Weiss Schnee
"Preparations are nearly complete."
"What's everyone's status?"
"The fleet will remain outside the walls to prevent any escape. Currently, Qrow Branwen is waiting outside the warehouse, he will open a portal to bring in the main force when we send the signal. Joining us are some Hunters, a few Hunters in training, Winter Schnee, and Pyrrha Nikos."
"Thank you. You may go."
He nodded and went on his way, a messenger here to tell her what she already knew...
Qrow had found Ruby.
Weiss's changing room was way too fancy for what it was. The one in her room was the only one she ever really used, having a separate one just for her in the armoury felt odd.
Still, it kept her separate from everyone else for now. She needed these precious moments to gather her strength. She hadnt slept since Rory had taken Ruby away from her... the only reason she was still awake was thanks to Penny's tireless efforts to keep her going.
How quickly she had gone from being jealous of the girl to depending on her.
"Knowing she treated Ruby the same makes me glad I chose her."
Who knows how much tea she had gone through in this one week? She could barely force down food so it was only Penny's magic tea keeping her from collapsing.
Not to say she was looking famished or under weight at the moment... well, anymore then usual.
While surviving only off of rejuvenating tea wasn't the best idea... Penny was almost an exception to the rule. Her Support Affinity added onto her unnatural aptitude for healing magic made her a godsend to anyone that couldn't or simply didn't want to take care of themselves.
And that perfectly described Weiss at the moment.
But, she had at least managed to get her combat outfit on by herself. If she hadn't she might've actually started to worry about herself. For now, all her worry was focused on her wife. Is Ruby ok? Has Rory permanently taken over her?
Would she get Ruby back...?
She slammed her sword into it's hilt on her side and focused her vision.
"I will get Ruby back." It wasn't a question, it wasn't a request.
Rose Dragon or not, Rory Rose wasn't going to keep Weiss from the woman she loved.
Not anymore.
With a quick turn, she headed to the door. It would lead out to the rest of the armoury... to where everyone else was getting ready, or simply waiting.
When she said the word... they'd go.
She glanced at Ruby's cloak draped over a hook next to the door and came to a stop with her hand on the handle.
"As much as I need you right now... how would you react if I ruined it in a fight?" She sighed gently and almost opened the door... but paused again. Choosing to grab the cloak anyway. "I won't wear it... but... when I get you back... I know you'll want to."
The door opened to the rest of the armoury. There were a few steps leading up to her changeroom, so standing at the top she could see everyone waiting for her. Luckily a few of them were still getting ready.
Adjusting straps, sharpening weapons, a few were even throwing mana potions into there bags.
The room was filled with plenty of faces she didn't recognise... and surprisingly more that she did then she would have thought.
She spotted Blake and Pyrrha near the front quick enough... and surprisingly Jaune and Velvet were here as well. Coco wasn't far behind Velvet, and she spotted Cardin as her eyes scanned over the crowd.
"Winter is outside where the portal will open and Qrow is already there waiting for us... Yang isn't here."
Good.
Weiss may want to get Ruby back more then anything, but bringing a pregnant woman to a battlefield was-
"I'm here!!"
"Goddammit Yang!!" Two voices yelled at once and neither reacted to the others voice. Instead Blake and Weiss just glared at the blonde who had just strolled through the door.
"What?" She had the dumbest look on her face. Like she couldn't imagine why they had reacted like that.
"Go. Home." Blake was being fairly aggressive for once while taking to Yang... wait when the hell did she move over to her-
"Blakey, I'm fine, ok?"
"You're pregnant Yang! Even if you could transform still, you'd be putting our child at risk!"
"But our other baby needs our help!"
"Wow you are not even being subtle about it anymore..."
Weiss's deadpanned face was only beaten by Blake's as she eyed the blonde.
"Yang-"
"My momma bear instincts won't let me stay home!"
"You're a Hellhound! Not a bear!?" Weiss felt awkward just watching this unfold in front of everyone... one glance at the rest of the room showed no one else was exaclty comfortable with this situation.
