AN: Christ in a hand basket, I did not expect this chapter to take this god damn long to write. I am so sorry about that. For some reason, this chapter gave me a lot of trouble, and I'm still not entirely sure that I'm satisfied with how it ended up. It turns out that action chapters are really hard to write.
I also would like to answer a review left by supernoob257. I couldn't PM you to answer you, so I'll do it here. Last chapter, when Jaune caught and then held on to Weiss, that scene was written from Weiss's perspective. She assumes the worst of Jaune's intentions towards her, which is why that scene made him look so bad. After she said she was fine and asked him to let her go, he asked "Are you sure?". What he meant was "Are you sure you're okay?", but she thought he meant "Are you sure you want me to let go?". Since Jaune is fairly oblivious, he didn't realize how it looked to her. Hope that clears it up. I'm not making Jaune actually a creep. Weiss just thinks he is.
Anyway, on with the chapter!
Chapter 15
"No, no, no, no, no," Aqua said, staring at the screen in horror. "What's one of those doing here?"
"Is that a Heartless?" Glynda asked in concern.
"It's a Darkside," Aqua answered, stepping away from the screen and towards the cliff. "I have to get down there."
"Aqua," Ozpin called to her, making her pause. "Do you not believe the students can handle it?"
"I don't believe they can't, I know they can't. I can barely handle one of those things, and this one looks different than the last one I fought." And that one had leveled half a village before Aqua managed to kill it. She didn't want to even imagine what this one might be capable of.
"Then go," Ozpin said. "Make sure those students are safe."
"That's the plan," she said, taking a step off the cliff and falling into the forest.
Please, Ruby, she thought on the way down, Please hold out until I get there.
Ruby backed away from the Darkside in fear, its yellow eyes staring straight into her silver ones.
"-by!" she thought she heard something behind her. "Ruby!" Yang's voice called out in concern, finally snapping the young Keybearer out of her shock. She raised her Keyblade in unsteady hands, and she could swear its eyes narrowed at her weapon. It raised a massive fist, and Ruby brought her weapon up in a defensive position, but the Darkside was forced to stop its intended attack on the red-clad girl when large black feathers impacted its back.
Oh, right. There was still a Nevermore flying overhead.
The Darkside turned around to face the massive bird, and Ruby took advantage of the situation to run back to the others in a burst of Semblance. As soon as she stopped moving, she was pulled into Yang's protective embrace.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" she said to her sister to reassure her that she was okay.
"What the hell is one of those things doing here?" her sister asked in distress.
"I don't know, but we need to do something!"
"How? Mom can't even take one of these things!"
"I don't know, let me think!" Ruby shouted, almost on the verge of panicking.
"What is that thing?" Blake asked from next to the sisters.
"It's called a Darkside," Yang said.
"And it's very, very, very bad," Ruby continued.
"What kind of Grimm is that?" Weiss asked, fear evident in her voice.
"It's way worse than a Grimm," Ruby said, earning a shocked look from the heiress.
"What does that mean?" the black-haired boy, Ren if she heard the ginger girl correctly, asked.
"MOVE!" said ginger girl suddenly yelled, causing the group to dive out of the way of the Nevermore's body slamming into the ground, as the Darkside had grabbed it by the tail and swung it at the group of teenagers like a club.
Why are they fighting each other? Ruby thought.
"Is it on our side?" Nora, Ruby thought the ginger's name was, asked. "It's killing the Grimm for us.
"Trust us, it's not our side," Yang said.
"Have you fought one of these things before?" Weiss asked, but before either of the sisters could answer, they noticed the dazed Nevermore start to stir. Before it could get up, however, a jagged-looking sword suddenly impaled it in the middle of its torso. Ruby's eyes widened when she saw the sword. It looked very familiar. Exactly what type of monster it belonged to was confirmed when several small purple fireballs converged around the sword, merging to form the black body of an Invisible.
