Blake looked around Amity Colosseum, watching the force field raise, muting the noise of the crowd.
Ruby had taken the lead as they walked to the waiting point. Her long, loping strides had settled into a sharp march, and the subtle hunch she normally kept disappeared, making it startlingly clear just how big Ruby was. She stood a head taller than Yang, who was one of the biggest girls in Beacon.
'What did the Shapers do, taint the water on Azeroth with some sort of growth elixir?'
Seriously, almost every person Blake had met from Azeroth who wasn't a dwarf, goblin, or gnome was above average height. Darion, perpetually nineteen Darion, stood at almost seven feet. Thoras had to easily break twelve feet, and most others stood somewhere between the two.
They stopped at the edge between the sections, Team SSSN standing across from them.
Sun had an easy going smile on his face. His tail coiled around the bo staff he used.
"Hey, it's good to see you again."
Ruby stared at him, and Blake could tell she still didn't recognize him.
His eyes slid off Ruby, locking onto Blake, "I had meant to meet up with you guys, but she," he cocked his head at Ruby, "disappeared, then she was back, then you were in the hospital, then there was the dance, and the invasion, and it has all been one big mess."
"Hi, Sun."
Ruby's eyes didn't seem to move, but she made subtle gestures that made it clear she had scanned them.
Ruby held out her metal clad hand, and Sun grabbed it. Letting go, they both stepped back.
The slots started rolling, before landing on grey and green, the arena shifting to match.
Blake reached down, scraping her hand along the bottom of the arena, feeling the terrain.
"Real grass, this will help."
It would, the biggest drawback to Druidic magic Blake had found (and with the way time worked in the Dream, she had a lot of time to find it out) was that you couldn't make something from nothing. While she didn't need to carry around seeds to make plants grow, she did need actual dirt for them to anchor to. Having plants there just made it even easier.
The other half of the arena, however, was a urbanized mess. Skeletal, half finished structures dotted the cracked concrete.
In other words, Blake couldn't have gotten a better arena. In the grassy section, she could lay traps for the the other team, and in the other half she could use her skills at stealth, by far the best in Beacon's first year, if not the whole school.
Everyone drew their weapons, even Ruby, who let a knife fall into her hand.
3.
2.
1.
BZZZZZZ
Ruby surged backwards, only the dead petals and a knife flying at Sun's head as a testament she had been there.
Blake manipulated the grass between them, causing to grow about their heads.
In the moment they had, Team RWBY set the field.
Ruby climbed onto the one tree in the area, unholstering Crescent Rose and bringing the scope up to her eye.
Blake set a spot of grass up, the first person to step in it would see their feet snarled up.
Then the first member, Sage, Blake thought his name was, stepped through the grass.
Weiss set a glyph, and Yang ran through it.
Propelled forward, The blonde brawler use the momentum to power her punch.
Sage grunted, apparently unfazed by the combination of fist and shotgun.
A bang echoed out, and Blake turned.
There was a hole in Ruby's chest, between the chink in her armor, and a greenish substance leaked from it. Before her eyes, black energy lashed at the wound, removing the bullet and allowing the flesh back to knit together.
Cresent Rose went off with a bang, and Blake heard a startled yelp from the other side.
Blake slinked through the grass, moving to flank the other team.
Slipping into the shadows, Blake took in the area.
Sun and his blue haired teammate where hiding in the buildings, waiting for something. Their red headed team mate was using a grappling hook to swing from building to building, desperately dodging shot after shot from Crescent Rose.
Yang flew through the grass before skidding to a halt, eyes red.
The blue haired member of SSSN (a quick check of the screen revealed him to be the N- Neptune) jumped out, leveling his gun at Yang.
The telltale crackle of electricity split the air, and Yang fell to one knee with a shriek.
Despite her eyes getting redder and her hair paler, Blake's partner wasn't capable of moving with the electricity playing havoc with her body.
Shifting Gambol Shroud into its pistol form, Blake calmly slipped into the shadows behind him.
Leveling the gun at Neptune's head, Blake knew her eyes had wavered under the lids.
'There's full Auric shield between the bullet and his skull,' Blake desperately tried to convince herself, 'it won't be like then.'
