The finals matches have come and the first of the final match will be determined directly before the match, which he knew was a falsehood. All matches were already determined and they wanted to put on a show. Making his way towards the highest point available to the humans Sephiroth stared down at the arena, it seemed to him that Ruby would be the first match
(o)
Ruby watched as the rest of the finalist walked off the stage leaving her and Mercury, turning to face him she caught sight of something small and black slowly drifting towards the ground, following it she found that it was a black feather which quickly turned to dust and vanished leaving no trace of it's existence
"Are the contestants ready!?" Ports voice echoed above, Ruby quickly dropped into a combat stance and eyed down her foe, Mercury wasn't anything special from what she learned of him, that did make it a little surprising that he reached the finals but weirder things have happened before
"Hope you're ready to get a beat down." he commented clenching his fists and lowering a bit
"Good luck, there's nothing you can do that Sephiroth didn't prepare me for." she waved off gripping Crescent Rose in one hand as she widened her stance
(o)
Placing a hand on the rail he leaned forward to look down at the student body. There was something going on down there, and if he was going to be stuck here he might as well see who is planing what. Eventually he caught sight of Mercurys' teammate, Emerald, she was focusing extremely hard on the two... overly so, as if she was waiting for something. Removing his hand from the rail he continued to watch, waiting to see the next turn of events that would come of whatever she was planing.
(o)
Leaping forward he swung his leg down flipping himself through the air and attempting an ax kick on the girl, as the ground shattered he twisted around and took cover behind his legs blocking the slash from her that nearly sent him out of the arena, quickly jumping to his feet he was, extremely shocked that she had so much power behind her attacks, there were gasps and cheers, he had just been knocked down to 73 percent on a strike he blocked. Time to play it safe.
Sephiroth was suddenly very impressed, in one attack she took 27 percent off his aura, not that it was an accurate measurement of her prowess, he could lower anyone's in an instant if he wanted to but with how weak they all were it was probably for the best that they had it, it made combat a little more interesting for him.
Ruby lunged forward stabbing at him leaping away he attempted to make distance, Ruby walked after him twirling her weapon from left to right nearly catching him with each swing. Diving back he landed on his hand pushing off he launched two waves of energy at her, flipping to the side she landed on the edge of the stage just to get her feet knocked out from under her dropping her off the stage becoming a swirl of rose petals that began to float away from each other and the ground everyone began to look around in surprise at what had happened. Behind Mercury he watched as the petals began to group together growing larger and larger until it became the familiar vestige of Ruby Rose the woman spoke a single word causing the man to jump and swung a kick at her far faster than before sending her sprawled in the center of the arena, rising to her feet she rushed forward again this time attacking with quite a bit more anger behind her strikes his Aura kept getting lower and lower once it hit 16 percent she whirled around and caught him in the back breaking through his aura and piercing his body with a resounding shouts of fear and anger, Ruby blinked a few times and looked around confused, quickly turning she took a few steps back from the man who had fallen unconscious from the pain
With a smile Sephiroth began to make his way down towards the exit of the colosseum, he stopped his pace when a... creature moved into his path, it certainly wasn't human, but it seemed to be trying rather hard at it
a young woman with orange hair and green eyes stood before him, if he couldn't hear the machinery within functioning he would believe that it was a corpse
"Salutations!"
"You aren't human." he said causing the thing to look panicked for a few moments it spoke
"You aren't either." it said casually, looking him up and down "Your biology is similar, but with quite a few differences, such as a lack of decay or alteration of physical nutrients. Penny Polendina a pleasure to meet you." it greeted holding it's hand out to him, he simply walked away from it his eyes once more focusing on where he was going as he pushed past insignificance humans.
(o)
Ruby stared at her hands, sitting alone in her dorm, the rest of her team had left to give her some time alone. A light humming began to grow in her ear as memories from the fight flooded back, she hadn't hit him...
