The child breathed in the air, the negativity literally palatable. The monster disguised in human skin casually strolled along the corridors of Beacon castle, clearly not in any need to rush, and why should she? She had killed all the guards, from the pink clad captain to the little red clad trainee and her sister.
She could smell the aura in the air, each breath bringing with it the joy and happiness of a few with the anger and fear of the rest. With it all confined within such a limited space, it was no wonder it was still overwhelming to be breathing it hours after her "unfortunate fall".
Heels clicked against tile as the child pushed open a set of doors with a level of strength one wouldn't expect from a girl of her stature. She stepped past and into the hall behind, the doors creaking as they bounced off the walls, limply hanging onto the door frame. In the middle of the hall was an interesting surprise. A person who she hadn't even considered since he had been left behind in Patch.
The boy was scrawny, many people favoring to use noodley over more generous terms like lithe. He was tall, she could give him that, but it only served to accentuate his negative features. He wore a black hoodie with a rabbit on the front that screamed laugh at me. It hung from his body loosely as if to compensate for his thin stature by the use of cloth. Even the sheathed sword he held was archaic. The red head had ranted on and on about weapons and had bemoaned the knight wanna-be for not changing to a mecha-shifting weapon. He was alive and she was dead so the mechashift feature really didn't help her survivability. It appears as if he got the final laugh.
His face wasn't one of hate like the others had been, or fear like the civilians she had seen, the only souvenir she had brought being their blood on the bottom of her shoes. He was calm and collected. He smiled at her, a stupid goofy grin that he had thrown her way back in Patch.
"Hey kid. Long time, no see. I see you've had a fun adventure through New Vale, what with the murdering and all." The child stood still, refusing to speak. After all, this was the most interesting experience she had. After all, who doesn't flinch at your friends murderer walking in?
"There's no need to sugarcoat things. Oz and the barrier are past the doors. Of course, you can't pass. After all, only good kids can meet the King, and let me tell you Cinder, you have been anything but good". The doors behind him closed the few feet that they had been open. The noise behind her, told Cinder that the other set of doors had also been sealed shut. She took a step forward, a grin that matched the false knight plastered upon her own face.
"You think a few measly walls are going to stop me? After you join your friends, I'll rip the door down if I have to" The scout chuckled, as if she had said a joke. During that instant, she saw a flicker of something in his eyes before they became empty slots where emotions would go.
"You know, Ruby would tell me that even the worst person could change. That things can get better if you just try. What's your take on it?" Heels clacked against floor as Cinder launched herself at her prey, a bone white dagger held in her right hand. She drove the blade forward, her intent clear as she went to plunge it into his still stationary chest.
The knife clattered against the floor, the severed hand still holding onto it. Black icor oozed from the cuts across wrist and leg as Cinder collapsed on the floor behind the knight, the emblem on his sheath now concealed with a black stain. Apparently Red gets the last laugh on this one. That looks like a mecha-shift blade.
Cinder struggled to move, focusing her healing on her severed leg, trying to ignore the pain. This wasn't the first time she had lost a ligament. With Ozpin ahead, this wouldn't be the last. The blade met her chest, cold blue eyes staring into her burning yellow ones.
"Ah well. Guess pleasantries are about over right? Jaune towered over her, the pressure of his presence magnitudes more than in the frigid desert he called a home. In this hall he was something more. Cinder had underestimated him, but now she had the perfect opportunity to find out how much. After all, he had said that she would have to kill him to pass. Her vision began to swim as he uttered his last line.
"It's a beautiful day outside, birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like this, kids like you, should be burning in hell".
(- Boss fight: Jaune -)
Her first sign that her body was done reforming was the pain of resurrection. The necessary negativity bottled up inside her being drained to sustain herself was impressive for any Grimm, but compared to the vast reserves she had collected over the course of her trip, it was nothing; Only a percent or so.
Cinder opened her eyes, irises glowing a bright yellow before dimming. She scanned the room to see the walking corpse resting against the wall. He seemed to notice her as well, walking to the middle of the hall just as Cinder's muscles finished reforming. A dark smudge on the ground behind Jaune lit fire into Cinder's muscles as she flashed forward again.
Two bone white knives manifested, one in each of cinder's hands. This time she would be prepared. She lunged forward, this time expecting his reaction to step in. He stepped back warding off the blow with a sloppy half block, half cut delivered with enough speed to make his blade work lethal. He wasn't so impressive after all.
Cinder pressed the attack, white blurs keeping the knight retreating, until he wasn't.
Cinder watched helplessly as another one of his sloppy parries reversed momentum completely, a clumsy defensive move reversed into a deadly offensive that forced the bleach haired girl to put up a heavy handed defense. The knight took a step forward and another each step coming with a hammering blow against her makeshift defenses. The final step saw it crack, ending with them in the exact same place where they had started.
Cinder screamed as she felt the blade cut her torso in half as easily as if it were made of butter. It didn't make sense. She had been able to power through Nora Valkyrie on sheer strength alone when any normal human would have had their bones crushed by the electrically charged maiden. She had ice shards moving at the speed of sound bounce off her skin with minimal damage. She was tough to kill, so how was this loser doing it so easily? A blade came into her vision just long enough to fill it completely and then end it.
