Chapter 8: Stars
Aqua landed with a crash in the middle of a square. "Gaia!" she shouted, and pillars of earth slammed into the air to both cushion her fall and destroy several Neoshadows. She leaped from the top of the pillar and flew for an Invisible, latching the tip of her keyblade into its front in order to flip over it and bring it down behind her as she landed. "Fire," she said, and flames seared through her blade, annihilating the Heartless.
She nearly shrieked with joy when she realized that the Huntsmen and Huntresses already fighting the Heartless were making property damage the last worry on their minds. She had a lot of great spells in her arsenal, but many had a bad habit of blowing holes in the environment.
"Fission Firaga!" she shouted, igniting a series of fireballs that swirled around her head and burst apart in a firestorm to destroy the Shadows that were trying to mob her.
Something impacted hard against her back, knocking the wind out of her lungs. She brought up a barrier and turned on the spot. A Bit Sniper was fruitlessly firing against the shield, and in the moment she brought it down she fired off a Blizzard spell that reduced the Heartless to dust. In that moment she was distracted by the minor Heartless, an Invisible had placed a curse on her and a half a dozen Neoshadows were advancing upon her position.
And in all this, three dozen Huntsmen were fighting the Heartless in the square, and who knows how many more were spread across the city. For the Heartless to be so close to the center of town, Aqua had to guess that there were at least a thousand coming into Vale, if not more.
This isn't what I thought would happen at all! she thought, as she cartwheeled out of the way of the encroaching Invisible. Going straight from attacking some teenagers in the sewers, to invading a city? What's changed? My only thought is that the Heartless Commander is testing out the Heartless on a world that's been effectively abandoned, but a world like this that's been fighting the darkness for generations isn't exactly a good sample.
She wiped out the Invisible, and turned her focus to the Neoshadows. She brought a hand to her chest, brought up the mental image of crashing waves, and said "Master of Tides!" Water gathered around the base of her feet, coalesced into high-pressure spheres, and fired out in an arc of lances around her front side. Half of the Neoshadows were destroyed on contact, the others were quickly finished off with a fireball sent around her body.
"Aagh!" shouted a very human voice from behind her. Aqua threw up a quick Reflect barrier and turned to face the newcomer. It was a soldier in armor with red accents, carrying his rifle at the ready with one hand. He hadn't been touched by Aqua's fire spell, but he had been surprised by it. "Lady Aqua?" he said uncertainly.
She didn't bother with formalities of titles. "Yeah?"
From one of the pouches on his waist, the soldier pulled out an earpiece with a mic. "I was informed you were to receive one of these. Hit the button on the side, put it on, and report in with your name."
She nodded. "Thanks. You going back eastward?" The soldier nodded. "On three I'm bringing the barrier down, and I'll try to clear you a path. One, two, three!" A Neoshadow leaped for her barrier, and she made it explode into fragments. The soldier went to one knee to steady his aim and depressed the trigger on his Dust-powered rifle. The shots flew out and exploded on contact, throwing debris and black smoke into the air.
"Gaia!" A pillar erupted beneath Aqua vaulting her into the air. She steadied herself and took aim with the tip of the Rainfell. "Demi." Violet spheres appeared and descended upon the monsters, clearing the way for the messenger to keep moving, and that he did down the path. Aqua landed back on the pillar she had made, and hit the power button on the earpiece she had been given. She looped it around her ear, and said in the mic "This is Aqua, reporting in."
She was nearly surprised to hear Ozpin's voice coming through on the comm device. "Least he was quick on his feet. All Huntsmen and Soldiers are to fall back to form a defensive line on the Grau Square."
"Fall back, are you crazy? What about the Heartless?!"
"Aqua, I have no right to command you, but you will be without support if you don't fall back to the line. The Heartless are coming in from the direction of the Southeast gate. This isn't a skirmish, this is increasingly a battle, and the first priority is to protect civilians."
