First Ascended Legacies Chapter 25: Where Is My Name?, a rwby fanfic

[ Where is my name? ]

He laid upon the dirt, panting and wounds all around him, as he looks up to the fragmented moon high in the sky. The floating pieces of land that remain afloat above the broken head of the mountain. Around him, flames and wood razed to the ground. It was annihilated—destruction—that laid about. The pillars of ash raise into the air and threaten to clog it up with stormy clouds. Covering all but the space that the shattered moon occupied. Their vision slowly blurring to a fade, his eyes struggle and flicker open when trying to stay to the best of conscious. The blonde's legs limp, when he tried to feel for them without avail.

They couldn't feel their own body anymore. Their breathing was ragged and unsteady. It was cold, for once. Dots of white that floated down from the air and landing upon him. Some covering the stump of his left arm—as he had lost it in the midst of the battle. His lifeless azure and violet irises still only gazed upon the moon. Yearning to reach up for it, but couldn't, because that's how reality dictated it.

There was so much that Remnant could give to man that was full of wonder, but no one could ever experience it fully. A ragged sigh left him, expunging as a mist into the gray skies. His eyes closed, letting the snow drench into his hair and clothing, in which washed over the blood that was tainted over him. A faint smile perched over his lips.

He enjoyed the life he's lived and what else he couldn't remember. Just the fact that he had made so many friends over the course of his life, doing something that he wanted to do. The knight was at peace. Perhaps this was the end of his chapters to come, and he'd left behind a memory for all others. Or he'd be forgotten, or considered a legend that not many would believe. He hadn't cared—he was glad to have saved so many lives to his limit.

There was a book of him that he had seen and knew that one day, someone would like to be like him, and do such thing. The most important thing was the future, and he left something for the future to use. The knight takes a deep inhale, then exhales softly. The snow that had been planted on the grass was becoming soiled with a red hue from the blood that the blonde had bled from the stump of his arm and the wounds he's sustained.

"… It was… fun." He said with an unsteady voice, "I'll look forward into… what fate has for me next. Maybe I'll see you around… Arc."

The heavy-armored white knight stood across from the laid blonde. Their stance, upright, as by their side was a sheathed black blade of a golden hilt, and the scabbard of pearlwhite metal and two mid-sections of a larger and smaller golden crescent southern-faced moons. A red tattered shoulder-cape flapping by their side as the idle winds blew.

A chill breeze runs through the plains.

Leaving the White Knight to sit within the meadows and gaze at the shattered moon above their head. Tranquility ran through freely, as did the silence that hadn't come from the brushing of all the grass around them. For once, there didn't seem to be any Grimm that dared surround them. Additionally, any other kind of danger that could be easily sensed.

They've travelled across the white dunes, seen the amethyst skies, and have seen the cyan oceans. But still, they could not find their answer—their 'truth'. So as they ponder, the thought of finding it never stopped. Why they had come here, what their purpose was and how to deal with it after it's found. This was consideration of the future—because the past wasn't important, the future was.

The trees around the knight transform from a green color and into a flourished amber in a blink of an eye, and the grass becomes emerald. They took this as a sign and stood up, dusting themselves off and gazes down from the moon. The knight exhales softly, their breath leaving as a mist before starting to walk forward and hold their palm up infront of them. Only to watch a white speck drift down and melt in the touch of their leather glove.

A head turned up again, it was snowing, the beginning of it. As they trek through the meadow, they can't help but notice the slight transition of the cold entering through the field…

… the Winter was coming.

…

"Oi, don't die on me!"

The blonde knight gritted his teeth, narrowing his eyes down to the dragoness within his arms. Black veins crawling beneath her skin and across her exposed arms, and up along her neck that slowly threatened to infect further across her face. Only making it halfway across her cheek. He was afraid that she was going to leave him. He didn't know what the poison was going to do, but if she was this pale and weak, then he had the clearest reason to believe she was going to die.

"H-hey… I'm a wyvern, remember? We're pretty… strong."

A sly—but dying—chuckle left Ryuu, causing the blonde to grimace, "It's not the time to joke around, Ryuu… just hang on, I promise, we'll get you back to the Eaglehead." He nudged his shoulder against branch to push it side, walking through the foliage of the forest. Way behind them was the distant sounds of trampling footsteps. Clear indications that there were other Grimm looking for them after the sound of those gunshots.

He took out the three humanoids rather quickly, as the first two had done nothing but remain still, but he handled the last one too late. They fired, but luckily they missed and only scraped down across his left cheek in a diagonal cut. But the sound their gun produced was too loud and most likely be heard echoing from within the mountains just nearest to them.

The blonde was running out of breath while trying to conceal his panting, straining himself further by carrying Ryuu.

"… Leave me behind."

Ryuu gazes up to the knight, her body now cold and rough-skinned. A light grin plastered across her lips while strands of the black vein was seen slowly vining in the corners of her eyes. Those vermillion eyes never faded though.

"I can't… I don't want to leave you—I'm not willing to lose a friend."

He grunted briefly, stumbling for a moment and ducking his head for a bullet to fly over his head. Cursing at the sounds of them being discovered. Whenever he looked down upon her face, it was just the light smile that covered her lips, and the vermillion faded eyes that continued to weakly gaze up at him, "It's fine…"

The woman's hand reached up to his cheek, as he stared down at her with slightly widened eyes, mostly filled with a sense of urgency. She could feel his heart beating loudly from within his chest—feel the rushing of his breathing, and the slowing of the background noises of the bullets and debris of trees chunked apart. The blonde that loomed over and carried her… was warm.

