Chapter 15: Fade Into Darkness
Beacon Hill had always given an excellent view of the sunset. Tonight was no different, the magnificence of the orange sky only enhanced by the fires in the streets below. It was beautiful, in a messed up, apocalyptic sort of way. Calming, too, despite the fact that it served as a reminder of the cruel twist of fate that their lives had taken.
Ruby was roused from her thoughts by the sound of someone approaching from behind. She shed her hood and looked back to find Qrow approaching, a look of thoughtfulness replacing the usual looks of boredom or irritation.
"You know, your mother used to come out here all the time to think, back when we were in the Academy." Qrow said, sitting down next to Ruby. "She'd be proud of ya. Nobody could've expected any of this, and the way you handled yourself and your team through it all... "
"I know…" Ruby curled her knees into her chest. "I just don't want it all to end like this. We've fought so hard for so long, Roman, Cinder, the White Fang… I want to protect everyone, and now we're on the verge of losing everything that we've fought for."
"Then keep fighting." Qrow said simply, earning a confused look from Ruby. "The people you've fought off to protect this world feed off of the pain and sorrow of others. Their victory comes not when their opponents are destroyed, but when they lose the will to fight. You've experienced that idea at work firsthand, yet you still have the will to fight them. You carry that scythe of yours with more conviction than I've ever seen from anyone. There is a battle coming, one that will decide the fate of Remnant, and if you give in now, if you give in ever, they'll have won before that battle even starts."
"There's no way to beat him though! He went toe to toe with Professor Ozpin and won without even trying! Weiss, Blake, Yang, and I together couldn't stop him! How are we supposed to fight this?" Ruby picked up a stone and threw it off the cliff in frustration, watching it plummet before it disappeared behind the ledge.
"I'm gonna be completely straight with ya here, kiddo." Qrow took out his flask and took a sip before setting it down between Ruby and himself. "No, you can't beat him. You could take every capable Hunter and Hunter-In-Training and Remnant, put them all against him, and we probably still wouldn't win. The one thing, however, that would irritate him to no end is for us to fight him until we're dead, to deny him the pleasure of watching us break. It's much more honorable to go down in a blaze of glory fighting all out against insurmountable odds than it is to give up, and it would also serve as the ultimate way to piss the guy off. So, when the time comes, I expect to see you out there in front of everyone, leading the charge and showing the world that nothing will break the great Ruby Rose."
"I guess you're right." Ruby sighed looking up to find Qrow sticking his flask in her face.
"Good, now take a sip of liquid bravery and go show everyone what a hero looks like." Qrow chuckled, Ruby rolling her eyes as she pushed the flask away and stood up, turning towards Beacon.
Downtown Atlas, 11:55 P.M.
Drake sat at the edge of a helipad, situated on top of his highrise penthouse in the heart of Atlas, staring intensely out over the massive metropolis. The AIC Headquarters building stood off in the distance, towering over everything else around for the benefit of the advanced detections and communications equipment held within. 'Whole lot of good all that did us this time around.' Drake thought, averting his eyes to the cloudy sky above. Remnant's broken moon barely shone through the cloud cover, though that didn't interest him much as a shadow blocked it out and a pair of arms wrapped loosely around his neck. As his grey eyes adjusted, they locked with a pair of bright violet eyes, a waterfall of red-pink hair taking over his peripheral vision.
"I've been looking all over for you." Amaranth said, staring down at her husband. "I figured you would be building some sort of superweapon right now."
"It's not a big suite, couldn't have taken that long." Drake said, returning his head to an upright position.
Amaranth rested her chin on Drake's shoulder, her faunus cat ears brushing against Drake's hair. "There's a lot of business executives and movie stars that would be jealous of how much space we have, and that doesn't answer the question of what you're doing out here in the middle of the night."
"Thinking." This earned a hum of curiosity from Amaranth. "I don't know, something just feels… wrong." A raindrop landed on his head. "There wasn't supposed to be rain tonight."
Amaranth lightly turned Drake's head towards her and planted a kiss on his lips, before pulling away and smiling. "Well, come inside before it picks up. You smell like a dog when-" She was cut off as a shadow cast itself over the entirety of the city.
Drake and Amaranth looked up to see a wedge-shaped silhouette blocking out part of Remnant's moon, surrounded by numerous other silhouettes of varying shapes and sizes. "Why did I have to be right?" Drake groaned.
"I'll get the VTOL ready." Amaranth said, springing up towards the large aircraft sitting on the helipad.
Drake pulled out his scroll and tapped on Lupa's name on the display, just as a flash of red followed by an explosion came from the direction of Atlas Academy caught Drake's attention, the gadgeteer looking over to see a pillar of fire, smoke, and debris where the CCT tower once stood, half a dozen pillars of red light levelling the rest of the academy seconds later. "FUCK!" Drake shouted, leaping into the back of the VTOL. "Am, please tell me we have an old-fashioned radio in here!"
"Of course we do, it's required on all-"
"Good!" Drake shouted, cutting his wife off. "Where is it?"
"Up here, you numbskull." She pointed to the radio in the cockpit of the craft.
Drake rushed to the cockpit and tuned the radio to the AIC emergency frequency. "AIC, this is Drake Eminence, I am on route sixty seconds, prepare a report of everything FOLLOWING the destruction of Atlas Academy, out."
"That wasn't proper eti-"
"I don't need them telling me what I already know, goddamnit!" Drake shouted, his hands losing color from the tightness of his grip on the radio and his eyes locked forward in a furious glare.
Amaranth slipped her hand into Drake's, freeing the radio from his hand and hanging it up before intertwining her hand with his. "We'll stop them." She said softly, a look of worry in her eyes.
"Sorry about that." Drake replied. "I don't know if we can." The pair rode on in silence, arriving at the AIC helipad to find Ikari, along with a brown haired male and purple haired female, both fox faunus.
Ikari spoke up as the couple disembarked from the VTOL. "Thanks for getting here right away, everyone is in full panic mode. Russet, give him the update."
The male faunus spoke up. "At precisely Midnight, we detected 35 massive metallic objects appearing in-"
"Appearing?" Drake cut him off.
"Yes, as in 11:59:59, no objects, 12:00:00, 35 metallic objects in low orbit above the surface of Remnant." The man known as Russet continued. "Exactly thirty seconds later, we detected a discharge of extremely concentrated and heavily amplified light energy from the largest of the objects. Six more discharges followed a second later."
"So they just appeared and started shooting extremely high powered lasers at us from space?" Drake questioned, receiving a nod from Russet. "Continue."
"At the time of your radio transmission, we were detecting close to 250 smaller objects descending towards Atlas, as well as 100 each on trajectories that would put them near the other three kingdoms." Russet finished.
"How big are the ships in orbit?" Drake asked.
Russet looked over at the faunus woman standing next to himself. "Catalina?"
