(A/N): Yes, you read the description right. This is a Bionicle/RWBY crossover story, which takes place after RWBY Volume 8 and plans to cover the first year of Bionicle's story. I'll explain more in the A/N at the end, but a quick warning at the front: this story starts during the ending fight of said Volume, and while certain things are altered to better set things up for the story I'm planning to tell (such as Jaune being replaced by Emerald during the finale and falling alongside RWBY), Penny's death is not one of those things. It's done differently here, but if that's too much for you to handle reading, I completely understand. Feel free to skip to the second scene break if you're sensitive about that sort of thing - I won't be offended one bit.
With that out of the way, let's begin!
Do not fall.
That had been the warning the entity inside the Staff of Creation gave Team RWBY when they created their magical network of portals. Emerald Sustrai hadn't been there when the request was made - she'd been too busy helping Team JNOR pull a fast one over General Ironwood - but if she had been there, she would have asked what that meant. And what happened to people who did fall. Maybe she would have asked for some guardrails and parachutes to be created alongside the mystical floating platforms, just to be safe.
But sadly, such things had gone unasked, and what should have been a smooth evacuation of Atlas and Mantle was going wrong in every possible way.
Which brought her to her current situation - standing in triangle formation with a newly-human Penny Polendina and a trembling Weiss Schnee, both of them clearly shaken by the sight of the rest of Team RWBY falling into the nebulous void below their floating platforms. Jaune, Oscar, Nora, and Ren had all gone ahead into the central portal that led to Vacuo, along with the rest of the refugees fleeing the doomed kingdom of Atlas. And Cinder Fall was hovering over the three girls menacingly on jets of flame, seething with rage and vengeance while clearly unconcerned with the fact that Neo Politan had fallen out of the realm alongside Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long.
Emerald's hands gripped tightly to the twin handles of Thief's Respite, feeling the cold metal of her signature dual weapons press into her darkened skin. She had been by Cinder's side for many battles, but this was her first time where she stood opposite the fiery Maiden. It was not a comforting feeling - despite already possessing both the Lamp of Knowledge and the Staff of Creation, the power-hungry woman still craved the spirit of the Winter Maiden, which was currently tied to the Aura of the orange-haired girl with no shoes hovering between Emerald and Weiss. She knew from experience that Cinder was relentless in getting what she wanted...and anything that stood between her and her prize usually ended up as collateral damage.
"Last chance, dear Emerald," purred the Fall Maiden dangerously. "Help me break the puppet, and I'll overlook your little...transgression."
In another life, the mint-haired thief might have rejoined her former mistress and turned against Penny without a second thought. But in this lifetime, where she'd personally witnessed Cinder kick a woman into the abyss for doing nothing but threaten her, Emerald knew that the promise was meaningless and the reward was hollow. She'd followed Cinder for years without question, but just a few hours with Ruby and her friends had exposed her to a warmth she never knew she wanted, a warmth that she now knew Cinder was incapable of feeling.
The sickle blades of Thief's Respite sprang out from under the revolver barrels, and Emerald narrowed her eyes as she glared daggers at her former idol.
"You'll have to overlook a lot more than just one," she growled defiantly. "And her name is Penny."
The pale freckled Maiden on her right looked at her with a bright smile and beaming eyes, while the former Heiress gave a satisfied smirk as she readied both Myrtenaster and the remaining half of Gambol Shroud.
"...that's a shame." Cinder hummed, the illusion of love and affection evaporating from her voice. "You'll be a hard one to replace."
No regret. No sadness. Just annoyance at having to find some new person to manipulate.
How had she been so blind to what Cinder was really like for so long?
Emerald's thoughts were cut off by the wave of flames that came her way, which she instinctively leapt to avoid. A blade of molten glass spun across the arena and flew at her face, but Penny quickly intercepted it with a floating array of stone swords. Nodding in thanks, Emerald took the Winter Maiden's hand and allowed her new friend to fling her at the fire-spewing woman currently dueling with Weiss, letting her join the auraless Huntress that fought with her own weapon as well as the sword of her fallen friend.
