A/N: Hmm, not a bad reception to this fic. However, if you any don't like it, just leave and don't say anything, save us all from a pointless headache.
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth, end of story. Now let's begin!
It was in pain...the cause being the loss of one of it's eyes.
The Grimm Dragon had fled to the Emerald Forest in order to remove the clock gear that had been lodged into one of it's left eyes. And finally, after a few excruciating moments, it finally managed to dislodge it from it's now ruined eye socket, a loud thud echoing throughout the forest, all the while giving a painful screech.
After a moment of breathing heavily, the dragon then snapped it's head in the direction of Beacon Tower, where it could see from it's remaining eyes, the battle still going on.
It snarled, growling furiously as it remembered what, or WHO, did this to it's eye, and there's one thing, on it's one tracked mind, that it can do about it...
...Revenge.
With that one simple thought, the Grimm Dragon, gave a loud roar of fury.
Thus, with a flap of it's massive wings the dragon took the air and headed back to the tower. With one objective in mind:
Kill the human female that took it's eye.
Cinder screamed in rage, which was returned by Dorée's own battle cry, as they continued their clash. The results of the battle showing as their respective clothing showed signs of the battle damage they delivered on one another...
...along with the injuries they inflicted upon each other, which their aura didn't managed to heal.
Cinder was now sporting a black right eye, a stab wound on her left leg, a cut over her right shoulder, and a bullet wound in her right shin from the surprise submachine gun in Dorée's shield.
Dorée, of course, didn't fare the same as Cinder, as she suffered a cut just under her left eye, an arrow in her right arm which she broke off, thankful the projectile didn't hit the bone, a cut on her lower lip, and finally a gash near her hairline, the blood dripping under her circlet and passing to the left side of her left eye.
Yet despite these injuries the two kept going as they bashed, slashed, punched, and shot at each other.
"Why. Won't. You. Just! DIE!" Cinder shouted, punctuating every word as her glass sword slammed against either Dorée's shield, or Sword.
Dorée didn't say anything as they continued to fight, raising her shield and firing her Shield's SMG, forcing Cinder to back lest she got shot.
'Just a little more, just a little longer and I will end it right here,' she thought to herself, just as her sword began to dimly glow gold, 'If I can take her out here, Salem will be declawed. And they will have a chance!'
Suddenly, a loud roar got their attention. It was so loud that everyone in Beacon and Vale heard it, and most had to cover their ears, especially the Faunus due to their sensitive hearing. Dorée cursed mentally, for she knew that it was the Grimm Dragon, and by the sound of the roar, it was pissed off at the loss of it's eye. Though she had expected that will be it's reaction.
Cinder smirked as she heard the roar, before she begin to chuckle and then laugh like a madwoman...which to be perfectly clear, she is.
"You're dead now, girl!" she said, "Even if I don't kill you, the Dragon will! Either way I win!"
Dorée only glared at her as she then threw her shield to the side, and grasped her sword, in both hands. The silver flames around her eyes increasing in strength.
"Then I better take you out before it gets here, then,"
With that said, the duel to the death continued.
"THAT'S LOUD!" Ruby shouted as she and Weiss covered their ears at the sudden roar. The two had just arrived near the base of the tower, though there were still a large number of Grimm around. However, the roar from the dragon, made the other Grimm scatter, and left the two huntresses in training alone, and giving them some breathing room for once this night.
"No kidding!" Weiss responded back, before the sound of flapping wings got their attention, and they spotted the Grimm dragon fly toward the tower, while noticing the wound across it's eye as it landed on the side and began it's ascent toward the top. "Okay, that's not good,"
Ruby knew that the person who helped Pyrrha and Jaune was soon going to be in real peril if they didn't get up there quickly. She then turned to her partner who looked at her in turn.
"Weiss, think your glyphs can get me up there?" she said, while the heiress smirked.
"Who do you think you're talking to?" the white haired girl rhetorically asked.
With that said, the Schnee Heiress used her semblance to form a row of glyphs straight up the side of the tower, all the way to the top.
"Go!" Weiss shouted, and Ruby nodded as she used her speed semblance to run up the side of the tower, the glyphs helping her stick to the wall. The white haired girl watched as her partner ran up the tower, a look of worry and concern on her face.
"You better make it back, you dolt,"
The Atlesian gunship landed at the Beacon docks, and once the rear hatch opened, Pyrrha and Jaune along with Qrow quickly disembarked.
