Disclaimer: I do not - nor do I claim to - own RWBY or any other media that may be referenced in this fic. All rights go to their respective owners. The only thing I lay any claim to are my OCs.
Oscar's scream stops in his throat, that feeling of shattered glass in the gaping hole of his heart, and fire burning in his veins as the world shifts around him.
No. Shifts isn't the right word.
It lurches.
It lurches, but it doesn't lurch forwards, it lurches backwards. His body is forced backwards through the motions he just took, and he sees the missile that ripped to shreds his partners in battle spiral back to the mech, and his friends, his family, come to life with screams - even more horrifying when listened to in reverse - on their lips.
He sees blood fly back into his Abuela, and her body return to its steady strength.
He sees bullets fly backwards through the air, and he is internally screaming as the fire in his veins burns hotter. So hot it feels like he's melting.
These few seconds that wrought death and destroyed him in the most effective way possible, they reverse so inexplicably slowly. Each millisecond lasts what feels like hours, and he can't even begin to feel where his heartbeat – fuelled and driven faster by adrenaline – ends, and where the burning that is torturing him begins.
He can't breathe with the shattered glass where his heart was, and then he feels the world lurch forwards again.
"MOVE!" he screams, running towards the ship despite the way his body screams in pain, weaving through bullets that have flown this course before. One catches him in the leg, but he doesn't pay mind to the blood running down it.
Vaguely, he knows that the people he saw die are moving, moving out of the blast zone, following him backwards out of the place where they all died.
He doesn't pay them mind though. He screamed for them to move, he's saved them, somehow, but they aren't the ones he needs to save.
He has to save her. He needs his Abuela, he can't lose her, not now, not ever.
He's at the ship, hand reaching for the handle to open the door so he can dive in and cover her from the bullets, but he's already too late.
His heart stops as he sees the bullet fly through the air not too far in front of him.
He doesn't see it hit her, his view blocked by the metal door of the ship, so he rips it open and catapults himself into a spot next to her, hands pressing down on the bullet hole in her throat even as he screams for Rosa to help.
The blood doesn't spray this time, he notes.
This time, it oozes.
"Abuela!" he hears Rosa shout as she practically flies through the open door and over him to Maria's other side, Jaune not far behind her. "No, no, no no no no no," she mutters under her breath.
"Help her! Please! Use your semblance! Put her back together!" Oscar begs her, his gloves staining red with blood, silvery tears trailing down his face. "Please."
Jaune pushes his aura into her, and Rosa's hands hover over the downed woman, eyes screwed shut in concentration behind her goggles, but Maria weakly grasps them and squeezes ever so faintly, making Rosa's eyes open in shock.
She doesn't say anything, but her mechanical eyes tell the siblings everything they need to know.
Her old, wrinkled hands fall... limp... and Oscar... sobs.
Rosa's never heard anything like it.
Jaune is reminded of how Oscar had mourned when he thought Rosa had died in the Battle of Beacon, but it doesn't measure up to this.
He howls like a wounded animal, keening and on the verge of hyperventilating with his inability to do anything but mourn.
Rosa can only gently move around Maria's chair and pull her brother into her arms. She strokes her hands through his hair, his bloodied hands and gloves gripping at her skirt, staining it a sick brownish-maroon.
"Be strong, Ojos Avellana. Stay strong, because we cannot mourn now. The time to mourn will come, and we shall celebrate her life as is right, but now is the time to fight. So stay strong," she murmurs to him.
"I-I-I Ca-ah-an't," he sobs.
Jaune watches on and he's frozen in place because he doesn't know what to do.
What can you do when people are mourning someone who has been with them their entire life?
So, he hops out of the ship, and he sees every pair of eyes on him, hope glimmering in most if not all of them, hoping beyond reason that they haven't lost Maria.
He glumly notices Cordovin's mech trapped in ice that is undoubtedly Weiss' doing.
Yang and Blake burst into the clearing, Blake gripping a broken weapon, and Yang's prosthetic bearing a deep gash.
The two of them look between everyone, trying to find out what's happened.
Jaune finally finds the words to say.
"She's... her wound was too severe. She's passed," he tells them.
Yang starts to tear up, words catching in her throat. "Who? Jaune... who?"
Blake clutches Yang's hand in silent support, waiting for Jaune to tell them.
