Her chest heaved and strained for breath, laboring more and more to keep drawing cold, lifeless air into her lungs. Her weapons lay shattered at her feet, broken beyond repair or identification. Her white cloak was tattered and torn, stained with blotches of red that flowed from her wounds. Her milky-white Aura rippled around her, flickering and fizzling before vanishing altogether. And her eyes…

She looked up around the dark, dreary landscape around her. Hordes of Beowolves, swarms of Nevermores, and even towering Goliaths moved in to surround her. And standing at the forefront was the immortal enemy of humanity, the mistress of magic that commanded the Grimm and waged a war for Remnant.

Salem.

The witch let out a small chuckle as she watched the wounded, weary Huntress slowly rise to her feet, clutching her bleeding side as she did so. "You put up a valiant fight, I must admit. It's been a while since I've had a fight this...invigorating. But I fear you've overstayed your welcome...Miss Rose."

Despite every part of her screaming out in pain, despite the burning sensation as she held a Fire Dust crystal to her bleeding side, despite the sea of darkness closing in around her...Summer smiled.

This witch couldn't kill her.

Not while she still had her eyes.

Summer Rose let out a feral scream, her eyes of silver unleashing a flash of bright light that turned the dense concentrations of Grimm to stone. Beowolves howled before they became statues, Nevermores fell out of the sky and crumbled into dust, and even the mighty Goliaths staggered backwards in shock. Once the initial horde was cleared, Summer concentrated inwards and shaped that light into weapons and dashed back into the fray, channeling her power into rings of light that rotated around her, protecting her in the absence of her Aura. She knew she was pushing her limits, she knew that she was using her life force to power her eyes, but she didn't care. She would not go down without a fight.

As she tore through the Grimm with weapons of light, her heart raced and pounded as her mind focused on all that she loved. Her team...her partner Qrow, her friend Raven, and her husband...Taiyang. Her daughters, her beautiful, wonderful little girls Yang and Ruby...they kept her eyes shining even in the deepest of darkness. Axes, warhammers, scythes, and blades swirled and spun around her as she leapt and flipped through the air, cutting down the monsters of nightmares that dared to threaten her world, her home, her family.

A Goliath raised a massive foot to stomp upon her, but she deftly dodged it and slashed at its heel with three katanas of silver light. The elephantine Grimm trumpeted in torment as its foot was turned to stone, cracking beneath the weight of the one supporting it. Inspired by the idea, Summer leapt and ran up the now-immobile leg of the massive pachyderm, dragging her blades along behind her as she dashed up to the Grimm's neck. The rest of the leg was soon turned to stone as well, further crumbling under the weight of the solidified darkness.

Once she reached the top of the Goliath, she stood on top of its head and focused her silver eyes again, this time channeling the light into a focused beam instead of a wide swath. Twin lances of silvery light turned anything under her glare into ashes, be it an Alpha Beowolf, a Giant Nevermore, or even the legs of another distant Goliath. Suddenly deprived of half its supports, the Goliath fell dramatically to one side, crushing any Grimm that happened to be unfortunate or unaware enough to be underneath it when it landed.

With a determined grin, Summer turned her penetrating gaze upon Salem, who raised her arm to call forth more Grimm. Soon a stack of Ursai and other hardy creatures of darkness appeared out of nowhere to defend their queen, blocking the path of the twin rays of pure creation. With her other arm, Salem reached out and tore apart what was left of the stone-legged Goliath, transmuting its matter into clawed tendrils that swirled around Summer and encased her in an orb of darkness.

Summer's eye beams vanished as a thorny tentacle wrapped around her neck, yanking her backwards into an abyss and choking what life remained out of her. She grabbed the appendage and pulled it apart with a knife made of silver light, only for three more to wrap around her lower face. More tendrils of darkness bound her arms, her legs, and her eyes, dragging her into a sphere that floated above the battlefield. As clawed hands crushed her torso and thick, dark matter forced its way down her throat and nostrils, a single thought ran through her mind.

Life is beautiful…

A smiling baby with silver eyes, just like her own.

It is precious…

A giggling, happy toddler with long blonde hair, smiling in the sunshine.

And it must…

A handsome young man with blonde hair and tattoos standing over her, bending down to kiss her affectionately.

...be protected.

Another flash of silver emerged from Summer's eyes, burning through the tendrils that wrapped around them as well as sending a shaft of light breaking through the surface of pure black. More beams of light emerged from the crack before the orb of darkness shattered into nothingness and a star going supernova hovered in the sunless sky. Summer floated there for one graceful moment, surrounded by flowing, glowing petals that orbited around her on unseen winds, infusing her Semblance with that silver Grimm-slaying light - the same light that could bring an end to Salem once and for all.

She vanished in a flash of petals before reforming and reappearing behind Salem, darting forward and slashing past her once, twice, three times before the witch could even react. She howled and screamed in agony as the pure essence of creation coursed through her, burning the darkness locked away in her immortal body. The Grimm leapt to her defense, but were burned to ashes by the vengeful gale, who blinked and teleported across the dark landscape like a laser trapped in a maze of mirrors, tearing through the monsters and Salem with each pass.