Aqua gritted her teeth in frustration. "Alright, fine, I'm on it." She looked out at the Heartless, realizing that indeed, they were coming in from a specific direction instead of just teleporting in on the spot. Maybe they can't open too many Corridors of Darkness at a time, or maybe there's something about the light in this city that keeps them from teleporting in. At any rate, he's right, need to protect people first. She dropped back to the ground as arcs of fire, lightning, and ice arced around her, destroying any Heartless that came near. She dropped the earthen pillars she had created to clear the way for Huntsmen and soldiers moving back to the line on the Northern entrance to the square. Aqua blocked the shot of a Bit Sniper and threw a lightning bolt back in reply.
She brought up a quick barrier, and opened her mind to examine her surroundings. The humans were all retreating, the Heartless stank with their black essence, and Aqua herself was leaping with energy. She expanded her reach to the buildings and the rest of the square to ensure it was being cleared out.
Just as she felt a twinge of energy, her shield shattered outwards. She scanned the area with her real eyes. There, under the bench! She kicked off the ground and whirled through a crowd of Shadows, and shouted "Firaga!" Flames exploded outwards, and Aqua kneeled to look under the bench.
There, a little girl with wild blonde hair sat huddled in fear. She couldn't have been any more than two or three years old. Her violet eyes showed her terror.
"Hey, I'm Aqua," she said softly. "Come on, I'll get you back to your family."
The little girl sniffled. "The monsters…"
"I can take care of them. I promise, I won't let them hurt you."
The child crawled out from beneath the bench, and Aqua held out a hand. The little girl took it, and said "I'm Yang. My daddy, I don't know where my daddy is!"
"It's okay, we'll find him," Aqua said, and scooped Yang up in one arm, holding out the keyblade with the other. Yang threw her arms around Aqua's neck, tucking her head into the older girl's shoulder. "Just…" Aqua couldn't keep a smile off her face. "Just 'Yang' in there, Yang." She could just barely hear the little girl giggle at the pun.
"Alright," Aqua said, to herself. She held out the keyblade, and slowly walked forward as she carried Yang to safety. Around them, a torrent of light and flames wiped out any Heartless that dared to come near, and within a minute, she had come to the line of soldiers and huntsmen protecting the road ahead. Without a word, they let her through.
With a word of warning, Aqua let Yang down, and she kneeled down to better speak to her. "What's your dad's name?" Aqua said softly.
Yang sniffled again. "My dad is Taiyang Xiao Long," she said firmly. "And my uncle is Qrow."
Aqua nodded. "That's very smart of you, to be able to pronounce such big words." She stood back up, and called out "Taiyang Xiao Long! Taiyang! Qrow!"
"Daddy! Uncle Qrow!" Yang shouted, joining in with the calls.
"Taiyang Xiao—oh!" In the middle of the callout, two men, both equally agitated, came bursting through the crowd. Both were about the same age—one had Yang's blonde hair, and the other heavily reminded Aqua of an old crow resting on a light pole, with a long black coat hanging down from his shoulders and the lines in his face.
"Daddy!" Yang leaped into the blonde man's arms and they hugged each other tightly.
"Oh, my dearest, my light, thank goodness you're safe!" Taiyang shouted aloud, laughing as he spun around with Yang in his arms. He looked to Aqua. "Thank you, thank you so much."
"No problem at all, just keep her safe."
Taiyang turned to Qrow. "I'm sorry, I need to leave you here."
Qrow put a hand on Taiyang's shoulder. "Of course, your family is your first priority. Go. Girl, with me."
Taiyang ran off as Aqua glared at Qrow. "My name is Aqua."
"Aqua, then, I was told a girl with blue hair would do well against these monsters."
"Huh, news travels fast," Aqua said, crossing her arms over her chest. "So what's the plan?"
"The civilian population is moving back behind the lines formed by Emerald Road and the 5th avenue. Lookouts have taken position on rooftops, and teams are being sent in to keep the monsters from moving in through the roads. I've been told to keep the monsters from moving in through the side and flanking."
