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(Rosé PoV)

I was happy to see Cloud again but was unhappy about how it happened and how he pushed his way into my operation. But I struggled to blame him. If my dad was such a problem I would want to be personally involved. So I told my team he was here.

"Here, here?" Peach asked.

"Here as in in Vacuo. We just had a chat out on the balcony," I clarified.

"And he wants to… be involved. I'm guessing," Pine sighed. "Fine."

"That's it? Fine? You're fine with it?" I wondered.

"Well I'd wanted to take care of it ourselves," Pine bemoaned. "But I can see why he wants to be involved. He has to be involved. Think about it. It's his family."

"His family in Vale got attacked by an old enemy. He didn't say which one. Or what the attack was like. But it seems to have spiked his paranoia. That's why he wants to be dealing with this. He doesn't want another attack to come out of nowhere. He wants to start wrapping up his problems," I mumbled.

"It's understandable. I just don't really like it," Pine decided.

"Well, the more the merrier, right?" Yuma chimed in. "We don't know what to expect in the lab when we face it. He does."

"I suppose that's true enough. But I sorta wanted to do it on my own. Well, on my own with you guys," Peach intoned.

"Yeah and he could have been more polite. He sorta implied he'd find a way with or without us so it was better for us to get on board than be left behind," I agreed. "A bit of a dick move to be completely honest."

"I mean… they are his family and his enemies," Yuma defended him absently.

"I know. I know. I think that's what in part kept me from lashing out against him. If I was in his shoes I don't think I'd trust anyone else to be in on this. And he sorta gave me some information on his sisters. The terrorists we ran into back in Vale first year."

"Those were his sisters?" Peach wondered. "Huh. So much for one stray sheep. His whole family is fucked. Isn't it?"

"Seems that way," I agreed. "But with a little luck we can be involved in fighting his sisters. Make a difference that way."

"Why do we have to make a difference when it comes to Cloud? Let Cloud solve his family problems if he's so dead set on it," Pine said.

"We took this mission to help Cloud," Yuma mumbled.

"Yeah well now he's being a dick head," Pine pressed on. "Let him rot or hang or whatever floats his boat."

"I told him we'd ride out bright and early on an airship to the target location. Not keep him waiting," I held my head low. I was sure Pine was going to be disappointed in me for bequeathing our strategy to him.

"Fine," Pine rolled her eyes. "You really should learn to say 'no' to the man."

"Hey, it's not like that…" I protested.

"Isn't it?" Pine's green eyes gleamed somewhere between teasing and warning.

"No. Because I didn't do it over a school girl crush," I shot back.

"Didn't you?"

"No," I denied. "I did it because he probably could pull this off without us. If we want to be participants in this fight we need to play ball. We're frankly lucky to not be shoved to the side entirely. He seemed pretty paranoid about his remaining family."

"Which family? His Vale family or his other family?" Peach wondered.

"Both," I said. "He's worried about his family killing his other family. Talk about family problems."

"Yikes," Yuma agreed. "I'd be pretty worried too if I were him."

"Yeah. So that's pretty much where I live. I can't really count him out because of that. I mean his family was attacked," I mumbled. "What's a girl to say to the guy who's dad is responsible for all this wrongness. 'No' you can't help because I want to take care of it? So there's that. I don't have it in me to tell him off because of it. He gets to be involved because it's his family in the wrong and his family in danger."

"I suppose that's fair enough cop as we're likely to come," Peach chimed in."We had better head to bed. He's probably out doing the gods' work as we speak."

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We flew out early and when we landed Cloud was waiting for us with his sword in the sand.

"It's quiet. It's isolated. It fits my father's MO," he informed us. We walked into town together. It was a little pueblo of wood and sandstone cement buildings.

"Is that typically how your father operates?" Pine asked.

"Wutai was like this," Yuma agreed.

"Nebelheim too," Peach chimed in.

