Chapter 8

Six woke up on Reach.

He didn't know why he was there, or how he got there in the first place, but he didn't have time to contemplate as a gigantic, ominous shadow covered the land. The buildings and scenery burst into flame and disintegrated into dust which was blown away in a gust of piercing wind, until there was nothing around him but debris and smoldering ruins.

The Spartan looked on, horrified, as the shadows collected in slithering tendrils until they formed the shape of a woman. Her skin was a deathly pallor, covered with tortuous, deep red and purple veins that ran up her arms and face. The sclerae of her eyes were jet black and her irises glowed blood- red. A black diamond shape adorned the center of her forehead, a symbol of unity, balance and clarity twisted and distorted into a symbol of evil. She wore a black robe with red designs resembling a Grimm's eyes. Her bleached white hair was formed into a bun with six offshoots that had ornaments suspended from them.

"Noble Six. Or, should I say, Nathan Mendez. Always the trusted lapdog." She purred as he approached the frozen Spartan. "You have been used your entire life. You and all your comrades were born to fight and die, simply weapons pointed at the enemy so somebody else could claim a victory. And what do you have to show for it?" The horrifying woman caressed Six's cheek and whispered softly into his ear. "Join me. Help me bring peace and balance to this hectic world by starting anew. I will get rid of racism. I will get rid of prejudice. And I will get rid of war." The shadows retreated, and the buildings began to grow. The ruins were soon replaced with towering skyscrapers that gleamed in the sunlight.

A part of Six's brain urged him to give in, to accede. For eleven, now twelve years, he had been fighting not for his life, but for others. Their safety was bought by his and other soldiers' blood. It would be so easy, he thought. So easy to end it all. But he refused. He refused to let what happened to Reach happen to Remnant as well. Remnant had given him a new outlook on life, one that wasn't just an objective, to capture a base or to assassinate a Covenant leader. It had given him freedom and real friends, neither of which he had ever had before. Beacon gave him a new home and a family to replace the one he had lost. And he would protect it with his life. "NEVER!"

The landscape shattered violently like glass and was replaced by a black void. "THEN YOU SHALL BE DESTROYED."

The sensation of falling shocked Six. Scorching wind buffeted him from below as he began to see walls, a ceiling, a floor. Lava flowed in hellish rivers on the ashy ground, and the air was filled with choking smoke. A sudden collision with something soft cushioned his fall. Six stood up to see himself covered in blood. And he began to hear faint voices, haunting voices that began to grow louder and louder.

"Yooouuuu faaaaiillled ussssss..."

"Yoooooouuuuuu weeerrreee ouuurrr onllyyyy hooopppeeee…"

"Whhhhhyyyy cooouuuullllddnn'tttt yooooouuu saaaavvvveee uussssss?"

"Muuuurrrrddeeeerrrreeerrrr!"

The Spartan slowly turned his gaze downwards and gasped. He was standing on a pile of dead bodies- and all of them people he recognized. The bodies of countless marines and fellow Spartans stared at him with dead eyes, their ragged clothes and shattered armor stained with crimson gore. His eyes widened as he discerned four of the corpses from the group.

"Carter? Kat? Jorge? Emile?"

They lifted their heads towards him. Carter's armor was burnt completely black, his armor mere scraps of metal hanging off his destroyed body. His jaw loosely hung off his skull, a single eye staring back at Six. Kat wasn't in very good shape either. Half her skull and brain were gone, blood dripping from the garish wounds. Jorge was merely a charred skeleton with tiny scraps of armor attached. Blood dripped from Emiles mouth, a jagged hole in his chest.

"Ittt shhhhoouuulllllddd haaaavvveee beeeeennn youuuuu…"

"Whhyyyy….?"

Six fell to his knees, clutching his head as the moaning and groaning grew louder and louder until the din overpowered his senses.

"Noooblleee Siiiixxxx…"

"Siixxxx…"

"Six!"

The Spartan started, his armored hand going straight to the loaded Magnum on his hip.

"Hey! What the hell is wrong with you!"

An armored gauntlet suddenly rammed into his face. Six's head flew back and smashed a spiderweb- shaped crack in the wall behind him, covering his armor in white dust.

"Yaaaaanng!"

Six quickly became aware of his surroundings. Ruby was clutching onto Yang's raised fist while Blake and Weiss looked on behind them. Yang's irises flickered blood- red for a second before reverting to their normal lilac hues as she calmed down.

