Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own any of the songs mentioned in this fic, they belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 14: These people are crazy!
-Eastern City Zone-
The next party to get to their destination was the Weiss pair and Yang Prime. Their battlefield was much calmer than expected. It was a large park, like the one they were previously but much bigger, as though their safe zone was but a small garden compared to this place, it was a vast expanse of grass and trees with a single gondola sitting above a pond in the middle of the grassy plain. Small lily pads and lotus flowers decorated the surroundings, and the faint sound of a strumming guitar could be heard.
Leaning with his back against one of the gondola banisters was a young man with platinum blonde hair and turquoise eyes. He was a bit short, just slightly shorter than Weiss Prime. His long hair draped just behind his back as his hands moved, strumming a soft melody. (Autumn Kings- One Last Breath)
"If all I had was one last breath, I could stand in front of the storm~" his voice was soothing but powerful as if there was strong emotion behind it.
His music was beautiful, the melody was captivating and unconsciously the three found themselves drawing closer to it, getting wrapped up in the music as he strummed harder.
"All the walls I built to protect myself turned into my own personal hell… Let me break from this give me strength to live…"
They waited for his song to finish, quietly watching in awe at his performance. It was a musical talent like no other, with words that sounded beautiful and music that was almost magical. The song was so distracting that Yang Prime almost missed the words above his head:
'Entity E, Lvl ? Expected Threat Level: Normal, Current Threat Level: None'.
Once he was finished, they all applauded, "Wow… that was impressive!" Weiss Prime said almost enchanted.
The young man looked up and once he saw her his expression morphed into a rather sad smile, "Ha… thanks. That… song was for someone really important to me that… I lost a long time ago…"
Weiss-13 joined him on the gondola, "It was quite powerful."
He smirked and tapped his guitar which… looked quite strange. The guitar looked more like a weapon than an instrument. While maintaining the same style as an electric guitar it also looked like a battle axe with strange runes carved into it. The red and black design with an almost crystalline edge that looked quite sharp stood in stark contrast to his blue tuxedo.
"If you like that," he said almost solemnly, "Then maybe you might like this…"
He began to play a hauntingly familiar melody, from the moment he strummed the first chord both Weiss's knew instantly.
After a few seconds of being struck stiff by the song, they both began to sing out of impulse, "Believed you when you told me I was nothing on my own~" Weiss Prime started off.
"Listen when I say, I swear it here today, I will not surrender… this life is Mine!" Weiss-13 followed up.
Before the song could continue, he stopped playing abruptly and cast a heavy sigh.
Weiss Prime felt her throat dry up, "H-How do you know that song? Who are you?!"
He just scratched his head awkwardly, "It was the first time I ever heard you sing," he said almost embarrassedly, "Though… I guess it was a different version of you."
Yang Prime felt like a third wheel, "You didn't answer her second question." She pointed out awkwardly.
"Oh… sorry, my name is Gotoh Eclipse, I… forgot you guys don't know who I am." He got up and straightened his clothes, slinging the guitar around his arm.
Something flashed before his eyes quickly and he grimaced, "Really? This is just fucking cruel…" he cursed. "The system says you guys need to defeat me to get this…" he pulled out a black bishop piece.
Weiss Prime looked almost regretful, "Oh… do we need to?"
He shrugged, "The system's orders are absolute, even I can't defy it. Still… I can't hurt you, Weiss. Not again…"
"What…?" Weiss-13 was the one who spoke up, she looked almost mortified as something flashed in her head, a memory.
Like a sharp pain in her head, she saw brief flashes of images. A ruined city, it looked like somewhere on Pandora. Darkness across the sky, the smell of blood permeating her nostrils, they were so vivid but moving so quickly.
She couldn't make sense of it.
"We're not going to kill you if we don't have to… that's just barbaric!" Weiss Prime said defiantly.
Yang scratched her head, "I'm all for doing this without getting into a fight so I agree, this is wrong."
Weiss-13 was silent.
"Look I'll make it easy for you…" he took off his guitar and placed it to the side, "Here… run me through," he spread his arms wide and made himself defenceless.
"What?! We can't just kill you without reason we…!" Weiss Prime was startled but Weiss-13 held her back, raising Myrtenaster and pointing it at his chest.
"Wait, Weiss what are you doing?!" the prime asked her counterpart in alarm.
Weiss-13 had a dark look on her face, "I… don't want to… fuck I feel like this is the last thing I want to do but it feels like I need to…!"
