Return of the Dragons

Darkness loomed before his students, as they all stared at him. Some of them were starting to think they'd never see him again, and yet here he was, in front of them. He then turned back into his humanoid form, and came closer to them.

"You're… you're back," Weiss said.

"I am," Darkness answered, as he folded his arms behind his back, "So…"

"Please don't go again!" Ruby said suddenly said, as she came up to him, "I'm sorry I said what I said!"

"We do need you!" Yang said, "Please come back!"

"Look, we need your help!" Jaune said, "We need our powers, we need…."

"I was wrong." Everyone was silenced as they stared up at the god looking down at them.

"My mistake was believing that the mortals had an obligation to my brother and I," Darkness explained, "We were your creators, and as your creators, I believed you had an obligation to honor us, to revere us. But now I realize that it is my brother and I, your creators, who hd an obligation to you."

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked.

"A creator has an obligation to their creations," the god continued, "To guide them, to teach them, to ensure they are put on the right path. The mortals of my age rebelled because we failed to properly guide them. It was because of our mistakes, because of our decision to sit at a distance from them. We came to view our creations as our project, instead of as our children."

"Your children?" Nora echoed.

"Yes," Darkness answered with a nod, "You may need me, but I also need you." That, the group certainly wasn't expecting. It wasn't ever day a god told someone he needed them.

"You gave me respect, regard, and appreciation, things the mortals of the ages past would never offer. For the first time, I was receiving the reverence and honor that had long been reserved for my brother. For you to send me away after that…." He was silent, as he shook his head slightly.

"Well, we were wrong too," Jaune said, as he stepped forward. Darkness looked at him, and cocked his head slightly.

"You've done so much for us, you were more than a god to us," the blonde continued, "You were a teacher."

"A guardian," Ruby added.

"A savior," Blake said.

"A guide," Ren said.

"A friend," Nora said.

"A parent," Weiss finally said, blinking away a few tears, "And when you were gone…" She trailed off slightly, looking away.

"We just didn't know what to do," Jaune finished for her. Darkness was silent for a time, before he took a breath.

"So… what are you going to do now?" Jaune asked.

"I cannot undo the mistakes of the past," Darkness said, "But I am not going to repeat the mistakes back then either." He then held up his hand, as eight orbs of multicolored light appeared in his hand. The group recognized what those orbs were.

"Are those…," Blake began.

"I can sense the day of judgement by brother has ordained will soon be upon you," Darkness said, "I cannot change that, the only thing I can do is do everything in my power to help, so that you can achieve this future yourself." He then held out his hand, as the eight lights floated in front of them. Smiles slowly spread across the faces of all those presence.

(/)

"Now go with me, and save your world."

Familiar power surged through the veins of all those familiar, as their Auras glowed brilliantly. With both of them recognizing what this meant, both Qrow and Oz fell back. The glow then consumed the area, much to the surprise of Cordovin.

"What in the name of the gods?" she muttered. That was an apt way of putting it, as the glow faded, and the teens were seemingly gone. Cordovin only had a moment to wonder where they were, as she was suddenly rocked inside of her mech. She looked around, but didn't see anything, before she got struck in the side again. That was quickly followed by a flash of red past the viewing port, followed in short order by something striker her mech again. Fortunately, the mech's shields were holding, but that didn't make Cordovin any less irritated.

"What's going on?!" she demanded. She quickly got her answer, as a yellow, Mistrali dragon suddenly floated in front of her.

"You don't know who you're messing with," Yang said, giving a draconic smile. She then slammed forward, striking the mech with her head. Though the shield still deflected it, it caused the entire mech to stumble back. This was followed in short order by Ruby dashing by, bathing the mech in her flames. Though the shields were holding up, Cordovin could see that their strength was very gradually declining. That was no small fleet; this machine was designed to be able to resist attacks from the largest Grimm in the seas.

"How'd they get their powers back?" Oscar asked, as he, Oz, and Qrow watched from the cliff.

"I have a pretty good idea," Oz said, narrowing his eyes.

"How astute, Ozma." That made both males jump slightly as Darkness materialize behind them.

"When did you get back?" Qrow asked.

"Recently," Darkness said, as he stepped forward, telekinetically moving the two out of them, as he watched his students fighting the mech. During this, Oz was trying of thinking of something to say to him.

"I have nothing to say to you," Darkness interjected, "The reasons for my return are between myself, and the children. Do not ask any questions, because you will not receive any answers." Oz wanted to protest that, but had been around long enough to know better.

"I miss things when they were simpler," Qrow grumbled as he took another swig from his flask.

