Chapter Thirteen
Penance
Bullhead - Above Northern Sanus, moving towards Menagerie
Piloting had required only an adjustment of the seat as Rei sat obediently on top of her head and allowed her to steer the bullhead out of the hangar before setting the autopilot to fly the craft to Menagerie.
The partition to the fuselage only offered a brief moment of respite before Yang and the rest of RWBY nearly ripped the door off its hinges, Summer having isolated herself before RWBY could catch up to her.
Leaving her seat, she opened the door, letting them fall haphazardly into the cockpit. She stepped over them, walking to the back of the fuselage and settling against the supplies piled there.
They managed to sort themselves out of the dog pile and sat around Summer, staring at the Grimm seemingly observing them, looking completely unperturbed it sat on one of the deadliest Hunter's head.
Zwei growled at the Grimm again, setting himself between it and Ruby, but Rei didn't bother answering back, trusting her new mother.
Summer and James were picking up strays faster than Qrow picked up alcohol.
"So… we going to continue to ignore the Grimm you have on your head?" Yang crossed her arms, willing the Grimm out of existence. Her new muted gold arm operated soundlessly, gears and hydraulics seamlessly working.
"Or the fact you're wearing shades inside, while it's dark." Blake pointed out, trying to see pass the tinted glass.
Salem had created the lenses as mirrors instead, an irony in itself; the silver resembling the sacrifice she made.
Summer pulled Rei from her hair, stuttering as her vision violently shifted down to her lap. It was first time Summer felt Rei didn't possess a face plate like her older versions.
If she had to guess, Rei resembled a wolf pup created out of wisps of darkness instead of fur.
"I'm not ignoring her. You're just making a fuss." Rei flattened into her lap, ears pressing down, enjoying the ministrations of her hand. As much as Grimm were creations of negativity, most of their templates were taken from preexisting creatures, be they real or mythological.
Then there were the few Salem hadn't created a template for, having been born out of human nightmares rather than emotion, such as Geists and Nuckelavees. They were extremely rare, but no less dangerous.
"It's a Grimm, Mom!" Ruby gesticulated widely. Rei perked up, but whether it was from an understanding of the language or the threat of silver, Summer didn't know.
She picked up Rei and raised her to eye level as if in inspection. She was the first person in history to look at oneself directly, and not through pictures or mirrors.
"Re'iyah Weiss Rose, why didn't you tell me you were a Grimm?" She scolded mockly and received a lick on the nose from her, the barbed tongue causing her to scrunch it in irritation. "You have Zwei, and I have Rei."
"That's not the same. Zwei is an adorable puppy and that… thing… is a Grimm." Weiss rejected following through with the name Summer had given it. "And I refuse to allow you to use my name."
"You forget my name wasn't originally 'Summer'. 'Weiss' is also the original name of my other sister, and if she allows it, then that'll be her middle name, and if you don't like it, tough." Summer maintained the neck motions needed to mimic properly and directly speaking to someone. "Besides, if you're afraid of this little girl, then you don't deserve to be Hunters."
That shut RWBY up entirely. Rei was tiny, just over the size of Summer's palm where she could sit perched on someone's head. She probably couldn't even bite through the most light coating of Aura shielding and her claws served better as massage therapy than lethal weapons.
"And the shades?" Summer and Rei looked over to Blake in sync, creeping out the compartment.
"Shades are cool." Summer deadpanned and RWBY sweatdropped. They waited for her to explain further, but nothing came of it. Summer instead relaxed into her seat and pulled out her scroll, compiling the two reports from the day's meeting. The Council meeting report would be sent out to all of her Hunters, detailing the concessions Summer had to make.
The secondary report would remain within SKBN. Teams of their calibre operated on the highest level of trust, and her team had to know what she paid for their safety. She might not have told them of her initial plans for the meet with Salem, but they needed to know.
Along with the report was the official recommendation of Bianca as her replacement for when the Hunters learned of her disability. Rei sat patiently in her lap as she tapped away, letting her actually complete the paperwork needed.
