Outcasts and Outlaws
Volume 2, Chapter 14
Light Vs Dark
And here is the climax of this volume, in my opinion at least. It has the coolest fight of the volume, as well as some shocks and emotional twists. Prepare yourself, someone once said this chapter gave them nightmares. (Though they were probably just overreacting...)
Opening Music: http/youtu.be/iOsN2FP3-l4
[FMA Brotherhood OP 3]
(Shows Connor with his back to the camera)
Masshiro na keshiki
(He raises his arm into the air)
ni ima
(He clenches his metal hand into a fist)
saso
(Shows Kane)
warete!
(Shows Connor in front of beacon with his arm reaching up)
Boku wa yuku yo mada minu sekai e!
OUTCASTS AND OUTLAWS. (Shows the silver bear pendant around Connor's neck swinging) Maigo no mama
(Shows Connor's eyepatch in his hand)
tabi shiteta!
(Shows Connor and Kane sitting back to back in the ruins of Connor's hometown)
Nezumi iro no sora no shita! (Connor and Kane stand up as light hits the ruins)
Hikariwari ohizu ikutsumo no yume ga nijinde ita!
(Shows Ruby smiling with her hands held together)
Itsuka wa sa!
(Shows Jim stood on the Beacon Balcony)
Chippoke na boku no kono hohaba demo!
(Shows Yang)
Ano
(Shows Ren)
Kumo
(Shows Nora) no mukou
(Shows Pyrhaa)
made
(Shows Doctor Brian)
yukeru (Shows Ozpin)
ka na!
(Shows Connor)
Tsugyotte
(Shows Mars)
kizu tsu ita!
(Shows Connor and Mars outside Beacon)
Kokoro sukashita you ni!
(Shows Connor getting dragged away by Murlough's dark clouds) Furidashita
(Shows Ruby sitting next to Connor's hospital bed)
amastu
(Shows Murlough in front of the bodies of Connor's parents) butachi ga!
(Shows Brook and Damien holding the Kalos Crystal)
Ranh
(Shows Murlough covered in dark clouds)
ansha
(Shows Damien pull out his guns) kurikaesu!
(Shows Connor hit the ground with light on his hands and cause a tremor)
Massugu na
(Brook runs across the tremor) hikari
(Connor starts fighting Brook)
ga kousashite!
(Shows Kane fire off a barrage of dark clouds)
Yukusaki mo
(Shows Murlough run through the clouds)
tsugenu mama!
(Shows Jim fighting off Grimm with his boomerang)
Doko made mo tsukinukeru! (Shows Mars in a sword fight with Damien)
Awai zanzou ryoume ni yakitsukete! (Shows Murlough lunging forward with his blade covered in black clouds)
Kono sora no shita
(Shows Connor lunging forward with his metal hand glowing with light)
donna toko ni ite mo!
(Connor and Murlough hit each other, creating a flash of light) (Connor puts his eyepatch on) Toduku hazu nan
(Shows Connor and Ruby walking into Beacon)
da minu sekai e!
OUTCASTS AND OUTLAWS V2
Dust clouds roamed the rocky surface of the scorched land of the village of Orisia, Connor's old hometown. The once grassy land had been scarred by the catastrophe of many years ago and its soil was now a rocky wasteland. The remains of buildings were scattered throughout the town, making it difficult to spot where a path once was. The buildings that had been made of wood were now reduced to a mixture of ash and charcoal, piled up in various locations. The structures that where made from stone still stood, but were few and the ones that dod exist were scarred by the flames of that disastrous night. Hiding behind a wall of one of stone buildings was Connor and the rest of his team. The five of them leaned back against the wall and stayed as still as they could, waiting silently for their target to arrive. Before they had left, Ozpin had told them that he had received information stating that Murlough was going to pass through Osiria, for a reason he did not know. The uneasiness in Connor's mind grew as he pondered why his parents killer would return here after so many years. Ruby, who was stood next to Connor, grabbed his hand and squeezed it to comfort him.
"Connor..." Mars whispered as quietly as he possibly could, "Isn't this your old house?"
Connor nodded silently and placed a hand on the stony wall of his birth, memories of his time in Osiria flushing into his mind. He then poked his head around the corner ever so slightly to check if their target had yet arrived, and saw a figure in a black cloak standing in the dusty clear if just outside of the town.
"He's here." Connor whispered to his teammates, prompting them to ready their weapons. Connor held up a hand behind him, ordering them to stay put and continued to watch Murlough, curious as to what he would do. He was stood in front of a cobblestone grave. It was the grave that Connor and Mars had made before leaving the village when he was just a child, his parents grave.
