Summer Schnee

Life is a strange thing. Surely most people would agree, but she found herself not caring about that. For this at least, no one else's opinion mattered. Summer's thoughts were her own, her feelings were her own. That much, at least, The World couldn't take away from her.

Again, here she was, acting like her life was awful. Summer knew her life wasn't horrible; she knew that she had a good life. She had a mother that loved her, a brother that protected her, a lot of people didn't even have that. But it didn't end there, Summer had a big family. Her aunts, her cousins, Great Uncle Qrow, Grandpa Tai, Great Grandma Glynda, Neo too, and her parents, they were family. But, of course, it didn't end there either. Summer was a princess, after all, the princess of Vale. A position made even better by virtue of her older brother's existence. Not only did she get to enjoy the privilege of being royalty, she didn't hold anywhere near as much responsibility.

Even further, on top of it all, she was a Dragon. No matter what she did, she would always be one of the most powerful people on Remnant. Time could never take her either, she would be eternal... Along with most of her family.

The more and more she thought about it, the more and more details of her life that she brought up, it became clearer and clearer. Summer's life was perfect. There was nothing wrong with it, no complaints, how could it possibly be better than this? Surely, asking for anything more would just be selfish.

Yet, she felt it. The absence that haunted her family and the very halls of the castle. In fact, the whole of Vale felt it. Everywhere she went, every time she closed her eyes or focused for even a moment with her nose or ears... It was clear that something incredibly important was missing. Maybe even the most important piece. The first time Summer could remember opening her mouth and asking her mother something, was when she realised she only had one parent. In her mind, Summer thought of all kinds of things.

Maybe they were abandoned, maybe her father was dead. But her mother told her it was a mix of both. First, her mother had to explain to her that she didn't have a father. Summer, in fact, had two mothers. For simplicity's sake, apparently Argus called the mother she knew 'mother', and the one Summer didn't know was 'mum'. Already that made things strange, but not too strange. After all, her cousins had two mothers. But that still left the question of why 'mum' wasn't here.

So, she asked, and her mother didn't know how to answer at first. Summer had been young, maybe even too young to understand. So, her mother just told her that "A monster took her away." Maybe that had been the wrong choice of words; Summer didn't sleep in her own bed for a month after that. But, time passed, and years later, Summer was old enough to understand. So, they explained.

They all did. Her whole family. Everyone had something to say, and that's when Summer finally understood that they were all missing that important piece of paradise. Summer didn't know her mum, but it felt like she did. Through their stories, Summer heard tales and legends. Summer had feared her mum had abandoned her, that she had been an awful person. But she found the opposite in their words.

Her mum discovered the Dragon Formula. Her mum saved both her mother and Jaune from a marriage neither of them wanted. She trained with two Harbingers, she battled legendary Hunters and the forces of dark. The Rose Dragon, Ruby Schnee, she pulled Vale up from the bottom of Remnant's development and made it rival Atlas in technology. Ruby battled armies, she defeated villains and saved Neo from an eternal torture. Summer's mum, her parent, she was amazing. But, on the day Summer was born, the day a great war ended, Argus, her mother, and the unborn Summer were all defenceless against the most vile threat yet.

She gave her life; she sacrificed her future and her mind in order to gain the power she needed to destroy the monster. Summer's mum made a new relic, the most powerful item in all of Remnant to defeat this beast. But her sacrifice left her broken somehow... Summer still didn't really understand it... But her mum was still out there, still fighting, still protecting them. When Argus was young, Ruby had given him that red cloak of his... The same one he wore every day. And before she had to leave, she made Summer a cloak too.

Summer had gotten that cloak on her tenth birthday, the only present she had ever gotten from her mum. Even if she hadn't been there to give it to her. That same pure white cloak was the one she wore now, and had worn every day since. The only other connection she had to her mum also came on her birthday; every year, they wrote letters to her. They couldn't be sent, but her mother always reassured her, saying it was for Ruby to read when she came back. Summer didn't know her mum, she had never met her, but she was her hero. Every night, Summer prayed to The World that tomorrow would be the day her mum came home, that, somehow, someway, this darkness that had hold over her would just be another victory for her. Just another story, another legend to add to the list.

Every day, Summer awoke to find that her prayers hadn't been answered. Every day, she awoke disappointed and upset. Summer... Didn't love her mum. How could she? She had never met her. But she idolised her. She loved the idea of her, she wanted her mum home... She wanted to get to know her, she wanted to love her. Little by little, disappointment grew, and a small flicker of resentment wormed its way into the princess.

Resentment for The World for not answering her prayers, resentment for her mum for not defeating this darkness and coming home... And resentment for the rest of her family, for giving her this burning wish to meet her mum. Every day, Summer chose to put on the cloak, every night, she prayed. She never failed to do either, and no matter how bad things got... Summer swore she never would.

