Against the Inevitable

Qrow flew through the frosted trees, changing back into human form as he approached a campfire.

"Tai."

"Hey, Qrow. Didn't think you'd get my message."

"Wasn't easy. You didn't exactly give me good directions."

Taiyang huffed amusingly. "Well, if you'd come to Atlas more often, maybe you'd know the landmarks, such as this valley."

"Yeah, I'd prefer to not deal with Jimmy more than necessary. But, you said you had something to show me? And where's Summer?"

A low booming was heard. While Qrow went wide eyed, Tai merely smirked.

"What was that?"

Tai merely got up and started walking.

"Tai, you know I don't like it when you get cryptic on me. I get enough of that from Ozpin."

"Trust me, you'll want to see it first.

Another BOOM came, this time more pronounced. As the two Huntsmen cleared the treeline, looking over a cliffside, Qrow gasped at the sight.

The entire valley was a battleground. Tree frozen (even more) or burning, ground uprooted. Then another explosion, decimating several more trees.

"What the hell is happening here?"

"...Training."

In the valley, Scarlet and Summer stood against each other, weapons in hand. Summer was breathing heavily, while Scarlet looked like she wasn't even breaking a sweat.

"You want to take a break?" Scarlet began, "I mean, I'm sure dad's almost done with the-"

Summer boosted herself with wind magic, sending her flying past Scarlet like a bullet, who barely had time to block the axe. The two traded blow for blow with their weapons, before Scarlet raised the ground beneath her, hoisting herself up. Summer then sent brambles at Scarlet, who countered with disks of pure fire, sending them at the stalks. As the brambles burned, creating a wall of smoke, the smoke cleared as Summer launched icicles through it, forcing Scarlet to jump off. Scarlet tightened a hand, catching the icicles mid flight, before enlarging them, spinning them, and sending them right back at Summer. The Maiden ran, dodging ice pillars as the ground shook, with Scarlet sending brambles of her own.

Summer was grabbed by a bramble, and thrown through several trees, before she froze it and smashed it with her axe. She lunged at Scarlet, the two once again engaging in close quarters. Scarlet swung Shattered Moon, forcing Summer to jump over. However, as Summer fell back down, Scarlet kicked Summer in the stomach, sending her flying into the air. Summer, mid flight, stopped herself, summoned a giant fireball and threw it at Scarlet.

"What the hell are those two doing?"

Qrow watches as, from the explosion, a giant spear of earth is thrown at Summer, who gracefully dodges.

"Every few months, Ruby and Summer pick a spot in Remnant to train. Been doing it for a while now. Places where they can let loose everything they've got. Let's be honest, Qrow, there's not much training you can really do when you're a Maiden. Sure, you can learn to master your control of it, but, what is the quote? A day in the field is a week in the books."

Summer lands on the ground, only for more spears of earth and ice to come out of the dust and smoke, flying right towards her.

"So those two have been-"

"Pushing their limits."

Summer then summoned a greatsword of pure fire, running at the spears and slicing through them.

"Well, more like pushing Summer's limits, and Ruby finding out what she can do."

As Summer did a wide swing, blasting the last three spears away, Scarlet flew into the air, a sword mixed with a yellow whitish energy as well as ice. She lunged at Summer, the two smashing elemental blades, creating a vortex of energy that obscured any vision. From the cliffside, Qrow and Taiyang could see small pockets of the cloud part, as the two clashed. Flying about the cloud, the two continued their duel.

Summer smashed into Scarlet sending her flying back, as Summer summoned several fireballs and icicles, and sent them after Scarlet. Scarlet flew away as the projectiles followed her. Diving low into the trees, she slowly destroyed some of them, either by attacking them directly, or using a nearby tree as a shield. However, the pursuit ended when Summer cut off Scarlet, forcing her to defend herself. Summer swung with the greatsword with enough force to break it, then switched to her axe, the force of the double attack forcing Scarlet back up. However, at that moment, the rest of the projectiles reached them, and smashed into Scarlet, creating a dust cloud in the air.

Then, swirling energy began to form, highlighting Scarlet's form inside the cloud. Summer summoned a giant blade of ice, three times bigger than the greatsword, and did a spinning throw into it. However, as the blade cleared the cloud and smashed into Scarlet, Summer gasped.

