Hello, everyone! WaterDragonMaverick here with the newest installment of "Sideline: Another Story". This chapter is a HUGE milestone for me because when I first started writing, I never thought that I would ever write a story that was 50 chapters long. And I'm still going to continue after this because I have so many ideas for my characters!
Last time, Fragment Hunter fought in several intense battles against the White Fang and rogue Atlesian Paladins. After suffering injuries, the gang splits up once again to handle a number of tasks. Azalea and Sunset have gone back into the city of Vale to help the Atlas Military secure their safe zone, but run into two faces they didn't expect to see during this chaos. Standing before the girls are Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, who was believed to be crippled during the Vytal Festival Tournament finals. How will our heroes handle the final moments of the Fall of Beacon? Stick around to find out!
We're in the endgame.
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
I only own my Original Characters featured in this story
Back at Beacon Academy, most of Fragment Hunter had split up after Sunset and Azalea returned to the city. Silver, Vixen, Rebecca, and Lapis stayed behind due to the latter's eye injury and helped the others evacuate to safety alongside the Huntsmen, Ivy, and Azalea's dogs. But Rua went with Cereza, Slate, Layla, Celadon, and Vinyl to retrieve the group's belongings in the dorm rooms. Joining the group with gathering the items were Gin Aurum and Pinkie, mostly because of the latter's Semblance allowing him to store items in a pocket dimension and Slate wanted to protect his little sister. "Look through each room a few times. You'll never know what you missed. And be on the lookout for Grimm that would break in," Cereza instructed as the group reached their dorms.
The teenagers split up and checked the three rooms for what they should take with them. Loading several backpacks and other bags with everyone's clothing, the members of Fragment Hunter also made sure to take several of their other belongings. As they did, Layla looked out of the window and saw Grimm forming from the tar-like liquid that dropped from the Wyvern flying in the sky. Layla rubbed her arm and frowned as she watched more Beowolves appear. "Layla? What's up," Vinyl asked as she saw the girl look upset.
"Is this all we can do," Layla questioned as she looked outside. "We tried to fight off the Grimm, but that thing outside is making more. We tried to fight the White Fang and Lapis lost her eyesight when that Sable guy Silver told us about attacked. Not to mention all of the Atlesian Knights and Paladins going rogue because of a virus," Layla stated as she looked at the floor. "Now we're just packing up and running away. I thought we were supposed to be heroes."
While the other teenagers had no idea what to say to Layla as she expressed her doubts, Gin Aurum sighed before speaking to her. "Life isn't always like a fairy tale. It can be harsh and take no prisoners. A while after my team and I graduated Beacon, we went on a mission that ended in disaster," Gin said as he began to tell Layla and the others a little story. "There was a horde of Grimm that injured my friends badly. I was able to drag them to the closest village and I passed out after the locals got a doctor. While I was out, my team all died from their injuries despite the doctors working to help them. Their final words were that they were proud of me for doing my best to save them. Ever since then, I've been pushing forward to do my job as a Huntsman. It doesn't matter what life throws at me and if I see people die before my eyes. I'm going to help people because somebody has to," Gin stated.
Vinyl looked on as the others were captivated by her brother's story and only nodded before she went to get everyone's instruments. Tossing the items to Gin, the samurai activated his Semblance and stored the larger items in his pocket dimension for safekeeping. After the instruments and other equipment were stored away, Celadon started opening the wardrobes for Team SAFR. "Let's make sure to bring as many outfits that Bianca gave us as possible. We wouldn't want them to go to waste," Celadon said, prompting Rua to roll her eyes at the girl's focus on looks.
In Team FCSA's room, Slate and Pinkie finished packing Azalea's clothes for her when the gunslinger's attention focused on a certain item in the room. Looking at the music box that Valencia Stonehaven gave Azalea, Slate opened it and the box's song began to play. "Azalea will definitely want this," Slate remarked as he listened to the music. Closing the box when the song ended, Slate put the item in his pocket before gathering more items. "I hope she and Sunset are doing fine with the safe zone security."
In the city of Vale, Sunset and Azalea were staring down Emerald and Mercury as they stood in the middle of the empty street. "You two didn't leave for Mistral because this was all you're doing, wasn't it," Sunset questioned as she pointed an accusatory finger at the duo. "You two aren't panicking or even helping fight. Not to mention what we heard about you, Mercury."
"And just would that be," Mercury asked as he feigned ignorance.
"That your father's Marcus Black," Sunset stated and got a reaction out of Mercury when he glared at her. "With training from somebody whose job is to kill people, you would have been able to win the tournament easily. But you lose in the finals and somehow get Yang to break your leg, which seems perfectly fine to me."
"Modern medicine's a miracle, don't you think," Mercury retorted with a smug smile and a shrug of his shoulders.
"So's the fact that I can sleep peacefully through my parent's anniversary night," Azalea snarked with a deadpan tone as she crossed her arms and didn't believe Mercury's words. "What I'm wondering is how you got Yang to injure you like that. I've known Yang since I was a kid. She's not the type to kick somebody while they're down."
"Sorry, but we're not going to tell you anything," Emerald said as she looked at Azalea. When she did, Azalea soon heard something coming from behind her and turned to see Team JADE behind her. Before Azalea could say anything to her former bullies, Mercury hit her with a flying kick that knocked her to the ground. When Azalea picked herself up, Team JADE was nowhere to be found and she was confused until Emerald used her guns to fire at the Cow Faunus.
Azalea stood back up while Sunset got in front of her friend and used her sword to deflect the bullets. The two girls then charged at the duo in front of them while Emerald unfolded the blades on her guns. Before Sunset or Azalea could attack Emerald, Mercury appeared in front of them and swiftly kicked them in their faces. As they were stunned by the attack, Emerald used the chains of her weapons to grab the girls and throw them onto the ground. As the girls recovered from the attack, Azalea slammed her baton on the ground to send shards of rock at her opponents using Earth Dust. Emerald and Mercury dodged the stones that came at them, as well as bullets Sunset fired from her sword's rifle form by hiding behind several cars that were parked along the road. "You're going to have to try better than that," Mercury said as he jumped into the air and landed between the girls. Delivering a flurry of acrobatic kicks to them with his steel-clad boots, Mercury knocked Azalea and Sunset around once again.