"Uhh, right." The purple haired girl pulled out her scroll. "We couldn't tell for sure, as the objects are giving off a lot of interference, but judging from an estimated distance compared to how big they look, the largest seems to be around seven kilometers long, the rest ranging from one to five kilometers."
"Shit, that's big." Drake muttered. "Has Ironwood given any orders yet?"
Ikari gave Drake a pained look before speaking. "Ironwood's last known location was Atlas Academy Tower. To anyone's knowledge, he hadn't left the place since Professor Ozpin's funeral." Drake cursed under his breath repeatedly. "Lupa is on his way now, apparently he was home when the orbital strike hit."
"Alright, let's get inside and start coordinating troops to critical positions around Atlas." Drake said. "They'll at least be on alert when the main assault hits."
"Why haven't they hit the AIC?" Amaranth spoke up.
"Given what we know about Kelas and his tactics," Ikari responded, "his target was most likely the CCT tower. Even in a full brute force assault, terror tactics would be important to him. Crippling communications is an obvious step for that."
"Wouldn't a military hub like the AIC still be a target then?" Amaranth asked, not comforted by Ikari's answer.
"Creating false hope is another element of his fear tactics." Lupa's icy voice rang from the elevator of the office space. "Aside from the assault force descending on us from above, there are massive amounts of Grimm clawing at the walls of the city, which will likely collapse before the rest of the enemy even makes landfall. We've got nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, and Kelas is leaving us with a fighting chance for the opportunity to watch us break." Amaranth's gaze fell to the floor, the air around her sparking with her anger. "There are two possible outcomes. The first and near impossible is we fight them off. The second, which is significantly more likely, is that we die in defence of the city. Either way, I sure as hell don't intend to give them the satisfaction of a surrender." This earned multiple 'Hooah's from around the room before everyone resumed their work. "We should probably get out in the field. Our abilities will be more use-"
"SIR!" A voice spoke up from within the crowd of intelligence workers. "The Grimm have breached the walls of the city!"
"God damn-"
"SIR!" Lupa was cut off again by a different worker. "Many of the smaller objects have accelerated their descent to the surface! Ten seconds to impact!"
"Shit!" Lupa slammed his hand on the desk next to him, startling the young mouse faunus who was sitting at it. "They're trying to cut off movement around the city. We have to get out there now!" Lupa lead the group of Hunters out to the helipad just as the first drop pods made landfall across the city. "It's time I introduced you all to the express elevator." At that, the wolf faunus jumped the rail around the rooftop and began sliding down the concave wall of the tower, with Catalina, Russet, and Ikari following after taking a moment to steel their nerves.
"No way in hell I'm doing that." Drake said, turning towards the door back into the building. "I'll take the stairs, thank you."
Amaranth grabbed him by the collar of his overcoat. "We're not gonna be down a man for precious moments because you're afraid of heights."
"It's falling, actually." Drake rebutted, raising a finger in protest.
"Well have fun conquering your fears." Am said before she shoved Drake over the railing and off the building.
"WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEEEE" Drake cried as he fell, watching Am leap the railing and slide down after him. As he neared the bottom, he felt his fall starting to slow before he landed gently on the ground.
Amaranth landed gracefully on the ground from her slide, smiling down at Drake. "Because I knew Cat wouldn't let you go splat." She reached out a hand towards her traumatized husband. "Now get up, we have bad guys to kill."
Drake grabbed his wife's hand and stood up, just as a drop pod landed in the courtyard of the AIC tower. He brushed off his trenchcoat and cleared his throat before speaking, "I suppose we do."
The doors of the drop pod fell to the ground, revealing three shadowy figures clad in black armor. The center wore the heaviest armor, a dome shaped helmet adorned with a crown of spikes sitting atop bulky plate armor that left nearly no opening, a thick round shield with a ring of runes surrounding a jaw pattern in its center hanging from its left arm and a cylindrical mass of living flesh with only a mouth full of razor sharp teeth held by some sort of handle in his right hand. To its right was a 7 foot tall creature in knight's armor, two horns extending from the helmet and a massive zweihander as tall as the creature itself resting on its left shoulder, its fiery red eyes locking on to the group of Hunters. The third was armored in scale mail armor, standing upon mutated legs with four mutated limbs ending in curved blades extending from its back, a full helm with gas mask concealing its face and head.
"Looks like we're in for one hell of a fight." Lupa groaned, drawing his sword. "Drake and Ikari, take left. Cat and Russ, you two take the right. Uh… Amaranth, was it?" Amaranth nodded. "Can you back me up on the center guy?"
"He won't know what hit him." Amaranth said, sparks of electricity flaring into the air around her.
Lupa was the first to make a move, dashing with blinding speed towards his opponent before lunging in with a downward jab meant to strike under the helmet, only for his sword to glance off of the shield of his enemy. He followed through into a sweeping kick towards the legs which the armored creature jumped with unnatural agility, forcing him to roll into a backflip to avoid a slam from the shield. The maw of the mutated hunk of flesh opened to reveal three gun barrels which began to spin up before unleashing a torrent of high explosive shells towards Lupa and Amaranth, forcing the two to leap in opposite directions. The black clad monster kept its sights trained on Lupa, the agile wolf faunus barely able to outmaneuver the unnatural reaction speed of the monster. Amaranth moved to the monster's flank and unleashed a massive lightning bolt towards it, only for it to rotate and put its shield in the path with insane speed. Lupa dashed in to attack while it was distracted, swinging upwards with his sword to try to disable the monster's shield arm, only for his attack to be dodged with the armored foe thrusting the living minigun towards him, the jaws of the weapon just barely missing Lupa's arm as he jumped back out of the way. The creature levelled off its shield at Lupa, the jaw pattern on it opening and releasing a massive blast of black energy, Lupa rolling out of the way at the last moment and reducing the effectiveness of the blast to a burn on his left arm.
"This thing is ridiculously fast, and on top of that seems to have a sixth sense and crazy reflexes." Lupa huffed, checking the burn on his arm.
"Tell me something I don't know." Amaranth spat back. "No matter how we fight it, it's just going to block or dodge then throw everything back at us once we're out of energy."
"How long can you sustain a bolt of lightning?" Lupa asked, brushing himself off and lowering into an attack position.
"I can for a while, why?" Amaranth followed suit and readied herself, the air around her crackling with electricity once again.
"I have an idea. Keep his shield arm occupied as long as possible." Lupa said, before dashing back into the fight.
