Chapter Four: The Will of A Huntress
Summer felt like the gods were smiling down upon her, she was the first person to arrive at the showers. So she was able to use hot water to rid herself of the ash, and grime that had accumulated over the past two days. Walking out of the building Summer smiled after the wonderful shower feeling like a million Lien. Now the only thing left for her to do was to walk to the cafeteria, and find the most caffeinated thing there, and multiply it by ten so she could temporarily get rid of her sleep deprivation.
As she sat in the cafeteria students from all around the room glanced at her in surprise with the ever growing stack of coffee cups stacking on top of one another. The only one with a larger stack than her was some second year with a beret who was said to have an ever worsening addiction to coffee. Without warning an orange sailed through the air, and slammed into her stack of coffee cups causing the cups to fall everywhere on the table around her. She heard that same bubbly orange haired girl from yesterday excitedly callout. "Strike!" Summer stared down sadly at her last cup of coffee that had been knocked over during the collapse. Looking up from the cup she looked on in surprise at all of the cups she had collected wondering when she had gathered so many. While she enjoyed the feeling of not being tired she didn't really care for the army of hummingbirds trying to break out her chest. Looking around the room she could see Ruby, and Yang staring at her as they ate it kind of unnerved her to say the least. Does she look like someone they know? She was still in the dark about Ruby's family she never really talked about them except the occasional mention of her uncle, and the very frequent appearances of her sister Yang.
Still unnerved by Ruby, and Yang's collective stare she got up from her table, and disposed of the remnants of her coffee cup stack, before setting out to wander Beacon's campus. For a few minutes before she has to go, and collect her weapon from her locker. She absent mindedly set off in a random direction, and once again had she ended up standing in front of the tree she had sat under the night before. "So this is where you bring me legs? Out of all the places I frequented at Beacon you bring me back here? Is this supposed to be one of those metaphors that Ruby liked to make all the time? Does this represent my deep rooted conviction to save the future, and protect the people of Remnant. Or does it stand for some other thing, I was never good with metaphors like Ruby, personally I don't see what Ozpin, and Ruby see in me." At the mention of Ruby she could feel some sort of hand on her shoulder, but when she looked back it was gone, and no one was there. Summer shook her head, and her eyes narrowed in determination. "No! This is not the time to start doubting yourself Summer! you can do this, you have to do this! for Ruby, and for the safety of the people of Remnant no matter what!" She whisper shouted to herself as to not draw attention.
Before she had met Ruby she remembered the words of a drunken man down on his luck as he passed by her. While the words themselves might of not have been directed towards her, and he was probably not the best person to pick up advice from. She took his words to heart anyways, and they have guided her throughout her life ever since. As she turned away from the tree she whispered her version of the man's saying to herself to get rid of the feeling of self doubt. "You have a strong pair of legs Summer. So get up, and use them, and keep moving forwards towards your goal no matter how hard it gets." With these words said, Summer walked down the path completely unaware of the bespectacled grey haired man sitting on the opposite side of the tree slowly sipping a mug of coffee. As the sound of her footsteps grew fainter as she pulled away from the tree he stood up, and walked in the opposite direction of the girl with a small knowing smile adorning his face.
Locker number ninety four, locker number ninety seven, ah ha there it is locker number one hundred one. Summer quickly dashed over to the locker, and input her code sitting there in all of its glory was her sweetheart. Pulling it out of the locker she quickly unfurled it before getting a clean rag to wipe away the grime, and ambient dust that had collected over the past few days. As people walked by they could only stare in shock as a small girl cleaned a scythe that was considerably larger than her, as per usual during her public maintenance routines. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ruby staring at her, and her scythe in wonder, next to her she could see Yang eyeing the cloak she wore. Seeing this Summer paused her routine to pull the cloak closer to herself before resuming again.
Upon finishing up with the maintenance on her sweetheart she stood up to leave before stopping in her tracks after she was almost bowled over by a flying body that was being propelled by a javelin. A very familiar looking javelin that belonged to the combat instructor Pyrrha, but Summer had to shake her head to remind herself that Pyrrha was just a student starting her first year at Beacon this year. Not the world renowned combat instructor that taught at Beacon at the behest of Ruby when the previous teacher had retired. On further inspection the body that was stuck to the wall was none other than Jaune Arc "Are y-you okay there Jaune?" All she got was groan, and a weak nod of his head. She put a hand reassuringly on his shoulder "If it makes y-you feel any better I think today is going to be a good day for everyone, and filled w-with a lot of surprises as well. Who knows you might find out something about yourself that you never knew of before." With those words spoken she walked off, leaving a very confused Jaune staring at her back.
