After the events of Volume 8, team RWBY finds themselves not in Ever After, but in a still standing Kingdom of Atlas, some thirtreen years in the past. Before Summer Rose vanished, before one Cinder Fall was ever found by Salem.
Ripples Across the Pond (RWBY)
- Thread starter Teen Spirit
- Start date
- Created
- Status
- Ongoing
- Watchers
- 81
- Recent readers
- 0
- Threadmarks
- 2
-
Statistics (2 threadmarks, 9.3k words)
User Total Teen Spirit 2 Threadmarks Reader mode
Chapter 1: Landings
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Chapter 1: Landings
The sky above Atlas was cloudless that night, though few in Mantle could appreciate this given the amount of smoke and smog their many factories produced even at this late an hour. The view from the flying city itself was little better, between the shields that protected it and its dozens of skyscrapers that each glowed brightly at all hours, most of the stars were drowned out by the city below. This left the kingdom with little reason to look up, even on a night such as this, thus when half a dozen new lights suddenly appeared, streaking through the air like technicolor comets, only a few people noticed. And the lights flew so fast, in so many directions that most of those who did see it were only able to catch a brief glimpse before it vanished.The casual observers for the most part dismissed the light as a trick of the eyes or something to that a effect, a few more keen eyed observers noticed there was something very unusual about these lights.
But none of them could have predicted what these lights were about to bring to Atlas as they crashed into city and the surrounding frozen tundra
- - - - - - - -
Yang Xiao Long was dead, at least she was pretty sure she was dead. Her mind was a jumbled swamp of memories and feelings, she could remembered running to stop Neo's attack, terror gripping her heart as Yang realized she had but moments to act, then her aura broke as she took the full force of Neo's attack, she remembered tumbling across the platform, fading in and out of consciousness, Blake desperately trying to reach her and then, falling, falling through through the void towards a seemingly infinite abyss.
She had no idea of how long she fell, all she could remember was brief glimpses of the platform above, of Blake's terrified expression, then cold, the overwhelming cold that bit her down to the bones.
Yang was dead, she had to be, that was the only explanation that made any sense to her.
So why did her back hurt so much?
Yang grumbled as she stirred awake, her mind slowly, very slowly, coming into focus as she became more and more aware of the sharp bits of metal and stone that were painfully jutting into her back. Her vision was a mess of gray shapes and painfully bright light that made Yang shut her eyes again as she tried to roll onto her stomach.
"Did that girl just fall out of the sky?!" A rough, unfamiliar voice asked, his words filled with bewilderment.
"Who cares?" Another, gruffer voice replied, "do you see her arm? That thing looks state of the art. We could make so much Lien selling that thing!"
Even in her confused and addled state, the clear threat in those words got Yang's attention. She forced herself up, her arms like jelly underneath her as part of her brain tried to drag her back into unconsciousness. Her whole body ached all over for some reason.
As she wobbled to her feet she could see two brown and blue blobs in front of her, vaguely resembling the shape of men. Yang blinked hard a few times, her vision slowly starting to come into focus. The guys before her were nothing but thugs in grease stained overalls, one armed with a revolver the other with an oversized wrench. All of them were standing in an alley lined by buildings made of soot-covered bricks. These thugs should have been trivial to deal with, they should have been.
"Back off," She growled weakly. Her words only seem to embolden the two robbers as they approached
Yang couldn't remember the last time she slept, it must have been before Ironwood abandoned the city, Before Salem's attack, before their fight with Ace-Op, before Weiss's father was arrested, before everything it seemed. Her aura was gone,she could barely stand, every part of her was begging for sleep, and she was cold, so freaking cold. It was all she could do to keep standing.
"Hand over the arm, girlie, and we'll be on our way" one of the thugs said with a grin, "No one has to get hurt."
And there was no way in hell she was going to stand down.
A shot from one of her gauntlets sent Yang hurtling towards the thief with a pistol, she crashed into him like an out of control missile, knocking both of them to the ground.The impact amplified the pain coursing through Yang's body, her vision going blurry again.
The other thug raised his wrench, preparing to bring it down on her head. The crack of a rifle filled the cold night air, launching the wrench out of the thug's hands and onto the street. The thug stood there, stunned, as the sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the alley.
"Stand down," a hauntingly familiar voice called out in a sharp tone.
It had been years, over a decade even since Yang heard that voice but she would know it anywhere. It must have been her mind playing tricks on her, there was just no way.
As the two thugs scrambled away as fast as they could, a figure that appeared to be her sister Ruby approached, her black and red hair was unmistakable. Yang realized her head must have been more scrambled than she realized because she could swear Ruby looked taller somehow, her outfit was all wrong and her cape was white.
Yang blinked, hard. Air escaping from her lungs like she'd just been punched as she got a better look at the bewildered woman looking down at her.
This confirmed it, Yang had to be dead, there was little doubt in her mind. How else could she explain what was standing before her? How else could she be looking at her late mom, alive and well?
"Yang?" Summer Rose said in disbelief.
- - - - - - - - - - -
"There you are," Blake Belladonna said as she grabbed her weapon, Gambol Shroud, off the top of a storage bin. A quick once revealed the weapon's ribbon was half gone, the edges brunt, still smelling faintly of smoke. Annoying but easily fixed.
"Good, After the day we've had, we wouldn't want any of us to go unarmed for long," her teammate, Weiss remarked.
The two's gaze turned towards the city around them. They had never walked down this street before, Blake was certain of that. But the style of buildings, the kinds of signs they were seeing, the noises, the smells, the people, it was all very familiar, which should have been impossible.
"So not to be too blunt, but are we dead?" Weiss asked quietly as she looked around, contemplating the sights before her, "Because this is Mantle but that shouldn't be possible, right?"
"I think we would know if we were dead," Blake replied.
"Yes but how do you explain that?" Weiss said as she gestured to the rocky underside of Atlas that dominated much of the night sky.
"Do you really think the afterlife looks like Atlas?" Blake quipped.
"Fair point," Weiss muttered to herself, "but none of this makes any sense."
Despite her remark, Blake shared Weiss's confusion. Atlas was intact, no signs of Salem's attack,no signs Atlas was about to crash, the streets were filled with people just going about their lives, it was like the last few days hadn't happened.
"I can't think of anything that makes sense," Blake agreed, "But there's no way we're dead, I'm sure of that."
'Don't Fall,' That was Ambrosius's warning, and they had broken it, Cinder and Neo kicking all four of them off the platform. But the Relic's spirit had never specified what would happen if they did. It wasn't death like Blake had feared, so what had happened?
"Well if we're fine, then that means the others should be as well," Blake said as she tried to put Ambrosius's words out of her thoughts, "We should find them."
"Right," Weiss nodded in agreement.
The two made their way through Mantle, doing their best to seem like two ordinary Huntresses just making their way through the city.
Mantle was a truly bizarre sight for both Weiss and Blake. It wasn't just that there was no sign of Salem or her attack, there was no signs of General Ironwood either. No giant propaganda posters, no screens telling everyone to obey curfews. There were still patrols but they didn't garner the same amount of unease from nearby civilians, and the equipment was different somehow; the androids were bigger, and chunky looking, each step they took had an almost exaggerated stiffness to it.
"Do we even know where we're going?" Weiss said as they walked, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.
Blake stopped. She didn't have a plan at the moment, they were in Mantle, but the city, perhaps the whole kingdom of Atlas, wasn't the same one they knew, as impossible as such a thing seemed.
"Pietro's clinic," Blake declared, "It's the most likely place for Ruby and Yang to go, Pietro should be able to help us look for them if they're not there, and if this is another simulation, we should be able to tell by his behavior. Either way, it seems like our best chance."
Blake didn't think this was a simulation. The people around them seemed too full of life, the world contained too many details. But this whole situation was so strange she didn't feel comfortable ruling the option out.
"What if Pietro isn't there?" Weiss asked quietly, "Or his clinic doesn't even exist?"
Blake could have sworn she saw a shadow pass over Weiss's face at the mention of Penny's father but she wasn't sure.
"Then that gives us a good idea of just how much things have changed around here," Blake replied, "No matter what, we'll make some sort of progress."
Weiss nodded, "Right, that makes sense."
"Hey, give me that, you animal!" The sound of a man yelling caught both of their attention.
The two turned to see a man in a blue buffy jacket and a flushed red face trying struggling with all his might to pull a book out of the hands of a young girl who had brown hair with two hyena ears on top of her head.
"It's my book!" The faunus girl argued as she held onto the book for dear life, "My dad gave it to me."
There was a small group of kids behind the girl watching on with a mix of fear and anger, most of them having some of Faunus traits like ears, feathers or claws. Blake spotted a number of humans watching the scene as well, with most just walking by. She could sense a few of them staring at her, particularly her ears.
"Liar, I bet you can't even read!" The man snarled.
Blake's expression hardened, after all they had been through this incident seemed so small but seeing this guy be so bigoted to a child just gnawed at Blake's inside. She was tired, she had been through hell for the past few days, her patience had been pressed thin, part of her really wanted to just deck this guy.
"Well I guess some things haven't changed," Weiss muttered angrily, "Sir, are you trying to steal from an actual child?"
"She's the thief!" The man snapped as he turned towards Weiss, his expression hardening as he spotted Blake, "I don't have to justify myself to an animal lover and her cat," he spat the last word like a curse.
"Nope, not in the mood for this right now," Weiss said calmly as she pulled out her blade.
A black glyph appeared under the man, causing him to hover slightly in the air as he let go of the book. The man let out a confused cry before he was yeeted into a nearby dumpster.
"I really don't think that's how you should handle every bigot we come across," Blake remarked.
'Even if it is funny,' she added mentally.
"Ehh, still worth it," Weiss shrugged.
The kids stared at Weiss, timid and confused.
"It was my book, I swear." The hyena girl said as she clutched the book tightly.
"I don't doubt it," Weiss replied gently, "The idiot probably just left his copy somewhere."
"Thank you," the girl replied.
It was at that point that Blake noticed there was a camera mounted to one of the nearby buildings, its lens focused on Weiss.
"ATTENTION ATTENTION, CRIMINAL ACTIVITY DETECTED!" A loud, shrill, robotic voice declared as a half-dozen androids stiffly began to march into the street. "YOU ARE BEING DETAINED, DO NOT RESIST!"
The kids scattered into a nearby alley as Blake and Weiss both let out a groan of exhausted frustration. This day was about to get even longer for the both of them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ruby Rose awoke to a faceful of snow and ice, the cold stinging like so many needles poking at her cheeks.
She pulled herself up, wiping away the snow from her face as she looked around nervously, eyes scanning for any sign of Neo or familiar faces that we're just a bit too quiet. But there was no one, no Neo, no sign of her team or Crescent Rose, just the dark, cold mountains that surrounded her and the barest hint of a road through the tundra.
A brief check of her scroll revealed it to be dead, though Ruby couldn't tell if it was just out of power or if it had broken somehow.
Ruby wasn't sure exactly where she was but she knew she was still in the Kingdom of Atlas at least. Presumably near one of the mines if the ice road was anything to go by. This wasn't great but it was salvageable.
'Unlike our plans'
Ruby pushed away the thought as best she could. She just needed to get to one of the mines, find some way to charge her scroll, and get in contact with uncle Qrow and her team. If she ended up here after falling off surely Yang and anyone else who fell would be close by. Once she found them, Qrow should have access to an airship so they could simply just fly to Vacuo and reunite with Oscar and the others there. It would be slower but this hopefully wouldn't change her plans too much. They could still get to Vacuo fairly easily.
'And then what?' Ruby wondered as she began to march through the snow, 'Cinder has the relics, Salem has the relics, how do we stop that?'
"Stop that," She whispered to herself. She couldn't afford to think like that, not right now. She couldn't afford to stop and mull over her fears and regrets, she couldn't afford to stop at all, not in this cold anyways. She needed to find shelter. Her aura was only just starting to recover and she could feel the cold biting into her harder and harder with each passing moment.
Ruby followed the trail for a few minutes, the cold and her own doubts constantly trying to drag her down with each step, until she heard the sounds of battle in the distance.
For a moment doubt held Ruby in place. She was unarmed, exhausted, useless, and defeated. What good could she do? What could she possibly hope to accomplish at this point?
And yet despite these doubts, further sounds of gunfire pushed Ruby to move, her legs almost acting on their own as they pushed her forward.