"Oh, come on," she heard Yang complain next to her. The Invisible grabbed the handle of its sword and roughly twisted it, causing the Nevermore to flail violently in pain, letting a loud screech out of its beak. The Heartless yanked its sword out of the bird's chest, lifting its body off the ground slightly, before decapitating it in a single fast movement. The Nevermore's body started to dissolve like all Grimm do, but the Invisible raised its unarmed left hand, and a swarm of black particles were absorbed into it, causing purple veins to appear along the Invisible's body, similar to the Darkside.
"Did it just…absorb the Grimm?" Pyrrha asked in fear.
"Uh, since when can the Heartless do that?" Yang asked, raising her gauntlets defensively as she saw the Invisible turn towards the group. The Nevermore had finished dissolving beneath its feet, but it simply hovered at the same elevation.
"I don't know, that's new," Ruby said frantically, watching as the Darkside raised its right fist high into the air. A bright light briefly flashed from its hand, before slamming it into the ground. And it went into the ground, sprouting a pool of darkness around its fist that had embedded itself into the ground. Within seconds, a small group of Shadows emerged from the pulsating pool. A gunshot rang out, and one of the Shadows disappeared in a puff of black smoke. Ruby turned to see Pyrrha, her rifle raised.
"Those things seem to go down easy enough," the red-haired warrior observed.
"They aren't what I'm worried about," Ruby said, observing the area around them. The clearing was relatively small, and had nothing that could be used as cover from aerial attacks, which she knew the Darkside could do. "We can't fight them here," she told the group. "We have to find somewhere with more cover."
"Where?" Jaune asked.
"The Emerald Forest is supposed to be covered in ruins," the green boy said. "I'm sure we could find some to use."
"That's my Renny!" The ginger girl said happily. And then the Invisible threw its sword to the ground and turned itself into small purple flames. Ruby knew what that meant. She frantically looked around to see who its target was, only for Weiss's voice to grab her attention.
"What the-?" the heiress exclaimed. Sure enough, the purple flames had surrounded her, and in a burst of Semblance, Ruby picked her up and carried her out of the way just before the flames would have hit her. "What was that?"
"That thing can turn itself into flames," Ruby explained. "When they surround you, that means they're going to hit you. You need to be careful if you get surrounded by those flames." She looked over to the Darkside, and saw that it was on its knees, bent slightly backwards. There was a glow emanating from the hole in its chest, and with a small explosion, a group of red orbs of darkness flew straight at Ruby. Before she could react, Weiss threw herself in front of the Keybearer, raising her hand, and summoning a white, snowflake-shaped glyph to appear in front of them, the orbs dissipating harmlessly when they impacted it.
"Thanks," Ruby said to the heiress.
"It's only fair," she replied simply.
"Ruby!" Yang called, and Ruby looked towards her just as her sister punched a Shadow out of existence. "We need to leave! Now!" Ruby took a look around the field. Pyrrha had blocked a swing from the Invisible's sword with her shield, and Nora swung a giant hammer at it, but it raised its sword back up to block it, causing it to slide backwards for a few feet, but nothing more.
"Everyone!" she shouted. "Break off and let's run!"
"I can get behind that!" Jaune yelled, swinging wildly at a Shadow before Ren shot it with what looked like green machine pistols.
"Did you get a relic?" Ren asked the blond knight, who shook his head before running and grabbing the other rook piece.
"Okay, let's go!" the boy called out, and the group of eight students disengaged and sprinted into the forest, the Heartless hot on their tails.
Aqua slashed through yet another Shadow foolish enough to get in her way, not breaking her sprint.
Something's very wrong here, she thought as she ran through the forest. Why would a Darkside show up now? And why did it look so different? She looked ahead and saw another group of Shadows attempting to block her path.
"Out of my way!" she shouted, raising her Keyblade.