Summer was the second student to arrive at the cliff, the first was the black haired girl with the bow from the airship. Looking out towards the forest, Summer wondered how the teams were going to be formed. With her now participating in the initiation it made the first year count uneven so there was going to be one person without a partner for their years at Beacon. Or they would be forced to take the initiation again next year. Looking around her Summer saw that more students had arrived, a few launch pads to her right Summer could see Jaune standing next to Ruby. "Do they play the initiation on the screens around Beacon like Ruby does or are they the only ones to see?" Summer thought to herself,her musings were interrupted when Ozpin started his initiation speech.
"For Many years you have all trained to become the warriors you have become to this day. Today your skills shall be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." When he finished his speech, the woman from the Dust shop spoke up.
"Many of you have heard rumors about the team selection process, allow us to put an end to all of your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates today with the exception of one student do to the odd first year count this year." Where she left off Ozpin continued.
"Your teammates will be with you for all of your years at Beacon, so it is within your best interests to be partnered with someone with whom you can work well together with. The first person you make eye contact with with shall be your partner for the next four years." Summer didn't know if it was for dramatic effect or to let Ruby's cry of outrage simmer down, and the orange haired girls outburst to quiet down.
After the small pause Ozpin resumed his speech once more. "After you have found your partner you will want to travel to the northern end of the forest. You will face opposition along the way, and if you hesitate you will die." Wow that was completely different from Ruby's speech while still warning them she laid it out in a way that wouldn't unnerve the students to the end of their days. "You will be monitored for the duration of your initiation, and none of the instructors will intervene should you be faced with mortal peril. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics each pair must choose one, and bring it back to the cliff. You will guard that item as well as your standing, and you will be graded appropriately for your performance. Now do any of you have questions?" From the point he had asked about questions onwards Summer tuned out everything, preparing to be launched off of the cliff. "Oh man I have been waiting ever since Ruby allowed me to go to the initiation with her to do this." As Summer thought this to herself she could see people out of her peripherals be launched into the air.
A few moments later a feeling of weightlessness enveloped Summer's entire body as she was launched into the sky towards the Emerald Forest. Summer righted herself as she drew closer to the ground quickly unfurling her scythe in the process. When she was roughly thirty feet above the ground Summer faced her scythe downwards, and clung to the shaft of the scythe as she fired downwards. Propelling her into the air a few more feet before letting herself fall further to the ground, and firing once more to reduce her momentum. As she retracted her scythe back to its compact form, and rolled across the ground coming to a stop on two shaking legs.
"Whoa i'm glad Ruby showed me how to do that because that was freaking awesome!" Summer shouted out not even caring if anyone was listening to caught up in the thrill of what she just did. She turned north wondering what was going to happen in between her journey from where she was to the temple.
…..
Summer avoided an overhead slash from a Beowolf as she latched the blade of her scythe to its neck, and fired. She let the momentum carry her towards another Beowolf, and she slammed the butt of the scythe into its abdomen before flipping her scythe around, and firing into its head. The remaining pack members of the pack stared at her reassessing their thoughts on their chosen prey. One of the younger, and more courageous members of the pack ran towards her with with a roar of anger at the death of its packmates, following by example the others soon followed. Summer jammed the blade of her scythe into the ground using it to stabilize her shots as she fired at the approaching horde of Grimm. One shot to their shoulder to cause them to stumble another shot to their head to finish them, one by one the grimm fell to her onslaught. A few lucky Beowolves made it through her onslaught of rifle fire. Forcing her to jump into the air, and fire point blank into an approaching beowolf's face allowing her to launch backwards away from the approaching horde.
Summer appraised her situation with a critical eye, thinking to herself. "With them bunched up like that I could use the propulsion rounds, and practically tear through them." Quickly detaching the empty ammo clip from her scythe she reached into her ammo pouch pulling out case marked with a rose petal that had two arrows going through its side. She aimed her scythe behind her preparing for the insane speed she would be traveling at, and fired. When she reached the horde she became a whirlwind of death, and rose petals, the limbs of the Grimm flew to, and fro as she cut into them. She finally came to a stop with her scythe held over her shoulder, with spent dust rounds scoured all around the clearing she found herself in, staring at the fading corpses of the Beowolves. Summer retracted her scythe back to its compact form before setting off towards the temple once more.
As she walked Summer's thoughts strayed to how the initiation was going to go. What would her participation mean for the team selection? Would the teams be altered, or would they stay the same, but with an extra member? She was snapped out her thoughts when she entered a familiar clearing. "huh?" Summer stared around the clearing, and then down at her legs. "Seriously legs first the tree at Beacon now here, I mean I guess this could be symbolic or something. I suppose this could represent that the end of one story is just the beginning of another." As Summer walked up to the tree that she, and Ruby had dubbed the tree of roses she felt a wave of melancholy overcome her. When she reached the tree she stretched out her hand, and placed it upon the tree "We had a lot of good times out here didn't we Ruby?" Summer struggled to hold back tears from falling down her face. "I miss you, and I made it to Beacon or well the initiation at least i'm still going through it, don't worry Ruby i'll make you proud, and i'll do my best no matter how hard it is to keep it up. Like you always said right keep moving forward. Now that I look at it, it seems like a lot of people had that saying huh? Well I have to go, and finish initiation I just had to say goo-" Summer cut herself off before she could say the one word she had dreaded to say for the past three days. "I just had had to say see you later." With that Summer turned away from the tree with the tears she had valiantly tried to hold back falling down her face as she strode towards the temple.
