"I see, I'll get Caliburn and meet you at the gate," Arthur got up off of his throne. He had been spending a lot of time sitting there recently, wondering how the world ended up in this mess. Now there was a woman who could supposedly wield magic powers and immortal, it surprised him that such a person would dare try and trick him like a fool. He knew magic did not exist, nor did immortality, especially not with Caliburn in his hand. The armory was as usual, a small room with armaments of the King's own collection, but one was necessary for today, the shimmering blue blade, known to the rest of the world as the relic of destruction, but it was his Caliburn, a blade which knew no boundaries of those it could kill, known to slay many beasts claimed to be immortal, it was one of the few things that could possibly be claimed to be magic, but the likelihood of that was minimal, magic was just a tall tale told by the old men in pubs. Arthur was finally approaching the gates, Caliburn attached to his side, multiple guards at the ready, "open it already!" Arthur bellowed, his men were being slow, or apprehensive was a better word, scared,
"Sorry sir, opening it now!" the gate opened to reveal a lone woman, her skin was white, not pale, but pure white with red veins coming up her arms and face. She was carrying no weapon, nor wearing clothes fit for combat, Arthur didn't lower his guard though, as the most unprepared looking fighters were usually the most ferocious. "I see this is the reception I'm getting. I just wish to have an audience with the King, I mean no harm," the woman spoke,
Arthur laid a hand on his sword, "how should you expect I trust you? I've been having enough problems here. The world is falling apart, the Grimm are at everyone's doorstep, the kingdoms are looking like they're about to start another Great War again, not to mention you look half Grimm yourself. I cannot risk the kingdom of Vytal falling into the same fate as the others, we live in peace and equality here! I will not fall for your tales of magic and witchcraft either, nor your claims of immortality, leave woman!"
"I come to seek peace, and I was hoping the one King Arthur would help me achieve that, but it appears that he is a paranoid man, reliant on an ancient artifact of magic to defend his kingdom. But, if proof of my magic and immortality is what you want, then proof I shall give," the woman generated several balls of multicoloured lights,
"What in the bloody underworld?" Arthur couldn't do anything but stare at the lights,
"Careful, you will go blind from these. Now, strike me down with that blade of yours. I wonder if the fabled relic of destruction can truly kill any being?" the woman gestured to the sheathed blade still attached to Arthur's hip. Arthur nodded, and slowly approached the woman, drawing Caliburn and readying to strike down upon the woman. He raised the blade, but at the last second, shifted his aim to cut off her arm. The arm came clean off, much to the woman's surprise, "that wasn't supposed to happen! What the hell is that blade!?" she seemed to panic, but Arthur was more curious about the stump where the arm was, the woman should have been bleeding to death, but all that was there was red flesh and white bone, no blood pouring out.
"Come inside, I have something that can replace your arm," the king was willing to accept this turn of events, as long as she promised peace,
"Oh, you do? You have my deepest gratitude. I was expecting my arm to at least regenerate, the power of the relic was certainly no tall tale. If you had brought that down upon my head I would have died for certain,"
"That is the power of Caliburn. I am also in possession of a staff that can create or power anything, but only one at a time. Meaning I can only heal one of my men at a time. What is your name?"
"Salem, The Witch, I am known by many names,"
"Ah, yes. I have heard of the tales of the immortal witch, content to not meddle in mortal affairs. What brings you to my kingdom?"
"I come to seek peace, as I stated, this world is in turmoil. I can't stand to see the people like those I once stood by falling before these creatures of Grimm. Your kingdom is remarkably beautiful, I might add,"
"The kingdom of Vytal is usually at its best around these times of year. I am glad we have similar goals, though 'like those you once stood by' worries me slightly. Just how long has it been since you have worked with the rest of humanity?"
"I worked with them in a rebellion against the gods, but the gods destroyed them, and left a new recreation of humanity in the dust, pardon the pun. I've seen Faunus treated horribly in other kingdoms, but yours seems different, how do you bring them all together?"
"It was less me bringing people together and more people bringing themselves together, I was never so much owning the kingdom as I am more of a leader of people with similar ideas of equality and peace. Having magic artifacts certainly helps though,"
"I can tell. How much farther until we reach the staff?"
"We are here," it was a large chamber, a staff of gold with a blue crystal tip sat in the center. Salem and Arthur approached it, Arthur grabbing it and pointing the tip at the place where Salem's arm once was, the arm suddenly regrowing into its place.