The thief and the heiress fought in sync as they slashed and parried with dual weapons against Cinder's relentless onslaught, narrowly avoiding flash-forged swords and gouts of flame. Penny flew nearby and blasted magic from her palms, sending ice and lightning into the melee while staying out of reach of Cinder's clawed Grimm arm. Emerald felt her Aura flag with each hit that slipped past her defenses, but she could take it. It was Weiss that suffered far more with each new burning wound - without that protective soul armor to shield her body and power her Glyphs, she felt blood dribble through every cut, burn, and gash yet still fought tirelessly.
Cinder toyed with her prey for a moment longer before slamming her heel against the ground in a flaming kick, creating a sphere of fire that pushed Emerald and Weiss back. No longer locked into melee, the Fall Maiden blasted off to target Penny once again, swinging her swords to penetrate the barrage of blades that protected the vulnerable young girl. Thinking quickly, Emerald released the chains inside one of her weapons and sent the hooked blade sailing into the sky, looping it around Cinder's throat and pulling back with enough force to yank the mad woman away from her prey.
"Ice queen!" Emerald yelled as she stowed one sickle to better grip the other with both hands. "Give me an anchor!"
Weiss complied with a nod, plunging Myrtenaster into the ground and bracing herself for the added weight. The mint-haired thief looped her chains around the blade and dove off the edge of the platform, pulling the struggling Maiden down with her. When Cinder's back hit the "ground" the line suddenly went taut, and the momentum of her leap gave Emerald enough speed to swing back around to the opposite edge. She landed expertly and pulled on the chain as hard as she could, tightening the suffocating loop she'd made under the platform and doing her best to ignore Cinder's feral grunts and growls as she fought for air and freedom.
Bursts of flame erupted from the Fall Maiden's hands and feet, but stone swords fell from the dark sky and stabbed into her limbs. Penny spared a second to make sure her magical blades were wedged firmly enough to hold Cinder down, then flew over to Emerald and helped her pull on the line. Despite no longer being a robot, the freckled girl was still surprisingly strong - strong enough to tighten the chain wound around the platform and the fiery woman's throat, to the point where it nearly crushed her windpipe.
Cinder's eyes went wide and darted around wildly, trying to escape her predicament and take a much-needed breath. Weiss was there to make sure she wouldn't get the chance, leaving Myrtenaster stuck blade-first in the platform and wielding Gambol Shroud as she walked over to the suffocating Maiden. The woman who'd brought so much pain to others struggled vainly to escape her fate, to escape the dark blade of justice that was going to go straight for her throat and end her quest for power.
"This one's for you, Pyrrha," whispered the heiress as she raised Blake's sword to plunge down…
And then Cinder's Grimm arm flared to life.
Emerald almost lost her grip on her weapon as the limb of dark matter writhed and convulsed, nearly shattering the stone sword that kept it pinned down. It didn't seem like a conscious action on Cinder's part - if the look of pain on her face was any indication, it felt just as unpleasant as it looked. A moment later a terrifying grin spread across the woman's face, choking out two words that made everyone freeze.
"She's back."
Part of the thief knew that she had to keep pulling on the chain, that she had to keep choking out Cinder. The rest of her was paralyzed in fear of Salem, imaging the woman with freshly-reformed ashen skin and dark piercing eyes rushing through one of the portals to avenge her fallen Maiden. It was a powerful mental image, and even though she wanted desperately to stop thinking such things, she couldn't stop her mind from picturing the immortal witch arriving with magic in her hands and murder in her gaze, tearing everyone apart with Grimm hands that sprouted from the ground…
Her blood froze as she seized up and stopped pulling, the chain going limp in her grasp.
And that instant of sudden slack was all it took for everything to fall apart once again.
One shallow breath gave enough fuel for a blast of searing flame that shot from Cinder's mouth, showering Weiss in heat and pain and pushing her off. The Grimm arm tugged at the sword that had been weakened by its seizure, eventually shattering it and breaking the other bonds with a forceful swipe. Thief's Gambit was torn from its master's weakened grasp and flung into the void as Cinder yanked it free while leaping to her feet, fire surging into her palms as she aimed her next barrage of magic at a still-paralyzed Emerald.