…
As Summer walked out of the tree line she was met with a very large clearing that contained the temple at the far end of it. From where she was she could see two figures one dressed in black, and one with an impressive mane of blonde hair. Upon seeing this Summer slammed the her palm into her forehead "You have got to be kidding me the time I get here is when Yang's already here, now she's definitely going to bother me with whatever she wants to bother me about!" Summer whispered shouted to herself in exasperation as to not draw attention to herself. when she was only twenty yards or so the black haired girl turned her gaze to Summer. Upon seeing this Summer raised up her hand, and sending a lazy wave in their direction, when she was about to grab one of the random chess pieces a knight to be exact. She was halted by a faint buzzing sound that seemed to originate above her, looking up Summer could see a black, and red figure falling from the sky slowly revealing itself to be. "Ruby!" Summer mentally shouted. As she grew closer to the ground another figure slammed into her side sending both of them rocketing into the tree.
At this Summer could not stop herself from bursting into laughter despite the stares she was receiving from black, and blonde duo. She cut herself off when the orange haired girl rode out of the treeline on an Ursa. "Wha?" Summer almost couldn't believe herself people falling from the sky, people riding in on Ursa what's next someone's going to be chased by a Deathstalker. As if the universe was taunting her a crimson, and gold blur ran out of the forest with a Deathstalker hot on her tail.
Before she could even comprehend it the white haired girl fell from the sky in a similar way Ruby had, except this time the figure one Jaune Arc was jumping heroically save the falling damsel. Summer could only watch in wonder at the way he caught her. "Doesn't he know he is going to painfully belly flop when gravity goes to introduce itself." Summer whispered to herself, but she could see the black haired girl snicker at what she had said. Summer tapped her chin in thought that's a pretty long range of hearing a little bit beyond human range, and she had whispered it so either the girl's Semblance is enhanced hearing or the girl is part Faunus. Summer shrugged either way she didn't care the girl could half Grimm for all she cared. As long as she had an ally to fight against the darkness that is Grimm.
While she was looking at the black haired girl she missed Ruby run off towards the Deathstalker alone. Summer gritted her teeth in anxiety, doesn't she know that the Deathstalkers armor is to thick for her scythe to cut through right now. In a manner of seconds after Ruby's "Tactical retreat" her cloak was pinned to the ground by a feather the Nevermore that Ruby, and the white haired girl apparently rode in on. Without a second thought Summer unfurled her scythe, and launched herself towards the Deathstalker with the aid of the remaining propulsion rounds in her clip hoping to block its stinger with her scythe. Just as her scythe made contact with the stinger a wall of ice appeared, and stopped the stinger in its tracks. Turning her head towards Ruby she opened her mouth to ask if she was okay, but was cut off by the white haired girl. "Both of you are like children." Ruby tried to interrupt her by saying her name, but the girl was unfazed, Summer could only mentally jump in joy now that she had a name for the white haired girl. Who was the younger version of Weiss who Summer recognized as the current CEO of the Schnee Dust Company. "You are both dimwitted, and hyperactive, did you think that you could block that stinger by yourself, and not get hurt?" Summer reeled back in surprise thinking what did she do all she tried to do was help someone. What do you mean by hyperactive she hadn't even talked to her before, she then turned her attention solely on Ruby. "And Ruby I know I can be a bit… Difficult, but if we are going to get through this then we will have to work together. so if you stop trying to impress everyone then i'll be… Nicer than I have been in the past."
Summer turned, and walked back towards the temple, thinking that this was a moment that was meant to be between partners. She was halted in her small journey when she was yanked back with surprising force by the hood of her cloak. "Whoa there short stuff where do you think your going?" Summer could only hang her head at unmistakable sound of Ruby's sister Yang's voice. "I'm not letting you go off without thanking you for helping save my sister, but uh when we have more time there are some questions I want to ask you."
Summer sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Okay n-no problem I was j-just helping out someone in need." She assumed that her answer was good enough for Yang as she felt her hood get released causing her to stumble away from Yang as her momentum was redirected. Righting herself Summer continued her walk back towards the temple. "That was a close one, I can't say i'll be lucky like that in the future though. What will I say? What questions will she have? What if I have to lie, Ruby always said I was a terrible liar, and Ozpin even said that I was bad at lying as well." She was torn out of her internal strife when she saw the others run up a hill in the direction of the cliff. She started to run after them wondering how Ruby, Yang, and the white haired girl Weiss got ahead of her. Nevertheless she started to sprint after them with a faint feeling that she had forgotten something lingering in the back of her mind.
