Chapter 2, already, alright!
Glad to see you people enjoyed the first chapter! So far chapter progress seems alright, if this chapter being posted under a month was any indication. Of course, I had some trouble with how I wanted it to go, then there was the chapter title... . Yeah... . I don't think it's going to best out of them all. And I probably sounded like I know how many chapters this story will have. I don't, but I do know that there will be original arcs for you guys.
Whether or not it'll take two episodes/chapters like canon RWBY or more is unknown. Plus there's the fact I'm unable to use one original arc until RWBY season 2 comes out... . Since this specific arc has to take place after the Vytal Festival.
BTW, how many of you readers agree with me that Penny is some sort of cyborg of sorts?
Anyway, that's enough out of me. On to the story!
Disclaimer: Symbolic Joker does not own RWBY or Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts or anything else that appears here that originated from other series or media in the form of songs/lyrics/items/terms/attack name/attack effects etc.
Episode 1 - A Rose of Strife
"It's hard to believe that tomorrow will be the day that we've been waiting for... ."
"Not really... ."
The City of Vale was obviously the capital of the Vale region. You could say it was it's Heart, with it's building being it's lungs and arteries while the people living in it were it's blood. The civilians being the red blood cells, while the authorities were it's white blood cells. Soon to be added to Vale's Heart were Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart of Nibelheim.
It's been a year since the incident known as 'Miracle' by the residents of Nibelheim, where a Dust Explosion occurred at the Nibelheim Dust Mines. Tifa had been giving a group of tourists a tour around the mines. It had been done before, so everyone figured they would be safe. However, one of the workers had messed up and caused a chain reaction that caused the Dust to explode!
Luckily however, Cloud Strife had been passing through the Dust Mines as he took a walk around town. Hearing about the threatened safety of the tourists, workers and Tifa, he quickly dashed into the mines and got them all out. However, as he brought Tifa out, the Dust finally exploded and the blast radius seemed large enough to catch them, to the horror of everyone watching.
Then to their relief, however, was that Cloud's and Tifa's body were not only intact; but they were also still alive! All thanks to the mysterious Buster Sword hoisted onto Cloud's back. The Buster Sword also somehow managed to make Cloud's and Tifa's body to absorb the Dust in the air, essentially making them into Super Soldiers. Though Cloud absorbed a lot more Dust then Tifa as he covered her with his own body.
After a small incident where the Buster Sword kept mysteriously appearing in Cloud's room, Cloud eventually claimed ownership onto the sword which gained the attention of the current Headmaster of Beacon Academy, a professor who's only known as Ozpin. Visiting Nibelheim, he and his colleague Glynda Goodwitch informed Cloud on Ozpin's interest in allowing Cloud to attend Beacon Academy. As it wouldn't be fair for only Cloud to attend, he extended the invitation to Tifa as well.
Both 16 year olds, now 17 years old, accepted the offer; only to tell Ozpin they wished to attend next year to try and make it fairer for other students.
After being tested to see if they were worthy enough and to evaluate their new abilities, they were accepted to Beacon. Now, a year since then, the two were now in Vale, for the past two-three days actually, as they awaited the next day; where an Airship to Beacon will await for it's new arrivals.
"What do you mean 'not really'?" Tifa frowned at her best friend. "We've been training for over a year so we wouldn't let down the professors at Beacon Academy!"
"Correction: You've been training your butt off so you wouldn't let down Professor Goodwitch and Professor Kramer." Cloud corrected, as Tifa blushed at the fact he pointed out her admiration for the two professors. "Such a fangirl... ." An amused Cloud shook his head.
"Oh yeah? What about you and Team GAST?!" Tifa pointed out to the 3rd Year, now 4th, Team that visited Nibelheim because one of their members interest in Cloud's sword. Cloud had been awe by their skills in combat, and had trained his butt off to catch up with them.
"They showed me that I have a long way to go, and I'm only trying to catch up." Cloud shrugged, as he noticed that they were nearing a Dust shop. "Hey! Dust!" Cloud pointed out.
