HELLO EVERYONE! ARC Alpha 12 here with a couple of things to talk about. First off, for those who were fans of the Inevitable and are confused as to why it disappeared, allow me to explain: due to a lack of viewership and constant strain caused from retconning the story in ways it should not have needed, as well as creative differences, it was decided the project should be cancelled.

That does not mean I'm done writing, however! Ivory Tower will be resuming publishing soon after a short hiatus for trying to gather how I want to proceed, but with it actually coming to an end soon for the early readers who get the documents before they hit, I needed a new outlet. Hence this series: RWBY Build Fighters, a crossover of Gundam Build Fighters and RWBY!

If you like Mecha fan fiction this is going to be a fun one, primarily because at certain points I'm going to be letting YOU decide who I write in the fights! While many fights will be scripted for plot purposes, the fun of this fan fiction will be that I can literally put any Gundam character in any machine and play out dream matches or have training sessions between the characters. And, every time a character or new customized Gundam is introduced, I'll be providing bios and visual references.

I hope you all enjoy this first chapter. Please don't forget to follow, fave and leave a comment on this story if you like what you see. We look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Ruby gritted her teeth. The yellow HUD was blaring warning signs. The beam rifle was toast, Crimson Strike Noir's left arm was destroyed and the right was crippled and barely functional. One leg was blown to pieces. And all that in less than two minutes.

She still had the twin linear guns on the Strike Noir backpack, some rounds in her forehead Vulcans, the Ootori cannons from the Strike Rouge she had only recently added, the rocket anchor on the remaining foot and wings, the AGE-2 Dark Hound rocket anchors she had hidden on the hip skirts, the beam blades, she had lost her twin beam spear within the first minute…

Dammit. She shouldn't have charged head on so many times. What a rookie mistake, and for all the nation to see! This was the Pacific Northwest Regional Championship Finals!

She stared ahead of her. The Burning Gundam Echelon stood, a brilliant black, white, and gold machine that shone as they sat on the surface of Luna II. She could hear her older half-sister, Yang, snicker as she closed in. "Sorry, Sis. You should give up now and spare Crimson Noir any more damage."

Yang was still new to Gunpla Battle, but her martial arts background, combined with the Mobile Trace system, completely negated her inexperience. Unlike Ruby, who relied on the glowing hard-light orbs in her hands to control her Gunpla, Yang was using her whole body. It was a plus and a minus-Yang had superior control but could tire out if she didn't pace herself. Not that that seemed to matter right now, considering she had taken only a small amount of damage and already had Ruby crippled in such a short period of time.

Ruby looked at her left hand and examined her options. Five rocket anchors…

"I'm not done yet, Yang!" She called back; a spark of an idea flickered in her mind. If she could get Yang in closer, the rocket anchors might be all she needed.

"Oooooo you sound confident," Yang teased. "Alright, you asked for it!"

Burning Echelon boosted forward and moved to nail Crimson Noir with a killing blow. Ruby waited for her to get within range. Just a little closer…

The left rocket anchor on the backpack pivoted and fired. Yang scoffed and boosted to the right, dodging it, but was forced to boost up suddenly when the right anchor fired. "Nice try, sis, but you're not getting me with that!"

The hip-mounted anchors swiveled up and fired. Due to coming from an SD kit, the hooks on them were far larger, and could have easily ripped a good-sized chunk out of Yang's Gunpla if they hooked her. She rapidly changed direction, jetting down to the surface of Luna II, landing hard from the momentum. She charged Ruby, Vernier thrusters at max output.

Ruby clicked on the hard-light orb in her right palm and cycled her weapon slots over to the Ootori hip cannons she had added to the pack. They flipped outwards and fired, putting Yang on the defensive. She swerved erratically in the air, before landing to Ruby's left and boosting at her again.

Ruby retracted the rocket anchors and boosted up as Yang delivered a devastating punch to the ground, causing the asteroid's surface to crater on impact. Ruby fired the cannons again, forcing Yang to leap out of the way. Ruby fired the rocket anchor on her remaining foot, which Yang caught and pulled on, dragging Crimson Noir back down.

"Ah!" Ruby exclaimed, feeling the holographic cockpit's platform shudder under her feet to simulate the impact. She looked up, just as Burning Echelon closed the distance on her.

And she smiled.

