pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

I landed back in Patch with my wife's mother's body. I wasn't entirely sure what protocol was. I dropped her off in a mortuary and explained what happened for the most part to the people working there. There wasn't too much precedent on recovering bodies like this. Most hunters when they vanished were never found. I put a sheet over her and left her behind to find Ruby. She was playing with the children in the gardens of our house when I landed. She looked over at me as I set down.

The kids rushed me in a giant hug which I met with full force. I picked up Pearle into my arms and played with her snow white hair.

"Daddy's home!"

I chuckled. I kissed Cherry's cheek and stepped further towards Ruby. I set Pearle down as I marched.

"We have to talk," I informed her.

"We do? Did the mission go well?"

"There was a hiccup."

"How so?"

"We found your mother, Summer in my father's lab. She died and the maiden powers she held transferred."

"My mom?"

"Your mom," I agreed.

Ruby looked away. "All this time…"

"We all thought she was dead. She was hooked up to machines in Merlot's lab. My best guess is that he was studying the powers. I brought her body back with me. She's at a mortuary. But she didn't look good. It was bad before she died. She was drugged out of her mind and on life support while alive. As soon as Rosé removed the life support she died."

"I don't understand. Can I see her?"

"Of course you can. Come on. We should probably fill Weiss in and then I have to get back to make sure the new summer maiden makes it to Atlas. The powers transferred to Rosé."

"Right. Of course. But… well we shouldn't talk about that with the kids around. This much is probably fine but any more is concerning."

"Right," I agreed.

We found Weiss with Carnal in her arms inside. I told her the story I told Ruby.

"So you two are off?" Weiss asked when I finished.

"I want to see her. Her body, that is." Ruby agreed. "And I should probably call my dad. Excuse me." She stepped into the loft with her scroll in hand.

I sighed and sat at the kitchen table. Weiss paced over as she rocked Carnel and breezed a hand through my hair.

"Is it bad?"

"It's not good. She is better off dead than alive the way her life was going towards the end there. She was basically skin and bones from life support and no movement. Drugged so far beyond belief that it's a miracle the powers transferred to who she had in mind. I never saw her healthy. I only got the after pictures. I'm not sure Ruby or Taiyang should see her. It's not great. She must have weighed ninety pounds tops."

"But you aren't exactly getting between Ruby and seeing the body," Weiss accused and it sounded like an accusation.

"No. She's an adult. I can't make this decision for her. After this I'll need to head back to Vacuo and help escort the new summer maiden to Atlas. Where she can be trained."

"The princess. But other than all this the mission went well?"

"As well as could be expected. I had to kill myself. He had… a clone of me."

"Holy shit," Weiss breathed.

"But I'm fine. Just worried about handling this new situation."

"You killed a clone of yourself?"

"I did. He got in the way. He wanted to stay in the way. It was… well… it was actually cathartic in a way. He looked like me in my old Beacon days."

"Okay. You aren't allowed to say shit or think shit like that," Weiss decided.

I shrugged. "Where's Garnet? She's the only one I haven't seen."

"I put her down for a nap."

"If all our kids could just stay down."

"Oh don't you think you're getting out of this easily. I heard you. You liked killing you."

"It wasn't me."

"And it was probably so cathartic."

"It wasn't me."

"I wish I could see you do it because then I'd know if you're lying."

"It wasn't me. He knew me."

"Oh that makes it better?"

"Well you know," I mumbled. "I killed me. I don't care about me."

"You are in so much trouble."

"Why? I killed the bad guy."

"Yeah but you liked it. And it was you. How'd you kill him?"

"Cut him in half. Like I did Ren. He fell all over. In pieces."

"Good gods."

"What?"

"You killed you. There's trauma there."

"Well you know. Not more trauma."

"More trauma. There's never too much."

"Then we are going to need a bigger boat."

"Are you serious?"

"Are you?" I wondered. "It's just one more day where I had to kill one more dude. Who kinda had it comin'."

"Yeah but it was you. Or who you would have been. That doesn't bother you?"

"Not so much. It was smooth. It went down like a cocktail."

"Stop it."

"Okay," I said resignedly. "I won't talk about how incredible it felt to do myself in."

Weiss hit me. "Why would that feel good?"

"What do you mean? I got what I had coming to me."

"I thought it wasn't you."