Ruby came upon a truck stranded in the middle of the snow, Grimm surrounding it as a lone figure stood atop the vehicle, fighting against the pack of Sabyrs.
From what Ruby could see the man seemed like a skilled Huntsman,with him slamming one of his dual maces into the skull of one of the attacking Sabyrs, causing part of Grimm's head to shatter in a shower of boney plate before the creature limply fell to the snow and began dissolving into so much ichor
But the man was being overwhelmed, the Sabyrs had him surrounded on all sides now.
After a moment of doubt, Ruby sprang into action. In an instant Ruby vanished, replaced with a storm of red rose petals that flew across the ice, whipping up much of the snow around her.
The huntsman gazed at the sight in confusion as Ruby transformed back, she only had a moment before one of the Grimm attacked, ruining her plan and putting both of them in grave danger.
"Sorry" Ruby said simply as she grabbed the huntsman, the two of them quickly transforming into another burst of petals, Ruby dashing through the Grimm pack before the two landed on a nearby snowbank.
"Excellent timing!" the Huntsmen replied, "Had I stayed up there much longer, those Grimm would have destroyed the cargo, completely ruining this mission."
Ruby noticed metal covering much of his arms and neck, almost like a second skin. Apparently he wasn't in much danger as she had thought.
"Where is your weapon?" The huntsman asked as the Grimm began to turn around.
"I uh, lost it," Ruby said sheepishly
"Lost it?" The man questioned with a raised eyebrow, "No matter, I'll take it from here."
The man made quick work of the attacking Grimm, taking down a few with first dust shots before closing in to deal with the remaining few. His semblance allowed him to easily shrug off bites as he smashed the Sabyrs apart.
"You have my thanks," The man said after he finished off the last of the Grimm, "I'm not sure how those Grimm managed to get the jump on me, must have gotten careless. Again, your timing was most amazing. May I ask your name?"
"Ruby Rose," Ruby introduced herself cautiously, "Who are you?"
He was a tall man with brown hair, wearing a rich blue vest decorated with bronze buttons.Besides his two mace-guns he had two short swords at his sides well.
The lack of uniform meant he wasn't SDC, probably wasn't part of the Atlas military either. Ruby couldn't imagine Ironwood sending someone out here, especially not now. So what was he doing out here?
"My name is Rhodes, it is a pleasure to meet you Ruby," He said as his eyes scanned the horizon, "We should talk more in the truck. The longer we stay out here the more we risk attracting more Grimm."
A distant howl served to strengthen Rhodes' point.
Ruby didn't know what to make of Rhodes, he seemed calm considering everything that was going on, and why would there be a lone huntsman out in the snow when Atlas was being overrun? But Ruby couldn't imagine Salem putting a random agent out in the middle of nowhere. And the only alternative she could see was wandering aimlessly through the snow, hoping to find some sort of sign of life or familiar landmark.
"Yeah that sounds like a good idea," Ruby agreed as the two of them quickly made their way to the truck.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Summer Rose wasn't even supposed to be here, she was just supposed to stop here for some supplies and some intel from a contact, in and out of Atlas in less than a day. Quick enough that no one, not Salem, not Ozpin, would even realize she was there.
She should have been leaving by this point, the longer she stayed the more she risked compromising her mission, her plan. But that yellow light in the sky, something in her gut told her she needed to investigate.
She didn't have to travel far, the light slammed into the side of a nearby building before landing in one of the mantle back alleys. Despite her speed she wasn't the first one there, there were two thieves looking to make a quick bit of Lien, standing over the collapsed form of a young woman with long blonde hair.
Raven would have encouraged Summer to just turn away and run, maybe fire a shot in the air to spook them. She had much more important things to be doing, getting involved in this risk exposure. All true, but that wasn't how Summer handled things.
To her surprise, the girl on the ground had plenty of fight left in her, launching herself at one of her would be attacks. A quick shot from Sundred Rose knocked the weapon out of the other guy's hand.
"Stand down," Summer warned as she approached.
The two quickly ran off,clearly not interested or prepared for any sort of real fight. Summer approached the girl on the ground, had this girl been that strange streak of light? How? Was it just an unusually semblance used during a fight gone wrong or-
Summer halted in place, breath catching in her throat. The girl staring back at her had Raven's face, only her long hair was blonde, the same color as Tai's, and her eyes were a familar bright red for a moment before becoming lilac, just like Yang's.
Summer stared at the girl in shock, her mind struggling to make sense of what she was seeing.
The girl stared up at her, a clear look of bewildered recognition etched into her face.
"Yang?" Summer blurted out, her question coming out before she even realized what she was saying.
It was mad, and impossible. Her eldest daughter was kingdoms away and not even a third of this woman's age but the more she looked at this girl the more she saw her teammate and her husband staring back at her.
It was a mad thought clearly, a trick of the light or something and this woman was probably just baffled why Summer was calling her by some random name.
"Mom?" the girl replied in a bewildered tone that struck Summer to her core.
It wasn't possible, it couldn't be, Yang was a little girl barely old enough to go to school, she couldn't be this woman and yet part of Summer's mind couldn't help but think that somehow this woman had to be Yang.
The two stared at each other as the woman who looked so much like Yang quickly pulled herself to her feet. Summer looked her over, she was wearing khaki overalls with a fur-trimmed dark brown jacket. She was tall, strong, with one arm seemingly made of metal that was painted gold and a very dark gray.
Summer's mind scrambled for some sort of explanation. Was this someone playing mind tricks with her, a clone, had Salem somehow artificially aged her daughter and dropped her in the middle of Mantle? Each explanation seemed more impossible then the one before it but her mind was struggling to make any sense of it.
Her daughter was a little girl back on Patch, so why did this woman look so much like her, why did she recognize Summer and call her mom?
"Is this real?" The woman who looked like Yang questioned, her voice tired yet full of hope and confusion.
"Are you Yang, really?" Summer questioned, "Just tell me the truth, please." She didn't know what else to say or ask at that moment.
The woman looked over Summer for a moment, her eyes focusing on something intently before she spoke.
"You read the "The Girl Who Fell Through the World" to us the night you left, though Ruby and I had both fallen asleep before you finished," Yang explained. "You left your silver emblem on our nightstand, which you had never done before. You also made us chocolate chip cookies earlier that night but you ran out of chocolate chips-"
"So I had to break up pieces of candy bars for the last batch." Summer finished, her knees threatening to give out beneath her out of shock.
That was the night she left for this weekend. Maybe Tai told someone about the cookies but Summer couldn't imagine anyone knowing what story she had picked, no one besides her and her daughters.
Sense gave way to overwhelming emotion as both Summer and Yang rushed towards each other. Grabbing each other in a tight hug. Summer didn't know how this was happening but there was little doubt in her mind that this woman was Yang.
Yang held onto her tightly, in clear disbelief that was even happening.
"Mom," Yang spoke, her cracking as she struggled to hold back tears, "Am I dead?"
Summer's bewilderment only increased at the question.
"Why would you think that?" She asked.
"Because you never came home. You left and never returned," Yang said tearfully, "You've been dead, or worse, for thirteen years."
Yang's words hit Summer like a bolt of lightning. She stood there, holding her daughter, unsure of what to do as she realized all her plans for stopping Salem would end in miserable failure.
And yet, if what Yang was saying was true, that meant Summer had a chance to change things, create a world where her daughter wasn't missing an arm or mourning for her lost mother. Set right whatever mistakes she had or was about to make.
Summer looked around, noticing a small but growing number of people looking in their direction. They were drawing too much attention.
With great reluctance, Summer Rose broke the hug.
"Come, let's go somewhere more private," she told her daughter, "then you can explain to me what happened, how you got there."
Summer knew she wasn't going to like any of the answers Yang had for her, but she needed to hear them all the same.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Author's Note: Recent events, particularly very recent possibly hopeful news has gotten me very interested in writing RWBY again. Though I'm not quite ready to return to my ongoing fics as it is, though I don't consider them dead either to be clear. So I decided to finally put into words an idea I've had bouncing around my head since mid-volume 8. To be clear, absolutely love Ever After. Volume 9 is probably my second favorite volume in all of RWBY. I am at the moment currently without a beta so if anyone is interested in the role, please let me know, I would be most grateful. Feedback is always incredibly appericated. Thanks and I hope you enjoy
The sky above Atlas was cloudless that night, though few in Mantle could appreciate this given the amount of smoke and smog their many factories produced even at this late an hour. The view from the flying city itself was little better, between the shields that protected it and its dozens of skyscrapers that each glowed brightly at all hours, most of the stars were drowned out by the city below. This left the kingdom with little reason to look up, even on a night such as this, thus when half a dozen new lights suddenly appeared, streaking through the air like technicolor comets, only a few people noticed. And the lights flew so fast, in so many directions that most of those who did see it were only able to catch a brief glimpse before it vanished.The casual observers for the most part dismissed the light as a trick of the eyes or something to that a effect, a few more keen eyed observers noticed there was something very unusual about these lights.
But none of them could have predicted what these lights were about to bring to Atlas as they crashed into city and the surrounding frozen tundra
- - - - - - - -
Yang Xiao Long was dead, at least she was pretty sure she was dead. Her mind was a jumbled swamp of memories and feelings, she could remembered running to stop Neo's attack, terror gripping her heart as Yang realized she had but moments to act, then her aura broke as she took the full force of Neo's attack, she remembered tumbling across the platform, fading in and out of consciousness, Blake desperately trying to reach her and then, falling, falling through through the void towards a seemingly infinite abyss.
She had no idea of how long she fell, all she could remember was brief glimpses of the platform above, of Blake's terrified expression, then cold, the overwhelming cold that bit her down to the bones.
Yang was dead, she had to be, that was the only explanation that made any sense to her.
So why did her back hurt so much?
Yang grumbled as she stirred awake, her mind slowly, very slowly, coming into focus as she became more and more aware of the sharp bits of metal and stone that were painfully jutting into her back. Her vision was a mess of gray shapes and painfully bright light that made Yang shut her eyes again as she tried to roll onto her stomach.
"Did that girl just fall out of the sky?!" A rough, unfamiliar voice asked, his words filled with bewilderment.
"Who cares?" Another, gruffer voice replied, "do you see her arm? That thing looks state of the art. We could make so much Lien selling that thing!"
Even in her confused and addled state, the clear threat in those words got Yang's attention. She forced herself up, her arms like jelly underneath her as part of her brain tried to drag her back into unconsciousness. Her whole body ached all over for some reason.
As she wobbled to her feet she could see two brown and blue blobs in front of her, vaguely resembling the shape of men. Yang blinked hard a few times, her vision slowly starting to come into focus. The guys before her were nothing but thugs in grease stained overalls, one armed with a revolver the other with an oversized wrench. All of them were standing in an alley lined by buildings made of soot-covered bricks. These thugs should have been trivial to deal with, they should have been.
"Back off," She growled weakly. Her words only seem to embolden the two robbers as they approached
Yang couldn't remember the last time she slept, it must have been before Ironwood abandoned the city, Before Salem's attack, before their fight with Ace-Op, before Weiss's father was arrested, before everything it seemed. Her aura was gone,she could barely stand, every part of her was begging for sleep, and she was cold, so freaking cold. It was all she could do to keep standing.
"Hand over the arm, girlie, and we'll be on our way" one of the thugs said with a grin, "No one has to get hurt."
And there was no way in hell she was going to stand down.
A shot from one of her gauntlets sent Yang hurtling towards the thief with a pistol, she crashed into him like an out of control missile, knocking both of them to the ground.The impact amplified the pain coursing through Yang's body, her vision going blurry again.
The other thug raised his wrench, preparing to bring it down on her head. The crack of a rifle filled the cold night air, launching the wrench out of the thug's hands and onto the street. The thug stood there, stunned, as the sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the alley.
"Stand down," a hauntingly familiar voice called out in a sharp tone.
It had been years, over a decade even since Yang heard that voice but she would know it anywhere. It must have been her mind playing tricks on her, there was just no way.
As the two thugs scrambled away as fast as they could, a figure that appeared to be her sister Ruby approached, her black and red hair was unmistakable. Yang realized her head must have been more scrambled than she realized because she could swear Ruby looked taller somehow, her outfit was all wrong and her cape was white.
