"Hah!" Cinder laughed as her blade got closer and closer to Marcus' unprotected neck. "For all your strength and skill, the power of the fall maiden triumphs all! Die here Marcus Black, die here and I swear you will be remembered."
Marcus gasped as Cinder let go of one sword and pushed all of her weight onto the one above his neck. It stabbed through his chest and hit the ground beneath him. His eyes were wide and his expression shocked as if he couldn't believe what had just happened. He looked down at his chest to see the red glass blade piercing through his heart, pinning him to the ground. When he looked back up, he couldn't help but smile at her.
Cinder's expression changed from excited and victorious to confused as no blood bubbled out of Marcus' mouth, but instead. He just gave her that usual, cocky grin. She instantly knew that something was wrong, but by the time she could get off of him, it was too late.
Marcus' entire body flickered out in a flash of some kind of white energy. Cinder gasped and stood up violently, looking around for where the man she was just about to kill, but there was no use in trying to find him. For he found her first. A metal foot smashed into the side of her head, making her eardrums ring as she bounced off the floor and rolled onto her side.
When she cracked one eye open as her amber aura flickered. She shuddered as she looked at the man she could have sworn she had already killed with a blade through his heart. Marcus Black, still alive and with no such wound in his chest with aura flashing as it regenerated quickly. His black eyes shined a dark light as well, and his white hair seemed to glow in the darkness, a bright white color. It was almost as if he was a silver-eyed warrior, but his hair held the magical power. He looked intimidated, he intimidated her. For the first time, Cinder felt the closest feeling to fear as she looked the man dead in the eyes with an unsure glare.
"W-what?" She uttered out in pure disbelief. "H-how? This… this is impossible! I just killed you! I won! You should be dead, what did you do!? What are you doing!?"
Marcus tilted his head to the side as he hand reached for his weapons. "Did you really think that I ever showed you just how powerful I can become? Did you really think my semblance was just to lock away other semblances?" Marcus disappeared into a flurry of white rose petals, and just as Cinder stood up to block whatever attack was coming her way, she felt her eyes bulge out of their sockets as she felt a fist slam into her abdomen. Spit and blood came flying out of her mouth, and as Marcus retrieved his fist she dropped down to her knees. She looked up at him with a hateful glare while he continued to look down at her.
"I don't just lock them away, I steal them. And I never said I couldn't use the semblances that I stole."
"Ragh!" Cinder's body exploded in fire, Marcus used Ruby's semblance to dash away in a flurry of white rose petals, and when a ball of fire struck him in the chest, he used Blake's semblance to create a clone to take the hit for him while he seemingly teleported away to the other side of the room. He staggered and nearly fell, not used to the sudden movements that a combination of Ruby and Blake's semblance provided for him. He felt his aura take a huge hit from the sudden activation, but his aura regenerated constantly back to full strength thanks to Anon's semblance in a matter of seconds. Marcus grinned as he felt the pain wash away as his constantly regenerating aura went on to heal his current wounds at a quicker speed. Not only that, but the fatigue he felt from all of the fighting beforehand started to go away as well. He felt so strong, so powerful. He wouldn't have been able to do this without Anon's semblance, however. He would have killed himself already from the strain of using multiple semblances. If there was one thing Anon was good for, it was providing him a way to defeat Cinder once and for all.
And Cinder knew that just as well as he did.
"It does not matter how many semblances you have! I swear that I will kill you! This is my destiny! This is my fate!" Cinder cried as she hovered in the air about a foot off the ground. Her eyes flashed with orange fire, but Marcus looked past that. She was still waning, she wasn't nearly as powerful as she was when this fight first started.
"Hehe," Marcus chuckled as multiple elements from all the dozens of semblances that he has stolen throughout his life crackled around him like an aura. Ice, lightning, fire, metal, energy, all along with enhanced strength, hardened skin, and every ability one could think of. He must have looked like a maiden himself with all the power he was displaying, but he knew that none of this was magic, it was all of the souls that he'd taken helping him take on a much greater and more terrifying foe.
