Cinder is in a large, empty room. Behind her is a darkened arched hallway. On either side of the arch, the walls of the room have a low ledge the bear several burning white candles. Four Beowolves approach Cinder, moving in a semicircle formation. Cinder swings her left arm at them, sending another slash of fire. It cuts through the middle of all four Grimm and they disintegrate away.
Cinder pants again, still upright yet taking a breather. She does not get long, as heavy footsteps approach from her left. She gasps and looks in their direction. A Beringel leaps into the air, ready to deliver a blow to her with its fist. Cinder, however, pulls back her right arm and pushes a ball of flame right at it. It, too, disintegrates.
As its body disappears, Cinder falls to her knees, breathing heavily.
"Enough" Salem walks forward while Cinder continues to struggle for normal breathing "I thought you were the girl who wanted power. Did you lie to me?".
Cinder winces on the force of Salem's question before looking upward. Turning to face Salem, Cinder clearly shakes her head negatively.
"Then stop holding back. If you wish to master your new powers, you must-" Salem is cut off by the sound of heavy doors opening. On the opposite end of the stone hall, a sobbing Tyrian Callows enters. He falls to his knees once in the room, both hands flat on the floor and his head bowed.
"I'm sorry. She'll forgive me. Pleeeease" Tyrian bows on the last word "Forgive me…".
"Tyrian!" Salem stands before him. He raises his body but remains sitting on his legs while Cinder rises from the stone floor behind Salem who is holding out her arm imperially "Your task - were you successful?".
Tyrian bows his head "N-no".
Cinder's eye widens. Salem also looks surprised for a moment before narrowing her eyes and walking away. Cinder watches their leader for her further reaction without looking at Tyrian.
Tyrian was begging and turning his body to remain facing Salem "But-but hope is not lost! My tail, my stinger… I-I poisoned him, Qrow! He will not be a nuisance to you any longer, no… no longer! I've done that... have I done well? Have I pleased you?".
"The last eye is blinded… you disappoint me" Salem said before she starts to leave.
Tyrian begins to stammer, "But-but it wasn't the girl or Qrow who wounded me!"
"I don't care who it was that…" Salem begins to say, but Tyrian cuts her off: "Dante! It was Dante!"
Salem stops and raises an eyebrow in mild surprise: "So he's here."
"Which means that HE knows" Tyrian replied, fear creeping into his voice, "Why else would one of his hunters be here. HE KNOWS!"
Even Cinder felt fear creep into her heart; the only thing that Salem's followers feared…was HIM.
Salem was silent for a few moments, then turned back to Tyrian: "We'll discuss your failures later." And then leaves the room.
Tyrian falls forward, wailing, the fear of the Slayer still ignited inside of him. A Beowolf approaches, all focused on Tyrian's negative emotions. It ignores Cinder and leaps upon him. Tyrian screams as he sends it away with a single blow from his tail and it lands on its back. Still wailing, Tyrian opens his weapons and leaps atop the Beowolf. He slashes at it repeatedly, tears streaming down his face. His wails gradually turn into laughter as he vents his grief and terror into the butchering of the Grimm.
Meanwhile Salem sat alone in the council room, pondering over this new turn of events. Suddenly, she sensed a familiar presence behind her and sighed in frustration.
"Here to give me another depressing prophecy, Kaa?" she said. From the balcony above her slithered down a large, black serpent-like creature that might have passed for a Grimm, except it was colored blue instead of red, and its eyes held a great deal of wisdom.
"You brought that on yourself." Kaa replied.
Salem glared back: "Why are you here?"
"Merely a warning." Here, the serpent slithered around to face Salem: "There's still a chance for you to go back on all this."
"I made that choice a long time ago, so stop giving it to me."
Kaa narrowed his eyes: "Then you know what will become of you."
Salem slammed her hands down on the table: "Quiet! Your time with those Sentinels has begun to blind you, Kaa. The Knight is unable to come over to this world; he lacks the energy. Cinder has sworn her loyalty to me, and she's now proven it by killing poor little Julius."
Kaa chuckled: "Fate always finds a way, Salem; I'm honestly surprised you haven't come to see that yet."
Salem was becoming angry: "Get out."
"Suit yourself." Kaa replied. Then, as he started to slither out, he said: "Your fate still stands; you will fall by his hand, and they will be a part of it."
Once he disappeared, Salem glared back at the hole the serpent came from; God…he was annoying. However, there was truth in his words, and Salem realized she needed to be absolutely sure of a few things before moving ahead. She summoned a Seer into the room.
