Chapter 53 (Matt) - Death is a Great Motivator

Matt faded in and out of consciousness, and he could hear voices, but his confusion caused to not know who the voices belonged to. "Matt!".

"Ruby, what happened!",

"Who are you?"

"Jaune, we need to get him back to Mistral, now!"

"That wolf faunus was fighting a Grimm, and all I tried to do...was help…"

"C'mon, kiddo. While I'm here, he's not likely to get any better, and you need to get some fresh air.", "We'll watch over him."

Matt jolted awake, only to find himself in a medical room that was glowing a deep red. It was almost like the world itself was dead. Matt searched his body to see his scar, but only saw bandages covering his chest. Matt tried to sit up, but pain shot through his body, leaving him lying down. Suddenly, a woman jumped down from the roof, and started to approach Matt. The woman was wearing a shallow black dress, five necklaces of bead, a red-girdle belt, and fingerless gloves. She also had black leggings that had a red splatter pattern, and black leather boots. As the woman got closer, Matt noticed she looked very similar to Yang, but the only difference the woman's red hair. Even the woman's red eyes looked the same as when Yang gets angry. The woman had a sheathed longsword by her side, which she held close to her.

"Y-Ya-Yang?" Matt struggled to say, but the woman stopped in her tracks at him saying this. "Shut up." She said as she started walking towards him again. "Consider this a favour, and since I'm doing this for you, then you can repay me by telling no one about this!". The woman then placed her hand over Matt's wound, and whispered "For it is in passing that we stay immortal. Through this we are a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, but you shall protect thee.". Matt felt pain leave his body, and his strength coming back again. Slowly, but surely. The woman then turned around, and slashed at the air with her sword, creating some sort of red portal. "Not a word." She said, as she walked into the portal, and Matt went unconscious again.

Matt slowly began to wake again, but in a room similar to his room that he got when he first arrived at Mistral, but this time he woke up to Lyra sleeping on his arm, and Nora, Ren, and Jaune talking in the doorway. Before Matt made it aware to everyone that he was awake, he checked his wound to see his chest only had a scar instead of an open wound. Matt sighed, which caught the attention of Lyra as her ears perked up, and woke up quickly. Nora looked over and saw Matt awake, and rushed over to his side."You're okay!" Lyra yelled, but Matt responded with "Guys, what happened?", "We...don't really know." Ren replied, "If what Lyra told us is true, then a Grimm was somehow able to take over you, and you was attacking her. Ruby saw that and tried to help her, but she didn't know it was you…", "Why was Ruby there to begin with?", "Because you were late." Jaune spoke up, "You were meant to be back by the morning, but you took even longer, and Ruby got worried. We all worried.".

"How long have I been out?" Matt asked, and Lyra replied "Two days… We were told you might not make it…". Matt put his head down "I'm not surprised. That was a heavy blow I took. The damn Grimm drained my aura away.". "Speaking of which," Ren began, "tests were being done on you while you were out. At one moment, you had no aura at all, and then you had a huge spike. Any idea of what that was?". Matt thought back to the woman that looked like Yang, but knew he shouldn't say anything. "I don't know. Maybe I just had a spike of hope." he joked. "So what Grimm was that?" Nora asked, and Matt responded with "It's a one-of-a-kind Grimm. When it took over me, I spoke to Salem. She said that she wanted me dead so she could hurt Ruby. Speaking of which, where is she?". "She's out in the forest." Lyra replied, "With that Qrow person. He smells of a lot of alcohol…". Matt began to get out of his bed, and began to equip Anngotic. "Where the hell do you think you're going!?" Jaune yelled, "You can't leave after nearly dying.", "He's right," Ren added, "You're in no condition to fight.". Matt continued getting ready, but then saw Crescent Rose next to his bed. "Ruby left that here?" Matt said, and then he realised something, "Guys, the Grimm that took over me didn't die. It got off me before just as Ruby stabbed me, and that thing wants to hurt me and Ruby as much as possible. It'll be very easy for it to do that if she doesn't have a weapon, and Qrow still needs help recovering.". Matt picked up Crescent Rose and began to walk to the door, "I'm coming with you." Lyra said, and Matt just sighed. "Fine, you can use that wolf nose of yours to track them, now come on!" Matt said as he left the room with Lyra, Jaune, Nora, and Ren.

