Thirteen Years Ago

The first thing Summer Rose was aware of was the pounding in her head. It thumped with the regular rhythm of her heartbeat. The second thing she was aware of was that she was neither standing, sitting, or laying down — she was suspended by her wrists, which caused all sorts of aches and issues to make themselves known.

She opened her eyes gently, all too aware of her headache. Thankfully, it was dark enough that it wasn't so bad.

She looked around. She was in the center of a rotunda. The walls were dark stone, carved in an unfamiliar style — but Summer wasn't an art history expert, herself, and given the situation she was in, she severely doubted she'd have the time to study up. It was distinctly medieval, however, in its lighting — burning torches lined the walls. A large balcony wound around, forming the second level. The room was undeniably gloomy.

Summer looked up. Her wrists were chained. The chain wound up and across a pair of pulleys, themselves along a metal frame. At the other end of the chain was a winch.

Standing beside the winch was Salem, Queen of the Grimm.

She looked human enough, save for a deathly pallor, red veins visible just beneath the skin, and the sclera of her eyes being black. She was dressed regally in black, her white hair done up in an intricate bun and a series of offshooting braids.

"So, you're her," Summer said. She cracked a slight smirk. "You know, the way Oz was talking about you, I was expecting you to be taller."

"You've got a mouth on you," Salem said, "Summer Rose."

"If you think the whole I-Know-Your-Name bit is going to creep me out — you had me unconscious, could have just gone through my wallet."

Salem wordlessly placed a hand on the winch and let Summer drop a foot straight down.

Summer suppressed a yelp, biting her tongue and looking down. She regretted it almost immediately.

Beneath her was a circular stone ring. Inside it, slightly roiling and churning, was an inky, almost tar-like black liquid. Something in Summer's innermost self felt a fear looking down into this pit.

The door behind Salem opened, and Summer jerked her head back up. Hazel Rainart stepped forward to stand behind Salem, his mouth set in a slight frown. He folded his arms.

"Hazel Rainart," Summer said.

"Summer Rose," he replied.

"You've really made a deal with the devil," Summer said. "So it's some twisted form of revenge, huh?"

"Revenge," Hazel confirmed. "This is for my sister." He gripped the handle of the winch and looked at Salem. She nodded; he began to turn it slowly.

Summer began to descend down towards the pit.

"You'll never know a moment's rest, Hazel," Summer spat. "If there's justice in the world, you'll lose all you sought to gain." She curled upwards as best she could as the soles of her boots nearly reached the ichor, but Hazel continued to turn the winch until Summer began to sink into the pit. She began to shout as she sunk further and further into the pit: legs, torso, her arms, until finally her head began to be submerged. "I'm gonna haunt your ass, Hazel! I'll be back! Do you hear me?! I'll be—"

Finally, the darkness consumed Summer.

"I didn't even have to ask for pancakes," Nora Valkyrie said, her mouth half-full. "Ruby, I love your mom already."

"Thank you," Summer said, flipping another set of pancakes on the griddle. One of them had gotten stuck on a slightly less greased part of the griddle; she flipped the spatula over, scraped the griddle to separate the pancake from the metal, and quickly flipped it over.

Raven's now-cramped apartment safehouse was filled to capacity.

Standing in the tiny kitchen, preparing a gargantuan breakfast, was Summer Rose: Huntress, mother, and now somewhat accidental interstellar explorer.

Sitting at the bar of the tiny kitchen were her daughters, blonde brawler Yang Xiao Long and the scythe wielder Ruby Rose, along with their friend Nora Valkyrie. The three of them, along with Jaune Arc and Lie Ren, who were both sitting on the couch, were Huntsmen-in-Training who had recently suffered the loss of their home academy, Beacon. Ruby had led them across Anima in search of both answers and the perpetrators of that attack.

Escorting them was Qrow and Raven Branwen, black-haired and red-eyed twins originally from a nomadic tribe of bandits. Years ago they had been on Summer's team at Beacon.

Raven was also Summer's former partner. "Ex-wife" would be more accurate if they'd legally been married, but they never had, strictly speaking.