"There's… a saying, that the world is a beautiful thing, and that we can't give it up, no matter what." Her hand lowers from his face. Soon resting upon his 'heart'.

"Remnant… don't forget what it is, and what wonders it has for everything. Please."

The blonde knight stared at her face—the face of a friend, the face of a dying person in need of prompt care. Whose face was tainted by a dark essence. Clear signs of exhausting and tiring darkening the semi-circles beneath her eyes. But for some reason, those vermillion eyes were bright now.

He wondered why they were bright. What the meaning of those eyes being filled with a light—but soon realized that it was a light of 'hope'. It told him that she was ready to go. That she wanted to tell him that she needed to go for his sake.

So when the knight would reach to the side of a mountain, looking up to the tip-pointed mountain of the Jungunges Plains. He set his sight to the distantly further village of the humanoids. The firing from afar was ceasing, and quieting down, and looking about, he knew that they were far from reaching the Eaglehead. The knight bit the bottom of his lips, "Damn it all!"

The Black Knight couldn't find a way to save Ryuu! At this rate, he wouldn't be able to get her some kind of cure for what she's contracted with! If only—

"… Hey…"

The soft feminine voice called out, as the blonde's mispaired eyes focus onto her, "Just… relax with me… for a few minutes."

With a hesitant silence, he nods and lowered himself, sitting down with her laying in his lap. Her back against his chest, head lulled against the crook of his neck. Ryuu's arms were numb now, being left drooped down by her sides until her hands were overtaken with warmness. A pleasant grin, and her hands folded together, clasped over by the gloved hands of the her knightly friend—who accepted her for the type of Faunus she was.

It was enjoyable. This moment, to her. Her breathing becomes slow, and audible. Soon feeling driplets of water peck down on her cheeks. Closing her eyes, she knew already why those drops were only rained down on her cheeks. It was because of the ally/friend who embraced her closely. They were crying, with their head rested upon hers, and eyes overshadowed by the bangs of their hair.

"Don't… cry." The dragoness hushed with. But became ironic to her own thought that it was alright to cry, no matter what the circumstance was. Pain. Sadness. Grief.

"I'm… not crying…" He restrained a grunt with, before she laughed sheepishly, "Are you… lying to me?"

"P-… pft. As… if."

She found that response funny.

"It's… alright to lie, once a while…"

They would wince, as they never found their name in the time of them being apart of the same makeshift 'team'. But… this didn't mean he could make one, for her. Or she could give him one, so they could remember to the very last second of their hanging to life.

"I… you can give me… my name, Ryuu."

She nuzzles her head more closely to his collarbone and hummed weakly, giving a barely-felt nod. "I'm… honored." Ryuu half-lidded her eyes open, looking as if she were staring at his shoulder absent-mindedly, "I cannot find… or think… of your perfect name—a name that fully represents you for who you are… you are who you are."

Ryuu closes her eyes and tucks her knees in by slight, "I am sorry… that we could not be friends for longer. Or see the world more… while being friends with a human. I wish that… we could've made a better future."

"… Oi, what are you saying?" He said softly, wiping away the tears that threatened to come out with one hand, soon returning that hand to let it intertwine with her cold ones. This feeling was familiar, though nothing said that he was impervious to the pain in the chest he felt.

"'Not be friends for longer'..? Ryuu, we'll always be friends. No matter what end." He gave off a chuckle, causing her to lightly chuckle in return. She fought against the venom coursing through her veins, in order to let her fingers tighten inbetween the Black Knight's own, "Through any situation there is that'll be waiting for everyone in this world… I'll be your friend, even if the end comes. That's what I intend on doing—and that's how I'll keep it. Until then… wait for me. Please, Ryuu."

A moment of silence fills the air, as they watch the dawning Sun of Remnant.

'This… is fine, for me. I'm happy, and I'm glad…'

Ryuu's eyes close slowly, as she intakes a light breath before Remnant became black to her. The sheepish grin of a blonde enters her mind—and the grins of a brunette with amber-tip hair, another, with jade hair and a smile of her own.

"You're…"

They come across the bottom edge of the mountain. It seemed like there was nothing there, but the near-rusted katana that was stabbed into the ground. Snow having to accumulate ontop of its pommel, and on the flat surface of the guard. There is the respected silence that was given from the White Knight, as they bow their head briefly and carry on.

In between the dozens of trees and bushes there had been; were the humanoid Grimm whose weapons were prepared by their sides, or in their arms. From the varieties of swords, spears and warhammers, these had also been hybridded forms of what were known as 'Guns' to humanity and the Faunus. Each weapon consisting of a similar mechanism to pieces of technology abound, and made of a bone plates that were apart of the Grimm.

They had searched for two individuals in particular, one that had been a woman of crimson wings and ocean hair. Another, a blonde man whose appearance was that of a fur-collared coat. A suitcase improvised as a backpack slung over their back. They bore no luck though, and only found more forestry and grass plains wherever they had searched. Perhaps it was that they were long gone? It was hard to tell.

'Shiiing!'