'Then' had been an accident in the White Fang, a routine mission gone wrong, ending with a dead guard and the blood on Blake's hands.
She couldn't have known that the SDC had hired guards without their Aura unlocked, Irving and Adam had tried to convince her of that, but it haunted her nonetheless.
Yang's screams pushed her on, and she fired the shot.
Neptune's head jerked forward, the bullet digging in an eighth of an inch, before dropping to the ground.
It also forced him to let go of the trigger, and Yang took advantage of that.
Rising to her feet, flames licking at her hair, Yang turned and delivered a brutal left hook to the side of his face, Celica going off with a bang.
Unlike his dark skinned teammate, Neptune certainly was affected by the strike, his head cracking to the side, pellets falling from his face as his aura healed the collection of wounds.
Then, Sun dropped down swinging his staff at Blake. The Faunus jumped back, letting a clone take her place as she nimbly flipped up the side of the building.
Landing above the line of her grass, Blake quickly took stock of the battle.
Ruby was maintaining her suppressing fire on the last member, who by process of elimination, must have been Scarlet.
Weiss was fighting Sage, using her Glyphs to hamper his moves.
Yang meanwhile, was going after Sun, whose staff's longer range let him hold her slightly at bay.
Neptune had recovered, and was leveling his gun at Yang's back again.
Raising her hand, Blake called upon the power of Elune.
A pillar of moonlight came down, searing Neptune and stopping him from firing. Blake quickly followed it up with two shots, and lept down.
As she fell, Blake felt her body get sleeker, claws sprouting from her fingers. Landing as a giant black panther, Blake attacked.
Neptune yelped, switching his gun into a guandao, trying to fend off Blake.
The Cat… did she technically count as a Faunus like this? She was an actual big cat right now, whatever. The Cat slipped past his guard, scratching at his face.
The angry red welts appeared for a second, before they healed, but Blake paid for it.
The guandao's edge hit her, and she got to feel the electricity course through her.
Blake hissed, and it only got worse as Neptune followed it up with a second blow.
As Neptune raised the guandao for a third though, a bullet fell from the sky.
"Huh?"
It was swiftly followed by Scarlet, right onto Neptune's head. Blake, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, quickly slunk away and shifted back.
Leaning against the building, Blake took a moment to catch her breath, before throwing Gambol Shroud.
The Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe wrapped around Sun's arms, pulling them to the side.
Yang followed up with a volley of punches, driving Ember Celica into Sun's sternum again and again.
A bullet hit Yang, originating from Scarlet, who had gotten back to his feet.
Unfortunately for him, Yang had gained enough momentum that a single shot wasn't going to stop her.
A thunderous crash, followed by a buzzer going off, had Blake looked at the screen.
Sage had been eliminated. She took a moment to watch the replay.
Weiss created a Glyph below her feet, and used it to launch herself into the air.
At the same time, Ruby fired a barrage of shots at Sage.
Another Glyph flared to life, holding Sage in place.
As Weiss reached the zenith of her jump, a third Glyph caught her, suspending the white haired girl in the air.
Yellow Glyphs appeared across Myrtenaster, and another, colorless one, behind Sage.
Ruby drew a symbol in the air, and when it finished, Sage's muscles seemed to lock up.
Finally, Weiss launched herself down, stabbing with her rapier. As she did lightning sparked along the blade.
The crash of thunder came, and the lightning lanced through Sage. It hit the Glyph, which turned yellow, before launching it back through him, eliminating him.
Blake turned her eyes back down, only to dodge a blast of electricity from Neptune.
Shifting Gambol Shroud's form, Blake used a clone to distract them, before slipping into the shadows, and loading a new cartridge.
Gripping the hilt, Blake lept down on Neptune.
Turning, Neptune shifted the gun into the guandao, which split in three, creating a trident.
Blake created another clone, flipping away from the strike, and rushed in.
Gambol Shroud bit into his chest, cutting through his jacket. Reaching behind her, Blake pulled the sheath from her back hit him again.
Pulling the trigger, the wind Dust that sat in the mag went off. Blake's clone briefly followed her movements, doubling her blows.
The second buzzer went off, but Blake took a shot from Scarlet as payment.
The pirate themed Huntsman stepped forward, only for another blow to hit him from behind.
