Chapter Text
"A raven caught in the brambles I"
It has been nearly two months since Tai left on the mission that would take his life, and Summer Rose was barely keeping it together. She was use to loved ones dying, having lost her birth parents in her adolescence, her adopted father, Osmund, scant years before she entered Beacon, and many friends since then. But losing Tai hit her hard, while Osmund may have shown her the path she would follow, Tai showed her that there was more to life than just the Hunt. He had gifted her with beautiful daughter, and something she had wanted to years: a family.
Still, it hurt, but for her two darling daughters she would hold it together. She had to hold it together.
Qrow would pop in between missions to help out, but he still kept his distance to avoid conflicts with his Semblance. Ozpin and Glynda also would show up to give her some time away, complete short missions. With Tai’s death she wouldn’t take any long-term missions, let alone ones that were deep in the Grimmlands.
A crash woke Summer up, and she rolled out of her bed and grabbed her weapon, Rose’s Thorn, as she did so. With her crossbow ready back she slunk through the cabin she once shared with her husband. Carefully she moved along the walls until she reached a closed door and the source of the crash.
She bit back a snarl as the door lead to her daughters' bedroom. She could hear shuffling within, and some muttering, and quite a bit of cursing.
Fearing for her daughters she decided to fuck subtlety and raised her slippered right leg, cranked up her Aura, and slammed it right above the knob and latch.
The door slammed opened and she raised her crossbow and the startled figure within.
"DOWN TO THE GROUND!"
Red eyes glanced at her, and a portal of matching color opened. Before Summer could get a shot off, she noticed the bundle in their arms, and figure use the pause to slip through the portal. It closed as quickly as it opened.
"No!"
Summer pulled the chain hard on the light, turning it on. On the small bed a lump moved, and a shock of blond hair poked out. Yang was seemingly fine, but the bed next to Yang’s was empty.
Well not completely, as when Summer reached in to see that maybe Ruby was still there, she plucked out a long black feather.
"Raven," she growled out.
--
Summer busied herself in the kitchen while Yang watched. An hour has passed since Raven kidnapped Ruby. She had already called it in to law enforcement, but she knew that even the vaulted Táysha Rangers would be hard pressed to track someone down who can cross while continents and oceans in the blink of an eye. And she wasn’t going to sit idly by and let others track down her former friend and rescue her daughter.
She pulled the tray of cookies out of the oven.
"Mama, you going to get Rubes back?"
She turned towards her eldest, and nods, "I will Yang, we just got to find her."
"I can help! 'm really good at hide and seek!"
Summer smiles and placed a kiss on Yang 's brow, "I know you are little dragon, but this is harder than a game. Ruby is really far away, and under the protection of the bad guys."
The back door opens and Qrow stumbled in, followed by Ozpin and Glynda. Summer waves them over to the table where coffee and hot chocolate waited. Glynda and Qrow took the coffee while Ozpin took the hot chocolate, and all three helped themselves to the cookies set on the table.
Once everyone was settled, and Yang happily munching away at large stack of cookies, Summer started: "Qrow I'm going to be blunt, where is Raven's camp? I know that you know and that we all had an agreement to leave it alone, but she took my daughter, so all bets are off "
He sips his coffee, "afraid I only know a general location, and Raven is smart she will pack up and leave ASAP."
Summer nods, “better than nothing and better than what the Ranger would have.” She grins, “she’s good at hiding but I am better at seeking.”
Ozpin nods, “if there was one thing you excelled at Summer its tracking. But Branwen bandits are crafty, the fact that they have not been captured is testament of their abilities.”
“True, but Vale would rather not interfere within Mistrali territory, and you know as well as I do that Mistral’s fractured nature keeps even the well-trained Southern Army from committing resources to stamping them out,” Summer said.
Glynda snorts, “that is an understatement, but I would recommend informing the authorities anyway.”
Summer raised an eyebrow as an Outlander, former or otherwise, she doesn’t exactly have a high opinion the authorities either from the Guild or Kingdoms.
