AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was supposed to be a short chapter, but Ruby and Raven had other ideas. Yep, you're about to find out just what happened to Summer Rose on her final mission...or at least most of it.

There's a pretty good chance that canon RWBY will diverge from this and change it up-Raven might have betrayed Summer to Salem, or abandoned her, and it's possible that Ozpin didn't actually know about the mission. Rather than wait until when and if V10 comes out, which could be literal years, I wrote my own interpretation. I also stole a few of Qrow's lines from the DC comic and gave them to Raven, but it works.

This one is a very talky (and drinky) chapter, but Raven has a lot to say to Ruby.

The Dewdrop Inn

Patch, North Carolina, United States of Canada

20 September 2001

Raven Branwen sat on the bed, staring at the television. It was off. There was a cold beer in her hand. It wasn't opened yet. She idly bounced up and down on the bed, and it squeaked. She smiled, wondering if it was the same bed that she and Taiyang had shared back in 1976. It certainly seemed like it: the Dewdrop Inn hadn't changed all that much. The wallpaper looked about the same, the carpet looked not much different, and she didn't want to look under the bed to see if there was rust there. The bathroom furnishings were definitely the same. It was clean, at least, and she had checked the mattress for bedbugs. The Dewdrop survived because there was no other hotel for 20 miles in the Smoky Mountains. She supposed that a new hotel would be built sooner or later. There hadn't been a McDonald's in town when she and Tai had moved here, and now there was.

Raven cracked open the beer and took a drink. "Ah, Pabst Blue Ribbon," she mused. "At least you understand me." She hoped it did, because Raven didn't understand herself.

She leaned back, drew one foot up, and stared at the ceiling, which didn't look very clean, at that. "What the hell am I even doing here?" she asked her reflection in the TV. By all rights, she should be in California. The Branwen Tribe would survive a few months without her; it happened before. If she had to, she'd kill someone as an example, but she doubted she would have to this time. She kept her tribe alive, wealthy by California Dead Zone standards, and well-fed. With her in charge, they would never be reduced to scavengers, like the cannibalistic inhabitants of the ruins of Los Angeles, or those ruled by the not-so-benelovent Prince of San Fran, who crucified anyone who didn't conform to his political ideas…which changed by the day.

But here, Raven knew, she was vulnerable. In the hilt of her sword, which leaned against the endtable next to the bed, was the controls to the Spring Maiden. That made her an instant target for anyone who knew about the Maidens. There was also the matter of Rick Tardor, Rissa Arashikaze's nephew, who Raven had killed on the shores of the Salton Sea. She had no idea who he was then, but she knew now, and she knew that the DDI of the CIA did not leave enemies alive behind her—and Raven was now her enemy. Her bargaining chip, should a CIA hit squad come after her, was that she would threaten to hit the capitol of the United States with the Spring Maiden—and pray Arashikaze didn't know that the Spring Maiden's orbit never carried it over the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Raven had used it to kill the second Nuckalevee in western Alberta, but it could not actually hit anything east of the Rocky Mountains. It wasn't just the CIA's wrath that Raven was risking, either: if the Mossad found out it had been her that stole the Spring Maiden, they would comb the world for her. The Mossad's hit squad was known as the Wrath of God for a reason.

And yet, despite all of it, Raven knew she could not leave. Not yet.

As if bidden, there was a knock on her hotel door. She was off the bed in a second, her left hand still holding the beer, the right hand pulling a .45 from under her pillows. Raven realized how ridiculous she looked, put the PBR down, and now had both hands on the pistol. "Who is it?" She hated the fact that her voice wavered. It was stupid: CIA or Mossad hit teams probably didn't knock.

"It's Ruby! Just me! Just Ruby!"

Raven was taken aback. Tai she expected, to talk to her about what they would do next, or even Yang, bent on beating the hell out of her in revenge. But not Summer's daughter, who resembled her mother so much that Raven had nearly burst into tears when she saw Ruby in her flight suit. "What do you want?" she shouted.

"Just to talk!"

Raven let out a breath and walked to the door. She undid the locks, then opened it just enough. Ruby stood there, dressed in a short-sleeved blouse and jeans, looking more like a teenager out for a midnight tryst than an adult fighter pilot. Raven herself was in her underwear, as she didn't own pajamas. Raven did a quick scan of the parking lot, noticing that Zippy, the battered Xiao Long family car, was parked in the lot next to the rental van. A glance at the clock: nearly one in the morning. "All right. Come in." Ruby squeezed through the door, and Raven noticed that there was an unopened bottle of Jeremiah Weed in one hand. Raven relocked the door, then walked backwards, keeping the bed between her and Ruby and the gun half-raised. "What are you doing here?"

