Chapter Four
Shards
Team High Command
Four pairs of eyes sludged open, unwilling to tear their owners from the land of sleep.
Glacial blue melted opened onto a writhing sea of flames.
Alluring amethyst cracked opened to a vast expanse of snow.
Silver and gold clashed together in a bitter struggle for dominance before both accepted it was a fruitless endeavor.
Just their average morning ritual.
A horrifically adorable noise of petulance arose from the back of Weiss' throat as she attempted to slip back into the land of dreams, closing her eyes and nestling deep into the crook of Yang's neck.
Yang breathed in the scent of Weiss, the crisp scent of crystallizing water invading her nostrils. Weiss' hand curled up on her chest as her other snuck behind her neck and used it as leverage to bring herself closer to her.
"Ruby, I will murder you if you make us get us this early." Weiss' muffled voice sounded through the blockage of Yang's thick hair.
"It's past ten Weiss." Ruby dragged the covers off herself and Blake with her foot, pinching the soft material between her toes. Blake helped her out in the process, yet none made a move to actually leave the bed. "I know you know that."
"I don't hear you leaving your bed either." Yang could feel Weiss' smile against her skin. She sent a pulse of heat traveling to the palm of the hand resting against Weiss' abs, the hand having found its way there throughout the night.
"I don't want to, but I know we'll get nothing done if we don't get up." Blake dared her to move from their position, a lone ear twitching threateningly as the other was trapped under her own head.
"What's the problem with that?" Yang joined in on the cross room conversation, her fingers tracing the contours of Weiss' body as they traveled along, shifting her night shirt up.
"We have to unpack, sign our marriage certificates, start rebuilding Serenity, start toppling Cinder and the White Fang, deal with…" Ruby's voice couldn't get more dull if she tried, listing off the growing number of tasks their team had to accomplish.
Weiss groaned and hitched her leg up higher on Yang, straddling her while laying on her side and wrapping said leg around one of hers. Blake turned her head away from Ruby towards the pillow, showing her displeasure in the simplest of manners.
"It's simple." Ruby ran her finger through Blake's greatly shortened hair, smiling as Blake's ears reacted to her touch. Struggle as she might, they never failed to shy away from unexpected contact. "We can take a break, but it doesn't mean we can laze our days away."
Weiss released another noise as Yang's hand trailed its way up onto the upper half of her torso. She playfully batted it aside, scolding her wife with a glare before tearing herself from the heat generator and sitting up on the bed.
Part of her hair stuck up at a random angle from her sleeping arrangement. Yang laughed as she licked her fingers and massaged the stray hairs back into place. The cool metal of her hand was a sharp contrast to her usual warmth. A few more rough passes guided the hairs into a reasonable position, laying almost flat to the rest of her hair.
Weiss blinked several times, striking the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes, interspersing her efforts by wiping away the buildup of rheum from the corner of her sclera. She dislodged her legs from the covers and shuffled over Yang, eliciting a grunt from the woman as she pressed her body weight down on her on her way to the ground.
A shiver ran up her spine as her bare feet touched down on the laminate wooden flooring of their room. The sun filtering through the upper part of the covered windows did nothing to chase away the biting chill.
Blake turned from her position lying face down on her pillow, sliding her legs from under the covers, and prepared to go about the day. She gently swayed as her body cycled through waking the various functions needed to go about the day.
Ruby perched her head atop of Blake's and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Blake controlled her ears to brush against Ruby's cheeks, alternating their motions, one going forward while the other went backwards.
A few moments of the morning were spent in each others' embraces.
Ruby watched as Yang kicked away the covers towards Weiss, covering the girl with them. Yang propped herself on her elbows, grinning at her wife as she pulled the covers from head, further disorganizing her hair.
With a light nudge, Ruby pushed Blake to a standing, dislodging her arms and head from their places of rest. Shifting positions from kneeling to sitting, Ruby joined her, relishing in the feeling of sunlight dancing across her form.
Weiss attempted to persuade Yang out of bed, tugging at her arm to wrest her from prone. Yang made her job none the easier, acting as a limp puppet with its strings cut, refusing to use her muscles.
Yang slouched forward on the bed, bringing the soles of the feet together as she struggled to pull herself from blissful sleep. She arched her back and rotated her shoulder blades, sighing in relief as synovial fluid cavitated.
She brushed her hair with her fingers, fluffing the locks after their time spent drying, while sending Weiss a magnanimous smile at catching her ruffled state. Weiss stuck her tongue out at her.
As Yang tackled Weiss with a pillow, sending them tumbling onto the ground, Ruby and Blake moved towards their bags, abandoned by the side of the door after they trudged into the room. With only the bare essentials removed a few hours ago, the packs remained mostly filled.
Ruby knelt by her bag and began removing articles of clothing as she found them, placing them by her side. Seven days worth of clothing: an assortment of tees, rain gear, jeans, shorts, underwear, socks, and a pair of sneakers were pulled one by one from the pack. The last to be removed was a clear zipped bag containing oils, rags, a whetstone, a spare scroll, a wad of lien, and a few ration bars.
Blake removed a similar barrage of clothes from her pack, near identical except for the colour pallette and substituting sneakers for boots. Greys, blacks, and the occasional white joined Ruby's pile of crimson, maroon and burgundy. A similar waterproof bag containing the same materials sat at the very bottom.
While the two unpacked their spartan belongings, Weiss and Yang finished their wrestling match, the latter announcing her victory by pinning the former with her weight. Bucking her hips did her no good against her tallest teammate, and only encouraged her, treating Weiss like a wild bronco.
Weiss abandoned the struggle, laying her arms above her head and waited for Yang to graciously let her go. Placing her hands to either of Weiss' head, Yang leaned over, drawing a curtain of blonde around her. Weiss mustered her best puppy dog eyes, gazing directly into Yang's eyes.
Yang flinched at the melting ice of Weiss' eyes, averting her gaze. A whimper brought her attention back and she immediately regretted it. Rolling off of her partner, she conceded the small victory, taking the time to draw breath after their play.
In sync, Ruby and Blake continued unpacking their belongings. Footwear found their places on a floor mat near the door. Articles of clothing, bound tightly in rolls, were unrolled, refolded and placed in the provided dresser, each girl taking a drawer for themselves. They tossed the clear locked bags containing supplies on the desk.
Seeing their sisters unpacking sprung the lollygagging pair into action. With their morning haze broken from their earlier tousle, they moved with frighteningly efficiency and began unpacking.
Since the construction of Serenity, Ruby required every team member to pack and maintain a go bag on the ship. Each bag was packed relatively the same. Enough clothing to last a week or more, rain gear, boots or sneakers, if you were wearing them already, money, scrolls, and weapon materials.
As Weiss and Yang rummaged through their bags, Ruby unzipped one of the side pockets, removing a dozen rounds, ready to be slid into Crescent Rose. She placed the massive shells on the desk and shoved the now empty bag into her dresser drawer.
Weiss and Yang placed their medley of clothing in the remaining two unused drawers as Blake tucked her empty pack into the back of her drawer, but not before removing her own magazines and placing them near Ruby's rounds.
"It's weird." Yang spoke as she folded her clothes. "Everything we own is in this room."
"Not like we need much." Ruby answered her. "We have some funds if we're lacking anything, but Serenity will eat most if not all of it up until Ozpin decides to put us to work."
"I doubt he'll put us anywhere after he reads more closely into our profiles." Weiss hopped back into her bed, swaying her legs gently, breaking the beams of sunlight streaming through the window. "He'll keep us close and monitor our progress."