"No!"
She was barely aware of Penny throwing her out of the way of the burning laser, but she was keenly aware of the pained scream that rang out a second later. The Winter Maiden's Aura shattered into a shower of green sparks under the assault of heat and flame, and her bare feet tried and failed to grip the edge of the platform before she was pushed over the side. The beam of power only lasted a few seconds, but that was all it took for Penny to teeter vulnerably between life and death, between solid ground and the abyss below.
"Penny!" wailed Emerald, already scrambling back to her feet in a vain attempt to catch her…
But that damn Grimm claw was faster.
Emerald watched in horror as the freckled girl's breathing grew shallow and bright green eyes went wide in shock, as five dagger-like talons sunk into her unprotected chest and held her aloft over the edge of the world. Blood dripped and dribbled into the void as it ran in rivers down her body, leaving crimson streaks that stained her clothes and tarnished her bare legs. Green light shone from within the twisted abomination of shadowy flesh, and she didn't need to follow the trail of magic to know that Cinder was siphoning the Winter Maiden power through the arm like a straw.
Penny was dying, and all that bitch cared about was getting that magic.
The thief roared in agony and grabbed Penny's limp wrist with one hand, using the other to formshift and fire her revolver at the monster who just added one more to her kill count. Cinder smirked and used her free hand to pool Aura into her palm, blocking the wild shots with ease and confidence. Her smoldering glare ended up being a double-edge sword, however, as the Fall Maiden was unaware of Weiss lunging in from behind until Myrtenaster was already hilt-deep in her shoulder. With the pull of a trigger, the dust erupted and ignited the Grimm arm; with a slash from Gambol Shroud, the offending limb was sliced off completely.
The good news was that the power transfer had been cut short as the claw dissolved into mist.
The bad news was that said claw was the only thing keeping Penny from falling.
Emerald yelled in shock - a noise that almost went unheard against Cinder's unholy shrieks of agony and rage. She tightened her grip and dug her own heels into the platform in a last ditch effort to hold onto both the ground and the dying Maiden, but she ended up tumbling over the edge right alongside Penny. The revolver in her hand shifted back into a hooked blade on a chain, allowing her to reflexively grab the ledge of a lower platform and clumsily swing to safety. Her landing was anything but graceful as she hugged Penny's body with her own, twisting herself so that her Aura ate the landing shock instead of an already dying girl. She snapped the chain back into her gun with a flick of her wrist, then holstered it to free her hands so she could better hold onto the freckled girl.
"Penny…" she groaned as she sat upright, rolling the body of her new friend until her face was in sight. Blood was flowing from the wounds as though it were water, and she could feel her own arms grow sticky as it poured over her skin. Green eyes, once so bright and full of life, now looked dull and unfocused as breathing became a chore for the young girl.
"Em...erald?" Penny rasped. "Why...do I feel so...cold?"
Tears sprang from Emerald's red eyes. "Oh, Penny…" she sobbed, "this...this is all my fault. If I hadn't been so blindly loyal...if I'd just let you kill Cinder back on Amity, then none of this would have - !"
A soft hand, one as warm and alive as a fading ember, cupped her cheek and wiped her tears with a thumb.
"It is...okay…" breathed Penny shakily, "please...do not cry…I will be...alright…"
The thief choked. Penny's labored words were meant to comfort her, but both girls knew it was a lie. Cinder may not have gotten the Winter Maiden power, but the damage was already done - five deep stab wounds in the heart and lungs, with no Aura to heal any of them. Even if Emerald had a Semblance capable of mending flesh, the staggering loss of blood would be fatal enough on its own...if the brand-new heart kept beating long enough for that to even be an issue.
"I wish there was something I could do to help…" moaned Emerald.
"There is."