"The Heartless aren't necessarily smart enough to pull off a flanking maneuver," Aqua said. "Although on second thought, if my suspicions are right, the man commanding them is definitely smart enough to avoid a frontal assault." With a word, she set a magical ward over herself that would reduce the impact of magical weapons. "Lead the way, Qrow."
Qrow turned to face away from Aqua, and he reached to his belt, where a long mechanical device clung to the back of his hips. He grabbed the handle and pulled it from the magnetic plate with a swift tug and set it on his shoulder. With the sound of grinding gears and pushing pistons, the device expanded in length, and a massive curved blade unfolded from the inner workings and locked in place.
With one motion, Qrow retrieved a long magazine from his belt and clipped it onto the side of the scythe. The blade was black steel, so bright you could see the reflection of Qrow's serious expression in its surface.
"Let us move."
As soon as Aqua and Qrow entered the fray along a wide road just off of the Fifth Avenue, she was struck by the style with which Qrow fought. He effortlessly hefted the massive scythe, spinning it around his arms and over his back to slice apart any Heartless that dared to come near—and those that survived the initial blow were cut to ribbons when he hooked the blade around their neck and pulled the trigger of the sniper rifle built into the gun, both severing the neck of the one in the blade and annihilating the one on the other side of the barrel. His footwork was smooth but fierce, sliding along the ground to shift his weight from one foot to the other in time to a beat that only he could hear. Indeed, in some ways his fighting style was more like dancing.
Qrow pulled to the side as an Invisible came after him, hooked it with the inside of the sniper scythe's blade, and adjusted his grip to be closer to the blade while he whipped around to the rear of the Invisible and planted a foot into its back. In a moment of respite, he scanned the enemies around him, took note of Aqua's position, and pulled the trigger, launching himself skyward. He dropped with his scythe spinning madly around him, cutting apart the Heartless.
Aqua unconsciously found herself imitating his rhythmic fighting style. When an Invisible tried to trap her with its curse, she used Midnight Shine again to dodge and attack with an indigo lance, but instead of letting the magic dissipate she spun the lance with one hand as she leaped backwards, sweeping out with the blade to shear through another sword-wielding Heartless's weapon and body alike. She dropped back to parry a Neoshadow's claws, then swept forward to strike it through, and didn't pause to watch it vanish, but instead used the momentum to head for an Invisible and leap upwards with her keyblade trailing in order to split the Heartless in twain.
So absorbed was Aqua in her fight with the Heartless that she didn't even notice when Qrow was relieved by another Huntsman. She could almost feel herself stepping in time with the beat of her heart, even as it sped up to match her exertion.
Somebody was calling her name, but no matter, she was fine, she could take care of herself. A Neoshadow leaped for her, but she brought up a Reflect barrier. Another Heartless, another barrier. An Invisible crashed through the first but succumbed to the orbs of light produced from it. She breathed heavily, and a pair of Invisibles came at her, one from either side. She parried one, blasted the other, and in her split attention the first's sword slid up the edge of her blade and the tip cut into her face, just above her right eyebrow.
"Agh! Thundaga!" A bolt of lightning struck the Invisible. She reared back and rubbed the blood away from the cut, but it was still getting in her eye. She wiped at it again, and she took up a more defensive position to protect her blind right side. She fended off a group of Shadows, deked away from a Neoshadow that meant to leap up from an inky puddle on the ground at her, and before she could take on any others a wave of energy shots flew from a point behind her to strike the Neoshadow away.
Glynda came up from behind Aqua and gave a stern look from over her glasses. "Your relief is here."
"I'm fine," Aqua said, wiping at her forehead again.
"I'd rather not have to drag you back so your relief can take over," said Glynda.
Aqua grunted something indistinct, and started backing off with Glynda as a boy with bright orange hair and a girl with her hair split into brown and pink halves ran in to take on the Heartless in Aqua's place.
