Ruby breathed in the familiar scent of fresh smelted steel as she and her sister Yang walked into Beacons forgery. Inside, the leader of team RWBY smiled at all the dozens of kilns, anvils, smelters, and whetstone wheels were placed all around the room.
Ruby liked this room. During the first semester, she'd come here nearly every weekend to work on Crescent Rose. It would have been every weekend if not for her partner/best friend, Weiss, and her sister dragging her out.
Sadly, not everyone was into weapons like she was, and thus the Forges were often left in the bitter cold. Only ever being used if a student's weapon was either damaged and needed a replacement part or destroyed and needed to be replaced. It was quite sad that students didn't think of improving their gear over time.
Ruby had ideas of improving her sniper scythe when she gets the chance. One was to see if she could add a rotating system to the blade of the scythe, having it rotate in a full 180-degree motion to allow her better usage in close combat. She would have added this already but hadn't figured out how to do it properly without making a mistake, like if the whole blade snapping off in the field while battling off a big Grimm.
Walking over to one of the workbenches, she started to make herself at home while she waited for her Mom to arrive. While setting up shop, her mind wandered to the reason she was in the schools' Forges.
She was helping in rebuilding her mother's weapon, Iron Thorn. "Oh! This is so exciting!" Ruby squealed.
Yang gave a little laugh at her sister's adorable attitude. "This is usually the part where I tell you to settle down sis, but I be lying if I didn't feel a little hyped as well."
Yang decided to tag along, wanting to spend more time with the woman that she called her mother. Ruby was too young to remember much of Summer, but the blond did, and she cherished those memories. Often more than once sitting down somewhere and reminiscing them over the years.
Now Summer was back, and they were trying to do things in an attempt to make up for the time lost. Yang wasn't about to let something like this pass.
"You know it still seems unreal that Mom's back. But there have been times where I felt like she was still with us, you know?" Yang said.
"I know what you mean..." Ruby replied.
The redheaded teen looked back under her red cloak, where Crescent Rose hung in its storage form. Her weapon being made from recycled parts of Mom's old claymore sniper. It had taken Ruby months of planning out her weapon and weeks' worth of effort to temper, oxidizes, and refuse the Dust in the metals of Iron Thorns remains back to working conditions for Crescent Rose. At first, she thought about remaking the Claymore gun sword configuration back to its former glory. But she shot that idea down after a talk with her uncle about the weapon should reflect the wielder. With how much Ruby missed her mother at the time and want to be just like her. She would reforge Iron Thorn to reflect her ideas of how she would protect those closest to her.
"Lin, for your thoughts?" A quiet voice asked.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
The teens spun around, surprised to see their mother appeared suddenly. She wore a bemused smile on her face as she looked at her.
"Mom?!" They said together.
"Daughters," Summer replied playfully. "Thank you for coming, are you alright? You both looked like you were deep in thought." She asked as her expression changed to one of concern.
"I'm fine mom," Yang waved it off.
"Just thinking up ideas of what we could upgrade Iron Thorn with," Ruby replied, a bright smile adorn her face.
"Alright, keep your secrets, but if you ever need to talk, my door is always open," Summer was unconvinced, but she let it go for now.
Ruby smiled at the interaction she was now having again with her mother. She had longed for this feeling for most of her life and missed her mother dearly while Yang felt her chest being lighter and filled with a warmth that she hadn't felt in a long time.
"Whelp!" Summer said, getting the girl's attention. "I'm a little rusty with making weapons, but I hear through the grapevine that your the progeny of all things weapons-related." The Commander looked at the younger redhead. "Think you can help me, Corporal Rose?" She asked with the last bit of teasing tone in her voice.
Ruby beamed a smile and saluted, "Yes sir!"
"Ruby... That's the wrong arm," the elder rose said as she tried with all her might not to laugh at the face, the younger Rose was making. "Anyway, let's get started with a blueprint first. Can't just go in this blind without a plan."
"Um, I've got that covered already," Ruby said to the surprised of Summer and Yang as she reached in her bag that she brought with and pulled out a big rolled-up sheet of paper and rolled it out for the older women to see. Summers's and Yang's eyes looked over the paper for barely a second pass before their eyes were as wide as dinner plates.
"Sis, where did you get that?!" Yang said as she was shocked that her younger sister had this.
"Ruby, this is..." Summer said in a stunned voice.