Summer wasn't certain exactly where their relationship stood these days, given they'd had an explosive argument—resulting in Raven leaving—not terribly long before Summer went on a fateful mission and got stuck in the time-distorting Realm of Darkness, and then last night they'd kissed passionately in front of everyone.

Towards the far side of the room were Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart.

Summer had pried fleeting glimpses of Cloud's past out of him over the months they'd spent traveling together in other worlds. He was a former motorcycle scout in a military on some unknown world who had been enhanced with tremendous physical strength and senses, and he could use magic through gems inset in his bracer and sword. He had endured loss in his life, loss that Summer could sympathize with. As a result, she did not attempt to glean further information than what he was willing to reveal. He was also prone to motion sickness, and while he put on a front of being a cool person, he was a little goofy, too.

Cloud was someone that Summer trusted wholly with her life.

Tifa, meanwhile, had apparently been working as a bartender here on Remnant. She'd recognized Cloud on sight and was apparently in some sort of long-term romantic relationship with him, if Summer was accurately reading how Cloud had introduced them and their current closeness.

The last member of the group was, in fact, the strangest.

Summer's employer on the mission that she'd gone missing on all those years ago — well, just over half a year ago, if it was Summer doing the remembering — was Professor Ozpin, who had been promoted to Headmaster while Summer was at Beacon Academy. He had later revealed to her that he was the latest host of a soul named Ozma, who was an ancient hero tasked with preventing humanity's destruction at the hands of Salem, Queen of the Grimm. Every soul who hosted Ozma eventually merged wholly with him, becoming something of a gestalt consciousness; thirteen years ago, the distinction between Ozpin and Ozma had been fading but still present.

Ozpin himself had died months ago at Beacon Academy, and the soul of Ozpin — or Ozma — resided now in a young farmboy named Oscar Pine. On Ozpin's urging he had left his farm and headed for Haven Academy, and along the way had met Summer at a train station by pure chance.

As Summer looked at him, eating a stack of pancakes, she felt sorrow for the boy who had been torn away from everything he had known by the pure chance that Ozpin's soul had appeared inside him. She felt sorrow for her daughters and their friends, who'd had their own personal worlds destroyed when Beacon fell. Everyone here had endured loss, some rawer than others.

But here they all were: happy—or at the least content—in each others' presences and sharing a meal together.

Summer turned back to the griddle, checked the pancakes, and one-by-one began removing them onto a plate. "Okay, that's the last of the batter," she said loudly, quieting the discussions happening in the room. "And everyone's fed, I think. Now, I said I'd answer everyone's questions in the morning. Does anyone have any questions?"

Almost everyone spoke at once; a veritable wave of questions were launched at her.

"One at a time," Summer said, holding up her hands. She pointed. "You. Jaune, right?"

Jaune nodded. "So you went to space and, like, saved the universe?"

"Sort of," Summer said. "I mean, I don't know what Ansem or Sephiroth would have done with Kingdom Hearts, but I don't think it would have been good. Sora handled Ansem, we handled Sephiroth, together all of us re-sealed Kingdom Hearts." She pointed again. "Nora?"

"Yeah, where's your spaceship?"

"I wanna see it," Ruby added. "What's it made out of?"

"It's made of gummi blocks, which also form the barriers between worlds," Summer answered. "My ship is currently home on the island of Patch. When I go back out there, I'll invite you all to see me off."

"Cool!" Nora said.

Summer smiled. "Yang, you had a question?"

"Yeah. Why did you kiss Raven?"

From the other side of the room, Raven's head jerked up and swiveled to look Summer in the eyes. There was a distinct look of horror, or perhaps an expression of worry plastered on her face.

"Well, Yang," Summer said awkwardly. She rubbed the back of her neck. "Did Tai not tell you any of this?"

Yang shook her head.

Summer made a triangle in the air with her fingers, her thumbs overlapping as the bottom leg. "Raven and I, uh, we were romantic partners in a three-way relationship with Tai."

"But I thought she left just after I was born," Yang said, "and then you had Ruby afterwards."

Summer shook her head. "No, Ruby was born and then — uh, things fell apart."

"So is Raven your mom?" Nora asked the sisters, leaning over the counter to look at them more directly.

"Biologically, she's only Yang's mother," Summer said. "But the three of us intended to parent you equally." Summer made eye contact with Raven. "Unfortunately, I think the two of us left one to handle everything."