She was vaguely aware of Penny's limp hand reaching for the hilt of Thief's Respite, fingers brushing against the jungle-green steel. Emerald pushed her hand away instinctively.
"No."
"Please...there is no time."
"I can't."
"Yes you can...I can make sure that the Winter Maiden powers go to you, instead of - "
"I can't be responsible for your death again, Penny!" snapped Emerald. Then, in a choked whimper she added, "I can't...not again…"
The hand on her cheek pressed as firmly as its dying owner would allow.
"I...understand…" said Penny between ragged, labored breaths. "But...she cannot get the powers and the Staff...please...let me choose this one thing…"
Emerald shook her head. "That's not a choice, Penny. That's suicide. And I can't...I can't help you with that."
"Please…" pleaded Penny, "I...I do not want it to go to her...I cannot let it go to her…"
She empathized with Penny. She really did. She'd been at the bottom before, where a swift death seemed the most tempting and merciful option. But that mindset was a poison all of its own, one that Penny didn't seem to realize - grief over losing friends was blinding the poor girl, as was the crushing realization of her own sudden mortality. Emerald could not make that kind of choice for her. She would not.
Besides...at the rate she was bleeding out, death would come soon regardless.
But in the meantime, maybe there was another kind of choice Penny could make. One that Emerald could help with.
"...who do you want to get the power?"
"Hm?" Penny rasped weakly.
"That's how it works, right?" Emerald reached up and clasped the hand that weakly touched her cheek. "You think of someone in your last moments, and they get the power? That's how the Maidens pass on their magic?"
Penny took a shallow breath and nodded. The thief sighed in relief - maybe her plan would work after all.
"Then tell me who you want to think of," said Emerald softly. "Anyone at all...and I'll make sure you see the person you want. The person you choose."
The freckled girl was quiet for a long moment, and Emerald was suddenly afraid that it was too late. But soon enough a name escaped the Maiden's lips, one that made the corners of her blood-encrusted mouth curl up into a smile.
"...Winter. Winter Schnee."
Biting back a snarky comment about how "on the nose" the choice was, Emerald cupped Penny's cheek and exhaled slowly, triggering her Semblance and creating an illusion that only the dying girl could see. The power unique to her soul was nothing spectacular - certainly not as flashy as hair erupting into flames or turning into a burst of rose petals - but it did serve her well as a discrete method of subterfuge, turning the opponent's mind against them. Yet now she was doing it with the intent to help, not harm - if she could look through Penny's eyes in that moment, she wouldn't have seen a puffy-faced green-haired thief holding her, but instead the elder Schnee that she had befriended.
Penny's eyes briefly brightened in recognition, and then a second later she was gone.
Emerald sobbed and buried her face into the fallen Maiden's shoulder, a fresh wave of hot tears spilling out and mingling with the now-cold blood. She was only vaguely aware of the battle raging around her, of the blasts of magic as the new Winter Maiden joined the fray, of Weiss joining her side and pulling her and Penny's body towards the Vacuo portal. None of it mattered to her. She'd been responsible for the death of the girl in her arms once before, but a miracle had given Penny a second chance at life. Real life. And now that chance was cruelly ripped away, that spark of hope snuffed out by the same monster that had now brought two kingdoms to their knees.
She always knew the world was unfair.
But why couldn't it ever be unfair in her favor?
A sound underfoot similar to high-pitched screaming snapped Emerald out of her daze. She knew that sound all too well - and knew what was coming next yet she was powerless to stop it.
BOOM.
The three girls - one alive, one dead, one somewhere in-between - went sailing over the edge as Cinder's volcanic landmine went off under their feet, shattering the platform and sending them plummeting into the void. Emerald caught a brief glimpse of Winter flying down in an attempt to catch them, magic and tears spilling from her eyes, but she knew their savior wasn't fast enough.
The abyss was waiting for them.
And after everything that had just happened, falling into nothingness wasn't the worst thing Emerald could imagine.
