Six years had passed since that fateful day that Summer had given her DNA to the scientists at Astra City, barely over five since they'd been blessed with Ruby, yet if felt like it had all gone by in a flash. Raven had accompanied Summer to Astra City, been admitted as one of the lead trainers, and had come to be Ruby's favorite instructor, likewise with most other clones who were already twice the physical development as her.
Ruby had accompanied Summer every time they'd gone to Astra, being such a necessity as the scientists had needed to do routine medical examinations on her to be sure that she was healthy and the cloning had proceeded without any flaws... well, that and most any Kingdom doctor would outright refuse to service a clone. It wasn't easy being a clone in the Kingdoms, that much was certain.
The Schnee Dust Company, as explained six years prior, had indeed backed the project, but also kept absolute secrecy of it outside of Astra, with Jacques Schnee often bringing his three children with him. Summer didn't like the man, personally, but knew that none of this project would even be remotely possible without his funding, nor would it be possible without the equipment provided by Xonolite Armory, a sort of off-shooting branch of the SDC that specialized in everything arms and armor.
"Ah, Miss Rose, welcome back to Astra City! I take it that you're here for another sample donation and CT-01-00001's yearly evaluation?" A doctor in white inquired to the woman, who had mostly spaced out thinking about other things. Shaking her head back and forth furiously, she looked the doctor in his pale blue eyes, before nodding her head, and setting a hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"Yes, I am, and Ruby is here for that much as well, though, if I may inquire, is her little friend here too?" Summer managed to get out without stuttering, getting a warm smile from the man in response.
"Yes, the Schnees have been here for two days, and are planning on remaining here for the remaining three of the week, Ma'am. Would you like me go see if I cannot retrieve her or Whitley?" Ruby, at the mention of that boy, scoffed in distaste. It was no secret that she and Whitley did not get along, not at all. While she got along fine with Weiss, and to a... distant extent, Winter, she by no means wanted any sort of interaction with Whitley. "Well, I suppose that's my answer... I'll go see if Miss Weiss is available. Now, Miss Rose, you already know where the room is for your donation. I'll lead Ruby to the medical evaluation bay."
He grabbed Ruby's hand, and tried to lead her along, though the girl quickly snatched back her hand and swatted away the doctor's hand. She did not like these "Scientists" at the city, and would much rather be left alone. She made this rather obvious, much to the chagrin of the doctors and scientists that called the city home, and though they wanted so desperately to call her a defective clone, to purge her like they did any other clone that showed such blatant "flaws," they knew that she was, in fact, acting just as they'd made her.
Ruby had developed an extremely independent personality early on, and despite only being six, had developed her own, very unique personality. Summer had taken a liking to it quickly, so had her husband and other teammates. Raven in particular spent extra time tutoring her, as she'd developed a quick fondness to the child. "Feisty," Raven had called her. She was not mistaken, and the girl took after her in several aspects.
Stepping into the bay, Ruby immediately cringed and wanted to do a 180 and walk out the room at the sight of all the medical instruments and that cold, damnable metal table. There were two more doctors in the bay, who seemed just as unwillingly there as Ruby was. Ruby, however, wasn't oblivious to the fact that they wanted her terminated. "Defective," they constantly called her... but she was okay with that, if only to piss them off. They wanted to terminate her, but she was well above their reach, and she knew it, relished in their distaste for her, as to her, the feeling was mutual.
"Alright, CT-01-00-" the First doctor began, though was hastily cut off by the child.
"It's Ruby, you know this already!" She growled, pointing a finger at them angrily.
"-001." The doctor continued, his voice straining to keep from yelling at the defective clone. "We're to begin your medical evaluation now, if you'll just lay down on the table." He said through grit teeth. Ruby, though reluctantly, laid down, and allowed them to do all their tests, the blood samples, brain scan and all.
When it, like always, came up with everything being perfectly fine, Ruby decided to excuse herself rather than wait for the doctors to call one of their seniors to take her to her room. She knew the way, and didn't need some idiot in a lab coat to guide her there, dammit!
She found her room with no trouble and let herself in, immediately plopping down on her bed. The mattresses were comfortable enough that Ruby wouldn't complain, and it was so conveniently placed right next to the Schnee Family's room where her friend Weiss no doubt was. Of course, she had to wait for her mother's return before going over, as Jacques did not allow Weiss or Whitley to go to the Rose Family's room without adult supervision.
