Air simply refused to enter Ruby's lungs. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't blink. Couldn't do anything but stare and try to fathom the impossible truth of who was standing before her. The memories she had of her mother were hazy, muted by both age and grief. When she thought of her mother she didn't necessarily see a face, but more felt the warmth and the love that Summer had shown towards her. In her mind, her mum was an ideal.

Ruby wanted to believe. She wanted to believe so much it hurt. The woman standing before her was draped in a white cloak, the cut of which was identical to the red one she had treasured for so long. Her face was identical both to Ruby's memories and the photos which always caused her heart to twist. The woman looked exactly like her mum. It was impossible.

The woman smiled and, in that moment, Ruby knew. The sheer love in the simple expression wasn't an act. It couldn't have been faked. You could fake the smile, the look, but you couldn't fake the eyes. In those silver portals, Ruby saw the truth. The woman loved her with all her heart. The woman loved her like a mother.

Ruby's knees almost gave way. It was impossible, but she didn't care. With unsteady steps she rushed forwards. Summer retreated, holding up her hands.

"Ruby, wait." The voice. It was the voice that had read her so many bedtime stories, that had brought her the vitally important news that cookies were ready, that had told her how special she was so often. And yet, though the warmth in the words was overpowering, the greeting was not. The tone was cautionary. Ruby slowed, coming to a stop just a few feet from her mum.

"Ruby," Summer's jaw trembled. "I don't want you to get your hopes up. To get the wrong idea." She took the deep breath of someone knowing they were about to hurt the person they loved. "I'm dead. I died. That hasn't changed. I'm sorry."

"Oh…" Was that really the only response she could muster? The only vocalisation of her feelings that her body was capable of? It was a single word, and barely one at that! Almost more just a meaningless exclamation. But it wasn't meaningless. No one who had heard it would have thought, for even one second, that it was meaningless. The single word broke Summer's heart as much as it broke Ruby's.

Knowing it was impossible, knowing the facts, she shouldn't have expected differently. Believed differently. Hoped with all her heart differently. She should have known that her mum was dead. That no one could rise from the grave, but it was also a lie to say she knew all the facts surrounding her mum's death.

She had been too young, too unwilling to listen to Yang's or her dad's explanation. At the instantaneous moment of seeing her mum standing in front of her—so close, so real—everything she had been told had been wrong. Her mum hadn't died on a hunt. She had been injured. Or captured. Or gotten amnesia. A hundred different possibilities that all would have meant her mum was still alive. Like all foolish hopes of little girls, they'd just been crushed.

"Then what are you?" Ruby hadn't meant for anger to seep into her words, but bodies rarely listen to rationality in times like these.

The daggers sunk home, but Summer bore them. Only the slightest twitch giving her pain away. Ruby's stomach churned at the sight. "I…" Summer looked down at her hand, twisting it before her. It appeared just like anyone else's. "I don't know. I don't understand any of this. A ghost maybe? A spirit? All I know is that I'm here. And that I'm me."

It was only after she said it that Summer seemed to realise how ridiculous she sounded. The expression that appeared on her face was one that had appeared on Ruby's numerous times. A slight biting of the lower lip, a widening of the eyes. It was just another piece of evidence as to who she was. It was almost as if Ruby were staring into a slightly older mirror. She'd always been told that she looked like her mum, but she had never imagined it was true to this extent.

Ruby believed her. It might have been a trick but, even if it was, it was preferable to be fooled. To allow herself this comfort, however fleeting it may prove. "How are you here?"

Summer shook her head again, almost near tears. "I don't know that either. Just her…" She pointed to Titania.

The appearance of her mum had somewhat distracted Ruby from the rest of the people who had appeared with her. Titania stood tall and, unlike the other two women, didn't seem confused or on edge. She spoke in that same regal tone, only now it was edged with compassion.

"Everything she has said is true. You have both been through so much, suffered so much. I chose to give you this gift. She is you mother Ruby."

"But how?" The members of the Pantheon were powerful, but this trumped any Dust swords or fireballs. This was magic. Fairy tale magic.

"Need you ask? You are my descendants. The blood of my blood. More times over than you can count, but the link remains." They locked silver eyes. "Here, in this place, I can share with you all whom I can see." Titania smiled. "You have a rare opportunity Ruby, I do not believe you wish spend it with me. Speak to your mother. We can wait for a time."

