RWBY (c) RoosterTeeth
Rose Above The Clouds
Debriefing
General Ironwood had offered a cup of coffee to the Huntress, and Summer took it with a gracious nod. He took a mug for himself, retrieved the flask from his breast pocket and poured a generous shot into his coffee. Though she lingered by the small coffee station, plopping at least five sugar cubes into hers with a dash of milk.
The conversation-turn-debriefing had moved from the Academy's conference room to Ironwood's private office. The aura-binding shackles removed from Summer's wrists and her escorts of Penny Polendina and Mary Reed were asked to remain at the door. Their standing orders were to ensure there were no interruptions The binding shackles were removed and escorts dismissed to stand guard outside the door.
The General circled around his desk and all but collapsed into his chair, taking a long draft from his coffee. A long tense silence stretched between the two, punctuated only by Ironwood gesturing to the guest chair across from his desk and Summer sitting down, coffee mug cradled in her gloved hands.
Ironwood took another slow drag of his coffee before mustering enough will to speak.
"She can't be killed." He repeated once more. Distant, Resigned. Rubbing his spare hand into his temple to fight back a budding headache.
"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news," Summer offered consolingly. "But you needed to be in possession of this information before you moved forward with any other plans or decisions."
Ironwood glanced up at her, imploringly. Clearly he sought some sliver of hope from this revelation. "Not even the Maiden powers-?"
Summer shook her head quickly, once. "I only inherited them after I was captured by her followers. As you can imagine, I poured every scrap of willpower I had into ensuring they weren't aware of this particular fact. But more than once in that final battle of Vacuo - I removed her head from her shoulders, took limbs, impaled her and used every other power I had at my disposal."
"I can't believe it." He breathed, Summer certainly felt sympathetic towards the General. "Why would Ozpin keep this from us? The people who trusted him - were loyal to him."
Summer continued her tale, her tone distant and melancholic. "She quite literally walked it all off. My Silver Eyes managed to damage her to a degree, but even that little damage wouldn't have been enough to kill her for good. Perhaps if there were a thousand warriors like me that day - but... I wouldn't make any presumptions regarding the Maiden's power but given what she chunks of our moon literally falling on her face? I don't think a collection of parlour tricks will do much to slow her down."
Another tense silence passed on while the General digested what he'd just been told. He leaned against his office table, head cradled between his hands with his eyes closed. Summer simply sat there, occasionally filling in the silence with sips from her blasphemously sweet creation.
"Well…" Ironwood swallowed hard, uncertainty plaguing his thoughts when he spoke a few minutes later. "Thank you for trusting me with this information."
Summer fiddled with her coffee mug, swirling its contents while she pondered her reflection. "I'll be honest, General. I don't trust you." She admitted bluntly to his face. "But I will also make the caveat that I don't know you well enough to trust you. However, Qrow says he knows you and trusts you. And I trust that man beyond any doubt."
"And in that capacity, I assume he's vouched for me?" Ironwood inquired, and the Huntress in white nodded firmly.
"Even if he hadn't, the circumstances are what they are. There is a fundamental requirement for you to know these facts. And we simply cannot allow secrets to remain so, especially when the fate of our entire world is on the line." Summer answered, she took another long draft of her coffee then spoke again. "Additionally, you're in total command of one of the two most powerful military forces in the Kingdom, if not Remnant itself if what I've read is true. In that capacity, you can only make informed judgements, strategies and tactics against the Grimm Queen if you're completely aware of all the factors in play."
"We can agree on that." Ironwood stroked his bearded chin, deep in thought. "For now, we will proceed with the current plan. The very fact of Salem's immortality changes nothing, we need to tend to our kingdom - our race. We need to restore communications with the rest of the world."
"I couldn't agree more."
Ironwood curled his fingers into a fist before leaning into back into his chair. His expression now an iron mask of stoicism befitting his position. "I'll need to have a discussion with Team RWBY and their compatriots. Qrow, I can excuse because of pre-existing physical and mental issues occupying his attention - even if that excuse is wafer thin. But the teenagers? Did they really think hiding this from me was a good idea?"
She shrugged in response. "As you said, they're teenagers. They're at that age where they think they know what's what about the world better than the adults in it. They don't have the same life experience that you or I do and they're making emotional judgements based on a key-hole view of the world, rather than taking in the whole image of it."
His blue eyes met her silver ones, his expression unreadable. "And you? What's your stance on the matter?"
"Give them a good scolding if you must, but I won't abide you hurling them into a prison." Summer threatened firmly, then relaxed. "That being said, lying to the strongest allies you have is a thoroughly poor way to repay the generous hospitality you've been granted."
Ironwood pressed his lips in a thin line before prompting a new line of questioning. "One thing I'm not clear on. How were you able to hide the fact that Salem had the Summer Maiden under her nose all along."
Summer hesitated to answer, taking a moment to think on the best way to frame her words. "A mix of exploiting arrogance, gambling with time and… perhaps a little luck? But I do have a theory as to why she couldn't detect the Maiden's power in me."
"Oh?" Ironwood cocked an eyebrow.
"I'm not entirely sure how much you know of magic, but it tends resonates with itself. For instance, one blessed with the maiden's power can sense others with the same. As an example, back in the Military Hospital, I could sense the powers of another Maiden lingering near by. The Winter Maiden I assume. However, I have my own native magic on top of that; My Silver eyes." Summer took a swig from her mug, finishing off the brew with a sigh of contentment.
