DISCLAIR: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishnt at threads/rwby-the-gar-the-gas-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.
Inauguration
I reclined quietly atop the sa building as last ti, waiting quietly for Raven to arrive. I wasn't alone, of course; Adam and Autumn stood beside , both under Glamours, while Gou was sitting invisibly on the other side of the roof. Even as I waited, I used my senses to keep an eye on Cinder. From this distance, my senses were nowhere near as keen, sadly, butwell, beggars can't be choosers. And while I didn't like that Cinder was almost out of my sight, I didn't want to et with Raven anywhere that she could potentially notice, however unlikely. I could probably have hide Raven on Haven's campus, but I still couldn't be certain of the breadth of Cinder's powers; for the ti being, I'd err on the side of caution when it ca to my biggest secrets.
Odds were that if Raven had sothing to tell that she couldn't just put in a ssage, and then I wanted to hear it.
She didn't keep waiting long, thankfully. Less than ten minutes after we arrived, I felt the presence of one of her portals at the edge of my senses. She didn't appear imdiately, however, but simply watched carefully, waiting. I found that a bit curious, sense she already knew I could sense her; what was she
Ah.
"It's safe," I said calmly and a portal swirled into being a mont later. As she stepped out, I rose to my feet and turned to give her my full attention. "Raven. It's good to see you."
"Jian," She replied, inclining her head but looking past . "You brought company."
"Friends," I assured, glancing at them as well. "I already introduced Adam to them, but this seed like a good opportunity to let you et as well. He didn't tell you?"
She spared her son a brief glance and then faced in full.
"No," She answered and sothing in her tone made Adam sigh. "But if you consider them trustworthy, I would be glad to et them."
What went unsaid was what she would do if they weren'tbut it went unsaid because she trusted , enough to trust those I did, especially with Adam's support.
"I do," I said. "Shall we?"
Raven considered that for a mont, looking around quietly. Given that we were on top of a skyscraper, there was nothing but the surrounding skyline and a few airships, but I could imagine even that much being a touch worrying to the sufficiently paranoidand I would know.
"Perhaps sowhere more private?" She asked. "Considering who we all are."
I gave her a smile that tried for both apologetic and reassuring.
"I have an illusion around us," I said. "It's not as secure, but I've reason to believe Cinder might make a move of so kind today."
"Yes," Raven answered, her tone aningful. "There's to be a eting between several of her people and the White Fang."
"Ah," I replied, inclining my head and then snapping my fingers, drawing the lot of us into Naraka as I did. "Then there's nothing to worry about then."
That wasn't quite true, but it was still the right answer. By telling that she already knew of the eting, Raven was either asking to trust her to handle it or implying that it would be one of the topics of conversation. Whether that ant she intended to ask for help or sothing else, I didn't know, but I trusted her enough to accept her decision in any case. Even though I had several questions to ask, they could wait for a mont.
She returned the nod, thanking silently before lifting a hand to remove her mask, blinking one as her eyes got used to the light.
"Introductions, then?" She asked.
"Of course," I replied, letting the illusion around Gou fade away. Raven twitched, but otherwise didn't react; she'd known he was there, it seem, but not the specifics of his appearance? Interesting. I assud that had sothing to do with how she used her portals. Perhaps she was able to sense things that passed through them? Depending on how much she could detect, that would be a useful power all its own. Light, sound, airmaybe even Aura. If she was skilled enough, that would give her a good idea of the area surround any of her portals. "This is Gou, a close friend of mine. Gou, this is Raven Branwen."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Gou greeted pleasantly, not rising. Even so, he was over a head taller than anyone else on the roof and his voice was loud enough to carry. Raven twitched again at the sound of said voice and looked at the giant dog it ca from for a long mont before nodding her head.
"Is Gou short for Tiangou, by any chance?" She asked, surprising .
"It is, yes," Gou replied, tilting his head. "I must admit I'm surprised you asked, Mrs. Branwen; most people do not make that connection as quickly as you."
"It's less surprising then it could have been," She said, glancing my way. "As is your ability to speak. Under the circumstances, I'm mainly curious as to your size."
Going by the tone of her voice, she was wondering why he was so small, instead of so large. The Tiangou of legend was said to be so large that he could blot out the sun. I hadn't quite expected her to make that connection so easily, much less to believe he was the Tiangou, but I suppose that once you et a reincarnating super weapon disguising himself as a reincarnating martial artist god-king, all sorts of things beco more believable.
"His Semblance allows him to grow," Adam input, sounding annoyed at her easy acceptance but moving to be unhelpfully helpful. A dismissed his Glamour as he spoke, revealing his face. "This is as small as he gets, though."
