The Shadow of Fire
Chapter 58: Break from Reality
A/N: How you all doing? Good I hope! Sorry I've been gone, work and vacation, but now I'm all free!
Enjoy!
Next chapter out soon.
Reviews:
jetscythe7: It is a type of dinosaur. One of those long necked ones. I'd look it up online. :3
Trewill91: Yay! :3
Tatya1999: This story will go into a sequel, and it wasn't planned to go past 70 chapters. But don't worry, the final chapters will be amazing! And yep, funny how that worked with Yang's hand. Haha. Thanks!
OmegaKenichi: Did I? I'll have to look back there then!
Throthgar's bane: yep! Gotta love Vivi!
Weiss Schnee awoke from a cold sweat, and not because she was an icy person.
Her eyes fluttered as they adjusted to the brightness of the suspended lampshade over the table she sat at. Her body was situated in a small booth, confusion apparent on her face.
"Weiss!" Ruby laughed as she retracted her hand from Weiss' shoulder, having just woken the girl up. "This isn't the time for a nap sleepyhead! You keep dozing off!"
"Nap...?" Weiss blinked as she took in her surroundings.
Blake and Yang sat across from the pair, both sipping from their respective drinks happily as they exchanged banter. A few waiters passed by with plates lined up their arms in perfect balance, moving between table and table.
A café. What?
"Where... where are we?" Weiss asked as she noticed the logo on the door.
Shadow of Intent.
Weiss looked around quickly.
'The Shadow of Intent...?' Weiss blinked as she thought to herself. "How did we get here? I'm confused..."
"We just got here silly." Ruby laughed as her plain silver eyes regarded Weiss curiously. "Why? What's wrong?"
"Am I dreaming?" Weiss asked as she pinched the skin of her wrist.
"You okay, Ice Queen?" Yang asked as she raised a brow of confusion. "Looking more pale than usual? You dying or something?"
Weiss shook her head in confusion as she watched Ruby raise her milkshake to her mouth.
Weiss thought for a second.
'Milkshake... Café...' Weiss' eyes widened as she smacked the drink from her hands, tackling Ruby to the ground suddenly.
"Get down! Sniper!" Weiss screamed as she held Ruby down against the red leather of the booth.
"ACK!" Ruby cried out as she struggled under the surprising pressure of Weiss, squirming rapidly as her limbs flailed in the air.
Weiss opened a shut eye and looked around as nothing happened. No loud crash, no shattering of glass. No nothing.
Weiss sat up and nervously gazed out the window, prepared to duck if absolutely necessary. Confusion formed as nothing was out of the ordinary. No sniper on the roof. No Saturn Laos.
"What...?" Weiss blinked as Yang lifted her off of Ruby, allowing the slightly bigger girl to breathe.
"You alright, Princess?" Yang asked as she helped Weiss to her feet, the girl in question clearly shaken to the core.
"The bullet..." Weiss muttered. "No bullet... No... No... How...?"
"Take it easy, Weiss. Just calm down and relax. Deep breaths." Blake instructed as Weiss suddenly struggled in Yang's constraint, breaking free before backing away from the three.
"Y-you all aren't real!" Weiss screamed the the group, drawing eyes from the surrounding tables. "None of you are!"
Weiss darted out the doors.
"Weiss!" Blake shouted as she ran to the doorway, looking around rapidly as she quickly lost the girl in the concrete jungle.
"What is happening..." Weiss muttered to herself as she passed through the alleyways of Vale, avoiding every person she encountered. Something felt off. This was just a dream, right?
Weiss quickened her breathing as she pinched her arm once more to no avail. It felt so real... Too real.
"Orion." Weiss realized as she pulled out her Scroll in an effort to retrace her steps from her first venture here. "The park!"
The heiress bolted towards the very place she had met the mysterious God of Fate, trudging through the light snow that peppered the ground. Her dress blended in with the soft powder, almost masking her from the naked eye as she entered the gateway to the secluded area.
"Now I just wait..." Weiss nodded to herself as she sat down on the familiar looking bench, brushing the snow packed onto the metal seat.
Time passed as messages continued to beep onto her Scroll, vibrating against the metal frame of the bench. Her mind was elsewhere as the messages from her friends went unnoticed, all begging the girl to come back.