It hadn't been much of an answer. Not really. Titania's words didn't make sense. Not to a sane person at least. But Ruby chose not to care. She looked back at her mother, standing there, so afraid and anxious, and a smile lit Ruby's face. She had made her decision. She moved forward, her arms wide, before pausing and looking back to Titania. "Can we?" Titania inclined her head, and with that Ruby threw herself at her mum. Summer caught her.

In her mother's arms, Ruby was transported back to a childhood that had been so cruelly torn away. It didn't matter that she had several inches on her mum, or that she was built more heavily. For the time being, she was Summer's little baby girl again.

Her mum smelt exactly how Ruby remembered. A soft blend of garden flowers, with roses most prominent of all. In her mind the fragrance was comfort, safety, love. She had missed it so much. Just as she had always loved, Summer brought her cloak around in her hug and ensnared them both. In that cocoon of fur, the pair of them held each other, the warmth of their bodies merging, and they cried.

Ruby hadn't meant to. It hadn't been a conscious decision. The tears came of their own volition. They were tinged with sadness for what had been lost, but they were filled with joy. Joy that she could embrace her mum again.

Neither knew how long they stayed that way, holding each other. Sobs racked Summer's chest as well. She couldn't kiss Ruby's hair like she used to, but she kissed her cheeks as they glistened in the light from the Aether.

"I love you. I love you so much. I need you to know that." Summer barely managed to get the words out through her choked throat. "And I'm proud of you. So proud. You're everything I could ever have hoped for. You're beautiful. You're strong, much stronger than I ever was. But most of all you're good. You always do what's right. I'm so proud of you," Summer repeated, her emotions finally overcoming her.

Ruby's did as well. The internal barometer that guided her actions was complex, but one of the questions she always asked herself was what her mum would have done in that situation. She had elevated her mum to a pedestal of righteousness. As a statue of good. To know that her mum was proud of her, of all the hard decisions that she'd had to make over the past few years, meant more than Ruby could put into words. So she squeezed tighter, savouring every lingering brush of her mum's breath on her cheeks, the warmth of her very soul.

In an ideal world they would have stayed that way forever. The world wasn't ideal though. The pair of them had been brought here for a reason. The three other women in the room waited silently, but they didn't do it patiently. After the fleeting eternity of the reunion, the pair of them broke apart.

Ruby looked deep into her mum's eyes. It was impossible for her not to wipe the tears away, for her thumbs to brush the skin of her mum's cheeks. It was idiosyncratic reversal of their roles, but it felt so right. There were a hundred thousand questions that Ruby wanted to ask, but one shone brightest of them all. It was by far the most personal.

"What happened that day?"

Summer didn't require more clarification. Shame, the deepest, most vibrant shame, emanated from her. To cause her mum pain was agony, but she had to know. Know why her childhood had turned out the way it did. Know the reasons why her life could have been so different.

"Just… a mistake. I got cocky, and it cost me everything. I didn't turn back when I should have. I thought I could do more. Drive the Grimm further away. One simple mistake, and it took you from me. I'm so sorry Ruby."

After so long, after so many imagined scenarios, to hear a reason so plain and ordinary made Ruby swallow. Had her life really been altered by that? One single mistake? Was that the reason her mum hadn't been around to tuck her in? Pack her lunches? Watch her graduate? Just a mistake?

But Ruby knew how many mistakes she had made. Just how easy it was to make them. She had survived by only the skin of her teeth more times than she could count. It was the life of a hunter. A life on the edge. Bleeding herself so others didn't have to. She'd been blessed by a copious amount of luck on her travels. On that grey day so many years ago, Summer's had run out, and she still hadn't forgiven herself.

"It's ok. I understand." After so long, Ruby could. Summer hadn't wanted it, not at all, but like so many things, it had just happened. It wouldn't change how much Ruby loved her, nor how much Summer loved her back. "It was an accident." The words were cleansing. All the bitterness that she'd repressed in her dark times was swept away with every syllable. "It wasn't your fault. You were just trying to help people."