"Hm... I guess we could use some more crystal Dust... ." Tifa noted, as the only Dusts they had on hand were gifts from the Dust Shop in Nibelheim and even then they only had 2 or 3 combined since the Dust Shop owner reasoned they wouldn't need too much as they had Dust flowing through their veins.
"I'm going to get a purple and white one." Cloud stated as the two made their way to the shop. "Do you want anything?"
Tifa shook her head in response. "No, I know for sure that you're going to equip the purple and white Dust to your Buster Sword. I'll just use the rest." Cloud had the oddest ability to change the shape of crystal Dust to a small orb shape. This made it easier to carry plus it can be equipped his Buster Sword, giving more room for Cloud to use other Dust crystals, should he have the equipment that are compatible with the orb shape.
Cloud had modified Tifa's belt so that it can house up to 7 of those Dust Crystal orbs. Now counting the Fire Dust crystal Cloud usually keeps, she had four Dust Crystals. A light blue one that's usually use to channel Ice Magic, and a yellow one to channel Lightning Magic. There was one special grey Materia that Tifa had gotten from Professor Kramer, which was a Dust Crystal that channels Time Magic. Originally, Tifa could only use it to make herself and her allies faster, though now she had just learned how to make her opponents slower. It was a deadly combination when she used both spells together.
The two entered the Dust Shop, named From Dust till Dawn, with Cloud immediately heading towards the casing with all the Dust Crystals. Tifa decided to explore the shop a bit, seeing all the different types of magazines. She saw a girl around their age wearing red and black, and noted that she was reading a weapons magazine. Personally, Tifa knew how useful such weapons are, but Zangan had drilled into her head that if her weapon broke then she would have to rely on her fists and legs. And eventually Tifa didn't bother trying to learn how to fight with a weapon anymore.
Still, she was sure Cloud could come up with something that might fit with her fighting style while still giving her a weapon to fight Grimm with. It just felt gross punching and kicking them, despite the fact she wore gloves and boots. Plus, beating something to death just felt wrong. At least cutting it's head off seemed more merciful, as the deed would be quick and mostly painless.
Tifa noted that the girl was wearing black pants under her skirt, and it reminded her how she herself was wearing black shorts under her own skirt. Cloud was uncomfortable with her constantly flashing him whenever they sparred together, and bought her the shorts. Tifa blushed like a tomato when he brought up that fact, and thanked him for looking out a girl's modesty. Honestly, it was so hard to find a guy that didn't stared at her chest or butt these days.
"Tifa. Time to go." With a small shout of surprise, Tifa jumped back when Cloud appeared behind her so suddenly. He had somehow gained the ability to sneak up on people without them noticing. "I thought after all this time, you would've gotten used to a familiar voice appearing from out of nowhere." Cloud teased with a grin of triumph while Tifa merely glared at him.
"What I wanna know how you learned to appear out of nowhere." Tifa huffed as they heard the small bell attached to the door rung, signaling that more customers had entered the small shop. However, they took note of the shady style of the group with the leader wearing a white suit... .
"Wait a minute... that's Roman Torchwick... !" Cloud said in realization with Tifa's eyes widening in shock. Yeah Cloud, interrupt the narrator why don't you... ?
"The criminal mastermind?" Tifa wanted confirmation, with Cloud's nod being enough. The two watched as Roman threatened the Dust Shop owner, making Cloud silently whisper "Follow my lead..." to Tifa as the two walked to the girl in red and black, who had been ignoring their antics. "I sure hope you know what you're doing Cloud... ." Tifa muttered.
"I do. Now raise your hands in surrender." Cloud advised her, with Tifa obediently listening. She trusts Cloud fully; he knows what he was doing.
"Hey, there are some kids back here!" A grunt informed his leader, who merely scoff at the same time with Cloud.
"You got a gun and a sword, don't you?" Both Roman and Cloud said at the same time, the two expressing surprise at each others' words. Their eyes met, with Roman noting with interest how similar Cloud's eyes were to his. Not the eye color, Cloud's were blue while Roman's were green, but the dark secrets that were hidden in the deepest corners of Cloud's mind. The eyes were windows to one's soul after all. 'Interesting... .' Roman made a note to himself that he should keep an eye on the boy.
