Again, deepest apologies for the lateness. Work hasn't slowed down and then the Fourth of July happened which meant family gatherings... regardless, hope you enjoy the chapter!
Beta-ed by xenosaiyan and MasterPrince713
Ruby's fingers closed around the book's black leather cover… only for her to release her hold. The crimson reaper keeled over herself, her breath shaky and shallow.
"Re… requip," she panted.
White light flared over the book, whisking the dangerous tome away to Ruby's requip dimension. The young huntress doubled over as soon as it was gone, a weight lifted from her shoulders for a brief moment.
Since her talk with Erza on the rooftop of her house, she'd been considering the idea, the thought that the only way to save her friends, to save the world, might be to use the book to rewrite history. To go back in time and tell everyone of the threat of the White Witch, of the tragedies that would lead to Sitara's fate. She might have even told the Princess herself to ensure she was too horrified to ever become The Queen. Whatever she may have become since, Ruby knew that the woman she'd met back then, the woman she'd talked out of suicide, was her friend. To fix that, to save The Strongest Team from being trapped on Remnant, what price was a mere timeline?
But then she remembered the memories that her mother had returned to her. Vividly, she saw the consequences of warring with time. Summer hadn't even traveled through time and everyone, even End, would have been disintegrated to nothing if she hadn't completely removed herself from Ruby and Yang's lives. No, the timeline wanted to happen and with the tangled mess it had become, pulling any thread could cause it to unravel.
Of course, then there came the question of whether everyone would be better off if a new timeline was created. She remembered what Erza had said about how she wouldn't trade away Pyrrha or Rouge for Earthland, but if Remnant was going to die anyway, if the Umbral Spirit King was going to kill them all anyway… Ruby thought that Pyrrha and Rouge would want Erza to live in that case. She certainly did. Even if it went against everything Fairy Tail believed in about moving forward, she wanted as many of her friends as possible to live.
She couldn't cross Salem's line, but maybe she could move it. She'd convinced her to change her target from the Gods to the Umbral Spirit King. Just because she'd failed in her initial attempt didn't mean it couldn't be done. Though before, Ozpin, Loke, End, and half the rest of the table hadn't been in agreement with her cynicism—
No! No, she couldn't think like that. She could do this. She could fix this. She just had to be smart about it.
The first step to getting Salem to target the Umbral Spirit King had been convincing her mom that her idea was the best course of action. End was The Queen's right hand, but Summer was her left. If Ruby could convince her, then together they could bring the first Eclipse Etherious around.
She threw out her senses and quickly picked up on the three blazing maiden signatures in the castle. One was in the depths of where the central tower had once stood, probably Emerald down in the ruins of the lab. The two others down in the lower end of the western tower were Ruby's best bet to find The Gate of the Maiden. Her only chance to fix things.
The Scarlet Reaper staggered to her feet and blurred down the hall, cascades of rose petals flowing behind her.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
Yang's Purple Flare arm spewed over her head, writhing and spasming like the demonic claw it was. The Devil Slayer let out a guttural roar of fury, Raven's head whipping up to meet her daughter's blazing crimson eyes. Even still, it was not near enough warning for her to bring up her maiden power as the flame talon screeched down for her face.
However, it was enough warning for a small white blur to rocket out of the shadows and tackle Raven out of the way.
The feline body threw the Spring Maiden down to the floor as she whirled around to face her friend. Yang pivoted immediately, bunching her knees to dash past Carla and put the bandit queen down…
… only for a golden-eyed warrior to snag her flare arm from behind, instantly halting her swing.
"Yang," Summer spoke, her voice stony and reproachful as Penny flew out and stood beside Carla. "What do you think you're doing?"
"What do you think I'm doing?" Yang shot back, turning back towards Raven. "She flares her magic and five seconds later half the castle comes crumbling down? She's betrayed us again, just like she always does!"
"We had no plans to attack this castle!" Carla protested.
"Yang, we're your friends," Penny pleaded, though she notably fell into a combat stance and deployed her swords behind her. "Do you think we would betray your trust like that?"
"You? Never," Yang assured them, only to glare at the Spring Maiden. "Her?"
She scoffed, both her friends flinching at her casual certainty. With Raven's track record as well-known as it was, they could hardly argue her instincts. Indeed, even as the former huntress panted and cried, her hand was already falling towards her sword hilt.
Yang made to charge before she could draw that blade, but Summer rushed into her path, presenting her back to her partner as she faced down her daughter.
"Calm down, Yang. I understand your anger, but you're not thinking," Summer dictated. "If she had planted a bomb that was activated by her magic, when would she have done it?"