Gotoh shook his head, "The system is forcing it, it detects it can't make me fight, so it's trying to make you."
"That's just unfair…!" Weiss Prime looked on in horror, getting between her counterpart and Gotoh.
Gotoh smiled sadly, "Nothing's ever fair. Hey… Weiss?" he looked at both of them, "For what it's worth… I'm sorry I couldn't do more. I'm sorry, for everything…"
Weiss-13 clutched her head in pain, the more she tried to resist the more the burning memories came through. She saw him, standing atop a mountain of corpses, looking exactly like Salem, a monster without remorse or emotion.
She felt the pain of the other Weiss' memories, the despair, the sadness and… the regret.
Before she knew it, Myrtenaster was already protruding out of Gotoh's back. Blood dripping from the blade tip, a hole right through his heart.
"WHAT?!" the prime Weiss and Yang yelled in horror. They didn't even see her move so when did she…?
Weiss-13 held onto Gotoh as his body lost its strength, slumping to the floor, she knelt with him.
"This… is fine," he choked out, "I'm not much of a fighter anyway. I'm just a musician." He coughed out blood, but it wasn't crimson, it was black ichor, like the pools of Grimm.
Weiss-13 had a dark expression, "You're Salem's son in that world, aren't you? A world where Salem and Ozma had a fifth child."
Gotoh scratched his head, "Yeah, mom and dad weren't the best… sometimes you can't run away from your own blood."
Weiss-13 felt her own tears falling, "Your world's Weiss… she loved you, didn't she…"
He let out a failing chuckle, "Until the very end… and so will I…"
As the words left his lips, so did the life in his body, the boy cradled in her arms began to evaporate into black pixels and soon there was nothing left of him but the chess piece he carried, and the guitar he left resting on the floor.
Weiss Prime had her mouth covered as she struggled to hold herself back, "W-What just happened…?"
Weiss-13 grabbed the guitar and slung it over her shoulders, "The system is fucked…"
-North City Zone-
The last to arrive at their destination, the one that was furthest away was the two Rubys and Nova. Upon exiting the confines of the concrete jungle opened into a vast landscape of mountains lining the horizon. It looked like something out of a fairy tale. Tall icy mountains on the horizon, rolling hills and a large lake that stretched the middle of the landscape.
The dimensions of this world made no sense, those mountains weren't visible from the sky but now they seemed so close, as if to see them one had to leave the city.
Relaxing on the grass, sitting calmly on a picnic blanket and surrounded by mountains of food was a lone girl with light pink hair cut short around her ears. She wore a black military jacket and baggy parachute pants. She was humming happily to herself while devouring an ungodly amount of unhealthy food.
Everything had… so much… cheese.
"Um… excuse me?" Ruby-13 called out. There was no response.
The girl continued to chow down, pulling out a large stick of butter and eating it like a candy bar… it was horrifying.
"Miss? Hellloooo!" Nova called out as loudly as he could.
Still no answer.
The trio looked at each other awkwardly before shrugging and approaching her. Upon getting up close they noticed she was wearing wireless earbuds jammed into her ears, no doubt blasting music loud enough to deafen a normal person.
As they finally got close enough, they saw just above her head: 'Entity S, Lvl ? Expected Threat Level: Extreme, Current Threat Level: Intermediate-Extreme'.
Nova gingerly tapped on her shoulder and the girl finally looked up.
At first, she looked confused, "Yeah?"
"Who are you? Do you know where the relic is?" Nova asked politely.
"WHAT?!" she yelled loudly.
Ruby Prime took over, "We're looking for a relic…"
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" she yelled back, "SPEAK LOUDER!"
Ruby-13 pinched her nose and tapped her ears and the girl instantly face palmed, unplugged her earbuds and stood up.
"WHOOPS! I am so sorry about that, I totally forgot I had these things in," she made a 'blep' sound and stuck out her tongue.
Nova felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of his head, "Right… um… do you know where the relic is?"
Suddenly she jumped back and pointed at him, "OH MY GOSH NOVA?! HOLY SHIT YOU'RE HERE!" then she spun around.
"Do I know you…?" he asked awkwardly. It felt like that question was rather common these days.
She snorted, "Duhh, of course, you know me. Scarlet Nihilus? You know, we were like totally married once?"
Nova almost fell over and Ruby-13 was looking rapidly between them.
"E-Excuse me?!" he yelled in alarm, "I have no idea what you're talking about!" quickly he looked at his Ruby who was sending him menacing waves, "Love, you know I'm not lying!"