Ruby set the bottle down on the rickety table in the room and raised her hands. "Well, I'm not here to kill you or anything."

"I guess you wouldn't have brought a bottle of the good stuff if you were." Raven lowered the pistol completely and put it on the nightstand, then got onto the bed and raised the beer to her. "You want one?" She pointed to the end of the bed. "Have a seat. I don't bite." Ruby let that one go past and sat on the bed, just out of easy arm's reach. She accepted a PBR and opened it, then took a sip. It tasted a bit rancid to her. "You drink?" Raven asked.

"Not really," Ruby admitted. "I got really drunk at Beacon, then I was so sick the next day I wanted to die." She took another small sip. "Besides, I have to drive back."

"Does Tai know you're here?"

"Yes. Yang doesn't, though. I talked to Dad after everyone went to sleep." She stared daggers at Raven. "I could be at home with my boyfriend eating me out right now, but instead I'm here talking to your dumb ass."

Raven burst into laughter. "Okay, that was funny," she said after she recovered. "It's funny because that's something your mother never would have said—not unless she was shithammered. She was a lightweight too, but unlike you, refused to admit it." She took a big drink of the beer, then nodded at the bottle. "Let me guess. You figured maybe you'd get me drunk, and get me to talk about Summer, because Tai told you I wouldn't talk about Sum any other way."

"He mentioned that, yeah," Ruby said.

Raven took another drink. "He might be right." She looked into the beer, then set it aside. "All right, Ruby…what do you want to know?"

"First of all, why did you try to kill us in Japan?"

Raven sighed. "Yeah, should've guessed that one. Yang didn't tell you?"

"Nope."

Raven shook her head, her eyes suddenly misty. "God, you even sound like Summer…that little pah at the end of nope and yep." Another drink, which finished the can. "All right. Salem's little errand girl, Cinder Fall—or what was left of her—met me in California with a deal I couldn't refuse: help her get JINN, and Salem would leave me alone. It wasn't much of a deal, since I know that pasty bitch has probably never kept a promise in her life, but Cinder knew where JINN was, and I didn't. So that was the deal.

"Of course, we both knew that we were going to betray each other. Cinder knew it didn't take both Maiden holders to open JINN's vault; it only took one, and the passcode needed was the same one that activated the Maiden. I planned on getting to the vault and then putting one in the back of Cinder's head after she put in her code. She betrayed me first, since she actually didn't need me. First she popped Vernal, God rest her soul, and then she came after me." Raven reached over and opened another beer. Ruby sipped hers, and hoped that Raven wouldn't get so drunk she would be incoherent. She hoped that her tolerance for booze was the same as her twin brother's. "Do you know if they ever found Vernal's body?"

"Yes," Ruby said. "She was buried anonymously at Atsugi. They found her two days after we recovered JINN. Broken neck from a high-speed ejection."

"'Here lies an honored comrade known but to God'," Raven quoted, and raised the beer in tribute. "Well…that's probably more than Vernal would've gotten from me, anyway. Poor girl." Ruby bit back a comment that Raven seemed to get over Vernal's death fairly quickly. And when have you shed many tears for Penny? a little voice taunted.

"Anyway, Yang and I had it out in the vault. She pulled a gun on me, we had a talk about why I left, and then she told me to get lost or she'd kill me. I believed her. I took off and used what was left of my fuel to get to one of my hidey-holes in China…honestly surprised that Pyrrha girl didn't blow me out of the sky. Once I got refueled, I stopped in to see Lil' Miss Malachite, then home." Ruby worked out the fuel usage in her head, and knew that Raven wasn't telling the whole truth. That didn't matter much.

"So you tried to kill us because we stood between you and JINN," Ruby half-snarled. "Me, Yang, your own brother."

"There's no love lost between me and Qrow, Ruby." Raven's eyes met hers, reddish brown on silver. "You want to kill me, Ruby?"

"Not just yet," Ruby replied. "I have a lot more questions."

"Well, let me answer them…though I'm curious as to where you have a gun in that outfit you're wearing. But allow me." She picked up the pistol and tossed it onto the bed between them. "There. You can kill me later. What's the next question?"

"You didn't completely answer the first one," Ruby snapped.

