RWBYond War
AN: I just wanted to thank everyone for their support of this story and all my other projects. It's been a blast working on this story. Unlike other stories and arcs, I can't think of a single chapter I wished as better. This is an end of an era in a way. Even though there's still a chapter, an epilogue and a bonus chapter left for this story, I feel like I'm ending an on going thing that has been unique to RWBYond, Tobi.
Chapter 25: Tobi's Last Stand
Jaune stood at the ready. Tobi's purple eye was fixated on him. His silver-shot eye darted around independently. Jaune took inventory of his situation. He was down on aura, about sixty percent if his scroll was accurate. Enclosed space, that was good. Tobi wouldn't be able to move around as much. Helios held a scared Eos in the cage. He would need to get them out asap. Tobi's thumb was on the button of the trigger. Jaune couldn't leave things up to chance. Even though Ruby had found the bomb, it didn't mean anything.
He focused on his aura. He had to take away every advantage Tobi had as soon as he could. He formed a small blade construct, smaller than a fly at the bridge of his nose. He kept it close so that it melded with his aura.
"Your final hour is at hand White Knight." Tobi said. "I must commend you on getting this far. When we first fought in Haven, I could never imagine it would be you who stands face to face with me on the verge of my greatest victory."
"You won't win Tobi. You lost in Haven. You lost in Atlas. You lost in Crete. Every time we have fought you have been the one to fail."
"You had assistance in all those battles." Tobi corrected. "It's never been just you and I."
"So it's no different than now."
"No one is coming for you."
"Do you REALLY think that Vile can kill Ruby."
"I know he can break her. Kill her on the inside. I suppose that's why he has Citrine."
"Not everyone is as sick and twisted as you. Your master chastised you. Your queen threw you away. All those who stood as your equal despised you. All your enemies have gotten the better of you. YOU are the only one who's alone."
"I wanted to wait until dawn for this. But I want you to see your precious city burn before you die!" He moved his arm up. Jaune flared his aura, launching the tiny blade like a bullet into Tobi's hand. The blow connected with the trigger, breaking it. Jaune swung behind him and destroyed the cage.
"Run!" He said. The kids didn't hesitate as they sprinted out and down the steps.
Jaune blocked Tobi's punch with just his shield. His thrust his sword into Tobi's stomach and it went right through. Jaune fell through Tobi, and the older man hit Jaune with a palm strike to the side of the head. Jaune lunged back forward to strike down on Tobi. This time, he coated his blade in aura, just a thin layer, enough to force Tobi to dodge.
Tobi slammed his hand to the ground and a massive tree sprung from his hand. The roots ripped through the sides of the tower and the trunk blasted the clock apart. Jaune fired his canon construct at Tobi but the former commander dodged it. He had learned his lesson since the previous encounters. His semblance only works on physical and elemental attacks. Pure aura attacks are impossible for him to slip through.
A branch of the tree split apart from Jaune's attack. Tobi jumped up and caught the branch before throwing it like a spear. Jaune could have blocked it, but he played things safer and dodged instead. Tobi flung a tangle of vines at him to ensnare him. He threw Jaune into the oversized branch. Jaune kept himself from falling using his sword. He created a platform construct and leaped into the air.
Tobi phased through the attack but Jaune wasn't finished. He spiked his semblance in a radial blast. Tobi stumbled backwards and was barely in time to phase through a prolonged combination. Jaune slashed wildly at Tobi. Tobi kept his semblance on, just as Jaune planned. He created multiple blades around Corcea Mors and hit Tobi with them. As Tobi flew backwards, Jaune fired a canon. Tobi extended his bio-prosthetic arm to evade the attack. Jaune struck where he landed with his hammer.
Tobi went wobbly as the hammer hit him on the head. Jaune was relentless with his strikes and drove Tobi through the slanted trunk like a nail. He got back in a defensive position. Tobi could come out from anywhere.
He did. He came from below, between Jaune's shield and his head. Tobi hit Jaune with a flying uppercut. Jaune had nearly forgotten just how strong Tobi was. Tobi then grabbed him by the ankles in mid-air and slammed him down into the tree. Jaune hit it hard on his back. As he bounced up, Tobi tangled him with vines and pulled him up for a close line.
Jaune hit Tobi with a flare of his semblance. Tobi shrugged it off with his aura and hit Jaune in the face. Jaune swung his sword but Tobi ducked underneath it. He took Jaune's arm and bent it backwards. He kicked Jaune's side and chopped his neck. He wrapped his arm around Jaune's throat with one arm and held his arm out extended with his other hand.
"It was always going to end this way." Tobi menaced. "The White Knight embracing the cold grip of death. I believe…"
"You believe in nothing." Jaune choked out. "You never have. You're a coward."
