Four thunders break open the heaven

Four elements break open our breathren

The gods call for the final prayers

The brothers stand as the final players

Babel brightens up the burning sky

Twin brothers, both of courage and honor

Gone past beyond the fear of failure; of death

Face each other for the last time

So that one will die...

Dust & Sand excerpt (Brothers Duel)

Chapter 2: Broken Tower

Danger... Fear... Anger...

Feelings started filling Blake Belladonna as she saw the smoke rise in the air from the direction of the museum. Sun was there; he should be safe. Sun was a huntsman in training; he can handle himself. Is he safe? Is he hurt? Does he need her help?

Her stomach dropped deeper as she heard the city sirens being to fill her ears with the screeching whine. Without even realizing it, she felt her legs moving towards the museum. At first she just walked slowly towards the direction yet began to pick up speed when she started noticing the bodies of humans that were sprawled across the street and sidewalk. She was at a dead run by the time she hit the steps of the museum as a large locker crashed in front of her; shooting out the Gambol Shroud into her awaiting arms.

She breached the doors as a tempest of rage and fear. Whatever did this was powerful but like hell was she going to let whoever or whatever get away with it. She felt an urge in her gut to run towards the newly opened ancient faunus exhibit. Which she quickly confirmed when she noticed the battered and beaten bodies of Suns' team on the ground; sans Sun.

Each member was riddled with bruises, cuts, lacerations, and dust burns across their bodies. Yet each one was still alive if just barely. Yet the fact that Sun wasn't with them worried her deeply. She couldn't hear the sounds of combat over any of the alarms so that meant that either he fell elsewhere or that he was taken. Neither thoughts left her with a good feeling.

Finally she found the entrance to the ancient weapons exhibit; which caused her movement to grind to a screeching halt. Within the exhibit stood five men; four of which were cloaked. The fifth man held someone up singlehandedly by the throat with his left hand. His right gripped a long slender blade with a black hilt. The blade tip slowly dripped blood down onto the marble floor below.

He turned his head slowly to gaze upon the latest disturbance to their mission. Under the harsh museum lights; his skin shown an even more inhumanly white glow. His blood red eyes pierced her own as she noticed the blackness on his back twitch.

" Looks like we have another interloper trying to interfere. " His voice sounded entrallingly sweet; hiding the tongue that was as sharp as steel behind it. " Robin, you must be loosing your touch."

A slender man walked past him with a slight hop in his step and lowered his hood; exposing his spikey blonde hair and even spikier ears. He examined Blake from head to toe and took note of all of her attributes before turning towards the pale skinned man. " Nope Lestat. My song was only meant to affect the human vermin. She is not."

The other four turned their full attention to Blake now. As Lestat turned to face her, she finally noticed who he held by the throat. The boy she loved and cared for deeply; Sun Wu Kong. " SUN!"

Lestat tossed the bloodied and beaten body towards her and she gasped in horror as he fell broken onto the marble floor. " Just what I was hoping for. Another one of those tamed beasts that dare calls themself 'faunus'."

The blackness that clung to his back burst open in a giant flurry of action; exposing his spread black leathery wings. His right hand tightend against the blade hilt as his face turned into that of a snarling beast.

Blake unsheathed Gambol Shroud and now dual wielded her weapon; positioning herself into a defensive stance. Lestat started stalking towards her wih his blade tip causing sparks as it slid across the floor. " Come let me taste that sweet sweet blood of yours."

Fear filled her stomach as she watched him slowly stalk closer to her. He radiated inhuman evil; more monsterous than even any Grim she faced. She had not felt this kind of fear in a long time. A part of her wanted nothing more than just run far, far away from this place and not look back. The only resolve that kept her there was Suns' unconcious body that was sprawled out on the ground. She had to find some way to stop these monsters and save him.

Unfortunately Lestat decided to not give her a chance. He swung the blade skyward in a long arc; forcing her to backstep in order to not be cut. He followed that with a quick slash down before tucking the hilt close to his body and thrusting forward.

