Light of Hope Chapter 10 'Sunken Ship Surfaced'
A/N: This one will be dedicated to all of the fans for Pyrrha, since she was struck by the arrow cast by Cinder in the end of Volume 3, there was many speculations and mini battles to say she actually lived or not. I have a feeling that she was teleported, the ending of volume 3 was weird, when she was struck by the arrow in the chest, it was slightly glowing, what was that and what did Cinder do to make her turn to ashes? It looked like she was teleported, possibly by accident, but this is just a theory.
"I'm sorry Sophia, I must be a terrible leader" Ciel was mad at himself for letting this happen, he could've done much more but now he feels like a failure.
Sophia nudged closer to her friend, placing hand on his shoulder, "It's ok, you don't have to beat yourself up for me, it was my sister who did this. She's the one to blame and her leader Cinder."
"Uh guys, you should check this out" Han said, wanting everyone available to see.
Ciel walked over to see something he dreaded to see, "Oh no…"
Amethyst looked over, hearing her leader's voice, she knew, "What is it, enemies?"
Ciel never moved but said, "The Sins are here…"
"I guess it's time to finally end this" Sophia got up and retrieved her mace, "Ren, Nora, go find your friends."
Ren knew something's up, normally they don't want to fight but suddenly now, "Is it ok to leave you guys…"
Ciel interrupted him, "Yes, all of us knew this day was coming, with the onslaught of Grimm appearing, the military and huntsmen are having their hands full eliminating them. I'm pretty sure your friends are in the center of it right now, go find them, we'll follow once we finish this."
Both Nora and Ren looked at each other, not wanting to do this but had to follow the huntsmen into battle, "Good luck guys."
Both Ren and Nora ran out of the building, seeing the people who caused their friends a lot of trouble. The sins weren't paying attention to the people running past them, instead they were patient.
Ren looked at each one and noticed that they each were ready for one more attack, ready to see who would be die. He also noticed one was sort of sad, the one who infiltrated and killed her own father, the circle bladed leader of Swag, Serilda, 'What's going on?'
Ciel smiled, knowing they were the last ones in the building, "Well this is it, one last match."
The other seven nodded in agreement, "Let's go."
With each member walking out of the building, they were facing each other, Ciel waved towards an old friend that betrayed him, Enya Erebus "Its good to see you once again."
Enya simply glared at him, he tried to kill him when he was weak last time, "This time I won't miss."
Ciel looked over to his friends new and old, enemies and comrades, and smiled, "Let's go!" He ran towards Enya with his hatchets, one switched into his gun and fired ice dust at him.
Enya ran to the side, missing most of the shots and used his twin swords to block the close bullets. Looking up, he seen his target making a downwards attack with both hatchets, with no option left, he brought his one blade up in hopes to defend himself…
"…Jaune…fight…me…" the person looking like Pyrrha said in a different tone that doesn't sound like her, her voice wasn't sounding like her nice sweet voice, instead she sounded menacing. She brought her main spear up in the direction towards Jaune, only wanting him for some reason.
Jaune looked down onto his weapon and planned out the possible options, since he was not very good in battle, he prepared himself with tactics in hopes to outsmart the enemy. Pulling his weapon up like he would do in a duel, he accepted her challenge.
Ruby watched her teammate walked past her and towards the enemy, "Jaune wait-" she stopped because of the Grimm around her attacked when she got too close. Looking at the person, she had her hand up towards her, possibly warning her.
"…Only…Jaune…and…I…will…fight…" Her eyes were colored abnormally, with the white parts surrounding her emerald colored eyes were black in color and her iris' glowed green.
"Ruby, find Cinder, I'll handle Pyrrha. Put an end to her schemes." Jaune looked around to see the Grimm were complying to this person, but why did Pyrrha came back at all times and why were her skin, no scratch that, why did everything about her changed. Her pale skin was changed to snowy white with black veins across her skin. Her red hair was the only closest thing she kept, but it was matted up and not in its signature ponytail that she always kept.
"What did Cinder do to you?" Jaune asked getting closer to her, with her not reacting yet.
With no options left, Ruby ran past Jaune and Pyrrha and into the large exit doors, along with the Grimm. What caught her by surprise was that the Grimm were making a way for little red, she looked back to see her old friend commanded the Grimm to keep their distance.
'How is she doing this?' Ruby thought to herself while she was using her semblance to find Cinder, the one who did so much damage.
Ruby was running past the carnage around her, she never expected how a large building kept this many Grimm, but that didn't matter right now, she had to find them.
She remembered the conservation with the Virtues during the meeting, Cinder was located in the CCT of Mistral. Luckily the tower wasn't far, a few blocks away. The problem would be the Grimm, the soldiers and huntsmen/huntresses were keeping most of the Grimm occupied but some were getting past them since the main ship controlling the Knights and Paladins went down moments ago.