The barricade was relatively flimsy, emergency walls wheeled out and bolted down, but the greatest defense was the defenders themselves—if they fell, the walls would be of little use against Heartless or Grimm. More than anything, it was meant to keep stray shots from harming bystanders, and to keep the same bystanders from running out of the safe areas.
A Huntsman carrying a blunderbuss modified with axe blades in the top and bottom nodded respectfully as Aqua and Glynda passed through.
"Thank you, Port," said Glynda.
"Right, thanks," Aqua said, her heart only half in it. He pulled the gate shut behind them. "Uh, nice to meet you. I'm Aqua."
"Indeed, I've heard your name from the others!" said Port exuberantly, one closed fist held up triumphantly. "A pleasure to meet you!"
"The…others?" Aqua said, tilting her head to the side in confusion as she shook Port's hand. She followed Glynda along, and couldn't miss the occasional nods that soldiers and Huntsmen were paying her. Many looked tired, especially as they came closer to a square with a fountain in the middle of it.
"Word of a warrior of light come back to this world has spread quickly," Glynda said suddenly. "Those who didn't watch you from a rooftop were spreading stories—admittedly, some of them rather embellished."
"How embellished?"
"I heard 'Daughter of the Moon' being thrown around by one of your reliefs, the Torchwick boy with orange hair."
"Fantastic." She wiped her face again. "Ugh, don't suppose you have a mirror? Nevermind, just hold on a second." Aqua stopped in front of a bookstore with the lights out and blinds closed, and used her reflection in the glass to examine the cut on her forehead. "Heal." Watching herself closely in the reflection to ensure she didn't leave a scar, the cut closed up, and she used a quick Water spell to clean the blood off her face. Glynda watched her use the healing spell with interest.
"As much as I may prefer my own Semblance, I wouldn't mind being able to heal like that," she said off-handedly. "At any rate. Would I be right in assuming you've fought half-blind before?"
Aqua nodded. "Yeah. That's really perceptive of you. Yeah, for about one and a half, oh, at least two years, I was blind in my right eye."
"It's hardly anything. The fact is, being a Huntress is your job for life, so I've met no few who have lost eyes, legs, even arms and still refuse to retire. Was it one of those Heartless that took your sight?"
"Oh, I wish it was that dignified." Aqua took a seat on a bench next to Glynda. A civilian child, probably a Huntsman or Huntress's daughter, was going around with bottles of water. Aqua took it gratefully, and downed half of it quickly. "Before I ever started training with my Master, Master Eraqus, I was part of a class of young kids who had all inherited the keyblade at a young age. Thirteen students, seven masters. One day, one of the masters ignited some experimental lightning spell right in my face. When I came to, I was half-blind from the shock and light. Wasn't until I had been my Master's apprentice for a year that a woman came to my world and offered to heal my sight."
Aqua had spoken of it casually, but Glynda was looking at her with shock. "One of your teachers did that to you? While using a technique that they hadn't fully developed on a student?"
"Uh-huh. Though it took me nearly a year before I figured out just how screwed up it was." Aqua leaned against the back of the bench and closed her eyes. "The keyblade wielders…they had their own way of training students. It was apparently meant to teach you to take control of your fate. They taught us that any injuries we sustained were a lesson, and if you were in pain, it was your own fault for not being strong enough to stop it from happening. I got a little healing so the burn on my face wouldn't become infected, but even nowadays it still hurts sometimes."
Glynda shook her head. "Shameful. Truly, that they would ingrain such harsh lessons into the minds of children. Pit a student against a master who has two feet in height, 100 pounds, thirty years more experience on the student, and teach them that it's their own fault if they lose. If you knew it was so wrong, why didn't you leave?"
"Actually, I did." Aqua looked up at the starless sky. "One day, as I looked out at the training ground and saw the same master who had blinded me putting down another girl for failing to accept the lessons, I realized how wrong it was. I had nothing to pack, they allowed us no possessions aside from the clothes on our backs. I stood up, left the bunkhouse, and ran away, far into the jungle of the training ground. I had been away for about three hours when I realized that I had nowhere to go, I had no idea how to get back to my home world, and even if I did get back there I had nobody waiting for me. So I made the slow trip back, and found that while I was gone, the camp had been burned to the ground."