"Xiao Long! Go home!" At least someone else was trying to help Blake...
"Maybe I should say something-"
"Shut it Coco!" And now Yang was matching the others aggression. Great.
"Everyone be quie-" Weiss was interrupted as Blake started yelling at her wife... only for Yang to yell back. The resulting exchange of words was incomprehensible, and Weiss was genuinely stunned... she had never seen them yell at each other before like this.
The thought of it wasn't exactly thrilling so...
"I should probably put a stop to this..." Weiss muttered with a sigh.
She could transform. Surely that would get everyone's attention... then again...
She moved down the steps and approached Pyrrha.
"Could you-" Pyrrha nodded before Weiss even finished speaking and closed her eyes.
A pulse moved throughout the room and everyone immediatly stopped whatever they had been doing to turn to the source of it.
As the Harbinger of Conquest, Pyrrha constantly let off an aura of sorts that would attempt to force people to submit. Usually, she exuded effort to keep it minimal and contained.
This was the first time, at least that Weiss had seen, where she had done the opposite.
Everyone that didn't back away in fear looked ready to do so... or had actually dropped to there kness in fear... Weiss didn't want to assume anything about the people around her but... well, it suddenly smelled worse in the armoury.
The only person completely unaffected was... Jaune? It was actually quite impressive to see. Next to Coco, Blake, Yang, and even Weiss herself who all had taken at least a step away from Pyrrha... he had barely even noticed it had happened.
"He really is immune to it..."
Weiss shook her head and stood back up straight, assuming a more regal posture.
"Thank you Pyrrha." She turned to the pair of women who looked ready to start argueing again. "Everyone, please head out to where the portal will open. I need to talk with Mrs Xiao Long."
No complaints were heard as the Queen spoke, and slowly everyone shuffled through the doors, leaving Weiss alone with her two sisters in law.
"So. Yang."
"Weiss... you have to let me-"
"Stop. Yang... you're pregnant. You can't go. It's that simple."
"What if you couldn't go to help? How would you react??" The blonde looked desperate to say the least... which caused Weiss to sigh as she approached.
"Of course I would hate it... but if I had an important reason to stay... then I would do what I had to. Incredibly begrudgingly mind you."
"I just... I feel useless..." Blake's expression softened at Yangs words and she hugged the woman gently.
"I believe you both should stay behind." Weiss didn't want to leave Blake behind... she knew the girl was strong but...
Family comes first.
"Besides... we have heaps of Hunters going, two Harbingers, and I'm a Dragon!"
What kind of a challenge could some goons put up anyway?
Rory Rose
"Annnnd... it's done." Finally.
He could do the job he was here for.
"About time-... what... is this...?" Cinders bored voice had quickly become confusion as she layed her eyes on the altered magic circle... it was prepared for a ritual.
One look into those Golden eyes showed she had no clue what it could do.
"My second biggest regret..." His answer was a mumble... which both of them ignored.
"I thought you were making a weapon?"
"I did." He held his wrist up and shook it, showing off his new bracelet. It had been quite a bit bigger then Ruby's arm... but luckily magic items changed size to fit the user.
It looked to be made of steel. The design on it depicting the visage of a giant.
"A... titans bracelet. That's your weapon??" He almost smirked at her confusion.
"Yep." Rory turned to the magic circle and placed his hand down onto it. With a pulse of his Mana... the ritual begun.
The circle slowly filled with blue light as he stood.
"When you use a magic item, it connects to your soul directly and reads your mana. It knows what to expect, and if it dosent recieve that? It reacts negatively." He took a step over the edge of the circle. "So, if your mana is for any reason not how it should be... like, if your transformed for example. The magic item will either not work, or just straight up break!" He had reached the centre of the circle. "So, the solution? The good ol' Shifter enchantment! Fixes that whole issue, and will even make your transformation affect the item! But... there's a problem with that."
"The Shifter enchantment uses too much budget on the item. I know that. Everyone knows this." Cinder had crossed her arms. She was clearly sick of Rory's shit.