Every Grimm tensed up and animations of every movement came to a cease. It was the failure to recognize a simple sound and the inability to act when such thing was heard.

It was like the saying:

'If no one is around to see the tree fall, could it still be heard?'

That was challenged from that minute forth, when the entire forest was divided into halves, leaving the humanoids to stand and 'admire' the moment.

The trees.

The tall hedges.

Their heads.

Cut and released into the air.

There, standing behind the entire 15 weapon-armed humanoids was a blonde individual whose cloak is the darkest of black, their collar composed of a wolven-fur rounding. In their hand, a blade of white of a gold hilt and blue gripping. The legendary Crocea Mors. In the other, the legendary Gram. A blade that is etched with red-coursed veins and held an ancient appeal.

A Black Knight.

As they had called him, with his poise kept forward. Knees buckled, and body arched forward. Head ducked closely to the ground. Blades held up into the air at an angle, where the tips pointed at the skies. The Black Knight narrows his eyes and does not look back, as he stands back upright and resumes onward to the village. A stern, cold gaze that is resented through the dark glowering within their eyes of ocean blue and violet.

As by the time he had left the area, the bodies burst into black dust that dissipate into the air. The trees and hedges slamming into the ground in a heavy impact that shook the earth.

Question it, as to how a Black Knight releases their vengeance upon those that had lead to the death of an ally. For every step they made, would be what anyone could fear and become easily intimidated by, with their tattered longcoat's hem flicking against the wind. The legendary blades that were never meant to seem ominous, was forced to seem ominous, with the malignant glare of light that reflects off their edges.

They stop infront of the village, and only a hateful glare is given to the bordering walls that closed it in. But, was it enough to stop him?

No.

Gram bursted with a vermillion essence that had brightened through its veins. Resulting in an expansion of the material that composed of the blade entirely. Entering its greatsworded form, the blonde knight wields the weapon at a lethal angle with only one arm. Swinging forward, he tumbles down Gram straight into the gates. Sending down the gate—no… that was an understatement.

He obliterated it to smithereens.

Skittering across the grass is splintering wooden shards and dented or cut bits of metal. The humanoid Grimm that took residence there could only attune their attention towards the intruder that had entered their terrain, only to turn and run. They were clearly unprepared to the most. The Black Knight stepped forward, swinging the two blades from left to right, Crocea Mors to Gram, while one house had been sent blasting aside, and the Grimm destroyed to dust.

Up ahead, the back-lining humanoids prepared their counter attack. Formations of those wielding spears and javelins rushing forward and trampled the grass to engage the Black Knight. It was no surprise for the knight, though. He waited, simply. As they came towards him, he kept his swords down by his sides limply until stepping forward at the last moment.

Stepping aside when getting out of their thrusting range and causing the tips to barely graze by his stomach. Gram, instantly brought up to strike, was horizontally swung to decapitate three of the Grimm that dared cross paths with him. Two remained, while they promptly turn to strike again, only to find their weapons stopped by the Black Knight again. Crocea Mors intercepting their motion of attack with simple ease.

The knight sweeps the feet of one of them to slam them into the ground, face-first. The other, he lifted Gram within its expanded state to crush them with. Their body flattening to the point it was forced to 'pop' entirely.

He glares down upon the Grimm that laid on the ground now, a foot raised over their head until curbstomping them. Their head caving inwardly, before the rest of the body dissipated.

The man turns around to see all the fleeing and shocked humanoids there were.

His feet stagger forward involuntarily, while he looks down with a stoic gaze. Seeing the two bone blades that had stabbed him through the chest. An arrow pierced through his left arm's elbow and forcing him to release Gram, hearing it ruffle against the grass. For once in his life, the blonde's vision blurred and coughed violently some blood that tainted the ground. "Tch…"

The Black Knight turned, slamming the back of his hand against their faces to those behind him. Sending two of those Grimm spinning in the air wildly until kicking them back into several houses. Looking up towards the one who fired the arrow and noted the crossbow wielding Grimm. They had already notched the arrow back and fired away, the arrow whistling towards him.

He holds up his left hand, blood splattering across his face. The arrow had penetrated his left palm. The blonde picks the arrow from his palm forcefully and tore a hole within his own hand. Holding it up with his right and javelin-tossing it right back. Perfectly aligning it with the head of the Grimm. Pinning them straight into the wall.

Another cough, and he felt the spearheads, arrows and blades piercing his chest, abdomen and legs. Cringing slightly when his knees buckled, and knelt down. Pressing his palm against the ground to keep himself raised while he coughed wheezily. "Gh..!" His eyes widened at the blood that was pouring from his wounds and painting the ground. Only to glare again, grabbing a good handful of the grass he touched and slowly rose. Surprising the humanoids behind him, as he stood up fully and created a diagonal white streak that made an arc through their bodies.

They only stood still now, leaning back slightly when trying to take everything into realization. When they did come to it, they tried moving forward only to be fully split from their lower halves and dissipate.

He grunted loudly, his muscles flexing sporadically while he tried to regain his senses. The pain finally catching up to him. The world is now black and white to him, as if he were losing conscious already.

The Black Knight refused.