"She was separated from us for plenty of time when she went to go get dad!" Yang shouted. "Do you really think she's above that?"
"No," Summer responded. "Your father was with her the entire time. Do you think he would have let her attack unprovoked? That he wouldn't have warned us?"
"She knows how to manipulate him," Yang argued, though the heat had leaked out of her voice. She left her combat stance, running through her thoughts and thinking over her line of logic as her mom advised. "She could have lied about its purpose and let the sight of you distract him."
"Possible. But quite a gamble, and unlikely for someone ruled by fear," Summer pointed out, gazing lovingly at her child as she gently lowered her flare arm. "It's alright, firecracker. Whatever caused that explosion, we will figure it ou—"
Summer's words froze, a violent surge of magic power spiking behind her. A knife flew into the Gate of the Maiden's hand, and she whirled around just in time to block Raven's tornado-coated nodachi from slicing into her back.
"Raven! What're you—"
Raven, her eyes already blazing with the Spring Maiden's power, surged her elemental magic through her longsword, ice doubling the blade's size and a typhoon erupting out from the steel. Summer's tiny knife was battered aside, and Stalwart Stem crashed into the Eclipse Etherious.
Summer cried out as she was sent flying by the heavy slash, slamming through a wall of rubble and carrying over into the next room. Raven immediately conjured a tornado beneath her feet as she leapt into the other area to continue her assault.
Yang's eyes blazed crimson once more, pink fire lighting up all over her glorious golden mane. Black tattoos stretched out over her face and down her arm as her Full Demon Form triggered.
She knew it! She'd fucking known it! She'd dropped her guard for an instance and that bitch had literally tried to backstab the very woman who'd never stopped defending her!
The Devil Slayer charged towards the new opening in the rubble, ready to rush in and rip her biological mother apart limb from limb.
Only for an orange-haired android to fly into her path.
"Get the hell out of my way, Penny!" Yang shouted.
The machias held firm, her swords raised in a ready stance. "I can't let you interfere, Yang."
"Why?!" Yang yelled. "What loyalty could you possibly have towards her?"
"None whatsoever," Penny replied. "But if I had to choose to fight for one of them…"
"She started… ugh!" Yang groaned.
She leapt to the side and tried to blitz past Penny, circumvent her friend without fighting her, but Carla flashed into the opening before she could go through.
"Yang, please," Carla pleaded. "We had nothing to do with that explosion."
"Of course you didn't," Yang replied. "She did. Why else would she attack when mom was standing up for her if she didn't know she'd be found out if she was questioned with Macro?"
"I don't know," Carla confessed. "But we can't let you get involved. You'll kill her. If what you've told us of your mother is true, she won't."
"And because she isn't fighting to kill, Raven will have openings to exploit!" Yang argued. "She's fighting with one hand tied behind her back and Hell's Core just got blasted to bits!"
"Do you think she'll lose?" Penny challenged.
"I can't take that chance! I can't lose her now!" Yang begged. "Please!"
Penny frowned, a look of sympathy flashing over her face, her swords lowering just a moment. "We both know the pain of losing a parent. But I will not move."
Yang ground her teeth against each other. What the hell could she do?! This wasn't a guildhall brawl. If she tried to fight through Penny and Carla, she'd have to fight like she meant it.
She could not do that. She would not do that. They were her friends. They had good reasons for distrusting Summer, even if Raven was using them to cloud their judgment. She would not harm them for standing against her.
But she needed to help her mother! She could let Raven take her from her! However unlikely, she couldn't—
… wait. There was a way to make certain.
"Carla!" Yang exclaimed with glee, turning to the Exceed. "Use your Future Vision!"
"What?" Carla yelped.
"If you can use your Future Vision to make sure mom will be alright, then there's nothing to worry about," the Devil Slayer explained. "If she's safe, we can go looking for dad and Uncle Qrow."
"That sounds… reasonable," Penny concurred, lowering her weapons, Yang eagerly dropping her Full Demon Form as well. "Can you do it?"
"I… I don't know," Carla confessed. "My magic doesn't exactly come when I call."
"You're a Fairy Tail wizard, Carla," Yang spoke with the utmost faith and confidence. "You can do this. Just focus on your friends. It's your magic, your power. Master Makarov always says that it grows and evolves alongside you. Move forward and it will come with you."
Carla glanced away, self-doubt painting her face. "You… you don't know that. Everything that's happened… I haven't been able to help anyone, especially Wendy… what will we become as we move forward? How can you march forward, despite the fear?"