"We could always ask to operate out of Beacon, taking teaching positions until missions come up."
"By teaching positions, you mean Weiss and I, right?" Yang flicked Ruby on her forehead. "Neither us or Ozpin would ever let you near children without supervision."
"Which is why I'll ask if we can do lessons in tandem. Blake can't give verbal instruction and will rely on me or you two for help. I can't teach alone because of my fragile mental stability. And you get to teach a class together with Weiss. It's a win win for everyone, if Ozpin agrees to it."
"I'm sure he's in desperate need of students, who barely finished their first year, to teach."
"In our first year we only had three professors. I doubt be can resist graduates of our caliber."
"Not graduates. Only first years with an immense amount of battle experience." Weiss chided her leader.
"With all that experience, I say we graduated several times over." Ruby bit back, all the while pulling her night shirt over head. The bright pink cotton electrified her hair, causing hundreds of strands to stand at skewed angles.
Blake pawed at them, tongue sticking out in concentration, plastering the misbehaving strands back to Ruby's head. Ruby sent her a small grin in thanks at her work before fumbling around in her drawer, retrieving a mid-length sleeve tee. It would cover the worst of her scars.
From the top of their shared dresser, she also retrieved one of the electromagnetic backplates. Attaching the plate to her back, she completed her outfit with a pair of burgundy short shorts.
"Guess we'll have to dip into our funds a bit earlier than expected. We really don't own anything anymore." Ruby ran her gaze around the room, counting off the various objects needed to furnish the room. "Going to need to borrow a bullhead and go shopping. Today if we can. I'm not living without the cleaning powers of hydrogen peroxide any longer than needed."
Off in the bathroom, the sink was near overfilled with their clothes, the water tinged red from the caked blood and Grimm remains accrued from their previous engagements.
"Agreed." The three chimed in their usual manners.
"What do you have planned for the rest of today?" Yang tossed her own night shirt over onto her bed, mimicking Ruby. From her back she retrieved a roll of wide bandages, stretching the fabric to test its elasticity. "Any sparring or rigorous activities?"
"I'm sure Weiss has her own rigorous activities to put you through, but you have the rest of the day off." Ruby adjusted her backplate under her shirt, shifting it around until the molded foam slid into place. "That goes for the rest of you as well."
"Thanks Ruby." Yang smooshed her bare chest against Ruby's back, shifting the staggered plating as it moved to accommodate her hefty bosom. A possessive growl echoed from Blake as she watched another woman pressed her nude body against her wife.
Yang dislodged from her sister and walked over to Blake. With her height advantage, it was hilariously easy to reach up and rub one of her ears. The threatening growl shifted into a rumbling purr against Blake's will. Her team had learned to play her marvelously.
"Stop antagonising her and put on a shirt."
"Spoilsport." Before she had latched onto Ruby, she had pulled an evergreen tee from her dresser, flinging it over her shoulder. She pulled the shirt on, satisfying almost everyone.
"Which one?" In one hand, Weiss held a silver tee imprinted with her sigil in black. In the other, she held a copy of the first shirt in reversed colours.
Blake pulled on her only shirt, leaving the top buttons undone and folding the sleeves until they reached her elbows, keeping upper arms hidden. She pinned Ruby's silver crosses to the lapels of her shirt.
"Are we going for shock and awe or blending in?" Yang asked Ruby, who was immersed in her scroll.
"Hmm?" She looked away from her screen, glancing up at the situation. "Neither. We're going about a usual day. We eat lunch, meet the Headmaster, then dash into Vale to pick up supplies."
Ruby brushed off her leg pouch, attaching it to her thigh with some spare bandages. She filled it with her multitool, a copy of Of Love and War, and three rounds.
"Take the black shirt then. Sigil works better in silver." Weiss substituted her sleeping shirt for it. Her skin glowed against the dark material. "Big difference to your Beacon days."
"Really?" Weiss deadpanned. "Would have thought that was the hair."
"Definitely the scar." Yang pointed out. Weiss moved onto working on her leg pouch, filling it with a first edition Icha Icha, a few dust vials of every colour, and part of a first aid kit. "Forgot about that."
"Dumbass." She pinched Yang's cheeks. Yang swatted her hand away, rubbing the red spot.
Blake retrieved two flatter leg pouches from her pack, inspecting them for damage. One of the pouches she attuned solely for six throwing knives. The second held her trusty copy of Ninjas of Love. She donned then on her thighs over a layer of bandages, protecting her skin from the strap.
"Who's ready for lunch?" Ruby turned back to her team. She swiped her pointer finger along the collapsed handle, smirking as red flaked onto her the skin before licking it off. "I should really get this cleaned."
"That's unhygienic." Weiss slapped Ruby upside the head.
"My aura will burn it off." Ruby said through blood stained teeth, using her tongue to wipe them clean. She opened the zipped pack, reached in and removed a clean rag. She quickly wiped the exterior of her weapon, visually inspecting for more dirt and debris to clean away. "Clean enough."
Ruby walked into the bathroom and threw the rag into the sink, further tainting the water. Her teammates followed her example, cleaning their weapons and tossing the rags into the sink.
"It's not perfect but it'll have to do." Ruby attached the scythe to her back with a muffled click, relishing in the feel of her weapon. Against the dark maroon of her shirt, any blood remaining would be hidden in the tone of both weapon and it.
"Ruby. Don't forget this." Weiss had retrieved the silver moon emblem from the desk, wiping away the blood with another rag. "Ozpin ordered you to wear it."
Ruby said nothing but snatched the patch from Weiss' palm, inspecting the cursed object before attaching it to her upper arm, the hard emblem stretching the shirt's material.
Blake gave her a kiss on the cheek, brightening her mood.
"Ready to go then?" Ruby looked over to Weiss, who stood on a chair and fixed Yang's hair into a ponytail.
"I thought I told you you have the day off. You don't need the ponytail."
"But I like it when she's wearing sometime that's mine." Weiss inspecting her handiwork as she applied the finishing touch. Weiss' tiara sat at the bottleneck of the ponytail, holding it in place. "I wear her scarf even if I don't have loops on my shorts."
She indeed did not. The white shorts on Weiss' legs would have caused Glynda to short circuit before sending her spiraling into a rant about proper school attire. An orange scarf wrapped around her midsection, hanging limply on her pelvis. A simple knot secured Myrtenaster to her hip.
"Now are we ready?" Ruby tapped her fingers on her arm. Securing their weapons to their appropriate slots, Yang and Blake nodded.
Ruby launched through the window, latching onto the upper edge of the frame, rotating her body parallel to the horizon. Applying her Semblance along a perpendicular vector, she rocketed upward, leaving a trail of petals.
Her teammates followed along, Weiss spawning a glyph level with the ledge to create an artificial platform. Blake bounded from the glyph and flew upward, channeling Aura into her legs to make the jump.
The married pair of Weiss and Yang followed with Yang closing the window as much as she could. Weiss dissolved the glyph as Yang leapt towards the roof, joining her waiting team.
Ruby gave her sister a single nod as her feet hit the graveled roof. With another shower of rose petals, the team disappeared towards the canteen.
A cool breeze washed over them, granting them relief against the glaring sun. It had deemed them worthy of its heat for their actions yesterday.
At the speed they travelled, the sights around them blurred together. Thanks to Ruby's Semblance, they could move at these speeds and higher. The usual walk to the canteen from the dorms took five minutes, but they arrived in a record ten seconds.
They opened the doors to the blissfully chilled area, relishing the cooled air rushing over them, battling against the humidity. The canteen served as a refuge against the brutal midday heat. It was packed full of students, chatting away amiably and enjoying each other's company.
