• Published 31st Aug 2018
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SAPR - Scipio Smith



Sunset, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ruby are Team SAPR, and together they fight to defeat the malice of Salem, uncover the truth about Ruby's past and fill the emptiness within their souls.

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The Tale of Summer Rose (New)

The Tale of Summer Rose

There was a chair in front of Professor Ozpin’s desk again. Ruby wondered if he kept it in a cupboard somewhere and brought it out when he wanted people to take their time.

Except she couldn’t see a cupboard. He must bring it up from somewhere. She wondered if anyone ever saw the headmaster carrying the chair to the elevator?

“Please sit down, Miss Rose,” Professor Ozpin said from his own seat on the other side of his glass desk. He gestured at the empty chair before him.

“Right,” Ruby squeaked. “Thank you, Professor,” she added, moving quickly across the office, the shadows cast by the gears above falling temporarily upon her face and on the red cloak that trailed after her, before she took the seat that had been offered to her. As she sat down, she added, “I mean that; thank you.”

Professor Ozpin’s smile was sad; it didn’t reach his eyes except to strain them, or so it seemed to her. “You owe me no thanks, Miss Rose,” he murmured. “No thanks at all.”

“That’s not true,” Ruby insisted. “What you’re about to tell me … no one will tell me, not Dad, not Uncle Qrow—”

“Your father and uncle—”

“Don’t say they’re trying to protect me,” Ruby asked. “Please, don’t say that. I … I don’t want to be protected, Professor. I want to know the truth.”

“The truth can be a bitter draught, Miss Rose, as often as it can be a sweet treat,” Professor Ozpin remarked. “Speaking of which, would you care for a cup of hot cocoa?”

He gestured at the pot sitting on his desk; along with a pair of Beacon mugs, it was the only thing upon the transparent tabletop.

Ruby hesitated for a moment. “Okay, thank you, Professor.”

Professor Ozpin smiled at her and got to his feet, back stooped a little, to pick up the white china pot and pour the steaming hot, thickly-textured liquid into the two mugs. He picked up one cup, the axes of Beacon worked in black facing Ruby as he offered it to her.

Ruby took the cup, feeling the heat of the drink within even through the china. She raised it to her lips, blew on it, and took the slightest sip from within. It was hot, but not as tongue-burningly so as she had feared. Reflexively, Ruby wiped the droplets dribbling down the side of the cup away with one thumb. Her brow furrowed slightly as she swallowed; the hot chocolate had a very milky consistency, and it tasted not just of chocolate, but off… “Is this mint flavour?”

Professor Ozpin nodded. “Nobody ever said I just had to drink ordinary hot cocoa,” he told her. “Although I must confess that some of the more … interesting flavours offered by the manufacturer leave me scratching my head. I’m sure that someone, somewhere, enjoys Banoffee Pie flavoured hot chocolate, or even Pina Colada, but I’m not sure I can imagine who that might be.”

Ruby’s silver eyes narrowed. “Is that a real thing, Professor?”

“I’m afraid it is,” Professor Ozpin informed her. “I must admit, it does make the fact that they’ve cancelled my favourite flavour a little irksome. On the other hand, this mint flavour is one I wish I’d tried sooner.”

Ruby took another sip, longer this time, “It is really good,” she agreed.

“I think so,” Professor Ozpin said. “I shall have to order some more of it.” He paused for a moment. “If it seems to you as though I’m stalling, Miss Rose, that is … in part because I am. I promised you that we would talk of your mother once your mission to Mountain Glenn was concluded, and then … I apologise that it has taken this long.”

“It’s okay, Professor,” Ruby assured him. “I know that you’ve been busy. I know that things have been pretty hectic around here since the Breach, and with the Vytal Festival … I know you’ve got a lot to do.” Now it was her turn to hesitate. “I … I feel as though I should apologise.”

Ozpin frowned. “Apologise for what, Miss Rose?”

“For letting things get this way,” Ruby said. “For letting the Breach happen. We screwed up, didn’t we?”

Ozpin drank from his mug of hot chocolate, letting the act extend the silence outwards. He put down the mug with a chink upon the glass. “Do you think so, Miss Rose?” he asked. “Do you really believe it so?”