During all of this, Cordovin tried to fire the mech's missiles; these were tracer missiles, and when they started to track Jaune, he was quickly saved by Weiss coming up, and releasing her ice breath, freezing all the missiles.

Thanks! Jaune said.

I expect a proper thank you later Weiss answered, as she smiled at her boyfriend.

Hey! Ruby protested I wanted to be the one to save him!

To quote an old adage, you snooze you lose! Weiss said. Jaune would've laughed at that, but figured now probably wasn't an appropriate time.

"You infernal…," Cordovin growled, as she held up the arm cannon, and moved to fire it. Eager to get her own success in, Ruby breathed her fire into the cannon. This caused the canon to burst into explode, and Cordovin was forced to enact an emergency protocol and disconnect the arm from the body. It was becoming progressively apparent the commander had little chance against these dragons, but Cordovin was never one to give up like that.

"For Atl…," she tried to say, but once again, the dragons were far quicker. Ren and Nora then held their heads up as they inhaled and exhaled as one. A massive swirl of fire got a direct hit on the mech, and to Cordovin's shock the shield gave way.

"How in the…" Cordovin couldn't finish again, as Pyrrha came up, dragging her heated tail blade across the body of the mech, leaving deep gashes, and weakening the armor's integrity. That was when Jaune made his move. He folded his wings in, and dove forward, right into the cockpit; he tore through the cockpit, snatching Cordovin as he burst out the other end. The mech collapsed into the water, as Jaune flapped overhead, holding Cordovin in one of his claws.

The specialists was so befuddled by what was going on, she could only gawk at what was happening. Then, to her surprise, after floating down to the cliff, the dragon then set the woman gently on the ground.

"Please," Jaune said softly, as he stood before her, "Just stay out of our way." With that, Ruby bent her neck down to allow Oz to get on, while Yang did the same for Qrow, and the dragons all took wing and flew away, as Maria followed in the airship. Cordovin tried to babble slightly, but all she ended up doing was fainting.

(in the woods)

Ilia had to avert her eyes as Blake's Aura flared up, and even the Minotaur hesitated at the sight of it. But soon it faded, and from that glow shot several barbs, which lodged itself in the Minotaur's shoulder. The beast roared in pain, as he stumbled back, holding his shoulder, as a black dragon sprung forward, using the blades on it's wings to leave a gash across the Minotaur's flank. Blake skidded to a halt, beside Ilia, hissing as she beat her tail on the ground a couple times in intimidation.

"Are you okay?" she asked her friend.

"Uh… yeah," Ilia answered, as she got to her feet, "I think so." Blake nodded at that, before she turned her attention back to the Minotaur, which was digging it's hoof into the ground.

"I'm not sure where you got those powers," Blake said (actually she had an idea, but didn't want to think about that right now), "But all it's bring what you've become on the inside, outside." As if to punctuate her point, the Minotaur roared again, as he lowered his horns, and he charged.

In response, Blake inhaled deeply, before releasing her black flames. The Minotaur held up its arm to block, as the fire consumed it. Ilia stared shock at the sight, though when the flames receded, it showed that the beast's Aura had deflected the worst of the flames. Having suspected this, though, the dragon pounced at the Minotaur, tackling it to the ground.

The two wrestled and rolled on the ground for a time, with Ilia having to leap out of the way to avoid getting crushed. The reptile bit into the neck of the beast, and raked her claws across his torso, though the Aura of the Minotaur kept the worst of the damage off her. The Minotaur grabbed the dragon's throat, and held her at bay, before he managed to kick her off. The dragon roared, as she breathed more fire, but the Minotaur charged right through the flames, and punched Blake right in the face. The force sent her tumbling away, but before Blake could recover, she felt someone grab her tail. She only had time to look up briefly as the Minotaur threw her over his shoulder, and into the ground.

"Blake!" Ilia called.

"I'm okay!" Blake said, before she opened her wings, and flapped up slightly. The dust kicked up obscured the Minotaur's sight, giving the dragon time to dive down, and into him. She then sank her teeth into his throat, not doing any damage, but still weakening the Aura even more. Eventually, the Minotaur then kicked her off again, as Blake rolled away, and looked up.

The Minotaur roared, as he lowered his head, and charged again. Blake then released her own roar, as she sprung at the beast again, her blades at the ready, and she slashed down as she passed him. And when she did so, his Aura shattered. Everything suddenly came to a halt, as the Minotaur paused, and put a hand on his chest, and then looked at his hand. It was covered with blood, from a huge gash was now across his chest.