Raven's expression shifted, regret passing over her face.

"But you're here now," Ruby said to Summer. "That's what matters, right?"

Summer pursed her lips. "I hope so. Next question?"

On the far end of the room, Tifa raised her hand. When Summer pointed to her, she cleared her throat and said, "Not a question. I just wanted to thank you for taking care of Cloud."

"It was no problem," Summer said, smirking. "You mind if I ask you a question, though?"

Tifa shook her head. "Not at all."

"You any good at fighting?"

Tifa quirked an eyebrow back at her. "I'm a little rusty — the most practice I get is breaking up bar fights these days. But I'm well-trained in boxing and Zangan-Ryu martial arts."

"A pugilist, huh?" Qrow asked.

"Extreme close quarters is sometimes the safest place to be," Summer said. "If you can slip past someone's defense, of course. I ask because if the two of you are going to hang around me—or us, rather—there's gonna be some danger involved."

Oscar nodded. "A man tried to kill her on the train the other day."

"We're talking about some serious business," Summer said gravely. "As best I can tell, this cold war we've got going with the queen of the Grimm is boiling over, and fast. If you or Cloud want out, now's your chance."

"We'll share that risk," Cloud said. He looked at Tifa. "Right?"

"Right." Tifa took Cloud's hand.

Qrow's Scroll began to ring. He jerked upwards at the sound, standing up and fishing it out of his pocket. "Finally," he grumbled. "I gotta take this." He tapped the screen and shuffled off into a bedroom. "Yeah. It's Qrow. Talk to me." He kicked the door closed with the back of his foot and his half of the conversation became muffled.

Summer cleared her throat. "That goes for all of you. As of right now, we're officially in the line of fire. Nobody will hold you accountable if you choose to duck out — go home, get trained, whatever you want to do. I'm sure Oz will back me up—" Summer glanced over to Oscar, who deliberately nodded a moment later. "—and all that we ask is that you keep quiet about what you've learned."

Nora and Ren shared a concerned, uncertain glance.

"I'm not leaving," Jaune said. There was something dark in his eyes, even as he looked slightly down to hide it — Summer knew it, had seen it before in others and, rarely, in her own eyes. It was rage, born of loss. "Not until I see this through."

Ruby cleared her throat. "I couldn't call myself a Huntress-in-Training if I didn't try and stop them."

Something in Summer's heart twisted. "I know. I know you know it's dangerous. I just — I didn't want you to have to go through this."

Ruby drew herself up and looked her mother in the eyes. "This is our fight too."

The air was thick with tension until Qrow emerged from the bedroom. "That was Lionheart — he's the Headmaster up at Haven these days, Summer. Left a message yesterday that I needed to meet him, and he's ready for us."

"Who's going?" Ruby asked.

"I'm not," Raven said lazily, although Summer could tell there was something beyond laziness in her voice — a slight tension lurking underneath.

"Originally I was just planning on taking the kids," Qrow said. "This was before you showed up with tagalongs, though. But you should come, Summer."

"Me?" Summer said, quirking an eyebrow.

"Summer, I was never a team leader," Qrow said. "I'm good at fighting and getting answers out of people who don't like to give 'em, but you were always the strategic one. As best I can tell, if we have any chance here, it's in you and Oz's heads put together."

"Makes sense," Summer said. "Oz?"

Oscar's eyes flashed, and he assumed a startlingly familiar posture. He tapped the bridge of his nose to adjust a pair of glasses he wasn't wearing. "Lionheart's behavior has been — erratic. He appears to have disobeyed direct orders about what to do in an emergency like this. I don't want to suspect him, but I think playing the presence of my new host closer to the chest may be prudent until we discover the truth at the heart of this matter."

Summer nodded. "Understood. So that's no from Raven and Oz, yes Qrow, yes me," she said. "Cloud? Tifa?"

"Did you want us?" Cloud asked.

"If you're not interested, I'd like you to tour the city," Summer said. "Walk around, get a good feel for the layout. Focus on the area around Haven and make sure to walk the campus itself. Get to know the city. Tifa, how long have you lived here?"

"At least a year," Tifa replied. "Don't worry, I can show Cloud around."