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Ruby asked. “I mean, we were sent—”

“To gather information,” Professor Ozpin reminded her. “To report back on what you found. You did that, relaying intelligence to Miss Sparkle who, in turn, passed it on to me, to General Ironwood, to the Council. You completed your mission—”

“We’re not Atlesian soldiers, sir; we don’t have missions,” Ruby declared. “Well, okay, technically, we do, but the point is that we don’t get to walk up to the line of what was originally asked of us, not take another step further, and then go home and call it 'job done' without worrying about the consequences or about what happened after or anything else. We’re huntsmen; it’s our job to go beyond, to protect the people, whatever it takes. We may have completed our mission, but we didn’t complete the mission. We didn’t protect the people.”

Professor Ozpin picked up his cup, but did not drink from it. He simply held it in his hands, a little steam rising in front of his face. “You saw Mister Arc and Miss Nikos off on a northbound train this morning, did you not?”

Ruby didn’t see the relevance of that, but she nodded. “They’re going to visit Jaune’s family for a couple of days.”

“And when you walked them down to the train station, I’m sure you must have seen plenty of people out on the streets,” Professor Ozpin pointed out.

“You know what I meant, Professor,” Ruby admonished. “We didn’t save everyone.”

“And yet, the city was saved,” Professor Ozpin replied. “Vale endures, and in a little while, we shall host the Vytal Festival, not only a celebration of unity and peace, but also a celebration of endurance, even in the face of those who would do us harm, their malice, and their wicked designs.”

“So I should just accept that people died?” Ruby demanded. “How am I supposed to do that?”

Now Professor Ozpin drank from his hot chocolate. “It is true that victory is sweetest when it brings home full numbers,” he admitted. “But there are many things worse than a victory such as was won at the Breach. A defeat, for one thing. I … I understand your feelings, Miss Rose, but … take it from me that one must appreciate victory when one attains it. If you only ever dwell upon what went imperfectly, upon what you did wrong, if every error becomes magnified into failure and defeat, then you will soon start to feel as though all your efforts are for nought, and before too long, you will simply cease to try, every effort having become pointless in your eyes.”

“But if we don’t feel the sting of our failures, how will we be driven to do better next time?” Ruby asked.

“There is a difference between acknowledged mistakes and blindly castigating yourself for not measuring up to an ideal which may not even be attainable,” Professor Ozpin told her. “Miss Rose, what is it that you think that you, specifically, should have done differently?”

Ruby blinked. “I … um, I should have, I meant that I—”

“When you have the answer to that question, Miss Rose, then you have my permission to blame yourself for not acting differently, although only in the manner that you have decided you ought to have acted. Although even then, I would encourage you to remember that, in the field, you do not have the luxury of the introspective thought that you may give to the question once you leave here. Until then, I suggest that you allow yourself to feel triumphant, if only a little. Victories must be celebrated, if only to keep one's spirits up through the times when there are no victories to celebrate.”

“I … I understand,” Ruby said. “I think I do, anyway.”

“Think on it, Miss Rose, I beg of you,” Professor Ozpin urged. “Think on it, and I believe you will find my logic to be convincing.”

Ruby drank a little more of her hot chocolate. The cup was about half empty now. “Are you still stalling, Professor?”

Professor Ozpin chuckled. “I am still your headmaster, Miss Rose; you must allow me to show a little care and concern for you.” He stood up, back bent once more, and refilled his cup of hot cocoa from the pot. “Would you care for any more?” he asked.

“Not right now, Professor,” Ruby said softly.

“Very well,” Professor Ozpin said softly, and he sat back down once again.

There was a moment of silence in the office, broken only by the grinding of the gears above their heads.

Professor Ozpin clasped his hands together. “Where would you like me to begin, Miss Rose?” he asked.

Ruby blinked. “You’re asking me?”

“Our time together is for your benefit,” Professor Ozpin said. “In every sense.”

“But…” Ruby hesitated for a moment. “How am I supposed to know where to start when I don’t know anything? I don’t…” She trailed off, thinking about her mother’s diary. “You … you helped my mom get into Beacon, didn’t you? She said that she wouldn’t have been able to come to this school without you; it’s in her entry about the first day.”

