Heaven Dividing Crimson Scythe
"Little rose."
Summer's hands snaked around her youngest daughter's small frame for a hug. She was barely five years old but her Semblance was already starting to manifest itself. Summer would occasionally find stray rose petals wherever her little daughter would run around. She was a little bundle of energy that her, Tai, and Yang loved dearly.
Ruby's silver orbs gazed upon her mother's own. "Mom?"
Summer still couldn't understand why on Remnant would Raven up and disappear from the lives Tai and their beautiful Yang. It was cruel and irresponsible, even from someone as cold as Rae.
Well, whatever. She would take care the blonde father and daughter duo with all her heart and all the love she could muster. She would be the wife and mother they both deserve; mother, wife, Grimm slayer, mechanical genius, and cookie maker extraordinaire.
"Remember what I'm about to say." Summer's face was contorted in determination, yet there was still hints of the caring woman within. She needed her daughters to be strong while she was away. "Believe in yourself. Believe in the Ruby who believes in yourself."
Ruby tilted her head. "I don't understand." She was utterly confused at her mother's words. It was to be expected; she was merely a child after all. No matter. One day she'll understand. For now, Yang will be the one to do the heavy lifting for the two of them.
"Don't worry." Summer giggled lightly as she pecked her daughter's cheek. Her hand ruffled Ruby's messy black and red locks affectionately as she disengaged from their embrace. "You'll understand when you grow older." Her fist lightly tapped onto her youngest's chest.
Light footsteps entered the room they were in. Summer and Ruby were greeted by Yang dragging Summer's white cape that she quickly offered to her. Her blonde hair was messy beyond comprehension and her toothy smile was missing a tooth, most likely from another playground brawl. Summer could only sigh at the sight, but there was a smile tugging itself on her face nonetheless.
Her twin katanas were eager for another bloodletting, unlike her. She sighed as she clipped her cape around herself and hooked her weapons on her person. Her personal emblem emblazoned on the back of the pristine cape. One day she'll get matching capes for her daughters.
She sighed again at the thought of leaving them for another mission.
She would rather spend another week with her daughters, but the song of Grimm slaying was beckoning for her to add another voice within the ascending arpeggio. 'Another mission, another paycheck' they always say. Hopefully this one will end as quickly as it came.
"Yang, take care of little Ruby. You're a big girl now, okay?"
Yang's toothy smile beamed with radiant light. "Yeah! I'll grit my teeth and beat up anyone who messes with her!"
"That's my little ray of sunshine." Summer hugged Yang as well. Messyness, dirt, sweat, and all. Yang was also her daughter in every sense of the word. She also ruffled Yang's hair before disengaging, which got a pout from her eldest.
"I'll be back before you know it. I love both of you."
Little did she know that these were the last words she would ever speak to her daughters.
Two massive monstrosities the size of skyscrapers fought with every fiber of their being in a never ending wasteland of dirt, dunes, and forests of crystals.
One of the beings battling was a massive humanoid creature borne of darkness and covered with chitinous bone like plates. Four arms and limitless amounts of tentacles jutting out of its back were its weapons. Its skull-like face was adorned with an amalgamation of disappearing and reappearing ghastly crimson eyes. The monster of darkness also had bubbling crimson eyes that continuously snaked over its body. A woman clad in ethereal darkness was on top of its shoulder controlling the being.
The other massive being was also humanoid in shape, but was made up entirely of metal. The mechanical monstrosity's body was sleek in design and had a unisex form in mind. It had two fin like protrusions on its shoulders. It sported an elongated tail with a sharpened tip and claws that gripped a massive staff that had massive amounts of energy coalescing on its tip to create a scythe blade of pure energy. Its head was similar to a samurai's helmet with blue robotic eyes and a rhino like crescent bladed horn. The inner frame was a deep black and its armored plates were colored in blood red with silver and gold trim highlighting its edges.
Punch after punch, kick after kick, and tendrils and slashes were blocked and countered and equalled with earth shattering impacts. Both beings did not show any quarter against one another.
"EAT THIS!" A collective of voices came out of the giant crimson mecha.
The crimson mecha swung its beam scythe in a massive arc that was intended to decapitate its opposition.
"NEVER!" The woman on top of the colossus of darkness bellowed out in response.
The tentacles of the colossus of darkness took the brunt of the attack while its massive hands grasped the shaft of the weapon and shattered it using only its sheer strength. Its leg slammed the crimson mecha square in the chest and was sent flying while its honeycomb shield was shattered by the impact of the attack.
