Thatcher's Request

The warm breeze flows through the grassy cliff side and tickles the skin of the two kids laying on their backs. Giggles cut through the sounds of the plants dancing with the air before a tiny finger points to the sky.
"That one looks like an ursa!"
"How do you know what an ursa looks like?"
"My dad showed me! I'm going to be a hunter just like him some day."
"Let's both be hunters! That way we can always be together."
"I'd like that."

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Ten years went by fast, but Verna couldn't help but think back to those happy days in the fields of Patch.
Not that the memories were doing her any good right now. They were about to be thrown, literally, into the Grimm-infested confines of the testing arena.
The rules were simple. The first person you meet becomes your partner. Secure a relic and return to Beacon alive.
She looked down the long line of students until she spotted her. Her friend looked so primed, entirely focused on the task at hand. She blinked before glancing over and spotting Verna staring at her.
A flash of her perfect smile and a wave before right back to focusing on their mission.
The young huntress-in-training smiled to herself before turning her attention to the forest in front of her. She'd have to make it a point to find Summer before anyone else.
Just as she finished that thought she was flung into the air.
Her landing was about as graceful as a Goliath Grimm being dropped on it's back. With a crash, she came to a stop against the trunk of a massive tree. She lay there dazed before a voice and a hand snapped her back to reality.
"Are you alright?"
She looked up at the boy and took his hand. "Y-yea, I'm fine."
She pulled herself up and started dusting herself off.
"Well.. I guess that makes us partners?"
"W-what?"
Verna quickly realized that he was one of the students here. This couldn't be happening. She was supposed to be with Summer! How could she be Summer's partner if she was stuck with this guy!
"You heard the rules, right? Looks like we're partners now... Um... Are you sure you're alright?"
Verna looked at him, not realizing that she was wearing her emotions so outward.
"Y-yea. I'm fine. Really.. Let's.. Go get that relic."

The unhappy duo trudged through the trees towards their target. They had encountered dozens of Grimm on their way to secure one of the relics they were instructed to gather. When they finally arrived, there was only one left.
"Aw man, we're last. Oh well, as long as we get back alive, that's all that matters, eh, Verna?"
"Huh? Oh. Yea. Sure."
The girl's mind was racing as she went through the motions with the boy. All she ever wanted was to be with Summer. That's the whole reason she was here. What was she going to do if she wasn't on her team?
There was still hope, though faint as it was. She had heard that the relics decide teams. As long as Summer's relic paired them up, they could at least be teammates, if not partners!
Hours pass as the unenthusiastic pair make their way back to Beacon.
As the final pair to arrive, Verna quickly spots Summer. She waves and calls out to her as she runs up to her, relic in hand.
"Summer! You made it! What relic did you guys get?"
"Hey Verna, glad to see you too, haha. We took this shield." Summer holds the tiny shield out to Verna who's face drops.
"O-oh. We took this bow."
"Oh, cool. I wonder what these will mean."
"Y-yea, I don't know."
"Let's catch up later. My partner wants to introduce me to their sibling. Bye, Verna."
Summer's smile melts away her pain for a brief moment as she turns to leave with a wave.

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The time at Beacon seemed to fly by.
For everyone but Verna, that is.
As the teams grew and matured, they also grew closer. None on campus had grown closer than Summer's team. Verna, in contrast, was hardly even a member of hers.
The girl spent almost every minute she could with Summer, even if most of it was in the presence of her team.
Despite that, Verna felt as though she and Summer were starting to drift apart.
Being a Hunter was everything to Summer, and everything she wasn't putting towards that she was putting towards her team.
Verna, by contrast, was doing it all for her childhood friend and hardly interacted with anyone but her.
As time went on, Summer was increasingly spending more time with her team or away on missions, leaving the other girl feeling completely alone through graduation.

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Time had passed yet again, and Verna found herself remembering her loneliness at Beacon. That's not to say she wasn't any less alone now.
The life of a hunter is one of solitude. At least, that's what she told herself when her team moved on without her.
They were never exactly close, but their occasional moments helped the woman get through and emerge from the school as the huntress her friend wanted them to be.
She lay quiet on the grassy cliff from her childhood days, mind lost in it's own tangents. She sighed as the warm summer breeze licked her skin.
"Verna?"
She snaps back to reality and sits up to spot the nearly-forgotten sight of her friend's white robes some 20 feet away.
"Summer? Why are you here?"
The woman smiled, "I just left for my next mission. I always come here before I go. It reminds me why we became hunters... And why I have to kill them all."
Verna quickly got to her feet, heart pounding as she tried to comprehend her words. "Summer, what do you mean?"
Her smile fades before she slowly walks towards her friend, "Haven't you figured it out? The only reason Grimm exist is us. When we activate our aura we become another source of fuel for them. Each and ever person or faunus that gets their aura activated is just a battery that fuels the creation of millions of Grimm. Why do you think they focus on us when given the chance? Why do you think they never recover the bodies? There aren't any left! When we die, the Grimm absorb our auras. That's why I have to kill each and every one myself, before they go out and die like they're ordered to."
The words washed over her and threatened to consumer her like the surf. Her lifelong friend just told her that she planned genocide. She shook her head in disbelief before looking at the woman moving closer to her. She started walking backings towards the edge of the cliff.
"Say you're right.. How exactly do you plan on killing all of us?"
Summer snorted before pointing up at the night sky. Verna followed her finger, gazing up at the illuminated object.
"The moon?!" She looked down in disbelief at her friend.
"Yes, the moon."
"But how? How is that going to solve anything? That will just kill everyone!"
"Not everyone. I only need a fraction of the moon. If I collide it into Vacuo, the shock wave would be enough to destroy everything.. Everything east of Patch, anyways."
"Everything but Patch? There's hardly anyone in Patch! There's no way a few people can survive on their own! And that doesn't explain how you plan on pulling this off."
Summer tilted her head in thought, "I suppose I haven't. But you don't need to know."
The words hardly left her mouth before she closed the distance between her and Verna, aiming a quick strike with her weapon.
The seasoned huntress wasn't about to go down without a fight, deflecting the strike with her own weapon.
Their fight continued for several minutes, neither side gaining any ground before the broke apart to catch their breaths.
"... How... How could you... think about killing everyone?"
"You don't... understand... I'm saving humanity.."
"By destroying it? That isn't you... That isn't... That isn't the girl I love..."
"L-love? What are you.."
"I've always... loved you, Summer... You're the only reason... I became a hunter at all... But if you've fallen... Then I'll do what I must..."
Summer laughed before smirking as she raised her hand to the moon.
"It's already too late, you can't stop me."
"No." The words hardly escaped her lips in a whisper as the woman looked up. Before her eyes she could see a crack form on the moon.
"Summer no!" She looked down at her friend who was bleeding from her nose. "You can't do this! Stop before you kill yourself!"
"NEVER!" Summer yelled as the moon seemed to shatter. She fell to her knees, panting as blood dripped from her nose.
"Why.. Why can't I do it.."
Verna moves towards Summer, weapon in hand. She held the weapon out with an unsteady grip as tears started to run down her cheeks.
Summer reaches forward and grabs the weapon before putting it to her neck.
"Do it."

Verna walked away from the cliff.
Summer was laying there like she had all those years ago.