"This feels ugly. So wrong," Cloud scowled. "I suppose we try to move on. It's the sort of place my father would set up shop in. I'm going to step into this bar." He gestured with his thumb at one of the buildings. "See what I can learn. You ladies stay smart."

"I'll come with," Peach volunteered.

Cloud nodded and they paced inside double western doors.

"Howdy," a man's voice echoed. "What can I do for you, mister hunter. And little miss."

I wasn't sure who he was calling little. Peach was the tallest of us.

"We're looking for someone. Someone by the name of Merlot."

There came the sharp sound of shattering glass from inside.

"And just what would a calm fellow want from a mad man like Merlot?" The man's voice took on the bite of anger. I had to wonder what all Merlot had done to deserve widespread hatred. Sure he liked to twist Grimm but I liked killing Grimm and messing them up. Could that be it or was there something more.

"I'm a walking pile of Merlot's unfinished business. I need to kill him," Cloud answered.

We all exchanged heavy nods and frowns. Regretful, Yuma and Pine and I glanced at one another. The plan for us was to take Merlot into custody. Cloud had other ideas. We needed to change his mind. We couldn't just let him kill somebody who was helpless. Not that Merlot was necessarily helpless but the point still stood. We couldn't let him just murder somebody in a labcoat.

"Well he has a laboratory out in the boonies. He twists Grimm into abominations. More abominable abominations than Grimm usually are," the barkeep answered.

"You know where to find him?" Peach wondered.

"Approximately. Everybody 'round here knows. Knows it's a place to avoid. Or else monsters come creeping up on ya."

"I need the entrance to that laboratory," Cloud's voice booked no argument. It was his way or the business end of Crocea Mors.

"I don't have it. Just the approximate place," the barkeep denied.

"It'll do. Can you give us directions?" Cloud pressed.

"I can. And I can recommend you pick yourself up a guide who knows those gorges. There are several in town," the bartender retorted.

"I don't want to involve anyone else," Cloud denied. "I don't have the means to guarantee their safety. I'll have to decline."

"Wait! You took me as a guide once," Peach assaulted him.

"And I probably shouldn't have. I can fly now. We can do our searching from the air. Especially with Pine's help," Cloud rebuked. "I was wrong to drag you into that. Who knows what danger I could have been taking you into. I'd like to minimize that."

"Fine. I suppose. I still think a real guide would be handy."

"Only if some of you ladies won't be entering the lab and will stand outside and guard whoever we pick up."

Outside we exchanged looks again. Pine shook her head slowly. We all wanted in on this. Peach probably knew that. So did Cloud it would seem. He was willing to backhand us to make his way of doing things happen.

"Asshole," Pine rolled her eyes. And to be fair Cloud was being a bit of a dickhead. He could afford to be a little nicer but I guess when you put his family on the line he really cracked down. I mean- what was to be expected in this scenario? His family was under assault by the rest of his family and he had nothing to do about it but wield his strength and mind. I guess there was nothing to be done in terms of that and we just needed to tolerate it a little while longer. Then we could go about our business without him again. Not that it wasn't nice seeing him but he needed to be nicer to us. He didn't have to leverage his weight around and force us to do as he wanted. He could just ask.

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Pine and Cloud searched from the air for the laboratory once we had the approximate location. They found it soon enough. A low concrete building with the entrance baked into the cliffside. Cloud tore his way inside with his massive sword. It was brutal the way he ripped the doors off their hinges.

He stepped inside to hexagonal floor. The walls were lined with what looked like giant test tubes with creepers inside them. The liquid they were suspended in was yellow and it she'd yellow light across the floors.

"Could be a silent alarm," Cloud murmured. "Come on. Let's corner the bastard. He probably has an escape route planned and ready. But he won't leave without his data and anything else of value."

"Let's crack at it then," Peach barred her fists.

We walked inside through open corridors. Grimm twisted in their tubes helplessly as we passed with that soft yellow light.

We came to a cross roads that went three ways.

"Split into two groups and take one way. I'll go straight. Last time he was straight," Cloud mumbled.