Running past everything, she seen the large tower in sight, she did eliminate a few Grimm before any civilians were hurt, "GO!" she yelled firing some rounds into the closest Grimm.
Seeing the area was clear, she darted over to the building, until she seen 2 people standing in front of her, 2 people she thought she knew but found out their true objectives. Glaring at the duo, she had her Crescent Rose armed and ready for a fight.
Mercury was thrilled to see that Cinder was right, "About time Red," he had one leg ready to strike with Emerald readying her weapons.
Using her semblance, she got past Mercury and attempted to attack the other, raising her blade, she brought it down onto the opponent's head. What caught her by surprise would be Emerald's semblance was already in use, she only hit the body for it to disappear.
With a kick to the gut, Ruby was knocked back to the wall, "You'll never make it to Cinder."
"ARGH!" An Atlesian Soldier said while a sharp object was thrusted into his chest, killing the man.
The one responsible pulled the weapon out of the soldier and ran towards the others that were nearby, since she already finished her mission, Neo thought it would help if there was a lesser amount of soldiers. With the hatred of both Atlas and Ruby still burning brightly within, she happily ran towards the large group led by a huntsman.
The huntsman knew what she was, "Soldiers continue fighting the Grimm, I'll handle her," pulling out his weapon, a large 2 handed broadsword. He swung the weapon towards her, though she easily dodged the initial blow by landing onto the blade with her hand, swung her body around and performed an upper kick to his face.
Stumbling back a few steps, he knew that she will be tough to fight. Planning out his attack, the huntsman twisted the hilt of the blade to have it expand in shape, pulling out a red crystal and placing it into the open crevasses of the blade and it closed up. The blade had flames emitting out of the blade.
Neo didn't let up in her attacks as well, so they both exchanged blows until they heard a few shots fired onto the soldiers, exploding around them, killing them all.
The huntsman looked back, demanding to know who did this but Neo froze, that gunfire sounded awfully familiar.
"Guess I'm a little late to the party?" A male voice called out from on top of a building nearby.
Looking up the huntsman was shocked to see him back, "ROMAN?"
"It's good to be back!" Roman brought both of his arms up, acting like nothing happened.
Neo was the one who didn't know how to react right now, a swirl of emotions was going through the young girl's mind, without thinking, she got behind the huntsman and thrusted her blade into his back. Without any resistance, she laid the body down onto the ground and ran towards Roman.
This caught the red-head by surprise with a sudden hug, "Hey kiddo, long time no see?"
She looked up to look at his face and knew that this wasn't a dream, she smiled and nodded happily, not wanting to think of anything else.
Coming back into reality, Roman placed a hand over her head, "Come on, we have to see what Cinder has planned." With Neo complying fully, they continued to walk to the CCT, what they didn't know Ruby was having a fight for her life battle going on.
"Pyrrha please snap out of this!" Jaune said swinging his sword at her, only with her blocking his attacks like she could predict his movement. She didn't say anything, she only stared into his eyes, wondering why she was feeling this way.
"…Who…are…you…?" The white husk of the one teammate he trusted said, he eyes were still glowing green, with the sword caught by her shield, she spun her shield to knock the sword out of his hand. She attacked with her weapon, with Jaune reacting with his shield.
With each attack felt like lead hitting him, 'How is she this tough?'
Her next attack brought the shield up from the boy and she knocked it off of his arm. Defenseless, she decided to lift her weapon and thrusted it into him, hopefully then will she be able to find out why she was feeling this way.
Luckily Jaune didn't want to give up, with no options left, he pulled into his backpack and pulled out Pyrrha's old shield and used it to defend himself.
Pyrrha looked onto the shield used and a rush of memories flooded into her head, causing much pain for her. Grabbing her head, she screamed out, not wanting to feel this pain. She stumbled away from him, trying to make the pain stop.
Looking behind her, Jaune noticed the Grimm were being destroyed by someone, focusing in… he seen a male with a green shirt firing onto the Grimm and an orange haired girl with a large hammer, "Ren, Nora!"
They both looked over and knew they had to get her away, so Nora ran over and hit her with her weapon. With this impact, she crashed into the wall, causing a crater to form around her.
"Wait… Pyrrha?" Nora said, not believing the situation around them…
"How is this possible?" Ren didn't stop attacking the nearby Grimm, luckily the numbers were going down, enough for the military forces to subdue the rest.
