Yang
"Weiss… What's going on?" Ruby's voice was shaky. She was staring at Weiss in concern. The hateful aura around us was now mixed with something close to triumph.
"Hey, Schnee. Not the time for pranks," I said forcefully. The heiress didn't respond. "Ice Queen." Still nothing.
"Weiss. Snap out of it," Blake said firmly. She then let go of my hand and grabbed the hilt of Gambol Shroud.
"Don't fight her, Blake," Ruby cautioned.
"If you will not fight, you will die," Weiss said, in that otherworldly voice. She opened her palm and a wave of strikingly purple energy shot out, hitting Ruby square in the chest. She went flying, luckily away from the precipice.
"Restrain her!" I yelled, no longer caring about what Ruby had said. Blake and I lunged forward, but Weiss was far too quick. She stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground, and a wall of rock shot upwards between us. Blake couldn't react fast enough and crashed, but I punched through, hell-bent on taking down the heiress.
Unfortunately, punching the rock created a cloud of dust through which I couldn't see. I desperately looked around, searching for Weiss, and suddenly felt cold metal piercing my back. I cried out in pain and spun quickly, aiming a powerful punch at chest level. I gladly felt it connect with Weiss, and wasted no time in grabbing her arm and pulling her towards me. Ignoring the fact that Myrtenaster was still sticking into my back, I followed up with a few punches to the side of her head, hoping to knock her out. I failed to account for her glyphs.
One of my punches hit a shield, while the part of her arm I was holding suddenly became deathly cold. I let go in surprise, and another wave of that purple energy threw me back about twenty feet. I landed on my back, pushing the rapier even deeper.
"Weiss! Snap out of it!" Ruby yelled. That didn't have the desired effect. Weiss threw up a glowing white dome shield around my sister, then set fire to the ground under her feet. That made me reach my tipping point. I got to my feet and pulled Myrtenaster out of my back, using my Aura and immortal essence to close the wound. I seriously considered snapping it, but decided not to. Seeing red, I approached Weiss slowly.
She turned to face me. When she saw that I still wanted to fight her, she smiled. It was a demonic grin I didn't think she was capable of, and deeply unsettled me. I did my best to ignore it, and reached out to Blake telepathically.
Sneak up on her. Pin her arms behind her. In the corner of my eye, I saw my girlfriend nod. She suddenly vanished, and turned my attention back to Weiss. I could vaguely hear Ruby yelling in pain, and guessed the flames wouldn't go out no matter what she did. That made it hard to focus.
Ready? My girlfriend's calm voice sounded through the cloud of rage that was my mind, and I smiled in response. An invisible force pulled Weiss' arms back, and I was quick to take the opportunity. I threw a punch as hard as I could at her face, and almost didn't notice when she broke free of Blake's grip.
The Faunus' surprise at being overpowered broke her stealth, and time seemed to slow down as Weiss turned around and blasted her backwards. She sailed towards the edge of the cliff, and I could tell she was going to go over. My punch struck the heiress in the back of the head, and she collapsed. I let my momentum carry me forward to reach the cliff, and just barely missed Blake's hand.
I immediately closed my eyes in despair. Blake was gone. Not even a goddess could come back from Chaos.
Now completely beyond rational thought, I got to my feet, picked up the barely-conscious heiress by the ankle and dragged her over to the dome shield she'd created. I effortlessly tossed her into the air, and timed a punch so that it would hit her in the stomach and slam her into the shield. The white glow flickered with the impact, and I punched several more times. Only Weiss' immortality let her survive long enough for the shield to break. Ruby was quick to dive clear of the flames.
"Yang, stop!" she yelled, as I prepared another punch. "You're gonna kill her!" I hesitated for a split second, genuinely concerned that she might have been right. I wasn't sure if a goddess was capable of killing another goddess, but I decided I didn't want to find out this way. A look at Weiss' face showed the corruption receding. Ruby's gentle hands took my arm, still hovering in the air.