“That is correct,” Professor Ozpin agreed.

“How?” Ruby asked. “Why? Start there, start at the beginning; how did you know my mom?”

“I met Summer Rose by happy chance,” Professor Ozpin admitted. “One of those fortunate coincidences which almost makes one believe in a benevolent providence, or else in the webs of fate guiding our pathways and our actions towards certain predetermined ends. Your mother came from outside the kingdoms — she could not place precisely where upon a map — I … I do not believe that she had had much of a formal education growing up. She could write well, read decently enough, and her knowledge of plants and herbs was exceptional, but while she had an intuitive grasp of the uses of dust, her knowledge of the science behind it was practically nonexistent, and her geography … as she told me once, ‘I know the territory, Professor, I just can’t make sense of the map.’” He chuckled. “What she could tell me was that she came from over the mountains.”

“'Over the mountains'?” Ruby repeated. “But that … there are people living there?”

“There were people living there before either Vale or Mistral sought to colonise the land, Miss Rose,” Professor Ozpin replied. “Just as there are people living there now, long after the ambitions of both kingdoms have turned to dust. Your mother was one of those.”

“Then,” Ruby murmured. “Then why did she come to Beacon? How did she even know about Beacon?”

“Although there is little movement from Vale into the east of Sanus these days, a few hardy merchants and traders brave the mountain passes to head into the wilds, trading Valish trinkets for furs, the timbers of trees taller than any that grow on this side of the mountains these days, or simply for curiosities of a very different world from this one. I tacitly encourage such ventures, discreetly, of course; I use some of the school funds to make such expeditions worthwhile.”

“Why?” Ruby asked.

“To spread word of Beacon,” Professor Ozpin explained. “In the hopes of attracting people like your mother to this school.”

“Silver-Eyed Warriors?”

Professor Ozpin chuckled. “No, Miss Rose, I never dreamed that I would be so fortunate. In truth, until I met Summer Rose, I did not think that there were any with silver eyes yet living in the world. I suppose that in the wilds, far beyond even what most people think of when they say ‘beyond the kingdoms’ is the only place they could survive. Salem’s agents have hunted them down one by one.”

“Is that…?” Ruby hesitated. “Is that what happened to Mom? Was she hunted down because of her eyes?”

Professor Ozpin was silent for a moment. “I … Summer’s fate is a little difficult to piece together,” he confessed. “The only reason that we can say for sure that she is dead is … because she never would have abandoned her children without word.”

Ruby looked down. She blinked rapidly. She could feel her eyes growing wet; she could feel the phlegm starting to build up in her throat. She hastily downed most of the rest of her hot cocoa in order to cleanse her throat, and wiped at her eyes with the back of one hand. “I … I wouldn’t mind some more chocolate, Professor.”

“Of course,” Professor Ozpin said, a comforting smile upon his face.

Ruby set the cup down upon the desk, and the headmaster rose to refill it for her. The liquid did not steam so much as when it was poured into the pot, but Ruby hoped that it would still taste as good.

It did, as she took her first gulp; the minty flavour lingered in her mouth after all the cocoa had been swallowed.

“Do you want to hear the beginning of the story?” Professor Ozpin asked. “Or the ending?”

Ruby thought for a moment. “The beginning,” she said. “It sounds … happier.”

“The story ends with you, Miss Rose,” Professor Ozpin reminded her. “I am sure that Summer would consider that the happiest ending imaginable. But as you wish, I will give you the beginning. As I say, I encourage a small number of travellers to venture over the mountains in the hope that by spreading Beacon’s legend, I will draw, not Silver-Eyed Warriors perhaps, but young warriors all the same. It is hard to get a complete picture of life beyond the mountains, but from the students who have come from there, I get the sense that it is a land in which one must be hardy to survive, if not in person then as a people. Vigour and strength will always be welcome at Beacon, and even if not every student who arrives at this school comes for the right reasons … to teach those right reasons is, in many respects, what this school is for.”

