Prologue: Saviors be Chosen
Disclaimer: I, OWN, NOTHING!
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth (I'm positive) and Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age belongs to Square Enix (I'm pretty sure).
...
It was raining hard in the midst of a forest, as the sight of an entire castle up in flames was in sight with monstrous figures flying around the ruins.
Two figures were running away from the havoc, one a little girl, the other a grown woman each wearing a pair of cloaks to shield them from the rain and help them traverse the forest near what was left of the castle unnoticed, but the woman was holding a small basket in her right arm, holding... something unseeable.
The galloping of horses were heard echoing through the forest as the two running people attempted their escape. With the younger of the two desperately trying to hold on to the older woman's hand.
The galloping got louder as the two realized that their location was compromised. The gleaming red eyes of the horses flashed slightly as the ones riding them were seen, they seemed to be a trio of knight-like men that were wearing pitch black armor with dark purple capes and shields that had faces on them, but the most important thing about them was that... they were all headless.
The one leading the three waved its right arm it the side as the headless horsemen on the right went down a path on the right while the others took the left path.
The two runaways were crouching down by a bush while the older woman handed the basket and it's contents to the little girl, who nodded while accepting it while the older woman stood up and ran as fast as she could.
The headless horsemen were riding their mounts down the pathway, unknowingly passing the young girl, who was hiding behind a bush and out of their view.
The stood up slowly while looking around her to see if the coast was clear, and when she confirmed it was, she ran down a different direction the path led her down.
She was gasping for air while running, not knowing what was going to happen from there on, until a horses whinny was heard behind her, she screamed in terror as she saw the headless horsemen that took a different path lunging at her while reeling it's shield back, and...
"DIE!" The monstrous horserider hollered out in a low tone before the girl's side met with the front of the steel shield it was holding, causing the girl to fall off the side of the path, and start careening for a lake that was below.
"AAAAHHHH!" The girl screamed in fear as the water was fast approaching, and she hit it with a loud splash being heard.
Ruby woke up to the sensation of water being splashed in her face, she immediately coughed up what water might have gotten into her mouth and sat up on her bed. "AAUGH!" She continued coughing a little before speaking. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Ruby yelled in demand for an answer.
"Ruby, are you OK?" Yang, Ruby's half sister, asked her with a worried expression on her face.
"It looked like you were having a nightmare." Weiss, Ruby's partner, told her.
Ruby's expression lightened up at what Weiss said. "What do you mean?" Ruby asked, what anger she had from her rude awakening subsiding.
"Yeah, you were rolling and groaning in your sleep." Blake, Ruby's teammate, told her.
"I- I was?" Ruby asked again as she remembered the 'nightmare' she had.
Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, collectively known as Team RWBY, were at a lunch table in the cafeteria of Beacon with their friends of Team JNPR, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren, as Ruby was telling them about the nightmare she had before she had been woken up. "And then the third of those horseriders popped up out of nowhere and pushed the girl off the path and into a river, and that's all I was able to remember." Ruby told her friends and teammates as she wrapped up her retelling of the nightmare.
The seven of her friends were wondering what then nightmare meant until Jaune spoke. "A castle in shambles." Jaune noted the first part of Ruby's story.
"A chase in the rain through the forest." Weiss added, noting the primary scene of the nightmare.
"By murderous monsters?" Nora exclaimed slightly. "That's a crazy nightmare you had, and you don't know those women that were being chased at all?" She asked.
"Afraid not." Ruby answered the hammer wielder's question.
"Eh, I say don't worry about it, I mean, what good will thinking about it too much do you." Yang asked as she ate her lunch.
"Exactly what you think about strategy in a fight in a nutshell." Weiss muttered.
"Hey." Yang snapped at her.
"Is she wrong?" Blake asked her partner.
Yang looked at her partner in shock at the question before pouting and continuing to eat her food.
"That is something that shouldn't be ignored though, I mean, for all we know, something like that could've happened in our world's past." Ren theorized.
"You mean, it could have been... a vision of some variety." Pyrrha asked Ren.
"Well, that's one possibility." Ren answered.
"Pardon my interrupting." A voice said from behind team RWBY's side of the table, they looked over and saw Glynda Goodwitch, the right hand to Beacon Academy, looking over them.
"Professor Goodwitch?" Weiss asked.
"Hello students, I do apologize for interrupting your conversation, but Ozpin wished to see all of you in his office." Glynda told them, confusing them slightly.
