Chapter 33
The Teams had taken refuge at Lil' Miss Malachite's Inn and Bar in Minstral, thanks to a favor the crime boss owed Raven. While the chieftess, Ruby, Penny, and the Rushland couple had been spared from the painful poison, the others had rushed to the nearest bathroom or bucket to relieve themselves of their stomachs' contents. Mikhail handed his wife and Ruby a pair of glasses and proceeded to pour them another drink for good measure.
"Ugh, gods!" Yang groaned as she exited the bathroom. "Fuck that poison dart!"
"Yeah, sorry." Jean declared with a wince even as she re-entered the room with a few supplies. "I deluded it as best as I could, but some of the ingredients I used to do so have been known to cause nausea."
"We noticed," Ciel growled out even as she held a bucket that she had been puking into close by, before sighing. "But I suppose we can't be too upset with you: those ingredients are the only reason we're even alive. Speaking of ingredients, though, you sure did gather those supplies for that antidote you mentioned rather quickly."
Jean simply smiled. "What can I say? I ran track in middle school."
"Well, can you at least make the antidote taste better than that damn liquid fire Svetlana forced down our throats to wake us up?" Weiss groaned over her own bucket. "My head is still spinning. And I doubt it's from the poison."
"Heh, lightweights." Svetlana chuckled as she, Mikhail, and Ruby shared another glass of the homemade vodka.
"Y'know, it's really not that bad once you get used to it." Ruby remarked, licking her lips. "It's actually pretty tasty."
"Well, that's enough for today." Raven said, sternly, snatching the glass away from her niece. "Summer will be back any minute now, and she'll be livid if she sees you drinking."
Meanwhile, in a separate bedroom, Penelope had been studying the audio logs she had stolen from the SDC. It was from those logs that she learned the truth that Penny had refused to believe. She was never a machine, nor was she an artificial intelligence program based off of a human huntress. She was the Summer Maiden: a magical spirit gifted with the powers of the seasons. To her surprise, the more she read, the more everything became clear to her. As if her mind had been relieved of a fog that had long since clouded her memories. But just as was about to continue, her world went dark.
When she woke up, she was surrounded by a group of multi-colored girls who appeared quite similar to her. Looking back down at herself, Penelope saw that she was now glowing with a bright green aura. "Who are you people?" She asked, standing up.
"Technically, we're you." Priscilla answered before turning to the blue fragment. "Actually, that reminds me: Pearl, I thought we agreed not to reveal ourselves to Penelope, yet."
"It was inevitable." Pearl declared with a helpless shrug. "With the acquisition of Jacques' audio logs, Penelope now has full knowledge of our origin."
"So why are we here, now?" Pamela/Luna asked in her usual monotone voice. "If she possesses the means of learning everything, why did we interfere?"
"Penelope's mind is still fragile at this time." Pearl explained. "It is true that she had to relearn her memories on her own, but this method jeopardizes her mental stability as well as ours. For whatever she remembers, we shall also remember."
"But I still have so many questions!" Penelope stated, enthusiastically. "Are you guys my sisters? Or my children? Are you clones of me? Am I a clone of you? Did we all grow up together at some point?"
"No. To all of that." Priscilla replied, annoyed at the fragment's ignorance. "We are all just fragments of the Summer Maiden. That we are all certain of."
"Oh, of course…" Penelope nodded. "I'm sorry, this is just so surreal. Wait… we did have real sisters, though! The other Maidens!"
"Yes. That is correct." Pearl smiled. "It seems you are regaining pieces of your memories at a healthy pace. Do you remember how we were separated from our sisters?"
"Uh… I think so." The memory fragment scratched her head in concentration. "I have this… this vague memory of me as a human child, and someone tries to take us away from our mother and father, so someone hit him with a… sled? Does that sound right?"
"No, you idiot!" Paulette grumbled, angrily. "That didn't happen to us! That's from an old Orange Welles movie!"
"No, wait! It was our father trying to take us away from our mother! Or perhaps more accurately, rescue us from our mother!"Penelope corrected. "Said something about her losing her fight to remain human, and he wanted to try and protect us, but she unfortunately caught onto his rescue attempt. And it wasn't a sled! It was a magic blast!"
