Black Clovers and Rising Remnants
An: I apologize for the lack of updates, but I just couldn't finish anything no matter how hard I tried. Then a few days before Thanksgiving, I came to the conclusion that I was overloading myself and took a few days to step back from writing. So far, I'm doing better on the writing front, as evident by this story I'm starting. I used the time off to get back into watching anime and have been trying to catch up with Black Clover and had this idea for a story.
I was also inspired by RWBY Lover 25's story "Black Rose," which I recommend anyone interested in Black Clover/RWBY crossovers. It's worth the read. Also, I'd like to thank RWBY Lover 25 for his help with helping out with some of the issues I had with this chapter and beyond.
Anyways, enough talking. Please enjoy the chapter! (Also note this will be an AU of V8 for RWBY and will start close to the beginning of Black Clover canon.)
Disclaimer: I don't own Black Clover or RWBY.
Chapter 1: A Perfect Plan
"General Ironwood, sir?"
James looked up from his desk to see Ruby Rose standing at his door, her expression troubled. He hid a frown and smiled invitingly towards her. "Miss Rose," he greeted warmly. "Is something wrong?"
Her expression grew worse. "U-Um…" she stuttered. "T-There's something I…I have to tell you…about Salem…" she whispered. James was immediately on alert. He nodded curtly and motioned her inside. She walked in and closed the door behind her. Ironwood activated a few signal jammers and other safety precautions, just to be safe.
Ruby, meanwhile, grabbed the Lamp of Knowledge and cradled it close to her chest. Uncertainty was plaguing her mind, making her question her reason for meeting the general. However, her guilt kept her moving, knowing she couldn't keep lying to him, and her renewed conviction kept her resolved. She moved to sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk, and Ironwood allowed her a few minutes to collect herself. After a minute or so, he addressed her.
"What is it you wanted to tell me?" he asked. Ruby tensed but took a deep breath.
"W-Well…first off, General Ironwood, I'd…I'd like to apologize," she said carefully. He raised an eyebrow, but he didn't interrupt her. "We…I, wasn't exactly truthful when we arrived here." He gave her a look, causing her to start babbling. "I-It's not that I didn't trust you! W-Well, yeah, it kind of was…But I was afraid that…if I told you what we had found out, that you'd…that you would…you seemed so hopeful that your plan would work, I feared if I told you the truth-"
"Miss Rose, please calm down!" Ironwood interrupted, causing her to stop. He sighed. "Ruby," he said in a softer tone, "while I am upset that you withheld what is most likely vital information, I can't say that I don't understand." She looked at him in confusion. He elaborated. "I wasn't…let's just say, in my right state of mind when you arrived in Atlas, so I can forgive you for believing I couldn't handle whatever you discovered."
Ruby's expression brightened a bit. James smiled a bit. "And I think I can also forgive you since you've seen fit to share what you know now instead of keeping it hidden," he reassured her, making her sigh heavily.
"Thanks, General Ironwood, sir," she said gratefully. He nodded.
"You're welcome. Now, what is this information you wanted to share?" he asked. She nodded back to him.
"It's…It's a long story," she said lamely as she began to relay the truths they had learned thanks to the Lamp. About Salem and Ozpin's history. About their world's history. And about Salem's immortality.
James didn't interrupt her again, but his face soon betrayed his disbelief. As Ruby finished her tale, the Atleasian general placed his head in his hands. Ruby started to grow alarmed at his silence until he looked up to her.
"Thank you, for telling me this," he told her. She blinked in confusion.
"Huh?"
"I understand why you were hesitant to tell me now," he told her. "If you had told me the moment you arrived, I…" He shook his head. "I might have broken."
"O-Oh. O-Ok," Ruby muttered. "You're…welcome? I guess?"
"Still," James continued, "this invalidates all the countermeasures I devised against Salem. Immortality! Why would Oz…No. I can understand why he would keep that close to the vest. But did he even have a plan against her? Or were we just struggling against an inevitable end?"
"I don't think so." James blinked when Ruby spoke up again. "I mean, sure, I felt some despair and betrayal right after learning this. And to be honest…it's been bothering me ever since," she admitted. "But I knew I couldn't just sit around and do nothing. Salem is still a threat. One that won't stop until we're all dead. If we don't stand in her way, who will?"
James stared wide-eyed at the teenaged Huntress before him. "Although, I admit I have been ignoring that issue a bit since arriving in Atlas," she admitted, a little sheepishly. "But that's another reason why I wanted to talk to you, General Ironwood, sir. I…I think I have an idea or two that can help us beat Salem. For good."
"Really?" James asked in surprise. "Then, let's hear it." Ruby nodded.
"Well, a lot of the plan depends on the last question we can ask the Lamp," Ruby admitted. "But, during my last patrol in Mantle, I…I overheard some stuff that got me thinking."
