Willow awoke with a noise of mild frustration, wrinkling her nose as she became vaguely aware of the noises coming from somewhere near to her. The girl kept her eyes closed as she tried to will herself back to sleep and away from the intrusive sounds, only to instead focus on the sounds and condemn herself to waking up. As the irritating distraction from slumber continued, Willow was struck by a horrifying revelation- what she was hearing was grunting. Noises of effort and strain, and they were clearly being consciously muffled to try to keep from waking her up. Willow half expected to open her eyes and see Summer lying beside her with her hand down inside of her pajama pants. She somewhat wanted it to happen, too… and wasn't exactly sure what her response would be. All Willow was sure of is that she wouldn't scold Summer for taking the risk… and joining in wasn't entirely off the table.

With a quick breath in, Willow opened her eyes and looked to where Summer had been the night before on the mattress beside her. In her friend's place was simply an indent in the mattress and a pillow that was slightly askew. Even though Summer appeared to be missing, the noises continued from somewhere in the room all the same. Willow cleared her throat and spoke, her tone carrying more nervousness than she had intended.

"Summer…?"

A quick, whispered word that Willow couldn't quite make out followed, and then a grunt and affirmation came from the floor.

"Ungh… yeah?"

"What are you…?" Willow sat up in bed and scooted to the edge of the mattress, following the voice. Upon catching sight of Summer, all she could do was stare for a moment, mouth agape. "Push-ups?"

Summer paused her efforts, resting in an upward position as she titled her head to look over at Willow. The huntress wore only a black sports bra and matching pajama pants, as well as a sheen of sweat. The girl's hair hung messily in her face, which was bright red with effort.

"Y-yeah. I'm… a Maiden. Gonna start acting like it. I meant it when I said I was gonna… get stronger. Fitter. Hotter. Hot Summer is happening, for real."

"You did?" Willow asked, blinking. "And when did you say this…?"

Summer managed another push-up, her arms shaky and her breaths unsteady.

"Dunno. I said it to one of you, and I was dead serious. I'm committing. No more little belly for me."

"Well, that's good and all, but you're already quite attractive even with that little bit of weight," Willow tried as she let her legs dangle over the side of the mattress. "Please tell me you're not doing this for some boy…"

"What? No! I-I…" Summer finally collapsed, her cheek meeting the carpet as she let out an exhausted sigh. "I mean… not really, no. The guys on Team BASS are all really cute, sure, but I'm not looking for anything right now, and definitely not something short-term. I'm doing this for the Maiden job."

Willow made a face and slid off the mattress to sit on the carpet next to her friend. She flattened out her nightie to cover her knees as her eyes wandered to Summer's butt. It took a few seconds for her to catch herself and snap them to Summer's eyes instead, though the other girl didn't seem to notice her minor crime.

"Summer… sweetie, listen, being a Maiden isn't a job. It's just a part of who you are, and all of us love you as you are already. It's good to try to get into better shape, but… please. Do it slowly. Correctly. Don't hurt yourself pushing too hard just because you feel like you need to. We'll be here to help you along however we can, including training your new powers once we get back to Beacon. There's no need to rush. Train, sure, but don't train so hard that you make the rest of this vacation miserable."

It was Summer's turn to let out a decompressing noise and pull a face. She rose back up into a ready position and gave Willow a defiant look- one that the heiress hadn't seen before.

"…you can't say that with any certainty," Summer denied. "None of us can say whether or not there's a need to rush. There's still so much we don't know about Salem, and what we do know we only know because I managed to pull her name out of my Maiden-ass and Professor Gumo took pity on us. Willow, we're on our own. The only ones we can really trust are in our chosen inner circle. STRQ, OKRA, and you are the only people I know I can rely on… and BASS and Cerise now, though they haven't really been vetted. We didn't have a choice there."

Willow watched as Summer managed another shaky, low-quality push-up before lowering herself back down to the carpet to breathe.

