Forever Fall

[Disclaimer, this is a RWBY AU and RWBY belongs to Roosterteeth and the dearly departed Monty Oum. This is inspired by artwork on Dishwasher1910s Deviantart Page, IE the Team PJRP, Future Ruby, Future Jaune, Penny Persephone, and Pyrrha the Fall Maiden.]

"Oh God, it's happening again!"- Ruby Rose

Chapter 04: Events Repeating

Blake

I alight onto the roof of the factory warehouse in the docks and look down the skylight to see Emerald speaking with Mercury, Junior's henchmen standing in a circle around them. Whatever they're doing down there it can't be good, and no matter what I can't let them have this. I draw Gambol Shroud and prepare to slice the skylight open. As my hand draws back a new figure steps into the moonlight and I see a flash of white hair. Focusing my ears downward I start to hear the sounds of the conversation through the glass.

"… What you're asking is suicide! We don't have the forces to pull off an attack on anything more than a Dust shop… let alone the Schnee-Rose Manor! What do you want? For us to die?" Mercury growls at the white haired woman.

"No my dear children… I expect you to do as you're told…" the white haired woman begins. That voice… I've heard that voice before… "Attack Schnee-Rose Manor, see Huntresses Ruby Rose-Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, and Sapphire Hydrangea dead. Make sure CEO Weiss Schnee-Rose and Lieutenant Colonel Silver Spade die alongside their counterparts. Lastly I want Lady Nikos to watch as they die."

"You want two assassins to go up against five of the most powerful people in existence to kill them while one of the four Maidens of Remnant watches? You've got to be kidding me we can't do anything against those odds, I went up against Xiao Long not too long ago and she beat me faster than I could come up with a new strategy. We'd be dead in minutes…" Emerald interjects. Wait… I know that voice it's… Cinder! I slash open the lock and jump through the window without a second more of hesitation.

I land without a sound and pour aura into my semblance summoning four shadow clones each holding a copy of Gambol Shroud and perfectly solid. The tip of Gambol points at Emerald's throat, nice try Em!

"Surrender, you're outclassed," I hiss. Emerald looks from the tip of my blade to me hard and cold eyes, Mercury scoffs over to my right before twisting his body to send a kick in my direction. My reaction is instantaneous as I push the blade forward stabbing Emerald in the throat and leave her choking on her own blood as she staggers backwards. I duck below the kick and turn bringing Shroud up slamming the bladed scabbard into Mercury's exposed side.

"You… Bitch…" Mercury gasps as he strikes out again his boot causing sparks as he drags the metal toed device along the cement floor. His leg comes up again and this time I twist my arm catching the leg and twisting sending him flying towards the floor. Mercury's arms shoot out and he catches himself, a quick push and he ends up on his head spinning and kicking out his legs. Air bursts begin filling into the space around him and I send two of my clones to tackle the security while my last attacks the white haired woman who sounds like Cinder.

"Not again, this ends here," I growl as I slice at the air bursts cutting them to shreds as Mercury jumps up and slams his leg sending the hardened air directly at me. A burst gets through and a single shadow clone takes the hit as I bounce out of the hail and strike out with Gambol and Shroud in unison. The two weapons catch Mercury off guard and he groans as he's knocked aside. A blade presses to my throat and I realize Emerald has gotten up.

"I might not be able to use my semblance, having to use most of my aura to heal that wound, but I still have more than enough to kill you… half-breed," Emerald hisses from behind me. I smirk as the kusarigama tightens.

"Nice try," I growl as a shadow clone takes my place and I fire a Dust round into it. The ice Dust crystal round freezes the clone right as Emerald's kusarigama enters it and I twist around her delivering a swift and vicious kick to her back before slicing Gambol down the length of her back. Emerald's aura takes the brunt of the hit and she falls onto the ground.

"NO!" Mercury shouts and I turn raising my weapons up to block his combo of kicks to shove me away from Emerald. I hiss at him as I step forward and press my advantage to get him off balance. It works as my strikes send Mercury back pedaling after having over stepped his bounds. I catch his heel and pull my leg backwards taking out his legs from under him, but as Shroud comes down a kusarigama blocks the strike.

