Ruby's desire to become a Hunter was only further strengthened after Summer's attempt to kill it. Much like in the same way a broken bone becomes stronger after mending, it would become harder to destroy such a concept as, 'giving up the path of a hero' in Ruby's slowly hardening mind. It had been twisted in such a way by Summer's death that it would be impossible to untwist without breaking, shattering the dreams and hopes of a little girl as well as her mind.
And Summer knew this well, for that was the only way to bring salvation to her daughter.
Taiyang was humming as he made breakfast for his daughters and wife that lay pulverised in the cave of Arnab. Only Ruby sat at the table, once again pouring over the book she hadn't managed to finish the night before— trying to squeeze every ounce of information out of it. Soon the book would be nothing but a husk, sucked dry by the girl's thirst for knowledge and strength. Qrow had left the house early without saying goodbye, too spooked of the night before to do anything but mope and wander aimlessly.
"Mom will be happy to see that you're reading that." Taiyang commented, catching the title of the book out of the corner of his eye. "Are you sure you can't wait for her to come back? She could be coming back later today." He said in a happy voice.
Ruby ignored him, but not out of maliciousness. She was simply focused.
Taiyang shook his head kindly. It was adorable to see his daughter having a goal. He just wished that Summer was there to see it fester and putrefy her innocence, though not quite in those words.
If only he knew that Summer was watching her daughter's interest in becoming a Hunter grow, he would be overjoyed until learning her thoughts on the matter.
Spirits did not need sleep, but rest of a sort was required. A necessity that Summer was actively ignoring, unlike Ruby and Taiyang. She could feel her willpower dampening, and without physical energy boosters such as coffee, running, or a knife in the arm, she could feel her focus slowly wavering.
Summer tsked, less angry and more annoyed with her goal being obstructed. Her stunt in the dream had only accelerated the process, hardening Ruby's resolve in the matter. She would have to think of something quickly if she wanted to ensure that her daughter strayed from the path of a Hunter.
But no plan was coming to Summer's mind, let alone quickly. Her existence on the physical plane was lacking. She could hardly pick up a piece of paper without falling to her knees. It wasn't a matter of willpower or skill, it was akin to a small breeze trying to knock over a three thousand year old tree. Not impossible, but so time consuming that it may as well be.
An epiphany occurred to her. She was thinking in terms of her own fear, the fear that she would be thrown out if she became useless. As at a base level, that was her self view. Nothing more than a tool for disposing of other monsters.
But Ruby didn't share that view. She knew only of people that loved and cherished her unconditionally. The idea that she could ever be 'useless' had never touched the blooming reaper's thoughts. To some extent, there was an issue. Ruby wasn't old enough to know what to fear, besides what her genetics dictated. And there was only one thing that Summer knew for sure that Ruby feared.
The dark.
Such was her fear that she kept on a light in her rooms at all times— sometimes staring at it for hours and shivering in terror at the thought of what lay where her eyes could not decipher. Monsters and demons lay in such places, their eyes glinting for a moment and gone the next. She had gone so far as to block off the underside of her bed in an attempt to prevent the monster under the bed from coming out— but that had only made the fear worse. Ruby swore on bad nights that she could sometimes hear a knocking from beneath her mattress, something trapped below asking to be let out and eat her.
Implementing a plan involving the dark would involve the night, and therefore waste the day. Tossing away valuable time would hurt Summer's core, and therefore she shelved it for the moment.
Unless...
Her eyes flickered over to the basement door.
No one had been in there since she had last left for Vacuo, which had been two months at this point. And I shall allow you a piece of insight, no one ever would. Decades would pass without Ruby or Yang ever daring to enter their mother's armory. The house would fall into decay before it was ever handed to another, leaving the armory as a trove of weapons, materials, and information on grimm, never to be looked on by a human ever again.
This is what would have happened in Summer did not develop her plan within that instant. The basement would be left to rot and deteriorate, with Summer being the last human to ever set foot in there.
But Summer did develop her plan within an instant, and leapt to action. The rest she badly needed weighing on her like the chains she wore on her arms even in death. She slugged the weight behind her as she made her way through the door and down the stairs.