"Go to sleep now White Knight." He growled as he tightened his grip. Jaune focused. Now was not the time to panic. He had to think of something. His mind flashed to Ruby and Citrine. He shook the thought from his head, pleasant as it may be, it wasn't what he needed. His mind flashed to Tai. He pushed the thought away. He wouldn't fail here like he did there just a few hours ago. His mind went to Pyrrha, another somewhat pleasant thought, but this was not the time. Pyrrha would not do well against Tobi no matter how long she lived. Too many disadvantages. Then his mind went to Rubrum, for some reason…
That's it! His mind lit up. When he had fought Void alongside Rio and Ao, he saw the shark Faunas perform what should have been a suicide attack. But with Ao's incredible aura he shrugged it off. He had, at one point shrugged off Rubrum's aura bomb. That's what Jaune needed to do.
Too bad he didn't have that kind of control. Or did he? His semblance required a lot more aura control than most semblances. If Rio could pull it off, why not Jaune. It was just something Jaune had never bothered to try. No time like the present.
He focused his aura into his shield arm. His hand dropped down to the floor. He still had plenty of air left in his lungs before he had to worry about breathing. He projected his aura into the ground where his hand laid. Little by little his aura was siphoned through his hand. Then, with a spark of his will, the bomb went off.
"Take this you bastard!" Jaune laughed as they were both engulfed in the energy pillar. Jaune watched as his aura plummeted from his own attack. The sound of Tobi screaming in pain made it almost pleasurable.
As soon as the explosion stopped, Jaune spun around and hacked at Tobi. He saw Tobi's aura shatter from the impact. He surrounded his blade in a spear construct reminiscent of his first partner's.
"No!" Tobi shouted.
"Spear of Destiny." Jaune muttered. Tobi's hood and cloak had disintegrated from the bomb. Jaune's spear hit his shoulder, and blasted his bio-prosthetic arm off. Tobi slammed into the tower wall with a crack of breaking bones. White and black goo dripped out of the wound as he struggled to get to his feet.
"You bastard." Tobi hissed.
"Only one here is you." Jaune said. "It's over Tobi. I've got half a mind to finish you off. I know a lot of people want to kill you themselves and I know that line is long, and I'm not one to cut in line."
"You fool." He grabbed something from his pocket. "You've accomplished nothing!" He injected himself with whatever it was. Another tree sprouted from his severed shoulder. This one was a ghostly white. It his Jaune with an earth-shattering force. Jaune grabbed ahold of its appendages. His sword dropped off the tower. He clawed at the wood, trying to get up.
"Damn it." Jaune cursed to himself. Pieces of the white tangle of wood wrapped around Tobi. It replaced his arm and covered everything except his silver-shot eye.
"I'm going to enjoy this." He groaned. "A thorn in my side, literally falling."
"Don't you mean a splinter?" Jaune cracked. Yang wasn't here so someone had to say it.
As Tobi limbered up in his body a Black Gate appeared behind him. Yang and Kurome dropped down from it. Yang was the first to strike as Tobi spun around to meet them. A low-level execution strike hit Tobi in the gut. Tobi went skyward and was caught in Kurome's strings and slammed back down.
Jaune's hand slipped as the branch splintered under the impact. When he looked up Yang was above him. She had the biggest smile on her face. She pulled out Tobi's arm from behind her back.
"Need a hand?" She said.
"I would have thought that would be offensive to you."
"I'm coping." She grabbed him and pulled him up. "Kurome says that peeling Tobi like a banana is the best form of therapy. Isn't that right Kurome?"
"Works for me." The younger woman was slamming Tobi into the ground and all around.
"Insolent brat!" He pulled on her strings. She flew towards him, spinning as she did. She must have expected to go through him, so she didn't block. Tobi hit her with a palm strike to the gut. Branches blasted from his hand, pinning her to the wall.
Yang jumped in and tried punching him. Her hands moved in a yellow and red blur. Tobi phased through them all with his semblance. Jaune focused and hit him with a small attack again. It was enough to stun him.
Yang used him as a punching bag for a solid minute. Each punch put a dent or hole in his wooden armor. Every attempt he made to counter was met with brutal force. Jaune cut Kurome down. Kurome hit Tobi's leg with a string and tripped him. Yang unleashed a massive downward strike to his back, splintering the armor.
Kurome started pulling him apart with her strings. Jaune just sat back and tried not to watch. He didn't approve of Kurome's methods…but this was her battle and her style. She deserved to give everything Tobi got. After several minutes of torture, Kurome ripped his birch white arm off.
"Looks like this splinter has been pulled." Yang quipped.
"I already made a splinter crack." Jaune said.
"Oh, you, dick." Yang huffed.
"Well at least you didn't make a disarmed joke."
"See now that, that would be offensive to me."