Raven sighed and took a drink. "Listen, Ruby. This is going to sound like I'm making excuses for being an asshole, but hear me out. Qrow and I? We grew up in the California Dead Zone. We were constantly moving around, mainly to find food. You ever watch that documentary, Mad Max? The one about how Australia almost fell apart into anarchy after the Third Big One, and they didn't even get hit? California was worse. Qrow and me, we know what it's like to go hungry. But our parents went without so we could eat. We survived by scavenging in the ruins of LA and fighting off every warlord, gang and crazies that got in the way. Our father died in a shootout with the Crips over Griffith Park; we wanted to grow food there. Our mother died when the Capitol Records building collapsed and fell on her. Hell of way to die, huh? Get taken out by a landmark.

"After that, it was just the tribe that raised me and Qrow. That was all we knew. First guy Qrow ever killed? Some bastard that was trying to rape me. First person I ever killed? The guy's sister. We were twelve. Eventually, though, the Tribe built something permanent in the Central Valley. We took over Lemoore, and my oh my, the Navy did a shitty job when they evacuated that place. We found all kinds of stuff—especially fighters. Found more at Edwards, and at China Lake, sometimes even in the desert. Problem was, none of the Tribe knew how to fly them. So Qrow and me, we were smuggled into Arizona, where we had fake college credentials made, and we enlisted, applied for flight school, and got it. We knew the basics, but we were both naturals. We graduated with honors, even got sent to the same unit—the 388th over at Hill. About six months later, we got orders to Vytal Flag. Ozpin saw some potential, and we became Strike Flight." Raven laughed again. "It was one of Ozpin's stupid acronyms—STRQ, for Summer, Tai, Raven and Qrow. Tai thought it was Stark Flight for a few weeks."

"I know that story," Ruby told her, although Qrow had only told her the part about the twins enlisting, not about their childhood. "It doesn't explain why you tried to kill us."

"Yeah, it does," Raven shot back. "Because unlike Qrow, who went native and decided he would take that oath of loyalty seriously, I knew our mission was to learn how to fly and fight for the Tribe. We owe everything to the Tribe. I remembered that promise. Qrow didn't." She slugged back half the beer. "I wanted JINN for the Tribe, Ruby. Then we'd be safe from anyone who wanted to get us. Even that little twat Arashikaze wouldn't come after us then, even after I sort-of accidentally killed her nephew. Not if JINN could tell me all I needed to put Arashikaze's dirty laundry on CNN." Ruby didn't feel like telling her that even JINN didn't know Arashikaze's background. "I wanted the Tribe to be safe, Ruby. And if that meant killing my own brother, who betrayed us anyway? Killing Yang, my own flesh and blood? Killing you, my best friend's kid? Yeah. Because the Tribe is all that matters, Ruby." She finished the can and slammed it on the nightstand. "Someday you'll understand. You'll have to make a decision to save your flight, and it'll cost you everything."

Ruby took a long drink of the beer now. "I already have."

Raven was silent for a moment, then opened a third beer. "Yeah. I suppose so." She stared into the beer again, then set it aside. "So. Question answered. It was a mistake. I should've just had Cinder and her entourage shot in Disneyland and been done with it, but I didn't, because like you said, I'm a dumbass." Then she picked up the beer and drank again, though not as much this time. "Next question?"

"Sure. What the hell are you doing here?" Ruby wanted to know.

Raven shrugged. "Wish I knew, to be honest. Got back home, then every night I got weepy as fuck. Told the tribe I needed some time alone. Hopped in a car, drove cross-country, and here I am."

Ruby's eyebrows rose. "Just like that, out of California? What about the border barriers?"

Raven snorted. "Please. I came through Vegas. You have the cash, you cross there. Don't go north, though—the Mormons get super pissed if you try to sneak in through western Utah. Their border people hunt your ass down." She laughed, and Ruby hoped that Raven wasn't getting drunk. "Anyway, I needed to sort my shit out, so I figured I'd sort it out with Tai. He was nice enough to take me in, even though he wanted to whip my ass too."

"Why?" Ruby asked.

Raven sighed. "Because, on some level, he still loves me. And I still love him." She put up a hand as she noticed Ruby's hand tighten around the beer can. "No, Ruby-we're not fucking, as Yang so crudely put it. There's too much between Tai and me for that. Don't get your dad wrong, Ruby—he loves Summer more than he ever loved me. In fact, I don't mind saying that our marriage was a mistake. But that's what happens when you go to war, fall in love—or what you think is love—and get married because you think you're probably going to die anyway, and Tai wanted authorized ass."