Though their attires and hairstyles had changed greatly, they still resembled their younger selves from four years ago. Ruby's growth spurt would be missed entirely except for those who knew the team.
They filed down the main corridor between the tables, passing familiar faces and teams on their way to the food line. Pangs of sorrow and guilt echoed through their hearts at the sight of these people. Most, if not all of them would be dead in three years time, if they were still in their timeline.
Their thoughts were wiped clean as they laid witness to the extravagant array of food waiting to be demolished. Nearly every possible food combination sat neatly lined up. Fast food, home foods, and foreign foods stretched down the heating racks.
"I can't remember the last time we had the choice of so many different foods." Yang grabbed a tray and pushed it along to her first entree, loading a plate of egg noodles and stir fried beef.
Ruby skipped Yang on the line and loaded her tray with baked chicken and pasta with alfredo sauce. Yang however moved along the line, already plating fried chicken as another entree. Blake moved to another heating bar, dressing a plate with salmon and pan seared string beans. Weiss filled a large bowl with various greens, different types of beans and a healthy dose of chicken strips, topping it all off with a dressing mixture of olive oil and lemon juice.
"Uh oh." Yang's frightened remark caught Weiss's attention, who followed her gaze and paled. Impressive for the girl with skin already the colour of fresh snow. "Ruby found the strawberries."
Blake came to their rescue, putting herself between Ruby and the delicious treats. She stared her down, conveying a message through a series of twitches and minor movements.
"What do you mean I can only have one bowl?" Ruby tried to sidestep the Faunus, but the blockade moved to follow her. She tried her other side, but was blocked just the same. "I don't stop you from eating all the fish you want, do I?"
Blake twitched an ear in a dismissive manner.
"I do not eat enough to drive myself into a coma." Ruby held her gaze, refusing to back down. Though the endless void of her right eye drew her into the abyss, Blake refused to break eye contact.
Another twitch, accompanied with a shift in weight to her heel.
"Fine. One bowl, but I get sugar and whipped cream on top." Blake smiled and moved aside, waving her through with a grandiose gesture. Ruby wasted no time, piling a bowl high with strawberries, topping it off with a sprinkle of sugar and a mountain of whipped cream.
Each of them had their own food quirks. Ruby absolutely cherished strawberries and demolished anyone who stood in her way. Usually.
Everyday, Weiss would attempt to have a bowl of ice cream. The deliciously cold treat satisfied her taste buds as no other did. From rocky road, to pistachio to all the fruits; she had tried them all. Her favorite, by far, was mint. She always got some weird looks for her preference.
She knew all too well what her 'preferences' cost her.
Blake, as usual, went out of her way to find dishes cooked with fish. Any fish would do, as long as it satisfied the innate craving of her animal heritage. He was unusually partial to tuna, and no matter what other food she tried, it remained her favourite.
Their last teammate's quirk wasn't too unusual, but it garnered similar looks of disgust and confusion as she'd drink it no matter the time of day and with any meal.
Milk.
Yang would drink the white liquid given any chance. Even though she plated egg noodles and beef on her tray, she filled a glass with milk and made her way away from the food line and to a table.
Most teams avoided the windowed seating areas in the sun, but this team took it as an opportunity to sit and talk away from the general populous. Bianca arrived to the table and took her place across her wife, her leader and other sister also sitting opposite each other.
"I see you've started your ice cream diet again." Yang chided her.
She received the middle finger in response.
"I haven't had any in nearly a year." She speared a piece of grilled chicken on her fork and twirled it between her fingers. "Can you fault me?"
"Not really." Yang crushed a few pine nuts and spread them among her dish. "As long as you share."
Weiss twisted her lips into a wry grin as she continued eating her salad.
Next to them, another conversation was taking place, yet neither of them could make heads or tails of it.
Eyelash bats, cheek bites, nose twitches, finger flicks, scratched ears, picked fingernails and foot nudges defined their dance. No words needed to be spoken between them to convey their thoughts.
The two rather liked the intimacy behind it and enjoyed aggravating those who couldn't mind their own business.
A few empty minutes passed as they ate their food, sitting comfortably placed between the sun's wrath and an overhead vent. A pleasing mix of cooled air and the sun's wrath glided on their skin, raising goosebumps in its wake.
As the team moved onto their desserts, a fair haired professor deemed it necessary to join them.
"Grab your dessert and let's go." Ruby ordered her team, blanketing them in her Semblance. "Head to Ozpin."
They disappeared in the wind, leaving their table covered in petals, and a disgruntled blonde, who turned and began her walk back to the tower the Headmaster had ejected her from earlier.
The team bound from the dining commons and angled their travel towards the monolith of a tower, startling the few students baking in the noon simmer.
Ruby's Semblance pierced the sharp wind threatening to slice their cheeks as they accelerated at breakneck pace. They barely touched the roofs in their paths before they left the physical ground and began traversing Weiss's glyphs.
Bounding from glyph to glyph, they rose higher into the air until they reached the balcony of Ozpin's office and alighted on the terrace.
Ruby knocked on the door, startling the Headmaster who swiveled in his chair and beckoned them in.
"Congratulations. You're the first people I've had to invite in through the balcony." He crossed his legs and held his drink in his hand. "They are several discoveries and discrepancies I must go over with you."
"I was expecting your underlings to be here waiting for us to pester us with questions." Ruby presented her team for inspection, standing at attention in front of his desk. "What do you want to know?"
"I sent them off for a more private meeting." He told them. "I need to know your aliases and preferred occupations." He rattled off his list.
"Summer, Kara, Bianca and Nova." Ruby pointed to each member of her team, starting at herself, then Blake, Weiss and lastly Yang. "We'll operate under the callsign Skyborne."
"Yes. I figured you'd like to use one of your alternate team aliases." Ozpin filled in their names into the needed forms. "I just wasn't sure which one."
"A necessity of our positions in the Hunters to maintain several identities to be thrown away at a moment's notice." Summer recited to him. "Unfortunately our faces and weapons were known throughout Remnant at one point and it was pointless to create any more."
"The curse of infamy. Every action we take is scrutinized by our enemies and even more so by our allies. Impossible to disappear from the public sphere after a while."
"Yet you managed quite well." Summer accused. "An identity long forgotten even before Mantle was reformed."
"And somehow you managed to learn of it." He stirred his mug idly, raising an eyebrow. "I believed to have destroyed all the records of my past."
"There exist records for those who know whom to ask."
"You speak of her." He stopped stirring his mug, his tone gaining ice. "I had thought I had washed myself clean of her."
"Hard to wash yourself of family you don't want."
"Deceptively. You speak with experience?"
"Everyone of us has family who either want us back or can't let go. Tai bawled his eyes out when Nova and I refused to go home. Qrow was much more understanding."
"You uncle raised you as Hunters. Not too surprised." He looked over to the next member of the team. "And you Kara? Your parents miss you terribly."
Kara flattened her ear against her head, the universally understood gesture of shame. Two dozen hand signs declared her statement in return.
"I see. Take your younger self with you." He looked to Bianca. "And you, the heiress of the Schnee Dust Corporation?"
"No longer." She barely bristled at the jibe. "Abandoned in favor of a more humble name. You know the answers to all these questions, sir. Why ask?"
"It's nice to converse with equals." He took a sip of his chocolate. "Your profiles are impeccably complete, filling in gaps I didn't even know existed. We might as well talk about some of what I've found."
"Glynda's time of the month?"