"But it kinda was. Do you see? And I got to get rid of him. If you ever get the opportunity to kill an evil version of yourself I highly recommend it."

"Well. 'Evil.' More like brainwashed," Weiss countered.

"Not much difference in the case of things like me and my sisters," I shot back.

"You can call yourselves people. It's alright."

"My sisters aren't people. They are tentacles of my Mother."

"And yourself?"

"I might be a person. I know that it's possible. I could be. Salem isn't but I could be. And that's the difference between us. Me and her. Personhood. I have the right to die. That sort of thing. Something she will never have. Even if succeed she won't really be dead. She'll still linger like an old ghost. I get to pass on into whatever is next. The way everyone should."

"You talk about death so strangely. It is somehow simultaneously something you dread and something you long for," Weiss quirkrd an eyebrow at me.

"I don't hear a problem with that. Should I?" I asked.

"Well you have to admit they are contradictory. These feelings."

"Not so. Dread and longing go hand in hand. Ask the bugs that stray too close to a fire light. Different but the same. Different but the same."

"You make it also almost sound like your relationship with me. And Ruby. Do we burn you up?"

"You must know that you do," I scowled at her.

Ruby came back in and put her scroll back in her pocket. "Dad said he'll meet us there. I just need to message him the mortuary address."

"It's the one on the corner of twenty second," I answered her unasked question. "That's where I dropped her off."

Ruby pulled her scroll back out of her pocket and sent a message.

"Let's go," Ruby decided.

"Ruby are you sure? Cloud said it was bad. For him that could only mean that it's well and truly awful," Weiss cut in.

"I know. I heard him. But it's my mom. I've got to see her," Ruby murmured. "Let's go."

"You hold down the fort, Weiss," I agreed.

We walked into the garage and climbed into Weiss's jeep. Ruby turned the engine over and backed out of the car hold.

"Ruby it really is quite bad. I didn't ever see her in her prime but this wasn't it."

"I heard you. But it's my mom. If I don't see her, then who will? My dad? Alone? Yang is in Atlas. I should probably call her as well with the CCT."

"Yeah I'm just… I'm just trying to warn you. My father was a monster. He wasn't nice to her all these years."

"I think I appreciate your warning. But I do have to do this. My dad says he's on his way." She set her scroll down in her lap and started driving into town.

I gripped the handhold above my head tightly in one hand as Ruby drove. I needed to be… I needed to be a source of comfort for her now. But how? And with something like this? As big as this was? How could I do that? Maybe Weiss should be here too but someone had to look after the kids.

We pulled up on the mortuary and Ruby rushed out of the car. She flickered in steps of petals to the front entrance. "Ruby!" I called. She stepped inside. I chased after her.

She was stopped at the front desk by an elderly hunched woman.

"I'm here to see Summer Rose. She should have just been dropped off." Ruby bit out.

"One second deary," the woman started clicking away at a holographic monitor. "Here she is. Let me… just one second… here we are. Come on. I'll lead you back to her."

The woman stood and opened a door to our left with an access panel on her side. She led the way over through the backrooms. There were… lockers of sorts. All over the walls. She took a key to one of them and opened the locker. She slid out the emaciated remains of Summer Rose.

Ruby gasped. "Mom!"

"Oh was she your mother deary. I'm so sorry for your loss," the woman said.

I set a hand on Ruby's shoulder. I tried to be gentle but firm but she shrugged me off and bent over the body. There came a chime of bells from the entrance and the woman waddled back to the front desk. I heard Taiyang's voice from where I stood beside Ruby.

Ruby's lip quivered. She reached out and stroked her mom's face. I held out my arms to Ruby and seeing that she collapsed into my chest with a choked sob.

"There there. It's okay. You'll see. It will all be better tomorrow. You'll see," I whispered.

"Gods she's so thin!" Ruby cried. Ruby's cheeks flushed red unlike the grey of Summer's face. Summer's own cheeks were sunken in and her eyes were big and the space around them was hollow.

"I know," I breathed. "I know sweetheart."

Taiyang came in behind us. He marched slowly over and gasped at the sight of Summer's face. He fell to his knees by the locker tray panel. He rubbed his eyes hard.

"Did she suffer?" He asked at length.

"Yes," I answered. "She did suffer."

"Oh fuck," Taiyang exhaled. He was crying a little. It was one thing to hear about it but it was quite another to really see the woman he loved so bone thin like a switch. "It's not so bad. I mean… we thought she was dead. We sort of knew she was never coming back to us. I just wish she had died peacefully," Taiyang decided.