The Glaive flew back, landing in Ruby's hand.
Her and Weiss had stepped through the grass, ready for the fight.
Blake took advantage of the opportunity presented, shifting Gambol Shroud again and firing it into Scarlet's back until the buzzer went off.
Ruby nodded in appreciation, before turning to the last member of Team SSSN.
Sun was desperately holding Yang back with his shotguns, the blonde haired fist fighter dodging every shell.
Finally, Weiss set a glyph behind him, catching him in place as he stepped back, and Yang punched him one last time.
The final buzzer went off, and the crowd started to cheer.
The team walked out of the arena, and found Teams JNPR and STQ waiting for them.
The group started to celebrate, and Blake started to slink back, only to be stopped by Ruby.
"Family's waiting Blake, you won't be getting out of it that easily."
Blake looked at her in confusion, before Summer pulled them both into a hug.
Looking over at Ruby, Blake couldn't help the smile as Ruby gave a wink in her direction.
Once Summer let them go, Blake was quickly pulled into a hug by Tai, while Qrow messed up Ruby's hair.
Blake could hear a startled yelp from Weiss as Summer gave her a hug.
The smile grew bigger as she was swept up in the celebration, and something Blake wasn't used to burned in her chest.
She had thought the White Fang was a family. She realized she was wrong now, they had been an unhealthy mess, barely kept together by Irving, and once he died, they fractured. This was a family, someplace where she could be herself, where she had friends who cared about her.
Blake let herself be led away, listening to Summer's tutting as Ruby and Qrow argued about what alcohol to buy for the celebration.
-X Line Break X-
Neo span, dodging the strike from the spear. Bringing her elbow down on Dew's arm, a grin grew at the savage snapping noise.
Neo followed it up with a mighty kick to the head, sending the girl from Shade flying.
1, Time slowed, 2, and Neo plucked the spear from the air, 3, spinning, 4, she threw the spear at Gwen, 5, detonating the dust into a great tornado.
Five seconds passed and time sped back up, Neo gritted her teeth under the illusion, pain burning through the assassin.
She had spent a month trying to perfect that, and only gotten it up to five seconds, six if she was willing to risk blacking out.
The spear found its mark, digging into the knife-thrower's chest and spinning there.
Gwen was launched from the arena, eliminating her.
Neo looked over the area, checking on the rest of her 'team'.
Mercury was finishing off Gale, smashing her head into the ground.
Emerald finished Nebula with a simple shot to the head.
Cinder had a bit more trouble, being restricted to her swords lest she be pegged as the terrorist that attacked the CCT. However, she still managed to eliminate Octavia.
As the final buzzer rang, Oobleck's voice echoed out, being finally allowed into the arena.
"And there you have it! Team CMSN moves on to the doubles we will see Team RWBY face off against Team BRNZ, Team FNKI face off against TEAM CFVY, and team CRDL face Team CMSN."
Neo didn't get why they were still doing this, without the virus uploaded there was no way they could rig the matches, something she had expressed several times and not gotten a satisfying answer.
Neo was about ready to ditch town, she had enough experience to know when a job wasn't worth the trouble, and this one was turning into more of a train wreck as time went on.
Roman and Adam had both been forced to go to ground a couple weeks back after a close call with the Ebon Blade and Atlesian forces.
Neo sighed, maybe it would be smarter to turn traitor? Get a plea bargain and spend another couple of years in jail?
Or she could risk diving into the timeways.
Neo followed behind her team as they left, going over her options.
-X Line Break X-
Arthas tapped his fingers on the desk, thinking.
He would give Adam credit, he had managed to resist for a surprisingly long time.
He would attempt to reunite Adam with his Blake, it was the least Arthas could do.
Arthas knew what it was like to be alone. He had spent years in Frostmourne, reliving his mistakes.
The biggest one, Arthas had long realized, was removing his heart. With the last fragment of his humanity gone, Arthas had started to view everyone as pawns.
It was the same flaw that had seen Kil'jaeden fail repeatedly over the years. The assumption that every puppet would dance their role correctly could blow up in your face. When you got the insane, danger addicted populace of Azeroth, Draenor, and Argus involved, of which there was an almost worrying amount, it tended to end with everything going off like a mana bomb.
