I do not own RWBY or AdventureQuest Worlds.
The girl dreamed.
A land of beautiful music. Harmony and peace and love, celebrated by a great festival. It was not to be however. Discordia sought to undo that, and spread chaos in the name of his master. And even then…
Kimberly Freeman had been using Discordia as a pawn, controlling his will with her music; twisting her gifts for a disgusting act of keeping his freedom away. The young warrior was thrown back to fight a beast long gone. Pony Gary Yellow charged at him, and he would slay the chaos beast, unknowingly advancing the plans of Kimberly Freeman's master.
In the end, the young warrior would free Kimberly Freeman from the control of Drakath, and he would learn for the first time the darkness of the loss of freedom.
]|[
Yang deposited Winter to some medics stationed nearby, and returned to the battlefield. She made her way slowly back towards Blake, blasting Grimm apart with her shotgun fists, and bashing some fool White fang heads in.
She shuddered at the state the Schnee was in. Arm torn off somehow, and eye missing, because of that woman her partner was now fighting. Weiss is not going to be happy. She thought. And these…bastards caused all of it! Yang growled, her eyes glowing red.
A squad charged at her, and she punched them all in quick succession in the jaw, knocking them all out with a punch each. She had no time for this. She ran back to her partner, destroying anything that came in her way.
Please be safe, Blakey! She prayed.
]|[
Johnny struck at the wyvern with his katana, the steel searing the black scales with a Basilisk Strike. The wyvern howled in pain as it began to burn from inside. It roared, and bit forward, trying to swallow him whole. Johnny avoided easily. The students began shooting at the open mouth of the great Grimm. "Get some!" Yelled one Coco Adel, absolutely perforating its insides with hundreds of bullets from her minigun, Gianduja.
Joining her was Nora Valkyrie, shooting grenades at the face of the wyvern, making it flinch back. It stomped angrily forward, trying to crush the students. Glynda Goodwitch created a great purple barrier, covering everyone.
"Someone do something!" She yelled. "I cannot hold this much longer!"
Ruby charged at the creature, backed up by her partner. They accelerated to the beast with Weiss' glyphs, and they sent slashes up the leg of the beast, much like cutting a log of a great tree. Johnny backed them up. He clambered near the beast's underbelly, and took out a new weapon.
"It seems the Katana from the Soul Forge is not cutting it." He mused, flipping up the flashlight-like baton in his hands. He activated it, and a blade appeared, of an eternally burning and lovely bright light. The Sword of Eternal Light was a gift given in honor of Johnny's loyalty. It was a powerful weapon he seldom used. And it was-
"A lightsaber?!" Ruby shrieked, seeing the weapon in Johnny's hands. The red reaper and her partner was still using their puny weapons to saw the great Grimm's legs off. "Focus, you dolt!" Weiss yelled at her fangirling partner. "Kill now! Weapons later!"
Johnny released Astialos' Wings once more, and charged the leg, slicing it cleanly in two, separating the great clawed foot from the rest of the limb. The wyvern roared in agony, and it lost its balance, falling onto its side.
"Glynda!" Johnny yelled in a slight panic. "Protect the buildings! There are civilians in there! We'll lure the lizard away from it!"
Glynda nodded. She used her semblance again to hold the great wing crashing down on one of the buildings, and Johnny took the opportunity to land on its side. He ran the lightsaber down its shoulder joint, cutting the wing.
The wyvern started to thrash about. "Stay clear!" He yelled, and used more chains from the Void Highlord's power to steady himself by anchoring himself with the swords in the chains. "Someone try and cut the tail off! Others try and put this bastard to sleep! Hit it with everything you've got! And don't let it get up again!" Johnny commanded over the crowd.
Johnny headed towards the head as the fighters swarmed to the titanic creature's body. He ran across the body, passing by the great bone white spikes jutting by its sides and the ridge of its back. With a stab with his lightsaber, he slid down the neck of the wyvern, spilling massive amounts of ichor to the ground below.
The black blood of the wyvern touched him, and he hissed in pain from feeling what felt like solidified darkness. It was nothing compared to what Gravelyn, or heavens forbid, Sepulchure, had but it was still a substantial concentration of darkness within the substance. The wyvern screeched, in pain, thrashing its neck around, spreading the black substance across everywhere.