Yang blinked, hard. Air escaping from her lungs like she'd just been punched as she got a better look at the bewildered woman looking down at her.
This confirmed it, Yang had to be dead, there was little doubt in her mind. How else could she explain what was standing before her? How else could she be looking at her late mom, alive and well?
"Yang?" Summer Rose said in disbelief.
- - - - - - - - - - -
"There you are," Blake Belladonna said as she grabbed her weapon, Gambol Shroud, off the top of a storage bin. A quick once revealed the weapon's ribbon was half gone, the edges brunt, still smelling faintly of smoke. Annoying but easily fixed.
"Good, After the day we've had, we wouldn't want any of us to go unarmed for long," her teammate, Weiss remarked.
The two's gaze turned towards the city around them. They had never walked down this street before, Blake was certain of that. But the style of buildings, the kinds of signs they were seeing, the noises, the smells, the people, it was all very familiar, which should have been impossible.
"So not to be too blunt, but are we dead?" Weiss asked quietly as she looked around, contemplating the sights before her, "Because this is Mantle but that shouldn't be possible, right?"
"I think we would know if we were dead," Blake replied.
"Yes but how do you explain that?" Weiss said as she gestured to the rocky underside of Atlas that dominated much of the night sky.
"Do you really think the afterlife looks like Atlas?" Blake quipped.
"Fair point," Weiss muttered to herself, "but none of this makes any sense."
Despite her remark, Blake shared Weiss's confusion. Atlas was intact, no signs of Salem's attack,no signs Atlas was about to crash, the streets were filled with people just going about their lives, it was like the last few days hadn't happened.
"I can't think of anything that makes sense," Blake agreed, "But there's no way we're dead, I'm sure of that."
'Don't Fall,' That was Ambrosius's warning, and they had broken it, Cinder and Neo kicking all four of them off the platform. But the Relic's spirit had never specified what would happen if they did. It wasn't death like Blake had feared, so what had happened?
"Well if we're fine, then that means the others should be as well," Blake said as she tried to put Ambrosius's words out of her thoughts, "We should find them."
"Right," Weiss nodded in agreement.
The two made their way through Mantle, doing their best to seem like two ordinary Huntresses just making their way through the city.
Mantle was a truly bizarre sight for both Weiss and Blake. It wasn't just that there was no sign of Salem or her attack, there was no signs of General Ironwood either. No giant propaganda posters, no screens telling everyone to obey curfews. There were still patrols but they didn't garner the same amount of unease from nearby civilians, and the equipment was different somehow; the androids were bigger, and chunky looking, each step they took had an almost exaggerated stiffness to it.
"Do we even know where we're going?" Weiss said as they walked, trying to make sense of what they were seeing.
Blake stopped. She didn't have a plan at the moment, they were in Mantle, but the city, perhaps the whole kingdom of Atlas, wasn't the same one they knew, as impossible as such a thing seemed.
"Pietro's clinic," Blake declared, "It's the most likely place for Ruby and Yang to go, Pietro should be able to help us look for them if they're not there, and if this is another simulation, we should be able to tell by his behavior. Either way, it seems like our best chance."
Blake didn't think this was a simulation. The people around them seemed too full of life, the world contained too many details. But this whole situation was so strange she didn't feel comfortable ruling the option out.
"What if Pietro isn't there?" Weiss asked quietly, "Or his clinic doesn't even exist?"
Blake could have sworn she saw a shadow pass over Weiss's face at the mention of Penny's father but she wasn't sure.
"Then that gives us a good idea of just how much things have changed around here," Blake replied, "No matter what, we'll make some sort of progress."
Weiss nodded, "Right, that makes sense."
"Hey, give me that, you animal!" The sound of a man yelling caught both of their attention.
The two turned to see a man in a blue buffy jacket and a flushed red face trying struggling with all his might to pull a book out of the hands of a young girl who had brown hair with two hyena ears on top of her head.
"It's my book!" The faunus girl argued as she held onto the book for dear life, "My dad gave it to me."
There was a small group of kids behind the girl watching on with a mix of fear and anger, most of them having some of Faunus traits like ears, feathers or claws. Blake spotted a number of humans watching the scene as well, with most just walking by. She could sense a few of them staring at her, particularly her ears.
"Liar, I bet you can't even read!" The man snarled.
Blake's expression hardened, after all they had been through this incident seemed so small but seeing this guy be so bigoted to a child just gnawed at Blake's inside. She was tired, she had been through hell for the past few days, her patience had been pressed thin, part of her really wanted to just deck this guy.
"Well I guess some things haven't changed," Weiss muttered angrily, "Sir, are you trying to steal from an actual child?"
"She's the thief!" The man snapped as he turned towards Weiss, his expression hardening as he spotted Blake, "I don't have to justify myself to an animal lover and her cat," he spat the last word like a curse.
"Nope, not in the mood for this right now," Weiss said calmly as she pulled out her blade.
A black glyph appeared under the man, causing him to hover slightly in the air as he let go of the book. The man let out a confused cry before he was yeeted into a nearby dumpster.
"I really don't think that's how you should handle every bigot we come across," Blake remarked.
'Even if it is funny,' she added mentally.
"Ehh, still worth it," Weiss shrugged.
The kids stared at Weiss, timid and confused.
"It was my book, I swear." The hyena girl said as she clutched the book tightly.
"I don't doubt it," Weiss replied gently, "The idiot probably just left his copy somewhere."
"Thank you," the girl replied.
It was at that point that Blake noticed there was a camera mounted to one of the nearby buildings, its lens focused on Weiss.
"ATTENTION ATTENTION, CRIMINAL ACTIVITY DETECTED!" A loud, shrill, robotic voice declared as a half-dozen androids stiffly began to march into the street. "YOU ARE BEING DETAINED, DO NOT RESIST!"
The kids scattered into a nearby alley as Blake and Weiss both let out a groan of exhausted frustration. This day was about to get even longer for the both of them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ruby Rose awoke to a faceful of snow and ice, the cold stinging like so many needles poking at her cheeks.
She pulled herself up, wiping away the snow from her face as she looked around nervously, eyes scanning for any sign of Neo or familiar faces that we're just a bit too quiet. But there was no one, no Neo, no sign of her team or Crescent Rose, just the dark, cold mountains that surrounded her and the barest hint of a road through the tundra.
A brief check of her scroll revealed it to be dead, though Ruby couldn't tell if it was just out of power or if it had broken somehow.
Ruby wasn't sure exactly where she was but she knew she was still in the Kingdom of Atlas at least. Presumably near one of the mines if the ice road was anything to go by. This wasn't great but it was salvageable.
'Unlike our plans'
Ruby pushed away the thought as best she could. She just needed to get to one of the mines, find some way to charge her scroll, and get in contact with uncle Qrow and her team. If she ended up here after falling off surely Yang and anyone else who fell would be close by. Once she found them, Qrow should have access to an airship so they could simply just fly to Vacuo and reunite with Oscar and the others there. It would be slower but this hopefully wouldn't change her plans too much. They could still get to Vacuo fairly easily.
'And then what?' Ruby wondered as she began to march through the snow, 'Cinder has the relics, Salem has the relics, how do we stop that?'
"Stop that," She whispered to herself. She couldn't afford to think like that, not right now. She couldn't afford to stop and mull over her fears and regrets, she couldn't afford to stop at all, not in this cold anyways. She needed to find shelter. Her aura was only just starting to recover and she could feel the cold biting into her harder and harder with each passing moment.
Ruby followed the trail for a few minutes, the cold and her own doubts constantly trying to drag her down with each step, until she heard the sounds of battle in the distance.
For a moment doubt held Ruby in place. She was unarmed, exhausted, useless, and defeated. What good could she do? What could she possibly hope to accomplish at this point?
And yet despite these doubts, further sounds of gunfire pushed Ruby to move, her legs almost acting on their own as they pushed her forward.
Ruby came upon a truck stranded in the middle of the snow, Grimm surrounding it as a lone figure stood atop the vehicle, fighting against the pack of Sabyrs.
From what Ruby could see the man seemed like a skilled Huntsman,with him slamming one of his dual maces into the skull of one of the attacking Sabyrs, causing part of Grimm's head to shatter in a shower of boney plate before the creature limply fell to the snow and began dissolving into so much ichor
But the man was being overwhelmed, the Sabyrs had him surrounded on all sides now.
After a moment of doubt, Ruby sprang into action. In an instant Ruby vanished, replaced with a storm of red rose petals that flew across the ice, whipping up much of the snow around her.
The huntsman gazed at the sight in confusion as Ruby transformed back, she only had a moment before one of the Grimm attacked, ruining her plan and putting both of them in grave danger.
"Sorry" Ruby said simply as she grabbed the huntsman, the two of them quickly transforming into another burst of petals, Ruby dashing through the Grimm pack before the two landed on a nearby snowbank.
"Excellent timing!" the Huntsmen replied, "Had I stayed up there much longer, those Grimm would have destroyed the cargo, completely ruining this mission."
Ruby noticed metal covering much of his arms and neck, almost like a second skin. Apparently he wasn't in much danger as she had thought.
"Where is your weapon?" The huntsman asked as the Grimm began to turn around.
"I uh, lost it," Ruby said sheepishly
"Lost it?" The man questioned with a raised eyebrow, "No matter, I'll take it from here."
The man made quick work of the attacking Grimm, taking down a few with first dust shots before closing in to deal with the remaining few. His semblance allowed him to easily shrug off bites as he smashed the Sabyrs apart.
"You have my thanks," The man said after he finished off the last of the Grimm, "I'm not sure how those Grimm managed to get the jump on me, must have gotten careless. Again, your timing was most amazing. May I ask your name?"
"Ruby Rose," Ruby introduced herself cautiously, "Who are you?"
He was a tall man with brown hair, wearing a rich blue vest decorated with bronze buttons.Besides his two mace-guns he had two short swords at his sides well.
The lack of uniform meant he wasn't SDC, probably wasn't part of the Atlas military either. Ruby couldn't imagine Ironwood sending someone out here, especially not now. So what was he doing out here?
"My name is Rhodes, it is a pleasure to meet you Ruby," He said as his eyes scanned the horizon, "We should talk more in the truck. The longer we stay out here the more we risk attracting more Grimm."
A distant howl served to strengthen Rhodes' point.
Ruby didn't know what to make of Rhodes, he seemed calm considering everything that was going on, and why would there be a lone huntsman out in the snow when Atlas was being overrun? But Ruby couldn't imagine Salem putting a random agent out in the middle of nowhere. And the only alternative she could see was wandering aimlessly through the snow, hoping to find some sort of sign of life or familiar landmark.
"Yeah that sounds like a good idea," Ruby agreed as the two of them quickly made their way to the truck.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Summer Rose wasn't even supposed to be here, she was just supposed to stop here for some supplies and some intel from a contact, in and out of Atlas in less than a day. Quick enough that no one, not Salem, not Ozpin, would even realize she was there.
She should have been leaving by this point, the longer she stayed the more she risked compromising her mission, her plan. But that yellow light in the sky, something in her gut told her she needed to investigate.
She didn't have to travel far, the light slammed into the side of a nearby building before landing in one of the mantle back alleys. Despite her speed she wasn't the first one there, there were two thieves looking to make a quick bit of Lien, standing over the collapsed form of a young woman with long blonde hair.
Raven would have encouraged Summer to just turn away and run, maybe fire a shot in the air to spook them. She had much more important things to be doing, getting involved in this risk exposure. All true, but that wasn't how Summer handled things.
To her surprise, the girl on the ground had plenty of fight left in her, launching herself at one of her would be attacks. A quick shot from Sundred Rose knocked the weapon out of the other guy's hand.
"Stand down," Summer warned as she approached.
The two quickly ran off,clearly not interested or prepared for any sort of real fight. Summer approached the girl on the ground, had this girl been that strange streak of light? How? Was it just an unusually semblance used during a fight gone wrong or-
Summer halted in place, breath catching in her throat. The girl staring back at her had Raven's face, only her long hair was blonde, the same color as Tai's, and her eyes were a familar bright red for a moment before becoming lilac, just like Yang's.
Summer stared at the girl in shock, her mind struggling to make sense of what she was seeing.
The girl stared up at her, a clear look of bewildered recognition etched into her face.
"Yang?" Summer blurted out, her question coming out before she even realized what she was saying.