"I do't…I don't get you." Jaune huffed. Kurome wrapped her strings around Tobi's throat.
"Ku…ro…me…" He choked out.
"You have nothing to say to me." She fumed. "For sixteen years of my life, you made Akagi's life a living hell. I got out from under your thumb and have spent the last four years getting VERY intimate with your pain receptors. That ends tonight."
"I…gave…you…life…"
"And I sparred yours back at Crete you ass hat. I thought by making you suffer like she did, I'd find happiness. But I didn't. Looking at you just made me SICK. I realized I was trying to cope. That I haven't moved on with my life like Akagi wanted. So, I am moving on…by KILLING you."
"Kurome wait." Ruby said. She had made it to the top of the tower.
"Ruby." Jaune ran over and hugged her. "Is Citrine alright?"
"She's fine." Ruby answered with a kiss. "So is Weiss."
"Helios and Eos are safe."
"I know, I ran into them down below." She said gingerly.
"What do you want Ruby?" Kurome scowled. "I'm NOT letting him go back to prison."
"I know." Ruby said. She walked over to them and set a hand on Kurome's head. You'd be forgiven to forget they were the same age. Kurome was a little shorter and had a much thinner build. She also looked the same as she had as a teenager, whereas Ruby looked her age.
"Then why?" Kurome sneered.
"You will have your vengeance, but there's something I need to say to him first." Ruby said.
"Then say it." Kurome pouted. She kept the strings at his throat but loosened them a bit. Ruby walked over to him.
"Vile lost." She said. "But that doesn't matter to you. What matters is Salem. You, like me, wondered how I was able to kill her when no one else could. Hope. Not for the world, but for myself. My family." She looked to Yang. "My friends." She looked to Kurome. "And those closest to me." She looked at Jaune.
"Why would I care?" Tobi groaned.
"Because that's what made me strong. It's something I used to say. But it wasn't until tonight that I finally understood. I give people hope. I inspire them to do better. It's not because of how strong I am. It's because…it's because I've never lost hope. Not once. Every time I nearly lost hope, someone was there to give it back to me. Humanity wants to improve. The only way to do that is to have hope, to be kind to each other, to never stop moving forward."
"Morality?" Tobi whispered. "Is a human construct. Your naivety knows no bounds."
"That's not how I see it…and that's not how Salem saw it. She saw what I…or rather what the idealized version of me could do. That's why she died with a smile. That's what it means to have a simple soul. I don't have to live up to it every day. History will idolize me regardless of what I do beyond this point. They'll remember me as the hero who ended the Grimm War. Beyond the war, a war you started, I'm just a mother and wife on Patch who goes on Grimm hunts."
"Are you finished." Kurome asked.
"Yes I'm…"
"I…" Tobi started. "I…chi…was…Oida."
"Beg your pardon." Jaune said.
"That is the name I was born with. Ichiwa Oida. I didn't ccare for that name or my family. So when I joined the Black Knights I changed it. There's a saying, in another language, about greatness from small beginnings. Tobi ga taka o umu."
"Why tell us this?" Yang asked.
"Because you deserve it. I'm fine with history forgetting me. It seems too late for that though. But you four, the White Knight who bested me, the Argentware who foiled all my plans, the subject who found her freedom and the Arbiter who comes back. Okay, so maybe you don't deserve it Yang Xiao Long, but it seems that this is my final ground."
"I'll make it quick." Kurome said. With a twitch of her fingers she snapped his neck.
"Kurome…" Yang put a hand on her shoulder.
"Can I borrow a fire-round?" She asked.
"Sure thing." Yang popped out a shell. Kurome snapped it in half with a string and set Tobi's body ablaze. The tree shook from its roots.
"The whole place is about to come down." Jaune said.
"Let's go." Ruby grabbed his hand. She walked a few steps before clutching her side.
"You alright?"
"I think I have a few ribs broken." She said. "I've got quite the story to tell you."
"Can't wait to hear it." Jaune said.
"Kurome." Ruby said.
"I'll be fine." She answered. "I'll pull myself to safety when I have to."
"Hey, you should stay with us tomorrow at Beacon." Yang said.
"I'll think about it." She said.
Jaune helped Ruby down the first flight of stairs. She really did look worse for wear. The rest of them had collapsed from the battle. So, Yang transported them via Black Gate. They touched down in downtown Vale. This must be where Citrine and the others were. As they walked to the nearest building, there was a gunshot. Ruby gasped as the bullet hit her stomach. And she collapsed into Jaune's arms.
AN: I wonder who that could be. I was going to leave it at the clock tower, but I decided this would be a good cliffhanger. Tobi is dead. He was the first major villain I introduced all the way back in chapter nine of RWBYond Val. That seems so long ago now. Next Time: The final resolution to RWBYond War.