The Minotaur grunted slightly, holding the injury, before falling to his knees. With that, he began to shrink, as he slowly turned back into Adam. As he did, Blake turned back into her Faunus form, as she approached him. When he collapsed forward, Blake's reflexes kicked in, and she caught him. As she did so, from the sky watched the High Spirit of Memory, glaring down at the one she bestowed the power to.

"Useless," Mnemosyne muttered, before she turned into orange mist, and disappeared. Blake held Adam for a time, as he gasped for air. As she looked down at him, Blake's anger started to fade away, as it turned into pity.

"Was it worth it?" she asked softly, "Was any of this worth it?" Adam looked up and stared at the sky.

"I… I just wanted to…" The bull coughed slightly, barely able to form the words, but Blake knew what he was going to say.

"So did I," she answered.

"Why… why did it all go wrong?" Adam asked.

"It went wrong, when you decided the many needed to suffer for what the few had done to you," Blake answered truthfully. Upon hearing that, a look of realization came into Adam's eyes, as if he had a deathbed epiphany. He just looked up into the blue sky.

"Do you regret anything?" Blake asked.

"I… I…" It looked like he had more to say, but nothing come out of his mouth, as Adam Taurus' head and eyes rolled back. Blake felt her eyes getting misty; she wasn't sure why, but that didn't change things.

"Maybe in death, you can finally find some peace," she said softly, as she closed his eyes, and gently lay his body down for someone to find someday. Ilia came up from behind her, and put a hand on her shoulder, to which Blake smiled, as she rose to her feet, wiping her eyes.

Upon noticing it beside Adam's head, she then picked up the crown, and looked into the eyes of the animals that decorated it. She was tempted to throw it away, just like Neith did, but she knew not to do that. Blake would keep this crown for now, so as to never forget what she came all too close to coming to. With that in mind, she hung the crown on her belt, as Ilia came up. She put her hand on Blake's shoulder, who smiled at her friend.

"We need to go," she said as she stood back up, and gestured, "Stand back." Once Ilia had done so, Blake turned back into her dragon form, before she bent her head down, gesturing for Ilia to climb on. One she did, Blake opened her wings, and took flight. It didn't take too long for her to find where her friends were, further down the cliff, where the Bullhead was parked.

"Hey Blake!" Yang called, "I thought…" She stopped as Blake reverted to human form, showing her distant look.

"What happened?" Pyrrha asked.

"Adam happened," Blake said grimly. That quickly got everyone's attention, especially Yang's.

"Are you okay?" Oz asked.

"More or less."

"What happened to Adam?" Yang asked. Blake was silent, ass he looked away slightly.

"He's… not going to be a problem anymore," Ilia said. Everyone got the idea, so nobody pursued the topic any further from there.

"Well, looks like we're done here," Nora said, "Let's…"

"Are you though?" The group looked to see Darkness standing on the Bullhead's roof. Ilia flinched back at the sight, surprised to see him back. Maria looked up at that, and she opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it, apparently unable to find any really words. With that she just took a breath.

"Well, I guess at this age, this is may be the only thing that may surprise me," she said.

"We'll explain later," Ruby said, before looking up to her teacher, "What is it?"

"Get in the flying machine, and I can show you." The group did as he told them, and Maria took back off.

"What is it?" Pyrrha asked as the were flying back towards Argus. Darkness just pointed, and when the group followed his finger out to the sea, that was when they saw it, and their curiosity turned to horror. Slowly approaching the city was a Grimm, but one that was larger than any Grimm they had ever seen. It was bipedal and had a tail, with a large dorsal sail going down it's back, with a dolphin like-head and a pair four gills on each side of it's head.

"It's a Leviathan," Maria said, "Not many of them left in Remnant."

"Look!" Ruby said, pointing. The people followed the finger, as they saw a horde of Grimm trailing the Leviathan.

"Where did they come from?!" Jaune cried.

"I have a suspicion they might not be here of their own accord," Darkness said. True enough, seated on the head of the Leviathan were two Spirits.

"Mortal settlements," Dagon grumbled, as he stared at the nearing city, "Such filthy places."

"Save it for now," Shauskha said, "We have something to do."

Note: I had originally called this chapter Dragon vs. Minotaur, but I thought this title would be more apt.

So Darkness and the team have had a much needed talk about everything. I feel both sides needed to make personal concessions, especially Darkness.

So Maria now knows the truth about Darkness. I'm of the mind that at her age, while she'd be surprised, she'd be too experienced and weathered to have a freak out like some of the characters would.

So yeah, I killed Adam in this. I feel his arc has run its course at this point, and continuing it would lag the story for now.

Be sure to review.