(-)
The feeling of revival was a pain that was too familiar for Cinder's taste. She had already experienced it once, any more was too many. He stood there like an ancient stone guardian standing watch with the blade tip resting upon the floor and hands upon hilt. He was a picture of serenity. Cinder hated it. There was no fuel, no more food to sate her hunger, not that she needed it. The air reeked of untapped aura, emotions waiting to be devoured. She took deep breaths, filling the hole in her capacity.
"We going to go straight into it this time too, or are you just going to sit around. I don't have anywhere to be". She hated him. He was an obstacle that had to be removed. Humanity had to pay. Some second rate sentry wouldn't stop her. Nothing would.
"Might want to take a step back. Turn around now, cause it would be a crime to everyone if I put you down. After all, what we're all their lives lost for?" That... That made her blood boil. Did he think himself above her? That he could keep dodging forever? That he was somehow immortal? He was far from that. He might have been skilled with that sharp pointy stick, she could give him that. He might have an annoying trick that she would have to overcome. She however was immortal as long as she had negativity to feed off of, and with all the latent aura in the air, she was nigh unkillable.
She snarled like a beast as she flung herself against the knight once more. A flash of silver met with black, metal upon bone and the dance began once again. The beat before may as well have been largo before to cinder. She threw her all into her speed, trying to overtake his tempo, her Grimm enhanced speed making her movements all but blurs to the human eye. He held on to the tempo, barely at times but still clung onto it with a fierce desperation. There were cracks however, too many close calls to be perfect. He pushed back weakly, trying to force out an offensive with a lunge.
Cinder struck forward, meeting his momentum head on. There wasn't a clash, only darkness as black icor meshed with dark hair on the golden tiles beneath Jaune's feet.
(-)
She was letting the Grimm control her. With so much negativity flowing through her, it was hard not to. Anger burned underneath her flesh, fear melting away into desperation and rage. She would not rage like a mindless Beowolf, hence why she was chosen and not some beefed up beringrul. She sighed as she reined in the negativity, all the while he stood by patiently waiting for her move. She collected herself before looking up at him, yellow eyes glowing brightly. It didn't phase him in the slightest.
"Did anyone ever tell you how persistent you are? I mean, when Nora wants her way she will go to the ends of the earth to get what she wants, but you come back from the dead. Even she couldn't do that". An image of a half dead girl in pink armor crossed her mind. A thunderstorm later, and the wound was healing faster than even she could pull off. Of course, that healing factor was only around as long as thunder thigh's boyfriend could keep the lab rat doing it out of sight. When they both died a bloody death? Well, energetic and pink had nearly died trying to save someone the first time. The second time only finished the job.
"I like to think that I'm in a class all of my own. After all, I can keep going long after you drop dead from exaustion". A goofy smile crossed his face, and had she not have noticed the lifelessness in the blue orbs above it, she would have thought he was more than content with her killing of his friends.
"Oh. Finally on speaking terms again? So how are you enjoying your fourth life?". Cinder grinned wickedly, Eyes pulsing yellow.
"Beautiful. I'm about to kill an idiot who is trying to stand in my way" He shook his head in mock disappointment.
"I'm glad to hear to have a goal in life, even if it is unlikely, but I digress. Whatever will be, will be. The future is not ours to see." Cinder huffed as she readied herself. She knew what he was going to do. He knew what she was going to do. He may have bested her a few times but he was going to mess up eventually, and of worst came to worst, she had millions of retries with all of the negativity that Vale provided. She could play for the long haul, and after this inconvenience, Ozpin.
(-)
She didn't notice it until she had all but drained the negativity from the room, she being the only source. She didn't notice immediately how the room never seemed to fill up with nutritious aura from the outside. When she did however after nearly thirty defeats in a row, and she had tried and failed to suck any notcable negativity from around, well...
"How?! ". The knight laughed, a rich and hearty sound. It resonated around the hall, clashing against the dark atmosphere. He shook his head as if it was a stupid question.
"Drained the negativity in the room already? This hall was made to keep things in check. In fact there is only one more of these hallways in the underground." Heavy double doors leading out to snow, the valerian crest marked upon them. Cinder had passed them out of the ruins.
"Didn't you feel it after you left. The doors had been sealed for years, the Faunus behind them isolated from the rest of the world." Cinder shook her head. The information was interesting but certainly not useful.
"They felt like caged animals in there, safe from the outside world but isolated and alone." The difference between the concentration of aura and the concentration of negativity in the aura must have been pretty slim for her not to notice. A useful thing to know should any human try to escape their tomb.
"Must have been like shooting fish in a barrel, huh?" The longsword carved a great furrow in the floor as Cinder threw herself to the side to avoid the blow. She was unprepared for the second passing, this one cutting through her ankle. She collapsed to the floor.
"You forget that I'm not some pushover, the only reason you go first..." The blade slammed into the small of her back. It twisted in the wound and a pained scream emanated from her.
"-is because I let you." Cinders world began to smudge into a black expanse of nothingness, burning anger snuffed out as the life drained from her eyes. She would be back, and screw fishing for answers. She would outlast him, even if she had to dip into her reserves. The fool with a bleeding heart would die. That wasn't a question in Cinders mind.
Hello. 0lcra here with a few things to note. First, I don't own neither Undertale nor RWBY. They are made by Toby Fox and RoosterTeeth respectively. Second, This is where I'm going to cut this story. It doesn't need to be a grand adventure to tell a good story, and leaving the fight left to the imagination feels better than writing it out in full. Finally, if you enjoyed this, check out my page. You might find something else you enjoy reading. With that, have a wonderful day.