Aqua drank the last of her water, her hands shaking at the old memories. Glynda was silent at her outburst. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put that on you," Aqua said.
"No, I was the one who asked," said Glynda. She looked to the side, at nothing in particular. A pair of soldiers across the square seemed to be looking at Aqua, sharing whispers. "But…you say you have no place in your home world. If the day comes that you no longer want to be with the keyblade wielders, I think you may be able to find a home here, in Remnant." Aqua's head shot up to stare at Glynda, who continued. "You could attend Beacon, if you like, or if you've tired of fighting, you could teach. Or you could study and use that power of yours to become a doctor."
Aqua covered her eyes with her hand, and while she could keep from crying, her voice cracked as she smiled and spoke. "Thank you, Glynda. You don't know how much that means to me."
She was forced to stay and rest herself for an hour. Aqua certainly couldn't sleep, and couldn't clear her mind sufficiently to meditate. But she still had other ways to clear her thoughts, and quickly found herself playing with a conjured stream of water between her hands, holding it in midair with a thought. Every so often, somebody would come by. Some only looked, some nodded, and others—mostly younger ones—asked who she was, how she could do what she did, what her sword was called.
"Just a traveler," "Magic," and "Rainfell" were her answers, always. Already she had failed to not leave an impression, but so long as she only stuck to fighting Heartless, an otherworldly threat, she wouldn't technically be going against her Master's teachings, to maintain the world order. She wasn't surprised that people were looking at her, given that the stories of the old keyblade wielders who had abandoned this world were still, to a degree, common knowledge, even if knowledge of the other worlds wasn't. Naturally, for another warrior of light to come to this world and fight for the people of Remnant would be a curiosity.
Aqua turned her head to look out at the moon, and the orb of water she had been manipulating splashed to the ground. Standing on a rooftop, silhouetted against the light of the moon, there stood a man in a black coat, looking out at the defenders.
She stood, and carefully moved past medics, Huntsmen, and soldiers, to climb up the fire escape on the nearest building. At the roof, she summoned her keyblade, and called out to the man in black on the next roof over.
"Hey!"
He appeared to look at her, but only for a moment. Just as quickly, he turned, and held out one hand. A swirling gateway to darkness appeared in the air with the sound of the void.
"Wait, Master Xehanort!"
He stepped into the portal, and the light of the moon blinded Aqua for a moment.
Remember…the closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes.
Her shadow lengthened behind her, and started rising up from the ground of its own volition.
But don't be afraid.
Her shadow grew taller and heavier, turning into a monster with tangled brambles around its face, heavy arms and thin legs, shining golden eyes, and a gap in its chest where its heart should have been. Aqua backed up away from the Darkside, her hand shaking at the Heartless that was twenty times her height.
She threw the earpiece away—it was just chatter about how the minor Heartless had stopped coming and "Oh god what is that giant thing!"
The Darkside brought its hands to its chest, and violet light gathered in the empty space. It raised the sphere, and fiery black missiles burst from the surface of the sphere, homing in straight for Aqua. With easy movements she deflected the missiles, and magical sparks traced along the bottoms of her shoes. In a shower of light, her keyblade turned into a bow with a glowing white string, and she flew across the ground as she loosed arrows at the Darkside. It blocked the arrows like they were little more than needles with one arm, and brought down the other onto the rooftop, knocking Aqua onto her side from the shockwave.
"Fine, like they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall." She got back up and ran for the Darkside, leaped onto its closed fist, and ran up the length of its arm. With little regard for her balance she struck through the Darkside's head, and it reared back in pain. She used the teeth of the keyblade to dig into the Darkside's shoulder joint and whirl herself around it like she was on the high bar. She flew out forwards and twisted in midair.
