Summer sat as Ozpin explained the history of the world, how the gods and magic were real, and of the maidens and how they came to be. It almost boggled the mind, but after all she had already been through, she couldn't truly refute it.
Coral itself might as well have been a form of magic, and that thought got her curious enough to want to experiment more with whatever the Coral Release had done to her. Could she use Coral Energy now? Since it was a multiplying material was it in essence "rechargeable?" Were there aspects of Symbiosis that she hadn't realized yet?
Finding out would have to wait for later though, as the sun was starting to rise as Ozpin finished his tale, ending in the reveal of a Grimm Queen. She sat back, trying to figure out how to deal with the new knowledge she had. How does one beat an immortal woman? Chuck her into the sun? That wasn't a half bad idea, but she would need to teach Remnant how to make things without dust to get out of the atmosphere first. With all the knowledge of the sciences she had gained from her time on Rubicon she could leapfrog the world's technology ages ahead of its time, but that also carried risks.
What would someone do with access to Nuclear Weaponry? She wouldn't teach them how to make bombs, of course, but that wouldn't stop Atlas from researching it on their own if she revealed the power of a split atom. If humanity advanced enough and triumphed over the Grimm, would they fall to the infighting that plagued the other humanity? Experience told her 'Of course they would'. The kingdoms already had world wars even when they hadn't beaten the Grimm. Even still, she read the history of the other humanity, she knew that combat was a permanent and ingrained part of the human mind, for better and worse.
Maybe it was better that they had the Grimm, a common enemy to unite against, and a more constructive outlet for humanity's desire to fight. But at the same time, Salem was dangerous, perhaps too dangerous to leave alone. The Grimm would likely continue to exist without her, so they just needed to figure out a way to incapacitate her for long enough. It might be torture to toss her into the sun but it had the chance of actually killing her, or they could just toss her out into space, let her drift among the stars for eternity. The only issue would be capturing her.
Still, drop a nuke on the Grimm lands and it shouldn't be too hard to find her when she recovers. Her AC was even radiation shielded, so she could pluck her up and toss her into a rocket, hopefully.
"Summer?" She turned to look at Ozpin, who had apparently been calling her multiple times. She cleared her head.
"Sorry, I was just trying to figure out what to do with this information." He nodded his head to that.
"Actually, I do have an idea how you could help. Across the world, there are hidden Grimm of Salem's, her trump cards against the kingdoms- The Titans. Monstrous and enormous Grimm that would need entire armies to take down, or some really skilled and really powerful hunters. They've been slumbering for a long time, but they are some of Salem's most dangerous pawns. With the recent moves she's been making behind the scenes I fear she will make a play for something big in the coming year, so I want you to help even the deck."
Summer mulled that over. She knew about the Grimm he was speaking of, had even seen one in Vacuo before- a giant lizard the length of an airship that spat boiling tar from its mouth. They were all said to be different in species and some could be as tall as an apartment building. She could absolutely help cut them down to size, there was nearly nothing her pile driver couldn't penetrate.
"I can certainly do that, but I'll need the locations of where they are. I can fly there on my own but I want to try and spend time with my daughters before I commit to something like that." He just nodded and sat back, yawning.
"We can set up a schedule later so you can spend most of your time back with them, but they are still students, so they won't be able to spend all of their time with you." Her face fell, but Ozpin gained a sly grin. "However, in light of the circumstances, I think team RWBY can be allowed a week's break from classes to reconnect." Summer grinned.
"Thanks, Oz."
The peaceful moment was soon interrupted however, as the scroll on Ozpin's desk rang. He sighed tiredly and picked it up.
"Yes, Dr. Oobleck?" Some loud sounds from the scroll caused him to wince before he frowned. "Hold on, slow down. You found what?" The longer Ozpin listened, the more pale his face got, and the more worried Summer became. When the old headmaster bolted upright and looked out to Vale, only just illuminated in the morning light, Summer quickly joined him. The scroll hung up on its own, the tone of a disconnected line before a plume of smoke became visible in the distance, followed by the sound of a distant explosion, like someone caused a landslide.
"Ms. Rose." Oz began, voice deadly serious. "Can someone ride on your mech?"
Snapping into battle mode, her face hardened as she realized whatever had happened, a fight was on. "If you can hold on for the initial burst of flight, sure, but you would be thrown from my mech the instant I got into a real fight."