Her mum had died. It had caused Ruby many sleepless nights. But through Summer's sacrifice, other children had been able to sleep peacefully, safe from the Grimm. If Ruby ever died in the line of duty, she could only hope her death would achieve the same. There would always be a part of her that mourned what she'd lost, but she'd never been prouder of her mum.

It showed in her face, and Summer could see. See that her daughter didn't hold anything against her. That her daughter had forgiven her for the years of pain. With an unconscious cry escaping her lips, Summer swept her up again, running her fingers through Ruby's hair, cradling Ruby's head against her. The hastily erected barriers on their tears broke anew.

When their tears dried up and they were able to turn to face the witnesses to their most private moment, they did so with a burden lifted from both of them. Whatever happened from now on, even if this entire construct was purely a fantastical dream, Ruby was glad it had occurred. She'd finally made peace with the deepest gremlin within her. The loss of her mum was still fiercely painful, but it was a deeper pain. It no longer stung.

The other three women were standing respectfully distant, just watching. Ruby looked into Titania's silver eyes. Just how many greats would have to be put in front of grandmother to accurately capture how they were related? Probably enough that it didn't matter, but Ruby only had one thing to say to her. "Thank you."

Titania inclined her head, showing off a circlet in her hair which appeared to be made of captured moonlight. "Never forget, true love is immortal. Neither time nor circumstance can extinguish it."

It was the truth. Even in death Summer had never stopped loving her, and, despite everything that had happened between them, Ruby had never stopped loving Weiss. They were meant to be together. She swore to herself to somehow make it work.

But first, Aurora and the others had to explain why they had brought her here. Arranged all this. This gathering of some of the most powerful people in existence that was apparently all for her.

"What do you want with me?" It helped to have her mum at her shoulder, offering the silent support of a parent.

Juno and Titania looked to Aurora to answer. "We want to help you complete your quest. The path you set yourself on when you started investigating Ozpin, investigating us, is nearing its end. You know what that end must be, even if you don't want to admit it. You know what you have to do."

"Do I?" She honestly didn't. It appeared that Aurora found it impossible to speak plainly.

"You do. You are a fighter, a warrior, a hunter. In your vows you swore to uphold the side of righteousness. To protect those who were unable to protect themselves. We wish to give you the opportunity to protect every innocent person in the world. We offer you the chance to be the hero you have always striven to be."

What child didn't want to be a hero? Well, not the ones who wanted to be a princess, but that was never who she had been. She'd always dreamed of not only saving people, but the entire world. But that was a dream bigger than her. One person, no matter how good with a scythe, couldn't change its course. Its momentum was unalterable, and yet, Aurora believed she could. The dots began to connect themselves in her head. Who had she been obsessing over? Who was linked to everyone in this room?

"Ozpin…"

"Yes." Aurora nodded. "It has come to this. We had wished to avoid it. We tried to reason with him. We couldn't. If he stands unopposed, Ozpin will cast a shadow over the world in his misguided search for utopia. You have seen the consequences of his actions. Felt them first hand. Vale will not be the end. Vacuo will be next. Then after, when he has consolidated his power, he will turn his sights to other shores. The reign of an immortal emperor. A god. You've read enough stories to guess how that would end. He needs to be stopped, and that burden falls upon you."

"Why me?" It was the utterance of millennia. The question that had been repeated by countless numbers of people. There was never an answer. Not a satisfactory one. Not really. It was often them, only because they were there.

But it wasn't pure happenstance that had brought her here. No, Aurora was too certain for that. Ruby had been selected. "Because you, among the millions who reside on this planet, chose not to step aside. Not to swear a vow you didn't believe in. You chose to stand for what is right. You, Ruby Rose, unearthed a secret that had lain undiscovered for a thousand years. You alone found the truth. But you are not done, not yet. The world needs you now. You alone can kindle light in the darkness."

Aurora talked about her as if she were from prophecy. From legend. A chosen one? The real world didn't work like that. She was just a girl. "What are you on about?" She didn't want this. All she'd ever wanted was to be normal.

"At this moment, Ozpin prepares for war. The forces he's marshalled, the hunters, the Tinmen, the ones who have hounded you, will sweep aside any defences that Vacuo can muster. He will bring this entire continent under his dominion, and in doing so will spread his brand of unjust justice. All will swear allegiance, or will languish within a cell. You have the chance to stop that."

