With the weather down south snowed in and being able to get out of work for a few days gave me a lot of time free time to write this up. Enjoy!
While Ruby and Weiss got started on their homework assignments in the team's dorm, Yang and Blake sat at one of the tables doing theirs. Blake worked diligently and quickly as she wrote down a rough draft of what she thought of her team. The cat Faunas had a pretty good idea of what Professor Rose wanted to be done in their assignments. By getting this done, she can go back to find out more about the White Fang movement and what they are doing.
The Y of team RWBY barely had an idea of what she wanted to write about. Writing about your opinion of your teammates' strengths and weaknesses wasn't something she thought about often. Yang left that stuff to Ruby, with her being the team leader and all. All the while, she remained free to punch whoever got in her way...within reason.
It also made her think of what her adoptive mother said about the negative auctions of a Huntress. The act of killing a living person. She was not as naive as her sister, viewing Huntsman as heroes, bringing justice, and writing wrongs. The idea of potentially having to end someone's life was not something she thought about often, if at all. It honestly made her feel a bit childish to think about having a carefree lifestyle of a Huntress.
"You ok, Yang?"
The brawler's thoughts were broken at the words of her partner. Blake gave the girl her neutral face across the table, only betraying slight concern in her eyes. Yang's back went straight and gave the girl a wide smile. "Yeah, Blake. I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm good. But you look like something is bothering you. Wanna talk about it?" Blake offered. Yang kept up the smile before letting it fall with a tired sigh.
"My mind is still on the lesson Mom talked about."
Blake thought for a moment about today's lesson before answering. "About taking a life?" Yang nodded. Blake sat her pencil down. "I know what you mean."
"From your..." Yang was about to say White Fang but looked around and saw there were several people nearby. "Protesting days?"
The hidden cat Faunus gave Yang a flat look but sighed. "Yes...then. When things were turning for the worse, I left because I couldn't deal with it. So I ran."
"Blake, have you...ended someone before?" Yang asked hesitantly.
The two waited in silence. Neither spoke as one looked at the other, with the other looking at the table in sadness. Blake broke it after a minute of thought.
Blake looked ashamed. "Let's go somewhere private." She stood up and walked out of the Library, Yang following behind. They walked through the school till they reached the gardens located in the back of the Academy. Yang looked around with a surprised look of awe.
"I didn't know this was back here?"
"Professor Peach likes to garden. With her teaching about plant life and how to live off the land its kind of of a hobby for her," Blake answered as she sat at one of the benches. "I found her back here one day tending them and told me about more about this place."
"Cool," Yang said before sitting next to her partner. "So..."
"It was a few months before I left. We were going to hit a new SDC mining facility that we heard recently using Faunus as forced laborers. We were to go in, free them, and if we could steal anything of value to expose the SDC for their crimes...that didn't happen."
"What did happen?" Yang asked as she leans forward, entirely focuses on the story. Blake never talked about her time in the White Fang, so hearing her open up was new and progressive.
"What was supposed to be a raid to free people turned into an outright attack. I went looking for where the workers were being kept and came up empty. Figured they were down in the mines. When I looked for them, they were no mines there."
Yang looked confusedly at Blake. "If it wasn't a Dust mine, then what was that place?"
She looked at her partner in anger and shame. "The place we attacked was off sight SDC research station used to research new ways to use Dust...and also hosted the housing units for the staff's families." This shocked Yang to her core. She knew the White Fang had done some bad things before her time at Beacon. But now, hearing it from someone who was there was another matter as she listens to her partner's tail. "Members throwing explosives and firebombs in random buildings without checking them. Destroying cars without reason...White Fang members killing the staff."
"Chaos, in general, was being spread everywhere by us," Blake said with a faraway look. "And ended when the containment stores filled with Dust ignited, bringing much of the place down."
"That blast killed off the remaining staff and base security along with a third of the White Fang Force. Our leader Adam, who conducted the attack, claims that the attack was a miscalculation of information. That they...we...attacked the wrong target...It was during that attack that started my defection away from the Fang. I'm responsible for helping to bring death to those people."
"Blake..." Yang said sadly.
"For helping in that attack...Their blood is on my hands."
"No."
Blake snapped to Yang in slight shock and surprise. Yang stared deepened into Blake's eyes. "What happened to you is a result of others manipulating you to do things you didn't want to get involved in. It's why you're here at Beacon, aren't you to make a world a better place?" Yang said, quoting her sister.
Blake blinked owlishly before smiling at those words. "Yeah, thanks, Yang..."
"Anytime, partner." Yang gave her friend a one-arm hug.
"...You know. If I told Ruby, you said that, I bet she could sue you for copywriting." Blake said with a small teasing smile.
Yang gasp in shock, hand clutching over where her heart would be. "Blake! You wouldn't?!"
"Would I? Weiss could help her with the Schnee Lawyer..." Blake said with narrowed eyes.
The two sat in silence for a full moment before the two burst out in light laugher. The girls endured much in their short time together and felt nothing was going to separate them.
The Commander donned her armor once more in preparation for her assignment.
The weekly clearing of the Emerald Forest.