As Azalea managed to block one of his kicks with her vambraces, Sunset was grabbed by Emerald's chains and pulled away from the Cow Faunus. "Sunset," Azalea called out before she saw Mercury leap into the air and bring down his right heel toward her face. Seeing what he was doing, Azalea rolled forward and dodged the attack in time. When Mercury's attack failed, he spun around to hit Azalea with a new roundhouse kick. After Azalea was struck, Mercury continued to kick at her before she forced one of his attacks back and managed to punch him in the stomach as he regained his balance. As Mercury recoiled from the attack, Azalea elbowed him in the ribs before backhanding the young male in the face. Mercury quickly recovered and saw Azalea used her Multi-Action Dust Batons to attack him with sharp pieces of ice and stone. When the shards came flying at him, Mercury only jumped forward and curled into a ball so that his legs would take most of the blows. "Why is he doing that if his combat style focuses on attacking with his legs," Azalea thought to herself before Mercury made it throw her storm of shrapnel.
Landing in front of Azalea, Mercury grabbed at her wrist so she couldn't attack with her baton and started to kick at her again. Azalea countered by waiting until he was in range and hit him in the face with a headbutt. As the gray-haired boy grabbed his face in pain, Azalea struck at him with her batons as they sparked with electricity. Taking several hits to start, Mercury began to counter and deflect the weapons before they hit him. Backflipping away from Azalea before she could land another hit, Mercury fired a pair of rounds from the guns on his boots. Blocking the shots with her vambraces, Azalea remembered when Mercury was fighting in the tournament and used the same attack on Coco and Yatsuhashi. As she was distracted, Mercury jumped onto a nearby car so that he could reach the roof of a building. When he was high enough, he jumped off and fell down toward Azalea while spinning and firing a large number of Wind Dust bullets from his boots. Azalea was quick enough to place her batons back into her greave and block Mercury's landing kick with her vambraces. Firing a shot from his boots, Mercury managed to break Azalea's guard and bounce off of her with a backflip while the projectiles began to rain down on the Cow Faunus. As the smoke from the attack covered Azalea, Mercury smiled with a smug expression on his face before he saw the horned girl was unharmed when the smoke cleared up. "What the hell," he exclaimed as he was confused by what happened before Azalea grabbed him by the waist and slammed him to the ground. When he got back up with a flipping jump, Mercury began to stay on the defensive until he could figure out why his barrage of Wind Dust failed to harm the Faunus girl.
While Mercury and Azalea were battling, Sunset faced off against Emerald after being separated from her friend. Emerald fired one of her guns at Sunset while leaving one of them unfolded as a sickle, prompting the fiery-haired girl to block the shots with her sword. After she did and the gunfire stopped, Sunset saw that Emerald was nowhere to be seen. "Where are you," Sunset questioned as she talked to herself and looked around the area. As she did, she watched several Beowolves approach the battle and prepared to fight them off until she noticed something was strange about them, but couldn't tell what it was to start. While Sunset was distracted by the strange Grimm, Emerald snuck up behind her and prepared to hit the girl. Suddenly, Sunset turned around and swung her sword at the green-haired girl just before she could attack. "Found you," Sunset said as she watched Emerald dodge the attack.
Going on the offensive, Sunset ran toward Emerald so that she could slash at the girl. As she kept swinging her weapon, Sunset watched as Emerald blocked the blade with her own weapons and managed to wrap a chain around the sword. Sunset was quick to act before she was disarmed and tried to strike Emerald in the head with the pommel of her sword, but the girl was too quick and pulled the weapon away. As the sword flew through the air and landed in a nearby car door, Emerald started to slash at Sunset with her weapon's sickle form. Sunset dodged or deflected several of Emerald's attempts to hurt her until she saw the girl start to multiply. As several copies of Emerald appeared, Sunset felt that the new ones were a little unusual to her. As the Emeralds circled around her, Sunset tried to focus and as one of the copies came at her from the left, she grabbed the girl and activated her Semblance.
Searching through Emerald's mind and memories, Sunset saw several things that caught her attention. "I know my fair share of liars and thieves. Stealing is an art of patience, coordination, and in a pinch, sleight of hand," a voice echoed as Sunset watched a memory of Emerald stealing a ring and encountering a woman that sounded familiar. "But you didn't steal the ring in your pocket. You took it right before the jeweler's eyes. And he smiled," the woman said as she explained what she witnessed before cornering Emerald in the alley they were in. Sunset recognized the voice of the woman as the same that spoke after Penny's death. The memories then changed to an intense battle that Emerald watched from a distance, showing Mercury Black killing his own abusive father at the cost of his legs being badly damaged. "Mercury... Tell me, are you anything like your father," the woman asked as Mercury showed his father's corpse to the women after they said they were looking for an assassin.
As the memories went by, Sunset saw that Emerald and Mercury were involved with a lot of things while they worked with the woman in red, who Sunset learned was the same Cinder that joined the two as students at Haven. Images of Roman Torchwick and the White Fang went past Sunset before she watched another battle against a young woman. As she did, Sunset saw several things that surprised her greatly. Emerald was able to make the woman see something that wasn't really there, Mercury's legs were replaced with prosthetics after his battle with Marcus Black, and the young woman had incredible power she couldn't believe at first. As the fight went on and Emerald was about to be killed by the woman for ambushing her, an arrow was shot into her back and the younger criminals kept her steady as the Cinder did something that scared both the woman and Sunset. After Cinder put on a glove, a small bug that resembled a Creature of Grimm appeared in the palm, prompting the woman to speak in a pleading whisper. "Please don't..."
