Chapter 23

"This is Yang Xiao Long broadcasting on open channel."

Summer blinked. "Uh, Sweetie."

"Ruby, do me a favor and turn on your radio."

"Fire Lily."

"Blake, any chance you learned any tricks on boasting a radio signal while in the White Fang?"

"YANG!" Summer finally yelled, "What are you doing?!"

"What am I doing?!" The blonde brawler asked. "What are you doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"

"Wha…?"

"I finally got it, you know." Yang said with a sigh. "You mentioned during your explanation that there were one or two other commands from President Jackass that became permanent, but at the time I was too upset to understand what that meant."

"What are you…?"

"'Follow all Project Huntsman orders.'" Yang declared, making Summer freeze in her tracks. "That was one of Jackass' commands, wasn't it?"

"How did you…?"

"I didn't know for sure until you told me just now." Yang said with a shrug even as a tear leaked from her eye. "But it was the only thing that made sense."

Yang quickly wrapped Summer Rose up into a hug. "You were only able to see us after you were literally ordered to do so...and I went and…"

"Shh, it's okay, Sweetie," Summer said as she returned the hug, even as she let out a few tears of happiness, knowing that the first step to truly repairing their bond had been taken. "You didn't know...but you are right. Even now, I feel this itch in the back of my mind telling me to take all of you out and let Holly be captured. I've long since learned how to ignore it to a degree, but unfortunately, that itch won't go away until the 'mission' ends or I get orders from a higher ranking officer."

"Well in that case, stand down, Agent Rose," came the command of one Professor Ozpin, who was followed closely by Jasmine and company.

"Professor Ozpin?!" Summer Rose declared, not quite registering the "itch" had vanished due to her shock. "What are you…?"

"The Professor and I were just discussing the terms of the alliance I proposed." Jasmine remarked, sighing as she looked upon Holly. "Such a shame that Alex is not here at the moment: he'd be over the moon to know that this day has finally come."

"Wait a minute; you…?" Needless to say, Penny didn't quite know how to finish her question even as she pointed at Ozpin.

The vessel of the reincarnating wizard gave a bitter chuckle. "Jacques did his best to keep as much distance between me and 'his' project as possible, but he never was able to completely get rid of my authority as a founder of 'Project Huntsman', so there's little he can do to stop this: from this moment on, Agent Rose, obey only the commands you yourself wish to follow: you are a slave to no one."

"That's great and all," Raven remarked, briefly smiling as Summer looked like a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders, "but we've still got a psychotic A.I. who's no doubt started to narrow down our location despite Yang's little radio show. We still need a plan on how to deal with her."

"And I think I've got one." Taiyang offered. "When Paulette takes over Summer, we'll isolate her just like we did with Sheila and Pamela. Shouldn't be too hard, right?"

"Yang, did you call me?" Pyrrha's voice came over Yang's scroll.

"Oh, shit! Pyrrha!" Yang yelped.

"Huurk! SHUT UP, YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF MEAT!" Pyrrha suddenly snapped. "And you know what?! I'm not sorry! I'm never sorry! From now on, you'll all have to tell me that you're sorry! MWA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"... I think I know where Paulette is." Yang said.

Meanwhile, inside Pyrrha's mind, Paulette was becoming acutely aware of her surroundings. "What?! No! This is not the mind I meant to possess!"

"Oh, why hello, there!" Mental Pyrrha greeted her as she set her weapons on the floor. "Oh, Jaune! We have a guest! Will you be a dear and get some wine from the cellar?"

Suddenly, a mental image of Jaune Arc - effortlessly carrying five babies with red and blonde hair - came into existence. "Sure thing, beautiful! Just let me put our miracles to bed!"

"Hurry back, darling~!" Mental Pyrrha kissed the air.

"My feet have wings, sweet tush~!" Mental Jaune kissed back.

"Dear gods. If I had a stomach, I'd be vomiting so hard." Paulette cringed.

Back in the real world, Pyrrha had pinned her team leader to a tree with a crazed look in her eyes. "Pyrrha?! What are you doing?!" He cried, fearfully.