Feeling stressed and explaining it to her coworkers, Peter and Bart suggested that clearing out the forest's denser portions of Grimm would be an adequate stress relief. Thinking it over quickly, it brought up a fair few opportunities like testing her weapons and Aura against Grimm.
From a few days to at least once a week, a professor of Beacon or active Huntsman in Vale would clear the forest. Keeping the Grimm population down to the point where the students would have an easier time training against Grimm without being overwhelmed.
Summer felt like her fellow professors probably felt like they just passing a tedious duty to her. She didn't care. Honestly, she could use the workout. With only having a light spar with her daughter's team, she hadn't really let herself go all out. Going on missions, kill some eldritch horror, or get into old fashion brawl since the retaking of Earth. Having to fight for so long, it sadly became a part of her. Putting herself in danger at the heart of every fight was a regular occurrence for the N7 Commander. Many would find that odd, but considering how many times it happened to Summer, she just asked if today was a Tuesday.
With practiced ease, Summer finished putting on her armor and powered up her barriers. Hearing the slight humming of an active field made her feel slightly safer as it traveled over her restored Aura. Throwing her cloak over her shoulder, she went to her weapons locker, gathered weapons, and quickly inspect them.
The Lancer assault rifle and Carnifex pistol looked good. The rifle having the red dot sight added to it and pistol looking clean as a new gun. Making Summer feel slightly eager to fight with them again. Since they run on the old cooldown method instead of thermal clips, she needed to pay attention to the heat expelling. Grabbing her Iron Thorn, she tested the shifting from gun mode to sword form a few times before setting it to its newest form, storge mode. The idea came from her daughter with her giant scythe compacting down to easily travel with. Now Iron Thorn's blade and barrel shortened, which lessens the risk of bumping into people or objects. It also concealed better under her hood. Thinking back, that tends to happen to her lot back in the day. Probably the reason why Raven got mad with her for being clumsy.
Attaching her weapons to her armor, Summer made her way across the school till she reached Beacon cliffs. She would have gotten a Bullhead to drop her off in the middle but wanted to stretch her legs.
Reaching the cliff, she walked over to the launch pads and stared at them. It brought back memories of Summer's own invitation into Beacon. Old Oz sure gets a kick out that even if he doesn't show it. Getting on one of the launch pads, she lights up her Omi-tool and connects it to the launcher she's on. Setting the timer for ten seconds, she turns off the tool and gets herself ready. The timer ran out and was airborne not even a moment later.
"Wahoo!" Summer said while flying through the air.
Now, this is what Summer needed. A bit of excitement and a hint of danger with a chance of death was just what she needed to get the blood flowing. When nearing the treetops, she flared her biotics, altering and slowing the gravity of her descent. Hitting the ground, Summer tucked and rolled into a crouched position with her hand cannon out and scanning the environment.
The air was still, slight noise of birds chirping from above, and the sound of natural water flowing in the distance. Seeing no danger, she holstered her Carnifex and pulled out her scroll before logging into the security cameras around her. Going through the live feeds, she sees a group of Grimm near her position.
"Beowolfs... an excellent place to restart my Grimm killing career."
Advancing towards then, it took a few minutes of walking before she got a visual. Getting a clear view of her target group, she head counted fifteen Beowolfs in the little clearing. One spots her and barks getting the other's attention on her.
"Alright..." Summer grabbed Iron Thorn and readied the Claymore in gun form. "Who dies first?"
The Grimm charge her right out the gate. The N7 pop three rounds ending three Grimm before the rest could reach her. She leapt over the fourth beast and fired into its back before landing on her feet. Two more Grimm came at both her sides. Summer shifted Iron Thorn's blade out to point at the Beowolf to her left before firing, killing it with a headshot. Then using the shots moment to swing Thorn's edge to slice the Grimm to the right. The blade scraped harmlessly off its mask, but the force of it was enough to stagger it.
The N7 then impaled her long sword through the underbelly of the Beowolf, the Grimm letting out a dying howl. Shoving it back so that it was standing on its hind legs, Summer smashed her right shoulder into the beast while also adjusting her grip to hold the blade of her sword.
To keep from cutting herself, he held the blade's unique grip to make sure she didn't lose it but maintained a proper hold of it. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw another Beowolf charging at him from behind, the wolf letting out an angered growl. Summer only smirked as she suddenly struck the hilt of Iron Thorn in the throat of the Beowolf she just impaled with a backhanded strike. She purposefully swung wider than what was needed so that she could stab the tip of her sword into the neck of the charging Beowolf.
Two more Beowolf approached her from her current front. Seeing an opportunity, she drew and fired the Carnifex four times, two in each Grimm. The shots hit and toward through them with quick ease, but they didn't kill them immediately, much to her immense surprise. She pulled her sword back, fired more shots into them, and got results when the next shots impacted their heads, killing them right away.
"Interesting," Summer commented as she holstered the hand cannon and taking hold of Iron Thorn's handle. Twisting the blade, she spun the Beowolf around, keeping the longsword's edge pressed firmly against the neck of the beast. It proceeded to decapitate the Grimm in a spinning slash. Following the spin, Summer came to a stop in a kneeling stance. Iron Thorn transformed back into its rifle mode and fired upon three charging Grimm. A spray of bullets collided with the creatures, and they were quickly cut down by the projectiles.