"You can't kill him, that's my job!" Emerald shrieks as she shoves me back and begins throwing out her weapons spinning them on their chains, yes… I flick the setting and Gambol collapses into its pistol form as I shoot the kusarigama out of the air when they get close and once more begin closing distance. One of the chains catches Shroud and Emerald smirks at me before seeing me smirking right back. Let yourself become exposed and off balance, don't let any victory to go to your head… I pull my arm back and Emerald is pulled towards me. My knee comes up slamming into her face and a flash of green shimmers across her body as her aura drains and I flick Gambol back into sword form and reverse my grip on it.

Mercury stands up and sees me right as I bury Gambol into Emerald's abdomen. Hope you're ready to watch her die… you should've remembered I outclassed you a long time ago. Mercury screams in rage and launches a barrage of air bursts and shotgun shells before charging forward and kicking me in my left side. AHH! I cringe and fall in pain my shadow clones dissolving and Shroud falling from grasp. Mercury hisses before scooping up Emerald and surveying their dead henchmen and the disappeared white haired woman.

"You're lucky you've nearly killed her… if she were dead you'd be too… I'm glad to see her kusarigama still leave that much of sting after so many years," Mercury says before stepping out of the room and I black out from the second wave of pain erupting from my side.

Two Hours Later

I grunt in pain as I sit up and look around to see the white of a hospital room around me. When did I get in a hospital? My eyes continue to rove around the room looking for anything that will give me a clue, but all I see are Gambol and Shroud leaning against the wall on one of the chairs and no one else in the room. Groaning I raise my left arm to click the call button only for the door to begin opening.

"You gave us quite a scare," Weiss says as she enters the room, Ruby not too far behind.

"What… happened? Last thing I remember was fighting Mercury and Emerald," I ask my voice sounding raspy and broken due to a lack of liquid.

"Silver got a message on his scroll about someone getting into an accident on the docks, when he showed up he saw you being pulled off to the hospital in an airship and called us. We got here as fast as we could in Whiterose, but… Yang wouldn't come…" Weiss trails off. I nod and cough a bit before reaching for the glass of water, only for Ruby to flash over and hand it to me. I smile as I carefully take a couple of sips from the glass before giving it back to her.

"I ran into her earlier… not surprised she wouldn't show up, she's still angry about ten years ago… not that I blame her," I whisper the last part, sadly Ruby hears me say it.

"Nope. She's being petty to blame you for that… I'll admit neither Weiss or I were happy when you left, but we understood that you thought it was for the best. I think that's why it bothers Yang so much, she's use to facing everything head on with everyone she trusts at her side, and you weren't there when she needed you most, so she can't help but blame all the hardship of getting better and all that follows on you. That doesn't make it right though Blake… she should remember that people can't always do things the same way she does," Ruby explains to me, I try to manage a weak smile but my body still feels like it's on fire.

"He kicked you in your old wound, it caused a flare up in the metal cluster still embedded there. The doctors ran a scan and found that it hasn't moved any closer to your spleen or other major organs, but it is causing you a great deal of pain after that movement. They offered to add you to the Dust trials to use a dust powered magnet and extreme sedatives to remove the cluster?" Weiss says to me. I shake my head at her, how many times do I have to tell her that this cluster of Emerald's broken kusarigama blade is a testament to why I shouldn't have left, and a penance for leaving Yang. "I know you don't want it removed Blake… But please at least consider it this time, if you want a better idea of how much it will hurt you can talk to Silver… his road to recovery has been almost as bad as Jaune's…"

"How's Jaune anyway?" I question knowing Weiss had been keeping tabs on all of our friends who were in the Dust experiments.

"Not doing too well. He's in constant pain and even with the pain killers and sedatives he feels like he's been hit by a Grimm Dragon with every treatment. His boy is taking well to having all of us look after him when Jaune goes off and recovers from his sessions… but his improvement is minimal. He took such a major beating that regenerating flesh and fixing movement even with cybernetic enhancements are hard to do, even for Schnee Dust. I'm worried he won't improve fast enough for himself, I've kept him talking with Ruby and Silver to make sure he doesn't lose hope… but really the only reason he's still fighting is because of little Aaron Arc. I just hope it's enough," Weiss says, her voice dying out because of fear. I know why she feels that way, news of Jaune's pounding at the hands of the recently arrived Corrupted had left many Huntsman and Huntresses avoiding solo jobs when they came close to Salem's territory. The general consensus being that if one of the Remnant Council's heavy hitters could be nearly killed even with the best around by then what could a Corrupted do to a normal Huntsman…