The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Inauguration

I reclined quietly atop the same building as last time, waiting quietly for Raven to arrive. I wasn't alone, of course; Adam and Autumn stood beside me, 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, but…well, beggars can't be choosers. And while I didn't like that Cinder was almost out of my sight, I didn't want to meet 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 time being, I'd err on the side of caution when it came to my biggest secrets.

Odds were that if Raven had something to tell me that she couldn't just put in a message, and then I wanted to hear it.

She didn't keep me 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 immediately, 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 moment 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 me. "You brought company."

"Friends," I assured, glancing at them as well. "I already introduced Adam to them, but this seemed like a good opportunity to let you meet as well. He didn't tell you?"

She spared her son a brief glance and then faced me in full.

"No," She answered and something in her tone made Adam sigh. "But if you consider them trustworthy, I would be glad to meet them."

What went unsaid was what she would do if they weren't—but it went unsaid because she trusted me, enough to trust those I did, especially with Adam's support.

"I do," I said. "Shall we?"

Raven considered that for a moment, 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 paranoid—and I would know.

"Perhaps somewhere 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 some kind today."

"Yes," Raven answered, her tone meaningful. "There's to be a meeting 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 me that she already knew of the meeting, Raven was either asking me to trust her to handle it or implying that it would be one of the topics of conversation. Whether that meant she intended to ask me for help or something 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 moment.

She returned the nod, thanking me 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 assumed that had something 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, air…maybe 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 came from for a long moment before nodding her head.

"Is Gou short for Tiangou, by any chance?" She asked, surprising me.

"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 meet a reincarnating super weapon disguising himself as a reincarnating martial artist god-king, all sorts of things become 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 lie—at least, not completely. "He's named for the original, though his circumstance are as odd as you might assume."

"I'll keep that in mind," She answered wryly, turning to face the last member of our group. "And who is this?"

After a moment of hesitation—mainly because I just wasn't sure how Raven would react—I 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 name is Autumn."

Raven's breath caught at the words and I saw her back stiffen. For a long moment, she was still, watching Autumn with wide eyes—and 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 name?"

That was another question that gave me pause, simply because I wasn't sure how Autumn would answer. Last names hadn't really come up much, simply because there wasn't much point when she only knew three people—four people, now. As my daughter, I suppose Arc was a valid answer, but since the day I'd first awoken her, the name my power showed had always been—

"Rose," My daughter answered, making me wince. I suppose she would have noticed that on her status screen, even though I'd never told her myself. But in this specific case…no, it was probably best to get this out of the way now. Given the issue with Summer, I'd intended to tell Raven anyway, I just hadn't expected it to come 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 expression—it 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 moment, and turned towards me, 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 me with an expression that shouted 'no shit.'

"Yes," She stated dryly. "I noticed that somehow."

"She…" I paused for a moment to consider how best to phrase it before sighing. "She started as an experiment, truthfully. I acquired a rose during my time in Vale and wished to see what would happen if I awakened its Aura. The results took some time 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 named her Autumn because she survived the summer when her sisters did not," I answered. "It was before I met you or knew much of Summer Rose and her circumstances."

"And Rose?" Raven asked.

"She…has always had that name," I replied after a moment. "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. "I…have wondered that myself. There do seem to be too many similarities for it to be a coincidence, but at the same time, I see few ways for it to be anything but. As someone with personal experience concerning rebirth…I can't say I remember ever being a plant."

Raven nodded, accepting that.

"What of the cloak?" She asked.

"The cloak?" I repeated, confused.

"Summer always wore a white cloak," Raven explained quietly. "She never seemed to take it off."

Ah. That…would 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 see—though it's a touch cliché, white is my color. I made it myself, you see?"

At her inquisitive gaze, I used Gossamer to draw out a length of thread, showing it to her.

"It's an old alchemical method," I explained. "It was used to create silk back…well, a long time 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 trick—especially not someone with my means. If I wanted to convince her Autumn was Summer reborn, I could do it a lot more convincingly.

At her question, however, I thought of Ruby and remembered the color of her eyes. They were silver, yes, but not quite the color Autumn's were—Autumn's were almost metallic unless she remembered to soften them.

"She assumed 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 Summer'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 same, there were enough records of Semblances that there was always the risk that someone could find something 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 Gamer. Did I trust her? Yes, but with everything that had happened, there was something of a web of lies that would need to be untangled for me 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 Summer—Raven wouldn't have asked if she couldn't think of some possibility. And though this was my daughter's secret, not my own, I trusted Raven to look after her, too.

She'd trusted me to look after her son, after all.

I sighed.

"Its name is Gatherer," I answered at last. "It allows her to consume things to grow—plants, mainly. She can add their biomass to her own to build up her own power. But she can also consume 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.

"Summer's Semblance was called Scatterer," She said. "She even…when 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 see—about 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 Summer's epithet to be the same as Autumn's current title—that was too much to dismiss. Her eyes and their oppositely named Semblances…her name 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 simplest—or at least most common—use 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 well—stylistic 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 same," Raven murmured, tone even quieter than before. "Wilt and Scatter. But the first time I saw it, for a moment 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 Summer'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.

"Summer 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 approached—and while the net mass and momentum 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 means. Even then, however, the ability that made her one of the strongest people I'd ever met meant most of it didn't work."

"She could scatter Aura?" I guessed after a moment's thought.

"Yes," Raven confirmed, 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 anyway…well, it was hardly a weakness."

I nodded, sympathetic. I could hear the slight undercurrent of pain in her words—or rather, I could feel it, however well she hid it. I wanted to say something, but I knew she wouldn't appreciate it at a time like this, so I remained passive and gave no sign I'd noticed any weakness. If this were a fight, this would be something 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 Summer the Huntress to Autumn the Uber-plant before, now there was a possibility that quietly gnawed at me.

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 do—Death had wiped me 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 someone 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 Riders—the Qliphoth that we designed as a means to touch the divine via the physical. For Summer, who had been infected by a Rider herself…soul 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 Rider—by War—and so I had to question why. If, for instance, she used her Semblance upon herself and somehow shattered her soul into a million pieces…if it was intentional, then who's intention was it? Had Summer resisted somehow, regaining herself long enough to destroy herself utterly? Or had the Rider done it? If it was one of the Riders…well, 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 seemed like a very bad idea for anyone else, for someone like Conquest and, presumably, his peers…that was nothing but way to infect a larger amount of people in a short amount of time.

On the other hand, wouldn't it have been pointless? If War had already taken Summer, then there was no reason for it to sacrifice such an apparently powerful pawn just to spread—it 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 someone 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 something I didn't—which was a dangerous game to play with the Riders, admittedly—it didn't make much sense for him to have done it.

Then could it actually have been Summer?

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 Summer was powerful—to have received such praise from Raven, she must have been amazing—but 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 someone 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 just—maybe—scattered. And somehow or another, Ruby had still been infected.

I tried to imagine it in that context. An infected Summer returns home, maybe while Ruby was the only one in the house. She would have been young enough then and depending on the time frame…yeah, Taiyang and Qrow were both teachers and gone during the day. Add to that the possibility that they might have been looking for Summer at that time…yeah, it was possible. So she finds her daughter, begins to infect her, and Summer somehow 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 soul…made 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 Summer 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 somehow become Autumn, what about all the others? And how many were there?

There were a lot of questions and very few answers. And with it—whatever it was—having 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 time," 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 me.

"My soul," I answered, smiling a bit bleakly. "Keter, come forth."