"Not just too much. It can use up to eighty percent of the budget, regardless of the tier of item. That means that even with a Legendary Tier Titans Bracelet, it wouldn't boost my stat's enough to warrant using over just using enhancement magic. And using it without the Shifter enchantment isnt a good idea either. After all, while it would leave me at least a little bit stronger then if i were to transform... i get other benefits in my half form that make it not worth it." He held his arm up with a smile. "Now for the fun part of the explanation. This? It dosent have the Shifter Enchantment."
Cinder tilted her head.
"You plan to fight the Queen in your base form?"
"Nope! Pop-quiz time Cinder! What can the Rose Dragon do?"
"Why would I know-"
"Number one! It has a similar ability to the Vampire Lords bat ability. Allowing me to turn my body into Rose petals and move as I see fit. Number two! An Ingrained spell. A sound based attack that works as a sort of disorientating roar. All in all, it's worse then a breath attack. It uses too much mana if you want to make it deadly." He grinned and his wings erupted from his back. Red scales slowly grew over Rubys body and clothes, slowly spreading up the arm and... affecting the bracelet too.
"What the hell is-" He interrupted her shock with the rest of his explanation.
"The main benefit to the Rose Dragon. An automatic application of the Shifter Enchantment to any magic items they wield. Regardless of budget." The look on her face was all he could have hoped for.
Her expression was one of worry... he could actually see her hopes for winning there inevitable fight slowly disappear. Even if she was still stronger then him, there was no way she could kill him before he got away.
"So... this is how you killed the Schnee Dragons." Her attempts to regain control of the situation weren't subtle.
"That and the weapon I used, but who knows where that is now." It was probably still in Atlas... no way the Schnee would give up any kind of power willingly.
"Regardless, you have your weapon. My side of the contract has been fulfilled-"
"Hold your horses there pal. Technically, this isn't a weapon. Just a simple enhancer magic item."
"You can't be serious-!"
"Oh but I am. See, you gotta be real careful when dealing with contracts. Technically, I haven't 'made a weapon' yet."
"You would be disrupting the contract if you tried to go against our deal!"
"Yeah... guess I have to deal with that another way." He stretched his arms out and the magic circle started glowing a deep red. "Whatever will I do about that?"
"What is this..." Cinder stepped away from it and Rory chuckled.
"Relax Demon. I'm the target. Not you."
"And what is it??"
"Ever heard of the Abaddon Curse?" She froze at that. "Well, I couldn't figure it out." He nearly laughed as she visibly relaxed. "But, ages ago I had a theory... about how it might work. See, destroying a curse Is only possible if you destroy what it's on... well, what if I move the curse to something else and destroy that?"
"You can't just move a curse's target-"
"You're right. But, what if the curse is say... on a flower? If i push all of it onto just one of the petals... then tear the petal off, what then?" His eyes sharpened as the circle began giving off a low hum like noise. "And what if say... that petal could grow back afterwards?"
Pushing a curse affecting a soul onto one specific part of it, tearing that part off, then reparing it by turning mana into life-force... a process that was simply impossible.
For any living thing to do anyway.
But, there was something that did know how to do anything like that... mana itself.
Only it was good enough at manipulating itself to pull off something so complicated.
"Intention based magic truly is quite the thing huh? While I was alive, I didn't have the aptitude or experience to do it... but this girl does."
Cinders expression had finally lost all pretense of confidence... all that was left was beautiful fear.
"What have you created..."
"The most powerful Ritual." The light glowing around him disappeared with a flash. A temporary blinding light that would have hurt... had he not been expecting it.
He healed his eyes quickly and grinned as he felt it... the binding contract between them fell apart as the curse was broken.
"Now then..."
He lunged at Cinder with his wings claw outstretched, ready to rip her in half.
"You're persistent enough to not stop going after the Dragon Formula."
Why wouldn't he count future Dragons on his list?
Ruby Schnee
"Nintey-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of beer! You take one down, pass it around, Ninety-seven bottles of beer on the- wait, Ninety-eight! Fuck!" She let out a groan as she tried to lay down in a huff, the momentum only causing her body to rotate in the zero gravity void.