Another mistake was probably trying to get Darion killed. In his defense, everyone knew about the fact that Darion had a crush on Ruby when he was younger. Still, probably would A) still have Ruby, and B) have won, if he hadn't pitched that fit, so, his fault on that one.
Arthas sighed, looking around the empty room. He missed Kel'thuzad and Ruby's barely contained hatred for each other, Ymiron's veneration of him, Lana'thel… being Lana'thel, he wasn't sure what she had done when she wasn't making new San'layn.
He slouched on the chair, Wilt sitting where Frostmourne normally would. He kept the fragment hidden, as it was his only way to survive. If it were somehow broken, or the Ebon Blade managed to find it, then it was game over, he would be forced back into Crescent Rose, and he knew there would be no getting out from that.
Arthas looked over the papers, reports from the White Fang, important for Cinder's plan. Arthas honestly didn't buy into it, mostly because it relied on outdated information. Information that might now be worthless, especially with the Ebon Blade protecting Vale. Arthas knew how devastating the Ebon Blade Arthas knew how devastating the Ebon Blade could be, and if Khadgar was there too, the chances of this working were low.
Pulling a lighter from the desk, Arthas burned the reports. He had his plan, and it required Cinder's plan to work.
Leaning back, Arthas allowed himself to start to doze off.
He missed everything. Hopefully, he would soon have a fragment of it back.
-X Line Break X-
Ruby looked behind her as her skin cracked, knowing what would be waiting for her.
"About time you got here."
"It isn't just you I advise, Turalyon needed assistance."
"For a month?"
"There was a critical battle taking place, a world of major important now stands with the Light."
"Must be big, if the Legion fought you off for a month."
The unspoken part was that in the Great Dark Beyond, that could have been equal to anywhere from a couple day to several centuries.
"Indeed, we hold Nihilam now, through, for how long I do not know, I may return and it will already be lost."
"The Doom World," Ruby breathed, surprise clear, "That's big, that's huge, it's the only known world that has felt both the might of the Titans and Sargeras's direct wrath and survived. Even if they only hold it for a few days, they could learn more about Sargeras than we have in millions of years."
Ruby felt a thrum of amusement from the Naaru prime.
"What?"
"I just find it quite amusing how much you know on the matter."
Ruby rolled her eyes, "I don't sleep and I like to read. I finished most good fiction on Azeroth sometime around the third year I was free, after that, I had to go into the non-fiction. After a while I started to read some dissertations from big name mages and whatever Brann pumped out. Plus with the Maw of the Damned, the Knights of the Ebon Blade hold the single largest piece of Nihilam we had up to this point."
"I am rarely too far from your mind, and some of those books were by no definition good."
"Those were good because they were so bad. It's this equation, the closer something gets to being completely terrible, the chances of it becoming unintentionally funny rises."
Xe'ra floated closer to Ruby, and the Lich's skin cracked more.
"You had wanted to speak to me?"
"What do you think about this whole mess?"
"You want my input?"
"Yeah, I trust you. You've never given me a reason not to."
"It is foolish."
"That bad?"
"Ever since my first Void phase, I have championed the belief that we need a balance between Light and Void. It has been a platform that has been controversial among my family, and they often ignore me because of it."
"That doesn't explain why you think this is foolish."
"Because I believe, that no matter what role you play, be it Life-Binder, or Lich Queen, or something else, you will do the right thing. Look at Lothraxion, he is a being of the Twisted Nether, yet he has become one of the greatest Paladins in the Army of the Light."
"I don't think I'm going to become a Paladin. I can still barely control the silver flames."
Another thrum of amusement.
"There is little chance you will use Light at this point, I agree. My point, is that even a being of the Twisted Nether, or, dare I say it, the Void, can be just as good as someone born in the Light."
"Then what do you think I should do?"
"Wait. Think carefully on this choice, and know that no person can force you to make it," Xe'ra started to lift off, "I must go now, I will see you later."
Ruby watched the being of Light fly off, before sighing and walking back inside. She would be going on to the doubles round, and she wanted to prepare.
-X Line Break X-
Darion looked around Ruby's workshop. A body lay on the table, and it was clear Ruby was putting it back together.
"Who's that?"