James raised an eyebrow, silently telling Ruby to continue. "The first was a father and son arguing. The kid was complaining about being grounded, but the dad countered that he was in that position because of he got in trouble because of how he worded something. He said wording matters, and that got me thinking about how Ozpin learned he could defeat her."
"And why's that?" James asked.
"Ozpin asked, 'How do I defeat Salem?'" Ruby quoted. "But what if HE wasn't meant to…" She left the thought hanging, and James caught her meaning. His eyes widened.
"I see! You think that rewording the question could give a different answer!" James concluded. Ruby nodded.
"Yep. And if she truly can't be defeated, then I have an idea to keep her sealed away. Forever."
James looked to her. "And what is that?"
"The Staff of Creation." James sighed at her answer.
"Ruby, you know the Staff is what is keeping Atlas afloat, correct?" he asked.
"I do. But while during that same patrol, I was walking past a holo-screen shop playing a rerun of an old cartoon I used to watch when I was younger," Ruby explained. "It was about wizards, and the episode triggered an old memory of what that show said about magic, which is why I think my idea can work."
"And that is?"
Ruby smiled. "The only limitation of magic…is the user's imagination," she explained, making James's eyes widen.
Weeks later
Salem frowned as she and her inner circle rode the elevator down to the Vault. Atlas and even Mantle had been eerily vacant when she finally made landfall; this in of itself was strange. It was made even stranger when Tyrian and Watts arrived in an airship with a wounded Cinder and her latest tagalong in tow.
Apparently, Watts learned that Ironwood was planning to make Amity Coliseum into a satellite and restore communications to the other kingdoms. Naturally, this couldn't happen, so Watts and Tyrian went to sabotage the plan. However, it appeared to be a trap made specifically for them, and Tyrian once again lost his tail and use of one of his arms. Watts barely escaped with the scorpion Faunus, though the Atleasian scientist did have several bruises to show for it.
Even Salem herself wasn't without new scars now adorning her arms, thanks to the silver eyed girl meeting her on the way to Atlas in an attempt to stall her. The girl was impressive for her age, but still, even with the combined might of her team and the surprising aid of the Spring Maiden Raven Branwen, they were no match for her. However, in her hubris, she made the mistake of thinking the silver eyed girl, Ruby Rose, was unconscious when she went to retrieve her. The child had latched onto her with surprising speed and unleashed the full force of her silver eyes' magic.
As enraged as she was with the girl for turning her to stone, Salem was also pleased with her. Her power was even stronger than her dear mother's. The witch couldn't wait to have the girl and turn her into another Hound to replace her now dead one. She could tell Ruby would be her most successful experiment yet.
After Salem freed herself and made her way to Atlas, they found Cinder and the tagalong, Neo, trudging through the snow, with Cinder's Grimm arm solid stone and a large cut from her elbow up to her other arm. It was clear just by her stone arm that she attempted to fight the silver eyed girl again at some point and failed miserably once again. However, she did get some redemption by retrieving the Lamp of Knowledge from the girl.
Although, if Salem was honest with herself, she was more than sure that Neo was the one who retrieved it, and Cinder was simply taking credit. However, it was a minor issue as she now had one of the Relics, albeit with no knowledge of how to activate it and all the questions apparently used up for the moment. Salem would deal with Cinder's feeble attempts at leveraging favor with her at a later date.
What was more pressing was the Relic of Creation, which is what they were going to retrieve right now.
"That bastard! That bastard! That BASTARRRRRRD!" Tyrian wailed in fury.
"Oh, you would you shut up!" Cinder hissed irately. "You've been whining ever since you idiots picked me up!"
"Shut up, wench!" The Faunus roared. "You were not cheated out of victory!"
"And besides Cinder, you've been whining just as much as Tyrian!" Watts growled. "At least he has a reason too! You got cocky, and the silver eyed brat used it against you!"
Cinder turned to him, snarling as her eye seemingly caught fire. "Say that again, you miserable-"
"Enough!" Salem told them. They quickly sealed their lips. "Now's not the time to be arguing amongst ourselves!" The elevator came to a stop. "We're almost at the end."
Everyone looked up with her, but they soon frowned when they noticed a lone figure standing before the stairs leading to the Vault. The group walked forward and soon noticed the figure was James Ironwood. The group scoffed mentally at what was likely his last stand.
"Salem," the general greeted solemnly. "I'm grateful to meet you in person. We've been expecting you."
"'We?'" Watts mocked, thinking James had finally snapped. However, that thought lasted only a moment before several figures suddenly appeared, as if walking in on a holo-call: Qrow Branwen, Robyn Hill, Raven Branwen sporting bandaged encased arms, the brats from Haven, including the now heavily bandaged team RWBY.