He paused for a moment. “Summer Rose was already an accomplished warrior when she arrived here, as you will know from her diary,” he went on. “As you will know, there was some dispute with her father over her coming here, what she would learn. As you will know, she was already aware of how to use her silver eyes, at least to some extent.”

“But she wanted more than that,” Ruby murmured. “She wanted … she wanted to live, like Pyrrha wanted. She wanted to be more than just a Silver-Eyed Warrior; she wanted to be a person too.”

“She wanted the Valish life, as she called it,” Professor Ozpin said. “Although her first taste of Vale was … well, you asked me how we met, and in a roundabout fashion, we have arrived there at last. Summer Rose made her way over the mountains with a trader who had crossed the other way, but on their return to Vale, she was left alone, to make her own way in a city the like of which she had never seen before, filled with sights that must have seemed like the stuff of dreams to her, a city where she knew no one and did not even have any money that would be accepted by anyone.

“And then, seeing this wide-eyed girl all alone with no idea of where to go or what to do, three men tried to mug her,” Professor Ozpin muttered. “A fine welcome to the big city.”

“What happened to her?” Ruby asked. “Was she okay? I mean, of course she was okay, but was she—?”

“She killed them all,” Professor Ozpin said. “As I said, they are a hardy folk, and the fact that these were not foes that she could vanquish with her silver eyes did not make Summer helpless.”

Ruby was silent for a little while. She had never … she had never thought about her mother killing people before. She had just never thought about it. Obviously, there were times when you had to kill — Jaune had killed someone, and so had Sunset, and it didn’t make either of them bad people — but she’d never thought about it. In her mind, there was no blood staining that white cloak.

And the fact that she had killed … yeah, they were criminals, but it wasn’t as though they were trying to destroy the world or cause mass murder. They were criminals, but to kill them?

“I didn’t tell you that so that you could judge your mother,” Professor Ozpin said, demonstrating an uncanny ability to tell what Ruby was thinking. “She was attacked, and she reacted upon instinct. Those instincts happened to be lethal ones. Her would-be assailants were not the first to underestimate Summer Rose, to their peril.”

Ruby nodded slightly. “What happened after that?”

“Your mother was arrested,” Professor Ozpin declared. “She submitted peacefully to the police, who believed, based on her fighting prowess, that she might be a huntress who had lost her identification. I was summoned to see if I knew her. Instead … when she discovered that I was the headmaster of Beacon, she told me that she had come all the way across the mountains to come to my school. She was obviously a capable combatant. And she had silver eyes; I will not try to deny that that entered my thinking. Silver eyes, the first time I set eyes upon such in … too long.”

“And so you arranged for her to come to Beacon,” Ruby said. “Just like … just like me.”

“I suppose there are some similarities,” Professor Ozpin acknowledged. “Although you were never in trouble with the law in quite the same way, Miss Rose. But yes, since Summer Rose wanted to attend my school, and since I want people — especially skilled people like Summer Rose — to attend my school, the solution was rather obvious. I had her little brush with the law swept under the carpet, certified her as competent to combat-school equivalence, and ensured that she had a place to stay in Vale until the beginning of the year, which was, fortunately, not far off. And that, I believe, is where her diary picks up the story.”

“Yes, Professor, her first entry is arriving at Beacon,” Ruby said. “She met Dad on her first day, talked to you … do you know why she decided to start keeping a diary then?”

“Because she had something worth recording?” Professor Ozpin suggested. “Summer was a gifted student, and I took more of a hand in her education than I do for others, but the difference in age and position between the two of us meant that we were never friends. She did not confide the secrets of her innermost heart to me. Perhaps that, initially, is why she kept the journal: so that, in this strange place full of strange people, she had somebody in whom she could confide.”

He paused for a moment. “As you know, your mother passed Initiation, even if she did have to be helped back to Beacon by the teammates she had made upon the way: your father, your uncle Qrow, and … Raven Branwen.”

“And you made her team leader,” Ruby murmured.

Professor Ozpin smiled. “Are you jealous, Miss Rose?”

“No,” Ruby said, and drank some of her hot chocolate.