Connor then watched as Murlough was surrounded by men in black leather armour, and one in a black suit, all armed to the teeth with rifles. It was General Ironwoods squad, a separate unit sent to apprehend Murlough, which would undoubtedly fail again. The leader in the suit then spoke, "Murlough, you're surrounded. Come quietly or my men will tear you to shreds with lead bullets."
Murlough snickered maliciously, confusing the soldiers who had their weapons pointed at him. "You think I didn't know you were following me?" He mocked on between mad chuckles. "Seventy two times you've tried to capture me, today won't end any differently."
Murlough's confidence panicking him, the leader gave the order to fire, and a volley of bullets was fired towards Murlough. Within a split second of the triggers being pulled, black clouds shot out of him in every direction without in moving even an inch. The dark clouds enveloped all the soldiers and their leader, reducing them to dust. Connor and his team listened to the screams of the dying soldiers bit did nothing, not wanting to blow their hiding spot.
Once the noise died down, Connor peeked around the corner again. There was no trace left of the soldiers or their leader, Murlough had completely annihilated them. Connor watched more to what Murlough would do next, and felt a lump in his throat when the killer placed his foot on top of his parents grave. He then watched in dismay as a crack appeared in the stone and Murlough kicked the grave in half.
In an instant Connor shot forward out of the hiding spot and tackled into Murlough sending him flying across the dusty land until he hit a stone wall. Ruby started come out of cover but Mars grabbed her arm, pulled her back, and said, "Not yet."
Murlough slowly rose to his feet and laid his eyes upon Connor, who was standing a ways in front of him with his katana in one hand and his arm blade activated on the other arm. They stared at each coldly for a few moments before Murlough spoke, "It's about time you came out of hiding, Connor Hikari-Kodomo."
"No talking." Connor swiftly replied, holding his katana out in front of him to silence his opponent. "I came here to fight you, so let's get on with it."
With that Connor rushed at Murlough and swung with his katana. Murlough blocked the hit with his blade, now having emerged from the cloak and arranged it behind him like a cape, and then swung towards Connor with the other. Connor parried the hit away and stepped back, then thrusting forward with his katana in a stab motion which Murlough blocked with both of his blades crossing over each other. Murlough smiles smugly, but then tensed up as he heard Mars shout, "Now!"
Out of nowhere came Ruby, using her speed semblance to rush right up to Murlough. Thanks to his quick reaction time however, Murlough was able to block Ruby's scythe with one of his blade hands. The two stayed put in a power struggle and Kane appeared on the other side of Murlough and swung down with both of his scythes. Still stuck in a power struggle with Ruby, he had no choice both to block Kane's attack with his other blade hand, and was stuck trying to push the two away from him. Then a third attacker, Jim, approached from behind and swung his boomerangs. They buried their blades in the back of Murlough's shoulders, ever more sticking him in place. The final team member, Mars, then appeared from the front. He ran towards Murlough, using his telekinetic creation semblance to create a short-sword out of his aura. He then thrust the pale green, translucent blade towards Murlough, aiming straight for his heart.
For a moment Murlough faked a look of panic, then his shock turned to pure confidence as dark clouds blocked Mars' sword automatically. Murlough then kicked Mars in the chest, breaking his concentration and causing his telekinetic sword to disappear. With the help of his dark clouds, Murlough then threw Jim, Ruby and Kane over his shoulders, ripping out the boomerangs as he went. The four of them landed on a heap behind Connor, and slowly rose back to their feet.
Not giving him a moment to rest, Connor rushed at Murlough and slashed at him with his katana again and again. Murlough dodged and blocked, almost overwhelmed by Connor's offensive, but then fired a shot of dark clouds at Connor at soon as he saw a opening. Connor was pushed back by the attack but stayed standing, panting through the pain.
Behind Connor, the rest of the team had stood up and were ready to help out but before they could Murlough shot a gargantuan wave of black clouds at Connor. Connor ducked under the black clouds, just dodging them, but they continued heading for the others. Mars and Kane pulled Ruby and Jim back further and further from the clouds until they stopped. The black clouds then began to take on shape and eventually solidified until they took on the form of an army of hungry Grimm. Beowulves, Ursas and King Taijitus all blocked their path to Connor and they had no choice but to fight.
Connor watched over his shoulder as his friends hacked and slashed at the monsters, wondering if he should abandon his fight with Murlough and help them. "That's the true power of our semblance, Kane is nothing compared to me." Murlough taunted as blood ran down his back, but it did not concern him even a little.
Upon hearing and seeing what he just had, Connor came to a realisation. "You can create Grimm out of thin air..." He muttered and then shouted, "The Grimm that attacked Signal twice, that seemingly came out of nowhere-!"
"Oh yes that was me." Murlough admitted. "They were my attempts at killing you. I hate unfinished business, so after two failed attempts I sook you out myself."