The mixed group of students, Atlas soldiers, and the Professors Port and Oobleck spotted them, and the most happy to see Jaune and Pyrrha alright were their teammates.
"Jaune! Pyrrha!" shouted Nora, happy to see her two friends safe and unharmed, "You're both okay!"
Ren just gave a relieved but tired smile, still a little sore from all the combat they had been doing.
"Hey, are you guys okay!?" Jaune said in concern as he looked the rest of his team over.
"Never better...ouch," Nora said exuberantly, but then winced in pain.
Pyrrha looked around the landing platform until she saw something that made her eyes widen in shock. There on the ground were both Team RWBY's Yang Xiao Long, and Blake Belladonna, with the former currently unconscious and missing her left arm, and Blake, with a stab wound in her stomach, as she held her partner's remaining hand, a grief stricken look on her face as she kept muttering 'I'm sorry' over and over.
"Ren, Nora...what happened to them?" Pyrrha asked the two childhood friends, with the two looking in the direction of the B and Y of Team RWBY, and then gaining saddened looks.
"They...they ran into the White Fang leader," Ren said, "From what we know, he wounded Blake first, and when Yang tried to help her..."
He left that part hanging, knowing the rest didn't need to be said.
The said partners could only look at Blake and Yang, both of them worried for their friends.
Then, they began to have mental images of a certain, blonde-red streaked woman, in the same condition. The two of them not liking that picture in their heads, in the slightest.
While they were talking with their friends, Qrow was talking to the two professors.
"Are you sure about this?" Oobleck said in bewilderment, his fast paced tone still present even during a time of crisis.
Qrow nodded as he just told them what was going on, including letting them in on Dorée, and showing the scroll and A.I. as proof.
"As hard as it is to believe, yeah," the drunk but still coherent Huntsman said, "And right now, that same girl is up there fighting the same person behind this whole mess. And we need to get up there... before she ends up dead,"
"Normally I would question the sanity of this," Port said, "But still, a young woman's life is on the line, and like you said Qrow, we need to get to her,"
Qrow nodded before he looked around, searching for his nieces.
His eyes found Yang, and he internally winced at the sight of his blonde haired niece, seeing the stump that used to be her arm. After a moment he continued looking for a trace of a red hood, but then began to panic as he couldn't see his favorite niece anywhere.
"Where's Ruby?" he questioned, but before the teachers could answer, Sun, the monkey faunus, who he knew was also a friend of Ruby's, did it for them.
"She and Weiss left to get Jaune and Pyrrha, when nobody could find them" he said, "I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen!"
Qrow's eyes widen at that.
"WHAT!?" he shouted, but before anyone could say anything else, a large explosion was heard, and everyone turned to Beacon Tower, as flashes of silver and orange light flickered in the darkened skies over the Academy grounds.
"Uhh, that doesn't look good," said Neptune, as he removed his goggles to see what happened.
Both Jaune and Pyrrha looked at the tower, their eyes wide in awe, which then turn to frantic worry. The two gave each other a glance, both of them knowing what this means.
Understanding what was happening, they both nodded at each other.
Pyrrha then suddenly used her semblance to make Dorée's scroll fly out of Qrow's hand, surprising the experienced Huntsman, and the said device to land in Pyrrha's own, and the two of them rushed forward toward the tower.
"Jaune! Pyrrha! Where are you going!?" Nora shouted out in worry, along with everyone else.
Qrow cursed at this and turned to the two professors.
"I'm going after 'em!" He told them, "Make sure the rest of these kids get out safe!"
The two teachers nodded as Qrow went after the leading pair of Team JNPR.
An explosion rocked the nearly destroyed office as the two women fighters were blown back by the shock-wave in opposite directions on their knees. The two looked at each other, as they both breathed heavily, the two of them having pushed each other near to their limits.
Dorée had to admit, despite Cinder now having the Full power of the Fall Maiden for just only a mere thirty minutes, she was damn strong. Her adoptive Aunt Ruby was NOT kidding when she gave her the info on the Fallen Maiden that she needed to fight the False Maiden.
She then gave a mirthless chuckle at that, finding it ironic that she, a future Fall Maiden would fight her predecessor, and hopefully kill her. The chuckle didn't go unnoticed by the Fallen Maiden, who narrowed her eyes in anger.
"And what, pray tell, is so funny?"
Dorée only looked up at her, a small grin on her face.
"Nothing...nothing for you to be concerned about" she said, as she used her sword to raise herself from the ground, and once she fully stood up, she raised her sword in a high guard finestra position, "Come at me...with everything you have."