Sunset watched in horror as the bug spat a black substance onto the girl's face and everything played out like an inhumane ritual. Sunset watched as the woman's life was being drained and transferred to Cinder, with their eyes glowing with energy that faded from the other woman. "What the hell is with these guys," Sunset questioned before hearing footsteps rushing toward the ritual and a large blade severed the black web-like substance. When the material was cut, the villains jumped back and Sunset saw that the woman was grabbed by a man she recognized a little. "Is that... Ruby and Yang's uncle," Sunset asked herself as she remembered not only seeing the man around Beacon recently, but also in a few of Team RWBY's memories.
After watching the trio of bad guys escape, Sunset watched as the three slaughtered the White Fang camp in Forever Fall in order to get them to join in Cinder's plans. Sunset witnessed several other details go by such as a discussion of the Breach being too early, rigging matches in the tournament, gathering information on students, and even learning of Penny's robotic nature for themselves. As the most recent memories of the Vytal Festival Tournament's finals showed up, Sunset was shocked to see that Emerald was the reason for Yang 'breaking' Mercury's leg by making a hallucination of the fighter attacking Yang after the match was over. With Yang framed and the public's opinion of the match causing Grimm to gather, Sunset's anger began to build as she watched Mercury fix his prosthetics and the last round of the finals appeared. Sunset watched as Emerald was in the audience and concentrated on the right moment for Pyrrha to be tricked into killing Penny. As Sunset witnessed the events unfold once again, she soon felt something hit her and she was forced out of Emerald's mind.
Back in the streets of Vale, Mercury leaped at Sunset with a flying kick and knocked her away from Emerald. After getting pushed back, Mercury jumped into the air and brought his right heel down on Sunset's face while she was distracted, then kicked her in the stomach to knock her to the ground. As Sunset coughed from the attack, she managed to get back up to see Mercury checking up on Emerald. "Sunset, are you okay," Azalea asked as she managed to reach her friend.
When she stood up, Sunset began to laugh to everyone's confusion. "What's so funny," Emerald questioned as she looked at the flame-haired girl.
Sunset just continued laughing until she controlled herself and looked at her opponents. "I'm just laughing because I'm so mad at you two," Sunset replied with a chuckle still in her voice. "I'm so mad that I'm actually calm and know just how to deal with you," she stated in a serious tone.
"How exactly? You might as well be ashes in the wind when battling us," Mercury remarked.
Sunset only snickered again before she pointed a finger at Emerald and Mercury and spoke to them. "Don't you know there's a mythical bird that can rise back up from its own ashes when it dies," Sunset said as the sleeves of her jacket began to glow with the Fire Dust she had in it. When a pair of flaming wings appeared on Sunset's back, a spiral of flames appeared beneath Emerald and Mercury. With a snap of her fingers, Sunset created a fiery explosion that sounded like the cry of a bird. Just before the attack, Mercury shoved Emerald out of the way and crouched into a ball as the blast enveloped him. When the flames died down, Mercury's pants were damaged enough to reveal his robotic legs to Azalea.
"Wh-what," Azalea voiced as she saw Mercury's legs.
"He's like Oren Maxwell," Sunset told her friend. "His legs are prosthetics because he lost his real ones. I looked in Emerald's mind and they're the ones responsible for all of this. The matches were rigged, Emerald used her Semblance to make several people hallucinate during the tournament, Yang was framed to get the Grimm riled up, and they're the reason that Penny's dead," Sunset explained.
"Like anybody actually cared about that girl. She was just a puppet," Mercury said with a cruel smile on his face and a chuckle in his voice. "A puppet that Atlas made and we used against them."
As Mercury laughed and antagonized the girls over Penny's true robotic nature, Sunset could feel the pure rage coming from Azalea as her eyes turned into a bright ruby color and she rushed at the laughing boy. "YOUR METAL DICK IS MINE, MOTHERFUCKER," Azalea screamed at the top of her lungs as she prepared to clash with the assassin. Before she could, Mercury seemed to vanish from her sight and as she looked around, Azalea saw armed members of the White Fang charging into the battle. "Oh, don't you start with me now," Azalea shouted as she started to glow with her Semblance. Unleashing a flash of light, Azalea soon saw the extremists vanish while Emerald and Mercury covered their eyes. "There you are," Azalea exclaimed as she ran toward Mercury and threw him at Emerald. After the two crashed into each other, Azalea turned invisible and pulled out two of Penny's swords and shifted them into their blaster modes to fire a laser at the criminals.
Mercury and Emerald got blasted by the laser, then prepared to fight again. Emerald swung the chains of her weapons around and managed to wrap them around Azalea, then pulled her forward to allow Mercury a free hit on the Cow Faunus. As Azalea turned visible again after the hit, Emerald stomped down on her with both feet. Before any more damage was dealt, Sunset grabbed her sword and swung it at Emerald, making her jump away and get off of Azalea. As the Cow Faunus got back on her feet, Sunset only said two words to her. "Fire Flower!" Immediately recognizing the name of the attack strategy, Azalea pulled out her Dust Batons and the two girls worked together to create a swarm of small flames that looked like fireflies. Emerald and Mercury watched the sparks of fire float around, not noticing when Sunset snapped her fingers until it was too late. When the snap was heard, the 'insects' detonated and more flames surged around Emerald and Mercury. As they took damage from the attack and were distracted by the heat, Azalea made her way behind the two and struck both of them with her batons after combining them into their staff form.
After taking a few hits from Azalea's weapon, Emerald used her own weapon's sickle form to try and attack the Cow Faunus while Mercury went to attack Sunset again. Azalea separated her weapon into twin batons and blocked Emerald's sickles as they glared at each other with red eyes, but Azalea's attention was soon caught by the giant Grimm dragon that flew toward Beacon Tower with a loud screech. As the Wyvern crashed into the tower, Azalea jumped back and avoided Emerald's attacks while Mercury managed to kick Sunset into Azalea. The two girls managed to stay on their feet and stood back-to-back as they looked at their opponents. Emerald swung her weapon's kusarigama form at the girls in order slash at the two from a distance, while Mercury fired several bullets of Wind Dust at them at the same time. As the blades and chains came at them, Azalea moved the two close to a wall and crossed her arms to have her vambraces touch. When they did, parts of the armor began to glow a cyan color and a barrier in the shape of a gladiolus flower formed to block the attacks. "Hard Light Dust barrier projectors," Azalea told Sunset. "Didn't use them in the tournament because I didn't need to."
