A/N: This may end up being a oneshot if I don't really have many ideas to continue it, but as long as it's good, I doubt it matters. Hats- or sombreros- off to The Two Possible Paths!
Epilogue
-
What.. What happened? I was eating a banana, and.. It.. It clicked? Then, when I went to eat it.. it was a gun?! What the hell happened? How did it happen? Unless. That blond couldn't have..
No way! I was murdered! Murdered by him! Murdered by a fucking brat! Killed from a fucking gun?!
Damn you, Giorno! Damn yooouuu!
The last thoughts of Polpo before death via headshot wound. The last living acts of his, however...Polpo lived a grand life. After he established himself as the entrance to Passioné, the gang that basically controls Italy, he lived an even better life.
He lived a life of gluttony and pleasure, eating whatever he wanted, getting whatever he wanted, when he wanted it.
But, when faced with the blond-haired Giorno Giovana, he was nothing short of outwitted, if that was even the word to use. He had been murdered by him because of Giorno's own ideals; not necessarily a fate that he DIDN'T deserve..
But his will had another idea. He wanted to create more members of Passioné at minimal cost to himself. But if it came down to it, for the Boss, he'd gladly send out Black Sabbath anywhere he needed.
He discovered a while ago that automatic stands would do anything to complete their goals. So, in his dying moments, he gave one final order; Reveal the two possible paths to everyone! Everyone you can! If not in his own world, then the next! Rebolster the ranks of Passioné in wherever you end up! Fulfill your order, Black Sabbath!
And fulfill it did. Well... sort of.
-
Roman Torchwick was strolling down the street in his usual black bowler hat with red trim, as well as a white overcoat with red lining, black leggings and shoes, his orange hair swept over his right eye.
He brought out his lighter, making sure the cigarette in his mouth didn't fall out as he lit it carefully. He stowed the lighter in his pocket and let out a hefty exhale, making sure to tap his cane on the sidewalk with his left hand as he moved forward.
He grinned he put the cigarrette back into his mouth and continued walking toward the store known as From Dust Till Dawn. Inside was a desk infront of the entrance showcasing refined Dust crystals. To the right were several bookshelves and cases as well as a spinny spinny book dealio that had more books and comics on it.
The group of black-suited, red-tied goons followed Torchwick as he entered and turned to face the eldery, balding shopkeeper in a traditional green apron and basic grey shirt. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop this late?" Roman asked.
One of the goons brought their machete to the shopkeep's chin, who stuttered out; "P-Please! J-just take my Lien and l-leave!"
"Calm down, old man. We're not here for your money." Torchwick replied in a condescending tone, before returning to a cold one and facing one of his grunts. "Grab the dust."
The goons nodded and took out small canisters, headed to the quaint dust shop's left, which had several tubes which contained liquified (i assume?) Dust. The grunts took their canisters and attached them to the tubing, then activated them which caused the Dust to flow into the canisters.
A grunt approaches the desk and slaps down a suitcase on it, opening it to reveal padding which would fit several Dust crystals. "Crystals. Burn. Uncut." The shopkeep nodded hesitantly and reached under the display case, then began placing the crystals of various colours and et cetera inside the case.
At this point, a henchman had approached a young girl with a hood who seemed to be listening to something. The henchman said; "Hey, hands in the air!" and pointed his machete at her. He tapped her shoulder after she gave no response, to which she turned to him, her hood falling behind her ears.
He tapped his ears to tell her to take off her headphones, which she did so. "I said, hands in the air!" She looked confused and asked; "Are.. you robbing me?" He quickly replied; "Yes!"
Roman sighed. Another boring hau- A loud thud was heard throughout the store as something crashed through a window. All the grunts turned to face the broken window, as well as Torchwick.
A young girl in some sort of black corset outlined with a red trim and a deep red cloak, with black hair and occasional streaks of red throughout. The group exited the shop to see her weird rectangle extending out into a giant, clunky, mechanical scythe.
A wildly impractical weapon, to be sure. Literally a farming tool. What kind of autistic child is incapable of deducing the raging impracticalities of a damn scythe as a weapon?! Well, she looked to be some sort of Huntress, either in training or otherwise. Meaning she regularly fought dumb beasts, mostly without armour, so it was an alright weapon in that regard. (uwu)
Torchwick looked around to see his grunts frozen in fear, (or perhaps shock because of how stupid this child must be to lug around a scythe twice her size and attempt to use it against intelligent enemies, using the lightest possible meanings of intelligent... and enemies.)
He spoke- almost shouted, really. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get her." The grunts nodded hesitantly and ran toward her.
