Life Goes On

[ A/N:

Sorry for the long gap between chapters, University and not knowing how to go about this next section had me constantly juggling what to do and when to do it.

I hope you're all doing well and that my long absence hasn't dulled the experience for any of you. ]

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It has been about a year since I was taken in by Summer and Taiyang, and I can confidently say that the loss of everyone I loved hasn't gotten any easier to deal with; at most, I have gotten used to the feeling of having a piece of me missing.

Part of the reason why I can keep my sanity is Summer's words from my original breakdown. It wasn't much and I would've originally just ignored it, especially as Braxely, but with the influence of Argento and the motherly feeling Summer gave it got through to me.

So whenever I would begin to feel a buildup of grief, instead of bottling it up I would let it out, and my preferred method to do so would be training, just like I am doing now.

Holding a wooden katana I asked Taiyang to make, I had been beating at the nearby trees and air around the house. It wasn't the most intense training, but it definitely got the job done after hours of muscle-liquefying swinging.

My mind began to wander, and I stumbled upon a memory of a few weeks after the ambush when I first got my training sword.

<Living Room of Xiao Long Household>

A short message came incognito from Oz to Summer and Taiyang, telling us three to be at the T.V. at a specific time and day, and we were now seeing why.

{A gathering of support has occurred at town hall, where despite the tragic loss of his daughter, Trivia Vanille, Mayor Jimmy Vanille has continued to do his best at making all our lives better. Upon expression of concern, the mayor had this to say.

"I appreciate your voices of concern, but no matter how much I am hurting right now I must continue to make our beautiful city a better place, so as to make sure none of you have to go through what I am now!"}

From everything the adults could find out, it was all true, and Trivia was buried in the Vanille burial grounds. At this point, even though I thought I had cried far too many tears for there to be any left, it seemed my body had other plans as a slow stream of light crying came from me.

As I cried in the arms of Summer and Taiyang, my resolve only further sharpened, and it was about then that I requested Taiyang to make me a wooden katana.

<Present, Argento's 'Training Grounds'>

"Argento, mom says it's dinner time!" Leaning out of the door was half of the other part of keeping my sanity, the 7-year-old cherry bomb Yang. With endless energy and an explosive personality, even knowing how she was in RWBY couldn't prepare me for the sheer energy she would possess as a child.

"I'll be there in a minute!" Wiping the sweat off my face and uncovered, scarred torso, I make my way into the deliciously smelling house. Making a quick stop at my room and putting on a black t-shirt, I momentarily stop at the mirror.

Other than growing in height and hair length, there wasn't much of a difference in this past year, outside of my resting expression. Compared to my past happy-neutral expression, it drifts mainly toward RBF [Resting Bitch Face] even if it has recovered significantly this past year.

Snapping out of it, I make my way down to the dining area to find the unbroken family of four, and a small smile graces my face.

In the original story, Summer went missing sometime when Yang was 6, so for the first several months, I was in a constant state of worry on top of my grief. There wasn't much a 12-year-old could do to keep Summer home, but once Yang's birthday hit and she turned 7, Summer was still here.

Even if this meant most of my future knowledge would be useless I didn't care, because I'd already lost everyone I loved twice, and even if I was just getting to know her, Summer was slowly solidifying her position of an aunt I didn't want to lose.

It's been a few months since Yang turned 7, so my nerves about Summer suddenly disappearing were lowering, and my confidence was rising. Why my confidence you may ask? Well simply because it shows that I can affect the RWBY timeline.

Yes, having Summer survive to be the first thing I change throws a wrench into potentially all of the canon timeline, but I can deal with that when it comes to it.

"Argento, is something wrong? You haven't eaten anything yet." Looking up at the voice, my eyes match Summer's concerned, motherly, silver eyes, and I give her a gentle smile.

"I am fine, just a little tired from training is all."

"If you say so, but please don't push yourself too hard."

At that, I couldn't help but give her a rueful smile. "I won't make any promises, but I will try to control myself."

Giving me a small discerning glare, she finally sighs. "It's better than nothing."

Now with my mind cleared of my ruminations I was free to eat, and thankfully a few months after the accident food started to have taste again, so I was able to taste every second of the delicious meal in front of me.

Once the meal ended I decided to excuse myself to my room, since I had done all my training earlier because it was one of the rare days neither of the girls would drag me off to do something. I say girls, but it was normally Yang who dragged both Ruby and me along to do something, and when she did it would bring back all of the happy memories of my(Braxely) younger sister and me playing together on the days neither parent was home.

Now sitting on my bed, my eyes drifted to the three swords that leaned against the wall next to my bed. Two were of matching length, straight, and shorter than the third sword that was curved, long, and with matching gold and black decoration on both the hilt and scabbard.

They were my father and mother's blades, the ones they had during the battle. As I gazed at them, the memory of when I was given them floated into my mind.

<The day of Ozpin's departure>

As we were all seeing Ozpin and Glynda off, Ozpin went first into his ship, but came back out a minute later with a couple of objects in his arms. Walking over to me, he knelt down to my eye level, and I could finally recognize what he held out to me.

"I know how hard it can be to lose someone and not have anything of theirs to hold onto, so I made sure to keep these for you." I had unconsciously grabbed the three swords and belt of throwing knives being handed to me with tears once again bubbling in my eyes.

"Thank you. This means a lot…" Getting a smile in return, he gets back to his feet and pats my head.

"If all goes well I won't be seeing you until you enter Beacon, Argento. We'll have a lot to talk about then, so be ready."