"Cool," Sunset said before seeing some bystanders hiding behind some cars. Normally, Sunset would have gone to get them out of the way, but something didn't feel right about them to her. Ignoring them, she turned to see that Emerald and Mercury had vanished. "You two might have disappeared, but I know how to find you," Sunset muttered and closed her eyes to focus. After a deep breath, Sunset's eyes changed to the same color as Emerald and saw through the girl's own eyes, but also felt a headache. Sunset wasn't sure if it was from herself or Emerald using her own Semblance throughout the battle, but watched as the girl pointed her guns at Azalea's exposed side as she kept the barrier up. In Emerald's field of vision, Sunset also saw Mercury leaping into the air for another heel drop before she spoke to Azalea. "Switch," Sunset told Azalea and the Cow Faunus uncrossed her arms.
When the barrier fell down, Sunset was quick to deflect Emerald's bullets with her sword before launching a fireball at the green-haired girl in retaliation. As Emerald took a direct hit from the fireball, she cried out in pain and Mercury was revealed to Azalea. Catching his leg, Mercury only watched as Azalea punched him in the groin with extreme prejudice, sending him to the ground as he groaned in pain for a short bit. "That's for what you said about Penny," Azalea said to the boy as he rolled on the ground. As all four caught their breath and shook off any pain, Mercury was the first to attack again. Fighting through the pain he still felt, he kicked at Azalea while Emerald shot at the horned girl's legs to restrict her movements. Thanks to their teamwork, Emerald and Mercury were able to knock Azalea into a car and her impact with the vehicle caused a large dent.
"I don't think that's gonna buff out," Mercury joked as he saw Azalea attempt to pry herself off the car. After he laughed, Sunset let out a battle cry as she sent streams of flames at the two villains, but they dodged the fire attacks easily and Emerald used her chains to toss the flame-haired girl around. After being released, Mercury used a bicycle kick to send Sunset flying toward Azalea.
Sunset and Azalea grunted as they stood back up and looked at each other. "These guys aren't letting up," Sunset remarked.
"Neither should we," Azalea said as she opened up her greave and placed her batons inside. Closing the modified piece of armor, Azalea watched as Emerald sent her chains toward the two again as Mercury came running for another flying kick. Catching the chains around her arm, Azalea's body began to spark and unleashed a surge of electricity that affected the metal equipment her opponents had. The electricity traveled down Emerald's chains and easily zapped Mercury thanks to his metal legs, causing the two to cry out in pain until Azalea's attack ended.
"My turn," Sunset said with a smirk as she used her own Semblance to access Pyrrha's own 'Polarity'. Manipulating the metal chains and Mercury's legs, Sunset was able to hold down the two and lift up several cars. Before Sunset could attack the helpless villains, she clutched her head in pain and turned toward the direction of Beacon Academy. As the pain in her head became more intense and she stopped using Pyrrha's Semblance, the cars and chains dropped to the ground. Before Emerald and Mercury could attack, a bright light shined from the ruined tower and made all four fighters stop. "ARGH! My head," Sunset shouted as she writhed in agony.
Azalea remembered the last time that Sunset reacted like this, it was from overusing her Semblance and trying to read Professor Ozpin's mind. Believing it to be another instance of that, Azalea unleashed another flash of light to blind Emerald and Mercury. While the two were distracted again, Azalea changed the Dust settings of her weapons to Wind and Gravity Dust. With them, Azalea used the last of her energy to fly away from the battlefield with an unconscious Sunset over her shoulder. When Emerald and Mercury's vision returned, they saw that the girls had left the area. "Come on, we need to see what that light was," Emerald said. "Cinder could be hurt."
"Yeah, so am I," Mercury replied as he groaned in pain. "Ah, that hurt more than Blondie's last attack on me before she broke my leg."
"I'd joke about you needing a third metal leg, but we need to go," Emerald told the boy before they left for Beacon.
Sunset groaned in pain as she began to wake up and soon saw she was lying in a bed with Azalea's dogs and her own pet gecko next to her. Scanning the room, she saw that it was Bianca Coloratura's penthouse and that her friends were all waiting for her to get up. "Sunset! You're awake," Azalea exclaimed as she hugged the girl, being careful to not squeeze or suffocate her. "I already told the others everything you said about Emerald and Mercury."
"I swear if I ever see those two again, I'll rip off that asshole's metal legs and beat them to death with them after stabbing that green-haired bitch in the eyes," Rua shouted before Rebecca poked another pressure point on the former's neck to knock her out for a second.
"What happened? My head felt like it was being crushed by Nora's hammer before I saw that light," Sunset questioned.
"That light did... something to that Wyvern after it destroyed the CCT tower," Cereza said as she looked out the window toward Beacon. Sunset looked in the same direction to see that the titanic Grimm was petrified on the destroyed tower, as motionless as a statue. "It's stuck like that, but it's bringing more Grimm to the school. We managed to get out of there in time, but..."
"Not everyone made it out okay," Layla added as she rubbed her arm and looked at her feet.
Sunset saw everyone's downcast expressions and was wondering what happened, but could tell that it wasn't good. "Who was it," Sunset asked, only to be answered by a familiar voice.
"Pyrrha Nikos," said Terracotta Gaia as he, Ivy, and all the other Huntsmen that Fragment Hunter knew entered the room. "She was killed in battle."
Sunset was shocked to hear the news, but the others spoke up more. "Ruby and Weiss went to find Jaune and Pyrrha since they weren't with the others," Silver explained. "Ruby went up to the tower to help Pyrrha after Jaune called them and..."
Sunset watched as Silver failed to find the words to explain what happened, but Ventus Gaia spoke up. "After seeing that light and helping the others evacuate, I went up to find out what happened and found these," the Falcon Faunus said as he revealed something behind his back. Sunset's eyes widened in shock as she saw Pyrrha's shield, the remains of her weapon, and the circlet she always wore.
