Yang looked over the woman, Ruby apparently, and supposed, if she was willing to stretch her belief as far as it would go, she could see it. She had the same silver eye as Ruby, the same hair color. But… it had been so long, why now? Why like this?

Why was she so old, older than Mom or Dad? Old enough to have a kid Yang's age? How was that possible?

They were sitting around the coffee table waiting for breakfast, Dad and the redhead, Pyra, cooking enough for everyone. It was clear that, from her way of moving, Pyra was familiar with doing it, even if she wasn't used to the kitchen.

Ruby was sitting on the couch, head resting on Mythra's shoulder while Nia did the same to her, while Mythra's head rested on Ruby's. They seemed to drink in each other's presence, like they hadn't seen each other in a long time.

"What happened?" Summer asked, "You… I put you to bed one night and the next morning you were gone. I had to cancel an important mission to deal with it."

"I don't know," Ruby said, "I fell asleep to you telling us a bedtime story, and woke up in Leftharia. Nobody knew how I got there, I was just curled up in the middle of the village."

"I've never heard of Leftharia before," Yang frowned.

"I'm almost a hundred percent certain it wasn't on Remnant," Ruby said casually.

"Not on Remnant?" Summer asked, sounding just as confused as Yang felt.

"We called it Alrest," Ruby said, closing her eye like she was looking at it in her head, "imagine… Clouds that stretched on as far as the eye could see, with a giant tree in the center. Everyone lived on Titans, giant, living masses of earth, the only earth there was."

"Sounds like bullshit," Yang said.

"She's telling the truth," Mythra snapped.

"What did you do in Alrest?" Summer asked, like she actually believed them.

"I started salvaging when I was ten," Ruby said, rubbing the back of her neck, unintentionally dislocating Nia, who gave an angry hiss, "Sorry, Nia. Not the safest career in the world, but I handled myself."

"Salvaging?"

"There were the ruins of an ancient civilization under the Cloud Sea, people paid well enough for anything from down there. Weapons went for the most, but," Ruby shook her head, "I couldn't give those up. Had to understand how they worked."

"And how'd you meet your, uh, wives?" Summer asked.

"Salvaging job gone wrong," Ruby said.

"Gone wrong, really now," Nia said, "You sure know how to make a Blade feel loved."

"I got stabbed through the chest," Ruby retorted, "I'd call that "gone wrong"."

Stabbed through the chest?

"Fair enough," Nia said with a laugh, before stopping, "I wonder where the others are…"

"We'll find them," Ruby said.

"Do you mind," Summer said, "if after breakfast we spar?"

—

Summer gripped Sundered Rose, staring at Ruby as she did. And while she knew Yang had her doubts, Summer knew without a doubt that this was her daughter standing in front of her. She could feel it in her bones, in her soul.

Ruby gripped the zweihander she was holding and pulled, splitting it into two smaller blades that, by all logic, should have still taken two hands to wield. But Ruby one handed them with a clear and intimate familiarity. Summer formed a barrier around her off hand with her Semblance, and they prepared to fight.

Summer barely had time to blink before Ruby was in her guard, carried forwards by a jet of flame from the red greatsword, which had seemingly opened to allow the flames out. Summer barely dodged the slash, feeling the flames lick her skin. Before she could retaliate, Ruby segued into a whirl, the white-gold sword opening to allow light to exit from it, slamming into Summer's barrier with enough force to shatter it and send Summer flying back.

Landing feet first on the side of the house, Summer kicked off and swung Sundered Rose at Ruby's blindside. If it affected Ruby, she didn't show it, swaying out of the way of the blow and slamming the flaming sword into the barrier Summer barely formed in time. Flipping back, and spinning Sundered Rose so she could brace the ax against her shoulder, she fired a trio of shots at Ruby. Ruby's head swayed back and forth, all three shots missing and exploding in the ground behind her.

"It feels good to have that back," Ruby said as she sent a slash of light at Summer, who ran to the side to dodge it.

"You're welcome!" Mythra called.

"Thank you."

Were they doing something?

Spinning Sundered Rose so she was in ax position again, she swung it for Ruby's head from her blind side. Ruby snapped up the flaming sword and caught Sundered Rose, spinning her wrist on the light sword again before slamming it into Summer's gut winding her and sending her flying across the yard.

Summer stood up, just in time for Ruby to appear in her guard in a blast of flames, slamming the red sword into her and sending her flying back. Flipping in mid air, Summer dug her feet into the ground as she landed. Hearing her scroll give a warning beep, she fell on her butt and gasped for breath. She wasn't a bad fighter, she had been top of her class at Beacon and only got better as time went on, but the way Ruby fought…

It was monstrous, there was no hesitation between the blows. No fear, nothing. This was someone who was absolutely confident in her own combat skills.

"Ruby," Summer said, "can we go to Beacon? Ozpin would probably like to talk to you."

—-

Blake walked away from the train cart with an undeniable sense of melancholy. She had just cut ties, literally, with Adam and the White Fang. She didn't know where she would go from here, she really didn't.

She hadn't wanted it to come to this. She had stayed for as long as she could stomach what the White Fang, what Adam, had become. She had lied to herself that the killings were accidents like he said, even when she knew in her heart they weren't.

Slowly coming into a clearing, Blake noticed a twinkle and walked over and looked down. Sitting there, plain as day, was an X shaped crystal. Well, at least it was something she could sell to have a little lien.

Picking it up, she watched it glow before a beam raked over her, dropping it in surprise. The crystal, however floated up until it was eye level with Blake and began to unfold in a miasma of darkness. Gripping Gambol Shroud, Blake prepared for a fight.

The darkness took on a humanoid form, hardening into a man. He stood taller than Blake even hunched over as he was, carrying a pink katana in one hand and a suitou in the other hand. His skin was a pale blue, and over his face he wore a mask that gave him an iron jaw mixed with a red kabuto.

"You have called," he said, voice calm and soothing, "and so I have come to serve. I am Perceval, the righteous blade in the dark. May I ask your name?"

"Blake," Blake said slowly, holding Gambol Shroud in front of her in case he decided to attack.

"You may lower your weapon, Blake. Unless you are an incarnation of villainy, I would never harm you, my Driver," Perceval said.

"Driver?" Blake said.

"Wielder, master, from the moment you awoke me from my core crystal, I became bound to you until one of us dies. I am not just the righteous blade, I am your righteous Blade."

"I don't want a slave," Blake said.

"I am no slave, I can do as I will. But I am bound to you, there is no changing that. I shall fight by your side, Blake, because that is what a Blade does with their Driver.

"You keep saying blade," Blake said.

"That is my species, a Blade. We are captured in a cycle of karma. When someone awakens our core crystal, we are bound together until they die. And when they die, we return to our crystal, forgetting all but the essentials, and the cycle begins again. Come, Blake, walk the path of justice with me."

—