"Find Julius's body at Beacon" She told it, "and make sure he's dead."
The Seer left at once.
…
It is daytime in Menagerie; birds tweet in the trees around the balcony outside Ghira's study. Inside, a shirtless Sun lies on the couch, his head propped on the arm. A bloodied bandage on his wound where Illia's weapon had struck him; he slowly wakes up.
"Morning, sleeping beauty." Hector says, reclined next to him on the couch, "How do you feel?"
"I've been better" Sun replies, sitting up.
Blake is sitting on a chair across from the couch, her body facing the other two. Her head is bowed and her hands are folded in her lap "This… is why, Sun. This is why I left them all behind".
"Blake?... What are you talking about?" Sun asked.
Blake gets up and walks over to the couch, sitting on the other side of Hector as Sun looks at her in confusion "I am done seeing my friends hurt because of me".
"Blake..." Sun began but Blake stops him.
"Shut up! Do you think I like being alone? Every day… every day I think about them! Ruby, Weiss, Yang… Julius... they were my friends! I loved them like I never thought I could love anybody. And Julius... He was more than that... he was the one person in the whole world I loved more than anything else! He was the one I wanted to be with! To spend the rest of my life with! And now... and now he is gone! And he is never coming back!".
Hector tried to reach out to her "Blake, please listen".
"No you listen!" Blake snapped forceful enough with her voice that Hector pulled back "Everyone thinks they can help me, but they can't" She sits down "You saw Illia last night and she's not even the worst! No. No more. They're better off without me. I made my choices and I'll deal with the consequences because they belong to me".
"You're not the only one dealing with consequences like that, Blake." Hector snapped, "You think I left the Fang happily? No! I had to leave Illia behind because of the choices we made."
"So did I, and she was my friend." Blake argued.
"She's MY SISTER!" Hector shot back, "We were inseparable up until that point. She even tried to stop me from leaving when I told her I would; I had to handcuff her to the fucking door for crying out loud! And do you want to know what happened when I did leave, she called out my name, over, and over, and over; you really didn't think I was wounded that night. Well I was, and I was still wounded last night, so don't go talking to me about consequences, because I've been through more than you realize…"
Hector started to trail off here as he buried his face in his hands and started to cry; it was too much for him to think about at the moment. Sun put a comforting had on his shoulder. Blake managed to calm down; she was never aware how much Hector was really going through until just now.
"I'm sorry, Hector" she said, "I didn't realize that you were hurting as much as I am. The White Fang has really torn us apart."
"Yeah, no kidding." Sun agreed "My advice; we should stick together for right now and give support. But, if it makes you two feel any better, the next time I go up against Lizard Girl, it won't be for you, it'll be to get even" he said as he smiled before wincing from the pain in his shoulder.
Hector managed a weak smile: "I'd love to see that."
Blake giggled "My hero".
The door behind Blake crashes down again. Kali was embarrassing herself through eavesdropping too closely. Behind her, Ghira looks down at his wife on the ground with his hand on his hip.
Kali pops upward again "Oh! Oh dear, would you look at that, he's awake! Thank goodness!".
Ghira covers his face with his hand "Kali, please".
"Mom!" Blake said with a glare.
"Hey, Mrs. B!" Sun said with a small wave.
Blake walked over to her mother "What are you doing?!".
"Well, sweetheart, your father needed to speak with the three of you" Kali said.
Blake looks at her dad "Huh?.
Ghira puts a scroll on the table "I'm afraid you were right to be suspicious".
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
"Adam Taurus is planning to overthrow the leader of the White Fang, and stage a full-scale attack on Haven Academy. It would be the Fall of Beacon all over again" Ghira explained, a grim look on his face. Hector growled; he suspected something of the sort.
"Then we destroy the White Fang once and for all" Sun said, his face getting serious.
"No" Blake said as she stands up "We're not going to destroy the White Fang. We're going to take it back".
Hector broke into a grin: "Now that I can get behind, and I think I might know someone who'd be more than happy to help with that."
…
Ren and Nora run through the abandoned Kuroyuri.
"Not again, not again..." Ren repeated in his head.
They come to a stop after passing under an arch leading to the center of town. Ren is panting, but Nora is hardly winded. Ren lifts his head and his worried eyes change to ones smiling in relief.
In front of them, Dante, Jaune, and Ruby face the other way, but abruptly turn, Jaune putting his hand on his weapon. Qrow is propped up against the tree.
"What are you guys doing here?" Ruby asked.