Usually she wasn't one to swear... but a few days spent in a void like this would make anyone angry.
"I hate it here!!" Her whines were for no one, and heard by no one... at least, she thought so anyway.
"Same." She let out a scream and quickly turned to her right, finding 'Dragon Ruby' right next to her. "Yo."
"Why do you just show up out of-"
"Personally I think it's impressive you counted down from a thousand and only messed up at Ninety-eight." Ruby let out a groan as her alternate self teased her.
"You were listening to that...?"
"I'm you. I hear and see everything you do."
"That's so weird..."
"You're weird!"
There arguing continued back and forth for a while... before eventually they just got sick of it.
"Ugh... why can't I get out!?"
"Yelling isn't gonna fix it."
"Neither is doing nothing..."
"Then do something."
"Like what??" Her exasperation left her Dragon self thinking curiously to herself... before she finally spoke again with what was probably a terrible idea.
"Why don't you try looking around?"
"Looking around. In a void."
"It's something!"
"It's stupid."
"Well what's your great idea??"
Ruby rested her hand on her chin as she thought carefully... considering every option... and... eventually...
"One thousand bottles of beer on the-! Ow!" She held her head with a groan after the smack from her Dragon self. "That was uncalled for..."
"So was singing again."
"How can you even hit me if you're not real??"
"I dunno. I don't know much more about this then you do."
"Why not?"
The half Dragon didn't even respond... she just looked at her like she was stupid.
"Right... right... You're me..." She sighed as she glanced around. "I guess... maybe exploring isn't such a bad idea... what's the worse that can happen? It's not like I can get lost when there's nothing here..."
She picked a direction and awkwardly started floating towards nothing.
She didn't actually expect to find something.
"Is that a light?"
"Oooh! It looks like that memory one from earlier!!" Ruby hadn't even known the half Dragon had been following her... how long had it even been since that last light...?
But it didn't just look like the last one... it started growing like the last one too.
It burned away the void as it spread, blinding Ruby momentarily before she was sent somewhere else.
As someone else.
"Hmm... Could name them after Ozma... huh.. just realised Eirwen might have actually known him if she was alive before the Erasure Ritual..."
"That's something to bring up later..."
Rory was at his desk. For once? He wasn't working on his blueprints or weapons or anything... today?
A different part of his future. A more exciting part.
"C'mon... baby names... baby names... Shane...? Monty...?" He shrugged and wrote them both down. "Alright... now for girl names..."
To be honest, he knew Eirwen would probably want to name there child something fancy. Schnee's always had fancy names for some reason... probably because they were royalty.
It had only been two hours since she left... he was still just as excited as he had been when she'd gone.
They were going to have a baby!
Never in a thousand years would he have expected it... and he had expected to be this excited about it even less!
But... that sinking feeling from earlier... it was still there.
"I should have made her stay... I... I don't know why but..." He was probably just overreacting right...?
Eirwen was a Dragon. She'd be perfectly safe...
Sure, you couldn't transform while pregnant but...
Rory shook his head.
"It's gonna be fine. Everything... is gonna be fine. Any minute now... she's gonna come back through the window and..."
Then... they could spend the rest of there lives together... as a family.
All three of them.
"Huh... I wonder if I should become a Drag-"
He was interrupted by a crash.
It scared the shit out of him to say the least. The walls of his room were supposed to be able to repel any force right...? Something had come through his window and simply been a bit too big to fit perfectly.
He quickly whipped around to see what it was, standing up as anxiety filled his being as he looked at-
It was gone??
He felt something press against his body behind him and arms slowly wrap around his waist... he hadn't even realised they were behind him before whoever they were had him in a hug.
He... knew this person. That feeling they gave off could never be replicated by anyone but... she felt colder then usual...?
"Eirwen... you scared the shit out of-" He stopped as he tried to turn to look at her... she wasn't letting him. But more importantly was what he saw...
Light blue scales with an attached pure white membrane... her wings...?
She was... transformed...?
