A/N: I do not own any of the characters associated with the RWBY series. All rights belong to Rooster Teeth.
Setting: Aster's Hall
Aster had two arrows at the ready and Remus pivoted around then threw his weapon at her like a javelin. Aster fired the ice arrows at the ground in front of her, creating a wall of ice. Romulus pierced the ice wall, but it didn't reach Aster with the blade sticking out near her thigh. Remus ran as fast as he could to get over there and fight her hand to hand which she knew would happen and be his downfall.
Clairvoyance showed her that Remus would jump above the ice wall to attack her, leaving him open in the air for her ice arrows. She knew when the right moment was to let loose her other two arrows to strike him. One to the skull and the other to his heart, freezing them both over and ending this fight with his death.
Remus did as she predicted and leaped over the ice wall. She already had her arrows ready but she didn't fire. Remus looked at Aster with a surprised expression and Aster returned that look back at him though there was another emotion she was exhibiting and that was pain.
Romulus was pushed further through the ice and impaled Aster in the right thigh. This pain made Aster drop her longbow and her arrows. On the other side of the ice wall was Azura Cobalt who entered the hall when Remus started running. Her instincts for battle gave her a good idea of the situation and she sprinted to Romulus to attack Aster. She pushed the bladed staff further through the ice until it pierced Aster's flesh, something Remus nor Aster could've predicted.
The final weakness of Clairvoyance was it caused tunnel vision when used in battle. Aster had to keep her eyesight on an opponent to see their future, so fighting two foes separately was much more difficult.
Aster fell to the marble floor and sat in defeat as Remus landed on the ground in front of the frozen door. He watched as she pushed her longbow away as a sign of surrender. She no longer had enough aura to protect her meant there was nothing more she could do against them.
Azura scoffed at Aster then turned to Remus who smiled at his older cousin.
"Hey, Azura! Thanks for-ugh!"
Azura punched Remus hard in the face, much to his surprise and Aster's. She punched him to the ground and he held his injured cheek. She could see that his aura was no longer protecting him.
"Good. I wanted that to hurt," she thought as she looked down on him
"Why'd you do that?" he asked in pain.
Azura raised her fist again and Remus brought his arms up to protect himself. She didn't hit him a second time and said, "Because Lily told me to make sure you didn't do anything stupid and I was too late. Going in alone like that was dumb, even for you. I mean, look at you."
Her words came out harshly, but deep down Azura was glad Remus was badly hurt.
"I-" Remus looked down, feeling guilty for making Azura, Lily, and probably the others worry, "I'm sorry."
Azura groaned and looked away from his pitiful expression. The way he looked made it seem like she just kicked a puppy. She walked to the ice wall holding Romulus then activated her fire dust to melt the ice and get the weapon. She didn't return it to its rightful owner and instead held the blade at Aster's neck.
"Where's Violet?" Azura asked with a hardened expression.
Aster looked at the Sky-Blue Warrior for a moment before answering, "She's not in the manor right now. Alyssa and uncle Tarax went out into the city to attend a charity concert."
"She's… not here…" Remus said, lowering his head in disappointment.
He and the others infiltrated this place for nothing. Azura glanced at how down her fellow Cobalt was after hearing this. She brought Romulus closer to Aster's neck.
"How do we know you're not lying and she is here?" the female Cobalt interrogated to squeeze out more information.
Aster placed her hand over her punctured thigh to stop the bleeding then said, "I have no reason to lie or trick you. I can't fight anymore even if I wanted to so the best way to ensure my survival is to fully comply with you, right?"
"…" Azura sighed then rolled her eyes because Aster was speaking the truth. "Great. Now what do we do? Wait for them to come back?"
"Knowing my uncle, they won't be back until tomorrow," Aster added, knowing how frail he was.
"There's no way we'll be able to stay here till then. The fire will burn everything and if they can put it out, then they'll probably call the authorities to arrest us and we can't have Atlas military hunting us down," Azura thought to herself then looked at her cousin.
"You okay?" Azura asked.
"So, Violet's not here… but I did see someone else here. That guy who helped us in the city. You know who I'm talking about, right?" Remus asked Azura.
She had to think about who he was talking about for a moment but she remembered and said, "The homeless weirdo? Why would he be here?"
"Homeless… oh. You mean Marigold," Aster added.
"Who?" Azura asked a little harshly.
"He's a member of the Underland family like me though he does dress like a homeless person sometimes."
"He's not homeless?" Remus asked.
"That's the part you're focused on?" Azura mentally said to Remus, thinking he was missing the point.
"He has his own fashion line and everything. Mary just likes to go around and mess with people," Aster said.
