A/N well I know I said the next chapter would deal with Remnant, it didn't flow that well, So I altered the order. so here you guys go, Chapter 19: Evolution.
Chapter 19: Evolution
After she woke up, Ruby had to go take a shower to rinse the sweat off of her body. Her mind was going a mile a minute, Was that really Yang? she asked herself. With the appearance of Roman and Neo, She realized it is a possibility her friends could be here as well. The way she was dressed, the feeling she got off of her, it was one Ruby didn't like.
Leaning on the wall as shower poured warm water on her body, Ruby didn't want to think about what Yang looked like. Yang, please don't tell me you became a what I think you did, Ruby thought as she heard a light knocking on the door outside followed by the concerned voice,
"Everything alright Ruby?" Weiss asked from outside.
"Yeah, I'll tell you when I get out," Ruby said as even muffled by the door Weiss's voice was soothing to her. Finishing up in the shower and putting on another set of her clothes she walked out to see Weiss at the table sipping on some freshly made tea. She even had a cup placed for Ruby.
"So, what was bothering you?" Weiss asked as she set down her cup and Ruby took a seat.
"I think I saw Yang in a Vision," Ruby explained. This explanation caused Weiss to raise an eyebrow as she thought Ruby would be overjoyed with the Idea of Yang. With that in mind, Weiss inquired,
"I thought you would be overjoyed at that idea of her being alive, what is the matter?" Weiss asked as Ruby prepared to admit what she saw. Sighing, Ruby informed Weiss about the duel with the Jedi in her vision.
Weiss was well aware of the implications of what Ruby was saying. If Yang had become a Jedi, she was to be their enemy. To Weiss this was a shocking potential they did not account for, if their friends ended up in this galaxy, they could become Jedi. They didn't know what to think on that issue. They both knew the Jedi were just as corrupt as the Republic and they were the ultimate enemy of the Sith. Though they had to quickly stow those thoughts away as their first day of independent training was to begin.
Ruby reported to the eastern training hall, while Weiss reported to the courtyard. In the courtyard, Malserik stood in his usual clothes and with Sturmkrieg in hand. The Viridian blade humming, as puffs of steam formed from snowflakes hitting the blade. He stood alone, awaiting his apprentice, as the door to the courtyard opened, he charged giving Weiss only seconds to react as he propelled himself with the force. Using both her speed and the force to accelerate, she dodged the attack and ignited her blue saber, and counter-attacked. With that, the two began their duel.
Weiss was keeping pace with Malserik, though she had to give it her all to do so. His attacks were quick a precise. She could tell he was targeting her joints, he was testing her. Their duel went on for about five minutes before Malserik ceased his attack and deactivated his blade.
"Good work, Weiss," Malserik smiled as he stowed his lightsaber, " I just wanted to see how you fared against me, It turns out quite well."
"Thank you, Malserik," Weiss said humbled by his opinion of that duel.
"Don't be mistaken, you still have much to learn," Malserik smiled, by the end of her training, he wanted Weiss to be able to go toe to toe with himself. As each day after that one, Malserik would push his apprentice even further.
In the training hall, waited something entirely different. Inside Ruby saw a Weiss held captive by masked Jedi. Ruby tried to feel her bond with Weiss but the sensation was blocked. Starting to worry, Ruby Yelled out,
"Ceres? What is this?" The air was still as the Jedi ignited his saber and Weiss responded with,
"Ruby! Help Me!" The fear in her eyes, the emotions on her face, they were genuine. Ruby was sure Weiss went to train with Viridian, but her she was in front of her. It was at that second the blue blade of the Jedi swooped down taking Weiss's head clean off.
Ruby's eyes shot open as she watched this, seeing the expression on Weiss's head scarred her, and her rage boiled over. White hot from her rage, she exploded forward, igniting her two red sabers. Her strikes on the Jedi were quick and merciless, accented by a loud scream of denial. The Jedi had no time to fight back, his body was eviscerated by Ruby's strikes. Turning around she saw Weiss's head fade into the head of a training droid, as did the body, looking back at the Jedi she saw the same, a training droid. As she turned back around she heard footsteps, behind her was Imperious.