"Get down!" Ruby shouted, grabbing Jaune and ducking inside a ruined building to hide from another barrage of darkness from the Darkside. The group of eight had come out of the forest into a large ravine full of ruined structures, with a bridge leading to a tower in the middle of the crevice. All in all, it was a location she felt much more comfortable fighting the Darkside in, as the ruined buildings surrounding them provided great cover for the projectiles the giant Heartless fired at them.
"How do we fight this thing?" Jaune asked, leaning up against the wall of the building to catch his breath from running so long.
"I don't know," Ruby admitted. "I've heard about these things from my mom, but I've never fought one myself. She actually told me to run if I ever saw one."
"I mean, you did do that," he said, seemingly trying to reassure the Keybearer who was now on the verge of a panic attack.
"Yeah, but it chased us." At that moment, the Invisible appeared in front of them, its sword raised to swing at Jaune. The blond boy didn't see it coming, so Ruby pushed him out of the way. However, she couldn't get her own defense up in time, causing the Heartless's sword to slam into her, causing her Aura to flare up, and sending her outside the safety of the ruins. She looked up to see the fist of the Darkside rapidly approaching. But before it could hit her, she was scooped up into the arms of a familiar black-haired girl. Blake quickly carried her into another building, where Yang and Nora were waiting.
"Ruby!" Yang yelled in concern.
"I'm fine," Ruby said. "Thanks Blake."
"We need a plan," Blake said.
"Where's Ren?" Nora asked in concern.
"I saw him duck into another building with Weiss and Pyrrha," Yang reassured the ginger, causing Nora to let out a sigh of relief.
"And Jaune is…" Ruby started, but was interrupted when the boy in question landed next to her with a yelp. "Oh, there he is."
"I'm okay," he said weakly, before picking himself up.
"Ruby, think," Yang said. "Did Mom ever tell you anything about fighting one of those big guys?"
"Um, I think she said something about going for the head."
"Okay, how do we get to it?"
"I don't know."
"What if we bring it down?" Jaune suggested.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
"Instead of climbing up to get to its head, we bring its head down to us."
"That could work," Yang said.
"Are you telling me we need to break its legs?!" Nora asked excitedly.
"Uh, yes?" Ruby said uncertainly.
"I'm in!" Nora yelled, gripping her hammer tightly with a manic smile on her face.
"Um, okay…" Blake said.
"So, Yang, if Jaune, Blake, and I keep its arms busy, can you and Nora go for the legs?" Ruby asked.
"You got it, sis," Yang said, cocking her gauntlets.
"Wait, me?" Jaune asked nervously.
"Yes, you, Vomit Boy," Yang said, sending a warning glare his way that he better not chicken out.
"We'll be there to back you up," Blake said.
"Wait, what about the Invisible?" Yang asked.
"I don't see it," Ruby said, peeking her head out from behind their cover. "Maybe it's fighting the others?"
"They might need some help, then," Yang said.
"Ren can handle it," Nora said with confidence. "He can do anything."
"I'm still gonna go check on them," Ruby said, taking off in a burst of Semblance.
Pyrrha ducked under a swing from the weird monster's sword while Ren fired at it with his machine pistols. Taking a leap backwards, she cleared the way for Weiss to use her glyphs to shoot a few fireballs at the creature. She had fought Grimm before, but nothing had ever prepared her to fight something like this. Because of the pitch-black body, she had initially assumed that it was some kind of Grimm, but that girl with the red cape had called it something different, a "Heartless" if she remembered correctly. She watched as the creature used its sword to effortlessly swat the fireballs away, her eyes narrowing at the creature. She suddenly heard a whoosh next to her, and saw the girl appear next to her in a flurry of rose petals.