"Silence, you ignorant tease!" The invincible girl snapped. "I have been sending you signals for months! But no more! From now on, every evening, you will make sweet, passionate love to me until it feels as if your heart is going to explode! And quit chasing after that white-haired bitch! Or else, I'll cut your nuts off!MWA-HAHAHAHA! MWA-HAHAHAHA!" Just then, Nora and Ren - having been informed of Paulette - began beating their possessed friend in the hopes of exorcising the malevolent A.I. "Ow! The back of my lower legs! Ow! The side of my head! The front of my front-!"

"Hey, guys? Are we still talking on the radio?" Ruby asked, only for Paulette to take advantage of her naivety. "Because I love to talk on the radio! MWA-HAHAHAHA! Wait a minute… what am I doing back in this idiot?!"

"Oh, no you don't!" Weiss shouted. Putting on a slimmer version of the mental-connection device, Weiss easily followed Paulette into Ruby's mind, only to be greeted by a familiar blonde brawler.

"Yang?" Weiss arched an eyebrow. "What're you doing… oh, right."

"Hey, check it out!" Mental Yang shouted, swinging her sword around, happily. "I have a stupid sword, and I won't let anyone else play with it! But that's fine, because no one even wants to play with it! Also, I have a half-grimm baby with Blake! And I still won't tell Ruby how babies are made! But I don't have to, because everyone knows where babies come from! Stupid babies!"

"Okay, everyone stop!" Weiss shouted. "I need you to take me to Ruby, right now!"

"What?!" Mental Jaune barfed. "Why would you want to see Ruby?"

"Because I…" Weiss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Because I am… her waifu."

"Oh. Well, why didn't you just say so?"

Just then, her scroll went off, causing Weiss to frown. "That's weird. I didn't think that this would actually work in here. Also, who would be calling me in here?" she couldn't help but ask, only to blink as the Mental images looked at her in confusion. "I...I mean, I thought for sure that I had turned this thing off. I didn't want any interruptions while I spoke with my future consort in person."

"Ah. Yeah, that makes sense." Mental Jaune remarked.

"Wow, she really does love my sister." Mental Yang declared, the twin comments filling the heiress with both relief and remorse. Relief that the Mental images had been fooled and thus Paulette was ignorant of her presence for the moment. Remorse because Mental-Yang's commentary proved that a small part of Ruby - and Yang, by extension - still had some lingering fears about her partner hating her.

"I'll need to remember to put any doubts you have about me to rest for good at some point," Weiss directed at Mental-Yang - and by extension Ruby herself - with a nod before walking off a safe distance to answer her scroll. "Uh, hello?"

"Why so nervous, your grace?" came the voice of her Mental image. "After all, if you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?"

Weiss couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh. "Nice to know you're alive and kicking...though not to seem rude or anything, but…"

"... 'I'm not you.' Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before, you know." Mental-Weiss could be heard rolling her eyes over the scroll. "Thanks for throwing a temper tantrum about it and getting me killed, btw."

"Wait, you…?"

"OF COURSE I REMEMBER IT, YOU DUNCE!" Mental-Weiss yelled out, before gasping. "...no one's heard that, right?"

"No, but…"

"I"m Ruby's memory of you, remember?" Mental-Weiss snapped. "That means everything she knows about you, even subconsciously, is stored up in me. I know everything about you… including how you got me killed because of how much you…"

"I DON'T HATE HER!" Weiss yelled out, briefly looking around, breathing a sigh of relief when she found that Paulette hadn't discovered her. "I don't hate her. If anything, I'm the one I hate. I hate that I'm constantly losing my temper and putting my friends and loved ones in danger as a result. I hate that I couldn't do anything to stop all the suffering that Blake, Yang, Penny, and especially Ruby have had to go through. I hate that it took me so long to realize just how much each and every one of my friends and loved ones mean to me." Briefly pausing, she attempted to do a summon of her Arma Gigas, only to fail once again, letting a tear fall from her eye. "I just...I hate how weak I am sometimes."