Yang smiled. "I have faith."
Penny raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were religious."
"I'm not. Gods are pricks on a good day," Yang declared with a smirk. "I have faith in my friends. Hasn't let me down yet."
She turned back to Carla. "Go on. You can do it."
The white Exceed looked up and gulped, giving both girls a nod. She closed her eyes, her brow furrowed in deep concentration. The cat ears atop her faunus form twitched, her long mane of hair rising into the air, a soft silver sheen radiating off the strands.
After several seconds with only the distant thunder of two maidens clashing… nothing more happened.
Penny leaned over to Yang. "Is it working?"
"No idea," the blonde admitted. "I've never actually seen her do this—"
Carla's eyes snapped open, her body staggering back as the mystic shine faded from her hair. Yang dashed forward and caught the Exceed as she tumbled back, her body transforming back into her cat form.
"Carla!" the Devil Slayer exclaimed. "Are you okay?"
Penny ran up to them, extending her hands. "Let me examine her."
"I'm fine. I'm fine!" Carla assured them, shoving Penny off and hopping out of Yang's arms. "Just… first time I've been able to force that so vividly."
"Oh. Well, if you're sure," Yang said, her voice betraying her lingering worry. But they had another important matter to handle. "Did you see what happens to mom? Will she be alright?"
"She… she'll be fine," Carla answered, her breath catching before she spoke. She really wasn't good at hiding how winded her intentional Future Vision had made her.
Yang grinned, breathing out a sigh of utter relief at her friend's assurance. Her mom was going to be alright. Raven wouldn't take anything else from her. Everything was going to be okay.
She scooped up Carla onto her shoulder. "Thanks, Car. Rest up here, get your strength back. Let's go find dad and Uncle Qrow."
"Ri… right," Carla stammered, Penny filing in beside them as the trio set off into the other end of the rubble.
Mom would be okay. Raven would get what was coming to her. And her friends were by her side. Everything was going to be alright.
Carla had said everything was going to be alright.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
She'd lied.
The thought haunted Carla as she sat on Yang's shoulder, she and Penny rolling aside boulders as they searched for Qrow and Tai. However, the android girl's eyes seemed to constantly glance back towards the other end of the cavern, the crash of clashing maidens hammering through the darkness.
Carla doubted that Raven could win. A maiden against a maiden may have been an even fight, but when one of those maidens was an Eclipse Etherious, the scales were easily tipped. However, given Summer's seemingly genuine emotional attachment and faith in her old partner, who knew which way they would go. Carla hadn't seen the result of the battle in her Future Vision, she'd just said she had to keep Yang from joining the fray.
Wasn't she just the most awful hypocrite? All her well-mannered concern about Wendy slowly being corrupted by Irene and she'd just lied to her friend's face to manipulate her. Because she couldn't stand the idea of possibly having to fight her friend.
Because she had taken Yang's encouragement to heart and focused on what she loved most. And that was what her Future Vision had shown her. It showed her Wendy.
It showed her Wendy kneeling before Salem.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
It'd been a long time since Gray had felt this good. His Full Demon Form was active and hungry, his intricate black tattoos coating his face, chest, and right arm. As usual, it whispered sweet calls of fury to him, enticing him to give in to the euphoria of his hate and rage and bask in its churning maelstrom of power.
In Atlas, he'd always had to hold himself back to keep from accidentally killing the White Fang, or struggle to keep himself standing from Esper's Bane Particle poisoning. But now? He was the picture of health, and he certainly wasn't looking to be merciful to Cinder Fall, especially when whatever torture she'd been unleashing on Jaune had led to whatever explosion of Crash Magic had taken down the castle.
His Ice Devil Silver towered in front of him, a jagged wall of pink ice several stories high. Deep within its deeps, a sizable black blot of shadow was stuck fast. If Mercury Black was still alive, he wouldn't be for long. And he'd be suffering in the anti-demon ice until then.
Well, Gray wouldn't want him to get lonely.
He slammed his fist into his palm and knelt to the ground, ready to bound over his titanic structure. "Ice-Make Gey—"
"Gray!"
The Devil Slayer froze, his head whipping around just in time for a dark blue blur to touch down before him. He didn't let go of his fury however, his Full Demon Form churning over his flesh, frost condensing around him as he gazed upon the person he'd once called friend.
"Happy," he greeted, his voice chilling and reserved. "How'd you find me?"
The demonic Exceed winced at the cold reception, but his smile was enough that it didn't waver. "I'd just reached the observation room when that Crash Magic blast hit. I was able to get a general idea of where everyone was and then…" he gestured to the several stories tall ice wall. "Hard to miss that."