"I see," She mused.
"He is my Familiar," I added, seeing no real reason to lieat least, not completely. "He's nad for the original, though his circumstance are as odd as you might assu."
"I'll keep that in mind," She answered wryly, turning to face the last mber of our group. "And who is this?"
After a mont of hesitationmainly because I just wasn't sure how Raven would reactI let Autumn's glamour bleed away as well. The blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin I'd given her faded into a dark cowl, while the brown of her cloak turned pure white.
"Autumn," She introduced herself without otherwise moving, voice as musical as ever. "My na is Autumn."
Raven's breath caught at the words and I saw her back stiffen. For a long mont, she was still, watching Autumn with wide eyesand it was that reaction that caught my attention. This was the woman who'd just taken the appearance of a giant talking dog in stride, but the sight of my daughter gave her pause? And she hadn't even seen what made Autumn special yet. What
"Autumn?" Raven repeated, looking at her still. "What's your last na?"
That was another question that gave pause, simply because I wasn't sure how Autumn would answer. Last nas hadn't really co up much, simply because there wasn't much point when she only knew three peoplefour people, now. As my daughter, I suppose Arc was a valid answer, but since the day I'd first awoken her, the na my power showed had always been
"Rose," My daughter answered, making wince. I suppose she would have noticed that on her status screen, even though I'd never told her myself. But in this specific caseno, it was probably best to get this out of the way now. Given the issue with Sumr, I'd intended to tell Raven anyway, I just hadn't expected it to co up quite like this.
What had caused Raven to even ask?
"Jian," Raven said, not looking away from Autumn.
"Before any misunderstandings are caused, please remove your hood, Autumn," I answered and watched as Autumn lifted her hands to pull the cloth down. As it fell away, it revealed her usual face, lacking anything like human expressionit was a mass of darkened coils, but for the two silver orbs that peered out from the shadows. Said eyes were focused on Raven and appeared curious, but she didn't say another word.
Raven took a slow breath, held her gaze for a long mont, and turned towards , expression expectant.
I took a step closer and lowered my voice.
"This is my daughter, Autumn," I answered. "As you might have guessed, she's not an ordinary girl."
Raven made a show to look Autumn over again and turned back to with an expression that shouted 'no shit.'
"Yes," She stated dryly. "I noticed that sohow."
"She" I paused for a mont to consider how best to phrase it before sighing. "She started as an experint, truthfully. I acquired a rose during my ti in Vale and wished to see what would happen if I awakened its Aura. The results took so ti to manifest, but they were surprising to say the least. She's fully sapient now and learning more every day. Despite her origins, I would appreciate it if you treated her normally, however; as I am responsible for her current circumstance, I consider her my daughter."
"That's not an issue," Raven stated frankly. "Surprising as it was, that's not what I wanted explained."
"I nad her Autumn because she survived the sumr when her sisters did not," I answered. "It was before I t you or knew much of Sumr Rose and her circumstances."
"And Rose?" Raven asked.
"Shehas always had that na," I replied after a mont. "But then, she was an actual rose, as well."
"So it's a coincidence?" Raven asked quietly and I was forced to purse my lips.
"I don't know," I admitted. "Ihave wondered that myself. There do seem to be too many similarities for it to be a coincidence, but at the sa ti, I see few ways for it to be anything but. As soone with personal experience concerning rebirthI can't say I rember ever being a plant."
Raven nodded, accepting that.
"What of the cloak?" She asked.
"The cloak?" I repeated, confused.
"Sumr always wore a white cloak," Raven explained quietly. "She never seed to take it off."
Ah. Thatwould explain the reaction to seeing her in it. She must have hoped
"I apologize, Raven," I replied honestly, bowing deeply. "I was not aware, but I seem to have made a mistake. I gave it to her as a gift, you seethough it's a touch clich, white is my color. I made it myself, you see?"
At her inquisitive gaze, I used Gossar to draw out a length of thread, showing it to her.
"It's an old alchemical thod," I explained. "It was used to create silk backwell, a long ti ago."
"And her eyes?" Raven asked, her own locked with mine. It was easy to guess why; this was more than a little suspicious. The only saving grace of it all was that it was so suspicious, no one in their right mind would try to use it as a trickespecially not soone with my ans. If I wanted to convince her Autumn was Sumr reborn, I could do it a lot more convincingly.
At her question, however, I thought of Ruby and rembered the color of her eyes. They were silver, yes, but not quite the color Autumn's wereAutumn's were almost tallic unless she rembered to soften them.
