Chapter 32
"Whoa! What's Ruby's mom doing here?!" Pyrrha stammered. "And why is she looking at us like that?!"
"I don't think it's her, not really," Jaune said with a gulp as "Summer" approached them. "You guys remember how she mentioned that Jacques had somehow managed to bind her portion of the Summer Maiden to his robots? From what Ruby has told me, Weiss is always making sure that her teammates have plenty of Dust with them when they go out on missions: how much do you want to bet that her sorry excuse for a father was the same way with Robo-Summer's body? And that not all of the spare bodies had our Summer's natural sense of rebellion against President Schnee?"
"That...makes a scary amount of sense," Nora said, her face a strange mixture of disgust and horror at how perverse, to borrow Yang's terminology when referencing Barmak's connection to Holly, Weiss' genetic donor was.
From the way Ren nodded, he felt the same and was once more grateful that Weiss wasn't anything like "Jackass," though still he gestured to the approaching "Summer" with a frightened look to remind everyone that they had other problems right now. "So, uh, what's the plan now, Jaune?"
"The same plan we use every time we find ourselves in over our heads," their leader said with a gulp. "RUN!"
Back at the improvised base, Summer quirked an amused eyebrow as Raven came out of the bedroom she and Taiyang had been sharing. "Enjoy yourself?" she asked with a teasing grin, nodding to the messy way her friend was currently dressed.
Raven snorted. "Are you kidding me? Summer Rose or not, I have to thank you for helping us rekindle our spark a while back." She then frowned. "Actually, that reminds me: did you…?"
"Love him?" Robo-Summer asked with a sigh. "Not in the way you're implying. Not in the way the real Summer did. I respect him, and I can understand what my mental origin saw in him, but that's arguably one of the worst parts about having her memories: I can recall all the reasons that I should be able to love him, but thanks in no small part to the tampering Jacques did to me, I can never truly love him in the way that I want to. Don't get me wrong, though: I really enjoyed that night we shared."
Raven snorted. "Oh, yeah: that night was great." She then sighed. "I have no doubt that this must be painful for you."
"You have no idea." Robo-Summer said with a melancholy grin, an oily tear leaking from her eye. "But for what it's worth? I never once lied about loving Yang or Ruby: they're still my daughters, after all."
"I know," Raven said with a bittersweet grin of her own even as she whipped away the tear from Robo-Summer's eye. "And that's why any version of Summer Rose will always have a place in our lives. You weren't just my friend: you were my sister."
"Hey, guys can you hear me?" Ruby's voice called out over the radio. "I'd really appreciate it if you came over here: the base Penny found for us had a rogue Summer-bot that's currently attacking us."
Raven merely let out a sheepish chuckle as she straightened herself out. "Well, almost any version."
Summer shook her head. "No, it's fine: I know what you mean. Go get properly dressed while I see if Qrow or Cinder is nearby: even if they didn't plan this, I wouldn't put it past them to take advantage of this." She then gave Raven an encouraging grin. "Look after my daughters… sis."
Raven simply smiled in return. "Always."
Raven stepped through her portal just as Yang, Blake, and Weiss showed up. "Where's Ruby?"
"I don't know!" Yang shouted. "We just got here!"
"Alright, you two go that way, Yang and I will go this way." Once they split up, Yang and Raven quickly spotted Team JNPR fighting the evil Robo-Summer. Pyrrha had been pinned to the wall by her spear through her hip cape, Ren and Nora were tossed aside like rag dolls, and Jaune had been disarmed of his sword.
"Ah! Protect me, shield!" Jaune cried before Robo-Summer kicked him in the groin, making him drop the shield.
Pyrrha managed to free herself and reconfigure her weapon into it's rifle form. But Robo-Summer easily snatched it away from her and kicked her aside. Then she aimed the rifle at Jaune's face and pulled the trigger… only for nothing to happen.
"Huh…?" Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow. "Has my weapon been empty all this time?!"
"Wait, Ren, weren't you supposed to reload our weapons?" Nora asked with a mixture of relief and disappointment.
"Huh, yeah." Ren smiled. "Wow. I guess this is the first time my laziness was actually helpful!"
