Chapter 13: Ito

A figure was seen towards Magnolia. It was a woman with long black hair, dark brown eyes, black lipstick on her lips, wearing a long black dress. "So this is where the little huntresses are located." The woman said with a smirk on her face. "Pretty soon, they will be reduced into a pile of ash. And then, Beacon Academy will suffer the same fate."

"I thought that we would find you here." A new voice said as multiple figures appeared and pointed their weapon at the woman. "The Shadow Woman, Ito." The woman known as Ito looked behind her shoulder and saw Lahar standing behind her.

"So it's you, Lahar." Ito said to the Rune Knight. "How long has it been? Five years?"

"Yes, five years since you betrayed the Magic Council and disappeared without a trace." Lahar said.

"You're still bitter about that. Why am I not surprised? You idiots in the Magic Council always hold a grudge."

"You've been keeping a low profile for this long. Why did you decide to resurface now?"

"Why bother? It's not something the likes could stop me now." Black aura surrounds Ito as she faced Lahar and his men.

Lahar widens his eyes, knowing what Ito was planning to do. "Capture her!" he ordered. "We can't let her use her shadow magic!"

"Too late…" Ito said as she stuck her hand, using her magic against the Rune Knights.

Two hours has passed since Kotori lost consciousness after losing to Weiss. She opened her eyes and gritted her teeth in anger, realizing what happened. "Damn it!" she cursed. "That brat, how did she obtain that type of magic?" She thought back to the moment when Weiss defeated her. "I'll make her pay for this. No one does this to me and lives to tell about it."

"My, my, what do we have here?" A deep male voice said, surprising Kotori. "A member of the Nightwing guild lying on the ground in defeat, that's pathetic." Kotori looked up and saw a figure standing in the shadows. It was Cima.

Kotori struggles to her feet, her body shaking from the battle. "C…Cima…It's not what it looks like, I swear." she said, trying to explain herself. "Just give me one more chance. I promise you, I won't fail this time."

"I don't have to remind you that in our guild, failure is not an option." Cima said. "If you fail in mission, the consequence is death. I've already with Kono. Now I'm wondering what to do with you." Kotori widen her eyes, knowing why Cima is standing in front of her.

"You didn't come all this way to give me a lecture, did you?" Kotori questioned. "You came here to kill me." Cima didn't respond to the dragon's slayer statement. "Sorry to break it to you but that's not happening. Besides if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" Kotori used the magic energy she had left and created a huge ball snow and ice in her hand. "Ice Dragon's Avalanche!" Kotori released a blast of snow and ice at Cima, engulfing him in it. Kotori smirked, thinking that she defeated one of the strongest members of her guild. The smirk disappeared when Cima stepped out of the snow and ice unharmed.

"Was that really all you had left?" Cima asked if lightning bolts surrounds his body. "Well then, let me show you what separates me from weaklings like you." Kotori let a loud scream as the scene turned black.

Ruby started to stir and the first thing she felt was a raging headache. The last thing she remembered was her battle against Emi and getting knocked out trying to protect Natsu. She slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the lights on a ceiling.

"So you're finally awake." Yang's voice rang in Ruby's ear. She looked to her right and saw her older sister, whose lying in the bed to the right of her.

"Yang…" Ruby said weakly. She looked to her left and saw Weiss lying on another bed and Blake sitting on a chair. "Weiss…Blake…Where am I?"

"Ah so you're finally awake I see." Another voice said. Ruby sat up and saw Marakov standing on her bed. "You're back in the guild hall, my dear."

"Master Makarov…" Ruby said. "Am I really back at guild?"

"That's right." Marakov said. "While you were out, Blake explained to me what happened to you. I must say that was a dangerous gamble that you four took, fighting those dark guild members by yourselves."

"But they started it!" Ruby shouted, trying to defend her team. "They attacked us first!"

"I know that, just let me finish." Ruby nodded as Marakov continued. "Good, now I'm going to tell about the guild who trying to attack you." Marakov begin to explain about the dark guilds and the guild that attacked Team RWBY, Nightwing.

Somewhere in the forest outside of Magnolia, Cima was walking with his hand in his pockets. "Did you eliminate those failures, Cima?" A female voice said, causing the man to stop. Cima looked behind his shoulder and saw someone walking out of the shadows. It was a busty woman with black hair with white highlights, wearing a white sleeveless shirt and a white short skirt.

"Of course I did." Cima said. "Well but one at least, did you deliver the package, Niya?"

"Yes, it has been delivered as planned." Niya said with a smirk. "How about you and I handle this last one together? Mistress Ito will be arriving soon." Cima nodded and the two wizards disappeared.

Back at Beacon, Jaune stood outside of Team RWBY's door with his partner Pyrrah, knocking on it but nobody answered. "That's weird." Jaune said. "Nobody had seen them around the past few days. Did they go somewhere or something?"

"I don't know." Pyrrah said, rubbing her chin. "They didn't say about leaving Beacon for a while."

"What do we do now?" Jaune asked.

"I guess they have to wait until they come back." Pyrrah suggested. "That way we can ask them what's going on."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jaune said, turning around back to Team JNPR's room. He looked down on the floor and saw a book lying there. "Huh, what's this?"

Ruby and her team looked at Marakov, trying to take in what the guild master told them about the dark guilds. "Now do you understand what I've just told you?" The guild master asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Ruby said. Marakov closed his eyes and sighed as he walked towards the door.

"Alright then, I believe that's enough lecturing for one day." Marakov said. "But one more thing, I'm proud of you four. I've heard that during your battles, you were able to unlock a different magic and defeated those wizards. But I'm sure you realize that the rest of their guild even stronger than them. That's a benefit that you're in a guild like Fairy Tail. You have friends that can help you become stronger so you can face wizards like those the ones you fought today. I'll make sure that everyone in the guild will help how to use your magic."

"We're going to get stronger." Ruby said, looking at her teammates. "These dark guilds must be crazy strong. That's why we're going to get stronger so we can beat them all. Are you with me?"

"Hell yeah!" Yang said.

"Do we really have a choice?" Weiss asked with a small smile.

"Of course, we're with you." Blake said.

Marakov smiled, seeing unity with these four girls. "There's one more I need for you four to do." He said, raising his right hand and pointing at the sky in an "L" shape.

"What are you doing?" Ruby questioned.

"This is the symbol of Fairy Tail. It means that no matter how far apart we are, even though we may not be next you, we'll always be there to watch over you." Ruby smiled and raised her right hand in the air with the rest of Team RWBY following her. "Then I officially welcome you to Fairy Tail. Welcome to our family, Team RWBY!"

End of Volume 1…