"Gods above, yes." He reclined in his seat and closed his eyes. "Rest of the month, she's a dear to work with, but those few days… Not even Qrow's wittiness can counteract her. I need someone sane to talk to."
"Just wait until we drag his sister in, kicking and screaming back to this office."
"Make sure she's unconscious and tied up when you do so. I'd rather not have to renovate the office again. She continues to refuse the summons I send for her. "
"Understood. As to our occupation, I assume you've already eliminated assigning us to a district?" Ozpin nodded with a smile. "Then I can assume you want to keep us at Beacon as either instructors or supplemental instructors."
"For obvious reasons, you and Kara can't work alone. I fear for the children's sanity if you were left alone in a lecture hall with them, but perhaps together you can teach a course on team communication. Bianca and Nova can teach the course on effective Semblance usage."
"Keep your friends close and enemies closer."
"A mistake I made with Raven. Consider the summer as probation. You listen to orders, act accordingly and perform your duties as Hunters and we'll see where your team goes."
"Do I have a right to question orders and bring my grievances to you?"
"You've learned from your own mistakes I see. Of course you may, provided they are actual grievances and not the ones Qrow likes to provide. A hangover is not an excuse."
Nova quietly cursed under her breath while her teammates chuckled at her expense.
"As of now, you have the summer free. You have permission to leave Beacon whenever you wish and I will personally review all mission requests you submit. Unfortunately, we have little to no funds to spare for your team expenses. You're on your own. You'll also be available for any missions I call you on without notice."
"Sir." Team SKBN replied in sync.
"Our next order of business would be your marriages." The elevator doors opened with a ding. None of the girls even turned their heads towards the noise. "I have all the relevant paperwork and it'll all be filed under your names, as soon as I get to creating them. I have a few concerns though."
"James, how do you feel about adopting me?" The General froze from his position near the elevator. The other two with him also froze, but not at the question, but at the four standing in front of them.
Qrow lost his breath. His lover stood in front of him. Thirteen years after her death, Summer looked as if time hadn't touched her. He'd drunken himself into many stupors while looking at pictures of her, memorizing the details of her face, hair and body.
This was not his Summer.
His Summer wasn't this tall. His Summer had two striking silver eyes. His Summer would have died rather than go an hour without her cloak. His Summer wielded dual kusarigamas.
This wasn't his Summer.
"Ruby?" He hesitantly pressed forward, almost afraid to chase away the image.
"Qrow." The bleak response stopped him in his tracks, less than half a meter from Summer. "It's been a while. You look less dead."
Kara loudly facepalmed. Therapy could only do so much.
Before Qrow could get a word in edgewise, Summer socked him in his kidneys, depriving his lungs of air. He collapsed onto the floor, dry heaving as his hands massaged the purpling bruise.
'What...was...that for?" Qrow managed out through large intakes of air.
"For not telling me you were my father until you were dying in my arms." Summer knelt down by him, tilted his head up and placed a kiss on his forehead. "That's for being the best uncle you could have been."
"So Ruby really wasn't lying when she said a future version of her team arrived at Beacon." Summer took his offered hand and hauled him back to standing. "This is going to get confusing with two of you here."
"Call me Summer." Qrow fixed her with a stare. "No. I'm not actually my mother. I'm just using her name to avoid confusion."
"Don't let me get drunk near you."
"Noted." Summer replied dryly.
"Can anyone help me with this...thing?" James called out to the room. The poor General was trapped in a body bind from Bianca. The girl had latched onto his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck and locking her legs around his back while she buried her face into his chest.
Glynda stood by his side with a bowl of ice cream as she watched him wiggle his trapped arms in a futile escape. Nova stood next to her, recording the moment with her scroll.
"Last time she hugged someone like that we needed a crowbar." Nova spoke, staring at the pair. "You can always try asking nicely."
"Weiss…" James grunted out, his crushed lung struggling to take in oxygen. "Let...go…please."
His plea snapped Bianca from her daydream, reminding her of her location. She reluctantly released her death grip from around James and lowered down to the floor. She smiled impishly up at her father figure as he took in large amounts of air.
"Sorry." She stepped away from him allowing him even more room to breath. "It's been awhile since I last saw you."
"You're never this touchy. Who are you, really?" James poked her cheek, feeling skin underneath his finger. "You're real?"
"Of course I'm real." Bianca spun around to her team. "I hugged people back in school, didn't I?"
"No."
"Nope." Yang popped the ending of the word.
Kara shook her head.
"I wasn't that bad, was I?"
"You sent Summer running back to me on her first day of classes, babbling about how a midget yelled at her for sneezing."
"Oh c'mon. That was a long time ago. I've changed."
"You still yell at people. Just not at us. You still have a propensity for white and you're still a midget. You haven't changed at all."
"You're kidding. Right?" James looked at Summer in amazement as he struggled to merge the image of the Weiss he knew to the woman standing in front of him. "She looks completely different."
"It's the scar, isn't it?" She lightly scratched the irritated skin on her cheek, shivering as she made contact with the exposed bone of her jaw. "Seriously, it's not as bad as it looks."
"The scar I can deal with. I mean, look at me." James lifted one of the vastly shortened strands of her hair. "You threw such a fit the last time I suggested you cut your hair."
"Well you were right. It's much easier to manage and doesn't get in the way of combat." There was another overarching reason, but she'd let her leader explain it.
"Plus it's much easier to sleep with." Nova added on. James gave her a weird look, taking notice she didn't have the short hair Bianca did, instead having it tied in a high horsetail, hanging down to her shoulders.
"But you don't have…" James glanced between the two, slowly making the connection. Qrow on the other hand had blinked to Ozpin's side, extending his hand for his winnings.
"What?" Ozpin finished his drink and stared at the hand, inwardly smirking as his face portrayed nothing but confusion.
"C'mon Oz. We had a deal."
"Your bet was that Weiss would end up with Yang. They haven't ended up together."
"Yang, are you dating Weiss?" Qrow looked over to her.
"No." Nova could barely keep her face from breaking out into a smile. They technically weren't.
"See-?" Her response threw Qrow completely. "But you just said you were sleeping with her."
"Yes." Another concise response. Kara and Bianca hid their smiles behind their hands. "Do you always date the people you sleep with?"
"So, friends with benefits?"
"No." Screwing with him was always fun.
"You're killing me here. Do any of you end up married in the future?"
"We all did." Summer told him, stepping to Kara and bringing her into her side by wrapping her arm around her waist.
"Pay up." Qrow turned back to Ozpin, expecting payment.
"Your other bet was that Ruby would end up with Blake."
"Huh?" He exaggeratedly gestured to the pair.
"I don't see Ruby hugging Blake. I see Summer hugging her wife, Kara."
"Oh no no no no no. You are not screwing me out of my bet money."
"I don't remember extradimensional travelers being subject to the rules of the bet Qrow. This dimension's Ruby and Yang aren't dating anyone. These four girls don't count for the bet."
"But...but…" Qrow sulked in his spot.
"We all know you'd use the money to fuel your alcohol addiction anyways." Qrow padded away from Ozpin's desk, a shadow of a storm following him. "Back to business then. Girls, if you'd please."
On his desktop lay open two marriage certificates. The one on the left listed the two participants as Summer Branwen and Kara Belladonna with the shared last name of Rose. The one of the right however listed as Nova Xiao-Long and simply Bianca.
"So James, you up for adopting me?" Bianca repeated her question to him.
James' first instinct was to question her as to why, but the silent plea in her eyes and his own past interactions with her and her family came to mind. He would help his daughter in all but name, granting her the gift of a father. He nodded his head.
