Salem knew the silver light could kill her. She hadn't feared death for millennia: she feared it today.
But no source of light was infinite. So Salem meant to exhaust it: she sent her Grimm to attack in such numbers the silver-eyed warrior and her allies would be overwhelmed, and her foe would either die or use up what energy she had defending her friends. The witch would sit safely in her tower and wait for the storm to pass, only stepping out to clean away the debris when it could be safely ground beneath her heel.
Ruby Rose and her friends had struck into the very heart of darkness, reaching Salem's keep with their coalition of friends and allies. Menagerie and its tiny police force, the shattered remnants of the Atlesian military, the desert troopers of Vacuo, the bandits of Mistral, and even a few of Salem's former minions believing they could at last unseat her: the force was far smaller than the Grimm, but they fought for the first time wholly united, if only because there were so few left to divide them.
If they could not tear apart by their petty political strife, Salem would use an even greater weapon. Their fear would be what destroyed them. Their instincts for self-preservation would see her enemies scatter and be swept aside in due fear for their lives would far outweigh Salem's own, and the longer the Grimm wore her foes down, the faster Salem's own doubts would evaporate.
Ruby had used her powers far too often. She kept trying to intervene; to save soldiers being overrun. All too often she exhausted herself to save the lives of men she didn't know, men whose lives would need to be traded in pursuit of victory. Her sentiment, her attachment, her compassion... that was why she would lose.
And Oscar hated to admit it, but Salem was right. Ruby would eventually use up all the energy confined within herself and when the queen took to the battlefield, all she'd have to do is pick up the pieces.
Her team was fighting valiantly. Jaune Arc was continuously pouring out his reserves of Aura to give strength to Raven, Nora, and the best of their remaining fighters. The Atlesian soldiers were tossing their sidearms to Menagerian police when they ran out of ammo. The Faunus and humans fought side by side against the darkness, finally united… but none of it was enough.
If they were very fortunate several of them would outlast the horde. But without Ruby -without the blessing of the god of light- they would still be destroyed by Salem.
There is a way to stop this.
Oscar had long shunned Ozpin's advice. He didn't want to resort to the pragmatic choices, if for no other reason than not to be like his predecessor. Every time Oscar agreed with Ozpin's recommendations, he felt like more and more of his old self was fading away and being replaced with the wizard.
But, seeing as the alternative was to die... "Well, I'm all ears."
I've been keeping this in reserve. Something I knew I'd one day need, and secured for just this moment.
"You didn't think maybe you should've used this special extra trick, say, five minutes ago?" Oscar grumbled.
I had to ensure that she would be compelled. That she would see no other way forward but mine.
"Could you maybe not be cryptic and just tell me?" Oscar requested.
Go to Ruby. I will impart her help.
Oscar wasn't sure what to think. Had it just been a turn of phrase?
No, there was something about the way Ozpin said it. Some other secret he'd kept, some other action he was certain was moral and just, if only because he'd been the one to perform it.
But he said he had a way to save Ruby's life, and… if they didn't do that, then they'd die. If he didn't set aside his differences with Ozpin -as so many allies fighting on the battlefield had now- then all their struggles and all their pain would be for nothing.
Ruby had fallen to her knees, breathing hard. Yang and Penny rushed to her side, but quickly had to return to the fight as the Grimm started poking through their lines more and more often. Ruby wanted to intervene again, but she couldn't even stand on her own two feet.
Oscar knelt beside her, pressing a hand to her shoulder. "Ruby…"
"I can't... " Ruby managed in between labored breaths. "I have to… get back, but I… I can't…"
It must've been an exceedingly difficult thing for Ruby to admit. She had grown mature enough to acknowledge when she needed help, but Oscar had never heard her despair at the thought of being unable to fight any longer.
She was blameless, but Ruby would never see it that way. Every life lost while she sat on her knees would stain her soul with a darkness she would never remove.
She had always been good. It was why she was worthy of the god's blessing. It was just too much power for her small frame to bear the weight of. Not even Ozpin was strong enough to hold the reins of the world as long as Ruby Rose had.
Oscar felt Ozpin reaching out, and his first instinct was to push his hand away. His first thought was mistrust.
But eventually he relented, and let Ozpin emerge. Ozpin moved Oscar's body once more, reaching his hand from Ruby's shoulder to her cheek. Exhausted as she was, Ruby still had energy to turn her eyes towards his touch, confused.
"Do you remember what I first said to you, child?"
Ruby gave him a tentative nod.
"Do you remember what you told me you thought on to draw on your gift?"