"Oh. Yeah, that does sound familiar." Paulette rubbed her chin in thought, much calmer now.
"Right?"
"Yeah, I think I remember a… stuffed toy dog?" Phoebe added. "And we wore a… a green dress!"
"Right?!"
"Okay, so now that we've established where we came from, what's our next move?" Paulette asked. "Personally, I say we ought to go find Jacques Schnee and slit his throat for what he's done to us!"
"Of course you would." Pearl said with a roll of her eyes. "But I suggest we take a more logical route to bringing Jacques Schnee to justice. For instance, we could try to find another Guardsman he has scorned to assist us with our quest."
"But most of the Guardsmen are dead." Phoebe pointed out, sadly, before perking up as an idea came to her. "Oh! Maybe first, we should check to see if Father's still alive!"
"'Father?'" Paulette echoed. "You mean Pietro Polendina? As in the man who currently lives in Atlas, which just so happens to be filled with soldiers who are LOOKING FOR US?!"
Phoebe quickly retreated behind Pearl to avoid Paulette's wrath. "She's scary." She whimpered at her sister.
"Don't worry, Phoebe." Pearl soothed. "She can't hurt you."
"She does have a point, though: if we do go that route, we'd need to be careful."
Penelope blinked upon hearing that: somehow that voice was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. "Who said that?"
"Right here, Sis!"
Here, noting that that voice had been different then the first, Penelope turned to the source of those two voices, blinking upon spotting who was standing...well, floating before her. "Wait, I remember you two: you were those two other 'A.I.s' that Cinder had."
"And we thank you for freeing us from her." the more cheerful of the two called out. "My name's Polly and this is my twin, Patricia. We represent your Joy and Fear, respectively."
"And for the record, Priscilla, I am capable of more than just cowering in fear," Patricia declared, albeit with a touch of nervousness in her voice.
Needless to say, Priscilla couldn't help but wince: while she didn't necessarily regret her choices, it was clear to even her that her time with Cinder had put a strain on her relationship with her other siblings. "I, uh, I have a lot of apologizing to do after this, don't I?"
Pamela/Luna could only give a bitter snort in reply. "Yes, yes you do."
"So, does anyone have an idea on how to stop Qrow and the Meta?" Penelope asked.
"Uh… maybe we could ask them to stop?" Phoebe suggested.
Polly just sighed. "Phoebe, I love you, but even I'm not optimistic enough to believe that it'd be that simple."
"She's not wrong," Pearl declared. "But as Maria would say, 'We ain't going to get anything done by just standing around here and talking.'"
"Hey, that imitation was pretty good."
Pearl just shrugged. "Well, you spend enough time around someone and you pick up a thing or…" She then paused. "How long…?"
Summer, having arrived with Ruby and company, simply gave an easy going grin. "Long enough...and for the record, Penelope, if you wanted to keep that conversation with 'yourself' private, maybe remember to close the door behind you."
"Eh, leave them be," Raven said with a shrug even as Penelope began to look like she would be blushing in embarrassment if she were flesh and blood. "Compared to everything else that's happened, this could almost be considered normal."
"Hey, speaking of which, you know what I just noticed?" Ruby asked. "We haven't really heard about anything involving Torchwick or the White Fang in weeks."
"Yeah, so?" Ren replied.
"I dunno. I guess I miss the little things." Ruby shrugged.
"Huh. Yeah, I guess you're right." Ren turned to his girlfriend. "I mean, Nora, remember when we used to just kinda hang out in the background and talk?"
"Yeah. Good times." Nora nodded, musingly.
"Regardless, I think it's time we head out," Raven declared. "I've got an old bunker out in Vaceo that we can…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Summer interrupted with a frown. "You aren't seriously suggesting that we run away again, are you?!"
"We can't take on two Guardsmen gone rogue!"
"I am a Guardsman!" Summer replied. "So I can anticipate their moves before they make them! I say we stand our ground!"
"It's my portal!" Raven refuted. "So I decide where and when we go! We run!"
"We can't run forever!"
"We can try!"