The night was not the only place where darkness abounded. The basement— while clean, as Summer would never allow it any other way— was rather creepy to her daughters, and even Taiyang. A point that she used to tease him about. His fear of the basement almost matched Ruby's fear of the dark. Which left only Yang to venture down if something was needed from in the depths of the house.
As she expected, there was now a sizable amount of dust on everything. Even her weapons wore a sheen of the stuff. If Summer had retained her mask and personality that she had abandoned for Ruby's sake, she would have broken down. The idea that the things that had allowed her to fulfill her purpose being abandoned would be too much to bear. And that was only part of it. The weapons held memories, ones that when she looked upon filled her with pride of her accomplishments and deeds. When Summer needed to be alone, she had sometimes sat in the basement and recounted each of the stories that the weapons had, the process she took to create them, where she found the materials, and of course which Grimm they had slain. It was something that always cheered her up, as a tool requires purpose in order to function lest it become dusty and dull. Just as the weapons on the basement wall were becoming.
She looked at them as little more than pieces of metal now. The memories were of no consequence when the only one who valued them were dead and partially gone. Perhaps a part of her, buried underneath yet another mask that she had donned, felt a pang of loss at the sight, but nowhere close to Summer's conscious mind.
Summer's semblance branded her as the black sheep of black sheep. An outcast among those with silver eyes— already divorced from a society that they were designed to protect. A paradoxical ability, one that both protected and tore at humanity itself. A monster with the sole purpose of destroying others of its kind.
She closed her eyes, calling on her wilted and neglected power that had been locked away and only recently reopened. Yet much like walking within one's house while blind, she knew exactly where to go. Unlike when she had used it at the point of her death, however, she lacked sufficient focus. She repeated her namesake mantra, not magic. The words had no meaning besides sentimental value, a day when her mother had revealed the origin of her name, a half forgotten remnant of a poem.
No wind blew in the basement, but an ephemeral whisper of air coursed through the bottom of the house, and if one were more attuned to death— as in someone that had seen countless lives extinguished— they might see the blood-stained rose on the ground, no more than a foot in diameter.
A red spot that represented the love, desperation, and stupidity of a mother that wished only for her daughter to be safe. The irony should not be lost on you as a half formed monster crawled out of a portal, scratching away its competitors before they had a chance to exit the mouth. It clawed its way out of the abyss the same way Summer had clung to the earth itself. By sheer force of will. Called to this land by enough hatred to send a grown man into a rage.
Summer was the only Hunter ever sent out on solo missions. Not because she worked poorly with teammates, or because of her recklessness in battle. Not because there was some supernatural superstition behind her reputation.
But because Ozpin and Ozpin alone knew of her negativity. A thing forced on her at birth, without her consent. An emotion that she could never truly place as a love or hate for humanity. But one that generated negativity nonetheless.
The old fool might have had an inkling as to her power, as she was not the first to be cursed with such a fate.
Summer fought alone because Grimm swarmed to her like flies when she was truly enraged. The kind, caring, and shy persona that she had taken such care to develop lowered for a moment as her hate flowed in battle. She was the perfect monster, one that called others to the slaughter.
Summer walked through the house blind, the sound of Taiyang's cooking growing louder. It should be known that Summer was not the only daughter that had the meaning of their name imparted to them. For cycles of all sorts occur in life, and Summer was no exception. She had fallen into the same trap her mother had, naming her daughter after a jewel known for its beauty, but not recognizing the ruby's inherent tendency towards flaws, or its bloodstained nature.
Fire would be an excellent means to distract Taiyang, Summer concluded. He dealt poorly with cooking accidents. From there she could lead Ruby into the basement with the barely audible sounds of the grimm, and by controlling the grimm and the light in such a way, after ensuring that her daughter was fully trapped—
Tears broke from Summer's open eyes, although they were unseen by her. They didn't appear on her spectral form, but inside her tortured mind behind a cool, composed mask that she would never truly remove.
It was impossible for her to know what the mask was anymore. Did she truly lack love or empathy for human kind, or was that simply something she had convinced herself of a twisted conclusion, just like Ruby had in her own way?
It was at this point that Summer sobbed. An awful, guttural thing with nothing but anguish at the fact that she was forced to hurt her daughter if she wished to save her. Something that only the gods above would conceive of for entertainment, and still watched, curious, nonetheless.