"Fair enough," Gray replied. "Guess the question is: who're you here to help?"
"Natsu," Happy instantly answered. "And Wendy and Oscar."
"What?"
"You weren't the first one who made natural disasters pop up. Hazel's after them and he thinks Ozpin's behind the Crash Magic blast."
Gray scoffed. "Then just tell him he's wrong."
"Don't you think I wouldn't try that if it would work?! Unless it's Salem, End, or apparently Sienna now, no one can talk sense into him when he's like this!" Happy elaborated. "He's strong, Gray. Aside from End and Summer, maybe the strongest of the Gates. Oscar's already injured, and Wendy can't protect him much longer—"
"Wendy's stronger than you give her credit for," Gray declared, turning back to his ice wall and the enemies beyond it, ideally wondering who this 'Summer' was. "She can take care of Hazel. While I take care of the ones who actually did cause the explosion."
Happy frowned. "They didn't Gray. I'm no fan of Cinder, but in this one instance, she didn't do anything wrong."
Gray whirled on his former friend with a livid snarl. "She was torturing Jaune!"
"She was ascending him! Which he agreed to!" Happy shot back. "I saw what happened on the monitors, Gray. You guys jumped in and started shooting before even giving them a chance to explain."
"It was Cinder! You're blaming us for not trusting her?!"
"I'm not blaming you! I'm trying to get through your thick skull that Cinder isn't the problem at the moment!" Happy screamed. "Hell's Core is gone! Oscar and Wendy are the only ones who might be able to fix it! If we can get it back online, we can make an Etherious body for Nat—wait, you guys did find my letter, right? Oh crap, you never found my letter. I am so sorry, you don't what's going on—"
"No, I do," Gray sighed. "Wendy found it on Patch."
"Oh," Happy remarked, his eyes widening in hurt for a moment before looking down in shame. "Then… do you still trust me?"
Did he still trust Happy? It had been fifty years for the Exceed, fifty years of carrying out every dark task Salem asked of him. Fifty years of darkness. Fifty years… alone.
No, Gray understood what it took to survive in such dire circumstances, his time with the Avatar Cult had taught him that much. He understood that Happy didn't have a whole lot of choices. But he also knew it didn't feel like this was the right move. But this brought to mind his conversation with Erza back on Patch, where he'd had to put aside his hatred to get even a shot at negotiation.
He turned to his wall of ice, his own demonic reflection staring back at him from the pink ice. The face of a demon.
Going with Happy's plan, going to help Wendy, didn't feel like the right move because he didn't want it to feel like the right move. It didn't indulge in his hatred, in his wrath, didn't give him the catharsis of tearing apart Cinder or Esper. Whatever good reason he'd had to attack when he'd heard Jaune's screaming, it had still been an excuse to indulge in his darker urges, to let loose the demon inside without restraint or regret.
And yet staring into his own face, in his own ice… it was just him. His wrath, his rage, reflecting back at him like it always did. He could learn to snap out of it as many times as he wanted, it was still a part of him. It was still there, his responsibility to always control. He needed to make sure that fury protected his friends first and foremost, not dragged him into pointless battles while they were in danger.
He needed to get to his friends.
"Care to give me a lift?" he smirked.
Happy's head flared up with joy. The demon Exceed deployed his wings and zipped around Gray's back. "Aye, sir—ow!"
He yelped away as soon as his paws brushed the Devil Slayer's skin, pulling back as icy steam rose from his hands.
Gray was sent tumbling back by the sudden gaining and loss of Happy's grip, kicking himself for not realizing that a demon Exceed could get hurt touching a Full Demon Form Devil Slayer. He reached for his friend to help but first tripped back into the reflective surface of his ice wall.
And then suddenly… he didn't know, he felt… stretched. For a brief moment, less than a second, he felt like he'd… bounced off his ice wall. Bounced off and shot right in front of Happy.
Gray whipped back and forth looking from his friend to the ice wall. "Did… did you see that?"
"Yeah, I felt it too," Happy hissed, blowing on his frost-coated palms.
Gray flinched. "Sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."
"It's alright," Happy assured him. "Though, if you could?"
The Ice Devil Slayer closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. His rage boiled within him still, but he was able to force his hate aside, stow it within his soul for the sake of what he had to protect. His Full Demon Form evaporated from his skin like frost melting off a window.
"You get Wendy and Oscar to the Core. Or whatever's left of it," he said. "I'll take care of Hazel."