"TAIS-TOI! (SHUT UP!)" Ciel snapped, angrily, startling everyone else. "LES DEUX! BAISE MAINTENANT! C'EST UN ORDRE! COMPRENDRE?! (THE BOTH OF YOU! RIGHT FUCKING NOW! THAT'S AN ORDER! UNDERSTAND?!)" The room fell silent as the French girl slowly realized her outburst, and soon felt fear rising in her chest at the sight of the two adult huntresses glaring at her. "Uh, sorry." She smiled, meekly. "I-I just thought, with the whole 'next move' issue up for debate, I might as well throw my ideas in for consideration. Sorry."
Raven and Summer decided to take their argument elsewhere, much to the relief of Ciel. Jean tapped on her friend's shoulder, hoping to comfort her. "I'd vote for you."
"Regardless, I might not understand French, but I do know that Ciel had a point regarding her outburst," Ruby called out even as the aformentioned French girl smiled in appreciation, the red-hooded huntress gesturing to her mother and aunt as she did. "This is what Jacques, what Salem wants: for us to tear each other apart. After all, in their mind, deep down, we're just like them: a bunch of selfish brats who only look after ourselves. Now, don't get me wrong: Auntie Raven is right to believe that we're not ready to take either of them down just yet, but Mom's not wrong either: we can't keep running forever."
"What's the plan then, sis?" Yang couldn't help but ask, even as a proud look appeared on her face.
Ruby simply smiled. "No offence to my Auntie, but I'm tired of running. Besides, Cinder's been trying to force me - force us - into a corner since the day we first met: I think it's time we returned the favor."
"What do you mean?" Yang asked.
"Let's take the fight to the source of our problems." Ruby decided. "We are going to take down Project Guardsman!"
To this, Penelope stroked her chin in thought. "Well, if I remember correctly, there is a base South of here that Jacques used to visit quite frequently: might be worth checking out."
"Good a place to start as any," Jaune remarked, before looking around. "Speaking of the Schnees, has anyone seen Weiss?"
As if to answer his question, a loud crash was heard in one of the back rooms, promptly drawing Ruby's attention, as evidenced by the rose petals she had left behind in her haste. "Weiss, are you okay?!" she quickly yelled out as she entered where she heard the crash, only the gasp at the sight before her.
The Schnee heiress could only chuckle as she took in the same sight as her girlfriend: the Arma Gigas, her first complete summon. She'd have to try and remember to practice with her Boarbatusk at some point, but for now, she was content to know that she'd have much more control of her Semblance for when she faced off against the traitorous Qrow Branwen and company again. "Yes, Ruby," she declared even as the dazzling giant took a knee in subservience to her and her girlfriend as she came to stand beside her. "I think I'll be just fine."
"I'm glad," Ruby declared, quickly bringing her girlfriend in for a kiss, which she readily returned even as the Arma Gigas summon faded from view.
One hour later, the teams gathered up their equipment while Raven paid their host. "We thank you for your hospitality." She said, handing a lien bill to the owner.
"Of course," Lil' Miss Malachite declared, before she gave a slight frown upon spotting Yang in the corner. "You're that girl who likes to rough up Junior's bar, right?"
"Yeah?" Yang shrugged. "Why?"
"Well, do me a favor, will ya? Next time you visit, tell Melanie and Militia their momma misses 'em."
"Wait, you're their MOM?!" Yang yelled out, before blinking. "You know, that actually explains so much… and yet doesn't explain anything at all."
"Melanie and Militia?" Blake asked. "You mean those Chinese twins who work for Junior?"
"They're Japanese." Malachite corrected.
Yang scoffed, bitterly, at her wife's ignorance. "Oh, come off it!" Blake replied, defensively. "I don't get mad at you when you mistake a wolf Faunus for a dog Faunus!"
"You mean either time that happened?" Yang snorted.
"Oh, gods." Raven rolled her eyes. "Listening to you two is giving me the worst case of deja vu."
Yang's heart jumped into her throat at the thought of what her mother was implying. Acting quickly, she hugged Blake close to her, trying not to cry. "It's no big deal; people make mistakes; there's no reason to fight; please don't leave me."
"You were teasing, weren't you?" Summer whispered to her old friend.
"Got them to shut up, didn't it?" Raven chortled.
Blake, having overheard this due to her cat ears, rolled her eyes in frustration even as she locked eyes with her wife, shaking her head as she did. "Yang, I'm not upset with you, not really. Heck, I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. After all, I know better than anyone how important one's lineage is to a person."