Not a living soul heard her cries of anguish, but Taiyang's flames rose up and consumed the food he'd been cooking, causing him to panic as he tried to put out stubborn flames. And young Ruby's concentration was broken by the sound of a whimper that she could not determine as real or imagination.
Once again a victim of her own concentration, Ruby walked towards the basement door— a thing she looked at as a portal to a dark realm with no egress. She was too scared to ever go down there. Even with her mother's lilting and comforting voice that convinced her there was nothing down there, she could never hope to cross into the threshold of such a place. Even though rationally, it was simply a basement.
But Ruby had changed. She put those fears aside as something that a non-Hunter would worry about, and opened the door to the basement with a gulp.
There was nothing but pitch black. Which made sense, none of them had been in there and the light would of course be turned off. That's what Ruby told herself as she flicked on the light.
It was just a dusty basement. Nothing more nothing less.
The same bravery that allowed her to open the door forced her onwards.
She took one step down the creaky and dusty steps, looking back and forth for something living in the basement.
As soon as she was three steps down, the door slowly swung shut.
Without her feet on the path of a true hero, she would have instantly gone upstairs.
But again, she dismissed that as a cowardly act— not something her mother would do.
She ventured further, looking around at an alien place that existed within her own house. All of her mother's weapons— except Thorn— resided on the wall. In Ruby's mind they were begging to be used, examined, and have their secrets extracted. She wanted to know the stories that the weapons had, the process she took to create them, where she found the materials, and of course which grimm they had slain. Ruby yearned to have a lasting connection to her mother, and the weapons seemed perfect.
An oversized morning-star that expanded on command. A weapon similar to Thorn in the fact that it was two weapons attached to chains, but instead of a scythe and a sword on the ends it was two spear like blades.
Twelve of these weapons hung on the wall, with the thirteenth pedestal for Thorn empty.
And out of all of the weapons, Ruby had a particular interest in just one of them. She maintained such an interest in it that she forgot the reason she came down the stairs, absorbed in her curiosity.
Summer rarely made jokes. In fact, she could count the number of times she had ever made jokes on two hands. Unfortunately, one of them had been perpetuated by Ozpin.
'Scythes are one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed.'
She regretted ever saying it, as Ozpin was prone to teasing Summer at any choice he had, and now repeated the phrase as a joke to others— without informing them of the statement's sarcastic nature.
Farming scythes are a terribly inefficient weapon, one that curbs it's own reach with its inward crescent, whereas a halberd is far more effective and deadly. A scythe user is one that uses the weapon purely out of a love for the design, not for efficiency or ease of use.
If Summer was alive, she would have felt a twinge of disappointment in her daughter picking the scythe up. However it was the de facto weapon of a reaper, and Ruby felt a strange attraction to it.
Unlike the other weapons which had some sort of strange attachment or use— it looked liked just a simple scythe. A concept that Summer had experimented with and abandoned, deeming it pointless.
But Ruby's eyes shone as she imagined the possibilities, her genius finding avenues others could never even conceive of in regards to modifying the weapon.
So enthralled by the scythe's beauty, it took Ruby a moment to realize that the light had gone out.
And had been replaced by two white orbs in front of her.
She bolted, instinctively dragging the large scythe with more strength than she should have rightfully had. The blade tore at the ground, scratching at the concrete and the wood. Ruby glanced back twice, and both times found the white orbs behind her, chasing her. If she had ever been down in the basement, or had been paying the least bit of attention, she would know where the stairs were and could bang on the door.
But she didn't. She was an intruder inside her own house, and nearly broke her nose on a wall that she ran into. Dazed and unsteady, without a point of reference to hold onto and adjust, she watched the two hazy white orbs shimmer in the air, appearing to wobble thanks to the blood slowly dripping out of her nose.
A hideous, formless monster that she couldn't even see the form of, but nonetheless knew she had to slay. White teeth joined its eyes in the dark, plain for Ruby to see.
"I require a weapon." Ruby murmured, picking up the scythe. Or rather picking up the handle, as it was too heavy for her to fully hold.
The Grimm could have killed Ruby with ease, but its order were to scare, not harm her. Keeping such base desires in check was difficult for Summer to impose on the creature, but she just barely managed.