Happy nodded, managing a smile back over his face. The Exceed popped back around Grey, grabbing him once again without a care for what had occurred before, and the Fairy Tail Wizards shot off towards the crash of distant thunder.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
They dropped into ready stances, ready for the fight of their lives. They fell in back-to-back, their eyes feverishly scanning the titanic ice wall, their bodies shivering from both the cold and terror as they waited for the fortress's creator to attack.
Ten seconds.
Thirty seconds.
Emerald raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't he have already—"
"Fullbuster is a master tactician. He's not going to just rush in like a rabid dog," Cinder hushed, her fists trembling in front of her. "Stay on your guard."
And so, they waited. One minute. Two minutes.
"Are you sure—"
"Stay on your guard!"
Five minutes.
Ten whole minutes.
"I think he's gone," Emerald said. "I think he left."
"He left?" Cinder murmured, her stance wavering but not collapsing. "He left? He can't have just left! He must be planning something. A flanking maneuver, some strategy to get us to lower our guard, something… something…"
Emerald winced. "Or maybe he thought we died when he threw a giant ice wall at us?"
"Ridiculous," Cinder waved off, her eyes darting around the ruins. "You're a maiden. He couldn't have missed that you're still alive. Even your semblance would be useless at hiding us."
"Yeah. Imagine that," Emerald dully intoned. She turned towards the ice wall, Mercury frozen mid-scream within. "Well, we can't leave the idiot like this."
She grabbed hold of the overflowing magic pour out of her and threw a great wall of fire at the towering crystalline structure. A little bit of excessive heat, and Mercury would be back to snarking her ear off in no time.
At least, he would, if the ice had even been scratched!
"The hell?" Emerald shouted. "Why isn't it melting?!"
"It's Devil Slayer ice, created by a master," Cinder scoffed. "It's not going to be done in by a bit of normal fire."
The young thief furrowed her brow in thought. She still had Yang's Devil Slayer fire from the copy she'd done at Haven, but if she tried that, there was a chance she'd end up killing Mercury in the process of freeing him. And she wasn't going to let that happen when she'd just admitted she didn't think the smartmouth wasn't a complete waste of space!
Maybe… she could punch it? Ice still cracked under enough pressure, and she did have super strength?
Her fist lashed out, her knuckles striking the ice, and…
"Fuck!" she wailed, clutching her hand as steam hissed off her skin. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
"Shut up!" Cinder snarled. "Don't make it even easier for him to find us!"
"He's not coming!" Emerald growled, turning on her former idol. "If he was going to attack us, we've given him half a dozen chances by now!"
Cinder snorted. "Maybe you have."
"Errrgh! Do you want to keep jumping at shadows, or do you want to help get Mercury free?!"
"I have to keep watch, so we don't end up just like him," the Gate of the Archer argued. "Do it yourself. The maiden powers should be perfectly sufficient."
Emerald frowned. "They did all of nothing."
"Of course those run-of-the-mill flames did nothing. But that's hardly the hottest a maiden can produce. Turn the heat up until the fire turns white, that should be enough to start carving the idiot out."
The Gate of the Twins cocked an eyebrow, suddenly nervous. "I… I don't know how to do that."
Cinder finally turned towards the young thief, looking as if her former minion had just said water wasn't wet. "What do you mean you don't know how to do that? It's easy! Salem's been teaching you, hasn't she?"
"We've had maybe one or two lessons," Emerald pointed out. "Mostly we covered how to summon the element I'm actually trying to summon."
"You've got to be kidding me," Cinder moaned. "I figured out how to do that kind of manipulation as soon as I got the power. Hell, I bet I could still do it if I had… it… now…"
The Eclipse Etherious's golden eyes widened. Emerald's scarlet ones did the same a moment later, a terrifying thought rising in her mind.
They were alone. Completely, and utterly, alone. There were no witnesses, no Seer Grimm, and any of Watts' cameras that had survived the explosion would be in the two remaining towers, broadcasting to the off-site server now that the monitoring room had been destroyed. Mercury was going to die soon if no one unthawed him and there was no Neo-Hell's Core to bring him back.
Just like there'd be none to bring back Emerald if Cinder decided to reappropriate the Fall Maiden's powers. Salem could hardly blame her if the Gate of the Twins had been killed in the collapse while thinking of her former patron.
Cinder began stalking forward and Emerald's breath quickened as she cowered back, forced to stop when the ice wall bit into her back.