"That is truly miracle work, sir. I'm impressed,"
"Please, it is only what I would do for one of my own wounded, and call me Arthur, or King Arthur if that is what you prefer,"
"Alright then Arthur, I appreciate this. What is your plan though? Why do you have me here, instead of leaving me for 'dead'?"
"I believe you can help me unify the kingdoms. I was never really one for superstition, but there was an old prophecy I have read of that always struck me as possible. The Prophecy of Unification was the title, not very creative, but straight to the point, it says that, 'the world will only unite under the rule of a king and his council of three. The king must be a great one, a champion of peace and unity, and his council of three wise people: a nigh-immortal of strange ability, the strongest of the silver eyed clan, and a Belmont. The only others who can take these roles will be their descendants or another person of these attributes.' that essentially being the translation to more modern english from the old text. I believe you may be the one of strange ability, already being immortal, you fill the role and then some. All we are missing are the three others,"
"I think you may be the great king Arthur, you seem to fit the description well,"
"I don't think so. How could I be a great king when I let the other kingdoms get away with vile actions that bring pain upon others?"
"It does say that the world will be united under the group. You may well be the king mentioned, you just don't have your council yet,"
"Maybe you're right, but we need to find these people first. The silver eyed warrior will come first, I am on relatively good terms with their clan. The problem is the Belmont, where would we find one? They haven't been around for years, and they only come out when the world is under a greater darkness than the Grimm,"
"What greater darkness could there be than the Grimm? I don't understand,"
"It is a man, who leads an army of demons. Vlad Tepes, 'The Impaler', Count Dracula. A man who has forsaken his humanity for eternal life, at the cost of weakness to sunlight. He was last defeated by his own son Adrian, otherwise known as Alucard, but he was not killed. Dracula rises every five decades or so, and a Belmont rises in response to defeat this evil. The last Belmont needed the help of Alucard to defeat him, now that he is gone, will the next Belmont be able to stop him? I do not know the answers, but we must aid the next Belmont in his mission or we not have a Belmont whilst I am alive,"
"This is a predicament. But I have faith you will make the right decisions, and I will stay by your side, as your first council member."
Johnny woke up, not in a sweat this time. His dream wasn't a nightmare for once, but an actual dream, and an interesting one at that, "just who were they?" he thought, before shaking it off and going to get to the gym for the early morning work out session.
Nathan got up, looked over and saw Johnny was missing. It was back to the usual, Johnny was off in his workout with the others that joined him, leaving Nathan and Alice alone in the room. "Hey, it's time to get up," Nathan looked at Alice, who was sleeping peacefully, until slowly turning over and crawling out of under her sheets,
"Ugh, back to the usual schedule, again,"
"Well, at least we aren't risking our lives for a criminal investigation now, just normal school for once,"
"I guess, but it was fun while it lasted in a way,"
"Don't lie to me, you just liked watching Johnny fight a bunch of criminals didn't you?"
"What!? No!"
"Come on, be honest. I won't tell anyone,"
"Fine, yes, I admit it. Happy now?"
"Sure, one quick tip: he's probably not going to be the one making the first move. He has a lot to focus on it seems,"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Can we just get moving? Sitting here talking gets so boring when it's just you,"
"That's just because Johnny isn't around," these were Nathan's last words to Alice before she walked out of the room. She would never admit it to anyone, but he was right, everything else seemed to just get more boring without Johnny nearby, except for fighting her older sister, that never got old, "hello Alice!" speaking of which, "hey sis, how are you this morning?"
"Alright, but you seem rather downtrodden. What's wrong?"
"I'm so bored. I don't get it, why do I get so bored without Johnny?"
"Maybe it's because you like him?"
"Yeah, that sounds about right. How are things going between you and Jaune?"
Pyrrha's face blushed, "what do you mean?"
"Huh? Am I seriously the self aware one of us this time?"
"I don't know what you are talking about,"
"Look, I don't know if it could be any more obvious you two have a thing for each other at this point, I mean, look at yourself in the mirror. You're turning more red than your own hair,"
"Okay, I admit it, I do 'have a thing for him' as you put it. But he still thinks I'm too good for him, and I don't know how to get him to realize that I could actually, you know, like him,"
"Heh, wait for class, I've got a perfect idea,"
"I hope this one works,"
"Trust me, it will,"
The arena was worn in from the day's battles, there was likely only time for two more battles. Goodwitch called out, "alright, now let's get our most prominent fighter on stage. Pyrrha Nikos," the redhead warrior got up and stepped down to the arena, Goodwitch called again, "now, is there any challengers?"