"Firaga!" she shouted, and a massive fireball erupted from the tip of her keyblade to strike the monster in the face. With a clap of her hands, a sphere of wind surrounded her, casting her hair out and letting her cloth-of-silver cloak fly out behind her. The Darkside recovered from her attacks, although the arm she had used to get herself into the air was hanging limp. With an agility it hadn't had a moment before, it lunged out and swatted her out of the air like so much as a fly. She yelped as she fell to the ground. The wind spell took the brunt of the hit, but she had still felt the impact.
I can't let this thing hit me, but it's like nothing I do makes a dent, she thought. I need to get a big hit like the others, but I'm just not built for it.
She charged her keyblade with magic of fire, ice, and lightning, and moved away from the Darkside's swings and flaming missile. It brought down one fist to dig into a violet portal that started spawning Shadows. With a lightning spell Aqua disposed of the minions, and raised her keyblade high in the air.
"If you're going to abuse the privilege of having hands, you're going to lose them!" She brought her keyblade down in a massive executioner's swing, directly on the Darkside's wrist. The combined magic and force of the swing severed straight through the dark matter that made up its body and the lost hand quickly turned to black smoke in Aqua's face. The Darkside roared in pain, went to its knees, and violet light gathered in its gaping chest.
Aqua stood directly in front of it as it prepared its final attack. "Oh no you don't." Blue light ran along the edge of her keyblade. She held the grip with both hands, and with all of her strength she sent it spinning through the air as she declared "MIDNIGHT RAID."
The edge of the keyblade sliced through the Darkside's face, splitting it right in two, and the Heartless exploded into black smoke. Aqua dropped to her knees, and her keyblade fell to the ground, and vanished in a flash of light.
A Dust shot went off, and Qrow came flying up to the rooftop, and landed smoothly. "Hey, girl, you still alive?"
"I think so, yeah," Aqua said. She pushed herself back up, rolled her shoulders, and checked herself over. "Thanks."
Qrow put one hand up, as he spun his scythe and folded it back up. "I didn't do a thing." He turned to look out beyond the defensive line, and Aqua joined him. "Whatever that big thing was, you destroying it must have broken the morale of the tiny ones. They're all clearing out."
"Or the man controlling them decided it wasn't worth the risk to keep going."
"Hm?"
"It's nothing," she said. Aqua turned back away from the defensive line, and the keyblade came to her hand unbidden.
"Now what's this," said Qrow with curiosity, as he followed her turn and looked out to the moon, still on its rise. Aqua realized that it wasn't like the moon she knew from the Realm of Departure or Twilight Town—somehow, despite still hanging in place where she expected it to be, part of the celestial body was broken off into fragments. The left side of the moon was largely whole, while the right side trailed off to the east.
The surface of the moon shined with an otherworldly glow, and Aqua raised the Rainfell with both hands, as a light appeared at the tip.
In the surface of the moon, a keyhole appeared, and a beam of light connected the tip of her keyblade and the keyhole.
Dispel the barrier, she thought, and as she willed it, the keyhole closed with a click, and an aurora ran from the northern horizon across the sky, and for the first time in seven hundred years, the people of Remnant saw the stars.
Aqua picked up the comm device from where she had discarded it. "Ozpin," she said lightly. "Thanks for all the help. Good luck—and if the day comes that darkness gathers in Remnant again, I'll be here, I promise." She shut it off before she said something she regretted, and turned to Qrow. "I need to go. The man commanding the heartless…if I'm right as to his identity, my Master may be in danger."
Qrow nodded. "Good luck, Aqua."
Aqua opened a portal to the Lanes Between, and left behind the world of Remnant to return to her Master.
-But don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of all.
Aqua didn't know it yet, but she would not return to this world for nearly sixteen years.
So don't forget: you are the one who will defy the darkness, and clear the way for the light to return.
A/N: Lots of RWBY easter eggs here.
Next chapter is the last.
