Chapter 12: Effortless Energy

Another day finished, another started. Summer looked out of the window of a restaurant waiting on her food. Alkyone's Hearth was located within the commercial district of Vale. Situated on a corner of a major through road and the riverfront road, fitting for an Argusian inspired building facade. Summer remembered fond trips down to Argus as a child, a luxury of being an upper middle class Faunus no doubt, and the architectural design had caught her eye. No doubt a yearning to visit Atlas itself sometime, seeing as Argus was the window to Atlas for Mistralians, like how Vytal City was the Valian and Vacouan window to Atlas.

The hot cocoa was warm still as she took a sip as Summer looked around the restaurant. Most of the other visitors were faunus like herself. The left wall was plastered with tons of photos, likely of former guests on dates. A small fountain depicting the Goddess of Argus, the one and only Aima Nikos, who died protecting Argus during the Great War when a Leviathan Grimm came to ravage the town while the town was being besieged by Valian forces from the south. A famous warrior in her own right; one who was put into every history book; having put up arms to protect her city when no one else would. Summer recalled scholars in Atlas in her childhood questioning if it was a sucide mission or not on Aima's half.

Summer smiled to herself as her food arrived and she started to eat. Her eyes did catch glimpses of the wandering eyes of the other faunus staring at her while she ate. The stares from some worried her, but others just seemed like tourists like herself. The food was amazing on Summer's tongue; bringing back quite a lot of memories of her childhood visits to Argus. She smiled as she finished and paid for her food. Slowly finishing off her cocoa before exiting the restaurant to start heading to the Fairgrounds to kill time before the semi-finals.

No birds watched her today, but she couldn't help but feel that she was being watched as she crossed under the interstate, noticing one of the pillars broken across the river, as if something hard had slammed into it, luckily it seems the other pillars in the area were able to support the road above. She turned away from the visibly closed off site to keep walking along the river, eventually stopping at a mall.

"Riverside Mall doesn't look like it's changed." Summer said to herself as she walked towards the doors. "I remember coming here countless times with the rest of the team." Oh the memories this place held. Her and Qrow's second date had started in the theater that adjoined it; and the date had ended in the arcade within the mall itself. Summer smiled as she entered the mall and was a little shocked at how the place had changed. Only a few similar stores had stuck around in the intervening years, one of them being one of her favorite weapon shops.

The doorbell rang as Summer walked into the store; it had really not changed, the smell of metal and gunpowder felt the exact same. She looked around for some equipment, smiling as she went up to the counter, having found some parts she needed for her weapon. While the pistol was nice; she had time to kill still; maybe she would take Ozpin up on his offer he had given to her after their chat, to use Beacon's Forge to build the new weapon. Summer noticed as she walked closer that a small statue now adorned the counter. 'Dedicated to Summer Rose; one of Fire and Steel's best customers and twice winner of the Vtyal Festival.' "Cute." she said out loud as she put down some of the parts she had grabbed, sheets of metal and the barrel along with some bolts.

The older gentleman at the counter just turned to the statue. "Yeah; Summer was one of my favourite patrons, always coming here since building her famous weapons to either buy weapon parts or to show others this place. Her daughter visits the place sometimes but well; she's got a lot more custom parts on hers compared to her mothers. Though she did start out with parts from this very shop, something I am proud that she chose me for, seeing it just made an appearance in Weapons Magazine. Yep; the Crescent Rose was started here though it does use a lot of custom parts that had to be homemade."

Summer just meekly smiled. "That's the thing with the newer generation, they get all the new equipment, it makes stuff from merely a quarter of a century ago seem ancient."

The shop owner just laughed full heartedly "Saying it like that really does make it sound ancient, ma'am, how do you want these?"

"Oh right; uh do you still have those equipment trolleys? I used to come here as a kid and well; remember seeing Huntsmen carrying their parts out like that."

The shop owner nodded. "They are 3500 lien extra, ma'am."