Amaranth's lightning bolt made contact with the monster's shield just before Lupa made it up, a snaking blade shooting out from within his right sleeve and crossing in front of the monster, Lupa dodging another swing from the fanged firearm before making his way around to the other side of the creature and leaping back over it, repeating the process before anchoring the snake blade in the ground and raising his sword towards the monster. He stepped in, delivering blows to the weak points in the creature's armor at blinding speed. Signaling for Amaranth to stop, Lupa took a step back, the monster standing motionless for a moment before breaking the snake blade with a single movement of its right arm, the minigun extending and unleashing a hail of bullets at the exhausted wolf faunus, Lupa ducking out of the way and behind cover, but not before taking a few grazing hits from the bullets. The monster turned its focus to Amaranth, the maw of the shield opening again and firing a small blast of black energy, Amaranth dodging with catlike reflexes only to find another blast headed straight for her face, barely avoiding that before a third hit her square in the gut and sent her back against a supporting pillar of the AIC building.
Meanwhile, Drake and Ikari were busy avoiding the relentless and wild assault from the tall creature, Drake juking a downwards swing from its massive sword, Ikari rushing in for a dual-bladed counterattack only to be forced to block a massive sweeping swing from the monster's blade followed by Drake coming in for a blow from behind and taking a kick to the chest in retaliation.
"Ikari, can you slow this thing down?" Drake huffed out between labored breaths.
"On it!" Ikari shouted back, eyes turning dark red.
The monster started to give a little, not used to the increased pressure caused by Ikari's semblance. Drake returned his weapon to its railgun form, quickly firing off two shots which were barely dodged by the monster which rushed towards Drake and swung its sword down again, embedding it in the pavement where Drake was, its movements noticeable more sluggish. Drake returned his weapon to its dual blade form, swinging for the monster's weak points to find each blow just barely dodged before being forced to backflip an off-handed punch. The monster swung its sword wildly at Drake, the experienced huntsman dodging the animalistic attacks easily before stepping in close and striking its left wrist with an electrified blade and forcing it to drop the zweihander. Drake swung his blades in a scissor strike for the neck only for the monster to grab him by the arm and throw him towards Ikari, Drake landing on his feet with practiced ease and halting his slide next to Ikari.
"Hurry it up, would ya? I can't keep this up forever." The red-eyed Huntress growled out, eyeing the black knight cautiously.
"Yea… I think he's adjusting though." Drake said, watching the monster as it retrieved its sword and rested it on its shoulder, standing straight once again.
Drake rushed in, dodging another horizontal swing from the monster's blade before the creature froze, Drake's eyes glowing as he slashed through the armor multiple times with his electrically charged blades. As he released the time bubble, the monster fell to pieces, a dark ooze spanning the areas where he had cut. He caught Amaranth taking a blow from a bolt of dark energy out of the corner of his eye, distracted just long enough to take a blow across the head from a boot attached by a string of black ooze. The monster pulled itself back together, the cracks in its armor still existing, before rushing Ikari at insane speed and batting her into the wall surrounding the courtyard with its sword.
On the other side of the courtyard, Russet swung his longsword fiercely at the bladed armed monster, the monster dodging before swinging its two right blades at the faunus who was now rolling out of the way. The area was bombarded with steel feathers from above, the monster dodging what it could and blocking the few feathers that it couldn't. The feathers dissolved into a fine steel dust and floated back up to the giant steel Nevermore being controlled by Catalina who was focusing her control from within a defensive shield formed by Russet's glyphs. Russet rushed back in, aiming a slash across the chest, the monster blocking with one of its right arms and attempting to counter Russet with its left arms only for Russet to step back and spin into a crouch, swinging for the legs and landing a grazing blow as the mutant dodged. Catalina harassed the monster from above with the steel Nevermore, allowing Russet to move back in and swing with two hands from the right and appearing to trip as the monster moved to block, reversing the swing of his sword and rolling into a wide slash from the left which caught the mutant across the back. This only seemed to make the creature mad as it turned towards Russet and started flailing its blade arms wildly after the Huntsman, landing a number of grazing hits in the process. Catalina put a large feather through the back of its shoulder, pinning it to the ground only for its arms to reverse completely and cut the majority of the feather away. It removed itself from the tip of the feather before rushing towards Catalina and striking at the barrier around her wildly. Catalina collapsed the dust from the feather and used it to immobilize the mutant, allowing Russet to come in for a backstab but finding himself running straight into a number of blades emerging from the creature's back, one of them running through the side of Russet's abdomen before he could dodge. The creature worked itself free of the steel dust and jumped on the weakened barrier, catching Catalina across the shoulders as it broke and Catalina was forced to move.
The blade armed mutant stood over Catalina, raising a blade in preparation for the finishing blow before suddenly taking a face full of concrete as a pillar of earth knocked it backwards, the ground caving in under it as it landed. It got up and tried to claw its way out before it was swallowed up and crushed under the earth. On the other side of the courtyard, the giant swordsman staggered as a flying axe struck it across the helmet, turning to find another being thrust into a crack in it's armor, the redhead attached to the weapon muttering "Burn into ashes." before it was consumed in a roaring inferno. The third demon hesitated, seeing how quickly its two comrades fell, before an explosion went off right behind its head, knocking it over and breaking its helmet off, revealing a deformed mound of flesh that barely resembled a head. A black haired man in a tattered business suit walked around to the side of the monster, putting half a dozen bullets in its 'head' from a handgun.
"Heard you were having a party, decided I would bring a couple friends." The man spoke up, wolf ears twitching having lost the hat part of his signature getup.
"And who said you were invited?" Amaranth's voice rang across the courtyard.
"Aww, don't be like that, sweetheart." Nero whined, putting on the most innocent look he could. "You know there was something between us."
"There was never anything between us," Amaranth scowled at the thief, "and if you call me 'sweetheart' one more time I'm going to feed you to the Beowolves. I heard they like their meals extra crispy."
"Or we could not feed a perfectly capable Huntsman to the Grimm while the city is under attack." Lupa stepped in. "You got here just in time."
"We would've gotten here sooner if blondie over there didn't have to stop to crush every Grimm we passed by." The redheaded man said, retrieving his thrown axe. He wore a pair of black slacks and combat boots with a burnt orange leather vest revealing charred bandages around his chest and torso as well as his arms, his long fiery red hair hanging over his eyes.
"They would've eaten all the weak… uhhh… citizens if we didn't!" The blonde responsible for entombing the blade demon argued. She wore an amber colored asymmetrical sleeveless top, amber pants with black tribal decals, and a pair of black boots.
"And you two are?" Lupa asked expectantly to the two who accompanied Nero.
"Amber Cierna, ready for battle!" The blonde said enthusiastically.
"Mars Fall." The redhead responded simply, in turn.
"Fall? As in the-"
"Yes, the nephew of Cinder Fall." Mars cut Lupa off. "Don't worry, my one and only goal in life is to put that bitch in the ground." His deep black eyes didn't break contact with Lupa's silver eyes.
"That's… good to know. We appreciate the help, all of us." Lupa said, turning towards Amaranth who huffed and turned away to help Drake up.