But this ultimate display of power could not last forever.

As she rushed in to deal the final blow, Summer's body finally gave out. Drained of all its strength and soul, she became tangible once more as she soared past Salem, flying like a ragdoll across the ebony plains and bouncing with each painful, bone-breaking landing. Her limp form eventually stopped at the edge of the world, sliding until she just barely hung from the cliff side.

Barely breathing, barely alive. Summer had no more strength left in her, no more fight, no more light. She was vaguely aware of the Grimm closing in on her, itching and waiting to finish her vulnerable form off for their wounded mistress. Salem had been dealt a mortal blow, sure...but it wasn't enough to finally rid Remnant of its nightmare. The immortal witch would recover, and her strength would return, and soon she would terrorize this world again. She always did.

But the Huntress chose not to think of her failure as her eyes glazed over, as her breathing slowed, as the sound of her heartbeat came fewer and farther apart. Her mind thought once again of her home, her family, her friends, but this time it was not to fight. This time it was to bring comfort to her, in her final moments.

Miles away from the world she loved, Summer Rose died.


On seemingly the other side of the universe, in a secure office room on a small blue planet, a collection of very important men in suits and ties sat around a U-shaped desk. Some of them were smoking expensive cigars, some were trying to muscle down the awful-tasting coffee, while others listened to the very strange recorded noises currently being played over the speakers.

Behind the table, standing over a technician that was monitoring a control console, a very well-dressed man in a sharp suit and glasses pressed a button on the console. The sounds stopped immediately, and the usual hum of radio equipment and chatter of everyday life resumed.

"We've been intercepting these signals for the past six months," said the man with the glasses as he walked back to the table. "We still don't know their origin, but our analysts have concluded that they are encrypted orders for sleeper agents operating inside this country."

"Just the sort of thing Mr. Hoover has been warning about," grumbled a man wearing green as the bespectacled man took a seat at the foremost position of the table.

"Soviet operatives have penetrated the very highest levels of our military and government," said a very stern-looking man on the other side of the table as he drew a whiff of smoke from his cigar. "It is a fact."

The man in the middle seemed to have a different idea, however. "The NSA is not convinced that this is a Soviet operation -"

A loud groan came from the man in green. He leaned forward and firmly placed his hands on the desk in front of him. "Director Faulke...is this going to devolve into another one of your 'Outsider' briefings?"

Several men at the table rolled their eyes. Faulke, meanwhile, took a long, patient draught of his cigarette, giving himself time to prepare a counter-argument. When he breathed out, he addressed the men at the meeting professionally and calmly.

"Well, there's been a new development," he explained. "A device was recently recovered from the elerium mines in Bannack, Montana. The technology is unknown to us, but suggests the activity of a far more sophisticated organization."

The man wearing green didn't seem very convinced. "And where is this…'device?'"

"Close," said Faulke as he picked up the phone on the table. Into the receiver, he issued a terse command.

"Send Agent Carter down."


The people of Remnant had a lot of theories about what happened to souls after death. Some believed that those judged worthy would be returned to the side of the God of Light, while those who did wicked would be sent to the side of the God of Darkness. Others believed that their souls bonded with the Dust, powering the mystical mineral that fueled the world they lived in. Still others believed that nothing happened, that the souls of the departed just lingered in an empty, meaningless void forever. (These people, oddly enough, weren't very popular at parties.)

Summer Rose had heard all of those theories, and even believed a few of them herself. But never, in a million years, would she have guessed that the afterlife would take the form of a warm bed in a dimly-lit room.

And yet...that was exactly where she found herself.


(AUTHOR'S NOTE)

Hey everyone, Joey245 here! So...this one has a bit of a history behind it.

For the past four or five years, I've almost religiously followed the fantastic XCOM/RWBY Crossover stories by DrAmishMD, which seamlessly combines and melds the best elements of XCOM and RWBY and to this day remains one of the greatest stories I've ever read. Well, the author set up a discord server one fateful day for fans of the work, and in the insanity that ensued, someone pitched a suggestion that took root in my mind.

What if, instead of dying on her final mission, Summer Rose was mysteriously transported to Earth and took part in the events of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified?

Now, I'm a staunch defendant of the Bureau. Some would call it a boring repetitive squad-based cover shooter, and they would be absolutely correct. Some would say it's an attempt to emulate Mass Effect, and I agree. But the game it was and the game it could have been absolutely fascinated me, and given how little we knew about Summer Rose at the time, slipping her into the events of the game wouldn't be too much of a stretch.

So that idea sat and percolated in my mind for a year, and then DrAmish introduced Summer in Remnant Unknown in a way that greatly upset me (in both a good and bad way). That event inspired me to finally get to work in writing this: a fanfic that could conceivably work as an AU Prequel to RWBY Within. Encouraged by DrAmish himself, I finally began writing my first real project in over three years. I have no idea how long this is gonna live, or where it ends up going, but I promise you it's gonna be a wild ride.

So sit down, grab a cigarette* and a hat, and let's look at humanity's first contact with alien life on earth, both good and bad.

*Please don't actually smoke.