Grimm began to spawn again, this time of a great number from the damage he made with the sword. However, Johnny was used to dealing with multiple foes at once in combat. Pulling up a Mana Shield, Johnny's form split into six, twisted Caricatures of himself, slicing through the horde. He marched forward, trying to reach the head of the dragon. His clones cut through the Grimm like hot lightsaber through butter, absolutely gutting each that tried to even get close.
He casted spells he learned from Arcangrove, feeling the might of an Evolved Shaman, deepening his connection to the elements. Great gouts of Freezing Flame swept through the charging Beowolves and Ursas. Quick charging Sabyrs got blown away with a Furious Gale. Johnny felt his Grasp of the elements deepening, focusing his spells further. The winds began to tear at the hides of the Grimm it touched; the firestorms and blizzards created from his power raged even harder.
An Elemental Storm tore through the Grimm, and they all died in great numbers, some even before they spawned in the pools.
"Whoa!" Nora said. "What is that crazy semblance?!" Team JNPR was watching nearby, and was mounting an assault on the head when they saw Johnny tearing through. Grimm were being killed by the dozen at once by both fire, ice, and wind.
Pyrrha looked. "Must be something involving Dust. But how much Dust is he even using for that?"
Not to mention the clones that was helping him kill the horde. That seems to be another thing that doesn't match a semblance. Ren said so himself. "I don't think Dust accounts for the chains and the clones, Pyrrha."
Jaune shook his head. "Doesn't matter. We should help him clear the Grimm and get that head." The leader was guessing that was Johnny's plan, seeing where the man was headed. "Kill all the Grimm first. Let's move!" He gave his orders, and his team nodded.
Having said that, Jaune wasn't actually confident he could keep up with all the craziness happening around him right now. He batted away some of the Beowolves that neared him, and while running into the horde with his team, the blonde leader promptly ran face first into an Ursa.
Pyrrha watched her partner worriedly, but her worries turned into pride as Jaune killed the Ursa by himself, slashing wildly at the creature.
"You guys?!" Johnny said. He focused back on casting more spells. "Right. Got anything that can blow through that?" He pointed at the wyvern's head thrashing about.
"Bombs?" Nora offered. Ren beside her shook his head as he tore apart a charging Griffon. Pyrrha and Jaune also didn't have anything.
"We can clear the way for you!" Jaune said. "You deal with the head!"
"I can get behind that." Johnny said. "Good luck! Here's something before I go."
He muttered a prayer for Harmony, and the teens felt something within them get…better. Jaune tore through a Griffon, with reflexes that was almost unlike him, dodged by crouching down and running his sword through its guts. Immediately after, he jammed his sword into the head of a beowolf, and smashed his sheath into another.
"Whoa." He realized what was happening. He watched Johnny mow his way into the wyvern's head. "What was that?!"
They looked at each other and grinned. Feeling particularly powerful that moment, JNPR charged through the Grimm.
]|[
The Wyvern heaved the wing beneath it, pushing itself to stand. It roared in pain, feeling a thousand cuts upon its body. Its blood spilled everywhere, but it was still alive, and it still birthed more and more of its kin.
"Do not let it get up!" Someone yelled. "Topple it! Attack the legs!"
The Wyvern, one winged and foot cut off began to rage at the smaller creatures attacking it, it whipped its great tail, but violet force caught the long appendage, and forcefully smashed it back to the ground. If it had completed the movement, the tail would have smashed through the buildings around.
Glynda focused with all her might to ground the tail, giving the students, soldiers, and professors alike to chop at the wyvern.
"Shoot it! Shoot it!" Ironwood shouted. He was taking potshots at the head of the wyvern, seemingly not doing enough damage. "Brother's damn it!"
Even though they have an air force on their side, they couldn't just start bombing the thing. Everyone would be caught in its blast. The most they could do was rain bullets on the creature from above.
They needed something, and fast. The Grimm would overrun them soon if they didn't do anything.
]|[
The airships tore through the Grimm in the skies; furious metal ripping apart dark flesh. The Atlesian Air Force cleaned up the skies, as the students and professors of Beacon carved up the gigantic wyvern down below. Thankfully, it wasn't fighting back much, fallen onto its side, and everyone was just trying to put down the wyvern.
The biggest problem was the blood. Each time they wounded it, the blood would spill out, and more and more Grimm would spawn, making actually killing the damned thing a chore. Everyone was getting exhausted.
Ironwood and his reinforcement of robot soldiers helped, shooting the Grimm before they even got out of the pools, but even then it was not enough.