“No, I believe that,” Professor Ozpin conceded. “As I believe I may have phrased that rather badly. Do you wonder why I did not make you the leader of your team?”

“I’m not saying anything against Sunset,” Ruby insisted. “But I guess … I do wonder … what is it that Mom had that I don’t?”

“You are assuming that that is the appropriate question, Miss Rose,” Professor Ozpin replied, his voice soft and gentle, like the tide lapping upon the beach. “And that is quite a large assumption to make.”

Ruby frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“You are assuming,” Professor Ozpin explained, “that I made the right choice in making Summer Rose leader of Team Stark, and so you ask what qualities she possessed that are missing in you. You are also leaving out the possibility that you have all of your mother’s excellent qualities and would have made a fine leader in Miss Shimmer’s absence, but more than that … more than that, you are also assuming that I stand by the decision to make your mother the leader of her team.”

Ruby frowned. “You … you don’t?”

“Unfortunately, Miss Rose, I have made a great many mistakes in my life,” Professor Ozpin murmured. “And there are times when I fear that making Summer Rose the leader of her Team Stark was one of them.”

“But…” Ruby muttered. “Then what—?”

“The proper question is ‘who,’ Miss Rose,” Ozpin said.

Ruby thought for a moment. Her Dad? Uncle Qrow? No, there was only one alternative, one person who stood out in Mom’s diary, one person who would have been more than willing to step up and lead in her mother’s absence — or even in her presence, often enough. “Raven.”

Professor Ozpin nodded. “Do you know how I select team leaders, Miss Rose?”

“Do you … study our records?” Ruby asked.

“I bear it in mind,” Professor Ozpin agreed. “But to be honest, I base most of my judgement upon what I observe in the Initiation itself.”

“You can see that?”

“There are cameras set up throughout the Emerald Forest,” Professor Ozpin explained. “They serve as part of the security system, but they also allow for field exercises in the forest to be observed and graded; there would be little purpose in sending the students down into the woods if neither I nor your teachers had any way of knowing what you did when you were there.”

“That … that makes a lot of sense,” Ruby said softly.

“And so I observe the conduct of the students during Initiation,” Professor Ozpin continued. “I see who takes the lead and how they lead and what the results are of their leadership. I chose Miss Belladonna to lead Team Bluebell over Miss Bonaventure — initially, of course — because although Miss Bonaventure was the more … strident … of the two when their team assembled, it was Miss Belladonna’s directions that enabled them to overcome a King Taijitu they encountered on the way to the ruins. I chose your mother to lead because, when she and Raven encountered one another in the forest, it was Summer Rose who took the lead, and with enthusiasm I might add, while Raven appeared … almost disinterested. But … when your mother was exhausted from the use of her silver eyes, it was Raven who commanded your father to carry her back, and it was Raven who led them safely back to the school.”

“And you think she would have been a better leader because of that?” Ruby asked.

“No,” Professor Ozpin replied. “I think that … sometimes, I think I choose too early when it comes to picking leaders.” He paused. “Summer had many excellent, wonderful qualities, Ruby, I would never wish you to think otherwise: she was brave, clever — although more in an intuitive than an academic sense — lively, engaging. She drew people to her like … like flowers towards the sun. Raven, on the other hand … frequently quiet, irascible when she was not quiet, by turns hostile and disinterested towards leadership, and particularly Summer’s leadership … I can say in my defence that there were good reasons why I chose as I did. And yet…”

“Professor?”

“Why do you think, Miss Rose, that I never sought to train you in your silver eyes, as I helped your mother?” Professor Ozpin asked.

“I … I don’t know,” Ruby admitted.

“Summer … Summer had a great deal on her plate, in those early days at Beacon,” Professor Ozpin said. “Classes in the day, including leadership classes, then lessons at night with me here in my office … and on top of all that, she had a great deal of catching up to do; there was so much that she didn’t know, that she had not learned living outside the kingdoms. I should have considered that, but your mother never brought it up. Summer was … determined to succeed. She was determined to meet all expectations placed upon her; indeed, she sought to exceed them. It was Raven who came to see me one night, who brusquely informed me that I was pushing Summer too hard and that I needed to leave her alone.”