She mouthed a thank you to him as she filled in the missing spot of her maiden name. Nova raised an eyebrow as Bianca deleted their shared last name of Xiao-Long and replaced it with Ironwood. It wouldn't be worth the effort to change her mind. She signed her name next to Bianca's, completing the certificate.
Summer and Kara quickly glanced over the certificate, finding everything in order and signed off on it, turning the screen back to face Ozpin.
"Unfortunately, I can only give you today off for your honeymoons. Tomorrow I'll need you four working on repairs."
"Understood. In completely unrelated news, Kara and I will be joining the night patrol." Summer turned and spoke to Qrow next. "I recommend you tell Team RWBY to invest in earplugs."
She let her statement hang in the air as Nova and Bianca shared a knowing look. Qrow had a shit-eating grin on, James looked queasy and Glynda's face erupted in a huge blush.
"Night patrol starts at 2100. You'll receive your zone at that time on your scrolls." Ozpin shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he hesitated to broach his next point. "Before I dismiss you, there's the issue of...therapy. I realize it is usually an intra-team issue, but as a condition to your employment, either Qrow, Glynda or I will be mediating your sessions."
"Therapy?" Qrow scoffed at the notion. "What could these girls have possibly gone through?"
"War." Summer spoke softly after which a tense silence fell upon them. A glimmer of despair appeared in her eye before draining into the abyss of her pupil.
"How bad?" Glynda, James and Qrow queried immediately.
Summer waited for Ozpin's confirmation. He gently nodded his head in confirmation.
"Three city states destroyed with the fourth being next. Two and and half billion dead. We lost Ozpin and Pyrrha during the Battle of Beacon. Qrow fell two years afterwards and Glynda fell a year after him. I don't even know when Tai died. Raven got herself killed on one of her misguided adventures." Summer took a breath before continuing. "Vacuo was destroyed first, three and a half years into the war. Atlas followed half a year after it, mere hours before Vale was annihilated. We barely managed to evacuate a thousand civilians before I gave the order to retreat to Mistral."
"You gave the order?" James asked her, taking notice of the silver emblem attached to her arm. Its pockmarked face echoed the visions and noises of battle as it innocently rested on its owner, harrowing her with memories.
"I became the High Commander of the Hunters after Qrow's death, who took the position after Ozpin. I held command of the Hunters for a year and a half, taking over after interim commander Bianca when I healed from my ordeal as a prisoner of the White Fang."
"I still don't know how you managed for three times my tenure. Six months taxed me to my limits. I still get nightmares from the amount of paperwork I was filling out."
"Weak." The three respective Commanders of the Hunters replied in sync, before chuckling at each other.
"Stop laughing. Did no one hear the little tidbit about Ruby being a prisoner of the White Fang?!" Qrow ranted. James cut off his laughter, but Ozpin and Summer took a while to calm down.
"Your point?" Summer's response caught him cold.
"My point? No one walks out of prison, especially one of theirs without some damage being done. How bad?"
"I'm fine." Summer attempted to abate his fears.
"She's not fine." Ozpin chimed in directly afterwards.
"Ozpin…" She trailed off. "He doesn't need to know."
"He's your father."
"Exactly. He'll treat me, and by extension, Ruby as children if he learns what was done to me. I can take care of myself and I don't want Ruby's potential smothered by an overprotective parent."
"I don't even have a protective side."
"Exactly." Summer repeated. Qrow paled her implication. If even he, the lax and more carefree of the two parent figures in Ruby's life, would suddenly start doting on her, then he could only imagine why Summer refused to tell him what she had had to go through. Still...he was her father, in a weird, interdimensional way.
"That bad, huh?"
"Bad wouldn't begin describing the sheer amount of physical and psychological torture she went through." Nova decided to add her two cents to the conversation, the older Hunters in the room flinching at her casual remark. Summer didn't react to the mention of her own torture. "Torture would be a kind word to describe what we do to terrorists, but even we have limits to what we do them."
"It wasn't that bad." Summer's monotone became increasingly clear. "The therapy helped and continues to help."
"Faking emotions isn't the same as feeling them sweetheart." Bianca patted her head condescendingly.
"Is there a reason my affairs are suddenly being broadcast to everyone or am I going to have to charge my own team with treason?"
"Which I will summarily ignore." Ozpin rebutted. Summer grumbled discontentedly.
"I spent nearly six months detained in a White Fang blacksite. Right before my internment, High Commander Qrow was defeated in battle, leaving me as the next Commander. Unfortunately, in the rout, I was captured, leaving Bianca in command. I was officially declared MIA after the first month. Unofficially, my team continued searching for me."
Summer gently scratched Kara under her chin, brushing along the path of her scar.
"Kara found the site by pure accident on one of her solo missions. I will not speak about my ordeal but let's just say having a pretty face was not a benefit. Ruby Branwen died in prison. What came out was a shell of her former self, incapable of emotion and bereft of morals. As a consequence of my capture, I stopped wearing my cloak and forced my team to tighten their clothing and shorten their hair."
A solemn silence resonated in the office as they tried to stomach her story.
"You were captured because of your cloak?" Qrow broke the silence. The horrors of humanity were nothing new to the spymaster, having seen his own share, but having his daughter suffer it was another story.
"I was ripped from the back of the bullhead by a Griffon right before the afterburners hit in. By the time Kara could turn the bullhead around, I was gone. Lesson learned: don't wear loose clothing. I'm surprised my mother survived as long as she did wearing that deathtrap."
"So that's why you cut your hair." James said to Bianca, understanding her reasoning.
"Even Yang shortened her hair. I never would have thought to see the day." Qrow commented on his niece's hair. "Everyone did."
"Has anyone else noticed Blake hasn't said a single word this entire meeting?" Kara's ears swiveled at Glynda's question, standing at attention. She signed out her name but Glynda only looked more confused. "I'm sorry. I don't know sign language. Why are you signing?"
"She's signing her name: 'Kara'." Summer responded. "This is going to make communication much harder with her then. No matter; she's rarely alone when not on missions. Any one of her teammates can translate for her."
Kara signed a few more times to Summer.
"She also says she'll use her scroll to communicate in case neither of her teammates are around."
"Why can't she speak?" Qrow asked Summer, bypassing asking Kara herself, who didn't look offended at all at his indirect question.
Summer didn't answer at first, letting Kara show of her spoil of war, the pink, scarred flesh standing out against her olive skin. Qrow and company winced at the location of it, knowing the vocal cords sat directly underneath the scar.
"You're lucky to be alive Kara. Few people survive having their neck cut open." Kara smiled kindly at Glynda, having heard the same from her team in the past.
"Thankfully the wound was shallow enough to avoid nicking any major arteries, allowing us to transport her to Monty while keeping her airways and lungs clear of blood. They were able to seal the wound, but the repair of such delicate tissue such as vocal cords was beyond them. Communicating was a hassle for a few weeks, but became a massive boon on missions."
Qrow nodded his head in agreement. While he was used to working his missions alone, being able to communicate silently was irreplaceable. Every Hunter eventually learned the basic hand signs, but being able to fully communicate was an ability only the best teams had.
"If we're done here, I'd like to retire to our room. Any further questions can be answered by the Headmaster or myself at a later time." Ozpin dismissed them with a quick shake of his head. "We're in the room next to Team RWBY, but if anyone disturbs us before sunrise tomorrow, you'll find our precisely why every member of my team gained the rank of S."
Team SKBN disappeared in a short gust of wind, leaving nothing behind but a few rose petals and an open door leading to the balcony. Ozpin banged his head lightly against his table before he stood from his chair and made his way to his bar, in desperate need of more cocoa to stave the coming headache.