Outraged by the reality of logic; the knight dared step forward and deny every sense of death. The onslaught of arrows falling at him like a barrage. He holds up Crocea Mors and angles it infront of his face, guarding his head while feeling the rest of the projectiles stab deep into his body again. The knight hated every feeling of this. Pain. Sadness. Anger.

It's what drove him to this extent.

Forcing his left arm to pick up Gram, the cracking and breaking of bones within the arm became audible to the entire village—the plains. But he didn't care. He felt the need to do this.

A single step forward and another swing of Crocea Mors was all it took to render the air to submit to his will. A cut of energy transferring through the air and travelling forward to cut apart the buildings, grass and humanoids that remained up front. Slicing through them until dissipating in contact with destroying the bordering walls surrounding the village.

"Guh..!" He coughed again with a slight hint of a wheeze, wincing with blood rivering down his forehead and running over his left eye. Forcing him to close it. Rendering him blind through said eye while he scavenged the battlefield for more signs of Grimm.

'Because of you…'

He gritted his teeth, as his rage brought his will to fight to an extraordinary extent. There were still Grimm that were running from the area, and humanoids that were getting ready to strike. Blood profusely leaked from his wounds, as he hadn't bothered pulling the weapons out of him.

'… Ryuu… died.'

The Black Knight forced air into his lungs, despite his sight becoming fogged with a black mist just above his sight.

'… I'M… GOING TO DESTROY… ALL OF YOU.'

His eye widened at the pound slowly indenting into his chest. His jaw dropping and blood poured, before he is sent flying across the village and slamming into a wall. Demolishing one of the houses on impact. "HNNGH..!"

The Black Knight painfully glared at the sky, vision becoming red. What had kicked him so strong that it caused him to fly across such length? The bloodied blonde groaned, standing up slowly while using his sword as a cane to help him up. His body's entire skeleton was cracking and aching—maybe even some were already dislocated from their original joint entirely.

It was as if his body was just rusting steel, along with it oaring from every point it bent. This was painful. He'd gratefully take a few more dozen swords to the chest over an emphasis of excruciating pain from a blow like that. The knight got onto his feet, his stance hunched forward and wavering. Looking up, he would find the one figure that his vision had told him he was bound to come across in the tale of Crocea Mors.

The White Knight had stood before him, full in their heavy, white-stone armoring. As they lowered their leg, the opposing knight stands upon their two feet, their tattered crimson cape drifting back down to their side. Donning that of a shoulder-cape that had draped down to their left arm's elbow. Their face could not be identified from the obscuring of the helmet they had worn, only small open 'slits' that would allow the one wearing it to be able to see through.

Left shocked, the blonde's expression remained with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth left agap. Until… he begun to glare again, specifically upon the knight, as the Grimm gave way to the two individuals by standing aside. None had seemed focused upon the white-armored individual at all.

"I am here to stop you."

The knight had said, with a spectral tone to their distorted voice.

"Why…?"

The blonde clenched his fist around the grip of Crocea Mors.

"Why are you protecting them?!"

"…"

The Black Knight had been taken by utter irritation that he bursted forward—the ground cratering—his legs breaking. "Answer me!" He draws back Crocea Mors, leaping across the air at a high speed that left a trail of a blur behind him. The blade is sent forward, creating impact with a black blade similar to Crocea Mors's style. The Black Knight has seen this sword before in the one vision he's had before in recalling his memories.

Sparks ignite from the contact of the swords and the winds become wild. Dancing through the air around them like a brief cyclone. There was one thing he hated. That he couldn't understand anything or everything he's met. The blonde's feet meet the floor, their weapons interlocked with one another in the deadly stand-off.

Angered eyes that pierce through the soul of the White Knight that stood before them. It was almost as if it were a battle between two powerful entities. The earth beneath them was cracking apart the more they had exchanged their own violent-filled responses. Why was it that the white-armored swordsman was silent to all of this..?!

The Black Knight drew back his sword—the White Knight mimicking the same movement—and began striking away.

'Clang!'

'Cling!'

'Shiing!'

'Clang!'

The deadly exchanges of swords tore away the ground around them. Leaving only a small platform of safe grass to remain under the two knights, and the area around to become decimated every swing. Soil and rocks, kicked up from the surface and shot outwards. Houses tearing away from gales emitted for every moment of contact made.

On one final swing made, they connect again. Edge to edge.

The armored knight casts an aura of gold to surround themself. The Black Knight widening his eyes and bracing himself with the tension of his broken arms grasping the hilt of his sword.

And with one step forward from the white armored character, one last pressure was applied, their golden aura transferring into the hilt of the black sword.

A stream of light shoots at the Black Knight from the sword, fully encasing him in it when the mismatched irises could only do but see it and reflect the image visible to it. His left arm; fully tearing from its left shoulder socket, flinging off to the back as his blood poured from the wound. Leaving only his right arm to wield the legendary sword.

His clothes were becoming torn away, chip by chip. Holes forming within it, cuts and scratches, burns to scorch marks. Across his flesh was fatal marks embedded into his skin and causing it to bleed waterfalls. Drenching his clothes in the red liquid. His hair to clothes were flaying backwards from an intense amount of pressure that was released. Soon, the river of crimson that slipped from his mouth and that combined with his forehead, as his whole face had become bloodied.

The light faded away shortly after. Leaving the standing, left-armless, and fully bloodied figure to stand still in the same position they had been poised as before.