We split into our partners. Pine and I went left. Yuma and Peach went right. We crept down the well lit hallways. We came across a massive hexagonal room. And there was this figure suspended in fluid. It was a woman and she had long red hair and pale skin. She was atrophied so much that she looked like a skeleton and she was hooked up to all sorts of life support machines. Her eyes were glazed and silvery. But they were open and they took us in. But then they dropped to the side. They simply slid off of us without gaining purchase.

She looked horrible. You could see her skin hanging off her thin bones. Not the atrophy of months but maybe years. It was the sort of atrophy you didn't really come back from. She was naked in the tube with wires and tubes leading into her chest and down her throat and in her genitals. It was like something out of a horror movie.

"What the fresh fuck?" Pine wondered. "Why her? Why here? What the fuck kind of experiment is this?"

"I don't know… do we… let her out?"

"She'll die," Pine pointed out. "The only thing keeping her alive is those machines."

"We can't let this go on. We have to shut it down," I affirmed. The freak show in front of us was like a waking nightmare in a giant test tube.

"We'll kill her."

"I'd want to be dead. If I was like that." I couldn't kill in bad faith but this felt different. It felt merciful. I stepped up to the tube. The woman's silver eyes met mine. They held for a long moment. Then they rolled in her skull like she was having a seizure and her body remained suspended in the fluid. I shattered the glass with my weapon and fluid poured out all over me. I reached in and sliced the tubes leading to her mouth and pulled them out. They were long and sticking down her throat. They ran deep and she couched weekly on the air. It may have been years since she was exposed to the air.

"Thank you," the woman breathed through her heavy coughing.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"It's… Summer." She croaked. "I'm not going to make it. Before I go… you must tell me your name…"

"I'm Rosé. Rosé Gainsborough."

"I have… a responsibility… a mantle. It must be passed along. Find Ozpin."

"Ozpin died," I mumbled.

Shock shone on her fragile face. "I'm not going to make it. But you… you have to get out of here. Take the power and leave this place."

"What are you talking about?" I wondered. "Don't close your eyes. Stay with me!"

She didn't. Her eyes fluttered closed and she stopped breathing. There was a rush of silver light which came off her body and poured over me. It blinded me for a moment and all I could see was the searing light of it all. Then it was over and I felt different. I felt different in my bones. Down deep inside of me something had changed. I had changed. I felt connected with the woman, Summer. I let her body droop in my arms.

"What the fuck? Are you okay?" Pine asked.

"I'm fine. I think. I feel… something. Something queer. I don't understand it," I replied.

"The power she mentioned… it transferred to you. That must have been why she was hooked up in this place."

"What power? I don't understand. And I don't know what we should do with the body."

"I think she'd want us to leave it and get out," Pine interpreted. "Keep the power away from Merlot. Whatever that means and whatever the power really is. Are you sure that you feel alright?"

"I don't know. Kind of dizzy. But aside from that I'm fine. I can sort of feel it inside me. I think so at least. Come on. I'm going to carry her."

I pulled Summer's body onto my shoulders. I lifted with my legs and with my enhanced strength began my way down the corridor we came in through. We made it back to the fork in the hallway but none of our allies were waiting there for us. We set off in the direction we entered the facility from and set the body by the entrance.

Then we rushed back inside. Sounds of a battle came from ahead. Straight ahead where Cloud had gone. We came across an enormous arena where Cloud was engaging… well, he was engaged in combat with a mirror image of himself. The mirror had a smaller sword and shield combination but was fast with it. Cloud beat him back steadily.

"Cloud!" I called. I raced forwards towards the arena but the doors closed in front of me. Clear crystal let me see through to the combat on the other side. Cloud struggled against his doppelganger but was pushed back. The doppelganger hit him in the head with his shield and suddenly there was a rush of light as Cloud's semblance activated.

Yuma and Peach joined behind us as we watched the battle. Pine tired to penetrate the doors with a column of light but didn't make so much as a dent.