"Where could he be...? This is the right bench, right?" Weiss thought aloud as a shadow began to cover her being.
Looking the the source quickly, Weiss spotted a gentleman with a thick coat and cane passing through. She held in the urge to shout to Orion as he moved towards the girl, standing to her side.
"Do you mind if I sit, miss?" The elderly man asked as he adjusted his scarf covering his face.
"Sure! It's... open...?" Weiss blinked as they sat down beside her.
It wasn't a man at all, but quite the older woman. Clearly it wasn't Orion, or even Aphrodite for that matter. No one she recognized off the top of her head. Flowing brunette hair fell from the cap as she took a sip of hot coco, shivering in the temperature.
The woman regarded Weiss' stare. "Am I bothering you?"
"No!" Weiss nearly shouted as she sighed in defeat. "I... I just was waiting for someone I guess."
"Well, the day is still young. Perhaps your friend will show up eventually, hm?" The elderly woman smiled as she sipped her drink.
"Yeah... Maybe..." Weiss agreed before standing up, pulling out her Scroll.
"Nice meeting you, ma'am." Weiss bowed her head before running off, leaving the lady to herself.
"Intriguing." The woman almost smiled as she sat back on the bench, drifting off into daydreams.
Headmaster Ozpin felt a patterned vibration from his Scroll deep within his buttoned suit. Reaching for the device, the elder raised it to his ear with a press of a button.
"Ozpin speaking."
The voice of Weiss Schnee stammered out from the other end, almost sounding panicked.
"Headmaster Ozpin! It's Weiss! Look, something is very wrong here."
"What do you mean, miss Schnee?" Ozpin asked as he put a folder away in a drawer, setting the phone onto speaker upon his desk.
"Have you heard from Orion recently, sir?" Weiss asked as she ducked under a tree branch, following her footsteps towards the hospital Ruby would have been moved to.
"I beg your pardon?"
Ozpin sounded confused, as if he didn't understand what Weiss was talking about.
"Orion! God of Fate? You're practically best friends! Remember?" Weiss explained as she turned a sidewalk.
"Miss Schnee, are you alright? You're speaking gibberish." Ozpin paused in mid-step. "I don't know any so called "God of Fate"."
Weiss went to speak again before she froze, dropping the Scroll to the ground. The call disconnected as the device shattered on the pavement as Weiss' eyes twitched violently.
The hospital was missing, in its place a worn down warehouse with broken windows and boarded doors.
"No..." Weiss dropped to her knees, trembling as tears welled up in her eyes. What was happening to her? Was it really all some sort of day dream? "No no no!" Weiss practically screamed out in defiance, looking up to the sky.
"Yveltal! Xalveris! Show yourselves!" Weiss demanded as tears ran freely down her face to the snow below. "Dagonus you bastard! Where are you?!"
"Weiss!" Ruby's voice came from behind her as Weiss dropped back down to her knees, shivering as she sobbed in her palms.
Blake and Yang turned the corner on Yang's specialized motorcycle, flying down the road before skidding to a stop nearby. Blake ran over to the pair and dropped down to help Ruby with Weiss. Weiss looked utterly horrible, covered in snow and water, eyes red from sobbing. Blake had no idea how Weiss felt, yet she had some instinct that her world had just fallen apart in an instant.
"Shhh..." Blake cooed as she lifted Weiss up into her arms. "It's going to be all okay. Let's all head back to Beacon and just collect our heads, huh?"
Weiss ran one of her sleeves across her eyes. "O-okay."
Ruby watched with a concerned looked as Blake helped the white haired girl onto the cycle, following with her enhanced speed as Yang tore off towards their dorm room back at school.
Having returned into the room from having a hot shower to calm herself, Weiss, wrapped in a platinum colored robe, sat on her bottom bunk of the shared bed. The occasional sniffle was brought forth from the silence every so often as Yang poured another bowl of hot soup for the girl, resting the food upon a tray next to her bed.
"Eat up, crying takes most of your energy out of ya'." Yang gave a hopeful smile, patting the girl on her back.