Alice stood up, "yeah, right here," she walked down to the arena, facing down her sister. The two watched each other carefully, it was clear Alice had been waiting for this opportunity for a while now. Goodwitch looked over the opponents, "alright, are you both ready?" they both nodded. Goodwitch raised her hand, signaling a countdown before bringing her arm down to start the fight. Neither side moved at first, they waited for the other to make the first move, there seemed to be some understanding that whoever made the first move would lose, and the battle was currently about wearing down the other's patience and nerve, it was a far cry from Pyrrha's style, usually opting to take immediate action and taking advantage of the surprise the enemy would be facing of an immediate attack. Alice hadn't actually sparred yet in the year, so it was going to be one hell of a shock to the audience watching her semblance in action, quite a spectacle too. Alice shifted her staff in front of her, Pyrrha braced herself for the first attack, but Alice then proceeded to split the staff in half and press a switch on the ends, transforming the sticks into blades, Pyrrha grinned at this, as if Alice just inadvertently revealed a weakness. She decided to rush Alice down at that moment, swinging at the girl, seeming to spare no mercy for her sister, but a look of confusion slowly etched its way across her face as Alice blocked every swing and even managed to successfully retaliate, putting Pyrrha on the backfoot. In an attempt to break Alice's push, Pyrrha threw her shield out into the arena while continuing to try and block all of Alice's swings from both blades with her sword, which wouldn't work forever, but the shield in the arena was thrown in a certain way as to come back to her, but something didn't seem right to the audience, throwing a shield to specifically come back to you is hard enough to do outside of a fight, but it should be nearly impossible to make such a throw in the middle of a fight, especially whilst on the backfoot, and focusing on defense, but it came back anyway, almost. Alice saw through her tactics and brought her foot back, kicking the shield. Pyrrha looked to be trying to recall her shield and defend herself at the same time, which wasn't working, there were several gaps in her defense and Alice was getting in more and more hits, and the shield now seemed to be trapped in a pillar of ice that was in the exact location Alice kicked, leaving the "invincible girl" without a defense other than her sword, so Pyrrha backed off and swapped her sword to a rifle, firing shots at Alice from a distance, the only feasible way Alice could defend herself from them was running and dodging, but she did something else too. She started swinging at air with her swords while dodging as many of Pyrrha shots as she could, she opted not to rush Pyrrha while swinging blindly into the air, which surprised everyone but Pyrrha, who had a growing face of horror as she realized Alice's plan too late for her to intervene. There were slices of what appeared to be flames lingering in the air all over the arena, once Alice seemed to finish placing the slices in the air and dodging Pyrrha's bullets, but there was one thing Alice seemed to forget, the ice pillar holding Pyrrha's shield now seemed to be melting thanks to the excess heat, just loosening the shield enough for Pyrrha to recall it. Alice was running towards Pyrrha looking like she wasn't paying any attention to anything else, but Pyrrha noticed that Alice didn't have to pay attention because the flames sitting in the air exploded when her shield touched them, knocking it even farther away. Alice finally reached Pyrrha and started attacking. They locked into a clash of one blade against two, and Alice seemed to be subtly turning the battle to push Pyrrha into the flame minefield that the rest of the arena had become. Pyrrha realized this and started trying to find some kind of opening to back off, but Alice wasn't going to allow that, she kept pushing and focused entirely on offense, but Pyrrha didn't have time to take advantage of it, she was slowly being pushed into a flame, and if one flame touched her, it would cascade, leaving her aura ruined, even more ruined than the consistent chipping Alice had done to it before, looking at both meters, Pyrrha was sitting at a bit below half, whilst Alice was sitting at about three quarters. "The 'invincible girl' will fall today. Maybe Jaune will finally see her as an equal, and I can finally move out of my sister's shadow. The 'invincible girl' will lose, but Pyrrha will win, and so will I," were Alice's last thoughts before Pyrrha finally fell back into the fire. BOOM! Pyrrha was launched all over the arena like a ragdoll, the last bits of her aura were finished when Alice kicked up an ice wall where Pyrrha was flying. Pyrrha sat slumped against the wall, but looking closer, one could see a grin on her face. Alice leaned down and held out a hand, which Pyrrha gladly took, willing to be held on her feet by her sister, barely groaning out, "those blades aren't metal, are they?"
