21: Far Too Long

"Okay," the police officer spoke into her desk phone. "Thank you." She tossed the phone back into its cradle before leaning back and exhaling. "Fucking finally."

"So," Gwen asked, leaning over the side of the officer's cubicle. "Are you really Summer Rose?"

"Well, they didn't say I'm not," Rosalind Drake replied. "They said it's a good enough possibility that they want me to meet with my daughters. If they are my daughters."

"That's great! What's the plan?"

"I'll be flying out- I'm not supposed to tell anyone where. The tickets will show up in my mail, they'll contact me on my cell phone, and someone will meet with me at the destination. And that's all they told me." She shrugged. "I've waited three weeks already. This is as good as it's going to get."

Gwen twiddled her thumbs. "When are you flying out?"

"Within the next few days. I have a few things I have to take care of first." Some of which Gwen knew about and some of which she didn't.

Quietly, Gwen asked, "What's going to happen if it turns out you really are her?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Rose answered hesitantly. "I only remember bits and pieces of Summer, if I ever was her. I don't know if I can be her even if I technically am. Until this month, I was an American, I was a New York cop, and I was entirely human. Okay, there was some speculation that I might be Canadian. But I wasn't an alien and I wasn't a huntress. I'd dismissed that as fiction long ago and built a new life from scratch. I don't know if enough of the old one is still there to go back to- am I rambling?"

"A little," Gwen replied with a hint of a smile. "Well, good luck, whatever happens."

"Thanks." Rose waited for the other cop to leave before logging back into her computer and bringing up a file she'd been staring at on and off for the better part of the past month.

Alexandra Drake. Light brown hair and grey eyes. Seven years old just last month. That her daughter carried her name and not that of her father or her adopted parents surprised her. A student at Bronx Elementary School.

It was something she was hesitant about, that she'd be putting off for weeks, but it was now or never.

"World's right fucked, isn't it?" Gavin asked, tossing a beer to his friend. He wasn't supposed to have it, but like most boys his age, he had his sources. "I guess I still owe you, though. You were right all along."

Aaron caught the can mid-air. "Yeah, and now the apologies are starting to get annoying."

Gavin popped his own can and took a swig of the bitter liquid. "Sorry."

"Honestly, I don't know if I actually like being right," Aaron admitted. "I mean, this is just fucked up. And what if it doesn't stop here? What if more fiction starts coming into reality? Some kind of multiversal invasion."

"Grimm?"

"The Grimm would be bad, but not that bad. What if it's Tyranids, or the Covenant, or teleporting Russians?"

Gavin laughed. "Teleporting Russians? What?"

Aaron changed the topic. "You still haven't talked to Yang, have you?"

"No," Gavin shook his head. "I saw her once, when I was picking up Connor, but we didn't talk."

"You scored with fucking Yang Xiao Long. I mean, human girl is one thing, Remnant girl is another, but fucking named character. Why are you not doing everything to keep that?"

"I just don't know if I can date a celebrity," he replied, more lame sounding than he felt.

"She's not a celebrity, not like those plastic girls on TV," his friend reminded him.

"Yeah, she's actually a superhuman alien with fire bending powers," Gavin replied half-sarcastically. "That definitely doesn't make it harder and more complicated at all."

"Still human. All of them," Aaron reminded him. "You know that probably better than I do."

"Yeah, I know. " He took another swig of beer. "Like I said, fucked up world."

"School's starting in a few weeks," Aaron mentioned. "Still going to trade school?"

"Yep. I know it's not that exciting, but electricians are in demand, and there are worse things to do. Like being an art major."

"Arts major," Aaron corrected.

"What?"

"Nevermind."

"Figured out what you want to do yet?" Gavin asked.

Aaron shook his head. "No. I don't know. With all this stuff going on, I just really want to be a part of it. But I don't even know where to begin."

"You already were, remember?"

"I don't count 'being scared literally shitless running from gunfire' as being part of it," Aaron said sourly.

"Yet we were there."