Being blind wasn't enough of an excuse to not complete paperwork.
Bianca had the experience and the proper mindset to lead the Hunters while Summer was permanently stuck in the mindset of a Commander used to leading against military, not against Grimm.
Vacuo was the only black mark against her record, but the same could be said against the entire team as Summer had authorised it, Kara hadn't vetoed it, and Nova had lent her supply of Aura. It had been a brutal necessity.
Kara was in already charge of Redemption and while Nova could replace her, she was also taller and stronger than her. If Bianca acted up than all Summer had to do was wrap her in a bear hug and lift her from the ground, depriving her of the leveraged needed to fight back.
Team RWBY couldn't get it out of their heads how creepy it was that both Summer and her new pet Grimm seemed to be filling out their reports and paperwork.
They sat in silence for over an hour as Summer tapped away at her scroll and the craft carried them ever closer to Menagerie.
"Tell me how your team's been doing the last few weeks?" Summer broke the nighttime lull in the fuselage. "My team and I've been you through the wringer. Verbal reports?"
As much as RWBY wanted the personal training from their counterparts, each member of SKBN had enough responsibilities they had to put over them if they were going to survive this time around. Salem wasn't gunning for them explicitly, but Cinder and the White Fang could tear the world asunder if they tried.
"Well, you've had us mostly doing individual training both with and without Aura, except for the two days you had us do trust building exercises." The team had been together for a year, but they each still had hidden reservations they didn't know about.
One exercise had Weiss maintain a two barely formed tiny glyphs at ground level while Bianca maintained the dozens of others, creating a literal minefield RWBY had to navigate. One member would be blindfolded while the other two guided her through the field.
Blake had burnt her foot when Yang had mistakenly had her move forward instead of to the side. It was one of Weiss' and didn't hurt as bad as one of Bianca's, but Yang had slept alone that night and the next one.
Another exercise had then keeping eye contacts with each member of their team for an extended duration of time. Sounded simple, but it led to awkward and flustered moments where sheer intensity had forced them to break the connection.
"And your personal relationships?" It was during this sessions they had learned Ruby and Weiss were aimlessly meandering through their first proper relationship. The former caused the latter to blush hot enough to rival Nova in a full on rage with her innocently lewd remarks.
Giving her Icha Icha was the best idea they ever had.
"Blake and Yang are still together and their teamwork is developing in leaps and bounds. Weiss and I worked on our finishing moves last night."
"Yang still has you beat with her 'finishing' move. Her mechanical fingers have a vibrate function." Summer waved a finger in front of her face, staring at the Bumblebee pair. Blake's eyes widened and she turned her head away, blushing.
"That's not what I meant!" Ruby backtracked.
"And how do you know this?" Yang narrowed her gaze onto Summer.
"I helped Nova design the arm." Summer rebutted. "And Bianca's a screamer. We continue to share a room and she can't always muffle her cries of orgasm in a pillow."
Weiss flushed the colour of Ruby's cloak.
"Why don't you give them their privacy and leave the room?"
"I've seen them all naked. I've cared for them when they've been sick, beat, crying, broken, exhausted, depressed, humiliated, angry, and incapacitated." Summer explained her team's dynamics. "Privacy takes on a shallow definition at the point when you drag your partner into the showers to wipe the grime, dirt, and blood off her body because she's too tired to do stand or do it herself."
"That's not the same and you know it." Yang was supremely uncomfortable with Summer's relationship with Nova, where she'd stay in the same room when Nova and Bianca got frisky. They were supposed to be sisters after all.
Nova had no qualms about kissing Summer to settle the score on their last trip to Menagerie, but this was taking it to a whole other level.
"There's always the off chance Kara and I get invited to a foursome." A random bag filled with medical supplies sailed her way courtesy of Yang. She didn't have Rei looking in the direction and the crate smacked hard against her head, flattening her into the rest of the cargo. "You'll never forget your first one…"
Summer trailed off, lost in a haze of emotions before her internment, all muted, much like her vision, but still able to convey feeling.