“And why is that Glyn?”
The older Huntress rolls her eyes at the use of nickname, “they can help with clean up afterwards and smooth out any legalities. Yes, Miss Branwen has an arrest warrant in all seven provinces and ‘kill on sight’ order in half of Mistral, but to avoid you from getting arrested.”
Summer sighs, Glynda as usual was right. Stupid Inlander and her logic and common sense.
“Freedom’s Wings and the Lady’s Eyes, ok Glynda you win on that note. If you or Oz can get in contact with them that would be swell. Qrow and I will make our way to the camp.”
There was a muttering of agreement around the table, Yang looks between them.
“Momma, what about me?”
Summer blinked and held back a curse, “Oz?”
Ozpin smiles, “oh don’t worry Summer I will keep an eye on her. You worry about finding your other daughter.”
Yang smiles, Uncle Ozpin tells the best stories.
--
A half a day passed since the kidnapping, six hours since Ruby was safe in her mother’s arms. Summer and Qrow had boarded the first airship that they could and crossed Sanus, the Meridian Ocean, and then Anima before landing in a small interior town near the edge of the Mistrali Grimmlands. They continued on foot towards the Great Lake at the heart of Mistral and making their way deeper into the interior forest. Qrow was more or less correct in the location of the bandit camp, he was also correct in that the bandits had left the camp behind.
Summer knelt down and ran her fingers through the embers of once was the bandit camp.
"Still warm," she said, "they can't have left more than an hour or two ago. Qrow, they have what? Hundred to hundred-fifty bandits?"
Qrow treaded up, "there abouts, waxes and wanes a lot but usually around that many. Don’t think they have had any raids recently so probably on the higher side."
"Good, then they shouldn't have gotten that far."
"Sum, you do remember what Raven's Semblance is."
Summer stood up and brushed the dust off her knees.
"I do, but we also know that she can only move less than ten at a time, and she's cagey about using it, not wanting to get her crew dependent on it or some other kind of bullcrap. Plus, she would have to send someone out to the new base before using it, which takes time."
Qrow’s eyes widen, “can only go as far as the one she had to send ahead.”
"Yep, probably no more than ten miles from here.” She spies something towards the edge of the clearing.
She walked over to it; it was a broken tree branch with a bit of cloth stuck to it. Apparently, they were not as careful as they could have been.
She smiles ferally, “now the fun begins. "
--
For supposedly the greatest bandit tribe in Mistral and one founded as Valean raiders during the Great War It was stupidly easy to track the bandits down. Though Summer will admit that she is an extremely skilled tracker, and the bandit were good, but they should have left camp shortly after the kidnapping rather than waiting the hours afterwards. Their arrogance and ignorance will be their undoing. The palisade and gate loomed in the clearing. Judging by the apparent kill zone between the wall and forest they had this base built some time ago which made the choice to wait to move all the more galling.
Were they thinking no one was going to track them down?
"Well, this is it," she asked the crow on her shoulder.
Qrow nods, he had spotted the compound from the air perhaps ten minutes previously, while Summer’s tracking skills got them in the right direction. Now she sat on a limb of an ancient oak up in the air and looked through the scope of her crossbow. No guards on the wall, though the gate was closed up tight. No pickets, no sentries, no guards. Lady upon High, the White Fang has better security and that’s even after the Vale Dust Riots.
"Well then guess it's time to knock."
She loaded a long bolt into her crossbow and leveled it at the gate. With a pull of the trigger and the bolt launched forward, enhanced by her Semblance, it sped forward and separated into five impactors.
The tips slammed into the gate, and the Shock Dust on the tips and within the shafts exploded, shattering the gate into a hail of splinters. Any one behind the gate would have died, torn to shreds by the very thing that was supposed to protect them. Summer leapt off the limb and rolled as she landed. With practiced ease she unfolded from the roll and strode towards the destruction she caused, white cloak billowing behind her.
