NOVEL NEXT Chapter 40: The Reunion
He’s about to use the easy excuse for what it is and agree to show them some moves in order to kill time… when he meets the eyes of one Glynda Goodwitch. The blonde is not judgmental. She does not condemn. However… her eyes do implore him in that moment. They implore him to let the two girls see their mother. Even if Summer is not yet awake, they deserve to know she lives.
Jaune rocks back on his heels and exhales sharply before forcing a smile on his face. He gives Glynda a small nod to show he’s heard her loud and clear, and then looks to the excited faces of Yang and Ruby.
“Perhaps another time, girls.”
Their faces almost immediately fall, and Ruby’s kicked puppy expression makes Jaune feel like an ass most of all. He’d dangled his badass status right in front of them by laying waste to Cinder, Vernal, Raven, and Glynda without even breaking a sweat, and now he was refusing to teach them anything.
“I mean it. We’ll have a sparring session later. For now, there’s someone else you both should see.”
Perhaps noting the seriousness in his tone, Ruby and Yang exchange a befuddled glance before slowly nodding. It’s not like they have anywhere else to go at this point, and Yang at least seems to have no desire to stay in the same room as Raven any longer then she absolutely has to. With that in mind, it’s not that difficult to get them both to follow him out of the training room and down the hall.
As he leads the confused sisters through the Palace, Jaune has to admit to feeling a little bit of trepidation despite his course being set. Summer still hasn’t woken up after all, and he can’t deny that he’s a little worried about how Yang and Ruby will react to her current… state. However, it’s far past time for him to bring them to her. He can’t just hide Summer away from them forever, that wouldn’t be right.
He still finds the journey to Summer’s quarters to be much too short. One moment he’s wondering how they’ll take it, and the next moment they’re already there. Standing in front of Summer’s bedroom, Jaune clears his throat and holds off on entering for just a moment. Instead, he turns to Ruby and Yang and gives them both a sympathetic smile.
“What you’re both about to see will shock you, girls. Please prepare yourselves… and lean on one another for support, if you need it.”
The two sisters exchange another glance at that, seeming as baffled as before, but also a little spooked at this point. Jaune has to refrain from telling them they SHOULD be spooked, or making the quip that they’re about to see a ghost. Maybe if Summer were already awake… but as it is, this moment is far too serious and solemn for jokes.
Instead, the King of the Grimm stays quiet as he finally pushes open the door and steps into the room beyond, immediately moving to the side so that he could give Ruby and Yang access. The sisters enter behind him, their eyes sweeping over the room for a moment before ultimately zeroing in on the bed itself, for that’s where the bedroom’s sole occupant could be found.
It takes them both a moment to understand what they’re seeing. In all fairness, Summer isn’t exactly exposed. The blinded huntress is currently tucked in, and the blankets have been brought all the way up to just under her chin. On top of that, she’s wearing a blindfold over her eyes, one that covers a large enough swathe of her face that it would be hard to identify her at a single glance.
“… M-Mom?”
But there it is. No way the two girls would continue failing to recognize Summer forever. Ruby, with her silver eyes and sharp eyesight, is the first to realize who she’s looking at. A tremulous, quavering tone fills the young woman’s voice as she trembles there, staring in wide-eyed disbelief.
Jaune’s heart wrenches, but before he can gently explain that Summer is alive but in a mild coma, he feels it. No sooner has Ruby spoken up, her voice drifting across the room… then a familiar stirring fills the air. Summer’s aura pushes outwards from her body, filling the bedroom in mere seconds. Ruby and Yang may or may not feel it, but they almost certainly don’t understand what it is they’re experiencing. Jaune, however… can’t help but smile.
“Mom!”
Yang is the second to pick up on what Ruby has already realized. At Yang’s sharp declaration, it’s like a dam breaks. The two sisters rush forward, racing to their mother’s bedside in disbelief, shock… and hope. Of course, Summer is still laid up in bed with her eyes covered by a blindfold. Jaune supposes, since they don’t know what he knows, that Ruby’s whimpering reaction to seeing her mother in such a state is perfectly understandable.