"Once you finish with 'Cloud' kill the interlopers," a raspy voice booked through speakers all over the halls and arena. I looked through the arena to the far side and up above the fighting in a box was a man in a lab coat. He was speaking into a microphone.

Cloud pushed his way out of the corner and swept his blade down on his look alike. The other lacked Cloud's spiky hair and metrosexual earrings. He was wearing simple armor over a hoodie and jeans. He tried to box Cloud into the corner but Cloud hovered around him and made mighty blows rain down on his foe. He slid inside and did a tremendous five cut move that slammed the imposter into the far wall of the facility.

"You're not good enough," Cloud warned. "You'll lose 'Jaune.'"

"I was made to kill you," the clone murmured back. "I won't fail my father now."

"You know so little 'Jaune.' I'm afraid it ends here for you. You can't be allowed to carry on Merlot's dirty work. I will stop you," Cloud proclaimed. He took off like a jet. He worked his legs over the ground at first before leaving the soil behind entirely and flying at 'Jaune.' He swept in and with a tremendous gold swing he slammed the imposter up into the air and I watched the boy's aura break. Cloud came sweeping back down on him with both hands holding his mighty blade and brought it down in a massive helmsplitter. He bisected his clone. Essentially killing himself in the process. He stepped around the doppelganger's falling remains.

Merlot in his box just tutted. "A pity."

"You should have known something like this wouldn't be enough." Cloud leveled back at Merlot. He floated up to the box. He started slamming his blade into the crystal barrier. It started to falter and shatter. Merlot stepped back. "End of the line, father."

Cloud thrust a hand through the ruined glass and grabbed Merlot. He ripped Merlot through the barrier and out into the open air and he let Merlot fall. Merlot plummeted to the soil of the arena. His leg cracked and white bone pierced flesh at the calf. Merlot howled in pain.

Cloud slowly descended on Merlot. His sword by his side.

"Cloud wait!" I called. But then I thought about the woman in the tank. Was it really so wrong for Merlot to die. He was clearly awful.

"You don't have to kill him. He can go to prison!" Peach called.

Cloud ignored us. He strode forward and picked up Merlot by the neck. He then slowly slid his blade into the man's chest. It went in deep and out the other side. Cloud released his neck and let the man dangle on the end of Crocea Mors. He easily held it with one hand and Merlot's body above him.

"Not this time," Cloud breathed. He flew up to the box and opened it up. He opened the doors via some manipulation of the control panel inside. We rushed in to Merlot. His body was covered in blood. We started down at him. He was already dead. And Cloud's doppelganger was in pieces. Cloud descended back on us from above.

"You didn't have to do this." Peach intoned. "You could have let him go to prison."

"No. No I couldn't have. He was too much of a monster," Cloud shot back.

I shuddered when I thought of Summer in the tank for who knows how long. Yeah. Merlot was a monster. He needed to go.

"We found a woman. Our way," Pine said. "She was skin and bones and atrophied. And something happened. She died. When we let her out of the tank she was in she died. But something else happened. Some kind of power transferred from her to Rosé when she died. She was talking about finding Ozpin but…"

"Ozpin's gone," Cloud agreed. "Did you catch her name?"

"Summer. Her name was Summer," I said.

Cloud froze. "Show me the body."

"We carried her to the exit. We'll show you," Pine agreed.

Cloud followed us away from the remains in the arena.

We led him to where we entered. There was the crumpled naked form of the woman and Cloud stiffened at the sight. He knelt next to the corpse. He turned her over and examined her closely. Her skin was still soggy and wrinkly from being in the tank.

"This was Summer Rose," he said.

"As in… Ruby Rose?" I asked.

"The very same. Her mother. She's been missing for years and years. Everyone thought she was dead."

"Well she is now," Yuma mumbled.

"You said a power transferred. From her to Rosé?" Cloud sighed heavily. "Of course. The summer maiden. It all makes sense."

"What makes sense?" Pine demanded.

Cloud sighed. "What's your favorite fairy tail?"

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-WG