"Huh?" That was a new one on Ruby.

Raven spread her hands. "Okay, that's not fair. I guess I did too. I always wanted to be a bride, for some stupid ass reason, so I fell in love with the whole thing. A few months later, I turn up preggers with your sister." Another sigh, longer and sadder. "Look, Ruby…I know you're probably wondering why I abandoned Yang and Tai in the first place. A year ago, I would've said that the Tribe took precedence, that I finally woke up from a wonderful dream when we could be heroes and fighter pilots and happily married with a beautiful little girl. I might've even thrown the same excuse at you that I threw at Yang—that I knew Ozpin intended to use the Night Raven for its intended purpose. You don't know that one, I imagine—"

"I do," Ruby interrupted. "Yang and me both do. We talked to the Blacksmith before we flew back here."

"The Blacksmith?" Raven exclaimed. "She's dead! We got her to a hospital, but that Russian sniper had shot her in the head! Christ, I remember Summer getting so weepy over that big bitch…" She stared at Ruby. "You mean that she survived?"

"She's in a hospital in Germany, right now. We found her in Czechoslovakia, by chance."

Raven shook her head in wonder. "Or fate. Damn near makes you believe there's a God." She drank. "How about that. Summer was right again. The Blacksmith lived. God, if Salem finds out, she'll shit a log chain and wish every other length was a hook!" Ruby actually joined Raven in her laughter at that one; it was one of Qrow's favorite expressions.

Ruby nursed the beer. "You were saying, though…"

Raven nodded. "Yeah. I would've given you those excuses…they weren't entirely lies I told myself, or Yang. I really did want to get back to the Tribe; I felt guilty for just leaving for seven years. Tai didn't want to go, of course; he couldn't believe there was anything left in California, and certainly no place to raise a family. He wouldn't break the oath either. And Ozpin did intend to use the Night Raven on Salem. He wanted to do what she planned: bomb every place we thought might be her hideouts with nukes. Make the rubble bounce in Russia. Fry everything. I don't know if that's because he was that afraid of her, or he hated Salem, or what his deal was. Oz never told me.

"But the truth is, Ruby…" Raven took a drink for courage. "It was me. I knew I wasn't good enough. All through the pregnancy with Yang, when I was puking my guts out for two months, or Yang woke me up in the middle of the night doing right hooks in my stomach—some things never change—or I had the weird craving to eat sunflower seeds and jalapenos at 3 AM…I knew I couldn't be a mom. Oh, Tai told me I could, and I even believed him. Then after Yang popped out…"

Raven suddenly wiped her eyes. "Someday, Ruby, someday you're going to have a child of your own. You're going to hate that baby for nine months for wrecking your figure and making you feel like shit one moment and horny as fuck the next. You're going to threaten the doctor with homicide if he doesn't use an epidural, because you're pushing a nine-pound human being through your pussy. You're going to call Oscar, if he's the one, every damn name in the book for starting this, and then…" Raven sniffled. "And then you're going to look into those beautiful little eyes, see your kid for the first time, and suddenly it's all worth it. All of it. Yang had blonde hair when she was born; she wasn't bald or anything. She…she smiled at me…" Raven began to bawl. She put the beer aside and she cried. "Goddammit…" She wiped tears and snot on her arm, took a swig of beer, and tried to dry her eyes, but the tears drifted down over her cheeks. "I knew, Ruby. I knew right then that I didn't have what it takes. I wasn't good enough. I couldn't be Yang's mom and Tai's wife because I wasn't good enough."

Ruby got up and went to the bathroom, bringing back a clump of toilet paper. It wasn't just because Raven was crying; it was to hide her own emotion. She wasn't good enough. Just like I wasn't good enough…or thought I wasn't. "So you left." Ruby almost said So you ran, but while that was true, she couldn't bring herself to say it to Raven's face.

"I left. And I knew Summer would step in. She fell in love with Tai at first sight, Ruby. She wanted him so bad at Beacon. I got to him first. Felt bad about it, but Summer was too shy, she was taking forever, and I got tired of waiting. Sum was never going to make a move, so I did. Little did I know I'd fall in love with the guy. But anyway…I knew she would be a good mom to Yang, and a better wife for Tai." Raven gave another shrug. "I probably would've left anyway if Summer wasn't there—I was that depressed—but Summer made it so much easier."