"Yeah, thank gods for that-" Jaune was cut off when the Summer clone flipped the weapon around and used it like a golf club to launch JNPR's leader through the air. "OOOOOWW-HUH-HUH-HUH! Why?!" Jaune groaned as he cupped his manhood.
Unfortunately, he happened to smash into the wall Raven and Yang were hiding behind.
"Uh-oh…"
Yang couldn't help but agree with Raven as the Summer clone approached them. "Uh... mom?" she called out, hoping that this version of Summer would recognize them. Unfortunately, it seemed with this model, Jacques had managed to create the heartless killer he had been looking for, judging by how the Robo-Summer before them quickly started shooting at them, much to Yang's surprise and heartbreak, despite knowing this wasn't their Summer. "WHOA! Okay, we're fighting!"
No sooner had Yang said this, Summer rushed the blonde brawler and threw her into Raven, much to the latter's frustration. "Ow! Dammit! Get off me!"
Grabbing Raven's ankles, Robo-Summer then proceeded to spin-throw her into Jaune's groin again, much to the swordsman's pain and frustration. "Ow-ho-ho-ho-oooooW!"
Ruby, currently watching this from the control room, couldn't help but be nervous. "Uh, Lori? Is there anything you can do to help?"
Yang meanwhile steeled herself as she attempted to sneak up behind Summer with Dragon Fang while she was fighting Raven, Ren, and Nora. "Almost... just a little closer…"
Suddenly, a trailer fell in between them, spilling teleporters all over the place, much to Ruby's frustration and embarrassment. "Oops! Wrong button!"
Unfortunately, this version of Summer was just as competent a warrior as the original Summer, as evidenced when she used this opening to grab Yang and throw her through a teleporter...who quickly popped through another teleporter and crashed into Blake. "What?! What is this yellow stuff?!"
Jaune and Pyrrha, tired of seeing their friends tossed around via one-v-one matches, attempted to double-team the dark clone of Ruby's mother...only for Robo-Summer to block Jaune's sword and redirect Pyrrha's shield into Jaune's crotch again, much to his agony and Pyrrha's embarrassment. "I'm sorry!" She managed to get out before getting thrown by Summer into another teleporter.
Yang, having been on the other side, quickly found herself and the "Invincible Girl" getting knocked into another teleporter due to the momentum...and frustrated by what happened when they came back out. "Ugh, dammit! Still just me?! What is this yellow stuff?!"
Needless to say, Robo-Summer didn't give her the chance to find out, quickly punching Yang towards another teleporter on the floor, only for Jaune to reach over to stop her. "Whoa! Whoa! I got ya!" Unfortunately, Summer merely poked her head up from the teleporter before she punched him in the groin again. "OW! What is your problem with my balls?!" he yelled out before he and Yang fell through the teleporter again.
The Summer clone then grabbed Yang, who was now covered head to toe in yellow stuff, just as she came out of the other end of the teleporter and hoisted her into the air. The older huntress android then slammed the girl onto the ground and kicked her in the stomach with such a force, that all of the yellow stuff that clung to her skin evaporated. "Holy shit!" Raven gasped. "She beat the yellow right off of you!"
"Ugh! That's racist!" Yang groaned as she sat upright.
"Okay, that's it!" Nora yelled out as she held up her bazooka. "Take this!"
Unfortunately, Summer was ready for the missile that headed her way, as evidenced by how she used a teleporter to send it right back at them. The resulting explosion sent everyone flying in different directions. Summer, looking up, then casually scooted a cinder block over with her foot and watched with amusement as Jaune landed on it, groin first. Needless to say, Jaune wasn't as amused. "Whyyyyyyyy?"
"Hey! Scorcher!" Penelope yelled out as she threw her old sphere body at her false mother with a snarl. "How about picking on someone your own size?"
A few minutes later, Penelope was greatly regretting her choice of words, as Robo-Summer mercilessly began to beat her with her abandoned shell. "Ow! Hey! Stop it! Ow!"
"Ugh, what's going on?" Jaune asked, holding an ice pack to his crotch.
"It looks like Summer has gained the upper hand." Ren explained. "To add insult to injury, she's now using Penny's old body to beat her to death."
"Wait… beating someone to death with their own body?" Nora asked, skeptically. "That doesn't seem physically possible."
