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Gacha, The Meaning of Heroism, and The Spirit of Hindsight by Femboi Fox Fanboi

Anime » RWBY Rated: T, English, Adventure & Humor, [Summer R., Raven B.] Jaune A., Neo, Words: 482k+, Favs: 651, Follows: 739, Published: Jan 25, 2023 Updated: Apr 28, 2023

264Chapter 2: Gacha 2: Hard Divergence

Three days passed quickly in Camp Branwen, Juniper noted.

Though it was clear that the whole of the bandit camp didn't know what to make of their leader's rough mood, the arms she was more than willing to break when any questions were made about Summer or Jaune spoke volumes about how seriously she took Summer's situation.

When a young Vernal approached Jaune on the second day to challenge him to a fight, it was weird how much of a vicious bitch she'd grow up to be when she was currently a slightly pudgy girl with eyes full of hero worship towards Raven, things had especially gotten awkward.

Raven had stepped out to go raiding to take her mind off of Summer's current situation, still within the Nikke Mold, whatever the hell that thing was or was doing to her. Juniper had phased through the surface of the Mold to observe what was even happening to her.

He was glad that he had no physical digestive tract or he might have thrown up inside the machine.

Her skull had been operated on first, it seemed, and now her lifeless corpse was laying in the bottom of the Mold, preserved and embalmed. At some point the skullcap must have been cut off in a perfect circle leveled around her forehead just a bit above her well maintained eyebrows. It had been somewhat mended back together by the machine for presentation purposes, but it was still marked by a faint scar and loose hair floated about from the rough treatment it received from the Mold's surgical arms. Clearly it was a function first type of machine, rather than having any real care for the remaining body in question. It wouldn't have surprised Juniper if her skull was full of that strange oil now in lieu of the original brain.

The segment above held a metal skeletal framework that was housing the Huntress's original brain like some twist on the Eradicator movie franchise, as if her body would turn to look at him with robotic eyes and state that she would be back with a thumbs up as it sank into molten metal.

Another check in later revealed that the Mold had been busy. The whole of the body had some sort of artificial muscle tissue attached to the whole of her frame, alongside some sort of weird gelatinous material where her breasts, thighs, and glutes should be. Jaune would explain later that apparently they were high quality shock absorbers to let the body endure a massive amount of recoil for guns that a normal human would never be able to wield, though he wasn't sure if Huntsmen and Huntswomen would be able to handle a Nikke's firearms via Aura.

That and it had begun work applying artificial skin and hair to her face, looking mostly like the original Summer though any details in terms of color was hard to tell in the dim light. It was still slightly different, like someone had made a realistic painting of a photograph.

Still the new body retained the beauty of the original though. Most Huntsmen and Huntresses tended to be pretty. Aura had a way of bringing out the best in people's biological features, though there were always exceptions to the rule. But her eyes were no longer silver, but rather a shade of bottle green as they glowed, somewhat lifelessly, up at the lid of the Mold.

When Juniper had phased out of the Mold, his curiosity at the process of building Summer's body sated, he noticed Jaune was currently missing.

It was around noon, so he had likely stepped out to the camp's mess hall tent so he had floated on over to give him a heads up on the progress made, but instead noticed a hushed circle in the center of the camp, where Jaune was currently wielding Durindana, the tip of the golden blade coated in a small film of blood, dripping onto the soil.

Vernal had a hand held to the side of her face, a closing wound alight with the color of her Aura. That the spear had pierced without resistance, according to Jaune, who only managed to pull back in time as a result of the combat instincts and abilities that he had gained from the now defunct Ring of Conditional Victory.

There were whispers amongst the bandits that Jaune's Semblance was a Hunstman-killer. The ability to ignore Aura, that it was something to truly be feared and a boon for the tribe. While it was lucky that nobody seemed to think it was a byproduct of the legendary spear he wielded, he saw Jaune bristle at the insinuation that he was expected to kill Huntsmen, the heroes that he looked up to most in the world.

Juniper quickly hushed his young ward, informing Jaune that it would be better for him to stay silent for now. That it was important that nobody suspect his spear was magical in nature.

After all, Juniper already knew what Jaune's Semblance was and it had nothing to do with what had occurred. There was no way that the bypassing of Aura was from anything but Durindana.