"Huh?" They all collectively asked.
"What for?" Jaune asked.
"That's to be discussed further at his office, finish your food and meet us their in 30 minutes." Glynda told them before walking off.
The eight of them were slightly confused at what Glynda had told them. "Weird." Nora asked before she continued eating.
(30 minutes later...)
Ozpin was waiting in his office as the sound of an elevator arriving at the office's floor was heard. The eight members of the two teams walked out and greeted him and Glynda, who was in the office with him.
"Hello students." Ozpin greeted.
"Hello headmaster." The two leaders of the teams, greeted back.
Ozpin slightly chuckled at the greeting. "You needn't be so straightened to such a degree." Ozpin told them as Ruby and Jaune took a deep breath.
"So what is it you want to talk about?" Ruby asked.
"Okay, but you mustn't panic when you hear this." Ozpin told them, as the eight students nodded. "Team CFVY and Professor Port have gone to the Emerald Forest to deal with a sereis of Grimm not normally found there, and Port was a communicator on him that would allow him to talk to me, but for some reason, when I tried talking to them about 40 minutes ago, all I was able to get was Port panicking and asking for backup." Ozpin grimaced.
"Say what?" Yang asked in shock.
"Did something happen to CFVY?" Pyrrha asked.
"But they're one of the toughest second year students in Beacon." Blake commented.
"Maybe, but for some reason, after Port asked for backup, all we were able to get... was static." Ozpin said in sorrow.
"Oh no..." Nora muttered.
"That's not good." Jaune said.
"Indeed it isn't." Glynda told them.
"So, you want us to go and find them." Weiss asked.
"Exactly." Ozpin answered.
(The Emerald Forest...)
"Their signal was last picked up around the eastern part of the Emerald Forest, be careful, we don't know what it was that caused them to go silent like that." Ozpin's warning echoes through their minds as they were walking through the section of the Emerald Forest that CFVY and Port were supposedly in.
"Damn, we've been searching this area for about 15 minutes." Yang groaned in annoyance.
"Yang, this is serious." Weiss scolded her teammate.
"CFVY and Port are some of the toughest people we know, if they've gone silent for some reason, it must be something big quite frankly." Jaune theorized.
"Ozpin said that all he got when he tried contacting them for basically ten minutes was static, so... you don't think." Ren grimaced at whatever fate might have befell them.
"No no, bad thoughts, Ren." Nora scolded her partner.
Blake was looking around to the best of her abilities, using her better eyesight to try and find a clue for their friends and teacher, completely oblivious to the fact that... someone was watching them.
They kept walking for about 5 minutes, until they stumbled upon, not just any clearing, but...
"There they are!" Yang exclaimed.
A clearing that held team CFVY and Port within the center of it.
"Guys!" Ruby used her Petal Burst semblance to try and close the gap between the two, until all of the sudden she rammed into something invisible.
She fell onto her butt in recoil and was rubbing her head as a result of it. "Ouch, what was that?" Ruby muttered in pain.
"A barrier?" Pyrrha asked.
Nora walked up to ground where CFVY and Port laid with her arms outstretched, but stopped when she saw something in front of her.
And it seemed to be a barrier of invisible energy that glowed golden when she touched it. "Oh man, we found them, but we can't touch them." Nora complained.
"What do w-" Jaune was interrupted by Blake.
"Shhh." The Faunus girl shushed her.
"Hey, I was onl-" Jaune stopped talking when Blake pressed a finger against his lips.
"SHHHHH, I heard something." Blake muttered, putting everyone on edge immediately, until a clapping sound was heard from behind them.
"My my, so you've finally arrived, and right on time at that." A voice said from that same direction.
The eight of them faced the direction they came from to find a mysterious man wearing a black cloak with his face barely visible.
"I thought luring you all here was a good idea, but I didn't expect you to fall for this so easily." The cloaked figure mused.
The eight of them were shocked by what he was saying.
"Fall for this?" Weiss repeated, her weapon of choice, Myrtenaster, pointed at the mysterious figure.
"You wanted us to come here?" Yang asked, slightly shocked as she readied her Ember Celica.
"For what reason could you want us to do so?" Jaune asked as he got Crocea Mors out.
"And how'd you know that us specifically would come here?" Ren asked as pointed Stormflower's gun barrels at the figure.
"Oh, no reason, just telekinetically transmitted silent messages to your precious headmaster and his right hand to forcibly make you come here." The figure answered.