"Yeah, I know, and now we're back here trying to figure out what to do with our lives," Aaron remarked. "It's like standing next to the World Trade Center as it falls, then going back to work the next day."

Gavin tossed his now-empty can toward his garbage can and missed. "You know, you can be pretty damn poignant when you're drunk."

Parked a block away from the elementary school, Rose hesitated. She sat inside her cruiser, procrastinating and trying to find any reason not to go through with it. She was scared, terrified even. It was absurd. She'd fought all kinds of monsters and bad guys and this was what she was afraid of?

"Get your shit together, Rose."

Taking a deep breath, Rose opened the door and stepped out of the car, striding around the corner toward the elementary school. The day had just ended, and the children were rushing out toward waiting parents and buses.

She's memorized the face and recognized her child immediately as she excitedly rushed out of the school and into the arms of a dark-haired woman- her foster mother. A pang of... something shot through Rose's heart as the woman asked the girl how her day was. Jealousy?

The girl's foster mother noticed her watching. She turned and asked, concerned. "Is there a problem, officer?"

By all logic, she should speak up. Her daughter deserved to know, maybe needed to know if it turned out hybrids had issues they'd never thought of before. The government needed to know to protect her daughter and to protect everyone else. Her other daughters deserved to meet their sister.

It was her daughter, goddamn it.

But what would life be like for a hybrid on Earth? A freak, an outsider. Maybe she would develop the same powers her mother and sister did. Maybe they'd be dangerous. But if she never did, all she would gain nothing but stigmatization. Who would be watching her life?

And what if she was wrong? About being Remnan, about this being her child, about anything, really?

It would have been so much easier if it was someone else's kid. She couldn't be objective, and trying only confused her more.

Would she be saving a life or ruining it?

She'd bring it up some time. She would. But this wasn't the time or the place. She's ask someone for help with it.

It was, after all, easiest to do nothing at all.

"No problem at all, just passing through." Rose smiled politely, even though it was about the last thing she wanted to do.

"Ah. Have a good day, then."

"You too, ma'am." She turned and walked away.

"Good morning, Mister Torchwick," an FBI agent greeted flatly as he entered the house. He hadn't been looking forward to this assignment. It couldn't be as bad as they had said- his predecessor told him that Torchwick should have been shot not because he was dangerous but because he was annoying- but it still didn't sound remotely pleasant.

The orange-haired man turned. "Huh, I've never seen your face before. I guess the last guy really couldn't stand me. Can't account for taste, I suppose."

"Your packages arrived," the agent said, dropping a large cardboard box on the kitchen table.

"Ah, excellent!" the thief clapped his hands together. "You're going to regretfully inform me that not all of my requests were approved, but congratulate me on my good behaviour anyway, with a subtle reminder not to try anything."

The agent was at a loss for words. "Uh..."

"And you're going to tell me that I'm not a criminal or a free man, that my status is still 'undetermined'. You'll list the charges if I ask but you won't give me a court date. You're going to tell me you're working on that but you don't have no idea when anything is going to happen."

The FBI agent sighed. He'd heard the thief was irritating, but he didn't realize he was this irritating. "I wish I could say no, but yes, that's just about the size of it."

"Wait, I'm not done." Torchwick held up a finger. "Finally, you're going to mention again that you have the ability to blow us all to bits of we try anything."

"Are we done, Mister Torchwick?" he snapped.

"I think so. I'm going to enjoy my magazines and cigars, and my associate here is going to gorge on ice cream. Again. Now scram."

Usually, Rose loved flying.

There was something about soaring above the clouds at hundreds of miles an hour that made her giddy on the inside. It was something so unnatural, yet natural at the same time. A breathtaking experience. She wasn't the type to bother with onboard entertainment- no, she'd spend the whole flight with her face glued to the window like an overexcited kid.

She occasionally wondered if it had something to do with her past life. Perhaps she'd been a pilot or an aerospace engineer. Now she knew- or thought she knew- that wasn't the case. Did they have airplanes on Remnant? They had airships, she knew that. She had probably loved those, too, back when she knew what they were.