"…Summer… I really don't like you talking like this. I know you're going through a lot, but we can't just lock ourselves away in a little cabal and act like no one else could ever understand what we're going through. I don't want you to change and become this… miserable, closed-off person. Letting BASS and Cerise in was a good thing… and we have at least two professors on our side, as well."

"Are you sure?" Summer asked as she rolled over onto her back. "How can you possibly know that already?"

"I don't," Willow admitted. "None of us know the future- not even you, Summer. You get things wrong with your clairvoyance, just like the rest of us do with our wild guessing. But… I'm choosing to hold on to hope. I'm choosing to believe that the group we've befriended in Vacuo is made up of good people… and that our friends are good people as well. We can make it through this as a team, yes, but we also need to allow opportunities to arise for others to get involved. We can't close ourselves off. If we did that… Barty wouldn't have met Yatsu. Kali wouldn't have been able to help Sasha and she wouldn't have given us information on Ozpin. We'd have been facing Sienna alone. Please don't try to close yourself off and become single-minded."

Summer grunted in frustration and brought a hand up to wipe her sodden bangs from her forehead.

"…I saw it again in my dreams," Summer said softly as she closed her eyes. "That tree. That snake, or whatever the hell it really is. I mean, I didn't see the snake itself, but I could… I could feel it watching me. I was on another branch, just walking through the darkness, and I saw… Willow, when I looked down, I saw us. You and me, and a few of the others within the transparent bark of the branch I was on. We were just walking the campus of Beacon, through the gardens. The ones where Raven and I first had that argument about my Semblance and she told me not to read her future."

"A vision… of the past?" Willow asked. "That's unusual for you…"

"…Sage was with us. Walking with STRQ."

The corner of Willow's mouth twitched, and a full-body chill tingled down her spine.

"…so another wrong prediction, then…"

"Is it?" Summer asked, looking at Willow with narrowed eyes. "There are reasons Sage could come to Beacon. It would make sense for him to visit Yatsuhashi. Maybe he and BASS vacation there next summer. Maybe… maybe something else entirely is going on."

"Maybe you start dating him," Willow said, mostly joking. At Summer's blush, she quirked a brow. "Oh?"

"Stop," Summer ordered, her cheeks red with more than just exhaustion. "It's not that. Wil, there's something I haven't really explained to you about these… 'visions'. Visions isn't even really a good word for it. I'm not just seeing things… I'm experiencing them. It's like I'm there."

"Yes, I assumed as much," Willow nodded.

"No, no," Summer said as she waved a hand above herself. "You're not getting it. That means it's not just sight- I can hear. Touch. Taste. Smell. And… I get feelings, like you would in any other situation. The feeling while seeing Sage was… it was dread. Something was wrong- very wrong- with him being there. Whatever the snake was showing me was a warning."

"So… now the snake is on your side?" Willow asked, remaining skeptical. "And you know it's the source of these visions? Summer, you're making some leaps in logic…"

"I know, I know, but what else am I supposed to think?" the girl asked as she threw her hands up. "It's the only thing that makes sense to me. I tried to talk to it, but it wouldn't respond. It didn't attack me this time, though, so… I don't know what to think. I also saw other things. Things that I think you should see."

"I'm not sure I want to even if there was a way," Willow warned as she watched Summer stand up. "What are you doing now?"

"…something I feel like I need to," Summer answered as she strode over to her suitcase and unzipped the side of it. "I need you to swear to me that you will never tell anyone else about what I'm about to show you."

"Summer…" Willow tried, sounding nervous.

"Swear," Summer repeated as she looked over her shoulder with a glare.

"…I swear," Willow relented, getting another chill. "You and me. No one else."

"Good," Summer replied as she pulled a spiral-bound notebook from within the luggage. "Let's… sit on the bed for this. You might not be ready."

"And you might be right, given how things have been going lately," Willow grumbled as she took a seat on the mattress. "Is that what I think it is? A… dream journal?"

"Something like that, yeah," Summer answered as she flopped down next to Willow and cracked the book open. "I just started it, so there isn't much, but… there's enough that I think you should see it."