"So that son of a bitch was playing us this whole time, huh?" Azura said, seething with anger.
She didn't like the idea of Marigold playing her and the others like fools this entire time. Azura felt the same way Silver did earlier and wants to take out the mad Underland herself.
"I'm not the type of person to leave empty-handed. What do say, Remus? If we look around, we might find this Mari-"
Azura turned as she spoke to her cousin only to see that he was gone. "Huh?"
The ice covering the door was nothing but shards and chunks on the ground. Azura looked down at her hand to see and realized Romulus wasn't even in her hands anymore.
"When did he-"
"Ugh. That idiot," Azura said under her breath.
The Sky-Blue Warrior ran to the door, forgetting and abandoning Aster, as she ventured forth to make sure he didn't do anything reckless a second time. Both Cobalts ventured further into the burning manor.
Aster was left in her hall where she kept her hand over her bleeding wound. She didn't run out of aura, but the little she had couldn't protect her from such an injury. Her aura was used one last time via Clairvoyance. Aster's semblance gave her a very brief glimpse into the future.
The usually collected Underland had a slight moment of confusion at what her semblance showed her before returning to normal. The mysterious Underland contemplated what she just saw.
"…"
Her vision showed her a brief moment where Remus was trying to kill Violet. She questioned why she saw something so far-fetched, but she was taken out of her thoughts by the arrival of her sister, Dahlia.
The short-tempered Underland looked bad after her brief battle with Zelts. Her clothes were slightly ruined and she had a few bruises here and there. Her red eyes looked down at her defeated sister and she said nothing, an odd thing for the loud-mouthed girl.
Aster had no idea what was going to happen right now. Her vision of Remus and Violet used the last bit of aura she had and she was aware of her sister's jealously towards her.
To Aster's surprise, Dahlia extended a helping hand to her sister. Aster paused for a moment but grabbed her sister's hand. Dahlia assisted Aster in walking out of the manor and Aster smiled. She thought about how lucky she was to have Dahlia as her sister. Dahlia's semblance allowed her to hear those thoughts and Dahlia smiled as well.
The two Underlands walked away with pleased expressions and a better appreciation for one another.
Setting: Underland Manor
Violet ran through the mansion in search of the others. She did not encounter Silver, Remus, or Azura yet, but she did run into several members of the castle guard. Most of them were doing their best to put out the fires that spread through the building. They abandoned their mission to eliminate VRSZ and focused solely on saving what remained of the mansion. Violet guessed they could have the fire gone in the next hour or so if they worked together.
Any of the few guards that were still armed for combat was dealt with by Violet. She used her Underland authority to order them to drop their weapons and help subdue the flames. This was an easy task for her and she hoped her efforts did prevent Zelts Lily, and the others from fighting any further.
Setting: Foyer
Zinnia moved in to attack her first. She dashed toward the fatigued warrior and swung her sword down on Tigress who lifted her Flying Eagle to block the strike. At the same time, Zelts was about to swing his wingblade in his right hand at the Underland, but Winter intercepted him. She activated her semblance and conjured a glyph behind herself, using it to launch herself directly at Zelts. She torpedoed toward the Knight, hitting his half shield with her rapier.
The unexpected force slammed into Zelts and he was knocked backwards into the ground while Winter stood before him.
At the same time, Zinnia still had her sword against Tigress's partisan and noticed how there was little strength behind her weapon. The Underland took a firm step forward to push her sword against Flying Eagle as well as push back a weakened Tigress.
"Ggh!" Tigress and Zelts fell to the ground.
They laid beside each other as Zinnia and Winter looked down on them.
"Looks like we apprehended them rather quickly," Winter commented flatly.
"Yeah… sorry for waking you up for this. I thought this would be more-" Zinnia's words were interrupted by gunfire.
A volley of bullets came their way from their left flank. The two of them were pelted with a few before Zinnia extended her whip sword and swung it around Winter and herself, deflecting the rest of the shots.
"The night's still young and full of surprises!"
The two Atlas specialist looked to their left to see Silver standing in the Foyer at the entrance of the left hallway. He had Fenrir as dual handguns and a smart-alecky sneer.
This brief moment gave Zelts the opening he needed to lift his wingblade and swung it in the direction of the two young women. Doing so released a strong gust of wind that caught Winter and Zinnia and blew them away from Zelts and Tigress to the middle of the foyer.
Silver used Gravity to jump high into the air over to the top of the stairs where Zelts and Tigress were. He stood in front of them and had both his guns aimed at the two women below him.
"Looks like you guys are having fun," Silver joked.
Zelts chuckled then said, "You could say that. If we stick around a little longer, an old friend will come back with reinforcements."
