- RWBY -
From the Light Comes the Dark
One shot by WriterofArt. Disclaimer, Monty Oum and Roosterteeth own RWBY.
A.N.: I thought of a hypothesis on about the creatures of RWBY, so I thought I could put it into a story. Enjoy.
"…Looks like things are shaping to be an… Interesting year. Alright, everyone. The teams have been named, resume to your dorms and-"
Professor Ozpin is interrupted by Glynda Goodwitch, having her whisper some information.
"Alright… Ahem…" Ozpin fixes himself, "I have been just informed we have another succession team. I guess I was completely unaware of this…"
The students chat amongst themselves as they see the team walk on stage, Ozpin looks at his pad and sees they were checked off as completed.
"Completely unaware indeed…" Ozpin mumbles, "Now, we have here Shaun Yuna, Paulus Tenshire, Theodore Wilis, and Ron Comadreja."
The newly students stand in line, "You shall be named as team SPRT (spirit)."
The auditorium fills with claps and cheers once again, "Led by Shaun Yuna. Congratulations on entering Beacon Academy."
"Well, that was different." Yang claps.
"The more the merrier I guess, what do you think Blake?" Ruby looks at her and notices a strange look on Blake's face, "Blake?"
"Huh? Oh, um sure. Yeah." Blake blinks.
"Something wrong?" Yang wonders.
"No, it's just that Paulus guy seems oddly familiar…" Blake tries to think as the new students leave the stage.
Ozpin clears his throat, "Alright, now that's been settled with, resume to your dorms and prepare for your classes tomorrow. You will all be counted as official Beacon students first thing in the morning, have a good night's rest now."
As the students walk out, Paulus shoves his way through and having Blake fall over.
"Hey! Watch it!" Blake retorts as she's helped up by Yang and Ruby.
Paulus just stops and glares back at the dark haired girl.
Blake sneers at him, "What?"
"The past can truly be harmful when forgotten…" Paulus walks off with his team towards the dorms.
"Are you sure you don't know him?" Ruby asks.
"I… Don't know…" Blake stands up and dusts herself.
"Well, if that guy ever tries to mess with you, I'll be the first to pound him!" Yang pushes her fist into her palm while giving off some flames.
2 days later…
The students once again gather into the auditorium, all being called without any knowledge of what was coming for them. Professor Ozpin steps up to the microphone…
"Now that you had a taste of the intellectual side of Beacon Academy, you will now take part of the Sparring Exam." Ozpin fixes his glasses, "In this exam, you will be put back into the field with your teams and confront your fellow classmates to test your fighting capabilities…"
Yang gets pumped up, "Yes! This is going to be sweet!"
Ozpin continues, "The exam will run as somewhat of 'capture the flag'. The relics that you gathered from your initiation will be given back to you, teams must find another team with the same relic of opposite color to pass. So, to pass, you must have both colors of your relic piece. And to get their relic, you obviously battle for it. Those who fail will be put into strenuous training and classes during breaks."
"I don't like his tone…" Ruby shudders a bit.
"Remember… You will act as if you will be fighting to the death. This exam will test you not only on the physical side, but the mental side as well. Prepare to your launching stations…" Ozpin leaves the stage and the students are led to the open forest.
As Team RWBY stands on their launching pads, Ruby notices that Team JNPR next to them.
"Good luck on being leader Jaune!" Ruby gives a thumbs up.
"Thanks… I'm going to need it…" Jaune exclaims.
Pyrrha puts a hand on Jaune's shoulder, "Don't worry, we have your back."
Jaune looks at his team, them giving him reassuring smiles. Jaune nods and prepares to be launched.
A buzzer counts down, and the students are lifted off into the forest…
Team RWBY lands into an open grove, Ruby notices that Jaune's team was nowhere around.
"I guess we move on. Alright…" Ruby has the girls gather, "Our mission is to get the black knight relic, I guess the main objective is to search and survive."
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Yang agrees.
"But, how are we supposed to find another team in the middle of nowhere?" Weiss injects.
Ruby thinks for a bit, then looks at Weiss, "I think I got it."
