Here we are at Chapter 129 and the volume 8 finale for this story. Like with RWBY KEPL, this will go into a hiatus after this chapter, but there will be a few changes in this one. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. I only own my OCs. Here's chapter 129. Enjoy.
Chapter 129: Worth it All
In the central location between Atlas and Vacuo, the battle rages on on multiple fronts. Penny flies through the air, sending out blasts of lightning through her swords at Innominat, who counters with his own ranged attacks to block them. The two then charge at each other and clash with their blades. Meanwhile, Velvet flips over Emerald's chains before firing off her gauntlet, only for Emerald to block the shots with her blades and then going in again. Velvet attacks with her foot blades while Emerald parries with her own, but then Velvet uses her Maiden powers to freeze Emerald's feet to the ground and then backflip kicks her in the face to knock her back. Velvet takes a moment to see how the others are doing. Ruby is still duking it out with Neo, who keeps pushing her further and further away on one path, only for Blake to join in and attack Neo from behind. Meanwhile, Innominat fires off more dark blasts at Penny who flies around them. However, Innominat gets hit by a few fireballs and looks down to see Weiss on her Queen Lancer summon, flying in to help her friend. Velvet then turns back to Emerald.
"Still pissed about what happened to Cinder, huh. When will you realize it?" Velvet aims her blade at Emerald.
"Realize what?!" Emerald aims her pistols at her.
Velvet looks nonchalant, "That Cinder never gave a damn about you in the first place," she says, making Emerald growl.
While the battles are going on, Jaune, Nora, and Lailah appear out of their portals to see all the commotion.
"What do we do?" Nora looks to her friends.
"We do our job. Our main priority is getting the civilians safely evacuated. Let's hurry!" and then Jaune moves ahead with his weapons out.
Nora nods to Lailah and flies to another platform. Lailah is about to move as well when she feels something strange and look off to her left, focusing on one portal in particular. Back in the fighting, Innominat slashes his swords at Penny, who blocks with her spinning blades only to get pushed back. Weiss comes in from below on her Queen Lancer and charges at Innominat, but Innominat spins over her and slashes through the summon. Just as Weiss starts falling, Penny flies in and catches her.
"Penny, you need to go. Get through the portal, now!" Weiss pleads.
"No, I'm not leaving you guys like this. I already lost one friend, I'm not losing anymore," Penny retorts, only for the two of them to get knocked out of the air by a blast from Innominat and crash land onto one platform.
Innominat lands in front of them, "Now, now, you shouldn't get distracted in the middle of a fight. It may cost you your life, or somebody else's. I mean, have you already forgotten what happened to your blonde-haired friend?" he smirks.
Velvet sees them in trouble and looks back just as Emerald attacks with her blades again. However, she catches them in her demon claw.
"I don't have time to play with you!" she conjures up a fire arte close up and blasts Emerald away before running to help her friends. Velvet jumps into the air and focuses her Maiden powers into her claw. She shoots out a wave of ice at Innominat, creating a wall of ice between them and lands in front of the group. Velvet turns to Weiss. "Weiss, take the relic and go, we'll hold him off here!"
Weiss begins to protest, "But-,"
"Now!" Velvet yells.
Reluctantly, Weiss takes the Staff of Creation and flees while Velvet and Penny get ready as Innominat breaks through the ice wall.
"About time you decided to join us, dear sister," Innominat mocks her.
"You're not Laphi, Innominat. And you never will be," Velvet fires off some ice shards from her demon claw, but Innominat slices through them with his blades.
Back with Ruby and Blake, they continue their fight with Neo. Ruby twirls her scythe around, trying to cleave Neo in two, but Neo twirls around her strikes. Ruby swings her scythe up, allowing Blake to jump off the top while firing her pistol at Neo. Neo opens up her umbrella to block the shots, but then Blake falls down on top of her. Neo tries to thrust her blade into her chest, but Blake's semblance saves her and allows Blake to get behind her. Blake swings her blades in a few combos, forcing Neo back a bit, but then Ruby comes in from behind and swings her scythe at her. Neo shatters like glass with her semblance, and the pair look to the side to see her standing nearby, a confident smirk on her face. They're about to go after her, but Blake looks over when she sees Velvet and Penny about to fight Innominat, and Emerald looking down on them like she's about to attack them.
"Go!" Blake looks to Ruby. "Go help the others. I'll deal with Neo here. She's mine," Ruby glares at Neo.