"Any idea where they are?" Matt asked Lyra, but she didn't respond, "Lyra?" Matt said, getting her attention. "Sorry, what?" She asked, "It's a new scent it might take a while…". Matt looked back at the rest of the group, and saw that they kept on making distance between Matt and Lyra. "I need to ask you," Lyra began, "why'd you save me? A few nights before I tried to kill you, but then you pushed me out of the way from a Grimm attack. Why?". Matt gave a smile back and responded, "Well, to a certain few, I'm seen as good, and to other I'm bad. A few months ago I even referred to myself as dirty, but now I know what I am, who I am. I've got a lot to learn, and I might not have that much time, but I can always try. I saved you because I'm a hero, and self-sacrifice is part of the job.".

Matt continued to walk, until he heard an explosion in the distance. "Go back for help!" Matt told team JNR, "I'll check it out, and Lyra will have my back. I trust her. Now go!". As Matt and Lyra got closer, they saw what seemed to be a dark figure speaking to someone. "That's the smell!" Lyra confirmed as Matt got a closer look, seeing that the other person was Qrow. Matt began to get closer to the dark figure, when it suddenly turned around, and went to grab him, but Lyra got in the way, and deflected the attack. "Just in time, kiddos." Qrow said as he held his gut, "Glad to see you're okay, Matt. But can you explain why that Grimm looks just like you!?". Matt looked over to the Grimm, and realised that it had to be the same one that took over him. "That Grimm," Matt heard, as Ruby appeared behind a tree, "is a true monster. It made me hurt him.". Matt looked at Ruby, and saw that she was hurt.

"What happened?" Matt said as he ran over to her. "I'm what happened.", Matt heard, as he looked back over towards the Grimm. "You can...talk?" Matt asked, and the Grimm replied "I'm all about copying, remember? I copied your moves, and now I copy your language. I'm practically you, and I hurt the girl, which I guess means that you hurt her as well.". "He'd never hurt me!" Ruby yelled out, "You're just a fake!". Matt gave Ruby Crescent Rose, but her knew that she couldn't fight. Lyra, get with Ruby. I'm gonna need some room.". Matt activated Anngotic, but continued speaking to the Grimm. "I'm gonna beat you senseless!" Matt yelled out, but the Grimm responded "And how are you gonna do that? You've already been stabbed, I bet you can't fight for a minute. We both fight with anger, and I'm practically anger itself. So, no matter what, you lose!".

"Qrow!" Matt called out, "I need to fight fire with fire.", "What do you mean?" Qrow asked. "If I'm right," Matt said, "Grimm don't have souls, even this one. That means it doesn't have an aura, which also means it doesn't have my semblance. It may have anger, but so do I. I need you to make me angry, and I know that you know how to do that!". "You're crazy, kid, I like it.". Qrow slowly got up, and walked over to Ruby. "Matt, if you don't fight, she dies! You're her shield, her aura! Now act like it!" Matt's hair began to glow just at the thought of Ruby dying. "ARGH!" Matt howled out in pain from going straight into stage three of his semblance. "What is he doing?" Lyra asked, but Ruby sat back, "Just watch…" she said. "So you think you're angry? Well you've seen nothing yet!" Matt yelled out, "This is gonna be fun!". "I am anger itself! What makes you think you can win?" The Grimm responded, but Matt replied "Because I'm not motivated by anger. I'm motivated by helping people, but I use anger to do it. Now, if you're the same as me, I bet you're wanting to fight just as much." The Grimm nodded it's head and gave a mischievous grin, "Like you wouldn't believe.". "Good!" Matt responded, "Because I wanna see if your blood is any redder than mine!". He then ran head first towards the Grimm, which followed exactly as he did, clashing in the center. "It's time to die!" The Grimm said. Matt responded "You took the word right out of my mouth!".