"That's the thing about destiny and fate," Marcus added as he walked forward, slowly permeating into the ground using Cobi's semblance.
"Destiny always seemed to be fated a little Black to me…"
Cinder's eyes frantically scanned the floor around her. Her heart beat hard in her chest and the fear that she had locked away for this fight suddenly smashed back into her mind as her breathing became frantic and labored. Her flames burst out wildly as she grew more and more desperate, she burned everything that she could look at, uncaring for the way she felt her own hands burn from the heat of her own flames. Of course, none of it actually hurt Marcus. He was going to stay in hiding with the protection of the walls and floor and only come out when she had tired herself out. Pyrrha was still lying down in the corner, assumingly unconscious or just too exhausted to move. She balled up flames in her palms and prepared to fire another blast to finish the redhead once and for all before she could pose a problem again.
Marcus shot out of the ground and blocked the flames with his bare forearms with his aura acting as his only form of armour. Cinder dared to hope that it would kill him or at least severely injure him as it did that professor and Ozpin earlier, but the flames did nothing to him as his skin suddenly hardened into some kind of metal. A metal that just so happened to have a very high melting point. Before Cinder could even begin to expect it, a bolt of lightning shot out of his hand and struck her in the chest, sending jolts of electricity up and down her body that had her muscles seizing uncontrollably as if she was having some kind of seizure.
She didn't even have time to fall down before Marcus used Ruby's speed semblance and kicked her across the face, sending her flying over the edge and making her feel as though one of her teeth came loose. Knowing that she could fly, however, Marcus shot forward and actually chased her off the ledge. As she once again felt shocked at his actions, he kicked Cinder right back up while also dragging her into the floor in the same unnatural motion. One minute Cinder was in the air and in the next she was eating her own dashes as they littered the remnants of Ozpin's old office. He grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the floor, and then continued to do it again and again. By the time Cinder was able to catch herself on what had to be the twelfth semblance speed enhanced slam, he had already dashed away using Ruby's semblance once again. Cinder had enough and felt her power explode from her body once again, she forced herself back to her feet as fire and wind surrounded her body, creating a great plume of smoke all around them as she forsook control over her magic for utmost power.
She heaved as smoke floated up into the sky and atmosphere, her eyes now bloodshot with rage as she glared down her enemy. Marcus looked around at the smoke and once again couldn't help but grin at her. Cinder was so tunnel-visioned on him that she didn't notice that the smoke from her own flames started forming against her.
"Ever wondered what my son's semblance was?" Marcus asked as he began to absorb the smoke into his body. "Guess not, but it had something to do with smoke. Here, let me show you…"
Above her head, a hurricane of smoke started to form quickly. Cinder stared up at it in disbelief, she tried to shoot flames out of her hands to disperse the formation. But instead, her flames were rendered completely useless. The flames were just picked up and dispersed in the wind.
"It was a pretty strong semblance," Marcus said obviously as the hurricane of smoke began to get closer. "If I let him keep it, it probably would have been even stronger than this. But alas, I'll make sure that it's put to good use here..."
He raised his leg and kicked it down through the air, all of the smoke followed his movement and transformed into some kind of projectile made out of pure, hardened smoke. All of them converged on her like heat-seeking missiles, and all Cinder could do to protect herself was creating a magical shield made up of flames, similar to how Ozpin did against her just minutes ago. However, it was broken through quickly and all she had left to rely on was her own aura.
Marcus remembered a familiar scene, a maiden getting overpowered by a normal, mere human. Cinder screamed in pain as her body became bruised and cut, her already waning aura allowing damage to seep through into her body. By the time the last smoke projectile struck her body, Cinder stood there, bleeding from a thousand little cuts and gashes and littered with bruises. The only reason that her aura hadn't gone out already was because of her being a maiden. It was assumed that her magic might have enhanced her aura and natural abilities as well, but right now, it just wasn't enough.