…..
A faint whistling sound was Summer's only warning before she dove to cover behind one of the lone standing pillars. She turned her head after landing to see a cluster of large feathers embedded in the ground where she had once stood. A faint vision of her being impaled by the feathers flashed through her mind before she shook her head to rid herself of the disturbing vision. She looked out behind her cover to see her companions begin to run across the stone bridge that lead them back to the cliffs. "H-hey wait up!" Summer called out uselessly as she ran towards them, she was only spurred to run faster as she heard the trees behind her collapse to the ground signaling her that the Deathstalker had finally made an appearance. When she made it to the edge of the bridge she came to a stop with some of the others who had stayed to hold off the approaching Deathstalker. "S-so does anyone have a plan, or are we just going to wing it?" Summer asked out loud more to herself than the others. "I mean we could cut off its…" She was cut off by the Deathstalkers stinger embedding itself in the ground close to her.
"Forget about that just run!" Jaune yelled out in obvious fear of the situation. As the others turned to run, Summer turned as well, and saw the Nevermore flying towards the bridge.
Only stopping for the briefest of moments Summer called out "Guys wait up the nevermore is about to ram into th….!" She was cut off when she felt something slam into her back rocketing her into the air, in her disoriented state she failed to recognize the giant feather approaching her before she collided with it sending her into the ravine wall. She could feel her scythe leave her grasp as she plummeted further into the ravine, as she fell she would catch glimpses of her scythe. Each time she did she would angle herself in a nose dive to speed herself up in order to catch it. "Come on, come on you did the same thing with something that was way smaller than a scythe you can do it again." Summer muttered to herself
When Summer was only an arm's length away from the scythe she could see a faint outline of the ravine floor. "Four inches! Two inches! Gotcha!" Summer yelled out in pure joy before it was cut off by the reality of the situation she was in, and quickly unfurled her scythe latching onto it like she had done early for her landing strategy. She fired at the ground, and popped up a few feet in the air before repeating the process, and ending in a roll on shaky legs. "Okay this is uncharted territory Summer you have never been here before, and Ruby never told you what was down here. So no need to freak out just remain calm." Summer said quietly to reassure herself, she stretched out her hand only seeing a faint outline of it in the fog. "Oh who am I kidding I can barely see three feet in front of me, and I don't even know what's down here, let alone on a way to get out of here." Summer reached up, and slapped herself across the face faintly wondering if she has gone insane now that she is talking to herself. "Alright calm down Summer you can do this just calm yourself, and think of a plan the only options so far are to climb up the ravine or to keep walking, and see if there is a way up." With these mediocre plans in mind Summer quickly set off in a random direction in hopes of finding a way out.
As she walked Summer could feel her unease grow as a flash of red appeared off to her left before fading away as quickly as it had come. The feeling of unease steadily began to grow worse as she felt prying eyes upon her, but she could not pinpoint where the feeling was coming from. The only way she could describe what she was feeling was that she was treading upon the grounds of something ancient, and it was not pleased at her trespassing, a malevolent feeling began to flow through the air causing Summer to halt in her tracks. "What could possibly be down here that could warrant a feeling like this, this place just seems... I don't know evil" That was the only thought that Summer could think to describe the atmosphere of the ravine floor. Something dark resided here this Summer could tell, but is it Grimm? This place did not contain the fell intent of wrath, and destruction like the lairs of Grimm usually contained. No this place had an aura that more dark, and primal than any Grimm nest could have ever hoped to achieve. Whatever was down here with her felt almost primordial it had claimed this land as its hunting grounds long ago, and Summer had just become its prey.
Summer felt chills crawl down her spine as she heard the sound of soft footsteps behind her she whirled around trying to catch her pursuer, but all she could see was the endless fog in front of her. "Okay Summer you're fine it was nothing just your mind playing tricks on you." Despite telling herself this Summer clutched her scythe closer to her as if it was her lifeline. The malevolent air began to press in, slowly suffocating her. If she strained her ears she could hear a faint guttural snarl, but there was something else it sounded like there was also chanting rising, and falling in tempo. As the words became more audible she could only shiver in a deep ingrained primal fear. "Alhazred gyeth, gyeth." The words reverberated through her head, through her very being. Was she going insane? Was this not fog, but something else that played with your mind like a child's toy? Or is she being subjugated to the mind games of a predator toying with its prey?