"Maria," he manages to choke out.
Yang nods in solemn acceptance, internally thanking whoever is listening for not taking her sister away from her again, but the loss of Maria still hits her like a truck. Blake stands at her side, holding her hand as the blonde brawler cries her tears, even as she sheds a tear herself. She may not have known the woman as well as her friends do, but her loss still hits her.
Mercury lets loose a scream, rocketing towards the mech, bullets from his boots being fired, and bare fists pummelling the metal.
"YOU KILLED HER! YOU FUCKING KILLED HER!" he screams.
Qrow carefully goes after him, wrapping arms around the flailing young man's waist and pulling him away from the mech. "Come on kid, come on. You'll only get yourself hurt like this. Come on," he murmurs softly, years of experience raising his fiery Yang coming into practice.
"YOU KILLED HER!" Mercury screams even as Qrow pulls him away, his body going slack before screams morph into sobs. "She killed her... she killed her..." he brokenly sobs.
Rosa quietly jumps out of the ship. "Jaune, Oscar has a wound on his leg. Go help him but don't you dare wake him up," she tells Jaune before she starts stalking towards the mech. Her body is rigid, and her face shows no signs of grief. Blood stains her clothes, but everyone can tell it isn't her own.
Standing in front of the mech, it can only be described like David and Goliath. A small warrior facing off against an opponent much larger than they are, but against all odds, it's the small one that will come out the victor.
They can see it in her stance.
This is a hunter that can't afford to lose.
This is a hunter that will not bow down to any opponent.
This is a hunter that has reached the end of their tether.
Whatever was holding her back in the past, isn't holding her back anymore. Powers above help whoever stands in her way now, because the last fuck Rosa Calavera had to give in that moment is gone.
Internally, Qrow prays for whoever takes Oscar away from her, because he can feel the power almost radiating from her at this loss, and he thinks even a god would run scared if Oscar is ever taken from her.
Rosa stands in front of the mech and floats into the air. One hand reaches out to the mech, and the face plate is ripped off and dropped to the waves below, exposing Cordovin to the elements.
"You killed her," she states, voice cold and unforgiving. It doesn't leave room for question, doesn't leave room for emotion. "I know you were just doing your job, but did you ever stop and think?"
Cordovin doesn't say anything. She knows that this ethereal hunter floating before her isn't looking for answers. She knows better than to interrupt the closest thing to a goddess that she's ever seen, because that's what she sees before her: a huntress that oozes power, a blood red aura rippling over her body as she is suspended in mid-air, her body seemingly just a form given to a power unlike anything she's seen before. Silently, internally, she prays for the first time in her life, and it could very well be the last time as well. She prays for forgiveness, that she'll be allowed to live when all is said and done.
"We never wanted to fight you, we never wanted to steal from you or trick you. We were simply seeking to do our mission. This didn't need to happen," Rosa states, a gush of air rolling off the waves and whipping up her skirt and cloak around her. "You left us no choice though and see how it has ended. One of the greatest huntresses to ever live, is now dead, and once again, we have been denied the ability to complete our mission. This did not need to happen."
Rosa's hand beckons Cordovin closer, and the mech shifts forwards without her controlling it to do so.
"Maria Calavera should not have died the way she has. She should not have been shot by someone who is meant to be on the same side as her, regardless of the lack of love between you," Rosa almost grinds out.
The sirens of an incoming Grimm attack from the sea wail in the distance.
The corner of Rosa's mouth turns downwards, as she watches the griffons descend from the sky and a leviathan come up from the sea.
The speaker of Cordovin's mech gives static that Rosa can only assume is the base asking if they'll be receiving help with the leviathan.
Rosa shifts in the air and speaks clearly enough for the people on the other end of the line to hear.
"This is Rosa Calavera. Leave the invasion to me," she says. Her swords float out of their sheaths and into her hands and she swoops through the air towards the circling Grimm.
Those left behind can only watch in awe as Rosa rips through the hordes of griffons, puffs of black smoke trailing after her as she goes from decapitating one to slicing the wings off another. Swords dance just out of reach of her hands, and the glint of smaller blades can only just be seen from a distance. The leviathan dives beneath the waves and Rosa keeps one eye on its approaching shadow, all the while decimating the mass of Grimm.