"But you kept an eye on them, didn't you." Ruby made it a statement. She'd asked her father about this while she was convalescing from Beacon.

"When I could. Qrow actually got word to me when Summer and Tai got married, and when she turned up pregnant with you. I was happy, you know? I figured Summer would make her move once I was out of the way, and then it wouldn't be long before Tai knocked her up." Raven smiled at her. "Got to admit, they made a beautiful kid." She blinked back more tears. "God, you look so much like Summer…" Ruby finished off the beer, crumpled it, and made a nice cross-court shot into the garbage can in the bathroom. "Nice!" Raven complimented. "Your mom used to make shots like that. She never missed. She was deadly at darts. We never lacked for drinking money. Summer would just challenge some rube to darts, and we'd walk away two hundred bucks richer."

Raven was quiet for a few minutes, staring into space, into the past. "I loved her, Ruby," she finally said. Ruby must have looked surprised, because Raven gave her a lopsided, wide smile—and suddenly, except for the eyes and the dark hair, it was Yang sitting on the bed, grinning at her sister. "Not like that…though she used to call me the 'Six Drink Bisexual,' which was kinda true. No, I loved your mom like a sister." She let out a long breath, finished the third beer, and got up. She walked around Ruby and grabbed the Jeremiah Weed. "You want any?" She twisted the top off.

"No, that's okay. Still gotta drive."

"You could stay here—no, wait, bad idea." Raven nodded at the carpet. "If you sleep on the floor, the roaches are liable to kidnap you. And after telling you I'm a six-drink bisexual, you're probably not going to sleep in the same bed with me."

Ruby thought that she wasn't likely to sleep in the same bed as Raven ever, bisexual or not. Raven might cry over Summer, she might lament abandoning Yang, she might make excuses for her actions in Japan in protecting her Tribe…but Ruby still despised her. Not enough to kill her or even consider it, but enough that she wanted to leave. Raven had pretty much answered all her questions but one. "Raven, it's getting late, so I'll get to the point." She winced as Raven turned the bottle up and drank straight from it; luckily, only a third of it. Raven then walked back to the bed, still steady on her feet: apparently the Branwen alcohol tolerance was genetic. "Did you ever see my mom again after you left Dad and Yang?"

Raven sat on the bed. "Yes. Twice more. One, the day I left. Summer caught me at the Asheville airport, getting ready to fly out to Phoenix." She sniffed a laugh. "Guess I should've chosen a better cover name than Edwina Poe. We had some coffee together, and I told her the damn truth, because I never could lie to Short Stack—"

"Raven," Ruby suddenly said quietly, "what was my mom like?"

Raven hesitated, took another swig from the bottle, and stared at the covers. "Warts and all?"

"Warts and all," Ruby confirmed.

"Well, she didn't try very hard to talk me out of leaving Tai. Just told me I'd regret it once, and then continously. But she wanted him for herself, and I don't blame her for that." Raven leaned back against the pillows. "When we first met, I wondered how she could even see over the instrument panel. She was right at the legal limit for fighter pilots, and even then, I wondered if she'd stood on her tippy toes at her induction physical. She looked like a little girl playing fighter pilot. I thought she was…until our first hop at Vytal Flag." Raven grinned. "She smoked me, Ruby. I was in a F-4, with Qrow as my backseater. She was in a F-106. Guns only. I figured I had the advantage, decided I'd make it quick." Raven's hands moved, as fighter pilots did when they talked shop. "She went vertical, so did I, setting her up for a shot…and then boom, idle and boards." Ruby translated it from fighter pilot speech: Summer had dropped her throttle back and thrown out her speedbrakes, the same trick Ruby had used on Neo over the Baltic. "I overshoot, Qrow's yelling at me to break left, but nope…we were a mort.

"That was Summer in the air, Ruby. Your mom would wait until her enemy made a mistake, and then she was all over them. Sum was relentless. Once she was on your six, better make peace with your sweet and fluffy Lord, because Summer would annihilate you." Raven chuckled. "The funny part was, she wasn't like that at all on the ground. On the ground, she was cute to the point your teeth would rot. She was kind and gentle and helpful. First to help. Any time someone went down in GRIMM country, Summer was the first to volunteer for RESCAP. One time we were out way the hell over Montana, and we had to land at one of those advance bases the Air Force doesn't talk about. Turned out that the base was short on food because GRIMM had shot down the resupply. So Summer went hungry that night so one of the airmen could have her C-rats. I chewed her ass in front of the whole base, Tai threatened to take a swing at me…good times, Ruby, good times."