There were many thoughts that drove Ruby to use her powers. "What do y-"
"Think of her," Ozpin prompted. "Remember her."
Ruby barely remembered her. But what she did remember was warm, kind, and inviting. It was easy to think of her when all of her memories were ones Ruby wanted to reflect on. She closed her eyes and thought back.
The overlook beside the forest. Where her grave stood now.
Where she turned to look at her daughter and smiled…
Ruby felt that warmth when her mother reached down to hold her cheek, with a palm much too large for a girl barely more than a toddler…
Ruby…
Every time her mother said her name, that was a precious memory too.
Every feeling she could recall, though so many of them blended together.
Every time Ruby reached up to feel a hand bigger than her own, to hold the embrace, to…
"Ruby…"
...that hand was far smaller than Ruby remembered. But it was still warm, pressed to her cheek… opposite Oscar's hand, standing in front of her and leaning down, rather than crouched at her side.
Ruby opened her eyes.
The white cloak stood out against the swarm of darkness at her back. She seemed to Ruby's haze a shining light against the black.
"Mom…"
Yang paused in the fight, glancing back to check on her sister. She all but abandoned her post right then, her arm falling uselessly to her side, her mouth hanging agape.
Raven cut down another Beringel and searched for her forces to regroup, only for her focus to evaporate at the sight of a familiar face standing in front of Ruby, her back to a dangerous horde of Grimm: one thing Raven had always been impressed by was her utter lack of fear.
Ruby couldn't believe it. None of them could. It was fortunate they still had allies to hold their lines while they could do naught but stare.
"It's time," Ozpin explained with Oscar's mouth, still at Ruby's side.
Summer Rose nodded. "How long do I have?"
"A few moments," Ozpin replied. "Do it now."
Summer looked down at Ruby. She'd gotten tall… she'd filled out… her hair had a few messy strands -probably her sister's influence. There was so much of this Summer wanted to take in.
But she knew if she continued looking much longer, she wouldn't do what she was meant to. She'd take too long and her sacrifice would be for nothing.
Summer turned to face the Grimm.
She had just seen something to motivate her, to draw the god's light from her soul and burn away the darkness.
It was why she came to this moment. It was why she had to go then…
Summer had barely survived, but she'd survived. She thought for sure the Grimm numbers were too many, and this time Salem had outmaneuvered them. She thought that she'd have to disappoint Tai and the girls and not be able to return, and that despair had very nearly led to her demise. But with what energy she had left she struck the queen's minions with one final, desperate act of defiance…
And it had been enough. Barely enough, but… enough.
The Grimm turned to stone and shattered. Summer stood alone, wounded, cold, and hundreds of miles from home, but alive.
The thought would not draw the Grimm to her. There was no more fear and despair to feed on. Wounded and vulnerable though Summer may have been, she was so happy to be alive.
She could go home.
Summer found a safe spot to rest: a cavern far from the tree line. Salem may have sent assassins to chase after her where Grimm had failed, but Summer had time enough to recuperate a single night.
But while resting in the dark and seclusion, thinking of home… it wasn't the witch who came to take her life. It was the wizard.
"Professor," Summer breathed in a haze, wondering if her wounds were worse than she realized, if she was hallucinating, or death had finally caught her after she'd unexpectedly managed to delay it…
"Summer," Ozpin greeted, dropping to kneel. "I'm so sorry it has come to this."
"Am… am I dead?" Summer inquired, hesitating only a moment. Not because she feared the result -it was the inevitable end of a Huntress- but for what it'd mean for her family were it so.
"No," Ozpin assured her. "You proved stronger than any of us ever imagined. Stronger than Salem was prepared for. She's amassing her forces again; all of them to find you and snuff you out. Wounded as you are, you won't make it home in time."
All the hope Summer had regained was quashed with a few of Ozpin's words. That had always seemed to be his greatest talent: to draw all hope away with relentless, overpowering logic. Summer was isolated and far from home, and…
"But you're here, you can help me," Summer pointed out. "You can get me back."
"I can," Ozpin confirmed. "But that isn't what I'm here to do."
Summer looked upon him, confused. It wasn't at all unusual for Ozpin to refuse to offer his help -he was always preoccupied with some other crisis- but since he was there with her now, what reason did he have to refuse?
Ozpin moved closer, staying at eye level. "I used some of the power left within me to search for you; to confirm if you'd been lost to us after the trap Salem set. In the moment I did, I saw you alive… and I saw something different, something more than I expected to find. Because I didn't see you alive at this moment."