Their fight with Salem had truly ended terribly for them. Weiss Schnee's jaw was wired shut, and her left arm was in a heavy cast, held tight to her chest by a sling. Blake Belladonna limped into view, revealing a broken leg, several bloody bandages wrapped around her body, and the upper part of her left cat ear was cut off. Yang Xiao Long was bruised and bloody as she marched slowly next to her team; her face sported a brutal black eye and four streaks of her blonde hair on the left side of her head were simply gone. Ruby walked forward, showing her upper torso and neck wrapped up in tight, blood-soaked bandages while a gauze bandage rested on her right cheek.
Cinder snarled at the sight of Ruby and launched a fireball at the girl, only for the spell to fly through her harmlessly. Ruby's form flickered like a hologram. The one-eyed woman grew even more furious and tried to move forward, only to be stopped by Salem.
"Enough," she ordered, making Cinder wince and back off, though she sent a glare towards Ruby, who looked on somberly.
"A transmission? Finally admitting your cowardice, James?" Watts sneered.
"Tough talk coming from the guy that ran away with his tail between his legs," Qrow replied. He put on a show of being shocked and continued, "Oh, wait. That's the other guy. He's good at that." Tyrian howled in anger.
"You heathen bastard!" Tyrian screamed in fury. "I'll make you pay for this humiliation!" He tried to step forward, but Salem held up her hand.
"I must admit, whatever your plan was, it almost worked," she admitted. Tyrian and Cinder were shocked at her admittance, but Watts and Hazel nodded in agreement. "I commend you for your efforts. It's been some time since my plans have been challenged like this. But I'm afraid, they were…ineffective." James just raised an eyebrow at her.
"Were they?" he asked simply, catching her off guard.
"Was there more?"
"No. The game is done now," he admitted, further confusing her. "You've played exactly like Jinn said you would, which is what we were hoping for." Salem frowned.
"I see. You used the last question to figure out my plan," she deduced.
"Yes. And no," James commented. Salem's confusion grew at this.
"I've never known you to speak in riddles, James," Watts admitted. "What's with the new inclination towards poetry?"
"The only limitation of magic," Ruby spoke up, her voice a guttural mumble. "Is the user's imagination." Watts narrowed his eyes at her.
"I don't follow," the scientist said.
"We don't expect you to," Raven interjected. Watts glared heatedly at her, however Salem started to chuckle.
"That is true! Magic is certainly limitless as long as one is creative enough," she agreed. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "The Staff…!"
"You catch on quick," James said, taking back over the conversation.
"You used the Staff to somehow cheat the Lamp to ask more than the allotted questions," she accused. James nodded.
"We did. Admittedly, we did use the last question on something else, though the answers were…less than satisfying," James confessed. "However, we had another plan to follow through on, and after talking with the spirit of the Staff and the spirit of the Lamp, we found a way to finally win this war you and Ozpin started."
The dark witch allowed some amusement to color her features. "Oh? And just how do you intend to do that?" she asked.
"It's already finished," James told her. Salem stared at him, the feeling something was off intensified.
"What?" she asked.
"Congratulations, Salem," Ruby said. "You've won."
Something wasn't just off. It was wrong. Salem narrowed her eyes. "What game are you playing, Ironwood?" she demanded.
"No game," he answered. "No tricks. This war had no winners but you, Salem. So, in order to win an impossible battle, you simply have to stop fighting back."
Those were the words she yearned to hear from humanity for centuries now, but why were they filling her with dread? "You're surrendering?" Hazel asked in disbelief.
"I didn't say that. We're simply letting Salem win," James clarified, though it did little to clear the confusion. "Beyond this point, you'll find the Staff, and the location of the Crown in Vale. Also, the information to summon the Brothers will be with the Staff as well."
Something was wrong, and Salem wasn't clear on what it was yet. She needed more information. "You do realize," she stated, "that once I gather the Relics, you're all dead, correct?"
And suddenly, Salem knew. She realized right away that she had been played. All because her enemies before her started smiling at her. "No," Ruby said. "We won't be." Suddenly, the transmission was cut off, and as if like vapor, the Vault before them vanished, revealing a stone alter with the Staff of Creation sitting comfortably on top. The group gasped.
"What the-?! Where'd the Vault go?" Mercury shouted.
"An illusion?! B-But how?!" Emerald cried.
"The Staff!" Watts shouted, and Salem flew towards the Staff, quickly snatching it off the alter. Indeed, it was the Relic, but something was…off about it. Looking around, she saw a folder and grabbed it. She opened it and scanned through the contents. Her eyes widened in disbelief as what was written on the papers registered in her brain.
"No…Impossible…" she whispered. "This can't be…!" Suddenly, she gasped again. 'The only limitation to magic…is the wielder's imagination.' "NO!" the immortal cried.