As Team SPRT roam across a mountain ridge, they see smoke rising from inside a patch of trees.
"C'mon, they're practically luring people in. We have to get there first before anyone else…" Shaun orders.
The team agrees and head towards the smoke.
As the team gets to the smoke's source, nobody was around the small fire.
"This is definitely a trap…" Shaun mumbles.
"Duh!" Yang pops out.
Weiss summons ice around the area, creating neither entrance nor exit.
Ruby's team jumps out with weapons ready, "Show us your relic!"
Paulus slowly takes out the relic from behind, showing it to be the black knight relic.
"That's the one!" Yang smiles, "Are you sure you want to take on a team that executed a Nevermore?"
Paulus chuckles, "It doesn't matter, knowing that you put up these walls, only one of us will leave with a chess piece…"
The girls prepare themselves, and wait to see who attacks first.
"Shaun, Theo, Ron… You take the other girls, I'll take on Blake myself…" Paulus orders.
"Right…" Shaun and the others get into formation.
Blake blinks "How do you know my name? And why are you giving orders?..."
Paulus slowly chuckles, then into a full burst of maniacal laughter.
"You seriously don't remember me!?" Paulus glares at the girl.
Blake could only stare at him.
"It was you and Adam that left me for dead!" Paulus growled.
Blake suddenly gasped, "Y-You… Paul… I thought you were…"
"Dead!? No… Not completely anyway… Your mission before with Adam and me almost cost me my life!"
"Blake… What's he talking about?…" Ruby gives a worried look at her.
Blake gulps, "It's… hard to explain…"
2 years ago…
In a red forest of trees, Adam stays hidden in the grass and looks out with some binoculars. In the distance, he sees men carrying crates in and out of cabins and out of the forest. Adam gets up and heads the opposite direction. In a clearing, he meets up with Blake and Paulus.
"The intel was right, they're hiding the tech here and taking to the nearby train to ship these things off."
"So what's the plan?" Blake asks.
Paulus smirks and looks at Adam, "The usual plan?"
Adam grins, "Infiltrate and destroy…"
Outside the cabins, it was settled and quiet. Two guards roamed with guns at the ready, and a few guards standing on the porches of the cabins.
Suddenly, two shurikens hit the roaming soldiers, alerting the others. One of them finds them dead, and they start to spread out.
Behind a tree, Paulus prepares his Wrist Gauntlet Launchers and fires a flurry of shurikens. More soldiers are hit from unexpected areas, the soldiers fire in random spots. As they were busy, Adam and Blake head in from the back.
On each cabin, Adam and Blake set up a bomb for each.
"Adam, I don't like this. This could kill several of the soldiers." Blake worrying.
"I'd rather have these guys dead than having their way…" Adam sets up the last bomb.
"Hey!" A soldier opens fire on the founded intruders.
Adam deflects the shots and fires his sword at the soldier, then taking him down. More soldiers roll in from the noise.
Paulus notices some of his enemies leaving, "Dang it Adam…"
Paulus' wrist gauntlets protrude armblades and Paulus goes into action.
Adam and Blake take down the surrounding soldiers, but they keep on coming. The two start to tucker out, Adam breathes heavily and Blake covers for him.
"Adam! Blake! Get down!"
Both comply and a massive shockwave of aura is blasted towards the soldiers. One of the soldiers loses his control on his gun and fires at a planted bomb, Blake holds Adam down.
"Adam!"
The whole place is blown to pieces, in seconds the whole place was left charred.
Blake waited for any last moments of her life to be burnt away, but she didn't feel anything. She slowly opened her eyes to finder herself in a dome of warm aura, Blake sees that Paulus protected both her and Adam.
Paul deactivated his dark blue hued aura shield, and falls over.
"Paul!" Blake catches him.
Paulus breathes heavily, "That took a lot to cover… Heh…"
Blake just gives him a smile, suddenly a fist gets knocked into Paulus' face.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Adam clenched his teeth.
"I saved your lives! Why would you hit me?!" Paulus argued back.
Adam grabbed Paulus' collar, "You nearly killed us! You practically set off the bombs!"
"At least you're alive, right!?" Paulus released his grasp.