"Did you hear that noise? What was that?!" Jaune demanded
Ren's eyes grow wide and he falls to his knees, clearly alarmed "No...".
Ruby looked more worried as she was guarding her uncle closely "Ren! What is it?!".
The sound of plodding footsteps can be heard coming closer.
"Wait, you guys hear that?" Jaune asked.
Ren spoke a weak protest "No..."
"Ren?" Nora asked, clearly worried.
The footsteps come to a stop. A bone horse head breathes loudly, exhaling black smoke. Within the bones are glowing red and around it is the black flesh of a Grimm.
Ren lifts his head.
Weapons can be seen, stuck into the Grimm's body that has bones sticking out perpendicular to its spine. Slowly, a torso raises, revealing a horned, humanoid Grimm. The horns and front part of the face are bone while the mouth is merely thin strips of Grimm flesh stretching across an opening. The mouth, the bones, and the eyes all glow red.
The Nuckelavee twitches its head and roars.
Dante stares at it for a few slightly comedic moments before saying: "Well…alright then."
Jaune, Ruby, Ren and Nora all fall back by the dead cherry tree. Qrow is still unconscious and propped against it.
The Nuckelavee walks towards them, twitching its various body parts. It sends out a shockwave roar that causes all teenagers to flinch, though Dante remains unmoving. The Grimm looks at the teenagers and turns its head to look at Qrow and Dante before it begins running toward them.
Jaune sheaths his sword and makes a run for Qrow. The Nuckelavee lashes out with one of its arms, able to extend it at a far reach. Jaune avoids it and gets Qrow upright, but the Nuckelavee is heading right for them.
"Oh no, you don't" Dante said, and he began firing his pistols at the Grimm, which seemed to temporarily push it back.
Ren uses his Semblance to hide Jaune and Qrow from the Grimm, which stops short and looks about in confusion. Jaune stands still, staring at the Grimm "Just get them to safety!"
Jaune was able to grab Qrow and walks away with them while the battle resumes. He sets him down behind a building and narrows his eyes at the wounded man before turning to leave. Qrow grabs him by the hand, but falls unconscious before he can say anything. Jaune gives Qrow another look before rejoining the fight.
The Grimm is using its arms to grab hold of each of Jaune's teammates, but is continually distracted by the fire of the next one "Guys, keep moving, go in a circle!".
The team follows this plan, and Ruby gets distracted when Jaune sheaths his sword after landing a strike "What are you doing?".
She smiles when she realizes that Jaune is using his upgraded Crocea Mors to land strikes on the beast. Dante had given up using his pistols and now drew his sword, which glowed with an orange energy, and proceeded to attack the horse head directly. The fight continues and Ren ends up pinned to a building by a Nuckelavee extended arm.
"Ruby!" Nora shouts.
Ruby nods, and she uses Crescent Rose to launch Nora in between Ren and the Nuckelavee's would-be fatal strike with its other hand. Magnhild is pinned to the building above Ren, with Nora dangling from it.
Ren looks up at Nora who pulls her skirt to hide herself "Stop looking!".
Ren covers his eyes and Nora grins to herself.
Dante rolled his eyes in amusement. Kids…he thought to himself.
The Nuckelavee flings Nora around until she is knocked to the ground with her Aura depleted. Ren uses StormFlower to give himself leverage to pull the Nuckelavee's hand off of him. He repeatedly goes after the creature, exhibiting reckless behavior, his eyes wild.
"Uh, does he always fight like that?" Dante asked.
"Ren! Knock it off!" Jaune shouts.
Ren ignores him and ends up on the ground beside Nora, separated from StormFlower and his Aura also depleted. The two partners rise together, Nora first. Ren's eyes are only on the creature, and Nora tackles him and drags him under a building.
Meanwhile Dante stands protectively in front of Qrow, blocking strike after strike from the Grimm. Much to the confusion of the others, the Grimm only seemed to go after Dante. However, they didn't question it and continued their barrage of attacks, yet only seemed to make minimal progress. Eventually, the Grimm became tired of Dante's thwarting its attacks and brought its two hooves down on top of the huntsman with a roar. Dante instinctively rolls out of the way, only to get slapped into a building by one of the Grimm's humanoid arms.
Ren and Nora came out and saw what had happened, safe to say they were not happy. They had to bring that monster down, now!
"Ruby... It's time to end this" Ren said.
Ruby nodded, with clear rage in her eyes "Jaune and I can take care of its arms".
"I'll take care of the horse" Nora said.
Ren nods "And I'll take care of the rest".