Leaving her room, cloak on, white hair done up in a ponytail, a shine in her Deep Blue eyes, and a smile on her face; Summer set out into the day, ready for it. Or as ready as she could be.

Walking through the castle, Summer was free to explore without supervision. She passed guards, maids, servants, even visitors, none of which she feared. Years ago, much too long for her to have known or remembered if she had, her aunt, Blake, had gone through and done... Checks... on everyone that worked in the castle. About thirty-percent of the staff had been removed that day. Summer wasn't sure what 'removed' meant, but that was always the word used when she asked about it. Since then, her aunt had signed off on every single person that came into the castle.

While she could explore the castle freely, leaving was another thing entirely. Summer tried her best to be good, so even despite the fact that she wasn't always being watched, she didn't leave. That wasn't to say she didn't leave sometimes, after all, leaving with family was fine. Today, Summer wanted to do some more work on her personal project. So, with an eager pace, she ran to the gardens.

It didn't take long to arrive; she knew this place like the back of her hand. Making her way out into the sweet sunshine, Summer skipped past all the boring plants and went straight for the exciting part of the garden. It took up nearly a third of the gardens now, her section. While they were her plant's now, they had once belonged to a distant relative, and after that, her mum. Looking over the Magical garden, Summer smiled brightly. While she couldn't see the Mana moving through them like her brother and mum, she did see how pretty they looked without it.

Moving over, she pressed her hand under some of the plants and pressed it into the soil. The dirt was dry, but that was fine. After all, they didn't really need water or any nutrients from the earth. All they needed was Mana. Feeling around, Summer eventually found what she was looking for. There was a small bump in the dirt, somewhere she had buried a Dust crystal. Apparently, Vale used to be dependent on Atlas for Dust, but Atlas wasn't very good at handling it. After her brother had gotten old enough, he took over completely and handled Vale's Dust needs on his own. The rate he could produce apparently even out sped the mines in Atlas.

Not to mention, since he made it himself, he could also make what he called "safe Dust". Unlike normal Dust, it couldn't explode, not even if you tried to pour Mana into it. That eliminated all the dangers of Dust, and it didn't take away any of the power since the Mana could still be extracted. All of this was why Summer didn't worry about roughly digging out the crystal, or, what remained of it. She had buried it about a week ago, and it was nearly completely gone.

Tossing the nugget back into the hole she dug, Summer roughly covered it again before turning and heading out of the gardens. Before any more work was done, it was a good idea to get more Dust. Luckily, she lived with the supplier. Moving her way through the castle, Summer took sharp turns and went down twisting halls before finding her way to the bedroom of the crown prince of Vale. Opening the door without a care, she found him taking a nap... Of course.

Walking over, she roughly shook him with one hand. "Argus, wake up." A groan was her response. That, and he rolled away from her. "Argus." Crawling onto the bed, Summer poked his arm a bunch. "I need some Dust. It's for the garden." Another groan rung out, but this time, he also stuck a hand out and lazily produced an Ice Dust crystal three feet long and one foot wide at the centre. "That's-" She was cut off by a louder groan, and despite not knowing what to do with so much Dust, Summer figured it was better to let sleeping Dragons lie.

Barely carrying it out of his room with two hands, she had to set it down to close his door behind her before making her way to the garden. "If he didn't get up so early, he wouldn't nap after lunch." She thought as she walked. The crystal wasn't too heavy for her. Even that young, she was still a Dragon; Summer was plenty strong. Rather, it was just too big, an awkward shape to carry in her arms.

Passing by the odd maid or guard, Summer found it entertaining how their eyes bulged at seeing the princess hobble through the hall carrying a giant Dust crystal. Quite a few of them offered to help, but Summer took pride in her garden, it was her own work; she didn't want help. Managing to get back to the garden, Summer put the crystal down before frowning.

"Its... Too big to bury in the garden." At least, not without uprooting a bunch of her plants. Getting a better idea, Summer picked the crystal up and held it as high as she could.

"Summer, you here?" And hearing her mother's voice just a bit too late, Summer slammed the crystal into the ground, shattering it into workable pieces. Pausing awkwardly as her mother turned the corner, the Queen of Vale looked at her daughter with a twitching eye. "Summer..."

Before she said anything else, Summer quickly said, "In my defence, I thought you were somewhere else." Whatever part of her brain that inspired her to say that was one she would attempt to destroy later.

Weiss Schnee

Slumped onto the table, the Queen of Vale was putting on an inspiring image for her council as she sighed face first into the furniture. "My daughter is an idiot..." She didn't actually think that of Summer, the princess was actually very smart, but Weiss needed this.

Watching on with a barely contained snicker, Yang made the unfortunate decision to speak. "Hey, well, at least Argus' crystals don't explode."