"...Eirwen-"
"Hey Rory..." Her voice was so tired. She was trying her best to give off as much of her usual warmth and love but... she just sounded so exhausted. "I made it back to you..." She gave a gentle chuckle that didn't last.
"...are you alright...?"
"No... no I'm not..." Her grip tightened on him but not to a painful degree. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. "Rory... I'm sorry."
"Eirwen what are you-"
"I'm so sorry..." Her voice hitched and he could tell she was fighting off tears... what was going on??
That sinking feeling was all he could feel now.
"Eirwen you're scaring me... talk to me, please." He was close to tears now as well. His hands had reached between them to try and get some leverage to separate her hold but-
He felt it. Her belly... her stomach... where he should have felt flesh... or scales... he felt...
Blood.
"...Eirwen...?"
"Rory... do you... know what a Rot Blade is...?" His eyes filled with tears as she spoke...
He knew exactly what they were.
The culmination of incredibly powerful Poison magic combined with a Magic weapon.
It inflicted a curse onto anything it hit... the damage it inflicted couldn't be healed.
By anyone.
"I couldn't... defend our family... I'm sorry..." She was definitly crying now... but so was he. He wanted to hug her, to try and make her feel any better but...
He wasn't strong enough to get out of her hold.
"Eirwen... you'll... you'll be ok. If you keep healing yourself... even though you can't repair the injury... you... you can force yourself to stay alive-"
"I already am... I don't have much more mana I'm afraid... I just... needed to say goodbye... and... I needed to give you something..." She leaned her head closer to his ear and whispered even softer. "You're the only one I trust this with... Potentia... Elementum... Spiritus... Superbia... Schnee..."
He understood immediatly... there was only one Formula that had five Phrases...
"I... I'm sorry Eirwen..." His eyes focused as he stared forward. "Giving me this... now...? You know what I'll do with it..."
She shook her head gently.
"I understand getting revenge for our child... but... for me...? No... I'm just an old woman who should have died centuries ago... but kept on pushing chasing a dream..." She kissed his cheek softly... her words were so quiet... he could barely feel the soft sting of her mana anymore... "Thank you for granting my wish Rory... our moments together... were worth the wait... every second... I love you..." Her hands slowly slipped from his grasp... and she fell behind him.
"...I love you too..." He hadnt turned. He was speaking to a corpse. She had died the second her healing had stopped... it was all that had been keeping her alive.
He took a deep breath. All he wanted to do right now was join her...
But that would be betraying her wish wouldn't it...?
He turned now... and looked down at her.
The red and rotting hole in her gut where his dreams of a family had been only minutes earlier... was all he could look at.
A Rot Blade had done this. It wasn't here so... the person that did this still must have it.
He reached over slowly and grabbed the papers on his desk.
Five now held the most importance to him... he folded the picture of Eirwen and put it into his pocket... he never wanted it to leave his side again.
The list of baby names... he hadn't even started the girls names yet...
He slowly knelt down... and rested that on Eirwen's chest. Closing her eyes and kissing her forehead gently as he did...
"Goodbye... my love..."
"Both of you..."
He stood and looked at the other three in his hand.
His blueprints...
The one for his theory... Intention based magic... curse removal...
Rory ripped it in half and dropped it on his bed as he moved from his desk.
If he had devoted time to it... if he had just figured it out and worked through it and actually gotten it then maybe...!
Maybe he wouldn't have lost both of them...
The second paper... his plans for the future?
That one went out the window.
"What future?"
The final paper... the last one he had.
The only reason he had to keep moving.
The blueprint for his weapon...
He walked slowly to the door and stepped through it... looking to Eirwen one last time before leaving and locking the door behind him.
"I'm sorry Eirwen... but... my revenge will be for both of you." His voice was practically dead... but be already knew where he was going.
His legs just had to carry him there.
A Rot Blade...
Poison Affinity...
"Purple eyes."
Ruby reared back and took deep breaths as the light faded and she was left in the void again... alone.
"That was... I... I feel..."
"I feel sick..."