A/N: Ouch. Flames will be flames, I suppose. No need to be nasty. I know this chapter wasn't my best.
Warning! This chapter is...intense.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Well, new years eve, but close enough! LETS KICK IT OFF WITH A BANG~!
We're going full Asura's Wrath here, mixed with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Be prepared. You've been warned.
As ever, this story remains under the Embers rule. If folks don't like it? Poof! Gone! To the void it goes! DELETED. I simply haven't the time to write something that people don't like these days -two jobs, no days off, that sort of thing!-which leads to me being very choosy with what I do write. So by all means, speak up!
No questions this time. Don't have time, and I'm writing this right before I leave for work. Won't be back till late at that.
Every bit of feedback, every review, no matter how large or small, means the world to this tired old man.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, themes or memes. Now...here we go.
Oh, and before I forget. Take the Girl should be updated next~!
Ciao~!
"There's a point when a man's screams become indistinguishable from that of a beast's roars.
And for a moment, that man becomes the most dangerous being on the planet...
Beasts are unpredictable, after all. And you...you poor, poor fools...
You have woken that beast. May the gods have mercy on you.
For he will not."
~Ozpin.
Hearts of Hate
Naruto screamed.
He screamed for sadness.
For sorrow. For wrath and...hate.
He shouted as he tore the Hound limb from limb. Howled when he ripped off its head. Roared while he cast it to the ground, stomped down, and stove in its chest. Bone burst. Black tar boiled beneath the sheer heat of his cloak. He ripped it apart and spat at its remains, leaving nothing behind.
And yet.
For all his rage.
The Hound did not die.
"Take...the girls...! TAKE!"
For all his fury, ripping it apart only made the beast all the more numerous. Every piece he annihilated spawned yet more of the hideous abomination. What had been one became two, followed by three. Four. Five. They laughed at him for his foolishness, lashing into him with singular fury. Fury he reciprocated. A clawed hand tore out his eye. It regenerated instantly. He cut one in twine at the waist and used its ruined halves to bludgeon its siblings. A sixth began to grow from its remains.
And as they grew, so did his tails.
He couldn't control himself anymore. All the emotion he'd worked so hard to suppress came boiling out. Rip and tear. It was the only way.
He was well past two now, a trio of transparent scarlet tethers weaving behind him as he raged back and forth across the clearing. Three tails of crimson wrath boiled behind him. A fourth was already forming. He couldn't stop. He didn't dare stop. To relent for even a moment was to let them through; let them take Summer and the girls...even now he could feel them fading. Their lives bleeding away. Yet to go any further, he'd risk losing himself completely. His psyche was slipping. Falling further and further into the black.
Three of the Hounds bounded at him, uncaring for their safety. He caught one by the chest and rammed it down. Its siblings tackled him before he could finish the job. Claws tore at him, biting through his cloak. He kicked out and flung them away with his tails.
Laughter chased him as they slipped back into the black.
'Not again! I can't...!' he grit his teeth as his face began to burn, revealing red light beneath. 'I won't become that thing...! I refuse...!'
He fumbled for his Scroll with a trembling hand, even as his fingers burned red, mind ebbing away more and more with each moment. Had to call. Needed to call! The plastic began to melt in his grasp almost immediately, but he flailed at it nonetheless, cracking the scree.
Against all odds, it connected it.
Someone picked up instantly. A bleary snarl answered. "Do you have any idea what time it is?!"
"Qrow!" The word was a snarl, forced through clenched teeth. "House! Now! Use Raven!"
Claws flashed in the gloom. Instinct shrieked a warning and Naruto ducked low. He wasn't the target. His phone was. It fell from his grasp with a squeal of electronics, taking a finger alongside. His hand regenerated all too quickly. Alas, the ruined device did not. Baleful red eyes narrowed.
"Why you little...!"
"Failure!" One of the Hounds laughed at him, dodging back before he could claw it apart. "Failure of a father!"
