[Author's Notes]-
I apologize for the week delay, real life is so much fun [Insert sarcasm] and it will be slowing my uploads to random intervals, but I'll try to keep them around the weekends when I have time, other than that, enjoy the last chapter of this arc that would have been two, but I just smashed them together.
Chapter 8: We're One In The Same
Arc 1: Lights In The Sky
[City of Vale]
It had been 2 days since the team had seen any sign of Blake, much to their worry, except Weiss, who seemed disinterested, agitating Sky slightly at her ignorance to the situation. Now they all walked along the streets of the city, looking for any sign of Blake, but to no avail.
"Blaaake!" Ruby called out as Sky kept an eye open for any signs of her
"Blaaake!" Yang copied as Weiss did nothing to help
"You know, you could try to help us?" Sky spoke to Weiss with an agitated look
"Oh, you know who might be able to help? The police." Weiss suggested callously, with Sky currently on the verge of snapping
"Would it kill you to show some compassion!?" Sky hissed, moving to walk ahead of them, ignoring Yang and Ruby's looks of concern
"Weiss…" Ruby grumbled, crossing her arms with a scowl
"It was just an idea!" Weiss defended as they continued to walk
"Yeah, a bad one." Ruby objected
"Weiss, I think we should get her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions," Yang suggested as Sky threw his hands in the air
"Thank you!" He yelled
"I think when we hear it, you'll all see I was right," Weiss countered, but unannounced to them, a cold chuckle rang
"Some 'Friends', and you said they were different?" Iota mocked with a simple, yet deep cut to Sky's moral
"We just had a fight, nothing that we can't resolve." Sky responded in thought as Iota laughed, but before Sky could ask him anything he heard a new voice
"-And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" Penny spoke from nowhere, jumping everyone since they all yelled in surprise
"Agh! Penny! Where did you come from!?" Ruby screamed in fright
"How does she keep doing that!?" Sky spoke with fear as he hung from a lamppost like a cat, shaking from the sudden appearance of the girl. "She's like a Tenno…"
"Hey guys, what are you up to?" Penny asked, oblivious to the situation as Sky fell from the post
"Uuuhhhh." Ruby trailed on for Yang to take over
"We're looking for our friend, Blake." Yang answered and Penny's face lit up in realization
"Oooh, you mean the Faunus girl?" Penny answered in understanding, to which everyone did a double take
"Wait, hold up, how'd you know that?" Sky asked as she pointed to her head
"Uh, the cat ears." Penny stated simply
"But she wears a… bow…" Yang eventually caught on, ending in a long silence, and even a tumble weed
"Where'd that come from?" Iota asked, yet Sky shook his head. Ruby then got close to him and Yang
"She does like tuna alot…" Ruby whispered, adding to the point Penny made
"So, where is she?" Penny asked, Ruby explained the whole situation to her to which Sky just watched Penny swear to help them find Blake as Ruby looked for help from Sky, yet he shrugged
"Uh, that's really nice of you Penny, uh, but we're-we're ok, right guys?" Ruby answered but Sky was already face-palming as Weiss and Yang we're long gone, leaving behind a cloud of dust
Then another tumble weed went by.
"Seriously, where are they coming from?" Iota asked in irritation
"It sure is windy today." Penny pointed out the obvious
Later that day...
The rest of the search led to Ruby trying to explain the whole situation in more detail to Penny. Key word, 'Trying', from what Sky and Iota had tried to figure out was how Penny was so...unorthodox, she acted strange to simple situations, steered clear of anything magnetic, and had this...aura about her that put him on edge, not in a bad way of course.
"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things." Penny added as Ruby sighed
"Me too…" Ruby with a downed expression, and Sky took the wheel
"Not that easy, really." All eyes looked to him, his own darkened slightly. "People try to hear you out, but they don't listen, and they can't really begin to understand how you interpret your life, your memories and how they have been affected. Sure, therapy 'can' work, but it doesn't 'always' work, can be hard to try and speak again a second time around."
"Ooooh, like your memories are all fragments that you can't put together!?" Penny's answer took Sky by surprise, not expecting such a clear answer, but he nodded, putting a hand to his chin
"That's one way to see it, but...lets stop worrying about my problems, and I have a file cabinet full of them, we need to find Blake." Sky turned the conversation around once more
"Ok!" Ruby agreed, just as a thought drew itself in Sky's head
"Ok, I'll try to cover more ground in 'Cognitum', as I could just easily jump from the rooftops, you two check near the docks again, she might be trying to find clues on who really was behind that robbery." Sky explained in detail. "Cover ground, find information that can lead us to the exact culprits, easy."