"The ones he actively make that way don't!" Weiss yelled into the table; face still planted against it. "She got it from him while he was still half asleep. If he had messed up-!"

"Argus uses that ability more than anyone else in Vale uses any other ability," Glynda chimed in. "He knows what he's doing, even while that tired."

"Stop being the voice of reason." Weiss pouted.

Raising her head as the door opened, her eyes set on the man entering. "Woah, you tired or something?" Apparently, she hadn't raised her head fast enough. Qrow's quip and light grin hid genuine concern, as Weiss had come to learn upon spending time with the man. It had taken time, but she had figured all of her friends and family out pretty effectively.

"I slept fine, Qrow."

Weiss made to continue speaking, but Yang cut in. "Wine or Spell?"

Clearing her throat to try and keep control of the conversation, Weiss asked, "Were there any at the gates?"

Plopping himself in a seat at the end of the table, Qrow kicked his feet up and leaned back in his chair. "Only one today. He had flowers too."

As much as Weiss hated it, it made sense. They came constantly, men, women, anyone and everyone that was arrogant enough to think they had a chance with Weiss Schnee. It was a good day when Qrow or Jaune found them at the gate, a bad day when Yang or Argus did. The first time Argus realised what was happening, he nearly killed a member of the Sustrai house. Weiss was queen, and she had an empty hand.

Ruby and her had been married in the customs of Vale. One such custom was an automatic separation of the couple if they had been apart for more time than they were together. It was painful to think about, the fact that Ruby and her didn't even have ten years together before they were ripped apart. So, suitors came, and none ever made it past the gate. Even if it was expected of her to wed again, Weiss kept her hand shut closed in a fist while she waited for the one who's grasp she had let slip to ask for it again. No one could force her to marry anyone else, there was no one in Remnant strong enough for that.

Bringing up today's suitor had put Yang, Blake, and Glynda into a bad mood. Weiss herself didn't care. To the others, it was an insult to Ruby, to Weiss, it was simply a fool dancing as expected. Qrow probably just found it funny.

"Now, why are you actually here?" They all no doubt wanted to move on from this topic.

Qrow too. "Well, I found another one." That was rather vague, but he likely meant one of two things. "Same size as usual, it was caught halfway down a ravine, missing half its skull." Reports like this had started coming roughly ten years ago. While Vale had steadily seen no appearances of the Dragon-shaped Grimm - save for the brief period of time during the last two Vytal festivals - there were sightings of skeletons appearing in different places around the border. Skeletons of Dragons. After confirming they were real, confusion set in.

What could have left these skeletons behind? Each one had damage to it, almost always one perfectly straight cut in a vital area. Obviously, this was the work of Rose. But that left the question of what did the skeletons belong to? Grimm didn't leave skeletons, but if Salem's forces were turning people into Dragons now too, where was the rest of the body? A Dragon's flesh didn't rot and wither so quickly, it would take decades, not seconds. Weiss and the others had thrown around theories and ideas, but none seemed satisfying enough of an answer.

The other thing Qrow could have been referring to when being so vague - not that he was in this instance - was an empty camp or base. Remnants of White Fang activity. But it was always remnants, always traces and never anything active. It was as if they had all packed up and left in such a hurry they simply forgot things. But what could inspire such fear? Once again, the answer seemed to be Rose.

No matter how many times she asked, Qrow was always vague when describing the damage Crescent Rose did. That weapon of hers, the one Rose wielded, it was most likely by far the strongest item in The World. Armed with it, Rose paced the Vale border like a guard dog. Weiss had never even seen one of those Dragon-shaped Grimm, the only one of them who had was Qrow. Even that was only a glimpse, a far-off shape. By the time he found it, the only thing left to find was the traces of its Mana fading into the surrounding ambient. He hadn't even seen Rose, nor felt her presence.

Rose was the answer. She was why there had been no White Fang activity in Vale, why Salem's forces hadn't acted in twelve years. They were scared. Of her, of Crescent Rose. Until they had an answer, until they had something that could fight back, even trying to cross the border was a death sentence. Cinder, Hazel, Adam, any others that might be working with them, by their inaction, they had confirmed that they couldn't beat Rose. They couldn't even survive against her.

Knowing that, it had disheartened Yang even further. She had gotten low, incredibly low. All that effort, all that training and practice and she was reminded yet again that Rose couldn't be reached. Couldn't be defeated. Eventually, it had reached a critically low point, and both Weiss and Blake had to tell her to do something they still weren't sure was the right thing. They told her to use Pride.

Yang didn't let herself stop missing her daughter, she didn't stop herself from feeling the hurt. What she did do, however, was make herself accept that she was gone. To Yang, Ruby was dead. She had accepted that, and she had done her best to heal. Blake had told Weiss on more than a few nights when the queen needed someone to share a bottle of wine with, but Yang still to this day cried, still mourned her daughter. Some nights, it was too much, some nights, Yang couldn't sleep through her despair. But it was slowly getting easier, slowly getting better.