Even then, she was still dangerous. It didn't matter if she dropped down to one knee and coughed up blood, Marcus could see the fist of fire behind her back.
"I'm not falling for that," Marcus said as he looked down at Cinder. "I know that magic and aura are two different sources of power, our spar showed me that. Don't try and trick me Cinder, I am the one that created some of them in the first place."
Cinder looked up at him and scowled, the fist of fire behind her back dissipated as her wounds began to heal very slowly due to a much more mild version of aura regeneration. She tried to summon the same force of flames that she had been able to before, but instead, all that could be seen were pathetic little candlelights of flames. He almost wanted to laugh at her.
"There you go," Marcus got into a stance and prepared to go all out again. "Just like that…" For all of his taunting and mocking, he knew that he was reaching his limit as well. His heart was beating faster than his body could keep up with, his lungs burned, and his brain felt fried. Not to mention the immense strain his muscles were enduring.
This was why he never used all of the semblances he stole, he knew that he could, but he didn't know what it would do to his body. He already felt the beginning stages of a heart attack coming that were also being stemmed because of his aura regenerating just as fast as the damage was being done to his body. Going from a normal athlete matching that of a huntsman to moving at the speed of sound, conducting lightning, absorbing fire, smoke, and every other kind of element out there were bound to have some kind of drawback. Even with constant aura regeneration, there was a limit to using semblances that never belonged to him in the first place.
These weren't his semblances. It was the ones that he stole. His body wasn't accustomed to this strain, and he'd never been able to practice them ever before. The only reason he knew how to use them in the first place was because of the pieces of souls he had stolen along with them granting him knowledge.
Cinder growled at him and extended her palm directed toward him, there was a black tattoo on said hand. Marcus wondered what it was for a moment, but he quickly realized and panicked when he saw the flash of red from Cinder's eyes. Immediately, he dashed forward to try and stop her, even getting close enough to smash his fist into her face before the pain came. As Cinder slammed against the back wall and leaned against it to help herself stand, he cried out in pain as the parasite that has been in his body from the very beginning when he first met Cinder near his house started thrashing around and hurting him on the inside.
One of his semblances was to heal his internal organs, and that was the only thing that stopped him from dying a horrible and painful death. Cinder glared at him from across the room, suddenly the odds getting a lot more even after Marcus overwhelmed her completely with his arsenal of semblances.
"This power will corrupt me, but I have no other choice." The black mist coming out of the strange tattoo on her arm grew more and more black, growing across her arm until it reached her forearm and underneath her clothing. As she said, it was corrupting her, turning her arm more Grimm than human. "I will not fall here, I simply cannot afford to. You are much too powerful to be left alive, I understand that now. For your power can rival even that of a maiden's."
"Not… before... you," Marcus said through gritted teeth. His skin turned pale and his veins were bulging as he continued to force his body beyond the limits of its limits. He wanted to stop, his body wanted to stop, but he couldn't. Not after everything, not after everything he was forced to do. He needed to do this, he needed to kill her.
Cinder narrowed her eyes at him and stumbled into a stance, she was hurt. Marcus remembered that. She was hurt and her powers were getting exhausted. The same went for him, burnt and cut, and bruised himself. They were both near the brink of death. Their next engagement would come down to a battle of will, and both of them had very strong wills.
Marcus and Cinder roared at each other as they clashed, Cinder using some of the last of her strength to summon yet another blade of red glass as Marcus held his long knife in a reverse grip. Having run out of ammo in his gun a long time ago, he could only use it as a sort of shield or bashing weapon. They clashed in the middle, Marcus' knife pushing back against Cinder's as she pushed right back at him. Her eyes were still flaming, but at this point, it was more of an effort to intimidate him than anything else.
Marcus overpowered her simply because he was just physically stronger. Cinder threw her hand back wildly as Marcus deflected her next blow. His knife came up and slashed into her chest, nearly disemboweling her if her body wasn't so damn tough. Her dress was cut and another bleeding gash was set into her skin from below her belly button to past her breasts. She favored the cut for a moment but knew that she couldn't stand still for even a second against the likes of him.
