22: A Meeting of Worlds

"Mom?"

She was sure. "Yeah."

The crimsonette darted forward, locking her arms around her mother. Tears began soaking her blouse as she sobbed.

Mother embraced daughter. "I'm sorry."

"What the hell is-" an angry voice shouted, its owner appearing in the doorway. Yang shouted, "What the hell? Are you- fuck!"

"I'm Summer Rose," Rose told her.

"Where the fuck have you been for the last ten years? Why did you leave us? Why'd you leave your- fuck! God damn it!" Yang's eyes flashed red.

"New York, I don't remember, and yes," she answered, her other daughter still latched around her waist dripping tears all over her.

"You have a lot to explain!" Yang shouted before turning and stomping back into the house.

"Yes, I do," she muttered.

"I'm sorry," Ruby sniffled. "It's just been so long, and we thought you were dead, and Yang's really happy inside but it's hard and I missed you so much."

"Your sister's right. I do have a lot to explain." She shook her head. "I'm sorry for what I've done, Ruby. But I barely even know what that is. We just need to talk."

"I guess you should come inside," Ruby sniffled, reluctantly letting go. "It's been so long..."

"That's a good idea." She stepped inside the house, which was messy but surprisingly homely.

"I didn't mean to blow up on you," Yang apologized weakly, rage subsiding as she followed her into the living room. "But you do have a lot to explain."

A white-haired heiress and raven cat faunus were already there, hurrying past them toward the doorway. "We're just on our way out," Blake announced, half-dragging Weiss out.

Ruby sat down on the couch, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Her mother sat down beside her.

"You said you'd come back," Yang began. "And then you didn't. Why?"

"I wish I could tell you, but I don't remember," Rose explained. "The first clear memory I have is waking up in a hospital. You spent a year on Earth? I spent the better part of ten, not knowing who or what I was."

"Wait, what?" Yang asked.

Ruby perked up slightly. "Tell us the story!"

"Okay. Way back in 2005, somewhere in Manhattan..."

The TV was blaring some bullshit about a Presidential candidate building a wall, but Rose wasn't listening. The reunion went better than she could have expected, but it left her with a new feeling of... guilt? Failure? Disappointment in herself? A set of not-so-soft footsteps interrupted her thoughts.

Yang blinked as she entered the living room. "Is that-"

"Yes. She's sleeping like a rock, too," Rose answered. It had been a hell of a day, and her daughter had fallen asleep next to her, and was now leaning into her side, arms wrapped around her waist.

"It wasn't easy for us to get over... you know," Yang said hesitantly. "She never really did. Still has nightmares, sometimes."

"What about you, Yang?"

"You left us," she replied curtly. "We were still picking up the pieces. We'd thought we'd finally be a family again. Then you died."

"I'm sorry," she replied. "As I understand it, huntress is a dangerous job. There was always a chance I wouldn't come back."

Yang opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind. After a pause, she asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Stay here for a while. I missed you. Both of you. More than I realized. After that? I don't know," she answered. "I want to know what I missed. What I forgot. Who's the Summer Rose you remember?"

"Super-mom, slayer of cookies and baker of monsters," Yang replied, sitting down on the couch beside her. "Erm, that's not right."

She laughed. "No, I got it. So I really was super-mom? That's a lot to live up to."

"You still are." Yang replied. "Aren't you?"

"I barely remembered you." Rose grimaced. "Yang, I don't know how much of me is Summer Rose, how much is Rosalind Drake, and I'm going to disappoint you with who I am. I don't want to do that to you."

"Look, uh," Yang stammered. "We're really happy to have you back. It's not like nothing happened; it'll never be like that. But to us you're still the mom who left and came back. Maybe a little different, but you're still our mom."

She took a moment to think about it before asking, "What was life like back when we were a family?"

"I was only eight when you left. But we were a happy family back then. After... well, dad shut down, Ruby kind of drew into herself, and I became reckless." She sighed. "Really reckless."

"You're talking about the Raven Incident?"

"The what- yeah." It took her a moment to figure it out. "Over the years, I guess I just developed an attitude of... fuck it. Live in the moment and go wild, that sort of thing. I feel like I want to be a huntress for all the wrong reasons. I mean, sure, it's about protecting people. But how much of it is just because I just want a cheap thrill?"