"I'll manage." Was all he said before he began finding a spot to grab on near its head. Summer was already reconnecting and piloting her mech before she even got around the backside to hop in. There was no time to waste, especially if her girls were involved. Twisting from its spot on the tower, she lined it up before jumping off the structure, flaring the thrusters before going into assault mode, flying directly to the city where the hovering Atlesian Fleet had just begun investigating.
They soared across the sky as the wind whipped by. She was aware of Ozpin hunkering down and holding on as best he could but the winds were understandably brutal. She flew in as steady of a path as she could take without sacrificing speed, and within a minute was approaching the city where Atlesian ships had begun dropping mechanized infantry around what looked like an explosion. Damaged buildings, fighting and gunfire, Grimm, and… train cars(?) were visible in the wreckage.
She angled herself for one of the empty streets before cutting the thrust, leaving her to sail downwards where she landed in a heavy slide, metal feet sparking and tearing up the ground as she rode out the momentum. As soon as she stopped, Ozpin shook himself off and leapt from her shoulder to a nearby rooftop, allowing her to fight freely.
Now back in her element, Summer used her Spring Chicken legs to take a mighty hop, cratering the ground as she used her thrusters to hover up and over the battlefield, looking at the damage. Spotting an enormous horde of Grimm rushing a line of soldiers defending an evacuation, she readied her right arm and made a sweeping motion, sending a massive arc of energy from her moonlight blade straight into the horde, utterly vaporizing a good chunk of it and halting the charge entirely. Readying her right shoulder cannon, she fired a round into the back of the Grimm advance, obliterating most of the survivors and leaving nothing but scraps for the soldiers to clean up.
Flying away and closer to the heart of the invasion she kept swinging her blade, doing as much as she could to stem the tide and allow the civilians to escape. Flashes of light off to the right allowed her to glimpse Ozpin in action along the lines of the defenders, showing his age hadn't dulled his skill as he cut down any grimm to stand before him with his cane sword, letting soldiers push forwards to help close the gap.
Finally getting to ground zero of the incident, she found a derailed and demolished train had smashed its way straight through the side of the mountain, revealing a tunnel flooded with grimm that were pouring out… And four colorful figures fighting a desperate battle to survive. Red, Yellow, White, and Black amidst a horde of Grimm.
All doubts and worries were washed from her mind at seeing one of the huntresses get smacked into a rock. Nothing else mattered. SHE WOULD PROTECT HER DAUGHTERS!
With a roar of fury, she unloaded both shoulder cannons at the entrance to the tunnel, obliterating everything within 60 feet of it before charging up her moonlight blade. One wide sweep, and a tidal wave of teal blue energy swept through the area, bisecting and vaporizing every grimm it touched. Boosting forwards, she charged up her pile driver before smacking it straight into the rock above the tunnel exit, firing the tungsten rod straight into the stone and causing a web of cracks to form across the entire rock face. Boosting back, she assault boosted forward one last time in a full drop kick, throwing the entire weight of her AC behind her blow as she smashed into the rock.
Stone gave way like sand as the entire exit of the tunnel began collapsing from the punishment, crushing and sealing away the grimm that had been surging forwards. The howls of the black creatures were cut off prematurely as the entrance to their reign of terror became their tomb. Breathing heavily, she turned to face the rest of the square, ready to mop up any more stragglers only to find the team of young huntresses had done it for her.
Squads of Atlesian robots were now mopping up the rest throughout the city, and the buzzing she had felt in the back of her head had gotten louder but none of that mattered when she got sight of her daughters.
Bruised and bloody, but standing together as a team as they looked up at her mech, she felt pride swell up in her chest only to be matched by utter relief at finding them ok. Her baby girls were all grown up! She had seen the picture from Ozpin, but it hadn't truly hit, not like it did now with them right in front of her.
She wanted to hug them, to cry and apologize and never let go for as long as she lived. She had already been gone for far too long, she would never allow that to happen again.
And neither would she let it go on any longer.
—
Ruby stood next to Yang and her team, breathing heavily as she eyed the mech that saved them with wonder. It was beyond anything she had ever seen on Remnant, and looked nothing like the Atlesian robots they'd seen before. Armed with those devastating cannons and that strange crescent energy blade, she would be gushing about it for days, if not weeks when this was over.
Right now though, there was something she couldn't place her finger on, but there was some sort of tension in the air as her team and the mech had a staredown, until it finally moved. The shoulder mounted cannons raised to the sky and folded back as the rocket spike on its other arm retracted, before the mech itself crouched down.