Blake was forced completely on the defensive as all she could do was block and dodge his violently strong and fast attacks. He refused to give her room to breathe let alone go on the offensive. She finally decided to use her trump card on him; her shadow clone semblance. She originally was hesitant to use it against him due to the fact that she didn't want to give the full depth of her techniques to the other four men. Once she managed to beat Lestat; she would still have to deal with them.

Lestats' lunge was quick and forceful as his blade went straight into Blakes' chest. He grinned as the blade slid smoothly through her. A quick, clean kill was his most preferred method of execution. Yet something entered his though as he fully comprehended the situation. The thrust was too clean; like he was passing through nothing at all.

His face turned to one of complete horror as he saw the young girls body vanish in front of him. Yet he soon smiled as he let the situation sink in. This girl reminded him so much of himself.

Blake landed hard on the ground; both her blades parrallel to each other in her hands. She had just slashed this monster of a faunus with her blades and knew that his wounds were fatal. The horror of her action hit her harder than any blow she had ever taken. She looked up at the man she had just killed with a pained look on her face.

Yet her pained face turned to one of complete horror. He had a sick, sadistic smile on his face as he glared down at her. " Amazing, lovely. No one has managed to trick me so well in such a long time. Too bad you waste your soul on such weak endeavors. Here let me show you how it's really done."

Her eyes focused so hard on the man in front of her that she shut out all of her other senses. She kept close watch on the man that was pouring out blood from two blade wounds on his chest. She never knew how much trouble she was truely in till she felt a cold sharp pain enter from the back of her body.

Blake tried to force a shadow clone to get clear but she could only fall forward from where she was and her clone remained. Her body felt numb as she tried to stand.

Lestat walked closer towards his prey as she tried to crawl away from him. His poison was slowly entering her blood stream and slowing it down to a crawl. With it; she could not even do basic stuff such as stand let alone more advanced movements such as combat.

" Your little soul ability is nice but nowhere near the same caliber of mine. But I shall give you the gift of a swift death for your troubles." She didn't know how he could attack her from behind while still in front of her. Or how he survived her attack from earlier. Worse was that she didn't even know how she was going to survive.

He now stood in front of her prone body; his blade ready to land the final blow. Blake closed her eyes slowly as tear poured down her cheeks. This was how she was going to die. All she could think about in her last few moments was all the mistakes she had made in the past. How she could of spent more time enjoying life with her team and letting Sun know that she loved him. So many regrets to take to ones' death.

The blade fell...

Instead of the embrace of nothingness; Blake felt a wave of warmth cascade over her. No more numbness.

" Is she ok?" A voice Blake knew so well broke the pregnant silence. Her eyes shot open to see the man that was to be her executioner; frozen from the neck down. To each side of her was her teammates. Ruby on her left, Yang on her right, and Weiss right on top of her with a hand on Blakes' wound.

" Ruby she's got a sword wound in her stomach. Even though I counteracted the numbing ice dust inside her body; it will only make her open to blood loss from the wounds. Our best bet is to fall back and get her treated." Weiss had a worried look on her face as she looked at the four other cloaked men.

Yang stepped forward and slammed her fist together. " I don't know about either of you but I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to let some jerks get away with hurting my team mate."

Ruby pointed the crescent rose at the middle man of the group. " Weiss, we just have to hold them here till back up arrives. If we do that then we'll win for sure."

The leader stepped forward. " You speak too highly of yourself child. You mongrels know nothing of us yet believe you have a chance to impede our mission with your annoying antics. What is stopping us from slaying you all?"

Ruby gulped down the full implication of this mans words before considering her response. " Don't let our age fool you. We're trained huntresses who have bested Grimm. We're not afraid of you."

The man undid his cloak letting it fall free; exposing his solid muscular physic and golden lions tail. " You slay pesky vermin yet speak as if you were warriors. Child you have much to learn of true strength."