When the giant monster of the deep comes back to the surface, she drops like a stone out of the air before it can level its head again, a sword gripped in each hand, and they lodge themselves - pointing downwards - just under its mouth.
She's out of range of the fire, but she'll be damned if she lets anyone else get hit. Two vials of dust float out of her box, and they settle in the grooves of her swords - one earth and one fire - and she pulses her aura through them and feels them explode through the leviathan.
Blown backwards, she sinks beneath the waves and watches for a moment with a detached sense of pleasure as the Grimm above her writhes in flame-broiled agony. Her lungs scream for air though, so she pushes herself back into the air, swords decapitating the leviathan on her way past as she returns to massacring the remaining Grimm.
In the space of fifteen minutes total, the attacking Grimm are nothing but smoke on the wind. Exhaling, she floats her swords back into their sheaths before returning to her troop.
Cordovin clears her throat on Rosa's return.
"I... I would like to make amends. I know that nothing I can do will make what happened here right, but I will try regardless. I've sent the signal for more airships to come and bring us back to Argus proper, where you can attend to whatever funeral you wish to hold for Calavera, and when you are ready, I will organise for you to be taken to Atlas," she tells them.
"Thank you," Rosa replies, back ramrod straight even as her clothes are drenched.
Footsteps coming up to the door confuses Salem as she sits in her throne room.
Both Watts and Hazel are out recruiting, and Cinder isn't one to return without a victory under her belt. Emerald never comes close to the room unless summoned, and Adam is out gathering intelligence. So there should be no one approaching.
"Enter," Salem commands the person on the other side.
The door opens just enough for a short woman, wrapped in layers of brown shawls and feet exposed to the elements. Dark brown eyes peer out from where they are set in brown wrinkled skin behind thick black hair.
"You are Salem," the woman states.
"I am. How did you come to be here?" Salem demands.
"I have seen what the future holds. You intend to remake the world. I want to be a part in that," she explains.
"And why would I trust you?" Salem asks. "A frail old woman whose name I do not know?"
"My name is Gaia Echo. I have spent my life acting on the visions my semblance shows me. Too many families have been torn to pieces by this world, a new world is needed. Even though my children and grandchildren will never see it, I owe it to them to create the world they deserved to have," the woman, Gaia, tells the queen of the grimm.
"And you believe that that world will be created under my rule?"
"You are the only one creating change. This world is flawed and needs to be remade. If that means that this one must burn to nothing, then so be it," Gaia clarifies. "The defenders of this world cannot see that they are causing their own suffering. They will never fix this world, so yes, I do believe that you will create a better world from the ashes of this one."
"Do you swear yourself to my cause?" Salem asks, reaching a hand out and causing black grimm arms to sprout from the ground on either side of Gaia.
"I do."
Yang stares at herself in the mirror.
Lilac flames wreath her eyes and blonde hair frames her face.
For all that she is alone in the bathroom in the dead of the night, she doesn't see her reflection in the mirror.
She sees a woman with her face but black hair framing her face and red flames billowing from her eyes. She sees a man with icy-blue staring out from tired eyes, blond hair falling around his ears.
She doesn't see herself.
She sees them.
The flames around her eyes turn red as she pulls her arm back before punching forward and shattering the mirror.
In the shattered pieces of mirror, she sees a dozen copies of her mother, covered in blood as she turns her back on her daughter. She sees a dozen copies of her father, drunk out of his mind and an arrow through his chest.
"I don't want to be like them," she whispers in the silence. "I'm not going to be like them."
Her hands shake as she leans against the sink, tears and flames flickering between red and lilac streaming from her eyes.
Qrow wakes early in the morning to a soft knock at his door of the hotel suite.
Blearily, he stares at it for a moment before rolling over for more sleep.
A second knock sounds and he sits up. He sighs as he gets out of bed and goes to the door.
Standing in the corridor in her pajamas is Yang. Cheeks lined with tears tracks and her eyes rimmed with red from crying. Her arms wrap around herself as she shivers at nothing.
The most startling thing though is her hair.
For years she had grown out her blonde hair, resisting every push to cut it or tie it back in a more practical manner. Now, her hair barely touched her shoulders.
Choppy and hacked short. An alien concept for Yang's signature hairstyle.
He doesn't ask, just pulls his niece into his arms.