Summer nodded and pulled out some lien to finish the purchase before waving goodbye and heading out to spend some more time at the mall. Having found a copy of the Weapons Magazine in the commons of the mall. She took some time reading up on Ruby's weapon, even if the name was still lame compared to her classmate's. Eventually Summer got tired and started to head towards the school campus, she still had nearly four hours until the first matches were to start, plenty of time to start building at least one part of the weapon by herself, though she could not shake the feeling someone was still actively watching her. Perhaps it was Raven still, the jerk. Perhaps the fact that Ozpin mentioned cameras had spooked Summer. Maybe the thoughts of Ruby and Qrow finding her alive were what actually worried her enough to get these feelings.

The sounds of gunshots echoed as RNJR advanced towards the Nuckelavee. Ruby had already jumped into the dying tree to start to snipe at the Nuckelavee's weak points, those being the eyes of the horse. The Grimm roared at them as they all stood firm and attacked. Ruby slashed at one leg; Jaune another. Ren and Nora were dealing coverage damage from afar with Stormflower and Magnhild. Their damage barely scratched the Nuckelavee from the looks. Screams echoed around the abandoned walls of Kuroyuri as the team fought to protect Qrow from this gruesome freak. As Jaune had put it when he first attacked it; a 'lusus naturae'.

It's horse legs stood firm, even when Crescent Rose slashed directly through; the Nuckelavee only shrugged off the attacks with a squeal and reattached the leg as if it had never been chopped. Corcea Mors did similar damage, but it's damage was also shrugged off by the beast. Through the dust they could really only see the glowing red eyes of the horse and the wisps of particles trailing from them. It was almost magical, since that was a thing now on Remnant apparently. The arms of the Impish Grimm on top only groaned as it's arms flailed helplessly to try to block the on coming barrage of damage still coming from Ren and Nora.

"We're not even doing a scratch to it!" shouted Jaune as he looked helplessly at his teammates.

Ren just looked at him, his own fears uprooting in front of him. "We have to try, if we don't, we all lose!"

Nora just grinned as she turned to Jaune. "Shield!"

Jaune hesitated for a moment as Nora raced towards him while Ruby covered fire, having taken the time to transform Crescent Rose back into its sniper form while they all were talking. With a loud clang, Nora jumped onto Jaune's shield and was lifted upwards, slamming her hammer down into the cluster of weapons on the horse's back, before one of the arms grabbed her and threw her towards a building.

"Nora!" Ren shouted as he threw himself at the Nuckelavee, Stormflower's barrels glowing red as he kept shooting at it, trying to aim for the horse head. Then the Grimm took notice and with a swift swat sent Ren flying too.

Ruby then took charge as the Nuckelavee shifted course back towards the center of the abandoned city. With a quick burst of petals Ruby reformed above the Grimm herself; and spinning as she fell; slashed open the spinal bones on the back of the Imp like body before sliding down, to nest in the remnants of the other weapons. With another groan the beast shook off Ruby before grabbing her and throwing her towards the center. Ruby hit the tree with a big thunk as she slid down, luckily missing Qrow on the way down.

"Ruby!" Jaune shouted; slashing the Nuckelavee one last time before going to chase after Ruby. "Ruby are you alright?"

"Uhh yeah, my heads just slightly spinning, I'm fine." Ruby said, reaffirming her grip onto Crescent Rose. The duo looked towards the dust cloud approaching them, the glowing horse eyes and it's wisps the only things really in visuality as the clanks of the hooves on the cold cobblestone alerted them all.

The dust settled to reveal Ruby's attack had not been all in vain. The Impish top rested to one side of the horse, however it's eyes still shone and once it caught a glimpse of Ruby, Jaune and Qrow, it started to screech. The screech this time was a lot more painful to the ears than before. It seemed…lost to say the least.