"Oh crap, uh… are you okay?"

"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine." Six extracted himself from the damaged wall and stood up shakily.

"Well, you definitely did not look fine a couple minutes ago," Weiss remarked. "We tried to wake you up at least six times."

"Drop it. Please." Six headed towards the dorm's bathroom. "You guys go ahead to breakfast. I'll catch up." He closed the bathroom door and waited until he heard the dorm door creak closed.

The Spartan brought his hand to the back of his helmet and slid it off smoothly with a push of a button. The airlock disengaged with a soft hissing sound. His long hair, now free, fell down limply. Six rested his face in his hands and let out a long, painful groan. 'Goddammit.' He brushed his teeth as quickly as he could and headed downstairs.

Six slightly raised his helmet to scarf down several strips of bacon, followed by a glass of milk. Granted, he had never gotten used to eating in public, but the light meal tasted a hell of a lot better than the revolting nutrient bars he had usually crammed in on missions.

He flipped his helmet down to see the others in similar states of boredom. Nora was tossing grapes at Yang, who was impressively catching every one in her mouth. Blake was studying from her numerous notebooks. Ruby was hefting a massive binder towards the table with all her strength, which was strange to Six as he had seen her leap several meters in the air with a weapon that was at least fifty pounds.

Ruby slammed the thick binder onto the table, catching everyone but the Spartan off guard. The gigantic folder was at least one and a half feet wide, with countless little notes and bookmarks stuck between the pages. On the cover, the words "Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee" had been crossed out hastily with a red sharpie, replaced with a new title: "Best Day Ever Activities."

Ruby cleared her throat loudly and gestured to everyone at the table. "Sisters... friends... Weiss."

"Hey!"

"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream." the scythe- wielder continued.

Yang caught another grape in her mouth. "This oughta be good."

"...A dream that one day, the four of us will come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!"

Weiss squinted suspiciously at the gargantuan folder. "Did you steal my binder?"

" Well, I'd say it's pretty obvious," Six quipped, gesturing towards the binder's incriminating cover.

Ruby tried to make herself look as innocent as possible by making peace signs with both hands. "I am not a crook."

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked.

"I'm talking about kicking off the semester with a bang!" Ruby answered.

"I always kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I right?"

An apple bounced off the blonde's face, who glared at her assailant.

"Boooooooooooooooo!" Nora jeered.

"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks and between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But, classes start back up tomorrow! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today." Ruby said.

"I... don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store." Weiss said. Six silently agreed with the heiress.

Yang, still glaring, grabbed an apple and hurled it across the room. The red fruit impacted the back of another student's head, sending his face into a bowl of yogurt and granola. "Hey!" Nora giggled.

"I don't know. I think I might sit this one out." Blake decided, oblivious to the commotion going on.

"Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!" Weiss replied.

"I got it!" Nora shouted.

Six immediately realized what Nora had in mind. He tried to stop the maniacal ginger too late. "Nora-"

"I for one think that…" Weiss was suddenly interrupted mid- speech by a banana cream pie landing on her face. Six sighed defeatedly. Nora, wide- eyed, sat down slowly and pointed at a face palming Ren. Pyrrha's hand quickly went to cover her mouth, while Jaune simply sat there, stunned.

A student on the other side of the room quickly realized what was going on. "Food fight!"

The situation got out of hand faster than Six could blink. "Ahahahaha!" Nora cackled atop a ramshackled tower of tables. "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

Ruby stomped onto a table and pointed at a grinning Team JNPR. "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful!" She crushed a milk carton in her bare hand, splattering white liquid everywhere. "It will be delicious!"

The rest of Team RWBY raised its fists and cheered.

"I don't think you should-" Six was interrupted by a dozen raw eggs splattering all over his chestplate. He sighed. "Dammit all to hell." He picked up a tomato that was rolling towards him and tentatively tossed it up and down a few times. He suddenly stepped forward and flung the fruit with a fastball pitch towards an unsuspecting Jaune.

"Off with their heads!" Nora screamed as her team leader was taken down. She leaped down to the ground, landing heavily. The rest of JNPR started to hurl watermelons at RWBY.

Ruby pointed at a location slightly behind her sister. "Yang! Turkey!"