Silver raised his head slightly when Zelts said that. He knew what Zelts was saying but kept his excitement under wraps. The Gunslinger held a crazy smirk, thrilled at the thought of Violet coming to their aid.
"I feel a second wind coming," Silver said to Zelts and Tigress with a smirk.
Zinnia shot out her whip sword, letting the segmented blade reach and slash Silver, but he bobbed out of the blade's way. The tip of the blade landed beside Tigress who was getting up to continue the fight, but Zelts placed his hand on her shoulder to keep her down. He was telling her to rest and leave the battle to him and Silver.
Lily was too tired to argue with him, but she wasn't planning on being dead weight.
Silver fired his guns at Zinnia while her blade was still out and she responded by swinging her sword wielding hand to her left, moving the body of her whip sword in front of the bullet's path, deflecting them all. The movement of the whip sword continued and the part next to Silver moved out and the broad side of the blade hit him across the face.
The attack hardly hurt Silver. It only forced him to take a few steps to his right, but it did give Winter the opportunity to dash toward him using her glyph as a speed boost. She launched herself directly at Silver then elbowed him in the throat. Winter's impact pushed Silver back and he crashed into the wall where he got down on one knee and clutched his neck.
Winter drew her rapier and aimed it at Silver while he was down, but a wingblade came her way. She instinctively ducked to avoid getting hit by Zelts swinging his weapon at her then tried to stab him with her sword, but he brought his wingblade back to his front and effectively blocked the sword coming to his chest.
Silver saw his chance and fired one of his guns at Winter's head, but the Schnee elite quickly jumped away to dodge his gunfire and retreat from her situation. She stood in front of Zinnia who retracted her whip sword back.
The duo of VRSZ already knew this was a battle they couldn't win. Their opponents were more skilled than them and neither Silver nor Zelts were fighting in the best condition. Just infiltrating the Underland household pushed them beyond what they expected.
Lily was out of the battle and Zelts barely had any aura. Silver had a good enough amount of aura but he was aware that he couldn't fight Winter and Zinnia on his own. The best chance they had to get out of this was to stall. Prolong the battle so Violet could return with reinforcements and in order to do that, they needed to pull out all their tricks.
The sound of cannon fire rang behind them and several cannon blasts zipped past them toward the Atlesian team. Winter summoned a glyph to act as a shield for her and Zinnia while the cannon blasts hit the glyph and the area around it, creating smoke that impaired their vision. Zelts and Silver turned their heads to see Lily had Flying Eagle into its separated sections aimed at the enemy with the spearhead in her hand.
She never planned to be dead-weight in this fight.
"Lily, you are amazing," Zelts said, earning a smile from her.
"Starfall!" Silver shouted as he activated Gravity on his body.
He grabbed Zelts by the back of his shredded winter jacket, affecting him with his semblance to make him very light, spun around while holding him, then tossed him at Winter and Zinnia. He held out his wingblade then swung it at the large glyph that functioned as a shield which hit it with enough force to make it shatter. The women before him looked on at him as he broke apart their shield and Zelts, while still in midair, swung his wingblade again to send a gust of wind their way to keep them in place.
Winter was caught by surprised by this tactic, realizing she needed to put more effort into defeating the intruders. She kept her focus on Zelts in the air while Zinnia noticed Silver heading this way. He used his semblance to jump onto the wall behind him then used it like a springboard to leap toward them. He was going to ram into Winter, but Zinnia intercepted him by standing in front of her comrade. She brought her arms up in front of her face and crossed them as Silver crashed into them with a headbutt. She blocked his tackle then looked at him to see he was drawing one of his guns to attack her immediately after running into her. Zinnia retaliated by bring her leg up and kicking Silver in the stomach before he could do anything.
Due to his body being lighten by Gravity, Silver was kicked to his far right, landing on the wall. He used his semblance to defy gravity and stand on the wall then quickly fired a shot at her. Zinnia aimed her wrist weapon's gun barrel at Silver and fired a bolt of lightning dust at him. Silver's shot and Zinnia's past each other and were heading for their intended targets. Zinnia sidestepped away from the smaller projectile while Silver leaped away from the small ball of electricity by running away from it as it hit the wall. Zinnia watched him run on the wall and shot her whip sword out at him.
Silver avoided the lightning shot unharmed but the whip sword struck him in the left leg, slashing his knee and forcing him to buckle over and fall to the ground. She retracted her whip immediately after then dashed to her opponent's location.