"Professor?" Summer inquired, still confused.
"I tapped briefly into the stream of silver light, the guiding energy the elder brother left," Ozpin explained. "It progressed ever onward, and I saw you, standing before the Grimm once again… not here. Not in this moment. But as you are now, untainted by time, placed in a different stream. I saw you -not a day older than you are now- fighting another battle, and I knew why it had to be so."
"Professor, what are you-"
"Ruby," Ozpin interjected. "That is the point I'm making now. I saw you just as you are now, and my first thought on glimpsing the future was that I mistook you for your own daughter. Until I saw her, right behind you, in need of you one more time."
The sound of her name instantly focused all Summer's attention and effort. It didn't matter that she was wounded, or tired, or confused. Nothing mattered but her child. "Then take me to her. Let me protect her."
"I can if you wish," Ozpin confirmed once again. "I can send you back to her, to see her and hold her and know she is safe again, and be with her as you wish to, to stay years longer and forge in her an even greater love than the one you know now."
Summer waited for the 'but.' She knew it was coming.
"But if I do, the future I glimpsed will not come to pass," Ozpin went on. "If I return you to Patch now, you will not be there to save her when Salem's horde descends. She will die."
"You don't know that," Summer quickly snapped at him.
But he did know that. Ozpin always knew. Even if he himself was uncertain what he saw when tapping into that ancient wellspring of power, Summer knew his visions to be genuine.
"What should I do, Summer?" Ozpin asked. "Should I send you home instead?"
Of course that was what she wanted. She wanted nothing more than for Ozpin to be wrong so she could go home and hold her daughter and never let go of her again.
But Summer knew Ruby would grow as tall as she was. She knew the day would come her daughter would have dream and aspirations outside her home. She knew that some day Ruby may well have donned a cloak just like her mother's and faced the darkness too…
Ruby would suffer. Tai and Yang would suffer even more, having lost one wife and mother already. If she took Ozpin's offer, she would impose a terrible cost on them too.
And if she didn't, if she went home now… Ruby would die.
The longer Summer waited, the more intense this dread would become. The more her negative emotion would tell the Grimm right where she was hiding.
Ozpin was very good at presenting the illusion of choice.
"What… what'll happen if you do this?" Summer asked.
"I will displace you, move you further ahead in the stream," Ozpin explained. "But my control of it is… limited. I will not be able to anchor you in the moment past what I have observed of it. And I saw only a few seconds."
"And after that?" Summer asked.
"After that you will emerge wherever the stream deposits you," Ozpin replied. "I cannot see so far ahead. I do not know where you will emerge… if you will at all."
It was incredibly rare for Ozpin to not know. The thought terrified Summer.
But one particular thought terrified her even more.
"But I will… I will see Ruby again? I'll be able to save her?" Summer asked.
"You will," Ozpin assured her. "I promise you, if only for a moment, you will."
Just as she thought: the illusion of choice.
This was madness. She was insane to even consider it. She should leave her daughter behind so Ozpin could fling her into the future because of some… dream, some vision he had? It all sounded like nonsense.
She surmised it wasn't much stranger than being able to turn monsters made of darkness to stone… and being able to protect her child with that power didn't sound strange to her at all. Now it sounded necessary.
No matter how it would hurt.
"Okay," Summer reached towards him.
Ozpin reached over to take her hand.
Summer briefly saw Yang out of the corner of her eye: just as tall as Raven with a wild mane of hair to match. Something happened to her arm, but Summer couldn't allow herself to be distracted.
She'd been wounded before, resting herself after a vicious battle. She'd expended all her energy and it'd been a miracle she'd won out over the darkness; the slimmest of victories and she hadn't had enough time to recover from the viciousness of the fight.
But her daughter -both her daughters were in danger. That was all the motivation she needed to dig a little deeper.
She thought of Patch, of holding them as children, and thinking of the women they'd grow to be now.
Silver erupted from her eyes. The Grimm had massed together for their attack, and in a moment been destroyed: either burnt away by the fury of light, or turned to stone and swiftly shattered moments later.
When the light faded, what few stragglers remained retreated, with only the newly forged racing to battle, cut down by the allies Ruby gathered.
Summer turned to her daughter, rising to unsteady feet, to greet her at eye level. On the ground was a boy she didn't recognize, save the familiar glint of Ozpin's eyes.
She paid no more thought to Ozpin. She knew she had time only for one. She might've wanted to rush over to Yang too, but Ruby was closer, and standing at eye level, she could take in every detail. Summer would never be able to look upon her enough.