It was mad, and impossible. Her eldest daughter was kingdoms away and not even a third of this woman's age but the more she looked at this girl the more she saw her teammate and her husband staring back at her.
It was a mad thought clearly, a trick of the light or something and this woman was probably just baffled why Summer was calling her by some random name.
"Mom?" the girl replied in a bewildered tone that struck Summer to her core.
It wasn't possible, it couldn't be, Yang was a little girl barely old enough to go to school, she couldn't be this woman and yet part of Summer's mind couldn't help but think that somehow this woman had to be Yang.
The two stared at each other as the woman who looked so much like Yang quickly pulled herself to her feet. Summer looked her over, she was wearing khaki overalls with a fur-trimmed dark brown jacket. She was tall, strong, with one arm seemingly made of metal that was painted gold and a very dark gray.
Summer's mind scrambled for some sort of explanation. Was this someone playing mind tricks with her, a clone, had Salem somehow artificially aged her daughter and dropped her in the middle of Mantle? Each explanation seemed more impossible then the one before it but her mind was struggling to make any sense of it.
Her daughter was a little girl back on Patch, so why did this woman look so much like her, why did she recognize Summer and call her mom?
"Is this real?" The woman who looked like Yang questioned, her voice tired yet full of hope and confusion.
"Are you Yang, really?" Summer questioned, "Just tell me the truth, please." She didn't know what else to say or ask at that moment.
The woman looked over Summer for a moment, her eyes focusing on something intently before she spoke.
"You read the "The Girl Who Fell Through the World" to us the night you left, though Ruby and I had both fallen asleep before you finished," Yang explained. "You left your silver emblem on our nightstand, which you had never done before. You also made us chocolate chip cookies earlier that night but you ran out of chocolate chips-"
"So I had to break up pieces of candy bars for the last batch." Summer finished, her knees threatening to give out beneath her out of shock.
That was the night she left for this weekend. Maybe Tai told someone about the cookies but Summer couldn't imagine anyone knowing what story she had picked, no one besides her and her daughters.
Sense gave way to overwhelming emotion as both Summer and Yang rushed towards each other. Grabbing each other in a tight hug. Summer didn't know how this was happening but there was little doubt in her mind that this woman was Yang.
Yang held onto her tightly, in clear disbelief that was even happening.
"Mom," Yang spoke, her cracking as she struggled to hold back tears, "Am I dead?"
Summer's bewilderment only increased at the question.
"Why would you think that?" She asked.
"Because you never came home. You left and never returned," Yang said tearfully, "You've been dead, or worse, for thirteen years."
Yang's words hit Summer like a bolt of lightning. She stood there, holding her daughter, unsure of what to do as she realized all her plans for stopping Salem would end in miserable failure.
And yet, if what Yang was saying was true, that meant Summer had a chance to change things, create a world where her daughter wasn't missing an arm or mourning for her lost mother. Set right whatever mistakes she had or was about to make.
Summer looked around, noticing a small but growing number of people looking in their direction. They were drawing too much attention.
With great reluctance, Summer Rose broke the hug.
"Come, let's go somewhere more private," she told her daughter, "then you can explain to me what happened, how you got there."
Summer knew she wasn't going to like any of the answers Yang had for her, but she needed to hear them all the same.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Author's Note: Recent events, particularly very recent possibly hopeful news has gotten me very interested in writing RWBY again. Though I'm not quite ready to return to my ongoing fics as it is, though I don't consider them dead either to be clear. So I decided to finally put into words an idea I've had bouncing around my head since mid-volume 8. To be clear, absolutely love Ever After. Volume 9 is probably my second favorite volume in all of RWBY. I am at the moment currently without a beta so if anyone is interested in the role, please let me know, I would be most grateful. Feedback is always incredibly appericated. Thanks and I hope you enjoy
Last edited:
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Of course fate would dump Yang right in front of summer. 
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thank you.
I've seen a few ones where the end up at the start of the show and that's pretty interesting but I wanna explore just how much they can do this far back.
Fate: "We heard you had questions about what happened to your mom so we decided to delivery you straight to the source."Of course fate would dump Yang right in front of summer.
I've always been a fan of Yang's relationship with Summer Rose and wanted a chance to explore it
Having already read and reviewed this before there is not a lot I can say but it is ice to see this and you in general posting again.
This story concept is super fun to say the least, and has the characters landing as just the perfect junction in time to make things really spiral off in unexpected ways.
Everyone felt very in character and I enjoyed all the descriptions and framing and general conversation pieces you included, the world feels very alive and the cast suitably dynamic, confused but neither foolish nor ridiculously over aware.
The final scene was so good in how it came together and mirrored the first, kudos!
This story concept is super fun to say the least, and has the characters landing as just the perfect junction in time to make things really spiral off in unexpected ways.
Everyone felt very in character and I enjoyed all the descriptions and framing and general conversation pieces you included, the world feels very alive and the cast suitably dynamic, confused but neither foolish nor ridiculously over aware.
The final scene was so good in how it came together and mirrored the first, kudos!
Chapter 1.2
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Chapter 1.2
"Here, you look like you need this," Summer said as she all but forced a small canteen and an energy bar into Yang's hands.
Yang thanked her in a quiet, uncertain tone.
Summer watched as Yang inhaled the bar in a few quick bites before drinking deeply from the canteen. The girl was, thankfully, not seriously hurt. Summer could see few signs of any fresh injuries, but even a brief glance showed that Yang was beyond exhausted. Her eyes were heavy and almost bloodshot, and her breathing was heavy even after that brief scuffle.
Then there was her arm, Summer was trying her best not to stare at her daughter's artificial arm. Just thinking about it was twisting her stomach in knots, someone or something had maimed her little girl.
Summer knew there was little chance her girls could escape the life of a Huntress. She didn't want that life for them, but the Xiao Longs and Roses had been Huntsmen and Huntresses for generations, the Branwens were nomads who often acted like Bandits. Fighting and hunting grimm was in their blood. It was horrifying to see just what that life would mean for them.
The two of them had found a closed down factory to hide in, all but hiding in the manager's office, the only light that of the shattered moon coming in from a dusty window. Yang was sitting on an oversized chair while Summer stood in front of her, silver eyes wide with concern.
The mother in Summer wanted to do nothing more than to hug Yang until her arms were sore, comfort her as best she could and then find a hotel somewhere and let Yang sleep for as long as she wanted. But the Huntress in her knew better.
At worst, whatever threw Yang into the past followed her somehow. If there was a new enemy in Atlas, one with thirteen years of insight at its disposal. Summer needed to know now so she could track it or them down before the trail went cold and on Mantle, that happened awfully quickly.
On the other hand though, Yang had thirteen years of knowledge as well. Summer hoped against all odds that her daughter had not been dragged into Ozpin's war against Salem, maybe she wasn't, maybe things were peaceful, as unlikely as that now seemed, and Summer's whole plan had been gross overkill. But if she was involved, Yang would probably know a great deal about her future plans. Where Salem was planning to strike next, what institutions and organizations Salem had subverted. In theory, a lot of deaths could be averted with just a few words from Yang.
'Including my own' Summer realized.
Summer shook the thought away, it didn't matter now, she had scrapped that mission the moment she found Yang. Whatever came of this, she was going to make it back home.
"Let's start with the basics, do you think anyone else fell with you?" She asked cautiously.
Yang shook her head, "No," She said before pausing, "At least I hope not. If the others fell then that means things really went badly."
"Well, who was with you before you fell?" Summer probed.
Yang was young, not as young as she should have been in Summer's eyes, but still young, probably fresh out Beacon. So odds were good she was still fighting alongside her team. And any team of huntsmen worth a damn would not have abandoned their teammates.
"Well there was, my team," Yang replied, "Weiss, Blake, Ruby. And our friends Penny and Jaune"
"Ruby?" Summer blinked hard in surprise, "You're on a team with your sister?"
"Yeah," Yang nodded. "She's actually the leader. We're Team RWBY."
"But you two should have been years apart," Summer questioned, "You would practically be graduating by the time she entered the academy."
"Well Ozpin let her in early after she stopped a dust robbery," Yang explained.
"Ozpin, of course," Summer groaned in frustration as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
Summer should have known that Oz would find a way into her kid's lives sooner or later. She'd insisted to him once that he didn't need them, that Salem wasn't lurking around every corner, he was already wasting the agents he had hunting down false leads and ghost stories. But Ozpin wasn't always the best listener. and the longer she looked at Yang the more she feared she'd been wrong.
Still, she had always hoped that Yang and Ruby would avoid her fate, that they might even have a chance at a normal life.
"I am going to have words with that man next time I'm at Beacon," Summer said, "So, there's a chance your sister might be here as well?"
Yang nodded.
The thought of meeting Ruby sat strangely with Summer. This girl must have become someone truly amazing, handling the terrible mantle of both a Huntress and a leader at such a young age. But her little girl back home wasn't even old enough to go to school yet. This Ruby, she grew up without Summer, she probably didn't even remember her.
She knew there was a risk of her not coming home from this mission, a very high risk. But Summer always told herself it was worth it to protect her family and give the girls a better future. One glance at Yang's arm told her that failed utterly
'Definitely going home when this is all done,' Summer told herself.
Summer hid her worries behind a warm smile.
"If she's here, we'll find her. If she's not, I'll make sure you get back to her, I promise." Summer assured her daughter, "Now I have to ask, what happened before you fell here? What were you and your team doing?"
Summer got the impression they were on some sort of mission but that it must have been one wild mission
Yang's expression grew fearful, her eyes staring at the ground as her body became tense.
"We've been through a lot recently," Yang said hesitantly, "I-I…I don't want to freak you out."
"It involves Salem, doesn't it?" Summer interrupted with sudden realization.
"Yeah," Yang said with a sigh.
That hit Summer like a punch to the chest. Her daughters weren't just part of Ozpin's inner circle, they were in deep. STQR had nearly graduated Beacon before they had any idea who Ozpin's main enemy even was.
Yang breathed in deep, preparing herself for what she had to say.
"You can just give me the basics for now if you want," Summer said as she put a reassuring hand on Yang's shoulder.
She didn't want to press, but if she was going to even try to get Yang back to her time then she needed to have some idea what had gone down.
"Salem attacked Atlas," Yang said flatly, "We tried to fight back but between Salem's attack, Cinder, and Ironwood losing his mind, it wasn't enough. So ended up using the Relic of Creation to evacuate the kingdom. And it worked, until Cinder and Neo attacked."
Yang shook her head in frustration, holding her artificial wrist in a clear effort to calm herself down.
"The relic, it created this massive bridge in a void that connected all the portals to Vacuo," she explained, "We were on the bridge when they attacked. Cinder had us all distracted but I spotted Neo going to attack Ruby, I pushed her out of the way.. And then…I fell."
Summer stood there, silent as she stared at her time-lost daughter, her silver eyes wide with fear. Summer could almost hear her own heart hammering inside her chest as she used every ounce of willpower she had to avoid screaming at that moment.
Summer had been prepared to sacrifice her life for a chance at stopping Salem, and not only had it not worked. Her children were forced to fight in a war that had escalated far beyond anything she could imagine.
Towns falling to Grimm was nothing new, Summer had seen it more times than she cared to count. But Atlas? The strongest kingdom in Remnant and the only one left that had an actual military? For Salem to launch an attack so terrible that the entire kingdom had to be evacuated? Things must have been far worse than any of them could have imagined for that to be possible.
"W-when you say Salem attacked," Summer stuttered slight as her curiosity got the best of her, "Do you just mean she launched a horde of Grimm-"
"No," Yang replied as she stood up,"She was there, I fought her."
"Oh," Summer said, all but stunned, "You-you fought her?"
"Well I tried to," Yang said dismissively.
Summer grabbed her in another hug, embracing her daughter tightly, hand holding the back of her head.
She'd had nightmares like this. A pale shadow looming over her daughters' beds, Grimm sacking their house when they were away. But even that somehow felt trivial compared to the idea of one of her girls directly fighting the Grimm Queen.
"I'm sorry," Summer whispered, "I'm so sorry. I should have been there, I should never have left you two to face this war alone."
"Mom, it's okay." Yang replied as choked back tears, "It's not your fault, you would have come back if you could have."
Summer bit back a surge of shame. She'd failed as a parent, a spouse, and a huntress. But that didn't matter, Yang had given her a chance to fix all of that.