Summer wanted Ruby to break down and cry. Cry for her mother, cry for the monster to go away and never desire to be a Hunter again. She wanted Ruby to regret her decision with all her heart.
Surprise was clear on both Summer's and the Grimm's face when the massive scythe sunk into its neck— but only sunk instead of passing through. It was now stuck in its thick hide, something that Ruby couldn't even see in the abyssal dark.
The Grimm laughed, for if the weapon had gone all the way through it was done, but it had found salvation by being stuck with the sharp blade. Ruby tried to push it through with all her might and struggled with all her willpower, and yet her age and lack of aura were massive walls in her path as a hero.
A talon scratched at her cheek, leaving a thin trail of clear red blood. It felt hot and strange on Ruby's cheek, but why this would be I do not know. For that was her namesake— the bloody jewel.
And let it be known that Summer was a genius in her own right, and had not abandoned the design of just a simple scythe. She had made one modification, just one. An addition that Ruby found with her fumbling and small hands, a button connected to the top of the scythe. One that she pressed, praying to the gods above— the very same that wanted to use her solely as entertainment— that it would do something.
Ruby felt her shoulder jerk, and jerk the wrong way. Her ears heard nothing except for an awful ringing, and there was more blood— more of the same strange liquid on Ruby's face, covering her. The grimm's blood, which slowly evaporated as it died, having been cut in half by a scythe powered by a rifle.
Almost immediately, the door burst open and light soared in, bringing Taiyang as a savior. His eyes almost naturally avoided his daughter, unable to comprehend the sight of his precious flesh and blood— one of two remaining things in the world that mattered to him— lying on the floor, covered in blood with an arm broken and temporary deafness.
He nearly cried on the spot, but using the strength and coolness of an unrelated Hunter, he made sure that his daughter was okay, next to two halves of a hideously monstrous and strangely colored grimm that seeped into the floor. But there was no sign of fear or pain on his daughter's face, just the same resolute satisfaction that he had seen only three times previously. All of which were on his wife.
He saw Summer's face on his daughter, bleeding out, alone and dying. He had not seen her death, nor did he know the details, but that is what his mind conjured. He wept, losing the strength of an unrelated Hunter. He wept for his dead wife, and for his daughter.
Taiyang clutched his bleeding and broken daughter, sobbing at the simple fact he would never see his wife again.
Five minutes passed before Yang went downstairs of her own accord— having worn headphones and been oblivious to the whole thing and saw the open basement door and the ensuing scene. The blood, her dad, and her sister with an arm that didn't look right. The only thing on her mind at that moment was that she didn't want to lose anybody else.
She rushed down the stairs, nearly tripping down them before catching herself on the railing.
Both her father and sister were catatonic, lost to the world, but for completely different reasons. Yang tried to shake her father and sister. She called out to them, quiet at first and then ear-piercingly loud. No matter how much she shook them or screamed, they refused to acknowledge her. She was nothing more than a specter to them, an unseen entity chained to Remnant for the rest of time.
When her voice was raw, Yang stood up. She was shaking, but knew that she couldn't do anything. Taiyang had a death grip on his youngest daughter, and wouldn't let his eldest do anything to fix her broken arm, of which she could see white bone protruding. Yang's eyes swam when ever she looked at the pooling blood, though there was no specter in it to comfort her.
Finding her breaths cut short by fear, Yang climbed the stairs, attempting to reach the light at the end. She was scarcely conscious as she called her uncle from the phone in the kitchen, her words incoherent and wracked by sobs. Not knowing the issue, but understanding the gravity, Qrow flew as fast as his wings could take him, barreling through the front door.
Yang had stayed strong, doing her best to rouse them from whatever delusion had seized them and failing. She grew frustrated, but had never stopped upon returning to her incapacitated family members. Not until Qrow called for help, and a loud ambulance escorted them all away.
And if Yang had seen more death, she would have seen her mother on the floor next to where Ruby had lain. For Summer knew that this was the last straw. Her daughter was forever destined to become a hunter, forever destined to a life of misery, pain and loss, and there was nothing she could do about it.
Except, Summer concluded after hours of self hate and self pity— to prepare her daughter as best she could.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I am always open to criticism and feedback if you have it.
