Well, I've had a hell of a day getting this one out the door, but far be it from me to take a day off twice and it not be a weekend. So here it comes, the one chapter guaranteed to piss off more than one person because reasons!
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, Bálor belongs to me, and all other franchises mentioned in this story are the property of their respective parent companies
The two Faunus would clash with their weapons drawn, it was blade against blade as Bálor was thrown back by the force of Blake's charge, while three of his swords flew out and struck out at the feline Faunus who would quickly counter with an ice clone leaving him with five to combat her.
"I knew this wasn't going to be an easy fight, but this just might be the one time where I MAY have bitten off more than I can chew." He would think this as he struggled to get back to his feet, facing the raven haired Faunus who would be covered by a literal manifestation of her misery.
"You should quit now Bálor, your body can't take the strain of a full on fight." Blake would smile bitterly as she spoke, slowly walking towards him. "I promise you, I'll make it as quick and painless as I can."
The wolf would growl as he gripped the crimson colored blade in his hand as she slowly sauntered closer to him, he had survived beatings in prison, countless injuries in the deserts of Vacuo, and Dust knows how many crazy happenings in his short time here at Beacon, and now some deranged cat with abandonment issues was going to promise him a painless end?
That's not how he told himself he'd die.
"I won't let you put me down like cattle Blake, there's still something's I HAVE to settle here before I can go peacefully!" His eyes would focus on the three Huntress behind them and sigh.
"Like those three goofballs back there." The crazed smirk from earlier as he charged forward with his remaining blades trailing behind him as he slashed at the feline Faunus who would brush off his blows like they were meaningless to her but he would press forward regardless even as he tried to knock away her Gambol Shroud with a kick. "Honestly, why are you even angry at ME? I've been trying to get to know you better, but you've been pushing me away!" He would gasp as Blake hissed and started in with her own flurry of slashes which he would narrowly avoid by rolling backwards and scrambling to his feet quickly, Bálor would sigh in relief as he had managed to avoid yet another of her assaults.
"You honestly think I'd care if you wanted to be my friend, or Yang's boyfriend? Those things are at the bottom of my priorities list!" Blake would glare at him angrily as she circled the silver-haired wolf Faunus. "The White Fang are STILL out there, and nobody seems to give a damn anymore, not even my own team!" She would switch her weapon to its Kusarigama form and throw it at him recklessly, nonplussed to see him hold it in midair with his Semblance. "Everything was fine until you decided to swagger in here and start disrupting things!"
"There you go again, blaming me for YOUR plans going off rail when not once did your friends think to ask me for help!" Bálor would push the Kusarigama back with merely a thought before stomping his foot violently to keep the feeling alive. "Can't you even stop and think "Hey, maybe my buddies seem to have forgotten that we had something major going on and that maybe I should gently REMIND them what the hell is going on?!" His amber eyes would fix their gaze on hers as he sighed and willed the blades behind him to bury themselves in the ground. "No, you didn't even bother to mutter word one!" He would run at her, kicking up dust behind him as he gathered speed and met her Gambol Shroud with his crimson Ira. "You just saw the infatuation Yang and Ruby heaped upon me, along with Schnee's hatred and figured that if you cut me down that everything would go back to normal!" The two Faunus would then mix up a little hand to hand combat before pulling away and then clashing with their respective blades again. "You sought to take the easy way out instead of letting your team know what you were feeling!" Blake would roar angrily as she leaped back and switched her weapon to its gun form and fired shots at her silver haired tormentor.
"Don't you dare begin to think you understand my reasons for wanting you dead monster!" She would growl as he had deflected her rounds with ease and stood strong, defiance in his amber eyes as he started forward at her once more, she would flip backwards giving her time to return her weapon to its blade forward and parry his attack. "You're no better than the White Fang, using violence to accomplish whatever your goal of the moment is!" She would slash at him mercilessly with her katana, grinning when he stumbled back with a cut over his cheek. "I tried to open their eyes to what you are, but no one would listen to my words, not even Ozpin would hear me out when I BEGGED him to have you moved out of Beacon while you were in your little coma." Blake would snarl and bring down her blade for a killing blow, only for him to smash it aside and land a cut on her cheek opposite of where she had cut him earlier.
"Don't you understand yet Belladonna, the reason no one will listen to you is because you're blinded by your obsession with the White Fang, your hatred for me at screwing up Team RWBY's rhythm..or mojo…or whatever it is you all have!"
Blake would seethe at his nonchalant joking as she started slashing at him, only for his remaining blades to erupt from the ground.