As Marcus came to try and deliver the same blow but to her neck, he stopped just less than an inch away as he felt the parasite get even more violent with his body. Marcus groaned and dropped down to his knee, holding his chest as he felt the creature within him attacking it. Cinder took that chance to try and decapitate him, but his neck hardened into the toughest kind of metal he could think of before it could. Cinder's glass sword shattered, but the shattered end of her blade was still razor-sharp. Marcus out of pure stubbornness refused to stay kneeling and stood up with a roaring uppercut unenhanced by a strength semblance he'd stolen a long, long time ago. It caused the veins in his arms and shoulders to glow red as he used it, giving him a shocking look for an instant before he shut it off.
Cinder's back hit the floor and she let out a gasp as the wind in her lungs came blowing out. When she opened her eyes, it was her turn to catch the blade of Marcus' knife as it tried to stab into her heart. Marcus pushed down with all his strength, but the parasite refused to let him access most of it. When he saw that Cinder was burning his knife with her hands, he knew that if he let her she would shatter his knife, disarming him.
Instead, he took away his hands and smashed his fist into Cinder's forehead, causing her head to bounce off the ground painfully. It was no longer a fight of skill, it was a fight of grit, and they wanted to instill so much pain into the other person so that they would be the first to give up. Cinder looked dazed, but Marcus didn't let that fool him. He was barely able to dodge the torrent of flames before it could melt through his aura, but he felt the left side of his chest become exposed to the outside as his shirt burnt off. He patted away the rest of the flames and pushed himself back up to his hands and knees.
He watched Cinder do the same across from him, pushing herself up until she matched his position. They were both at death's gate at this point, but neither of them wanted to stop. Both of them were covered in blood, but all that did was want to make them end the fight faster. Forcing his body into action, white rose petals began to float around his body as Marcus accessed Ruby's semblance once again, and he was ready to use Blakes as well if he had to.
Cinder followed suit, forcing her body to summon its internal magic as her arms both caught fire and her dual swords were summoned back into existence, repairing the one she had in her offhand as she did so.
Glowing, black eyes glared into flaming orange eyes. Feeling the thousandth second-wind coming, Marcus and Cinder went on to end their fight once and for all.
Before they could clash again, a red color came into their peripheral vision. Marcus and Cinder stopped and dared to take their eyes off each other to look at the intruder in their midsts. Both their eyes widened as they stared at her, the girl with the red hood who wanted to play the role of the hero.
Silver stared back at both of them as they did her, as did a pair of pink from behind her. Marcus recognized the dark-skinned as the member of the Ace Ops that he defeated some time ago, and she certainly remembered him as well. However, she was exhausted and sweating, likely from all the fighting and using her semblance to run all over the place until she got there. When he looked back at Ruby, it was easy to put two and two together, she was the reason Summer's brat was able to get here in the first place.
Ruby looked at them, but what really caught her attention was Pyrrha, lying in the corner unconscious behind them and suffering from so many injuries that it made her look like she was dead. Tears immediately brimmed the edges of her eyes as she uttered her name and dropped down to her knees, Crescent Rose with them.
It was like the world was going in slow motion again when Marcus realized what was happening. Pyrrha looked dead, and the only ones in that room that could have done it was him or Cinder. But then a memory from very far back reminded him of something very crucial. Something that he felt Summer whisper into his ear as he looked at the sparkling white light within Ruby's eyes.
Silver eyes. Silver eyes were the bane of Grimm, or so the tale told. And Cinder right now was using the powers of a Grimm. He saw the opportunity and fuck did he throw caution into the wind and grabbed it.
"Cinder killed Pyrrha!" He cried out loudly in the most justified lie he had ever told. Pyrrha was still alive, but Ruby didn't know that. She didn't need to know that."I tried to save her… but… She killed her and discarded in the corner like trash!"
Pointing the accusatory finger at her worked like a charm. Ruby looked at Cinder, and that white light in her eyes started getting all the brighter.