The group fell silent as the sound of a bunch of objects landing at the gates resounded throughout the courtyard. As the smoke cleared, a figure clad in heavy jagged black and red armor with a closed helm adorned with a crown of six horns, holding a longsword in its right hand and a massive revolver handgun in its left, stood in front of a legion of heavily armed and armored soldiers.
"I had hoped my champions would have at least pushed you back into the tower, I love an uphill battle." The lead figure boomed out in a gravelly and distorted voice. "But then again, nothing has been going quite as planned today. Try not to die in the crossfire, I would love to tear each one of you apart myself."
Beacon Academy, 11:55 P.M.
Ruby sat at the gates of Beacon Academy, staring off into the sky. The night had been quiet thus far, but Ruby felt like something bad was going to happen very soon. She heard Weiss walk up behind her, leaning back into her girlfriend's lap as Weiss knelt on the ground behind her.
"What are you doing out here?" Weiss whispered to the silver eyed Huntress staring up at her. "Blake and Yang said they would take the night shift."
"I can't shake the feeling that something is about to happen." Ruby whined. "I don't want to be caught off guard if I'm right about this."
"We have a third of the school, including some of Beacon's best, patrolling the walls. We don't have to worry about anyone sneaking up on us." Weiss tried to reassure Ruby as best she could.
"That's a lie and we both know it." Ruby pouted. "We're up against someone who could appear smack in the center of the school and start wreaking havoc if he felt like it. I'd rather lose a little sleep than die without ever waking up." She sat up, eyes widening as a faint red light flashed down to the horizon to the north. "Did you see that?"
"See what, Ruby?" Weiss asked, concerned.
"A flash of light, to the north." Just then, six more flashes of red blinked rapidly on the horizon, appearing to have come from the sky.
Weiss gasped in shock as her eyes widened as well. "Atlas…" She whispered, hand moving to cover her gaping mouth.
"We need to let Glynda know now!" Ruby said, jumping up and hauling Weiss with her by the arm. They only made it halfway back before sirens sounded across the school.
"I think she knows, Ruby." Weiss said, digging her heels in to halt the headlong charge of her partner. "We should go meet up with Blake and Yang."
"Right." Ruby nodded, following Weiss back towards the gate. As soon as they got there, they found Blake rushing straight towards them.
"Good, you two are up!" Blake shouted as soon as she noticed the two. "There's a massive amount of Grimm moving towards the Academy. Yang's hitting them from a distance, but that's not going to keep them back." Blake turned around to see Yang running towards them, a couple dozen younger Huntsman and Huntresses following her.
"Close the gate!" Yang shouted to her three teammates, waving and pointing back at a Giant Deathstalker that was cresting the Beacon cliff in pursuit of the group. Blake and Weiss moved off to the gate controls on either side, the doors of the gate beginning to close as Yang and the Hunters made it through. One young Huntsman tripped as he made it through, the Deathstalker closing in fast and striking through the closing doors, but hitting only rose petals as its tail is pinched in between the doors, the stinger being promptly removed by Weiss to allow the gates to close the rest of the way.
Glynda and Qrow ran up to the group just as the gates closed, looking over the winded group of Hunters in front of them.
"What the hell happened?" Qrow asked, Yang raising her hand and catching her breath for a second.
"Shit ton of Grimm, very angry Deathstalker, barely made it back alive." Yang spat out between breaths, an angry roar coming from beyond the walls as the Grimm outside rattled on the gates.
"You're right, it is worse here." Glynda said to Qrow, the Huntsman simply taking a sip from his flask.
"Well, Team CFVY and Team CRDL are in control of the other areas, Team JNPR is on their way here. I say we make any last-minute preparations we can and then blow the fuckers to hell once they figure their way through that gate." Qrow drawled out before looking at Team RWBY. "You kiddos, keep everyone organized."
"What about you?" Weiss questioned Qrow, almost accusingly.
"I'm the manager." Qrow shot back in a matter-of-fact tone. "My job is to tell you all what to do while I sit around and drink. You, Ms. Schnee, should know as well as anyone how that works."
"That is not-" Weiss was cut off before she even started her rant.
"This is no time for games, Qrow." Glynda scolded the scythe master. "Just this once, I need you to take things seriously."
"There are different kinds of serious, Glynda." Qrow shot back. "I know what's at stake, but these kids aren't gonna fight their best if they let that weigh them down." He walked up to Glynda and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm scared as fuck right now, more scared than I've ever been in my life. So, how do you think that feels to all of them? Things are easier for them if the people they look up to act like they're not fazed by any of it, so we, not just me but both of us, have to act like we're all going to make it through this." He started to turn away before pausing. "For their sake, Glynda." With that, he walked back towards the crowd of Hunters bustling around and started ordering people around, much to the chagrin of Weiss.
Glynda sighed, turning and walking back towards Beacon Tower just as Team JNPR arrived. "You're just in time. There are Grimm at the gate, so we're digging in before they can breach it. Help out in whatever way you can, and don't listen if Qrow tells you to do something stupid."
After a short time, the yard between the gate and the rest of the school was fortified with a makeshift palisade made from whatever could be retrieved from within the school. Everyone started taking up defensive positions, Qrow sitting on a nearby rock that gave him a clear view of the gate. Looking around, he noticed a figure dressed in a black hoodie and pants with white shoes walking along the wall towards the gate.
"Hey, you, what are you doing over there?" Qrow shouted out at the figure.
"Greetings, fellow human. I am human too, just like you. Don't pay any attention to me." The figure called back.
"There's an army of angry Grimm on the other side of that wall. If you don't want to be eaten, I suggest you come over here where all the defenses are." Qrow shouted, narrowing his eyes.
"Don't worry, human. I am not scared of the Grimm. Don't pay any attention to me." The figure called back.
"Look, do you have a death wish or some-" At that moment, Qrow noticed the figure was headed straight for the gate controls. "Hey, don't touch those! You'll let all the Grimm in!"
The figure stopped with its hand hovering just over the button to open the gate. It turned its head and made eye contact with Qrow, revealing a face that was half black and half white, a glowing white eye on the black half and a jet black eye on the white half. "Don't worry human, you won't be scared of the Grimm for long." It called out with a nonexistent mouth, pushing the button down.
Qrow's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "Everyone get ready!" He shouted, moving back among the crowd of Hunters as Grimm began pouring through the gates, led by the maimed Deathstalker. Qrow rushed in to meet the Deathstalker head on, wasting no time as he ducked a swipe from its claw and caught it below the jaw with his scythe, killing it instantly. Team RWBY and JNPR quickly followed suit, charging forward and cutting through the waves of Grimm descending upon the courtyard.