"She's still gonna pay," I said, my voice quivering. I let my arm drop to my side. "That wasn't funny to begin with."
"I don't think she was trying to prank us, Yang," Ruby said quietly.
"Then what the fuck was that about?"
"I don't know. Maybe whatever was imprisoned in that rift got into her," Ruby suggested. "Possessed her. It would explain how she got so much stronger."
"What… what's happening?" Weiss asked weakly. I looked at her and found her eyes open, now thankfully back to their normal piercing blue.
"Something or someone possessed you. You attacked us," Ruby told her quietly.
"Where's Blake?" Tears sprang to my eyes at the mention of her name.
"Dead," I said, choking back a sob.
"You'd do well to observe your surroundings more closely, Yang," a gruff, familiar voice said. "And you're welcome." I turned and saw Thor, looking exactly the same as he had when I'd met him. Other than some slight astonishment that he was here, though, I wasn't overly interested in him. I cared more about whom he had with him.
Blake lay at his feet, unconscious but still very much alive.
"Thor? What are you doing here?" Ruby asked, while I rushed to Blake's side.
"Heimdall saw you four in trouble. I convinced my father to break some very old rules so I could come down here and help you. And holy shit this place is worse than Helheim."
"Yeah, it's rough," I agreed, now satisfied that Blake seemed to be all right. "How'd you manage to save her?"
"Saw her going over the side. Threw Mjolnir. Caught her in the stomach, but made a nice niche in the cliff face for her. That's the main reason she's unconscious." Anger briefly flared up in my chest, but I quickly calmed down when I considered the alternative. "Anyway, what's going on here?"
"We're not sure," Ruby said. "Weiss just got possessed, a primordial Greek goddess might rise and attack the mortal world… none of this is good."
"We should probably get out of here," Weiss suggested. "Nyx knows we're here. Tartarus himself can't be far behind."
"Not until I'm sure Blake's okay." My voice still hadn't returned to normal. I sat down next to the Faunus and cradled her head in my lap, waiting for any signs of life other than faint unnecessary breathing.
Thankfully, it wasn't too long. Blake slowly opened her eyes and looked around in confusion, with her gaze resting on Thor. She shook her head and stood up and was about to start stretching when I stopped her with a relieved hug.
"I thought I'd lost you," I whispered into the crook of her neck.
"It'll take more than Weiss to kill me," she replied with a wistful smile. "Anyway, are we done here?"
"Yeah," Ruby said. "Let's go back to Olympus."
A few minutes later, Team RWBY, accompanied by Thor, stood once more in the Olympian throne room. Zeus was the only other god present, and he looked rather confused when he saw Thor.
"My lord," Ruby said respectfully, "this is Thor, Norse god of thunder. He saved Blake's life."
"What happened down there?" Zeus demanded. "Did you find anything?"
"The first thing we need to report is our encounter with Nyx." Ruby paused when Zeus' face contorted slightly with fear. Apparently the goddess of the night hadn't been lying. "She said she's been thinking of plunging the world back into darkness, then tried to kill us. We escaped by blinding her and fleeing as fast as we could."
"This bodes ill," Zeus muttered. "I don't know if we can stop her… Carry on."
"We also encountered what appeared to be a crack in reality, suspended between two black spires," Blake said. "Weiss inspected it closely, and got possessed by something. She became far more powerful and tried to kill us. I was thrown over a cliff and plummeted towards Chaos, but Thor caught me in time."
"All I can tell you is who possessed Weiss," Zeus said. "Her name is Salem. You will have to ask Ozpin for more information."
"With all due respect, why can't you tell us more?" Weiss asked.
"That is all I know. The situation with Salem was resolved long before we Olympians were born, and the story was not passed down."
Then why would Ozpin know? I wondered. "My lord? How old is he?" I asked aloud.