"SILENCE!" Cinder screamed as she realized what he was trying to do. But it was too late, Ruby's eyes already began to glow white as the emotions started to get to her. Anger, sorrow, hate, hope, madness, and joy flashed through her eyes as looked.
Cinder panicked, giving up on trying to kill him and instead decided that she should just try and live to fight another day. Marcus didn't let her, as she tried to launch herself back into the sky to fly away, he caught her by her ankle before she could and slammed her back into the ground. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head up as her aura finally shattered. He wrapped his forearm around her neck and squeezed, choking her as he held her in position in front of the silver-eyed warrior finally snapping.
"Y-You'll die too!" Cinder choked as she struggled and thrashed.
"Maybe," Marcus replied as he only tightened his grip. "But if you die with me then it'll all be worth it."
Ruby Rose screamed, white light burst from her eyes, engulfing him, Cinder, and everything that was left of the tower.
Cinder screamed in agony as the light of the silver eyes burned away at her skin and arm. Marcus screamed as well, it was so bright, so hot, so cold. He didn't know how to describe it, but he knew he was being affected by it as well. He may have not been part Grimm like Cinder was, but there was a Grimm parasite within his body. He ignored his initial instincts to just let go of Cinder and get out of the light. But he stood strong. Cinder started to become heavier and heavier in his arms as the seconds ticked by. He only realized that she was turning to stone when he cracked an eye open to see what was happening.
It went just as fast as it came, when the light finally became dim enough for Marcus to open his eyes, he held Cinder within her arms. Or, well, what was left of Cinder. Her entire body had turned to stone. When he dropped her and let her fall to the ground, her arm and legs broke off of the statue. Marcus didn't want to leave anything up to chance, however, and loaded his final clip into his pistol and proceeded to unload it into Cinder's back.
Only when Cinder's entire body faded away in a mixture of black and amber glowing ash did Marcus believe that she was finally dead.
He'd finally done it, he almost couldn't believe it.
Cinder Fall was dead.
Blood erupted out of his mouth as he dropped to his knees. However, as he raised his hands to his mouth the blood felt much too thick, much too dense to actually be that of humans. He held it in his hands and it felt like some kind of goo. Only to retch and fall forward as he threw up the same black substance for a straight ten seconds.
"What the hell…?" Harriet muttered as she watched him spill the rest of the contents of his stomach. By the time he was done, he felt his heart start to beat again at a much more healthy pace. He almost couldn't believe it, he wasn't dying? He wasn't dead? No… he was cured.
He looked to Ruby and wondered just what exactly had happened to him. Has she only killed the parasite within him? It had to be that, for he was still standing and alive.
When he stood up Harriet sped in front of Ruby and raised her fists.
"Stop right there," Harriet warned. "Just because you killed one animal doesn't mean you're not one anymore."
"The girl," Marcus said, ignoring her completely. He was talking to Ruby. "Pyrrha, right? She's still alive."
Ruby's eyes widened, she looked up at him with a hopeful look in her eyes. "W-what?"
"I lied," Marcus said with a grin. "And it worked just like a charm."
Harriet looked at Ruby, back to Marcus, and then to the unconscious Pyrrha in the corner of the room. She used her speed to grab her and pull her back to her and Ruby. She watched him as she bent down and placed two fingers against her jugular, feeling for a pulse.
Harriet widened her eyes as she realized that he was telling the truth.
"You… saved her," Ruby said, standing up and staggering toward him.
"Hey, wait!" Harriet exclaimed, catching her by the hood.
"Don't worry," Ruby said, on the verge of passing out, she looked back at her new mentor and smiled at her. "He won't hurt me. It's okay."
"I…" Marcus sighed and shook his head, indignant with himself. "I can't deny that."
"Because you know damn well that you care about her." Summer's voice echoed in his mind. For once, he couldn't refute her statement.
Marcus let Ruby fall into him and weakly wrap her arms around his waist. He felt her tears wet his chest as he looked down at her, not really sure what he was supposed to do about this.