In hindsight he should've realized the danger. They were talking more, now. Adapting. Changing. Evolving. The longer this dragged on, the more intelligent they became. But he didn't hear any of it. That last insult was the straw that broke the camel's back. Naruto's temper sparked anew and the Scroll's remains crumbled in his fist. No. No failure. Not again. Never again. He tried to hold back. Tried to clutch at his face, cling to a final threat of sanity.
He.
Just.
Couldn't.
A low yowl built in the back of Naruto's throat, building with each passing moment. The last of his humanity fled before it. After so many years, he never felt the change. He seldom did anymore. His control slipped for a sliver of a second. That was all it took. The last of his skin burned away as the shroud overtook him, taking his mind with that singular scream. The fourth tail formed with a vengeance, heralded by a pillar of crimson. He fell to all fours, gasping once.
Just like that, beast emerged; hideous white eyes narrowed upon the Hounds. A tooth filled maw curled in a sneer, steam parting from its jaws
And for once, those ghastly abominations were given pause.
It would spell their doom.
Naruto bellowed anew, not the cry of a man, but the roar of a monster. Light came with it. The sheer shockwave of his scream struck them like a thunderclap. The Hound and several of its "brothers" dissolved like so much morning mist. He didn't give them time to regenerate. A clawed hand swept forth, sending a searing wave of light into their remains. Two would-be hounds finally fell in such a way, shriveling with a shriek.
Their rest had only just begun to reform when dust rounds peppered off his cloak, raising welts against his skin.
Naruto rounded on the source with a hiss and found more shadow in the night.
Enemies. A bleak voice hissed in his head. Death wish. Kill them all.
"He's just one man!" one of them brayed! "Open fire!"
More of the masked men had come. More Grimm with them. His mind stirred from its stupor, if only for a moment. What manner of idiots worked with Grimm? Didn't matter. Rip. Tear. His thoughts slipped further away. Enemies. Targets. Prey. Shots peppered off his crimson shroud. It availed them naught. One of the Hounds landed on his back. He casually reached up with a chakra-clad hand, tore it in half, then grasped its remains until they boiled away. The beasts screams meant nothing to him now.
He fought. He snarled. He slew.
On and on he raged heedless of their dwindling numbers. Those that fled he ran down down. Those who stood their ground were cut apart by cruel claws. He didn't stop. The Hound were nowhere to be found in the grand melee now -having retreated or chosen to withdraw- but the soldiers yet remained. And so he fought.
"Don't move, you freak!"
A particularly pluck -and foolish!- Faunus accomplished what his brothers and sisters could not. Mad with fear closed the distance, raised his weapon and unloaded in Naruto's face. His head snapped to the side, jaw parting. Dust rounds parted as he swallowed each round whole. He didn't budge; not until the man's magazine clicked empty. A wiser man would've finished the job. Numbed by terror, this one did not. He stood there in mute horror, still squeezing the trigger, to no avail.
Naruto reared back, regarding him as one might an annoying gnat.
"C'mon, then do it!" the faunus rasped. "I die for the cause!
"Hrrr...!"
The Beast and spat all those rounds back in the man's face. His upper torso vanished in a torrent of napalm to be, leaving his legs to tumble to the forest floor. He snatched them up and used them to bludgeon another to death. Followed by a third. A fourth. Now a fifth.
Something slammed into his back, causing him to stumble.
Whatever it was, it didn't pierce his cloak completely -nothing could- but the pain made him turn all the same.
"I'm sorry, did that hurt?" clutching a crude spear, the last of the surviving Hounds rasped at him. He glimpsed a ruined face within its ghastly mask. "It looks like it did!"
Viscous black tar crept up his limbs, trying to engulf him. Absorb him. Swallow him whole.
Wide, round white eyes narrowed to thin slits as the jinchuuriki sneered.
Four scarlet tails reached around Salem's abomination and perforated its hide, slashing the Hound apart as one might a pinata. A fifth flicked out, carving that hideous visage in twine with segmented bone. Nothing was spared. An armless, legless, faceless thing struck the ground. It was still twitching, trying to heal, when a clawed paw stomped down on it. His hands reached down, cupping the grotesque creature's head in hand.
"Sorry..." the fox parroted back at him, turning its on words against it. "Does it hurt? Looks like it does...