"Cinder…" the green-haired woman stammered. "Cinder…"
The rage that had filled her when she'd realized her patron didn't care about her was nowhere to be found now. Fall Maiden or not, she knew she couldn't win this fight, Cinder was her superior in both martial skill and close-range lethality. One surge of Enhancement and she'd be sliced in two before she could even begin to spin.
Maybe… maybe she could convince her to use the Scarab instead? There was no reason she had to die to return the power, right? They just had to come up with a story, some sort of lie to keep Salem from lashing out at the Gate of the Archer for disobeying orders—
"Focus," Cinder commanded, her hands falling over Emerald's, far too soft to be malicious. "You already have everything you need. You just need to aim it."
"What?" the young maiden gasped. "No, I told you, I can't control it—"
"I didn't say control. I said aim," Cinder corrected. "The maiden's power is endless. Your origin is not. That's why your excess ethernano fills up the surrounding atmosphere so quickly. You can't possibly hope to control such energy."
Her eyes narrowed, glancing away. "You can't control it…"
Emerald cocked an eyebrow. "So… how do I…"
"Oh, right, that," Cinder remarked, rousing out of her sudden stupor. She guided Emerald's hands around to hover right in front of the ice wall. "As I said, you can't control the power, only aim it. It's going to keep chugging out power at least at its minimum pace and your origin will never be able to hold it all."
"And that helps us how? I can only cast spells from the magic power in my origin."
"But you don't have to complete the spell all at once," The Gate of the Archer pointed out. "Create a matrix that will carry out a simple action as long as magic power is poured into it, like my heat beam or Amber's tornado. Remember that?"
"Hard to forget," Emerald snarked. "But that means I have to keep the spell stable while it continuously expels and absorbs power."
Cinder tilted her head to the side. "And? That's easy."
Emerald's eyebrow twitched into her forehead. Her recent disillusionment with her mistress's empathy aside, it was easy to forget that Cinder's pride actually was built on an impressive base of prodigious mystical and combative talent. It was just that no foundation on Remnant could properly hold up her ginormous ego.
"It's not easy for normal people," Emerald bit out. "Such as me."
"Such as… you?" Cinder repeated, her confusion mounting. "You're kidding, right?"
Emerald scoffed. "You can't use flattery to manipulate me."
"It's not flattery, it's fact. People don't survive two decades alone on the streets, let alone thrive as you did, if they're normal. They die, without ever having mattered," Cinder vehemently said. "As I recall, you were the only one of us who didn't die during the battle at Haven, as if any more proof was necessary. You've escaped every crucible we've gone through unscathed… and you still found time to pull me out of Beacon."
Cinder's expression morphed from confusion to something softer, something Emerald had only glimpsed when the black-haired woman had spoken of her teacher. It wasn't the adulation she had for Summer, but it was… something. Something the Gate of the Archer seemed to be seeing for the first time.
Had… had she been wrong? All her rage bubbling out from her despair when she'd heard Cinder's rant to Mercury… was she too hasty?
Did Cinder care about her after all?
"Just… just try it, alright," the Gate of the Archer mumbled, nervously glancing away from Emerald and around the ruins. "I'd rather have all three of us at the ready if any more of those Fairy Tail monsters come out of the woodwork."
The Fall Maiden could only nod, lighting her eyes with her magic's rapturous glow, unsure and uneasy of where exactly she stood with the woman she'd idolized not long ago. As she carefully managed to conjure a small white-hot jet of flame from her palms, she had to wonder…
What was she thinking?
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
"Raven, what are you thinking?!"
In hindsight, that shout really shouldn't have been the thing that guided Qrow and Tai through the rubble to the collapsed cavern where the other two members of their team were dueling. In their defense though, both of them had gotten nailed in the head by flying boulders. How the Crash Magic explosion had sent those boulders barreling into the huntsmen despite having emanated from behind Raven?
Bad luck. When Qrow was around, it was always bad luck.
If they weren't both veteran huntsmen capable of activating their aura at the drop of a hat, their heads would have been cracked open by the giant rocks. As it was, they'd merely had to support each other as they made their way through the new maze of rubble. Until at last, they'd arrived in the cavern of maidens, Summer and Raven dueling with nature's wrath amidst the crumbling ceiling.
Well, more Raven chased after Summer with nature's wrath. Team STRQ's leader did nothing but flee before her partner, darting away every time while refusing to strike back.
"What are you doing, Raven?!" Summer asked once more, ducking under a slash of flame. "What do you get out of this?!"
"Nothing," Raven answered, tears slipping down her face. "I get nothing at all."
"Then why are you attacking!?"
"Because the person I wish I was would."