Blake wasn't left much better off. She too mourned her daughter, but she hadn't needed Pride to accept that Ruby was gone. Out of all of them, Blake was the only one that had been attacked by Rose. It had been an accident, sure, a mistaken identity and perhaps even a reasonable response to feeling that much Mana approach so quickly, but when Blake had been hit by that shot... She had personally felt the disconnect. Blake had her wing torn from her by that impact, she had hit the ground and saw Rose standing over her. She had seen Crescent Rose drawn and ready to kill her. Blake had felt it, more than anyone else... She had felt how much Rose wasn't Ruby.

Both of them mourned Ruby, both of them had accepted in their hearts that she was never coming back. To them, Ruby was truly dead. All that they lacked was a grave to weep at.

It killed Weiss, to see it, to know about it. To know how they felt, to see them go through this. Because she knew! She knew that Ruby would return yet couldn't tell anyone. Every day she cursed Ozma for this bargain, for restricting her without her knowledge. All she could do was reassure them; she couldn't tell them outright that Ruby would be back. But reassuring someone that their loved one will return when they've already accepted they won't isn't helpful, it isn't healthy. Weiss had tried, she really had... But that had only managed in nearly destroying her relationship with Blake and Yang.

But they weren't the only ones.

In the few times she had seen him, Tai had been a mess. When she had told him, it was the first time Weiss had gone to Patch. She had seen Ruby's home, seen the room she grown up in. Weiss told Ruby's father face to face, she explained what happened, told him as best as she could. Qrow was there, by her side to help. Tai was a strong man, Weiss thought, but still, hearing what had happened to his daughter... To the daughter he had always seen as fragile as glass... In his desperation, he had given her all of Summer's things. Any book she had read, any notes she made, any items, anything and everything. Weiss had more of Ruby's mother's things than of her own mother's.

None of it had helped. Argus had tried to read it too, to understand it. But what he had understood wasn't helpful. Many times, he had gone back to reread it, and every time it was the same. Nothing could be done.

Weiss felt alone. She felt isolated, trapped in a bubble. She knew that Ruby would come back, she knew when Ruby would come back... She just couldn't say it. Weiss wanted to help them, all of them. If only those words could leave her mouth, if only she could move her hand and write it down. She had tried everything, literally everything she could think of. Weiss had even resorted to charades of all things! But even that hadn't worked. The second she tried to play; her body went limp. That Faustian bargain with Ozma, it was binding, completely binding.

Maybe it was hypocritical of her, though. To try so hard to help everyone else, when she herself was clearly doing just as bad.

Groaning, Weiss' eyes fluttered as the harsh sun invaded her vision. Trying to reach up and block it with her hand, she found that there was a bottle of wine still lying next to her. Empty, of course.

Last night, she had apparently opted not to use a Spell to put herself to sleep. Every night it was the same thing, those two choices. A bottle of wine specifically made for Dragons, or Magic. Without one or the other, she didn't sleep. How could she?

Anytime Weiss closed her eyes, the only things she thought of was Ruby. How far away she was. All the time Weiss had waited. All the time left she still had to wait. Every second was torture, her mind was her own worst enemy, and unlike Yang or any other Dragon, she couldn't use Pride to escape it. Weiss often wondered how she would be fairing if she didn't know, if Ruby's return was unknown to her. Would she still be waiting, hopeful that Ruby would come back regardless? Would she have faltered; would she have looked for someone else? She prayed not.

Or, maybe she would have been unable to go on. Unable to live like this after knowing the love she lost.

Weiss hoped she was better than that. She hoped that she would push on even without hope, for her children if nothing else. It was only a hope, because she didn't know if she was that strong.

Pulling the blanket up to cover her eyes, Weiss tried to close her eyes. To shut herself off from The World for a little bit longer... To sleep just a second more. But it didn't work. Instead, all she saw was the image of Ruby under her covers with her, a memory of them both giggling together like children while Weiss put off her duties. Weiss pined for those days; she wanted them back so desperately.

But desperation, want, her will, none of it mattered. All she had to do, all she could do, was wait.

Sitting up, letting the sheet fall from her as her eyes scanned the room... Weiss wondered if this place had always looked so lifeless. Everywhere she looked was the same. Light Blue, White, dark wood furniture. Why did she even like it that way? Did she like it anymore?

"Twelve years... One month..." A blink for a Dragon, it was nothing compared to eternity. Or, it should have been. Looking down, Weiss hung her head, her loose hair covering her face as she whispered to herself. "It gets harder with each day... My love..."

But waiting was easy, wasn't it?

All she had to do, was nothing.