Blake hesitates a bit, but eventually follows her leader's command and goes to help the others. Neo pays her no mind, focused only on Ruby, who uses her semblance to fly at her. Innominat fires a blast at the, but Velvet meets the attack with a fire arte that cancels it out. Innominat flies through the smoke at her, but Penny uses her Maiden powers to blow a gust of wind to push him back. However, some shots rain down on them, and they take a few hits before Velvet looks up to see Emerald falling towards them, her pistols firing. Velvet creates a claw shield with her semblance to block the shots. Emerald lands on the shield and then jumps off. Velvet tosses up a lightning Dust crystal and absorbs it with her claw. She then smashes her claw onto the ground in front of her, sending out an electric shockwave at Emerald. However, Innominat gets in the way and stabs one sword into the ground, using it like a makeshift lightning rod to absorb all of the lightning away from them.
"Oh, you'll have to do better than that," Innominat notes mockingly.
Just then, Emerald uses her semblance, making everything disappear around them. Penny looks around, not saying anything but mist around her, only to get kicked in the face by Emerald, followed by a slash across her back by Innominat. Velvet uses her powers again to blow the mist away, and then sends out an arch of fire at them to blow Emerald and Innominat away from Penny. Just as they're about to counterattack, Blake comes in and lands next to Velvet and Penny. Innominat looks between them and Ruby fighting against Neo, seeing Weiss coming in to aid her leader.
"Go, get the relic. I'll take care of things here," Innominat tells her.
"What?! But Velvet Crowe is-," Emerald suddenly grasps her head in pain as Innominat curls his fingers.
"I made you. I own you. And I said go," Innominat orders her.
The pain subsides, and Emerald moves to go help Neo. Blake is about to go after her, only for Innominat to launch another dark blast at her, forcing Velvet to create a claw shield to protect her. Meanwhile, Ruby twirls her scythe around before throwing it at Neo, who leans to the side to evade it. Ruby uses her semblance to fly around behind her and grab the scythe and then attacks her rear. Neo backflips under the swing, but then Weiss glides in on her glyphs and hits Neo with the staff into a nearby portal.
"Come on, we have to get this done... We have to... for Yang," Weiss holds back the tears.
However, Emerald suddenly appears above them and kicks both of them back. As they get up, Neo comes out of the portal and attacks Ruby again while Weiss gets pushed back by Emerald and her chains.
…
Meanwhile, Winter Schnee is in the vault, facing off against Ironwood who managed to escape his cell. Winter holds her ground, but Ironwood slowly pushes her back.
"Winter, I have only tried to do what is best for Remnant. I thought you believed in that too!" Ironwood fires off his cannon.
Winter evades the blast, "I did, right up until you decided to kill thousands of innocent people. You say you sacrificed everything, but the truth is you've never sacrificed anything yourself. You forced all of the burden onto Mantle, tried to arrest Weiss and the others when they spoke out. I thought they should've listened to you, but I see now that they were right. Everyone else have had to make sacrifices, while you made none," Winter fights him off.
"I will do whatever it takes to stop Salem, because that is the only way to beat her. If no one else will make the hard decisions, then I will!" Ironwood swings his cannon up into Winter's chin and then slams it against her chest, knocking her to the ground. Ironwood takes aim and then fires his cannon, but just before the blast connects, a wall of flames and paper appears to protect Winter.
"What happened to you, General Ironwood?" they hear and look up to see Lailah standing next to Winter. "What happened to the man that swore to protect the people of Remnant?"
"Who the Hell are you?" Ironwood aims his cannon at her. Lailah takes a moment and shows her old form, Pyrrha Nikos, stunning him. "Pyrrha Nikos? But... You died. How?"
"Maotelus saw fit to reincarnate me to protect Velvet's old home, and Remmant. This isn't the way, General Ironwood. Please, even if Atlas falls, as long as its people survive, Atlas will live on and can be rebuilt. It was just like with Mantle after the Great War. A kingdom is not a place, it's a people," Lailah pleads with him.
Ironwood hesitates, but aims his cannon again, "Atlas is whatever I say it is," he fires his cannon.
Lailah blocks the shot with her cards and shows a sad face, "I'm sorry," she pushes the blast back.
Lailah then creates a huge ball of fire and slams it down on top of a screaming Ironwood in a fiery explosion.
Lailah helps Winter up, "Come on, the others need our help," and the pair race to the portal.
…
Back in the central location, Ruby and Weiss continue their battle with Neo and Emerald. Ruby flies around with her semblance and then spins around with her scythe at Neo, who leans back to evade the strike, and then flips around to avoid her second. Neo thrusts her blade at Ruby's face, who narrowly dodges it, and then kicks her under the chin. Ruby stumbles, and Neo capitalizes with a kick to her face, followed by an upward swing of her umbrella that knocks her scythe out of her hands and into the abyss below.