"How am I meant to do anything?" Ruby still didn't want to. Still didn't see why Aurora was telling her this. She'd researched a bit into Ozpin's past. So what? It didn't mean anything.

"In a short while, Ozpin will be alone. You can be there to meet him. To stand against him."

"You want me to fight him?"

"Yes."

"You're crazy." She was. They all were. Maybe at times—at her lowest points while shivering in a ditch—she'd thought about getting revenge on Ozpin for everything he'd put her through, but they were just that, idle thoughts. She'd never actually wanted it. Too many in the world hurt others to right what they saw as wrongs. It never made anything better.

"No Ruby, we are not. Maybe we were to allow the situation to deteriorate to this level. That is the price of free will. Everyone deserves it. From the youngest child to even us. We allowed the people we knew so long to make their own choices, and we have ended up here. Where only the most extreme actions will have any affect. You alone can stop the future that is to come."

"I can't!" She really couldn't. Even if she agreed to this, to fight, Ozpin was stronger than her. Much stronger. He'd defeated an army. If they went up against each other in earnest, she would die. "You're like him. Why don't you fight him?"

"Each of us has our own role. Those roles do not lie with direct conflict. The time for words has expired. We cannot face him. You can. But I understand your concerns. Rest assured that you will only be one of the pieces in play. By the time you face him, Ozpin will be but a man."

Pieces on a chessboard. Aurora proclaimed to be different, but her manipulation said otherwise. How many times had she given this talk? At least it assuaged Ruby's fears that she was special. She was just another person to be manipulated. Still, she'd seen what Ozpin had done to her home country. It wasn't pretty. It was no longer a place that she wished to live. Could live. If she had the chance, surely she should do what was right?

But what was right anymore? Now, more than ever, Ruby realised that what was right for one person was wrong for another. What gave her the authority to choose for the world? She hated what Ozpin had done to her homeland, but most of the people there praised his resolve. They didn't care about the thousands who had died at his hand.

"You want Ruby to kill him?" Summer asked with the righteous anger of a mother.

Aurora took some time to formulate a response. When she did her tone was soft. "If it comes to that. Which it likely will. This isn't any easier for us. We have known each other for millennia. You simply cannot comprehend how much time we have spent in each other's company. I used to love him. I still do in many ways. But I can also recognise what needs to be done. No matter how hard it is. If we do not act now, he will become untouchable."

"But you're asking Ruby to kill him. You're asking her to bear this burden. Not anyone else."

Aurora didn't rise to meet Summer's anger. "The burden exists, so it must fall on someone's shoulders. It cannot fall on mine."

"But you chose Ruby!"

"She chose herself. I understand your anger. Starting along this path was not a decision any of us made lightly, but now we are here, and now Ruby must make her own choice. Not mine. Or yours. Hers."

Summer turned to her. "Ruby, you don't have to."

"Mum…" To have someone fighting her corner—especially her mum—after so long filled Ruby with joy, but Aurora was right. This was her decision. There were so many strands of evidence, of possible consequences. Ruby tried to gather them all up, interweave them with everything she'd seen over the past two years, and extrapolate it into the future.

It was hard, so hard, and for the first time Ruby understood some of what Weiss went through. She'd complained of the weight of her decisions affecting millions, and now Ruby bore that burden as well. The pressure almost crushed her. Would historians look back at this moment and decry her for being so stupid? Would her name become synonymous with foolishness, or worse, evil? Would she be painted as the villain who'd ruined the world's one chance at peace? All those questions and more flitted across Ruby's mind, but one stood out most off all. How Weiss had done this every day?

Ruby could admit she wasn't the most intelligent person. Critical thinking had never been her forte. Instead she relied on her instincts. It wasn't scientific but, for the most part, they hadn't led her astray. Unlike most people she could look back at the past and be proud of the majority of her choices.

Her moral yardstick was standing next to her. Her mother didn't want her to do this. Though she wasn't sure, Summer probably understood how painful it was to kill. To sully your very being with the act. She wanted to save her daughter from the pain. But it had never been Summer the mother who Ruby had compared herself to. Instead it was Summer the huntress. The super mum who had baked cookies and slain monsters. Who had done so much good. Given the choice to save the world, that Summer would only have given one answer.