"You're not weak." Mental-Weiss could be heard grinning over the scroll. "Temperamental? Yes. Stubborn? Definitely. But weak? No. The only way you'll ever truly be weak is if you stop trying. That's probably why I...why we fell in love with the little Dolt: despite all that she's had to go through, despite all the pain, not even once has she ever stopped trying to do what's best for everyone around her. It's her greatest strength: the ability to look the forces of Darkness right in the eye and say, 'Back off,' without even flinching...but she's still only one person. She needs someone like you or Penny to have her back when the Darkness becomes too strong: to let her know that she doesn't have to fight her battles alone."

"...I don't know if I'm strong enough to do that," Weiss finally said with a nod, "but I do know that I'm willing to try." She then let out a bitter chuckle. "I realize this isn't entirely accurate, but still: kind of odd, getting a pep talk from myself."

"I'm a part of Ruby: you know that she would do this if she had the opportunity, just like you would do the same for her."

"Touche," Weiss remarked, before blinking. "Speaking of which, where is Ruby? Actually now that I think of it, where are you?"

"Regarding your latter question, currently, Penny - or as you know her as, 'Mental-Penny,' - and I are trying to avoid Paulette." Mental-Weiss declared with a huff. "Apparently, Paulette doesn't want to deal with the risk of the two of us interfering in her plans again and thus intends to get rid of us as soon as possible. As for Ruby…"

"...she's right behind you," a newly arrived Paulette declared, holding Mental-Ruby up by the throat. "Despite this not being who I intended to possess, I do recall having some good memories within this body."

With that, Paulette threw Mental-Ruby on the ground before taking out a pistol, giving Weiss a menacing grin as she did. "You have two choices, Schnee: leave and I'll spare your partner's life. Stay and fight, and I put one right between her eyes."

Weiss looked at Mental-Ruby, noting that there was nothing but pity in her eyes as she gazed upon Paulette, before shaking her head. "...no you won't." Weiss declared. "If you truly wanted to kill her, you would have done it before you even confronted me. And come to think of it, it's pretty weird that I managed to survive a tank shell that was meant to kill Ruby during my last visit to this place. I suspect not only that you won't kill Ruby, but you can't: not in here, at least."

"What do you mean?" Paulette demanded, Mental-Ruby giving Weiss a look that asked the same thing.

"You feel it, don't you?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow. "Despite all you've done, Ruby still views you as her sister, and she'd never harm those she considers her friends or family… which means, neither will you."

"Wha...what are you saying?" For the first time since they'd met her, Paulette was actually sounding afraid.

Weiss approached Mental-Ruby, a confident expression on her face. "You think you have control. That you can make Ruby - make us - as angry as you'd like. But that connection goes both ways. You feel everything your 'puppet' feels. You feel everything." And that was all the warning Mental-Ruby got before Weiss placed her lips on top of hers.

Needless to say, Paulette wasn't expecting that...nor did she expect the surge of positive emotions that assaulted her core. Like Weiss had said, the connection went both ways, and it seemed that Weiss was determined to showcase all the emotions she had for the hooded huntress within her kiss. ALL of her emotions. More specifically, her positive emotions. "Wha...what is this? Where's the rage? Where's the rage!?" She then gave a frightened growl. "I have no choice: I'll have to resort to that." With that, the angry A.I. disappeared.

"What did she mean by that?!" Weiss demanded as she broke the kiss.

"Clearing the board," Mental-Ruby declared, a grim look on her face. "She wouldn't tell me much, but Paulette kept going on and on about some 'endgame' that she had in reserve. About two miles North of Beacon."

Weiss could only give a nod by way of reply. "We'll take care of it...but first, I need to ask: are you okay?"

"I am now," Mental-Ruby said with a sigh of relief, before gaining a blush. "So, uh, pretty clever, using the connection I had with Paulette against her."