"Sorry," I breathed. I released Ruby and she embraced her father. He stayed on his knees and wrapped one arm around her. He pulled her close then let her hang off of him loosely.

"Dad?" Ruby asked.

Taiyang looked up at her with sad, sad eyes. "Yes sweetie?"

"It's okay. She's resting now. And that's as good as we could have hoped for. It's okay."

"It really isn't. It isn't okay. She deserved better," Taiyang decided.

"But this is Remnant," I brutalized him. He must have known. Surely he knew. It wasn't so simple. It could never have been even if her fate was just to be torn up by monsters somewhere in the wild.

He didn't meet my eye.

"What am I supposed to do now?" He asked.

"Same thing you did yesterday? And comfortable in the knowledge that her trauma has ended?" I hazarded. I was a little out of my depth. "Then bury her."

"Just like that?" He wondered, sounding dazed.

"Well no. Not that easy. But close to something like that," I kept up.

"Dad? It will be okay. You'll see," Ruby mumbled. Though she was crying slightly. I took her back into my arms. She leaned on my chest hard and I easily held her weight up.

"I just can't. I shouldn't have come. I shouldn't be here," Taiyang bemoaned.

"It's no more difficult than it was yesterday. Time will show you. You still have your daughters and grandkids," I pointed out. "All is not lost."

"Would you listen to yourself? 'All is not lost?!' This is it for me. Both my wifes are dead."

"You have your daughters," I tempered him. I did so lightly like he was made out of glass. I could feel his rage from his kneeling position on the floor. It threatened to ride me over like a wave and I knew Ruby was feeling it when her lip quivered.

"Damnit. All this time she was being tortured. Tortured!" Taiyang raged.

"Yeah," I agreed. "She was." Ruby looked up at me. "Well she was! I won't lie to you about it."

"How do I move on from this?" Taiyang demanded. He glared up at me after lifting his head from his hands.

"Think about seeing your grandkids. I won't let you within a mile of them if you're acting like this. Get ahold of yourself," I threatened.

"Yeah? You gonna cut me out?" He wondered.

"Only if you make me. And this rage just might do it. Yeah she suffered. But it's over now. Take some solace in that fact. With heavy heads and hearts. You have to pull through this because it's not about you. It's about Garnet wondering why she never gets to see grandaddy Taiyang anymore. If you can't get this anger under control you're donezo."

Taiyang reached out towards Summer with shaking hands like he wanted to rip her kicking and screaming back to life and wasn't afraid of putting on a show. But his hand faltered and he wound up caressing Summer's clammy face. He tucked a branch of her long hair out of the way of her eyes.

"Hairs too long…" he mumbled.

"What?" Ruby asked.

"Her hair is too long. She never let it get this long."

"So we get her a haircut. Before the burial." I agreed. "Anything else?"

"She had… a cross shaped necklace. She always wore it," Ruby hummed.

"We can get her one."

"No. It won't be the same. It won't be her necklace. I don't suppose you ah- could go back to the laboratory and look for it?"

"I will. If it's there I'll find it," I vowed.

"Thank you, Cloud," Taiyang mumbled.

"You're welcome. Anything else?" I wondered.

"That's it for me…" Ruby trailed.

"Me too. I just wish… I wish for something different. A lot of somethings different. Why did it have to be her? Why'd it have to go on for so long?"

"Well if she was anything like Ruby then it was because it had to be her. She had to be a maiden and take on the responsibility involved. She had to bravely go where only angels dared to tread."

"I see your point," Taiyang agreed.

"I can step out? Give you two some time alone with the body?" I offered.

"No… that's alright. Cloud what did you mean by 'if she was like me?'"

"Well… you know. You're so brave. It's the sort of thing that gets hunters killed. I worry about you," I explained.

"But I'm basically a housewife now. Don't worry about me too much. Let me worry about you. Okay? You're the one charging off to gods know where all the time."

"Okay. Granted. I'm inclined to die," I agreed. "I take on missions for the council. Like she did. It's probably me next."

"Don't think like that. But me? I'm just a mother and a wife recently. Very little hunting. You gallivant around the planet doing the lord's work. Just promise me that you'll be safe."

"I will. I'll stay smart. Think on my feet."

"Thank you."

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

-WG