The chanting, and the sound of footsteps only intensified, the air continued to press in slowly choking the will to fight back out of her being. Summer could only delve into the recesses of her mind to find one of the things she cherished most, and one of the things that she would defend with her life. The memory of when she had been taken under Ruby's wing played through her mind. The feeling of awe when she had appeared, the awesomeness of her scythe, and more importantly Summer's hero, her role model. With this Summer slammed the blade of her scythe in the ground, and straightened up her posture, her head held high. "I will not allow you to play with my mind any longer! If you think I am going to be your next prey then you can forget it! My name is Summer Rose, and I am a huntress in training, and I will not bow down in fear to you!" Summer declared. She knew it wasn't a smart thing to do, but whatever was stalking her already knew where she was it was waiting, waiting for her to succumb to its sick mind game, a game that she intended to win.
Summer stared ahead of her into the endless sea of fog, but jumped in fright when a small figure appeared in front of her. The creature in front of her didn't look like a creature of Grimm, no like the overwhelming feeling around her it seemed more primordial more… ancient. It stared at her with its head tilted, its small beady eyes seemed to peer into her soul. Summer could only stare in shock at the creature as it seemed to change in front of her its arm, and leg length altering to fit its new form. When its strange transformation had finished Summer found herself staring back at a more corrupted version of herself. The eyes were the creatures small red beady eyes, and not the silver that she would normally see in a reflection. Her hair had switched, the black replacing the red tips, and the red replacing the black. Instead of her usual hesitant look, the look the corrupted figure gave was cocky, and arrogant. At this sudden change Summer could only narrow her eyes, and take a few steps back to place some distance away from the creature.
The creature continued to stare at her before it spoke, its words sounded as if they were being spoken by two individuals. One sounded like the sweetest of honey the other sounded like rocks grating together deep, and guttural. "This prey is different, different from the rest, this one rises to challenge us. Curious what makes you different little bug?" Its eyes studied her, broke her down piece by piece with its gaze, and examined the many weaknesses, and faults that cluttered her being. "You are perplexing little prey, a riddle we must solve. You show fear yet you don't, very perplexing." Despite the creature staring at her Summer could feel the air shift around her becoming thicker harder to breath the creature had only been observing her. Now Summer could feel the creature's oppressive aura slowly sap the will to fight from her being,as she valiantly fought against her own mind. As the creature fully leveled its gaze upon her. "Tell me little bug what makes you special? What makes you think that you could defy me? You are only a bug caught in my grand web, what makes you think that you will survive? You are no predator you are just a weak prey for us to toy with. So what is running through your mind that makes you believe that you will survive little prey?"
Fear that was the only feeling coursing through her veins, this creature ancient, primordial. It knew that it would win this game that it had oh so carefully crafted. Despite the crushing feeling of fear Summer continued to stand tall, and stare the creature down with narrowed eyes. She would defeat the creature at its own stupid mind game, and she would make it back to Beacon, and she will stop what happened to the future no matter what. "You have the advantage when one of your prey fall into the ravine why toy with them? Why play these mind games they are trivial compared to catching your prey without a fuss? Why stalk your prey in the shadows like a coward you own these grounds why skulk in the shadows? Unless you are a coward fearful that something stronger will usurp you of your control over these grounds. So you wear them down by mentally torturing them slowly destroying your preys resolve to fight." Summer declared confidently, she couldn't show fear, couldn't show weakness if she was to keep this creature interested in her long enough to find a way to defeat it or escape.
The creature seemed to take a small step back after her declaration "The little bug speaks back to us, interesting very interesting. Tell me little bug what makes you special? What makes you different from the other prey? Why do you not cower? Why do you not break, have we failed to shatter the will to fight in your soul? How do you stay in our presence when others would fail to do so? What makes you special little bug, what spurs you to survive even while cornered by your predator? You are a riddle that we have not come across before, and we must solve it." The creature's gaze increased tenfold ripping into her being piece by piece trying to peer into her soul as if it contained the answers to its riddle.
"I don't need to show fear in front of a predator that is too cowardly to face me directly without resorting to twisted games. The heroes who protect the innocent, and those who can't protect themselves do not show fear when they face their challenges, and neither will I. After all you have turned into me I do not need to fear myself." Summer looked on triumphantly as the creatures eyes furrowed in anger, and what it seemed to her disbelief. She just needed to keep up her facade of confidence a little bit longer, and she will have won this game.
"You insolent little bug, you dare talk to your betters with such disrespect. Yet you do this without fear truly you were destined to play this game of mine. A game that you were destined to lose for we believe that this game is nearly finished, you truly are a unique prey one we may never see again. Yes most definitely we will most definitely never see a prey such as the likes of you," the creature tapped its chin in thought. "Though the world is ever changing, maybe you were a catalyst for a new group of unique prey." Summer took the brief moment of the creature's lack of focus as an opportunity to hit it with an overhead slice of her scythe. She had expected to cleave right through the creature, but she was sorely mistaken all she had managed to do was have the scythe bounce off of the creature. To her it felt like she had just struck a solid building with her scythe like it was in rifle form instead of its extended form. Her arms jolted in pain as she jumped away from the creature, eyeing it warily.