"I'm proud to see the woman you've become," Summer reassured her daughter as tears began to flow, "You did great, you and your sister both."
The room became filled with the sounds of sniffing as both women began to openly cry for a moment.
Eventually Summer let go, the huntress part of her brain forcing her to focus on the situation.
"Okay, we should focus on the present for the moment," she said as she wiped her eyes, "Well I suppose for you it's- You know what I mean. We need to figure out if there are any more lights in the sky, see if your sister or any of your teammates are here."
"What do we do if they're not?" Yang asked.
"Then we find the nearest hotel and get you some much needed sleep," Summer replied with a sympathetic look, "Tomorrow I'll send a message to Ozpin, he's our best bet at getting to the Relic."
As horrifying as Yang's future sounded, at least the details about the Relic made things fairly simple. If the relic is the reason Yang was in the past then the Relic would be able to send her back, assuming Yang even wanted to go back.
But that was a question for another time.
A shrill alarm sounded through the nearby street, red flashing lights indicating that there was a nearby crime in progress.
The sounds and sights immediately snapped Yang to attention.
"I'm gonna go investigate!" She said as she raced towards the door.
"Wait, you think that could be your team?" Summer asked in surprise.
"Considering everything we've been through with the military, yeah." Yang replied.
- - - - - - -
Professor Locasta, Headmistress of Atlas Academy, sat at her desk, her pale face illuminated by the glowing screen in front of her.
She should be in bed, sleep was luxury for an Academy headmaster and tonight she was squandering it looking at footage of some stupid lights in the sky.
She should be asleep, these lights were probably nothing, maybe some unusual atmospheric phenomena, and yet, something about them struck Locasta, leaving her with a mental itch she had yet to scratch.
She had caught sight of them by simple chance, she had just finished reviewing proposals for a new training room in the academy and decided to step outside her office, enjoying the cold night air when she saw them, two comets streaking through the sky, one glowing a brilliant purple, the other a bright blue that looked almost like a neon sign hanging in the night air.
They had just appeared, one moment the sky was empty, the next there were two bright lights in the air, just above the clouds. That simply should not have been possible.
To make it even more confusing, the two comets quickly crashed into Mantle at speeds so fast Locasta could barely make sense of it. At those speeds that should have meant destruction and devastation and yet there was none of that, the lights simply vanished into the city, seemingly unnoticed by Atlas at large.
Locasta had spent enough time working with Ozpin to know when some truly unusual things were occurring but even for her this was just plain weird. Weird enough that she knew she had to investigate further.
'Damn you, Ozpin. Damn you for making me so curious and paranoid.' Locasta thought to herself.
Once you knew about Salem, what she was, how impossibly ancient she was, it was hard not to look at every shadow, every missing huntsman, and fear it might be the worst.
An hour of scanning through security camera footage, access to which she technically wasn't supposed to have access to outside of Academy facilities but what the military didn't know couldn't hurt her, only furthered her confusion. She had spotted a further two supposed comets, one silver and the other pink, the former vanished before she could figure out where it was going but the other landed in the northern part of Mantle. Unfortunately the thing had landed in the middle of construction for the newest skyscraper, so no footage or eyewitnesses.
Part of Locasta's brain was telling her this was a waste of time, those lights were clearly just a trick of the light or some natural phenomena, if nothing else they weren't connected to the Grimm or their elusive queen.
And yet, she couldn't get that first moment out of her brain, they didn't enter the atmosphere, they just appeared mid-air. To her that smelled of magic, and if magic was involved that was definitely something she needed to know more about.
'Is Ozpin behind this?' she wondered, despite how absurd it felt. The man was a mentor, a friend even, but he was almost as mysterious and magical as Salem herself.
There was a knock at her office door.
"It opens," Locasta declared, her eyes glued to her screen as she took a sip of coffee.
One of the security officers poked his head in, the young man stared at her nervously.
"You told us to report if anything unusual happened, and I-we think we might have found something, ma'am" The man said hesitantly
"Is there a reason you're telling me this from the hallway?" Locasta questioned with a cold glare, "come in."
The man timidly made his way in, there was something strapped to his back. The man looked barely older than some of her students, must have been a new hire, the new hires were always nervous around her..
"Well, what did you find?" She asked impatiently.
"A uh, sword fell near me ma'am," the guard said as he pulled it off his back, "thing nearly stabbed me through the foot."
"A sword?" Locasta questioned.
"Yes ma'am," he replied.
"Are you sure that wasn't just a careless student?" she asked dismissively. Highly unlikely, Atlas didn't have many careless students. The kingdom couldn't afford lax huntsmen, but a healthy amount of skepticism rarely hurt.
Guard shook his head.
"I was patrolling on one of the towers, nothing above me save for the night sky and the shield."
Now that was quite surprising. Locasta motioned for the guard to present the sword.
The blade was bright green at the tip, almost glowing as the headmistress stared at it, getting darker as one got towards the grip to the point where the end looked burned black with green highlights on its edges.
The whole thing was quite unusual to behold, it looked like it was made of some kind of gemstone, though the weigh didn't back that up, and its construction was at once crude and elegant. The edge was a mess, full of sharp peaks and valleys, lines making it look like it was built out of pieces instead of cut from one piece of glass. And yet it felt solid, with no signs of any jagged edges.
"You can go now," Locasta declared as she picked up the sword, the thing feeling strangely warm to the touch.
The blade was maidan magic, of that she was sure. But it wasn't Fria's. Fria's creations were all ice and snow, she didn't make things like this, besides she was half a world away in Mistral on some glorified snipe hunt for Lionheart.
So there was possibly another Maiden here, unannounced, on the same night as those comets.
"Curious, very curious indeed." Locasta said as she stared at her reflection in the glass sword
- - - - - - - - -
Yang watched the streets cautiously from the alley, hoping her gut was wrong this time. If they weren't here then that meant everything was fine save for her disappearance.
A group of outdated looking androids walked past, Yang pressing herself against the side of the building as they scanned the area, sirens and orders to surrender blaring as they did.
After a moment, the machines passed by, disappearing down another street.
"Yang!" Weiss's voice dashed Yang's hope, "There you are, I'm so glad to see you're okay."
Yang turned to see Weiss standing in the alley behind her.
"Damnit! What are you doing here?" Yang shook her head in frustration.
"Well that's a fine way to say hello," Weiss snarked as she put her hands on her hips.
"Sorry," Yang apologized, "it's just if you're here that must mean things went really bad back-"
Yang's was interrupted, a Blake shaped blur slamming into her with enough force that Yang was on the ground with Blake's arms wrapped around her before she even realized what had happened.
"Yang," Blake breathed with a sigh of relief.
Yang craddled Blake's head as she pulled her closer. Her warmth making the cold around them seem like a distant memory. Any fears she had over them being here washed away, Blake was back and all seemed right again. Yang never wanted this moment to end.
"Oh my," Summer said in quiet surprise.
And it was at that moment that Yang realized her mom was looking right at her. Quickly she and Blake pulled themselves up.
Weiss and Blake stared at Summer in confusion, Weiss taking a step back as she blinked a few times, her wide blue eyes filled with disbelief.
"Did Ruby change outfits, and suddenly get older?" Weiss asked.
"I suppose introductions are in order," Yang said as she brushed some of the dirt off her back, "Blake, Weiss, this is my mom, Summer Rose. Mom, these are my teammates, Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee."
Weiss and Blake both stared at Yang like she had just announced she was a 400 ft tall purple bear with silver horns.
"Your mom?" Weiss said skeptically.
Yang nodded.
"How?!" Weiss asked in disbelief.
"We're thirteen years in the past," Yang explained flatly.
Somehow, Weiss's eyes grew even wider at Yang's words. The alley fell silent as both Weiss and Blake struggled to digest what they had just heard.
"Are we sure we're not in another simulation?" Weiss questioned
Blake ignored the question, "That would explain why those robots looked so out of date, and no sign of General Ironwood's propaganda." She said thoughtfully.
"But how?! This is-We were trying to get from one part of Remnant to another, why would falling send us back in time? This makes no sense!" Weiss became more and more animated as she spoke.
"I don't know, but we're here now." Yang declared simply
Her mom approached her two teammates, a warm smile on her face as she said, "I don't know how you got here but it is wonderful to meet you both."
Blake's posture shifted ever so subtly into something more regal as she took Summer's hand and answered back, "It is wonderful to meet you ma'am, Yang has always spoken so highly of you."
"It is wonderful to meet you as well," Weiss said with a small bow, "You already seem much nicer than Yang's other mom,"
Yang winced at the mention of Raven. She hadn't had the time to mention her or the others encounters with Raven yet, and frankly, Yang wasn't even sure she wanted to bring up Raven at all.
Weiss looked stricken and embrassed. She was about to apologize but Summer spoke first
"So you've met Raven?" she said, her face unreadable.
"Yeah," Yang replied half-hearted.
"Tai and I always intended to tell you the truth when you were a bit older," Summer began.
"Mom it's fine," Yang insisted, "I met her, didn't go well, realized I was wasting my time, and I moved on. Don't worry about it."
There was a time when Yang desperately wanted to meet Raven, know her, have her be her mom to some meaningful extent. But even as a kid, she never stopped thinking of Summer as her mom. At most she wanted Raven to fill the void in her life that Summer's disappearance had created.
To Yang's surprise, Summer didn't seem relieved like she thought she might be, if anything her mom looked a bit distraught over what she was saying.
"How bad was it?" Summer asked hesitantly.
"Well for starters, she and her tribe kidnapped Weiss," Yang said as Weiss nodded in agreement, "She then tried to refuse me when I asked for help getting to Ruby and Uncle Qrow."
She also betrayed them to work with Cinder, only to turn on Cinder for her own interests, to say nothing of killing the Spring Maiden and taking the powers for herself. There was a fair bit more Yang could say about Raven but that was for later.
"She went back to her clan?" Summer said to herself, a surprising flash of anger appearing on her face, her hands tightening at her side, "And taking Teenagers hostage? That doesn't sound like her. What happened to you, Raven?"
Yang was more than a bit confused by how disappointed Summer seemed by this news. Raven had abandoned Yang when she was a baby, how was any of this new to her?
Her mom straightened up, her attention returned to Weiss and Blake with renewed focus.
"Raven's a topic for another time," Summer declared, "Did anyone else fall with you? Is Ruby here?"
Weiss and Blake nodded.
"We tried to rescue Ruby after Cinder kicked her and Neo off but Cinder burned my ribbon," Blake explained as she held up the burnt remains of said ribbon, "I lost my grip on Ruby as we were falling, I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Yang assured her, placing a hand on Blake's shoulder as she looked at Weiss, "Did anyone else fall?"
"I don't think so," Weiss said, hand on her chin, "Jaune and I were both hit by the same attack but I didn't see him fall."
She hesitated for a moment, sorrow written across her face for a moment.
"Nora and the others made it through, at least." Weiss finished quickly.
"So just our team and Neo," Yang summarized, sighing in frustration.
If they all fell that meant things must have gone rather bad up there. Hopefully Penny or Nora had the relic at least.
"Wait, Neo," Summer spoke up, her voice suddenly tense, "That's one of Salem's agents, right?"
"Sort of," Blake answered, "She was originally just working for Roman Torchwick, the two were stealing dust for Cinder back in Vale. She's been working with Cinder here in Atlas."
"And considering Cinder pushed her off along with Ruby," Weiss added, "I think we can say that partnership is over."
"So someone who worked for Salem came along as well," Summer said, again talking mostly to herself, "Damnit!"
Hearing her mom swear startled Yang. She knew in theory her mom was capable of it but actually experiencing it felt wrong, like some sort of unspoken taboo had been broken.
"Alright, here's the plan," Summer said with a clap of her hands, "First things first we need to find Ruby, thankfully she should be close by. After that I will get in contact with the Headmistress at Atlas Academy. The sooner we have people hunting for this Neo woman the better."
Yang and the rest of her team stared at her mom awkwardly.
"Couldn't we just deal with Neo ourselves?" Yang asked, "I mean her semblance will make her a pain to find but she's going to be completely lost, without any allies. She can't do that much harm besides attacking us"
"No," Summer shook her head, "If Salem finds her or she goes to her then Neo could hurt all of Remnant. Think of all the things this woman might know about your future, now imagine what Salem could with it"
Yang had been having similar thoughts running through her head. On the one hand, Cinder had clearly betrayed her and was more than willing to kill Neo. But on the other hand that didn't mean Salem had betrayed Neo, or that Neo might be unwilling to work with her.