"Who are you, and what have you done with Sky?" Ruby asked in surprise, giggling slightly and making Sky falter in his step
"HEY! I GET GOOD IDEAS TOO YOU KNOW!" Sky barked as Ruby laughed, causing Sky just to shrug it off, she was just too dam cute - wait what? "Oh, for the love of - look, just get moving, I have a bad feeling this won't end well, and I hate that."
"Aye, leader." Ruby was now mocking Sky, the man grumbling when he turned the opposite way
Night-time…
*BOOM*
Sky stopped amongst an alley, his hands dropping the small note it held about a White Fang operation, looking off towards the smoke in the distance. His hunch correct, Sky quickly brought his left arm up to view his built-in scroll, dialing Ruby.
"Hey, did you hear that!?" Ruby shouted through the coms as Sky quickly responded
"No, I'm watching a movie. Seeya when I do, Ruby." Sky retorted, closing the channel upon his run, which passed into a longer alley that lead to the street, or it would, say for what stopped him. His own body
"Stop." Iota had managed to take control of Sky's movements, though they were shaky. "Give me a reason we should help them? And please, don't make me wait."
"For someone who claims to be my personality, I don't remember being this cold, even just to people in general?" Sky retorted, moving a few steps forward
"Every single time you said that, more people hurt you, just look at your back and-" Iota began but Sky's fist had recoiled, cracking against the side of his face, it hurt, but it made Iota jump
"Don't 'ever' bring that up." Sky snarled, moving to proceed out the street
"Kai, stop." He ignored his real name and Iota, who now sounded desperate
"Nope." Sky quoted Yang and Ruby's more constant word
"Kai! There's someone-" ACK!
The HUD of Cognitum had flared with warnings, yet all of them lead to the dark void before Sky's vision, dots painting the night sky, whist his armour's sky-blue lights, had began to flicker out over the ringing
"I cannot wait, to see how this turns out."
[City of Vale, Dockyard]
After Penny pulled off something out of this world, Roman ran for the last carrier as he used his cane to close the hatch, but stopped as he yelled to Ruby.
"Hey, Red! A business partner of mine left something for you! consider it a parting gift!" He yelled as he closed the hatch and the carrier flew away
"A 'gift'." Ruby echoed as she approached Penny, Blake, and Sun
"Um, Ruby? What did he mean by that? Is it a surprise," Penny asked with a smile as their thoughts stopped at the sound of metal clanking, to which they turned to a set of crates as they saw a shadow of someone. The scrapping grew, whist lights danced in the shadows
"Ugh…" The person groaned as they came out into the midnight air, it was Sky
"Sky! What happened?" Ruby wanted to run over to aid him yet her eyes caught notice of Cognitum, its lights were a solid snow white, tainting the blue
"I have to admit, having Kai's form damaged was not my intention, yet I cannot decline such an opening, not when I have all that I need to end this comical display of affection." Sky spoke calmly as he approached the group, his voice sounding more echoed than his own
"Sky? W-What's wrong?" Ruby asked again, her hand slowly reaching for her scythe, but 'He' took notice, raising his head again with a chuckle
"No… my name… my name is…" Sky began as his blades appeared, glowing as bright as embers. "Iota."
I-Iota?" Ruby echoed as she felt the others waiting for him to make a move. "Sky! What's happening to you?"
"You act like you care…It sickens me," Iota spat as Sun spoke up
"Hey man! She just asked you a question, don't think you can keep this guessing game up!" Sun warned as he gripped his Bo-staff
"Like you're one to lecture me, pretty boy. And you." His blade titled to Ruby. "I will enjoy every second of your end." Iota hissed, his eyes seemed to glow with a murderous intent
"Give Sky back, now!" Ruby challenged Iota, who lowered his arm. "I don't care who you are, but if you don't I'll-"
"You'll what? Hurt me?" That caused her to shift uncomfortably. "We have no aura, so this suit is our only means to survive in this world, and I know you won't, because you're far too 'innocent' and 'kind' right?"
"Alright, I don't know what's happening, so I say we just beat the jerk out of him." Sun commented, and for once, no-one disagreed, well, Ruby was still apprehensive, yet she remained still. "Don't worry, we just need to ruff him up, right?"
"Right." Blake agreed
"Liars and cheaters...always playing dirty, fine by me!" Iota screamed, his body leaping towards the group without remorse, and they all fanned out upon his blades crashing into the concrete
Iota kept up his relentless attack as Ruby shuffled back, only able to block his onslaught, but Sun swung at Iota, to which he backflipped away, only to rush towards Sun. Both clashed a multitude of times, but Sun managed to use his nunchucks to fire a volley of bullets at Iota. Grunting over the relentless ringing of rounds, Iota reached out, clasping his hand around one of the nunchucks, pulling Sun towards him, only for a golden foot to strike his face.