"I'll do it." Three simple words, but with those three words her life would change, and quite possibly the world with it. They should have sent reverberations racing around the planet, ripples that coalesced and combined into waves. They didn't. Instead they were just noise in the air.

"Ruby no!"

"Mum… It's the right thing to do. You taught me to always follow my heart."

Summer bit her lip again, tears in the corner of her eyes. She knew that her daughter's mind was made up. "I'm proud of you. Know that and never forget it."

"I know." A part of her had always believed that her mum was watching over her. It was why she'd strived so hard to make her proud. But there was one last thing that Ruby wanted to know. "What happens after you die? What comes next?" Ruby faced the very real possibility that Ozpin would kill her.

Shrugging her shoulders, Summer smiled. "In all honesty I don't know. I never wanted to leave. I never wanted to say goodbye. I stayed here, watching over you and Yang. If there's a place after, I don't want to experience it without you." It was tragic, so sad. Summer had been ripped from their lives so early, so unjustly, and had spent all these years in limbo. But at the same time it was sweet. Summer had been watching over her. Looking out for her.

Souls existed, so it only made sense that something must be next. Ruby didn't have any words that could accurately convey her emotions. So instead she relied on physical contact. She hugged her mum again. Making up for all the hugs that had been lost over the years.

When they broke apart, she was ready. "How do we do this?"

Aurora answered. "We are waiting in this place, in these ruins, in the real world. When you wake up, come here. Juno," Aurora indicated her, "will transport you to Ozpin. He will be alone. Then it is up to you."

"Right." It sounded simple enough.

"However you do not yet know everything." For some reason Ruby's stomach flipped. Aurora's delivery didn't suggest it was just a minor detail. "On your way here, you lost connection to the CCT network?" It was hardly a question. Even the boosters didn't reach into the middle of nowhere. Ruby nodded. "Then you don't know of the situation in Vacuo."

Vacuo? Yang had been there, and her dad, and Blake, and Weiss. Everyone she cared about. She had seen the troops moving to the border, but she hadn't thought they would have been caught up in it. "What happened?" There was a bite to her tone.

"There isn't an easy way to say this. Weiss was arrested. She confessed to murder. She's sentenced to die."

"You fucking bitch!" Summer spat. It was just as well Summer had spoken; Ruby's brain couldn't formulate a single thought. It had frozen entirely. Weiss… Even apart it had brought solace to her to know that Weiss was out there somewhere. She couldn't die. The world simply wouldn't be worth living in if the light of Weiss didn't shine within it.

"Why would you tell her this?" Summer appeared very close to seeing if her current body was capable of hitting Aurora. Her face was screwed up with an anger that Ruby knew she should be feeling. Instead she just felt numb.

"Because Ruby deserves to know all the facts. The execution is set for tomorrow. If Ruby wishes to try and save Weiss, we would facilitate that, but then the only opportunity to stop Ozpin would pass."

To hear Weiss and execution said so close together was a dagger to Ruby's heart. Her legs were unsteady. Weiss might have done some bad things, but she'd done good things as well. She didn't deserve that. Ruby had to stop it. To make whomever made the judgement see reason. Weiss was a good person at heart. They would have to listen to her.

But could she really do that? Put her own wishes ahead of everyone else's. The simple decision she'd made to follow her heart now pulled her in two. There was the direction that was right, and the direction that would take her to the person she loved. They didn't coincide. Ruby didn't know what to do. To save the world, was to betray Weiss. But to save Weiss, was to betray the world. She wished she had never been told. It would have been easier.

Titania pressed her lips together, as if Ruby's mental pain was causing her physical anguish. The torment within Ruby's soul was plain for Summer to see. "This is cruel."

"It is," Aurora admitted. "But for too long we have dictated the direction of the world. It was wrong. From this point forward, it will be up to people like her. People with a simple, honest soul. Ruby, I only tell you this because we want to leave you free to make an informed decision. You have heard what I have had to say. You know who Ozpin is, and what he will do to the world if left unopposed. On the other hand you can try and save the person you love.

"It is time for you to choose."

A/N: So… a choice must be made. Weiss or the world. What will Ruby decide?

I hope you enjoyed and please leave a review.