"Turning Paulette's own strengths against her was my basic strategy, but the kiss? Nothing 'strategic' about it," Weiss declared, giving Mental-Ruby a quick peck on the lips with a smile despite knowing that this wasn't her Ruby, not really. "I love you, Dolt."

"G...good to know," Mental-Ruby managed to say before Weiss made her return to the real world. However, had the Schnee heiress stayed just a bit longer, she might have noticed a caterpillar finishing it's climb over a tiny, glowing white broadsword that suddenly vanished in a sparkling flash. She also would have noticed Mental-Penny returning to the group, wearing a stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl outfit. Mental-Ruby held both Mental-Weiss' and Mental-Penny's hands, giving each of them a kiss on the cheek.

"B-but, Ruby-san…" Mental-Penny stammered. "A-aren't I-"

"Don't worry, my love. I have two hands for a reason." Mental-Ruby replied. "Besides; my mom's brain just makes up a little bit of you. So it doesn't count."

Back in the real world, Weiss wasn't surprised to see that Paulette was still wreaking havoc on her friends.

"Give it up, Paulette: it's over." Summer declared with a nod.

"Over?" Paulette laughed as her Doppelganger allies - having been contacted shortly after she had exited Ruby's mindscape -dropped a rather large machine off of the stolen Manta that she and Tyrian had escaped on earlier. "My old friend, it hasn't even begun."

Ruby gasped. "That's...that's the machine from the blueprints she showed me back when she tried to make me surrender myself to her."

Raven looked upon the machine in front of them...and paled. "Oh, shoot: she found the Branwen Tribe's secret weapon. The leader before me had started development on a weather control device, but I abandoned the project as my own status as the Spring Maiden more-or-less rendered it unnecessary, though I kept it around to keep it out of the wrong hands...but how is that thing even running? It was always missing two important pieces of technology to make it work!"

Paulette just gave a smug laugh. "Got to love Atlas: they've got plenty of circuit boards that your predecessor could only dream of getting his hands on - one of which my associate Agent Black was kind enough to grab for me before his unfortunate passing - and now that I've located those 'D' batteries, all of Remnant will be mine!"

Yang couldn't help but give Raven a flat look. "Seriously? I mean, I understand the circuit board - I don't think you could be 100% certain you'd be grabbing the right one - but you weren't able to locate 'D' batteries?!"

Raven simply gave a sheepish grin and a shrug. "Only at gas stations, and the tribe wasn't exactly rolling in money at the time. Why do you think we raided neighboring settlements so much? Besides, like I said, my status as the Spring Maiden more-or-less rendered the whole thing obsolete."

Paulette gave a dark chuckle. "Well, let's see just how 'obsolete' it is."

Penny just gave a determined nod. "Yes. Let's."

"Ah, yes… the machine." Paulette cackled as she lunged forward to possess the strongest member of Team CPPR. Just as Penny had hoped, the malevolent A.I. had dug her cybernetic fingernails into her digital mind, trying to possess her.

"AH! Summer, now! Before she-!" Penny's fear was soon proven as she froze in place… only to blink in confusion. "Huh. That's weird. I don't... feel any differently."

"Neither did I at first." Ruby declared, "but why take chances?" With that, Summer connected the hardline from Sheila into Penny's head, sending the A.I. into the ship along with Pamela.

"You okay, Sheila?" The Guardsman asked.

"Yes. She is trying to get through my fire walls, but she is having trouble trying. She is not very smart."

"I heard that," Paulette declared with a growl.

"Then it's time for us to head off." Summer declared with a nod.

"You really have to go?" Ruby found herself asking sometime later.

"I'm afraid so," Summer declared even as she brought her daughter into a hug. "As far as Jacques knows, I'm still his thrall. If I don't head back, he might take drastic measures to try and get me back under his control." She smiled. "But don't worry: I won't be leaving until tomorrow, and I'll be contacting you and your sisters as often as I can. In the meantime, however, never forget that your mother has always loved you."

"I… we love you too," Yang said as she joined in on the hug with a sigh. "I guess this is goodbye, then."