With one force push fueled by unbridled rage and fury, She launched her new master into the wall with a significant deep reverberating thud. Before Imperious could respond Ruby had one of her lightsaber blades up to Imperious's throat. Clearing her throat, Ruby spoke,
"What the FUCK. Was that?" Ruby inquired, her voice low, her eyes glowing. Ruby made a point to restrain on swearing, but even those restraints had limits. Even pinned against the wall Imperious couldn't help but smile with her response.
"What that was, was me 'pulling out all the stops'," Imperious replied with a smug grin on her face as she continued, "You asked me last night not to hold back any punches, 'To pull out the stops.' So that is what I did, I wanted to show you what you could do when enraged."
With those words, spoken Ruby relented as she did ask for this. Releasing Imperious, she examined the destruction in full, After which her training continued.
Five months later, Ruby and Weiss returned from the fray once more, laying four lightsabers on his desk after dispatching another set of intruders into Hiskal.
"Very good ladies," Malserik said excitedly at Weiss and Ruby return and the gifts they brought. One of his hobbies was to critique the sabers they brought back. Looking at the sabers, they consisted of; one double bladed, two standard sabers, and a cross-hilted light saber. Malserik examined the sabers taking the first three in hand and stating,
"what happened to all the creativity we Sith had? If I were to guess, these sabers seem to be mass produced. Simply unacceptable." Malserik spat, each saber the girls brought him from an apprentice disappointed him more than the last. They were unrefined and crude far from the weapon of elegance they were. Though, the cross-shaped hilt was of much finer construction. The metal was actually finished properly, engravings and most important of all the design seemed made by hand. "This one is quite Magnificent," Malserik said standing up igniting the blaze red blade, as two offshoots ignited, forming cross-guard ignited after that. "Which one of you killed the Lord?"
"It was a joint effort," The now nineteen-year-old Weiss said calmly, "We agreed to split that kill."
"So who wants this as a trophy?" Malserik asked deactivating the saber and holding it to present it to one of the girl's?
"Ruby you dealt the killing blow you have it," Weiss said stating the truth, also she didn't feel the need to have a saber like that, Ruby was the one tinkering with lightsabers, not her.
"Well, then that's decided," Malserik said handing over the saber to Ruby who had a malicious smirk on her lips as she took the saber.
"I trust you two had no trouble?" Imperious spoke up, inquiring about the difficulty of their goal to eliminate a lord and his two apprentices that came to Hiskal to wreak havoc.
"For a combined kill count of fifty-seven, he was by no means the hardest," Ruby said with her Cheshire cat-like smirk as she clicked her trophy to her belt.
"That is good to hear, I wouldn't want you two to say you struggled with a lord when you two killed a Darth," Imperious smiled playfully at the two apprentices.
"You two are dismissed, also unless something comes up you two are free tomorrow," Malserik said as the girls walked out of the room.
Over the course of five months, Ruby and Weiss had changed a lot with their training. the now seventeen years old Ruby, who was normally a cheerful, happy girl had darkened. She took up a snarky cynical attitude next to her now rough personality. Her body morphed even further from the little girl she once was, looking more like a blossoming young woman. In combat, Ruby was quick to anger and now completely capable of slicing open an opponent with no hesitation. Despite this, she could still be kind and caring to her friends.
This radical shift was mostly caused by Ruby's training by Imperious. A training that was as innovative as it was horrifying, as Ruby learned on her first day. Imperious often used illusions to expose Ruby to the sights and horrors of war. Compared to they made that day look like a cake walk, She had seen things, she couldn't forget. Disguising the droids to look like Jedi or Sith depending on the lesson Imperious got Ruby used to the idea of taking life. She had mastered her rage and anger along with how to unleash them. Along with her emotional training, Imperious managed to coach Ruby how to carry herself and act. Dominant, assertive, snarky, cynical, and most importantly confident in herself.
During her, time with Imperious Ruby practiced with all of the forms of standard lightsaber combat. Imperious was impressed with how she fought, not preferring one style, instead, creating her own. Along with that Ruby learned not only to apply the force into her combat style but to apply acrobatics. Imperious told her to 'weaponize her entire body, make it so your opponent has to watch you just as much as your blade.' Ruby took this idea in strides if she saw an opening for her foot, elbow, and even her head and she wouldn't get that part sliced off doing it, she was going to do it. After that Imperious educated Ruby in the art of Jar'kai and Tràkata. Tràkata was a skill that required Ruby to embrace a cunning she never knew she had, deactivating her lightsaber to avoid a saber lock and avoid an enemy's parry, reigniting the blade in a way that would cause significant damage.