Ruby's heart sank as her ears were flooded by the scream. Looking at the Grimm only made her lose focus as it screamed, was it calling for backup? Ruby just turned Jaune trying to search for support; however all she found in Jaune was the same emotions as her. It was hopeless; there was no way to win against this beast was there? They had struggled to get here; having traveled hundreds of miles from Patch, just to fail here? In the place Ren had survived years ago, to the same Grimm that took his parents? Ruby just saw Jaune's sword lose it's grip.

The sounds of explosion caught them off guard, there were Ren and Nora; back from their fall; and trying to fight the beast alone without them. Jaune just nodded as he reaffirmed his grip on Crocea Mors as he got back up, a soft smile had crept onto Jaune's face as he turned to her. It warmed Ruby's face up as she formed a smile too. A second later they lost their smiles as Ren and Nora were flung at them. The duo sliding next to Jaune, before getting back up.

The Nuckelavee screamed another time as it's Impish torso rose back up, the sounds of bones cracking coming from it as it turned to face Qrow and with a wail started to charge towards him. Jaune knew what he needed to do; with a quick run; he got up to Qrow; pulling out his shield and rising it up into a protective stance when the Nuckelavee stopped dead in its tracks.

Everyone turned to see that Ren was struggling to use his semblance on them all. "Get him to safety!" Ren shouted as Nora rested an arm on him before grabbing out Magnhild once more and bombarding the beast with grenade after grenade. Jaune nodded as he started to lift Qrow and carry him off away from the tree.

Jaune slowed and dropped Qrow in a small alleyway tucked between the buildings; it was too narrow for the Nuckelavee to fully enter; but it could still snake it's arm into it. Qrow started to rest his hand back on his wound while Jaune stood guard over him for a moment, unsure if he should stay with Qrow or go back to the others. 'No, I must help them, I can't let them down.' Jaune thought to himself as he started to turn away towards the others.

He was stopped however when a voice croaked with a cough, and a hand grabbed his. Jaune turned to see Qrow staring right into him. "P-protect her, Jaune…" Qrow croaked out before slumping back against the alley wall, his hand clutching the wound once more. Jaune looked at him for a moment, before nodding. Qrow had given him an order, one that he needed to fulfill, not for himself but for her: Ruby.

Without hesitation, Jaune forcefully removed his arm from Qrow's weakened grasp as he started to run. Hand on his sword as the sounds of the other members of RNJR fighting the Nuckelavee grew louder and he just kept running towards them. There was going to be no way that he would let his team down, not unless he died first; giving them time to escape. Until the end, he shall protect his friends, and now especially his best friend, Ruby.

Summer sighed as she dragged her trolly out of the bus station at Beacon, taking in the Beacon skyline once more. She had seen it countless times before; but it always brought a warmth to her, especially the Cross Continental Tower; which stood in the center of the campus and was the tallest building, with it's green beacon adoring it's top; right above Ozpin's office. Summer just turned off the main avenue and towards the forge, she only had a few hours to set everything up and get her weapon built before the finals.

As she entered; she noticed the forge was eerily still; perhaps with the Festival no one was going to use it until tomorrow. Summer sat in a corner and got to work signing in, surely her old password would work still for the Alumni that she was.

Password Incorrect.

'Huh?' Summer thought to herself as she tried again, still the same error came on her screen. "New fancy machines have changed everything."

"Actually ma'am." A voice chirped up. Summer turned around; to see a near copy of herself standing there. Ruby. "You're an Alumni right?"

Summer felt her voice leave her. "Y-Yes I am."

"Oh yeah; you're trying to use 'b3acon#' aren't you?" Ruby quizzed, just smiling at Summer; completely unaware just exactly who she was talking to, perhaps it's because of Summer's cloak not being present?

Summer nodded. "Yeah, that's the password Ozpin gave me to use; what happened?"

"Oh some woman tried to break into the CCT during the dance we had a few weeks back, before the Breach. Professor Ozpin sent us all new passwords; here you can use mine, ma'am." Ruby then turned to the computer and logged in. "Please don't mess up my stuff ma'am, and log me out ok?"