They all gasped and realized the situation they were in. "You... made them send us here." Nora asked as her grip on Magnhild loosened slightly.
"Impossible." Ren's grip on his weapons did the same.
"Heh." The figure soon pulled something out of his cloak.
It was a silver orb with eight rhombus shaped diamonds encrusted into it, the diamonds being red, light blue, black, yellow, white, orange, pink, and green.
"Made you lower your guard!" The figure smirked as the pink and green diamonds on the orb shimmered slightly and tentacles of their colors shot out of the orb and charged right at the two, piercing their bodies and turning them into particles of pink and green light, with only their weapons being left behind.
"NORA, REN!" Jaune cried out as Pyrrha screamed in terror.
"Got you two as well." The figure declared as the white and orange diamonds on the orb shimmered as well as tentacles shot of those diamonds and lunged at Jaune and Pyrrha.
The two raised their shields in a panicked fashion, bu the tentacles phased through the shields and pierced Jaune the two's bodies as well, making them disappear into particles of white and orange light, their weapons being left behind.
Yang was shocked at Nora and Ren's disappearance, but at Jaune and Pyrrha's, she was able to snap out of it and glared at the figure so hard, she would have burned a hole in his body. "YOU MONSTER!" Yang shouted in fury as her semblance burst to life and her hair caught fire.
The figure smirked inwardly as Yang lunged for him with her right arm reeled back. Only for the yellow diamond on the orb to shimmer and have a yellow tentacle pop out of it, but instead of lunging at Yang, it stayed by the figure's side and when Yang got close enough it blocked Yang's punch and caused her to disappear into particles of yellow light leaving her gauntlets behind.
"Heh, imbecile." The figure said with a smirk.
"YANG!" Ruby screamed in terror at seeing her sister disappear like that.
Weiss and Blake were paralyed with fear at the sight of seeing all their friends disappear like that, until the figure spoke. "Now it's my turn." He said before he teleported out of their sight and behind Weiss and Blake, then the light blue and black diamonds on the orb shimmered slightly as tentacles of those same colors appeared and struck the two of them from behind, making them disappear and leave behind their weapons.
Ruby was shocked at what was going on and seeing her friends all disappear in such a fashion was not helping her stress levels decrease. "No, no, NO!" Ruby wanted to deny that this whole thing ever happened and pray that it was all just a dream, but then…
"Know this, Ruby Rose of Remnant." The figure spoke to her. "You will see your friends again, you will come back to Remnant someday, but you must learn, fight, and evolve as a person, alongside your allies, this may not be nice, but it's necessary." The figure told her.
The red diamond on the orb shimmered and caused a red tentacle to appear from it, it lunged towards Ruby who couldn't move her feet in both confusion and fear.
And then everything went black.
The figure looked over the area, seeing the knocked out team CFVY and professor, and the weapons of the eight people he had 'fought', he pulled his left hand out from under his cloak, and brought it up to his forehead. "It's done." He said as he disappeared in a bright light.
THe barrier that was keeping CFVY and Port inside suddenly became visible and shattered like golden bits of glass. And then Coco, the leader of the team, started to stir. "Ugh, what happened to us?" Coco muttered in slight pain.
"Huh?" Velvet woke up as well. "Dang it, did we fall asleep or something?" The rabbit Faunus asked.
Yatsuhashi was able to get up comparatively quickly and knelt down to Port, who was groaning in slight pain. "Oh man, what happened?" Port asked.
"Are you alright, professor?" Yatsuhashi asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Port answered.
Fox got up and sensed something was amiss, he turned to his teammates as Coco faced him, only for her attention to be directed to the weapons behind him.
"Wait, those are…" Coco muttered as she ran up to the weapons.
"Team RWBY and JNPR's weapons?" Port asked.
The three other members of team CFVY were shocked to see and hear this, but then Velvet asked the biggest question of the moment. "What happened here while we were knocked out?" Velvet asked while her hands covered her mouth.
...
And here's a little surprise for you all, a prologue for a crossover fanfic based on the stories of two things that I love dearly (Until one of them up and BROKE MY HEART A LITTLE WHILE AGO!).
This fanfic is one of MANY coping mechanisms that I'm going to use to try and deal with the fact that what happened in the final episode of RWBY Volume 8 happened, because damn it all it was the most emotional thing to ever happen to me yet this year.