"I can't tell you why I became a huntress. I don't remember," Rose replied. "But I can tell you why I walked into the NYPD precinct when I should have been learning to walk again. Part of it was the same drive to protect you have. But a lot of it was because I had a lot of questions and I thought it'd help me get answers."

"Look, I know you're here, but I still... well, I still want to find Raven," Yang said awkwardly. "It's not that... I just have a lot of questions."

"By all means, try to find her. You've got some burning questions and you can't not try to answer them," Rose answered carefully. "But don't let it consume you. Define you. Don't let it take away from the other important things. And don't do something that fucking stupid again."

"Preaching to the choir, mom."

"Am I?"

"Blake and Weiss will probably be back tomorrow," Yang said, deflecting the question. "See you in the morning."

"Well, that was fucking awkward," Rose muttered to herself. Beside her, Ruby shifted, muttering something that sounded vaguely like agreement and snuggling up closer to her mother.

Eighty miles away from the airport it departed from, a British Airways 747-400 flew smoothly through the cool morning air. Powered by four Rolls-Royce RB211 engines, the sleek airliner maintained an altitude of thirty thousand feet and a speed of 484 knots. Recent events had cooled enthusiasm for travel somewhat, and with a hundred and thirty one passengers aboard, it was barely filled to half capacity.

Captain Nigel Caldwell carefully monitored the instruments on the flight deck. The -400 was a newer variation of the classic jumbo jet, a product of the 1980s rather than the 1960s. Instead of mechanical "steam gauges", Nigel's cockpit readouts consisted of computer displays that displayed information about the plane's course, speed, altitude, and systems. It was a routine flight and nothing was out of the ordinary. Well, the EGT on the number 4 engine was a bit high, but they'd already noted it before they took off and it was still within operational parameters.

The copilot, First Officer Howard Manning, suddenly exclaimed, "What the bloody hell is that?" That drew the captain's attention instantly, and he followed his copilot's outstretched finger.

What he saw nearly made his eyes bulge out of his skull. It was as if the horizon had blurred into a mirage of red and sky blue, if the very air itself had turned into a gently shimmering puddle. At first it seemed small, but quickly grew to fill their entire view. He realized quickly that whatever it was, there was no way they could avoid it. He tried anyway, perhaps reacting because of his training, pushing the throttles forward and pulling back on the yoke. "God damn!"

The jumbo jet slammed into the disturbance at full speed. A light thump reverberated through the fuselage. Instinctively, Nigel shut his eyes, but when he opened them, found that the airplane was still flying with seemingly no damage.

"Dear god, where are we?" Howard asked. The greenery of British Columbia was replaced instantly with a deep red forest below them, and the thin wispy clouds of a sunny day had turned to ominous grey stormclouds.

"Can you take the airplane, Howard?" the Captain asked. He was thinking exactly the same thing.

"Yes, sir, my airplane." The first officer grasped the flight yoke, gently keeping the huge aircraft on course. He forced himself not to panic despite the situation. A calm, collected approach was what would get them safely back on the ground.

"Navigation's going bonkers," the captain remarked, looking at the warnings on his flight display. The intertial and magnetic headings were different and the GPS was out completely. He checked the ADF, a radio direction-finding system. The information it gave was erratic. "Any ideas?"

"I see a bright light, maybe some kind of tower down there," the copilot noted. "Is this Remnant? Looks like Forever Fall down there, maybe Beacon in the distance."

"You might not be wrong." The captain switched to the radio, checking that it was still on the frequency he'd set before taking off. "Pan pan pan, Vancouver Tower, Speedbird eight-four. We appear to have hit some kind of anomaly and are now flying over some kind of red forest. There is an, uh, possibility this may be Remnant. Please advise."

The response was garbled slightly, but understandable. "Speedbird eight-four, Vancouver tower. You just disappeared from our radar. Confirm you are flying over a red forest?"

"Well, we were over a green one a minute ago. We can also see some lights in the distance." He checked their own navigation equipment. "Heading zero-eight-one inertial but two-five-zero magnetic. GPS nonfunctional and ADF erratic."

"Standby, Speedbird eight-four. Recommend you maintain current course and speed. Will advise." He let go of the push to talk button. "The fuck have we gotten ourselves into this time?"