"I've got you, firecracker. I've got you," he murmurs as he strokes her back.
"I kept seeing them in the mirror, I couldn't stop seeing them and I thought, I don't know what I thought," she sobs. "I hate them."
He holds her close and lets her cry until she's run dry of tears.
On the outskirts of Argus, Adam runs into the wilderness.
He's gathered all the information he needs, and now he needs to rendezvous with Hazel and Watts and whatever allies they've gathered or he'll be stuck on the continent for a lot longer than he'd like.
A quick glance back at the sea-side city has him smirking.
"I've got you all figured out now. Next time we meet, Blake, will be the last time," he says to himself before continuing on his way.
"Rosa?"
"What is it Oscar?"
"I'm sorry," he mutters.
"Why? You didn't do anything wrong," Rosa points out.
"I should have been faster, I should have saved her," he insists.
She shakes her head. "There's nothing you could have done."
"But there was!" he exclaims. "My semblance…"
"Semblances don't always save us," Rosa reminds him.
"It saved you," he mumbles.
"Yeah, but they don't always. You aren't to blame for this," she consoles.
"But I am! I unlocked my semblance and I still couldn't save her!" he reveals.
"I know, I saw. I don't know how many did, I don't know how far your semblance can influence, but you need to know that you aren't alright," she tells him and wraps her arms around him. "We're all alive, Ojos Avellana. We're all still here."
"I felt like I was burning from the inside out and then everything was moving in reverse. Your screams… I saw you come back to life. I brought everyone back, and I still couldn't save her," he says as tears run down his face.
"Listen to me, you saved us. Six people are alive because of you. No one blames you for what happened. It isn't your fault. Yes, we lost Abuela, but you didn't fail to save her," Rosa tells him, carding her hands through his hair. "You did a good job. I promise. She'd be proud of you."
"But I didn't save her," he sobs.
"We both didn't," she concedes.
"It wasn't your fault," he insists.
"If it was your fault for not pushing your semblance far enough back to stop Abuela getting shot, then it was my fault for not working fast enough with mine to stem the bleeding and save her life," she reasons. "We can blame so many people for this: all of our friends for letting Abuela put her life in danger to begin with; Adam for interrupting the plan and making the plan fall to pieces; Cordovin for shooting her; the gods for ever leaving Salem alive; but the fact is, you aren't to blame alone."
Their eyes lock and she brushes hair out of his face. "I could have saved her."
Rosa shakes her head. "Shifting time is… I've never heard of anything like it. The amount of power to pull that off is insane, you literally reversed time. Sure, it was only a few seconds, and I don't know how far it stretched, but still. I'd say the only reason you managed it at all was because you've got Oz's soul that has just snowballed over the eons to power it. Even then, the first time anyone uses their semblance, it's unrefined, uncontrolled and there is no way of knowing just how things will happen."
"I should have tried more to unlock it sooner," he says. "If I had unlocked it sooner, ten I would have been able to control it, and I would have been able to save her."
"If you'd unlocked your semblance earlier, there's no telling if it would have been the same semblance. We'd all be dead then," she points out. "There's nothing you could have done."
A/N: Welcome back to the Grimm Reaper! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and yep, Maria's dead. I'm not sure if I'm going to take her out of the main character list, but I'll figure that one out later. Yang had a melt down, but Qrow's there to help her. Qrow's on the right track pitying whoever takes Oscar from Rosa, because (without spoiling anything) Atlas arc for Rosa is not going to be pretty.
On another note, it seems like the medical emergencies in my family keep coming. I go from having an aunt in hospital in intensive care because her body's shutting down from cancer, to her being stabilised, to my grandma lying about not having chest pains right before going to a doctor for said chest pains and she's now in hospital as they try to figure out what's going on with her heart (she has heart issues anyways), and granddad cannot be left on his own for massive amounts of time because of his own health and mobility issues, so I'm typing this a/n while doing granddad sitting. What could go wrong next? A lot. On the upside, my sister finally got engaged (she and her now fiance have been together for nearly a decade) so that's a light in the gloom.
Anyways, let me know your thoughts on this chapter with a review (even if its just to scream at me for killing off Maria, it would still make my day), or drop me a PM if you want to chat. Otherwise, I'll see you next week with another chapter.
- RebeccaMagic9