"I've never seen Pyrrha take this off," Sunset muttered as she took the circlet and held it in her hands. The thin chains and emeralds dangled as she looked at the accessory, prompting Sunset to figure something out. Focusing her Semblance, she concentrated on the shards of Pyrrha's weapon and the pieces began to magnetize together. "I can still use her Semblance... That's a good thing, right?"
"Yeah, but she's still gone," Vixen reminded with a sad look on her face.
"First Penny, then Pyrrha," Azalea mumbled as she grabbed the pink ribbon on her arm. Slate immediately placed his hat on her head while the rest of her family, Bianca, and even the animals tried to comfort her.
"I wonder how the others are taking it," Vinyl questioned as she looked out the window and placed a hand on the glass.
"Some of them are still in town. Let's go talk with them," Aurora Celeste replied. Everyone agreed and the group soon left the hotel.
In the city of Vale, soldiers from Atlas continued to help civilians after the disaster that everyone was now calling 'the Fall of Beacon'. When Fragment Hunter arrived with Pinkie, Bianca, and all their Huntsmen allies, they encountered Team GLOW speaking to General Ironwood before he walked away. Terracotta went to speak with the general while the teenagers went to speak with their friends from Atlas. "Hey, guys. How's everything been since last night," Sunset asked.
"Not so good," Garnet Pepper said. "With Beacon Tower damaged like it is, communication with the other Kingdoms has been crippled. Not only that, but we'll be shipping back to Atlas soon."
"General Ironwood is worried about all of the troops we lost during that night, so he wants to make sure we get home safely," Raduga White added.
"I think that would be for the best," Bianca agreed. "I'm thinking of going home to Mirabelle after everything that happened."
"I'm sure your family will be happy to see you're okay," Azalea said to her childhood friend.
"Did you guys here about Pyrrha," Rua asked as she looked at the team from Atlas.
The four nodded with sad expressions showing on their faces. "She was a Huntress, alright," Oren Maxwell replied. "She kept fighting when everything seemed bleak. Same with"
"Yeah," Rebecca agreed sadly.
"We'd stay and talk more, but we have to check on the others. Have any of you seen Team PRDT around," Celadon asked.
"Last I saw them, they were helping the medics," Lucy Diamond answered as she gave the others directions. "Percival seemed like he was talking to his team about something, though."
"I think I know what it is," Sunset remarked. "Thanks for everything and I hope that we can see each other soon."
"All depends on what our headmaster wants us to do. Good luck with choosing your path," Maxwell stated and all four students from Atlas saluted their friends from Vale. Fragment Hunter saluted back and soon went off to find Team PRDT.
When they arrived at their next stop, the teenagers noticed that Percival Ivory was speaking with his teammates about something. "Are you sure that you want to do this," Twilight Roseus asked as she adjusted her glasses.
"You girls all know how important this is to me," Percival told his team. "If they can help me find her, then I'm going to go. I'll be back when I can."
"You're our leader. I don't think that this is the best idea, especially after everything that happened," Jennifer Dawn remarked. "At least, let us come with you."
Ebony Rain shook her head as she placed a hand on her blonde teammate's shoulder. "This is something he needs to do for himself," Ebony said. "We need to respect his choices."
"What are you guys talking about," Silver asked as he spoke up for the members of Fragment Hunter.
The members of Team PRDT greeted the teenagers before Twilight gave an answer. "Percival says he's going to leave us for a while so that he can search for his mother. Apparently, Azalea's father knows her and can help look for her," she stated. "But given the CCT's condition, we wouldn't be able to talk with each other until Percival returns to Vacuo."
"Is that really what you want to do," Layla asked as she remembered the talk Team PRDT and Team FCSA had after their missions at Port Mako.
Percival nodded as he gave his answer to the teenagers. "Yeah. This has been bugging me for nearly 18 years, so I want to at least meet her and tell her how I've been doing," he said.
"When would you leave," Azalea asked.
"Hopefully as soon as possible," Terracotta voiced as he, Ventus, and Ivy approached the group. "We could find information about Orchid's whereabouts as we head for Mirabelle to help Lapis."
"Why are we going there," Sunset questioned.
"An old friend of mine is a doctor and can help us," Ivy explained.
"She's one of the best doctors I've ever met," Ventus added.
Hearing the news, Lapis was happy to learn she would have her vision restored after Sable Eisenbrand damaged her eyes during the Battle of Beacon. "We'll leave after you've checked up on everyone," Terracotta told the members of Fragment Hunter.
"We still have a few more stops if that's the case," Celadon remarked as she remembered more of what happened after the Wyvern was frozen. "We should see how Ruby and Yang are doing."
The members of Fragment Hunter soon reached the docks and waited for their boat to the island of Patch, where Ruby and Yang lived with their father. Terracotta had taken Azalea there a few times because he knew Taiyang back from their years as students at Beacon. As the adults went to charter a boat, the teenagers all waited around and talked. "What happened to Smoke Shadow and his gang while I was out," Sunset asked the others.
"I don't think they left Vale yet," Vixen responded.
"Where could they have gone," Silver questioned before everyone heard a trio of voices that were too familiar to them.
"YOU! Everything that happened during the Vytal Festival was all your fault," Aoi Lobelia shouted as Mistral's Team JADE from Haven Academy marched up to the members of Fragment Hunter.
"You're a part of the White Fang! That tattoo on your arm proves it," Jet Pitch said as he pointed to Silver, remembering the battle against Percival Ivory during the tournament.
"It wasn't enough that you beat us in the first round, but those terrorists had to attack us," Envy Sinn stated. "You just have to prove that you're better than us, Dairy Cow!"
Duke Cobalt just groaned in annoyance as he watched his team yell at the Faunus members of Fragment Hunter, even when they weren't involved with the White Fang itself. The three teams only listened to the bullies rant about what they thought of Azalea, Silver, and Vixen. "Will you three just shut up," Slate said to the antagonistic trio as he stepped in front of Azalea. "Why are you even bothering us?"
