Outrider stepped over a chunk of rubble as he, the rest of bad batch, team RWBY, and neo trekked through the ruins of a city. Well, neo was sitting on wrecker's shoulders due to hurting her leg during the fight with the RWBY clones. "I don't get it." Came the voice of his girlfriend. "Why'd you let them escape?" hunter answered for the heavy gunner.
"He let them go because he sees potential in them even when we don't yang." Yang looked at the leader of bad batch. "He never gave up on me after learning that I sided with the empire or have you forgotten that little bit." Crosshair said flicking his chewed toothpick away before replacing it.
"Empire?" Blake asked. "It's a long story Blake." Yang said "One I doubt you and Weiss would believe." Ruby said. "Try us." Weiss said before Wrecker scoffed. "We're not from this world." Tech said. Blake's eyes widened. You mean." She said pointing towards the sky. Hunter nodded. "Yeah. We weren't made on Remnant." Weiss scoffed.
"yeah right. You're just making this up." She said. "Are they Weiss. Their guns shoot bullets made of super-heated plasma capable of melting even the strongest of metals even if dust is imbued into it." Ruby said gaining a few raised eyebrows from bad batch, neo, and her team. "Wrecker helped me test a theory." She said defending her statement.
"Turns out even if armor is imbued with dust it can still be penetrated by our blasters." Wrecker said. "Good to know." Yang said half heartedly as she was still upset that outrider had let her and her sister's clones escape.
Outrider sighed. "Yang, you know I wouldn't have let them go without a reason." Yang frowned and looked at him. "Then what's your reason?" she sneered. "They're misguided. And when they realize that, we'll be there for them." Yang's expression softened.
Hunter smiled as yang hugged Outrider. "So, hunter, was there ever someone you liked, you know before coming to remnant?" a voice asked. Turning he saw Blake rubbing her arm. "No," he said. "Clones were forbidden from forming relationships during the clone war." Blake smiled softly. "well, you and the bad batch don't have to follow that rule anymore." She said grasping his hand. "I wish we could." Blake frowned
"What do you mean?" she asked. "We age twice as fast as regular humans. Save for Outrider, we're half as old as we look." Blake's eyes widened. Her crush was younger than her. "How?" she asked. "In order to make an army in a short amount of time our creators, the Kaminoans, used a rapid aging formula to make soldiers in half the time otherwise it'd take a lifetime to make thousands of soldiers." Tech said.
neo looked at the cat faunas and typed something. "I don't care. I take what time I have left with wrecker." She said via scroll. Blake nodded. "Same." She said before placing a hand on hunter's shoulder. " I don't care hunter." Blake said before kissing him on the cheek. "I'd rather spend what time you have left by your side. Just thought you'd want to know." Hunter looked at her in mild shock as she walked away.
"talk to her." Came outrider's voice. "Huh?" the leader of bad batch asked. "She likes you. If the kiss on the cheek isn't an indicator then I don't know what is." Yang said. hunter looked in the direction Blake had gone.
Blake sat on a piece of rubble to think of what hunter said. he was half her age but looked like he was in his early twenties. Not only that, but he'd be dead before she was fifty. She clenched a fist over her heart. "Is this how heartbreak feels?" she asked herself. Blake didn't notice the bioluminescent Ursa approaching her.
"Blake where are you?" Hunter said worried. "She couldn't have gone far." Ruby said looking around. Suddenly a scream was heard before gunshots rang out. "Blake!" Hunter yelled running in the direction of the scream drawing his blaster pistol and vibro-knife
Blake jumped away from the strange looking Grimm firing gambol shroud. "What the Kriff is that?" a voice asked. Turning, Blake saw her team and bad batch. Wrecker had been the one to voice the statement. "that would be a Grimm." Tech said deadpanning. "There's no way that's a normal Grimm." Yang yelled. "Who cares blast it." Ruby yelled raising crescent rose.
Bad batch looked at her. "Sorry." The scarlet reaper said sheepishly. "You heard her, blast it." Outrider said spooling Old Reliable up. "Taking orders from a kid now? Lovely." Crosshair mumbled before raising his rifle.
By mere luck, Crosshair killed it. "Nice shot crosshair." Ruby said. bad batch's sniper smirked. "uh, guys," Outrider said. "Is it just me or is that ursa swelling up?" everyone looked at the dead ursa and to their shock it was swelling.
"HIT THE DECK!" Yang yelled before getting on the ground. Hunter grabbed Blake by the waist just as the ursa exploded. "What in Oum's name was that?" Weiss asked getting up and dusting her dress. "Either a new type of Grimm or one hell of a problem." Hunter said as he helped Blake up.
"I'd go with both hunter." Tech said. "This residue left by the unknown ursa type Grimm is acting like an acid." Hunter brought out his holodisk and contacted the headmaster directly.
"Professor Ozpin. We may have a situation." He said after the professor's hologram appeared.
MERLOT'S ISLAND
"Father, why show only Sapphire and I the person we need to deliver to bad batch?" Yin asked. "Not deliver. I have a feeling that they'll come to my island in the near future. "How'd she get here?" Sapphire asked. "Some of my men found her adrift. We patched her up and placed her in cryo so she could recover." Merlot said. Yin frowned
"Why cryo?" she asked. "it's a medicinal cryo stasis. Takes a long time, but it works as her vitals have stabilized over the years. The three entered an unlabeled room and Merlot turned the lights on.
Attached to the wall was a cryo stasis tube. The two clones watched as Merlot pressed a few buttons to melt the frosted over glass revealing an older looking Ruby, but with smoother and slightly longer hair. She wore a black corset dress with a white cloak over it with the inside of the cloak being red.
"Yin, and Sapphire meet Summer Rose. Your templates' mother." The two looked at the sleeping woman before looking at their 'father'. "We will make sure Bad Batch safely recovers you..." Sapphire said before walking up and placed a hand on the tube. "Mother." Sapphire said as Yin placed a hand on the Ruby clone's shoulder.
A/N: Cliffhanger and with that there's only 2 or 3 chapters left in the Eclipse arc. It also marks the near climax of my first major story arc ever. Either way writing this arc has been both a blast and very complex as I have to shift perspectives between team RWBY/Bad Batch and the RWBY clones. Read and review. Constructive criticism is appreciated. That being said peace.
Reviews:
Guest- it varies on opinion my friend. He cares for the RWBY clones as if they were his own children, and yet he still experiments on Grimm.