Cinder didn't need to be told twice, and the two were at it again, as they clashed. Both wanted to be victorious, both had a mission to complete.
Only one thing stood in their way... each other.
Dorée locked her blade with Cinder's as they glared eye to eye, before she broke it by kicking the servant of Salem in the knee, forcing her to drop, and giving the binary clone the chance to deliver a slash to her face, taking out her left eye.
"AGGHHH! YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Cinder shrieked in pain, as Dorée used her reserves of Aura to charge her semblance and grab the last of the clock gears of Beacon Tower.
She then remembered a certain memory. One of Pyrrha Nikos' memories, due to the side effects of being a clone of two people. And which gave her nightmares, every time she slept.
How she dreamed of how her mother donor fought Cinder in the other timeline. How she fought valiantly, but in the end lost, due to Cinder just being too powerful. Then, the memory of how the bitch, with amusement and no small amount of cruelty, shot an arrow into the wounded champion's chest.
Dorée remembered the pain the Spartan woman felt in her last moments, and NOT just the physical, but the emotional pain of loneliness. And the painful realization of what her death would do to Jaune Arc.
She then remembered the pain that Jaune Arc, her father donor felt. The pain of guilt of not having loved Pyrrha, as she had loved him.
All of that, combined with her own pain, the pain of being what she was, how she was 'born', how she was nothing but a weapon in the eyes of the remaining specs of life on Remnant.
'You're nothing but a weapon...remember that. The whole of Remnant would look at you with nothing but contempt, once they realize what you really are. Humans, Faunus, it doesn't matter...ALL of them are the same way! You will always be alone in this world, remember it, Little Knife,'
Those words alone, coming from the man who made sure she was reminded of what she was, not who she was. A clone, a copy of human genes, made to be an expendable asset...nothing more, nothing less. And that just made her rage ever more stronger.
And now... Dorée was going to unleash all that pain. She was going to make this bitch feel everything she felt. Cinder Fall WILL know her pain, times tenfold.
With a loud yell, Dorée sent the clock gears at the Fallen Maiden, who was still in agony over the loss of her eye. One slammed into her stomach sending her flying back, before another slammed into her back, sending her forward, before another slammed into her head, making her spin in mid air, but somehow, miraculously surviving.
Another gear then came from her left and slammed into her side, possibly cracking a rib, and making her cough up blood. Then, the same happened to her right.
All the while, Dorée was moving her hands about, like a puppeteer at a show, as she repeated the process again, and again. A look of growing fury in her emerald eyes, as she re-lived everyone of Pyrrha's memories, Jaune's memories, and her own memories. All of them motivating her to send the gears at Cinder, harder and faster. Unleashing all the pain onto this vile excuse of a woman.
'She took everything from me...' she growled mentally in her mind, as she gritted her teeth, '...She robbed me of a chance to be born a normal human. She murdered the woman who could've been my mother! She killed the man who could've been my father! She ruined my chance at a normal life! She deserves this! SHE DESERVES EVERY MOMENT OF THIS!"
With each sentence, her fury continued to skyrocket, as she swung her hands in every direction, the magnetized gears following her movements. And somehow, Cinder was still not dead.
'I will make you suffer as I have suffered! YOU WILL SUFFER WITH ME! Then when I'm finished with you, then you'll understand what you have done to me!'
With that thought, she slammed a gear into Cinder sending it and her to the ground, trapping her.
She then canceled her polarity, causing the other gears to fall and land around her, and took back up her sword, which she had previously attached to the magnetic clamp on her back. She then proceeded to march toward Cinder's prone form, fully intent on killing her.
"It's all your fault...," she grounded out, which was heard by Cinder as she managed to look up, and saw the sword the girl wielded, beginning to glow a raging inferno of pure silver, which, along with the glaring face of Dorée, made an VERY intimidating image, as Dorée continued marching toward her, "...It's all your fault,"
Dorée then stop before she raised Aurea over her head, the blade pointing up. She was now ready to blow this despicable excuse of a human being away.
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" she screamed and was just about to swing her sword down and end it here...but then, something caught her eye, as a large talon, attached to wing appeared, soon followed by the angry mutilated visage of the Grimm Dragon, whose remaining eyes were glowing red with anger.
Cinder seeing the Dragon return shouted to it.
"Kill her! Kill the bitch!"
The Dragon didn't need to be told twice, as it snapped it's jaws at the human that took it's eye, who immediately jumped out of the way.