Adam just spat and walked off, "C'mon Blake, were heading to the train…"
Paulus started to follow, but Adam pointed his blade at him.
"You're staying behind…"
Paulus sneered at him, "Fine… You try and fulfill your goal without me…"
Paulus turned around and started walking off, Adam did the same but Blake hesitated.
"Blake, let's go…" Adam yells.
Paulus looks behind to see Blake's choice, "I'm sorry Paul…"
Paulus slowly turned away and kept going, Blake caught up with Adam. After a few yards, Blake and Adam heard gunfire. They turn around to see one of the soldiers still alive, and shot Paulus down.
"Paul!" Blake tries to run to him, but Adam stops her, "We need to help him Adam!"
"It's too late for that…" Adam gestures Blake to look back.
Blake gasps as she sees a pack of Beowolves taking the dead remains as their meal, Paulus bleeding on the ground reaches out towards his comrades for help.
"C'mon, were too late!" Adam forces Blake to run.
Some Beowolves take notice of the two and chase after them, all Blake could do was turn around and run…
Present…
Blake shakes her head, "Paul… You… We didn't…"
Paulus shakes his head in shame, "You left me as dog meat, both you and Adam can take on soldiers, but you merely left a bunch of dogs as if it were an army…"
Blake falls on her knees, holding herself, and starts trembling.
"Blake!" Ruby holds onto her friend.
"But… I would also have to thank you…" Paulus' tone changes.
Blake looks up, "What do you mean?..."
"You see… I survived long enough to fight back, but the damage was too much for my body." Paulus smirks, "When I 'died', I killed the whole pack of Beowolves, and fell in a pool of their blood."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Yang interjects.
"You see, the blood of that Grimm was absorbed in my body and it mixed with my aura…", Paulus starts to remove his cloak and shirt.
The girls were shocked and grossed out at the scene, on Paulus chest, a huge scar ran across his body. Along the scar, the tissue was black and it seemed like it no longer had blood flow.
"Somehow, it saved my life. And it gave me a new power I have yet to learn…" Paulus' aura spreads around him like swirling shadows, "I call it, 'Dark Aura'…"
"Yang… Can you feel that?..." Ruby shakes in fear.
Yang gulps, "It feels… Like emptiness…"
Paulus chuckles, "Not only does it feel hollow, its power is tremendous!"
Paulus gestures his hand forward, and a giant shadow-aura hand grasps Weiss in the air. Weiss tries her Dust on it, but to no affect.
"Don't even try!" Paulus smashes her into the ground, knocking her out.
Yang blazes up and dashes towards Paulus, Ruby does the same with her scythe. Paulus grins, he bumps his fists together and lets out a shriek. The shriek summons a powerful aura force blowing the sisters back.
"You should see why this Aura should exist, Blake." Paulus walks up to her, "There is always balance within life, and you can't have one thing without the other. There is morning, there is night. When there is light, there's shadow…"
Blake looks up at Paulus' face, she is reminded of his old gentle, smiling face, but now sees a horrifying glare.
"Not only that, I found a secret to the Grimm…" Paulus smiles widely, "We are the Grimm…"
Blake couldn't move, "What do you mean?..."
Paulus kneels to her head level, "You are taught that Grimm have no souls… They merely sacrificed their soul for power and become monsters of their own extent…"
Blake slowly grabs her weapon, "W-What makes you say that?"
Paulus chuckles and stands, "I'll just show you…"
Paulus' chest starts to worsen, and Paulus appears to be in pain. The blackness takes over his body, and dark aura produces everywhere.
On a hill, Ozpin drops his mug.
"Glynda… Can you feel that?"
Glynda gulps, "Yes… its feeling is atrocious…"
The other teams in the field stop what they're doing as they feel this overbearing darkness.
"That doesn't feel right…" Ren looks towards the direction of the source.
"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asks.
"It feels like a human and yet…" Ren gulped, "It feels like a Grimm too."
Paulus' body got bigger, his head became white and protruded horns. As soon as the blackness enveloped his body, Paulus looked down on Blake.