The skies of Mata Nui were somewhere between night and morning by the time he finally climbed up the mountain overlooking the Eastern sea, just a few kios north of the Tren Krom Break and his home village of Ta-Koro. Well, former home - he'd been banished from the one remaining village that was willing to tolerate him and his antics, which happened to include not wanting to work, refusing to stay in the village walls, and daring to go on island-spanning adventures that might save everyone. But his new state of exile was the furthest thing from his mind as he clambered over to the telescope that sat on a pedestal, aiming it at the fading stars and peering through the lens as light filtered through the green crystal on the other end of the mechanical arm.
With a thoughtful hum he swept the telescope across the horizon, looking for any change in the stars and the fading lights they contained. He wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for, but something had to be different in the wake of his most recent adventure.
Nothing.
He let out a loud, long sigh. Typical. This was just typical. In the last week alone he'd defied the wishes of Turaga Vakama and gotten himself in hot water over some glowing red rock with a Hau carved into it, one that the elder leader of Ta-Koro had guarded fiercely. He'd nearly come to blows with Jaller, captain of the Ta-Koro guard, over how everyone has a Duty and how he needed to find one that didn't involve mortal peril. He'd snuck into the other villages and swiped five similar stones from their own tribal chieftains without them ever knowing he was there, trekked through kios of jungle and wasteland while dodging monstrous Rahi, and braved Kini-Nui to arrange all six stones in the sand just like the legends said. If he'd done all that and the Toa still didn't come to save everyone from the shadowy Makuta, then he swore he would give up his adventurous ways and finally get a real job like everyone told him he should do.
Maybe he'd become a lava farmer. Then he'd be within jumping distance of a volcano if the work ever got too tedious.
Telling himself to check the sky one final time before he surrendered to a life of monotonous chores, he peered through the lens and gave the horizon one more sweep. His heart sank as he noticed that, just like before, the stars were static and unchanged -
Wait.
He double-checked the telescope to make sure he wasn't just imagining things, and sure enough his eyes weren't lying to him. There were definitely six objects rocketing towards the planet's atmosphere, shining brighter than the Red Star and growing hotter with each passing second. As they came closer, he could see that they were roughly canister-shaped, spinning rapidly like they were being shot out of a grooved cannon. He let out a delighted laugh. It worked! It actually worked! He'd actually summoned something!
Hope swelled in his chest as he abandoned the telescope and scurried to the edge of the mountain, looking at the sky with his own eyes. Even in the growing light as the sun rose over the horizon, as the stars winked out of existence, the glow from those falling objects streaked across the blanket of blue and black, burning so bright as they entered the planet's atmosphere they could be seen by the naked Matoran eye. He grinned beneath his mask. He was feeling over a thousand emotions right now, from relief to joy to maybe a little bit of smug self-satisfaction. He couldn't wait to tell the Turaga about this!
Although...the legends said that only six Toa would be coming to save the Matoran and awaken the Great Spirit.
So why was he seeing thirteen falling stars?
The mystery would go unsolved for the moment as something else fell out of the sky and slammed into him - something big and heavy and very very sharp. His precarious balance thrown into disarray, he flailed his arms as he wobbled back and forth while teetering over the edge, trying and failing to suddenly become the world's first flying Matoran. He twisted around to try to get a look at what hit him, which ended up being his undoing - he caught a brief glimpse of a red scythe twice as long as he was tall buried into the mountainside before he lost his balance and toppled off his perch.
As he screamed and fell to the sandy beach far, far down below, he concluded that this was a much less dignified way to die.
At least the lava would have been faster.
SPLASH.
The world around Yang Xiao Long suddenly turned blue and dark and very very cold, snapping her out of her daze as she reflexively clamped her hands over her mouth. Bubbles floated and rose around her, some of them escaping through her lips and nose; she followed them as she scrambled to the surface with near-empty lungs, blowing out whatever air she managed to keep and grunting to keep cold seawater from sliding down her throat. Her legs kicked and fluttered to propel her through the water as her chest threatened to implode, and when the surface was finally in reach she threw back her head to breach the waves with a loud gasp and several violent coughs.