A vicious twist broke the Hounds neck and then some; its severed spinal whistled away into the branches. It was too much for the survivors; his comrades ran away screaming. It would've been so easy to give chase, to hunt them down. He didn't. Fueled by carnal anger, Naruto planted his paws and opened his jaws.
His mouth parted. Light swelled within.
A tailed beast bomb was born.
RIP AND TEAR.
(.0.0.0.)
"They've retreated to the Emerald forest."
"Retreat?" Ozpin didn't look away from the window. "No. There will be no retreat for them, James. Only death. Let them be."
"But the intel we could gain-
Heaven and earth alike shook, rattling the tower to its very foundations.
-is not worth the lives we WILL lose if we send our people down into that hell. He will not relent until his wrath is spent." the immortal raised his gaze, looking even more haggard than Ironwood felt. "Tempt not the anger of a man with a heart of stone. For in your folly, you just might find...
The screams of a beast echoed in the distance.
A column of fire snarled into the clouds.
...he has nothing left to lose."
(.0.0.0.)
"No, wait! Mercy! I'll talk! I surrender-gack?!"
Whatever the man might've said died in a gurgle as a clawed hand burst out his back. Naruto cast him down and whirled, seeking another victim. None came.
"It's alright."
Nevermind! He'd found one behind him, wrapped in white.
He whirled, catching sight of a girl in hr strange garment. She was saying something, but words meant nothing to him now. More noise. More sounds. Enemies! All of them, enemies!
"This isn't you!" her voice piqued with distress. "Stop!"
He snarled at her; said snarl deepened when she stabbed a hand into her pouch and withdrew...what was that?
"You made me this charm, remember?" she waved a strange paper effigy before him, etched with black ink "In case you ever lost control. Like you have now. You did good." she dared another step. "They're safe. Its time to come back now." when he stepped forward, she raised it like a shield. "Calm down! Its okay now! You're okay!"
The beast lunged and swept a claw at her. She winced and shattered like glass, leaving him to stumble through.
Trickery! Deceit! It raged, lunging again, only to strike another illusion.
"Over here!
There! The real one!
She rolled aside, evading him, and did something with that odd item in her hand. The charm -seal!- flitted out and raked across his ribs, peeling bits of his cloak with its passing. His shroud tried to creep back into the space left behind by it, but something resisted. Prevented. He knew the reason. Pain! It burned through his exposed skin and he rounded on her with a hiss, glaring pale daggers at her.
Only then did he see the little girl beside her.
The Beast locked up. Something in him stilled, unwilling to step forth, unable to rip and tear.
She saw him, too. Tiny lips moved. Soundless, unable to speak, never to make noise, but at this range he could read them all the same.
"Daddy...
Naruto froze.
Cracks etched in the cloak.
What was he doing? He'd sworn never to hurt her. That promise held, even now.
He hesitated. And in that moment? She struck.
The woman in white slammed the seal into his chest. He snarled at her, but it was too late. Chakra bled into it, staining the paper a ghastly red as it siphoned off his power. He raged at it, to no avail. His arms had gone heavy, his legs like twin blocks of lead, weighing him down, leaving him weak and sluggish. With each passing moment he lost more of his strength. He pawed at the woman, to no avail. She didn't budge.
"Come back, Naruto." her forehead kissed his, uncaring of the burning shroud that threatened to scorch her skin. "Come back to me. To us. We're waiting for you."
A thought broke through the madness that enveloped him as the charm crumbled to dust, its task done. And he saw her. She was alive. Battered and blooded, moving with a limp, but still alive. His anger fizzled out and the last of the cloak with it.
He slumped forward. "Summ...er...?"
"Yup." she kissed his forehead. "Welcome back."
Neo darted forward, all but slamming into his lap.
"M'sorry." he rasped. "Didn't mean to lose control...
"Don't be." Summer stroked his face. "You kept them safe."
By the sage. He remembered; all of it. Every bit. "...and the girls?"
"A few cuts and bruises." she admitted after a moment's pause. "Qrow and Raven made it in time. Arslan has a nasty bump on her head, but she'll live. Weiss took a few burns. Neo is...