Muulten watched from the sidelines as the Grimm mindlessly charged their foes, the larger and stronger ones meeting their end at the hands of the veterans at the front line while the weaker beasts were allowed to slip past only to get picked off by the small army of less experienced Hunters and students. Muulten observed the older black-haired Huntsman who appeared to be the leader of the group. He was experienced and powerful, moving with purpose and a lethal grace only seen in the most seasoned of warriors, but his agility and reaction speed gave away his actual age. The scythe style greatly resembled that of the young red-hooded Huntress, with a few differences in technique that showed many more years of adaptation, but his movements were sluggish in comparison. Despite this, the relentless onslaught of Grimm didn't even faze him as he carved a path through the ravenous beasts. Muulten decided that this was unacceptable, and decided he should take action.
Qrow cut cleanly through the head of a giant Beowolf, what he figured to be his 30th kill of the night, before ducking the swipe of an Ursa Major and cutting through its torso, leaving its gut wide open. After watching his latest kill slump over, Qrow instinctively raised his scythe to block just as something slammed into it and pushed him back a good ten feet.
"What the fuck…" Qrow spat, regaining his balance and looking over at what hit him, finding the half-and-half creature eye smiling at him. He sighed and took out his flask, taking a swig from it before returning it to his pocket and lowering into a fighting stance. "Whatever, let's do this."
Before Qrow could even react, the creature was right next to him with a punch ready, forcing him to roll back before swinging his scythe, catching the air as the creature was already moving again. He came in with a flying kick at extreme speeds, forcing Qrow to duck, before stopping himself mid-flight and swinging down at Qrow with a hammer-fisted blow, causing the Huntsman to do another evasive roll and swing again with his scythe, catching the air once again.
Muulten grinned as he appeared above the black-haired Huntsman, rolling in the air as he came down and met the man's scythe with a hammer kick and causing the ground beneath them to cave under the pressure. Qrow used this to duck down and swing at Muulten, only for him to twist in the air around the swing. Qrow brought his scythe back around and down onto Muulten in an attempt to hit as he was landing, but Muulten made it to the ground just in time, pivoting on one foot and driving Qrow's scythe into the ground before using it to swing into a kick that slammed the veteran huntsman square in the chest.
Qrow's mind blanked as his opponent's kick slammed into him, forcing the air from his lungs and shattering multiple ribs before sending him rocketing backward past the other hunters into a stone pillar, the force causing it to collapse on him. Qrow shrugged off the debris, seeing the black-and-white creature walking towards him as his vision stopped spinning. A young huntsman ran up from the side and swung at the creature with a sword, only to have the blow dodged and his neck broken by a single blow, Muulten catching the boy's sword in his hand and appearing in front of Qrow.
"That was a pretty good fight, Mr. Huntsman." Muulten cackled. "However, I am on a schedule for killing your little army here before my Lord arrives, so I'm afraid this has to end."
Qrow watched as the black-and-white man raised the sword above his head, unable to move due to the massive amount of damage his body had taken. As the blade flashed down towards him, he heard a crash as his vision was engulfed by a rose red, rose petals falling around him. He looked up to see his niece grinning down at him, the enemy's sword grinding against her scythe behind her.
"This isn't over yet, Uncle Qrow." Ruby said. She turned, dislodging Crescent Rose from the sword she had blocked and swinging violently at her enemy, her scythe catching only air as the man dodged again. "Weiss, Blake, Yang, I'll need your help for this."
"Nobody expected you to do this alone, you dolt." Weiss shot back, drawing her sword and revolver.
"We've got your back, Ruby." Blake said, lowering into an attack stance.
"Let's fuck him up, sis!" Yang shouted, pumping her fist and loading her Ember Celica.
"Let's go!" Ruby shouted, launching forward from the recoil from Crescent Rose while propelled by Weiss' glyphs, missing Muulten with a swing by centimeters as he dodged to the red-hooded huntresses' right, meeting a black blade arcing with lightning and barely flipping backwards only to find himself being slammed in the gut by a blaze of yellow followed by an explosion ripping through his body, sending him flying back into a mass of spiked ice shooting up from the ground, shattering it as he was impaled on the ice before being slammed in the back by a shocking pain and seeing a blur of red careening towards him and feeling the blade of a scythe slamming into his torso, another jolt accompanied by a loud bang as he was sheared in half by the girl in the red hood.
"Well then…" the dismembered upper half of Muulten said in a surprised tone. "...that didn't go quite as expected. This means that I am behind schedule, though not that it matters too much. That just means master will have to clean up a bit more himself." Muulten's lower half dissolved away, quickly reformed back to the upper half, Muulten standing back up shortly after.
Ruby lowered back into an attack stance before a chill of dread froze her in place, her eyes widening in horror as a black silhouette dropped from the sky into the middle of the army of huntsmen and huntresses, cries of pain and agony echoing out as the shockwave rippled through the courtyard. As the dust cleared, the silhouette stood, massive black wings stretching from its back.
"The time of Huntsmen and Huntresses has come to a close." The figure spoke in a deep and malevolent voice. "The reign of Darkness begins now."
"And just who the hell are you?" Mars spat out at the heavily armored figure, licks of flame flickering in and out of existence around him.
"Me? I am Katereth, the Devourer, Chosen of Khorne, and right hand to Lord Kelas. Since you have made it this far, you each get the honor of me sending you off to oblivion personally." The massive warrior spoke.
"Like HELL you will!" A streak of red flew across the courtyard as Ikari slammed into Katereth with her sword, the black-clad warrior not budging an inch despite the force of the impact between their weapons being loud enough to echo through the city. Ikari's eyes widened as the giant pushed back, sending her flying back across the courtyard and into the concrete of the central spire of the AIC.
"One word of advice," the armored man growled out, "if you want to have any hope of defeating me, you'll have to do a lot better than that."
Mars and Russet darted in, dancing around the warrior in a flurry of flame and steel, Nero appearing behind him for a split second before disappearing again. Mars and Russet jumped back out of melee range just as a large explosion went off right behind the monster, the force of the blast staggering him forward into a growing pit in the ground, the fluid earth swallowing him up as he fell in. Lupa and Drake darted to the now closed grave, Lupa driving his sword down with a flash of light and Drake firing his weapon straight into the ground, before the two jumped back as a massive steel stake drove into the ground where the warrior fell in, a massive jolt of lightning striking it as it slowed to a stop.
There was a moment of silence as the group waited with bated breath, Catalina helping Ikari back to her feet. After a few seconds of relative peace, the giant stake in the ground started to rise back out of the ground slowly before the steel dust was dispersed by a burst of energy from below. Rising out of the hole on a jet of flame came Katereth, unscathed save for a few scratches in his armor and two still glowing slugs embedded a couple millimeters into his chestplate.
"Is that all you've got?" Katereth laughed as he slowly descended to the ground. "After your display against my champions, I had honestly hoped for more. Then again, mortals do have their limits."