This lion tailed faunus spun a bodly length staff around him with two almost identical blades at each tip. One of the blades was black while the other was white. He pointed the white blade towards Ruby Rose and grinned menacingly; showing off his sharpened canines. " Come child... take your best shot."

Ruby fired off two rounds from the Crescent Rose towards his chest in quick succession. With just a twist of his blade; both rounds stopped to a dead halt at the edge of the white blade. The bullets then turned to powder as they touched the blade.

" Ashes to ashes, rust to rust. You're attack turned out to be a bust." A thin spike haired man moved towards the leader. " Not to be THAT guy but we are on a time table here, Ajani."

Ajani, the lion tailed leader turned towards him and snarled. " Robin, find the relic. Furion and Sylla, pick a dance partner."

The massive form of a man stepped forward and pointed towards Yang with his giant hand. " I'll take the blonde one. Furion, take the albino."

Both men tossed off their cloaks while the one named Robin ran deeper into the exhibit looking for the relic that they desired. The man named Sylla was a massive bear of a faunus. He had fur going all along his arms that ended at his wrists and a massive stone claw strapped to his left arm and hand.

Furion was tall and lean with two small tusks jutting up from his lower jaw. In each hand he weilded stone axes with great ease. He eyed down Weiss as he crept closer to her. His face was full of exuberation as he seemed to revel in the thought of combat. " Round two. FIGHT!"

The members of team RWBY sans Blake stood poised to defend as these faunus men stalked towards them. Thoughts of what might happen filled each of the girls head. The fear of the unknown of combat always filled the back of each girls mind. Ruby tried to shake off the feeling as she expanded Crescent Rose into its' scythe mode and send the scythe blade behind her. She had already thought of how the fight between her and Ajani was going to go. She was going to use her speed to disarm and disable him before he could even react.

Ruby fired off a round from Crescent Rose and charged forward with the added momentum from the fired roud. She sent the scythe blade low to take out his legs or at most cause him to jump. Ajani jumped over it with ease and let his back become exposed to her second attack.

Ruby fired a round into the ground and another at the direction she was charging to in order to spring her up into the air and cause her forward momentum to dead stop. She spun the scythe around to attack Ajani from behind. Yet again he dodged out of the way. As she landed; she continued the spin and picked up speed from more timed round shots. She became a blur of motion as she spun and lept all around Ajani; hoping to land a blow onto him. But no matter how fast she got; he always managed to dodge her blows.

" Are you quite done little girl?" Ajani spoke as he turned the black blade towards Ruby. To her horror; she found that her scythe came to a dead stop, jerking her body from the rough end of movement. " Blades of steel will never hurt me."

Ruby found her scythe knocked away by an invisible force and Ajani right on top of her. Their weapons clashed violently as Ruby barely managed to block his attacks. His attacks were an impressive display of untempered rage and brutality. In desperation, Ruby tried to collapse her scythe into rifle form in order to fire at point blank; only for Ajani to knock her weapon free from her grip and send it flying with the black bladed side of his staff.

Ajani gripped Rubys' head in his left hand and smashed her hard into the concrete wall of the museum. Her head exploded in pain as her world went bright white and then into darkness. Her lifeless body fell like a ragdoll to the ground.

All around Blake; the horror story continued to repeat itself. Ruby was knocked out cold by Ajani, Weiss was being beat down by Furion, and Yang was losing in a contest of stregnth to Syllabear. What started out as a nice peaceful day had turned into a nightmare that refused to end. She was slowly bleeding out, her team was completed defeated, and Suns' team was also fully wrecked. Somehow Blake found the stregnth to stand and weild her blades. She slowly stumble walked towards Ajani; not knowing how she was going to beat him. All she knew was that he had to be defeated.

Ajani took stock of the faunus girl that walked towards him. She was already in no condition to fight him; yet was willing to push herself beyond the point of breaking due to her loyalty to her friends. When he was younger he would of admired the girls' blind devotion. Yet he wasn't that man any more. But if a noble sacrifice was what she desired then it wasn't his place to stop her. He would give her the honor of a quick death.