"Okay," Summer said. She gestured to the group of former Beacon students. "How are you feeling? Wanna go to a boring meeting?"

"No thanks," Nora said, sticking out her tongue. "Bleh."

"I'll stay with Nora," Ren offered.

"We could use the rest," Jaune said.

"I think I'd like to see the city," Ruby said.

"You just want to ask Cloud about his sword," Yang teased, lightly jabbing her elbow at Ruby. "Well, I'm going wherever she goes. I'm not letting this gremlin out of my sight again."

"Yang!" Ruby whined.

"I think that's just me and you, Qrow," Summer said with a shrug, stepping over to the sink. "Let me wash up and we can go."

Summer got ready as quickly as she could, throwing on her vest, bag, and gun belts. She began to double check the magazines for Halbmond and slot them onto her belt.

"That's a bit paranoid, isn't it?" Jaune asked as he watched her load her revolver bullet-by-bullet. "You're just going to a meeting, right?"

"Not really," Summer said.

He cleared his throat. "Aren't you supposed to…trust this guy?"

"Not really." Summer slapped the revolver's cylinder back into place and tested its spin with the backside of her arm. Satisfied, she slipped it into its holster. "I want to trust him, but right now? I don't."

"Ready?" Qrow asked, reemerging from the bedroom. He crossed the room and stood at the door.

"Yeah," Summer said.

Qrow opened the door and they walked out into the cool air of an early spring morning. He began to head down the apartment complex's open air corridor towards the stairs.

Summer made to follow, but stopped at the sound of footsteps behind her and the door shutting. Without even looking back, she knew whose footfalls those had been.

"There's something you have to know. Before you go to this meeting." Raven's tone had lost its faux-boredom and was pure, stone-cold business.

Summer turned, an eyebrow raised in silent question.

"Someone's been killing Hunters as they've been sent outside the Kingdom," Raven said. She folded her arms. "It's coordinated — not the work of mere bandits. It also means the Grimm have been running rampant outside the Kingdom."

Summer nodded. "Salem's work, then. Along with someone with access to Huntsmen dispatch records feeding her information. As for the attacker themselves—Hazel, maybe?"

"Possibly. Him or a scorpion Faunus named Tyrian," Raven said. "Qrow saved Ruby from him. Ask them for the details; I wasn't there. But without the Huntsmen to defend the city, a little push could be all it takes to topple the Kingdom."

"Leaving Haven and its Relic wide open," Summer said grimly.

They stood in silence for a long moment, looking at each other.

"Raven—" Summer started.

"Sum—" Raven said simultaneously.

They stopped. Summer let out an awkward laugh and Raven tentatively smiled.

"Summer!" Qrow's shouted voice sounded from below. "Are you coming, or what?"

"Hold your stinkin' horses," Summer yelled back down. She looked over at Raven and shot her an attempt at a gentle smile, despite the gravity of their situation. "I'll be back."

Raven nodded. "Yeah. I'll be waiting."

Beacon had been, architecturally, designed after the Valean castles of old — or rather, what the popular image of them was, at the time they were constructed, which was not very much like how actual castles looked, and its nature as a school rendered its interior completely unlike what a castle would have been like.

Similarly, Haven had been modeled after the fortresses of ancient warriors, which had long since passed into functional obsolescence well before the Great War, when the Mistralian Empire conquered each province and brought their military might under one banner. White walls and deep blue roofing done in a classically Mistralian style evoked the style of a time that was long since past.

In the distance, a water feature's sharp clonk brought Summer out of her thoughts.

"It's quiet," Qrow said. "Too—"

"Finish that sentence and I'll punch you," Summer said. She looked up at the pair of towers flanking the quad, which itself led towards Haven's Grand Hall. "The CCT Towers."

"Right, Mistral has dual towers," Qrow said, unscrewing the cap of his flask.

"Qrow, it's eleven in the morning," Summer said. "And we're going to a meeting. Now is not the time."

Qrow gave her a slight scowl as he took a swig from the flask.

"Anyway, if I remember right, if either are knocked out of commission, it means massive signal loss for the wider region," Summer continued with a frown. "But not for the city. Still, as highly visible landmarks, they're optimal targets for a terror attack."