"Mom!" Ruby's shout of embarrassment shocked her awake. "She's too innocent for those ideas. She hasn't been inducted to the Icha Icha order yet."
"Innocent!? You should see the things Blake and I get up to when you and Weiss sneak off on your little dates."
"Yang!" Blake hissed, grabbing her girlfriend by her arm and pulling her off balance and away from Ruby. "You don't get to lecture Summer about privacy and then spout off about our alone time."
"We at least wait until Ruby and Weiss are out of the room to do anything. Summer and Nova practice borderline incest, and she finds nothing wrong with it." She rounded onto a defiant Ruby "And you do not get to call me innocent. You're two years younger than me."
Ruby cheekily held up her copy of the orange book, Yang suddenly understood why Glynda liked burning them so much. Orange was an irritating colour and paper was extremely flammable.
"Experience begets wisdom." Yang replied and the sisters devolved into a staring match.
"You two do realise personal relationships also extend to your other teammates, right?" Summer interjected. "You and your partner might be getting along great, regardless of an intimate relationship or not, but you can't afford to ignore the other two."
"Sorry I'm not willing to go to such depraved limits as you do to bond with my sister." Yang crouched down next to Summer and whispered into her ear. "I still have this thing called morals."
Summer didn't react to the accusation.
She knew Yang was smart enough to piece together the puzzle, even if her grades didn't reflect it. If schooling included socialisation, connections, and public relations, Yang would no doubt be top of her class.
"If my morals are as skewed as you think, then what does that say about how you change?" Summer navigated in the dark as she felt around for Yang, hand ghosting over her prey's ear. Yang shuddered involuntarily at the action, cursing inwardly at her traitorous body.
"Cockpit, now!" Rei tumbled from Summer's lap as Yang nearly threw Summer up and towards the front of the craft. She snorted, shaking off the worst of the fall. Her large, red eyes stared up at the former snow princess and she knew she found her mark, pouncing forward.
Summer stumbled, masking it as an effect of Yang's rough handling rather than the effect of Rei burying into Weiss' arms. She disconnecting the sight link and extended her other senses, her Aura painting an image of the cockpit in her mind.
"You're brazen enough to get me alone while there are other people just on the other side of the door." Summer reclined into the pilot's seat, the picture of composure. "We'll have to be quiet."
Yang leant over Summer, using the armrests to support herself over her.
"I don't know what type of game you're playing, but this ends." Summer felt the strands of Yang's hair brush against her face. "Stop insinuating that type of relationship with Nova."
Summer cleared her throat and Yang was too slow to stop her.
"Yes! Fuck me! Keep me quiet!" Yang clamped her hand onto Summer's mouth, falling for the bait. Summer's next words were muffled, but the sounds were still loud enough to reach the occupants in the fuselage.
She retracted her hand when Summer started licking it.
"My relationship with Nova isn't your relationship with Ruby, and it never will if you don't want it to. Any implications you took from my comments are yours alone. I only meant you shouldn't ignore Ruby and Weiss as teammates in favour of Blake."
"I don't-" Summer cut her off by pulling her onto her lap. Ruby, being usually smaller than Yang, could never comfortably do so and resorted to tackling Yang in hugs.
"When's the last time you hugged Ruby? Talked to her about her schoolwork, her role as a leader, her relationship with Weiss, your fears about your own?" Yang shifted in her seat as Summer struck cord after cord with her questions. "What about Weiss? You talk to her about her family, her sister, Ruby, the White Fang, or any other aspects of her life?"
"You've spent the last couple weeks lost in a new relationship with Blake. Don't forget about your old ones." Summer pet her younger/older sister/step-daughter, carding her fingers through golden tresses not at all different to Novas. Yang just sank into her embrace, resting her head against Summer's shoulder, indulging in the sensual altruism.
They spent a few minutes languishing together before Summer shifted, letting Yang know it was time to get off her.
"We could stay like this a little longer, let Blake sweat about what we're doing here." Yang jumped out of her lap, remembering why she dragged Summer in here.