Honestly, Ruby was surprised the man allowed Weiss to speak with clones at all. He didn't much seem to like the Faunas, saw them as inferior even, so it made absolutely no sense that he actually seemed to treat clones like people, whereas the rest of Remnant might as well have considered them less than slaves, not even enough worth to be considered property. But Ruby didn't focus too much on it, after all, the minds of men like him were an enigma even she could never hope to comprehend.
It wasn't until about thirty minutes passed that her mother entered, clad in her usual, simplistic black combat gear, her white cloak donned as always. Ruby slammed into her in as strong a hug as she could give, merely getting the older woman to chuckle, before bending down and returning the hug. Brushing Ruby's hair affectionately, she lifted the short girl up and placed her feet first on her bed, looking at the girl with a content smile while looking at her at eye-level. She'd gotten word of Ruby's standoffish behavior towards the doctors, and how she was "too attached" to the name given to her. It only made her laugh, as like always the doctors had not gotten any thicker a skin on them, metaphorically speaking.
"Heya, Rubes! Gave the doctors a hard time, did ya?" Summer inquired happily, receiving an excited nod from her clone daughter. "Hahah, Good girl!"
"Mommy, can Weiss come over? Can Weiss come over?! I wanna show her the designs you made for my future armor! Pleasepleasepleaseplease?!." The girl stammered out, bouncing on her toes and springing up and down wildly from being on the mattress.
"Yes, sweetie, Weiss can come over." She responded, giving Ruby another big hug before setting her down and watching the little red blur rush out the door and knock both loudly and at an insane pace on the Schnee door. Not even a minute later, Ruby sped back into the room, throwing herself on her bed, with a little child in white following closely after her, if at a much more believable speed. She laughed as she watched Ruby rifle through her things in her search for the designs, sitting down in turn at her own desk and beginning to sort through all sorts of paperwork pertaining to training and the results of said training for the entire army on a larger scale...
It was maybe six hours later, the two girls doing whatever came to mind, from watching television to wrestling on the floor. In many ways, Ruby and Weiss were closer to each other than they were to anyone else in their age group, even closer than Yang was to Ruby... Then again, ruby and Yang weren't so close. With Yang going to Signal, she'd returned with some less than accepting views of clones like Ruby on more than one occasion.
Of course, Yang no longer dared to say such things to the girl in her face. Despite the clear difference in physical development, the augments Ruby was designed with gave her an easy edge over her older sister, an edge she had, as though it were just built into her very nature, exploited to great effect every time. Summer, of course, did not tolerate such opinions, though as far as their dad went? Well, while it was clear that he did love Ruby, it was very obvious that there was clear favoritism towards Yang in him. So to Ruby, seeing that Weiss saw Clones as no different than any other human in the room was rather refreshing, especially considering that her own "Sister" clearly wasn't as tolerant towards clones as even their father was.
"Hmmm... Ruby, I think you should move your marines up six inches." Weiss said, pointing at the point she was thinking of on the holoboard. They were playing a sort of holographic tabletop wargame, with 3D figures of what Summer's clones would look like in full armor and equipped to the teeth, against an AI using models of White Fang terrorists.
"No, that would leave them open to fire from the HA-72Cs on the rooftop ahead and remove their rapid fire bonus, which would be the only saving grace they'd get against the gun." Ruby mused, looking around the battlefield. "You've got two squads further down the street. Divert your flame trooper squad five inches closer to the building's flank so they can burn e'm out and my guys can move up, unharmed."
Weiss sighed, Ruby's more combat-enhanced mind taking prominence once again. She nodded, following through with the strategy and successfully killing the heavy weapon team. Honestly, at times she wondered just how advanced her enhanced mind was, what with her supreme capacity for anything and everything combat related... of course, this came with the catch of her personality that left her as an acquired taste at best...
Of course, she was a far cry from her brother Whitley, which was good enough for her.
"So, that's the field report?" Raven sighed, bringing a hand up to caress her aching forehead.
"Yes, Ma'am, and as her most trusted adviser, and her second in command, I am happy to report that this means you are the new leading director/trainer of the army!" The doctor said in a cheery tone, a smile present on his face in contrast to the mournful look newly found in Raven's eyes. It had been another three years passed, and at the turn of the decade, 5220, Summer Rose had been assassinated in the middle of Vale. "Ma'am? Are you worried about the Army?" He inquired, finally noticing the look in her eyes after a good minute of silence following his declaration.