Swords clashed with one another as Zelts and Winter continued their duel though the victor seemed to already be decided. Winter had a clear edge over Zelts. His attacks were stronger than hers, but the Schnee elite was faster, striking his weapon with great riposte and grace as she did it. Her rapier parried with his wingblade until Zelts was pressured to hold Heart of Gold like a shield to block her attacks. Winter's close proximity made it impossible for him to swing his weapon to create gusts of wind and with his aura barely protecting him, one good strike was all Winter needed to shatter it.
Lily couldn't enter the battle anymore. Her body was too exhausted to fight let alone get up and walk. She was forced to stay at the top of the stairs and watch everyone else battle. She noticed how things weren't going their way. She could tell neither Silver nor Zelts were going to win on their own so she wanted to lend them any help she could offer. Lily started setting Flying Eagle's segmented sections into the ground and aimed them at Winter. When all of the sections were in place, Lily pressed her thumb on her spearhead.
Outside the Underland household, the sound of wings flapping could be heard.
A strong kick to the Heart of Gold was felt by Zelts. Winter jumped up and kicked the shield then he swung his arm to swat her away. She flipped backwards in the air and gracefully landed several feet away from him. All of Lily's cannon fire heading straight for her. Some exploded around her and others landed where she was standing. Zelts and Lily looked on at the smoke from the explosion, waiting to see what Winter would do next. Something glowed from within the smoke and the sound of wings flapping could be heard. Emerging from the smoke was a horde of small white Nevermores Winter summoned and they were flying straight toward Lily.
"Stop!" Zelts shouted as he turned to the summoned birds.
He reeled his wingblade back and was ready to create a gale of wind to destroy them, but Winter tackled him from behind and pinned him to the ground.
Silver saw this and was going to intercept someway, but he let his guard down for a second and Zinnia wrapped her whip sword around his body. She pulled with enough strength to lift him off the ground and into the air. Pulling hard on the whip, the extended section was brought down to the marble floor with Silver on the other end. He crashed into the ground then groaned in pain.
His body flickered silver light as his aura was shattered to nothing and he was still restrained in Zinnia's whip sword. There was nothing Silver could do to free himself or help Lily.
The sound of the birds flying echoed throughout the foyer, but there was also a faint sound of larger wings that could be heard inside the foyer and Lily began to hear it more than the others.
The swarm of tiny Nevermores were homing in on Lily who held her arms up to protect herself then closed her eyes, waiting for the barrage that was coming her way. She didn't feel the birds bombarding her, however she did hear the sound of something being pelted repeatedly. She opened her eyes to see two things in front of her. The first was half of Heart of Gold, being held up to block all the Nevermore summons and the second was the person holding it, however the person holding it wasn't Zelts.
The Knight of the Wind was still pinned by Winter. His face was against the floor so he didn't have a good angle to see what happened but the Schnee elite did. Silver was on the ground too, but he had a better view of Lily and the surprising turn of events. Zinnia was just as shocked as Silver at what she saw.
"Why's he here? What is he doing?" the Paragon thought confused.
Standing before Lily, blocking all the Nevermore summons as they disappear on impact was the retainer of Ebony Vantablack and the former enforcer of Clair de Lune Vantablack, Ash Blood. He wielded the other half of Zelts's Heart of Gold and used it to protect Lily who recognized him as the bat faunus from the hotel elevator.
"Blood?" Silver said to himself in disbelief.
"Ash," Zinnia called out to him. "Why are you here?"
"Orders, however the situation seems to have changed," Blood answered.
The fighting seemed to have ceased thanks to Blood's appearance claiming everyone's attention. Even Winter stopped what she was doing to assess the situation. It was clear to her that Zinnia knew him so she waited to see how their interaction will end.
Still pinned to the ground beneath Winter, Zelts still couldn't see Blood but hearing his name and his voice made him wonder a lot of things. The main question he had on his mind was why Blood was in Atlas.
Blood looked over at Zelts then at Silver with a neutral expression. He didn't show happiness, sadness, or anger at seeing his friends again.
"Wasn't expecting to see you guys in Atlas. That changes things quite a bit, but my overall objective stays the same. Gotta find Violet," Blood said as he spread his wings.\
"What?" Zinnia didn't know what he was talking about.
"I've had enough. Who are you and what purpose do you-" Winter was beginning to interrogate until Blood did something unexpected.
He grabbed the Heart of Gold half he had in front of him then tossed it at Winter. The wingblade spun in the air as it headed towards the Schnee elite. She reacted by jumping away from the weapon hurled her way and landed a good distance from where the wingblade would land which was right beside Zelts.
The Knight of the Wind looked to his left to see the long-lost half of his weapon sticking out of the ground. Ever since Fortuna's fall, Zelts kept wondering what happened to the other half of his weapon. He thought it was lost in the destruction, but now he knows Blood had it in his possession this whole time.