This flight was one she wouldn't enjoy. There was too much conflict, too many questions on her mind.

What if they were wrong? What if they were dragging her all the way out to meet some girls who weren't her kids, to prove she wasn't a dead huntress, making a huge fuss for something that never was. Who would she be disappointing the most? The government, for depriving them of their Terran Remnan, the girls she thought were her kids, for not being their mother, or herself, for keeping her life's mystery unsolved?

But what if they were right? The life of Rosalind Drake, New York police officer, would become a distant memory. Or would it? She couldn't just continue where she left off. She may have been Summer Rose, but had next to no memory of actually being her. What would her kids think of her? What were they like? How had they grown up? What would-

"A drink, ma'am?" the stewardess, a middle-aged woman, asked.

"Yes, please. Give me the strongest stuff you've got."

"Do you think we can pay someone to buy our groceries?" Yang breathed, stepping inside the house with an oversized grocery bag. "There were like sixty people at Superstore trying to get my autograph."

"You know the guys across the street will do it if you ask," Blake reminded her from her position on the couch.

"Yeah, but it's awkward asking soldiers and spies to do grocery shopping," she replied.

"Yang, you're back!" Ruby shouted excitedly from the living room. "Did you know we're getting a special guest? I mean they didn't tell us who it was but it's still exciting?"

Yang dropped the groceries on the counter. "Wait, what?"

"You missed it," Weiss said from beside Blake. "We got a message while you were out telling us that someone was coming to visit us."

"Well, who is it?"

"They didn't tell us," Weiss repeated. "They said we might recognize them, and that it was important to everyone that we meet. But that's it."

Yang dropped her body into the couch. She reached for the remote, intent on changing Global News to something more fun, but it wasn't on the coffee table. "So... guesses?"

"Oh! Maybe it's Cliff and his friends!" Ruby guessed.

"That would be fun, but why would it be important?" Weiss shook her head.

"Rooster Teeth!"

"What would be important enough for them to fly up here?"

Ruby pouted at her partner. "You're no fun."

"Maybe it's someone from the government and they need to talk about us," Yang suggested seriously. "I don't see why they wouldn't tell us if it isn't."

"Perhaps their intentions are less than noble," Weiss replied. "But I doubt it."

Yang cracked a grin. "Maybe they're going to give us medals, then?"

"I'm not sure if that's more likely or less likely."

"What if it's someone from Remnant?" Blake interjected. "I mean, a lot of them have come forward, but maybe they've finally found someone who isn't lying."

"Why would they want them to meet us, though?" Ruby asked.

She shrugged. "Maybe they think we can tell if they're real or not. Maybe they think we know them or something."

"Just because we're from the same planet doesn't mean we'll know them," Weiss pointed out.

"But there is a chance there. Maybe it's someone they think we should know."

"I think it's pretty unlikely," Yang said. "But... maybe. Still, I'm going to go with giving us medals."

By the time she stepped out of customs, Rose was exhausted. She had been delayed by a bit of residue on her clothing that set off the sniffer dogs. Fortunately, the CBSA agents were professional and accepted her explanation that she must have picked it up somewhere at work. It still meant having a lengthy chat and thorough screening that she would have preferred to avoid, though. She grabbed a Pepsi out of a vending machine on her way out. Hopefully the caffeine would have an effect.

A dark-haired man waited outside with a sign that read Rosalind Drake. She immediately headed toward it.

"Hey," Rose greeted. "You must be-"

"I'm Constable Byron Lee, RCMP," the man introduced quickly. He motioned toward the parking lot. "I was read into all the Gemstone stuff just last week, so I'm still getting used to it."

"Rosalind Drake. Call me Rose." She shook his hand hard. "Well, I'm still getting used to being an alien," Rose quipped, the joke falling flat almost immediately. "Sorry."

"The car's this way," Byron told her, leading her toward the parking lot. "Unmarked, discreet. I thought it would be like serious spy shit when they told me, but it's really no different than working undercover. You ever worked undercover?"

She shrugged. "I pretended to be a hooker once, but not really." Turning serious, she asked, "Have they been told?"

