MIDDLE OF THE WOODS
"Maybe I should have just died." Summer had been thinking over many of the choices she made in life. Like how she wouldn't be the sole audience member of a one man acapella concert, if she had just died about 3 hours ago. It's not like this vagabond was bad at singing... in fact he was better as time went. Using his weird wind semblance to be his own choir and do Harmonies. The songs themselves were great... most of them. and then he'd stop sometimes halfway through one to start another just as she was getting into the one he was singing at the time.
Then there was this new incredibly inappropriate song. "That girl so scandalous, and you know another brother couldn't handle it~ " The style of the song caught her off guard with the gospel like backing echoing from the woods around her. She didn't even notice the lyrics at first. "So ya shaking that thang like 'who's the bitch?' , with a look in yo eyes, so devilish. You like to dance all the hip hop spots and you cruise to the groove like an acrobat.~" Not until he actually started singing 'Butt' did she realize just what the song was about.
"MATEO!" Instantly Scandalized, she tried to get him to stop singing it. Even if they had another hour walk to the nearest town, there are other songs.
"All night Looong~ LET. ME. SEE. THAT. THOo-Ooo-OONG!~"
That's when Summer broke and cuffed him hard on the back of his head, hard enough to knock the Teen face first into the dirt. "...Ow." Mateo lay there for a second, face half-buried in dust, leaves drifting down around him as his wind 'semblance' fizzled out like an embarrassed choir clearing its throat.
Summer stood over him, arms crossed so tightly it looked like she was holding herself together by sheer willpower. Her face was red—not from exertion, but from the audacity she had just been subjected to.
"What," Mateo asked, rolling onto his back and squinting up at her, "was wrong with that one?"
"That," she said, pointing an accusing finger at him, "was a crime."
He pushed himself up to a seated position, brushing dirt out of his hair. "It's a classic-- well a cover of a classic."
"It is not a classic," she snapped. "It is an embarrassment. To music. To walking. To existing in the woods with me."
Mateo blinked. Then slowly grinned. "Ohhh," he said. "You noticed the lyrics."
Her eye twitched. "I noticed the word 'butt' echoed by a ghostly gospel choir, yes." Behind them, the forest was still unnervingly quiet, like even the wildlife had decided to stay out of it.
Mateo stood, stretching like nothing significant had happened. "In my defense, you let me finish the chorus."
"I was in shock."
"Still counts."
She turned and started walking again without another word. Mateo scrambled to follow, falling into step beside her. He opened his mouth-- Summer didn't even look at him. "If you sing again, I will hit you harder."
"…Can I hum?"
Her silence was answer enough. He hummed anyway. Very softly.
As much as she hated leaving a Job undone. Her-- Kidnapper? Back up? Human Juke-box? had a point. Continuing without her weapon would be folly, so it was time to go back, forge something new, report to Ozpin about all the --everything. Mateo had been relatively tolerable, besides the kidnapping. Just a regular, if goofy, kid. Should have been in a Huntsman academy, especially with a Semblance this versatile. "Hey, Who unlocked your Aura?" Anything to stop the singing, so many were already stuck in her head.
"No one. My aura is still locked."
"Nnno, it's not? You have your wind thing."
"Yes, it is. My wind thing is different."
"That's called a Semblance, something you get after unlocking your Aura."
"That isn't my Semblance! I got that after biting into a weird fruit." Mateo kept his poker face. This is all part of the plan, expose the Devil fruit powers as something other than Aura, argue, prove it's different by having Summer unlock his aura for him. New power gain, attention from high profile people. Start networking from a position of 'That weird guy with a weird power.'
"You don't get semblances from eating weird fruit! You get food poisoning! --WHY WOULD YOU EAT A FRUIT YOU DON'T KNOW!?"
"I GET SNACKY! -- AND IF THIS IS FOOD POISONING, IT'S PRETTY BADASS!"
"THEN EAT SOMETHING NORMAL!"
"I--" Mateo took a moment to chill out and stop yelling. "I didn't have anything else at the time, I was following you." He dug around in his coat, fake searching for the fruit as he pulls it out of his inventory. Showing the Devil fruit with a bite taken out of it. "See? Weird fruit."