"Just like at Beacon," Qrow said, tucking his flask back into his shirt. "You draw the Grimm in by creating fear—"

"—and then the defenders are left managing a two-front war," Summer finished. She paused for a moment before clearing her throat. "Listen, we can't go into this meeting not on the same page. I wanna lay out two ground rules. First up: no mentioning Oscar."

Qrow nodded. "Yeah, he said as much before we left."

Summer exhaled. "And I think we shouldn't mention Raven, either."

Qrow balked and sputtered slightly. "I think Lionheart should at least know about the bandit chief roaming his city."

Summer's eyes became steely. "We're playing this close to the chest."

The soft clonk of the water feature made Qrow's response die in his throat. He furrowed his brow. "You don't want me to say it, but we haven't seen anybody around. No students, no faculty. Not even janitors."

"The Headmaster wouldn't call you here without being here himself, though," Summer mused. She stepped closer and dropped her voice slightly. "But if he's under duress, this may be a trap."

Qrow patted the hilt of his sword. "Then it's a good thing we're both armed."

"We head for the Headmaster's Office — but there's gotta be a back entrance to the building. The Grand Hall is the perfect spot for an ambush." Summer paused. "But casually."

"I can do casual," Qrow said, smirking.

"I'll take point," Summer said. She stepped forward, towards the side of the building rather than its front entrance. Sure enough, there was a small side path that encircled the building; Summer and Qrow followed it until they found a far less ostentatious door. Summer pulled her pistol out of her holster and pulled it open sharply, checking the room over before she entered.

"If I had any doubts you were Summer, I think that just erased them all," Qrow said, following behind her into the corridors of Haven's main administration building. "You move the same."

"Just being myself," Summer ground out.

They walked tensely through the silent corridors.

"This isn't right," Qrow said nervously as they approached the Headmaster's Office. "There's nobody here."

"Then get ready for trouble," Summer said. She put her hand on the right-side of the double doors leading into the office, her other hand still holding Thorn. She gently cocked the hammer and shot a glance back to Qrow.

Qrow drew his sword, Harbinger, and it extended to full length. He nodded.

Summer slammed the door open and came face to face with Headmaster Leonardo Lionheart, a stocky looking man with a thick beard and the tail of a lion. He let out a yelp of fear at the gun barrel that was pointed at him and stumbled backwards, tripping on a rug and falling on his rear.

"Qrow," he said, looking past Summer. "What in blazes are the two of you doing? And who is this?"

Qrow sighed. "Leo. Why weren't you waiting for us at the entrance?"

Lionheart fumbled for his pocket watch, contained in an inner pocket of his coat. He grimaced and seemed to bite back a curse. "Apologies. Time slipped away from me."

"You're kidding," Qrow growled. "Anyway, this is our backup. I'd like you to meet my old teammate, Summer."

Summer slid her revolver back into its holster and reached down to help the other man up. "Pleased to meet you."

"Summer," Lionheart said, shocked. "Summer Rose! I'd thought you'd died."

"Not exactly," Summer said, stepping past him to sit down onto a couch. She leaned back into the cushions and waved her hand up in the air noncommittally. "It's a long story, and to be frank, I've told it three times in the last week, so I'd rather not at the moment. Suffice to say, I'm back, not dead, got better. We can talk about it later."

"Leo," Qrow said. "The Academy is empty. It's defenseless — the Relic is defenseless! Where is your staff?!"

Lionheart sighed and began to return to the other side of his desk. "Yes, well, things here in Mistral aren't exactly stable at the moment. The last thing the CCT transmitted was Beacon aflame, students dead, the Atlesians firing on civilians, not to mention that massive Grimm — surely you can understand the panic, even out here. I put classes on hold while we worked on stabilizing the region. I had no other choice."

"We need them here," Qrow said.

"Not feasible," Lionheart responded. "Mistral's territory is much of Anima — without the others, our own CCT Towers don't have the range to broadcast a recall code much further than the immediately outlying villages."

Summer's eyes narrowed.

Lionheart cleared his throat. "I don't suppose you made any progress in your own…task from Ozpin?"

Qrow shook his head. "It's complicated, but for now…no. I don't know where the Spring Maiden is — just that after she ran away, she fell in with Raven's tribe."