Imperious also taught Ruby in the skill of Dun Möch as Sith skill used to make her opponents fears her to weaken them. With that Imperious focused Ruby towards using force Illusions herself, her abilities were decent she was able to cloak herself and impart illusions on those of a weaker mind. Another more questionable lesson Ruby was taught was in the art of manipulation and seduction and intimidation were a few lessons among this pack of lessons Ruby was taught.
During this time Ruby learned how to use her force sight affinity, allowing her to read people even further, though Imperious told her this ability wasn't anywhere near fully developed. Lastly Imperious taught Ruby how to use her limited abilities in force lightning to charge her lightsaber blades. Imperious was quite saddened that Ruby could only conjure lightning with her left hand, as two hands increased its power exponentially. Despite this, in Imperious's mind, Ruby was forming into an excellent Sith, a woman who would be powerful.
Though in the same five months Weiss had changed as well, were to most she was a cold person before. She took it up again in leaps and bounds, still as easily angered and frustrated like she always had been but with her skills she gained pride and an ego, something she got from training with Malserik. She hated when her opponents were below her. So much so she laughed down at them if they were so far below her.
Weiss's skills with a blade were honed to a near master level, as she was capable of keeping up with Malserik in form two spars with ease. However, like Malserik she was lacking in one area, blaster deflection, though unlike Malserik her supercharged aura could take quite a few bolts before being depleted. Though with her force powers being as strong as they were, she could stop a blaster bolt mid-air if she so desired. Weiss as much as she loved the blade, found she was also very skilled with force lightning. she even created a technique where she could use glyphs to channel her lightning very long distances, up to a hundred meters if the need arose. She could also arc lightning in a dome around her body, and blast the lightning into a wave.
Weiss in this time experimented with here glyphs discovered her Lightsaber replaced Myrtenaster very well for controlling her glyphs and with it Dust. As the samples from the mine below Hiskal came up, Weiss and Malserik began running experiments with Dust.
Dubbed 'Elemental Reaction Crystal' by Malserik, the vein below Hiskal was rich with Dust of all elements. Something that shocked Weiss as she had examined Dust veins before, but this one was unique as it was so rich. The only dust they had yet to find was the cursed distortion dust.
Once they got more sample up to Hiskal, Weiss and Malserik started to perform experiments with the material. Their experiments consisted of testing to see if Malserik could manifest an Aura, which he could not, neither could Imperious, which puzzled Weiss, as Aura was the manifestation of the soul. Then Malserik had a theory, maybe Dust could be activated by the force. Much to Weiss's surprise, this worked, though the reaction was stunted and less powerful. They even worked out that dust could function with a lightsaber, giving the blade various elemental effects, all be it temporary. With this discovery, Weiss realized if she used her glyphs she could use the dust based attack like she did with Myrtenaster. This made Weiss smile as once again she could fight even more like she used to.
With these most recent developments, the duo was quite fierce in battle. Malserik himself hasn't had to deal with any threats from his rivals. As not only were the girls quite able to oust any attempts to attack Waldstahl, they were also able to eliminate any attempts to terrorize the people of Hiskal. Though even they didn't have to respond as of the sixty-two Sith to attack Hiskal, only fifty-seven Sith that needed to be eliminated by the Dove and Raven. The other five were easily eliminated by the second in command of the Hiskalan guard, Commander Roman Torchwick, and Agent Neopolitan. Their respective trainers taught them well. Roman becoming a brilliant tactician, while Neo became an assassin like sharpshooter. By the people of Hiskal, the four Remnants were well respected, though some feared them as most feared the Sith and their henchmen.
Back in the present, Ruby and Weiss walked down the familiar corridor as they walked back to their room. They were proud of today's work, as this mission was their most public display yet, as the Hiskalan Guard couldn't contain these and Ruby had to us force pushes and pulls to keep them from getting in the way or injured. Needless to say, the people of Hiskal cheered them on as they fought.
"So what do you want to do tomorrow Weiss?" Ruby asked her lover and partner as they walked down the halls of Waldstahl towards their room?
"I assumed you were going to stay here and fiddle with that lightsaber design you have been working on," Weiss responded with a hint of legitimate shock, that Ruby wasn't going to be sitting in the shadow's working on that lightsaber she was trying to design.