Summer nodded, turning to the monitor, catching Ruby's face on the monitor staring back at her. "T-Thank you R-Ruby Rose? Is that your name?"

Ruby just shook her head and beamed. "Yep! Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY! Yeah it does get a little confusing sometimes. My sister Yang, our 'Y' is actually the one we selected to be in the finals!"

Summer's throat dried up. "Do you know Summer Rose?" Summer knew the answer of course but wanted to hear it from Ruby, now that they're talking. Ruby just pulled a button on the machine and it started to work; pumping dust into a section of it not too far away from them.

Ruby's face grew pale as all emotions exited the room. "Yeah, she was my mother, she died when I was around two."

Summer frowned, trying to be sympathetic, cursing herself for causing this. "Oh, I'm sorry for your loss Ruby. It's just I knew Summer and well you remind me of her, from just you willing to drop everything to help a stranger like me."

"Well; my best friend's mom said once that 'Strangers are friends you haven't met yet.' and.." Ruby trailed off. "While that's not really fair to say in this case; I can say I would be failing my duty as a future Huntress if I didn't help others!"

Summer just giggled. "So you've set yourself up to be one of the best Huntresses?"

Ruby nodded. "I decided though that Yang should be the one to try to tie our mom's record."

Summer just smiled. "I was in her class; we all cheered in Atlas when Summer won her second Festival victory. For being Atlesian herself; she really was a pride of Vale back then."

It was now Ruby's time to croak. "She's from Atlas? M-my dad didn't really tell me where she came from; as it's never been important."

Summer frowned, what else had Qrow and Tai kept from her baby? "Oh; I'm sorry; I should of let someone a lot closer to you than a stranger tell you that then."

"No no." Ruby said smiling. "Please; if you have time; can you tell me more about her?"

Summer nodded. "I would gladly, she was a friend of mine."

And so for a while; Summer and Ruby chatted away; Ruby still unaware that Summer was her mom. Ruby saw that she was building a pair of sickles and eventually pulled out Crescent Rose on her mother, who was all too happy to take a look at it now. Ruby learned a lot from her mom while talking to her; smiling the whole time, when a voice interrupted them.

"Miss Rose; shouldn't you be working on your work projects instead of interrupting the works of alumni?"

They both turned to see Ozpin smiling at them with his standard mug of cocoa in his hand, his cane in the other.

"I'm sorry Professor Ozpin; I was logging in for her as she didn't get the new password yet and I got carried away."

Summer smiled at her former headmaster. "I actually didn't mind, she's been a pleasure helping me work on my new weapon."

This caused Ozpin to relax. "Oh really now? Glad to hear that. Very well; I won't stop you."

Ruby looked at her scroll. "Oh no! I'm late to talk with my team. I'm so sorry; but I must go!" With that; what looked like a burst of petals appeared in Ruby's place.

"Take care Ruby." Summer said smiling, before eventually sitting down in the forge with Ozpin sitting next to her, she and Ruby had been nearly done with the building of the weapon. "You know you didn't need to be here Oz."

Headmaster Ozpin just chuckled as he stirred his cocoa. "Of course I don't. Summer, however, I am the Headmaster of this place, and it's my duty to make sure all students and alumni are treated right."

Summer smiled, fidgeting a little with her hands. "You've always had a knack of doing that, Oz."

"Of course, being the founder of this school, I have a lot of respect to earn with each reincarnation. No matter what race or gender you may be, I give everyone an equal chance to be a Huntsman or Huntress at Beacon. That goes double for Silver Eyed Warriors like yourself and Ruby." Ozpin said as the machine finished printing a peice. "Are you sure you want to just rebuild your old weapon? You know there are plenty of new techniques that could be used on them."