Where Scarlet once stood was a copy, made of ice. From behind Summer she could see the after effect of a great light being formed, as well as intense heat. She turned around, and saw a blazing phoenix, with Scarlet at the center. With no time to block or dodge, Scarlet did a hammer kick onto Summer's head, sending her crashing into the ground with a massive shockwave.

Tai and Qrow groaned in pain.

"Ah! That had to hurt!"

"You don't need to tell me, Tai. Crap, is Summer even alive?!"

"Ruby's gotten good at judging when to stop…although, that was her strongest attack I've seen."

Scarlet levitated to the ground, a wide crater where Summer impacted. The woman laid on the ground, trying to get back up, but collapsed.

"Looks like I win."

"Again…" Summer groaned, to which Scarlet helped her up.

"It's to be expected. This is why we're doing this."

"Scarlet…it's…incredible. That you can do all this. But it makes me feel so…useless."

"You know what's scary about that. In my timeline, you probably felt that way against Salem. Which is why I agreed to do this. Salem is not a foe you can fight head on, and I don't just mean her immortality. She just outclasses even the strongest of Maidens. You can throw fireballs? Cool, I can throw metoerites. Or, in more concrete terms, even the strongest civilians can't win against Huntsmen, because they have Aura's and Semblances, where civilians almost never do. And Salem knows this. She doesn't need to beat you, because she knows you only have a fraction of what she can do. And, unlike me, she isn't going to pull her punches."

"So what, it's inevitable that she'll beat me?"

"...Depends on what you refer to as 'beaten you'. You won't be able to defeat her, that's obvious. It's likely how Salem…killed you in the previous timeline. You threw everything you had, and it wasn't enough. She simply tanked your hits, let you run yourself dry, before showing you what she can do. Depending on her mood, she might not even go all out, just to taunt you. So…you can't go into the fight expecting to beat her. But that doesn't mean you can't survive her."

Summer looked to the side.

"Dad once told Ursis that she's a lot like Raven. That they saw their only solution to a problem is punching through it. But, with a little bit of perspective, you could find that going around the problem could also be a solution."

"So, run away?" Summer said, the concept almost foreign to her, especially in a situation like this.

"Perhaps not. Sometimes, the best thing to do is stand your ground, not for yourself, but to let others live to fight another day…or to come help you. Depending on where Salem attacks you, sometimes you just need to hold out long enough for help to arrive."

Summer gave a smile.

"Yes…but there's something you havent' considered. Or, you have, but choose to ignore it."

"What?"

"You."

Scarlet raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, Maidens can't stand up to Salem, but you can. The true god remade you, gave you the same body as the original humans. And your teammates have explained to me how your Semblance works. You can manipulate your body on a genetic level."

"And?"

"Scarlet, I don't think you realize what this means. Huntsmen can live longer than most people because we can extend our cells' lifespans, it's only natural. But you can manipulate your cells. Which means, in theory…you could live forever."

Scarlet turned to the side, clear worry on her face.

"I…don't want to think about that. Outliving everyone I know."

"Then don't think about that. Think about Salem. She's always had the advantage of time. She knows that Ozpin grows weaker every generation, while she remains the same," she put her hands on Scarlet's shoulders, "But you? You could get stronger with every generation. For the first time in thousands of years…Salem doesn't know it, but she now has someone to match her. You say that you don't need to defeat your opponent to win, how, sometimes, holding out can lead to victory. Well, Ozpin has been trying to defeat Salem for centuries, and it's clear he's going to fail. But you. You can hold out against her. Salem won't know how to deal with you, someone who can actually fight her, pound for pound. And I couldn't be more proud of you."

"Why?"

"Because, if the day ever comes that we reveal Salem to the world, imagine the hope that will come when they know that someone as strong as her is on their side. That, no matter what Salem throws at them, there's someone who can match her. And I, for a brief moment, got to raise such a girl."

Scarlet's eyes widened, before smiling, gripping one of her mother's hands. "You're still raising her, you know."

The two hugged.

"Now, let's get to your father. I'll try my best to repair whatever damage he's done to our food."

Scarlet groaned, "Why'd you let him cook? I mean, I could've waited the extra ten minutes for you to cook!"

"I'm trying to help teach him!"

"Okay, but have him be the only casualty, don't drag others into it."

Mother and daughter laughed as they continued through the debris. They'd continue this training for years to come…and, on a bright, sunny day in Argus, both of their training would be put to the test.

Author's Notes: Let's be honest, if two Maidens trained together, really trained together...whatever place they did it would be completely destroyed.

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