Now knowing that, Connor rushed at Murlough with renewed force. He swung his katana faster than before, so fast that Murlough could only just block the assault. Even so Murlough still taunted, "Is that all you've got?!" He then took the opportunity of an opening and slashed his blade hand from left to right, aiming for Connor's head. Connor ducked under the hit, but the other blade hand hit him in the face, cutting his cheek and knocking him down.
Instead of finishing him there, Murlough renewed his army of Grimm that were fighting the others, giving Connor time to get up. While his enemy was busy creating Grimm, Connor assessed the situation. He remembered Mars telling him during training to assess his enemies fighting strategy and use their weaknesses against them. Connor thought back to the fight so far. Murlough was strong defensively and offensively, but he had noticed there was always a spot between all his attacks when he was slightly slower to react. That was what he would aim for.
Connor then rushed in as if he was planning to go on an offensive, then switched to a defensive strategy. He blocked and dodged until he saw his opening then yelled in his head, "NOW!" to motivate himself. On that signal he cut up Murlough's body with his katana. The cut wasn't very deep, but a cuts a cut, and it bled profusely. Murlough took some steps back and wiped the blood of his shirt, then glared at Connor.
"BASTARD!" Murlough screamed, throwing himself at Connor in a flurry of attacks. Connor blocked the assault as best he could, but soon his katana was knocked out of his hand and landed far away from him. The force of the blow also knocked Connor himself to the ground and before he could get up Murlough was above him, aiming his dark cloud enveloped blade right at his chest. Just as he drove the weapon down towards the heart, Connor used his last resort and pumped aura into his metal hand, causing the Kalos crystal to glow. In that spilt second he felt the crystal sapping his aura, but he felt his semblance blazing through at the same time. He raised his hand and slammed it onto Murlough's chest, creating a display of brilliant gold light.
When the light died down and Connor rose to his feet, Murlough was laying a ways away, smoke rising from his wound. The fabric of his clothing had burned away around the point of impact on his chest, and there was a large third degree burn on his skin. For a moment Connor thought he had won, but then Murlough pushed himself up to a sitting position, wincing from his many wounds but still alive.
"Is that...all you've got...runt?" Murlough muttered weakly, barely able to speak through his exhaustion and pain. Blood seeped out of his chest and back wounds and the burn mark sizzled, still roasting hot. "That...isn't...anything." Connor knew he was winning. Compared to his opponent, he had only sustained one minor wound, but Murlough just wouldn't stay down.
Without another word, the two launched themselves at each other again. They slashed and stabbed at each other, blocking and dodging each others attacks. Connor activated his secondary arm blade and the fight began to ramp up. Both of them attacked faster and more furiously, both of them landing small hits and cutting each up bit by bit. Soon both of them were covered in bleeding wounds all over themselves, all of them were small but still problematic.
In one charge, Murlough and Connor both stabbed at each other at once, screaming at each other brutally. Connor's right arm blade stabbed into just below Murlough's left shoulder blade, drawing blood. In the same moment, Murlough's blade hand stabbed into Connor's right shoulder, where he had been injured so many times before.
In the middle of fighting the thinning army of Grimm, Kane glanced over at the two of them, stuck in a mutual power struggle. He saw that his brother was in terrible condition and even with his semblance probably wouldn't last much longer, but Connor looked just as bad. Both were covered in their own blood, their clothes torn and stained red. Kane brushed against Ruby's arm whilst dodging claws to grab her attention and told her, "On my signal." And then searched for an opening.
Connor stared into his enemies eyes, which were raw with resent, and weakly muttered, "You don't you just die already..." In response, Murlough fired a shot from his cannon on his blade hand as he pulled it out of Connor's shoulder. Connor lost his grip on Murlough and fell back, grabbing his right blade hand and tugging it off as he went, the metal apparatus falling to pieces as it hit the ground next to Connor.
Murlough flexed his hand, which was now feeling the air after a long time of being cooped up inside his weapon. Having had enough of the fight and wanting to end it, he stepped over Connor and prepared to stake his blade directly into his heart, Connor too weak to stop him.
Just as Murlough drove the blade down, Ruby's scythe appeared above Connor's chest, blocking the attack. Having worked together with Kane, who was on his way over only slowed down by a few surviving Grimm, to break through the army of beasts she had immediately rushed over to help Connor. She parried Murlough away with her scythe, and then pushed forward with a barrage of attacks, forcing him to retreat back.
As Ruby made that one last swing, everything seemed to move in slow motion for Connor. He saw Ruby spinning her scythe and Murlough aiming his remaining cannon hand. He called out "RU-" and then it was over.