Summer nodded. "I see no reason not to rebuild them, nor upgrade them yet. Ruby's taken a liking to Qrow's one scythe design, I felt it in my own hands, that jerk must of forced it on her." Summer said just snickering afterwards. "Well that is one thing I decided to lose out on, going solo." She sighed as she finished sanding down the barrel. "Nearly done; just gonna connect everything and sharpen the blade, I should be ready in time for the matches to start!"

Ozpin only smiled at her words, like a grandfather would. "That's good to hear, Summer, though why did you not take the chance to tell her your name?"

"Why should I, she told me her side of the story; I told her mine to an extent. It's better if she doesn't know, but she'll be so proud of herself when she sees that she helped me build the weapon again."

Ozpin just shrugged as he took a sip of his cocoa; his descendants were weird.

Soon enough; Summer was swinging the finished product around. "Yeah, I can get used to this again."

Ozpin smiled at her softly. "Excellent. Mrs. Rose."

Summer turned to him. "Yep; I'm gonna load up on some bullets and test before heading out."

"Very well; take care; hope to see you after the finales, I must leave; I have a meeting at sunset with some people." Ozpin turned back to face Summer "Oh, and please turn off the lights when you leave."

"Of course." Summer said as she turned to stock up on bullets before walking to the firing range. She was gonna need the time she still had to make up and get used to her new rifle.

This week could not get any worse. Qrow looked at the screen on his scroll; replaying the events from yesterday evening. The first match of the finals had ended in disaster when his niece had broken her competitor's leg. First there was his talk with Raven, then out of the blue he had a fight with Winter Schnee in Beacon's courtyard. After that, as a result of the fight with Winter, he had an argument with her boss in Ozpin's office about who the guardian should be, after a heated discussion of his family. Just before that match he had worked with Ozpin to reveal to Miss Nikos about their organization and now this? Maybe him being here was the actual storm Ozpin had been referring to. Just his luck.

He just walked around campus, trying to clear his head, these thoughts were maddening to think of as true. He frowned as he opened the gate to the chicken coop. Summer had loved coming here, one of the few places she would go to calm down from life; maybe he should follow her own example and sit with the chickens for a bit. He was too lost in his thoughts to notice a raven watching him on the fence. The chickens just slowly approached him as he sat down by the feeder, clucking around him with some jumping onto him.

"Heh. I knew your ancestors." he said to one of the small chicks now walking across his chest. The sun was warm on his skin as he sat there; he thought about just transforming right there and flying away from Beacon but knew Ozpin needed him on campus for whatever he had planned with Pyrrha Nikos. He didn't disapprove of Ozpin's choice, but he did have issues with her; as she is only a first year student.

Yes; Amber's condition is deteriorating day by day as Ozpin has her in the machines keeping her on life support to keep the powers going to her assailant. It all troubled Qrow. Atlas' Military sending one if it's strongest divisions to watch over Vale? Now that was a concern. He had mentioned it to Ironwood but he had barely touched the surface before Ozpin had stopped him. But needing a new Fall Maiden so soon? Were they going crazy, the two of them? Let alone a child who had no idea just exactly was at stake-.

"O-oh hey Uncle Qrow."

Qrow looked up to see Ruby had entered the chicken coop as well. "Oh hey kiddo."

"Y-you here for the chickens?" Ruby quizzed, her face frowning; likely from the news about Yang, and their team's disqualifications. Qrow just nodded. "Yeah; I'm here for them too, they really help me calm down after stressful days; and well, today has been quite that."

Qrow just nodded again before speaking. "I know kiddo. I came down here as old man Ozpin needs me for something today and well, I agree; they do help calm people down, these chickens." Ruby just giggled at that, as Qrow let her sit down and some of the chicks slowly wandered off of Qrow and made their way onto Ruby. "You know…." Qrow took a long sigh after a few minutes of silence. "Your mother loved this place and would drag us here when we were down in the dumps back when we were students too."

That caught Ruby's attention as she just stared at him. "Really?!"