"Because you three are the closest to the White Fang here," Aoi said as she prepared to use her Laser Vision Semblance on the group.
"Aoi, stop it," Duke said as he tried to defuse the situation.
"Stay out of this, Cobalt," Envy said as she drew her sword. "This is between us and those dumb animals."
Before anyone made the first move, Azalea approached the three bullies with a cold stare in her eyes. Envy was about to attack when the Cow Faunus spoke up. "You three are pathetic. You've been picking on me and so many others for years. It's... sad," Azalea told the trio. "You could do better, but here you are trying to start a fight because you feel like you need some sort of victory after this whole thing. Sunset told me what she found out about you. The White Fang killed your family, Jet. They did the same for Silver and he fought the guy who was responsible at the cost of Lapis getting blinded by him," she said to the black-haired boy. Jet's body language told her that he was feeling ashamed about assuming Silver was still with the White Fang. "Aoi, you're just a girl who never learned to find the positive in the Faunus. You only heard what others said and agreed with them like a sheep following a flock. Have you ever taken the time to talk to a regular Faunus and know what they're like? I don't think you have," she said to Aoi, who stopped attempting to use her Semblance as she listened. "And Envy, you've been stewing in your own negative emotions toward me for years because I 'had everything you don't'. You could have just met my family and they would have given you a real home on the farm. Instead, you just tried to take away what peace I had by tormenting me all the time."
"I... I w- Uh..." Envy was at a loss for words as she heard Azalea talk to her, but listened as the horned girl continued to speak.
"All three of you may have had different lives to me, but you're not the only ones that fought that night. One of my friends is blind now, several have been taken away or ran off, and two of them are now dead. I don't know what have planned after everything that happened, but I know what I'm going to do. So just leave me and my friends alone," Azalea told her former bullies before marching forward, prompting the three to step out of her way. Unknown to everyone, Terracotta listened to the whole speech with Ivy and Ventus, all three of them smiling with pride as Azalea easily took down her worst enemies without even raising a fist or her voice.
After the confrontation with Team JADE, Fragment Hunter took their boat to the island of Patch and soon made their way to a log cabin in a forest. "Here we are. Taiyang Xiao Long's house," Terracotta told the group. "It's been a while since you've been here, Princess," he said to Azalea.
"Yeah... It has," Azalea sadly replied as she remembered what Yang Xiao Long had been through.
Terracotta soon knocked on the door and waited for a man with blond hair to open it. "Terracotta. Good to see you, buddy," Taiyang greeted as he saw his old classmate. "Come on in, everyone." As everyone came inside the house, everyone heard a small bark and saw a corgi at their feet. "Calm down, Zwei. They're just visiting for a bit," Taiyang said to the dog.
Azalea and Rua were the first to pet the corgi until they heard Ivy speak to Taiyang. "So, how are your girls after that night?"
Taiyang avoided eye contact until he found the right way to talk about how Ruby and Yang were doing. "Ruby just needs more rest, especially after getting to the top of the tower to see what was happening. But Yang... she isn't taking everything well," he told the elder Cow Faunus.
"Losing something important will do that to you," Lapis sadly said as she was guided over to the couch to lie down on. As she was on her back, Zwei approached the girl and licked at her hand in order to try cheering her up. Lapis gave a small smile and scratched Zwei's head in response.
"Think she'll talk with us," Vinyl asked as she removed her sunglasses to talk with Taiyang.
Taiyang hesitated a bit before he gave an answer, but spoke to the group with an honest answer. "I don't think she'll be willing to say a lot, but you're welcome to try," he said. "She's in the spare bedroom. She wanted some space away from Ruby after everything."
"I'll talk to her," Azalea said as she went up the stairs and found Yang looked out the window with an emotionless expression. "Hi, Yang."
The blonde looked over at Azalea and acknowledged the Faunus' presence. "Hey, Azalea," Yang greeted half-heartedly.
"We know about everything that happened. Well... not everything," Azalea said as she looked at what was left of Yang's right arm. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it." Yang looked away and slightly nodded to answer Azalea. "You aren't the only one that lost something, Yang. Lapis was blinded and we're taking her a doctor my family knows. We'll be doing what we can to help her, just like what your dad would do for you."
"I know he would," Yang responded.
"You're strong. You'll get through this with time. I did with the bullies that made me feel weak," Azalea told Yang. The blonde started to tear up at what Azalea said, but didn't respond. "Just know that even if nobody's by your side at the moment, there are still people that love you and care about how you're doing." Azalea saw that even with Yang being emotionally drained from everything that has happened, her body language showed that she was listening to the Faunus. "I'll leave you alone now. Bye, Yang." When Azalea left, Yang let the tears forming in her eyes fall down her face and onto her bedsheets.
Walking down the stairs, the others saw that Azalea looked upset after her talk with Yang. "That bad," Celadon asked.
"After everything that happened, it'll take a while for her to be back to her normal self," Azalea replied. "It's soul-crushing to see Yang like this."
"I know what you mean. After losing Summer, I was in the same boat as Yang," Taiyang told the others as he recalled Ruby's deceased mother. "These sorts of things don't just heal over after a few days. It takes time to get through it and the efforts of others helping you."
"We'd love to stay and help, but we have our own problems to handle," Cereza said as she looked at Rua helping Lapis avoid any obstacles in her way.
"Terracotta told me," Taiyang replied. "Good luck with your trip."
"Thanks, Tai," Terracotta said. "We'll keep in touch the old-fashioned way."
"With the CCT down, that's for the best," Taiyang noted.
As the group said farewell to Ruby and Yang's father, Sunset noticed Qrow Branwen walking up to the house. As the group passed him, Sunset bumped into the male and felt something with her Semblance kicking in. "What was that," Sunset thought to herself as she was confused by what she sensed from Qrow. Ignoring it for the moment, she went back to the boat with the others while she started humming a song that popped into her head.
When Fragment Hunter reached Vale again, they only had one more thing to do as they managed to find who they were looking for. Approaching Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren, the members of Fragment Hunter all saw the three were just as upset as they were after learning that Pyrrha died. "Hey, guys," Layla greeted as the teenagers gathered together.