The mechanical body lifelessly slammed onto the ground unceremoniously.
"GAH! BASTARD!"
A menacing cackle came from the woman that was situated on the shoulder of the colossus of Grimm darkness. "People ask, 'Why do you fight? Why do you kill? Why do you destroy?' They will die with these questions unanswered. That is your bliss. That is the one true bliss that all creatures of light hold."
"Don't underestimate us and our resolve!" Ruby bellowed out as her knuckles whitened at the grip of her controls of the crimson mechanical monstrosity.
The crimson mecha jolted back to life and stood tall in clear defiance. It dusted the debris off of its massive frame.
The variable thrusters on the back of the mechanical giant of Dust reinforced steel spew out the force and heat of a thousand suns. The force of the thrusters was enough to turn everything behind it into molten slag.
"What? How!?" Surprise invaded the thoughts and escaped the mouth of the Grimm Queen.
With its momentum, the crimson mecha slammed its clawed hands for a lunge at the colossus of darkness. The scythe like claws cut deep before the Grimm colossus blocked another oncoming attack. The colossus of darkness created tendrils upon tendrils in preparation for another attack.
Ren's eyes widened in shock as his gaze locked on his viewscreen. The power levels indicated within the screen were off the charts. "That last hit jolted our engines back to life and they're working in overdrive. Mecha Rose is at full power! We can do this! We can beat her!"
Mecha Rose radiated with grossly incandescent light as its systems came back to life. Its inner skeletal frame had a dull gold glow that escaped it.
"Summer's dead! Ozpin's gone! Pyrrha's dead! And Beacon's done! They're all dead and gone!" Yang shouted out with all her might and grief. Her mechanical hand groaned in complaint as she slammed it onto her screen with all of her strength. "But they all put their faith in our hands! In our future's hands! In the hands that will claw our way out the infinite void! In the hands that'll cut our way out of your darkness! So they live in our hearts and our souls. And their collective will lives on in all of us opposing you!"
The fin-like protrusions of Mecha Rose opened and revealed two weapon grips. It took both of them and the grips extended to form two staves. Energy arced from Mecha Rose to the staves and formed two crescent beams of energy. The mecha took a stance with the two beam scythes at the ready.
Jaune grit his teeth as he took over the defensive controls of the giant mecha. The honeycomb kinetic barrier flared back to life at his command. "Don't underestimate us!" His voice bellowed out. "We don't give a damn about the darkness, entropy, or thermodynamic whatevers! We don't give a damn about all that. If you try to make us despair and wish for death, our wishes will support us, on the path of our tomorrow!"
The two fins split wide open, shifted, and retracted to transform into four house sized railguns. The ground shook as the weapons howled out and continuously shot slugs of metal at the colossus wreathed in darkness.
"We'll keep moving forward, breaking through every wall that blocks our path! We'll break through the heavens and space itself! If someone like you blocks that path -the path that all sentient beings in Remnant will take- we'll use all the power we have to break their legs and smash open a path for ourselves!" Nora cackled madly as she pulled the trigger to the beat of the carnage.
The Queen's creature shot out tendrils to block oncoming slugs of electromagnetized ammunition while inching its way towards the crimson mecha. Its four hands shot out and grabbed the railguns. It tore the ranged weapons before Mecha Rose could retaliate. Seeing the opportunity, the creature slammed tendril after tendril at the mecha's chest.
Each tendril was blocked by pillars of ice and concentrated shielding.
Weiss gasped out in exhaustion as she forced the controls of the arm units to slam the beam scythes in offense while keeping up her ice pillars in the defensive. "We will defy all who would stop us to grab hold of our future! The future that we're trying to grab for ourselves…" Her voice cracked out, but she kept her concentration. "Is not the future that a megalomaniac like you set out for us! It's the path that we choose for ourselves: a path that we choose and protect for humans and faunus alike. We'll fight our way through. We'll keep fighting to protect our dreams that herald our tomorrow!"
Two colossal arms of darkness were dedicated to block and parry a beam scythe each. Both colossal beings were stuck in deadly melee. Chunks of dark flesh were quickly healed while the crimson mecha's shields were working in overdrive to protect it.
A devilish grin formed on the Grimm Queen's alabaster face."That is the path that leads to extinction. Your embers of hope will eventually be fed into the darkness. Why can't you see your pathetic limitation?"