“M-Mom, are you okay?! Please mommy, wake up!”
Jaune stays quiet, following along behind them… but this still catches Yang’s attention. The blonde certainly has a bit of Raven in her, for all that she’d been raised by Summer. When confronted with things she can’t explain, when faced with too much too fast, Yang’s default reaction is anger. She gets outraged. Of course, she’s not about to direct that fury at her mother, nor at her sister. Which only leaves Jaune.
“What did you do to her, you bastard?!”
Jaune lifts his hands, palms out in surrender. Yang looks ready to try to take his head off anyways, even with the demonstration he’d given her and her sister down in the training room. But before he can speak or Yang can attack, a raspy voice comes from the bed.
“Yang Xiao-Long. You will show respect to the King of the Grimm. Not only could he kill you a thousand times over, but given your presence here, I imagine he’s the only reason either of you are still alive.”
“S-Sorry, mom. I just… I don’t understand.”
Before Summer can reply, Ruby lets out a cry and promptly flings her arms around her mother’s neck in pure, honest joy. It doesn’t seem like she can find the words to express how happy she is in this moment, so the young woman has gone with actions instead. Summer gasps as Ruby impacts her, but quickly sits up and hugs her daughter right back.
Her strength is coming back to her quite quickly, Jaune can feel it. He, Ruby, and Yang are all wrapped up in Summer’s expanded Aura by this point, and Jaune can tell that Summer’s little nap was not detrimental to her at all. If anything, she feels stronger for having awakened his Aura.
That’s good. It assuages a lot of his guilt and the worry he felt over putting her, Pyrrha, and Boudicca into temporary comas. They weren’t permanently damaged by it at least.
Over on the bed, Summer wordlessly reaches up… and feels around Ruby’s eyes. The silver-eyed girl eventually has to close them with a giggle, feeling her mother’s fingertips brushing over her eyelids.
“Mama, what are you doing?”
Smiling softly, Summer lets out a slow breath.
“Just… checking. It’s good to see you, Ruby. And good to be seen BY you in turn.”
Summer’s ‘gaze’ for lack of a better word moves to Jaune at that, as if both asking and thanking him in the same breath. Jaune, recognizing exactly what she’s ‘saying’, just shrugs and chuckles softly.
“Salem is the one who spared them. I was still asleep when they arrived.”
Summer rocks back as if struck, forcing Ruby to move with her in order to continue clinging to her. The blind woman’s shock is plain as day, even to her two daughters.
“Mama?”
“… Nothing to worry about, Ruby. Mama was just… surprised. But in a good way.”
Summer gives Jaune a nod of thanks, before turning her attention fully to her daughters. Specifically Yang, who has been shuffling from foot to foot on the other side of the bed for some time now. The blonde’s silence was rather uncharacteristic, but then again, it was clear that Summer brought out another side of her.
Smiling in her direction, Summer Rose opens up her and Ruby’s hug, reaching out with one arm to beckon Yang in. The blonde doesn’t need to be told twice. She’s quick as can be to take her stepmother up on the offer, and in moments both sisters are cuddling up into Summer’s sides. Summer, meanwhile, lays back down with them held in her arms, looking content as can be.
… There will likely be questions at some point. For now though, none of the three women seem inclined to ruin the peace and serenity of this moment. Jaune weighs whether or not he should continue intruding against the idea of being around for when they have things they might want him to answer… but ultimately, he decides it’s better if he doesn’t continue intruding.
Instead, he watches for a moment longer before leaving them all to it. Summer and her daughters have a lot of catching up to do. Hopefully, no one gets too angry over the things they learn. But either way, Jaune will be there to weather that storm when it starts. For now… for now, he heads back downstairs, making his way all the way back to the Palace Dungeons.
There, toiling in the dark by herself, he finds Winter Schnee in her cell where he left her. The white-haired woman’s head snaps up when he comes to a stop outside of her cell, her eyes widening at the sight of him returning for her.
“Hello Winter Schnee.”
Abruptly standing from her cot, the Atlesian Specialist steps forward, her fingers flexing for a moment as though she wants to attack… or maybe just grab hold of him and demand answers. Jaune tilts his head to the side as she does neither of these things of course, instead simply grabbing onto the bars of her cell with a white-knuckled grip.