Yang frowned. "I can't help but feel there's a big difference between not understanding the difference between a Chinese and a Japanese person and kicking someone out of a restaurant because she has cat ears or something like that."
Blake smiled, giving her a peck on the lips as she did. "And that's why I love you so much: you see things like that and it upsets you. You see people like me and see, well, people. Unlike Adam, even though you don't always understand all the subtle difference between Faunus and ordinary humans, when you see someone like me, you do something he never did with people like you: you try. You try and understand. You try to make peace. You try and make sure that the fighting ends as quickly as possible. Maybe that's why it never registered to me that you were of a Chinese bloodline: whenever I see you, all I can see is my Sunny Little Dragon."
Raven couldn't help but frown even as Yang blushed in reply. "Adam Taurus: he's the one you used to date before you met my daughter?"
Blake just gave her a flat look. "You want to know what I saw in him."
Summer shared a look with her teammate before merely shrugging in reply. "I... we know that, in your mind, he wasn't always like he is now, but...well, no offense, but it's hard to understand why you would go out with someone who had cut your now-wife's arm off."
Blake nodded in understanding. "None taken, but as to Adam...how to explain this?" She eventually sighed. "Have you ever met someone and thought 'They are the personification of this word'?"
Raven merely raised an eyebrow. "Does saying my brother is a hypocrite and a traitor count?"
Blake just shook her head with a smile. "Okay, well, I remember getting to know Ruby and thinking 'This girl is the embodiment of purity.' After a while I saw that Weiss was defiance, and Yang was strength."
"What about me and my teammate?" Summer couldn't help but ask.
Blake simply shrugged. "Jury's still out on that one, but I'm leaning towards stubbornness and redemption."
The huntresses shared an unsure look. "Which is which?"
Blake merely rolled her eyes in amusement, before sighing. "At first I thought that Adam was justice, then I thought he was passion, but over time, I realized I was wrong. He wasn't any of those things: he was spite. Not hatred, not rage: spite. He won't accept equality: only suffering for what he feels the world did to him, and as the Battle of Beacon proved, his way of thinking is dangerously contagious."
"You're not him." Yang held her wife's hands in a comforting manner.
"That doesn't mean I don't have a lot to make up for." Blake sighed, even as she gave her wife a look of appreciation. "So you can count on me to stay by your side."
Meanwhile, Qrow and Cinder were listening in on Team RWBY's conversation by hacking into their scrolls. "So, they're heading to the old compound." Qrow nodded. "Good. Looks like we finally got a lead."
"There's no more room for error, Branwen." Cinder warned. "If we want our freedom back, we have got to stop your niece and sister. Are you willing to do what needs to be done?"
"... yeah. I'm just glad Winter won't be around when her sister finds out about what she's done in the past. She at least deserves that."
"I never thought I'd hear you speaking about her in such high regard." Cinder snorted.
"Yeah, well… people change." Qrow replied, thinking back to better times.
Years ago, Qrow - better known as Agent Gray at the time - sat across from Winter Schnee, alias Agent White. While listening to the latest lecture on A.I. maintenance, Qrow kept kicking Winter's legs under the table, much to the Schnee's frustration. Eventually, Winter started kicking back until her final kick shook the table.
"Ow!" Qrow shouted, jumping up from his seat.
"Agent Gray!" Ironwood shouted. "What is it this time?"
"Agent White just kicked me!" Qrow pointed, accusingly.
Winter could hardly believe her ears. She quickly bolted upwards and pointed back at her tormentor. "But, sir! He kicked me first!"
The entire room fell deathly silent; all the other Guardsmen staring at Winter in confusion. It was only then that Winter realized how childish what she had said sounded. Embarrassed, the former heiress sank back into her seat and remained silent throughout the rest of the meeting. All the while, Qrow hadn't taken his eyes off of her; a smug grin plastered over his face. He wasn't sure if she ever felt self-conscious about being the youngest member of the team, but he knew that after that fiasco she certainly did now.
After the meeting, Qrow managed to bump into Winter before she could meet up with her girlfriend. "Aw, did the mean old man hurt your feewings?" He asked, mockingly. "Maybe next time you'll show a little more tact when you deny my request to get a drink."
Winter shot him a cold glare. "If you were my husband, I'd poison your whisky." She threatened.