"How do your Silver Eyes factor into this?" Ironwood prompted,
"Like its written in the fables of the Silver Knights of Elysium, the power of my eyes - the imprint it's left on my aura - is so completely anathema to the Grimm. In my experience, they've sensed nothing but danger and fear of me and my kin. In such an overriding degree that it likely disguised anything else. In laymen's terms, they were so thoroughly disgusted and terrified by the very nature of me, they couldn't bare looking beneath the surface."
The General frowned, "So you're suggesting that your own Silver eyed power enabled you to hide your Maiden powers?"
"That's my theory, yes."
"A dangerous gamble."
"It worked. The Grimm Qu-" Summer closed her eyes and drew in a breath to soothe her nerves, "-Salem had no idea. Otherwise she would've used that arrogant little whelp to harvest my powers long ago. And Vacuo would've fallen, the sword would be with the Queen and we'd all be scrambling for our lives."
"I... suppose that is the case. I thank you for the information you've given me. I'll…" Ironwood slumped back in his chair, "I still don't understand why would Ozpin lie to us?"
There was no mistaking the bitterness in Summer's tone. "Well if he hadn't, I wouldn't have wasted half my life as the Grimm Queen's prisoner. But it's most likely because he feared our despair? But I suppose if we wept for every stupid decision ever made, we'd drown the world in our tears."
Ironwood let out a low rumble of a chuckle despite himself. "Hope can be a fleeting emotion, so I'll have to grant him that." Ironwood admitted grudgingly.
"True, but against an un-killable enemy? I prefer to rely on spite or retribution. There's scores to settle in more ways than one, and the Queen has to pay for her crimes. Even if means we spend the rest of eternity hunting her and her kind down to extinction."
The General stared at Summer, mildly perturbed. "Qrow warned me you were vengeful. Here I thought he was just exaggerating."
"I have had many years to cultivate a rather impressive grudge against my former host. You can't blame me for letting my temper slip up a litte, can you?" Summer asked, cracking a strained smile.
Ironwood simply nodded and contemplated his options. "In light of this new information. I'll need a united Kingdom, now more than ever if we're to survive this threat. And, while you're still recovering, I'm afraid I'm going to need your help to make that happen."
Summer cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side. "My help as a Huntress, or my help as the Summer Maiden?"
The General rose from his chair and moved to the window, staring out at the vista of his city below. Beyond the edges of Atlas proper, he could see the outskirts of Mantle, the coast and the Mantlese Navy arranged off the coastline docking facilities. "Both. But I will also need your help as the daughter of Colonel Violet Rose."
"Excuse me?" What good would invoking her mother's name do for Atlas now?
"You are Colonel Violet Rose's daughter. And as you said yourself earlier, General Palatinate, Colonel Rose and Commodore Thorne were the Three Pillars. They kept Atlas and Mantle running in perfect unity and purpose for the time they were in power." Ironwood began. He was perhaps sugarcoating many aspects with the generalisation, but the three women managed to keep Mantle and Atlas in lockstep for the most part.
"They also tried to separate the military and state, but that plan went awry." Summer interjected bitterly.
"I'll have Specialist Reed act as a guide, but what I'd like you to do is take a Bullhead down to Mantle. You'll find that Commodore Thorne has become Admiral Thorne of the Navy. I want you to convince her to accept an invitation to Atlas so we can discuss… this delicate situation more carefully."
"Auntie Iris is the Admiral?" Summer blinked, taken aback. She stared down at empty coffee mug in her hands, her lips twitching up into a melancholic smile.
"I won't let you usurp the power of the Mantle Navy." She declared, rising to her feet.
Ironwood shook his head, turning back to face the Huntress. He circled around the table until he was toe-to-toe with the woman. "I'm not intending to do that at all. I intend to reveal the existence of Salem, of the Relics, to the Admiral. I feel that she is a woman of reason, good judgement and experience that surpasses mine, both as a commander and as a leader. If we are to reunite our shattered Kingdom, we will need the two most powerful armies in it matching towards one purpose."
Summer met his challenge evenly, the silence between the two stretching on for a long moment before she gave a short chuckle and her lip twitched up into a smirk. "Well then. I certainly can't refuse. Although she must be ancient these days. And I've been declared dead for years - If she sees me, her heart may very well stop."
Ironwood reached to the holographic interface on his desk and tapped a few keys to summon Specialist Reed from her post just outside. "I certainly don't want that to happen. Not while the Admiral's doing her best to placate the unrest in Mantle. I admit I don't much care what the people think in the moment. They'll thank us all when our work is done, but Thorne is also a deciding voice in Mantle. If she leads, the people will follow."
"And if she leads the people to your cause, they're more likely to fall in line. Heh, Auntie always did have that affect on people." Summer agreed, smirking still.
Ironwood nodded, glancing up just as his office door opened to reveal the brunette operative waiting on the other side. Summer replaced the coffee mug on the side table and excused herself. He gave one last request. "Contact me if, or more hopefully when, you succeed in convincing the good Admiral to meet with me. And then, we'll talk about weapon and training privileges, maybe even arranging living quarters outside a psych ward."
Author's note:
Yeah, ya'll guessed right; Sum-Bun is the Summer Maiden. And she told the big J about Salem's secret.
I welcome feedback and criticism,
Aurora313