Taking a second to wipe my eyes free of tears, I look back up into Ozpin's brown eyes and give a resolute nod. No words needed to be said to know what we were going to talk about - Salem.

<Argento's Room, Present>

As I sat and lightly polished the blades, something I began to do when my mind wandered, I heard a light knock at my open door, and upon looking up I saw Summer. Putting my father's blade back into its sheath, I look at my scroll to find it is only a few hours until midnight, around the time the adults put the girls to sleep.

"Having trouble sleeping?"

"Some, so I thought I would clear my mind a bit." Giving her a sheepish grin, I moved over so that she could sit on my bed instead of standing at the door. "Have the girls gone to sleep?"

"Yeah, I just came from their room. It seems that no matter how much energy they have they both love their sleep. You on the other hand seem to enjoy staying up late, even when you spend hours swinging around your wooden sword."

"Well I'm used to long training sessions, and this is nothing." Getting a questioning glance from Summer, I chuckle at the memory of my first training session with my father. "As you probably know, my family is more on the unique side."

"So I have heard." Hiding a surprised look at me talking about my past, which I never did, Summer made sure to show she was paying full attention.

"Well, I actually started my training years ago, when I was 6." Seeing the look on her face at that made me laugh again because I know full well how strange it is to start a child's training at 6. "No, I was not forced to, because when it was brought up I happily went along with it. I only started training this early because of an incident that had occurred when I was 4."

"Incident?"

Maybe it was because I had recently let myself closer to Summer because of my changing her disappearance, but I felt happy to share my past. So I told her of the alleyway incident, which got a multitude of reactions I could only laugh at much to the chagrin of Summer.

I went on to tell her all about the two girls I met, one shy and one outgoing, some of our adventures in the city, the familial bond I shared with the parents and father-substitute of them, and our days of training. Hearing about the first day I trained and what Maxwell had considered light got both shock and laughter out of her, and I continued with my familial memories of my mother and father.

We shared stories deep into the night, many about my own past but plenty about those I am staying with now. Some embarrassing stories from her Beacon days, many had to do with Qrow, but as the moon went higher our smiles and laughter continued.

It had been almost a year since I felt this kind of joy, and it was this very reason why Summer was becoming more like family to me. Finally, a little past midnight, I began to feel tired, which was not missed by Summer.

"You should get to sleep now mister, though it's not like you couldn't stay in late for once."

"I'm pretty sure that if I tried to stay in late I would die of boredom." As I said this I finished going under my sheets, and Summer bent over to kiss my forehead. It seemed more reflexive for her, but it made me happy nonetheless. With a smile, she got up and was about to leave my room when she stopped at the doorframe.

"Argento, could I ask you something?"

"Of course, anything."

"If I'm ever not there to protect the girls, would you protect them for me?"

As I am about to respond, the sentence fully sinks in. For a second, fear set in as she looked at me with a serious look, but I shrugged off the fear.

'I changed it, she's going to be fine.' And so I look into her silver eyes, and with every fiber of my being I responded, "With my dying breath."

Biting her lip, Summer continues to stare into my eyes, as if contemplating saying something, until finally, "Promise me you won't die. Promise that if it ever comes to it, you'll find another way to save yourself WITH them."

It took me almost a minute to respond as our staring continued because promises were something I took seriously, and were not something I gave without being 100% committed to fulfilling the said promise. But alas, I cannot seem to win against silver eyes; not then, and not now.

"I promise you, Summer, that I will do everything in my power to ensure our survival together."

Relenting with a satisfied smile, she exited my room, and as she was closing the door she looked toward me again. "Sleep well, Argento." And closed the door, leaving me stewing in my own thoughts.

Little was I aware that as I finally drifted to sleep, a few minutes later a shadow of petals could be seen leaving the house.

That was the last time anyone would see Summer Rose before she disappeared.

<??? POV>

~"I won't die, I promise, now go…"~

~"I love you, so live…"~

~*Crunch* "Gah!..."~

*Gasp*

My moist eyes shot open as my breathing became haggard and my body became covered in a sheen of cold sweat. Lifting my arm over my eyes, I could feel streams of liquid pouring out of them, something of a semi-daily occurrence since I came here.

An indeterminable amount of time later, I finally got up off the bed I was given and looked outside the large window at the top of my wall opposite the door. Just like always, no matter how long I stare, there seems to be perpetual darkness completely covering the lands I'm in, but it is most definitely outside.

*Knock Knock*

A mere formality as a man wearing black and red robes walked into my room regardless of my answer. I couldn't tell if he was looking at me, as his hood covered his face too much to make anything out.

"Your presence is requested." I knew that really meant I was required to go wherever he showed me, so I silently put on my boots and followed. As I walked through the castle halls with towering panes of glass, I did my best to force down the emotions brought about by my nightmares, and by the time we arrived at the throne room I had succeeded in my suppression.

"She is here, my Queen."

"Good, now leave us." With a prompt bow, the robed man scurried out in fanatic fear, leaving me facing the master of this castle, and the source of the sultry voice. "I see you have made yourself at home. Have you given my proposal any thought?"

"Yes, I have." My voice came out unnaturally monotone, obviously forced, but the alluring figure sitting cross-legged on her throne seemed uncaring for it as always.

"And?"

"… I will do it." Despite the continued monotone voice, a spark of violent anger could be seen in my silver eyes as a particularly bright ray of moonlight shone on my hair, revealing the dark green color normally mistaken for black.

"I will join you."