He had a quick theory that as the 'Ultimate Unbroken Spear/Sword' and whatever about its legend of breaching the walls of Troy, wherever that was, had left the weapon the ability to bypass the defenses of its opponents.

And what was Aura but a shield against the world consisting of the soul? A bulwark against the darkness?

At Juniper's insistence the six year old boy, who insisted he was six and a half, made his way out of the circle back to Raven's tent, ignoring the occasional greedy eye glancing at his flashy and way too expensive looking weapon.

"Don't let them goad you into fighting them again." He warned Jaune, who scowled.

"I didn't want to either! Vernal was the one that knocked my bacon and broccoli cheddar soup to the ground." Jaune grumbled back, not meeting his eyes.

The fact that his younger self enjoyed veggies was oddly amusing considering that it had taken the fall of Beacon and foraging on the way to Haven for he himself to have gotten over his distaste for vegetables.

Meanwhile Blake had always been genuinely stereotypical in her love of tuna, comedically enough. Juniper had been worried that Jaune might have wanted to go full vegetarian, not because there was anything wrong with the diet per say, but that as a Huntsman it was pretty important for him to get in a lot of protein, which was more difficult on a meatless diet.

Luckily his newfound appreciation for vegetables didn't hamper his love for meat in the slightest.

And finding out that Jaune had a tail on top of his bunny ears had been strange, to say the least.

Juniper wasn't the most enlightened of individuals on the nature of Faunus, but having been friends with Blake for a long enough period of time had enlightened him on a few things. Such as the fact that Faunus only had a single trait of their animalistic bloodline.

Whatever that ninja tonic was had given Jaune two. And from different species at that, otherwise Jaune would have had a simple and cute cottontail.

But Jaune's tail was more like that of a golden retriever. Still currently short and a little stubby, but fluffy. And it had a mind of its own and had a tendency to wag when excited, which might have been the reason why Jaune was somewhat ashamed of it and tried to hide it in his pants rather than let it free. That and the fact that his pants lacked the kind of openings required for tails to comfortably be let free.

Either way, when Raven returned that night with spoils of war, Juniper's job had been to make sure that Jaune didn't ask too many questions or tip off to the boy that what they had done was raid a human settlement.

It left an unpleasant feeling in his gut, but it wasn't as if the two of them had anything they could do to change it in their current circumstances.

It was better to leave this issue for now.

However when Raven noticed the faint scar, newly healed, on Vernal's cheek and had casually questioned her about it things had gotten slightly ugly.

The young girl had admitted that she ended up challenging Jaune to a fight, despite the standing order not to. Then ended up receiving a rather fierce paddling for it. Quite literally with an oaken oar.

It was the kind of behavior unbecoming of a young mother with her own child, but considering that she had effectively abandoned Yang to return to banditry, Juniper couldn't find himself being too surprised, though extremely distasteful.

Jaune on the other hand had taken offense, jumping in to block Raven's second swing with Durindana, cleaving through the oakwood, despite Raven's Aura coating it, much to her surprise.

Raven looked as if she wanted to murder the both of them, but actually restrained herself.

"If you want to take responsibility for Vernal's disobedience, then fine. Vernal."

"Y-yes chief!" The girl replied, currently planking upon Raven's orders, her rear in the air after having already received one blow to her rear.

"You're going to wait on Jaune hand and foot while he's in camp. His words are as good as mine. If he says jump, you ask how high. Am I understood?"

Vernal trembled, eyes slightly wet from the pain.

"Yes Chief!"

"What the-" Jaune was interrupted as Raven pinched his human ear.

"And you!"

"Ow!"

"The only thing you have to do is make sure Summer comes out of that box alive. Don't fucking get into another fight, do you hear me?"

"Ok ok! My ear!"

Raven shook Jaune by the ear one last time before letting go, the boy falling back on his rear.

"And I swear if any of you picks on the kid keeping my wife alive, I'll fucking skin you and shove it down your throats and out your asses, you hear me?!"

"YES KHAN RAVEN!" The camp replied in unison.

If Juniper had to give Raven credit for anything, it was that she ran a pretty tight ship.

What a goddamn shame that she was such a coward in the end.

Summer felt heavy. Like the first time Qrow and Raven had taken her drinking.

Her fingers twitched, feeling somewhat numb and unfamiliar.

Taking a deep breath felt like filling her lungs with molasses rather than air, despite the fact that she felt like she was breathing just fine.