"Madam?" Hazel tried. However, before he could question her further, a bright light shone through a stone gateway. Salem turned and abruptly flew towards the light. The others immediately rushed out as well to see the snow encased plains with Atlas several miles away, glowing brightly as if it were a giant Dust crystal.
"Atlas?! How?! Why?!" Watts demanded. Salem then grew wings and started flying towards Atlas. "Madam?!"
Salem ignored them. All that mattered was getting to Atlas. She wouldn't let them accomplish whatever foolish plan they were setting in motion. She would crush their hope in one fell swoop!
She would NOT let them invalidate her revenge!
At that moment, in Atlas
"Now, Ambrosius! The connection is severed! Get us out of here!" James ordered.
"You got it, boss!" Ambrosius, formerly the spirit of the Staff of Creation, shouted as he raised his hands up and magic soon building around them.
"Pietro! Glynda! Are we clear?!" James demanded.
"No Grimm in the vicinity!" Glynda announced from a monitor.
"The last of the Bullheads dropped off the last group from Vacuo thirty minutes ago! Everyone's secured in Atlas, Mantle, and the Crater! Ready for dimensional warping!" Pietro Polendina shouted.
"Wait! Incoming Grimm! No, wait…It's Salem!" Glynda shouted.
"It's too late for little miss problem child!" Ambrosius called out. "We're out of here!"
"Everyone brace yourselves!" James shouted into a microphone.
Outside of Atlas
Salem beat her wings harder, trying to reach the glowing Atlas. However, just before she reach it, the light intensified and flashed, making the immortal witch cry out in pain and fall to the ground. She smacked the snow-covered ground hard and rolled several feet, stopping just shy of a massive crater. She groaned and looked up to see a massive crater where Atlas and Mantle used to be. She slowly rose to her knees, her eyes wide in incomprehension. Nothing. They were gone.
"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she howled to the sky.
?
To the surprise of many, it happened fast. So fast that, the only thing they all felt was a massive jolt. In the Headmaster's office at Atlas Academy, James and the others were nearly thrown to the ground by the jolt, but most were able to catch themselves before they fell. However, after the jolt, Atlas started shaking.
James recovered quickly and stood. "Status!" he shouted.
"Atlas altitude compromised! Attempting to stabilize now!" a technician shouted.
"I got it! I got it!" Ambrosius shouted as he got to work on stabilizing Atlas.
"We're getting reports of buildings collapsing in Mantle! Fires are breaking out in the Crater!" Pietro shouted as he typed furiously on his holo-computer.
"Get first responders on that!" James commanded. "Jinn! Ambrosius! Can you tell me if the spell worked?!"
"I think it did," came the answer, but not by the now human Jinn and Ambrosius. Everyone turned to see Ruby and her team staring out the windows of the office, gazing up at a crescent moon. Not entirely proof, but they all knew the moon above Remnant in its waning crescent state showed off its broken side.
Jinn and Ambrosius looked at each other and nodded. "Well, I think this counts as a win!" Jinn announced.
"Yep! Looks like we're officially not on Remnant anymore, folks!" Ambrosius called out.
Ruby smiled up at the seemingly unbroken moon. "It worked," she breathed. "I can't believe it actually worked…"
"We're free," Qrow said softly as he walked up next to Ruby and her team. Everyone else in the office did so as well to stare out at the brand-new world they just landed in.
One free of Salem's looming threat.
An: I'm aware everything seemed to work out perfectly for them, but I figured if Cinder could pull off a similar ploy during the first three volumes, why not the good guys? What do you think of team RWBY's scars and injuries? I wanted them to have lasting scars from their fight with Salem, as they were being stubborn fighting her in order to stall her.
I won't go into full detail on the intricacies of the Plan (that would be better suited for its own story), but I will explain some things as they are needed and/or made relevant for this story. Plus, I will be including some of my own headcanons for certain parts of the RWBY story, as I don't like how RWBY was written past V4.
I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter and would like to see this continued!
Now onto something I'd like you all to weigh in on: what would you guys think if I made Ruby Qrow's daughter instead of Taiyang's for the purposes of this story? It won't affect the story in any notable way; I'd just like to know if you guys would like to see that or not.
Another thing is: what squads do you think RWBY would choose to join? I know that I plan to have Ruby join the Black Bulls (the reasons will be explained later), but I'd like to know what you guys think. Like the Ruby being Qrow's daughter idea, this won't affect the story very much, and it's just to satisfy my curiosity. I don't want RWBY all in the same squad, as I want them to join separate squads so they can grow stronger individually.
Lastly, which member of STRQ would you guys like to see as a potential 10th Magic Knight Squad Captain: Taiyang, Qrow, or Raven? Like the above ones, it won't affect the story much, just idle curiosity on my part.
Anyways, 'till next time!