HEY. GUYS. I LIKE THIS NEW VERSION OF QROW SO MUCH MORE THAN MY OWN VERSION.

I also think that my version of Winter is my preferred version, after watching the latest episode. But YAY WE GOT TO SEE PENNY AGAIN. I'm so excited that Volume 3 has been so awesome and only has more awesome in store for us. Because of the hype, I was motivated to write a new chapter, which I decided to cut SHORTER than it had been before because it was TOO long.

I also wrote this one mainly as a fluff chapter, originally as just a practice story and decided I would incorporate the whole thing as a new chapter, since one was due, anyway.

Also, the last clause of the last sentence applies pretty well to this chapter. I would say it in volves something of a...close shave. So, without further ado, let us move on to the next chapter!

Summer and Sapphire hit it off immediately.

After some explanation of the plans for the near future involving the treacherous Roman Torchwick, who Summer knew nothing of but was apparently an infamous crime lord, everyone separated and went to different sections of the impressive building that was the chateau.

She and Sapphire had chosen to go watch the little match that was going on at the large gymnasium complex on the other side of the massive garage. Ruby had claimed she was heading to blow off some steam, and she wanted to fight, and Summer wanted to see what her daughter could do.

They entered the garage and were immediately barraged by the sound of screw drivers and power tools. Summer and Sapphire looked toward the source and spotted the massive, towering metal behemoth standing at the center of the garage.

"What is that?" Summer asked, having never seen it before. She immediately let her curiosity overtake her and walked over to it, surprised by the sheer size of the thing. It was probably twelve, fifteen times the size of her!

A figure appeared, wearing a black apron and a welding mask over their face, carrying a motorized screwdriver. She spotted Summer and waved before lifting the mask.

"Hey, Mom," Yang said, smiling, her cheeks covered in grease and her massive head of hair tied into a bun on the back of her head as large as a small football, "What's up?"

"What...what is this? Did you build this?" Summer asked curiously, looking up to the cockpit.

"This is the Atlesian Paladin. General Ironwood rolled these out last year."

"James is a general now?" Summer wondered aloud.

"Yeah, why?"

"He was a lieutenant before...that night."

"Oh. Well, he musta gotten promoted. He's general of all of Atlas's forces now."

Summer returned her attention to the Paladin. Massive and tall, the machine had two gargantuan legs as long as cars, with what looked like wheels on the back of each of the legs, which were digitigrade in structure.

Atop the legs, which seemed to be made for leaping, running, and even rolling, a torso rested stoutly upon the two legs. It was almost shaped like a teapot, with a snout-like protrusion that seemed to be the cockpit, while the main body was attacked the legs atop a rotating disc-like joint that would allow for full rotation of the mech's torso.

From the body extended two long arms—one of which seemed to be a makeshift replacement, hardly worthy of combat use, made from scrap—that both ended in hands complete with thumbs, and the intact, original arm was outfitted with some sort of rail system that would allow some sort of attachment.

"You said James created this?" Summer asked in admiration of the metal behemoth.

"Yeah. Not this one, though. A year ago he released a prototype to the public and said he would have them in use within the year, but before he could actually DO that, the White Fang went and stole something like twelve dozens of these things, as well as blueprints for a lot of the Atlesian war tech."

"That girl, Nicky," Yang continued, setting the drill down on the dirty metal desk beside her, "She's the result of a stolen blueprint."

"Is she a cyborg?"

"No. She's an android, but she can generate an Aura. She's the second ever to be capable of doing it."

"Oh. That's why I felt something off-putting about her." Summer remembered how Nickelle made her uneasy on the train. "So how did you acquire the Paladin?"

"A couple of months ago, Weiss, Blake and I had returned to Beacon after a little vacation gone wrong. See, somebody showed up to kill President Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company, leaving Weiss to take over. That was about when I started dating her, actually. Anyway, we got back to the Academy and, what do you know, that night, Ozpin is found dead in his office along with another Huntress and a heartbroken Huntsman. That was Jaune, for the record. The Huntress, Pyrrha, was his girlfriend.

"Later that same night, the Academy gets put on high alert after it was discovered that Ozpin was assassinated, and that an attempt by the same killer was made on General Ironwood. Now, you need to understand, about a year ago we all thought Ruby was killed in an explosion after we tried to go after Roman. I got PTSD from the whole incident. Still have nightmares. So you can imagine how surprised we all were when we found out that Ozpin's killer was none other than Ruby."