"Blake can sweat all she wants while I interrogate you here. They can do their own bonding without me." Yang grabbed Summer by her shirt with her new arm, the mechanics working in precise rhythm.
A few days ago she'd have ripped Summer's shirt to shreds as her body reacclimatised to the arm, not yet knowing how to use it.
"I want those medical records you promised me. You managed to weasel your way out of it when I was on painkillers, but I need answers. You have me keeping secrets from my team and my leader."
"Why're keeping it a secret? I never instructed you to keep your suspicions to yourself, rather SKBN tried to teach you to avoid keeping secrets. We first told you about the war in our timeline to see whether you'd tell the rest of RWBY, but when you didn't, we told them in your stead."
"So I'm supposed to tell my team there's a subconscious part of my brain nudging me to run away from you? A part that's silent when I fight Grimm, but suddenly awakens when I'm near you?" Yang returned to whispered conversation, keeping her voice low enough to not alert her eavesdropping team. "I'm supposed to tell Ruby, her mother, terrifies me more than anything I've faced before?"
"Your instincts serve you well. They react so avidly to me because they can't sense my intentions so they perceive me as a threat." Summer fished out her scroll, scanning her fingerprint to unlock it. "My official mental condition is broadly classified as psychopathy."
"Umm, I'm on a home screen here." Yang tried to hand the scroll back but Summer ignored her, not being able to see it directly in front of her.
"Under my identification there should be a mental status assessment. Click on it and you'll get every report you want."
"And the reason why I'm navigating your scroll instead of you?" Yang's eyes widened at the veritable barrage of files listed under Summer's name. The first to pop up was the general counselor's report from Monty Memorial.
Summer took off her shades, revealing the utter lack of anything resembling an iris, pupil, or sclera in both of her eyes this time.
"I underestimated the toll my eyes would take when using them. I calculated I'd only use one eye's worth of power, but those were based off the early legends of the Silvereyes, without any substantial or concrete evidence." She placed the sunglasses in her leg pouch. "I've been blind for the last few hours. I didn't even know Rei was a Grimm until you mentioned it."
Partly true as she hadn't seen what Salem had gifted her with, just feeling out the shape of a small canine body on her lap. No one other than her and Salem knew the truth about Rei's creation, and only Salem knew from which emotion Rei was created from.
"You found a pet Grimm while you were blind and didn't notice?"
"She did try to bite my hand, but only succeeded in hurting herself. I thought she was a puppy."
"And then you decided to pilot a craft to Menagerie, with us in it?" Yang arced an eyebrow, feeling only slightly silly she was staring directly at Summer. Her gaze had no effect before her total blindness.
"The takeoff sequence is simple and I planned to have you land. I know the bearing to Menagerie and the controls by heart. The rest is autopilot."
Yang zoned out, lost in the opening paragraphs of Summer's medical reports. They read out just like any other, a list of injuries she was admitted with.
They alone took up most of two pages with the large varieties of injuries she had sustained while in the tender care of the White Fang. They were listed from most severe to least as designated by the attending, but most of her injuries at the point of her rescue were stabilised except for the most recent.
The physical side had the attendings wondering how exactly Summer had survived everything they had thrown at her, but it was her mental conditioning which had them lock Summer in a padded room with her team until they could guarantee her own safety.
Yang's face turned increasingly pale as she read the descriptions of each injury, ranging from lacerations all the way up to aggravated rape. At the last one, the scroll she held groaned in protest as her hands tightened, rage creeping into her system at the thought of her Ruby suffering through the same.
Summer didn't look any less regal sitting in the pilot's seat now that Yang knew her as a rape victim.
"What… happened…?"
"We should probably let the rest of the team in if you're finally going to let them know of your suspicions." Summer fumbled for the door handle, expecting them to roll into the cockpit.
They were instead involved in the stress relieving activity of playing with puppies. Rei nipped and practiced her pounces on Zwei and the steroid enhanced dog shouldered through it. Then they'd both turn and attack a giggling Weiss or Ruby.