"I made this from the notes and leftover blueprints you left in the workshop at the house back in my first year at Signal. I was planning on rebuilding her later during my time at Beacon for my fourth year. Using her as a possible backup weapon or giving it to Yang for her to use. I haven't decided yet." Ruby explained as she straightened out the paper with paperweights on the four corners. On the said paper was the complete life-size components for remaking the Claymore sniper rifle, Summer's Iron Rose.
Summer's hand drifted down to the paper and traced a few lines with her fingers. Memories of her building and assembling filled her consciousness like a video playing in the back of her head. Plus, some more that were deeply personal.
"I don't think I've ever told anyone this...not even your father or Qrow" or Raven. She thought that last part. "But I think you two here should know this as it concerns my family heritage. Especially you Ruby," Summer said as she looked deep into her daughters now curious silver eyes.
"What's is it, Mom?" Ruby was now giving her mothers full undivided attention.
"You remembered something else?" Yang asked. Summer nodded in confirmation.
"This sword design, my old weapon of choice is the signature weapon that was used by my father, your grandfather. And the rifle portion was from your grandmothers' side, my mother. I went to honor their memory by combining the two along with the rest of the family as the Claymore is the signature weapon of the Rose family."
Ruby listened intently. She didn't know anything about Mom's side of the family as Dad was an orphan and didn't know where his family originated. The redhead now getting to hear more about her grandparents and her family, plus what they use for weapons? Ruby was almost a spark away from ignition to lunch a thousand questions at her mother from the excitement of finally getting answers. "What was our family?" Yang didn't say anything but paid close attention.
Summer walked away for a moment and took some nearby chairs and offered them to her two daughters, which they accepted. Summer took a deep breath before answering. "The Rose family comes from Mistral. History remembers us as one of the greatest living lines of warriors in the kingdoms history. In fact, to this day, there is still a seat on the counsel of Mistral reserved for house Rose. In comparison to what I remember and what I looked up from the CCTS the other day when I was having more memory flashbacks and wanted info. The Rose family could match the Schnees' in influence in Mistral like they could in Mantle."
The sisters were both in awe and confused by this and needed to ask. "But what happened then? If our family was so great and powerful like Weiss's family, why are we the only ones left?" Ruby asked.
They watched Summer close her eyes and stayed silent for a minute before answering. "I was young, probably a little younger then Ruby was when I disappeared that it happened. It all occurred so fast. I don't know what fully happened that day."
They stayed silent while they waited for their mother to finish. "Unlike most of the major players of the kingdom of the high mountains. The Roses lived outside of the capital a good ways away, past the Wind Path in the north. There, the Rose family became the protectors of the north from any threat that may decide to invade the kingdom, whether they be Grimm or not. Wardens of the north, the people at the time referred to us as it was our family that kept the trade routs from Mistral to Mantle cleared of Grimm and kept the settlements safe. They did this for centuries, or so I remember my mother telling me this."
"What changed?" Yang asked.
"I don't know everything as I am still searching for answers, but I have a theory. The Great War." Summer told them. Ruby and Yang exchanged looks before turning back to their mother.
"You think that the war had something to do with this?"
Summer nodded. "I believe it started then, yes. During the war, the Rose family lived under Mistral's rule when they allied with Mantel, but not one of them joined in any battles," she said, shocking the young huntresses.
"What?!" They said together.
"They didn't join the war effort, unlike many of the other houses that did on the council." Summer informed them. "Choosing to stay home and defend the settlements rather than fight their fellow man. Many houses in Mistral looked down upon our family as they believe that the Wardens of the north were cowards for not taking part in the bloody conflicts."
"What made them stay out of the fighting?" Yang said as she was finding the history lesson oddly more enjoyable then Dr. Oobleck's class.
"When Mantel began destroying everything that made us human, and Mistral had to follow through or risk losing their support in the war. The Rose family also weren't supporters of this or slavery that Mantle practiced. Thus, they became an unpopular in the courts but liked by the people that were under their protection. As the war grew, Grimm attacks on settlements increased. Making life difficult for the farms and losing resources for the war to continue.
By the time the war ended. Mistral had lost many of its settlements to the south, west, and east to the monsters."
"But not the north, our family was still there defending the people, right?" Ruby asked to which Summer nodded.
"That's right. Due to not joining the war, the land where the Rose family protected got hit just as hard as everywhere else but had the warriors to defend them against Grimm attacks. That made us very popular with the people and a threat to some of the other noble houses."