"Ugh...pfffftha...that's one way to wake up…" she burbled to herself as she started instinctively treading water. Once she was sure that she wasn't about to pass out, she pulled soaked blond curls out of her face and released another salty sputter to clear her throat. Her lilac eyes darted around for some kind of land to swim to, and found a large island not too far from where she splashed down. So big was the island, in fact, that Yang couldn't even see all of it - all she could see was a beach that led into a forest of blackened trees.
Deciding that the unfamiliar shore was better than drowning, Yang took a deep breath and ducked back under the waves to start swimming towards the beach.
Hopefully she would find either answers or a way back.
In a perfect world, she would find both.
(AN): Welcome to Destiny's Divide, my next big fanfic project!
So, confession time: much like Summer Declassified, this one came about by talking with friends on the REMCOM Discord server, although this one's a little bigger in scope than just "One RWBY character ends up in 1960's earth to fight aliens." Someone said it would be cool if, after Team RWBY's fall at the end of V8, they all ended up on the island where Myst took place. That made me think of another first-person adventure puzzle game set on a mysterious island with a great atmosphere - namely, the old Mata Nui Online Game. I suggested they land in the world of Bionicle as a joke at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced it would make for a good story, and soon enough I heard the muse calling me once more to write even as I was wrapping up the finale of Summer Declassified. And so, here we are: two months after that conversation and I already have a full road map of the story, major events charted out, and even a bunch of future writing stored away for later chapters when we get there! I'm not sure what this says about me as a person, but I'd rather not find out.
As I said earlier, the plan is to retell the first year of Bionicle's main story with Ruby and her friends (and maybe not-quite-friends) brought into the mix to shake things up. It's gonna be a little difficult for me to balance this many separate story arcs happening more or less at the same time, but I feel up to the challenge. Some characters may not get as much screen time as others, but everyone - Toa and Huntress alike - will get a chance to shine as they navigate this strange new world.
I can already tell writing this story is going to be a very personal experience for me. To wit: I freaking love Bionicle. I grew up with the original G1 run, and even though G2 wasn't exactly my cup of tea, I still appreciated it for what it was. I remember spending hours on an "ancient for 2001" desktop utterly engrossed in the Mata Nui Online Game, puzzling over its mysteries and taking in every single sight. I remember taking my Toa out for adventures in the backyard, throwing Lewa into the trees and plunging Gali into the kiddie pool and having Onua and Pohatu dig things out in the sandbox. I remember excitedly buying (or rather, excitedly asking my parents to buy) the canister sets and bringing them home to build in minutes, then using pieces from other sets to modify and "improve" the new toy I'd just gotten. The lore got insanely convoluted and strange later in its run (I still have no idea who half the people on Bara Magna are, or what the deal with the Core Wars was) but the first seven or eight years of Bionicle were, for me, a very formative time in my life. So it's my hope that this story serves both as a love letter to the universe for older fans, and as an appealing glimpse for newcomers into one of LEGO's strangest, most memorable themes.
Where my love of Bionicle has defined most of my childhood, a love of RWBY has consumed most of my adult life. The characters, the world, the lore, the imagination on display and the room for creativity and fan creation…it scratches all the same itches that Bionicle once did, and I can't help but adore everything that's been done so far. Not to say that it's perfect, far from it - despite Volume 8 being one of the strongest seasons of the show thus far, Penny's fate and the troubling themes behind it are still a massive sore spot for me even nearly a year later. This story seeks to use my own personal preference for how it should have gone down as a jumping off point to combine two of my favorite things ever into one story. I don't know if anyone will enjoy reading it, but I'll definitely enjoy writing it! It's my hope that my love and adoration for all things RWBY and Bionicle shines through in the final product, while also being accessible for those unfamiliar with one or the other.
Anyways, sorry about the lengthy Author's Note! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this...thing, whatever it is, and that you'll stick around for the ones after this! I have the first five chapters already pre-written and a solid plan of where to go after that, so I don't think it'll take as long to tell this story as it did to tell Summer Declassified, but only time will tell. Stay safe, stay sane, and keep being awesome!