The right arm of her mech raised, as if to stop the incoming assault, but a tow cable fired from a small port on its forearm. It's magnetic grappling hook stuck to the chest armor of Burning Echelon, which tried to end the fight with a powerful heel kick. Ruby twisted her machine's arm around the cable, pulling Yang in, before delivering a kick straight to her stomach, knocking her away.

With her using the Mobile Trace, I can't compete with her reaction time in close quarters. So, I need to limit her mobility.

She stuck her damaged arm out again, twisting her right orb to select a new weapon. Yang had righted herself in space and was starting to tug at the tow cable. "Hey, what the hell is this? Get this thing off me!"

Ruby clicked on the hard-light orb, activating an electrical shock that ran through the cable and hit the Burning Echelon with such potent force that Yang screamed as she watched her HUD pop up warnings and turn red. Error messages and alarms blared around her as she moved her body. Normally, this would move the machine, as her movements were being tracked by the holographic cockpit, but right now, she watched as her Gunpla drifted, twitching from being electrocuted. "What the hell?"

Ruby chuckled. "I told you that you should study all the anime before you decided on a kit," Ruby said confidently. "I replaced the arm rocket anchors with two of the Gouf Custom heat rods from Gundam The 08th MS Team. They serve the same function, but with the bonus of using an electrical pulse that'll shut your machine down."

"Oh, is that how it is?" Yang growled, her anger growing.

The electrical shocks kept coursing through Burning Echelon as Yang watched Ruby push off the asteroid surface, her wing edges glowing as the beam-edged physical swords mounted there activated. The twin linear beam cannons on her backpack swiveled forward and opened fire as she boosted forward, riddling Burning Echelon with beam blasts that began to chip away sections of its armor. One foot was destroyed, half of the Gundam's head was taken out, her left arm was hanging on by a thread.

Ruby charged, the wings of Crimson Noir spread outwards, preparing to cleave her sister's Gunpla in half. Yang clenched her teeth, and her brow furrowed. "Dammit!"

Burning Echelon's body began to glow a dangerous red as the machine started moving again, even through the shocks. Ruby gasped as Yang grabbed the tow cable and pulled, ripping off a section of the chest armor of her Gunpla but freeing it from the electrical shocks. She boosted her legs upwards as Crimson Noir sailed under her. Ruby let out a cry as Yang punched her Gunpla back down to the asteroid.

"Forgot about this, didn't you?" Yang asked, charging her in her suit's Berserker mode. Her remaining food drove itself into the back of Crimson Noir, sending alarms up on Ruby's end and nearly breaking the model in half.

Ruby winced as she watched, her Gundam at Yang's mercy. What else could she do? Despite the first real damage being inflicted to it, Burning Echelon was still in far better shape than her own machine. She cycled through the available weapons. There had to be something…

Yang raised her right hand, and Burning Echelon did the same, its fist glowing with an awesome power, it's burning grip calling to defeat her opponent. "It's over, Ruby. Good fight."

Yang swung her fist down but was blinded as the backpack of Crimson Noir ignited it's afterburners. Her fist hit the Gundam's back, burning straight through, but the backpack of the machine ejected a second before, singeing the cameras. Yang blinked a few times, trying to clear the stars from her eyes, and looked up just as the backpack flew straight at her. She tried to dodge, but the beam edge on one of the wings clipped her right shoulder, cleaving the entire arm off of Burning Echelon.

She pushed away as Crimson Noir detonated, blown up remotely by Ruby, who swing around for another pass. Although her Gundam had taken so much damage it was impossible to really fight with it, the Strike Noir pack had not, and the modifications to it, turning it into a skygrasper fighter for last-ditch assaults, had kept her alive and in the fight.

More than that, Yang now only had one good limb. Even in Berserker mode, she couldn't fight a fully functional fighter craft.

"Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" she exclaimed, landing hard on the asteroid's surface. Her one good leg's knee joint was strained, and she had no means of short-range combat capabilities now. She cycled to her shoulder-mounted Gatling's and her one still functioning head Vulcan machine gun and opened fire, trying to shoot the Skygrasper down.

Ruby did a barrel roll, expertly dodging the incoming flak. She aimed the Ootori cannons forward, circling around, trying to drain Yang of all of her ammo. If she could just hold on a little longer….