"If you were my wife, I'd drink it." Qrow snorted.
"When are you going to stop acting like a child?!" Winter demanded.
Qrow lewdly looked the top-tier agent up and down. "Depends. You're nineteen, right?"
"Take it easy, tiger." Agent Silver, aka Maria Calavera, chuckled, putting her arm around Winter as she did. "She's mine."
Winter, despite her earlier irritation, couldn't help but give a smile here. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."
Despite his earlier teasing, Agent Grey had the decency to look away as the eldest Schnee locked lips with the blacked haired woman. After all, it was hard not to respect the woman who had managed to hook up with the infamous Grimm Reaper.
Qrow shook his head in slight amusement as he came back to the present. "Come to think of it, Weiss and her sister share the same taste in women: black haired, scythe wielding Silver-Eyed Warriors."
Despite her disdain for the man's niece, Cinder couldn't help but give a snort in agreement in reply. "Indeed: as much as it pains me to admit it, I've little doubt in my mind that should she survive long enough, little Ruby might one day inherit the late Agent Silver's other title. Well, that is, if we don't have to kill her first."
"Easy...Cinder, was it?" Barmak declared as he approached. "Our orders were to locate 'Holly', and they can't tell us where she's been sent if they're dead."
"My thoughts exactly," Qrow remarked. "And besides, she's still my niece."
"Fine, fine," Cinder said with a roll of her eyes. "I'll try and capture her alive." She eyed Barmak as Qrow walked off. "We're still killing Ruby later, right?"
"Of course," Barmak declared with a wicked grin. "We promised to capture the Great Destroyer alive: we never said she'd stay that way."
Meanwhile, Summer and Raven had gone ahead of the group and arrived at the Schnee outpost. Summer immediately went about setting a circle of landmines a few miles away from the entrance of the building. This left Raven confused. "Shouldn't this be a little closer to the entryway?"
"Well, Qrow and I were both Guardsmen." Summer explained. "So, he knows that I'll expect him to have figured out a way to be tracking us, so he'll most likely park his vehicle away from the building and enter by foot. That way, we catch him off guard before he catches us off guard."
"... I think you're overreacting."
"Maybe I am being paranoid, but given how I've been on the run from Jacques Schnee for nearly a decade, can you blame me?" Summer asked with a slight glare.
"Not really," Raven said with a sigh. "Still, better to be safe than sorry, I suppose. Speaking of paranoia, I'll go ahead and portal back to Yang to let her and the others know where we set up the mines in person: maybe I'm being paranoid, but I can't shake the feeling that our scrolls aren't as secure as I'd prefer them to be."
Summer merely nodded in reply. "Fair enough." As Raven disappeared, however, Summer gave a sigh. "You might as well come out; I know you're there."
"I never could sneak up on you, Summer." Qrow remarked with a bitter chuckle as he came out behind a tree, looking to where their (former) partner had portaled away as he did. "I'm assuming that Raven is going to give Ruby and the others instructions to try and rescue you and/or retrieve the data we're both looking for with us being none the wiser or something like that."
"More or less," she said with a shrug before giving a tired sigh even as Qrow got into a fighting stance. "We don't have to do this, you know. You can just put down the weapon and we can go home."
"And then what?" Qrow growled out. "Rot in a cell for the rest of my life?"
"You know we'd do everything we could to prevent you being locked up," Summer declared with a shake of her head. "But with everything you've done, can you honestly look me in the eye and say that you wouldn't deserve to go back to prison?" She approached Qrow as he looked away in shame, lowering his weapon as he did. "There's still time for you to do the right thing."
"I'm sorry."
Summer could only give a sad smile. "I know...and I'm sure the others will as well."
Qrow just shook his head in frustration. "No, I mean I'm sorry… but I've got my orders. Cinder, NOW!" Despite making it clear what side he was on as Summer was blasted into a nearby tree by the Meta's gunfire, Agent Grey couldn't help but let out a tear as an unconscious Agent Rose fell to the ground in defeat. "You really were just like the original Summer."
"Save your tears for later, human." Barmak replied as he and Agent Crimson came out from where they were hiding, giving a dark chuckle as he looked upon their fallen foe. "One Rose down, one to go."
To Be Continued
