All characters from RWBY and Bofuri belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 8: The Tomb of the Future's Fate.
Maple woke up and was surprised to find that 1: she was not on the couch, 2: She was face to face with Ruby, and 3: the two were hugging.
"How did I get here? I thought I was on the couch?" Maple thought confused. Just then, Ruby's silver eyes fluttered open and the crimson haired girl gave a sleepy smile.
"Good morning, Maple." Ruby greeted sleepily. Maple smiled and ruffled Ruby's red hair.
"Good morning, Ruby." Maple greeted me in return. The two sat up on the bed and stretched.
"So Ruby, Why were we on the bed together hugging?" Maple asked the redhead.
"Well, I woke up last night and heard crying, I went to see where it was coming from and found you on the couch having a nightmare, so I picked you up, brought you to the bed and hugged you in hopes the nightmare would stop, which seemed to work since you stopped crying and seemed to be sleeping a little easier." Ruby explained Maple smiled at first at the kindness Ruby showed, before looking saddened.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Maple apologized, looking away from Ruby.
"Don't worry about it! Besides, helping a friend with a nightmare is what friends do!" Ruby assured maple, putting a hand on the armored girl's shoulder.
"What happened in the nightmare anyway?" Ruby asked, concerned.
Maple sighed and paused for a moment.
"The corpse of my adoptive mom was strung up like a mangled puppet, then a grimmed-up version of Cinder mocked me for failing her before showing me the strung up corpses of all the friends I made in the other world. She told me that she was going to torture and kill them. She told me that I'd die alone screaming." Maple recounted tearfully.
"Oh my dust, Maple! That's horrible!" Ruby gasped horrified.
"But it gets better after that, because a light appeared in the distance, in a vortex of rosepettles Cinder was decapitated and you came and comforted me, soon we where sitting in a field of rosepettles with the sun setting in the distance." Maple continued, a pleasant smile. Ruby smiled and hugged Maple.
"That's really cute." Ruby admitted.
A few hours later the two were standing outside the hotel when a yellow motorcycle parked in front of them, a blond woman took off her helmet and aviator shades, revealing lilac eyes.
"Hey Ruby! What are you doing here? Also why are there two of you? Did you clone yourself or something?" Yang asked approaching Ruby who laughed.
"Nonono, nothing like that. This is Maple, she and I met last night where we stopped a dust robbery." Ruby explained with excitement in her voice.
"Ah okay. Well It's nice to meet you Maple! I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister." Yang introduced herself and stretched out a hand, which Maple shook.
"It's nice to meet you too, I hope we can be good friends!" Maple said, smiling.
"So, what's on the agenda today? You two gonna go to an arcade?" Yang asked, looking at the two silver eyed girls.
"Nope, we're actually going to be taking out a cultist den. Some cultists from a death cult made a tomb in the city cemetery their hideout." Maple explained, Ruby nodding in confirmation.
"Ooh! Exciting! Mind if I join? I don't really have anything going on today." Yang requested, grinning excitedly. Ruby and Maple looked at each other and nodded, grinning mischievously.
"Why of course Yang! The more the merrier." The two said in unison, causing Yang to take a step back raising her hands to chest level.
"Woah! That was a little creepy. Now I'm not convinced that you two might actually be twin sisters separated from birth." Yang joked, regaining her composure, Maple and Ruby laughing at Yang's response.
"Alright you two, if we're gonna do this then hop on then!" Yang said, motioning to her bike.
Soon enough the trio were at the entrance of the tomb, the entrance was decorated with bloody skulls mounted onto wooden spikes, the sky was dark and cloudy, like it would rain soon. Yang gave a low whistle as they stood at the door.
"Well right off the bat and this is already a little more than I bargained for. Is this something you do on the regular or…?" Yang asked, raising her eyebrow and gesturing a hand towards the tomb with the other on her hip.
"This is actually my second self assigned cult hunting mission." Maple stated, readying her shield.