"W-Well... ," The grunt stuttered at being publicly humiliated like this, by his own boss and a kid no less! "... what about her?!" He pointed to the girl in black and red.
Frowning, Cloud kicked her lightly. Tifa frowned at him for the action but Cloud merely shrugged in response. Confused, the girl pulled off her hood to reveal that she had black hair with red accents, similar to Cloud's black hair and yellow accents, and silver eyes. Turning her head, she looked around the store only to find it's owner and teenagers around her age raising their hands in surrender while men in black suits were holding up weapons, with a red haired man in a white suit smirking in an egoistical manner.
"Are we... getting robbed?" The girl question, with everyone giving her a blunt "Yes!" The girl merely blinked before smirking.
"Oh... ."
The Dust Shop From Dust Till Dawn looked peaceful on the outside, despite the robbery currently occurring inside of it.
And then it's front window was smashed by a grunt getting thrown into it, courtesy of a cute girl wearing black and red.
Said girl jumped out of the window, with a black haired with yellow accents blue eyed young man wearing a dark red cloak and a red eyed brunette wearing a cowgirl outfit following suit. The group turned to the criminals who were looking at them in disbelief, the girl smirking as she unfolded her weapon into a scythe, before spinning it around her body and slamming the tip onto the ground while her right hand were holding her headphones.
This will be the day we've waited for.
This will be the day we open up the door.
I don't wanna hear your absolution;
Hope your ready for a revolution.
Welcome to a world of new solutions.
Welcome to a world of bloody evolution.
In-
She appropriately paused the song, considering the situation the group were in.
"... Okay... ." Roman snapped out of his disbelief, which was better hidden then his underlings. He looked at said underlings, and saw that they were still in disbelief. "Get them." He ordered, snapping them out of their disbelief.
"Let's go, Tifa." Cloud stated as he drew his Buster Sword, Tifa nodding as she put on brown leather gloves over her hands. "Three against three... ." Cloud noted, as he quickly charged at one grunt and hit him with the blunt side of the Buster Sword, Cloud increasing the momentum to the point their feet were lifted off the ground and as they kept spinning, they gotten higher and higher. When high enough, Cloud shifted his body so that he could throw the mook to the ground.
Groaning on the ground in pain, the mook didn't expect Cloud to land right on top of him, increasing the weight of the landing by curling into a ball and spinning. Luckily for the mook, Cloud positon the Buster Sword so that he didn't accidentally stabbed him while landing.
Tifa's fight went something like this; she quickly got in close to the mook she was fighting and delivered some strong punches to his stomach before kicking him to a wall. Tifa had put a lot of force into that kick, which was enough to make the mook bounce off the wall with Tifa finishing him off with two punches in the gut and an uppercut at the chin, with these three punches more powerful then the others if the fact her Aura was flashing was any indication.
This was because Tifa had preformed one of her Limit Breaks; Beat Rush.
"Well, you were worth every cent. Truly you were." Roman sarcastically noted to his fallen henchmen as they all groaned from their defeat at the rag-tag group's hands. "Well children, I think we all can agree that it's been an eventful evening!" Roman noted, as he took one last puff of his cigarette before dropping it onto the ground, and squashing it with his cane.
"End of the line, kiddies!" Roman taunted. He tossed a red Dust Crystal at their feet, which caused Cloud's eyes to widen as he realized what Roman was going to do.
"Everybody get down!" Cloud roared pushed Tifa down and covered her with his body, reminiscent to the 'Miracle' incident at Nibelheim.
"Professor Goodwitch!" Both Cloud and Tifa cried out in shock as they saw the form of Glynda Goodwitch defending them from the miniature Dust Explosion.
"We got a Huntress!" Roman noted to the pilot. Scoffing in annoyance, the pilot quickly left the controls to Roman as she made her way to confront Glynda.
The mysterious pilot in red used her Magic to shoot out explosions at the group, which luckily missed. Glynda used the blown up concrete to form stone dragons and willed them to attack the airship of her opponents.
"Ruby wait!" Cloud called out to the youngest of the group, and silently cursed himself when he realized that he said a name he shouldn't have known yet. However, in the heat of the moment; no one realized his slip-up.