Weiss didn't really respond. Her vegetative state concerned the group immensely, so much so that even when Ozpin arrived to see what Ruby and Blake were so concerned about he hadn't a clue himself. Doctor Firefall, the only person Weiss could even remotely know did come by to see for himself, but it wasn't the same man. A younger, more serious man contrast to the one she knew so well. No one knew the pain she was going through. To have someone completely shutdown was one thing, but to experience it yourself was another entirely.
"You don't have to now if you don't want to, it probably tastes better when cold." Yang added.
No reply.
"Cause then it won't burn your tongue, ya' know!" Yang continued in a hope for a reply.
Still nothing but a sniffle.
Yang sighed as she shut the fridge in their kitchen area, putting a few dishes away before exiting out the main door.
Blake was the only one left in the room at this point, having been hiding in the shadows of her bedding above Yang's bunk. The cat Faunus blinked as she turned another page in her novel, causally glancing down to the heiress below her. After several minutes Weiss felt as if she were finally alone once more, moving her head towards the bowl of soup.
The heiress scanned the concoction over for a moment before lightly taking a single spoon full and bringing it to her mouth, blowing on it before allowing it access to her taste-buds.
Blake sunk further into her dark blankets to hide from the girl, watching with interest as Weiss sniffled over her apparent shutdown.
"It's a dream... It... It has to be..." Weiss mumbled under her breath, nearly silent as she uttered her first words in hours. She hardly could bring herself to talk at a time like this. She barely knew these people anymore.
"Why... Why is this happening..." Weiss sobbed into her hands once more, dropping the spoon to the floor as she cried.
Everything was gone. Orion, Ruby, even Saturn she missed. All those she knew for months upon months were just fake? False memories of a daydream?
Weiss kicked at an invisible entity before her, screaming in frustration as Blake watched on with concerned yet calculated eyes. This wasn't normal for Weiss, and there must be some logical reason for her outbursts.
The cat Faunus hopped down the other side of the bed to avoid detection, creeping around to possibly give Weiss some form of comfort.
"Heheh." A sharp voice sounded from the side of Weiss, drawing her red eyes to the source.
Xalveris, God of Destruction, stood tall across the bed from her. A vile smirk on his pale face as he ran a smooth had through his ghostly black hair. His suit was stainless, holding a large trench coat and sword in hand as he laughed.
"Weiss." The God laughed as he took a step closer, cackling evilly as he did.
Weiss scooted back on her bed, her whole being trembling as she looked around rapidly for some sort of aid to defend herself. Her standard rapier was clipped to the opposing wall, leaving her with little options.
"Are you okay, Weiss? What's wrong?" The God taunted as he dragged the blade across the floor, the wood pieces of the surface disappearing into darkness as he pulled back his blade.
Blake watched in confusion as she crept closer, arms out in an effort to sooth the girl.
Weiss quickly grabbed the hot bowl of soup and flung it across the room, splashing the dish across Xalveris's face. The God cried out in utter pain as he swung his dark blade in random directions, his eyes burning from the hot liquid.
Weiss quickly rolled out of bed and grabbed the nearest thing on the side stand; Gambol Shroud. The heiress held the blade in a warning stance, prepared to lash out need be.
Xalveris growled under his brunt face, raising the blade out to strike.
Weiss leapt forward and forced the weapon into his torso, pinning him to the floor as he cried out in pain. Weiss grit her teeth as she forced the weapon in deeper into his being, red liquid pooling out from the wound inflicted.
"Die!" Weiss screamed through tears. "Die! Die! Die! Die dammit!"
By the time she finished, Weiss had coaxed the floor in fresh blood. Her robe was soaked in the essence as she forced the blade in one last time. His weak, panicked look morphed from one of death to one of delight, laughing as his form shuttered and transformed.
Blake was lying on the floor, dead as can be.
And Weiss was on top of her.
"W-what?" Weiss couldn't process what she had done, looking down to her hands as the door opened up beside her.
Yang stood in the gateway with a tray of various cakes, a happy grin on her face.
"Heya Weiss! Thought some of your favorite food might cheer you- OH GOD!" Yang screamed as she dropped the tray.
"Y-Yang!" Weiss shouted as she cried harder. "I-It wasn't me! S-she, it was Xalveris!"
Yang didn't even listen as her eyes flashed red with anger, letting out an animalistic screech as she leapt forward with Ember Celica, punching Weiss right through the skull...