The thought sent a shudder of fear down Yang's back. Salem had been winning so far but at least there was a chance at stopping her, no matter what Ozpin thought. Neo could make things a thousand times worse.
"That's a fair point," Blake said, "But I'm not sure going to Atlas for aid would help things. We tried working with General Ironwood but it ended up making everything worse."
"I don't know who this Ironwood is," Summer replied, "But I do know the woman in charge of Atlas Academy, Professor Locasta. She's a skilled huntress and she understands how dangerous Salem is."
A sudden knot of worry formed in Yang's chest as fears entered her thoughts.
"Do you know Leo Lionheart?" she asked.
Summer stared at her with growing unease. "Professor Lionheart? I haven't met him personally but Ozpin speaks well of him. Why?"
"He's working for Salem," Yang declared, "had been for years by our time, he aided the attack on Beacon, and sent who knows how many huntsmen to their deaths."
'And we could stop all that,' She realized. Get Lionheart out of power somehow and Cinder has no way to infiltrate Beacon, and all those Huntsmen at least have a better chance at living. So much changed by one act.
Was that even possible? Everything Yang had seen of the brothers gave her the impression they would never allow such a thing like that to happen, but she was here with her mom. She had saved her mom from death, something that should have been impossible.
"Why would he do that?" Summer's voice was filled with clear worry and confusion, "Leo's been fighting Grimm for years. Entire villages are alive because of that man. Why would he turn on us?"
"I think he was afraid," Yang offered, "Salem knows how terrifying she can be and uses it to her advantage. "
Yang thought back to Raven, how beneath all that arrogance and ego, it was clear Raven was terrified of Salem, and that fear had made her a worse person then the huntress her parents knew.
"And you think the same thing could have happened here?" Summer asked.
"It's possible," Weiss said.
"There's also the Atlas military to worry about" Blake interjected, "I don't want to imagine what General Ironwood would do if he learned of his future."
Yang looked at her mom with worry. She felt like they were overwhelming her with just how bad things will get in the future. And yet to Yang's surprise, while there was still fear in Summer's eyes, her expression was more intense than she had expected. Like she was taking notes in her head every time they spoke.
It admittedly should not have been a surprise, Yang's mother was a huntress, a team leader and someone who worked for Ozpin. Of course she would be making plans, but it it was still surprising to see a side to Summer that she had never really known before.
"Okay, I understand that trust is low here and none of us want Salem to catch wind of your existance," Summer said, taking a deep breath, "So, how about this, tomorrow morning I head to the CCT and contact Signal Academy. If I can reach Qrow or Tai, with some luck and fair weather, we could have one of them here by tomorrow night."
Yang nodded, "That would work, Qrow's helped us a lot these last few months and I know dad is a good tracker."
Weiss and Blake nodded in agreement. Whatever Qrow's flaws and mistakes, he was someone they knew for sure they could trust.
"Good, it's a plan then," Summer replied, "first things first though, we need to find you sister."
- - - - - - - - -
Author's Note: Special thanks to @Zam for looking this over and giving some great suggestions. Also my intention had originally been for there to be a Ruby section as well this update but it had already run fairly long so I decided to make this update focused on Yang and the others while next update will focus on Ruby and her situation.
"Here, you look like you need this," Summer said as she all but forced a small canteen and an energy bar into Yang's hands.
Yang thanked her in a quiet, uncertain tone.
Summer watched as Yang inhaled the bar in a few quick bites before drinking deeply from the canteen. The girl was, thankfully, not seriously hurt. Summer could see few signs of any fresh injuries, but even a brief glance showed that Yang was beyond exhausted. Her eyes were heavy and almost bloodshot, and her breathing was heavy even after that brief scuffle.
Then there was her arm, Summer was trying her best not to stare at her daughter's artificial arm. Just thinking about it was twisting her stomach in knots, someone or something had maimed her little girl.
Summer knew there was little chance her girls could escape the life of a Huntress. She didn't want that life for them, but the Xiao Longs and Roses had been Huntsmen and Huntresses for generations, the Branwens were nomads who often acted like Bandits. Fighting and hunting grimm was in their blood. It was horrifying to see just what that life would mean for them.
The two of them had found a closed down factory to hide in, all but hiding in the manager's office, the only light that of the shattered moon coming in from a dusty window. Yang was sitting on an oversized chair while Summer stood in front of her, silver eyes wide with concern.
The mother in Summer wanted to do nothing more than to hug Yang until her arms were sore, comfort her as best she could and then find a hotel somewhere and let Yang sleep for as long as she wanted. But the Huntress in her knew better.
At worst, whatever threw Yang into the past followed her somehow. If there was a new enemy in Atlas, one with thirteen years of insight at its disposal. Summer needed to know now so she could track it or them down before the trail went cold and on Mantle, that happened awfully quickly.
On the other hand though, Yang had thirteen years of knowledge as well. Summer hoped against all odds that her daughter had not been dragged into Ozpin's war against Salem, maybe she wasn't, maybe things were peaceful, as unlikely as that now seemed, and Summer's whole plan had been gross overkill. But if she was involved, Yang would probably know a great deal about her future plans. Where Salem was planning to strike next, what institutions and organizations Salem had subverted. In theory, a lot of deaths could be averted with just a few words from Yang.
'Including my own' Summer realized.
Summer shook the thought away, it didn't matter now, she had scrapped that mission the moment she found Yang. Whatever came of this, she was going to make it back home.
"Let's start with the basics, do you think anyone else fell with you?" She asked cautiously.
Yang shook her head, "No," She said before pausing, "At least I hope not. If the others fell then that means things really went badly."
"Well, who was with you before you fell?" Summer probed.
Yang was young, not as young as she should have been in Summer's eyes, but still young, probably fresh out Beacon. So odds were good she was still fighting alongside her team. And any team of huntsmen worth a damn would not have abandoned their teammates.
"Well there was, my team," Yang replied, "Weiss, Blake, Ruby. And our friends Penny and Jaune"
"Ruby?" Summer blinked hard in surprise, "You're on a team with your sister?"
"Yeah," Yang nodded. "She's actually the leader. We're Team RWBY."
"But you two should have been years apart," Summer questioned, "You would practically be graduating by the time she entered the academy."
"Well Ozpin let her in early after she stopped a dust robbery," Yang explained.
"Ozpin, of course," Summer groaned in frustration as she pinched the bridge of her nose.
Summer should have known that Oz would find a way into her kid's lives sooner or later. She'd insisted to him once that he didn't need them, that Salem wasn't lurking around every corner, he was already wasting the agents he had hunting down false leads and ghost stories. But Ozpin wasn't always the best listener. and the longer she looked at Yang the more she feared she'd been wrong.
Still, she had always hoped that Yang and Ruby would avoid her fate, that they might even have a chance at a normal life.
"I am going to have words with that man next time I'm at Beacon," Summer said, "So, there's a chance your sister might be here as well?"
Yang nodded.
The thought of meeting Ruby sat strangely with Summer. This girl must have become someone truly amazing, handling the terrible mantle of both a Huntress and a leader at such a young age. But her little girl back home wasn't even old enough to go to school yet. This Ruby, she grew up without Summer, she probably didn't even remember her.
She knew there was a risk of her not coming home from this mission, a very high risk. But Summer always told herself it was worth it to protect her family and give the girls a better future. One glance at Yang's arm told her that failed utterly
'Definitely going home when this is all done,' Summer told herself.
Summer hid her worries behind a warm smile.
"If she's here, we'll find her. If she's not, I'll make sure you get back to her, I promise." Summer assured her daughter, "Now I have to ask, what happened before you fell here? What were you and your team doing?"
Summer got the impression they were on some sort of mission but that it must have been one wild mission
Yang's expression grew fearful, her eyes staring at the ground as her body became tense.
"We've been through a lot recently," Yang said hesitantly, "I-I…I don't want to freak you out."
"It involves Salem, doesn't it?" Summer interrupted with sudden realization.
"Yeah," Yang said with a sigh.
That hit Summer like a punch to the chest. Her daughters weren't just part of Ozpin's inner circle, they were in deep. STQR had nearly graduated Beacon before they had any idea who Ozpin's main enemy even was.
Yang breathed in deep, preparing herself for what she had to say.
"You can just give me the basics for now if you want," Summer said as she put a reassuring hand on Yang's shoulder.
She didn't want to press, but if she was going to even try to get Yang back to her time then she needed to have some idea what had gone down.
"Salem attacked Atlas," Yang said flatly, "We tried to fight back but between Salem's attack, Cinder, and Ironwood losing his mind, it wasn't enough. So ended up using the Relic of Creation to evacuate the kingdom. And it worked, until Cinder and Neo attacked."
Yang shook her head in frustration, holding her artificial wrist in a clear effort to calm herself down.
"The relic, it created this massive bridge in a void that connected all the portals to Vacuo," she explained, "We were on the bridge when they attacked. Cinder had us all distracted but I spotted Neo going to attack Ruby, I pushed her out of the way.. And then…I fell."
Summer stood there, silent as she stared at her time-lost daughter, her silver eyes wide with fear. Summer could almost hear her own heart hammering inside her chest as she used every ounce of willpower she had to avoid screaming at that moment.
Summer had been prepared to sacrifice her life for a chance at stopping Salem, and not only had it not worked. Her children were forced to fight in a war that had escalated far beyond anything she could imagine.
Towns falling to Grimm was nothing new, Summer had seen it more times than she cared to count. But Atlas? The strongest kingdom in Remnant and the only one left that had an actual military? For Salem to launch an attack so terrible that the entire kingdom had to be evacuated? Things must have been far worse than any of them could have imagined for that to be possible.
"W-when you say Salem attacked," Summer stuttered slight as her curiosity got the best of her, "Do you just mean she launched a horde of Grimm-"
"No," Yang replied as she stood up,"She was there, I fought her."
"Oh," Summer said, all but stunned, "You-you fought her?"
"Well I tried to," Yang said dismissively.
Summer grabbed her in another hug, embracing her daughter tightly, hand holding the back of her head.
She'd had nightmares like this. A pale shadow looming over her daughters' beds, Grimm sacking their house when they were away. But even that somehow felt trivial compared to the idea of one of her girls directly fighting the Grimm Queen.
"I'm sorry," Summer whispered, "I'm so sorry. I should have been there, I should never have left you two to face this war alone."
"Mom, it's okay." Yang replied as choked back tears, "It's not your fault, you would have come back if you could have."
Summer bit back a surge of shame. She'd failed as a parent, a spouse, and a huntress. But that didn't matter, Yang had given her a chance to fix all of that.
"I'm proud to see the woman you've become," Summer reassured her daughter as tears began to flow, "You did great, you and your sister both."
The room became filled with the sounds of sniffing as both women began to openly cry for a moment.
Eventually Summer let go, the huntress part of her brain forcing her to focus on the situation.
"Okay, we should focus on the present for the moment," she said as she wiped her eyes, "Well I suppose for you it's- You know what I mean. We need to figure out if there are any more lights in the sky, see if your sister or any of your teammates are here."
"What do we do if they're not?" Yang asked.
"Then we find the nearest hotel and get you some much needed sleep," Summer replied with a sympathetic look, "Tomorrow I'll send a message to Ozpin, he's our best bet at getting to the Relic."
As horrifying as Yang's future sounded, at least the details about the Relic made things fairly simple. If the relic is the reason Yang was in the past then the Relic would be able to send her back, assuming Yang even wanted to go back.
But that was a question for another time.
A shrill alarm sounded through the nearby street, red flashing lights indicating that there was a nearby crime in progress.
The sounds and sights immediately snapped Yang to attention.
"I'm gonna go investigate!" She said as she raced towards the door.
"Wait, you think that could be your team?" Summer asked in surprise.
"Considering everything we've been through with the military, yeah." Yang replied.
- - - - - - -
Professor Locasta, Headmistress of Atlas Academy, sat at her desk, her pale face illuminated by the glowing screen in front of her.
She should be in bed, sleep was luxury for an Academy headmaster and tonight she was squandering it looking at footage of some stupid lights in the sky.