The White Knight angled the blade downwardly until clicking it back into its sheath. "This is how it all ends, as it should be." They walk forward, retrieving Crocea Mors and begun to take their leave.

… and the Black Knight falls.

"…"

He remembered. He remembered most of it.

The only problem was, were these his memories?

The replaying images of what was played before to him. The sight of a giant tower with a jade glow to it. A forest, destroyed into ruin by ash pillars that ascend into the air. Someone who held out their hand to him, a smile over their lips, wearing a bronze set of armor. The upper-half of their face blocked off by the denial to be able to look up—almost as if he were sitting on the floor.

He soon found himself drifting in the middle of an azure glowing ocean, where he lay there on the surface and remained afloat. There was no sound, like the last time. Only the vision, and the feeling of reality taking effect. He couldn't tell, for the life of him.

He felt sleepy, as his eyes became half-lidded and the mismatched irises gaze up to the white skies. To be able to see the full moon, sleeping up above in a world so high. Its perfectly circular and untouched form. The Black Knight left a shaky breath into the air, but still couldn't hear it. Everything felt so fake, so surreal. But the same time… it was something.

The blonde didn't know, but to him this felt as if this was some kind of revelation sprung out to him, as he sees the faces of all the thousands he had met. White silhouettes with various different hairstyles and colors, each with their own unique stance. To forget all of them was a pain despite him knowing them before or even if he had the highest of assumptions they were recognizable.

Thump… thump…

His eyes slightly open up more to see the white skies. Where was that sound coming from?

Thump… thump…

No matter where the knight had been, it was always the same world without a different alteration of change within it. It was like a utopia, and the only dystopia of it was that it only had one person. Would it be considered a utopia with only one person to begin with?

Thump…

His fist clenches, as the dimensional reality soon comes collapsing inwards, as if a fortress was breaking from the foundation and caving down ceiling-first. Because he had remembered now. He remembered everything. What happened at 'Beacon Academy'. Who he felt he had truly forgotten—and who he didn't even recognize as a person he's even met before. What the blade was for—his purpose for all this travelling. Why he wanted to save people like a hero.

Beacon Academy—the very same place he was rejected and given the legendary sword 'Crocea Mors'. To search for the one who truly did wield it properly and give back to them. Rejected, because of forged transcripts that was exploited to the truth, and leaving him the inability to remain in the academy. The green-scarfed man who was popularly known as 'Headmaster Ozpin'.

Who he recognized from the past—a high mighty king that held an almighty Calibur. The amber-eyed woman in an empress dress of flame designs. The one who resented that of a bulldog, and a black longcoat of their insignia. Others beyond measure that he soon remember—each white silhouette in his mind filling themselves in with more detail like a time-lapsed artwork done realistically.

The blonde travelled around the world because they wanted to be a hero. Like the fabled knights who swore to protect and keep their people safe, swinging a sword and shielding the weak from harm. But… why were his memories kept away from him this whole time? Who took it from him and sealed it away? There had only been one answer—and the answer was within that of the clouds, or high above.

Hate. That's what came through his mind first. And then would come anger, but soon it would become realization. With a frowning expression to the empty black void he stood within; the knight was presented the 'truth'. What was taken from him, originally. It was sad, and it was yearned to have a better ending for.

Now standing behind and around him in a circle, were three other individuals. Gaia. Summer. Ryuu.

… Ryuu.

The dual-eye colored knight turns around to gaze upon the eye-closed face of the dragoness. Seeing her for how kind she was—but also saw the truth of how sad was inside. Who was beautiful for just who she was, and not for what she was. The final moments to her was within his arms, as she became pale and limp, but passed on away with a smile. Who gave him a name, and rose her hand to fistbump him one last time.

Who knew that they would definitely remain friends no matter what did happen.

Summer.

Elegant and skilled in the way she utilized her scythe, Lunar Crescent. Showing her strength and prowess of such difficult weapon to the fullest. In her eyes was a yearning though. A yearning for an answer of sorts—which no one would know for the generations to come until one day, someone would see deep into it. Young, maybe she'll find a good team of hunters to join her on some adventures one day. But she had left them for an unexplained reason, as far as this blonde had ever saw. To meet more people, to explore the land, perhaps?

Gaia.

A named goddess of the past, she is one of Remnant, naturally. She, in the end, would always be strong and consider Remnant her world. But she will never find a fair match to those against her because of her monstrous ability to bend the ground to her will, and additionally nature. For years of her entire life, she was looking for something new to do, but she's lived too long that everything that humanity could have ever hoped to achieve became boring. Death never did accompany her as an enemy, but as a friend.

As these revelations came into fruition, the Black Knight could only glare at reality for what it's done to the people. It had killed Ryuu. They had killed Ryuu. So blinded by hatred and anger, the blonde extended out his remaining arm and grabbed at the imaginary fabric that kept this dimension together. This was an utter feeling that would one day decimate the world.

Gritting his teeth, keeping the blood that blinded him originally out of the way, and his hair spiking up into the air as if some blast of wind shot upwards from his feet… his irises glew with a murderous intent that shook and shattered logic.

This was his aura.

With a 'yank' of his hand pulling aside, the world of black comes tumbling down.