"It's hardly the army I'm worried about." Raven muttered nigh inaudibly, looking over to the young girl just behind her, her silver eyes teary as the information of her mother's death was dropped right in front of her, so casually as though she wasn't even there...
"Doctor?" She began, her voice sharpening slightly, showing obvious anger in her tone.
"Yes, Ma'am? Is there any way I can be helpful?"
"Yes, there is... Get. Out." She growled. The doctor quickly bow, and took his leave before the aggressive woman could lash out on him.
A tense moment of silence followed, before Raven stood from her chair in a blur and swept everything off her desk with a mighty roar of rage and anguish. Glass shattered against the walls and ceramic knickknacks smashed to pieces against the tiled floors, papers flew and were scattered across the room haphazardly. She sunk back into her chair after only a few moments, letting her face sink into her hands as she struggled to comprehend the news.
Summer Rose, The Bane of Terrorvex, had been assassinated? She couldn't believe it, it just wasn't possible, she was too strong... Then again, as she'd learned from these clones, strength was hardly the sole deciding factor in a life-or-death situation, and outright wasn't a factor if someone could attack from stealth, undetected.
A shot in the dark had killed Summer from behind, she had read, and while it was still so difficult to comprehend Summer's death, she knew that something like this just couldn't be a fake. Sighing lightly, she turned her chair around to face Ruby, who actively had tears streaming down her face at this point, barely holding physical composure. Said composure was immediately broken when Raven opened her arms, and the young girl fell into her, bawling her eyes out and weakly slamming her fist into the chair.
She sighed heavily, before looking back up, and out the window. It was a dark, stormy night, the waves crashing against the jagged rocks jutting out of the sea and the dull roar of distant lightning and it's light faintly illuminating her features in it's pale glow. The storm was much akin to the inner turmoil of Raven, realizing finally that it wasn't just Summer Rose who had died, it was her partner... her friend.
"No... oh no..." Raven muttered, just before the doors slid open, revealing two doctors, each with shock batons and handguns. Her eyes widened, realizing just what they were here for...
"Hello, CT-01-00001. We require you to come with us, sweetie." The female on the right said, and the girl immediately began to backpedal, knowing just as well what they were here for as Raven did.
"You will not take her!" Raven roared violently as she dared to tell them off, rising from her chair and pointing at them.
"Ma'am, her guardian is dead. Her adoptive father has already expressed that he'd rather not see CT-01-00001 again. She will not be physically ready for war by the time it's projected to break out, meaning she is, by every mean, defective, and should be terminated as such." She tried to explain, angering Raven even further.
"Have you no Honor?!. Her mother may be dead and father forsaken her, but I will NOT! I will take care of her... now, leave!"
"Summer Rose transferred no rights of guardianship to you, and the father forfeit his. With all due respect, you do not have a say in this matter, Ma'am."
"Oh, I think I do... You can take her... if you can get through me, first." Raven dared, resting her palm on the hilt of her blade. The doctors sighed, before the male on the left touched his hand to an earpiece, immediately followed up with twenty elite clone soldiers flooding into the room, the mighty Hoots troopers. Raven grit her teeth as the soldiers trained their sights on her and the girl. The 100 Hoots Troopers were named after a mighty, no, mythical hero of old, the Hootsman, and lived up to their name. Trained by Raven, Summer, Qrow, Glynda and James Ironwood personally, she knew damn well that she wouldn't stand a chance against all these troopers, not all together.
"Apologies, Miss Branwen, but we cannot have you interfering with this matter. Hoots Troopers, if she tries to stop the execution, gun her down." The female said in a cocky, triumphant tone. The Hoots troopers were silent for a moment, before responding.
"...Yes, ma'am." They replied in monotone, with fifteen training their sights on Ruby, the other five on Raven, the former freezing on the spot at the sight of her own flesh and blood, her own sisters, training their sights on her, the latter grimacing as she reached out and grabbed hold of Ruby's hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Hoots Troopers, Take Aim!" The doctor said contently, a sadistic smirk present on her face. Raven's expression hardened, before closing her eyes and awaiting the inevitable fate her Niece would face at the hands of her own sisters... oh, how cruel fate was...
"Fire!" The doctor cried, a cacophony of blaster fire echoing throughout the room, followed by mortified, bloodcurdling screams...