"Ruby!" Weiss yells, but then creates a glyph to block some shots from Emerald's pistols.
Emerald uses her semblance again, making Weiss see an angry Winter attack her instead. Off balance from the illusion, Weiss steps back from each strike and blocks the last. However, the illusion fades, throwing her off, only to get a hook kick to the side of the head, forcing her off the side of the pathway while dropping the staff. Emerald claims the staff and then runs over to where Neo and Ruby are, however, she doesn't notice Weiss under the pathway, safely standing on one of her glyphs.
Back with Ruby, she watches as Neo slowly approaches her, "Whatever it is you wanted... I hope it was worth it," Ruby has her arms out, glaring at her.
Neo narrows her eyes, brings out her blade, and thrusts it at Ruby. However, Ruby falls over the edge, using her semblance to fly under the bridge and come up behind Neo, pushing her off the edge. Neo drops the relic onto the bridge while holding onto the edge, but before she can do anything, she gets hit from behind by Emerald, and falls over the edge, grabbing Neo's leg to hang on. Emerald stands over them, watching Neo reach a hand up to her.
"I appreciate your aid, Neo... but, you've outlived your usefulness," Emerald kicks her umbrella off the edge, and the extends the staff. "And as for you... I'll send Velvet to keep you company shortly," she then hist Neo's hand, causing both to fall off the edge.
Weiss gets back onto the pathway, but sees Neo and Ruby fall and disappear into the abyss below.
"RUBY!" Weiss yells, gaining Velvet's attention.
"...Ruby... No," Velvet mutters in shock and horror at losing her love.
Jaune also saw Ruby fall into the abyss and turns to Nora, "Get through the portal and bring back any huntsmen over there that can help. Hurry!" Jaune then goes to help his friends while Nora heads through the portal to Vacuo.
Velvet falls onto her knees, still in shock at losing Ruby. Innominat takes advantage of this and fires off another dark blast at Velvet.
"Velvet!" Blake tackles her out of the way of the blast.
However, Blake herself doesn't escape the blast unscathed and the impact launches her off of the platform. Velvet reaches out to her in vain as Blake disappears into the dark abyss.
"Oh, how sad for you. Is that despair I sense?" Innominat mocks her.
Penny flies in at him with her blades, but Innominat deflects them before grabbing Penny's face and blasting her point-blank, knocking her back. Innominat approaches Velvet's back and goes to finish her off, but Velvet roars she swings her demon claw around, encased in flames, and nails him hard. Innominat gets back up, but has to block a strike from Jaune's blade. He counters with a side swing at his chest, but Jaune blocks with his shield and repels him away. Jaune stands with Velvet and Penny as they get ready to face Innominat. Meanwhile, Weiss looks as Emerald runs towards Innominat with the staff and goes after her. The three are about to attack Innominat, but he conjures an arte that creates a large set of jaws above them that begins sucking them up into the air. Jaune stabs his sword into the floor, Penny flies against the current with her powers, and Velvet holds the ground with her claws.
"You had your precious Laphicet save you from this once before, but who's going to save you from it this time?" Innominat mocks them again.
Velvet looks over as Jaune and Penny struggle to stay away from the jaws' clutches and tries to figure out a plan. She then sees Emerald approaching and is about to attack before Weiss enters the fray to stop her, the two women fighting with their blades. Velvet fires her gauntlet at Innominat, but he merely blocks the bullets with his sword. Just when it appears that the others are going to get swallowed up by his arte, the arte itself explodes. Innominat gasps and then looks up to see Lailah and Winter on another platform nearby. Winter sends out a flock of Nevermore summons while Lailah throws more of her cards at Innominat. The combined assault forces him to back off. Winter then sees her sister fighting against Emerald and runs to her aide while Lailah goes to help the others. Weiss thrusts her rapier at Emerald, who parries it with one blade and then counters with an upward swing of the other. Weiss steps back and makes another swing. The process goes on, with Weiss slowly being forced back closer to the edge of the platform. However, Winter saves her in time by kicking Emerald in the face and sending out a Manticore summon to keep her back.
Winter helps Weiss up, "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Winter," Weiss smiles.
"Don't worry. I'm not leaving you alone. Not this time," Winter replies.
However, the dark mist appears again and surrounds them. The sisters hold onto one another to keep each other in their sights. Weiss suddenly sees Emerald jump out behind Winter, about to strike. Weiss pushes her sister out of the way and takes the hit, getting knocked off the edge.
"WEISS!" Winter screams as she sees her sister disappear into the darkness below.