"Stand still and let me hit you!" Yang screamed, turning as fast as she was able to with only one leg. Ruby circled into her blind spot and spun, repositioning herself as Yang struggled to turn around. She shot straight up, before backflipping and right herself back into a forward facing position.

She fired four shots from the Ootori cannons, accompanied with the twin linear guns as added support. Burning Echelon managed to turn and look up as the first shots impacted, striking it center mass. The second shots hit her remaining arm and, thanks to the hole created from the magnetic grappler being pulled off, the internal structure, which blew a hole straight through the Gunpla. The red aura around it ceased, and it collapsed, completely disabled.

"Burning Gundam Echelon is unable to continue battling!" The announcer called out excitedly as Ruby panted, exhausted. "The winner, and United States Northwest Regional Champion, is Crimson Strike Noir and Ruby Rose!"

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause as the holographic cockpit came down from around her and the hard-light orb controls disappeared. She sighed. It was over.

She looked over at the table. The hard-light-created field had disappeared, leaving only the two heavily damaged model kits in the center. Crimson Strike Noir was completely destroyed; only the booster pack remained. The rest of the kit lay scattered in pieces around the table. Burning Echelon sat, a gaping hole through its chest and out its back, the melted plastic on its right side where its arm used to be signalling that it would be practically impossible to repair, as well.

She looked over at Yang. Her lilac eyes looked down sadly at the two kits, but then glanced up at Ruby. A sad, but proud, smile formed on her lips. "Good job, Rubes. I didn't think you had anything left after that last kick."

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that…" she said sadly. "Crim…I'm sorry…"

"Hey, don't sweat it," Yang said, encouraging her. "I'm sure you'll build a new one in, like, a week, and he'll be even better!"

She gathered the pieces of her destroyed Gunpla up. Both kits would need to be recreated from scratch. But, even still, it was one hell of a fight. She wiped a tear away and grinned. She was already thinking about what she was going to do to improve her Gunpla.

Both sisters looked up to the stands, where Dad was sitting, most likely smiling down at his daughters, thought the stadium lights made it impossible to see. And somewhere, she knew their mom was watching, proud…..

Blake pushed a strand of her black hair behind her ear, watching Yang as she worked on her Gunpla. It had been three days since the end of Regionals, and the fight had done wonders for Blake's curiosity. She watched how both sisters moved inside their holographic cockpits-Ruby with her basic orb controls and Yang using her martial arts and the motion capture of the Mobile Trace system-and it had sparked something inside her.

Ruby smiled as she watched Yang and her girlfriend bond over the hobby. Blake had barely begun to build, but with Yang at her side, she was learning fast.

"So...I don't quite get it," Blake said as she looked over at the replay. "How do plastic models move like they do in the show?"

Ruby's silver eyes sparkled with excitement. She spun away from her desk and scooted her office chair over to Yang's side of the room, grinning ecstatically. "WELL! The table that displays the hard-light holograms also produces a special kind of particle called Plavsky Particles, named after the famous Minovsky Particle from the Universal Century Mobile Suit Gundam series."

Blake looked at the younger girl, trying to follow. "That's...the one that came first, right?"

"Yup! Featuring the RX-78-2 Gundam, piloted by Amuro Ray! It premiered back in 1978, and it was what basically started the Real Robot genre of anime, because-"

"Ruby," Yang said, not looking up from the Duel Gundam body that she was snapping together. "You're doing it again."

"Oh! Sorry!" Ruby blushed sheepishly. "Um...anyway. The Plavsky Particles react with the plastic all Gunpla are made out of. It causes them to move by essentially acting like...I guess the easiest way to think of it is like strings on a puppet. The effects like boosters and lasers and explosions are all simulated using a combination of hard-light and holograms, and the Plavsky Particles will interact with the plastic and cause the damage to be realistic."

"Is that why your beam saber wing melted Yang's Gundam's arm off?" Blake asked.

"Yeah! The particles basically acted like intense heat, just like if the saber had been real, and simulated it in the same way! The computer also determines how the damage would be displayed on the HUD of the pilot's screen, so they can verify and react to the damage."

"Huh…" Blake looked at the old, destroyed Burning Echelon, sitting in pieces in front of Yang, and the parts that Yang was building from Duel Gundam, namely the hips, torso, and shoulders, that would serve as the basis of the new Burning Echelon. "But...doesn't that mean that you need to manually fix any damage that's done?"