"What? But..." Summer gasped, not expecting the revelation that her daughter killed one of her best childhood friends, "That can't be true."

"At the time, Ruby had lost her memory so she was being exploited by the White Fang as an assassin, but she turned herself in. Around the same time the WF rolled in their stolen Atlesian weaponry, including the Paladins and the Atlesian Fortress, which Ruby destroyed singlehandedly, and they attacked Vale. We dispatched all of our Huntsmen and Huntresses, and during the battle I, uh, acquired this Paladin from a...let's say suicidal WF soldier."

Summer whistled and went back to analyzing the mech. "So why do you still have it? If it was in Vale, how did you get it all the way here, to Mistral?"

Yang smirked. "Perks of dating one of the richest girls on the planet and the owner of the SDC."

Summer looked behind. Sapphire must have left already, maybe to the gymnasium, so Summer decided she wanted to just talk to Yang about things.

"You mentioned that before. I honestly never expected you to be bisexual, Yang, considering your interest in boys at such an early age."

"Yeeeaaahhh...funny thing, that. I think Dad's genes just carry that on them."

Summer raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I'm just bi. But Ruby is lesbian."

Summer didn't respond, just raised her eyebrow again. "Really?"

"Oh, you shoulda seen her when she just came to Beacon. She didn't seem attracted to anyone, even though there were all these hot guys in the ballroom everyone slept in on the first night, right? And then a few months later, we're sitting at lunch, and this guy, Sun, shows up and starts flirting with Blake."

"And Ruby gets jealous?" Summer smirked.

"Oh, boy, does she! Everybody thinks my temper is bad, you should have seen her! She flipped on him so quick he thought up was down! That same night, Ruby tells me that she's got the hots for Blake."

Summer gave a somber grin. All these things, she missed because she made some stupid decision all those years ago. She missed her beloved daughter's first attraction, for Dust's sake.

"She tried so hard to get Blake to like her back. It was nice watching Ruby try and try again to flirt with Blake, but then she would get flustered and frustrated with herself because she was too socially awkward to do it until, one day, she was just..."

Yang suddenly entered a sort of trance, her gaze locked onto some distant object. Summer waited a moment before Yang returned to reality.

"I...I'm sorry. I don't want to talk about that anymore right now. I...can I just...get back to work on my mech?"

"Oh! Sorry. I didn't mean to take up so much of your time, sweetie," Summer apologized to her stepdaughter.

"You're fine, Mom, I just...this takes my mind off of those things that happened. It helps me stay grounded in reality. I don't mean to be rude."

"I understand, honey. Just don't stay up too late, okay, Yang?" Summer told the blonde girl.

"Yes, I know, Mom. I'm eighteen years old."

"Okay. Just telling you."

Yang flashed a small simper and pulled her welding mask back over her face, then picking up an acetylene torch and returning to work on her mech. Summer returned to her path for the gymnasium, quietly hoping that she might even be able to fight her daughter in the ring and learn exactly what her daughter was capable of.

Sparks flew across the floor as blades clashed at high speed.

Ruby's wrist blade turned out to be tougher than Qrow expected as he swung his own scythe downward at her, attempting to bring her Aura down.

Ruby, just a few years ago, was unable to stop his attacks. Now, however, she was almost as tall and nearly as strong as her older sister, and could stop his scythe by clamping it between her hands.

Which was exactly what she just did.

As Qrow hung in the air, surprised, Ruby forced the scythe's head aside and launched herself forward using her Semblance, then smashed her shoulder into the Huntsman's chest as he landed on the ground. He tumbled across the floor and sent his weapon sliding to the other side of the room.

He jumped to his feet, entering a stance resembling that of a martial artist. Ruby did the same, but in a stance where her metal hand was set in an almost claw-like position and the other was slightly open, not quite a fist but not an open palm, either.

Qrow dashed, taking the offensive and leaping, aiming to hit her shoulder. She dodged it and struck at his open back, but he whirled, arm up, deflecting her own and sending her reeling.

Her uncle saw the opening and fell for it. Striking at the undefended shoulder, Qrow did not anticipate his niece's trap until it was too late. Spinning and grabbing his wrist, Ruby used the momentum from her rotation and put her partially-metal elbow into the side of his head. Dazed, the Huntsman was unable to react quickly to Ruby's following attacks. He threw a disoriented punch at Ruby, who dodged left, letting the fist and arm fly over her shoulder and then grabbed his throat, lifted him up, and smashed him into the floor.