(SJ: I'm sorry, but I am extremely p*ssed and frustrated myself that it took so f*cking long to update this story just because I'm having trouble with a fight scene. Since I have a copy of each chapter in my computer, I will work on previous chapters and subtly replace them when I think the revised chapters are good enough. I've been delaying this long enough. While I'm sure you all are angry at me and want to do nothing more than to throttle me for posting an incomplete chapter, I just feel it's better that you got this thing now instead God knows when! You all know how the fight would end anyway since it's so early in the series, I will do my best to replace this chapter with a complete fight scene so please enjoy the rest of the chapter! I hope what I have planned for you guys would be enough for you to forgive me!)
"You're a Huntress." Ruby noted to the oldest of the group. "Can I have your autograph?!" Ruby asked in such a fangirl tone, with a look on her face that equivalent to kicking a puppy if you rejected giving her what she wanted.
Puppy has been kicked.
Ruby was currently in a dark lit room, with the only source of light coming from the lamp above her as she sat on a chair with a grey desk in front of her. She sat in between Cloud and Tifa, Cloud having a bored expression on his face while Tifa had similar expression that matched the one Ruby had on her face. This was due to the fact that they were currently being lectured by the Huntress that saved them; Glynda Goodwitch.
"I hope all of you realize that your actions tonight would not be taken lightly." Glynda reprimanded all three Hunters-in-Training as she circled around them while carrying a Scroll in her hands. "You all put yourselves and others in great danger."
"But they started it!" Ruby tried defending their actions, though her reasoning was similar to a child's which caused Cloud to step in.
"Didn't work on the teachers in preschool, definitely not going to work on a Huntress." Cloud took the chance to joke, which caused Tifa to give him a nervous smile as she stopped herself from giggling considering her situation with one of her idols. "They were stealing huge amount of Dust, Professor Goodwitch. Considering what happened to me and Tifa, did you honestly thought we were going to let that go?"
Glynda could only sigh in response. "Be that as it may, you should've let officials handle it." Glynda lectured. "Still, if it were up to me; I would sent you all home with a pat on the back... ," Glynda admitted, causing Tifa and Ruby to give her smiles at her confession while Cloud merely rolled his eyes as he knew what was coming next. "... and a slap on the wrist!" Glynda finished, striking her riding crop against the desk. The sudden action had frightened Tifa and Ruby to the point the two held each other in fright while Cloud himself quickly moved away from the desk as he was leaning on it.
"But, there's someone here who would like to meet her... ." Glynda gestured to Ruby, with her tone signifying that she was resisting herself from rolling her eyes. Cloud understood why she wanted to do so, as Ozpin walked into the room with a plate of cookies on one hand while his other was holding up a cup of coffee.
"Ruby Rose... ." Ozpin singled out the youngest of the interrogat-ees as he scanned Ruby from head-to-to. "You have... silver eyes." Ozpin noted, knowing that not many people knew the significance of such eyes. (SJ: Oh great Monty Oum, please don't screw us over by saying silver eyes means nothing!)
"Um... ." The expected reaction came out of Ruby's mouth as she wondered what was so great about her silver eyes. (SJ: Again Monty, please don't say silver eyes means nothing!)
"So, where did you learn to do this?" Ozpin gestured to Glynda's Scroll, the Goodwitch playing a video of the fight between Ruby and one of Roman's goons. All the while the green-clad Headmaster didn't break eye contact with the youngest person in the room.
"S-Signal Academy... ?" Ruby stuttered out her answer, feeling quite intimidated by the person in front of her.
"They taught you how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"
"Well, one teacher in particular... ."
"I see... ." Ozpin muttered, having a good feeling he knew this specific teacher. He set the plate of cookies on the table, as if it was for the interrogat-ees as a sign of a peace offering. Ruby hesitantly took one, and considering her sweet tooth; she quickly devoured it and reached out for more.
"It's just that I've seen only one other scythe wielder of that skill before. A dusty old Crow... ." Ozpin mentioned, subconsciously looking up as his mind pictured back to all the times he seen that old crow in battle.