Only Blake stayed away from them, using Ruby and Weiss as shields against the two menaces, ears flattened against her head.
"Are you two done having sex in the cockpit?" Nora, Yang, and Icha Icha were starting to have a noticeable effect on Ruby's mannerism.
Rei broke from her playtime with Zwei and ran up to Summer, who bent down and picked her up upon feeling the small paws resting against her shin and placed her on her shoulder.
She reached about for the faintly established link and regained the ability to see in time to witness the heckles on the back of Blake's neck rise at Ruby's insinuation.
"Not my fault Yang can't keep my mouth shut." She scratched Rei's head, idly wondering how the Grimm had been so quickly accepted. Maybe Yang had the right idea about her presence. The silence within the compartment grabbed her attention and she realised everyone was staring at her. "Why'd it get quiet?"
"Might be something about you forgetting to put your shades back on." Yang popped up by Summer's side, offering her two cents.
"I didn't forget. I chose not to put them on. Easier to explain everything you want to tell them."
"Tell us what?" Ruby waved a hand in front of Summer's face, not getting a reaction. "That you're blind?"
She recoiled as Summer tried to bite the annoying hand.
"I can still visualise what you're doing with Aura pulses, but yes, I'm technically blind. But that isn't what Yang wanted to share with you." Everyone turned to face her, and Yang enjoyed stretching the tension out.
"I'm pregnant." She only managed to keep her face straight until Blake drew Gambol Shroud partially and tilted her head threateningly. "Okay, okay. Have you guys ever felt, uncomfortable around Summer? Like there's a small part of your brain that tells you to run?"
"No." Ruby answered first, her danger sensing meter still broken.
"Yes." Both Weiss and Blake answered, confusing their leader. "I assume that's just my Faunus instincts warning me she's someone dangerous."
Yang flicked Summer's scroll to projector mode and displayed the general report. Summer read the report apathetically, and only startled slightly when her vision was cut. Repeated attempts of reaching out to Rei were ignored and she could only come to the conclusion Salem was using her instead.
Her Aura pulses weren't sensitive enough to pick up on the fidgeting the younger team was going through and definitely couldn't get a read on their pallor. She wasn't prepared for the sound of one of them retching, hopefully in a bag or in the corner, and another one greatly breaching her personal space.
Her assailant was promptly reminded why Summer was the High Commander as she was flipped upside down and planted face first into the metal flooring with an arm painfully twisted behind her back.
The familiar fabric of her burnt cloak told her she was crouched on top of Ruby, the girl having had tried to give a comforting hug.
"Don't surprise me Ruby. I'm already tense as it is without my vision." Ruby replied with a muffled okay, face smushed and buried under the cloak. She was let up and Summer pulled her up.
Team RWBY just continued staring at her. "What?"
"You were raped and tortured, and you ask us to 'what?'?" Weiss wiped her lips of the remaining bile, having only read up the point of 'aggravated rape' and other more nefarious types of it before her stomach disagreed and ejected its contents. There were enough medical supplies to where she could find a bag in time. "Was this what Yang wanted to tell us?"
"No. This is just the cause of what Yang wanted to share with you." Summer could feel Blake's solemn gaze searching her face. "Stop pitying me Blake or I'll toss you out of the ship, at speed, and see how well you can swim."
"She's crazy." Yang supplied and her team stared at her. "I'm not kidding this time. Her profile has her listed as an 'alternatively sane' psychopath."
"Yet I'm still your Commander and everyone in the higher up offices, including Oz, Glynda, and Qrow know about my condition. None have raised complaints so far."
"I swear to whatever gods there exists, I'm not going to suddenly snap and murder you all." Salem and Ozpin simultaneously sneezed. "Well, I'm not in an environment which may cause me to snap. There's always that danger."
The team inched away from Summer, but this time she was able to pick up on the movement.
"We're not on a battlefield. Relax. I don't perceive you as a threat, nor do any of you possess enough skill to threaten me." She didn't tell them how the last time ended when she lost control. Bianca had let her run out of steam before trapping her in a cage and forcing Nova to knock her out.