“Really?” Ruby asked. “She said that?”

“I recall her exact words were ‘Give her a break, Professor, or you’ll answer to me.’” Professor Ozpin chuckled. “Neither of them were ever awed by me, which is more than I can say for most people, even your father and uncle. I always found it rather charming. All of which is a somewhat long way of saying that the reason I didn’t begin your training the way that I began your mother’s … I thought that you would probably be busy enough, and I didn’t want an angry visit from Miss Shimmer.”

Ruby snorted. She drank a little more of her hot chocolate, although it was really one lukewarm chocolate by this point. She drank a lot more of it, before it got even colder. “So … but why do you think Raven would have been a better leader than my mom?”

“Summer was … not a bad leader, by any means,” Professor Ozpin said. “As I said, she had many virtues, and I admired her for them and appreciated all of them. But Raven … though she could be ferocious in battle and utterly without mercy, and though, indeed, she enjoyed being respected for her skill as a combatant … she never loved the song of swords, as Summer did. She did not thrill to battle; rather, she hazarded her life only when she considered it necessary to do so. Or when Summer led the way. It was Summer Rose who led Team Stark into the fighting at the battle they now call Ozpin’s Stand, but when Summer was temporarily exhausted by the use of her eyes, it was Raven who stood over her, defending Summer from the grimm, though her own aura broke, and she was left scarred and tattered by the battle’s end. It was Summer Rose who led Team Stark in a strike against Salem herself—”

“Struck at Salem?” Ruby cried. “But Sunset said—”

“But when the strike failed,” Professor Ozpin went on, answering the obvious question, “it was Raven Branwen who led them out again. I chose Summer Rose to lead her team into battle, but there are times when I wonder if I should not have chosen Raven Branwen to keep them safe instead.”

Ruby was silent for a moment. “And so you made Sunset the leader instead of me because … because I’m too much like mom?”

“Summer Rose was a force of nature on the battlefield, and not merely because of her eyes,” Professor Ozpin said. “I see a great deal of her in you, Miss Rose, but I hope you can forgive me for wanting to try … a different approach this time around.”

Ruby finished her cup of cocoa and put the mug down with a clink upon the glass table.

“What kind of weapon did she use?” she asked. “My mom, I mean, besides her silver eyes?”

“An axe,” Professor Ozpin said. “I believe it was a family heirloom of sorts, although I’m not sure that she was supposed to have taken it with her. She called it Vargcrist.”

“Vargcrist?”

“In the tongue, or at least a tongue, of the folk who dwell beyond the mountains, it means Wolf-Cleaver,” Professor Ozpin explained.

“Ooh, cool,” Ruby whispered. “What kind of an axe? Two heads or one?”

“I recall that it was double-headed.”

“How big was it?”

“Almost as tall as she was, and Summer was taller than you, Miss Rose, I must say,” Professor Ozpin replied amusedly.

Ruby smiled. “Did it turn into a gun?”

“Alas, no,” Professor Ozpin informed her. “Remember, Summer came from over the mountains, where technology was much less sophisticated. Vargcrist was only an axe, but it was an exceedingly good axe, and Summer was very attached to it.”

Ruby nodded eagerly. “Where is it now?”

“I don’t know,” Professor Ozpin admitted. “No one does, to my knowledge. It disappeared along with Summer herself. She took it with her on her last mission, and … as you know, she was never seen again. I fear the same fell beast that took her life devoured her weapon.” He paused. “Would you have used it, had the choice been yours?”

“No,” Ruby said at once. “No, I love my Crescent Rose too much. Although, maybe if the choice had been there when I was younger … it doesn’t really matter, does it?” She waited a moment to add. “Yang once told me that Mom fought with a sword.”

“No doubt, that seemed more quintessentially heroic to her,” Professor Ozpin suggested.

“Yeah,” Ruby said softly. “Yeah, I’m sure that was it.” She thought, wondering what other questions she could ask Professor Ozpin. “Why … why did you pick them? You were testing them, weren’t you? With the extra missions, like the time they had to escort Auburn to that village, you were seeing if you could tell them the truth, if you could recruit them the same way that you recruited us. Raven … Raven warned me about that.”