"Let's go, they probably have people trapped in there and we need to get them out as soon as possible!" Ruby said, walking up to the tomb door.
"Agreed, I'll take the front and make sure we don't get ambushed." Maple said walking up to the door as well and pulling on the handles. And so the three descended into the tomb.
Maple, Ruby and Yang walked down torchlit corridors, the steps of their feet echoing in the halls, though Yang was starting to grow impatient with their current pace.
"Maple, I don't mean to sound rude here but can you move a little faster?" Yang asked
"Yeah, Sorry about that. I'll go a little faster." Maple apologized as she started jogging, which caused both Yang and Ruby to raise an eyebrow, since her jogging speed was the same as their walking speed.
"Um Maple? What's going on? Your jog is as fast as our walking speed. Is this part of some sort of curse?" Ruby asked, rather confused. Maple giggled a little and waved a hand in dismissal.
"Sorta, It's a bit of a malady of my own creation. You see, I have this ability that lets me put 'points' in various 'stats'. I decided to put every point I had into my defense/resistance and nothing else. This has led me to be able to take a hit from a meteor as though it were nothing. The downside of this is that I am very slow." Maple explained, a little embarrassed. Ruby held her chin in though for a second before something came to her.
"Oooh! I have an idea! How about after this I upgrade your armor to enhance your speed?" She proposed, feeling excited at the prospect of giving maple speed enhancing jets on her armor to increase her speed.
"That sounds like a wonderful Idea! But we'd have to do it at Grimm Rock unless you know of a place that I can keep cool at until the upgrades are done." Maple pointed out, causing Ruby to hold her chin in thought.
"Wait, why do you need to keep cool outside of your armor?" Yang asked, confused.
"It's because of a curse, I won't go too deep into the details right now, but I will say these runes are the only thing keeping me from feeling what should be a cold and damp place as a sauna room." Maple explained gesturing to the halls they walked through.
"Oh, that's super not good. Especially since that seems to be the kind of thing some cult or evil organization would do to someone they were interested in and wanted to keep in one place." Yang reasoned as the three came to a crossway. The path straight ahead they could see goin down stairs, the path to the left they could hear pained groans and rattling chains. They decided to go left to free the hostages first. They eventually found themselves in a corridor full of prison cells, most of them were empty, most of them were covered in blood. Others had shown no signs of blood, but the tools left behind suggested some form of experimentation going on. As they walked through one particular cell They heard a voice.
"M….Ma..ple..?" The voice questioned, his voice strained. "Dred?" Maple asked, recognising the voice and turning to see a man with a green bandana and wearing a torn up green cloak. He was held to the wall with chains that bound his arms and legs. Across his body there were cuts, but no blood spilled out, only small magenta cubes that floated into the air before dissipating. Ruby could feel a strange form of energy from the man, similar to Maple's, but not as intense. Maple, Ruby and Yang helped release the chains around the man, as he fell forward Maple and Ruby caught him and gently leaned him against the wall. "Dred what happened to you?" Maple asked, distressed by the current state of her friend.
"It's… hrg.. It's a bit fuzzy.. All I remember is getting pulled through the portal, getting thrown in this cell, and watching helplessly as a man in robes that looked to be part monster injecting some strange black liquid into someone from the Flame Emperors guild. After a few hours the guy transformed into this freaky lanky monster." Dred explained, before looking to a tray that was in the cell with them, on it there was a syringe that leaked a strange black liquid, an expression of horror, he looked to his hands, which started to wither and blacken, claws sprouting from the ends of his fingers. As his arm and legs began to wither and blacken, Dread looked to Maple.
"Please Maple, Kill me before I transform into one of those monsters, I don't want to attack you, use your shield like you did in the first tournament." Dred requested, some fear could be heard in his voice. Maple took out her shield and stood up, she placed her shield above dread's head and hesitantly tapped it. The mouth of her shield opened up and Dred dissolved into magenta cubes, the parts of him that were turned into Grimm parts fell off, dissolving into black smoke until there was nothing but bone left.