Time to end this. Johnny thought. The Sword of Eternal Light was strong, and it cut through the Grimm very easily, but he would need more than that. He needs something that has a conceptual strength versus the draconic Grimm. He had just the thing.
He took out from his inventory a greatsword, with skulls lining it from pommel to the body of the blade, the eyes of the skulls glowing eerie blue, with a bright blue blade.
The Legion Dragonblade of Nulgath, a recreation by Dage of his old teacher's masterpiece. Reforged in the Soul Forge of the Undead Legion's master. It still retains the old malice of the Archfiend that first created it, its aura making it destroy dragons and their kin much more easily.
"Out of the way!" Johnny shouted, waving a blast with the power of the Lightcaster, a beam of light cutting a swathe through the horde of darkness. The adventurer focused the beam on the wyvern, wading through the Grimm, slicing everything that got close with his greatsword.
He was beneath the wyvern's chin, he was ready. Feeling the power of the Undead Legion, spreading dark, feathered wings, feeling himself Empowered by it. "An Exalted Crown beyond all others!" He screamed, before he launched himself up with the beat of Astialo's Wings.
He landed on the neck of the wyvern. IT thrashed about, feeling the invader on the nape of its neck. Johnny wasn't about to fall now. He stabilized himself with the Void Highlord's chains. With an empowered slash, he sliced at the neck of the wyvern, chopping through the flesh again and again. The wyvern roared in pain, and attracted the flying Grimm around to target Johnny specifically.
They did not even reach him. Ruby and Weiss were on it immediately, slicing apart whatever was about to get to Johnny.
"You have more swords?!" Ruby said in awe. "That looks soooo cool!" Ruby transformed her scythe back into rifle form, shooting at the flying Grimm swarming them.
"Whatever you're doing, do it fast!" Weiss yelled at Johnny. "I don't think we're going to last much long!"
"I'm trying!" Johnny said, hacking at the neck. Even with the greatsword, it took some time trying to hit the brainstem or spine beneath.
The Grimm spawning in the pools was called in by the roar, and turned their attention back to the man chopping away at the wyvern. The terrestrial Grimm clambered up the Wyvern's body. The students and professors realized what was happening.
"Don't let it get to him!" Jaune yelled. Nora began taking shots with her grenade launcher at the horde trying to crowd around Johnny. Pyrrha charged into the leg of the wyvern and stood guard, killing anything that tried to get close. Ren sliced apart any that would have come close to Johnny.
Team CRDL camped near one of the spawning pool and killed everything that tried to clamber out, ending the Grimm before they even began to become a threat. Oobleck and Port stood on the Wyvern's back, culling the Grimm swarming them.
Team CFVY kept themselves near Team JNPR, with Coco focusing on shooting at the Wyvern's head while her team kept the Grimm off her.
Johnny kept slicing and slicing and slicing. He ignored the blood that splattered him. It burned, but it was nothing compared to what he has already experienced. There was another unforeseen effect of being bathed in Grimm blood however.
A psychic link. Or a vision. Whatever it was, half of Johnny's vision was occupied with staring at a white haired figure with pale skin and black and red eyes. She stared back.
"So…" The woman smiled. "We finally meet." She said.
]|[
Salem stared at the young man. In a black cap, black shirt and pants, hair and eyes the same darkness. "How have you come across this power?" She questioned.
"Who are you?" The man whispered, tossing a question back? "It's quite rude to intrude into another person's mind, without even introducing themselves."
[Salem, Witch of Darkness]
"I am the woman whose plans you have been interfering with." Salem answered. She figured, since that wave of magic, her minion's plans suddenly came crumbling down. Leading to her next question. "Why have you been interfering with me and mine?"
"You make it sound like I actively go out of my way to inconvenience you." Johnny snorted. He was near, he felt, digging his way into the black flesh of the draconid. "I only accidentally inconvenience you, by the way. Your people are the ones that have brought whatever it is you have on yourselves."
[Good] "Besides." Johnny smiled. He raised the Legion Dragonblade high into the air. "You conspire to torture a woman's soul for her power. You think I'm going to let that stand by?"
"You think Ozpin and his pawns won't do the same? Then you clearly have no idea who you are allying with."
"The problem with that, is that they aren't the ones that did it, did they?" The adventurer spat back. "You assume that because you are his enemy, he will do things at your own level. No." With a wide slash, Johnny tore at the bones covering the vital organs of the great beast. "You're the only one ugly here. You can't just project your sins on other people."