"Interesting you are the first prey to attack little bug let us see how you fair against us." Summer almost couldn't comprehend the speed at which the creature ran at as its hand lashed out towards her the nails extended, and sharp almost as sharp as the blade of her scythe. She lifted the shaft of her scythe up as the creature's hand grew near. What she didn't expect was to be sent tumbling across the ground before landing on her back. She could only hear a faint whistling of wind before she rolled to her right to avoid an overhead kick that left a small crater in the ground.
"I can't take too many hits like that again my aura is already low from earlier, and if I take a hit like that my aura will most likely shatter" Summer muttered to herself before angling her scythe towards the creature, and firing a small onslaught of high impact rounds at it. It only served as a slight delay to the creature as it stumbled from the rounds that were able to connect with it. The rounds only seemed to anger the beast as it increased its speed, now imperceptible to Summer, despite her being used to fighting an opponent that relied on speed this speed was inhuman faster than even Ruby. She went to raise up her scythe to try, and deflect the blow, but she was to slow the creature's hand imbedded itself in Summer's abdomen while the other slashed at her face. Summer could feel her aura flare at the assault, and then burst once she had sustained enough damage. As quickly as the creature appeared in front of her it dropped her only to stare down at her mangled body.
"You were an interesting prey, but you were weak. Maybe in another lifetime of yours we will meet again, and the outcome will be different, but for now you are no longer interesting you are just a weak prey." With this the creature turned, and began to walk away its form slowly transforming back to its original figure. A figure that was pure black it's eyes small red, and beady the creature in its original form was small, but its face was one of a demon with teeth that seemed to be sharper than the finest of steel weapons. Summer couldn't tell if this was a very ancient Grimm maybe one of the first or if it was more ancient, more primordial, more evil than even the worst of Grimm. As she watched the creature walk away from her Summer tried to lift her body with all of her might, the only thing she could manage was a faint twitch of her finger.
"Come on Summer you can do this, get up Summer keep taking one step forward just like Ruby said no matter how hard it gets I just have to keep moving. Come on Summer you have a strong pair of legs so use them don't fail Ruby like this!" Summer practically shouted as her body slowly began to move as she regained control of it. When she was on her hands, and knees she reached out to grab her fallen scythe, and used it to raise her further up off of the ground. As she came to a standing position the only thing she could see of the creature was its faint image in the fog. Slowly she moved forward each painful step seemed to take a life time, her legs, no her entire body felt like lead. She didn't know how close to death she actually was, but she was sure that standing next to her was a spectral version of her mentor Ruby with her scythe angled behind her. Summer angled her scythe to match the spectre before looking at the ghost of her mentor, the spectre seemed to stare at her before imperceptibly nodding at her, a quirk of her mentor's that appeared when she was in her hunter mode as Ruby had dubbed it long ago.
With the silent signal Summer, and the spectre launched themselves at the creature. The world around her seemed to blur by her as she propelled herself towards her target, leaving her seriously confused her propulsion rounds had never let her travel this fast so why had she traveled so fast. She was cut off from her thoughts as she neared her target, Summer quickly twirled her scythe in a path similar to a crescent moon making, contact with the Creature's arm, and meeting a small resistance before her momentum continued to carry her. Carried aloft on the blade of the scythe was creature's arm she twirled her scythe behind her before embedding the the blade in the ground in order to halt her momentum. She twirled the scythe once more so that the shaft was on her shoulder, and the the head of the scythe facing the ground her knees slightly bent, and her head bowed. As she lifted her head she stared over at the creature in thinly veiled shock at what she had just done, along with a hint of pride that she had managed to cut off the creatures limb that had the density of the Beacon tower. The creature stared back at her anger, and shock playing across its face before a predatory smile replaced the looks of anger, and shock.
Once again the creature began to slowly morph into the corrupted version of her. "So the prey still has fight left, we knew that you were special, but we did not know that you would injure us. It has been many millennia since we have felt pain nevertheless pain as bad as this. So tell me little bug why do you continue to fight the inevitable, why do you still struggle to survive?" Summer stared at the creature gazing deep into its sanguine eyes as if to peer into its being.
"I struggle because I have people worth fighting for, a future to save from a horrible fate, and most importantly I fight so that others don't have to. So they can stay with their families never worrying about the ever present threat of the creatures of Grimm. I fight because when those that are jaded of the world need a hero I will step in, and show them the light why the world is still a good place to live in, why they should enjoy life. Should the need ever arise I will gladly sacrifice my life if it meant that I would be able to protect everyone from danger. That is why I continue to struggle because I am a huntress, and it is my dream, and duty to protect everyone from past to present to future." Summer felt a sense of pride as she relayed her speech to the figure.