"Shit!" The feline Faunus would escape by leaving a copy of herself behind to be skewered as she rolled away from his immediate attack range. "You're getting smarter mutt, gotta say it's kinda exciting to have an opponent I don't have to hold back against." She would smirk while getting up to her feet, licking her lips slowly as she did.
Bálor would roll his eyes at her blatantly ploy to distract him. "Kunoichi. The art of distracting one's opponent with sex appeal, you aren't the only one versed in strange combat tactics." Summoning his remaining blades to skewer the feline Faunus in front of him, he would immediately roll away from an oncoming slice from behind, eyes widening as two silver strands of hair were left behind.
"Unbelievable, how did she suddenly gain so much speed?!" He would feel the wind around him change as Gambol Shroud's Kusarigama barely missed his left ear by inches. "What in Dust's name?!" He would whirl around to see Blake standing behind him, a rather proud smirk on her face as her weapon returned to him, this time though it would be coated with a little blood as he felt a sharp sting erupt from his right ear.
"Aww, looks like the little mutt can't keep up once I stop using the kiddie gloves." The raven haired Huntress would smile before disappearing in a blur leaving the wolf Faunus confused as to what happened, that was until he felt several searing pricks in his back.
"Gahhhh!" Bálor would activate his Semblance to try and defend himself by sending the remaining blades to attack her, only to have her reappear in front of him and try to bifurcate him.
"Good riddance, foul demon!" She would slash at his stomach, only to have her Gambol Shroud stop dead mid-swing as he had grabbed her wrist and leaned in close to the feline's lips, causing her to stumble back with a flushed face. "Wh-what were you trying to do?!"
He would breathe a quick sigh of relief before standing up slowly and closing his eyes, hearing four different clangs as his weapons hit the ground lifeless, with only the crimson blade Ira resting loosely in his tired grip.
"I can't do it..reaching out to her heart is impossible, there's so much hate and pain that it's like trying to break a diamond with a rubber mallet…"
"What are you doing?!" Blake's voice would cry out suddenly as he let go of his weapon, the strain of the battle finally becoming too much for him as he sank to his knees.
"I can't..keep going like this, I'm so tired…"
Ruby, Weiss and Yang would be watching the fight from a distance, and while they weren't exactly privy to the conversation that was going on between the two Faunus they had been able to watch blow after blow thanks to sharing a pair of Weiss's opera glasses which were currently in the crimsonette's possession.
"It looks like it's calmed down a little, Bálor's banged up pretty badly by the looks of it." Ruby would frown as she passed the glasses to Weiss, she hated to see two people she'd cared about at war for the second time in the same week: First with Blake and Yang going up against each other back at the amphitheater, now her Faunus team mate had proceeded to try and destroy the man she cared deeply for. It was enough to make her almost contemplate swearing off cookies if a miracle were to occur and stop the fight.
Almost.
"That idiot! No man worthy of a Schnee should fight so recklessly, I'm going to have to have a strict word with him about this when we get back to the infirmary." The heiress would shake her head in disgust at his gung-ho approach to combat thus far. "A true gentleman would never be so careless as to leave himself so exposed in the middle of a one-on-one duel!"
Yang would just grit her teeth as Weiss passed the glasses on to her, allowing the blonde brawler to finally get a visual on both her partner and her silver haired prince.
"Well, Blake looks like she's made it through this without any major injuries." She smiled slightly at this, she expected no less of someone who'd gone toe to toe with herself and just barely managed to be defeated. But as she looked upon the wolf Faunus, any pride she felt for Blake's combat prowess would be immediately replaced with anger and fear.
"B! He's..he's bleeding!" The other two Huntresses beside her would gasp audibly at this, before she could say more she found herself having thrown the heiresses glasses aside as her legs carried her towards the battle ahead of her.
"Hang in there baby, I won't let you risk your life again..not as long as I have the power to do something about it!" Seeing a few of his swords trapped inside a stone copy of her partner, the blonde would shatter it with a single right hook, the pain she felt as bandaged flesh met stone barely registered in her mind as she grasped the three blades in her left hand without losing a single step.
"Blake, stop!" Yang would call out to her raven haired partner as she kept moving forward, her legs pumping harder then she even knew the could as the feline Faunus made eye contact with her.
"It's over Yang, once I destroy him..his control over you will cease, and then we can get back to fighting the real enemy." Blake would say this with a cold, lifeless look in her eyes as she approached a clearly beaten Bálor.
"The REAL enemy, Blake what's happened to you? B's a Hunter too, he can HELP us against the Grimm!" Yang would stand in front of her defenseless beloved, holding the three swords awkwardly as she did, but still prepared to fight against her own partner once more if that's what it took to protect him.