Team SKBN could hear the exclamations of surprise and shock as they plummeted from the tower, leaving the poor Headmaster to field questions. Without needing a prompt, Bianca created a frictionless slide, gradually slowing their descent. It was a much preferred method compared to the deceleration of traveling through glyphs.
From the lowest point of the slide, they bound off towards their room, ignoring the looks of awe from the Hunters below. A few recognized the glyphs to belonging to the Schnee heiress, but paid no mind to the team, finding no difference between Team SKBN and Team RWBY as they moved at a ludicrous speed.
Within seconds the team arrived back to the roof of the dormitory, the aura of Summer's Semblance disappearing from around them. A rush of cool air blasted them team as they opened the door down to the hallway, alleviating the heat of the baking sun at its peak.
Summer felt an unrelated chill shoot up her spine as she stared down into the staircase.
"Let's take the window entrance." Summer shut the door, pivoted on her heel and brushed past her team, who exchanged looks of surprise but said nothing. Summer vaulted over the low wall separating the flat concrete and the roof tiles and ran along them until she reached the point above their window, her team following behind.
She fell to a floor in a slide, letting gravity pull her down towards the edge of the roof. Latching onto the edge, she let it stop her forward momentum, falling straight down onto the ledge under their window. Balancing precariously on a mere ten centimeters of stone, she opened it and climbed through.
Her team followed in a less risky style, landing on a glyph courtesy of Bianca, and crawled into their room.
"Why'd we take the window instead of taking the hallway?" Bianca asked her leader, as she made her way over to the desk with all of their belongings.
Summer held her hand up, silencing the room as she concentrated on the sound of movement from beyond their room.
"I'm avoiding our younger versions until later. No doubt Ozpin could manipulate them to meet us 'randomly' after I decided to leave him to answer questions." Summer opened her eyes, having heard all she needed through the walls. "They've left their rooms. Can you check for movement?"
Bianca pressed a hand against the floor and summoned a glyph a room over. If Summer was right then it would go unnoticed. She could feel the legs of beds, tables and chairs resting on her glyph, but nothing characteristic of a human. No walking or tapping registered on her senses.
"It's clear; unless you think they're all in their beds and expertly avoiding me." She stood from her crouch and returned to the desk, zeroing in on the stack of lien. "You got a shopping list for me?"
"Hamper, detergent, toiletries, weapons kit, coffeemaker, mugs, mini fridge, granola bars, hot chocolate packets, and I'll get you the authorization you need for a trauma kit from Monty." Summer recited the list to her before sending it to her. "Take 1k and try not to spend it all."
"No promises." Bianca pressed a quick kiss to Summer's cheek and shuffled over to Nova, taking her hand. "What are you two going to do?"
"Sleep."
"We woke up less than three hours ago." Nova looked between Kara and Summer, smirking knowingly. "Any plans on getting to sleep?"
"Just…leave…" They left without another word, Bianca blessedly locking the door behind her.
Kara tackled Summer onto their bed the second she heard the door lock, shirt already divested onto the floor. Summer wasn't one to complain.
Freezerburn
"We should've joined them." Bianca told her wife as she finished locking the door.
"Should've have said something before you locked the door then." Nova chuckled.
"Hn." Bianca grunted but turned away from their room, walking towards the hangars located on the outer ring of the campus
Passing by the common room, a few students blinked in confusion, having seen a similar pair passing by not even five minutes earlier.
They shuffled by a few Hunters carrying construction equipment towards parts of the destroyed dormitory. Fortunately for the forces, Beacon never remained fully occupied, preferring its Hunters spread out among the fringe districts. It was never staffed by more than 150 Hunters, most of them being students.
In the rare cases of events, such as whenever it came time for Vale to host the Vytal Festival, several hundreds of Hunters would be called from the less demanding districts. The unfortunate byproduct of hosting several thousand civilians in one confined area made this necessary; the mass amounts of human emotion drawing abnormal amounts of Grimm.
In the usual case, Atlas provided security on such events, be it on their lands or on any other city state's. Their droid army was able to provide immense amounts of personnel at no cost of life. Preferable to human soldiers, they were avoided by Grimm unless attacked.
One annoying flaw against them started the nightmare Team SKBN had to live through. Though cheap and mass produced, they held no loyalty to anyone unless programmed to do so. Unfortunately, only a few hundred lines dictated who they recognized as friendly and hostile, and it was a simple process of reversing the true to false and vice versa.
Kara would have to get on either encrypting those certain functions under enough fortified layers to exhaust the most determined hackers or Summer and Bianca would have to convince Atlas' council to abandon their automated personnel. The former done a lot more easier than the latter.
Passing by the outer limits of school, they came upon the long chain of hangars. Twelve hangars lay end to end, stretching an immense length. Another two larger hangers sat at the end of the line, solely used by the massive Atlesian airships.
Moving to the second hangar, Bianca swiped her scroll on the scanner. After a short delay, the scanner's light turned green and the door unlocked. Pushing through the door, they passed into the hangar, automated lights flicking on.
Two bullheads sat in the hangar side by side. The rest of the hangar was bare. They'd have to borrow the rest of the equipment from the school's shop.
"It feels weird flying anything not Serenity." Bianca said as she climbed up into the fuselage, Nova right behind her. Nova said nothing, running her hand along the metal of the ship's interior.
As they moved to enter the cockpit, a knock on the hangar doors caused them to freeze.
"You mind checking who that is while I warm her up?" Bianca slotted into the pilot's seat as she inserted her scroll into its dock. The ship's primary flight display turned on, followed by the rest of the console as hundreds of lights lit up. Another few knocks echoed out into hangar, causing Nova to sigh as she walked back out of the cockpit. "Thanks."
Nova bound from the ship and ran to the door, sliding to a stop in front of it. Opening the door, she expected to see either of her sisters, them being the only two who knew they'd be in the hangar.
"Hi." A familiar voice interrupted her train of thoughts. A younger version of Summer stood and fiddled with her cloak on the other side of the doorway, the rest of her team behind her.
Nova stared at each member of the team, struggling to figure out what to do. She expected Summer to have to deal with the first meeting of the two teams, not her.
"Well...this is a bit awkward." Nova leaned against the doorway, a cocky smile on her face as she looked down on her younger self. "C'mon mini-me and team, we're going shopping."
Nova turned and bolted back to the bullhead, forcing Team RWBY to give chase before they could even begin pestering her with questions. They broke into a run and chased Yang's older self, watching as she leapt up into the ship's bay. They noticed the the hangar's roof slowly open.
"Who was it?" Bianca, not looking away from the console asked as she felt Nova's presence back on the ship.
"Take a look." Bianca took off her headset and swiveled her seat around. Standing in the corridor between the cockpit and the fuselage was Nova, but behind her she could make out a few more people. "They're coming shopping with us."
Team RWBY stood shocked behind Nova, alternating looks between the two older Hunters. Bianca held her hand up, stopping the onslaught of questions at her appearance; her scar being the most prominent feature.
"How did you know we were here." Bianca directed her ire towards the team, crossing her legs together. Nova settled in on the co-pilot's seat.
"I got a message on my scroll telling us to go to Hangar Two if we wanted to meet with our older selves." Ruby took out her scroll from wherever she was keeping it and handed it over to her, the message already on screen.
The message wasn't signed and the number was blocked.
"I'm going to kill her. I'm going to kill her. I'm going to kill her." Bianca handed the scroll back to the scared Ruby. She continued to grumble under her breath.
"Who's she going to kill?" Weiss asked Nova.