"Why are you hugging me?" He couldn't help but ask.
"Because I forgive you," Ruby told him. "I forgive you, for everything. Even if nobody else won't.
I forgive you… Blake's voice echoed.
I forgive you.
I forgive you.
I forgive you...
The specters in his mind all said it at the same time. They forgave him. Even after everything he's done, in their eyes, he'd finally redeemed himself.
Marcus let out a choked gasp as he raised one hand and patted Ruby on the head.
"I'm pretty sure the only other person who has said that to me was your mother," He said with a sad smile, closing his eyes as he reciprocated Ruby's embrace.
Ruby felt a jolting shock her up and down her body. Harriet was afraid that Marcus was attacking her for a moment, but stopped when she saw that it was no such attack, but an enhancement.
"W-what did you…?" Ruby asked as she pulled away, looking down at her once again colored aura.
"Heh," Marcus flexed his hand as he stepped away from her. "Looks like I can return the semblance's I steal… That's good to know."
"You-!" Ruby tested it out for herself, and he was right! She ran a lap around the tower and she felt it! Her semblance was back! "Oh my gosh," She said, overjoyed.
"Hmph," Marcus stepped to the edge of the tower.
"Come back with us," Ruby said, stepping toward him with complete trust in her eyes. "We can work something out with General Ironwood, we can work something out with the rest of the world. After this, you can get pardoned, you won't be hunted down anymore!"
"Oh, kid," Marcus shook his head. "It's adorable just how naive you are. That's not the way the world works unless you somehow manage to convince every single person I've ever hurt to forgive what I've done and got me proven innocent of all my crimes, then there is no freedom for me after this." He explained, gesturing to Harriet. "I mean, just look at her. She just watched me kill Cinder and she knows that I saved that girl's life, but even now, she looks at me like she's ready to put me down and-or arrest me."
"No…" Ruby denied it, even when she looked back herself and saw the look in Harriet's eyes. "No… that's not fair… if it weren't for you, Beacon would have fallen."
"Look kid, if it weren't for me, Beacon would have never been in danger in the first place," Marcus said. "If it weren't for me, your teammate would still be alive. All I did was recently decided to turn heel and kill the right people. If anything, you lot are the ones to thank for bringing down that Wyvern and pushing back the White Fang. I just cut off the head of the snake and let you deal with the dying body."
"This is the end for me," Marcus said, standing on the ledge with just half of his robotic feet touching the floor of Ozpin's ruined office. "So do me a favor and don't let yourself get dragged down with me."
"No, wait!" Ruby ran forward to try and catch Marcus as he threw himself off the ledge. She tried to catch him even still when he was far out of her reach. As he fell, she watched him grin at her. When he struck a piece of a Bullhead that was sticking out of the tower, she watched as his body broke away into a thousand pieces of glass.
That at least allowed Ruby to take a sigh of relief, Marcus didn't just kill himself right in front of her. He'd just escaped.
"You're lucky I like you enough to have let you have that conversation with him in the first place," Harriet said as she lifted Pyrrha into her arms. "I should have arrested him while he was still weak."
"No, you shouldn't have," Ruby said, standing up and wiping the tears off her face. "He would have stolen your semblance and beaten you if you had, and you know it."
When Harriet didn't deny it, Ruby knew that she was right. She stood up straight and looked over to the sun rising in the distance. Had they really been fighting the entire night? Suddenly Ruby felt very, very tired. When her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell back, she could hear Harriet's words of concern as she rushed over to her to help. Ruby allowed herself to lose consciousness with a smile, however. She could finally rest, for now.
And for now, she could rest easy knowing that the man who had saved Beacon and Vale was still out there, and she knew that someday their paths were going to cross again.
It was their Destiny, and Destiny was Fated Black.
Epilogue… For real this time
The Queen of the Grimm sat on her throne with a very disappointed look on her face as she looked down at her final two underlings. Arthur Watts and Hazel Rainart, who on their own couldn't hope to do anything for her. Disappointing. Very disappointing.
