Millennia they had been bound together.
Together in their ancient forgotten scheme to form a new dyad against the overlords of the millions of skinwalker Neverborn that hunted freely in this forgotten corner of the universe.
Together sealed as eternal punishment.
Banished to this twin form. Every attempt to plead for respite, every sacrifice offered for reprieve fell on deaf ears. Confined to a pitiful feeding ground in the Materium far away from the lofty aspirations of a place in the eternal court they once held. Both blaming the other for the failing of their schemes, wasting their existence in a bitter inescapable feud. All too eager to take up an opportunity to serve and prove their worth when the pinnacle of their kinds' schemes on this peculiar planet came to a head.
Then, for once in many eons came a moment giving hope that they were at last at the very least free from each other's company in the physical. A fate each entity yearned for with all their infernal hatred of the other. A state they would fight the gods themselves to achieve.
But their punishment wasn't undone so easily. Every attempt made by one to wound the other only resealed their fate.
Their curse.
Black unholy matter clung to claws, fangs, filling mouths while it stretched between their guts. Skin tore, muscles cracked and contorted. Every blow and bite entwining them further. Reshaping the two, back into one,
"Penny…"
Thunder cracked across the sky again as Ruby softly whispered her friend's name. Voice full of doubt for her friend's safety, seeing the Sanus Express careen out of the darkening clouds high above trailing fire and smoke. The sound of it crashing rolled over them mere seconds after Ruby spotted the command ship on its way back to Remnant for the final time.
Team RWBY, having just drawn in and destroyed another pack of Grimm in an isolated courtyard chokepoint. Had more than a moment to watch the fall of that vessel over the slapdash styled rooftops of Vacuon architecture while they collected their wits and strength.
Weiss could not contain her own quiet voice muttering, "Oh my God," her left hand rising up to try and hide her reaction.
Soon each of the four could feel the static building in the air from the power thrown skyward trying to save the Express. It lingered on the girls' skin raising tiny bumps while their hair and loose clothing was gently blown aside by a fell wind carrying more scents of destruction and death. However, a dull ringing sound and a new shadow that lingered over the wretched ruins brought the team's focus around. A smaller, more familiar darkness fell before the crimson vortex conjured in their midst.
The dark Huntress Raven spoke when she stepped into reality again through her portal. Flourishing her long red sword to lay back by her hip, "You were supposed to be at your rally point."
With rose petals scattering behind her Ruby wove her semblance and sped to the older girl,
"You gotta get us to the ship!" Ruby demanded, gripping the folds of Raven's black top tight,
"Easy, easy," Raven replied, quickly placing her left hand on Ruby's shoulder trying to calm her down. "Are you all alright?"
"Forget that," Blake answered for her leader with a scowl, "What happened?"
Raven shrugged, taking a few steps forward surveying this little piece of the carnage, "Aside from the obvious? I don't know. Didn't get a good idea of how the Express was falling so I couldn't get back."
Nearby, Weiss flicked open the action on her sword to check the Dust levels, "What's the plan?"
"Didn't you get the message?"
Silence was the answer.
"Well shit," Raven cursed, "Comms… Same plan as the old plan I think you can guess. Only now they've got to go get to the bombs."
Yang raised one blond eyebrow at Raven's choice of words, "They?"
Her estranged sister turned back, running the edge of her sword between her left hand's index and thumb. "Yes. They… I am asking if you really want to go with everyone else into the firestorm that's coming."
Ruby blinked away her surprise, "Of course we are! Our friends need our help!"
Blake spoke in support, "We did not come all this way for nothing."
With a nod of thanks to the Faunus, Ruby ejected the magazine from her weapon and pressed a fresh one home in Crescent Rose, "We'll do what we need to do… Just like everyone else, just like,"
Running on a quick assumption Yang stopped her sister, "Ruby don't,"
And was interrupted in turn, "Just like Mom would have done…"
Her mother, her real mother…
Yang's wandering lilac eyes found the ground and closed while she gave out a short fragile sigh in speechlessness. It had been many days since she had felt like herself. Especially under spectre of more and more mysterious answers regarding her families' past. There in that moment, Flung back to a time long, long ago by thoughts of the silver eyed Huntress who had raised her with every bit of love given to her biological daughter.
She found a forgotten warmth in her soul.
Yang raised her head up high, "Raven. I, we've spent so much time worrying, talking about our mother… I never got to tell you about my Mom. Summer Rose… She wasn't just my Mom. She was my hero… Just like Ruby now…"
She looked over to the little girl Yang once knew. Now a Huntress any sister would be proud to have. Ruby had tears of her own building, trying to smile as she rushed over and threw her arms around Yang.
The embrace was returned gladly, the two leaned into each other's presence for as long as they dared. Which was determined by the sound of Weiss blatantly clearing her throat.
Yang and Ruby separated, the younger girl spoke, "We've got a job to do."
Raven gave a curt nod of acknowledgement, "As long as we're sure."
The blonde Huntress let out a laugh with another part of her soul freed from her weary chest, "Hell yeah we're sure."
"Good enough for me Sister,"
Darkness and mundane dust pressed in. A cloying heavy weight on the eyes and body that would not relent and had no end. Things Alicia Redstone had no choice but to carry onwards into if she hoped to see any form of daylight again.