At the same time, Yang finally found her sister perched up at the computer console. The hooded huntress loaded some kind of device into Crescent Rose. "Rubes, what're you doing?"
"Lori gave me a virus that'll shut down the bad mom." Ruby explained, eyeing the target. "She hurt Penny, and for that she dies."
As the evil Robo-Summer continued punching Penelope, Ruby finally locked onto her and pulled the trigger. The device dug deep into the mechanical Guardsman, injecting her with a virus that immediately shut down her entire system. Penelope sighed in relief as her attacker collapsed to the ground. "Thank you, Ruby!"
"Yes! Yes! I did it!" Ruby cheered. "I won! I am the best! I beat up my mom!" She then frowned. "I probably shouldn't have said it like that."
"It's okay, Rubes," Yang said as she pulled her sister into a hug. "It wasn't her, not really, and I'm sure that our Summer would be proud of how you handled yourself."
Ruby couldn't help but blink even as she returned the hug. "Robo-Summer or flesh-and-blood-Summer?"
"Yes."
"She's not wrong though," the real Robo-Summer remarked as she rounded the corner. "You handled yourself fairly well."
Jaune felt his eyes narrow. "How long…?"
"Since about the third time my clone hit you in the kiwis," Robo-Summer said with a shrug. "I was going to step in if things got too out of control, but you proved capable of handling yourselves just fine." She then frowned as she looked upon the fallen "Scorcher." "Mögen die Götter deiner Seele gnädig sein, meine Schwester. (May the gods have mercy on your soul, my sister.)"
Weiss simply brought Robo-Summer into a hug, not even needing to speak German - which she did - to know what she was upset over. "It's okay: Jacques can't hurt her anymore."
"I know," Summer said with a nod even as she returned the hug to the girl who, in a strange sort of way, was just as much of a daughter to her as Ruby, Yang, and Penny (and her "siblings") had been. "But that just makes it hurt even more, knowing that I'm here while the real Summer is still suffering."
"We'll find a way to help her: I promise." Weiss replied even as she relished the embrace with the robotic duplicate of her future mother-in-law.
Just then, Ciel walked up to the group with her scroll in one hand. "Okay, I have good news and bad news, which would you like to hear first?"
"The bad news." The group said in unison, knowing that it was best to get the worst out of the way first.
"Qrow and Cinder are on their way here. Right now."
The others gasped in shock. "Okay, give us the good news!" Yang demanded.
"The only reason I know that is because Svetlana and Mikhail are on the roof of this building in a helicopter. They spotted Cinder and called me wanting to know why Qrow was with the Meta." Ciel remarked with a smile.
Needless to say, Penelope quickly joined the others in a relieved smile. "Well, let's not keep them waiting then."
Ruby nodded, turning to the computer console. "I wish we could take you with us, Lori, but we're on a time crunch and there's no way to know for certain if the helicopter's computers are compatible with your systems. I promise, though: we will come back for you."
"I...thank you, Ruby. I think I'd rather like that." Gloria/Lori declared, tears of joy in her eyes, before turning to Penelope. "Before you leave, would you like to make a journal entry? It has been quite a while since President Schnee, Agent Rose, or any of the Maiden fragment's made their last update."
Penelope couldn't help but blink. "Journal?"
Gloria/Lori gave a bittersweet smile. "Yes. I know you and your friends are busy, but Jacques always asked me to remind him, Summer, Miss Polendina, and/or any of the latter's sisters when they were falling behind on documentation. 'Documentation is an important part of any scientific endeavor,' he claimed but observing you and your friends - especially Miss Ruby Rose - has made me wonder if there is more to life than science."
Penelope snorted in reply. "Sounds like something they'd do, but, um... if you don't mind, could you play one of the entries for me?"
"Certainly."
"Journal Entry 214-13: The continued insistence of some of my board members on referring to Agent Rose as a byproduct continues to frustrate me. We have seen our share of unharvestable fragments, and she is certainly not one of them." Jacques Schnee's voice ran out. "No indeed, she's something else entirely. It's true that she is not one of the emotional cores, with which we've had enormous success, but nor is she a fleeting manifestation of the memory system. I dare say, that I hope the stability matters will manifest soon, and thus prove once and for all that the will of man is superior to any so-called magic. As an aside, however, Trifa Webbs, alias Agent Blue, continued insistence of both allowing that masked woman to raid my facilities and looking into Agent Rose's past continues despite my best efforts to dissuade her. The latter is especially alarming, as the reveal of her true origins would further encourage Miss Rose's continued defiance against company protocol. Once again, I can't help but wonder why she cannot simply accept her place in our organization. In any case, the time has come for Agent Blue to be dealt with."