"No..not the Grimm, don't you see..they're the problem! Bálor, Sun, Neptune, even Ozpin!" The madness in the raven haired Huntress's eyes was apparent at this point, leaving Yang in shock as her partner waved her blade about, like a conductor would with his baton as if she were orchestrating her own symphony of madness. "It's the MEN Yang, they're distracting us with all of their love and romance! We Huntress's could have reached our potential long ago if it weren't for those blasted MEN!"
The blonde brawler could only stare in dumbfounded astonishment as her usually stoic partner continued to rant upon the evils of "Men".
"It's like she's finally snapped or something, maybe Sun and Neptune leaving on that mission a while back was just too much for her." It was then that the brawler saw something rustling around underneath Blake's bow, something she never would have noticed otherwise.
"The hell..? Did Blake's bow just move..on its own?" The golden-haired Huntress would wait quietly, watching her partner's bow carefully even as Blake proceeded to continue ranting and raving even as her voice was starting to crack.
She would see it again, a rustle coming from underneath the black bow but this time a pair of red eyes would stare back at her causing the usually confident Yang to stumble back and scream in fright.
Blake would stop upon hearing her partner's frightened scream of terror and just smile warmly as she lifted her blade.
"It's alright Yang, soon you won't need to be afraid anymore..once I rid us of this mutt and the other men, then we can begin again." The feline Faunus would cackle madly as she prepared to finally finish off Bálor, only for a flurry of roses to knock Gambol Shroud from her hands and a cloud of blue dust froze the ground beneath her feet and covered them in ice.
"Sis!" Ruby and Weiss would show up in the nick of time, much to an infuriated Blake's chagrin. "Thank Dust you're alright!"
"What was that all about, you've never shouted like that once in all the time I've known you Xiao Long." The heiress would look down at the frightened Huntress at her feet, only to be even more confused by her actions as Yang pointed to Blake's bow.
"Traitors! You're all a bunch of male-loving traitors!" Blake would be shaking and sweating violently as she glared at her friends, her eyes blazing with intense hatred before going dull as she collapsed in a heap in front of them.
"Blake!" Ruby would rush over to help her fallen comrade despite the fact that she had basically been called a traitor no more then a moment ago.
"Ruby no!" Yang would try and get to her feet even as the "bow" detached itself from Blake's head and began to shift into a bizarre black skinned insect-like creature.
The Crimsonette could only gasp as the insect turned its bloody red gaze upon her and leaped with a screeching noise, only to be bifurcated down the middle by a sudden slash from out of nowhere.
"Well now, that was a rather close call wasn't it ladies." The four Huntresses would whirl around to see a satisfied Gylnda Goodwitch standing behind them, holding her weapon, cleverly disguised as a riding crop at her side. "A second more and Miss Rose here would have been the Ocula's second host body."
By the time evening came, the group sans Bálor and Blake would be standing inside Ozpin's office, as the Headmaster listened to the varying reports of what had occurred outside the infirmary.
"Judging by everything I've been told thus far, it sounds like Miss Belladonna's been under the control of a Vacuan Brain Moth, or the Ocula as it is otherwise referred to."
Yang would shake her head incredulously as she heard this, the bandaging on her hands dotted with specks of blood.
"Hold on, you mean to tell me that the reason why Blake's been acting so unstable lately is that she's been under the control of a BUG?!"
Goodwitch would shake her head as she pulled out her scroll and called up a three-dimension diagram of the creature in question. "The Vacuan Brain Moth is no ordinary creature Yang, as its name suggests the moth will instinctively attach itself to a host's brain stem and live off of the chemicals the host brain secrets, specifically those which are caused by stress or anxiety." She would immediately dismiss the diagram with a soft sigh. "I must ask, as you three are the one's closest to Miss Belladonna, was she suffering from any sort of stress, or seem upset for any reason?"
"You mean before or after Bálor transferred to our school?" Weiss would ask while tapping her chin in thought. "Because those two never seemed to get along at all in his time here."
Ozpin would shake his head and stand up, walking to the window silently.
"Judging by Professor's Peach and Port's preliminary findings, based upon the moth's size, it had been attached to Blake for about a few months, meaning it had been there prior to Mr. Moonlight's first day here."
Gylnda would snort at that statement, even though the evidence had backed Ozpin's prized pet she still had her own doubt's about the young man.
"She hasn't been the same since Team SSSN left for Vacuo a while ago." Yang would feel a pang of remorse for her partner as she tried to picture her silver-haired prince leaving her behind for so long, the very thought nearly bringing tears to her eyes. "She had no clue why they'd been called back, only that it was urgent and that they were needed back ASAP."