Mismatching eyes blinked up at them as she clung to them both.
...perfectly fine, as you can see." Summer finished with a chortle.
Dread dawned in his wake. "What about Winter?"
Summer's expression proved telling.
Naruto exhaled softly.
"Take me to her."
(.0.0.0.)
Weiss wept.
She bent double and bawled as she hadn't since she was three. Such behavior wasn't befitting of a Schnee. Mother would have sighed, and Father surely would've taken her to task...when they were alive. But they weren't now, were they? They were gone. Cold and dead and in the ground. Just thinking of it made her wail even louder. There was no one left to rebuke her now. No one to chide her for such uncouth behavior.
Nor would Winter.
She was the last Schnee. The last of her line.
"Why?" she sobbed into their chest. "Why did you leave me alone...?!"
Winter's still body held no answers for her. This time, there was no miracle, no last minute intervention to save her. Her lifeless form didn't budge. Somehow that made it worse. Uncle Qrow and Aunt Raven had dug her out of the rubble, but by then it was too late. If shock of the blast hadn't killed Winter, then the blood loss certainly had. She'd lost an eye and an arm to the explosion besides, her still form now riddled with burn. A crude tourniquet bound her left arm, soaked through, all for naught.
She'd perished without ever opening her eyes.
It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. They'd come so far together.
"Weiss...?"
Through her haze of grief, she was distantly aware of Arslan sitting nearby. She saw the look in her eyes. The pity. She hated it. Hated them. All of them.
"Don't!" she recoiled. "Don't you touch me! What do you know of loss?! This is all your fault!"
Arslan let her go with a pained noise, looking like she'd been slapped. Weiss ignored her and turned back to Winter's still form. She couldn't be dead. She just couldn't. Trembling palms slammed into Winter's chest. She'd seen someone do this once. This would work, right? It had to work!
"...enough." Raven's arm was on her shoulder. "She's gone. Tears won't bring her back.
Weiss batted her hand aside. "Shut up!"
Branwen let her go. "Have it your own way, then.
"Winter, please! I need you! Don't' leave me!"
Pain blazed in her chest as she continued to push down on her sister's chest. It felt like her heart was breaking in two. Her soul burned, even as her eyes bled flame. She didn't care. Didn't stop. Even as her fingers went numb and her arms began to ache. She...she would be fine! She just had to keep her heart beating...!
"Sister...you're hurting me."
Raven swore somewhere behind her.
Blazing blue eyes flew open. "Winter?!"
A raspy groan greeted her. "Why are you so blurry...?"
"You were dead!"
Her cough was weak, barely a whisper. "Apparently I got better...
"But you stopped breathing!" she gasped, remembering her wounds. "Your eye! Your arm!" fretting only made it worse and filled her with self-loathing. "I'm sorry...
To an outside observer, Winter didn't appear to panic. She observed her injuries with a detached air, still in shock. Her good eye glanced at the ruined stump of her left limb, ending just below the elbow, and her breath hitched. Then she wrestled it udner control.
"A small price to pay. I can always get a prosthetic...
She was being brave for her. Why? This was all her fault. If she didn't have this power...
"I have so much to tell you-
"I know." her sister held up her good arm to forestall an explanation. "I heard everything while I slept. "I saw them, Weiss." Winter's tone told her of whom she spoke, even without the words. "Mother, Father...they were at peace. They told me to live." she pulled her into a one-armed embrace. "Then you dragged me back."
Weiss blinked. "Me?"
Only then did she truly notice what had taken place. Her sister's good eye was glowing. More than that; a faint light seemed to pulse from the burns covering her left eye. Realization broke like the dawn a moment later. Had she given her sister the Power, somehow? No, she still felt it within her. Lesser perhaps, but still present nonetheless. And yet the knowledge still burned.
Now they'd hunt Winter, too.
An ugly knot of anger coiled in her chest. "I hate them. Why won't they leave us alone!"
...because we have something they want." Winter pulled her close with her good arm. "Its alright. We'll show them what happens when they mess with a Schnee." Her arm tightened around her, tucking her head close. She heard the ice in her words, colder than any blizzard. "We will show them all...