"He survived." a cold voice came from in front of her causing her to jump a bit and look up at the tall man, he made no motion to try to ease her fright just stared her down
"Luckily." she muttered with a sigh the man just turned and faced the window
"Every strike you make should aim to kill. Otherwise you won't be effective." he commented and moved towards the window as it opened on its own, he was just staring out at the school "Your sister needs to learn such a lesson too. Or you both will die, insignificantly." he added turning to face her again the look of shock adoring her face made his smile grow just a bit
"How can you talk about taking a life like that?! Every person is a precious bundle of memories, and they need to be protected, not ended." she countered with her childish human naivety
"You humans. So full of contradiction, it's almost sad." he muttered before letting out a dark chuckle before slowly turning to face her "Your kind have spent their existence killing each other more than any other species could." he said "But if you cant live up to my expectations for you, well... I guess, your sister wont have many uses for her head. Now would she?" he questioned causing Ruby to pale a bit her vision glitched weirdly as the mans' form vanished leaving her alone and blinking, was that even real? He was talking way to much to be the actual Sephiroth, and like those religious folks dad had them meet when they were younger.
(o)
Over the next couple of days no fights were held due to the massive amount of backlash from the other day. Ruby spent it mostly staring at the wall, Sephiroth gave her the day off after the battle but now... she would be missing their training in about five minutes, he probably understood why she didn't show up... but he probably didn't care.
Closing her eyes she focused back to the dual... she kept replaying her final attack over and over again, nothing could have prevented such an attack... and that was the worst thing, she had no control over it... what was that noise though? Drawling her thoughts back she could hear a distinct ringing in her ears and the hair on her body quickly began to stand, strands of her hair also began to float, walking over to the window she pushed it open and looked at the sky, there were no clouds... so where did- with a gasp she leapt from the window as a streak of electricity slammed into the window causing it to explode sending glass everywhere and burning a small portion of the windowsill, slamming into the ground she quickly righted herself and slid to a stop.
Looking around she saw no one, everyone was gone. Probably avoiding the subject of her fight, again just as before a black feather garnered her attention, quickly she figured out what that mean, as she began to run off towards the training arenas
(o)
Entering the room she let out a sigh and looked around Sephiroth was standing in the center his eyes already trained on her as if he knew that she'd be coming in
"Did you huck lightening at me?" she ask as she made her way down towards him, trying her best to not sound irritated, and failing quite spectacularly
"I was here the whole time." he answered his voice sounded completely neutral, admittedly it was always like that. If he wanted a straight answer he could get it easily and most people were pretty honest to him as well because of the frankness he held towards... well... everyone.
"Tell me, why were you late? You have no reason to be." he questioned causing her to do a double take, it was as if he didn't watch her fight!
"I nearly killed someone on live television in front of the whole world! I was feeling pretty upset. That's not the worse part either! We got disqualified for it... I didn't want my first year at Beacon to go like this." she explained glaring at his neutrality, it was like a boiling sea of rage began to build within her
"He will survive his injuries and if not it doesn't matter, you chose this profession, death is a part of it. Now start acting like it." he waved off and readied himself to attack as she prepared to defend
"I was reflecting, and besides if you had covered the fact that hallucinations on the battlefield are so common I wouldn't be in this mess." she countered as he took a few steps forward and swung letting her catch the strike, stumbling a bit she grunted from the force and pushed back before swinging for his neck which was avoided with a simple step back
"hallucinations? You were caught in an illusion. Like this." he offered as he vanished from her sigh and the lights dimmed until she was alone in an empty void which slowly lit up to the cheering crowd in the Amity colosseum, the sensation of standing at the center of the stage finally began to sink in as she looked around the sounds of footsteps earned her attention quickly turning around she yelped in surprise as Mercurys' boot collided with her cheek and sent her into a roll, falling off the ledge she barely caught it with her blade. This was real, it had to be real, yanking free she quickly activated her semblance and crossed to the other side of the platform and shot up landing gracefully as Mercury turned and growled before rushing her again.