From its back, a panel visibly opened before a dark figure dropped down, hidden in the shadow cast by the massive machine. Two glowing red eyes shone out from the darkness before the figure, evidently a woman, began walking forwards, staring at her and Yang. Once they finally breached the light, she heard a strangled gasp come from Yang and a familiar feeling welled in her chest she couldn't explain.
The woman looked to be almost in tears, dressed in a dark military outfit with a strange sidearm, but what caught Ruby's attention was not her scarred face, but her hair, and the rings of silver she could see in the woman's eyes. Silver… like hers, and red and black hair. The familiar feeling grew in intensity. It couldn't…. But could it be?
"Mom..?" Yang choked out in a quiet voice. The woman gained a blazingly bright smile despite the tears that began to leak down her face. A familiar smile. One that Ruby remembered from when she was little, and the final straw that broke the camel's back on her composure.
Gone was the composed fighter and team leader, Ruby Rose, the fifteen year old girl rushed forward, feeling tears stinging her own eyes as she barrelled towards her mother who matched her charge and caught her leap with familiarity, laughing in utter happiness. Such a familiar laugh that had been gone for so, so long. She twirled Ruby and hugged her tight, both of them crying heavily as ten years of emotions spilled forth into one moment.
Summer reached out and pulled the stunned Yang into the hug as well, and soon all three were crying heavily into each other's shoulders. A family reunion that had never been expected, and one valuable beyond measure.
(Ozpin picked that moment to approach and quietly ferried Weiss and Blake away so the family could have their moment in peace.)
The women stayed like that for what felt like hours as they got all their emotions out, with Summer whispering sweet nothings like she used to to calm them down, rubbing Yang's back and clutching Ruby close.
"I never thought I'd see you two again…" Summer whispered, hugging them again fiercely to make sure that this was real.
"Momma…" Ruby choked out. "Where…. Where were you? What happened?"
"Shhh, I'm here now. I'm back. I'll explain everything in full, but believe me when I say if I had a choice, I never would've left you two." Summer soothed. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you…
"But look at you two now! Ohum my two girls are all grown up!" She pulled back slightly to give them both a better look, a proud smile on her face despite the tears. "Huntresses in training, and one of the best teams in your year! I am so proud of you both…"
"Maaa…." Yang blushed, unused to having a female role model in her life. Ruby just beamed in a smile that melted Summer's heart.
A shriek of metal shattered the reunion as Summer whirled at the noise, sidearm drawn and ready to see a hatch on one of the ruined train cars get pried to the side. A head of orange hair poked its way out, looking around before freezing upon seeing the three huntresses and the giant mech.
"Torchwick!" Ruby gasped, unfolding her scythe as Yang got into a fighting stance.
"Torchwick?" Summer asked, feeling that name was familiar. Didn't she once encounter a petty thief with a name like that? "Wait… Roman Torchwick?" She asked in incredulousness. Then rage overtook her as she realized he was somehow involved in this mess.
The man in question scrutinized her before paling drastically. A quiet "Oh shit" was heard before the mech began moving, grabbing the thief before he could go anywhere. Summer commanded the arm to move over to her, where she gave the thief a blistering glare.
"Roman. Torchwick." She growled. "What the hell have you done?" Said thief was sweating profusely as he squirmed in the grip of the metal hand.
"Uhh…. heyyyyy, Summer! I, uhh… I thought they said you were dead?" He chuckled nervously, wincing at the furious look she had.
"Is that all you have to say after all these years? What happened to your promise of not killing innocent people, Torchwick? Do you realize what you've done here?" She gestured furiously to the widespread devastation. Roman winced, losing a lot of his cheer.
"I… well…" He shook his head, becoming more serious and gaining a regretful look. "Look, Summer, if I had a choice in this I never would've touched it with a ten foot pole! But… times change, and I received an offer I couldn't refuse. Literally. My new boss has a… fiery temper." He confessed. Summer shook her head.
"And something like this is better?" She asked. Roman looked to the side but didn't relent.
"Like I said. Times change, and you were gone! I had to make the best play with the hand I was dealt." He straightened his spine, refusing to bow under her glare.
"Uhh, mom?" Ruby interrupted. "How do you know Torchwick?"