"Yeah...sometimes it can really suck," Ruby admitted. "Especially during the middle of a tournament. But, that's why you should always build spare parts to swap out! I normally keep about three extra pairs of arms and legs with me. I'm not as concerned with the head, so I have a few different ones. The important part is making sure the parts are both well built and well maintained."

"Why?" Blake asked, not understanding.

"Well, the better built the part, the more performance you get," Yang said, biting her tongue as she gently shaved the plastic of the first shoulder. "Removing nub marks, painting, removing seams. The more care you put into the model, the better it'll perform. I've only ever built Duel, Shining, Nobel, and God Gundam's, just to maintain Echelon. So I'm really, really good with those kits. But the more practice you have, the better you get, and the better your Gundam is in battle."

"It's kinda like a real mobile suit in that way," Ruby added. "You don't want to go into battle with a crappy or hobbled together machine. The better the machine's care, the better the machine's abilities."

"I see. So, the repairs and stuff are to make it feel more realistic." Blake looked over at Yang. "And it keeps your skills sharp."

"Yup!" Yang said happily, holding up the finished Duel Gundam torso. "Plus, rebuilding it lets you improve the design. Like, I'm still going to use Shining Gundam's arms for Echelon, but I'm going to try my hand at editing the wrist bracers this time so that it has a shotgun inside it along with the Shining Shot. So that way, when I punch people, I can shoot them, too! And, I'll add some armor to God Gundam's legs, to keep you from blowing them up again."

Ruby shot her a sideways look. "You destroyed my leg first! It was payback!"

Blake glanced over at Ruby's desk. The surviving pieces of Crimson Strike Noir sat in a pile. The boxes for Strike Noir and Strike Rouge we're behind them, but she noted that those were not the ones that were open. "That's not a Strike Gundam…" she commented, observing the two open boxes on the desk. "Are you building something else?"

"Oh! Yeah," Ruby replied. "I realized that, while Crim's backpack saved my bacon in that fight, I needed to find a stronger Gundam to base my design off of. So, I chose Gundam Death scythe and Destiny Gundam."

Yang looked over her shoulder. "Huh ...not two I would have expected for you." her eyes locked on a piece on the desk. It was a piece of pla plate, the default, standard plastic sheets that model users used to cut additional armor pieces off of. Ruby often used it to make custom joints for greater mobility, but this piece looked different. Like it was turning into some kind of pole. "Hey, what's that?"

Ruby looked over at her desk. She grinned. "An experiment. I want to see if I can make a custom weapon. Specifically, a scythe."

"Doesn't Deathscythe have a scythe?"

Ruby pouted. "Yes, but I want to be like Uncle Qrow and build mine from scratch as he did for Deathscythe Azreal. If I can get it to work right, it'll take people by surprise and let me have better options in a fight."

"So, you went with Destiny? I'm surprised. Why not use Impulse Gundam to replace Strike? It has a Destiny pack, right?"

Ruby scoffed. "Impulse is just a cheap, knock-off Strike that ZAFT built because they had an inferiority complex and the anime designers ran out of ideas. Honestly, most of SEED Destiny is trash. But Destiny Gundam itself has a lot of design elements that both the basic Deathscythe and Deathscythe Hell Custom from Endless Waltz has. So, I thought maybe I could do something with it."

She rolled back over to her desk. "Between the combination of the kits and the custom weapon I'm making, I hope I'll be able to do some more with it. Crim was powerful, but fighting you made me realize that I put too many gimmicks into it. I need something simpler."

Yang smirked. "Glad I could help."

"I want to help, too," Blake said. She grabbed her purse off the ground and pulled out a Gunpla of her own. It was green, yellow, and white, with clear blue blade pieces on the shield, which it wore like a shoulder cape on its left side.

Ruby's eyes lit up. "Is that a 00 Quanta?" She asked, her jaw dropped she stood up and asked to see it, and Blake handed it over. "Did you build this?"

"No..." Blake admitted. "We had that foreign exchange student, Shia, from Japan. She and I got really close, and she gave me her Gundam as a thank you. I didn't really understand, but she said that it was important to her."

"It has cute little kitty ears!" Ruby fawned over the Gundam, turning it over and over in her hand. "The design and build quality are exceptional! This is World Tournament level!"

"Well, Shia was on a team last year that came in runners up in the World Team Championships."