Weiss shook violently as she was suddenly back on the bed, Blake standing before her with a confused look on her face.
"Are you okay, Weiss? What's wrong?" Blake asked as she tilted her head in concern, the heiress breathing fast as her heart raced.
"B-Blake...!" Weiss threw herself into the girl's embrace, sobbing harder and harder as Blake lightly pat her back. "I'm so sorry!"
"I... It's okay...?" Blake was extremely confused, simply patting her gently until she was able to calm down. Yang came into the room moments later with the same platter, looking awfully confused as Blake waved her off.
Ruby adjusted the group blanket the quartet used as they all gathered around their dorm's television to watch a movie. Weiss didn't really care what it was, something about some self-healing superhero Yang was in love with. All she really did was stare at the photos on the walls.
Ruby had taken a photography class with Velvet early during their first semester at Beacon, that much Weiss clearly remembered. She distinctively recalled every single instance of protest as Ruby attempted to photograph her, down to the very pixel of each picture. The most important of all was their group photograph taken moments after their formation. Weiss remembered herself and Blake standing side by side, looking professional whilst Yang and Ruby could not stop smiling and laughing as Velvet attempted the photo.
Weiss spotted said photo and lightly smiled. Maybe it was all just a dream after all.
Ruby stretched as Blake stood up, cracking her neck.
"I will be back. Anyone want anything?" Blake asked as Yang exchanged a glance with Ruby, both giddy.
"S'mores!" The duo chanted as Blake couldn't hold back a hearty laugh, nodding her head.
"Weiss?" Ruby asked as she turned to the heiress, a tilt of her head.
"I... Yes, please." Weiss managed out as everyone shared a combined laugh, Weiss still very quiet, but opening up.
"I will be back then. Yang, can you give me a hand with the matches?" Blake asked.
Yang shot up. "Honey, I am a match." The brawler grinned and followed the cat, Ruby giving Weiss a big hug before standing too.
Weiss snuggled the blanket as Ruby looked down. "I'll be back! Don't hog the blanket!"
"Will do, Ruby." Weiss smiled a little as the girl ran off.
Weiss looked back to the photograph in question and smiled, remembering the day it was taken. Her stare was followed by a look of confusion and a frown, not sure what bothered her about it.
That's when she noticed Ruby and Yang in perfect sync with herself and Blake, out of their recalled happy poses.
Mountain Glenn
Orion lightly knocked against the doorway to Ruby and Weiss' homestead, glancing in as he spotted Ruby poking Weiss' shoulders.
"Weiss?" Ruby nudged the girl as she slept, unable to rouse her.
"What's wrong?" Orion asked as he knelt down to Ruby's level.
Ruby frowned as she shook the girl a tad rough. "She won't wake up."
"Did Schnee pass in her sleep?" Saturn asked from the doorway, picking his teeth with a gold pen. "Because that would just break my precious heart."
Orion felt for a pulse, noticing very faint breathing, but close to normal. A small thump connected to his finger tips.
"She's alive, but fast asleep." The God noted, pulling his hand away.
"Why isn't she waking up then?" Ruby asked as Saturn stepped forward into the chamber, nudging her foot.
"Here, let me see..." The mercenary summoned his twin Guardians in snake form. The twins slithered across the air, hissing as their purple mostly heads moved in on Weiss. The snakes sniffed the girl over, taking in her scent before returning to Saturn's side, nuzzling his ear.
"Seems she is having a nightmare of sorts." Saturn noted as he recalled his Semblance back into his being, allowing his Aura to recharge.
"That isn't good." Orion thought as he scratched his chin. "We need to leave very soon, and we don't have time to wait around."
"We are just leaving her here?" Ruby blinked as she looked back at the sleeping girl, a stone expression on her face.
"If we don't leave now, we may not have another chance at stopping Dagonus." Orion placed a hand on her shoulder.
A flash of gold took Orion's vision as he was suddenly deep within Vale, standing in the ruins of a battlefield. He looked around quickly, spotting Saturn deep in combat with what looked like Dagonus as Cheshire leapt towards the death God. Scanning the field for Weiss's presence, the God of Fate could indeed sense her nearby, moving towards them in fact as a pool of liquid magma began to flood around his feet.
Orion caught his breath as he shook his head to regain composure, looking at the two.