As he leapt to attack Ruby fired her weapon causing it to swing up and then fired again bring it back down splitting the man in two sending blood and viscera splattering across her the metallic scent permeated everything and caused her stomach to begin to churn as she looked at her bloodied hands in shock looking back to the body she let out a scream as the gray haired corpse was replaced by her own sister torn in half her lifeless lilac eyes staring blankly at the sky above as blood began to pool within her yellow hair causing the two to form a shade of brown, falling back she scrambled away from the body only to feel the platform beneath her to vanish as she fell and everything went dark
quickly sitting up she looked around, she was in the training arena, Sephiroth was standing at the center of the arena just staring at her as she woke from the nightmare, sitting up she quickly rolled over and let out the rising bile as tears quickly began to run down her face
"What was that?! What did- you did- who do you... FUCK YOU!" Ruby quickly raged rushing towards him swinging wildly as tears continued to run down her face, easily avoiding the attacks, he blocked them while watching her horrified rage build. After she had exhausted herself with an endless assault she stared him down, rage still fresh in her eyes, he calmly stared back unfazed by her anger
"You let yourself be control by rage." he commented smacking her sending her to the ground, he turned and began to walk away but stopped "You're missing something, a particular enemy that remains unseen by you." he added with a chuckle "Take a closer look at your friends, you might find the blade aimed at your heart." he added as her vision glitched and he was gone, rubbing her eyes she sighed
"So that's how he- huh... I guess I'm not crazy." she muttered to herself
"You probably are." he commented leaning from over her shoulder causing her to screech in surprise and twist around to face the man but he was already gone again, rubbing her head she lied down and closed her eyes, in that instant she was greeted with her sisters corpse causing her to reopen her eyes and stare at the ceiling she sighed
"Guess I'm not sleeping... ever again." she muttered unable to do much other than stare at the ceiling
(o)
The next match was set to be run, Penny the machine verse Pyrrha Nikos the 'prodigy' of Mistral. Watching from his spot high above the humans he kept his eyes trained on Emerald, the girl who had tricked Ruby, much to his confusion she was in plain sight, a rather sloppy move on her part, but none the less it was currently working as the battle began, Pyrrha ran a hand over her breastplate where the deep mark was left before rushing forward, she weaved between attacks with great skill and determination all the while her eyes were trained on her enemy, she would have gone far in SOLDIER... after a few more moments she landed quite a few devastating hits on her enemy who quickly retreated launching many blades at her foe, Pyrrha leapt back as a few of the blades flew off course, parrying one she grabbed the blade that followed it and yanked forward pulling the other woman towards her and with an uppercut aided by her shield sent her out of the ring, but before Penny could hit the ground she launched her blades upward holding her suspended in mid air for a brief few moments before launching herself back up and into the ring, using the momentum of the throw to swing the blades in for an attack Pyrrha rolled out of the way of the attack which shattered the flooring, slamming her shield into one of the airborne rocks it rocketed towards her opponent who batted it away while summoning more blades from the case on her back, but Pyrrha seemed shocked by their appearance as they crossed the distance a wave of black energy came from her sending all the blades away from her in the only direction they were coming from with such force and speed the other woman was ripped to pieces, but unlike a human no blood left her, and no soul rejoined the planet.
Panic, screams of fear and horror soon filled the air as the soulless creatures began their assault, Sephiroth in a flash was above the force field and standing atop the structure looking out across the city as more and more Grimm began to flood it, sections of the city's walls began to flash red signaling that Grimm were being able to break through their defenses. It seems that this city will be reaching its end, and in such beautiful fire too, much as all humans deserved. But now his plan was influx, if he could not find the vault here he would need what they are connected to... perhaps Pyrrha knows something.
She had left Ozpin's office looking more than conflicted. Walking towards the edge of the structure he stepped off and fell towards the ground impaling a griffon on his way landing in front of Ruby who was leading the rest of the student body
"Sephiroth! We need you, apparently Roman Torchwick took over General Ironwoods ship and is causing all sorts of problems, we need to get to the school to protect it, are you in?" she asked rapidly as he turned and began towards the airship they were heading towards, to her it was as if he hadn't fallen from the sky at all
"Pyrrha." he said once reaching the ship, looking over to her he spoke again in the same lifeless tone "Everything that happens now is your responsibility." he finished causing her to look down quite a bit as he vanished onto the ship
"That's just his way of making sure you keep your head in the game... he's an absolute jerk but not a bad guy." Ruby quickly rationalized placing a hand on her shoulder earning a weak smile
"I'm sorry... We should get moving." Pyrrha quickly reoriented herself and moved onto the ship soon joined by the rest of the students
(o)
Smoke and fire was everywhere, screams and pleads for help, as the White Fang assaulted the tower many Grimm also found their way onto the premises, many of the students rallied around Jaune and Sephiroth the only two who acted like they knew what they were doing, Sephiroth leading attacks against the oncoming enemies, while Jaune coordinated with defensive measures, all was going well until the land beneath them began to shake and mountain Glenn broke apart setting free a large and powerful dragon, Sephiroth held no care for such a thing, what he did care about was watching Jaune, Pyrrha and Ozpin all enter the CCT soon followed by another. As the rest of the students began to rush away to reach the safe zone in Vale, Sephiroth smiled and began to walk after them.