"Excellent question." He switched to the intercom, addressing the cabin. "This is your captain speaking. We appear to have made a slight navigational error. Please remain calm and in your seats. We'll get this sorted shortly and be back on our way to Heathrow in no time at all. I trust you are in not too much distress."

"Tell me what's going on," the President of the United States said bluntly. He was not been happy about being dragged out of bed on one of his few days off. He was even less happy with the reason he'd been told why.

"We have a probable portal to Remnant approximately a hundred miles away from Vancouver, British Columbia," the National Security Advisor told him. "Canadian authorities have cordoned it off and so far nothing has come through. It seems that objects can pass through from our side, though we're not sure about the opposite."

"How do we know about it?" the President asked. "How sure are we about what it is?"

"An airliner flew through it- it's still flying, and the world they're describing sounds a lot like the outskirts of Vale. The Canadians are scrambling fighters to take a look and bring the airliner back," she informed him. "Just after you woke up, we found amateur video on the Internet made by hikers who approached the anomaly. Gemstone in Vancouver is trying to track them down now. We're running the numbers on neutrino bursts now."

"Mister President, it's our belief that if nothing has come through, that will change soon, and whatever comes through will be very nasty," the Secretary of Defense told him. "We need to be ready for that. The Canadians and the Brits are already working up."

"The Brits?" the President asked, surprised.

"They have a training unit in southern Alberta," he explained. "Potentially equivalent to an armored battalion in strength."

He nodded. "Get our guys ready, too."

"We have to make contact with the other side," the Secretary of State added.

"What if they're the ones who did it and they have hostile intent?" SecDef protested.

"What if they think we're the ones who did it and we have hostile intent," he shot back before turning to the President. "Sir, I recommend we at least broadcast the welcome message."

He considered it for a moment. "It's on Canadian soil, so it's not our call to make, but tell them I agree with your recommendation."

"We don't know if this will be the only portal or if there will be more or where, though it's likely two will be on our soil," the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said. "I recommend we mobilize our troops, start activating the National Guard and preparing for an invasion."

"Jesus Christ, Martin!" the Secretary of State exclaimed.

"Sir, for the record, I agree with the General," the National Security Advisor said to the President.

"He's right," the President acknowledged. "Do what you need to do. We need to inform the rest of the world, too. The Gemstone members, NATO, even- especially- the Russians and the Chinese. John?"

SecState nodded reluctantly. "Yes, Mister President, I'm on it."

The President turned back to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. "Coordinate with the Canadian Forces. Any help from us they want, they get. This could be the greatest threat of our-"

A technician held out a phone toward the President. "Sir, I have a phone call from the Prime Minister of Canada."

The President took the phone. "Hello? Yes... no, definitely not... Yes, Stephen, we are one hundred percent behind you... No, there is no explicit military cooperation in Gemstone... Yes, that'll work. If you invoke Article 5, we are one hundred percent behind you and we can debate the semantics later."

"Sir, Gemstone alert is BLACK RUIN," the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs reminded him. "In accordance, it is the formal recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that we escalate all conventional forces to DEFCON 1 and all strategic forces to DEFCON 3."

"In other words, what he said thirty seconds ago," SecDef elaborated.

The President did not hesitate. "Do it."

"It's also my recommendation that we move to the National Airborne Operations Center immediately," he added. "We do not know if Washington will remain secure."

The President nodded slowly. "Okay. Let's go."

"This is as close as we're allowed to get, but as you can see, this is a very, very strange phenomenon," the reporter said, a blurry rift in the background. "It's hard to tell how big it is, but it's very high and seems to be at least a football field across. It's now believed that it is indeed the world of Remnant on the other side. At this point we don't know if this is a portal that can be crossed or simply a view to the other world. There are unconfirmed reports that a civil aircraft has crossed the portal..."

"Great timing, isn't it?" Rose remarked quietly as she watched the news on TV. She examined the bottle in her hands, glaring at Yang disapprovingly. "Budweiser. You shouldn't be drinking, young lady. Or, if you do, at least have some goddamn taste." She flicked the top off and took a swig anyway. "And don't drink and drive. That's fucking stupid and you'll ruin everyone's lives."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not the most responsible person, but I'm not that stupid." Yang insisted. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"Wait," she replied. "Wait for them to figure out if it really is a portal, wait for them to secure it, wait for them to make contact and wait for them to offer us a trip."

