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Raven waited in the ruins of the village, buildings long past the point of human habitation. She waited, hoping that she would receive the message she’d been waiting for for far too long. Summer had asked Raven – forced her– to leave her behind, and Raven waited.
The bonds her semblance forced her to form were strange. She could tell, loosely, the direction to each person she was bonded to, and their emotional state. Her idiot brother was off to the west on some mission for Ozpin, undoubtedly, and Tai was east of her. Patch, the same direction as the children. She hadn’t been able to feel Summer’s direction or emotions for five days.
A sharp spike of fear had been the last thing Raven had felt down their bond. She wasn’t dead, Raven knew she could still teleport herself to Summer. But she was afraid. She knew Oz had been lying to them, that Salem was unkillable. She didn’t know what could do what she’d felt, every image her mind conjured made it even harder to sleep than the last had.
“Hello, Rae,” a voice from behind her said. She knew that voice, but it was wrong.
Raven whipped around, drawing her sword as she moved. But as soon as she saw what it was – who it was – she froze.
Summer was standing there, in the shadows, and she’d never had the faintest clue.
“I’ve been waiting for you, you know,” Summer said, and a shiver ran down her spine.
Summer’s body may have continued on, but Raven doubted the woman she had known, the woman she had loved, still survived. How that could happen, she didn’t know, but this would be her only chance to learn.
Summer had always been the hope of team STRQ. She and Qrow had been skeptical of the kingdoms, and of everyone’s motives. That was the only way to be strong enough to survive to adulthood, beyond the cities. Tai was kind, but he suffered from a self-doubt that would eat away at his mind sometimes. Summer had been the one to bring the four of them together. Summer had been the one to teach her that things could be better than what she’d known.
“What – what happened to you?” Raven demanded, stepping forwards as her body unfroze. “I – I told you this was a bad idea. Those girls both depend on you so much. Tai won’t be able to raise them alone.”
“And that’s why you left him to raise them both, is it?” Summer moved forward as she accused again. They’d had this conversation more than once before.
“It was for the best,” Raven said, and she knew how hollow it would sound before she even said it. It sounded that way every time.
“Come with me, Rae,” Summer said, extending a pale arm out from the shadows.
Something was wrong. She couldn’t define it, but something about her, something about all of this sent every alarm in her head screaming.
“I –” she hesitated. Summer was right there, she was her team leader. She could trust her.
“Please, Raven,” Summer said, her voice breaking.
Raven bit her lip. She – she didn’t want to be so alone anymore. With STRQ, she’d felt like something of an outcast. Summer and Tai were each at home in the big cities of the kingdoms, and even Qrow had adjusted to the softer way of life. She’d thought returning to the Tribe would fix that, fix how different she was. It hadn’t. She was just as different from the Tribe as she was from the kingdoms. She no longer fit anywhere.
She’d made her choice, she was stuck with it, but she missed her team, her family. But the tribe was her family now. She couldn’t go back, no matter how much she wanted to.
Her mind flashed to a young girl, one who’d watched her with so much hope and faith when she’d found her, even as Raven stood over the corpse of another woman. That girl didn’t have anyone, not the way that Yang and Ruby would have Tai.
Slowly, painfully, Raven shook her head. “I can’t, Summer.”
She tried to say without words, how much she wanted to. From the way the expression on Summer’s face changed, she knew she’d failed.
“You won’t, you mean. All you needed to do was to leave them behind,” Summer snarled. “All you needed to do was do what you’d already done to me. Is it really so much to ask for you to stay by me? For once? Am I so unlovable to you that a band of traitors, thieves and murderers hold your loyalty more firmly? Or did you finally grow a conscience after abandoning our family?”
Raven took another step back. She’d never seen Summer like this before, not even in the worst of their fights during the early days of Beacon.
In the dim twilight, Summer’s outstretched hands almost looked like claws, but that was impossible. It had to be, she was human. They’d known each other for years, in Beacon, in the field, and beyond.
“Just come with me, and we can fix this all. You were right, is that what you wanted to hear? Ozpin lied, he lied and lied and lied, just like he takes and takes and takes.” Summer’s voice grew heated and angry. “But it doesn’t have to be this way. Not if you would just come with me. Where we’ll go, we can make a better life. For us, for them, Raven. They won’t have to know fear.”
Raven didn’t say anything. She couldn’t.
“Rae, please, I don’t want to have to hurt you,” Summer sobbed, begging. “It doesn’t have to be your time to die.”
Raven took two more steps back and took flight as a bird – leaving behind the dilapidated keep, the algae filled lake, the ruined village, and the woman she’d once trusted beyond anything else. The woman she’d loved. She was gone.