Summer sighed, holstering her pistol. "About two years before I had you, Ruby, I once came across a thief from Mistral who tried to pickpocket me. Once I confronted him, he managed to put up a decent fight, and his antics were amusing, so I beat him up, tied him to a chair and forced him to play a game of twenty questions over poker with me. I learned his story and he learned a bit of mine, then I let him go with the promise that he wouldn't harm any innocents in his robberies." She said that last part while glaring harshly at him. "Otherwise I would hunt him down and hang him from Beacon's tower in his underwear."
"Oi, I managed that promise perfectly well up until a few months ago, thank you very much! And it's Master thief, for your information!" He protested indignantly. Summer ignored him.
"Where's that ice cream girl you started hanging with before my… disappearance?" She questioned. Roman straightened his spine, looking at her seriously.
"She's probably already escaped. She's good at that."
Yang's hair lit on fire and her eyes turned red at the mention of the tri-colored woman, surprising Summer as she hadn't seen Yang do that yet. "Bitch was toying with me on the train earlier! If it hadn't been for…" She bit herself off and seethed, looking off to the side. Well, Summer would definitely be investigating that later, but for now…
"You two were attached at the hip, you expect me to believe that she wouldn't want to save you after all that?" She questioned. Roman remained steadfast in his gaze.
"She has her own life to live. I believe I told you before, but failure under my new boss isn't allowed." His mouth was set in a serious line, and things started clicking into place for Summer. So, the reason he didn't refuse wasn't about him. It was about her. Some of the heat left her gaze as she started to understand.
"Hm… you two always seemed like family on our poker nights, didn't you?" She quietly questioned. Roman remained silent, but then that brought up other questions for Summer. If failure wasn't allowed, and she had left him here, did that mean he was meant to be captured? If so, why? Just what was it his 'new boss' wanted him to do?
Questions she would have to get answers to later, as Atlesian soldiers finally started reaching their position and started pointing guns at Roman, with a familiar figure at their head.
"Roman Torchwick, you are under arrest!" General James Ironwood announced as a pair of soldiers walked forward with cuffs. Summer let go of her AC's hold on him to let them take care of things while she turned to meet the general she only had passing familiarity with.
"James, it's been a while. Congratulations on getting to General." She called out in a level tone. Ironwood eyed her and her AC suspiciously as he approached.
"Summer…" He began. "When Ozpin called me earlier to drop the reveal, I wasn't sure I believed him." He looked up at the three and a half story tall mech, eyeing its weapons with more than a bit of envy and a fair amount of wariness. "I'm still not sure I believe it." He shook his head. "Regardless, my duty compels me to ask for your surrender while we sort out this mess. Please power down your mech, and then we can work this mess out."
Summer's gaze sharpened as a number of memories returned to her of the last time she experienced Arquebus's 'tender mercies'. "General Ironwood, the last time I was in the custody of another military power, I was dumped into the sewers of an abandoned city and left for dead. I am not getting treated like a prisoner for doing nothing wrong, and I am not leaving my AC in Atlas's hands just so you can strip it down and try to reverse engineer it."
Ironwood's gaze hardened, and several of his soldiers around him began to ready their weapons, only to freeze at the distinctive "CH-CHUNK" of two very big rounds being chambered into the shoulder cannons of the AC behind her. It was only the fact they were still aimed at the sky that things didn't deteriorate further.
"I would be happy to sort this out like civilized people, General, but I have had to kill far too many people in the last few years to give a shit if I have to deal with you and yours. I just finally reunited with my daughters after believing I would never see them again, and I still owe them an explanation. You are not taking me away from them when I only just got back." Her eyes were practically blazing in intensity.
There was silence and tension for a solid minute until the clack of a cane on the ground interrupted the moment. Ozpin strode forward onto the scene without a care in the world, mug of coffee somehow in his hands as he came to a stop near them.
"James, stand down. Don't make the mistake of getting between a mother and her children." He said simply, taking a sip of his coffee. Ironwood gave him a bit of a disbelieving look.
"Oz, do you know how much we could learn from that thing? We could improve our paladins twenty times over! And how do we know it isn't some trick and she isn't an agent of-"
"James!" Ozpin cut him off, giving him a frown. The general bit his tongue and looked to the side in frustration. "I trust her. I would know more than anyone, you know that." He looked around at the rest of the soldiers around the square. "And maybe if you were more willing to talk and think things out instead of rushing in with that bull-headed stubbornness of yours maybe she'd even be willing to share some of her knowledge with you, instead of you poisoning potential relationships that you haven't even built!" He shook his head in disappointment.