Summer Rose had nearly been Pruned that night.
The worst part?
She remembered every action she took while in her haze, but there was no regret until her team had sat her down and explained why she should've felt some smidgen of regret, sadness, or anger.
Summer, as a mask, hadn't been fleshed out properly yet and needed guidance. Objectively, she understood the deaths sustained by the White Fang and Cinder's faction weren't anything to feel remorse over, but subjectively, her team wanted their Ruby back and didn't want a second coming of Neo.
She was the better Huntress, but sentimentally, Ruby was the better person, and Summer couldn't fault them for wanting her back, or she was told Ruby would have wanted to be restored. Ruby had a rosy tinge on the world around her and Summer evoked a void.
Her team had been vaguely successful in separating the two aspects, locking 'Summer' away and teaching her how to be Ruby again. Which got a helluva lot more confusing when Ruby became Summer in this dimension and her alter remained nameless.
Neo hadn't named hers either.
Ruby was coming back with everyday SKBN tried rebuilding her.
"Are you...okay?" Yang couldn't help but cringe at her own question. What was the proper reaction to learning your Commander had spent half a year interned by the White Fang in an effort to break her?
"I'm fine." If anyone else said it, SKBN would hit them and call them out for lying. "I don't let my rape or torture affect my general personality. I've moved past it."
They didn't know whether to feel proud or terrified of Summer. She was strong to have survived what the Fang through of her and remain functional as a human being, but they weren't sure if Summer could properly fathom what happened to her anymore.
Objectively, she survived and held out against her captors, but her body and mind had paid one of the worst tolls possible.
"Can I hug you?" Summer resisted the urge to ask why. Kara hugged her all the time as did Bianca and Nova. The reasons behind them still evaded her, but she submitted to them nonetheless.
She nodded and braced for a running tackle/hug but Ruby surprised her by stepping forward and wrapping her arms around gently, nothing like the usual ones Bianca gave her where she slid a couple metres back and felt like a truck collided with her.
Nova's felt like a Primordial slamming into her, and those hugs were not nice, if ever bit smothering as Nova tested the limits of Summer's Aura.
Summer returned the hug, stroking Ruby's hair as the girl nuzzled into Summer's warmth. She rested her chin on top of her head, letting Ruby instill some measure of comfort in her tired soul.
Tired, worn, shredded, damaged; much like her cloak.
"But you do let it affect your personality." Blake said after a period of silence. "Compared to Ruby, you're beyond cold to almost everyone, colder than Weiss was when we first met her." Weiss made to reply but Blake's hand muffled her retort.
"Just because I sound cold, doesn't mean I am cold." As much as Summer tried to say otherwise, Yang swore the windows of the bullhead froze over. "I care for my team and my Hunters, and that includes you four."
"C'mon guys, it's still me, if a little older and a bit more...rough around the edges." Trust Ruby to completely ignore someone's past and accept them for who they were. Ruby didn't care about Weiss' former status as an heiress, or Blake's heritage, both Faunus and royal, or Yang's penchant for violence against Raven.
"Never change Rubes." Summer used one of Nova's nicknames for her.
"You're the one who changed, Commander." Weiss supplied after licking Blake's hand to get her to drop her gag.
"Protect her and she'll never have to follow in my path." Cue the team flinching enough for Summer to notice this time. "Blame Yang for prying into my past. You all could've stayed ignorant but she was a bit too perceptive."
"Ignorance truly is bliss then." Yang concluded.
"Truth is a weapon. In a world filled with lies and deceit, truth isn't just a rebellion, it's an act of revolution. Ignorance breeds leniency, and leniency breeds intolerance." The team understood Summer was implying it to how some humans viewed the Faunus. "Strive for the truth and let is shape who you are, for ignorance will destroy you."
Summer left them with this last bit of information before absconding back to the cockpit, leaving them to think. There was a constant nag on her Aura, a feeling of dread she had long lost; the diadem siphoning Aura into an ethereal limbo.