"Match terminated. Combatant: QROW, has depleted his Aura, ninety percent out of one hundred Aura lost. Combatant: RUBY, remains unscathed, five percent Aura lost out of one hundred. Combatant: RUBY, is victorious."

Qrow coughed violently as Ruby offered her hand to her fallen adversary. He accepted, and Ruby hoisted him upright.

"I think I might be getting old, Ruby," Qrow said, sighing and coughing again, "I am just not as fast as I used to be."

"No, I'm just much, much faster than you, old man," Ruby replied, patting her uncle on the back to commemorate a good attempt, "Cinder used to make me race bullet trains as a part of my training. I usually won after the first month. Don't feel bad."

Qrow flashed her a look that said that this "consolation" still wasn't quite enough to make him feel better.

"I've never seen almost anybody beat you, Qrow, especially my daughter," Taiyang teased, his hands on his hips.

"If it had been Yang, I'd have won."

"Ha! Don't count on that one, Qrow. Yang's got her fair share of tricks up her sleeve, too."

"Anyone want next match?" Ruby asked nobody in particular while she sat down on the bench with a bottle of water.

"Oh, oh, oh! Memememememememe!"

"Nora, your heart's not healed yet." Ren said to the valkyrie.

"It's been two months, Ren! I'm fine now! Pleeeeeaaaaase?" Nora pleaded with the ninja.

Ren sighed. "Fine. But take it easy. Jaune and I are gonna get you a weapon that lowers the strain on your heart, though. No more hammer or it could overwork and burst your heart."

Nora looked down at the grenade launcher in her hands. "But...Magnhild..."

"Will be fine. I never said you couldn't use it ever again," Ren said, reassuring his girlfriend with a little hug, "I just want you to use something lightweight for now, and a warhammer isn't what I think qualifies as "lightweight." Okay?"

"Oh. Okay!" Nora cheered, but then realized she didn't know what weapon to use. Ruby could see Nora was a little lost without the launcher-hammer.

"If I might make a suggestion..." Ruby interjected as she brought herself closer to the couple, "Maybe you can still use a hammer. Something like a maul, maybe. Maybe use a shield with it. I think you could make it work."

Nora looked at Ren deviously. "I'll use Papa's hammer!"

"Nora, no, it's the only thing you have left of your family."

"It would work well with her fighting style. Jaune can help her make a shield for it. I can help, too. Where is this hammer?" Ruby was already working out designs in her head, deciding whether the maul would work best with a buckler, hoplon, kite shield, heater or a wall shield.

"It's her only family heirloom."

"Right now, it's her only option, too."

Nora was suddenly stuck in the middle of a quickly-building conflict between Ruby and Ren, neither of them willing to give in to the other.

"She needs a weapon to fight. That's the only one she could easily be trained to use."

"We can find another option. A different hammer."

"Ren, I'm fine with using Midgard," Nora interjected and was immediately turned on by Ren.

"That is the only piece of your family you have. Don't let it be lost or destroyed."

"Ren, I think you're more sentimental about that thing than she is," Ruby replied for the valkyrie, "She can use it well, and besides, she has nobody that would be upset about it being damaged."

"Perhaps, Ruby, what he's saying is," Uncle Qrow suddenly appeared, holding his bruised throat, "There are alternatives."

"Like a war axe, maybe?" Ruby suggested.

"That would be simplest, and much more versatile than a hammer or maul."

"So I guess we can get to work soon, right, Nora?" Ruby said, and the Valkyrie nodded.

"Right! And I'm gonna make the best axe! I'll name it after my other hammer! It'll be called "Asgard!" Awesome name, isn't it?"

"Sure it is. I have a few days free while I wait for the King to clear Roman's name, so I guess we can try to work on it all week. Sound good?"

"Yep. I'm tired, anyway. Ren, can we go to bed?" Nora asked her boyfriend, lazily leaning her back against him, "Pleeeeeeaaaase?"

"Fine. Let's go. We'll see you later, Ruby," Ren wished his friend a farewell and headed off with Nora to their room.

"Having trouble with your friends, Ruby?"