"Hey," Jaune greeted as he saw the members of Fragment Hunter. "What are you guys doing?"
"We came to find you," Sunset said. "How are the three of you after everything?"
"Not great," Nora answered sadly.
"None of us are after that night," Rua replied. "I think Ruby took it the worse since she saw a number of people die in front of her. A 15-year old girl shouldn't see that in her first year of Beacon." As Rua said that, tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to fall to the ground.
"There are more people that died in the battle that night than just Pyrrha," Ren stated. "Everyone was affected by this. Some more than others," he added as he looked at Jaune.
Wondering what Ren was implying when he looked at Jaune, Sunset used her Semblance to investigate the boy's memories. After seeing Pyrrha and Ozpin going into a sort of underground vault where the young woman she saw in Emerald's memories was hooked up to some strange machinery, Sunset watched as Cinder appeared and managed to kill the woman with an arrow. After what she could only describe as 'magic' enter Cinder, Ozpin instructed the students to escape while he fought the newly empowered woman. When Jaune and Pyrrha got outside of Beacon Tower, Pyrrha was determined to try and stop Cinder. Jaune's pleas to get Pyrrha to stay were silenced when she gave him a long kiss on the lips. "Okay, I wasn't expecting that," Sunset thought to herself as she watched Jaune return the kiss and the two enjoyed it. The passion soon ended as Pyrrha used her Semblance on Jaune's armor to push him into a locker with an apology. As Jaune continued to plead with Pyrrha to not endanger herself, the scene soon cut to him calling Weiss and panicking about Pyrrha risking her life. Sunset could only watch the scene before her as Jaune's emotions surged, affecting her as well. Exiting Jaune's mind, Sunset immediately hugged him and tears fell from her eyes. "I'm so sorry," Sunset told him as she literally knew what he felt.
Jaune hugged Sunset back as he started to cry over losing Pyrrha. The other members of Fragment Hunter gave sympathetic looks as they knew Sunset was the only one of them who was able to understand Jaune's pain the best. After the hug between Jaune and Sunset ended, Jaune dried his face before speaking to everyone. "I think I needed that," he said.
"Here. You might want these," Rua said as she gave Jaune, Ren, and Nora the remains of Pyrrha's belongings that Ventus gathered from the girl's final battleground.
"What are we even going to do now that we can't stay at Beacon," Nora asked as she watched Jaune take the items.
"Beacon was only the start," Rebecca said. "It'll be up to us to figure out the rest of our journey."
"She's right," Vinyl said. "The Fall of Beacon was the end of the beginning for us. With everything that happened that night, we'll need to take the next step. For now, we're going to get Lapis the help she needs to see again. You guys should talk with Ruby at her home at Patch. She was the last one to see Pyrrha, so maybe you guys can figure out your next step together."
The remains of Team JNPR looked at each other and agreed to do just that before speaking to Fragment Hunter again. "We wish you the best endeavors on your travels," Ren told the group. "Take care."
"I hope we see each other soon," Nora said.
"Maybe you guys can all stop at Mirabelle some time," Azalea suggested. "It would be good to catch up there before doing anything else important."
"Sounds like a good idea if we're traveling," Jaune said. "Goodbye, everyone."
"Don't say goodbye," Slate told Jaune and the others. "My grandparents always told me and my sister that if you don't say goodbye, you're never really gone. You just aren't here right now. And considering everything with Pyrrha, Penny, and all the others, I think it helps keep them in your thoughts."
"They sound really nice and smart," Azalea said to Slate with a smile on her face as she looked at her boyfriend. Slate smiled back and her and held her close as he adjusted his hat.
"Well, I guess we'll see each other later," Silver remarked. "Much later." Everyone agreed that they would meet again before they headed on their separate ways.
The members of Fragment Hunter were all waiting at a clearing near the outskirts of Vale to meet up with who was joining them on their trip east. Team SLVR, Team SAFR, and Team FCSA all checked through their bags and equipment when Gin Aurum met up with the group and used his Semblance to give everyone's items back. "I'm glad that Mom's letting you help your friends, Vi," Gin said as he spoke to his little sister. "Then again, I'm going with you, so that might be putting her at ease."
"Speaking of sisters, where's mine," Slate wondered as he looked around the area. "Pinkamena Momo Quartz, you better get your butt over her now," the gunslinger called out. Soon, his pink-haired sister popped out of a bush with Sunset's pet gecko on her head. "What were you doing in there," Slate questioned as he picked a few leaves out of the girl's hair.
"I was picking berries," Pinkie said as she showed a small handful of berries to the others.
"Those things better not be poisonous," Slate warned.
"Like it'll be worse than eating bugs back in Vacuo," Pinkie remarked as she tossed a few berries into her mouth and ate them.
Hearing that Pinkie and Slate used to eat bugs back in Vacuo, Celadon gagged at the thought. "Those berries are fine," Azalea said as she grabbed some from Pinkie and enjoyed them for herself. "You find them around all kinds of forests in Remnant."
Soon, the sound of several dogs barking was heard and the group all turned to see Dante, Diana, and Drei coming their way with Bianca Coloratura following them. As the four approached, Silver smiled as he saw the Dove Faunus until he noticed Dante running straight for him. "Why," Silver meekly asked as the Great Dane-Wolfhound mix knocked him to the ground. The Wolf Faunus only shouted out muffled cries for help while most of Fragment Hunter laughed. After getting Dante off of him, Silver turned to Azalea with a glare. "I think your dog has it out for me," Silver told the horned girl with an annoyed tone of voice. Bianca and Azalea only snickered at Silver's bad luck with Dante while they helped him onto his feet.
"I think that Dante likes you if he keeps doing that," Ivy remarked as she walked up to the group with Terracotta and Ventus by her sides. Joining them was Percival Ivory as he carried a bag of supplies with him for the trip. "I haven't seen Orchid in years. I wonder how she's doing," Ivy said as she watched Percival put his back down.