(Fate/stay night: [Unlimited Blade Works] OST II - #18 Excalibur UBW Extended)
Dorée cursed, knowing she ran out of time.
'I'm going to regret this...,'
She quickly changed her target from the prone Cinder to the Dragon.
The Dragon roared as it lunged forward, maw open, with the intent to bite the human's head off.
But it will be in vain.
"BEGONE!" she screamed angrily, and with those words, Dorée swung her sword down.
Pyrrha and Jaune were running down a corridor close to the tower, when they saw the pillar of silver light shoot from the tower and enveloping the Grimm Dragon. They stopped to gasp in awe at the bright light, both surprised that is how strong their future child would be.
"In...Incredible...," said Jaune, while Pyrrha remained speechless.
"Yes, even now it's an amazing marvel to see her use the Silver Maiden's Power like that," Sprite said, making Pyrrha blink, before her eyes widened in alarm, and she quickly pulled up Dorée's scroll and looked at the A.I.'s holographic form in shock.
"What did you just say!?" she demanded, and the A.I. gave a look that clearly showed it said something it shouldn't have said. A major flaw of a glitch on his part.
"Oh crap...," the computer program muttered as Pyrrha's grip tightened on the device, as the glare she now wore told the A.I. to answer her truthfully or else. Anders sighed as he looked at her, with Jaune looking on, concerned on what was going on.
"Yes...Dorée is a Maiden. The Silver Maiden to be exact, which the powers were created by three beings whose brothers created Remnant in the first place," the A.I. said, as he looked to the tower as the pillar of light began to slowly die down, while and Pyrrha both blinked at the mention of beings who have built Remnant, "Dorée was the second person to inherit this power...the first...was Miss Rose, after she died protecting Dorée from one of Merlot's mutated Grimm,"
The champion was shocked at that information. The thought of the Little Rose Reaper, who had worked her way into the hearts of anyone she had considered friends, dying in order to protect one innocent soul...which was their child.
"Merlot..." she began, her tone low, "...Do you know where he's currently at now?"
Jaune looked at Pyrrha, a concerned look on his own face and turned back to the A.I. who reluctantly nodded.
"Uhhmm," Sprite mumbled, but the stern look from both Jaune and Pyrrha told him to either spill the beans, or he will regret it, "Yes, yes, I know where he's currently at! But right now, we need to get to Dorée first and save her! Unless you want her to end up six feet under?"
Pyrrha and Jaune did not take kindly to that, as the knight grabbed Crocea Mors, while Pyrrha's hand glowed black.
"Okay, okay! Geesh!" Sprite yelped out, "Talk about Mama Bears...But seriously, let's get going!"
Needing no further enticing, the two partners continued their mad dash toward the tower.
Ruby ducked as disintegrating pieces of the Grimm Dragon fell around her, but that did not stop her, as she kept running up the tower.
"Whoever did that must be really powerful!" she said in awe, "I just hope I get there in time,"
What Ruby didn't know, was that what she will see at the top of the tower, will shake her views of the world, and awaken a dormant power not seen since her mother disappeared...and give her the resolve to protect all those who are precious to her. Even if she didn't know them well.
Dorée was panting tiredly, as she look at what her attack had done to the dragon type Grimm.
'Dammit! That was stupid!" she chastised herself, '...And now... I don't have time to fully recharge my Aura,"
What happened, was that she learned to channel her aura into an object, for instance a weapon, and send it at her enemies via a wave. Once an enemy was hit by the wave, it either vaporizes them, or, in the case of the dragon, blow a good chunk of them to pieces. She learned to do this with the Silver Maiden Power, she had inherited from her Aunt Ruby as well, and it truly made the technique she created even more deadly...though, of course overkill will be the proper term for it, but considering it's a Grimm Dragon she killed, it was worth it.
The young woman's knees began to shake as she fought to stay upright. The Achilles Heel using that technique though, drained a lot of energy from her, which would leave her vulnerable. And thus, she was strictly advised by her Aunt to only use the aura wave, only as a last resort.
And now, she just broken that rule, and left herself open to a counterattack by Cinder, who no doubt managed to survive the beatdown she gave her. She wasn't wrong...
The said Red Dress Witch, who managed to get up after melting the metal gear via the Fall Maiden powers, got up on her feet, with a slight wobble. Her right eye burning with rage at what happened to the Grimm Dragon, and the plan to get the relic within Beacon's walls, after the Grimm took it over, ruined. And Salem will no doubt be displeased with her.