"Summer." Nova took off her headset, barely able to hear through it. "The only person who could have sent that message."
"Mom?" Ruby perked up at her mention. An impossibly cute doe expression graced her face.
"Oh no sweetheart." Nova stood from her seat and hugged the little girl. Surprised at the sudden contact, she took a moment before hugging her back. "Summer is what we call our Ruby, to avoid getting the two of you mixed up."
"Oh. Okay." The dejected look on her face made Nova hug her even tighter. "So what do we call you and why are there only two of you here. I was told we'd get to meet everyone."
"You can call me Nova and Miss Temper over there Bianca. Ruby is Summer obviously and Blake is Kara." Team RWBY nodded along, filing away the pieces of information. "Summer sent that message to you knowing you'd jump at the chance to meet us. She's not here right now because she and Kara are sleeping so they decided to pawn you off to us."
"Why are they sleeping and why don't they want to meet us?" Blake asked.
"They're sleeping because they have night patrol, and it's not like they don't want to meet you…" Nova trailed off.
"They don't want to meet you." Bianca said with a straight face. "They sent you here so they didn't need to answer questions and got to rest, while tricking us to deal with you."
"But we'll get to see them later right?" Ruby wryly smiled, eager to see how she ends up in the future.
"You'll either see them when we get back from shopping or tomorrow." Bianca swiveled back in her seat, flicking a few switches on the console. A press on a lever rotated the engines to vertical, allowing them to leave the hangar. "Now hold on and get comfortable. We have a long ways to go to get to the nearest commercial district."
Bianca lifted the craft into a low hover, getting a feel for the craft under her fingertips. Pressing the throttle forward, the ship lifted from hangar, temporarily blinding the occupants at the sun's brightness.
Blinking away the sunspots, Nova gave the all clear to Bianca. She slowly rotated the engines to horizontal while throttling forward, letting the wings catch lift. The moment she felt the wings catch, she slammed the throttle forward, blasting them towards Vale.
Vale was an absolutely enormous city, if it could be called that. Stretching into the horizon, it occupied approximately 1.2 million square kilometers, including the small island of Patch. Beacon was an absolutely tiny speck on the map when compared the enormity of the city-state. Its forces weren't even a full percentage point of the total population, a paltry ratio of 9000 to 1.1 billion. Even with this massive amount of people, less than 50% of the land was occupied, whether from residential, commercial or industrial usage. The remainder of the land was used to supply the necessary food needed to feed such a population.
Watching out onto Vale sent Bianca and Nova to near bliss, their last view of the city being of hellfire and death. Nothing looked out of place, bar a few destroyed buildings from last night's failed invasion.
"Are you...crying?" Neither of them heard the partition open as Yang stepped into the cockpit, apparently the next person in line for questions.
"I guess I am." Nova wiped the tear away, staring at the droplet sitting on metal of her thumb.
"The views pretty great but why?" Yang leant on her counterpart's seat, staring at her prosthetic. A phantom pain lanced up her spine, reminding her she currently didn't possess one arm.
"Because the last time we saw Vale, it was on fire." Bianca moved one of the headset cups to behind her ear, trapping it with her lobe. Yang stilled, unable to imagine the immense city in flames.
"That bad, huh?"
"That's the usual reaction. Don't tell your team for now. I'll tell them myself." Nova twirled her seat around to face Yang. "We're telling you now because you're the most level headed of your team."
"Me?!" Yang's head snapped towards Nova. "My level head got me my arm chopped off, and apparently it got you your arm chopped off as well."
"Losing this arm was one of the best moments in my life." Yang observed her arm, smiling as hydraulics moved her fingers at her mental command, the artificial parts working in sync with the spliced nerves. "Do you know why?"
"Why?" Yang repeated the word, curious as to what good came out of her losing an arm. She rubbed the stump of her arm, spreading feeling back into the damaged skin.
"What were you doing when you lost your arm?" Bianca flipped around to face Yang, flicking a switch to activate the autopilot. They had another dozen or more minutes of flying over nothing but pastures and crops before they even spotted signs of civilization.
"I was trying to protect Blake." Yang fell against the closed cockpit door. "Fat load of good that did."
"And what did you learn?" Yang looked back over to Nova. This alternating speak was starting to grate on her.
"That Adam's sword is incredibly sharp and he wants to kill her."
"The real question now: would you do it again?" Bianca asked her.
"What? Protect her?" Yang stared at her in shock, appalled she'd even ask such a question. "Of course I would."
"Even if it meant losing another arm, a leg, or even your life?" Nova said without a trace of humor, plunging them into silence. "That was what losing an arm taught me; there is no cost large enough to be paid when saving a friend's life."
Yang had no response to her statement, staring endlessly at the metal arm attached to Nova. A stream of thoughts rattled around in her head, most dealing with her own self confidence.
"It shouldn't be something you think about Yang." Bianca nudged her with her foot, causing her to look up. "It's something you do in the moment. Did you even hesitate when moving to protect Blake from Adam?"
"No. I reacted to him standing over Blake with a sword, ready to execute her." Nova and Bianca smiled at her words.
"And that is one thing that cannot be taught, only experienced. Your team is still new. You just completed your first year together, but the willingness to protect your teammates will let you get far."
Yang's thoughts spiralled towards the main reason why she jumped into protect Blake. A sneaky suspicion crept up on the two senior Huntsman as a light blush appeared on Yang's face.
"Or maybe there was a larger reason to you acting to protect Blake?" Bianca immediately switched from a somber overtones to a teasing one. "A crush perhaps?"
"No-. Definite-ly not." Yang stuttered out as her face turned even more crimson at being confronted about it. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"What's so bad about a crush on Blake?" Nova questioned her.
"She's a girl." Yang looked at her in incredulity. "And so am I."
"So?" Bianca and Nova replied in sync. Yang looked between the two before realizing these two were from her future. For all she knew, she was married to Blake at that point.
"So, you're fine with Nova dating Kara in the future?" Yang directed this to Bianca, curious about how Weiss might feel about her starting a relationship with Blake. Ruby would of course love her unconditionally; she hoped.
"No." Bianca inspected her fingernails, avoiding Yang's hurt gaze. "It'd be very weird if Nova was dating Kara."
"Why? I mean, I get it might ruin team dynamic but why not?"
"It has nothing to do with team dynamics, if fact it even helps, in some cases to form strong bonds between teammates and given how teams are set up, they're mostly unavoidable. The real reason is that you get married to someone else."
"Who?" Yang could feel the setup incoming but couldn't care less.
"Me." Bianca leant back in her seat in satisfaction as Yang cycled between looks of horror and amazement.
"I get married to Weiss?" Yang, thankfully, kept her voice low enough for the passengers in the fuselage to not overhear. "But I don't even like Weiss like that."
She could feel she was the ass of a big joke when she realized they weren't listening to her and were instead laughing like lunatics released from an asylum.
"What's so funny?" Yang demanded an answer from the two.
"Your...expression...was great." Bianca choked out between fits of laughter. Nova continued to chortle away at Yang's embarrassment.
"So I don't get married to Weiss in the future?" Yang was entirely confused, unsure what to believe.
"No. no." Nova stopped from her fits to answer her. "I get married to Bianca."
"Then I'm still confused." Yang's brows furrowed.
"We're not from the future Yang." Bianca crossed her legs as she entered lecture mode. "We're from an entirely different dimension so you're not guaranteed to get married to Weiss."
"Oh." Yang brightened up at the prospect. "So there's still a chance I get with Blake?"
"You can do whatever you want to Yang. I'll even help you with your relationship with Blake if you want." Bianca consoled her.