Murlough fired a cannon round straight into Ruby's belly and chest. Blood spewed out in many directions, spattering over the ground, Murlough and Connor. As Connor finished screaming her name, Ruby fell to the ground, her face going pale. As Murlough chuckled at his victory, Kane rushed forward and knocked him to the ground, pinning his arms in place with his scythes. Kane then charged up a immensely powerful ball of dark clouds in his hands looked his murderous brother in the eyes as he prepared to deliver the final blow like himself.
Just as Murlough accepted his fate at the hands of his brother, Connor pushed Kane away from him, and drove the blade of his retrieved katana in Murlough's heart himself.
Coming over from defeating the last of the Grimm, Jim and Mars joined Kane on watching as Connor began to sob over the corpse of Murlough. He quickly turned and scuttled over to Ruby's body, which was completely pale. He put a hand on her neck and felt for a pulse, but only felt dead skin and no signs of life. Connor felt tears rolling down his cheeks as he tried to say something, but it all came out as an incomprehensible mumble. He clung to Ruby's body, weeping, his life's light gone.
In a flash of remembering, he recalled what Ozpin has said about his semblance. The ancient times of Remnant made it seem like his semblance was similar to the child of light semblance, which allowed to its user to revive the recently dead by sacrificing one of their limbs. He understood now. Ozpin hadn't been avoiding the subject, he'd been hinting, hoping Connor would understand.
He knew what to do. He picked up his katana again and activated his semblance, making his metal hand glow with golden light. He found the spot on his right shoulder where Murlough had stabbed him, deciding it would be the best place to start. Bracing himself for the pain as his arm was quickly sheathed in a sheet of golden light, he prepared to cut off his arm.
He was then roughly punched in the face by someone, knocking the katana out of his hand. He blacked out for a few seconds and was promptly awoken by a brilliant golden light. When he opened his eyes the light was gone. He looked around for any sign of who had hit him, and then saw Jim.
Jim was sat against a stone wall, his face writhing in pain as Kane and Mars used their semblances to cover up the wound at the spot where his arm had once been, which was nowhere to be found. Connor thought for a second is dismay and then understood what had happened. Jim had punched him to stop him cutting off his arm, then cut off his arm while the effect was still active.
Still distraught by seeing his friend sacrifice his own limb so readily, Connor didn't notice Ruby sitting up, her wounds having been healed by the semblance effect and her life saved by the same thing. Still recovering from the shock, she weakly muttered, "Connor...?"
Connor turned around sharply upon hearing her voice and knowing it had worked. He immediately rushed over to her and embraced her tightly, sobbing into her shoulder as she sat there, dazed and confused.
Ending Music: http/youtu.be/XHy8bnVVpo4
[Beyond The Boundary ED]
(Shows a cherry blossom tree)
(Flickers between Ruby raising her arm, and cherry blossom leaves falling)
Seijaku wa
(Shows Ruby with her hand held out in front of herself)
kirisaku you!
(Zooms in on Ruby's face) Otuzuretta no wa!
(Shows Yang walking across) Hitsuzen to shite no kaikou!
(Shows Jim walking behind her) Bokura no tame ni!
(Zooms in on a tear falling from Ruby's eye)
Koukai wa nagaku me
(Shows Connor walking from behind)
ni utsuru kimi no soul!
(Shows Ruby's skirt flapping in the wind)
Rainbow
(Shows Ruby clenching her hand) wo tootte!
(Back to Ruby standing with her arm out in front of her)
Utsukushika saita!
(Shows Connor's silhouette walking across)
Dareka no seimei ni tokeru hana. (Shows Ruby holding a branch of the cherry blossom tree)
Nee
(Zooms in on Ruby's face again) kimi ni mo mieru darou!
(Shows Ruby shed another tear) Kitto!
(Ruby lets go of the branch)
(Back to Ruby with her arm held out)
Kasaneta
(Zooms in on Ruby's face again) ayamachi
(Shows Ruby from behind) nurikaeyou!
(Shows everyone's silhouette walking across)
Nando
(Shows someone's feet in the crowd)
demo ii sa
(Shows Kane in the crowd)
Kurikae
(Shows Mars in the crowd)
shiteku
(Shows Ruby from behind as cherry blossom leaves fly past her on the wind)
sa try!
(Shows Ruby from side view as the leaves fly past her)
Kako to wa chigau asu wo!
(Shows one side of Connor's body as he walks)
Fubari
(Shows Ruby's hand reaching out) dake no
(Shows the cherry blossom branch flinging back)
kibou
(Shows Ruby looking up at the tree) egaku sa try!
(Ruby looks back down and sees someone, then smiles)
I never say goodbye!
(Shows Ruby standing with Connor opposite her, both looking at each other)
Itsudatte sou sa!
(Shows Connor looking at Ruby as the sunlight shines on him)
(Shows Ruby looking at Connor as the sunlight shines on her)
(Connor smiles and raises his hand, then holds Ruby's hand)
END