Willow watched as Summer opened the book to the first page, which was taken up entirely by bullet points of messy notes. She could barely read what was written, though she could make out the words "Beacon" and "grimm" amid the seemingly insane rambling.

"What am I looking at, here?" Willow asked as inoffensively as she could manage.

"Not this," Summer clarified. "This is all about the vision I had that I already told you about, with the girls I mentioned potentially being our daughters and the attack on the academy. What you need to see is this."

Willow watched as Summer flipped the page. On the next two pages there was very little text. Instead, the paper was taken up by large sketches- sketches that Willow almost recognized. On the left page was the face of a young woman that looked very much like her, save for a few contrasting features. The girl's face was a bit rounder, her hair much longer and bunched into a side ponytail held by a little tiara, and her brows were a bit thinner than Willow's. The most striking feature, however, was one that the girl hadn't been born with- a long, thin scar marred the flesh above and below her left eye. It was seemingly a combat wound, though it had thankfully missed the eye itself entirely. Below the drawing was simply the label "Winter Schnee, 18. Beacon."

On the opposite page was another drawing of the same girl… or perhaps, woman. "Winter" had her hair pulled back into a tight bun with only a few errant strands hanging down into her face. The woman's cheekbones were thinner, her expression harder. It was the face of a stoic woman who had been disappointed time and time again. The label read "Winter Schnee, 27. Atlas Armed Forces." Something else about her drew Willow's attention, though. Something that struck her as incredibly odd.

"…these are…?"

"Your daughter," Summer answered as she flipped the page to another drawing of a young boy with similar features to "Winter." He was labeled as "Whitley Schnee, 16." and had short hair. "I don't know why I saw her at different ages, but it looks like you're having two kids, a-"

"Wait, wait," Willow interrupted, shaking her head. "Summer, go back. Please."

Summer did as she was told, flipping back to the portraits of "Winter" for her friend. Willow stared hard between the two images, feeling unsettled as she confirmed what she had seen before.

"…where is her scar when she's older?"

Summer took a moment to look the sketches over before squinting her eyes as though she was trying to recall something. Finally, the huntress shook her head and brought a hand up to rub at the front of her skull.

"I… guess I forgot to draw it? Maybe it heals? I mean… I think she still had it, maybe it was just faint…?"

"Summer, are you sure you're interpreting this correctly?" Willow asked. "I mean… two children? And they both just… they look so much like me, I couldn't even begin to guess at their father. Maybe something else is going on here."

"…you don't believe me," Summer declared, closing her eyes and wrinkling her nose.

"What? I-I didn't say that!" Willow tried, though Summer had already stood up and left the book on the bed. "I just… maybe there are other possible conclusions. Maybe what you're seeing is… I-I don't know, I just don't want to start making assumptions based off of information we don't fully understand. That's all."

Summer drew in a deep breath and shook her head, seeming disappointed.

"Wil… look at the detail in those drawings. It's almost like they're photos from my mind. Yeah, I guess I forgot her scar, but… why would I be seeing this so clearly, to the point I can draw it after I wake up? Maybe the future can be changed. Maybe it's just… possibilities, I don't know. But I need you to trust me. She's your daughter, and the other one is your son. I know it, and I can't explain how I know, okay? Just… please believe me?"

Willow took the book into her lap and stared hard at the portraits of the girl. Again, she had that distinct feeling that something was off. Something didn't add up… but all the same, she could tell what Summer needed from her friend's pleading tone.

"…I believe you."

"Thanks," Summer replied, though she didn't sound convinced. "I'm gonna go shower. Look through the rest if you want. But again… you can't tell anyone about this. You'll see why soon…"

Willow nodded and watched Summer disappear into the adjoining room. The heiress let out a weary sigh as she turned the page to a see a sketch of a young woman with two-tone hair and equally mismatched eyes. Below it was written "Neopolitan Torchwick, 18. Beacon."

A shiver worked its way through Willow's shoulders as she realized that the girl was an almost exact image of a younger Cerise.

Author's Note:

Sure would be a shame if Summer's misinterpreting things… or if she isn't.

-RD