A/N: Yo, everybody, hey. I'm not sure many of you saw, but I took a bit of a long break from I think… mid-October to early-to-mid-January. But now I think I'm back. I have my classes scheduled and I've got plenty of time to sit back and do nothing between them, so I thought, "I've got nothing better to do. Might as well get back to writing."
Lately writing's been feeling like a bit of a job, so I wrote that Guilty Gear oneshot to try and get a feel for writing as a hobby again, and not a chore. I'm happy to say that I enjoyed writing that immensely and I'd very much recommend Guilty Gear as a whole.
Doubletale and Doubletale characters are all owned by XWolf26, RWBY is owned by RoosterTeeth, and Undertale is owned by Toby Fox. Doubletale is actually in the process of being rewritten by the creator (mentioned above), as sort of a Doubletale director's cut.
That said, let's get to what you came here for.
The airship was definitely safe. That was certain.
What the hell happened was another story entirely.
Beacon's courtyard looked to have been bombed, burned, shot, and had vines growing all throughout it, not to mention the currently disintegrating Grimm that were scattered among the carnage.
And there, in the middle of it all, was Asriel.
His sweaty, matted fur was a grassy green, his bared teeth made of amber, and his arms and legs looked to be made of wood, and still attached to some of the plant life that had sprung forth in the fight that broke out.
I gotta hand it to Flowey, he thought, he really knows how to give a good tutorial.
Sitting back down in the open door of the airship docked at Beacon, he looked up at the tower Weiss had run off to, only to see her approaching with the group in tow.
"Hey! What happened? What took so long?" he asked, turning back to normal without a second thought.
The group all silently looked to Chara, who looked back sheepishly.
"Yeah, that would explain it," Asriel said, turning back to the airship, "Well, Salem ain't gonna kill herself. Let's get to it, guys. Ruby needs us," he finished, directing the last words to Weiss, who nodded determinedly.
*it's time.
*you can do this.
*with visions of a peaceful future all but guaranteed, you look to the horizon. you breathe a sigh of both relief and content.
*this is it.
*the final push.
*you can feel your journey coming to a close.
*you are filled with DETERMINATION.
"y'know kiddos, somethin' about this gives me a bad feeling."
Sans was sitting in the airship with team JNPR and Blake. Wow, were things tense.
"Y'think, Sans? This is make-or-break time. If we don't make this happen, we're dead. We're all screwed and the bad guys win. Worse than that, Papyrus' death will have meant nothing. Do you want that?" Jaune surprisingly shot.
...
Hoo, boy.
...
Things were tense.
...
"I'm sorry, Sans, we're all just riled up for the incoming battle. Emotions are high, and things were said that I'm sure weren't meant, is that right, Jaune?" Pyrrha offered, ever the peacemaker.
"Yeah..." Jaune said, sighing a nervous sigh that didn't quite fit with the man he'd become, "emotions are high and all that. I'm, uh... sorry about bringing him up."
...
Brothers, this was so incredibly, awkwardly tense.
...
"Should we come up with a gameplan?" Blake suggested, hoping to shift the focus somewhere else.
"Since when have any of our plans worked out? The docks, the mech fight, the Fall, all of our plans have either blown up in our face or just didn't work. We do our best work under pressure, and in the moment," Nora bluntly stated, oblivious to just how crushingly right she was.
"It's true. None of our plans ever worked, and those that did were made up on the spot," Ren added seriously, understanding the weight of Nora's words.
They just didn't have it in them to plan or even talk about what was to come.
It seemed that they would have to do what they do best.
"i like it: improvise, adapt, overcome. nora, ren, this is why you two were always my favorite outta your whole band o' crazies," Sans said with an amused chuckle.
*WELL, THINGS ARE CERTAINLY COMING TO A HEAD.
*IT'S DOABLE.
*WITH NOTHING BUT TIME ON YOUR HANDS, THE ONLY REAL THING YOU CAN DO IS SLEEP, BUT YOUR NERVES ARE PREVENTING YOU.