"That too is something I do not know. The four of you can now return to Remnant. I will inform the other Olympians, as well as both demigod camps. Thor, I invite you to stay. We must ally ourselves against dark forces, and I wish to know more of Asgard."
When the two thunder gods began discussing, Ruby led the team through a portal which landed right in Ozpin's office. Qrow had been talking to him, and stopped mid-sentence when we arrived. Both their faces were impassive.
"Professor, we have some questions for you," Ruby announced.
"This is a place of learning," Ozpin said. "What do you wish to know?"
"Who is Salem?" I demanded. The Headmaster's face fell, and Qrow looked alarmed.
"Salem is an evil entity far more powerful than any god," Ozpin said gravely. "Eons ago, she was sealed in a pocket world by Greek primordial deities, who needed to combine their power to contain her. The only entrance to her prison is directly above Chaos, the idea being that she would be destroyed if she ever escaped."
"She nearly did today," Ruby said.
"Was she stopped?" Ozpin demanded.
"She possessed me. Yang beat her influence out of my head," Weiss replied. Ozpin sighed in relief.
"We think she's been manipulating Queen. It would explain her knowledge of the Maidens," Qrow told us.
"If she ever gets out, she will be able to destroy everything we've spent centuries building," Ozpin said. "Assuming we're right about Queen, her first goal after acquiring the power of the other Maidens will be releasing her mistress."
"We can't let that happen," Qrow said. "But we still haven't managed to contact the others."
"Want us to search for them?" Ruby offered.
"No," Ozpin replied. "We need you four here to defend the school and the kingdom in case Set attacks."
"Is that likely?" Weiss asked. "Have the Kanes had any luck tracking him down?"
"They were out looking a while ago," Qrow said. "They returned with no results. In the meantime, I suggest you help your Earthling friends train. They're currently only marginally more useful than an empty bottle of whiskey."
"You'll find them in the training room," Ozpin said. "You are dismissed."
When we reached the training room, we found Percy, Annabeth, Magnus, Carter and Sadie locked in combat with Beacon's androids. Their efforts to defeat the robots were less than successful, with Sadie being the exception. She was blowing them up with some weird symbols and words none of us understood. Meanwhile, Percy and Carter were narrowly avoiding getting their asses kicked, and Annabeth was yelling orders, trying to coordinate some kind of strategy. Magnus was talking to someone apparently called Jack, who might've been a figment of his imagination.
"Oh, you're back," Sadie said when she saw us. "How was Tartarus? That's what it's called, right?"
Before any of us could reply, a random sword nearly decapitated me as it flew around the room.
"Shit, sorry, Yang!" Magnus said. "Jack, attack the robots, not the goddesses!"
"Who's Jack?" Ruby asked.
"My sword," Magnus told her. "It's magic and sentient."
"Sure," I said. "Why not? Anyway, Tartarus. It sucked. We're not getting into it."
"Ozpin and Qrow want us to help you train," Ruby announced. "So for the rest of the day, do exactly as we tell you and you should be kicking butt in no time!"
I got out my Scroll to tell Team JNPR to come help, and prepared for some much-needed stress relief.
Cinder
Spring was easy to find. She'd left a trail of freshly-bloomed flowers behind her as she traversed Vytal, and I managed to get her to lower her guard when I caught up to her. She didn't suspect me at all, and even offered me a bunch of grapes she produced from inside her cloak. She thought I was just another traveller… right up until my knife pierced her throat.
I made sure to watch the light in her eyes fade so I'd be the last person she thought of. As her power transferred to me, I smiled at the prospect of watching Beacon burn before Ozpin's eyes.
A/N: Sorry for the stupendously long wait for this. I really had no inspiration for anything after the fight at the beginning. I have this problem where I know where I want to go with the story but not how to get there, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, things are clearly not looking good. How will a double Maiden fare against deities? You may find out. Or not. Wait and see.
As always, thanks for reading. Leave a review, and follow/favourite if you want.