She should be asleep, these lights were probably nothing, maybe some unusual atmospheric phenomena, and yet, something about them struck Locasta, leaving her with a mental itch she had yet to scratch.
She had caught sight of them by simple chance, she had just finished reviewing proposals for a new training room in the academy and decided to step outside her office, enjoying the cold night air when she saw them, two comets streaking through the sky, one glowing a brilliant purple, the other a bright blue that looked almost like a neon sign hanging in the night air.
They had just appeared, one moment the sky was empty, the next there were two bright lights in the air, just above the clouds. That simply should not have been possible.
To make it even more confusing, the two comets quickly crashed into Mantle at speeds so fast Locasta could barely make sense of it. At those speeds that should have meant destruction and devastation and yet there was none of that, the lights simply vanished into the city, seemingly unnoticed by Atlas at large.
Locasta had spent enough time working with Ozpin to know when some truly unusual things were occurring but even for her this was just plain weird. Weird enough that she knew she had to investigate further.
'Damn you, Ozpin. Damn you for making me so curious and paranoid.' Locasta thought to herself.
Once you knew about Salem, what she was, how impossibly ancient she was, it was hard not to look at every shadow, every missing huntsman, and fear it might be the worst.
An hour of scanning through security camera footage, access to which she technically wasn't supposed to have access to outside of Academy facilities but what the military didn't know couldn't hurt her, only furthered her confusion. She had spotted a further two supposed comets, one silver and the other pink, the former vanished before she could figure out where it was going but the other landed in the northern part of Mantle. Unfortunately the thing had landed in the middle of construction for the newest skyscraper, so no footage or eyewitnesses.
Part of Locasta's brain was telling her this was a waste of time, those lights were clearly just a trick of the light or some natural phenomena, if nothing else they weren't connected to the Grimm or their elusive queen.
And yet, she couldn't get that first moment out of her brain, they didn't enter the atmosphere, they just appeared mid-air. To her that smelled of magic, and if magic was involved that was definitely something she needed to know more about.
'Is Ozpin behind this?' she wondered, despite how absurd it felt. The man was a mentor, a friend even, but he was almost as mysterious and magical as Salem herself.
There was a knock at her office door.
"It opens," Locasta declared, her eyes glued to her screen as she took a sip of coffee.
One of the security officers poked his head in, the young man stared at her nervously.
"You told us to report if anything unusual happened, and I-we think we might have found something, ma'am" The man said hesitantly
"Is there a reason you're telling me this from the hallway?" Locasta questioned with a cold glare, "come in."
The man timidly made his way in, there was something strapped to his back. The man looked barely older than some of her students, must have been a new hire, the new hires were always nervous around her..
"Well, what did you find?" She asked impatiently.
"A uh, sword fell near me ma'am," the guard said as he pulled it off his back, "thing nearly stabbed me through the foot."
"A sword?" Locasta questioned.
"Yes ma'am," he replied.
"Are you sure that wasn't just a careless student?" she asked dismissively. Highly unlikely, Atlas didn't have many careless students. The kingdom couldn't afford lax huntsmen, but a healthy amount of skepticism rarely hurt.
Guard shook his head.
"I was patrolling on one of the towers, nothing above me save for the night sky and the shield."
Now that was quite surprising. Locasta motioned for the guard to present the sword.
The blade was bright green at the tip, almost glowing as the headmistress stared at it, getting darker as one got towards the grip to the point where the end looked burned black with green highlights on its edges.
The whole thing was quite unusual to behold, it looked like it was made of some kind of gemstone, though the weigh didn't back that up, and its construction was at once crude and elegant. The edge was a mess, full of sharp peaks and valleys, lines making it look like it was built out of pieces instead of cut from one piece of glass. And yet it felt solid, with no signs of any jagged edges.
"You can go now," Locasta declared as she picked up the sword, the thing feeling strangely warm to the touch.
The blade was maidan magic, of that she was sure. But it wasn't Fria's. Fria's creations were all ice and snow, she didn't make things like this, besides she was half a world away in Mistral on some glorified snipe hunt for Lionheart.
So there was possibly another Maiden here, unannounced, on the same night as those comets.
"Curious, very curious indeed." Locasta said as she stared at her reflection in the glass sword
- - - - - - - - -
Yang watched the streets cautiously from the alley, hoping her gut was wrong this time. If they weren't here then that meant everything was fine save for her disappearance.
A group of outdated looking androids walked past, Yang pressing herself against the side of the building as they scanned the area, sirens and orders to surrender blaring as they did.
After a moment, the machines passed by, disappearing down another street.
"Yang!" Weiss's voice dashed Yang's hope, "There you are, I'm so glad to see you're okay."
Yang turned to see Weiss standing in the alley behind her.
"Damnit! What are you doing here?" Yang shook her head in frustration.
"Well that's a fine way to say hello," Weiss snarked as she put her hands on her hips.
"Sorry," Yang apologized, "it's just if you're here that must mean things went really bad back-"
Yang's was interrupted, a Blake shaped blur slamming into her with enough force that Yang was on the ground with Blake's arms wrapped around her before she even realized what had happened.
"Yang," Blake breathed with a sigh of relief.
Yang craddled Blake's head as she pulled her closer. Her warmth making the cold around them seem like a distant memory. Any fears she had over them being here washed away, Blake was back and all seemed right again. Yang never wanted this moment to end.
"Oh my," Summer said in quiet surprise.
And it was at that moment that Yang realized her mom was looking right at her. Quickly she and Blake pulled themselves up.
Weiss and Blake stared at Summer in confusion, Weiss taking a step back as she blinked a few times, her wide blue eyes filled with disbelief.
"Did Ruby change outfits, and suddenly get older?" Weiss asked.
"I suppose introductions are in order," Yang said as she brushed some of the dirt off her back, "Blake, Weiss, this is my mom, Summer Rose. Mom, these are my teammates, Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee."
Weiss and Blake both stared at Yang like she had just announced she was a 400 ft tall purple bear with silver horns.
"Your mom?" Weiss said skeptically.
Yang nodded.
"How?!" Weiss asked in disbelief.
"We're thirteen years in the past," Yang explained flatly.
Somehow, Weiss's eyes grew even wider at Yang's words. The alley fell silent as both Weiss and Blake struggled to digest what they had just heard.
"Are we sure we're not in another simulation?" Weiss questioned
Blake ignored the question, "That would explain why those robots looked so out of date, and no sign of General Ironwood's propaganda." She said thoughtfully.
"But how?! This is-We were trying to get from one part of Remnant to another, why would falling send us back in time? This makes no sense!" Weiss became more and more animated as she spoke.
"I don't know, but we're here now." Yang declared simply
Her mom approached her two teammates, a warm smile on her face as she said, "I don't know how you got here but it is wonderful to meet you both."
Blake's posture shifted ever so subtly into something more regal as she took Summer's hand and answered back, "It is wonderful to meet you ma'am, Yang has always spoken so highly of you."
"It is wonderful to meet you as well," Weiss said with a small bow, "You already seem much nicer than Yang's other mom,"
Yang winced at the mention of Raven. She hadn't had the time to mention her or the others encounters with Raven yet, and frankly, Yang wasn't even sure she wanted to bring up Raven at all.
Weiss looked stricken and embrassed. She was about to apologize but Summer spoke first
"So you've met Raven?" she said, her face unreadable.
"Yeah," Yang replied half-hearted.
"Tai and I always intended to tell you the truth when you were a bit older," Summer began.
"Mom it's fine," Yang insisted, "I met her, didn't go well, realized I was wasting my time, and I moved on. Don't worry about it."
There was a time when Yang desperately wanted to meet Raven, know her, have her be her mom to some meaningful extent. But even as a kid, she never stopped thinking of Summer as her mom. At most she wanted Raven to fill the void in her life that Summer's disappearance had created.
To Yang's surprise, Summer didn't seem relieved like she thought she might be, if anything her mom looked a bit distraught over what she was saying.
"How bad was it?" Summer asked hesitantly.
"Well for starters, she and her tribe kidnapped Weiss," Yang said as Weiss nodded in agreement, "She then tried to refuse me when I asked for help getting to Ruby and Uncle Qrow."
She also betrayed them to work with Cinder, only to turn on Cinder for her own interests, to say nothing of killing the Spring Maiden and taking the powers for herself. There was a fair bit more Yang could say about Raven but that was for later.
"She went back to her clan?" Summer said to herself, a surprising flash of anger appearing on her face, her hands tightening at her side, "And taking Teenagers hostage? That doesn't sound like her. What happened to you, Raven?"
Yang was more than a bit confused by how disappointed Summer seemed by this news. Raven had abandoned Yang when she was a baby, how was any of this new to her?
Her mom straightened up, her attention returned to Weiss and Blake with renewed focus.
"Raven's a topic for another time," Summer declared, "Did anyone else fall with you? Is Ruby here?"
Weiss and Blake nodded.
"We tried to rescue Ruby after Cinder kicked her and Neo off but Cinder burned my ribbon," Blake explained as she held up the burnt remains of said ribbon, "I lost my grip on Ruby as we were falling, I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Yang assured her, placing a hand on Blake's shoulder as she looked at Weiss, "Did anyone else fall?"
"I don't think so," Weiss said, hand on her chin, "Jaune and I were both hit by the same attack but I didn't see him fall."
She hesitated for a moment, sorrow written across her face for a moment.
"Nora and the others made it through, at least." Weiss finished quickly.
"So just our team and Neo," Yang summarized, sighing in frustration.
If they all fell that meant things must have gone rather bad up there. Hopefully Penny or Nora had the relic at least.
"Wait, Neo," Summer spoke up, her voice suddenly tense, "That's one of Salem's agents, right?"
"Sort of," Blake answered, "She was originally just working for Roman Torchwick, the two were stealing dust for Cinder back in Vale. She's been working with Cinder here in Atlas."
"And considering Cinder pushed her off along with Ruby," Weiss added, "I think we can say that partnership is over."
"So someone who worked for Salem came along as well," Summer said, again talking mostly to herself, "Damnit!"
Hearing her mom swear startled Yang. She knew in theory her mom was capable of it but actually experiencing it felt wrong, like some sort of unspoken taboo had been broken.
"Alright, here's the plan," Summer said with a clap of her hands, "First things first we need to find Ruby, thankfully she should be close by. After that I will get in contact with the Headmistress at Atlas Academy. The sooner we have people hunting for this Neo woman the better."
Yang and the rest of her team stared at her mom awkwardly.
"Couldn't we just deal with Neo ourselves?" Yang asked, "I mean her semblance will make her a pain to find but she's going to be completely lost, without any allies. She can't do that much harm besides attacking us"
"No," Summer shook her head, "If Salem finds her or she goes to her then Neo could hurt all of Remnant. Think of all the things this woman might know about your future, now imagine what Salem could with it"
Yang had been having similar thoughts running through her head. On the one hand, Cinder had clearly betrayed her and was more than willing to kill Neo. But on the other hand that didn't mean Salem had betrayed Neo, or that Neo might be unwilling to work with her.
The thought sent a shudder of fear down Yang's back. Salem had been winning so far but at least there was a chance at stopping her, no matter what Ozpin thought. Neo could make things a thousand times worse.
"That's a fair point," Blake said, "But I'm not sure going to Atlas for aid would help things. We tried working with General Ironwood but it ended up making everything worse."
"I don't know who this Ironwood is," Summer replied, "But I do know the woman in charge of Atlas Academy, Professor Locasta. She's a skilled huntress and she understands how dangerous Salem is."
A sudden knot of worry formed in Yang's chest as fears entered her thoughts.
"Do you know Leo Lionheart?" she asked.
Summer stared at her with growing unease. "Professor Lionheart? I haven't met him personally but Ozpin speaks well of him. Why?"
"He's working for Salem," Yang declared, "had been for years by our time, he aided the attack on Beacon, and sent who knows how many huntsmen to their deaths."
'And we could stop all that,' She realized. Get Lionheart out of power somehow and Cinder has no way to infiltrate Beacon, and all those Huntsmen at least have a better chance at living. So much changed by one act.
Was that even possible? Everything Yang had seen of the brothers gave her the impression they would never allow such a thing like that to happen, but she was here with her mom. She had saved her mom from death, something that should have been impossible.
"Why would he do that?" Summer's voice was filled with clear worry and confusion, "Leo's been fighting Grimm for years. Entire villages are alive because of that man. Why would he turn on us?"