--
The gates burst open, and Raven sees a lone figure in white and red stride in. Some of the bandits that weren’t eviscerated by the hail of splinters attempt to jump them but only received a crossbow bolt or knife in the head for their troubles. Others out of knife range but within firearm range attempted to shoot at the figure, but where either taken down by a bolt as well or by a bird shifting to a man with a scythe. There was no doubt about the identity of the intruders, her cowardly brother and damnable teammate has managed to track her down.
Raven wanted to run but knew that in doing so means losing whatever support she had with the Tribe and would likely get shot in the back before she could take a step, let alone getting to the brat and escaping. So, she drew her sword and stood her ground, if she was going to die then she was going to die fighting.
A bolt tipped in Lightning Dust slammed into her leg. She screamed and fell to one knee.
"As someone who once called you friend, I ask you where is my daughter?"
Silver Eyes glowed under the hood as Summer "Thornshot" Rose pointed her crossbow directly as Raven's head. Red eyes glared up in hate, and Raven flared her Aura to ease the pain in her leg and halt the bleeding. She ripped the bolt out of her flesh before striking upwards with her free hand to knock the crossbow away from her head. She used a portal to fall into and appear near where her idiot brother was.
Qrow squawked in indignation and attempted to shift back to human when Raven slapped him away. He would transform as he fell through the air and hit the side of a building, rolling to a stop, and dazed. Raven did not want him to interfere with this fight.
Oh, how she’s been itching to beat down this uppity Outlander.
A crossbow bolt flew passed her head, bringing Raven back to fight at hand. She shifted to bird form and flew straight towards Summer, weaving and dodging the bolts coming her way. She knew that she had to get within arm’s reach of the woman where she can’t bring her crossbow to bear and negate the usefulness of her Semblance.
Raven shifted back and brought her sword down towards Summer. The woman in white dropped her crossbow as she spun around and parried the blow with a dagger. The force pushed Summer towards the ground, but she held her stance. Raven unfortunately wasn’t as lucky and was pushed away and impacted the ground.
She rolled and quickly picked herself back up, just in time to block an attack from Summer. Her former friend had set aside her crossbow and instead wielded a pair of long daggers, one of steel and the other appearing to look like glass. Raven snorted, how useless.
She charged at Summer; blade ready to slash at Summer’s left side. Summer pivoted out of the way, and nicking Raven with her glass dagger and then bringing the blade of the other down on Raven’s unarmored shoulder. Raven grimaced as the blade bit into her shoulder but ignored the pain and spun around to strike at Summer again.
Summer parried the strike, nicking Raven’s wrist with the glass dagger. A chip broke off the dagger and embedded itself under Raven’s skin.
They kept dodging, parrying, and striking at each other. Neither was able to truly get the upper hand. Summer wore her glass dagger down to a nub while Raven had shattered all her Dust blades with only the plain steel blade left.
The two panted and stared down each other. Blood dripped from various wounds, Aura just barely keeping up. Silver eyes glared at Red, neither making a move to finish the fight.
“I ask again, where is she,” Summer said softly. “Where is my daughter?”
Raven glared and bit back a snarl, before flicking her eyes to one of the stouter looking huts, one that looked like military prefab rather than mud and straw.
Summer didn’t move, keeping her eyes on the other woman. She did once consider Raven to be a friend, even if their relationship was very tense, but then she left Tai behind with a newborn without a word. And then now kidnapping her daughter, which is beyond the pale. Now Raven knelt, bleeding all over, looking far from the confidence bandit she was.
Summer almost felt pity for the woman.
Which she supposed is why she had to ask: “Why?”
Raven glared, refusing to answer.
“Why,” Summer asked again.
Raven kept glaring.
Summer’s temper rose, “Why damnit, why in the Lady’s name did you take my daughter?!”
“Because you would have made her weak,” Raven finally answered. “You would have coddled her! Sheltered her from the world, tell her stories of heroes, and make her blind to this shitty Grimm-eat-Grimm world!”
Summer went silent and Raven continued on, “she has those damnable eyes, you both have power that could defeat a Grimm with naught, but a glare and you wasted it to protect those who should be left for the beasts. The brat could be far more useful as a weapon.”