Sliding back, Iota ducked to the left, swooping under the golden copy of Sun when it tried to swing at him, only to be impaled by Iota's right blade, followed by a spin, slicing his left blade across the back of the copy. Turning, Iota, crossed his guard, blocking the fist of the other golden copy, which moved to allow Blake to throw her pistol past Iota's neck, pulling back to fire a shot and loop the bind around his waist, which Sun added by hitting the pistol with his Bo Staff, planting it into the ground and holding Iota still.
It wasn't over though, Iota was then twisted his hand around to point them at the ground, allowing his palms to fire two flaming blasts at the ground, rupturing the ground, and causing the pistol's fierce grip on the ground to weaken, allowing him to pull himself out of the binds, and fire a bombardment of fire blasts to the two huntsmen, yet a rotating circle of blades had blown the fires out before they could reach the two.
"Sky, I recommend you cease this, please." Penny advised with concern for Sky's safety and the newly added, Iota's, yet that only made him straiten himself up again. "I do not wish to hurt you."
"Funny, because I do." Iota rebound, running towards Penny without hesitation. His body dropped, sliding under four blades, followed by him doing a handstand and hopping over two more that tried to pull his body out from under his hands, spinning back around, Iota pulled his arms back, their blades glint with a orange tip
Thrusting with malicious intent to tear Penny apart, his arms were parried by two spinning to reflect them from Penny's chest, abusing Iota's anger, Penny backflipped, her feet striking his left arm, breaking the blade with a well-aimed heel, and the jagged, shaking pain that rocketed through his arm had made him feel like her foot was made of steel. Now damaged, Iota watched the gauntlet fizzle, yet his right remained intact, for now.
Meanwhile, Ruby could only watch with a conflicted expression, her mind telling her to stop him, to prevent any more harm to her friends, but her heart kept aching at all the signs she missed, every instance of Sky's internal struggle. Someone had hurt him, and she couldn't see that it had forced him to split his personality into something cold, calculative, murderous. This was all her fault for not realizing, now she was paying the price.
"...What can I do? Think Ruby, think..." Ruby mentally punched herself before the sight of Iota's hands made her eyes glaze over. Ice had gathered in his left, and fire in his right. "Fire and Ice!"
"The fires on my right...the ice on my left...put them together..." Iota breathed slowly, raising his hands high, their elements merging without resistance, and forming something far more volatile. "Fire-Ice Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"
"NO, WAIT!" Ruby yelled in fear, but before they could react, their world was consumed by a yellow blast of light, the air screaming with a piercing blast of energy, whist a mixture of cold and warm air had risen in the docks
Ruby coughed as she saw the others slowly moving in a daze, on the ground as Iota stepped past them, his arms sparking from the reaction he caused, his armour was riddled with gashes and burns as he approached Ruby, and she felt it, his right eye burning with embers, a menacing glow of a silver eye piercing her own, almost like a demon
"We have knowledge of fiction that can surpass any human accomplishments, and with Cognitum, we can do anything, so recreating a destructive dragon slayer secret art was certainly fun, but I can't afford to do that again, but the results were worth the sacrifice." Iota explained without any trace of sympathy, but before Ruby's shaken gaze, Blake stood to defend her
"Ruby, I'm...sorry, I know I never explained myself, and I kept all this from you thinking it was mature, but it wasn't, not if it leads to this." Blake chose her words carefully, and yet Ruby's smile helped her feel at ease, and a little guilty that even after all that had happened, she wasn't shunned
"Its ok, just...please don't hurt him?" Ruby begged her friends, mostly for the sake of Blake, so she nodded
"I won't."
"Not that it matters." Iota spoke up, his claws brimming with a white glow to the darkness of night, whist Blake held her blade close to her chest
Iota had left no room for hesitation, his claws striking down only the sharp guard of Blake, his right striking towards the left, then a spin to bring the claw down from the right to left, spinning with the momentum, his right came flying up from below, only to strike a shadow of Blake, her blade slicing through the dark mist and meeting the left hand's claws, the two forces rattling upon contact.
His right came back balling up tightly to strike her left shoulder, making the faunus wince at her aura shimmering from the strength behind the punch, which was followed by her guarding with the tip of her blade pointed down, parrying the foot, but forcing her to back-up sightly, and in range for Iota to sweep her legs out from under her.