"It's not like I'm building it yet, I'm just making the blueprints," Ruby deadpanned at Weiss, Ruby knew no one would see her when she started constructing her new 'baby'"I mean we've been so split up in our training we haven't been able to do much."
"I know, it is as aggravating, as the training is interesting," Weiss frowned as their training had hindered their relationship. They had been separate so much during their training, only being able to link up at the end of the day.
"I know we could go to Kaas City tomorrow!" Ruby suggested slightly excited. From what Imperious told her, Kaas city is an interesting place and only took about an hour to fly to.
"That wouldn't be a good idea, with how many people know of us," Weiss said letting Ruby know the potential outcome, as the Dove and Raven of Hiskal had made Imperial headlines one or two times.
"It was just an idea," Ruby groaned, feeling shot down, she really wanted to go to Kaas city.
"I know, just with how many people are giving us grief, that would be a bad idea," Weiss spoke the truth.
"I know, why don't we go to that restaurant that Malserik told us about?" Ruby suggested her bright gold eyes linking with Weiss's mixed blue and silver eyes.
"That's not a bad Idea" Weiss smiled as they made it to their room. There they found a warm meal waiting for them along with freshly washed clothes and sheets. They had a long day and now it was time for the Dove and Raven to relax, and hopefully finally have a day to themselves tomorrow.
Back in Imperious's chamber, Imperious was contacted by an ally requesting her assistance.
"What is it, Velocitous?" Imperious inquired, curious of what this call could be about.
"The Tomb Witch that has been harassing the Academy. A Darth is rallying as many lords as they can get to kill her," the Chiss responded through the hologram.
"So what's your concern in the matter, let alone, why should I care?" Imperious inquired of her ally.
"You sent me the image of you and your apprentice a while back, take a look at this image," an image came up on the screen of the tomb witch. well, the dark side has taken its toll on her, Imperious thought looking at the girl. That's when she noticed the belt, the red belt with the knife, one of Weiss and Ruby's signature parts of their outfit, it was identical. "You see the belt?" Velocitous inquired on the other end.
"Ruby mentioned there used to be four of them and they all wore that style of belt," Imperious said into the secured line. Pinging Ruby and Weiss's scrolls, devices Malserik modified to give them access to the imperial comms network along with holographic communications capabilities. The girls were in the other wing of Waldstahl so it would take them some time to get here. Imperious sat back in the bowl like chair as she said: "I will confer this with my apprentice along with Malserik's apprentice and they will be on the way as soon as possible if they know who it is, you have my word Velocitous." Imperious promised, terminating the call, She reclined, So there are more than two of them, Interesting, very interesting. Imperious had read reports of the chaos the Tomb Witch caused on Korriban.
Weiss and Ruby were shocked to see Pyrrha in the state she was in. In the image it showed what deep immersion could do if your body wasn't ready for it, her hair was loose and long, looking like some character from a horror movie. The faded to a light pink hair looked ill maintained. Her skin was white as paper. Her eyes showed an even greater immersion in the dark arts as they burned red with the dark side. Her lips and skin around her eyes darkened to an almost black color looking like natural makeup. There were numerous blood red markings adorning her body like tattoos, which according to the reports were painted with actual blood.
"We will go, Imperious" Weiss spoke with determination and conviction, with Ruby nodding with that statement.
"Yes, we know her, we could get her to join our cause," Ruby said with a smile, "Unless she's turned into a dark lord wannabe like ninety-five percent of the Sith we have fought."
"Well, we don't know much about how she works, other than really she doesn't like our Sith Empire that much," Imperious spoke calmly informing them of the situation. "So I don't think she views herself as 'a dark lord wannabe'"
"Well, she is our friend either way," Ruby spoke calmly, "We need to get to her; we will go to Korriban, as soon as possible" Ruby spoke confidently, making the decision.
"Well, then you're going to need a ship to get you to Korriban," Imperious said with a smirk riding up her face. "I've been working on badgering Malserik to give you a ship that would be excellent for you two."
"Wait, he got us a ship?!" Ruby inquired, wondering what type of ship it was, along with the fact Malserik actually got them a ship.