Menagerie - Refugee Camp
Summer left the team to report to another CO as she meandered towards a secluded spring located on a hill overlooking Menagerie.
Rei napped steadily on her head, locked out of feeding on the few negative emotions floating about the island, remaining in her small and docile state. Weiss had tried to give her the puppy eyes when she'd sent them off for rudimentary first aid, but Rei refused to leave Summer's side.
She wasn't about to let a newly spawned Grimm have free reign on an island soon to be inhabited by tens of thousands of refugees. The relief and hope might cause serious harm to her.
Beside, it was rude to disturb someone's sleep, at least that's what she learned when her team got irritated with Nova when she woke them up for random shenanigans in the middle of the night.
Kara + claws + irritability did not equal a favourable outcome for anyone involved.
No matter how hard she tried to stem the trickle of Aura into the diamond on her back, she couldn't reach deep enough into her core to find where it was coming from, and erecting walls to cut off the flow was ineffective.
She was losing Aura, but not at a pace she couldn't regenerate it fast enough.
It wasn't going to Rei as she continued to passively lay on her head and wasn't reacting to her Aura, but it could've just been a side effect of the lack of anything to feed off of from her Aura.
Yet she should've grown even slightly if she was feeding off the Aura, but she remained her in her dainty, wispy form indistinguishable from Summer's hair.
What was stranger was her newfound ability to meditate without struggling to keep her alter quiet; to dampen and suppress the tidal wave of her trying to break free and take control of her body.
Either Salem was stealing her Aura, which for an impossibly old goddess responsible for the creation of Grimm was unnecessary. Stealing all of Nova's reserves could've been beneficial, but she had had decades to recuperate her losses from the Great War.
Re'iyah was the only logical culprit to where her Aura was going, but Grimm fed off of Aura and negativity. She had the Aura to supply, but not the negativity, especially if Rei was tapping into Summer's aspect and not Ruby's.
Unless Salem was taking it for nefarious reasons such as creating a Grimm based on Summer but it'd break the balance, flooding the world with creations of lesser form than Neo and Summer.
Salem and Ozpin wouldn't be able to create enough pure opposites to corral the nightmares spawned from their alters.
However, Salem had personally created Rei for Summer's use and if Rei was slowly feeding off of her Aura, then it wasn't going towards her growth and development. As much as she'd like to experiment what Rei was doing with her Aura, Salem might not take to experiments being done on her.
At the very least, she was helping with her mental control of Summer.
Summer opened her eyes upon hearing the roar of hundreds of aircraft descending towards the city. The smaller bullheads dropped off their passengers, where the people of Menagerie would help them, before ascending up to the hovering Airships, much too large to safely land anywhere.
Her three teammates were nowhere close to the city yet, having flown several leagues behind the main armada in case Atlas became aware of hundreds of ships being flown into and out of their territory.
It took a few minutes before the turbine exhaust of three landing bullheads notified her of her team's arrival.
Her pet Grimm had the worst timing as she started to rummage about, turning her hair into a mess as she sat and wagged her tail, sensing her master's pack returning to her.
She caused nothing but trouble.
Summer plucked Rei from her head and placed her on her lap, preventing any of Kara's stray bullets from harming her. She was a good enough shot to take Rei out without getting anywhere close to harming her wife.
"How was your trip?" She didn't need to link her vision back to Rei for this meeting. Her Aura pulses could tell her enough in this slow environment. Learning to fight would have to be a problem for another day.
"The three camps under our care were liberated and reduced to rubble with Nova's and my Semblance." Bianca reported. "Winter reported she'd successfully done the same but been forced to recall back to Atlas, leaving her fleet under her second."
"Why're petting a Grimm?" Nova asked, crouching in front of Summer and holding her hand out to it. Summer briefly let Rei struggle against her hold before letting up, allowing her to lick Nova's hand.
"Salem gifted her to me." At her words, a dome of glyphs blocked out her extra sensory vision, but not before Nova reappeared behind her with her hand placed against the back of skull, ready to kill her as humanely as possibly.