"Interesting little bug, we believe our fight is over for now even a predator knows when a prey is to dangerous to pursue, but should we ever meet again we will not let you escape like you have done today." The creature turned to walk away before stopping "Let us pose you a question little bug. What is the nature of a hero? That has been a question we have heard posed over, and over again in the millennia we have lived in this world, and we have never found an answer. Maybe it is not in our nature maybe you little bug will solve what we hadn't solved in a millennia." The creature continued its journey into the fog.
"Wait!" Summer called out "Why did you have the sudden change of heart? You have wanted me to die since I have met you. So why? Why pose me with this question that I don't know the answer to? Why leave when you could easily kill me right now?!" Summer calls were answered by silence as the creatures silhouette faded into the fog.
As her adrenaline died down Summer could feel the constant throbs of pain that emanated from the cut on her face, and the small hole in her stomach where the creature had embedded its hand into placed a major part of her weight on her scythe as she leaned against it her legs shaking as her confident facade she had built up crumbled around her. "What am I going to do now the only option is to climb up the ravine." Summer sighed at this "It's either climb or die down here slowly Summer, you can do this I know you can you climbed Beacon tower, and that was way harder with fireballs, and parts of the tower collapsing right than it is going to be to climb the ravine wall right." Summer slowly hobbled over to the ravine wall slowly running one of her hands over the wall slowly feeling, and gazing at what she could see through the fog for handholds, and footholds. Eventually her hand ran over the perfect groove in the ravine for her to begin her ascent.
Handhold after handhold foothold after foothold, the order went on for what seemed like an eternity for Summer she still continued to climb the rocks having already ripped the skin of her hands blood flowing freely. She would have to be more careful as she climbed she wouldn't want to end up back where she started, and with her aura out of commision at the moment she most likely would not be getting back up. Minutes turned to hours, hours into eternity, Summer's limbs burned from exertion her wounds she had accumulated throbbed, and stung painfully, but she continued to push herself harder, and to climb faster. She was rewarded by finally exiting the fog layer, and finally being able to see the edge of the ravine. Handhold after handhold was grabbed as she approached the lip of the ravine wall, eventually she pulled herself over the the side, and lay flat on her back utterly exhausted staring up into the sky. She didn't know how long she was down in the ravine, but the the sun was already starting to dip behind the horizon. This probably meant that she had failed initiation, and would need to find another source of information for Ruby's cryptic instructions.
Summer shakily stood to her feet, and hobbled over to the cliff face deciding not to delay any longer lest she be left without sun light. She was able to easily find a nice groove to use as a handhold without the hindrance of the fog obstructing her vision. One after another inch by inch Summer slowly made her way up the side of the cliff her injuries hurt worse than before obviously aggravated by her need to climb to safety. She had made it about halfway up the side of the cliff before tragedy struck in her desperate need to get to Beacon Summer was failing to check if her handholds were stable. The latest handhold she had reached out for was flimsy, and it crumbled from the pressure her hand had placed upon it with blood covering her other hand she had slipped right off. She free fell for about twenty feet before she was able catch a hold of a groove in the cliff face the rocks digging into her hand inducing more blood to flow from the open wounds on her hands. Once she had evened out her racing heart, and found the proper handholds, and footholds she resumed her climb.
The feeling of time dragging on into eternity resumed as she climbed up the cliff face again. Inch by inch she made her way up the cliff side, handhold after handhold with each subsequent pull a small flow of blood would leak out her hand as she climbed soaking the stone as she left. She was almost there she could practically grasp the edge of the cliff just a few more feet, and she would be able to bask in the waning light of the sun. Her hand grasped at the soft grass as she pulled herself over the edge of the cliff, as she had done after she had climbed the ravine wall. She fell onto her back, and stared up at the sky letting out a soft laugh at the pure joy of finally being in a relatively safe place.
To Summer it felt like years had passed by while she had been in the ravine, but in reality it had only been a couple of hours. She had a vague feeling of deja vu from this morning as she stumbled across the grounds of Beacon looking like the living dead. "I wonder if this is going to be a theme for this year?" Summer muttered to herself tiredly only now realizing the vast amount of coffee she had drank earlier in the morning had worn off hours ago leaving her back where she had started the previous night, but only worse much worse. She slowly stumbled into the initiation hall hoping that they did the same thing as Ruby, and handle the formation of teams at night after the students had gotten time to rest, and know their partner. Her doubts were proven false as a team called Cardinal was being introduced at least she had made it semi on time right. Several students, and faculty turned to face the door as it had abruptly opened before turning into looks of shock at her appearance. "S-sorry i'm late I kind of had an accident during the initiation, and ended up t-trapped in place I really didn't want to be." Summer explained sheepishly as she rubbed the back of one of her hands on her neck.