"We are born through our own fates, and the origins that existed in the time before. We are dying, but we are strong. Send us a sword and we will fight for our life. Send us a shield and we will defend others beyond us…"

The White Knight promptly turned around with a rush at the sound of a voice that echoes through the air, but it was already too late. For this world has become dominated by white and black, Remnant was under his control.

The Black Knight chanted a powerful incantation— a powerful saying that one could only do to the other if they possessed an aura. So why was he doing this? Was it possible? If it wasn't possible, then…

He didn't care.

A tyrant, a dictator, and forcing his way through the sealed steel gates hidden from man; behind two hundred locks from a God of blacksmithing; he will break.

"But… my fate is just beginning."

The tyrant's gale, a wind so strong that it caused Remnant to turn. Utterly changing from what had been the beginning of dawn, to the scale of night. A full moon that claims the night for its own.

"And thus… I will break reality, and I will break logic to my will. We are dying, because you dictated that we were weak. A hero is not the one who swings a sword and protects himself—or uses a shield to defend the others…"

An ideology clash; what is considered the truest of all Heroes and what they are. A white aura flashing over his entire body, dimming with a black hue for every second of a flicker. The Black Knight was standing up, but this time, his entire poise straight. The wounds he sustained from battle… sealing.

"… but one who takes the front of the pain for everyone. From my bones, I shatter, as I will to reality. I may fall, but I'll just get back up."

"Tch-!" The White Knight reacted from the amount of shock that had been produced, they felt the meaning of death that lingered in the air. That there had been a reaper standing right before them this entire time, dormant.

The Black Knight has forced his aura to awaken on his own.

For what they saw, they saw the shadow of a nine-horned Grimm Reaper. There was no scythe. Only a sword of a purest whitened gleam, but was presented in such a way that made the symbolism of white abolished. The black miasma clutches the White Knight in a fashion that it was the entire area placed inside of the dark mist.

Whatever power that the Black Knight had wielded and considered an 'aura'… it was dangerous— no, that would be an understatement.

It was a reality terror.

"Is this what you call 'aura'?"

The Black Knight had glared upon the White Knight, whose gaze was enough to crush an army of Nevermores to the dirt of Remnant, their feathers plucked and sewn into a cape.

A wild violet flame torrent to life around the left, along with the azurian flames that emanate from the other eye. For the blonde's tattered longcoat slaps against the blowing vile winds. Crocea Mors screeching loudly in response to the menacing uprising.

"I am done playing your games."

The spectralized voice had stated from the non-mouth moving blonde, as they walk forward. Spreading and influencing the area with a 'pure' aura that was shining brightly past the black veil surrounding the two knights. A single swing across the air would create an absurdly powerful slash that cleared the entire area of the mist. Causing the 'reaper' that floated from behind the Black Knight to fade away.

The Black Knight simply took a glance to their missing left arm. In a matter of a second did that stump heal itself entirely. Tendrils of white light riveting down from the armless shoulder and creating a new arm for the blonde knight. Solidifying as the light faded away to reveal the fully-covered silver armor plated arm. Testing it by flexing his 'palm' and 'fingers'.

"… I suppose it's time to get serious."

Their stoic gaze sets upon the knight across form him once more. Vanishing into a flick of dust, so did the White Knight when they had buckled their knees and drew their black blade.

Sounds of loud screeching whistles filling the air at the intense amount of speed their produced and the armor gaps that allowed the sound to protrude. But… they were seconds delayed, because of the absurd amount of speed they underwent.

The ground shook and caused the humanoid Grimm below to fall over or try to regain their stability. It was the mere collisions of two opposing blades meeting in the air and generating the frictional force capable of being considered a sonic blast. Multitudes of sparked light igniting the entire sky.

"You are blind to the tr—!" The White Knight hovered in the air, their cape flapping wildly against their side as the black blade was kept levelled to their chest. Turning left and right to predict where the Black Knight would be coming from next.

"I am blind to nothing." The Black Knight appears directly infront of the White knight and brought down Crocea Mors. Colliding it straight on with the blackened sword again, but this time, destroying the entire soil atleast a mile below them. Leaving behind a crater as the White Knight had took it on. The blonde rose his armored fist and punched the opposing knight straight within the face of their helm, sending them bulleting into the side of the mountain.

On impact, the entire mountain had cracked across its entire top-half. With the fully-armored knight standing up fully from where they had crashed with a few dents and scratches, the White Knight looked up and gripped firmly around the hilt.

"You are foolish to use such power in this way!"

"And you're a fool for trying to stop me."

The legendary Crocea Mors wielder kicked against the air and blurred. Zipping across the sky while tearing sound. Remnant—above and below him—appeared like some horribly blur-drawn map of a realistic art of what could be considered land. Only seeing an entire patch of green without a single detail.

The White Knight promptly kicked up into the air in time for Crocea Mors to barely miss them and cut into the mountain. Hell begun to raise from this point on. Now, the entire mountain-top exploded outwards with the earthen chunks of land and debris to blow up into the air. A fog of dirt polluting upwards.

Now, the two were like flies, leaving behind a black trailing behind them of their afterimages while constantly meeting eachother inbetween open points to try and lay a strike on one another. Entire pieces of 'land' that could've been made from the mountain top being blown away into atom-sized particles from sheer power.

A 'click' effect is placed, and the falling pieces of the mountain are suspended in the air and seized of their animation. Floating right above the remaining mountain's top and floated around without coming back down.