Ruby would nod as she heard her sister speak, imagining her own scenario with Bálor being called away, only instead of weeping she imagined herself following after him on his mission. "I guess being separated from someone she cared so much about would cause her to feel bad, especially since she had no clue what they were headed into."
Everyone would nod and mutter in agreement at the crimsonette's wise assessment of the situation.
Blake would slowly come to, not expecting to see someone standing over her bed and thus tensing up in response.
"Who..are you?" She would look up at the silver haired young man in front of her, not recognizing him at all. "Where am I?"
He would smile kindly at her before offering her a cup of water, a bendy straw sitting inside to help her drink.
"You're in the infirmary at Beacon Academy Bl- Miss Belladonna." He would hesitate for a moment before continuing to talk. "As for me, I'm..a friend of Yang's. Just transferred here a couple of months ago, although I suppose under the current circumstances this would be our first official meeting."
The raven haired Faunus would nod slowly before taking a drink of the water he had so kindly offered her, she would watch him closely, seeing the hint of wolf ears through the silver mane on his head before stopping and nearly gasping at the scar on his cheek.
"What happened to your face? Did someone attack you?" She asked before carefully tracing the scar with her thumb.
The wolf Faunus would chuckle quietly before gently removing her thumb with yet another flattering smile. "Never you mind Miss Belladonna, just an old war wound."
Blake would return his smile with a polite one of her own, her yellow eyes meeting his amber ones.
"I understand, in a sense. I had a few scrapes myself before coming to Beacon" She would feel herself blush slightly as his smile brightened. "And you don't need to be so formal with me, we're fellow students after all..just call me Blake."
The silver haired Hunter would nod before gently holding out his hand to hers. "Alright Blake, you can just call me Bálor." The two Faunus would quietly shake hands, neither of them saying a word before letting go after a few moments.
"So, Bálor..would you mind telling me how I ended up in the infirmary?" Blake would look up at him curiously as he offered her the cup of water once more, she accepted it with a quiet nod of thanks.
"Well Blake, that one's gonna take a while to explain..and seeing as how it's already fairly late into the evening…" Bálor would trail off, hoping she would understand the hidden meaning behind his words.
She would shake her head firmly as her gaze hardened considerably. "It doesn't matter, I need to know why I ended up here..and why you would stay here with me."
He would sigh as he felt the weight of her imploring gaze, even without the madness in her eyes he still felt utterly defeated by the fierce determination they held.
"Alright, I'll tell you..but you're not gonna like what you hear.
And with that, the wolf Faunus would lay out the basic set of events that had unfolded during the two months of his tenure there: From his first meeting with her, to the sparring match involving Cardin, the Cookie World incident and his tumultuous love triangle involving Ruby and Yang, to her own showdown with Yang, and finally ending with what he could recall from his own battle with her. By the end, the usually stoic feline would be weeping tears of regret for her actions toward this boy who was still being kind to her despite everything.
"I'm sorry..I have no idea what's come over me these past few months, ever since my..friend Sun, took off for Vacuo things have been kind of hazy." Blake would sniffle and rub her eyes, ashamed at the pitiful excuse she had just given for her less then stellar conduct. "I still can't believe I did and said all those horrible things to you and my friends, they must hate me so much right now."
"I doubt that, true friends would know that you weren't yourself, and they'd forgive your transgressions..I know I have." Bálor would smile as he handed her some tissues to dry her tears, even as she looked at him dumbfounded.
"Why..why would you forgive me?" She couldn't believe someone she had (by his own admission) treated so horribly would even contemplate forgiving her for all the pain she had caused him, much less actually do it.
"Because, I consider Team RWBY to be my family. And that includes you Blake." The wolf Faunus would grin as he said those words, the warmth in his eyes and that smile were far more then she deserved. The oddity of his kindness was overwhelming as she tried to keep the feelings and the tears from overwhelming her, but it would be fruitless as she felt his arms wrap around her gently as she finally started to sob into his shoulder.
"Thank you, Bálor"
Yeah, I just had to milk the drama bomb for all it was worth, for crying out loud people it's LISTED under Drama in genres (Alongside humor, which will return soon)
As for those with shipping aspirations, make of that last scene between Bálor and Blake what you will but I WILL close the door on one of your hopes right this second.
There will be no "Trifecta" between Bálor, Ruby, and Yang. It's two-thirds incest guys, it's just too weird for me.
And no group sharing between RWBY either, this is a straight BálorxSomebody ending so keep your reviews and PM's coming, whether it's to complain about the drama, asking whether or not your favorite character will make an appearance, or just to say how much you like or hate this fic.
Until then, this is Prince Pretty, telling y'all to stay gorgeous (Chapter foreshadowing, AND a wrestling reference!)