"Why only one bite?" Summer was mystified, for an unknown fruit, it was gorgeous. More of an art piece than anything else.
"It tastes like depression and Grimm shit."
She exhaled slowly, rubbing her temple. "And after that, the wind started listening to you."
"Not listening," he corrected. "More like… it cooperates." As if on cue, the air shifted again--not violently, not loudly. Just enough to push dust aside, to curl around their feet instead of through them. Controlled. Intentional.
Summer watched closely. Still nothing. No Aura. No trigger. No Semblance pattern she could recognize.
"…When I unlock your Aura, if this doesn't change--"
"It won't."
She gave him a look. "Then you and I are having a very long conversation with Ozpin."
Mateo smiled. All according to Cake.
Summer Placed her Palm over Mateo's Heart and for the first time He realized... This badass Huntress-- Is short as hell. What 5'4"? Even Having his age regressed, He was looking comfortably down.
"For it is our actions that live on after we are gone. Though our flesh returns to the dust from whence it came, our works and our choices continue on, infinite in potential and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my voice, comfort thee." (Stole this from reddit user TedorAlive2.) Mateo froze for a moment as he glowed, not so much watching the aura, but feeling it, what it unlocked. It was warm, soft, Like a blanket fresh from the dryer. Give him a cup of cocoa right now and he's out like a light.
What came next, as a surprise. Was Cursed Energy-- Well the ability to sense it. It didn't come naturally like his Logia powers, like a whole different controller set up. If Devil Fruit was Xbox, Cursed Energy was Keyboard and Mouse. It'll take time to get used to it. "Is... Is that it?"
"Yeah, Your Aura is unlocked. Feel any different?" Summer confirmed it through unlocking and all that was left now was investigation and confirmation.
Mateo Stilled again as wind danced around him, Then his face twitched. Looking into the middle distance He twitched again. Summer took a step back waiting for whatever was about to happen... Then Mateo Sneezed himself above the canopy.
"..."
"Summer... I'm stuck in the branches..."
1 HIKE LATER...
Finally, they reached a town... Well, More of a Fortified Camp. A small thing for coming and going Hunters. The tip of the Dragons tail. The bad news? No bullheads, Grimm concentration is too high. They do have a ship that goes and comes every other day. They'll be here a little while longer... Mateo followed the scent of food, and the sound of talking. An idea forming to make some Cash.
Branwen Bandit Tribe- Raven's tent
Raven paced the length of her tent like a caged animal, boots grinding into packed dirt, canvas walls trembling with every sharp turn. The air inside smelled of oil, metal, and old smoke - familiar things. Safe things. Things that didn't ask questions.
She had been there. Right there. The ambush hadn't been subtle. Grimm didn't plan like that. Someone had laid the field, funneled them, waited for Summer to commit before springing the trap. Raven had felt it in her bones the moment the wind shifted -- that cold, wrong stillness that meant run.
She had said it. She knew she had. Retreat. Now. Summer hadn't even looked at her.
Stubborn, idealistic, suicidally noble Summer Rose -- standing her ground like it mattered, like bravery was a currency you could spend against inevitability. Raven clenched her fists, nails biting into her palms.
Ozpin had done this.
Of course he had. Whispered his little truths. His half-confessions and full expectations. He always did. Wrapped children and heroes alike in just enough purpose that they stopped asking whether the cost was worth it. Summer had believed him. Believed that if she just held the line, just stayed, something would change. It never did.
Raven exhaled sharply through her nose, jaw tight. "Idiot," she muttered to the empty tent. Not unkindly. Not really. If Summer had listened -- if she'd moved when Raven called it -- they would've both lived. That was the logic. Clean. Simple. Survivable.
Instead, Summer chose the mission. Chose Ozpin. Chose death.
Raven seized on that thought like a lifeline. Summer hadn't been abandoned. She'd decided. She'd weighed her life and found it expendable. That was on her. That had to be on her. Because the alternative was unbearable.
Because if Summer hadn't chosen it -- if she'd hesitated, or hoped Raven would stay, or believed Raven had her back no matter what -- then the truth was much worse.
Raven stopped pacing.
Her reflection stared back at her from a dull strip of metal hung against the tent pole. Hard eyes. Unbroken. Alive. Both of their daughters would grow up without mothers now.