"Guys!" she called, and the monster stopped engaging with Ren and Weiss and immediately turned around to face her. "Oh, no." She raised her left hand and summoned the weirdest weapon Pyrrha had ever seen. It looked vaguely like a sword, but had a large rose at one end, presumably the business end. Wait, back up. She summoned that weapon. Where the hell did it come from? She pointed the weird weapon at the monster and shouted, "Petal!" A wave of rose petals shot out of the tip of her weapon (seriously, what was this girl's Semblance?) and towards the monster. However, the Heartless flew towards her, spinning almost like a drill, scattering the rose petals without any of them hitting it. "Oh, crap!" she exclaimed, as the monster slammed into her, knocking her outside of the safety of the building. Pyrrha tried to run after her, but the creature's sword suddenly appearing in her face stopped her from helping the girl.
Ruby slid to a stop outside the building, looking up to see the Darkside looming over her. She could hear her sister call her name in concern, and she prepared to run back to her when a new enemy sprung up from the ground right in front of her. It was a Neoshadow, and just like the Darkside and Invisible, it was covered in glowing purple veins. It took a swipe at her with its claws, but Ruby ducked under them. However, before she could react, a large hand snatched her up and lifted her off the ground.
The Darkside held her right up to its face, its fingers pinning her arms to her sides. It narrowed its eyes at her in what could only be described as pure hatred.
And then it started squeezing.
Her aura would protect her from the crushing pressure, she knew, but it could only hold out for so long. Once it broke, she had no doubt that this monster would easily crush her to death. She started to squirm in the creature's grip, desperately trying to wiggle her way out, but it just seemed to make the Heartless squeeze tighter. She looked at the monster in fear, when she heard her sister's voice.
"RUBY!"
Yang only saw red.
That creature, that monster had her little sister!
"RUBY!" she screamed, instinctively activating her Semblance, her hair practically setting on fire and her eye color changing from lilac from crimson. She fired her gauntlets behind her to launch herself forward, ignoring the voice of Blake telling her to stop.
She wouldn't stop.
That thing had her sister.
She wouldn't stop until she had obliterated it.
She charged straight ahead at the Darkside, and despite knowing how stupid such a tactic was, she found that she just didn't care. She had no intention of stopping her bull rush until a movement of black out of the corner of her eye forced her to stop long enough to block the claws of a Neoshadow with her left gauntlet. She growled.
How dare this thing get between her and her sister!
She roared and threw a punch with her right hand, firing off a shot from Ember Celica at the same time, impacting the Heartless in the face with the impact of a shotgun. The creature staggered backwards, but didn't disappear. Growling again, she reared back her left fist to punch it again, but she felt something grab hold of her arm. She looked and saw another purple-veined Neoshadow had a firm grip on her wrist.
"Let go!" she yelled, swinging her arm forward as hard as she could to try and throw it off. Its grip held firm, and instead the first Neoshadow grabbed hold of her other arm. She felt something slam into her back and tackle her the ground, one Neoshadow holding each of her arms outstretched, one pinning down her torso, and another pressing her face up against the ground. "Get the fuck off me!" she yelled, thrashing wildly. She only managed to shake off the Heartless holding her head, and was able to look up at her sister, still struggling in the Darkside's grasp. "RUBY!"
Ruby could only watch helplessly from the Darkside's grasp as she watched her older sister be captured by the Neoshadows. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw the Invisible approached the restrained Yang with its sword raised.
"No," she said quietly, tears starting to form in her eyes. Her sister was in trouble and she couldn't do anything to help her. She started struggling even harder in the Darkside's grip, but still couldn't get loose. "Yang!" she yelled in desperation. She had to do something! She couldn't let Yang die like that! She saw the other students running out of cover to help, but she knew they weren't going to make it in time. The Invisible was almost on her. A dull ache began to form in her eyes.
She was out of time. There was nothing she could do. She couldn't get free in time to save her. The dull ache in her eyes turned into an intense burn.
"YANG!" she screamed.
And then the Darkside let her go. She fell from the creature's grip and landed on her feet before looking up. The first thing she saw was a very familiar head of blue hair. And then she saw the black metal of the Master Keeper Keyblade.
"Mom!" she said, relief flooding over her. The older woman was standing in front of her, holding her Keyblade at her side and glaring at the Darkside, which was gripping its wrist in pain.