"And yourself?" Salem asked, Johnny groaning as the witch clearly had missed, or ignored, his point. "The one deep in the blood of my children. Steeped deep in the darkness that has corrupted your betters. How black must your heart be to withstand it! Clearly a darkness deeper than black. You're interference has led to this, do you not see it?" The witch said. "If you had not interfered with my people, then I wouldn't have sent this wyvern. The Grimm would not have been attacking the kingdom and its people."
[Evil, Gravelyn's DOOMfire Token] "There are darkness deeper than others. And mine certainly deeper than yours." Johnny said. With another great slash, he cut off the brain of the wyvern. "And you tell me that this is my fault? You're the one that sent the wyvern! And I think," Johnny smiled as the flesh began to disintegrate into the air. The red glow of the wyvern's eyes disappeared, and it let an agonized roar. "You should have sent more than just one wyvern."
Johnny roared, and sliced one last time, demonstrating his power over the darkness and shadows, the way he learned from Dage himself. The Jigen Kogeki cleanly cut off the head of the wyvern, destroying it fully.
"Then take heed, and know, that it is I, Salem, Queen of the Grimm, that you have made an enemy out of. And you shall die, just like all that would stand in my way." The witch-queen announced. Johnny landed on the ground, the blood on him slowly dissipating away, and he looked up, seeing some students and Glynda coming over to him. "And I shall destroy whatever it is that you hold dear; friends, family, and comrades. I am the tide of darkness that will divide the world in twain. When judgment comes, only death will remain upon my passing."
"You can try. I'll stop you." Salem smiled at his declaration. "You can count on that." Johnny said, fixing the hat on his head.
"We shall see, young man." The connection cut of as the last of the blood dissipated from Johnny. Maybe you'll even succeed. Salem thought.
]|[
Beatrice's vision was slowly recovering, and the ringing had lessened. But she still couldn't see, and was disoriented on the battlefield. She was swinging wildly, Blake avoiding the wand at all costs. Beatrice was rampaging with her semblance on, using it almost like a beam that disintegrated and drained all that touched the end of her wand.
Blake shot at Beatrice, but even blinded, the semblance still actively protected her from it. She clicked her teeth. She replaced her weapons to her back and picked up one tossed rifle. She shot at Beatrice, charging at her. Beatrice sensed her footsteps even through her ringing ears, and slammed her wand down at that direction. More clones. "Graaah!" Beatrice yelled in frustration as her hand and wand got stuck on the clone of ice, and Blake kicked the crazed terrorist on her knees, forcing Beatrice to stumble forward, and swung the rifle like a bat. Beatrice's defenses kicked in, but not fully, as the plastic and ceramic parts of the Atlesian rifle smashed across her head. Beatrice grunted in pain, and tore her arm forcefully from the ice. Flicking on her wand, the tip glowed, and she slammed it on the ground. Water flowed from within the crystal in the wand, feeding on Beatrice's aura as she did so.
The pavement below them puddled with the water Beatrice was producing. She rubbed at her eyes, used even a bit of her semblance on herself, forcefully removing the bleaching on her retinas and forcing her eyesight to clear. Hopefully I didn't just whack my eyesight with that. Beatrice thought, It's been years since ophthalmology.
With renewed focus, Beatrice flipped forwards, and forced herself to look at Blake. She swung her wand, forcing the water into a fine needle-tip thinness, and directed it towards Blake. The snake-like water stream moved extremely fast, and targeted Blake's throat. Blake blocked with her katana, drawing from her back, but the water engulfed the blade, rusting it in seconds.
"Shouldn't have left, Blake." Beatrice said. "Then you'd know that I got upgrades of my own." Beatrice delivered a kick, and the ex-terrorist had to back off. The water serpent returned, and Blake did her best to weave away from it.
While controlling the snake, Beatrice focused on Blake, visualizing the blood on her heart. As she did before, Beatrice forced the blood on Blake's heart to not move and clam up on the lungs. Blake, coughed, and lost her focus. She barely had the time to move her head as the sharp edge of the water serpent cut through some of her hair. Her coughing continued; the blood damming in her lungs had to move as the blood vessels struggled to hold it in, and flooded her lungs with fluid. Blake felt like she was being drowned.