Ruby-13 snorted, "I know, it's just fun to see you panic," she teased.
"WHAT?!" Scarlet guffawed, "Come onnn, we totally got married and we ran around Vale? I broke into someone's apartment while running from the cops?"
"Not ringing any bells lady…" Nova blanked. "Also that's a crime... I'm pretty sure..."
"What about that time we went to the fair and I won a snail race by convincing everyone that the slime-covered rock was a snail and then killed all the snails? We got mug shots together!" she complained.
Nova felt shivers run down his spine, this woman was batshit insane.
"We have a daughter! Her name is Luna and you keep telling people she's your sister but she was clearly our daughter? Even though I don't remember giving birth? Or that time I stole an old man's baby…? Or was it a fish… dog… man thing? You know, now I'm starting to get confused…." She continued to ramble, "Oh! Want a chopped cheese?" she offered a greasy-looking sandwich of minced beef and cheese.
Nova ran to hide behind his fiancé, peeking out from behind her shoulder, "She's scaring me…"
"Oh there you go running behind the homewrecker again!" she yelled while shaking a fist at Ruby-13. The girl in question pointed at herself and went, "Me?"
"Yes, you! Nova and I had a good thing going and he just had to fall in love with you! AND LOOK!" she pointed at Ruby Prime, "NOW THERE'S TWO HOMEWRECKERS!"
"I WAS NEVER MARRIED TO YOU YAH CRAZY BITCH!" Nova yelled out instinctively, "I was already dating Ruby, you just started making shit up!"
Nova suddenly closed his mouth, "Why… did I say that?"
Scarlet rolled her eyes, "Oh making stuff up? The only people who make shit up are the patriarchy and doctors. You gotta stick it to the man Nova, STICK IT TO THE MAN!" she threw her fists to the sky in defiance while they were all looking around for what imaginary being she was cursing.
"Doctors don't make things up… mostly…" Ruby Prime responded, trying to make sense of the nonsense.
"Oh, so you're going to tell me that when the doctors told me I got stomach cancer, salmonella poisoning, E. coli and clogged arteries from eating rotten sushi, a whole stick of butter and then licking the floor, that it was real? Pfft, no way!" she ranted in insanity.
"I think she has brain damage…" Ruby-13 looked at her in pity.
"The poor thing… it's delusional…" Ruby Prime followed up, shaking her head with a sympathetic expression.
"I'm not crazy!" Scarlet adopted a wide stance, "It's all a rouse by the man I tell you! THE MAN HAS IT OUT FOR ME!"
Nova gripped onto his fiancé's arm tightly, "Save me from the crazy woman!"
"PFFT! AHAHAAHA!" Scarlet suddenly burst out laughing, clutching her stomach and rolling on the grass, "Oh man you guys should see the looks on your faces! I'm fucking with you… mostly. Those things did happen though."
"Uh… what's happening?" Ruby Prime asked awkwardly.
Scarlet wiped the tears from her eyes and got up, "You guys want this right?" she took out a black King chess piece.
Suddenly a plastic chair appeared out of nowhere and Scarlet was sitting on it with a white can of what looked like an energy drink in her hand, "If you want it, then you'll have to take it… but you already knew that…"
"Where the fuck did that chair come from?!" Ruby-13 was baffled.
Nova got out from behind Ruby and drew Helios in scythe form, "I had a feeling you were going to say that…"
Ruby Prime almost fell over, "Wait, what?! You guys are going to fight now?!"
"Why do I hear heavy metal guitars…?" Ruby-13 looked toward the sky as storm clouds began to settle. "Oh… this is fucking stupid…"
Scarlet got off her chair and it disappeared into thin air. She reached into the empty space while advancing toward them and drew an enormously long sword that seemed almost alive. Its guard was shaped like a sabre but its length suggested a great sword yet she wielded it with one hand. Chains wrapped around her wrist where the sword was held.
She spun the sword like a toy on a string while slowly walking toward Nova who was ready to meet her halfway. Something was driving this fight…
So in case you didn't know, I turned Dragon's Rise into a DnD Campaign and I run it almost every week with four of my friends. Scarlet, Percival, Gotoh and Jett are their player characters. Full details in a bonus chapter if you're interested in knowing more about them.
Before you ask: Yes, they are exactly like that in the campaign, all of those things did happen and yes, Scarlet is the most insane character I've ever had to deal with.