"Go help Yang," she ordered. "Then come back me up. I'm gonna need all the help I can get fighting this thing." With a nod from Ruby, the two Keybearers dashed away from each other and towards their own objectives: Saving Yang for Ruby and Keeping the Darkside busy for Aqua.
Aqua charged at the Darkside, her Keyblade raised. The Heartless reared its fist back, and Aqua called upon her Semblance, causing the blue glyph to appear underneath her, her stride not breaking as she rapidly approached the giant Heartless.
"Hercules!" she shouted, summoning a crystalline copy of a toga-wearing scrawny teenage boy. The summon ran ahead of the Keyblade Master, catching the monster's fist before it could reach her and holding its arm still. She jumped over the summon of Hercules and landed on the Darkside's wrist. As soon as she landed, she immediately started running up the monster's arm, making a bee-line right for its head. She saw the Darkside's other fist rapidly approaching her. Executing a flip, she jumped off the monster's arm, jumped over its fist, landed on the other arm, and launched herself straight at its head.
When she reached its head, she swung as hard as she could, hitting the Darkside straight in the face as she flew past it. After passing it, she turned around in midair and aimed the tip of her Keyblade at the back of the monster's head.
"Firaga!" she shouted, and a massive fireball launched out of her weapon and hit the Darkside in the back of the head. Aqua flipped backwards once before falling back down to the ground, the back of the Heartless's head completely obscured by smoke. She landed in a crouch and looked back up at the monster. It slowly turned around to face her, the smoke clearing. It was completely unharmed.
"Yeah, figured it would take more than that," she muttered to herself, straightening herself out and raising her Keyblade. "Alright then, come get some!"
After separating from her mother, Ruby ran straight for Yang, who was still being pinned down by the Neoshadows. As she ran towards her, the Invisible, apparently deciding the Keybearer was the more important target, appeared before her with its sword raised to try to intercept her. Instead of fighting it, she decided that saving Yang was a much more immediate priority, so she activated her Semblance, dashing around the sword-wielding Heartless entirely and continuing her mad dash for her sister. As she approached her, she focused her attention on the Neoshadows holding her down. She locked on to all four of them, and in a flash, her body was surrounded by a bright red light. Holding her Keyblade straight out in front of her, she shot forward, slamming her weapon into one of the Neoshadows as she sped past it, sending the monster flying. Without missing a beat, she launched herself at each of the remaining three Heartless as well, finally freeing Yang from their grasp. The sisters quickly had to roll out of the way of the Invisible swinging at both of them. As Ruby recovered from her roll, she saw a Neoshadow appear from a pool of darkness on the ground, its claws raised to swing at her. She raised her Keyblade to block the attack, but several gunshots rang out. At each one, the Neoshadow flinched, until it finally disappeared in a black cloud. Ruby looked up and saw Blake, her weapon's blade folded back to reveal a pistol, aiming down the sights at where the Heartless once was. The black-haired girl and the rest of the students quickly caught up with the sisters, surrounding the two of them in a defensive stance.
"Ruby!" Jaune called. "Are you guys okay?"
"We're fine," Ruby responded, reassuring her friend. "We have to take care of these things quickly so we can help her." She gestured towards Mom, who was still doing her best to hold off the Darkside.
"Who is that woman?" Pyrrha asked.
"She's only the coolest person ever!" Nora answered enthusiastically. "Besides Ren, of course."
"Be careful of the ones without swords," Ruby said, getting the group back on task. "They can turn themselves into moving shadows. You can't hurt them when they do that." Looking around, she saw the Invisible's sword imbedded in the ground, but couldn't see the Invisible itself. That could only mean one thing. She looked for the purple flames among the group, and saw them surrounding Pyrrha.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled, tackling Pyrrha to the ground before the flames could converge on her. The flames gathered near the sword, reforming the Invisible's body. It reached for its sword, and Nora charged forward, her hammer raised. Before she could reach it, however, the Heartless grabbed its sword and blocked her swing, kicking her in the stomach to get her away from it.