"I don't know, she was appearing with Cinder's forces, aiding them" Jaune looked at the shield Pyrrha once used, but he put it onto his back and grabbed his own weapons instead, deciding on what to do, he put the shield back into its compressed form and placed it back onto his jeans. Looking at his sword, he knew he had to face her, "Guys, I'll be fighting Pyrrha alone."
Though both of them knew he wasn't strong enough to face another person like Pyrrha, "Are you sure Jaune?"
Nodding, he gripped both of his hands onto the handle of the blade, "Yes, just keeps the Grimm busy and no one else can join this battle."
Both nodded and did what he said, but they wondered how is he going to accomplish this?
"HAH" Enya said thrusting his blades into a female member of HELP, "Why are you helping them Eminence?"
Eminence had her short blades block both of his blades, "Because brother, you betrayed us by siding with Cinder, and its Esther now," she slightly adjusted her blade and shot him in the face with an ice shot.
He backed up a few steps with a part of face cold to touch, "Ok, Esther I see how this is, you betray your only family with these people who can't help themselves," he used his semblance to heat his hand up and touched his face, "you see, they will overwork themselves until the people don't need you anymore and throw you away!"
Across from them both Ciel and Sophia had to fight two of their foes, Serilda and Athanasia of SWAG.
"What's wrong Ciel, can't follow a target you can't see?" Serilda spun around, using her semblance of invisibility, she crept over and swung her blade onto his back, luckily he moved when she slipped on some ice he generated, "cheap tricks…"
Spinning his guns, he fired over to the guy who causes Sophia so much trouble, Athanasia 'Aero' Aimes, "Takes this cheater…"
Sophia swung her mace and made contact to Aero's arm, knocking him back so she could continue hitting for all of the pain he caused back in the past, the constant abuse he delivers on her for nothing and for him to consistently cheat on her with other women when they were dating.
With no possible way out, Aero decide to do something stupid, he had his robotic arm turn into its weapon form of a cannon and fired it between them, exploding on the ground. Causing both knocked back by the blast, both very hurt, but able to stand up.
Ciel looked over to see Sophia hurt, "SOPHIA," he wanted to help but Serilda was still around. He was already stabbed a few times, but he could manage, he hopes she could get back up before he could.
Jaune stood there in front of his teammate/tutor/friend, remembering all the fun times they had together, he didn't want her to suffer like this. He had to find a way to defeat her first and a way to reverse this if it's possible. He thought back to the day where his aura was first awakened, remembering the feeling he had when Pyrrha used her aura to awaken his.
Clutching his sword tightly, he calmed himself and did a mini form of meditation to hopefully awaken it, he held his sword close to him, closing his eyes and cleared his mind.
Pyrrha watched her opponent for any movement and it looks like he was surrendering, so with no options, she jumped up into the air towards the blonde warrior.
Ren watched what was going on and wanted to get him out of the way, "Jaune!"
Nora stopped attacking the Grimm to see what Ren saw but this scared the girl, "JAUNE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Jaune didn't do what they were yelling at him, he kept his composure and took in a deep breath, imagining Pyrrha as she once was, "…Pyrrha…"
With each passing second the Grimm version of the girl they once knew was getting closer and closer, with a spear aimed at his chest.
He felt a surge from within, wanting to come out, he knew that this was something important. He waited for the exact moment to strike and when the moment was she was too close, he swung his blade at her weapon. His weapon was covered in a bright light to blind anyone close to it, "ARRRGHHH!"
-SNAP-
"JAUNE" both Jaune and Nora screamed out, hoping nothing horrible happened to him.
Jaune looked up to see that he was still alive, but to see Grimm Pyrrha's weapon destroyed, wondering what happened he looked down onto his blade and it surprised him, a glowing energy was covering the weapon. The length of the blade was extended just enough to destroy the spear but not Pyrrha.
The Grimm person backed up from him in hopes to not get hit, but deep down she felt happy to see this. She raised her weaponless hand and pointed towards the boy in front of her.
Jaune watched as Grimm were charging at him, but with his new power, he swung his blade at the oncoming Ursa and Beowolves, killing them with each swing. He pulled out his shield for a few short calls where the claws almost hit him.
Pyrrha watched him kill each Grimm with ease now, her expression wasn't that of nothing but a small smile formed. Her eyes were getting watery; she couldn't explain but she felt really happy for something.
With the last Grimm killed, Jaune, Nora and Ren looked over to see their teammate, a Grimm version of her.
Jaune slowly walked over to her, "Pyrrha…"
She looked at her friends but looked away, her memories were coming back but she realized what she was, "…Don't…"
"Why?"
She looked at her hands, the clothes she was wearing was the same armor she wore for battle but it shows multiple signs of battle damage on it, metal armor was heavily damaged with deep cuts in certain areas and her skin was white as snow, "…Don't you… see what…I am…?"