Penelope nodded, filling away this information for later. "Lori, I want you to transfer this and all other journal entries to me for safekeeping...and do me a favor: delete everything afterwards."
"Understood."
A few hours later, the group arrived in New Rushland to plan their next move. Mikhail thanked his friend for the ride and waved him off as he took off again. Then, while Svetlana caught up with Team RWBY, he led the others into his house. "So, let me see if I understand this correctly." He asked Ciel. "My wife's friend, who turned out to be a robot, was actually a magic ghost who broke off pieces of her soul to make little ghost babies who also think they're robots?"
"It makes even less sensewhen you say it." Ciel sighed, tiredly.
Meanwhile, Svetlana led RWBY to the barn and silos where the Rushland couple stored their stock of potatoes, corn, and rye. Much to the group's shock, they had gathered quite a lot in the past few months. "Whoa." Was all Yang could say. "You guys have been busy."
"Eh, not really." Svetlana shrugged. "So far, we've only been able to harvest nine-hundred and ninety-nine kilograms of everything." She turned to see Yang and Ruby flashing the same confused expression, indicating she needed to clarify. "That's two-thousand two-hundred and four pounds."
"Whoa, so you guys literally have a ton of produce!" Ruby gasped in amazement, much to her girlfriend's annoyance.
"No, you dolt. That isn't literally a to-" Weiss paused to correct herself. "Well, it's a tonne; 'T-O-N-N-E.' Also known as a metric ton."
"'Metric?'" Yang snorted. "Who the hell uses metric?"
"Uh, everyone except for Patch, Vale, and parts of Anima." Blake replied.
"But enough about me! I've missed you, my friends!" Svetlana pulled Yang and Blake into a tight bear hug. "And Mikhail has a special surprise for you all back in the kitchen!"
The group followed Svetlana back to the main house just as her husband finished pouring glasses for everyone while telling them the story of how they met. "... was just about to step in and save her, when she unleashed the most beautiful and terrifying act of violence. Her perfect, crimson locks flowing in the wind as she broke that man's nose. And I think that was when she stole the bottle out of my hand, broke it, and used it to sever that jackass' carotid artery."
"... wow…" Jaune replied, nervously. "She sounds like she's gonna make a great mother someday."
"Oh, we can't afford to have children yet." Mikhail chuckled. "I mean, we only have a tonne of our produce ready for sale."
It was then that Svetlana and Team RWBY entered the kitchen just as they were about to perform a toast. Ruby eagerly reached out to take one of the glasses before Raven spoke up. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! No! If Summer doesn't kill me for letting you drink alcohol, I assure you that your father will."
"I'm not a baby!" Ruby protested, accepting the glass. "If I'm old enough to fight nightmare monsters and juggle PTSD, then I can have adult drinks!" With that, the hooded huntress drank the glass' entire contents in one gulp. Svetlana and Mikhail drank with her, not noticing the pained expression on the poor girl's face. Trembling, Ruby set the glass aside and forced herself to smile. "... excellent…" She wheezed, trying to ignore the burning in her throat.
Yang took her own glass, sniffed it, and recoiled in disgust. "What's in this stuff?"
"Oh, it's an old family recipe." Mikhail replied, happily. "Nothing too fancy. Just corn, rye, wheat, alcohol, sugar, and just a pinch of fire dust for flavor."
The others immediately threw their own glasses away… just as something shattered every window surrounding them. Ruby, Penelope, Svetlana, and Mikhail gasped as their friends collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Penelope noticed something protruding from Ruby's arm and yanked it out of her. "Ouch!" She yelped. "What the heck is that?!"
"A dart." Penelope replied, not noticing the dart stuck in her own head. "Presumably one meant to administer a deadly poison."
Svetlana plucked the dart out of her own chest and inspected it as Mikhail took care of his own. "This has Jean Purple's name written all over it." She declared.