"Oh yes, Malserik started a project to develop a new ship that was a refitted and retrofitted Fury, but it turned into much more than that," Imperious smiled as she pinged Malserik's holo-comm a few times to wake him up.
"What is it Ceres?" Malserik groaned picking up the holo-comm, the sight of a sleep interrupted Malserik was amusing to the three ladies, as they saw he even slept with his eye patch on.
"Is the Whispering Specter ready?" Imperious asked calmly.
"Yes, it is, it was finished a few weeks ago did some atmospheric flights a few days ago. Why?" Malserik inquired about why Imperious would be curious of the status of the craft.
"Ruby and Weiss are going to Korriban," Imperious said calmly as it took a few seconds for it to tick in his head as he was barely awake, "Wait! why the hell are they going to Korriban!?"
"We found one of our teammates she's the tomb witch," Weiss answered her master disgusted at the name Pyrrha had been given by the Sith.
"Hanger Two B, I'll get the crew ready, and meet you three there," Malserik replied with a grumble as he terminated the holo-comm line.
In the tombs of Korriban, chanting could be heard echoing throughout as imperial regulars and acolytes corrupted by her power chanted her name," Noxcaedis, Noxcaedis, Noxcaedis," they sounded like recording on a loop. The reason they were chanting was their lady was fighting a Sith Lord that came to challenge her. Her skill with a retrosaber was impeccable, though the dark lord was holding his own against her. Up against the witch of the tombs, he cursed her with every swing of her saber, though, she was unaffected by any of his insults. Her face was stoic, she was calm yet fierce. Truly, and this girl would make a fearsome Sith, the lord thought as he clashed his red blade on the unstable orange gold blade, sparks ignited when they connected, her blade was so unstable. Switching to guard saber mode she gained the used of her arm's full strength at her disposal, locking the blades she pushed it off to the side. Then she unleashed the decisive attack of the duel, a force assisted kick to the Sith's groin. The pain was unbearable as he curled up in a ball, his lightsaber out of reach.
"One of the oldest tricks in the book," She chuckled as he felt his throat contract as Noxcaedis gripped his throat with the force. As he was brought off the ground he was wishing this was a dream, he heard the slow patter of her bare feet on the stone floor of the temple. that's when he heard the "Shing" sound of her drawing the Sith sword out of her staff.
The sound of bone being destroyed as the Witch impaled the lord's chest with the blade. Shifting the blade in his chest, she destroyed his heart and blood flowed vigorously out of the pure blood's wound, coating the black blade of the sword in his blood. Squirming, the Pureblood's death came quickly as Noxcaedis removed the blade. Dropping the freshly extinguished corpse to the floor she ran her fingers on the flat of the Sith sword to paint another marking on her skin. Taking out a shard of a mirror she kept in her bag she applied the blood carefully to make a Grimm-like marking on her face.
She smiled as she applied the mark like paint with her finger. As she completed the mark she kneeled and tore a bolt off a black fabric of the pureblood's robes, to which she clean the blade of her sword of the Sith's blood. As she did this she did this mundane task the air was still to all but herself. The spirits of the Tomb erupted in a thunderous applause. To them, she was more of a Sith than the pure blood she killed, despite her having no Sith in her blood. Standing, she ordered her legion of minions,
"Fan out, search for any more false Sith!" Her voice was cold, treating her minions like machines. Walking back to her throne in the Tomb of Marka Ragnos, she thought So this is to be my destiny, this is most amusing, for once in my life I hold power that is my own. Not by fame nor intimidation, I hold absolute power. She lamented who she was before her time in the tombs, She viewed her past self as weak, always apologizing, always wanting someone to see who she truly was, here no one cares about 'Pyrrha Nikos,' minus her spirit mentors. Though if there was one thing she missed, it was her friends.
A/N To be completely honest I really couldn't think of additions to make to this chapter minus a few things, so I just did a few edits and I think it is quite good, and it's a shorter chapter. So I hope everyone enjoys this I know it isn't much but it's set up for the next chapters. With that out of the way next chapter will be of Remnant exclusively. Also, I wanted to offer a glimpse at how Malserik and Imperious train Weiss and Ruby, and I feel like I accomplished that.
Now everyone Feel free to ask any questions if you have them or give suggestions or corrections once again if you have any please give them or leave a review. With that out of the way, be safe, have fun, and may the force be with you!
Blitzing Raptor