"That's my Uncle Qrow!" Ruby mumbled out with her mouth full of cookies. Everybody in the room gave her a look, with Tifa nudging Ruby in a big sister-like manner to tell her to speak when her mouth isn't full. Seeing what she did, Ruby quickly swallowed her cookies before apologizing for her rude manners. "Sorry... . That's my Uncle Qrow!" Ruby repeated what she said, this time the other occupants of the room being able to hear what she said clearly. "He's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing!" Ruby explained as Ozpin calmly took a sip of his coffee.
"Now I'm like; 'HIII! WATCHAA... ! HHOOO!'"
'Our protagonist everyone... .' Cloud thought in amusement as Tifa refrained herself from giggling at Ruby's child-like mindset.
"So I've noticed." Ozpin himself gave a slight amuse smile at Ruby's explanation, while Glynda stood with a poker face like the professional she was. Ozpin set his coffee onto the table, taking a seat himself as he continued questioning Ruby. "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"
"Well... I want to be a Huntress."
"You want to slay monsters." It was no question, as it was obvious what the purpose of Combat Academies were considering the fact Remnant was practically overrun by Grimm.
"Yeah." Ruby nodded. "I only have two more years of training left at Signal, and then I'm going to apply to Beacon." Ruby explained, apparently unaware of the irony of her words as Tifa looked at Ruby in shock while Cloud didn't spare her a glance at all, already knowing how the events in the room were going to play out. "See, my sister is starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress. And I'm trying to become a Huntress because I want to help people."
Ruby was fully unaware the impact of her reasoning had on the occupants in the room. It was quite rare to see someone so innocent these days. Children did not count for obvious reasons. "My parents always thought us to help others, so I thought; 'Well I might as well make a career out of it'." Ruby let out a nervous giggle since everyone seemed to paying their full attention to her. "I mean, the police are alright, but Hunters and Huntresses just seems so much more romantic and exciting, cool and... !" Ruby couldn't finish her sentence since she squealed. "You know?!"
Glynda merely blinked at Ruby's attitude, and coming from Glynda, it was for you to realize that Glynda was thinking 'She's going to be a handful.'
Tifa nervously blinked at Ruby's attitude as well, having a similar mindset as she considered how easily excitable Ruby was.
Cloud didn't really care as that exciting attitude of Ruby's made her Ruby Rose.
Ozpin merely had the slight amuse smile on his face as he asked; "Do you know who I am?"
"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the Headmaster at Beacon." Her answer slightly surprised Glynda and Tifa, as most girls with Ruby personality would not recognize Ozpin like she did.
"Hello." Ozpin said in a tone that matched the amuse smile on his face.
"Nice to meet you." Ruby stated as Ozpin suddenly adopted a serious look on her face.
"You want to come to my school?" He asked as he stared Ruby right in the eyes.
"... More then anything." Ruby admitted.
At this, Ozpin and Glynda looked at each other. Glynda had seen the look on Ozpin's eyes before. She knew that he had decided to allow Ruby to attend Beacon Academy. Ozpin recognized the look on Glynda's face. It was the 'You're such a bleeding heart' look. Ozpin merely smiled, indicating that he wants her approval in this decision. "Hn." Glynda merely let out as she rolled her eyes and looked away. She didn't really think it was a good idea, but she would trust his judgement.
"Well okay." At this, Ruby let out a big smile as she realized that in two years; she would be attending Beacon.
Make those two years into 'The Next Day' as Ruby was on the Airship transporting the students, new and old, to Beacon Academy. She, along with Tifa, were in a room of the airship exclusive to First Years. However, unlike last night; Ruby wasn't exactly happy to be in the Airship at the moment. She had another 'Kicked Puppy' look on her face as her brain processed what just happened this morning. Well... 'Kicked Puppy' was an inaccurate description. 'Shocked Puppy' then?
Anyway, when she came down stairs to eat breakfast with her family, she didn't expect Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart to be eating with them. The reason why was because Ozpin had tasked them to pick her up (and her sister as well for obvious reasons) as she had been moved up 2 years and would be attending Beacon with them.
The reveal had shocked her to the point that Tifa had to help Ruby's sister get Ruby dressed.