"How can you be so sure?" Penelope asked, skeptically.
The Rushland girl held up the dart for her still-conscious friends to see, pointing at the label. "Because it has Jean Purple's name written all over it."
"Oh, gods…" Ruby whimpered. "So Uncle Qrow actually forced Jean to poison my friends?"
"Don't worry, Ruby." Svetlana patted Ruby on the back, comfortingly. "They're still breathing. Even in the face of death, Jean would never kill anyone. But when they wake up, they'll have a rather uncomfortable stomach ache."
"But wait; we got hit by those darts, too." Ruby pointed out, matter-of-factly. "So why weren't we affected?"
"Well, Penelope is a robot, but as for us…" Mikhail reached into the cabinet and proudly showed off the bottle of his family's vodka. "I'd say it is because of this!"
"Ha ha! Of course!" Svetlana laughed, heartily. "Gods praise to the Kashonovyys!"
"You… you really think that was strong enough to fight off the poison?" Ruby asked.
"Are you kidding? This shit could probably kill cancer cells!" Mikhail chortled as he took a swig.
Meanwhile, Cinder, Qrow and Barmak had yet to witness the miracle of the quartet's resistance to the poison and began their advance. "Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Purple." Qrow smirked as she pushed the medical student aside. "Let's go, Meta."
However, before they could proceed, a portal opened up in front of them. Out stepped Raven Branwen, armed and ready to fight. "Hello, little brother." She taunted.
"You're awake?!" Qrow called out.
Raven snorted, tapping her chest as she did. "For once, I'm glad that I have this pacemaker of mine: if it can keep me up and running with all the damage I did to my own lungs from back when I took up smoking, it sure as heck can handle that botched up poison the medic hit me with. When it took the others down, though, I decided to play possum until you revealed your hand."
"Clever," Barmak growled out, "but we'll still be taking your companions now."
"You aren't touching them." Raven declared as she got into a fighting stance.
"And who's going to stop us? You?" Cinder said with an arrogant chuckle. "I've heard quite a bit about you, Raven Brawnwen, and let me tell you, you aren't as strong as you think you are. You aren't as good of a leader, as good of a person as you pretend to be."
"Wonder of wonders: I never thought I'd agree with Cinder Fall," Qrow remarked.
"Yeah, I've made my fair share of mistakes." the Branwen Chieftess said with a nod. "But better a thief and a bandit than a coward and a traitor."
"Uh, excuse me?!" Qrow growled out. "Mrs. Kettle? Mr. Pot's on the line. He says you're blaaack."
Their Doppelganger companion blinked, unable to not notice how Agent Grey had tried to stop himself there. "What? It's a turn of phrase. It's got nothing to do with race."
"I'm sorry, okay? It's just that I'm never quite sure how to act around you guys, what with you being Grimm and everything." Qrow said with a sheepish grin.
"Okay, you see there? That was racist."
"Wonderful, we're learning so much," Cinder said with a roll of her eyes. "But can we please stop trying to start a full out race war and get back to dealing with the battle right in front of us?"
"Oh, great, now I'm agreeing with Cinder," Raven couldn't help but groan even as she let out a mocking grin. "Is what I would say if I had any intention of fighting all of you at once."
"So, you're surrendering?" Cinder asked with an arrogant laugh. "Nice to know that you learned a bit of humility before you died."
"You misunderstand: I've already won." Raven said with an amused snort. "After all, our little reunion is missing a certain someone, isn't it?"
"Wait, she's right!" Qrow declared with wide eyes as he looked around. "Where's Summer?!"
"Right behind you," Robo-Summer declared over the intercom of the Manta that she had "liberated" from Qrow and Cinder. "Yang, Weiss, if you would?"
Ruby nodded. "FREEZER BURN!"
Qrow growled as the blonde brawler and the Schnee heiress - despite how groggy they were feeling - managed to quickly produce an improvised smoke screen. "This was all a distraction."
"And you did an excellent job of falling for it." Raven remarked.
Qrow quickly moved to secure his sister and company, only to quickly realize that they weren't there anymore, having been ferried onto the "liberated" Manta. Needless to say, he couldn't help but let out an anguished yell of rage at having his shot at freedom slip through his fingers once again.
To Be Continued