The group stared dumbfounded at their armored foe, unsure of what their next actions to be. They were snapped out of their stupor when a civilian ran into the courtyard, slowing down and panting as he approached the main entrance. The young man appeared to be in his mid 20s, his dusty brown hair, white button-down shirt, and khaki pants drenched with sweat.
"Oh thank goodness I made it. Another minute out-" the man stopped as he noticed the scene in front of him.
"Are you stupid?" Drake shouted at the man. "Get the fuck inside or you'll-"
He was cut off as a loud boom resonated through the courtyard. Everyone's eyes widened at the gaping hole that was now in the man's torso, a fine spray of blood hitting Mars and Catalina, watching him fall to the ground before turning back and focusing on the smoking-barreled revolver in their opponent's hand.
"You bastard!" Catalina screamed, tears streaming down her face as she barreled forward on a flowing wave of steel.
Katereth raised his sword at his coming attacker, the blade glowing red with a sinister aura, before meeting the wave of steel with a horizontal slash, a blast of red energy radiating out from the swing, pushing the wave back and sending Catalina flying. Lupa and Russet were the next to join the fray, meeting the juggernaut's sword with their own blades before breaking off to avoid getting thrown away by the inevitable counter. Lupa darted back in, gracefully dodging a downward slash before delivering a blow to his opponent's side only to have his sword glance off the heavy armor before getting slammed in the side of the head by an armored elbow and collapsing on the ground. The armor clad man raised his blade for the finishing blow only to be briefly blinded by a bright flash, his vision readjusting to see an inferno-engulfed Mars slamming into him, surprisingly being pushed back a couple feet before the redhead stepped off muttering curses under his breath and holding his right arm. Before he could take action, his attention was shifted by two shells slamming into his shoulder plate at extreme velocity, staggering him as the ground rose around him and began to close in in an attempt to crush him. Another pulse of his dark energy shattered the earthen coffin only for him to be bombarded by a wave of small explosions before a card fell at his feet, encasing his legs in ice. Amaranth took her turn next, unleashing a powerful electrical discharge at the armored being who attempted to block with his sword, only to have the weapon torn from his hand. With an opening finally presenting itself, Ikari charged in and jumped, using her semblance to drop into a powerful helmet-splitter blow, the sound of metal on metal ringing out through the courtyard as her two-handed blade met Katereth's helmet.
Ikari's eyes went wide as she stared at the crimson energy dissipating from halfway up her sword against a jet black backdrop, small clinking noises resonating through her mind as what was left of the upper half of her weapon fell around her. She looked up at the monstrous man standing before her, obviously grinning despite the fact that she couldn't see past his closed helm.
"Well, now isn't that a shame?" Katereth chuckled sarcastically before grabbing Ikari's left arm with his recently emptied right hand. "I guess you won't be needing this anymore." He jerked Ikari around, forcing her to drop her sword before wrenching his foot out of the ice and placing it behind her shoulder. She let out a scream as her arm was twisted backwards in its socket, before Katereth pulled her arm out with a gut-wrenching crack, letting Ikari fall to the ground beneath his boot.
The entire group stared at the scene in front of them, still processing what had happened. Mars was the first to snap out of it, muttering curses under his breath once again before turning towards Lupa.
"What now?" He asked quietly, keeping one eye on the monster facing them down.
"We make an opening, grab her, then fall back and try to defend this place as long as we can." Lupa stated confidently, though a definitive note of hopelessness could be heard behind it.
"And hope we don't die hellishly slow and painful deaths." Drake added.
They hardly noticed Catalina marching forward towards their enemy until she let out a cry of rage and attempted to take off running. Before she could make it far, Nero appeared in front of her and delivered a swift punch just below her chest, slumping over the shoulder of the man in front of her.
"Better than letting herself get shredded by that fucker." The black-haired faunus said in response to the incredulous and pissed look that Russet shot him. "Let's just hope she wakes up tomorrow."
Kelas' arrival had frozen everyone in their places, both in awe and in fear, giving him the perfect chance to size up his surroundings. At nearly 9 feet tall, he towered over every other person there, his stature even larger than many of the Grimm in the surrounding area, though his appearance was far more primal given the jagged horns protruding from his forehead and sweeping back along his head, the bony spikes lining his spine and exposed right arm, and the black wings protruding from his back. He locked eyes with the red-hooded girl in front of him, an ornate black kama with a large curved blade materializing in his hand.
Ruby barely had time to react, instinct telling her to move as she rolled to her right out of the way of a downward swing from the God's hand scythe, retaliating with a swing of her own scythe only to meet the shield-arm of her opponent. Kelas pushed back and swung his kama, forcing Ruby to flip backward to avoid being beheaded, the cloaked girl responding with a spinning swing aimed for behind his shoulder. He rushed forward and slammed the girl with said shoulder, both avoiding the attack and staggering Ruby, before continuing his momentum into a punch from his left arm, his symbiote churning to form a spiked ball around his fist. He was surprised to find a gleaming gold shield suddenly blocking the path from his fist to his target, the man behind it having actually been strong enough to halt his momentum. Seeing this as nothing more than a nuisance, his symbiote wrapped around the edges of the shield before he pulled the bearer off-balance and delivered a swift kick below the jaw of the young man and sending him sailing across the courtyard. With the obstruction removed, Kelas could see another, more familiar, blonde charging at him, embers trailing in her wake. He moved to deliver a left-handed punch to her face only for the blow to be ducked, the blonde delivering a right hook to his chest. The lackluster effectiveness of the feint attack allowed him to drop into a headbutt, the impact from his horns causing Yang to curl downward, her jaw dropping into a swiftly rising knee, lifting her off the ground as her head snapped back up. After taking a moment to watch Yang slump to the ground, Kelas turned to face the hail of bullets coming from a pair of black-clad fighters who were weaving around each other in a swift charge. He launched forward and swung his kama at the young man on his right, catching air as Ren slid under his swing while the cat-eared woman flipped over his opposite shoulder. Kelas extended his symbiote into a lash and swung around in an attempt to hit the two new opponents only to miss once again as Blake gracefully rolled under the blow upon landing while Ren did a rolling jump over, the two of them simultaneously delivering a kick into the God's chest as a blur of red dropped in from above, Crescent Rose catching on the back of Kelas' neck as the red hooded girl it belonged to planted her feet into his chest and pulled the trigger.