"Cinder is dead," Salem began. "The powers of the fall maiden are lost and it will take years to train up another suitable candidate. Her underling Emerald has committed suicide in her prison cell, and her last underling brought on her destruction and utter ruin of every plan we had for the next fifteen years. But of course, not before killing Tyrian as well, who was arguably the most useful out of all of you."
"My Queen," Arthur tried. "Perhaps there is-"
"Silence," Salem demanded. Arthur shut his mouth and hung his head in submission. "I have much to think about now that Marcus Black has rendered my plans fruitless. I will need to find a new maiden to serve me, I will need to find a new person to fulfill the same role that Tyrian did. In fact, Arthur, you can be useful. Look through that prison that Atlas has… what was it called again?"
"The Citadel, my lady…"
"Then go, leave me and go find me a new pawn." Salem dismissed the man with a wave of her hand. Watts bowed his head and went on to do her bidding, leaving Hazel standing there all on his own, looking up at Salem with worried eyes.
"Hazel," Salem said after a few moments of thought. "I thought of sending you to find the man that had brought such problems to me, but I fear you would lose your life even if you did find him. Instead, I want you going after the organization that wanted him dead in the first place."
"My Queen… the organization isn't one that likes to work with outsiders. Much less us."
"They will work with us, or they will die," Salem said as she extended a hand out to him. Hazel widened his eyes with shock as a pool of Grimm opened up before him, no bigger than the size of his fist, and a very small almost lizard looking Grimm came crawling out. Before Hazel could react, the creature went to his leg and climbed up the inside of his pant leg. Hazel was about to crush the creature before it attacked him but stopped himself when Salem raised her other hand at him.
"That creature is all you need. Your only task is to find them. Now go, immediately. I'll have a Nevermore ready to take you to Mistral, start searching there."
"Yes…" Hazel bowed his head and didn't dare question her. When the door slammed shut behind him, Salem leaned back in her throne and let out a long, tired sigh.
"Marcus Black," She tested the name, tasting it on her lips. "One man, a single. Human. Man. Caused me more trouble than you ever could Ozma," she chuckled at the thought. It was a breath of fresh air, really. There was a new enemy other than Ozma that could pose an issue, a real issue, to her goals. "I've half a mind to just wait until you die of old age before trying again, but well, where's the fun in that?"
"One day, Marcus Black, I'll make you rue the day you ever decided to betray dear Cinder and I… But for now, I'll allow you this small victory."
Never again, she wouldn't underestimate him ever again.
Ruby walked through the forest of Patch in the dead of night, leaving her sleeping Uncle, Father, Sister, and all of her friends behind as she walked through the thick grass with a determined expression on her face. The pack felt light on her shoulders as she walked, and walked until she was at a very familiar sight.
The grave of Summer Rose, lit by the shattered moon set high in the sky.
A man stood next to it, white of hair and now wearing a different outfit since his last one was sorta burned to a crisp by Cinder - may her soul burn in hell. His outfit matched his last name now. All black, somewhat mechanical, and with a few new functions if her memory was correct. He at least managed to save one of the armored shoulder pads, which she always secretly thought looked really cool.
"What do you want?" Marcus Black asked her as he looked down at Summer's grave. "No, not you Summer, her," He added as he turned to face her. "I won't even ask how you managed to find me, much less contact me."
"I just… knew," Ruby said with a helpless shrug. "I don't know how to explain it, I just knew how to find you. I didn't look, I didn't have to ask any questions, I just knew."
"Damn it, I thought something like this would happen." Marcus cursed under his breath. "I never returned a semblance back to a person before, but it seems like I'm a part of you now."
"Mm," Ruby nodded, agreeing with his theory. "And I'm a part of you, too."
"Yeah, whatever," Marcus turned away from her and let out a long sigh. "I'll ask you again, what do you want?"