"You'll need that more than me," Blood told Zelts.
Zinnia had no idea what Ebony's retainer was doing, but she needed to stop him if he was going to assist the intruders. She retracted her whip sword which was wrapped around a defeated Silver then shot it out at Blood.
The bat faunus noticed the extended blade coming his way, but it stopped half way.
Silver, no longer tangled in Zinnia's whip, fired two shots from his guns at Zinnia. The Paragon noticed his action and pulled the hilt of her whip sword back. She brought part of her weapon's extended body in the path of Silver's bullets, blocking them at the cost of ceasing her attack on Blood.
Zinnia had her other arm aimed at Silver with her wrist weapon's barrel pointed at him. She fired a bolt of lightning dust at the gunman. He had no more aura to protect himself from the shot nor did he have the strength to avoid it. Silver reached into the pocket of his winter jacket and pulled out a set of bullets filled with ice dust. He didn't put them in his gun but threw them away before the small electric orb hit him.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!" Silver shouted as electricity ran through his body.
The Silver-Tongued Gunslinger was rendered unconscious.
While this happened, Blood flew away from the battle, going further into the mansion to find his objective; finding Violet Tulipe.
"You're not getting away- hm?" Winter was about to pursue Blood until she noticed Zelts getting up.
He rose to his feet with his back to Winter and he did so with more vitality than he had when the battle started. Zelts's left hand was glowing a shimmering gold before it stopped; a sign of Zelts activating Conversion. He opened his hand and all of Silver's dust bullets fell out.
Silver tossed his pack of dust bullets to Zelts, entrusting him to finish this.
Zelts stood tall with wingblade in hand then reached out to grab the other wingblade Blood tossed to him. The Heart of Gold was restored and began surging with energy from Conversion. Holding both blades in his hands, Zelts felt like he was finally whole again and smiled to himself.
Turning around to face Winter, Zelts had a more assured expression on his face and his eyes were glowing a shimmering gold. He used what remained of his aura to activate Conversion and absorb the dust in the bullets. He abandoned defense for increased offense in order to combat his opponent though now a strike from Winter's sword could be very dangerous.
Winter could tell something was different with Zelts. In an attempt to be prepared, she opened her rapier and pulled out another sword from inside. She got into a stance for two-sword style.
Zelts couldn't contain himself anymore and spun around with ferocity. Both wingblades quickly created a tornado that grew in size tremendously. The ceiling of the foyer and the front of the manor was blown off by the tornado that towered over the mansion. Winter was sent flying out of the manor but conjured a glyph at her backside. She landed onto it then dropped to the ground where she created another glyph to serve as a foothold. It kept her to the snowy ground, preventing her from being blown away.
Zinnia stabbed her whip sword into the floor below in order to stay where she was while an unconscious Silver was lifted by the harsh winds and crashed into the wall where he remained. Lily wasn't harmed by Zelts's tornado; however, the winds did push her a little out of the foyer and into the hall behind her along with the scattered sections of Flying Eagle.
She wasn't upset about the slight friendly fire. It didn't harm her in any way. Lily was fully aware of what Zelts was capable of with both his wingblades and a physical boost from Conversion. Lily knew these factors didn't assure his victory, but he had a much better chance at with them. All she could do now was lay against the wall and wait for a victor.
Outside the Underland mansion, Winter stood in the snow as Zelts walked out of the destroyed building. The two of them held a firm grip on their weapons with Zelts feeling much better about the situation because his weapon was whole again.
Setting: Throne Room
Several Minutes Earlier
Remus sprinted ahead of Azura to find Marigold. After everything that has occurred in this manor, he concluded the mad Underland needed to be defeated as well. Remus believed Violet wasn't in the mansion, but concluded that each member of the Underland family an obstacle preventing him from reaching her. If he defeated all of them, then he thought no one would be able stop them from leaving Atlas with Violet.
The last obstacle he needed to take down was Marigold Underland.
He ventured further into the manor where he found a large, decorated twin door. This was the only place he hasn't entered so he opened the door without hesitation. Remus walked into the room and found who he was looking for, Marigold Underland.
Inside the throne room, Remus could see this entire room was made out some kind of reflective, crystal-like material. The floor and walls matched the crystal-like throne that stood atop a crystal stairway and sitting on the throne was the mad Underland himself.
Marigold looked down on Remus with a slightly amused expression.
"Aren't I the lucky one. The dumb one came first,"
Zelts met once Weiss in the RWBY VRSZ Special. That was quite sometime ago so he doesn't completely remember her. However, when he first encountered Winter he did feel like he met her somewhere before.