"She will be fine here." Orion stood up, gritting his teeth to hold back a concerned look. "Let's get moving you two."
Saturn followed Orion out, leaving Ruby alone with the heiress upon the makeshift bedding. Ruby lightly rubbed the back of her palm across Weiss' cheek, pecking her on the same spot before moving off to join the others.
Weiss stumbled back as she looked to other photographs, noticing alterations to most if not all of them in some way or another. Major events like the day of the lunch room fight were shifted, with Team SSSN replacing Team JNPR as their combatants. Weiss knew for a fact that it was supposed to be JNPR, she wouldn't ever forget Nora blasting her into a pillar.
Ruby returned to the room with a tray of sweets, tilting her head as Weiss was looking at the photographs.
"What' cha doing?" Ruby asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
Weiss looked back at Ruby.
"You aren't real." Weiss spoke defiantly, narrowing her eyes at the girl. "None of this is."
Blake reemerged from the kitchen area, a look of contempt across her face.
"What? How could you say that?" Ruby asked as she placed the tray down.
"Everything I know is different. There is no way that is possible." Weiss held her ground, glaring.
Yang entered, arms folded across her chest with a scornful expression.
"Weiss... I think you're just tired." Ruby pleaded.
Weiss looked to her right and noticed her blade laying against the wall, moved by Blake earlier in the day. The heiress began to step sideways towards it, eyes locked on the girls.
"You shouldn't have thought too deep into this." Ruby spoke before she threw herself across the room.
Weiss narrowly avoided the girl as she side stepped, leaving Ruby to throw herself at full speed into the television. Her body surged with electricity as glass littered the ground, her body twitching violently as she screamed.
Yang came second, her weapons at the ready as she brought both arms down on the heiress. Weiss backed up as Yang destroyed a table before the her sending wood and nails all across the room. Weiss grabbed her blade just in time as Blake appeared from nowhere, slashing with Gambol Shroud. The two blades clashed in a shower of sparks, Weiss placing a Glyph on the bottom of her right foot. The girl forced Blake's blade away and kicked out, the added push sending her flying into the bunk beds across the room. Yang ducked as Blake screamed before hitting the post, weaving in and out of Weiss' icicle blasts from her rapier. Spinning the Dust chamber, Weiss set red to flow, twirling before meeting Yang head on against her fists.
The two landed in a stalemate, both holding their own ground as Yang brought another fist to the side, blasting Weiss into the wall. Plaster fell to the floor as she struggled to get up, moving just in time as Yang barreled through the wall with a sharp battle cry. Weiss barely had time to react as Blake was once more upon her, slashing with both pieces of Gambol Shroud to maximum effect. Weiss parried the strikes and placed assorted Glyphs around the room with her free hand.
"You shouldn't have noticed!" Blake hissed at the girl before Weiss side stepped as she slashed with her katana, leaving Blake to stumbled forward into an awaiting Glyph.
The cat Faunus was flung across the room violently like a rag doll, landing in another Glyph's embrace before flying into another, dropping her weapons along the way. Being shot upwards into the air as she hit the last Glyph, Weiss spun her rapier to white as ancient symbols upon the blade began to glow and stood at the ready, slashing sideways as she fell.
Blake landed on the floor in two pieces, cut at the torso with a clean arc through her being. Her eyes twitched before going still, crimson pooling at the site.
Yang leapt back into the room, throwing the door at Weiss with such velocity that had it hit her she would have surly been killed. The door fell out of the now gapping hole where the window once hung, a harsh blizzard now reaching into the chamber.
Weiss deflected fist after fist, even cutting one of Ember Celica's projectiles in half as Yang fired them. The close proximity didn't allow for much usage of the ranged attack, but she wouldn't go down without a fight.
Weiss stood at the hole in the wall, backed into a corner by the brawler whose eyes were as red as a Grimm's. Yang let out a feral scream before throwing herself towards Weiss to finish her off.
Weiss spun and thrusted into Yang's back, cutting into her spine like a hot knife to butter. Yang stumbled at the attack, arms flailing as Weiss turned and arced downward with her sword, cutting both hands off of the brawler. Yang panicked and lost her footing, falling out of the window several stories to her death on frozen concrete below.