Yang dive- rolled over to two roast turkeys that were randomly on the floor and stuck her fists inside them, emulating her Ember Celica. She punched several melons out of the air, but was not quick enough to block the rest of the hailstorm. A watermelon slammed into her, knocking her down. Nine more melons began to fall above her position, but were all deflected off some kind of force- field, a transparent geodesic dome forming above her head. The blonde brawler turned in amazement to see Six standing behind her.

Six signaled her forward. "Go get 'em, soldier!" Yang gave him a mock salute and dashed towards Nora, who had inserted a long metal pole into a watermelon and was using the combination as a substitute for Magnhild. Six went invisible and snuck up behind Ren, who was just about to charge towards a baguette- wielding Blake with two sticks of celery. He grabbed the ninja around the waist from behind, and before his target realized what had happened, bent backward and suplexed Ren into the ground. To add insult to injury, Six took hold of a pecan pie and mashed it into his victim's face.

"REN! I WILL AVENGE YOU!"

The Spartan grabbed the dual vegetables just in time to block a blow from Nora's watermelon- hammer. Surprisingly, both celery sticks remained intact. 'Holy shit...I know celery has a lot of iron, but this is just stupid!' Six activated his armor's thrusters and kneed Nora in the chin. The impact sent Nora flying, but she managed to do a flip in midair and landed on her feet.

With a yell, bolts of pink lightning began to arc across Nora's body. Her improvised weapon was surrounded by a pink glow. She bolted towards Six, crossing the distance between them in a fraction of a second. The swipes began to rain down on Six, harder and faster than before her transformation. 'So her semblance is electrokinesis… interesting. And metal and water are great conductors of electricity...'

A blow landed on Six's chestplate, sending him stumbling back. His shields lowered to 81%. 'Right… there's plasma in lightning… I gotta end this quickly.' He dropped down and swept Nora's feet out from under her as she leaned forward for another swipe. She landed flat on her face, dropping her watermelon- hammer. Six immediately picked it up and swung it like a golf club into Nora's side. The berserker was sent sailing across the room, slamming into a pillar, which immediately collapsed around her unconscious body.

Blake and Yang were barely holding their own against Pyrrha, who was pushing them back with a tornado made up of at least a thousand drink cans. Ruby was cradling a knocked- out Weiss in her arms. "Weiss, Weiss! Don't leave me! Noooo!" Yang and Blake were suddenly punched into the air by twin fists of aluminum cans, their bodies slamming Ruby into the wall.

A carrot suddenly hit Pyrrha in the face. The ringing of hundreds of aluminum drink cans clattering to the ground filled the air as she turned towards her assailant.

"How 'bout you pick on somebody your own size?" (Pyrrha was taller than everybody in Team RWBY) Six challenged.

She smiled and picked up a three- foot baguette, bringing it close to her face and swinging it towards the ground in a fencer's salute. Six bowed mockingly, making the Invincible Girl giggle. She rushed forward and went for a strike to B312's side that was immediately parried by his improvised hammer's shaft. Attempting to catch his opponent off guard, Six dropped down and tried to sweep her off her feet, much like he had done against Nora. However, the warrior realized what Six was planning and leaped over the attack, swinging the french bread at her adversary again and again and again. B312 managed to block every one of the attacks, the metal of Six's hammer clashing against Pyrrha's stale baguette emitting a peculiar sound that rang across the room.

Six was exhilarated. It was not often that he could find a challenging opponent on Remnant, so it felt good to actually try in a battle. It was Spartan against Spartan, warrior against warrior. Both tried again and again to land a blow, but all their attacks were blocked easily by the other.

"You're very skilled," Pyrrha breathed between strikes. "It's not often that I have to struggle against somebody."

"Likewise," Six returned.

The bout was interrupted when Glynda Goodwitch slammed the doors open. The instructor growled as she waved her riding crop through the air. Smashed tables glued themselves back together, while others sailed through the air and bounced on the ground to their original locations. Food flew off the ground and walls and onto the tables. "Children, please. Do not play with your food!" The students who had been knocked out- everybody except Six and Pyrrha- slowly began to come to their senses and gathered in the middle of the room.

"That. Was. Awesome!"

"My everything hurts."

"Again! Again!"

"No, Nora, not again."

Six was vaguely aware of Goodwitch and Ozpin discussing something in the background, no doubt to distribute punishments. But he didn't care.

It felt great to let loose for a change.

A/N A very short chapter, I know. But I really wanted to upload on Christmas! Happy holidays!