Ruby looked down at her. "Wait, she fought the Try Fighters in the Finals?"

"Yeah. She's friends with them. I think she's actually in love with their ace, Sekai Kamiki."

Yang looked at the kit. "So, why'd she give you the Gundam?"

Well, she saw that I was getting interested in the hobby the more I watched you," Blake said. "I think she gave it to me to practice with. But I don't know the first thing about Gunpla Battles, and I don't want to damage it because I wouldn't be able to fix it…"

Ruby smiled. "Ah! Then…here!"

She walked over to the shelf above her and grabbed her own 00 Qan [T, handing it to Blake. "Practice with mine! I don't mind, and that way, you can learn how to control a normal machine before you get involved with gimmicks and stuff!"

"I-" she looked at the Gundam, hesitant. "What if I break it?"

"Then you fix it, silly!" She shoved the basic Qan [T] into Blake's hands. "00 kits are pretty cheap, so it's easy to get extras for parts. Yang and I can help you learn the controls."

"Well...I have been practicing with my own kits at the arcades," Blake admitted, "fighting against the new AIs. But because I'm still a rookie builder, my kits aren't that good. I've beaten the matches, but my kits end up getting trashed. I have so many that are basically useless now."

Ruby shook her head. "Even a destroyed kit isn't useless. You could take some of the parts and turn them into extra armor or use a 3D printer to melt them down so you can make new parts. It's like the Third Meijin Kawaguchi says-Gunpla is freedom!"

Blake giggled. "That's so corny…"

"And yet, so true," Yang admitted. She attached the first arm of Shining Gundam to the shoulder of Duel Gundam and stuck it onto the body. "Welcome to the nerd club, love."

There was a knock on the door, and their dad came in. "Girls? I have some letters for you two."

Blake gave him a warm smile. "Hello, Mister Xiao Long."

"Just call me 'Tai,' Blake," he replied with a laugh. "You've been around here long enough, you don't need to be so formal."

Yang and Ruby both took the envelopes from Tai, opening them quickly. Ruby grabbed the letter inside but failed to notice two slips of paper fell out of the envelope. Blake bent down to pick them up as the sisters read their letters.

Yang's jaw hit the floor. "What?"

"No way!" Ruby exclaimed.

Blake read the paper she picked up. They were tickets. "These are…"

"We just got invited to the World Championship!" Yang and Ruby shouted together.

Tai blinked. "In Japan?"

"Yeah! In two months', time! in July!" Ruby showed him the paper. "AND we're invited to the World Tag Team Tournament, too, with the ability to select one person as our partner!"

Yang grinned excitedly. "Well, I know who I'm inviting…" she looked down at Blake, who glanced up at her.

She had a confused expression, but slowly realization set it. "Wait. No! I can't compete against world-class fighters! I'll wreck Shia's Gundam for sure!"

"Aww come on," Yang pleaded. "Your mom's always talking about going home to Japan and visiting family, and I know you wanna explore. You traveled with Jaune and Pyrrha all over Europe last summer to visit their homes in Paris and Sparta. Why not go to Japan next?"

Blake searched Yang's eyes, before sighing. Yang was right. But still…. "I'll just hold you back. You should choose someone else."

"Nope! My minds made up. And if we lose, we lose, but you'll still have all of Japan to explore. I was born in Kyoto, after all. I wouldn't mind taking a trip there. Maybe seeing my mom, if she hasn't become some recluse or something."

Tai gave her a concerned look. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Raven isn't exactly the most warmly welcoming of outsiders. Especially unannounced ones…"

"Relax, Dad. She and I have been talking a bit on Face space. It's fine." Yang gave him a smile, before turning to Ruby. "Any idea who you'd pick?"

Ruby's face was scrunched in concentration. "I'm not sure…but I need to finish my Gunpla first. I'll decide that after it's done. Otherwise, I'd have to enter a straight build, and that'll suck a lot of my performance out of me."

"Well, I guess it's settled," Tai said, shaking his head. "We're spending our Summer Break in Japan. I'll make the arrangements."

As he left, Ruby and Yang looked at each other. "Time to get to work," they both said together, returning to their desks with renewed vigor.

Blake looked down at the Gundam 00 Qan [T] in her hand. "I'll do my best, too," she said to herself. She wasn't going to let Yang down.