In the next instant, Weiss heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
Naruto slammed through the clearing, Summer half a beat behind, Neo riding on her shoulders. Weiss immediately noted the former's burns, and the ragged tears in his clothes. The latter took one look at the scene before them, the ruined houses, everyone's injuries, and balked. Each were equally surprised to see Winter sitting upright.
She pivoted to regard them, eyes widening in recognition. "You...?"
"Well," Summer offered a weak laugh of her own. "All's well that ends well..?"
"For crying out loud," Naruto sniffed once. Frowned. "You split the power with her, didnt you?"
Weiss winced. Had she? Maybe it was an act of instinct on her part; the desperate desire to save her sister made manifest by her power? She couldn't be sure, and she certainly didn't know how to do it again. Even now a part of her soul ached as if she'd hacked away at it.
Winter must've known it too, because she put on a brave face and managed an even weaker salute.
"Winter Schnee at your service, sir." her elder sister didn't have the strength to stand at the moment, much less fight, but the resolve was there all the same. "For the service you have done me and my sister, my life is yours. How can I help?"
Someone snickered. It took Weiss a full three seconds to realize it wasn't Miss Summer, Neo, or even Arslan.
It was Naruto.
Weiss balked at him. The man with the Heart of Stone, who scarcely so much as smiled in her presence for days now, was actually laughing. He clamped a hand over his mouth, to no avail. His shoulders convulsed with barely restrained mirth and that was it; he threw his head back and guffawed openly at the shattered moon.
Arslan winced. "Ah, dad...?" You alright there?"
Neo shook her head and offered a soundless shrug of her own.
"Great." Summer puffed out her cheeks in mild indignation. "Now look at what you've done. You broke him."
Finally, the blond palmed his face and shook his head. "Not this time, fate...
Weiss blinked. "I'm sorry...?"
"Its nothing." he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and chortled one last time. "Just a thought." Damp blue eyes turned to regard the ruin of Summer's cottage. "I think a move is in order." That look became a wince now when the roof caved in. "Alright, maybe more than a move...how do you girls feel about staying in Beacon for a bit?"
Neo perked up.
Arslan squeaked. "For real?!"
"Yes, for real. Where's Raven? We need a portal...
Distantly, she heard Branwen tut at her. "I'm here, I'm here. Damn slavedriver...
Weiss flopped down with a sigh, the last of her stamina bleeding away. Winter patted her back, and she took solace in it. She hated their enemies. That much was certain. But she didn't hate this. Certainly not. Oh gods. She'd have to apologize to Arslan and the others...but later. Once she was rested.
This was her family now. Her heart belonged to them. For better or worse.
Wincing a little, she climbed to her feet and dusted herself down.
"Will there be baths? We're absolutely filthy...
A/N: Yes, that was a Coeur Al'Aran reference at the end. "Not This Time Fate" has to be one of my favorite stories. Feel free to give it a look.
And if it wasn't clear enough, the bullet scene/"Sorry" scene was a reference to Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance.
Already said it at the top of the chapter, jeez.
There we are.
As ever, this story remains under the Embers rule.
If folks don't like it? Poof! Gone! To the void it goes! DELETED. I simply haven't the time to write something that people don't like these days -two jobs, no days off, that sort of thing!-which leads to me being very choosy with what I do write. So by all means, speak up!
Every bit of feedback, every review, no matter how large or small, means the world to this tired old man.
As ever, reviews keep me writing. They're the only form of payment I'll ever receive. Without them...I can't write.
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...Review...Would You Kindly?
Previews are back by popular demand.
(Preview)
"You're needed in Menagerie."
...I'll send a clone."
Blake raised a hand.
Her Maiden power responded in a strange way.
The shadows stirred at her feet, responding to her will.
"Huh. Neat...
Neo raised a hand.
Naruto quirked a brow. "Yeah?"
His student/daughter flailed her hand anew. Realization dawned.
"Ohhh...you wanna fight Yang?
Her head bobbed.
"Sure. Go nuts."
"Welcome to the world, Ruby...
R&R~!