"I'm sorry for your loss Maple… I can't believe someone would do something like that to someone else." Ruby said sorrowfully, giving her condolences. Maple stayed silent for a moment, grief for her lost friend filling her, before rage started to boil inside her. Rage at these cults who summon people from her world, and rage towards whoever was responsible for putting her friend in that condition.
"Whoever is responsible for this, they will pay dearly for what they did!" Maple silently promised.
"Maple." Yang said quietly to get Maple's attention. Maple looked up to see Yang putting a hand on her shoulder. "I know it hurts to lose a friend like you have just now. I loved Ruby's mom as though she was my own, though part of that's because my own mom went out to 'get the milk' on me. That aside, I know it hurts a lot right now, but don't let that loss control your life. Okay?" Yang advised, Maple simply nodded.
"Good, now let's get moving, the severe lack of anybody here is starting to make me suspicious, we need to be on alert." Yang stated, ruffling Maple's hair and stepping out of the cell. Ruby got up from her spot and gave Maple a concerned look.
"Are you going to be okay?" Ruby asked Maple.
"Yeah." Maple said, strengthening her resolve.
"You two stay close, if we do get ambushed I don't want either of you to be hit with the surprise attack, I'm going to change into a form that will better protect you." Maple announced stepping out of the cell with Ruby. As Yang looked back Maple began to transform. Snow white angel wings sprouted from maple's back, her eyes turned sapphire blue and a soft yellow halo formed above Maple's head, though the halo was tilted and had a crack in it, a circle formed around her that filled Ruby and Yang with the feeling that they were protected.
"Wow, you weren't kidding about being part Angel!" Ruby said impressed Maple giggled and rubbed the back of her head.
"All right, let's go!" Yang said, pointing forward.
Eventually the group made it to a large circular room. At the center of the room was a large lake of blood, above the lake mutilated bodies were hung from the ceiling, blood dripping from their wounds and into the lake, the sound being quite similar to rain. A large egg shaped machine sat in the middle of the lake large pipes connected to the top and bottom seemed to keep it in place while pistons kept the side facing them open. a catwalk ledd from the river's edge to it's opening.
"What do you think, My Goddess?" A cheery voice called out, before a woman with short Royal Blue hair, dark skin, a cobalt blue metal crop top with a leaf emblem adorning the shoulder, pants, bladed toe boots, and clawed gloves. The girl wielded two pistol daggers.
"This is a special concoction I have made just for you!" The strange girl stated, who seemed to be really proud of her creation.
"Who are you calling your goddess and who even are you?" Ruby asked, getting into a battle stance.
"My apologies, I should have introduced myself! I am the Bishop of the Order of Maple, but you may call me, Sapphire! And My dear Goddess is none other than Maple!." Sapphire introduced, giving a theatrical bow.
"By the way My Goddess, I've heard much about you from my sister, Emerald, and I felt your divine power when you entered this world. I must apologize for the actions of my sister though, her actions against you are inexcusable. I hope you can find it in you to forgive her But with that out of the way." The strange girl apologized before a pair of chains emerged from the machine and wrapped themselves around maple, and dragged her into the machine, which closed once its target was within.
"Hey! Let her go!" Yang demanded, Sapphire mealry smiled and shook her head while tutting.
"I can't do that,for there is something that must be done that will benefit either side of this conflict. Allow me to propose an idea!" Sapphire said before turning to ruby and walked towards her.
"I can feel Maple's power signature on you Red, I want to see if you are worthy of acting as her Holy guardian. If you, my red cloaked friend, can defeat me in battle then our goddess will return to your side. Fail, and you can kiss this world goodbye!" Sapphire stated, spreading her arms while her back was turned towards the chain cocoon. Yang growled, on one hand she really didn't want her sister to accept this proposition, but on the other, if the world really was at stake then she really didn't have a choice in the matter.