"No it's not," Summer immediately replied. "Never say goodbye. I hate goodbyes. We will see each other again: I promise."

Penny nodded as she too joined in on the embrace. "I've said it before while I was in the past and I'll say it again: I'm honored to call you 'Mom.'"

"And I am honored to call you my daughters," Summer said even as she broke the embrace, before looking towards Blake and Weiss. "Look after them for me, okay?"

"Always," Blake and Weiss declared together.

Summe gave Holly a kiss on the forehead. "Take care, Gelibiebte."

"Bless you," Ruby remarked.

"No, you dolt," Weiss declared with a roll of her eyes. "That's an German term. It means 'Beloved.'"

"So, when are you going to start calling my sister that?" Yang suddenly asked, a teasing grin on her face.

Taiyang gave a brief chuckle as he and Raven approached the group, even as Weiss' face turned a scarlet red. "So, you're leaving us."

"Not until tomorrow," Summer said with a nod. "But yes: I need to keep Ozpin informed of what Jacques is up to and this is the best way to do so. Don't worry, though: tonight, we intend to make up for lost time."

Taiyang gave a blush as he noticed his wife's bedroom eyes. "Well, you won't hear me complaining about...wait: 'we?'"

Here, Raven gave a flirtatious smile of her own. "Yes, 'we.' After all, Summer did say that she was okay with sharing. Don't worry, Tai: I won't bite… much."

"...I am both terrified and aroused." Taiyang couldn't help but remark.

"You should be," Summer declared as she and Raven dragged the man towards the nearest bedroom. "After all, we both have several years of pent up tension to unleash."

"Yang, I'm not sure how I feel about this," Ruby directed at her sister.

"I know what you mean, sis. I know what you mean."

The next day, having said their final goodbyes to Summer alongside everyone else - except Taiyang, who was still unconscious from the night before - Ruby and Penny decided it might be a good idea to make sure that Barmak, Mirror, whatever his name was didn't make another appearance.

"Hey, Penny?" Ruby asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"

Penny smiled at her best friend and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "You know what, Ruby? I used to not care. I used to just follow my orders, try to make friends, and hope everything would turn out alright. But you know what I've learned? I've learned that following orders isn't always the right thing to do. Especially when those orders risk hurting your friends. Even if your friends are a bit of a weapons nut. Or an ice queen. Or a shut in. Or a musclehead. I mean, those aren't reasons to hurt someone. In fact, it's those qualities that make those people more endearing. Especially since your best friend turns out to be the real daughter of the woman whose brain formed the basis of your consciousness, which - while it ruined your chances at a romantic relationship with her - actually means that you're closer to her than you ever thought! And because of that, you can't stand to see anything happen to them. Because you love them. In ways more than a girlfriend, or a sister, or a person. You love them, because they're them."

A long awkward silence hung over the air as Ruby's cheeks slowly heated up. "Uh… I meant, 'why are we up here in the sun, when we could be down there in the shade?'"

"Oh…" Penny suddenly felt embarrassed at the long revelation and decided to brush it off. "Yeah, let's go stand in the shade."

Meanwhile, Nora and Ren spotted the two friends talking as they went off to get lunch. "What're they doing?" Nora asked.

"What?"

"I said 'what're they doing now?'"

"I don't know." Ren shrugged. "Talking. That's all they're doing. That's all those two ever do; just stand around and talk."

"... what're they talking about?" Nora smiled, cheekily.

"You know what?" Ren sighed. "You may be an obnoxious, babbling, uber-violent nut… but you're my obnoxious, babbling, uber-violent nut."

"Aaaw!" Nora gushed.

"Hey! You two!" Raven shouted, despite the slight spring she now had in her step. "Come help me load this stuff into the Warthog before I come over there and-!"

"I'm gonna stop you right there!" Ren interrupted. "You don't need to finish that threat, we'll be right over!"

"Hehe!" Nora giggled. "You're scared of bats and women!"

"Hey, Nora?" Ren smirked. "Shotgun."

"Fuck!" Nora cursed.

To Be Continued