Blake threw her pistol, the fabric wrapping around a scaffolding piece, and pulling her away from the axe kick, which had broken the ground with minimal effort. Iota chuckled at this, turning his left hand back to fire a single blast of fire, and Blake had no-where to avoid it whist airborne, so all she could do was take the blast head on, her body caught by Sun thankfully, whist Penny had moved to a blind spot in Iota's vision.
Now there were two. Ruby stood firm, shakily holding onto Crescent Rose, her eye wavering between anger and guilt, whist the cold stare of the white flame that escaped the crack in Iota's armour continued to burn, just like a fire from hell, and directly through her soul. Not realizing her attention was too narrowed on the eye, Iota had now moved to stand before her, kicking the War-scythe from her hands, his right fist digging into her aura around her cheek, throwing Ruby back with a pained grunt, followed by his left foot kicking out to plant itself across her face, sending the young girl into a backwards roll again.
"How I've waited for this moment." Iota felt a rush he hadn't felt in years, when he reached out to clasp his hand around her throat, lifting the girl into the air, memories of 'her', how she had used them, manipulated, and caused nothing but suffering to them both, their sister, everything. Now, he had the chance to prevent it again, and he was more than happy to do it, even if he would be shunned my Kai, he will not blame him for trying
"S-Sky, I-I'm sorry I couldn't...see, h-how hurt you w-ere...I-" Ruby choked out as Iota ground his teeth under the mask
"You will only use those emotions to use him, and once you're done, you'll cast him aside. Just like she did!" Iota shouted, yet her gaze never wavered, instead, he was met with an equal force, not anger, but something else, and he felt his own eyes waver ever-so-slightly. "Wha..."
"People fight! They argue and hurt each other, but I will 'never' abandon Sky! Because he's my friend, and even if I can't ever understand why someone would hurt someone who's so kind and determined, I'll never let him go, count on that!" Ruby snapped, and the grip around Ruby's throat loosened, enough to let her breathe
"Y-you?" He whispered as his face softened, as Ruby managed a small smile, but then it met the earth as she was dropped to the concrete, as she winced from the sudden force that was applied to her abdomen, the shaking hand that now held a canister making her gulp the lump in her throat. "Rat..."
"You will burn..." Iota began, his hand lifting the concentrated vile of dust to the night sky, allowing the glow to envelop his helmet
*Swoosh-Funk-Crack*
No one dared to move at the sight of the arrow that had pierced the face of the canister, the force making Iota stumble off of Ruby lightly, his gaze drawn to the roofs of Vale, and among the smog of the night, a lone, dark figure stood, a reclusive bow held tightly in his grip, whist the blue eyes of the mask shined through the hood
"You again? Oh...son of a bi-"
*BOOM*
An eruption of fire consumed Cognitum, Ruby covered her eyes under the bright flash, and the others did too. Upon the smoke finally leveling out again, the sparking, charred form of Cognitum stepped through shakily, Iota fell to his knees, the joints broken, whist parts of his body underneath were exposed. Yet, his gaze slowly rose to look at Ruby, who was watching on her knees.
"Y-y-you think t-this is over-over?" The mask caused an echo to occur, each word echoed in the night. "I-I-I- swear...y-you will f-f-fall, count o-o-on it." A hand rose, his index finger pointed at Ruby, who stood firm now, the others walking over slowly to gaze at the split personality of Sky, the light flickering between white and blue
"I won't." Ruby breathed in anger as Iota laughed like a dying crow
"Hehehehe… I had strings, but now I'm free… there are no strings on me…" He sung cryptically before Iota/Sky slipped into unconsciousness
[Beacon, Infirmary]
[Sky's POV]
When I finally came to, my vision wasn't of Vale anymore, instead, I looked to see myself in the medical ward at Beacon, since the style of their ward has a certain 'flair' to them, more detailed and the quality of certain equipment was clearly from across Remnant, how do I know? I read. A lot. However, I clutched my right arm, my nerves feeling like I was shot, stabbed, thrown, kicked, and burned all at once.
This pain did nothing to how I felt, I wasn't asleep, so much as I was a hostage of Iota, he...my Gods, I hurt Blake, Penny, the new guy, Sun. Ruby...she was so scared of me, I felt myself suppress memories of...bad points of my life, but when I did, all I could feel is guilt for what I did, how I easily let Iota take control, could he do it again?
"W-Wait…" i mumbled as my eyes shot open in shock. "Ruby!?"
But then I felt something move beside me, Ruby's head was resting next to my leg, and she was slowly waking up, how long was she here? Better question, how long was I out? Then I met Ruby's gaze, a pit of anxiety building at the look of sadness crossing her features. I wasn't given a word.