Weiss made no other threatening moves while Kara shifted her weapon into its pistol form.
Rei squirmed under the perceived threat but Summer washed her worries away, continuing her petting.
"Explain." The simple demand came from her second, Bianca Ironwood.
"After I left from my meeting with the Council, I decided I was going to try and end this war's benefactors. I reached out to her and she responded, expecting a call from Neo and not from me." Her team had a report to read, but hearing was better than reading. "She was polite, composed, and beyond intelligent, so we made a deal."
Bianca primed her rapier's cylinder, ready to freeze Summer into a block of ice unless she continued speaking.
"In return for her withdrawing her direct support to both Cinder and the White Fang, I promised her the Relics of Knowledge and Destruction." Summer held up her hand, stopping her team's questions and allowing her to carry on speaking. "She also agreed to leave Ruby alone and drop her vendetta against the Silvereyes, as long as she agrees to never reproduce and never use her heritage."
"What about you?" Bianca released the prison, prompting Nova to release her hold. "Anyone can see you're the much bigger threat compared to Ruby; you've used your gift before."
"Salem wanted a compromise." Summer removed her sunglasses, letting them see what Salem got in return for her neutrality. They only sighed in unison, knowing their leader was too loyal to her own people to let such a deal go down the drain where she'd simultaneously protect Ruby, gain a ceasefire, and cripple their real enemy.
"That's just great. Kara's stuck without a means of communicating with you."
"Not true." Summer held up Rei to Bianca and she hesitantly extended a finger to it. Rei yipped as Bianca brushed the fur on her snout, happy another one was willing to give her attention. "Salem didn't leave me entirely blind. I can see through her."
"Cool." Nova started scratching the Grimm as well and Kara joined in as well, not seeing any reason not to distrust the tiny Grimm helping her wife with her sight.
The moment Kara's hand touched Re'iyah, their vision was eclipsed by an explosion of sterling white and they knew no more.
"I never expected humanity to ever get to the point of succeeding in breaking the laws of the physics." Salem juggled four multicoloured orbs in her hands. Red, white, purple, and yellow cast haunting shades of light on the bleak plane of existence.
"We didn't create the laws but we did bend them a little." Her brother, Ozpin, answered, hands reaching out for the orbs.
"Correction: you bent them with your Semblances and now we're picking up the pieces." She tosses the four orbs to him and they floated over gently, the four clumping together before alighting on his hand.
"Regardless if it's my fault or not, they've been wreaking havoc on our world, manipulating events before their time, forcing both of our hands."
"They should've died when they ripped open the space between dimensions, except they didn't and took it upon themselves to help this world. Summer even sacrificed some of her powers to me in an attempt to gain my neutrality, and she succeeded."
"I'm sure Neo had nothing to do with your acceptance." Ozpin mocked until they both felt shivers travel up their spines.
The aforementioned pink haired merc stood behind them, noisily sucking on an ice-cream flavoured pop while watching them. She briefly nodded before disappearing in a shower of glass.
"You know what we have to do, don't you?" Salem nodded, beginning the process of reaching into the energies of the universe. "The balance needs to be restored, and the presence of two of the same souls were beginning to wear on me."
"I hope whatever gods exists above us can forgive our actions." Ozpin melded his energy with her.
Neo sneezed.
"See you on the other side." Their Auras clashed in a symphony of black and white, each fighting the other before devolving into a large swatch of grey as they tore a hole in the universe.
Their combined energies surged between the layers of the multiverse and slowly encroached into the ones affected, crushing them in an unending grip as they fought to restore the balance SKBN had so carelessly violated.
With a single command, their Auras restored balance, detonating in a bright blast of light, resetting each respective universe to the point before SKBN began interfering.
Unfortunately, they hadn't removed themselves from their universe, unlike the four orbs they had sent into the ether.
AN: You must hate me.
Thanks for joining me in my journey of character development. This book has ended, and the next one is in the works. I hope you'll join me in that one as well.
There are still many mysteries to solve.
Re'iyah: Meaning 'sight' or 'vision' in Hebrew.