Yang would hate her. Or worse -- try to understand her. Tai would smile that tired, forgiving smile and blame himself for not being stronger, not being faster, not being there. Qrow would drink. He always did. Grief just gave him a better excuse... Shit would Qrow make him drink too?
The world would keep turning. It always did. Raven folded her arms tightly, like she could hold something together that way. "I warned her," she said aloud, as if the tent might disagree. "I told her to pull back." Her voice didn't shake. She repeated it. Again. Louder. Firmer.
"I warned her."
Because if she warned her, then she did her part. If she did her part, then leaving wasn't abandonment -- it was refusal. Refusal to die for someone else's war. Refusal to orphan her child on the altar of someone else's ideals. That was strength. That was survival.
That was… right.
Raven forced herself to picture the alternative -- herself staying, fighting, burning Aura to nothing beside Summer until the Grimm took them both. Yang growing up with no memory of her mother at all. A gravestone instead of a face. No.
No, she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't ever do that. Her fists trembled. Outside the tent, the camp was quiet. Her people slept, trusting her to lead them, to keep them alive. They needed her. They depended on her making the hard choices others were too sentimental to make.
She straightened her spine, the familiar armor sliding back into place. Survival over sentiment. Truth over fairy tales. If the world punished hope, then hope was the lie -- not the people who refused to die for it.
She didn't think about the last look Summer had given her -- not accusation, not fear, but something softer. Something almost understanding. She didn't think about the space beside her that had gone empty when she turned away. She absolutely did not think the words that hovered at the edge of her mind, sharp enough to cut if she let them in.
I ran.
Raven shoved the thought down and reached for her mask. Because as long as she kept moving, kept fighting, kept surviving -- she never had to stop long enough to face the one enemy she'd never been able to outrun.
Herself.
She took a breath and centered... She wouldn't go to Tai, that was a wound best left untouched. She activated her semblance, Kindred Link. Touching her connections as she prepared to open a portal to Qrow going through them. Yang, Tai, Vernal, Summer, Qrow.
"What?"
Summer's bond was active, not even weak and fading. It was on the mend in fact, Calm... Begrudgingly happy?
"…What," Raven whispered. Her pulse spiked. That wasn't the bond of someone bleeding out in a Grimm nest. That wasn't the echo of a soul slipping away. That was someone alive. Recovering. Resting.
Summer Rose had gotten away.
Raven exhaled sharply, the sound halfway between a laugh and a curse. Of course she had. Stubborn. Impossible. Always refusing to die on anyone else's terms. She's hiding, Raven decided immediately. A cave. Some out-of-the-way shelter. Licking her wounds.
Raven hadn't abandoned a dying teammate. She'd left behind someone strong enough to survive.
Her decision snapped into place just as quickly. This changed things.
If Summer was alive, then this wasn't about regret. It was about logistics. About efficiency. About getting her home before Ozpin sunk his hooks back in.
Raven reached for the bond again, not Qrow this time. Summer. The pull was stronger now that she allowed it. The world folded, air tearing open as a portal bloomed into existence. Raven stepped through-
-and emerged into chaos.
A crowded waystation hall burst into view, lanterns swinging, hunters and travelers packed shoulder to shoulder. Someone was performing, standing on a crate with wind curling around him like a living thing. The crowd was clapping, stomping with the beat, laughing, fully bought in.
"So if by, the time, the bar closes And you feel like falling down--" he crooned, wind harmonizing with him, voice carrying over the din, "--I'll carry you home, Tonig--" (We Are Young - Fun., Janelle Monae)
The portal snapped open beside him like a rip in reality. Raven Branwen stepped out, arms crossed, mask half-raised, eyes immediately locking onto Summer Rose standing near the edge of the crowd. Alive.
Summer turned, eyes widening just a fraction. "…Raven?"
The crowd went dead silent.
Mateo looked between the two women, then at the portal, then back at Summer. "Uh," he said carefully, "is this a family thing or--"
Raven ignored him. She took one step forward, gaze never leaving Summer. "You're coming home," she said flatly. Not a question. Not a plea. A statement she could live with.
Summer's mouth twitched. "You ran."