"Yes, but I'm sure we can help you. We're your friends, we don't want anything bad happen to you" Jaune gotten closer to her and raised his hand, holding her shield, closer to her, "you can trust us."
She seen how he and the other two all had happy expressions on their faces, yet she was unsure with everything around her, she grabbed her old shield and examined how it was undamaged.
"I polished it the way you use to after every mission"
"…Thank…you…" Pyrrha said with tears starting to flow down, but she knew she couldn't be with them anymore, "…but…I…can't…"
"Why-" Jaune was punched in the gut, knocking him down.
"Jaune" Nora tried to subdue Pyrrha but she knocked both Nora and Ren onto the ground. Looking at her shield, she knew that this is all she needs. Without hesitating, she ran out of the building and to some unknown destination.
Jaune watched Pyrrha as she was leaving, he had his hand up to her direction, "Why…Pyrrha?"
-BANG-BANG-
Ruby fired her sniper rifle at the both of the but they were illusions again. She looked around until she a footstep behind her and she seen a kick coming to her face, with nothing else she took the hit. Knocking her away from her rifle, she was battered in wounds from the two. She tried to get back up but Mercury stepped on her back, stopping her.
"Why don't you give up, don't you see that we won" Mercury said while he added pressure with his foot, hurting the girl.
"Mercury, that's enough that's all she ordered us to do is stop her not kill her" Emerald didn't want the satisfying feeling of killing someone, though she found Ruby annoying.
"Yeah, yeah" Mercury lifted his foot off of her, but he swung with his hardest onto her gut, making her gasp for air, "the next time you interfere with our plans, I won't stop there."
With no options, she grabbed onto his boot. Mercury smiled, still sees hope in her, he picked her up by the neck and punched her a few times. He was happy with himself to see how he broke some her bones doing that.
With her vision fading, she could see two more people walking towards them, 'Teammates?'
"Neo, welcome back and Roman?" Emerald said shocked.
"Surprised to see me?" Roman said but he looked over to see Ruby on the ground, "Well…what do we have here, Little Red Little Red, it looks like this is it for you."
Neo watched as a large Beowulf was charging in towards them, they didn't care about it, instead it was charged past them and towards Ruby on the ground. Before it could kill her, Neo stabbed it in the head, killing the beast.
"Not taking the easy path" Roman commented, "if she comes after you guys again, We'll take care of her."
Both Mercury and Emerald already walked away, "We don't care, just come with us, Cinder wants to talk with you Roman."
Roman knew he might not like it, "Oh Joy…"
Ruby felt defeated, she couldn't get past her bodyguards and never faced the person she wanted to face against. She got back up and rested herself on a nearby wall, closing her eyes in defeat.
"RUBY"
She looked over to see a familiar face but she collapsed from being beaten up from those 2.
"I got you Ruby"
With his hands occupied, Ciel watched Aero get back on his feet, ready for battle again.
"Damn, never doing that again." He looked over to see his girlfriend on the ground, "Hello."
"NO" Ciel tried his best to combat against Serilda but she was too tricky to fight alone, he looked over to see his friends getting hurt from their old friends. He knew that they couldn't win from the start, but to buy Ruby and her friends enough time without these 8.
Enya knocked down his sister, "I won this time sister." He left her on the ground, knowing that he would fight someone else and sees Ciel, "You…"
Serilda backed off when Enya entered the battle, she looked over to see Aero kicking her little sister around. Sighing she walked over to see Sophia trying to get him off. He pulled out a knife in hopes to kill her for good.
She raised one leg over and kicked him, "Move it," she looked down and grabbed the knife. "You look horrible sis." Athanasia glared at her and walked away, in hopes someone else was still up.
Sophia simply glared at her for what she did, "Why did you do this Scarlet?"
Serilda simply smiled and grabbed her sister by the throat with her free hand and moved closely to her ear, "Because he asked me to…"
Sophia froze and spoke softly, "Really, why?"
She didn't want the others around her (In due time sister, but you would have to trust me on this one, I love Silver, you must tell Ruby about our plans), she pulled out a small chip and slipped it into her pocket. She looked at the knife Athanasia wanted to use and thrusted it into Sophia's stomach.
"AAAAHHHH" Serilda let go of her sister with the blade still inside, blood was spilling out of the wound.
Serilda looked around to see the hatred of the others around her, her old friends…
A/N: And done, wow in only a few days for the longest chapter, I'm proud of this one. The main inspiration for Pyrrha would be the Captain America movies, where a teammate was believed to be dead but comes back as the villain with little recollection of who they once were. With added drama, I put in how Mercury beat the crap out of our hero, to show that even the main cast have a chance of being beaten to a pulp.