“My daughter is not a weapon.”
Raven smirks, “not like you? The Thornshot, Ozpin’s little assassin.”
Summer’s expression hardened, “First off, I’m employed by the Guild, second it was a choice I made, third I am not an assassin. Better to die a hero, than live as a coward.”
Raven barked out a painful laugh, “that is so fucking like you, all holier than thou arrogant bullshit. I always hated that, always hated you from the day I met you. So damn cheery, idealistic, not broken at all despite living out in the frontier and Grimmlands! You saw the same things I did, how broken this world is, and yet you still care enough to help others before yourself! We were so damn alike, how in Sheol and Elysium are you different?”
Summer remained silent throughout the rant, until those questions were asked.
“The man who raised me when the Grimm killed my family was as broken as you. He saw the darkness of the world and tried to beat it back, but it fought back harder. When he found me, he was a shell of man who had sacrificed everything to beat back Salem, his friends, his family, his home. When he found me, he also found something to live for. I wasn’t blind to his faults but having to take care of a near catatonic child changed him for the better, reminding him of just why he fought.”
She reached down and picked up some sand before letting it go in the breeze, “when he died in my arms before Beacon, he told me something that I still carry with me. Do you know what it was?”
Raven snorts, “no, and honestly, I really don’t give a shit. But guess you’ll tell me anyway.”
“There is still good in the world, and it’s worth fighting for.” She smiles, “I see that every day, in the faces of my friends and families, in the cities I never knew as an Outlander. But I think another thing he taught me might sum up just why we are different despite our similarities. Osmund may have been a broken man, but he taught me much, including philosophy. Including this little phrase: If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. We have both seen the abyss, the darkness in the world, and the difference between you and I is that you embraced that darkness and blinked.”
Summer sheathed her steel dagger and walked past Raven and towards the hut where Ruby was being held. When she walked past Raven, she dropped the broken glass dagger. Not another word spoken between the two.
--
Summer would find the door to the hut locked, and with no key and a low Aura she did not have a way to breach the door. She glanced down at the holsters strapped to her leg, she had a few crossbow bolts remaining including one made with Shock Dust, similar to the large bolt used to breach the gate. She pulled it out and jammed it by the lock.
“Ruby, honey?”
It took a moment before a soft voice replied through the door. “Mama?”
Summer smile, “Yes rosebud, I’m here.”
“I’m scared Mama, the scary lady told me wrong things about you and locked me up,” Ruby sniffs, “I want you and Yang and daddy and unca Qrow and Ozzy and auntie Glynda.” Ruby started to cry.
“Ruby, I need you to do something for Mama, can you move as far from the door as you can?”
Ruby sniffs, “I think so.”
“And cover your ears, it’s going to get really loud.” She hears shuffling and more sniffling. “Are you ready Ruby?”
“Yes.”
“Ok then roll up into a ball and I’m going to get you out.”
She stepped back a couple of feet and pulled out a bolt without any Dust. She held it up as a dart and with her Semblance she threw it straight and true, right into the Shock Dust bolt. The shard broke and sent shockwaves through the lock and door, shattering both. Before the dust cleared Summer stepped through the threshold. And looked around the now damaged interior, despite the ringing in her ears she could hear some sniffling. Far from the door and wedged behind some heavy shelves, and hiding under the bed, was Ruby curled up into a ball.
“Sweetheart?”
Ruby uncurled and poked her head out from under the bed, “Mama? MAMA!”
She jumped out from under the bed and latched onto her mother. Summer wrapped her arms around her daughter and held her close. It might have been less than a week since Ruby was taken, but it felt so much longer. Tears formed in her eyes and mother and daughter cried into each other’s shoulders.
“I am so sorry baby; I should have protected you.”
“It’s ok Mama, you still came! I knew you would rescue me, I aways knew.”
Summer shifted her daughter in her arms, making easier to carry her, “come on rosebud, let’s go home.”