"As far as I know, no." Byron grabbed a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked a car before climbing inside. "They've been told someone of interest that they might know will be meeting with them."

"Why?" She got in the passenger side and closed the door.

"For their own sake, mostly. What if you aren't who you think you are, or they don't recognize you? That's a worse bombshell to drop than the surprise of seeing their mom again." Byron started the car and pulled out. "Well, maybe they're trying to give you a chance to back out, too."

"How considerate," Rose acknowledged. "Couldn't you have done a maternity test, though?"

"We did. And if you were both Terran, we would be ninety-nine percent sure you were Ruby's mother. But we don't know if Remnan biology might have adverse effects on that tests- or at least, that's what they told me," he answered. "As far as we know, biologically, you are Summer Rose. Probably. They said it was a maybe but talked about it like a certainty."

"It's not my genes you're worrying about," she surmised successfully. "Amnesiac and ten years on Earth. I may be the biggest disappointment of their lives. Or... maybe they won't even fucking recognize me."

"Look, I believe you. And I think they will, too. It may have been a long time, and there may have been some bumps on the way, but you're still the same person. Just don't forget that. It might take time, but you'll figure it out." He paused. "But if they- or you can't... well, you know... just back out. We'll deal with it."

"Yeah."

"I'd imagine the government wants to talk to you, too, especially if your identity gets confirmed," Byron added quickly, changing topics.

"I'm not too worried about that," she replied dismissively.

"Are you ready to meet them?" he asked, pulling out of the parking spot.

"No," she answered honestly. "But I don't think I ever will be."

"Good morning, Siena," FBI Special Agent Sonia Kann greeted, entering the small living room of the country house. Though it sounded terrible, she was glad she'd drawn this assignment instead of the Torchwick one. This was her second visit with the Faunus terrorist, and she'd found her more than a bit depressing but at least not irritating. "How are you doing today?"

Siena didn't answer immediately, playing with her mug of coffee before responding honestly. "The waiting is killing me. Being stuck in here, a prisoner in an unconventional prison. If I'm going to have a real trial, give it to me. If I'm going to have a show trial, do it. If you're going to let me go, let me go. If you're going to execute me, have done with it."

"We're not going to execute you," Kann told her firmly.

The faunus glared at her. "Why not? I killed your people. I'm an animal, to be made an example of. It's happened a thousand times before, why should I be any different?"

"Due process," Kann answered. "The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. No matter how heinous the crime, no matter how despicable the individual, no matter what political motivations may exist, everyone has a right to a fair trial. This is something we take very seriously... or, at least, I like to believe we do."

Siena snorted.

"There will be a trial, and you will have a lawyer. Even cooperating, you probably won't get off easy. But you'll probably avoid the death penalty."

"Lyons already said all of that," Siena told her. "So if there's going to be a trial, why hasn't it happened already?"

"The long and short of it is that nobody knows what to do," she admitted. "It's a complicated, sensitive situation. You're a lot more of a divisive figure than you think, during a very tumultuous time. We don't want this to be a show trial, or to look like one."

"I didn't want any of this to happen," Siena said, regretfully. "I joined the Fang because I was tired of being kicked down by humans.. We did so much damage trying to build a better world for Faunus. How much of it was just hurting the innocent? We blew up trains, killed anti-Faunus activists, but how much of that was making a difference and how much of it was taking out our anger?"

Kann almost spoke up, but held back. Her charge wasn't finished.

"I know I'm not getting out of this. I've killed people who had nothing against me trying to chase some dream in an impossibly twisted way." She paused. "Must be a strange story to a planet full of humans."

"It's not as strange a story to us as you would think," Kann replied sadly. "Racism, hate, extremism, all things we've seen before time and time again."

"I don't understand your world," Siena said quietly.

"I don't either, and I was born into it."

"This is it," Byron told his charge, parking the car in front of a decent-sized if slightly messy house. "Remember what I said. If you want to back out, we can leave now and-"

"No," Rose said firmly.

He nodded. "Good luck, then."