Time seemed to slow as the blade of Ruby's scythe cleaved through Kelas' neck, the eyes of the three involved lighting up with a glimmer of hope for a split second only to widen as the body of Kelas turned into a shadowy cloud, the God quickly reforming above them to deliver a falling kick to the ground beneath them, sending Blake and Ren flying back and causing Ruby to crash land into the jagged shattered concrete as any semblance of solid ground was demolished before she could land. Kelas quickly darted in and grabbed Ruby by the face in his left hand, dragging her through the ground at high speed before throwing her at point blank through a large pillar with enough force to send Ruby flying through it and slamming into the next one, causing it to shatter. Ruby was saved from being crushed by the falling rubble as Weiss darted through and caught her, setting her down next to Jaune, who had finally made it back to the frontline, before darting off towards Kelas and letting off a hail of high-explosive dust rounds as she charged. Nora took this as her queue to join the fray after having blown the head off of a Beowolf, launching herself through the air and slamming Kelas in the back with her hammer, staggering him before he could catch Weiss with a retaliatory blow, the heiress' blade barely scratching him as she made her pass. Kelas took a swipe at Nora with his left arm, sending the redhead flying backwards as she blocked, before focusing his attention back on Weiss and charging in for a kick, smashing a pillar of ice as Weiss moved out of the way. At that moment, Kelas felt something metal ricochet off his horns, looking over to see a girl with long red hair poised to strike as a disc-shaped shield returned to her left hand only to then feel something slam into his back. Pyrrha took this distraction as her queue to strike, lunging in as Kelas turned to slam the man behind him with his left arm, only to yelp in surprise as the God unfurled one of his massive wings into her and knocked her over while Jaune just barely ducked the swing intended for his head. Pyrrha rolled back up and flung her shield at Kelas' left leg, the disc hitting behind his left knee and causing him to stagger, Jaune taking advantage of the situation to strike Kelas across the chest with his sword, only to stare dumbfounded when he found that his weapon had absolutely no effect. Kelas grinned and swung his kama, catching Jaune's shield with it and ripping it from the smaller man's arm before delivering a swift kick below his jaw. Pyrrha cried Jaune's name as this happened before being forced to roll back as Kelas fired off half a dozen black spikes from his left arm towards her, the spikes branching explosively as they reached her and managing to pierce the girl through the calf, pinning her to the ground but otherwise leaving her miraculously unscathed.
Kelas moved towards the now pinned redhead slowly, savoring the situation. It reminded him of prey in a hunting trap, given the choice of painfully removing their own limb or die by the hunter's hand. This moment, however, was interrupted when a blur of red slammed into his side with a furious battle cry. He regained his focus just in time to duck the scythe that came in to finish the job before grabbing the red hooded girl by the leg and tossing her to the side like a used rag. Ruby landed on her feet and grinned at Kelas as he was slammed in the back by a powerful blast, turning to find a black-haired man with a tattered red cape staring him down, also brandishing a scythe. Kelas grinned as he held is kama in the air, with a flick of his wrist the small hand-scythe extended to a full size scythe, the weapon slightly oversized even for someone of Kelas' stature.
Ruby and Qrow charged their opponent from both sides, swinging their scythes in unison at the God, Kelas spinning his own scythe in the air before bringing it down into an angled horizontal swing, locking his blade with that of Ruby's scythe while the opposite end of the shaft caught under the blade of Qrow's scythe. Kelas braced his weapon against his body and spun, using his opponents' momentum to throw them away before using his own momentum to bring his scythe back down towards Qrow, missing as the veteran Huntsman used the built-in gun to move out of the way of the swing. Kelas lunged forward, lifting off the ground with his wings and diving into a barrel roll led by his scythe. Qrow managed to block the first three rotations before being forced to dodge out of the way of the following four. Kelas broke the roll and floated into the air, hovering for a moment like a poised bird of prey before lunging into a frontflip and swinging his scythe back down on Qrow, the man flipping backwards out of the way as the scythe was embedded into the ground in front of him. Kelas lunged forward once again, sliding his grip up the scythe before spinning, using the outward force to extend his strike towards his opponent. Qrow returned his weapon to sword form and blocked just in time, the force of the strike sending him sliding across the courtyard.
Ruby propelled herself forward with her sniper-scythe, charging into a sweeping swing from behind Kelas, the god dodging with a forward roll before retaliating with a sweeping strike, meeting Ruby's scythe as she swung into an upwards strike. Ruby recoiled from the clash, nearly dropping her scythe. She then used her semblance to get behind Kelas once again, attempting a downward slash only to meet the god's shield-arm. Qrow used this chance to dart in from behind, attempting a slash at Kelas while he was vulnerable, only to hit air as the god disappeared from in front of him. Kelas reappeared behind Qrow, slashing the huntsman from his right shoulder to his left hip across the back, Qrow falling to his knees afterward. Kelas lined up the killing blow, ready to behead the huntsman before him, only to have the swing blocked by Ruby. The huntress launched herself into a series of wild spinning blows, forcing Kelas on the defensive as he began to block and dodge the whirlwind assault. Kelas stumbled over rubble created during the fighting, leaving an opening for Ruby to slash him twice across the chest. Ruby continued the spin only to be stopped as Kelas grabbed her scythe and took of into the air, spinning around on the way up before flinging the girl into the ground at high speed.
Ruby didn't really feel the impact. Her vision went blank and her ears started ringing the moment she hit the ground, but the adrenaline made her oblivious to the initial pain. After a couple seconds her vision started to fade back in, the white-noise ringing in her ears being replaced by the rhythm of her heartbeat as a viscous liquid tasting of iron began to pool into her mouth. She coughed as the liquid started making its way into her lungs, the shock sending a jolt of pain through her. She was suddenly aware of every inch of her body crying out to her in agony, unable to move and hardly able to breath. Her vision began to clear up, revealing what looked to be the edges of a crater and a blurry black silhouette moving towards her, her heartbeat still throbbing in her ears as the sounds of continued fighting began to become discernable. For a moment, Ruby thought that it was Qrow who was standing over her, but that hope was quickly dashed by the deep, ominous chuckle that came from the figure.
"That was a good effort, Miss Rose, but the efforts of mortals are far from enough to stand against the actions of gods." Ruby could see Kelas' grin as her vision focused, the man holding Crescent Rose out in front of him as his massive wings began to unfurl. "Though I have to applaud you for managing to wound me. Not even your headmaster was able to accomplish that. However, this is the end of the line." Kelas punctuated the declaration by snapping Crescent Rose in one hand and tossing it on the ground.
"You…" Ruby coughed up more blood, "You'll never break me."
"It's not you I need to break, child." Kelas said before lifting Ruby by the neck and tossing her toward the rest of the battle going on. "WITNESS!" Kelas shouted over the noise of war and death, causing every living creature on the battlefield to freeze in their places. Kelas walked up to Ruby and held her up by her hood, levelling the blade of his scythe against her throat. "THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD OF REMNANT! YOUR LEADERS HAVE FALLEN, YOUR GUARDIANS HAVE FAILED! BOW TO YOUR NEW GOD…" Kelas swept the crowd, taking in the reactions of the Huntsman and Huntresses, "...OR DIE!"
