around and faced one worrying Summer Rose with a soft smile. There was this warmth glowing in her core as she registered the expression on the Huntress's face. Ariana often donned this kind of face when she did something reckless, but it never felt like this before. She felt like she really did something bad, something really, really bad.
"Does it hurt, thinking that you might lost me so soon?"
A hint of anger amidst the concern showing upon Summer's face didn't escape her, but it was gone just as fast as it had come. And the next moment was the second time she thought she might've suffocated once again in a forceful embrace from the Huntress.
"I'm not useless, and you're not alone, Summer."
She felt the arms around her froze.
"Whenever you're out doing your job as a Huntress, please put your family first before anything else. You have your husband waiting for you, you have your daughters waiting for you, and then you also have me. You're not alone any longer, Summer Rose. Since it's lonely being left blooming alone, isn't it?"
She returned the hug softly, feeling bad at putting the woman on the spot like she had just done. Maybe it was unnecessary because Summer knew what being alone felt like, but she had to do it. The feeling of truly losing someone, she had to.
"After all, who would inhibit this bleak world alone?"
It was here, amidst the Sleeping Forest full of thorns, that one rose stopped wilting, and another finally began to bloom.
Author's Note
That's it! The end of chapter 2 which took months to finish... I'm sure some of you may have noticed something about the two-dimensional vines part, not many characters out there are based off Sleeping Beauty after all. There will be some elements from other anime or game in this story, but it won't be too much to the point it's basically a crossover. And no, there won't be any affair between Briar and Summer, period. By the way, how many of you're not into female/female relationship? Since you're browsing RWBY fan fiction, I'll assume that you're fine with yuri, yeah?