Typing as fast as he could he let out a sigh at the many passwords and codes that James had set on this thing, looking up at the ceiling at it rumbled he shook his head before continuing
"Alright." he muttered as the pod raised up and opened "Pyrrha! Get to the pod." he ordered as she turned from Jaune and quickly moved to lie down which she quickly did, only sparing a saddened glace at Ozpin before the pod sealed with a loud hiss, quickly he tried to get through every procedure and other firewall that James had implanted into the machine, it was really quite annoying, and clearly Pyrrha wasn't his biggest fan right now
"Are you ready?" he asked looking into the pod at her to which she nodded "I... I need to hear you say it." he quickly added his voice quivering a bit
"I'm ready." she spoke in a tone similar to his own
"Thank you. Pyrrha." he thanked before activating the final sequence causing golden energy to begin to surge from Amber up through the cables and back down into Pyrrha who began to scream in pain as a second soul was grafted onto her own "I'm so sorry." he quickly apologized looking away as Ambers' pod began to beep, quickly turning to it he found a stray arrow was lodged into it, turning farther he found a woman standing before him, a young woman with black hair and orange eyes with a shout of rage Jaune rushed to attack and was easily dispensed with a mere wave of the hand, reaching down Ozpin pulled him up
"You two get out of here. Find Glynda, Ironwood- Qrow bring them here right away, the tower cannot fall." he ordered as Pyrrha broke free throwing the pod door at the woman who turned it to ash with a smile on her face
"But I can help!" Pyrrha offered earning a look from the man "You'll only get in the way." he shot down and gestured for them to go, which they did, running away as fast as they could fading away into the darkness
"This whole time... right beneath our feet. She was right about you. 'such arrogance.'." she gloated as the man flipped his cane and prepared for a fight, she gasped as a wet squelching could be heard an impossibly long blade sticking from her gut coated with her blood earned both their attention as she fell limp and dropped to the ground as the blade was freed from her body in one quick motion, behind her stood Sephiroth the same smile plastered on his face as all the other time yet this time... this time he could see it was made of mockery
"I have questions for the two of you." he said stepping over her body and letting his heel rest on her fingers with a crunch causing the woman to gasp and attempt to move his foot from her hand
"Firstly. How do you open those vaults?"
"I don't know what you're thinking to prove but-"
"Answer the question Ozpin. Unlike you my time is precious, and will go beyond the next five minutes." Sephiroth said calmly the smile on his face having already adopted an iconic hatred for humanity as the two stared each other down Sephiroth lifted his heel and allowed the woman to pull her hand free and begin to cover the wound on her chest as she crawled away from the man her Aura reactivated and slowly began to heal her body as she attempted to escape this situation
"I've not seen a semblance like that before. What-"
"If I must continue to listen to your constant stalling I might just kill you and interrogate those you consider allies before sending them to greet the planet, now answer." Sephiroth ordered quickly invading Ozpins' mind and practically smashed his way through any mental barrier he had put in place, JENOVA had taught him much about invading minds and this one was certainly an interesting one, without another word Sephiroth moved into a combat stance and prepared to attack just as Ozpin shook his mind free from the force that invaded it
"Glynda was very wrong about you. I just hope she never has to learn of your wickedness."
"I plan to give her a front row seat. Watching someones heart break in such a was is intoxicating." Sephiroth countered causing a brief shock to cross the mans face before preparing himself once more "And girl, this won't take long, so you'll be giving me more information whether you want to or not." Sephiroth added without even looking to her but it was evident that she was horrified by the quiet whimpering that he could hear, his smile widening as he glared directly into Ozpins' eyes the man seem to have to re-steady himself for the coming battle, but both knew how it was going to end.
A/N and I'm back, I'm very glad to have had a break from just about everything, and visiting family was nice, but I did miss this. The next chapter will more or less be the last of the Beacon arc, then we get into the ever so slightly more interesting stuff, AKA no more hand holding(lewd). And if you're wondering why Ruby recovered from the whole traumatic illusion Sephiroth shoved her into, she didn't. It also didn't impact her as much due to Yang still being alive.