Yang's mind processed the information she received before making an educated guess. She didn't know much about how politics worked but figured out what her mother was talking about. "You think someone made a powerplay and wanted to wipe you all out!" Yang said, making her sister go bug-eye and looked back at her mother for confirmation.
"I do," Summer said in confirmation. "As I said, I don't remember much. I do remember my home being quiet one moment asleep in my room before cannons sounding off in the night, and then there was fire everywhere. My mother was dragging me out of bed when the fighting started; we later found my father in his full battle armor with his massive sword in hand and me in my mother's arms as she carried me off away from the fighting. With the sight, I once called home under fire by men with catapults on one side and Grimm on the other. My mother had carried me to a nearby port town before collapsing dead at the feet of a Huntress that was there. That Huntress took me in and raised me like one of her own till I went to Beacon." She finished with a sad look in her eyes.
The three were silent for a moment before Ruby leapt from her chair gave a strong hug for her mother, Yang joining the hug a moment later. Summer was initially surprised by this by the hug but managed to return it. The happiness she got from them, hitting her like a concussion shot. When three broke the hug, Summer smiled happily at them.
"You girls need to stop making me cry like this. I'm going to be losing what street cred I have in the galaxy if anyone saw me like this," she joked, as she wiped a few tears.
"Don't worry, you'll always be Super Mom to us," Yang replied with tears running down her and Ruby's faces.
Summer's happy smile saddened when Yang said that. "Thank you, Yang, but I feel that I'm undeserving of that title," she said much to her daughters' confusion.
"What makes you say that, Mom?" Ruby asked innocently.
"Then I would have been here all this time or had taken a job closer to home, not some mission in Vacuo on another corner of the planet." Summer argued and sat back down in depression. "I don't deserve being a mother to such wonderful girls."
"Nope!" Ruby deadpans with a pop of the 'P.'
Summer looked at Ruby in surprise. "Nope?"
"Nope!" Ruby replied while getting a sense that she's done this before. "You are our mother, Mom. Whether you are alive or dead or on the other side of the galaxy helping save the day, that won't change that."
Summer was stunned by this; she then shook her head, a smile on her face. Was this what it's like being on the receiving end when I talk to people?
"Whelp," Yang said. "I think we've had all the heartfelt moments we can take in one afternoon. How about we start doing what we came here to do in the first place?"
The two roses looked at the blond then back at each other with smiles on their faces. "Yeah, let's get started on these bad boys. These swords won't forge themselves." Summer said.
"Yeah, we've got to - wait, swords? As in more than one?" Ruby said in confusion, Yang too.
Summer nodded with a proud smile. "That's right. We're making Claymores for all three of us as it is the signature weapon of the Rose clan."
The news that they would be making swords for them surprised the girls, doubly so for the blond brawler. Summer saw this and answered before her. "Yang, I know that you know I'm not the one that brought you into this world, but family is more than just the blood that ties us together. It is the bods that we forge that keeps us together. It is stronger than any shield or armor. It is something worth fighting for and protecting with your life."
Summer cupped her hands around her eldest tearstained cheeks. "As the Matriarch of the Rose family, you are my daughter in all but blood that I love very much." Their eyes closed, and foreheads touched. No words were said further as they were not needed.
They separated, with smiles of joy, happiness, and pride.
"Ok, enough delaying, let's get this started before something else distract us." Summer declared with her daughters nodding in agreement.
And with that, the three got to work crafting the weapons that will represent their family.
After that night, Summer, Yang, and Ruby fell into a pattern for the next few days. In the mornings, Summer would do her daily workout before having breakfast with her daughters' team. She then went over the things and duty lessens, plus writing a syllabus for her class. N school may have prepared her for many scenarios, but she may have missed the course on teaching hormonal teenagers with superpowers. The Alliance Officer had more than once been having talks with other members of the staff for pointers. She was asking for tips on how to deal with over emotional teens. Goodwitch was very helpful in this. Summer got access to videos of initiation and got to see how everyone got partnered up and completed their objective.
Seeing her youngest running up a cliff while hooking a giant Nevermore and decapitating the damn thing was something else. Summer was now sure if she showed this to Wrex, he'd make her an honorary Krogen on the spot and send an invite to his clan.
