Stardust

Chapter 18

Loose Ends

Cerise stared in surprise as Citrine came in from out of nowhere with a charge that knocked his uncle up slightly and then as with a spin of his halberd knocked him away.

Looking at him with Citrine said with a bit of a pant said "s-sorry I'm late."

Cerise merely just grinned and got to his feet "perfect timing I would say actually."

As one the two looked to Silver who was staring at the both of them with an ugly scowl on his face.

Cerise said to Citrine "careful he has polarity as a semblance."

"Understood." His partner replied.

The three charged into battle.

(CCTS)

From outside the figure listening the sounds of battle sighed and spoke into their scroll "yeah go ahead and do it, this whole thing is done."

(CCTS)

Elsewhere a figure pressed a button.

(CCTS)

"AGH!" Silver cried out as he was knocked backward panting heavily the giant axe he wields starting to loosen in his grip.

Cerise and Citrine held their positions flanking him slightly. The action resembled a pack of animals going in for the kill.

But before anyone could do anything Silver's body tensed up and the man gasped eyes widening as he swayed axe dropping and he shouted breathlessly "no… NO! Sir please I can still, still, there's I can_" his shouts switched off into rambling as he swayed more and more and the corner of his mouth started to foam.

Clutching his chest Silver went "urk!" And collapsed.

From his place Citrine muttered to himself "him too?"

Cerise heard those words butt was more focused on his uncle as he approached.

What if this is an act? He wondered.

But the man himself gave no movement as Cerise cautiously approached.

He was just staring blankly at the roof of the tent no light in his eyes, foam and drool leaking from his mouth.

If it weren't for the fact, he was breathing Cerise would think he's dead.

"Cerise" his partner spoke up from behind him catching his attention.

"Check… check his chest." Citrine said.

Cerise blinked and crouching down next to his uncle Cerise put a hand on his chest and gave a start when through the cloth of his robes he felt something that was not skin, something hard.

Reaching over to pull down the neck of Silver's robe his eyes went wide with surprise as he saw some black material embedded in his chest.

Blinking Cerise carefully prodded the material and realized it was… crystalline in nature.

"Is this… dust embedded into him?" Cerise asked in horror and astonishment.

Citrine more than bit unsure said "…I think so? The woman I was fighting earlier she did this too and when I checked her over" here he blushed red, it wasn't hard to guess why "she had this stuff in her chest too."

Cerise released his grip on his uncle's garment letting it rest and got up on to look at Citrine more than a bit worriedly.

Moments later the two stepped out into Remnants night. The light of the moon and what few torches there were illuminating the world around them.

One short walk later had the duo locating Smoke and Titania who were quietly conversing in front of one of the other tents.

That particular duo looked at the rest of their team as they approached and it was Cerise who led in hesitantly saying "there… was dust infused into your opponent too wasn't there?"

The two looked at each other and then back to Cerise and nodded.

Cerise looked off into the distance drumming his fingers.

It was Smoke who broke the silence saying "what now?"

"Now" Cerise said looking at his team. "Now we report in again and get backup."

(CCTS)

A day passed in this manner. Cerise got properly outfitted again and the quartet made camp and managed everything as best they could.

Then as the afternoon sky dawned a group of airships came in from the horizon and as they landed who should be one of the first to touch the ground but Professor Rust and catching sight of the teens his face became murderous and he stalked towards them.

And team CCTS couldn't stop themselves from shivering as he did though Smoke seemed to be a bit smug.

They knew they were in for the scolding of their lives.

(CCTS)

One stern talking to later and night had fallen once again and all of the assembled personnel had made camp, set up a perimeter, and arranged all of the nearest rainbow-colored stones they could find in a sort of rough pyramid formation.

Professor Rust now stood by the stone making up they very tip of the shape, the one Cerise knew contained Alice as he looked over the data some of the people he had brought in had gathered. The man was getting ready to set all those people free.

That was one of the bright spots about today after the scolding of the century. Alice and all the other victims trapped inside the stones were alive held in some kind of stasis.

Passing the scroll back to the technician, said technician backed off, Professor Rust then cracked his neck and flexed his arms to loosen them up.

Then lowering himself into a classic brawler's stance the man started to flow and flex into different martial artist poses and as he did so glyphs appeared around parts of his body and underneath him.

Then finally under a moment of great anticipation and build up Professor Rust moved forward in a smooth motion placed one hand against the stone and all the glyphs flowed like water to coil around the stone and with his other hand he punched the stone.

KRACK-OOOM!

The noise that came from the stone's destruction was deafening as all the stones broke at once the pieces all vanish at one in flashes of white leaving no physical trace.

Not that that mattered to Cerise because as soon as he saw Alice was free, he was there sitting in the dirt holding the little girl in his arms.

"Alice! Alice can you hear me?!" He cried to the girl.

Shifting back to a relaxed stance Professor Rust looked like he wanted to scold Cerise about this but decided to let it go feeling that in this case it would be futile.

As numerous shouts and sounds of all sorts of talking resounded through the air Cerise continued to look after Alice and after a bit the little girl stirred and opened her eyes.

"C-Cerise?" The girl muttered confusedly.

With tears starting to come his eyes he said "yes Alice it's me!"

The girl didn't really pay much mind to him very clearly not coherent instead she turned her eyes skyward and she whispered "pretty."

Cerise looked up just as the first mote fell from the sky.

In seconds a light rain was upon them composed of silver motes that didn't just fall to earth they swirled about in a spectacular display.

"Huh." Professor Rust muttered from nearby "must be leftover energy dispersal from breaking all those monstrosities." Raising his voice, he called out "I want data on this and striding off.

Cerise continued to cradle Alice in his arms as the rest of his team approached and the little girl muttered to herself "it's beautiful."

Looking up with the rest of his team at the display Cerise could not deny that it was. The motes that fell and swirled about looked as if they had come directly from the heavens above.

It was so ethereal, so perfectly lined up that it looked like… stardust.

Author's Note: It has been WELL over three years since I started this project reboots and so-so but once Stardust got started I have had that ending for this chapter in mind during the whole of this project and it is SOOOOO cathartic to finally do it. All that's left is the epilogue. That's it. I hope you like this. I do not own RWBY in any way, shape, or form. My OC's are my own. Reviews welcome.