“Ruby and Yang. What did you do with them?”
Humming, Jaune considers how he wants to answer her for a moment. The thing is… he can hear actual concern in Winter’s voice. And the woman had even demanded that Salem let her stay even after his Queen had offered Winter the chance to leave. She’d refused to escape, even with the risk of death looming over her at the time.
Now, Salem had expressed her belief that part of Winter’s decision was based on how LITTLE she wanted to go back to Ozma and General James Ironwood empty handed. And Jaune suspected that was part of it too. Still, Winter was also clearly feeling some sort of guilt and responsibility for those who had been sent with her on this… ill-advised assassination attempt. And Jaune got the feeling that the Schnee woman truly did not know going in that Ruby had been turned into a living bomb.
In the end… he decides to tell her the truth. After all, the truth was often stranger than fiction. More than that… the truth, as they said, could set you free.
“I took them to see their mother. They’re with her now, catching up.”
Confusion spreads across Winter’s face at that.
“… I was given to understand that their mother was dead.”
Jaune chuckles at that, fully aware that his inhuman eyes are glittering with amusement.
“Reports of Summer Rose’s death were… greatly exaggerated. I bet Ozma thinks that Glynda Goodwitch is dead as well, but that’s not the case either.”
Winter’s jaw drops open at that revelation. Though, to her credit she quickly regains her composure. Back straight, jaw clenched, head held high. She doesn’t seem to know what to say, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to give her a single inch more. Except... he can see it in her. The cracks. This is a façade, and an incredibly weak one at that. Jaune hums, before shaking his head from side to side.
“You told Salem that your mother would be willing to commit treason for you. Tell me, do you truly believe that? Or were you exaggerating in an effort to save your own skin?”
Winter colors a bit, but maintains her composure this time around. Glaring at him, she nods sharply.
“I believe it. My mother is a drunkard. An alcoholic. But I believe with the proper motivation and the right… kick in the pants, she can be useful. To you and your Queen. The SDC… could be yours.”
It looks like it pains Winter to even offer him that. Jaune isn’t sure why she’s doing it either. She doesn’t seem that self-serving, nor that cowardly. He would have expected her to be willing to die, if not for Ozma and Ironwood’s cause, then for her family. But instead she was all but throwing her mother under the bus? Why?
Before Jaune can ask, Winter suddenly fidgets.
“I had… another question. About the fourth member of my team. Penny Polendina.”
Jaune raises an eyebrow at that.
“The robot?”
He’d seen this ‘Penny’ already. She was a lifeless mechanical thing in the facsimile of a living being. But Salem had thoroughly shut her down, that was for sure.
“She’s much more than a robot. She’s an android… and she had her own Aura. She had her own soul.”
THAT gets Jaune’s attention. His eyes narrow as he searches Winter’s face for any sign of deceit. But there is none. In fact, the white-haired woman suddenly looks more earnest than ever. One of her hands leaves the bars of her prison cell, and much to Jaune’s shock, Winter begins unbuttoning the buttons of her top.
“Penny… she’s my responsibility too. I don’t care if you use me to take control of the SDC. In fact, I implore you to do so. However… I am willing to offer you everything else that I have to give if you will assist me in seeing her… returned to functionality.”
Jaune’s eyes slide down as Winter reveals more and more of her cleavage, exposing her pale flesh. Her skin tone has nothing on Jaune’s own chalk-white skin of course, but still… her blemish free flesh is definitely something.
“Oh? And how would that work?”
Licking her lips, Winter removes her top altogether, exposing her bra-clad chest and otherwise naked torso.
“Her creator… her father. Help me kidnap him. Help me bring him back here so he can repair Penny. She didn’t deserve to be a weapon any more than Ruby did. If you want my body… you can have it. All I ask in return is for your assistance in this matter. Separate from my pledge to help you turn my mother into your agent.”
Well now. That was… an enticing offer to say the least. Then again, Jaune couldn't help but wonder where the hell Winter got the idea that sex was on the table down here in this dungeon...