She brought the scythe out of the ground and turned the.. tip..? of the weapon toward one of the oncoming grunts, actually firing something out of it, then twisting it around and slamming the other side of the scythe into the stomach of a grunt, sending him flying. She fires off another shot into another grunt then avoids the rifle fire of the remaining grunt by using her rifle scythe.. scythyle? Rithyle..? to propel herself further. She followed this up with smacking the blunt of her scythe into the balls- yes, the balls- of the single grunt sending him upward before implanting the blade of the scythe into the ground again.
The grunt's unconscious body landed next to Roman, who sighed, said; "You were worth every cent, truly you were.", took out his cigar, and reached for his lighter. He lit it up- only to be met with an astounding flame and what could almost look like a face, if he really squinted. It soon subsided and Roman thought it to be a simple malfunction, then used it, hesitantly, to light up his cigar, which had a small, fading flicker on it's burnt off tip.
"... Okay.." He took a drag of the cigarette before he threw it to the ground, slamming his cane into it and rubbing it into the ground. He brought it upward and the bottom of the cane opened to the sky, revealing a targeting reticule. "But I'm afraid this is where we part ways, little red." He pressed on the little trigger that made itself known after the reticle popped up, causing a large red projectile to fire out of the barrel, creating a large smokescreen.
Ruby Rose, the young girl who had expertly wielded her scythe beforehand, coughed as she rolled out of the way of the attack, growling to herself at the man's antics.
She looked through the fading smokescreen to see the man was nowhere to be seen. Distant thunking was heard, and she turned her head to see the man quicky ascending a ladder toward a roof in the distance. She grimaced, then turned to face the shopkeep. "You okay if I go after him?"
After a confused "Uh-huh!" She launched herself into the sky via her speed semblance, then landed on the roof, facing Torchwick.
"Persistent, aren't you?" He was at the very edge of the roof, directly opposite to her. She levels her weapon and prepares for a fight, only to be halted by the sounds of an escape Bullhead; a large aircraft with two spanning wings connected to engines that gifted flight.
The hatch into the Bullhead opened, allowing the criminal free entry which he had readily accepted. As the bullhead slowly flew into the sky, it stopped and simply hovered before Roman Torchwick threw out a red Dust crystal, shouting "End of the line, red!", and fired off another shot from his cane-gun toward it, causing an explosion before Ruby Rose could react.
Smoke covered the rooftop, and Roman let out a hearty laugh. "Haha! Haha haha ha! Woah.. huh?" He glances down to see Ruby Rose, perfectly fine, courtesy of a blond woman with a purple cape and a white long-sleeved top, and a small black cuirass covering her stomach and leading down to black stockings with long, black boots with bronze heels.
She waved around a black riding crop in the air, causing purple streaks to be formed and slam into the side of the Bullhead aircraft. "Damn it! We got a huntress!"Roman roared, then rushed to the front of the cockpit and turned to face the red-dressed woman, who let go of the controls and headed to the opening of the Bullhead.
Roman commandeers the controls and began keeping the craft in the air, as the 'Huntress' swiped her riding crop into the air, glowing purple before a storm quickly made itself known specifically centralized above the aircraft, and then a storm of hail began battering the Bullhead. A sole piece of the hail managed to crash through the cockpit window, almost hitting Roman who had sat down in the seat of the cockpit.
The red-dressed woman's dress lights up a despicable orange before she raises her hand, and fires a burst of energy at the huntress, who blocked it via a strange forcefield of her own creation.
Flames sputtered behind the huntress, who backflipped out of the way of al arge burst of pyrokinetic energy.
The broken pieces of the roof were enveloped in a purple energy before flying into the air and forming a spear, then flying toward the bullhead.
The woman in the aircraft holds up her hand and a large fire erupts, causing the spear to explode, but it reforms just in time to cause Roman to do an aerial lean to block the spear, which succeeds until the spear breaks apart and turns into several arrows made of the roof pieces, then attempting to spike the craft before a red glow envelops them and splits them apart.
Ruby finally springs into action at this point, slamming the blade of her scythe into the roof and firing off three shots at the craft which returned to a steady position.
The woman held up her hand and blocked them with ease, then raises it again to cause an explosion on the roof that forced the huntress to thrust the two backward. After narrowly avoiding the explosion, the two stood up only to see the bullhead had left.
As the blond woman turned to look at Ruby, she almost shouted; "Can I have your auto-" She was cut off by a strange voice.
"You, who have witnessed the relighting of the fire.. You will realize, soon! There are two paths you can follow. That of the chosen, who will survive against all odds, and the path of the fallen, who will die where they stand!" It was somber and bland, almost emotionless, but was still rather gruff.
"U-um.. wh-what?" The young Ruby Rose seemed both confused and scared at the voice. "Who's there?!" shouted the taller of the two.