"You see…" Paulus voice changes into more of a demonic tone, "This power was created from your karma, Grimm come from humans. To become something more, and to wipe out what's standing in the way."
Blake slashes at her foe, but Paulus merely catches it in his hand.
"Pity… You just try to kill me…"Paulus sneers at her, "Team, terminate the girls."
The others do as they say, and go into battle.
Blake suddenly starts to tear up, Paulus notices this.
"You finally realize it?" Paulus asks.
"No…" Blake shows her teary but smiling face, "I now know my friend is truly dead, and you're only a monster talking like him!"
Blake switches her weapon's mode, and blasts him in the face. Becoming blind, Blake swings around on his back and slashes away.
Paulus roars in pain, and dives backwards. Blake takes back her weapon, and avoids the body slam. Blake backflips a good distance, and Paulus takes his stance. Paulus puts his hands together, and raises his arms. He breaks the ground, creating a great shockwave towards Blake.
Blake jumps upwards, and throws her blade towards Paulus. She lets the force take her, and readies her other weapon. Paulus grabs the incoming weapon and pulls Blake in, and sends an oncoming fist.
Paulus' arm is suddenly frozen, Blake bounces off of it to see a surprising scene.
"They were too easy…" Weiss stands up from sitting on the defeated team.
Paulus growls, and breaks free from the ice. He is suddenly sucker punched by Yang, and led by a forceful fire blast from Weiss. As Paulus falls back a few feet, Team RWBY stands ready.
"You think you can stop a being of pure energy?!" Paulus' arms release his gauntlet launcher weapons and become fused to his wrists, "Come on!"
Paulus fires shurikens made of dark aura, Ruby and Yang shoot them down. Paulus takes the opportunity and charges. Weiss creates a glyph below Paulus, and creates a giant ice prism. Paulus becomes incased in ice, the girls relax from their foe, but blades suddenly protrude from the ice.
Paulus breaks free, and his armblades become coated with dark aura.
"You think you've won?!" Paulus detaches his gauntlets.
The blades combine to create a buster sword, Paulus grabs the hilt and swings his blade.
"Paulus! Enough already! Weiss, ice!" Blake yells.
Weiss hesitated at first, first seeing Blake mad. Weiss freezes his blade down, Ruby takes the chance and shatters the sword with her Crescent Rose.
Yang became engulfed in flames and sent a flurry of punches at Paulus, he was sent back a good distance.
As Paulus got up, he found a blade through his head. Paulus sees Blake walking slowly towards him.
Paulus falls on his knees, "It's over… Paul."
Blake fires the blade out, and Paulus' body begins to break away. Paulus' human body gave way from the darkness, Blake caught him as his body slowly vanished as well.
"Blake… Please… Don't leave me again…" Paulus tried to reach for her hand, but it fell in weakness.
Blake catches it, "Don't worry… I've got your back…"
Paulus gave one last gentle smile, "…Thank you…"
Paulus' body finally vanished, leaving no feeling in Blake's hand. Blake could see his aura flow away as it turns into nothingness.
Ruby goes up to her, "Are you alright, Blake?"
Blake wiped away her tears, "I'll be fine…"
Ruby then jumped up, "Wait, what about the exam!?"
"I believe it should be cancelled…" The girls turn to see Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch melting down the ice barrier to let the other teams through.
"Why? We just got the other relic!" Yang holds it up like a trophy.
"Well, due to unfortunate events, like the one you just had, we have to stop there. That man became too dangerous for you, but you managed to defeat him." Oznip fixes his glasses, "For now, everyone is to return to their dorms and get some rest. The staff must investigate on this matter you had."
With that, everyone left to their dorms.
Blake sat on her bed, trying to get any bad memories of Paulus out. She suddenly felt a shocking pain in her sides; she turns around to see Yang poked her in the sides.
"Don't worry, Blake. We'll have your back as well." Yang hugs her tightly.
"Group hug!" Ruby joins in as well, making Blake laugh.
Weiss just stands by, Ruby gestures over, "C'mon Weiss, join in!"
"Um, no thanks." Yang suddenly grabs her and everyone joins in on the hug.
Blake smiles, "Thanks guys…"
END