*THIS IS IT.
*THE FINAL BOSS.
*THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER IN THIS TRYING TIME IS THAT...
*I BELIEVE IN YOU.
Hmm... RWBY-Rex would probably be a halfway-decent band name... But enough about that, I have more important things to think about.
Said rocking of the house would have to wait until the group of hunters and huntresses had reunited. Until that time arrived, Ruby had no idea in the foggiest of what she was to do.
She looked back to her mother. Now bandaged, somewhat haphazardly, she had ceased bleeding and her aura had closed the wound and healed the skin over, though it left a nasty scar. Arrow wounds don't normally leave scorch marks like that; another thing to thank Cinder for when Ruby saw her.
As things were now, Summer was sleeping off exhaustion from keeping herself alive through sheer willpower alone, and Ruby had stepped back to contemplate her situation. Things had gone… less than stellar, but then again, when had things gone remotely to plan in the past? Really, a huntress should have a plan for anything and everything, but in the last few years, it felt more like Ruby had gotten used to simply reacting to attacks and countering them. She hadn't planned anything in ages.
Maybe that's why it felt so strange planning a reunion at what was probably going to be the end of the world.
There was a time and place for everything, and then and there was not the time or place to be thinking thoughts of such finality. Ruby had to think of how she'd deal with what was on her plate. There was still the matter of Salem's lackies. Adam had been unceremoniously disarmed, but was still at large, though probably cut off from Salem due to his own incompetence, so that'd probably take care of itself. The army Blake's parents had amassed was enough to deal with him. Salem's two remaining henchmen were, however, something to be wary of: Hazel, whom she knew nothing of but his name, and Cinder, whom Ruby wanted very badly to become very well acquainted with.
Her mind suddenly flew off that track and on to the pen she still carried with her. What was it he said? "Just know that they'll have your back, should you ever need it." That's rich. She needed them yesterday, damn it! She could have probably used the help to avoid what happened at Beacon in the first place.
"Timeline Bullshit Postal Service here with your order. Can I get someone to sign for a package? I got a whole bullshit-network to hook up and I'm really sick and tired of twenty minutes of 'connection' and 'strands' being thrown around like buzz words between every order." said a voice outside the hut.
She opened the door slowly, cautiously, and saw what her future self had said to her.
He had an aura. A red aura. It was the red of blood, and at least five times as thick as it. It was an aura that practically burned through the entirety of his being. It was like he was a human made of monster magic, but there was something inherently… off-putting about it. It was dark. She felt a sort of pressure as soon as he appeared. It was an aura she could only describe as… revolting.
*CHECK
*Cter
*The Immovable Object
*ATK 2 DEF 1
*Just who is this guy?
*Maybe a better question to ask is what God you'd like to pray to…
"Look, I know I'm irresistible, but please, stop the staring. I like to think I'm spoken for," he said jokingly.
"Your aura…" Ruby said, stunned into silence by his mere presence.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I've been meaning to get it washed, but I just can't find time for it. I'm too busy to do laundry right now," he continued joking.
"What… What happened to you?" Ruby asked, looking on in a mix of disgust, fear, and pity.
"Do you want the long or the short version? No, nevermind, don't answer that. I'm also too busy for any character-developing backstory exposition dumps." he deflected, turning away to no one in particular.
"So if you're not gonna say anything, what are you here for?" Ruby asked, working up the words to tell him off.
"Oh, that? Well, you called, I answered. You've got something on your mind, I'm here to help you work through it," he said matter-of-factly.
"I guess I do have a lot on my mind, actually, what with the possibility of the impending end of the world, things have a kind of finality to them now. I feel like… like I didn't really get a chance to do all that much," Ruby mused disappointedly.
"I don't think I can really do 'trips to Disney World' as part of my deal here… lot of copyright crap to get past on that one, and I don't wanna earn the ire of the place where dreams are bought. What about the battle that's in front of you?" Cter rambled.