"What?" Yang snapped. "We should be going already! This is our chance to go home!"

"If it is what you think it is, which it might not be," Rose replied calmly. "Yang, I know you miss home. You want to get back as soon as possible. But I barely remember Remnant, and I've spent ten years here. I'd like to go back, to find out who I really am. I've waited ten years already. What's a few more days to tie up the loose ends?"

"I suppose you're right," Yang admitted.

"Wait," Ruby interrupted. "What about the Grimm? Even if we didn't want to go home, Earth doesn't have any hunters! We should be there to defend it!"

"In case you haven't noticed, this world is really good at killing things. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"You're one of the greatest huntresses that ever lived!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Was, Ruby, was. I remembered that I killed monsters. I think my Aura still works. I don't even know my own Semblance," Rose said sombrely. "Being a hero always feels like the right thing, but it's not always the smart thing."

"Canadian Forces Reserve, a few days, maybe a week. US Marines, 72 hours. US Army Airborne or Royal Marines, both 24 hours," Yang listed.

Rose did the math in her head. "Shit."

"See? We need to get out there!" Ruby yelled.

"You're not wrong. But this is some serious shit, Ruby," Rose cautioned. "Four- eight if we can get your friends in on this- students, out of practice, and one cop who might have once been a huntress against god knows what. Maybe we can help. But jumping in isn't the right way to do it."

"I know it's important and there's a lot at stake and we could die. We've already done that even though we're students and we know it's dangerous but it's what being a huntress is about," Ruby pleaded. "Also, once we're there we can get help from Ozpin and Beacon."

"That's my girl." Summer cracked a thin smile. It was all insane, all of it. Yet it felt so right. "Okay. Let's talk to them."

I have mixed feelings about this chapter, though length turned out not to be a problem.

Thaiboy: If it's not animal ears, it's skin colour. This is something I wanted to deal with more earlier and might still do in the future.

5 Coloured Walker: Robotics doesn't mean they can field huge armies, but it does mean they can shift the burden from personnel to materiel. It may give them better tip-to-tail, it may not, depending on how much support the robots need. However, unsupported infantry- robotic, Terran, or Remnan- would be essentially cannon fodder in any engagement. And from that perspective, we've had a lot more practice at coordinating and supporting our forces. To be fair, we haven't seen much military action, but from what we've seen, Remnant is only starting to develop the kind of combined arms doctrine that we've spent three quarters of a century working on. However, the biggest counter Earth has is simply numbers. It's not just more personnel, but also more materiel and more strategic depth. Remnant will run out of almost everything long before we do. And they literally don't have enough soldiers to hold significant ground. We have the technology, materiel, and probably the will to take down entire city blocks to kill one Hunter.

Tatopatato: There was originally going to be more, but I decided to leave it at that because I felt it would have more impact. Hopefully the follow-up didn't disappoint too much.

Guest: Well, Gavin didn't confirm it, but he didn't dispute it either.

HAN SHOT THIRD: Not all Remnans are superhuman. Many are fairly close to peak human, but not everyone is at their level. Besides, physical strength is not everything. On the other hand, it wouldn't be the only cultural barrier in the way.

Cipher92: Who has come through and who knew will be significant topics later on. Roman and Neo... it's tough to say whether they'd fight extradition or not. On one hand, it's not too bad on Earth, but on the other hand, there are more opportunities to escape if such a thing were to happen.

Fallout24: It was quite a shock to Gavin. Torchwick and Neo are being kept alive for information and because they're too high-profile to disappear. If there was a war, I don't see the teams joining either side. Most likely they'd stay out of it or try to end it peacefully.

GreatWyrmGold: It's a liberal talk show!

Guest: He wouldn't react well to it, though I don't think he could or would go to such lengths.

Guest: Um... what?

Dubsteplover4eve: I prefer the term Terraphile myself. But yes, cultural exchange and influence will become big issues... soon.

Guest: I'm not sure if the White Fang would adopt it, to be honest. Even the new "brutal" White Fang are somewhat less evil than ISIS, and the worst things they did are implied to be because of Cinder's strong-arming.

TacoKing23: Not necessarily.