Her eyes opened to-

Her eyes opened.

She jolted into a state of awakening, banging her head into some sort of metal lid above her.

"Owh." She murmured, still dazed.

Everything felt heavy. Her hand lifted to the lid. It was dark, but there was a very dim glow from underneath her body. There wasn't a lot of room to maneuver, but all of her limbs felt like they were alright, even with this strange slowness to her.

How were her eyes ok?

Raven must have brought her to one hell of a doctor.

"Oh! I think she's awake!"

The voice sounded young. A boy maybe. Or a girl. It was muffled and hard to tell.

"Ok, brother Juniper! I'll go get Raven!"

"Don't bother." A young girl's voice cut him off, "I can hear you from outside the tent. Tell your imaginary friend that I'll go get the chief."

"Juniper isn't imaginary!" The boy argued back. "And he's my big bro, not-"

"Yeah, yeah."

Summer chose to relax, laying her head back against her pillow. It was somewhat cold for some reason, feeling more like a cube of gel than anything. Was she in some sort of Atlesian recovery pod? She had been in one before and it felt… similar? No, that wasn't right. It was very different somehow, but Summer was still too tired to care.

Her Aura hummed as she reached out for it, but it was weird. Her body felt foreign.

It must have been whatever sedatives she was on before this.

Summer was fully awake now but everything felt heavy. And she was embarrassed. Though she had always been the most hot-headed member of Team STRQ, all it had taken was a private conversation with Ozpin about the nature of her Silver Eyes and she had flown off the deep end, deciding to somehow try to stop Salem on her own.

Well, technically to hunt down a man named Hazel that had begun to work for Salem recently so that she could get Salem's location out of him, but that was neither here nor there.

But then she had been ambushed as Raven actually tried to be the voice of reason for once.

Summer felt awful at how angry she had been at her wife. Technically Raven hadn't signed for any annulments before she ran off, so legally they were still wives. She loved Raven as much as she loved Tai and a part of her hated herself for it.

She felt she should be more angry, but wanted to grab onto her, hold her, force her to come back home and be a family again. Could they even have that now that Raven had become the leader of the Branwen tribe?

Was it too late for them?

"Brat! Vernal said Summer's awake?!"

Raven.

Her voice filled Summer with both joy and dread. A part of her didn't want to look at her again. The other wanted her to smirk with her cocky red eyes that made her knees weak with an 'I told you so' no matter how shameful that made her feel.

Raven sounded desperate to see her, and Summer dreaded that she felt the same.

"Mhm!" The boy responded, "I'll open up the Mold now."

Mold?

The lid opened up, light shining in from its outline as it swung up to the side.

Summer reached out to grab the edge, feeling cold air on her hand, now realizing it was wet. Why was she wet? It was slippery and-

She pulled herself up, breaking the surface of some sort of viscous liquid.

"Blaurgh! Kack! Eckh!" Summer breathed out, coughing and hacking out some sort of clear liquid, a slight pink tinge to what came out of her body compared to the clear liquid housing the rest of her body.

She coughed again, wiping the liquid off her face (or trying to) with her other hand, shivering in the cold air.

"...Am I not wearing clothes?" She muttered as Raven quickly reached to her side, wrapping her in a thick fur-lined cloak, her wife freezing as she made eye contact with her.

"S-Summer?"

Summer's brow wrinkled.

"Who else would it be Rae?" She replied, a little crossly. "Where are we?"

Raven's face was unreadable as she turned to a blonde Faunus boy with rabbit ears who's eyes were currently covered by a tomboyish girl with a light tan and a pixie cut.

"I told you she'd be ok." He huffed.

"Why does she look like that?" Raven demanded, a dangerous lilt in her voice.

"L-look like what? I can't see anything!" The boy replied somewhat nervously.

Did this little boy heal her? He couldn't have been older than maybe seven years. More or less Yang's age.

"She doesn't look the same! Her eyes are a different color!"

"I told you she would! Her old body was dying! The Mold gave her a new one!"

"NEW ONE?! You just said she'd look different!"

"What do you think I meant when I said her old body was dying?!"

"Rae. Stop." Summer demanded, getting her wife to unclench her fist, ready to strike the boy. "Did he save my life?"

"I-"

"Rae."

Raven took a deep breath and looked at the ground, not meeting her eyes.