"Nora!" Ren shouted, firing his machine pistols at the monster. The Invisible simply blocked the bullets with its sword while Pyrrha charged at it, her own sword raised. Realizing that his guns weren't doing anything, Ren joined her. Ruby was about to do the same when a Neoshadow launched itself out of the ground in front of her, its claws raised to swipe at her. Reacting quickly, she slid underneath it, swinging her Keyblade straight up at it to knock it further up into the air, interrupting its attack. She practically juggled it with a few more attacks, before finally finishing it off with an upward slash, the Heartless disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Everyone!" she shouted. "The Neoshadows are vulnerable right after they pop out of the ground! That's your chance to kill it!" She saw another one dive into the ground, almost as if it was avoiding her after she killed its compatriot. She followed it as it traveled along the ground, approaching Weiss, who didn't see it. "Weiss!" she called out to the heiress. "It's headed your way!" Weiss turned to look at Ruby, and saw the Neoshadow approaching her. She raised her sword in preparation. The Neoshadow jumped out of the ground, and with her rapier engulfed in flames, she slashed it with her weapon, dissolving the Heartless.
"Nice one, Weiss!" Ruby cheered. Weiss turned her head away with a huff, but Ruby saw the little smile the heiress was trying to hide.
"Gotcha, you little bastard!" they heard Yang yell, and they saw her punch out the final Neoshadow, killing with a shotgun-powered punch to the face. Ruby looked to her sister, then to Weiss, and finally to Blake, before looking back at her mother, still fighting the Darkside.
"We have to help her," she said to the other three girls. "I promised her she'd have some backup."
"What about that that other creature?" Blake asked, looking at the Invisible, which was being engaged by Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha.
"We'll just have to hope they can handle it," Yang said.
"Yang's right," Ruby said. "The big one takes priority."
"What are we waiting for, then?" Weiss asked.
"Right," Ruby said, nodding her head. "Let's go!"
"Pyrrha, are you okay?" Jaune asked after tackling the red-head to the ground to get her out of the way of the fire attack. They were both still on ground, Jaune on top of her and Pyrrha underneath him.
"Uh, yes, I'm fine," she replied, her face turning red for some reason.
Huh. Maybe she had a fever or something?
"Nora!" they heard Ren yelled before firing his machine pistols at the monster as it kicked the ginger away and towards Jaune. They saw that it was just blocking the bullets with its sword, and Pyrrha gently pushed Jaune off of her, before charging at it with her sword raised. After a few seconds of firing at the monster ineffectively, Ren joined her, using the blades attached to the undersides of his guns. Pyrrha unleashed a jumping slash, but the monster just shifted its body to the side to dodge it. Ren attempted to bring both of his weapons down in a cross shape, but the monster simply lifted its sword with one hand and stopped Ren's weapons in their tracks.
Seriously, since when do monsters use swords? So not fair.
The monster grabbed Ren's face with its free hand, and threw him several feet away from it. He landed hard on the ground, his Aura flaring up to attempt to cushion the blow.
"Ren!" Nora shouted in concern, and her hammer folded in on itself until it was shaped vaguely like a gun. She aimed at the monster and angrily pulled the trigger.
Holy crap, was that a grenade launcher?
The answer to that question, evidently, was "yes", it was a grenade launcher, if the large pink exploding projectiles were any indication. The creature tried to use its sword to block the grenades like it did with Ren's bullets, but it clearly didn't know they were grenades, since the explosions seemed to catch it off-guard. However, before they could celebrate finally scoring a decent hit on that thing, it threw its sword into the ground again, turning its body into purple flames. The flames began to surround Nora, probably as payback for the grenades. Jaune looked up at the monster's sword on the ground. That's when he got an idea.
Every time the monster's done this weird trick, when it reformed its body it had to physically retrieve its weapon. The sword didn't just appear in its hand. Maybe he could use that to his advantage.