"Your sister," Lionheart said. "Do you know where her camp is?"

"No," Qrow admitted. "They're nomadic. I was so close. I was in the camp with the Spring Maiden. But now they've scattered. Raven had them move to their summer grounds — it'll be weeks until they regroup, and I have no idea where they're going."

Lionheart paused in contemplation.

"Raven made the right call in sending her away," Summer interjected. "Our goal here is to keep the Relic out of play."

Qrow was visibly stunned. "What are you saying?"

"As the saying goes, 'three can keep a secret if two are dead,'" Summer said. "By now Salem's group knows we're in the city. If we did leave to pursue the Spring Maiden, we'd lead Salem right to them."

"Hold on," Qrow said. "What about their Maiden? We might not have a shot against her without Spring."

"We might not win in a head-on fight. So we're going to have to be clever about it. And we've got some of the best backup we could ask for," Summer pointed out.

"You mean that spikey-headed swordsman?" Qrow asked dubiously. "And the bartender? Really?"

"That spikey-headed swordsman and I have been through a lot together," Summer retorted. "And I can't vouch for his friend, but if he can, then that's all I need."

"I'm not exactly happy with waiting around for something to happen," Qrow said.

"We have the Relic as bait," Summer said, a dangerous grin on her face. "We'll shore up our defenses and lay the trap. Lionheart?"

Leonardo jumped slightly. "Yes?"

"I'm going to need structural plans for the vault and we're going to want to inspect the entrance," Summer stated. "I know it's underneath the school, but I need to know if there's any ways in or out or how easy it would be to tunnel in. We need to consider all possibilities here; a large-scale attack could be cover for a more covert heist."

Leonardo hesitated for a moment before he nodded. "I agree. You can inspect it this weekend."

"How about now?" Qrow asked, a little suspicion in his voice.

"We have various groundskeepers and cleaning crews roaming the campus throughout the week — especially while we prepare to reopen," Leonardo said. "We can't allow any of them to come across the entrance. Give me some time to rearrange the shifts and then I can assure you there will be no-one here. We can do whatever needs to be done."

Summer nodded. "That sounds good."

Qrow folded his arms. "They'll have to hit before classes start — with all those Huntsmen-in-Training around, it won't be easy to attack. And they won't have rogue Atlas-bots to distract us this time. It'll just be Salem's goons and the White Fang."

Lionheart nodded.

"Then it's settled," Summer said. "We'll be back to inspect the vault — call us in when you're ready."

Qrow and Summer left the administration building through the same side entrance.

"Qrow, just a moment? I need to talk with you."

"Yeah?" he said, stopping.

"We're here to do a job," Summer said. "I realize you may have a…we'll say dependency, but it can't interfere with what we're here to do."

Qrow narrowed his eyes. "What are you saying? Is this an ultimatum?"

"I'm trying to say that, while we're here, if you get too drunk to effectively fight," Summer said, "then I can't trust you with anyone's lives. Not mine, not my daughters, not the team, or whatever we're calling it, not the good people of Mistral — and the bad, I know you were about to make a crack. So yes. This is an ultimatum."

"What happens if I break it?" Qrow asked. He did his best to smirk. "I mean, you can't exactly kick me off the team any more."

Summer frowned at him and jabbed a finger into his chest. "Qrow, people's lives are in our hands. Your hands. So yes, I think I can kick you off the team."

They stood there in silence for a long moment.

"Do we have an agreement?" Summer asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Qrow said. "No drinking until we're done here."

Summer sighed. "I didn't want to do this, Qrow."

"Ruby?" someone called out.

Summer turned around.

The white-haired girl standing there was clad in a light blue dress whose skirt flared out and a pair of delicate looking heels. She also looked as if she had been put through the ringer. What was once an immaculate bun and ponytail had long since become disheveled, and her shoes had been effectively ruined. Her dress was torn in a couple different places.

All told, Summer's immediate impression was of an Atlesian debutante who had gotten very, very lost.

"It is you," the girl said excitedly, running forward.

Summer's eyes widened, her hand not even slipping under her cloak to grab for the grip of her sword before both her arms were pinned in place by the girl's crushing hug.

"Qrow, help," Summer said.