Blake looked on as Ajani readied the killing blow upon her. At least she would die trying to defend her friends.

The sound of crashing metal filled the exhibit hall. For the second time today Blake had avoided death by timely intervention. This time an unknown person stood in between her and Ajani with a long sword that looked like a propeller blade deadlocked with Ajanis' staff.

The confusion on Blakes' face however could not hold a candle to the shock of disbelief and horror that now shown on Ajanis'. To Blake he looked as a negative reflection of Ajani. He had short spikey black hair and a black tipped lions tail. To Ajanis' more average attire; this man wore what looked like military fatigues. Yet she could tell that they both had the same face.

"Hello Ajani... I don't think I need to tell you this but... you have the right to remain silent." His words caught Blake off guard yet seemed to infuriate Ajani even more. He easily pushed Ajani backwards several feet and cause the white lion tailed faunus to trip over some rubble on the floor. As they broke the black haired man opened a compartment in the hilt of his blade and put what appeared to be a vial of dust into it. He then turned his gaze to Ajani; who was charging him at a dead run.

" GIDEON!" Ajanis' scream echoed through the museum exhibit as the man named Gideon slammed his blade into the marble. Blake barely noticed a yellow powder pour from the blade hilt and down the center of the blade to the floor. The powder shot out across the floor in every direction and formed an intricate pattern on the ground. " What the? Gideon, what the hell have you done?"

Gideon looked at Ajani whos' feet were now stuck in place; then turned his attention upon the other men that followed him. " Ajani Nacatyl, you and your cohorts are under arrest for assault, robbery, sedition, treason, and murder. You are hereby ordered to drop your weapons and surrender. If you refuse these order then I am hereby authorized to use lethal force. Sucks to be you guys doesn't it."

" Dammit Gideon what the hell did you do to us?" Ajani growled as he recklessly stabbed the white sided stone blade down upon the yellow crystallized sand that encrusted his feet.

"Oh if Maestro could see you now. Remember when he trapped us like this many years ago. He did his best trying to teach us the art of Sand Shackles. Too bad you always thought you were too good for all those lesson." Gideon snapped his head back towards Ajani as his eyes burned with contempt for the man. " And then you killed him."

Sweat ran off of Ajanis' brow as he dared not take his eyes off of Gideon. It has been too long since they last met and he knew that Gideon held a deep seated hatred due to him killing Maestro. " So you're willing to put me down like a dog? Brother, don't make me laugh."

" You're no brother of mine." Gideon stalked towards Ajani slowly as a predator would with cornered prey. He knew what Ajani was capable of and didn't want to leave himself open to any impulsive counterattack. " Now please be a good pup and drop your weapon."

Ajani looked around to find that at least a dozen troops matching Gideons attire had entered the room and surrounded them. 'It couldn't end like this. It shouldn't', he kept on telling himself in his head. 'There was still so much work that needed to be done.'

As if on cue; the exhibit shot bright with explosions. From every direction blasts sent shrapnels of glass, stone, and marble. Half of Gideons team were taken out from the blast while him and the others sheltered the girls of team RWBY and Sun from the debris. Gideon wrapped his arms tightly around Blake and lowered her to the ground. She saw that he became a living shield to protect her even without knowing her name. Even his face showed a concern for her well being that she never expected from anyone older than her before.

After it was all over he released her and stood back up to inspect his surroundings. To her horror; she noticed that Ajani and the rest of his team were free and of Robins return. " Sigh I leave you guys for just a bit and you all just have to go and get caught. Tsk tsk tsk, what am I going to do with you boys?"

Ajani turned to Robin and snarled at the shorter man. " Shut your mouth now or I'll have you eat your tongue."

Their conversation continued for a bit longer but by this time Blake was feeling a bit too lightheaded. Blake finally accepted the gift of unconciousness as the one named Robin lifted a small golden object into view...