“I am engaged in a great war, a war that is no less great for being waged largely in secret. And in a war, I must have soldiers. I never have vast armies at my command; at present, I have very few who know the truth and whom I can call upon in an emergency, but … I do not wish to sound as though the primary purpose of this school is to serve as a recruiting ground for the struggle against Salem — if that were the case, I would have more than Team Sapphire and your uncle Qrow at my disposal — but I would be remiss in my duties to the wider world not to keep a lookout for those exceptional students who might be willing and, more importantly, able to assist me in defending it in some fashion beyond the duties of ordinary huntsmen.”

“But you haven’t found very many,” Ruby pointed out. “Or, like you said, you’d have more.”

“It is a great deal to ask,” Professor Ozpin replied. “I … I would hate to make a precipitous approach and then regret it later.”

“Did you regret Team Stark?”

“No,” Professor Ozpin said immediately. “I have many regrets, but that is not one of them. I had my eye on them from the moment they formed a team, even before. Your mother, silver-eyed, so skilled, so charismatic; Qrow and Raven, two of the best students that Beacon had ever seen, the best until Miss Nikos, and even then, I would not like to wager against either of them. Your father … well, Taiyang will forgive me for saying that he was not quite so exceptional, but he was brave and far from lacking in ability. And so I tested their skill, their commitment, I teased the edges of certain … mysteries to them, to see how they would react. I had Auburn, an old friend of mine, spend some time with them to give me her frank assessment of their characters, individually and as a group. I … I needed to be sure. I … test many teams that way; if you speak to the upperclassmen, I’m sure that they will tell you that in each year, there is one particular team that appears to enjoy my favour for a while … only to lose it, quite abruptly.”

“When you decide that they’re not ready,” Ruby said.

Professor Ozpin nodded. “I fear they take it as a slight,” he said. “Although some might say that I am doing them a favour.”

“But you decided that Team Stark was ready.”

“I did,” Professor Ozpin agreed. “After Ozpin’s stand … that was a terrible battle. In my life, I have never known a more terrible battle. Mountain Glenn, the pride of Vale, the supposed beginning of a new wave of colonisation, had been overrun by grimm with much bloodshed. Vale was in a panic, a much greater panic than that caused by the Breach, and that panic drew the grimm onwards, out of the ruins of Mountain Glenn. The Council … I must say that the Council of that day trusted me a lot more than the present administration; they gave me a free hand to organise the defence of the city, and I chose to fight the grimm away from Vale itself, though it meant offering battle upon the open ground. I led out every huntsman who would answer the call, and many students as well, although it was my intent to hold them in reserve, to use only in direst need.

“Summer Rose was unwilling to wait in reserve, and she convinced the others to move forward. I don’t know how she had convinced them, but Summer always had a ready tongue, and she knew the words that would conjure courage in the hearts of others. She even persuaded other teams, Team Cello and Team Diamond, to come with her, although in the confusion that prevailed, the closer they came to the fighting, the three teams became separated; Team Diamond turned back, and Team Cello ended up having their own little adventure. Team Stark, at Summer’s urging and Taiyang’s encouragement, pressed on alone, and soon found themselves, if not where the fighting was thickest, then certainly where it was very thick indeed. It was not a position I would ever have intentionally put students in, certainly not students of their year, and yet, they held their own, and what was more, they held the line. I had no idea of what had happened to them until the battle was over — I was preoccupied by trying to find and slay the apex alpha who led the horde — but when the battle was done, I was … astonished, awed, amazed by what these children managed to do. I understood then, in ways I had not before, just what I had in these four extraordinary students. I understood that they were ready and that I had no need to delay any longer. And so, when Raven’s injuries were mended, I summoned them to my office and unfolded the truth to them.”

“How did they take it?” Ruby asked. “How did Mom take it?”