The shadows of the building seemed to ripple, as a large man slowly emerged from them. He had an inhuman white face, towering over the two at almost seven feet. On his head was a black sombrero with a golden trim, golden baubles hanging off of it, that hid two golden horns and many purple and golden 'stitches' that connected to the rims of his eyes and mouth.
He had a gigantic black coak that covered his body, falling to his ankles. He had a white skin tone, and littered along that skin were purple or gold wires that took the appearance of stitches on him, as well as strange yellow eyes that lacked eyelids or irises. He had a large stuffy collar around his neck and most of his attire had golden arrows embroidered into them.
He had occasional green streaks as well as monstrous feet that looked far too natural to be fake, almost as if they were the claws of a beast.
His mouth opened to reveal nothing but darkness, and then a shimmering golden arrow. It approached Ruby Rose, barely a foot away from her. It began lowering it's head toward her, then made to grab her before the same purple glow enveloped the concrete of the roof it had been standing on, sending it upward.
"You have not witnessed it.. You are inconsequential. What path do you follow, Ruby Rose?!" It practically screamed, 'falling' through the roof and standing upside down on the now-flying piece of roof.
It's feet began to sink into the rapidly ascending piece of roof before it slowly rose behind Ruby Rose, putting it's monstrous fingers around her face and.. pulling something out of her..? The huntress turned to face the monster, shouting; "I am Glynda Goodwitch, designated Huntress and teacher at Beacon Academy! What do you want with this girl?!"
Ruby's eyes widened as a bright red form was pulled from her, bearing striking resemblances to her own visage despite the bland and consistent red of the form that was being ripped from Ruby Rose.
"I will show you the paths! These are the orders designed for me, Black Sabbath! Decide which path you will tread, Ruby Rose!" The arrow rose from it's mouth and began to pierce the neck of the form, which soundlessly screamed in agony. Ruby matched it's scream as the arrow started to puncture her skin, a bright light enveloping both of their forms as a cut appeared on Ruby's neck.
The arrow was being forced slightly back by the light, but it was invading her skin nonetheless.
Glynda grimaced before she broke apart the piece of roof that had lowered itself from the sky after this.. 'Black Sabbath' had left it. It quickly created a spear which slammed into the chest of that damnable pale creature, causing it to stumble back. The arrow left her skin and retracted into the mouth of Black Sabbath, before it began walking back.
"The paths will be shown once more. They will not be hindered." It began to slowly sink into the shadows, as the sun rose up behind them. It retreated into the darkness as day rose.
"Th-.. Thank you.." Ruby was visibly shaken up as she turned to look at Glynda, who had a scornful expression on her face.
-
"-it up to me, I'd have you sent back home with a pat on the back.." Glynda spoke, pacing around the metal table of the small interrogation room. Ruby's smile extended slightly, though it still had a hint of concern and caution. "And a slap on the wrist." She brought her riding crop down forcefully onto the table, causing an audible slap. Ruby yelped and dragged her hands back from the table.
The door opened, revealing a grey-haired man in a traditonal black suit with a green scarf and glasses, holding an ornate cane as he walked into the room. "Hello, Miss Rose."
Thus started.. The Two Possible Paths!
Dun dun dun
End note: I know I went into far more detail with Black Sabbath's description than Glynda or Ruby, but I'm really not good at describing either of them. Since ol' Sabbath's way easier to describe since he has a simpler outfit and design, whereas most of RWBY's characters are flashy and complicated, so it was way easier to describe Sabbath than anyone else. Sabbath is gonna be more strategic and almost sentient, since he's the literal soul of Polpo, so he's gonna adopt some of his idioms or otherwise. I'll definitely (think of a way to explain how Sabbath's there in the first place) have some characters fint out how Sabbath gets there as well as find out some of the workings of Stands. Stands aren't gonna be a major thing since ya gotta have a very specific lighter for Sabbath to get out there. If a lighter gets destroyed, Sabbath hooks himself onto a new one. I think it's more of a habit than an actual requirement, or maybe it's a requirement set by Polpo, meaning it can just be sent out whenever if new requirements are met. Of course, Sabbath doesn't EXACTLY know that, so until it figures it out, it's just gonna keep abiding by those requirements. I'm not exactly sure if all of Team RWBY is gonna have stands since them all seeing a specific lighter at a specific point is probs gonna be an insane coincidence, especially since it's, right now, tethered to Torchwick's lighter. And, yes, Torchwick HAS seen the light, so to speak, so he's gonna be tracked as well. But so did the shopkeep.. A powerful enemy has been made today.. One thing that's bothered me; Junior said his guys never came back. Did Ruby murder them, or something? What the hell happened to them?!
Quick few things! One, Ruby will probably get a stand, since she DEFINITELY has fighting spirit, more than enough to create one, and since she witnessed the lighter.. well, ya know.