"I accept! I just have two questions before our battle starts." Ruby requested, readying her scythe. Emerald paused, tapping her foot as she thought and looking at the ceiling. After a minute she returned her gaze to Ruby.
"Very well, what do you want to know?" Emerald conceded, resting her left hand on her hip.
"First question: What are you doing to Maple in there?" Ruby asked, pointing her scythe at the machine.
"A fine question. You need not fear what's happening there. I have put maple into a slumber and am merely feeding her her offering, nothing sinister really. That special mixture is something I have created to strengthen her, amplifying her power and put her on a level where even the false gods that have lay claim to this world will quake in terror! No matter the result of our battle, the fruitless attempts the other orders have made to find or create a being stronger than Maple will be all for naught!" Emerald explained, gesturing to the mixture, which now that she mentioned it, Ruby could feel an odd power emanating from it.
"Second, what does me failing to defeat you have to do with the end of the world?" Ruby asked, keeping her eyes on the green haired bishop, who grinned madly in response to the question.
"Well Little Red, you certainly know the right questions to ask. To reward this, I will be thorough. The war between mankind and grimm had come to a bit of a stalemate, so the false goddess ordered all those who worshiped her to find something to break the stalemate. Eventually the research and development department of the Order of Shadows had a breakthrough. A girl who's power could be felt by every magic user in the world was successfully summoned. Unfortunately local law enforcement found them before they could do much with her, but they did manage to place a few curses on her. Soon enough our Goddess called upon Cinder, Mercury and my sister to go to Grimm Rock to trigger Maple's Apocalypse. They were so close, had she not awoken and arrived just in time to see Cinder and Emerald kill her adoptive mother she would have no one to blame but the world. Many of the other orders saw it as a critical failure, which to an extent it was. But what they see as a failed experiment that needs to be destroyed, I saw as victory just waiting to be claimed. For on that day, I felt something spectacular! I felt Maple reveal only a portion of her true divine power! Death was almost inescapable for Cinder and Emerald by her own recounting of the event. And so, ever since then, I've been looking for a way to utilize one of the curses placed on her to bring her into our control! Soon, the whole world will feel her tremendous power! Unless you can defeat me of course, Little Red." Sapphire Monologued, delighted at the prospect .
"I will not let you use Maple as a tool of destruction! She is a person, with a life, mind and will of her own, just because she has power doesn't make it right for anyone to use her for their own ends, and this world does not !" Ruby declared defiantly, making Sapphire frown, as though she realized something that she doesn't quite like.
"You may be right, if Maple is to destroy the world it should be done on her terms, we mortals have no place deciding for her. I must apologize for my actions." Sapphire said, feeling rather disappointed in herself as she started walking down the catwalk to the machine.
"So wait, you guys aren't fighting then?" Yang piped up, feeling a little lost as to what's going on, causing Sapphire to turn around.
"Oh there was a fight! But the clever mind of Little Red or I guess I should say Ruby, has ended the battle before I could even land a hit!" Sapphire commented before turning back to the machine to see a slender man in white robes that bore Salem's eye. His face was covered by a Beowolf mask, brown hair spilled out of the sides of his hood.
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to remove Maple from the machine. While you have turned your back on Salem I still serve the goddess loyally. While you were playing with your concoction and machines I was busy continuing the work I started. You all should really be thanking me, Russet Malachite the third! I brought that little Sapling into this world, she is my property, my greatest success! She was meant to turn the tide in the grimm's favor. You Sapphire, simply did the work of bridging her under control for me, which I must thank you for. It gave me plenty of time to work on some of my other experiments concerning the other world, for example, the Grimm ichor experiments, while they were utter failures the results were interesting. I think Yellow and Red here saw the results of that earlier when they were exploring the prison I made." Russet explained ominously, his voice cold and cruel, Ruby and Yang recalled what had happened to Dred and shuddered, meanwhile the machine rumbled, causing dust to fall from the ceiling and the chains that held the corpses to rattle.