“Barely had the words left my mouth then she declared that she was in,” Professor Ozpin said. “‘So long as you need help, Professor, I’m your girl.’ Those were her very words. ‘Call on me for any need that you may have, for any aid you may require, for any duty that arises, for any battle that must be fought. Call on me, and I will be there.’ She was … she was a very brave young woman. Very brave indeed. It took her a little longer to convince … some of the others, but she was able to bring them all onboard, with varying levels of enthusiasm. Ultimately, even those who had misgivings about the battle itself … they followed where she led. They would have followed her anywhere. They did follow her anywhere, even into Salem’s own fortress.”

“Why?” Ruby asked. “I mean, why did they go there? You said to Sunset and Pyrrha—”

“I did not lie to Miss Shimmer, or Miss Nikos,” Professor Ozpin said. “Salem cannot be destroyed; I am more sure than ever of that now.”

“Then why?”

“Because I thought that it might be possible to trap her,” Professor Ozpin said. “I knew that Salem had sent her agents to systematically hunt down all Silver-Eyed Warriors, I knew — as you know — that silver eyes have the power to petrify grimm, not destroy them. I thought that there might be a connection there, that Salem might fear what silver eyes could do to her, that perhaps she could be petrified as a grimm could be. I thought that there might be a chance to end this war, and Summer — and Team Stark — agreed with me that it was a chance worth taking.

“General Ironwood was at that time a major commanding a cruiser; he had enjoyed a meteoric rise to reach that position at his age, and I had already taken him into my confidence; he agreed to risk his career — and more importantly, his ship — to carry Team Stark as close to Salem’s fortress as he dared, so that they did not have far to fly in a Bullhead, and to wait for them to return. So they set out, full of high hopes, hopes which I shared as I waited here in this tower, waiting … waiting for word. Waiting for word that they had been successful, that the shadow had lifted, that a new day had dawned.”

“But it didn’t,” Ruby whispered. “Salem … in Mountain Glenn, under Mountain Glenn … Salem spoke to us.”

Professor Ozpin nodded. “Miss Shimmer has already confessed as much to me.”

“Really?” Ruby asked. She would have thought it was the kind of thing that Sunset would have kept to herself.

“Miss Shimmer and I are enjoying something of a détente,” Professor Ozpin explained. “But please, you were saying?”

“Right,” Ruby said. “Salem … Salem, she said to me … I tried to defy her… I told her that we wouldn’t give up, that we wouldn’t give in, and she told me that … that Mom had said the same thing to her once.”

“She was very brave, but ultimately quite mistaken.”

Ruby shuddered at the memory. Her whole body trembled as she looked away, looked down at her hands on her lap, screwed her silver eyes tight shut, tried to put away the thought that she conjured from the depths.

She could feel Salem’s voice in her head, she could hear it as if the words were newly spoken, she could remember the cold of Mountain Glenn all around her; surely, if she opened her eyes, she would see the darkness.

She could feel … she could feel … she could feel the hopelessness that she had felt then, the despair, the … the…

Ruby’s breathing began to come swifter and more heavily. Her chest rose and fell. Her eyes—

“Ruby,” Professor Ozpin’s voice was like the ocean, washing away all that had been written on the beach before the tide came in, washing away the fear, washing away the despair, washing it all out to sea, never to be seen or heard from again. “Ruby, it’s alright. She is not here. You are in Beacon and amongst friends. I am here, and Miss Shimmer is waiting for you at the bottom of the elevator. Please, Ruby, come back.”

Ruby opened her eyes, blinking, wiping the tears that had begun to form with the back one hand. “I … sorry, Professor, I don’t—”

“Salem has a malign influence, one that can linger far beyond her presence,” Professor Ozpin said. “Quite understandable and nothing to be ashamed of. As for your mother … I did not ask for details of what had happened on their mission; suffice to say that Summer’s eyes did not work as she or I had hoped, and Team Stark was lucky to escape alive.” He fell silent for a little while. “And now, if you’ll forgive me, Miss Rose, I think that that is enough for one day.”

“But—”

“That is enough, Miss Rose,” Professor Ozpin said firmly. “We will speak again, I give you my word, but another time, another day.”

“Okay,” Ruby said, in a half grumbling tone as she got to her feet. “Thank you, Professor.”

Professor Ozpin bowed his head. “It was an honour to speak of your mother again, Miss Rose.”

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