The assassin turned and spotted her mother approaching. Summer currently wore an outfit that was quite new, since she had to remove the outfit that was practically frozen to her body for twelve years. She wore a pristine, sleeveless white tunic bound together at the front with red lacing, a black undershirt with long, formfitting sleeves, a combat skirt colored white with frilly red trimmings, white, high-heeled boots with small red ribbons atop the space above where her red laces were tied, and, of course, her cloak, which was white on the outside and red on the inside. Two holsters decorated her waist and a pair of scabbards were securely attached to her hips, crossed just above her rump. No weapons hung from them.

"Just trying to help Nora. She has something of a heart murmur, and her heart is healing but she is still combat ready," Ruby explained to her mother, "Her weapon is too heavy, however, and lifting it could put her at risk, so I tried to figure out a weapon she could use, but her boyfriend, Ren, won't let her use the one I suggested."

"Still too heavy?" Summer wondered.

"No, the weapon is actually a family heirloom that Nora has but she never actually met her family. I insisted she use it. He insisted that we find an alternative. He won."

"Well, if you can find a way to satisfy everyone, you should do that instead of doing the quickest option."

"It'll take a long time to assemble her weapon when we could have just used the old one."

"The best options aren't always the easiest."

Ruby sighed and nodded in agreement. "I suppose you're right."

Summer nodded and looked toward the ancient arena that the knighted Mistralian Huntsmen and Huntresses of old had once fought in to hone their skills. The gymnasium had been built around it, in truth, not the other way around.

"I haven't fought in...well, let's just say being dead doesn't let you fight much," Summer stated, inspecting the arena closely.

"If you're suggesting that I fight you, I don't believe your body is prepared for combat, Mother," Ruby argued.

"Well, I'm certainly feeling pretty well, so why not let me try it out?" Summer smiled at her daughter.

"I...I don't know, Mom. I don't want to hurt you."

"I can fight, Ruby," Summer looked at her daughter with a determined eye and a strong-willed stance. "I only need weapons I'm comfortable with."

Knowing she couldn't argue her mother into remaining out of the ring, Ruby looked around for the possibility of the arena having weapons her mother could use, but, unfortunately, she couldn't find any.

"I don't think there's anything you can use, Mother," Ruby declared, "I'm sorry."

"Summer, here."

The two of them spun and found Taiyang standing behind them, holding, of all things, a pair of engraved white-plated pistols and a pair of red-hilted falchions with designs etched into the ivory-colored blades.

"Tai? You had...my weapons?" Summer accepted her weapons with surprise, sheathing the falchions in her scabbards on her backside and holstering the guns in her, well, holsters.

"I...I couldn't leave them behind when you were my wife. Nearly killed myself in the process, getting too close between Scylla and Charybdis."

"Even though I was dead?"

"Qrow was in such a rage on my behalf that he nearly killed Cinder. Bought me enough time to get your weapons from them and escape with Qrow."

"Oh. Well, thank you."

"You're welcome. I wasn't expecting you to come back."

Summer turned to Ruby, a hand resting on the pommel of one of her elegantly-crafted swords. "Shall we?"

Ruby smiled, changing her attitude, realizing she was finally getting what she wanted when she was young: to show her mother exactly what she could do.

"Let's."

"Wait. Let's make this a family event," Taiyang smiled deviously, pointing a thumb toward the garage door nearby, "I'll go get Yang, and she and Ruby will fight us, Summer. How about it?"

Ruby looked at her mother, who returned it and smiled. She looked at her husband.

"Let's do it."

In only a few minutes, Ruby and Summer stood across from each other, the former with Yang at her side and the latter with Taiyang at hers.

Yang and Ruby flashed each other a look as the sound of the loudspeaker announced the beginning of the match.

"Combatant: RUBY and combatant: YANG are team: RED. Combatant: SUMMER and combatant: TAIYANG are team: BLUE. Match timer: TEN minutes. Auras replenished to ONE HUNDRED percent. Match will begin in thirty seconds. Prepare to begin."

The screen showed Ruby and Yang's Aura levels and names on one side, while the other showed their parents'. Yang looked across the arena and watched her father's excited grin as he prepared to fight alongside his wife for the first time in over a decade. She, too, smiled and lifted her fists to mirror her father.

Ruby, however, was not nearly as excited-looking, having adopted a mask of indifference like she always did when she fought. She stood in a stance where her forward hand was the prosthetic, and the other was balled into a fist against her abdomen. She leaned on her back foot and calmed herself.

"Match beginning in twenty seconds."