Weiss looked down to her handiwork to confirm the kill, noticing that Yang had landed head first on to a large stone, which had instantly liquified her brain. Snow quickly covered the girl's corpse on Beacon grounds, leaving only one left.
Ruby stumbled from the wreckage of the television with glass stuck in various places of her chest and face. The girl grit her teeth as she saw the corpse of Blake and the severed hands of Yang, grabbing Crescent Rose off of the wall.
"You will pay for this, Schnee!" Ruby barked as she leapt across the room, slashing in a circle with her scythe.
Weiss narrowly avoided the massive weapon, the bunk behind her now split in two as books and blood littered the floor. Cracking her neck, Ruby spun and adjusted her scythe, firing off a point blank shot towards Weiss.
Myrtenaster exploded in her hands, the Dust chamber now fully exposed as it violently began to shoot out streams of concentrated Dust. A pillar of ice formed as an icicle on the floor of the room whilst a red stream caught the nearby bedding to flames.
Ruby backed away from the flames as a dark shadow of the girl formed on the wall, altering its form multiple times as Ruby shifted away, hissing all the time. The blaze relocated Weiss as well, armed only with two Glyph's placed upon her fists.
"You're too cleaver, puny one." Ruby snickered before spinning wildly with her scythe towards Weiss.
Weiss dodged the spinning death machine that was Crescent Rose and turned, punching hard with everything she had into the weapon's pole. The metal shattered on contact as the upper half of the staff flew out the window into the maw of the storm, leaving Ruby with but a broken bat.
"You bitch!" Ruby insulted as she swung the blunt object, striking Weiss across the jaw. Faltering back, Weiss was hit again across the neck, then the back until she fell to the floor.
"You're pathetic!" Ruby repeatedly slammed the bat down on the balled form of Weiss, not noticing the flick of her wrist.
A sharp kick plus the aid of a Glyph sent Ruby flying in a spiral up in the air, landing on a glass table which the television once sat upon. Groaning in pain, Weiss stumbled over and grabbed the girl by the collar. Weiss dragged her across the room as she thrashed about, cursing Weiss over and over as the heiress yanked at her hair. She knew this wasn't her team. These were monsters.
"What are you?!" Weiss screamed at the girl, smacking her across the face as she came to a halt.
"I'm your best friend, silly!" Ruby taunted, earning but another hit.
"Lies! This is all a lie! What are you?!" Weiss repeated.
"Your worst nightmare!" Ruby cackled as she spit blood into Weiss' face. "I am fear. I am dream. I am all your darkest, deepest fears!"
Weiss punched the girl in the teeth. Weiss' hand stung like a hive of rapier wasps had pierced her very fist, but she didn't care. Striking Ruby again, Weiss blackened the girl's right eye.
"Take me back home! This is all fake! Take me back, Ruby!" Weiss demanded as she struck again, Ruby now showing signs of actual pain.
"Ruby?" Ruby cackled under a swollen lip, laughing through the pain as best as possible. "I am Antares! Your worst nightmare!"
Weiss slammed the girl into the ruins of one of the beds, not yet touched by the inferno.
"You know well enough you can't kill me." Ruby, or Antares, taunted with a smug smile. "You can't kill Ruby Rose and you damn well know it!"
Weiss laughed.
"Too bad you aren't Ruby." Weiss grabbed the girl once more by the head, dragging her towards the massive icicle.
Weiss lifted Antares-Ruby by the head, ignoring her screaming as she positioned the girl above the tip of the ice, pushing down as best she could. The red head struggled greatly as Weiss struggled to push as she was growing far too tired, screaming as well.
In one last ditch effort, Weiss spun the girl around and head-butted the younger girl. The dazed Antares-Ruby wobbled as Weiss regained control first, pushing with all her might in one swift motion and brought the girl's head down onto the icicle.
Weiss moved her hand out of the way just in time as the tip speared out of Ruby's hair, ending her instantly as her dead weight pushed further into the structure, taking hold of her forever.
Weiss nearly tripped over Blake's corpse as she moved to the door frame Yang had once been, moving out into the hallway. At the very end stood a large portal of white light, an exit Weiss hoped.
Stumbling into the portal, Weiss disappeared into a flash of white, leaving the horrid reality once and for all.