"Someone help Nora!" he yelled, not bothering to check to see if either Pyrrha or Ren actually could help her. "I got its sword!" He ran straight for the monster's sword, and as he approached, he saw the purple flames appear next to it. He was almost out of time. He dove for the weapon, and actually managed to get his hands on it, yanking it out of the ground. He swung wildly with the jagged sword gripped in both hands, and much to his own surprise, he actually hit the thing, staggering it. "Now! Hit it!" he shouted, and he heard the rapid ratatata of bullets, likely from Ren's guns. Without its sword to block them, the monster quickly found itself riddled with bullets before Pyrrha ran past Jaune, slashing the monster with her sword. Nora was right behind her, and delivered a vicious blow with her hammer. The monster seemed to flatten against her weapon, before the ginger's blow sent the monster flying. It flew straight at a stone wall of one of the ruined buildings, disappearing in a puff of smoke just as it hit the wall. Jaune looked down at the monster's sword in his hands, and it, too disappeared.
They did it.
It was finally dead.
The four of them collectively breathed a sigh of relief until they heard the sound of fighting nearby. They looked over and saw the blue-haired woman and the other four girls still fighting the giant.
"Let's go help them," he said to other three, who all nodded.
Aqua swung her Keyblade, batting away the Darkside's hand as it tried to swipe at her. She quickly threw her weapon right at its head, but it shifted at the last second to dodge it. She recalled the Master Keeper to her hand just in time to jump over the other fist of the Darkisde. She landed on the back of its hand, coated her weapon in fire, and slashed at the appendage. The monster flailed its arm, throwing her off. She landed on one knee, staring up at the Darkside. She raised herself back up, but before she could attack the Heartless, she saw several large icicles fly past her head and impact the Darkside in the chest. She turned around and saw the Schnee heiress, Weiss, she thought her name was, pointing her rapier at the creature. Evidently, the icicles were her doing. In addition to her, Aqua also saw the other students gathered with her, their weapons raised. Two of the students off from the group and charged at the Heartless. She could see that those two students were Yang and the ginger girl, Nora.
"Cavalry's here!" Yang yelled as they ran past her.
"Let's go, guys!" Ruby shouted, and the remaining six students sprang into action. The Darkside attempted to swing its arms at Yang and Nora as they were approaching it, but Weiss called up a white glyph underneath her, stabbing her rapier into it. An identical glyph appeared underneath the Heartless's left arm, and the monster suddenly found its arm encased in a block of ice. It's right arm was still being swung, but Jaune jumped in front of it, blocking it with his shield. However, he wasn't strong enough to hold it back, so it knocked him backwards. However, that little bit was able to keep its arm occupied so it couldn't attack Yang and Nora, who had finally reached its legs. Yang cocked her gauntlets back and Nora raised her hammer, the blonde slamming a shotgun-powered fist into the Darkside's left leg, while Nora swung her hammer at the right. The two powerful blows sent it to its knees, the ice on its arm shattering. The monster continued to fall forward, catching itself with its arms. Blake and Ren charged at it, and started climbing its arms. Pyrrha switched her sword to its javelin mode, and threw it as hard as she could, impacting right in the middle of its forehead. Just as it impacted, Blake and Ren launched themselves off the creature's arms, slashing at its head as they passed each other in mid-air. Aqua looked over at her youngest daughter on her right side.
"Ruby! Let's finish it!"
"Got it!"
The two Keybearers placed their weapons next to each other, pouring their energies into the blades. Bright light emitted from both weapons, combining to form one long energy blade. The two warriors raised their swords in unison, jumping high into the air.
Letting out a battle cry, they brought the large light beam straight down on the Darkside's head, bisecting it perfectly down the middle, finally killing it. The other students looked on in awe at the two Keybearers, as they dismissed their weapons and sat down on the ground, completely exhausted. A few seconds passed in silence, with the other students trying to catch their breath as well. Until Yang finally broke the silence.