James looked like he'd swallowed a lemon, but relented, waving the soldiers off. A breath of relief was heard and Summer realized she'd just threatened the head of a foreign military power in front of her daughters. Turning back, she saw Yang's look of surprised approval and Ruby's look of relief that things turned out okay. Summer blushed as the embarrassment hit, and she coughed awkwardly, scuffing the pavement with her boot as she looked away from embarrassment.
"So…" Yang began. "What was that about getting left for dead in a sewer?" She asked. Summer sighed in a defeated way as some less than pleasant memories began washing over her again.
"I'll tell you both later, when we have some time. I'm just… not fond of repeating myself, or some of those memories." A thought occurred to her, and she worked her jaw for the next question. "How is Tai? I mean, after my… disappearance." She asked, trying to not show the myriad of emotions that question brought her.
Yang's mood dipped, and she gained a more somber tone. "He… didn't take it well. None of us did, really." She gripped her arms together, looking at the ground. "Left him in a funk for a few years, and I had to help take care of Ruby with Qrow sometimes. One day when I was younger, I did something stupid, something… very stupid, really. It almost ended very badly, and it gave dad enough of a scare to pull him out of his funk and back to normal for the last 8 years." She rubbed her arm and looked away. "He's… he's also never really been with anyone else since you, though, if… if that's what you also wanted to know…" She deflected lamely, unable to meet her eyes. Summer's heart stuck in her throat as she realized all that her absence had caused. She brought both girls in for another hug, pulling them close.
"I'm so, so sorry I wasn't there for you two for so long. I want to make things up, so I'm going to spend as much time as I possibly can with you two. Don't you ever forget that Momma's here now." Yang sank into her embrace while Ruby relaxed in the closeness they shared.
Summer let out a breath of relief again, reminding herself she was fine, her daughters were fine, and she could relax. A cough sounded behind her and she remembered Ozpin and Ironwood were still there. She gave a disgruntled look over her shoulder at them.
"Perhaps we should take this back to Beacon?" Ozpin asked. "We can see about contacting Taiyang this afternoon, and give everyone a chance to rest after this debacle. I'm sure Miss Rose's teammates want to check up on their partners, and we can set aside time for explanations tomorrow, sound fair?" He asked. Summer grumbled but relented, and gently let go of her daughters. "Missus Rose, you may park your mech at the Beacon courtyard, and if you need any tools or resources, let us know."
"Just keep any wandering technicians and other people away from it. I'll know if someone gets close." She said, giving Ironwood a look. Ozpin nodded, and that was that.
A/N: So, bit of a wait for this one but since I can do smaller chapters here it's a little easier to work on in my spare time.
Now, responding to reviews-
NEIderT- some good ideas and some I already had in mind, as you've seen a little of on this chapter. I will certainly be exploring just exactly what the Augs did to summer in the future, as well as Symbiosis. I think I'm going to largely downplay the public role summer has though, since this story won't be focused on that and she won't be giving interviews.
Also I'm not sure I'm going to let the story twist that much that they return to rubicon and do it again, personally I hate it when things get so convoluted and ass over backwards because it starts to feel like a TV show that's gone on so long the writers have to pull things out of their ass to keep it going.
Armkred Cotre- I'll admit AC6 is the first armored core game I ever played, so I'm not the most accurate, but is Kate really different from Allmind? They have the same voice, even if Kate sounds more human, and Allmind is literally a collective mind of dead mercenaries, so she could just be part of Allmind. Also- why would they need another like Iguazio to fill the role of C4-621 when she was fulfilling the role they wanted better than G5 ever could? I'm missing lore for sure but I just go with what stacks up, and that doesn't.
Nyarky- You could be right, but coral being an alien species and never human to begin with doesn't explain to me why Ayre would care for humans, why she would want the player to learn about the past and work for the resistance members, why she would know our language, know how to manipulate our systems. There might be a few explanations but I like to think the Fires of Ibis had the side effect of capturing and preserving human minds within it, thus her explanation of being a 'Rubiconian' to begin with. The name of the citizens that colonized the world. Otherwise the moral quandary of Coral Weapons and using coral energy becomes another different mess to untangle if you're literally committing a massacre every time it is used, eliminating the concept of 'empty' coral that could be used guilt free.
14D Fox- Happy you like it, seeing yours was what inspired me to take a hand to this myself, and try to inspire more writers to try crossovers.
That wraps it up for now, fav, follow, comment, whatever you wish, I'll be watching. Peace!