She then snapped her gaze toward the weakened warrior who is the cause of this failure.
"...You...You ruined EVERYTHING!" With that shout, she formed her bow again, and fired an arrow. Dorée managed to barely deflect the arrow, which her caused her to finally collapse to her knees, as Cinder kept approaching, her furious scowl on her face.
"Months of planning! MONTHS! NOW ALL BURNED TO ASHES BECAUSE OF YOU!" she screeched as fired another glass arrow, this one not missing, as it hit Doré in the shin, punching through the armor, and pinning her into the ground. This caused her to gasp in pain, as the arrow had traveled at high speed, like a freight train. In other words, it hurt like a bitch.
Dorée tried to pull the arrow out, only for another to hit her through the right shoulder, and out her back. This time the shot actually made her scream, as she dropped her sword, Aurea.
The resulting clanking of it hitting the ground echoing in the air.
"You have any idea what you have done here, you little wench!? DO YOU!?" the False Fall Maiden shouted, as she looked at Dorée with unbridled hatred, "All I've done for this moment for Her. All the hard work! All the patience! All the time that I had! And all it took to bring it all crashing down was you!"
Dorée didn't answer, cause the arrows in her shin and shoulder were more pressing to her at the moment, which caused Cinder to making an angry 'tft', and prepared to fire another arrow before she stopped, her eyebrows raised in thought, before a sinister grin formed on her face.
'Yes...that'll do nicely,' she thought with sick glee, as she did away with her bow, and instead summoned a glass dagger. She reached into a pouch hidden in her dress, and pulled out a clear glass vial, filled with a black substance. The Fallen Maiden's sadistic grin never left her face, as she pulled the cork off with her teeth, and poured the black substance onto the glass blade, while spitting out the cork.
"I'm going to make you suffer so much pain that you'll beg for a quick death, which I will NOT give. And this will do the trick," she said confidently, and then continued walking toward the girl, who was holding her wounded shoulder. She opened one of her eyes, and saw Cinder coming toward her.
'Is this...is this how she felt?' Dorée thought, as she remembered seeing the same situation Pyrrha was, only it was in her dreams. But to experience firsthand is a whole different level. However, despite the situation she was in, she felt no fear of dying.
Despite having not killed Cinder, she saved Pyrrha, and with her survival, Team JNPR was still whole. With the dragon gone, the Grimm will not be attracted to Beacon. Remnant will have a chance to win.
Still, she couldn't help but feel...sad. Why was she sad?
It took her a moment to find out the reason, and her expression immediately turned to one of despair.
The answer, was because she was alone. Despite being trained by many people to become a strong warrior, she had always felt completely and utterly alone. No one, aside from Lady Blaze, ever treated her like a living person. Just a disposable weapon, a tool meant to be discarded when it's of no further use.
And this thought alone, filled her with grief, and what made her believe that it was her destiny that she would die alone.
'How ironic...' she thought to herself, '...that I would die the same way she died... alone, helpless... Hehehehehe, the Gods must be laughing at me. I guess, the only thing I changed about destiny was taking my... mother's place.'
She then noticed that Cinder was now standing over her. And despite the pain she felt, both physically and mentally, she gave the Fall Witch a final defiant glare.
"Let me ask you something, first...," she said, as Cinder looked at her, "...Do you believe in Destiny?"
Cinder frowned, and didn't say anything for a moment. Until she then raised the dagger up, and thrust forward, jabbing the weapon into Dorée's stomach, making her throw her head back and give out a pained yelp. The sudden motion caused her hair bun to finally unbound as her blonde red-streaked locks proceed to flow in the wind. The ribbon itself, being carried off into the sky, as Cinder smirked at her now latest victim.
"Yes...," she said as she twisted the dagger making Dorée open her mouth in a silent scream, as her gauntlet-ed left hand grasped Cinders that was holding it. Of course, the pain from the glass dagger she can deal with, but it was whatever that was coated on the dagger, that was the real burning agony, as it slowly and painfully entered her system.
She fought hard not to black out, but unfortunately, she didn't have a choice in the matter as her vision darkened, and she passed out from the pain. But not before a last thought entered her mind. A thought of that a sad lonely child, instead of a devoted huntress.
'Mama...Papa...Aunt Ruby...I'm...I'm so sorry,"
And thus she fell into darkness...
A/N: ...Well, uh, that was ironic. Of course, we also have the most hated thing we fanfic readers and writers hate more than anything. A cliffhanger, but do not worry, another chapter is just around the corner!