"Well, that was a thing," she said, eliciting groans from everyone. Aqua simply chuckled.
Leave it to Yang.
Why couldn't this day just be over already?
After that grueling and quite frankly terrifying initiation, the only thing Ruby wanted to do was sleep. Unfortunately, they still had the Team Naming Ceremony to attend. For that reason, all of the prospective first-year students, or at least the ones that passed, were standing in the auditorium, down by the pit around the stage, while Professors Goodwitch and Ozpin were standing on the stage itself, projecting holographic images of the successful students as their names were called to be placed into teams. Even though there were significantly less students now than there were the night before (almost worryingly fewer students), it still felt like it was taking forever to get through all of the teams. The Headmaster had just called a team of all boys onto the stage, prompting applause from the audience of upper-class students in the seats around the pit.
"Russel Thrush," Professor Ozpin recited. "Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." The boys in question stood in a line in front of the Headmaster. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by…" he paused, probably for dramatic effect, which was really starting to annoy Ruby, "Cardin Winchester." The boy in question had the most smug grin she had ever seen (and she had seen a lot of smug grins in her life, mostly from her uncle and sister) as he turned around to join the other students that had already been placed on a team. Professor Ozpin removed their names and portraits from his screen and replaced them with four familiar faces.
"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by..." there was that dramatic pause again. Ruby sighed. "Jaune Arc!" And just like that, Ruby had a huge smile plastered on her face.
"Woo! Way to go, Jaune!" she cheered for her friend.
"Congratulations, young man," Professor Ozpin said to Jaune right before Pyrrha gave him a playful bump on the shoulder. Unfortunately, that bump knocked Jaune to the ground, causing the other students to laugh at him. And just like that, Ruby was back to being annoyed.
What right did they have to laugh at him? He was probably just distracted by the shock of being made leader that Pyrrha's bump caught him off-guard. That was no reason to laugh at him! She didn't have long to fume, though, as the newly-christened Team JNPR vacated the stage, leaving just the remaining four girls.
At least Ruby didn't have to keep questioning who her team was.
"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." The four girls stepped in front of him as their names were called. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY."
Team RWBY? Ruby thought. That's weird. That's my name. But, hold on. There's no "W" in "Ruby". So lost in thought was she that she almost missed the next part.
"Led by…Ruby Rose."
Ruby's jaw fell open. There was no way she heard him right. Her, a team leader? Little Miss Socially Awkward was expected to lead people?! This had to be some kind of cruel joke. She was suddenly pulled into another one of her sister's patented crushing hugs.
"I'm so proud of you!" Yang gushed, confirming that no, the Headmaster wasn't joking when he said that Ruby would be leading Team RWBY. Her own team.
She didn't know what to feel, so she settled on "numb".
AN: And that's finally a wrap for Initiation. I'm really not sure exactly how satisfied I am with how the action in this chapter turned out. Any pointers on how I can make action better in the future will be much-appreciated.
With this chapter, we finally have a reveal of one of Ruby's Shotlocks. She will have a different one for each form her Keyblade takes. When her Keyblade is in its base state, her Shotlock is basically Sora's Sonic Blade.
So, we had the future Teams RWBY and JNPR fight off not only an enhanced Darkside, but an enhanced Invisible and Neoshadows, too, alongside Aqua.
For next chapter, we will get into the beginning days of the first semester at Beacon. Everyone will have a lot of new things to get used to, and since there will be significantly less action, it shouldn't take me nearly as long to finish the next one.
I've also got a little announcement to make. In order to try to get past my writer's block during this chapter, I started a little side project called "A Jewel Without a Crown". It's a pure Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fanfiction that so far only has a prologue uploaded, but I will make a little more progress on that and upload it periodically. If you've played Xenoblade 2, then check it out. It might be something you could enjoy.
With that, as always, thank you guys for reading, and I'll see you all next chapter!