Raven picked up the bottle, thought better of it, and put it down. "She wasn't perfect, Ruby. No way. We joked and called her 'Saint Summer,' but she wasn't. She was too easy on people. Summer let a guy on base at Davis-Monthan because he claimed he hadn't eaten in three days. She figured he was just a refugee, so she had mercy on him. Bastard was an air pirate, and he stole an A-7 that night. Your mom got a nice little letter of counseling on that one, and only because Ozpin talked the base commander out of a letter of reprimand." Raven snickered. "But that was Sum. She didn't know who she was unless she was helping other people. That's a terrible thing, though—not to know who you are unless you're defined by other people."

"Yeah," Ruby agreed, almost in a whisper. "It runs in the family."

"It does." Raven reached forward, and to Ruby's surprise, took Ruby's hands in her own rough ones. "But Summer was kind, she was strong, and she was brave and…she…" Raven took a breath, got control. "She loved you and Yang both, in a way I never could. She was my best friend, Ruby. And when she died…a part of me died with her." Raven scooted back, grabbed the bottle, and took a big drink, then handed it to Ruby, who did the same. It burned down her throat like napalm, but though she coughed, Ruby kept it down. She handed the bottle back. She was satisfied now. Raven had told her what she wanted to know.

"The second time…" Ruby had started to get up, but she sat down again. Raven took a last swig from the bottle, and weaved a bit; Ruby suddenly realized that Raven was drunk. Much like her brother, Raven could be drunk and still lucid. Another two beers and any Branwen would be on the floor, but Raven finished the bottle, tossed it at the garbage can—she missed, and the bottle just bounced off the tile—and belched. "Sorry. Anyway, the second time I met her…" Suddenly Raven looked hard at Ruby. "Did Ozpin ever tell you about Summer's last mission?"

Ruby's mouth fell open. "You…you know?"

"Yeah. Tai…Qrow…I never could tell them. I still can't. They'd kill me for sure. But you…what the fuck, you're Summer's kid, and fuck it. I'm tired of keeping it secret, even though Oz and Summer told me never to tell anyone in case anything went south. And oh fuck, it went further south than Antarctica." Apparently Raven had completely forgotten about the pistol that still lay on the bed between them.

"Tell me," Ruby ordered.

"Okay. You can tell your sister, because Summer was her mom, and she deserves to know—but not your dad, okay? He'll kill me," Raven repeated, and there was genuine fear in those reddish eyes. "I mean, I kind of deserve to get killed, but it wasn't my fault, Ruby, it wasn't my fault!" She started to cry again. "God help me, it wasn't my fault…"

"Raven, please!" Ruby begged.

"All right, all right." Raven took a deep breath. "So I left in August 1977, after Yang was born. Summer married Tai in July 1978. She didn't waste any time; I don't blame her. Yang needed a mom." Ruby almost wanted to scream in frustration, because it looked like Raven was going to burst into tears yet again, but the older woman collected herself and continued. "You were born…when again?"

"Halloween. 1980."

"That's right. And Summer disappeared in 1984." Raven suddenly seemed very sober. "What I'm going to tell you I haven't told anyone. Not Ozpin, not Tai, not Qrow. But dammit, like I said, you deserve to know what happened to your mother. " Raven bit her lip. "She contacted me. I don't know how she did. Maybe it was the CIA—had to have been—but either way, I get a letter of all things. We have a kind of primitive mail service out there; guys on horses ride around delivering mail. So I get a letter one day. It's Summer, telling me to meet her in Las Vegas, and that she needed my help. I figured what the hell, if she wanted to kill me, she could damn well try—her in that small tail F-16 of hers, me in my Night Raven.

"I get there, and we meet in one of the hotels. It's just her and me. She tells me that she thinks she knows where Salem's base is." Raven stopped, breaking off to stare at Ruby. "I'm not going to tell you, so you don't head off on the same stupid ass crusade as your mother."

"It's Mount Yamantau, isn't it?" Ruby said.

Raven's eyes went wide. "How the actual fuck do you—" Then she closed her eyes and slammed herself back on the pillows. "Shit. The Blacksmith. She told you."

"Yeah. At least, she's pretty sure that's Salem's place."

"Your mom was sure too."