"...Yes."

Summer pulled her legs out from the strange wet purple pod, feeling her feet reach for the ground as Raven stopped them with her own hands, a huff of air leaving her as she did so, as if Summer put more force into that than she herself expected.

"Wait." Raven requested softly, taking off her own boots and slipping them over her wet feet.

Summer felt her heart tighten and her face flush.

Damn her.

Summer then slipped off onto the ground with a louder thump than she was expecting, almost losing her balance.

Raven quickly supported her, but seemed to require more strength than she was expecting as well, almost joining her in a backwards fall back into the pod, Mold, whatever it was.

"You can let go of his eyes now." Summer smiled kindly at the tanned girl who shrugged and backed off with a small elbow shoving into his back.

Summer smiled, tsundere tendencies seemed to run in Raven's tribe.

But the Faunus boy didn't smile back.

"Oh." He muttered, growing pale, "I get why you're mad, missus Raven. Sorry."

"Hm?" Summer's brows knitted again. "What's wrong?"

"It's not a big deal." Raven jumped to her side, her bare feet against the packed dirt. "You're fine. You're beautiful."

Summer looked back at the Mold, the reflective candy purple coating giving her an impression of her current appearance.

"Oh."

Her hair was pure white, a faint purplish tint from the Mold itself. A hand rose to pull a wet tendril of hair into her vision, confirming her hypothesis.

She couldn't tell what color her eyes were anymore, but it certainly wasn't silver. And she looked very close to her original appearance, but was still ever so slightly different, such as missing a very small scar that used to be on the tip of her nose, for example.

"What… happened?"

Raven's lips puckered like she had consumed a sour lemon. Raven hated sour fruit.

"The Scorpion working for her had a Semblance that disrupted Aura. He… he tore your eyes and poisoned you. You were dying. I… we… we did whatever we could to save you."

"Is that what you're going to-"

Raven's death glare shut up the Faunus boy.

Summer couldn't help but to feel her eyes roll.

"She threaten to kill you?"

"Four times."

"Brat!"

"Raven!" Summer scolded, "He's a CHILD!"

Raven looked sour again. Adorable. No, she was supposed to be mad. Furious even.

God she just wanted to kiss her though.

Raven caught her gaze and gave a smile like she knew what Summer was thinking, making her face flush.

"...It really is you."

"Of course it's me." Summer huffed, turning her gaze away hotly. "I-"

She blinked.

"You said… you gave me a new body… How? Where… where's my old one?"

The Faunus boy reached over to the Mold, hitting a few buttons on a black keyboard. The lid automated shut, it made a few sounds like venting or displacing some liquid, then separated in a way that lifted up the upper compartment that she was in earlier.

Summer gazed at her original form.

Her hair was ruined from some sort of surgery that must have taken her brain, judging from the faint line over her brow. The eyes had mended over, but they were definitely damaged beyond recovery and the whole of her body appeared to be encased in a gelatinous goo. But black veins stood out against her pale skin, like sinister webs encroaching at the light.

"That's a preserving solution to keep it from rotting." The Faunus boy replied automatically, "Only your brain was taken, although there was also a protocol that saved some of your eggs just in case you'd want it for some reason, cuz something about a ninth generational model being able to use it. I didn't even know humans had eg-OW!"

Raven cuffed the boy in the head.

"What?!" He cried out indignantly.

"You stop talking about my wife's eggs!"

"WHY DO WE HAVE EGGS? We're not birds, we're mamm-OW!"

"Raven! Really!" Summer moved faster than she expected as she gripped Raven's wrist.

Raven's crimson Aura flashed as she grunted in pain.

"Oops!" Summer let go as quickly as she had grabbed her. "I'm sorry, what-"

"Your body is an artificial construct that's stronger than normal humans. Plus you still have Aura enhancing that further." The blond Faunus rubbed his head, explaining helpfully. "You're going to have to watch your strength more. I have some control exercises in my head to help, but you gotta stop Raven from hitting me."

Summer nodded as she turned to Raven.

"No." Her wife glared.

"Rae."

"No."

"Stop hitting him, don't be a child."

"Fucking brat." Raven cursed.

"Don't swear in front of children!" Summer raised a hand, instinctively going to give her wife a small smack, only to stop and put her arm back down.