"Hopefully we'll find out," Terracotta replied.
"Anybody else we're missing," Ventus questioned as he scanned the area. "Aurora and Nocturne said that they still have to keep an eye on Garrison Academy, so we won't be able to see them for a while."
Counting up the teenagers, adults, and animals, Sunset answered the Falcon Faunus. "We're just waiting on our ride. And they owe us one for what Ivy did during the Fall of Beacon," the flame-haired girl said as she held a calling card with a familiar emblem on the back. Soon, the group heard an approaching engine and looked up to see an airship that was originally used to take passengers to Amity Colosseum. "Looks like they're here," Sunset remarked as she playfully rolled her eyes.
As the airship landed, it opened and Smoke Shadow twirled his cane before tapping it on the ground. "Your transportation has arrived," the Raccoon Faunus greeted.
"Probably stolen," Sunset said as she guessed where the thief obtained the airship.
"Well, it's not like any of you can easily take more than 20 people outside of Vale with everything that happened earlier," Smoke responded with a smirk as he looked Sunset in the eyes.
"I don't think any of you four could have made it through that night without us helping you," Sunset retorted.
"JUST KISS ALREADY," Lapis shouted, surprising everyone. "Geez, I can tell you two have a thing for each other even when all I see is just one big blur," the blue-haired girl muttered.
After getting past the awkward moment, Smoke guided Sunset and everyone else onto the airship. As everyone took their seats and put their bags away, the Raccoon Faunus placed a finger on the earpiece he had. "Kun, get us in the air," he instructed.
"You got it, pal," Kun Agate responded as the airship began to take off. When the ship was in the sky, Kun spoke to Smoke again. "We might not make it all the way to Anima in one go, but we can at least stop at Notremodo. Maybe see the sights and enjoy the food."
"You always have food on your mind, big guy," Smoke chuckled. "Still, Notremodo would be a good stop for all of us."
"I have to agree," Cereza said to the Raccoon Faunus. "I need to check in with my father and show him I'm alright."
"Plus, we'll be able to see your home first," Azalea added.
Cereza smiled and gave a little laugh as she looked at her teammate. "We'll need to get there first. It'll take us a little while from Vale," Cereza said before she looked at Sunset. "I'm curious. Why haven't we told anybody about what you found out from Emerald's memories," Cereza mentally asked Sunset.
"With everything Team RWBY and Team JNPR went through, I think it would have been better for them to deal with what they needed at the moment. Besides, I think Ruby and her uncle might have a talk about what she saw," Sunset told the members of Fragment Hunter using her Semblance's telepathic link and hinted at Qrow's involvement with Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury. "I think that night showed us all something important," Sunset said aloud to everyone as her pet gecko, Phoenix climbed onto her shoulder. "We need to keep moving forward and continue fighting. There's no telling what else is out there besides the ones responsible for Beacon falling."
At a village in Sanus, members of the White Fang were scattered all across the ground as a lone man fought against them. "No! Please," cried out one soldier before they screamed for their life. Blood splattered across the dirt near a pair of broken sunglasses while the Faunus fell to the ground with their uniform stained red.
"You don't scare me, human," one Faunus said before they charged at the man, but was sent flying back into a building and knocked out cold.
As more and more soldiers were defeated, only one remaining Faunus wearing a Grimm Mask that completely covered their face stood. The extremist stood shaking in their boots as the man approached him, grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him about a foot off the ground. The Faunus' mask was soon removed and his expression showed that he was terrified of the man he was being held up by. The unknown man inspected the mask before turning his attention to the petrified Faunus and performed a powerful chokeslam that ended the 'battle'.
When the last terrorist was defeated, several bystanders watched as the man placed the mask on his face and began to walk away from the village. One mother and child held onto each other as the male passed by them without uttering a single sound. Their eyes were wide as they read what was written on the back of the male's jacket. Above a design of a machete going through the bottom of a mask was the word 'Carnage' in a sinister shade of crimson, almost the same as blood.
Wow... I can't believe I've actually done it. I've written a story that has 50 chapters. I'm actually proud of myself for doing this. And thank you, everyone. Thank you for sticking through and reading this story for yourselves. It means a lot that you continued to read about my Original Characters and their adventures during the canonical story of RWBY. Fragment Hunter's journey won't be stopping here, though. They have plenty to do as they continue on as warriors and heroes.
Now then, for the battle against Emerald and Mercury, I believe that the most appropriate music to play is "I'm The One" during the first half of the fight. After Sunset exits Emerald's memories and she goes on the counterattack with Azalea, the next song that you should listen to is "Don't Lose Your Mind" from Kamen Rider Drive. I checked the translated lyrics out and I thought it was very appropriate enough for Sunset as a battle theme.
As for why Sunset passed out before her final move, my original plan was that she saw through Ruby's eyes and watched Pyrrha die at the same time. Because of Sunset's Semblance, it would have caused another "Silver Eye surge" or something in order to handle any Grimm nearby. But we didn't really know much about Silver Eyed Warriors when I was figuring this out. When we did get the info, I thought that the emotions needed to use the powers would be strong enough for Sunset to sense from quite a distance. After all, the light that shines from Ruby and Maria using their abilities during Volume 6 covered a large area. So, I decided to have Sunset feel Ruby's emotions at the time and cause her to react the same way she did with when she tried reading Ozpin's unique mind. Once again, she'll write it off as overusing her Semblance, which she did.
The final scene was something I wanted to show in order to show off more of the threats my characters will battle since they won't be completely involved in the Salem storyline. Original characters deserve original threats and the character who was slaughtering members of the White Fang is definitely somebody I want to show more of later because I've got plans for him.
With Fragment Hunter dealing with what they had to in Vale, they're ready to head off for their next destination with a number of friends by their side. With Cereza's hometown of Notremodo as their goal at the moment, our heroes are now off. How will our heroes do outside of Vale? Can they prove themselves as Huntsmen and Huntresses with so little training from Beacon? Just who or what will they encounter on their journey? Find out next time on "Sideline: Another Story".
WaterDragonMaverick, signing out!