The ex-huntress had to sort out her memories of the things that she lost. Things like bringing out her Aura and manifesting her Semblance were some of the first things she did. She tried the same method that Sumara taught her when harnessing her Biotics, meditating for a few minutes, in the beginning, to bring it out before practicing what she knows and getting some small measures of success in bringing it out.
Ruby and Yang still had classes as Wiess wouldn't allow them to skip. As they said, it was mostly for attendance and receiving notices about assignments for next semester like about their mother's class.
After classes, and Summer's teacher meetings, the three would meet up in the forge and continue working on building their family weapons until well into the night. They stayed silent for the most part, occasionally telling stories about their adventures to each other. But mainly they were just enjoying each other's presence as they bonded over this shared activity.
They each had a hand in making the different components for the swords. Summer worked on the blades in the forger, making sure they are sturdy enough to take a deathstalker claw while sharpened to the point where it can cut through Beowolf in two with ease. Ruby had her hands deep in the fabricator working endlessly on the gun bolts and mechashift gears. Fitting them properly together and making sure they function when activated. Yang was on the construction of the handles and handguards. She worked as sort of a medium between the roses to make sure everything fit properly.
Sparks flew as Summer mercilessly beat away at the red-hot metal. Her augmented strength, reinforced by her Aura, gave her the power to move the dense metal into shape behind each strike. Years of battle had given her the endurance to keep the strikes equal in force and steady along each blade.
Sparks flew through the air, and light reflected off Ruby's giggles. She cut the small sections of material into their essential parts and assembled them to where they needed to be. Her eye of details in the metal and beforehand knowledge of the weapon they were making showed during assembly.
Yang may not have been as dedicated to making weapons as her younger sister was, but she gave it her all. She worked the grinders to filed out and molded the handguards and trigger welds.
At the end of the fourth day, they were ready to assemble their new weapons. Together they pieced their parts into place. When the last part was in place, the three lifted their swords and sowed off their work.
The swords cross-guard and hilt held the colors of their owners, there handles designed in a basket held design. White, red, and yellow. The blades themselves were three feet in length, half-inch thick, and sharp. Gunmetal gray box outlets contained the mechashift pieces for their gun modes.
Each weapon looked the same in its sword form, aside from the color scheme that matched the Huntress holding them, each held a different gun form.
Summer hit the weapon shift mechanism, and like the one that she lost a decade ago and a sniper barrel fitted out the end. One side of the guard moved down, and a scope popped out for ranged targets; the other revealed a handgrip and trigger weld. The pommel extended out a few inches before folding down to a proper buttstock.
Ruby's sword shifted next, similar to her mothers, mines the scope, and shorter barrel. Unlike Ruby's bolt action sniper, she made her sword into more of DMR with its semi-automatic feature. It was going to give her better mid-range combat capabilities so she could hit more targets with ease.
Yang's sword was the same as her sister and mother, with the barrel being the shortest and the wide's of the three. It also didn't have a magazine welled as they did. Instead, it had a tubular magazine that ran under the barrel with a semi-automatic function.
"Wow," Yang breathed out.
"This is so cool!" Ruby gushed with nerdy glee.
Summer felt the old familiar weight in her hand. Memories of hunts and fights flew into her mind as her Iron Thorn shifted back into sword form. Looking at her girls, she sees them admiring their new weapons. "What are their names?"
Ruby looked her's over one more time thinking hard on what to name her new weapon. "Red Legacy."
"Dragons Fang," Yang said as she lifted her sword high into the air.
Summer smiles proudly at her daughters as they examine their new weapons. "Whelp, I guess there is only one thing left to do."
"Test them out in the field," Yang said, pumped up for a fight.
"Yeah!" Ruby cheered.
A collection of growling sounded off, making the three hug their stomachs. Yang was the first to speak. "Maybe we should hold this off till later after we get something to eat?"
"Agreed," the Rose's said together.
And we're back with another family bounding chapter!
Originally I was just going to have Summer with Ruby in the workshop making Iron Thorn and learning more about her family but decided to add Yang in as well. I also was going to have them only make Iron Thorn but then decided to do more and have them add Ruby and Yang's new weapons. It took me a bit to come up with names for them as I wanted to be original with the naming scheme and not pledge off off of someone else.(Or I think I did and didn't know)
Also this is my take on the Rose family and what they were before it became just to Summer and then Ruby. I took this from inspiration from the video game "For Honor" and the TV show "Game of Thrones." I hope you all enjoy reading this.