Ruby...just held me, her arms around my back, whist her head rested on my shoulder, her own arms pulling me into her shoulder, all I could smell was a mixture of strawberries and vanilla, it was nice, even if the reason she did this made no sense to me. I hurt her, Blake, and the others, I hid this and I paid the price, yet, why did I want her just to hold me longer? What is wrong with me?
When she pulled away, her face contorted into a concerned frown.
"Our you ok? I'm sorry we did that to you, but when you lost control we...we had to bring you back and, I didn't want to hurt you, but I..." Ruby couldn't even explain herself, let alone form a real answer to me. But I felt my hands shake, why was she apologizing
"R-Ruby...I-I'm sorry..." I couldn't stop it now, my emotions were a wreck, like someone had twisted and torn at the chains I kept, my tear-filled eyes were clear proof of that. "I didn't want this to happen. I-I lost...I couldn't-"
Before Ruby could reach out to comfort me again, I snapped my head to my left, my eyes a tear-filled glare at the mirror on the wall, but I only saw my hazel gaze stare back.
"I know you're there, Iota, tell me, was all of this worth it to you? Did you get your sick satisfaction of hurting the only people I came to trust after years of tormenting myself?" I didn't bother to look at Ruby's gaze, she probably thought I was insane. My fist shook, almost drawing blood. "Answer me!"
Nothing. Just silent answered my own reflection.
I turned back, looking to the sympathetic look Ruby had, and...I told her everything, without her uttering a word. An incident back home had damaged me, physically and mentally, I developed two split-personalities, ones that had minds and thoughts of their own, and no-one could understand how, but they did.
Iota, my logic and anger, fueled only by the promise to make everyone who dared to use me again suffer like what I wanted to do to the girl who did this to me. And Eric, my creativity and joy, unlike Iota, he wished to meet people who could make me smile again, and even shared is thoughts with me, something I lacked creatively in a long time, but I haven't heard from that part of me in years.
"In short, I developed split personality disorder, Iota was what came out of it." I finished, avoiding Ruby's eyes. "Eric is somewhere in my head, but I haven't had an episode with him in a long time."
"That's why you avoided us?" Ruby asked, it stung me to nod my head
"I didn't want to, but I also didn't want to harm any of you. I've only ever had Erika, but now… I have people who care about me, I've never had so much joy in my life until I met you… all of you." I spoke with a hint of sorrow. "I don't want to lose you." I was pathetic, I only had strength in Cognitum, without it, I was a broken person
Fragments of my former self.
"Nope!" She spoke simply, causing my gaze to do a double take. "I don't care, you're my friend, Sky, I would never abandon my friends."
"But I-" I tried to counter
"Nope!" Ruby butted in with an innocent look. "Think about all the things we've done in such a short time, all the things we've laughed at, I won't let it end, I promise. Iota kept saying we would abandon and use you, but I never thought of that, you always helped me, even Blake, Yang, and Weiss. I'm happy I met you."
*Bu-Bum*
She...really cares. Erika, my sister was the only one I trusted, my parents too, but...Ruby was so innocent, honest, nothing she did was for her gain, her socially awkward shell had a pure soul behind it, Ruby didn't care about the harm I brought, what I can still bring with me, yet here she was, smiling at me with brilliant silver eyes.
All of them, Team JNPR, CVFY, Weiss, Blake, Yang, they all showed nothing but love and compassion, something only one other person had ever given me. And now...I finally have some degree of my life back.
"Ruby…" I spoke softly, yet the stiff form of the girl was brought out by my hug, and I relentlessly held onto her tightly, my vision seeming to flicker in the reflection before me, but I didn't pay much mind to it. But soon her arms had wrapped around me too, I only let a smile reach me, along with a stray tear. "Thank you, for being my friend."
"Best friend, duh." Ruby nervously answered, and I sighed at that title. Yeah, Best Friend, I like that
[][][]-~[To Be Continued in Arc 2 - Barons Rising]~-[][][]
[Credits - Can't Trust Anybody Now]
It's finally done! Arc 1: Lights In The Sky is over! And I'm sorry that I missed a week, but my work has been 'hectic' especially since December is the busiest time of year for them, so I can't promise I'll be frequent with uploads, but I'll try.
Other than that, I hope this short arc of my characters over Vol 1 was enjoyable, I know I liked it, and the plans for the arcs ahead will both benefit the canon story and interlaced story of my creation. Hope you enjoyed, seeya in the next arc!
Next Arc: Barons Rising
Its been a few months after arriving in Remnant, Sky has alot more to learn about accepting who he is and learning to overcome his faults, alongside his friends. Yet shadows are in motion, and emotions are in-flight, with Sky caught in the middle of it all. War is Coming.