"I think he was afraid," Yang offered, "Salem knows how terrifying she can be and uses it to her advantage. "
Yang thought back to Raven, how beneath all that arrogance and ego, it was clear Raven was terrified of Salem, and that fear had made her a worse person then the huntress her parents knew.
"And you think the same thing could have happened here?" Summer asked.
"It's possible," Weiss said.
"There's also the Atlas military to worry about" Blake interjected, "I don't want to imagine what General Ironwood would do if he learned of his future."
Yang looked at her mom with worry. She felt like they were overwhelming her with just how bad things will get in the future. And yet to Yang's surprise, while there was still fear in Summer's eyes, her expression was more intense than she had expected. Like she was taking notes in her head every time they spoke.
It admittedly should not have been a surprise, Yang's mother was a huntress, a team leader and someone who worked for Ozpin. Of course she would be making plans, but it it was still surprising to see a side to Summer that she had never really known before.
"Okay, I understand that trust is low here and none of us want Salem to catch wind of your existance," Summer said, taking a deep breath, "So, how about this, tomorrow morning I head to the CCT and contact Signal Academy. If I can reach Qrow or Tai, with some luck and fair weather, we could have one of them here by tomorrow night."
Yang nodded, "That would work, Qrow's helped us a lot these last few months and I know dad is a good tracker."
Weiss and Blake nodded in agreement. Whatever Qrow's flaws and mistakes, he was someone they knew for sure they could trust.
"Good, it's a plan then," Summer replied, "first things first though, we need to find you sister."
- - - - - - - - -
Author's Note: Special thanks to @Zam for looking this over and giving some great suggestions. Also my intention had originally been for there to be a Ruby section as well this update but it had already run fairly long so I decided to make this update focused on Yang and the others while next update will focus on Ruby and her situation.
CalumTraveler
Age Raveler
- Location
- Corner of No and Where.
As always, Neo is the wrench in the planning stages. Good to see team RWBY starting to piece itself back together though. Summer's life just got a whole lot more complicated though. XD
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oho, Ironwood likely hasn't even brought in to the conspiracy of light yet, and depending on who they share the future information with, he possibly never will. That won't just change his future actions, it might impact where Watts ends up. It could be argued his primary value to Salem, above even his skills, was his personal knowledge on the man, after all...
And the sword. Oh Penny...
And the sword. Oh Penny...
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah Summer is going through a lot right now, even for someone like her who clearly saw Salem as a major threat, seeing just how deep Salem's corruption goes and just how destructive she can get is a big shock.
I'm not a 100% sure Ironwood is in charge of the military yet at this point in canon. High ranking, has considerable influence and soon to be in charge, sure but maybe not even general just quite yet. 13 years is a very long time. But yeah, Ironwood isn't in the conspiracy yet, which can change so many things if he never gets involved.
Yeah. In the Ever After that sword only really meant something to Ruby and Co, here, it could be a lot more important.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
And isn't that a fascinating boulder in the pond of fate...
Heyo, nice to see this updating and it continues on well from where you left it last time.
Weis question though where did Summer get 13 years from? Cos its definitely been longer, though be it not by much I guess?
I love Summer being like "She probably doesn't even remember me" meanwhile Ruby is low key being crushed under the weight of having modelled herself after her saintly mother, though how much of her she actually does remember VS the stories she's been told is genuinely up in the air. Its like an elaborate performance of someone she mostly knows through reputation and other peoples projection, while ironically Yang is seemingly much closer to Summer in terms of day to day manner and behavior.
Also gosh Yang trying to comfort Summer while Summer tries to comfort her and, oh fuck she still thinks Summer would have been turned into a Hound too, damn!
I liked the Locasta segment a lot, its always fascinating to see stuff like this from multiple angles where people are trying to deduce what's going on without the full knowledge and seeing what conclusions they draw. Also gosh I love the Blake shaped blur tackle hug, so sweet! Also the Summer & Yang head cradles, aaaah, love-em! Summer just like, "My daughter has a girlfriend :3c"
Also hey, if nothing else all the bigotry in Mistral should make removing Leo easy enough :/ Also seems like they have a solid plan and this sets up the Ruby chapter extremely well, kudos!
Watts: Our sordid and toxic office romance?
Salem: I was aiming for something more, respectable but could not find the words.
Watts: My default for it was hate fucking, I dressed it up for your benefit madam.
Salem: Appreciated.
Weis question though where did Summer get 13 years from? Cos its definitely been longer, though be it not by much I guess?
I love Summer being like "She probably doesn't even remember me" meanwhile Ruby is low key being crushed under the weight of having modelled herself after her saintly mother, though how much of her she actually does remember VS the stories she's been told is genuinely up in the air. Its like an elaborate performance of someone she mostly knows through reputation and other peoples projection, while ironically Yang is seemingly much closer to Summer in terms of day to day manner and behavior.
Also gosh Yang trying to comfort Summer while Summer tries to comfort her and, oh fuck she still thinks Summer would have been turned into a Hound too, damn!
I liked the Locasta segment a lot, its always fascinating to see stuff like this from multiple angles where people are trying to deduce what's going on without the full knowledge and seeing what conclusions they draw. Also gosh I love the Blake shaped blur tackle hug, so sweet! Also the Summer & Yang head cradles, aaaah, love-em! Summer just like, "My daughter has a girlfriend :3c"
Also hey, if nothing else all the bigotry in Mistral should make removing Leo easy enough :/ Also seems like they have a solid plan and this sets up the Ruby chapter extremely well, kudos!
Salem: Your technical skills are of great value tome, as is your knowledge of Ironwood gleamed from your...
Watts: Our sordid and toxic office romance?
Salem: I was aiming for something more, respectable but could not find the words.
Watts: My default for it was hate fucking, I dressed it up for your benefit madam.
Salem: Appreciated.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Modeled after all the stories she's been told about Summer, to be precise. I think Summer's going to want to kick future Tai and Qrow when she works it out... Hell, given that present day Tai and Qrow haven't been broken by her death, they might want to help her.
Of course, there's also the question of if Leo's been compromised yet. If he hasn't, he might end up removing himself rather than leave the risk his current position poses.
As I put it elsewhere recently, I can TOTALLY seen Ironwood/Watts, and even pre-Salem, I suspect it would have been toxic as fuck.
Mhm exactly, honestly I love the idea of Yang actually being more overtly like Summer because she both knew Summer longer, better and defined her idea of maternal figure and love by her example while Ruby's got much vaguer memories all mixed up with Tai & Qrow projecting Summer onto her and trying to fill that role and so when you put them next to each other they come off as extremely different. This would likely only both Ruby at first, right up until Summer realizes what she's doing and oh boy, oh she will want to reach through time and space o throttle some people.
Summer: How was I the lynch-pin keeping everyone I love from self destructing!?
Ruby: Wait you don't think about that fact constantly?
Summer: I didn't even know it was a thing!
Yang: You think that's a thing, Ruby?
Mhm true, true, at one point he was meant to be brave; though low key I always liked headcanoning him as a Faunus Quisling during the Faunus Rights Revolution with his justification being "I want peace" and Ozpin buying it because it fit with his own biases.
Same, their catty manner, the oddly intimate body language that Ironwood doesn't really do with anyone else, the obsessive toxic hate where they try and keep it about professional stuff but clearly knew each other deeper than that. I was a super toxic romance.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*Alarm SIRENS go off, as Yang and Summer share 'ohshit' expressions*
- Location
- On a Journey Through The Decade
Of course, the bigger question here is; will Neo even bother with Salem when she realizes she's back in the past? After all, her entire motivation was avenging someone who's now alive. Would she throw away this second chance for spite?
Indeed, its not like Salem showed any interest in her and Neo's narrative, IE the one in her head, treated the apocalyptic battles going on as more like interesting lore for her revenge story, I don't think she's be going to Salem or would even know where to start looking. Not that the characters know that.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean when Ruby talked about the hound with Yang it was pretty clear both were thinking it and Yang just broke for a moment the second Ruby put the thought to words.
But yeah, Summer is like "Oh dear, my child has clearly been through hell and I've been gone for over a decade, she needs me." While Yang is terrified she's legit going to overwhelm Summer if she says too much.
RWBY's arrival was a fairly quiet all things considered but some noticed and like Locasta shows those who noticed are like "Wait, the heck?". Now what she does with the knowledge is really up in the air since all she knows is magical shenigans are involved and there's evidence of a maiden but not one she knows.
Blake's tackle hug of Yang is one of my favorite moments in the show so I had to inculde it. It's also one of the most "This is just text" moments of Yang and Blake's relationship. So Summer flat out thinks Blake is Yang's girlfriend, which is probably going to lead to some interesting/amusing conversations.
I admit I had not thought about that angle before but now that I have, I can see it.
Yeah Summer got a chance to be a mom for Yang and Yang knows what she was like as a parent at least. Ruby at this point is like 4, her memories of Summer are few and heavily distorted by time and everyone talking up how great she is. The comics made pretty clear that even as a kid that Ruby had a pretty distorted view of Summer. Though Raven is still absolutely a dick for yelling at a child while in bird form.
Summer's definitely going be upset when she realizes that Yang had to raise Ruby, proud of Yang, but really fustrated with Qrow and Tai. And herself, It's been established since Red like Roses Part 2 that Summer didn't realize how much her actions would effect Ruby (And Yang). And this is gonna explore that a fair bit. Summer's probably gonna be seeing warning signs from moment one with her.
That is a fair question. And even if he was, there's a question to what extent he is compromised. Cause like a lot of the people Qrow went looking for in Volume 5 had died fairly recently so I doubt Leo was just sending Huntsmen to the death from the beginning. Salem probably only demanded a bit from him at first, then more and more, making it clear to Leo had done too much to be free of her as she did.
Yeah I don't think anyone in WBY really knows what Neo is up to. Ruby probably has some idea, but she doesn't care. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but Ruby comes across as just completely indifferent to Roman's fate. Even in the darkest parts of Volume 9 she's kind of like "This is what you're attacking me over?" at first. No guilt, just plan "Roman played stupid games and won stupid prizes."
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yup, even at her most self-loathing, she had the exact right viewpoint on Neo. That said, she was also surprised that that Neo's motive. She thought the dumbass was loyal to Salem, so she's not going to be able to correct anyone here.
ScissorSlipper
Barber cat
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ah, a RWBY time travel fic written properly. If it devolves into more grimderp like the original RWBY well... I hope not? But it looks like people are going to be called out and some tough convos are gonna happen which is good. Looking at you Ozpin!
Last edited:
I fail to see how RWBY is "Grimderp"
Yeah that makes a lot of sense XD
Lots such a good scene, and also extremely true, love the idea of Summer just assuming they are dating XD
Weiss: I wish they would start dating, they'd be less insufferable I'm sure.
I love it, yes, yes, yes! Also will be super interested in seeing all of that!
Oh I know, I was just musing on the fact Yang will have that worry hanging over her head through this entire conversation.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense XD
Mhm that makes a lot of sense, and given Summer is avoiding contacting her, hehehe, some room for some mis-communication here :3c
Lots such a good scene, and also extremely true, love the idea of Summer just assuming they are dating XD
Weiss: I wish they would start dating, they'd be less insufferable I'm sure.
I'm all on the Ironwatts toxic office romance headcanon XD
Mhm extremely true, also there is a nice little detail with how Summer shoulder checks Raven, Yang does the same thing to Raven in V5, which gives the sense that a lot of her body language is modelled on Summer. Also yeah exactly, everything we see makes it clear Ruby knows the idea of Summer far better than she did the actual Summer.
I love it, yes, yes, yes! Also will be super interested in seeing all of that!
Mhm exactly, like Ruby vcan tell there's a grudge but she doesn't get why and when she does she's just like like, "Really? That's what this is about?" I love that reaction, because even at her lowest she still more than aware enough to know Roman was bullshit and this is just petty at best. Love the "Play stupid games win stupid prizes" idea, so true XD Like "Hey girl, this was on you and him."
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ooooh, I am so here for this! It'll be interesting to see how things go with Locasta. Really curious where Jaune wound up in all of this, or if he made it to Vacuo in this version of events and is out of the story. I love the awkward and rightfully alarmed Summer interacting with WBY. And Ruby's with Rhodes? I wonder how long it'll take before she finds Smol Cinder.