"Thanks." Yang felt much more comfortable in their presence now. One of them was a different version of her, but they shared enough similarities as it was that they could pass as sisters, if not twins. "You're just some new big sisters I get now?"
"Pretty much." Nova spun her seat around to fill the lull in the conversation after her words. In the background, they passed a residential area, teeming with civilians, unaffected by the destruction wrought to parts of the city closer to Beacon.
"So what made you come in here initially?" Bianca quickly looked away to the console, checking if they were still on course. Finding nothing wrong, she looked back to Yang.
Yang snapped out from her thoughts, realizing she never got to the reason why she came into the cockpit.
"I wanted to ask about your metal arm."
"Envious?" Nova stood from her seat and moved to sit to Yang's left side, trusting Bianca to fly alone. "Have a look."
Nova rolled up her sleeve, exposing the meeting point between metal and flesh. Yang hesitated momentarily before Nova gave her the go ahead to touch and examine to her pleasure. She marveled at the feat of engineering crammed into the confines, touching the outer casing hiding the mechanics underneath.
"Did you make this?" Yang turned over Nova's hand, forearm up. With a little trouble, she unlatched the plate on that side, exposing the inner workings. Five thin graphene cables slid along tracks and pulleys as Nova controlled the five fingers in her hand.
"Yeah. I made the design and milled it out on a CNC, but I had to get it attached at Monty." Nova felt on odd pull on one of her nerves as Yang plucked one of the graphene cables and watched as it controlled the respective finger. "Stop that. It feels weird."
"Sorry." Yang stopped her inspection and replaced the forearm plate. "Can you help me with my arm?"
"You can have my design if you want, but that takes out all the fun out of creating yourself a replacement. I can just give you the core design and you can go about tricking it out however you want."
"What did you start off with?" Yang moved to inspect the tricep of the arm, looking to find where nerve met fiber optic.
"I got a basic model fitted for my arm but I created my own about two years later." Nova watching in amusement as Yang fruitlessly poked around the metal. "You're not going to find it. The nerve endings were routed through the bone marrow and metal bone replacement for protection. Hurts like a bitch getting the nerves connected, so they don't want anything happening to them."
"That's super cool. If I take your design, how soon do you think I can get an arm attached and functioning?"
"I built my arm in less than three days, and I was mostly just working with Bianca and Summer, but Monty should be able to get it built in half that time."
"I can send the schematics to Monty and see what they say about it." Bianca held out her hand for Nova's scroll, her own scroll locked in the dock to prevent usage during flight. Taking it from Nova, she remotely accessed Nova's files and downloaded the prints. Finding the number for Monty, she sent off the file with a short message and her own clearance codes. "Done."
"That was fast."
"That was just the request. They'll get back to us in a few hours depending on how busy they are and how long it takes to calculate building and assembly time." Bianca handed Nova's scroll back, who tucked it away into her leg pouch.
"Thanks. Again. Can I ask another question?" Bianca and Nova nodded. "How did you get that scar?"
As if answering her question, Bianca's facial scar pulsed angrily, a deep red contrasting greatly against her porcelain skin.
"Of course it comes to that." Bianca sighed moodily. "No one ever notices the hair or the change in clothes. It's always the scar."
"Sorry. I do like what you've done with the hair and I like the clothes. Much more risqué than your usual battle skirt."
"I even stopped wearing those damned heels." Bianca stuck her foot up in the air, adorned by one of her white sneakers. "Can't tell you how many times I twisted or sprained my ankle when I landed wrong."
"That's what I keep trying to tell Weiss and Blake but they just don't listen." Yang agreed.
"Weiss is still in her princess phase but that goes away in a while, and Blake's a cat." Nova pointed out.
A simultaneous cry of indignation from the aforementioned two echoed from behind the cockpit door. Standing from their positions up against the door, Yang opened the door, revealing a grouped up Team RWBY struggling to regain their balances after being pressed up on the door.
"You could have knocked." Bianca pointed out.
"We thought it would be rude to interrupt." Ruby pressed her pointer fingers together, ashamed they were caught.
"Eavesdropping is better apparently?" Nova leant against the corridor wall, Yang mimicking her.
"You've been in there with you for over ten minutes. We were wondering what you were doing." Blake told Yang, ignoring the accusation.
"Talking." Yang replied.
"About?" Weiss pressed.
"Well we got to talking about her prosthetic." Yang pointed to Nova. "And we were just getting into the story behind Bianca's scar."
With nothing but an intense look, Nova asked Bianca to switch position. Nova took the pilot's seat while Bianca hopped into the other.
"I was wondering about it too." Weiss stared at the wound, noting it went down to the bone of her jaw. "It's pretty deep."
"Yeah." Team RWBY funneled into the cockpit, two members sitting behind Bianca and two sitting in the corridor, leaning on opposite walls. Bianca rubbed the point when bone flowed into flesh. "I had to get my cheek sewn shut so I could eat."
"How'd you get it?"
"I underestimated the same man who crippled Yang yesterday." Bianca told them.
"Adam." Blake's breath hitched at the thought of him, pain shooting from the wound on her abdomen. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault Blake." Bianca waved her off. "I won't fault the student for the crimes of the master."
"I left the Fang." Blake shook her head. "He's taking his revenge out on the people closest to me."
"It's his fault for reacting so violently because he couldn't deal with his student not becoming a terrorist with him."
"Is that his label now? Terrorist?" This was never suppose to happen. They were suppose to change to world, not through acts of terror and war, but through protest and rallies.
"That's the usual protocol when you attack a military installation." Bianca perked up at the sound of beeping coming from the console. Standing from her seat, she looked out the see the beginnings of the commercial district pass them. "We're here."
Nova turned off the autopilot as they entered the area, descending rapidly from the clouds, slowing from her cruising speed. While there were a few blips on the radar, their path ahead was clear.
Vale-Mart sat ahead of them, the striking blue panels giving it away. Its rooftop landing pads regularly serviced Hunters and other military personnel when visiting.
When the craft was above the megastore, Nova spun the engines to face nearly backwards, using some of the propulsion to stay afloat. She throttled back up, slowing the ship to a standstill. There were a dozen or so landing spots, but she angled for the closest to the elevators.
Lowering the landing gear scant meters before touchdown, Nova settled on the non-skid rubber surface, jets of air billowing out from the side as the engines spun down.
"Let's go shopping then." Nova stood from her seat and disengaged Bianca's scroll from the dock, handing it back to its owner. The wheels and engines locked automatically, not detecting the presence of a pilot onboard.
The members of Team RWBY worked out the various kinks in their bodies from having been seated for so long, but Nova and Bianca looked perfectly fine after being in similar positions.
"What are you here for?" Ruby slid open the side door, letting the group out.
"Literally everything." Nova and Bianca walked over to the nearest edge of the roof, Team RWBY following them. "Neither of us have anything except for a week's worth of clothes and our weapons."
Weiss took notice of the weapon strapped to Bianca's side by an orange sash. It was an exact copy of her own, down to silver cradle the cylinder rested in.
"You're carrying your weapon." Weiss pointed out. "You can't take it into a public place."
"Watch me." Bianca backflipped off the edge, Nova following her with her own front flip. Two gleaming gauntlets sat on her wrist, unnoticed due to the regular presence of it on Yang.
The two landed within seconds of each other, muscles rippling as they absorbed the impact of the fall, cushioned further by the application of Aura to their legs.
"You guys coming down or what?" Nova called up to them.
They spared no moment as they leapt off the roof, eager to join them in their shopping spree.