Qrow just nodded. "It's just never came up in conversations so I made no mention of it to you."

"Mind telling me more about my mom?" Ruby said, trying to smile.

Qrow just relaxed a little against the wall. "Of course pipsqueak. Your mother was one of the best fighters I've ever met Ruby, I've told you that before. It's not the best time; but well… she had a record to her name too."

"Oh?" Ruby said, trying to look at him, still frowning a little.

"Yeah, we never told you as it wasn't important and we didn't want to stroke your or Yang's egos, but she won our two festivals…." Qrow sighed as he looked at Ruby deflate a little. He cursed himself under his breath a little; of all things to lead with; he chose the thing that they came here to avoid. "But that came at a cost to her, shockingly."

"How so?"

Thank goodness that changed the mood. "Well; I'll admit me and your father should be more open about her to you and Yang. You're old enough to know now at least one."

"Know what?" Ruby said, looking at him, her head tilted to a side slightly in confusion from his words.

"Summer was born and raised in Mantle, right under the City of Atlas in their kingdom, and well…. Our second tournament brought us to Atlas and… you know how that Flynt Guy was talking about your teammate Weiss?"

Ruby nodded, she had watched the match and heard everything about how Flynt's family had lost business to the Schnee Dust Company. "Yes?"

"Imagine that but on a bigger level; when the locals are disappointed in you leaving for another school? There's no telling how the tabloids spun her, she tried to keep us from them as much as she could." He sighed. "That's just how your mom functioned."

"She kept secrets?"

"Lots." Qrow said; his eyes drifting away as echoes of the past came knocking in his mind. "Lots more than I would like to say; as well; they've rubbed off onto the rest of us, even if she had a very close personality to yourself kiddo." Qrow just put her in a headlock and noogied her for a moment before letting go. "You feeling better Ruby?"

"A little, what about you Uncle Qrow?" Ruby said; a small smile formed on her lips, causing Qrow to smile too, the Rose smiles were addictive.

"I.. thank you Ruby. You've helped me clear my mind, pick out some parts for Crescent Rose and I'll see if I can get some in time for Solstice Invictus." Qrow just smiled at Ruby, he knew she was going to pick out some expensive parts but he didn't care.

"You promise Uncle Qrow?" Ruby said beaming now.

Qrow just nodded. "Yes, I promise, Pipsqueak." Qrow got up to stretch his legs, had they been talking for a long time or was it because he had relaxed for the first time in years. "Hey; what's your plans after leaving the chicken coop?"

"Oh, seeing Yang is in our dorm and I don't want to disturb her, I was going to see if I could hang out with the members of team JNPR! What about you Uncle Qrow? Are you going to see my headmaster again?"

Qrow just shrugged as he offered her a hand up as they started to leave the chickens and walk towards the door. "Actually; now that you mentioned your sister, I think I'm gonna go give Yang a talk; she might want an outsider's perspective on what happened yesterday."

The door slammed close as the raven watched from the fenceline. "If you say so Uncle Qrow! Take care!" Ruby said as she started to walk in a different direction than Qrow. Qrow sighed as he slowly opened his flask and took a sip. As much as he loved Ruby; talking to her was taxing, even if it helped clear his mind. Qrow just sighed as he tossed a hand up; hitting the door frame into the Beacon Student Dorm for old times sake as he walked around the dorm, making his way to talk to Yang.

It was time to talk to Yang about Raven or Summer if needed. He had questions for her; and he was sure Yang was going to ask him questions while they talked, she had the knack to pick pockets into his and Tais silence about keeping the secrets of Summer and Raven. He just hoped the rest of the day would be better than the rest of the week before, less he was going to curse his bad luck with drinks tonight. He slowly crept into the team RWBY dorm, propping himself on the wall next to the door, just standing there until he felt it was right to speak up, having noticed Yang was busy staring out of the window. "Hey there firecracker."