Ruby looked up from where she was hunched over her scythe, examining it.
"Oh, that's Aggra, we lost her on Outland a few months back. I've been meaning to put her back together, but didn't have time until recently."
Darion raised one of the hands off the metal slab, before letting it drop.
"She, uh, doesn't look so good."
"Yeah, she probably won't be able to work as a Death Knight, but a ghoul or wight maybe."
"Right, you wanted to talk to me?"
Ruby stood and walked over to him, cupping his face with her hands.
"Darion, I'm so proud of you right now. Today, you will be taking on your first mission for the Scourge."
"And that is?"
"Despite the show we put on at New Avalon, the Scarlet Crusade has decided to send more troops from Hearthglen and Tyr's Hand. The Silver Hand is also causing us problems, so I want you to eliminate two birds with one stone.
You are too take a small force to Hearthglen, decimate the Scarlet Crusade there, and destroy the gravestone of Taelan Fordring."
"Destroy? Not raise him?"
"We're sending a message Darion, we don't want to risk provoking Tirion Fordring into a fight until we are ready."
"Ok. You said a small force?"
"Yes, while you will be in charge of this mission, and there will be several other new recruits, we're sending some of the most experienced troops we have on Acherus with you."
Darion took the page of parchment, looking it over, "Velann Darkfall, Malag, Gayle Hateford, Totua Suncaller, Orbaz Bloodbane, Koltira Deathweaver, and Thassarian."
"Three who specialize in taking hits, and the rest should be able to damage the forces. Plus," Ruby walked over to another table, pulling a sheet from off it.
It looked like a miniaturized flesh golem, standing about even with Darion's chest.
"A couple of these!"
"Will they be helpful?"
"Yeah, about as strong as a Tauren with the size of a human. What's not to love?"
Darion nodded, "When are we going out?"
"Just need to introduce you to your teammates. Come on."
Ruby stepped out of the room, leading Darion down the winding paths of Acherus.
Stepping into the room, Darion looked around.
A Blood Elf and Human stood off to the side, talking amicably, they stopped briefly, nodding to Ruby as she walked forward.
Another human stood to the other side, glaring at everyone.
The final four, a Blood Elf, Draenei, Forsaken, and Tauren, sat around the room, all in different levels of worry.
Ruby stepped up, walking to the map of Lordaeron on the wall, and jabbing a finger into Hearthglen's location.
"I want you to come back with this place destroyed, or don't bother coming back at all."
"It will be done."
Ruby nodded, "Good, now, everyone follow me."
Yet another set of winding corridors, and they stood in the stables, hundreds of undead horses and Deathchargers waited around the area.
"Deathlord! Are these the new recruits you spoke of?" The question came from a figure, clad in armor, and his head swathed in red fabric, only allowing two glowing green eyes to poke out.
"Indeed they are Salanar."
"Right, Thassarian, Koltira, Dusk and Bloodmist are saddled up, you know where they are. Orbaz, your horse is waiting for you."
The three experienced Death Knights walked off, Orbaz throwing a final sneer over his shoulder as they left.
Salanar muttered to himself bitterly, and Darion strained his ears to hear what he was saying.
"Brute refuses to name it himself, but won't let me name it either. He won't even let me saddle it for him."
Ruby threw an understanding look at Salanar, before coughing into her hand.
"Right! The rest of you, LINE UP!"
The last bit came as a roar, sending the five of them scampering into line.
Salanar walked along the five, taking them in. When the horseman reached Darion, he called upon his lessons from Thorval.
He didn't waver as they met eyes.
A long moment passed, before the red clad figure rose up.
"You four! You're not ready yet. Take some of the skeletal chargers and go!" The other four rushed off, and Salanar met his eyes again.
"You, though, yes, I think I have the perfect horse for you. Tell me, what is your name?"
"Darion Mograine."
Salanar shared a look with Ruby, who nodded curtly. What was that about?
"Then, yes, I have the perfect mount for you. Follow me."
Darion was brought to the back of the room, where a Deathcharger waited.
It's hair, and armor had a reddish tint to it, and it was larger than most of the other Chargers around it.
"I have raised this horse from the finest stock, I call it Fury! Tell me, Darion Mograine, do you have the power to control this horse?"