Ruby walked up until he stood on his right, holding the straps of her backpack tightly as she thought about how she should put it. Her hood was up, and she recently underwent a bit of an outfit change, she felt as though her hair had grown a little longer as well. Which would make sense, it's been eight months since the Battle of Beacon after all.
"I want you to help me," She eventually said, pulling her hood down and looking up at her mother's best friend. "I know that there's something else out there, something that you're going to keep fighting. You broke your own promise to yourself to finally put down your knife and rest,"
"How do you-" Marcus began to ask, but cut himself off. He already knew how she knew that. Instead, he just let out a long sigh. "I was going to live in Vacuo for the rest of my life, but things changed."
"Things changed," Ruby agreed. Everything changed. After the headmaster died and Professor Goodwitch's death and after the failed invasion attempt of Beacon, it just wasn't the same over there anymore. They let everyone pass the next three year terms of Beacon, but most just went off to other schools as the project to rebuild Beacon underwent. Even she didn't feel right over there, which said a lot since just over a year ago she couldn't wait to step foot in the school.
"I want to go to Mistral," She eventually continued. "I was going to bring my friends, but I don't want to endanger them. I know there is something else out there, and I know you know where to look. So, why don't we do it together?"
"Ah… damnit," Marcus said, rubbing a hand down his face. "Do you have to have the same voice as her too?"
Ruby shrugged. "She is my mom, you know."
"Yeah, yeah," Marcus replied, rolling his eyes. "I was going to go find Ozpin first."
"Ozpin?" Ruby blinked up at him, confused. "But Ozpin died… didn't he?"
"Nope, and before you ask, it's a long story," Marcus said. "You can ask him to explain it to you after we find him."
"Fair enough, I guess," Ruby said, kicking a stone off the cliff and into the water below. "So, when are we leaving?"
"I just traveled half a continent just to come to meet you, so why do you sound like you want to go right now?"
"Because once my Dad reads the letter I left in his room on the counter, he isn't going to let me go anywhere." Ruby innocently pointed out.
"I don't see how that is supposed to blackmail me, you would be the only one getting in trouble if I just said no and left you here where you belong."
"The fact that you traveled half a continent just because I called for you says otherwise."
Marcus glared at Ruby.
Ruby smiled at him.
"We're leaving now," Marcus said, pulling her hood back up and summoning one made out of a construct of aura to put on himself. "You better not complain about not getting enough sleep, we have to get off the island before your dad wakes up, so be ready to hike for a good fifteen hours."
Ruby sped in front of him with her semblance, smiling cockily at him.
"Are you telling me the only speed semblance you ever stole was from me?" She asked before speeding off ahead of him.
Marcus sighed.
"Goddamnit," he said as he started projecting the glyphs of a Schnee he'd once assassinated out in front of him. It wasn't the same as speed, but speed glyphs were pretty much the same. "What the hell am I getting myself into?"
The life of a huntsman. The voices in his head replied.
"Yeah," Marcus said as he prepared to catch up to his new companion. "Guess you're right. Good thing I kept my huntsman license even after all these years…"
Well… this is awkward. First things first, I did not think that I would ever come back to this story after posting the final chapter. But, well, I recently re-read a few of the chapters that I wrote for this story and I just kept thinking of another what if. What if Marcus hadn't died? What if Ruby and Marcus went on their little adventure to Mistral instead of RNJR? What if Salem hadn't just given up? And, well, here we are.
Also he wouldn't stop talking about it. -CrowSkull.
Can't say that I am denying or confirming the future existence of a Destiny Fated Black Part II, but I can definitely say that I am thinking about it. See this as a pilot, of sorts. I want to see what you guys think before I end up going off the deep end and actually start writing part two for this story.
And oh, what I can say is that the cannon of this fanfiction is that Marcus dies, Salem gives up, happily ever after, and whatever. Let's just say that I can do a fanfiction of my own fanfiction. I can do that, right? I was the one who wrote the story in the first place, let me have my daydreams.
Tell me what you think of part two and if you think I should go for it or not. Your opinions are the dependent factor for a sequel. Unless I overrule your opinion. That is all.