And Cloud had to carry her all the way to the airport. Why Cloud? Because he was the strongest and fastest of the group. He deducted that in Ruby's shock state, she wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. By the time everybody and their luggage had arrived to their airport, his words held truth as Ruby still stood there with the shock expression on her face, with mothers in the airport telling their children to stay away from the 'weird statue lady'.
"Oh! I still can't believe that my baby sister is going to attend Beacon with me!" Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's elder sister, cheered at the fact as she hugged Ruby. Again. "This is going to be the best day ever!" Yang declared, still hugging Ruby.
"Please stop." Ruby let out a strained whine as her brain finally caught up with the events that transpired.
"But I'm so proud of you!" Yang stated, hopping a little bit in her excitement.
"Really, sis, it was nothing." Ruby said in a tone that she was very tired at Yang's antics.
"What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bee's knees!"
"I don't want to be the bee's knees, okay? I don't want to be any kind of knees!" At this, Yang smirked at what she thought of the sheer adorableness of Ruby Rose whenever she had to to talk about 'social stuff' as Ruby herself would say. "I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees."
"What's with you? Shouldn't you be excited?"
"Of course I'm excited! It's just... I got moved ahead two years." Ruby explained. "I don't want anybody to think I'm special... ."
"But you are special, Ruby. In your own way." Tifa sympathized, with Ruby smiling thankfully yet weakly at the support.
"So Tifa, what happened to tall, dark and handsome?" Yang shifted the conversation to Cloud, who wasn't anywhere near the group.
Tifa frowned at Yang's choice of words. It wasn't because she was jealous. Plenty of girls back at Nibelheim shown interest in Cloud (coincidentally after 'Miracle' event), so she was use to it. Still, it just made her stomach churned whenever girls brought up Cloud into the topic of conversation. Plus considering how Yang acts and dressed didn't help. Course, it wasn't like she was one to talk... but still... .
"Well... , Cloud has a small case of motion sickness you see... ." Tifa nervously admitted. Cloud didn't really care if people knew about that fact, but Tifa felt like it wasn't her place to tell about it considering how grouchy Cloud can get whenever he's on any type of vehicle. "So whenever he's on any type of vehicle, he usually stays near open windows so there's almost no chance of somebody getting hit by his barfs."
"Oh... that bad huh?" Yang sympathized slightly, evident by her small wince. "Hm, since there's bathrooms on the airship I'm guessing he's in the boy's room?" Tifa nodded in confirmation. "Dang, that means I can't stare at that nice ass of his." Yang noted, to the shock of her little sister and her new friend.
"Yang!" Ruby cried out, blushing heavily at her sister's words.
"Oh come on! You both were staring too!" Yang defended herself, but then leered at Tifa with an unpleasant grin. ... Well, unpleasant to Tifa and Ruby. "Must be nice getting to see that ass develop all your life huh?"
"Yang!" Tifa copied Ruby's action from a few seconds ago, with a matching blush to boot.
"Oh, this is definitely going to be the best day ever." Yang noted to herself with a grin at the raw teasing material that had just fallen on her lap.
Sorry that it took over a (update: two) month(s) to update. My brain went haywire with the mood swings. Barely a quarter of it was Final Fantasy, and it was near the end too explaining why this chapter was posted so late. But hey, good news is less time of me waiting for RWBY Volume 2 to come out, as I'm only currently in Episode 1 of Volume 1.
Still... I think I overshadowed Tifa a bit... . Do you agree? Leave a review to tell me whether you agree or not. Hope you all are looking forward to the next chapter!
Update Note (6/5/2014): So, currently I'm going through my midterms which lasts 3-weeks and got a very strict schedule. It's a miracle that I found the time to finish this and post it. Unfortunately, updates from now on are going to be very slow until... November. Yes, that long. On the plus side that means RWBY Volume 2 would be long out so no worries of shortage of episodes there.
Update (28/5/2014): In case you folks didn't bother to read through the updates of my stories shown in my Author's Page, then READ THIS! Got a strict schedule now, leaving me little to no time to work on my stories. Not to mention the fact I have a collaboration fic to work on and I'm expected to put in an input or two... . Point is updates will be extremely slow. Sorry folks but until the end of the year; my free time will be extremely limited.