"Well, yeah there's Salem, but I just don't know what to do about that. That's just the thing. I'm finally here, my goal is right in front of me, and it feels like suddenly I can't bring my arms to reach out and take it," Ruby said.
"Okay, well you have your buddies in that team with the fall maiden coming to help, and you've got your team from Beacon coming to help with the Spring Maiden, a dragon, and a Grimm army of their own. They'll be able to handle whatever goons Salem throws at them, but you need to be the one to deal with Salem herself. And don't worry, Salem can be killed."
"I feel a 'but' coming…" Ruby said, feeling how too-good-to-be-true it all was.
"But, you're about ten years too early to do it by yourself," he said, his voice cutting like steel.
No.
There's no way.
All this time.
All this work.
Just to be too weak to actually pull it off?
"That's bullshit," Ruby said through gritted teeth, hoping beyond hope.
"Sadly, no it isn't. There has never been a timeline in which you yourself are able to kill her."
A lightbulb went off in her mind, reigniting her smouldering hope.
"So you're saying I need help," she offered.
"That's right. But you're not gonna find it in your mother. Only thing she does in these final battles is either she gets herself killed fighting a mob of Grimm with your buddies, or she dies in the battle against Salem to spur you on to be able to kill Salem yourself through sheer shock of emotion. Judging by your expression, you don't want either of those to happen."
True to form, Ruby had looked back into the hut at her sleeping mother. A single tear slipped from her open eye-socket.
"There has to be a way."
"And there is. It's just… you're not a person who would turn your nose up at cheating to get the upper hand, are you?"
"At this point, Cter, I'm desperate for anything that'll help. Give me whatever 'cheat' you have."
Cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck (which popped like a xylophone), he took a deep breath and his hand had moved to the pen Ruby was holding. His hand slowly turned an inky black-blue, shining like a miniature galaxy. There was a beauty in the shine of it, though Ruby felt a lingering fear for it, as she felt it was somehow familiar and... unsettling. She shuddered as he lightly tapped the pen she held. It refilled with ink, though she hadn't realized it had run empty.
And as quickly as he had done it, he backed off and returned to normal, though he was breathing heavily after doing whatever it was he had done. Ruby quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay… so… remember when Gaster showed up in your house after you first used your eyes, and he was relevant for all of about five seconds?" Cter asked, still regaining his breath.
"Vaguely…" Ruby racked her brain for the memory, but could only remember waking up in Patch with a splitting headache… oh wait, yes, it was then that a door appeared in front of her, and out walked a tall, well-dressed, smart-talking skeleton with a flair for the dramatic.
"Great, that's great. So, he said back then that your Silver Eyes draw their power from the Void, which he was trapped in until you presented a way out during the Fall of Beacon. You're gonna have to take my word for it, because it's been some time, but that's what he said. Now, considering that the Void is an infinite power source for your eyes, you could potentially draw an infinite amount of power from it if you had enough time to practice with it, or if you had a particularly large group of people with Silver Eyes all in one place, focusing on one thing."
"So this is going where I think this is going, then," Ruby said, following his plan.
"When quality fails to deliver, the only thing to make up for it is sheer quantity. I've already done some Ruby-Wrangling, so we're all set. When you need support, click that pen. That will give me the signal to send in the clones. A blast of energy from the void of the magnitude you'll all be able to conjure up should, in theory, be enough to kill her. For good," he stated, summing up the plan as simply as he could.
What a way to go out.
A last-ditch effort by several hundred different versions of Ruby, in which they would stare really intensely at Salem until she vaporized.
And they'd probably all die if it failed.
Which was very likely.
Ruby liked those odds. She liked them more than she cared to admit.
"All right, Cter. For a guy who's got an aura that smells like dead fish, you're a pretty good guy," Ruby said, closing the door to the hut.
…
"Y'know what? I'll take what I can get. That was a compliment… I think."
*He's gone.
*You can relax now.
*You can feel the overwhelming dark presence of a timeless evil looming just a stone's throw away.
*This is it.
*The home stretch.
*You feel like your journey is coming to an end.
*You are filled with DETERMINATION.