Nora heads to a rooftop. Ruby uses herself as a target until she manages to pin an arm to the ground with the tip of Crescent Rose. Ren's knife is flung and embeds itself into the body of the Grimm.
Jaune is positioned to be the next target as Ren uses Jaune's shield to pin down the other arm "Now!" Jaune strikes his sword through the Nuckelavee's arm into the ground "Nora!".
Nora free falls with a mischievous smirk and chuckle from the roof to land a killing blow to the head of the horse. Ren retrieves his knife and walks before the trapped Grimm. It roars in his face, but this time, Ren is undeterred. Dante finally manages to dig his way out of the building and watches the scene unfold.
'For my mother' He cuts off the Grimm's left arm 'For my father' He cuts off the Grimm's right arm 'For all those that you've slain' He strikes a gash into the flailing torso. He closes his eyes before speaking aloud "For myself".
He opens his eyes and swings with the knife, beheading the Grimm. It dies in a pillar of black smoke. Ren drops the knife and breathes out a sigh of relief only to be tackled by a giggling, triumphant Nora. He hugs her back and gives a single laugh.
Dante casually walked up, brushing off rubble from his jacket, and chuckled: "I guess that's one way to do it."
Ren looked at the white-haired huntsman: "To do what?"
Dante smirked back: "To face your demons"
Ren smiled back and nodded.
Jaune suddenly spoke "Guys! I think I hear something!".
In the courtyard two wood and metal airships are coming in to land; Nora points in Qrow's direction. A man in a brown flight suit with an air tank on his back ran to Qrow.
"Well, how bout that." Dante said
"How did you find us out here?" Jaune asked.
"We were on patrol and saw the smoke. Nobody's been out here for years, thought something might be wrong" The pilot answered.
Ruby crouched by Qrow and held his hand "What if we don't make it in time?".
"I don't think that will be a problem, sweetheart" Dante say pointing ahead.
She looks up and sees the flourishing city before them and smiles "We made it, Uncle Qrow".
Nora and Ren sit on the edge of the open rescue airship, their legs dangling. Nora is looking out at the city, feeling happy. Ren is watching her, begins smiling and puts his hand on hers. She gives a slight start but turns her hand over to hold his. She looks at him and gives him a smile, and he smiles back.
Nora scoots closer and rests her head on his shoulder as the airships fly in to the city.
Later, Ruby walks into a double bed accommodation. It has barren furnishings: two beds, a large desk and a nightstand. Qrow sleeps under the blankets of one of the beds. Ruby sets the collapsed Crescent Rose on the empty bed and walks over to Qrow, putting her hand on his head.
She walks over and sits at the desk, picking up the pen and writing on the notepad.
"Hey sis, I hope my letters have been reaching you and Dad. Hand-written stuff's never been super reliable, but I guess it's all we've got these days. Anyway, in case you haven't been getting them, I want to say I'm sorry for leaving the way I did. I know you told me it was a reckless idea, and after everything I've been through, I can definitely say you were right. It's been hard, on all of us, and I'm not just talking about the monsters we fought out here.
Every step we made took us further and further from the things we knew. And every morning we woke up wondering, if just over the next hill would be something good or something terrible.
It's scary not knowing what's going to happen next. And the things we do know now, just how bad it can get, it almost makes it all worse.
You told me once that bad things just happen. You were angry when you said it, and I didn't want to listen. But you were right, bad things do happen, all the time, every day. Which is why I'm out here, to do whatever I can, wherever I can, and hopefully do some good.
We've all lost something, and I've seen what loss can do to people... I'm not sure where Julius is and I'm not sure if he's alive. The thought of losing him hasn't left me for a minute.
But if we gave up every time we lost, then we'd never be able to move forward. We'd never have a chance to see what beautiful things the future might have waiting for us. We'd never have the strength to change; whether it's ourselves, or the world around us.
And we'd never be there for other people who might one day be lost without us. This is what we were training for, Yang, to become Huntresses, to be the ones to stand up and do something about all the bad in the world. It was what Julius wanted too.
Because there are plenty of people out there who are still lost and even more who will try to gain everything they can from their sorrow. Believe me when I say, I know it can feel impossible, like every single day is a struggle against some unstoppable monster we can never hope to beat.
But we have to try, if not for us, then for the people we've already-"
Ruby stops and crosses out the last few words as she alters her statement.
"Then for the people we haven't lost yet. I miss you so much. I miss Weiss and Blake and Julius too. But I think you'd all be proud to know that I made it to Mistral. All of us did, and we even ran into Uncle Qrow along the way, as well as an…interesting friend of his.