"Raven, please—"

"Fine. Short Stack is going to kick my ass in hell for ten thousand years for this." Raven sat up. "We fly out of Vegas the next morning. I didn't have the Night Raven with—but who cares about that; I picked it up later. We fly to the old base at Klamath Falls, and lo and behold, Ozpin is there. And you know what else is there? Two nuclear bombs, Ruby. Two B83s. How Ozpin got them I don't know, and I know President Reagan didn't have a fucking clue that Oz had squirreled away nukes somewhere. So much for disarmament. Ronnie Raygun would've had a stroke if he knew about that." Raven was now rambling, but Ruby let her. "So Oz tells us that he's figured out Salem's at Yamantau, and he wants me to fly the Night Raven over there at Mach 4, drop the B83s on Salem's head, and blow the shit out of that mountain. The B83s had been configured to let go at 1.2 megatons—more than enough to turn Mommy Salami into little tiny molecules.

"Well, I tell Oz to stick it up his ass. I was done fighting his endless war with Salem. We couldn't beat the bitch, and if Yamantau was anything like that other base we hit in northern Russia, I'd never make it back, even at Mach 4 with my hair on fire. I'd have GRIMM all over me, or SAMs. That was assuming the B83s would even be enough to crack that mountain open. I asked Oz why he didn't just use the fucking Maidens. He said he'd never get release authority from the President to 'waste a Maiden on some random mountain in the Urals,' since then the whole fucking world would know we had orbital weapon platforms." Raven rolled her eyes. "Though he must've figured something out, since he called the Maiden down on himself at Beacon, but…I digest. I mean…digress."

Ruby found herself praying that Raven wouldn't pass out, as she sat forward. "Then what? Mom went alone?" She knew that the F-16 could carry a B83.

"No," Raven said. "She talked me into it. Summer said she would go alone if she had to. She says to me, she says 'Raven, I don't want Ruby and Yang to grow up in a world with Salem.' This after she shoulder-checked my ass and told me I was good at leaving things, after I asked her what she told Tai. She lied to your dad, Ruby. Saint Summer, lying. She told him—"

"She told him that she was going to Japan on temporary duty, on TDY," Ruby finished. "And she'd be back in a week."

"Yeah. Didn't think she had it in her." Raven drew her legs up to her chin, something that also reminded Ruby of Yang. "Anyways, I couldn't allow her to run off by herself, so I agreed to help. I told Ozpin that the only way I was ever crossing back over the Sierra Nevada again was to kill him at Beacon. 'Course, I did come to Beacon to find Yang and saved her ass from that little lunatic Neo Politan…did you kill her, by the way?"

"Who cares?" Ruby almost screamed.

"Fine! Geez." Raven grabbed a beer can and opened it, her fourth. "Getting thirsty here. Anyway, we fly off—me carrying one nuke, your mom with the other. We flew to Kuroyuri. You've…you've been there, haven't you? I think Lionheart told me that."

"Yes," Ruby confirmed. "Mom signed the tower book there."

Raven smiled. "We slept in the tower during the day. I thought she was up to something, and she mentioned it was your birthday."

"So how were you going to make it to Yamantau?" Ruby asked.

Raven held up a finger, drank some beer, and her smile widened. "Got to hand it to Oz. I still don't know how he managed this, but…China 'accidentally' fired an ICBM into Siberia. Went off course, detonated in the lower atmosphere. Nobody lives in Siberia, so no harm done, right? The Chinese had been secretly testing missiles there anyway."

"EMP," Ruby breathed. The Chinese nuclear weapon detonating in the lower atmosphere would have caused an electromagnetic pulse. "The EMP knocked out Salem's radars. She had no idea you were coming. But how did Mom have enough fuel to make Yamantau?"

"I carried a buddy pod," Raven explained. "The Night Raven has enough fuel to make it across most of Russia in one hop, and it can carry drop tanks—just doesn't because it compromises the stealth. Well, with Salem's radars out, we didn't need to be stealthy. I tanked up Summer over eastern Siberia, we'd drop the nukes on Yamantau, then dash out of there. That would exhaust our fuel, so Ozpin had a submarine waiting on the permanent icepack off Novaya Zemlya. We'd land on the floe, refuel there, and off we go for Norway and home. If we couldn't land, we'd eject over the floe and the Navy would pick us up." Raven looked down. "And that's when things went to shit."

"What happened?"