Switching his weapon back to its sword form, Summer rolled to the side as two Beowolves leaped at her. As she rolled, she quickly sheathed Iron Thorn and brought out the M-7 Lancer to bare. With the cryo mod on, she sent a wave of ice into her targets. Freezing the two of them into ice statues before breaking into pieces.
"That's more like it!" Three more Grimm Wolfs came charging at her. Seeing them too close to take them all out. Summer waited till they were about on her before she jumped straight up.
The Beowolfs stopped to look straight up in confusion at what the human was doing. They got their answer when said human glowed in dark violet and landed in front of them and obliterated them with a wave of dark matter.
Summer exhale the breath she held from using the Nova had often left her a bit winded after using it. Using the close-range shock wave power was a bit of a risk at times, but damn, does it get results. Seeing last Beowolf insight, Summer grin evilly at the beast. Her biotics flared, especially when combined with a Biotic charge!
The N7 sped forward with devastating speed, with her shoulder colliding with the beast. Said beast stager back with its head thrown back, allowing Summer an easy target to aim with the Lancer, making another frozen Grimm statue.
"Alright, a good start." Summer pulled her scroll back out and looked at her map. "Now, where to next?"
General Ironwood sat in his office onboard his personal flagship. An hour ago, his Ace Ops reported that Summer Rose took the regular duty of clearing out the Grimm in the Emerald Forest. Having taken a keen interest in Miss Rose after her supposed 'journey into space.'
James scuffed at that. Magic and the Maidens were one thing with Ozpin, and he showed proof of that. But the existence of aliens and space ferrying races was crossing the line of science fiction. Atlas is the most technical advice society on Remnant. To hear of powers stronger than Atlases might, he could not accept nor would the council believe in such things. Not without substantial proof. Even then, it would be hard to believe in such things.
Then again, some of the things in Summer Rose's position did put that proof into question. Like these strange powers and weapons that the Huntress currently demonstrated on the Grimm in the Emerald forests.
One would think this would be Summer's Semblance in action, but with one look at her file from days in Beacon would tell you otherwise. Her powers would mistake her as a Maiden. Looking closer, thought tells of something else. Some investigation later to her recent hospital stay provided much insight and horror to the General. The implants that covered her body sickened him when he read the Doctor's report.
If anything, James would take from studying up on the elder Rose from Ozpin's story, hospital records, and this footage. She's a rogue element. One that won't be contained or controlled.
"Dangerous indeed," James muttered as he continues to watch Summer fight through another pack of Grimm. Tapping a few commands on his computer. "Clover, Your team is a go."
Sidestepping around the attack, Summer brought the Claymore down in a chop and lobbed off the Ursa's head.
"And that's the seventh pack of Grimm dealt with. That should do it for this week." Summer sheathed her Claymore and gave herself a pat on the back. "Not bad for your first Grimm hunt back on the homeworld, Summer. Did it with great timing too. Maybe I can get back in time to have dinner with the girls."
Summer turned towards the direction of the Academy and took several steps before stopping cold.
All the good feelings in Summer left as her instincts honed by years of war and conflict took control. Her hand hovered over her hand cannon readied to be drawn. Red rim silver eyes scanned her surroundings. Heels dug into the dirt, ready to move. Something was hunting her, and feeling that she was about to be attacked felt all too clear.
Summer ducked and rolled to the side when several steel-wire bolas flew past where she was standing. Getting in the kneeing position, she leveled her Lancer assault rifle where the bolas came from and got an eye on her attackers. Summer did not like what she saw. Advancing on her position, several squads of soldiers wearing Atlas white run out of the foliage. When they got close and saw that their bolas failed to trap her, they raised their weapons at her.
"Soldier, the hell you doing!? Stand down!" Summer ordered.
The Atlas soldiers did no such thing other than leveled their forearms at her. Then that guy with the fishing pole walked in from behind with that stupid smile on his face. "Summer Rose," he called out. "By order of General Ironwood, you are under arrest."
Summer narrowed her eyes at the man. "Under what charges, Mister fishing pole?"
"It's Clover, Clover Ebi of the Atlas Ace Operatives," the now-named man introduces. "And you're being brought in for questioning in an ongoing investigation."
That made Summer raise an eyebrow. "If this is connected to Amber, then tell your General that he's an idiot. I had nothing to do with her and looking into the matter."
"I have no idea who that is." Clover shook his but filed the information to ask the General later. "You are being charged with the destruction of property."
That made nearly made Summer falter at the stupidly of the situation. "Seriously? What did I destroy?" She asked, wondering what it could be. She got her answer when several more people, all dressed like fishing pole, I mean Clover, jumped into view and surrounded her from three sides.
"How about the destruction of Atlas's entire automated defense network!" A short tan skin Operative said.
"Automated?" Summer blinked in confusion before it hit her. "Awe crap..." she whispered. Realizing that they had an actual reason to arrest her.
Ironwood is making his play on Summer and her tech. You'll have to see what happens next time.