"Ah nice of you to join us would you care to join your fellow first year students on the side of the stage." She heard Ozpin announce spotting her from his vantage point on the stage. Summer could only stare in shock for a brief moment before she started walking towards her fellow first years. As she walked by the upperclass students she could see looks of shock, and concern flash across their faces at the sight of her injuries. She finally arrived at the lineup of first years, and ended up standing next to the black haired girl with the bow she had yet to get the name of. As she heard Ozpin call out what chess piece the current group Jaune's group to be exact had acquired during the initiation made Summer realize. She had never collected a chess piece when they were at the temple she had abandoned it in favor of saving Ruby. So why was she in the lineup of successful first years instead of the group that was in the back of the room she had failed to collect a relic so doesn't she fail the initiation.
Summer was interrupted from her thoughts when she heard her name be called in conjunction with Ruby, and her sister Yang. While the others walked with pride Summer walked to the stage hesitantly fully aware of all the stares she was receiving from the other students. Looks of shock from the rest of the upperclassman that hadn't seen her, and looks of jealousy from the first years that had failed. She ignored the stares as Ozpin began to address them"The four of you have all retrieved the white knight pieces,but with the unique circumstance of young Summer here the first year count was uneven thus leading to the creation of a five person team. From this day forward the five of you will work together, and be known as team RWBY'S. Lead by Ruby Rose." Summer could only smile before a realization dawned on her this wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't supposed to be on the team. As soon as they walked off the stage Summer bolted away from them no doubt leaving them confused. She continued to run until her injuries wouldn't allow her to any longer, she found herself standing under the very tree she had found herself under twice in the past twenty four hours. Slowly she slumped down against the trunk of the tree shaking her head to clear her mind.
"This isn't supposed to happen i'm not supposed to be on this team i'm messing up the future, and I am messing it up badly." Summer muttered to herself, wondering if she could ask Ozpin for a team transfer, but being the student of the headmistress in her real time era she knows that will be a definite no. The teams formed at Beacon were to remain for the full four years, before they can disband, and take solo missions. Or join hunter squads that go out into remote areas, and clear out Grimm for possible future settlers or to keep Grimm from approaching towns. She heard footsteps approaching her , and looked up to see her new team walking towards all with various looks of concern or a slightly less disgusted look in Weiss' case.
"Heyya there Summer was it?" Yang was the unofficial spokesperson as she went up to talk to her, in confirmation of Yang's question Summer slowly nods her head. "Are you feeling alright you look like you're really stressed out, and nervous about something. You also look seriously hurt like we should bring you to the infirmary asap to get you checked." Concern laced itself across her face, worry was evident in her voice.
"S-sorry i'm just really tired right now, and I r-really hurt right now I-i think that the infirmary is a good idea." Summer felt herself be picked gently by Yang.
"I think it's better that I carry you instead of you walking you look like you haven't gotten any sleep in the past couple of days, and I don't want you to collapse on us mid step right." Yang said comfortingly.
"Thank you." Summer told Yang to all of them really for caring enough to check on her. As her eyes started to become heavy Summer believed that Yang was right she would have collapsed if she kept walking on her own. Finally her eyes closed completely, and she drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
…
Summer stared over at the city of Vale as the sun began to set off in the horizon. She was sitting next to her team a black haired girl with red eyes, and red, and black uniform. Sitting on the other side of her were two boys one with blonde hair wearing a beige shirt, and ther with black hair wearing a grey dress shirt, and an old tattered cloak. To Summer the boy probably had the best fashion sense out of her other teammates they just didn't understand the uses of a cloak. As her, and her team basked in the waning light she could only admire the time they had left before classes the next day. Two fourths of team STRQ more specifically the boys were most likely going to cause problems for the teachers like they had done for the past couple of months. While she, and Raven would take notes for the boys as they slacked off. All in all she would feel bad for what would be coming for her team after they graduated from Beacon. As the sun reached its final minutes in the sky before it was replaced by the shattered moon Summer closed her eyes letting the last dregs of warmth from the sun wash over a the cool breeze ruffled her cloak.
…..
Summer snapped her eyes open as she shot up in bed, wondering to herself just what was that dream, and what did it mean, and what would it entail of her future.
...
A/N: Sorry everyone for the delay many things kept on getting in the way of this chapter last week, and I was only able to write a little bit each day, but this chapter is longer than the other chapters so I guess it good enough to make up for the wait. So what did you guys think of that creature in the ravine, creature of Grimm, ancient eldritch horror. Honestly even I don't know where it came from or what it is yet it just kind of showed up after I looked at something about HP Lovecraft so maybe that was some unconscious inspiration.