"She assud that color when she first took a humanoid form," I admitted. "An odd choice, but though they're silver, I wouldn't call them a natural color. Whatever Sumr's eyes were like"
"What's her power," Raven asked. "Her Semblance, that is. Has she shown it yet?"
I looked at Raven, concerned by the question. Generally speaking, Semblances weren't shared easy. Even if the effects were revealed, the specifics generally weren't. While no two Semblances were the sa, there were enough records of Semblances that there was always the risk that soone could find sothing similar and figure out a weakness. And besides, you didn't tell your exact powers to anyone you didn't trust completely.
And I'd never told Raven about the Gar. Did I trust her? Yes, but with everything that had happened, there was sothing of a web of lies that would need to be untangled for to explain things. Even if I did that and had the chance, would I tell her though?
Yeah, I thought, looking back at her. Circumstances were a bitch, but I did trust her. And there was always the possibility that this was tied to SumrRaven wouldn't have asked if she couldn't think of so possibility. And though this was my daughter's secret, not my own, I trusted Raven to look after her, too.
She'd trusted to look after her son, after all.
I sighed.
"Its na is Gatherer," I answered at last. "It allows her to consu things to growplants, mainly. She can add their biomass to her own to build up her own power. But she can also consu Aura used nearby like a plant using photosynthesis. That may not be the limit of her abilities, however; she is young."
Raven nodded and took a deep breath.
"Sumr's Semblance was called Scatterer," She said. "She evenwhen she died, they held a funeral and on the tombstone they wrote 'Thus Kindly I Scatter.' It's a line from an old poem, you seeabout a rose."
Whelp. That was
I had no idea what that was. What I did know, however, was that it was far beyond the bounds of coincidence. For Sumr's epithet to be the sa as Autumn's current titlethat was too much to dismiss. Her eyes and their oppositely nad Semblancesher na and cloak, both of which I'd given her, might have been coincidental, but the rest
"Scatterer," I repeated, making a show of sounding it out. "How did it work?"
"She could disassemble things in a variety of ways," Raven answered. "The simplestor at least most commonuse was to destroy things physically. She could reduce walls to dust, for instance, but she was most famous for using it on the Grimm as well, reducing them to scattering rose petals."
I glanced at her at that, because of how familiar it sounded. When Adam used his Semblance to slay an enemy, it would dissolve into petals as wellstylistic things like that weren't wholly uncommon with things as personalized as Semblances, but this was another thing that I suspected wasn't coincidental. Drawing Raven's attention, I tilted my head towards Adam and raised an eyebrow, shielding our conversation with a thought.
"It's not the sa," Raven murmured, tone even quieter than before. "Wilt and Scatter. But the first ti I saw it, for a mont I thought"
She cut herself off but I nodded, understanding. It must have been a rather striking sight for her, whether she saw it before or after Sumr's death. After all, even before that, it would have been a reminder of what she'd left behind.
"You said that was the simplest use," I said, brushing over her silence gently. "I take it there were others."
Raven nodded slightly.
"Sumr was one of the few people I thought of as an equal," She continued. "Her power was one of the most versatile Semblances I have ever seen. At range, she could use it defensively, reducing any projectiles to powder as they approachedand while the net mass and montum would be unchanged, suddenly it would be a handful of sand striking her instead of a bullet and she'd just ignore it. As a result, anyone who truly wanted to fight her was forced to approach and do so on her terms, or else use alternative ans. Even then, however, the ability that made her one of the strongest people I'd ever t ant most of it didn't work."
"She could scatter Aura?" I guessed after a mont's thought.
"Yes," Raven confird, sighing slowly. "She could tear her way through the effects of most Semblances on contact, dispelling anything that tried to hold her down or cage her in. She could scatter lasers into harmless bursts of light, spread heat across a wide area, or even directly disrupt the structure of nearby effects. While using it directly on a human or a Grimm was more difficult and required her to get close, she could dissolve large quantities of Aura simply by getting near, and as her power allowed her to force people into close combat anywaywell, it was hardly a weakness."
I nodded, sympathetic. I could hear the slight undercurrent of pain in her wordsor rather, I could feel it, however well she hid it. I wanted to say sothing, but I knew she wouldn't appreciate it at a ti like this, so I remained passive and gave no sign I'd noticed any weakness. If this were a fight, this would be sothing I'd just quietly guard as a teammate, but even though it wasn't, the general idea remained.
Even so, my mind raced at her words, trying to but the pieces together. Though I'd seen no way to connect Sumr the Huntress to Autumn the Uber-plant before, now there was a possibility that quietly gnawed at .