"Obviously not," Alice helped Pyrrha off the stage and into her seat beside Jaune before taking her seat by Johnny, who was staring into space with a blank look.
"Blake, we need to have a talk," Natalie had barged into Team RWBY's dorm a bit after sparring, catching all of them off guard, and catching Yang and Weiss off guard when she grabbed Blake by the wrist and started dragging her out. The only one who had any idea what was going on was Ruby, who sat with a face of silent worry,
"Ruby, what's going on?" Yang asked, simply shocked by Natalie's aggressiveness, and by Ruby's lack of reaction,
"Something that was going to happen sooner or later, I'm glad Natalie decided to confront her instead of me," Ruby was being intentionally vague, a skill she picked up from Natalie, learning quickly that it was a good method of hiding stuff from people you care about and that care about you,
"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss clearly saw through it though, Ruby couldn't honestly hide it from them, especially when it involved their teammate,
"Well, on our last date, we visited Natalie's apartment in Vale, and she found some stuff she had forgotten about getting into Beacon, like-" "I JUST WANT A STRAIGHT ANSWER! WHY DID YOU KILL THEM!?" "-that, Natalie was orphaned around 15, and had been surviving on her own in Vale for a while before getting into Beacon, and swore she would avenge her parents, trying to find their murderers with the only real leads she had, that they were White Fang, and two names written in blood,"
"Holy shit," was Yang's only response.
"Please, just stop! Put me down!," Blake was up against a wall, held by her collar by Natalie, who was raging,
"I don't think so, you know, maybe it was a different Belladonna, but there's only one Belladonna around here, and that's you! Now you have some explaining to do! If I don't decide to kill you first!" there was a terrifying sincerity in Natalie's voice, having the desired effect on Blake,
"I didn't want to kill them! I'm not like that anymore! I swear!" Blake was caught between terror and guilt,
"Then explain yourself! Please, that's all I want at this point," Natalie's voice broke, she was barely holding Blake up at this point,
"I… I was forced. I never wanted to hurt innocent people, but… I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know that won't bring them back, but it's all I can do at this point," guilt was the only thing on Blake's mind at this point,
"There is one thing you can do, you can help me take them down. You can help me destroy them, all of them," Natalie was back to being terrifying,
"I will, I promise," Blake steeled herself this time, Natalie put her down, letting her duck back into the room. Natalie stepped back, bumping into the wall and sliding down, burying her head in her knees, tearing up. Ruby stepped out of the room, seeing Natalie, and immediately moved to comfort her.
Alice's Semblance: Hot Headed and Cold Feet. She can create ice from the waist down, and fire from the waist up. The fire can have different properties depending on the place the fire comes from above the waist, if it is channeled through one of her blades, it creates an explosive mine in the air where it sliced, in she shoots it out of her hand, it creates a flamethrower that can double as a jet, if she covers her fist in fire, it can create an extra powerful flame punch, the staff has the same effect as the fist covered in fire. When it comes to ice, there's two different abilities, skating rink, and simple ice, the skating rink is basically an area of effect ice floor, allowing her to make a sort of skating rink, hence the name, the simple ice is small pieces of ice that summons from her foot, able to create things like ice pillars or ice shields. It's not a very simple semblance to explain, so I hope this did it justice.
Regalia's Semblance: Attraction Glyphs. They are different from Schnee glyphs. Regalia's semblance can only summon two glyphs that attract to each other, it's far more simple than Alice's semblance that's for damn sure.
AN: That was days in the making, these chapters are getting longer and harder to write. It's still fun to write, just more difficult to write as well. I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, sorry about forgetting to explain the semblances of Alice and Regalia last chapter, so I explained the semblances now instead. Natalie now has a backstory as well, and if people ask, Alice's backstory is kinda easy, sister of Pyrrha Nikos, her biggest problem was being in Pyrrha's shadow, not really much else. I'm holding back on explaining Johnny's story because I want it to hit hard, so I want to time it perfectly. I hope you enjoyed this one, Raz3r out!