"No, that's your limitation! You sit here, playing with the lives of others, consuming the hopes and fears of innocents like some kind of wannabe god! That's nobody's limitation but your own! We'll cut open your stupid delusions and claw our way to victory! If there's darkness, we'll break through it! If there's no hope, will make it with our own hands!" Blake shouted in defiance. She was situated just in front of Ruby, sharing the cockpit's seat with her. Her hands were clasping the same controls Ruby was holding. Her anger was enough that every word she spoke seethed with it.
Mecha Rose agreed with Blake. It slammed its armored foot on the chest cavity of the Grimm colossus. The creature was hit with enough force to create earthquakes as it flew by and was slammed into a nearby cliff face.
Mecha Rose connected both beam scythes into one shaft. Massive amounts of energy was pooled into the weapon. A massive ethereal scythe was created from the sheer amount of energy. The blade's size was double that of Mecha Rose, which itself towered over all man made structures.
The excess energy of the mecha sprouted pure white wings that wreathed it in radiant light. The ethereal wings slowly formed into an ivory cloak of energy that engulfed Mecha Rose in a sweet embrace as traces of it fluttered to the wind like angelic feathers.
Scythe in hand and cloak bellowing to the wind, Mecha Rose took the signature stance of its creator; blade behind its back and ready to retaliate.
Ruby's silver eyes were filled sheer determination. She pointed her finger towards the sky; towards the light that shines in the eternal darkness of the void. "We're Remnant's hope! We hold the future of this world within our hands, future of every innocent being, the dreams of those who have fallen, and the hopes of those who will follow!" Her extended finger was now pointed to the Grimm Queen and her colossus. "And with this massive scythe our collective hands grasp, we will slice open the heavens to burn your darkness with our own incandescent light! WE WILL REAP OUR OWN DESTINY!"
Ren, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Weiss, Blake, and Ruby all breathed in as they prepared for their final attack.
"JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!?"
"RUBY! WAKE UP!"
Silver orbs blared wide open in surprise as the sweet caress of sleep was so rudely taken away from her. In doing so, she shot outward and hit her head with the person who so rudely destroyed her sleep's own.
"Nora!? Whhyyy?" Ruby whined at the girl in question.
"Oh geez, Ruby! I thought you'd never wake up. We tried everything! Shaking you using Magnhild didn't even work! I even tried to used Burn Dust!" Nora babbled out in quick succession while holding and posing with numerous props. One of them was even a jar of off brand Burn Dust with the label 'extremely flammable' superimposed on it.
Ruby could only respond with a "Wha?" At the babbling girl.
"She didn't actually use Burn Dust. I stopped her." Ren's voice invaded the room they were in.
He was carrying whetstones, cleaning tools, and various cleaning oils presumably to do maintenance on their equipment. Crocea Mors was also with him, lazily strapped over his shoulder. He set the items on a spare table before taking out StormFlower for the aforementioned maintenance.
Nora dismissively waved her hand at her childhood friend. "Pffttt! Ren-Ren thinks it's dangerous."
"It is dangerous, Nora." Ren interjected with his own dismissive wave.
"Ren-Ren just doesn't understand fun."
Ruby ignored the over energetic girl to address Ren. "Where are we?" She asked at the quiet boy.
Unfortunately, Nora bunny hopped in front of Ruby to answer the question. "Oh! We're still in the boat! It's like a few more hours before we officially get to Vacuo." She pondered for a moment before continuing her babbling. "Eh, it's a good thing it's not as bad as Guts and the boat arc. The boat arc is a most formidable foe indeed." Her eyes widened in realization. "Oh no! The boat itself is an agent of Griffith! GRIFFITH!"
Ruby blinked a few times to register what Nora has said.
"What." She decided a flat response was the best course of action.
"Nora has been binging on a series called Berserk whenever she could." Ren sighed in slight annoyance. "I still say that taking a cruise that doubled as a convention was a bad idea."
Nora was still cursing someone named Griffith, something about a crimson egg, and apostles of whatever, all the while praising some slab of raw iron in the vague shape of a sword. No doubt her shouting would get the attention of everyone in the ship. Just another normal day with her, it seems. It's already a miracle that the crew still hasn't thrown them out in the open seas.
"Uhm… Okay? I think that answers my question. Mostly." Ruby put more effort in ignoring Nora who was still babbling loudly about guts or some such. She turned her attention towards Ren again. "Anyway, where's Jaune?"
There was a deeper sigh that escaped Ren. "Trying to empty the contents of his stomach. Again."
"Oh. Well that sucks." Ruby shuddered.
Ren responded with a wince and a shudder himself. "Agreed."
Author's Notes:
ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH!
Uhh… Ahem... April Fools..?