Could she have Scattered herself? If she could Scatter matter and energy and even people's Aura, then was it possible that she could go a step further and effect the soul? Before Keter, I wouldn't have given it much thought, but I now knew it was possible to doDeath had wiped clean, after all, and my past self had feared the possibility of Malkuth interrogating his soul so much that he'd ensured Keter would keep secrets even from soone who summoned him. And though I couldn't be certain of anything with my limited grasp of the subject, I was almost certain that my father and I had battled Conquest within his soul. Though that was only three examples, it definitely set a precedent.
And, more than that, it was a precedent that was applicable. All of those situations involved Malkuth and his Ridersthe Qliphoth that we designed as a ans to touch the divine via the physical. For Sumr, who had been infected by a Rider herselfsoul fuckery wasn't out of the question, or even necessarily unlikely.
In fact, that was what was most worrying. From what we knew, she would have had to do this after being infected by the Red Riderby Warand so I had to question why. If, for instance, she used her Semblance upon herself and sohow shattered her soul into a million piecesif it was intentional, then who's intention was it? Had Sumr resisted sohow, regaining herself long enough to destroy herself utterly? Or had the Rider done it? If it was one of the Riderswell, I could imagine a number of possibilities, none of them good. While tearing yourself into a million pieces and throwing yourself over a large area would have seed like a very bad idea for anyone else, for soone like Conquest and, presumably, his peersthat was nothing but way to infect a larger amount of people in a short amount of ti.
On the other hand, wouldn't it have been pointless? If War had already taken Sumr, then there was no reason for it to sacrifice such an apparently powerful pawn just to spreadit would have been easy for it to infect people if it so desired. Starting with Taiyang, Qrow, Yang, and Ruby, it would have been able to easily spread to the classes at Signal and graduates could have quietly entered Beacon. After a few years, every Hunter in the Kingdom could have been infected and soone who'd used the strategies that War had was unlikely to be impatient, so it didn't make much sense for War to Scatter such a useful tool.
No, more than that, Ruby had proven that my power was able to detect War as a title, as a status effect, and as an unusual presence in the blood; if he had spread everywhere, I would have noticed. Assuming he didn't know sothing I didn'twhich was a dangerous ga to play with the Riders, admittedlyit didn't make much sense for him to have done it.
Then could it actually have been Sumr?
It was a little had to imagine. When Conquest had taken control of my father, he'd been locked up within his own soul and literally nailed to a chair, powerless to do anything but watch. It wasn't that I didn't think Sumr was powerfulto have received such praise from Raven, she must have been amazingbut rather that power didn't really play into it. It was like asking the greatest runner in the world to complete a marathon after tearing off his legs; Conquest, at least, hadn't given much chance to fight back at all. It was hard to believe soone could take control back after the Riders did everything they could to insure you couldn't, when your body, Aura, and very soul were working against you.
But then, she hadn't taken back control, had she? She'd justmaybescattered. And sohow or another, Ruby had still been infected.
I tried to imagine it in that context. An infected Sumr returns ho, maybe while Ruby was the only one in the house. She would have been young enough then and depending on the ti frayeah, Taiyang and Qrow were both teachers and gone during the day. Add to that the possibility that they might have been looking for Sumr at that tiyeah, it was possible. So she finds her daughter, begins to infect her, and Sumr sohow regains just a bit of control. Not enough to stop or take back her body, but Dad had been conscious inside his body so she'd have known what was happening. And if she was trapped within her soulmade she'd used her power on the only thing she could.
Herself.
It took a country full of ifs to make that work, I noted. And there was no real way to know if any of it was on the mark. Even if it was, though, how would Sumr have been able to use her power when none of the other Hunters were? Could it be that she was simply capable of affecting her own soul, whereas people like my father required matter to affect. I didn't know how the Qliphoth worked, much less the potential differences between Conquest and War. And assuming that she did Scatter herself, that implied that she'd broken into many pieces. Even if one of them had sohow beco Autumn, what about all the others? And how many were there?
There were a lot of questions and very few answers. And with itwhatever it washaving happened so many years ago, there weren't many ways to find more.
In fact, I could only think of one that might work and even that was a big maybe.
I sighed and nodded at Raven.
"I'd intended to put this off until later, but now seems like the best ti," I mused aloud, cracking my neck. "If there's anyone who can help us figure this out, it's probably him."
"Who?" Raven asked, turning her full attention towards .
"My soul," I answered, smiling a bit bleakly. "Keter, co forth."
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