They stop, making eye-contact with the Black Knight standing right at the bottom of a rock. Standing upside-down, to be exact. The White Knight on the other hand, standing on the side of one. They had clearly taken some damage, but they still persisted with clear signs of their sword remaining drawn.

"Everything 'they' stole from me… I will get it back."

Again, the fully armored knight braced themselves, but created a thick layer of a golden aura around their body. The minute the Black Knight had appeared, the other shot forward their blade and released another stream of white light that was met head-on. Pouring out the torrents of golden aura until a leathered fingerless glove hand reached out from the light and grabbed their wrists. "You think this would stop me?"

A stoic glare from the attack-ignoring Black Knight had presumed upon the White Knight. Causing them to stop and get swung around. Then being plummeted straight into the center of the Grimm village. "Tch!"

The stood up and backflipped, the blonde's sword driving into Remnant and causing the area to become obliterated to hunks of rocks scattered everywhere.

When he had recovered from his initially missed attack, he took an audible sigh of discontent before raising his head to see the White Knight. Who stood at the rim at the top of the crater's curved edges. Wings of

"My name is…"

A thought of a future ahead reminded him every day that there was always a light, no matter what kind of darkness there was. It was almost like Yin and Yang, while fingering the small token inbetween his fingers. A shadow of a figure overloomed him shortly after, blocking the moonlight from his view, "Oh come on!"

He practically groaned while the woman adjacent from him chuckled, "Get up, you know the kids don't like being kept waiting."

The blonde sighed, rolling on his side to turn away from her. But sadly, that didn't work after she decided to sit down next to him and also lay down. Gazing into the crimson irises and seeing the locks of black hair just cluttering over her face. Multiple beads being adorned of various assortments. His eye twitched while he waved a hand about and closed his eyes, laying on his back, "You go play with them."

"They like you more, honestly. My team is getting the decorations ready for the village."

"Hngh. Raven, I'll get trampled and brutally murdered..!"

"That's what you thought until it was literally Ursai stepping on you when the village got hit. As much as we do owe you one for everything and keeping the village safe just for us to arrive and help back you up, the kids are an entirely different scenario."

The moon-gazer sat upright and frowned, trying to make it clear that he looked incredibly too tired to handle any of that. She remained lying back, shrugging, "One day… Humanity might just make it when the Grimm and all the complications are dealt with. The White Fang would finally stop their protesting because they finally agreed to work together—human and Faunus. When that day comes… I want to live long enough to actually see it, to see what 'peace' might actually be like."

"That sounds like a delusion. You know that's never going to happen years from now—maybe even while we're not here."

"—It's a hope. The hope to have faith in people atleast. If not our generation, then the generations ahead of us. Where not everything is limited because our creativity and our imagination could only take us so far."

He sighed and stood up, dusting himself off while walking back to the village from his hill, "Yeah… I guess. If that's what 'hope' is going to be, then maybe…" The blonde trailed off, pocketing his hands while idly thinking to himself. Leaving Raven to sit upright now and head after him to catch up to his side.

"… maybe..?"

"… I'll have that kind of 'hope' that you're talking about. To have some person who's taken after me in order to do the impossible and not stop, no matter what hits him or punches him in the face."

"Hah!" The black-haired woman let out, making the blonde give her an awkward stare. "Yeah, I could probably see it happening. Thank you."

"Thank you?"

"… For considering it."

The White Knight and the Black Knight cross blades.

Each holding their ground as a series of slashes and stabs were parried off or crossed. Around them, the flames that were set ablaze. Pillars of ash that ascended into the air and the remains of what use to be apart of the homes were now scattered everywhere. It was the battle-filled night that overtook the land. Where it only took two individuals to make everything seem like a brutal war had taken place, counting from the horrendous amounts of bone-weapons stabbed into the ground or laid out.

But the sparks continued. The sparks of combat, the sparks of swords being crossed.

In the end, it felt as if the battle was drawing nearer, but how many times has that thought come across, and the battle drew on for several times longer?

The two knights prepare another strike, both filled with their own respective aura's hues. Crossing again, only to come to another stalemate. It felt like they cut the entire world, and whatever other dimensions there were around them, they were also divided in halves.

Instead, it wasn't Remnant that shook… but the moon, as the two most powerful knights had fought to the death. The full moon cracking from one half and breaking off to be rendered into pieces from one side. The other, left intact, but an incomplete shape.

The fully armored knight shot a foot forward, smashing it against the Black Knight's chest and launching them backwards into a few ruins. The two had suffered enough damage, the armored one having blood seeping from some cuts of the armoring. The blonde, losing his white aura-glow and also bleeding out. But he was paler, when the previous wounds were surely healed, it hadn't meant anything in replenishing the blood that was lost that time.

It was a clear indication that the two were panting and out of breath—additionally the exhaustion of their auras. The left arm of the Black Knight was already cracking and breaking away. It had been hours since they've fought like this.

In this moment of pause, they remained standing hunched over. The village was now entirely destroyed and levelled to the ground from the beginning of their battle. It was forced to enter the fray to begin with. This is another marking of an ending that was inevitable. One where it decided the end of both sides once and for all, only for another generation ahead of them to handle, and continue on for them.

