RWBY Through Worlds

96: The Good and the Evil

"She'd never be put in charge of this school," Theo said, "not in a million years. But get to the point."

"Summer confided something to me," Vara said. "She told me that her family didn't know she'd come here. But she said something--she said that she'd heard a long time ago that Salem couldn't be killed. She said she didn't believe it, but, there could be a chance it was true...and if it was, she wasn't sure they'd succeed at their quest."

"Summer talked about that?" Theo said. "That's not the impression I got."

"She was an optimist," Vara said. "I don't think she let herself doubt it that much. But she told me the plan about her getting the powers if it looked bad. And she said to me...that, if one day, Salem came for her because she had those powers, and it was something she couldn't defeat...she'd like to pass them to me."

"To you?" Theo said.

"To me," Vara said. "And the reason was this--she said that if she failed at this, it would mean that one of the things that Ozpin told her was not true...and in that case, she didn't want her family to have to be involved in this anymore if they didn't want to. She said that, of all the people she'd think of if she died, she knew it would either be one of her old friends who didn't want to be a part of this, or one of her daughters, and she didn't want to do that to them. She said they were too young and innocent to be dragged into this against their consent, and that she was choosing to inherited the powers if Vienta failed, but that her daughters wouldn't get a choice."

[Red Like Roses part II]

"Oh..." Theo said. "I see.... But why you?"

"She said she knew I was already willing to be involved," Vara said, running her fingers over the table. "So she knew I was strong enough to handle it. She knew I didn't have any kind of family to risk losing, and I was close to Henry, and she thought maybe I'd be all right with it. But she said it would be years from now, when I was ready, if it did happen, but could we stay friends and all that, just in case? She said she knew it was kind of cheap to ask to because of this, but she needed someone she could trust, in case it was too much for her. And she just had a feeling about me. I thought it would never happen...but I liked Summer."

She ran a hand through her hair. "I don't have that many friends..." she said slowly. "Kind of always been...difficult to get to know, but Summer was so natural with me... I think we would have been friends the rest of our lives if... And I thought she was really asking me for this because she wanted to protect her family, and I thought that was noble...and I had nothing to lose, she was right. So I said, yes, I'd step up in the future if she ever needed to pass the power on. She said thanks and that was the end of it, I thought. Except that she said something else odd. She said that she'd heard that the last Silver Eyed Warrior around...they'd been taken alive, not killed. It wasn't much of a rumor, but she told me that it was bothering her, because she wondered why Salem would ever take them alive. And she told me that if Salem tried to take her alive to use her, she'd rather just die. I thought she was just saying how confident she was...but she didn't come back. I don't even know where she heard the rumor. Could have been one of the ones Henry heard about."

"Could have been, or Qrow," Theo said.

"The thing is," Vara said, "I knew, deep down, that if that was true, then Salem had some way to overpower Silver Eyed people...and that meant the plan...it might not work. And I should have told Summer I thought so...but I didn't...and then I thought about it. And I got to thinking about how Vic had talked about how power could be used and taken away, and I wondered. But it was crazy, right? I thought it was the maddest idea ever, and it was impossible...and maybe it is. But I have...I don't know, sometimes I feel like I have this 6th sense. Gut feeling when something is a bad idea. And I had it about them going...but I thought I could never talk them out of it, not if I knew them. But once they'd gone, I just felt sure that they were never going to come back, and...I told Henry that. And I told him what Summer told me. True, we didn't have any proof...but the idea of it alone, he said, it meant the whole plan could be one huge mistake. He was terrified. He told me he would catch up to the girls, and bring them back, that it was all his fault, and that Qrow and Tai were never going to forgive him ever if he sent Summer to her death like this."