Blake continued to choke on her own blood, and Beatrice slowly looked around. The reinforcements from Atlas had already arrived, and there were already too many of them gone. "Men, we're pulling back!" She yelled. "Retreat for now, and fight another day!"
The White Fang on the battlefield nodded and began to withdraw from their own melees, thinning out from the crowd slowly.
"Oh no you don't!" Yang punched Beatrice, appearing in a blink from behind the terrorist. Beatrice didn't dodge, as lances of sharp vibrating water encaged Yang from the puddles they were stepping on. Yang's fist missed entirely as the blonde flinched from the blades and forced her body to tumble to the side safely.
"You think you have time to fight me and save Blake?" Beatrice taunted, pointing at Blake, who was slowly dying. Her heart was beating faster and faster as a result of not having enough blood pumped to the rest of her body. It was almost vibrating in place. "Your partner here is choking on her own fluids and will have a heart attack in a few minutes." Beatrice smiled cruelly. "So you can choose, blondie. Fight me and Blake surely dies, or not fight me and let me go, and Blake could get help and maybe live." Yang snarled. She knew what she'd do.
"This isn't over." Yang said, marching to her partner and carrying her away. Beatrice didn't stop her. "I'm going to punch your face in the next time we meet."
Beatrice's laughter echoed in her ears as she ran, racing against time, as her partner's heart barely held on.
]|[
Salem watched over the battlefield, on a seer she spawned from the blood of the wyvern. It flew in the shadows, watching over Beatrice Astraluna. Gaze lingering for a few seconds, it flew away, searching for her protégé. She was here for sure. Cinder was opportunistic like that. She would capitalize on the wyvern she sent.
She found her battling Qrow Branwen. Cinder launched red hot glowing spears of steel at Qrow, who dodged while trying to stay clear of the massive explosions surrounding him. Cinder was relentless. Arrow after arrow rained upon the veteran huntsman, forcing him to cover up behind the blade of his broadsword. She was pinning him down, and he couldn't just stand there and just let her kill him!
Cinder made the decision for him. The half-maiden slammed a fist into the building to the side, superheating the stone, exploding the wall. Qrow screamed as the explosion blew him to the other side of the alleyway.
"Enough, Cinder." The Seer finally cut into the fight. Cinder looked upon the Seer with fear.
"Mistress, I-!" "Stop." Salem cut whatever Cinder was about to say. "You are done here. Retreat for now, we have things to talk about."
Qrow watched as Cinder and the jellyfish-like Grimm talked. But even through the Dust, he saw the image on the Grimm. A white haired woman with black and red eyes.
"Leave the huntsman here. He is inconsequential." Salem said. Cinder nodded. Using the power of the maiden, Cinder launched herself up to the roofs by exploding the ground beneath her. She was gone in seconds.
"Wait…" Qrow rasped, rising from the rock and metals he was nearly buried under. "Wha-?!"
The Seer peered into Qrow, invading his personal space. "Huntsman." The witch addressed Qrow. "Tell Ozma. Tell him…" Salem smiled. "…That I'm going to see him soon."
Qrow grit his teeth and shot the Seer, killing it instantly.
The Grimm was gone, but Salem's words lingered at his mind. He had to go back to Oz.
]|[
The soldiers picked themselves up. The airships were cleaning out the Grimm that was left, and the students had all but destroyed the Grimm that had spawned. It was over.
Blake was at one of the medic stations, with a needle up her chest, blood being drained out of her lungs. She was limp, her heart beating faintly, and arms hooked up to an IV line. Yang watched in frustration at the state of her partner.
On another bed, was Winter Schnee. Severe dehydration, eye socket bleeding, and right arm missing. She was out cold, and was hooked also to IV lines. Her face was covered in bandages covering her missing eye and stitches from the repair of her fractured skull.
Officers and soldiers still unconscious, brain damaged from the fluid imbalance caused by Beatrice Astraluna's semblance.
The witch had left another wound on these people, Johnny thought. Some things he could not heal, but he can offer a little bit of comfort.
He let the skies darken, and soon, tiny droplets showered over everyone, a Healing Rain cleansing the land from the taint of the Grimm, healing wounds, and easing pain of everyone in the area.
He looked over to the others. There was still work to be done.
A/n: Beatrice Astraluna is probably one of my favorite NPCs I've made. I've used her before on one of my tabletop games, always as a villain. She just writes her own lines, if that makes sense.