Taiyang checked his orange-plated gauntlets, his own Volcano Fists, the weapons that inspired Yang's Ember Celica, and pumped his fists in anticipation. He did the same with his metal boots, his Molten Greaves, which were also similar to the Volcano Fists in that they pumped and fired explosive rounds.

"Match beginning in ten seconds."

Summer cracked her joints and shook her hands and bounced on the balls of her feet, loosening her muscles.

"Five."

Ruby's eyes flicked to meet Taiyang's diagonally from her.

"Four."

Yang's eyes flitted toward Summer's guns at her hips.

"Three."

Taiyang smiled at Ruby and winked.

"Two."

Summer wiggled and flexed her fingers beside her pistols.

"One."

The four familial combatants tensed to begin the fight.

"Begin."

Yang darted forward, her cloak leaving a yellow streak behind as she dashed. Taiyang laughed and smashed his fists into the ground, causing the floor to rumble violently and sending Yang off balance. The young pugilist stumbled, having not expected to be hit with an earthquake, but Ruby backed her up, dashing up and jumping on Yang's shoulders, the latter jumping as well to give her sister the extra boost.

Yang bobbed down and lunged sideways to avoid the bullets flying toward her from Summer's pistols. Tumbling into a back handspring, she hit the ground on her feet, pulled a fist back, and punched the air, sending an explosive round careening into the ground between Summer and Taiyang, launching the former away into the edge of the arena.

Ruby reappeared suddenly, bringing her metal fist down in an earth-bound strike toward Taiyang. He crossed his gauntleted arms over his head and blocked the punch, then brought them down, causing Ruby to spin in midair. The young assassin tumbled across the ground, but she recovered whilst still moving and lifted both hands, one charging a fireball and the other aiming its wrist-mounted gun. Ruby launched the fireball, throwing it like a grenade. Taiyang pumped his fist and fired a round at the fireball, creating a spectacular explosion between them.

Summer peeled herself from the wall and shook her head, then quickly ducked back and echoed Yang's back handspring, but she did it into the wall as Yang swung for the spot she had been standing. Her feet hit the wall and she bent herself upward, causing her to flip upward and boomerang right over her stepdaughter, then land on her feet behind the blonde brawler, who whirled and tried to punch Summer in the back. In a white blur, Summer whipped around and drew her falchions, deflecting the fist with one and slashing at Yang with the other. Yang raised her other hand and deflected the blade but left herself open for Summer to kick her in the diaphragm and knock her down.

"C'mon, Yang! You can do it!"

Weiss cheered from the bleachers, where half the current residents of the house resided, watching the match with interest.

Summer had been watching the president and only just noticed that Yang was climbing to her feet, head bowed. She raised her head and smiled deviously, snickering, her hair emanating a fiery glow and even seeming to be burning.

"Nice try, Mom," Yang removed her cloak, revealing the outfit she now chose to wear after she created it at the Schnee resort, "My turn."

Summer threw herself back, cartwheeling away and then leaping into the air, falchions sheathed and guns blazing wildly. Yang just let them hit her, and on the screen above, her Aura rose from eighty to ninety-five.

Meanwhile, Ruby skirmished with her father, with Taiyang throwing punch after punch and not hitting Ruby even once. Ruby allowed a punch to go over her shoulder, then she hit her father in the stomach with the heel of her metal palm, spun, grabbed his arm, and threw him over her shoulder. He countered by landing on his feet and grabbing Ruby's arm and turning around, twisting the arm and flopping Ruby over. The assassin landed back on her feet and ejected her hidden blade, causing Taiyang to release her hand. She dived and rolled away, then, upon reaching a good position, lifted the Mystique to her shoulder and fired a shot at Taiyang.

The Huntsman blocked the bullet, sending it ricocheting away, toward the other two combatants. It narrowly missed Summer but hit Yang square in the chest and halting her streak by knocking her on her back.

Yang bucked her hips upward and swung her legs out, spinning with her hands and repelling Summer whilst recovering and getting back on her feet. She pumped both fists and hopped in place for a moment before going on the attack once again.

She went to punch Summer in the shoulder, but Summer parried and punched Yang in the head. Yang spun and went to punch again, but she hit thin air and sent a round screaming toward the other two. She whirled, trying to find Summer.

The blade's whispering whistle as it cut through the air alerted her to the incoming attack.

She dove forward as the blade's tip flew just behind her neck, and she rolled and got back to her feet, whipping around to face her attacker.

Who, at the moment, was eyeing the massive carpet of blonde hair at her feet with confusion.