Though… they heard a sound. The sound a baby would make when crying. The two individuals turned their head towards where it came from, as it had come from a pile of rubble that was barely hung against eachother to form a 'tent' out of the remaining debris.

The Black Knight froze. Then eyed the White Knight. Their voice soon losing its original effect.

"… This is… your game, isn't it..?"

The armored knight simple shook their head, "… No. That… is what the truth is, Black Knight." They stated before moving to the pile of rubble without being intercepted. Using their gauntleted hands to move aside the broken pieces, "You… everyone was blind to see it. We were blind from rage."

They stated softly. The blonde knight soon walking up beside them to widened their eyes at the sight of a silhouette baby in a cradle, a few particles of dust that covered them.

"… A… Grimm child?"

The White Knight had nodded without turning, "This is what… I was protecting and hiding from the eyes of Humanity to prey upon. It isn't us that's being hunted. It was the Grimm—their actions were influenced by our own. The thought of Humanity hunting them down if they were revealed, was terrifying." They had stated when their head slightly lowered. "But now… look at what we've done."

The child Grimm became more silent in the passing time after crying, its arms soon resting upon the ground while it gave a huff.

"This child will die, soon… and to hope that one day, we would have a better future ahead of us."

The Black Knight had given off another groan and audible exhaustion of a breath. For everything that he's done… was it right? He had done what he thought was right. For the death of Ryuu, he only wanted vengeance. But if Ryuu saw this and acknowledged this, would she still want the same..? Or even, Summer and Gaia..?

He grips his fist tightly and nodded silently. His unmatched set of soon-to-be lifeless eyes gazing upon the child, as he kneels down by them. The White Knight—only looking up to the blonde—and staring.

'I wish… that we could've made a better future.'

The voice of a familiar wyvern echoes within his head, when picking up the child from the cradle carefully with his remaining hand. Holding them up to his chest and he propped them on his knee. "… I will make a final hope for humanity. Someone…"

'I'll have that kind of 'hope' that you're talking about.'

"… who'll make it for everyone, and try their best to keep anyone happy. To bring a certain kind of peace and harmony that no one is forced to follow anyone's ideal tyranny… No one is forced to fight, and that they would reap the world of what's wrong, and do what they believe is right." The Black Knight shut his eyes and rests his forehead against the baby's own.

"If you do this…" The White Knight begun with, before being replied to almost promptly.

"… I know. But this is my mistake, and I'm already dying as it is… therefore, I will transfer my entire self into the child and give them a new life so they can live again. Live life to the greatest. I wish I could've done more… but my time is already over. I was no 'hero', nor was I a 'villain' to begin with."

He applied the principalities that allowed Gaia to come into existence, the white aura that seeped from the blonde's outline flowing brightly from within and to the Grimm baby, encasing them within the similar light. It wasn't just an aura, but an aura of a new light that is soon to shine.

His memories flickered, as he recalls the image of a silhouette baby held up by bloodied hands. It seems like that did come true afterall, and that it was a mere symbolism of a foreshadow that happened now. As the Grimm child begun to grow blonde hair similar to his, they begun to take on a full humanoid form of a baby. Of the same skin, half-lidded ocean-blue eyes, and a blonde mop of hair. The blonde knight let loose a sheepish grin to the White Knight, settling the child back onto the ground and letting them slumber peacefully…

By the time this act had been done, he hung forward and fell onto his back with a turn….

…

"… It was… fun." He said with an unsteady voice, "I'll look forward into… what fate has for me next. Maybe I'll see you around… Arc."

The Black Knight, turning his head and half-lidded eyes that now faded away, looked upon the child that laid next to him. A child that just posed a striking image to the Black Knight if they were a baby, aside from the differences of their eyes, "He's like… a knight in shining armor, huh?" The blonde knight closed his eyes and sheepishly chuckled, "… yeah…" He rolled onto his side with one final effort to rest his forehead one more time against the laying child's and spent his final seconds doing this.

"I'll… name you after me… just as Ryuu has… 'Jaune'."

Here is the story of a blonde knight who was called the Black Knight, a hero to many others of their famous deeds and miracles they have performed across Remnant, a villain to all others that have thought wrong from his past actions…

A white knight had entered the cave behind the waterfall. Entering the Jungunges mountain after sight-seeing the floating pieces of land above that linked together by countless loops of vines. But what they saw would shock them, as the look up to the earthen monument of a character that looked almost like them, and beside the figure, a woman of wings and two small horns on her head, with long luscious-seeming hair made from the earthen materials.

Looking down from the statues that had been made, the knight's ocean-blue eyes focus upon the two chests that were left infront of these statues… as upon each chest, the same kind of lock that one was required to rest their finger upon and transfer a special type of aura through.

Understanding the complexity of these locks, the blonde rested their finger upon it and closed their eyes to focus. After a few seconds…

A 'click'.

Wow this chapter took a while to type up after so much thought and compiling was put through- along with long dedications of hard work to other things in mind! It's probably been an entire month since I last posted, but here you are! The last chapter of the [1.5] Black Knight Chapters intersection, quack! Feel free to leave a review, like and follow if you guys want! I've enjoyed typing up the chapter and if I ever figure out how I'll do the next one, I'll be sure to post it up through another update chapter and let you guys know! So until then, you guys take care, annnnnd goodbye!

fanfictionPenguin, aborting thread.