"What does that mean?!"
Qrow was as puzzled by that statement as his former leader. Did Raven think Salem's group was behind that Crash Magic blast? That was ridiculous! The explosion took out Neo-Hell's Core! That wasn't exactly something they could fix with a trip to the hardware store! Oz had them trying to bomb it for years, they wouldn't take it out themselves!
"Come on," Tai called to him. "We have to help."
"Help?" Qrow mumbled. "Help who?"
Help Raven? The sister he'd been prepared to kill not long ago? The sister who had apparently started a fight at the worst possible time?
Or help Summer? The leader who'd given him everything, who'd made him believe he was worth something? The leader who now sought to conquer the world to save it?
No black. No white. Just two gargantuan oceans of gray, drowning him too deep to even begin to tell which was darker.
He could swim out, he knew he could, but which teammate should he choose? And if he chose them, was he really helping them? Or was he just latching them to the weight of his Misfortune, adding an anchor that would pull them both down to the depths?
"Qrow, look out!"
The former bandit blinked, but he was only knocked out of his stupor when Tai tackled him out of the way of an incoming trail of fire. Qrow then gripped his partner in his arms and rolled back from the maiden battle just in time to dodge an iceberg that had been blown out from the fight.
He could only stare up into the air and witness. Witness his sister and his leader blur amidst the air, unleashing the elements themselves to break each other against the crumbling castle walls. Maidens, titans battling in the bowels of hell. While he knelt in the dirt, with only a useless parlor for a useless man.
He wanted a flask. He needed a flask… no…
No…
… he needed to die.
He wanted to die.
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYFTFTFTFT
Why?!
The question rang through Summer's mind as she leapt from wall to wall, soaring through the air on jets of fire. Raven was never far behind, her nodachi sweeping out lengthening itself with ice or unleashing a great slash of flames or wind. The bandit queen stretched out her hand, using a short jab to drag half a dozen boulders up from the floor.
A flutter of admiration flickered through Summer's mind, even as she frantically dodged the onslaught. Raven had trained her powers for over a decade and that practice had borne bountiful fruit. Pulling off grand displays of elemental conquest was easy enough, but more focused and subtle applications took hard-earned skill to pull off. She might have been hiding for all these years, but her partner had not been lazy with her abilities.
Summer flinched as she bobbed and weaved through the rocks, forced to quickly draw a pair of knives, imbue them with golden energy from her eyes, and slice through a trio that flew too close and too sudden for her to dodge. Unfortunately, the delay that caused her retreat allowed Raven to close the distance, her sword resheathed for her signature iaijitsu draw. The Eclipse Etherious threw out her daggers, the knives glowing for an instant before transforming into a pair of blade clones.
However, Raven knew Summer's fighting style by heart and didn't even flinch at being suddenly outnumbered. Swift as flowing water, she drew her sword and sliced off both clones' heads without blinking an eye, shooting forward on a fire jet and bashing through the corpses. The failing clones exploded behind her, the blasts sending her rocketing into her foe as she spontaneously expanded her nodachi into a titanic ice saber. With a great heave, she swung straight for the Gate.
Summer desperately crossed her arms over her chest, no time to draw new knives. The enormous ice blade slammed into her makeshift block, the Eclipse Etherious sent flying back into a wall, the obsidian cracking from the impact. The Golden Spirit Slayer let out a gasp of pain as her muscles blared from within the crater.
Raven winced back. She may have begun the fight, but it was clear from her cracked, tear-stained face that she had not been fully prepared to truly try to kill her partner.
Summer could sympathize. After all, the fight had left her own cheeks glistening and none of the liquid had been wrought from physical pain.
"Why?" she squeaked out. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because it's right!" Raven cried, her voice cracking at the words. "Because what you've done, what you're going to do, is evil!"
"… AND?!" Summer demanded. When the only follow-up she received was another slash of fire she had to skitter up the wall to dodge, she felt her mind twitch in a way she hadn't felt in a long time.
Was this how her partner had felt in that Mantle tavern all those years ago? When she'd battered aside all of Raven's arguments about slowing down and actually thinking about the situation with her single-minded determination to 'do what was right'? Only for that same insipid stupidity to get her killed and send everyone they'd ever cared about plummeting into despair.
She knew what she'd done was evil. She'd expected to be hated. She'd known she deserved it, even as her heart continued to shatter from Tai's denouncement.
But she'd yet to hear anyone suggest any viable alternatives to using the gains of her sins to solve their actual problem!