Rose took a deep breath, exhaling before opening the door and stepping out of the vehicle. She strode briskly up the walkway, stopping before the door and hesitating. It felt right, but the uncertainties crept back into her mind. Her hand hovered an inch above the doorbell.

The door flew open, making her decision for her. In it stood a girl in her mid teens, dressed in a red hoodie that more or less matched the red highlights in her hair. Rose recognized her instantly.

"Our visitor is-" Ruby shouted excitedly before stopping suddenly. A pair of silver orbs stared up at her and blinked. "Mom?"

First and foremost, the title of this chapter is definitely not referring to the time it took to finish it.

Smithrooks: I like him too, even though I didn't vote for him.

5 Coloured Walker: The biggest problem is how big Earth is. There's a ton of people, a ton of resources, and a ton of territory. It's less fifty average joes taking out one physical god but being able to afford to lose fifty average joes for every physical god. They could inflict a lot of casualties and probably take some territory, but at the end of the day, we can and have thrown a million men into a single battle.

As an aside, robotics aren't as big a factor as one might think. They can make up for a shortage in personnel, but they're not free to produce- in fact, they're probably quite expensive.

Tatopatato: I kind of knew this going in. The interludes are looser in format, but these ones were especially bad. They may have been better written as a series of Asides, and maybe I should have arranged the sections into more of an anthology format.

Guest (Mar 13): A war is possible, but not inevitable. As cliched as it may sound, the leader of the free world will probably be the leader of the free world- the United States of America. Most likely it would be a NATO operation, with combined or parallel operations with the Russian Federation and allies and/or the Chinese.

Guest (Mar 13): There's no biological reason why they can't, but a lot of social ones. Teenaged relationships are tenuous at best, and this throws a few spanners in the works.

Raven... I haven't really considered much. I was really hoping V3 would shed some light on the whole situation, but it never did.

Guest (Mar 15): How cute a couple is has no bearing on whether their relationship can weather a serious event. However, I think it's more likely that they'll stick together than Yang and Gavin. As for the extremists, they will find a way to justify their supposed superiority as they have done before.

Cipher92: It will be messy, it will be complicated, and neither world will look the same after the dust settles.

knight7572: Dozens of Hellfire missiles followed by barrages of guided rockets and cannon fire.

Swordfish27: It's both a challenge and definite boon to depict what are more or less real world leaders. I can't guarantee this will be the case going forward- there are elections coming up, and the issues on the table are a bit different this time.

Unfortunately, we won't really see much exploration of Ruby's reaction. Much earlier in the story, when we knew a lot less about Remnant, I established Remnans as having a different attitude toward violence and Ruby as much more accepting of it than we eventually saw in canon. So Ruby already understands the necessity of blasting the bad guys into small bits.

Finally, on the question of war, it's something I've considered from the very beginning. I almost did a spin-off focused on it because of all the reviews, but ultimately decided against it due to lack of time.

Fallout24: Sad but true. I can see anti-Faunus, anti-Kingdom, anti-Hunter, and anti-Remnan extremists showing up before the worlds even meet.

Guest (Mar 28): Maybe. It really depends on the circumstances. Different nations have different doctrines. France or Russia may launch a nuclear de-escalation strike in response to a conventional attack, but the United States has a no-first-use policy and I'm not too sure about the United Kingdom. The actions of Remnan parties may also escalate or de-escalate the situation. Finally, if they bring out anything deemed similar in destructive power to a nuke or other WMD, all bets are off.

Just another rwby fanfic reader: I don't want to reveal too much about Emergence Next, but under the circumstances you describe, I think it would make sense to do so. It's already something we're working on, and Dust would solve the biggest problem we're having with the technology. And we've already seen them (briefly) in another fic.

So, Act 3 is finally out. The format will be similar to, but looser than, previous acts. It will probably be shorter overall, and I know that will disappoint a lot of people. It may seem disjointed at time. But I know where I want to take it and I think I have a pretty good plan this time. We've been building up a long time and now we're getting to the point where things start to come together.