Kelas readied himself to behead the defeated Huntress before him. As he tightened his arm to drag the blade of the scythe through Ruby's neck, he was blinded by a golden light accompanied by something slamming into his chest, forcing him to drop the scythe as he was pushed back. Kelas slid 100 yards before managing to gain traction and stop himself, his vision readjusting to see a dark-haired man with golden eyes, the man dressed in ornate gold and platinum armor with an ornate shield and longsword all sheathed in a radiant golden light.
"Fuck," Kelas swore under his breath, "Ghederon. How did you…?"
"THIS WORLD DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU, DEMON!" the man shouted in reply, levelling his sword at Kelas. Kelas drew his sword in response, preparing to charge.
"I'LL BE DAMNED IF I LET THE LIKES OF YOU GET IN MY WAY!" Kelas shouted in reply, lunging into a charge and meeting Ghederon halfway between their original positions, the clash of their blades shattering the ground and levelling the nearby architecture of the courtyard.
The two broke off, Kelas taking off into the sky only to have Ghederon follow on his own wings of golden light. They clashed repeatedly in the air, each blow letting of thunderous shockwaves which shook the surrounding area. Breaking the stalemate, they landed a hundred yards away from each other. Kelas poured his energy into his blade, Ghederon following suit, before the two rushed forward once again. Their clash released a blast which shattered an entire section of the cliff, causing it to fall off onto the city below. Once the dust cleared, the crowd could see Kelas kneeling in front of Ghederon, blood pouring from his right shoulder.
"This isn't over." Kelas growled to his opponent before dispersing into a black mist.
Ruby looked up at the long black hair of the woman holding her, the radiant golden armor she wore obscuring most of her features. She could feel the pain coursing through her body fade away. "You've done enough here, young one. It's time for you to rest." A soft warm voice reached her ears just before she faded out of consciousness.
Ruby awoke to a hospital room, the bustle of activity going on all around her. She could make out various familiar voices, team JNPR discussing something nearby along with the sound of Glynda and Qrow having a conversation with a voice she didn't recognize a bit further away. She felt sore all over, her muscles not wanting to cooperate as she tried to stretch a little, but otherwise feeling no evidence of the injuries she remembers sustaining. She groaned, trying to stretch her muscles a bit further.
"She's awake!" Ruby heard Yang shout from right next to her. "Ruby, you're awake!" She saw Yang's golden hair and lavender eyes appear in her field of view.
"Y-Yang…" Ruby muttered, still trying to recollect what all had happened.
"Ruby, how are you feeling?" Ruby heard Blake say as the black haired Faunus appeared on the other side of her field of view.
"I… I feel sore." Ruby replied, stretching again before sitting up. Once she was upright, she was met with Weiss' face right in hers, her girlfriend staring her down intensely. "W-Weiss…"
"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO AND SCARE ME LIKE THAT, YOU DOLT!" Weiss shouted, Blake and Yang both visibly taken aback by the outburst. Ruby saw Weiss start to tear up, her stern expression breaking down into one of mixed worry and happiness. "I-I thought you… you were g-going to…" Weiss burst into tears and tackled Ruby, pulling her into a tight hug.
"Ow, Weiss, still really sore, ow." Weiss loosened her grip and pulled back a bit. "What's important is I…" Ruby paused and looked around the room, all eyes on her and Weiss, "...we're still here. All of us." Ruby pulled her team into a group hug.
"Alright, enough with the reunion, we need to talk business." Qrow walked around the side of Ruby's bed, followed by Glynda and the mystery woman who Ruby saw before she went unconscious.
"You… what happened?" Ruby asked.
"Divine intervention. This time of a friendlier variety." Qrow said, taking a swig from his flask and earning a glare from Glynda.
"Again, I would very much prefer it if you didn't call it 'Divine Intervention'." the mystery woman spoke up. "We are not technically divine beings, and we're just mainly doing our jobs, really."
"Well that's one hell of a job you guys did." Qrow replied. "Anyhow, Kelas is gone and apparently so are his lieutenants judging by the reports we've gotten from the other cities."
"Wait, how long was I out?" Ruby questioned frantically.
"Only about 48 hours." Glynda said. "Atlas made it first priority to restore communications."
"What about that black and white guy?" Ruby asked.
"Judging by the remaining darkness in this world, Kelas probably left him behind to continue work here." The other woman spoke up.
"Which means Roman is probably going to be active as well." Ruby said.
"Don't forget about the White Fang and the Coalition." Blake piped in.
"Who are you, anyway?" Weiss turned to the mystery woman.
"My name is Angela. I'm responsible for the team meant to stop Kelas' incursions into 'real' space." The woman looked away awkwardly "We would've stopped this one sooner, but we weren't expecting Kelas to unlock so much of his power so quickly, much less to use it to jump to other dimensions."
"So, you're going to stay and help, right?" Yang asked hopefully.
"Sadly, I cannot." The woman replied. "We have reason to believe that Kelas was readying an attack on my own universe during his time here in Remnant. Despite his defeat here, I have no doubt of his intention to follow through with his incursion at full force."
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do about what's left over?" Blake snapped, glaring at the woman.
"You are strong enough to protect your world, do not doubt that." Angela pleaded, trying to calm the irate faunus. "Every universe has darkness, and in turn has its chosen defenders to ward it off. There is no doubt in my mind that the Hunters of this world, especially you four, are the chosen defenders of this universe. If you push your limits and believe in yourselves, just as you did when facing Kelas, you will be able to bring peace to your world once again."
"And what if Kelas comes back?" Ruby asked, hesitantly. "It's… it's not that I don't believe in us, because I really do, but we're not meant to fight gods. Gods are your darkness, and your guardians are made to match that, but our darkness is Grimm, mindless monsters that have very little power of their own. The best we were able to do to the people controlling them was send them into hiding."
"Well, if all goes well on our end, you won't be seeing any more gods." Angela smiled at Ruby. "However, I have no more time to dwell here, I must head back and prepare for the God of Nothing in all his terrible might. I wish you luck, Huntresses of Vale. Show this world that good can win!"
With that, Angela disappeared in a flash of white light. Qrow sighed, taking a swig from his flask.
"You kids should get some rest. Tomorrow, we gotta start rebuilding. First step to that is restoring communications and transport between the Kingdoms, namely Atlas." He drawled out. "By the way, one of your Intelligence Committee friends, Ikari, had her arm ripped off. Heard it's pretty bad, but she's stable right now. Might wanna go and see her once we get there."
"What? That's horrible!" Yang exclaimed. "We should be heading there right now! What are we-"
"Slow down, kiddo. You just got done with the battle of a lifetime." Qrow cut in. "We have time for now, while the dust settles. We need to take our time, do things right. Otherwise, everything we've worked for and all the work we have yet to do will all be for nothing."
Qrow and Glynda left, leaving the Heroes of Beacon to socialize amongst each other as they pleased. Blake sat on her bed, staring out the window at the sunset on the horizon.
"It must be horrible to be a god."
The End