"Mom," Ruby breathed.
Summer looked at her, stepping closer. More than any word, more than any sight, she wanted to hold her child again. She prayed for but a few seconds more.
Ruby was exhausted and wounded, just like her. She found strength enough to leap to her mother's arms, as she had when she was far smaller.
Summer held her close, pressing her hand against the back of her daughter's head, running fingers through dark shades of red and black. A while longer… just a little more…
Summer could hear Ruby sniffling against her shoulder. She wanted to reassure her -patronizing as it may have been to do so- and held just a little tighter. "...you've become so strong, Ruby."
Not so strong she couldn't be gentle. And those gentle arms pressed to her back was all the impression Summer needed. Just… just a few seconds…
"What happened? Where did she go?!" Yang demanded, turning her eye immediately to Oscar.
"I could only anchor here so long," Ozpin answered with Oscar's mouth. "The spell that linked us here was only a brief glimpse of -what was then- her future. I knew she'd be needed now, and… and I did as much as I could."
Ruby -moments earlier overcome with joy and relief- turned angrily to her teacher. "Where did she go?!"
"Ruby..." Ozpin tried, only for Oscar to step in, reasserting control once more. "Ruby," he began, "We have a chance now. We have to press ahead while Salem is vulnerable. If we don't stop her now we may never get another shot."
Ruby clearly wanted to argue. But glancing around at her weakened and exhausted allies -and looking down at her own unsteady legs- left Ruby unable to argue the point. They weren't likely to get another opportunity.
And of course, since Oscar had been the one to try and dissuade her, rather than the voice in his head…
Ruby turned her eye towards the keep, and the tower. Salem was still alive, and without her army to thin out their forces…
"Okay," Ruby managed to say. "Okay."
Her arms were still trying to wrap around someone no longer there. Though tempted to make the offer of help himself, Ruby had others who would play that part. Her big sister and her dearest friends were on-hand. Surely there was time enough for one of them to spare Ruby Rose a hug.
And Yang Xiao Long complied, moving to hold her sister a moment. Oscar quietly drew away to organize the remaining forces for the final assault.
Summer Rose did as she had meant to. He hoped it gave her some solace, to know she returned at a critical moment and saved her child's life. He hoped having it confirmed that she'd made the right choice was enough for her to know… wherever she ended up.
She passed in and out of consciousness. She had a faint recollection of being drawn along the ground… then resting somewhere more comfortable… then someone placing a spoon of some foul-tasting liquid in her mouth… and eventually…
Summer woke with a start, flailing about. Someone sitting at her bedside reached over to grasp her shoulders. "Easy, easy," she heard a male voice. "You were pretty badly beat up there. Don't move around too much, you still need to rest."
Summer could only faintly see the man trying to help her. All she could really make out was fair skin and black hair. "Where am I...?"
"Mistral," the man answered. "My village is just outside the memorial."
"Memorial?" Summer repeated.
"For Ruby Rose," the man elaborated.
Ruby…?
Summer tried to move again. He was a bit firmer in pushing her back down. "Hey, hey, calm down… you'll hurt yourself if you keep this up."
"The memorial," Summer said again. "What happened? Did she… did she die?"
Please, she begged, please let it not be so.
"A long time ago," the man confirmed. "After she saved us from Salem. Didn't they teach you that in school?"
"Salem…?" Summer repeated.
This man knew who Salem was. And he said Ruby… Ruby saved them. Ruby defeated Salem.
"Wow, you must've been hurt even worse than we thought," the man mused. "Maybe we can get some medicine; you might be running a fever."
"No- no, wait," Summer asked, still reaching out. "Just… just tell me about Ruby. Tell me what happened to her."
"Okay, okay, calm down," the man agreed, gently pressing Summer's hand back to her side. "So… what do you want to know?"
"Everything," Summer requested.
"Everything," the man repeated. "Well, let's see… there's always been these stories about warriors with…"
The man paused, looking down at Summer again. "You… have silver eyes."
"Yes," Summer confirmed. "I got them… from my mother."
"Oh, so you're one of her grandkids? I thought they were all back in Vale…"
Grandkids? Ruby had grandchildren? Summer had great grandchildren?
"Uh, well…" Summer thought quickly, despite the bombshell. "Maybe I'll tell you my story after you tell me hers'?"
The man seemed confused but pressed on. "Alright, sure. We heard tales of silver-eyed warriors. We mostly thought it was a legend, but it turned out there was this teenage girl at an academy in Vale called Beacon…"