"Say you do kill me? Bring me to justice right now?" she inquired, throwing her hands up to meet one of her partner's tornados with a wind vortex of her own. "What then?!"
"I imagine I'll die," Raven responded, her nodachi barely being parried by a darting dagger. "Salem will kill me if Yang doesn't."
Summer's heart tightened at that nightmarish thought, of her best friend lying on the ground, black and burned from End's wrath.
"That… that wasn't what I meant," the Spirit Slayer said, her voice regaining its timbre as she soared over a boulder. "What will you do about the Umbral Spirit King?!"
"I imagine they'll fight him," Raven said.
That was obvious.
Summer growled. "How?!"
"I don't know!"
"That's not good enough!" Summer shouted, catching Raven's sword on a pair of crossed golden daggers, backed up against the wall. "We need to do everything we can to maximize our chances and that means we need to—"
"No!" Raven yelled, her blade bursting into flames. "I won't keep doing the wrong thing and calling it right!"
"Arrrgggghh!"
She couldn't let this go on! This fight was pointless, and every second it went on was a second for whatever caused the Crash Magic to cause more havoc! Raven was one of the most stubborn people she'd ever known, and in a fight with Summer Rose, she was one of the few people who stood a good chance of coming out victorious.
But Summer Rose had bled out in Neo-Hell's Core, slain by her own naïve stupidity. Etherious Summer Rose had learned from her failure. And she was not nearly so limited as Raven remembered.
As the Spring Maiden's blaze surged towards the Gate of the Maiden, the Eclipse Etherious seemed trapped against the wall. Until she wasn't, sinking into the obsidian and letting the flames crash helplessly against the stone.
"Diver," Summer murmured, Virgo's magic allowing her to swim through the wall and up to the ceiling faster than even her friend could fly.
She burst down from the roof of the cavern, her eyes aglow with power seeping into her mouth. Raven's head barely rose in time to gaze up in horror at the descending golden beam.
"Golden Spirit Wail!"
The pillar of shining magic crashed down upon the Spring Maiden, blasting her down to the cavern floor. Raven's aura crackled with strain from the direct hit, but her years of experience still allowed her to roll up to her feet with only a moment's delay.
Still, a moment too late. Summer rocketed towards the ground, four daggers thrown around her opponent. The quartet of blade clones flared to life, all of them charging for the Spring Maiden. Raven reacted with instinct and none of the subtlety she'd shown before, throwing a tornado out around her. The wall of raging wind sent the copies flying back into the walls.
But her focus on the enemies in front of her allowed Summer to soar down through the typhoon's eyes, a pair of knives glowing gold in her grip.
"Golden Spirit Twin Twilight Slash!"
The song of steel. A flash of light. The tornado was torn apart and Raven soared into the wall of rubble, her sword falling from her hands as her aura shattered to pieces.
Tai started running for her, but Summer beat him there. She grabbed her partner's lapels and shoved her hard into the obsidian.
"Are you done?" she snarled.
Raven responded by shoving her palm on Summer's chest and blasting her back with another tornado. She dropped to her knees and scrambled for her sword, but with her aura down, it was already over.
"Stop. Fighting." Summer commanded, Macro's power rushing over her partner and freezing her in place. The Winter Maiden wiped off a sheen of dust from her white cloak and stalked towards her Spring counterpart.
"Summer!" Tai shouted, coming to Raven's side and falling into a fighting stance. "Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't—"
"Why did you make me do this?!" Summer roared, her tear-stained eyes never leaving Raven.
Tai's eyes narrowed. "No one makes us do anything, Summer."
"She launched an unprovoked attack at my back! For the sake of 'justice'!" Summer yelled. "Do you realize what you're doing?! You're fighting to watch everyone around you die! The Umbral Spirit King will slaughter everything you've ever known and leave this world nothing but a ball of Grimm and dust!"
"So that means everyone is either with you or against you?"
"They're against me when they're actively keeping me from saving the world!" Summer bellowed. "You don't have to help me. You can hate me. You can label me whatever you like. But the fact remains that none of you seem to have anything even resembling a viable alternative to fight what we're up against! When the war's done, I will gladly prostrate myself for justice's hammer. But until then, stay out of my way and let me do my damn job!"
Raven and Tai flinched back from the sheer frustration in her voice, their leader more furious and exhausted than they'd ever seen her. But that just left the way open for their final teammate to stumble into the gap.
Qrow staggered up to Summer and fell to his knees, Harbinger slipping from his fingertips. "Then do it."
"Do what?" Summer demanded.
"Your job," Qrow declared, haggard and broken. "Kill me."
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!