"...You're taking this all pretty well." The blond boy spoke quietly, feet shuffling. "I, uhm…"

Summer turned around, squatting to get closer to eye level as she gently reached out with her arms, pulling the boy in as softly as she could manage.

"Thank you." She told him.

It was true that she was still confused and worried, but right now she was alive.

"Vernal, leave. Don't eavesdrop and make sure nobody gets near my tent." Raven ordered quietly.

The tanned girl snapped to attention and nodded, quickly running out the tent.

"Uh, do I leave too?"

"No, you stay right here, brat. And explain how you have a magic spear. I've waited for your explanations long enough."

Summer froze. The technology he used was almost magic enough, but he was also actually related to the hidden myths of Remnant? Like her?

"I-uh don't know what you're-"

Raven glared and the Faunus boy shivered and flinched.

"Raven."

"No. Saving you is one thing, but if I didn't pull you with me, his spear might have blown the both of us up with the Desert Owl of Vacuo."

"I was aiming far enough away!"

"I don't care, brat."

"I have a name!"

"Yeah, whatever brat. I want answers. Summer, hold him still."

"Don't you tell me what to do, Rae." Summer snorted, "I know you don't know a thing about first aid because you slept those classes and copied my homework. I'm not letting you threaten the kid that rescued me."

"The last time you didn't listen to me, you almost died Summer. Can we please do this my way for once?"

"You also ran away from me and Tai. That's equally inexcusable."

"I… you!" Raven looked actually genuinely guilty, which gave Summer a twisted sense of satisfaction.

"I messed up. I let the news of Hazel's appearance get the better of me and I chased too hard. And I would have died without-" Summer turned to face the boy, "What was your name? I'm so sorry about Raven."

"Jaune." The blond boy spoke quietly, "J-just Jaune."

Summer winced at the boy's half-truth.

She got the feeling he might have run away from home. But he must have been some sort of genius if he managed to save her with a brain transplant of all things. Whatever it was didn't matter. She owed him a debt. If not for her, then for her daughters.

It didn't matter if he was hiding his last name or if even Jaune was a fake name. It was enough for her.

"Thank you, Jaune. You're my little hero."

The boy blushed fiercely.

"Watch it, brat. She's taken."

"What, by you?" Summer sniffed.

"...If you'd still have me."

Summer's breath hitched, regardless of her new body.

She hated how her heart melted at the sound of Raven's voice.

Jaune did a really good job on her body to let her feel like that, if what his claims about it being artificial was true.

And that was still a can of worms she wasn't sure how to open.

"...If you'd at least visit from now on. Then yes. Regularly. At least once a week."

"I…" Raven flinched, her left hand clenching awkwardly in her nervous tick, rubbing the sides of the index and middle finger back and forth, "...ok."

She sounded so fragile that Summer couldn't stop herself from embracing her wife who let out a shaky breath of air. Summer wasn't sure if it was from the act of affection or the strength of her embrace, but she didn't care.

"You don't have to agree with me about Ozpin. But no more running."

"...ok. For you, for Tai… and… and for Yang."

Summer nipped at Raven's ear, getting an indignant yelp, though she could see a faint flush of Raven's neck.

"Especially for Yang." Summer chastised with a grin.

"You minx." Raven replied, breathily, long lashes glimmering.

"...Juniper says I should leave you two alone."

"Get out, brat!"

Jaune leapt out of the tent much faster than a boy his age should have been able even with Aura.

Was his Semblance speed related?

"Do we get scroll coverage out here?" Summer asked.

"No. I'll take us to Tai tomorrow. Tonight… I just want you for myself." Raven kissed her, eyes smoldering, making Summer giggle.

"Greedy."

"Yeah, well. It's in my nature."

"Mmmm." Summer felt it really didn't have to be. She knew what Raven was like when she mellowed out after graduating Beacon. She knew the kind of woman Raven was capable of being when existential fight or flight wasn't involved. Though she wasn't sure if she'd ever truly get that version of Raven back again. "Show me how much. We can, uh…"

Summer flushed as Raven kissed the side of her neck.

"Break in the new body?"

"Y-yeah."

Curse her stutter!

Hours later Summer had to stop Raven from storming out after the glow of their time together had run its course about 'killing the perverted brat'.

She was sure he must have just been copying anatomy without any real understanding of any of the implications after all.

Her new body was very anatomically accurate.