"NO! She shouldn't be stirring from her sleep! What happened!?" Russet shouted in shock. He looked back to the machine to see that Ruby was standing there, and that the dial that controlled the machine was switched to "off".
"I turned the machine off while you were busy monologuing about your crimes, and unless this thing is soundproofed I think Maple heard everything." Ruby stated with her arms crossed, and as if to confirm what she had said the sounds of bending and breaking metal could be heard from within the machine along with a roar of rage. The cloaked man tried to run, but Yang and Sapphire blocked his way.
"You shouldn't have betrayed me, heretic. Your crimes against Maple will not go unpunished!" Sapphire scolded, causing the man to walk backwards, before eventually bumping into the machine. A final rumble could be heard as a monstrous armored head emerged, a fluffy crimson main flowing behind, four arms tore at the metal and helped pull the creature emerge from the egg. The red and black themed creature roared as it exited the egg before looking down at the cloaked man.
"So YOU are responsible for all the suffering I've had to endure? You are the one responsible for tearing me from the happy life I lived before and that wasn't enough for you. You tormented and twisted a friend of mine along with many other innocent souls. What gives you the right to decide this world's fate?" Maple said, Rage filling the voice of her monstrous form. As she drew her head closer to the cloaked man he fell on his butt and tried to retreat from her. The air began to cool, the lake around them began to freeze as a white fog began to swirl around Maple.
"P-p-please have some mercy!" He begged, but his plea landed on def ears.
"I.. I own you damn it! You belong to me, Obey and stop this at once and kill these three! And start the apocalypse!" Russet tried to order Maple, his pride taking over. This, only to cause her to growl in anger.
"What gives you the right to order ME around!? What makes you think you are entitled to my loyalty? You don't own me, nor do you own anything that you stole from the world you stole me from." Maple signaled for Yang, Ruby and Emerald to retreat down the catwalk, which they complied. When the cloaked man tried to do the same she stopped him with a clawed arm
"You aren't going anywhere. You desired the apocalypse, right? That insinuates that you wanted to die by my hand, I shall gladly comply with that part." Maple said meanicingly as she opened her maw, a sinister violet light filling it as her red main started to glow.
"No! You can't do this! I was supposed to be your master!" Russet shouted before being atomized by a violet laser, though when that hit the lake it exploded all around her.
"WOAH! What was in that concoction you made Sapphire?" Ruby panicked as they stood a good ways away from the lake.
"Various kinds of Dust and the blood of some heretics that were trying to exploit the other world." Sapphire said nonchalantly though Ruby could tell that she was just worried about Maple's safety as she and Yang were. After a moment or two Maple walked out from the smoke in her base form, and the trio ran up to maple.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" the three asked together, Maple simply laughed.
"Guys I'm fine! I've survived worse. Anyways, Sapphire?" Maple said, getting the attention of the blue themed girl.
"Thank you for luring that guy here for me, I always wanted to get back at whoever was responsible for tearing me from my world." Maple thanked, giving the blue themed girl a pat on the head.
"It's my honor to help you purge the heretics that put you through so much pain my Goddess." Sapphire gleefully responded, giving Maple a big smile, while mentally she screamed about getting praise from her goddess.
"Well now that all that's done, we should probably talk about the world you came from Maple." Ruby said gently.
"Yeah, I agree with Ruby, it might be a good idea for us to talk about that." Yang agreed. Maple looked at the floor, a sorrowful expression starting to make itself known on her face.
"I… I'd rather not talk about that right now. I don't feel ready." Maple mournfully said, not wanting to think about what she was forced to leave behind.
"Okay, we'll talk about it when you're ready then. For now let's go get something to eat." Ruby suggested, placing a hand on Maple's shoulder, causing the shorter girl to look up and smile.
"That sounds good to me." Maple said. And so the four made their way out of the tomb.
AN: Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! We have reached the end of what I have Pre-written so future chapters will likely take a little longer to be posted. I hope you all have a fantastic day!