Graduation: Remember
"No... you can't be here..." Ruby cocked her weapon, aiming it at the woman's head. She quickly became furious. "Who are you!?"
The woman stepped forward, ignoring Ruby's threatening movements. "Look, I don't kno-"
A gunshot clipped her shoulder, knocking her down right at Ruby's feet. Ruby took a step back and looked up at the edge of the forest. Pyrrha stood tall, looking down the sights of her rifle, aiming at the woman now laying on the ground. Jaune stepped out from behind Pyrrha, and Ren soon followed. Then others. All of them, as far as Ruby could tell. A student from Beacon had been shot, and it looked like the rest of Beacon's Huntsmen and Huntresses in training had a problem with that.
Ruby looked back down at the woman, who was struggling to stand. She lowered her voice, not wanting the others to hear what she had to say. "You need to jump off the cliff."
The woman looked up at her. "What are you, crazy?"
Ruby looked over the forest sprawled out below the cliff. It went on as far as the eye could see. "We got launched from this cliff top as part of the initiation into Beacon. I did it just fine. You should be able to do it... again."
"What? I never-"
"Just go! Get out of here!" Ruby glanced up at the crowd gathering, their weapons drawn and ready to fire at the slightest movement in the wrong direction. It didn't look like anyone overheard her. She looked back down. "I don't want to think about what will happen if you get captured. I'm going to grab you and pick you up, and I need you to push off of me and dive off the cliff. I know you can make it."
Before she could make any sort of protest towards Ruby's order, Ruby had grabbed her by the front of her shirt and hauled her to her feet. It seemed as though in that moment everyone lost all sense of caution. As soon as she pushed herself away from Ruby, falling towards the treetops below them, the line of students rushed to the edge of the cliff.
Ruby watched the woman disappear into the green far below them. She snapped back to reality when the gunfire started. Her peers were firing into the forest. She turned to Pyrrha, who was trying to spot their target through the tangled mess of plant life, and put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm going to go after her. I need you to get everyone to stop firing. I don't want to get shot myself."
Pyrrha nodded, putting away her weapon. "We'll follow as soon as we're organized. Can't just run wildly through the Emerald Forest."
Ruby grinned. "Alright. Don't keep me waiting." And then she jumped.
The wind rushed past Ruby's body, sending her cape straight out behind her. The grin had already disappeared from her face long before she got close to the trees. Spinning around, she reached Crescent Rose out towards the cliff face. The blade extended and caught on the rocky surface, stopping her in an instant. Closer to the bottom, she had thought she would have been able to see the ground under the trees. She came to realize that that wouldn't be the case, so she pulled her scythe free of the cliff and dropped the rest of the way.
Her feet landed solidly on the ground, Crescent Rose's tip hitting first and slowing her impact. She set off, leaving a trail of rose petals behind her as she ran. She aimed her weapon behind her and fired, adding to her momentum until she was traveling at frightening speeds. It wasn't long before she found herself at a familiar location.
The temple was still there, in ruins like it had been four years earlier. The marks of battles since then made it look different from what she remembered, but not so much that she didn't know the place. She stood in front of the circular area where she remembered picking up the white knight piece. She smiled at the memory, glancing over to the right. She frowned when she found that the tree she had landed in back then was no longer standing.
She shook her head and turned to walked towards the bridge. "Everything's bound to change, I guess."
As she came over the top of a small hill, walking past a rock that she remembered standing on as she waved her friends forward toward the bridge, she saw something else out of place. The bridge remained broken down, like she remembered, but on the side closer to her she could see someone had collapsed on the ground. Ruby had no doubt as to who it was. She rushed over to the woman's side.
Several minutes had gone by when the woman finally opened her eyes again. Ruby was beginning to worry that the others could show up any moment. She had already spent more time than she thought there was trying to support the woman's life with her own aura. It was exhausting work, and Ruby didn't feel like she could take any sort of fight now.
The woman stared up at her, confused. "Why... are you helping me? And don't say 'because it's the right thing to do'. We both know it isn't."
Ruby gulped nervously, checking behind her for signs of the other students approaching. "It's cause you look like someone I... used to know. A long time ago."
Suddenly becoming more aware of what Ruby was talking about, the woman sat up. "Really?"
Ruby nodded. "And I... want to know why you look like her."
The woman groaned, running her hands through her hair. "A long time, you say... how long a time? We're not talking fifty years or anything, right?"
Ruby narrowed her eyes at the woman. "I'm twenty. No, uh... she died when I was... a kid. More than ten years ago now."
Now it was Ruby's turn to be confused, as the woman leaned forward and almost touched her head to the ground. She covered her eyes with her hands. "How much do I look like her, then?"
"Uh... about ten years older than I remember."
"Oh God... who am I?"
Ruby shook her head, trying to convince herself that she had misheard. "Excuse me?"
"It's me. I'm her. I don't remember anything before ten years ago. I was... an organization found me wandering in the far North and I've been with them ever since... Ruby... who am I?"
Ruby nodded, very quickly finding no option but to believe that they were one and the same. "That's where she was... well... that's where she went before we were told she was dead. ...it is you." Ruby looked over the woman time and time again. There was nothing that didn't look the same. "You... wait, I never told you my name. Do... do you remember, or... oh, Yang said my name earlier. You don't remember."
"No..."
Ruby leaned in closer. "You're... my mother. Your name is Summer Rose. I'm your daughter."
Ruby's words soaked through the woman. They stunned her, shocked her into silence and paralyzed her body. Her mind connected pieces of a puzzle that had remained shattered for years. It all fit. Ruby's dark red hair, her silver eyes, and even the shape of her face... they looked almost identical, save for the age difference. Her name was Summer, and she had a daughter.
Summer's hands clenched into fists. "...Bastards... they knew. They knew who I was all along. They lied to me. They were lying to me from the start, and now they..." She looked to Ruby, their eyes meeting. "We need to get out of here."
Ruby smirked. "Of course. Like hell I'll let them throw you in prison."
Summer shook her head. "No, it's more than that... I mean, yeah, that, but also... if I go to jail, then we have two big problems."
"Problems are bad."
"The organization will send someone down to kill me so I don't give out any information on them. There's practically no way to stop them from doing that, but more importantly I won't be able to make them... pay."
Ruby stood up, looking down at the woman who had once long ago been her mother. "Pay? They sent you to kill someone... who?"
"...you."
It took a moment for the answer to really sink in, but Ruby managed to take it well. "Well... of course, you know this means we're going to have to sneak into Beacon so you can apologize to Nora. But I take it you want to..."
Summer nodded. "Rip the intestines from the still-living bodies of everyone at the organization, leave their skinned carcasses decorating the outside of the building, and then set the whole thing ablaze?"
Ruby took a deep breath, caught off-guard by the extremity of the concept. "I was gonna just suggest arresting them, but if it would make you feel better..."
Summer stood up. "Either way, you're right. We should apologize to your friend first. We still need a way out of here, though."
Ruby brightened up. "Oh, I know a way."
I've hurt someone I never intended to. If I apologize, everything will be alright. There's still redemption for someone as misled as me, I'm sure. Isn't there?
Next: Apologize