He's going to take us to see Professor Lionheart, the headmaster of Haven Academy. And he told us some things that you're gonna wanna hear, things I can't trust will make it to you in this letter. But maybe, if you join us, he could tell you himself. With Beacon gone they'll need Dad at Signal more than ever, and I know you need to focus on yourself before I can expect you to come out with me. But it sure would be great to get Team RWBY back together again."
…
Back at Patch, Yang and Julius were finally preparing to leave. Yang had spray painted her arm black and yellow and was now dressed in a sort of biker's outfit and coat. Julius still wore what was left of his outfit (which was everything but the coat), but had now dyed the tips of his hair deep red, like Ruby's.
Tai walked out of the house, a wooden box in his hands: "Julius. Can you come here for a sec?"
"Sure, Dad." Julius replies as he walks over: "What's up."
"There's something I want to give you." Tai replied, opening the box. Julius looks inside to see two large, double barreled revolvers, the barrels stacked on top of each other. Both were painted black and outlined with red and silver.
"Are these yours?" Julius asked.
Tai shook his head: "Nope. They're Summer's. Much like you, she was pretty fond of having more than a few weapons."
True. Summer said in Julius's head.
Tai continued: "I've kept them for safekeeping, but seeing as you are kinda low on weapons…well…she actually wanted you to have them when you were younger."
Did you? Julius thought.
Yes I did. Summer replied. You're welcome.
Julius nodded and took the revolvers, testing each in his hand and spinning them around: "Very well balanced. I like them."
"They look good on you." Tai said. Julius smiled and hugged his father: "I love you, Dad."
Tai hugged back: "I love you too. Now, you take care of your sisters, alright?"
"You got it." Julius replied as he holstered the revolvers (he still had holsters from his previous guns and he had given Tai his other pistol). Then, he walked back over to Yang: "You ready?"
Yang chuckled: "Are you?'
"One way to find out." Julius replied as he started his bike. A few moments later, Tai watched as Yang and Julius drove off into the distance, Zwei watching next to him.
…
Back in Atlas, Weiss was seen in a hangar with a red scarf wrapped around her neck and carrying a tan suitcase. She approaches an open transport ship, V waiting for her inside.
"See" he said, "I told you I got us a ride."
Weiss simply nodded as she sat down on a crate inside. V simply smiled as he sat in a different part of the ship and opened his book, reading from it. As the ship took off, Weiss looked out the window, unsure of what was to come, but prepared for it nonetheless.
…
Weiss wasn't the only one preparing to leave Atlas; Novus was about to make his departure as well, but Pietro and Hayden had one last thing to give him. They led him down an unusually empty hallway.
"It took some convincing on my part to get the General's permission on this" Hayden explained, "but we both came to the conclusion that this weapon should go to you."
Novus cocked his head in interest; he hadn't spoken to them the entire time in Atlas, and Hayden eventually deduced it down to a psychological trauma from losing Penny combined with the burst of primal anger coursing through Novus that muted him. Thankfully, Novus was still able to make his current thoughts known.
"The interesting part about this particular weapon" Pietro said, "Is that the energy powering it is very much similar to the energy I used to power Penny, just in a much more weaponized form. In a way, you'll be carrying around a piece of her wherever you go."
Novus simply gave a small nod.
"Here we are" Hayden announced as the three stopped in front of a set of doors. Hayden reached forward and input a small key code in the pad before scanning both his hand and then his eye.
"Remarkable security" Pietro observed, "Then again, if half the things I've heard about this weapon are true…"
The doors finally opened with a hiss and Hayden motioned for Novus to enter. As he walked in Novus immediately came face to barrel with the biggest weapon he had ever seen in his life. It was built like a tank, a massive box built around an oval barrel. An electric green energy glowed around it. In short…it was a big fucking gun.
"I'm not one for revenge" Pietro said, "But Penny was my daughter; if you want to get back at the ones who dismantled her, then the BFG-9000 is a pretty good way of getting it."
"Well," Hayden said, "what do you think?"
Novus looked at the two scientists, then back at the BFG and cracked his knuckles in glee.
It was payback time.
You fans wanted the BFG, and you fans GOT the BFG. This is a Doom crossover after all; it was only a matter of time before the purest form of weaponized, fuck off level vengeance made its appearance. Also, I know that Dante could have OWNED that Nuckleavee, but I still wanted Ren and Nora to have the development they needed. Anyways, Volume 5 comes next, so let me know what you think so far!