"Yes."
"Then let us see."
Darion stepped forward reaching for the reins. When he touched them, a presence touched his mind. Curious at first it quickly whipped itself into a fever of rage.
Darion drew on his training in the Light, using the same principles of controlling himself to calm the presence.
After a moment, Darion shackled it to his will.
Salanar was looking between Darion and Fury.
"So it is done. Do you wish to give him a new name? He is yours now."
Darion thought for a second, before nodding, "Iydallus."
So began a long, prosperous bond.
-X Line Break X-
Radulf drove his axe through the throat of the horse, at the same time, Tal executed his rider.
"I thought you said the Dark Riders had gone missing?
"I guess dere was a survivor, we dealt with him, mon."
Yes, but at what cost? Two of the ten man team had died getting here.
Radulf wouldn't ditch Tal, he was enjoying the fight, but it was simple math. They would run out of people rather quickly. Especially if, as Mitnus suspected, the traps and dangers got worse as they got higher. There were only a few people greedy or stupid enough to assault the home of the Guardian of Tirisfal.
Seriously, what had Tal been thinking? She could probably have gotten money easier attacking Ahn'Qiraj again, he heard Cho'gall had set up shop there for a bit.
Stepping into the next room, Radulf shared a look with his conspirator.
All over the room were ghosts, throwing a decadent party.
Well, looks like there might actually be money in this for Tal. Assuming they survived.
Radulf drew his axes, spinning himself into a tempest of blades. Hopefully they would be able to kill most of the ghosts without any casualties on their side.
He doubted it though…
-X Line Break X-
Tal delivered a fatal shot with her beloved flintlock. Looking around the library, Mitnus, bless her little soul, was engrossed in several books around them, shoving them into a bag, while using her magic to keep another floating in front of her.
Despite the worries Radulf had expressed, they had managed to make it rather high into the tower without another casualty.
The berserker was off to the side… reading a book?
"Whatcha readin', mon?"
Radulf held up the book, allowing her to see the title.
'Forging techniques from Navane.'
"You are da most borin' person on da face o da world, brudda."
Tal had known him for a year, and she was convinced that Radulf didn't have a single interest that didn't revolve around fighting and getting better at it.
It said something about him that he had just shrugged and returned to reading.
The rest of the crew was getting antsy, wanting to delve deeper into the tower. Tal rolled her eyes, this was why she normally worked with professionals, they could make a killing selling these books to the Kirin Tor.
The amount of money she was talking at could let her buy a fleet of ships, the best weapons money could buy, and still have enough money to comfortably retire to one of the islands in the Great Sea.
Unfortunately these lug heads didn't understand it, if you didn't shove literal piles of gold into their face, they felt it was wasted.
It was times like this that Tal lamented how few freelance mages there were. Warlocks? There were plenty of those, but after the Incident on Hiji, Tal refused to work with them.
"Lil' one, we should go."
Mitnus didn't respond, not even reacting to the hated nickname.
Tal walked to her partner, looking down.
"What's wrong?"
Mitnus was staring at a page of another book. Plucking the book from Mitnus's numb hands, and ignoring the startled yelp from the Gnome, Tal flicked to the beginning.
"Da Prophecies o' Velen the Divine? Ain't dat da leader o' da Draenei?"
Tal didn't actually have the accent, she had lived with humans long enough that she could speak fluent Common with nary a slip up, but she maintained it, her last fragment of home.
Flicking through the pages back to where Mitnus has been, Tal caught glimpses of words.
Silvery moon, washed in blood-
After the red comes the silver,
She who was golden and bright;
Stopping on the page before Mitnus had been on, Tal read the inscription.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king
Turning the page, Tal stopped.
There was a beautiful drawing taking up both pages.
It was a collection of people from all races, all holding the most amazing weapons she had ever seen.
Staff and spear, ax and sword, hammer and knife, even a floating skull and scythe. What jarred her however, was that Tal recognized some of the people there. Radulf, Mitnus and her brother. The Tauren druid she had worked with during Ahn'Qiraj.
What did that mean? And perhaps most worrying, why wasn't she there?
Tal shook her head, storing the book in her jacket.
She would have to sail to the Exodar when this was done, ask the Prophet about it.