Emerald goes to attack her, only for Jaune to stop her and push her back with a shockwave from his shield. He looks back at Winter, who's crying on the ground and slamming her fist on the floor. Meanwhile, Penny holds back a strike from Innominat, giving Velvet the chance to jump over her and throw a few kicks with her foot blades out at Innominat. Tears fall from Velvet's eyes as she pushes the emotions back to focus on the mission. She and Innominat trade a few strikes with their blade. Innominat thrusts his blade out at one point, only for Velvet to dodge it to the side and then swings her arm blade down, breaking the blade in half, and then kicks Innominat back.
Lailah kneels next to Winter, "I'm sorry, but we have to go. This place won't hold much longer," she manages to coax Winter onto her feet.
Jaune keeps Emerald back, blocking her chains with his shield and making a downward strike with his sword. Emerald jumps back while firing off her pistols, but he blocks them with his shield. He attempts another strike with his sword, but Emerald catches it in her blades and then snaps his sword in half. Jaune steps back and stares at his broken sword, but this gives Emerald the chance to wrap her chains around his ankles and make him fall onto the floor. She spins around, taking him for a ride, and then flings him at Velvet who's still fighting Innominat. He crashes into her and they fall onto the ground. Innominat fires off another blast at them, but Jaune manages to push Velvet out of the way and tries to protect himself with his shield. His shield holds, but the blast knocks him off of the platform and he joins the others in the abyss below.
"No," Penny mutters in horror.
She and Velvet regroup with Lailah and Winter at the exit gateway while Emerald and Innominat stand before them. Just then, the central location releases an inhuman scream, signaling it's about to disappear.
"We need to go. Now," Lailah tells them.
Seeing that they're out of options, Velvet creates a claw shield to separate herself from the others.
"Velvet what are you doing?!" Penny asks.
"Get out of here. We already lost the staff. We can't lose you too, Penny. I'll hold them off," Velvet replies.
"No, I won't lose you two!" Penny begs, but Lailah holds her back.
"Winter, please... Get her out of here," Velvet all but begs.
"What? Wait, no-," Penny protests, but Winter knocks her out with a chop to her neck.
"I'm sorry. We'll make them pay for everything they've done," Winter mutters.
Carrying the unconscious Penny on her shoulders, Winter runs to the exit portal with Lailah in tow. Velvet stays behind to face Emerald and Innominat.
"Now, I can finally get what I deserve," Emerald is about to strike, until Innominat causes her to feel pain again.
"No, it looks like our time has run out here. We have the staff, so we'll have to make do with that," Innominat curls his fingers again. "We are going NOW," he orders her.
Reluctantly, Emerald is forced to agree and Innominat carries her out through another portal. Velvet looks back at the exit portal and is about to make a break for it, but suddenly her pendant starts glowing.
"...Ruby?" Velvet watches as the pendant points downward in the direction that Ruby fell. "Ruby... I'm coming for you,"
Velvet stands there and waits as the central location disappears. When it reaches her, Velvet allows herself to fall into the abyss just like her teammates and Jaune before the central location disappears completely. On the other side, in Vacuo, Nora, Ren, and Oscar try to hold off the Grimm along with the happy huntresses. The Grimm keep coming, but a wall of flaming cards appears and holds the Grimm back. They look back to Lailah and Winter appear, with Winter carrying Penny. Winter looks over and sees her family along with Klein, and she cries again. Penny slowly wakes up and looks around.
"Where..." Penny mumbles.
"I'm sorry, Penny. I'm... I'm sorry," Winter speaks through the tears.
Knowing what she means, Penny cries at the realization that Ruby, Velvet, and the others are gone. They turn their attention to the Grimm as Lailah's barrier dissipates. Penny narrows her eyes at them and activates her Maiden Powers. Floating in front of everyone else, Penny creates her blades and then charges forth with an angry shout.
…
In another place entirely, Velvet slowly opens her eyes. She feels snow lightly falling upon her. She springs up and looks around, finding herself in a snowy field. Getting up, she takes a few steps until she reaches a cliffside overlooking a nearby town. A town she recognizes all too well.
"...Hellawes... I'm back in my old world,"
And that's the chapter and the volume 8 finale. Whew, finally got that all caught up and now it's time for another hiatus. That's right people, Penny gets to live and Velvet and the others have somehow ended up back in Velvet's old world. They managed to get the refugees away to Vacuo, but they lost the Staff of Creation and their problems are far from over. Will Velvet find the others before her old home tears them apart? Will they find a way back to Remnant? Until then, please Read and Review.
P.S. Now that two of my three main stories are caught up for the time being, I'll be working on a brand new story for these hiatus periods. It's another RWBY, but non-canon with one familiar OC character in the mix. You'll have to wait and see for my new story: RWBY: Of Fate and Fire.