"Right after we tanked, we got jumped by GRIMM. Yeah, our brilliant plan to use the EMP? I guess Oz forgot that either Salem's radars were EMP hardened, or more likely she's got eyes on the ground, some sort of observer corps. We got made either way. We can't manuever with a damn nuke in the belly—well, I could, but Sum couldn't." Raven started shaking her head, over and over. "There was too many of the bastards. There was just no way. I told Summer to break off, that I'd lead the GRIMM away while she made a run for China." Now the tears came again, but they just fell from Raven's eyes; her expression barely changed. "I tried, Ruby. I swear to God, I tried. Tell your sister that I tried. But Summer…she wouldn't listen. The GRIMM followed me, all right—I lit off my radar, my transponder, I even turned on my fucking lights. But Summer didn't head for China. She went due west, straight for Yamantau."

Raven suddenly fell forward on the bed. Ruby thought for a moment she had passed out, but instead, Raven was shaking with emotion, crying through her words. "I don't know what she was thinking, Ruby! She had the fuel, yeah, but God knows what was between us and Yamantau. We were still 200 miles short, easy. As soon as I realized she wasn't headed south, I turned around, but there were too many GRIMM…and then…then I think I saw a fireball. I called her up, called her, tried, but there was no answer…no beeper, so I don't think Summer got out. I pray to God every day, and I don't even fuckin' believe in God, that Summer died there, Ruby. Because if Salem captured her, oh God…I don't even want to think about it."

I have, Ruby thought to herself, remembering the Hound. She didn't want to tell Raven that. There was enough for one night.

Raven sat up, her face streaked with tears. "I ran, Ruby. I punched the throttles and went Mach 4 and I got the fuck out of there. I dumped the B83 into the Arctic; damn thing didn't go off anyway. I landed at the floe, told the captain that the mission had failed, and then I flew over the Pole to Alaska, and then down to California. Oz tried to communicate. I never spoke to that bastard again. I'm sure he knew; that captain would've told him that Summer didn't come with me. Maybe he thought I killed her. Don't know and don't care. I know he made up some damn story that Sum disappeared over the Sea of Japan. Tai, Qrow…they suspect she was going for Salem. But they don't know that I was with her…and I…I won't tell them, because Summer told me never to tell them until we completed the mission…and we never did…" Raven's voice trailed off, and Ruby saw her eyes roll back as she passed out. The beer fell from her hands and onto the carpet, where it foamed over it.

Ruby watched Raven for a few minutes, to see if she would revive. When she didn't, Ruby got up, cleaned up the dropped beer, and then turned Raven on her side, so she wouldn't drown in her own vomit if she threw up. Ruby arranged the pillows so Raven couldn't fall on her back, then grabbed the pistol. She had a brief, horrible vision of shooting Raven in the head, then putting the .45 in the older woman's hand to make it look like suicide. I'm not like that, Ruby told herself, remembering the look on Neo's face when the assassin had thought Ruby was going to kill her. Instead, she unloaded the pistol, stuffed the empty .45 down the front of her pants, and walked to the door.

She paused on the threshold. "You poor woman," Ruby whispered, then turned off the lights and left.

The drive back to the Xiao Long-Rose house was done in silence. Ruby parked Zippy in the garage, then sneaked back into the house. Zwei woke up, smelled the familiar scent, and waddled up to her. She gave him a friendly pat, then stepped past a sleeping Blake and Weiss. Blake woke up, her yellow eyes bright in the darkness. "Wha…whass' up?"

"Shhh!" Ruby commanded. "I ran into town and got some donuts for in the morning." That was true; Ruby had stopped at a convenience store on the way back. "Couldn't sleep. Going to bed."

"Oh…okay." Blake snuggled back into her sleeping bag. Weiss mumbled something and turned over on the sofa, still asleep. Ruby waited until Blake's breathing evened out, then went out the back door, after a furtive glance up the stairs, where her bedroom, Yang's, and her father's was. There were no lights or movement.

In the backyard was a tent, an ancient Army one that Yang and Ruby had used to play in when they were kids and had sleepovers. It was a four-man tent, so Oscar had plenty of room inside. He woke up when Ruby threw the flap back, and sat up on the inflatable mattress. "Ruby?" She stripped down to her panties, as Oscar watched in a combination of desire and terror, knowing that if Tai found out, his lifespan was probably measured in seconds. "What are you doing?"

Ruby said nothing, just climbed onto the mattress and threw the comforter over them both. Oscar thought she wanted to make love, but instead, she just hugged him tight and cried. Not knowing what else to do, he held her.