Alicia did not consider herself claustrophobic. That may have changed in the wake of getting the biggest concussion of her life only minutes ago in the crash. And fighting to reorient herself in the oppressive darkness and silence of the sideways corridors she could not see in was not helping anything. Muscles burned in her legs as she steadily planted one foot in front of the other seeking a way out.
Struggling under the bulk of Co'Balt, whose left arm she had draped over her shoulders.
Battered and bruised with very little aura left she paused to fight for another breath of air. Pressing Co'Balt's weapon which she carried in her left hand against the wall for balance. Taking a moment to slightly curse her teammate for not being awake to guide them through this with his superior eyesight. She figured that his thick skull would have served him better than it did. Struck head on and buried beneath the heavy bulkhead wall that had been wrenched loose into the enclosed space.
Cracking one of the smooth brown horns from his head at the base.
Co'Balt groaned in pain again, and pressed his right hand again to the place where the pointed piece of keratin used to be. Blood still dripped onto his bare arm below the disfigured protrusion.
When Alicia finally regained her senses beneath the twisted command center, she had another panic attack wondering what had befallen Co'Balt in the crash. She flexed her fingers under the ruined metal seeking some sign of the Faunus. Through the turmoil their hands had remained locked in a vice-like grip. That she felt but could not see, just like the still pulsing warmth of Co'Balt's changeable soul through her Aura in the dark.
Like a winter wind the panic disappeared and she let herself go limp. What might have been sorrow turned into relief she was glad to get. But after freeing both herself and her teammate and slinging the spear of Jaxon over her back. Alicia considered she might have only managed to move them into a bigger tomb. They were however safe from the Grimm, she considered that an upside.
When they came to another junction slightly illuminated by a small light strip that clung desperately to existence. Co'Balt unexpectedly and far too calmly said, "Ali,"
The sound of his voice left a deafening silence after he spoke her name. The Huntress stopped in her tracks, "You don't get off that easy today buddy,"
Any sign of the pained sounds he had been making were not to be found in his new tone of voice. Co'Balt spoke again, "I feel fine."
"That's just the brain damage talking. Can you see anything?"
"I'm serious," He reiterated. "It's fine. Where's Keila,"
Loosening her grip ever so slightly. Gravity snagged its hooks into the boy's bulky frame, and the sensation of falling jolted through him like an electric current. Reflexively making too stand up right. Whereupon a new spike of pain shot through his head. Causing Co'Balt to cry out momentarily, right hand back on his forehead again.
Alicia let herself smile, before shifting her grip, "Come one, we gotta get out of here."
"What about the bombs?" Co'Balt asked.
She sighed once, "Uhhgg, They're not going anywhere… Kad will be here soon to help… Everything will be fine…"
"Yeah," Co'Balt said in agreement, "It'll be fine."
Battle sounds grew more prominent, reverberating through the hull. A few more turns in the darkness lead the beaten duo towards the outer hull of the aircraft, more by luck than intention. The deep shadows started to retreat from a breach into the ship. Alicia guided them both towards this growing illumination. Finding another upturned hallway, pointing towards the clouding sky and the Grimm that swarmed overhead like a pack of vultures. Together the two clambered up the artificial slope into the fresh if not any cleaner air.
Finding what the battle had devolved into in their absence.
And where their other teammate had gone.
Burning light cut into the monstrous enemies down below Penny, who wove her web of swords like a dance as she fell from the sky.
Beowolves, and more horrific squat bipeds pushed their powerful hindquarters to intercept the android before she landed. And were shredded like wet papers by green lasers which scoured long furloughs in the crumbling stonework behind the monsters.
The airship laid silent in what would be its final resting place. Impacted into the Iron Hill Museum nose in the ground and tail jutting to the sky. A few meters ahead of a large double door of dark wood and black iron bonds, a design relic from the mine the museum used to be. Tables and chairs once dotted the broad public space terraced up to the concrete walls. Now only dead plants and rubble piles remained. Penny's enhanced eyes tracked a few signs of life from within the Sanus Express.
"Hello!?" She called out, "Anyone?!"
She received no response.
Whatever scorching desert light there would have been in midday was slowly but surely being blocked from the sky as the conjured storm intensified. Making the shadows in the nearby buildings of whatever government Vacuo could boast to have, even longer.
And that much harder for her to identify or count the creatures of Grimm that slinked through their shells. Aside from the slits of red that starred with an all-consuming hatred at she who stood between them and their prize.
Under the booming howls of the other Grimm, Penny could hear the staccato weapons fire echoing from airships forming a new battle group low in the south. Along with the cries and vengeful shouts of Hunters who fought all throughout the distance in between.
Help was coming, the android thought to herself.
Another cold shock ran its course through her artificial body and she let out a brief gasp pressing both palms to her temples. Wondering where that streak of optimism had come from.
To the south, lightning pushed up against the storm gray clouds.
Penny amended her previous thought. Help was coming.
But it wasn't here yet.
So she had to fight.
Severely outnumbered and alone Penny chose a more defensive style of combat. Pulling the thin wires on her many swords into groups. Throwing her augmented strength behind them. Content to let the beasts come in droves to the long reach of the swords and strike them down. The growing cloud of black death smoke that soon engulfed her would have choked out anyone else who actually needed to breathe.
Blades whistled death as she spun them faster. Killing Grimm on every turn. Until ricocheting off the bone plates studded in the arms of a towering Ursa Major that lurched over the lip of the wide patio she fought upon.
The daemon bear crumpled a black iron fence under its bulk and grasped for Penny with arms thicker than she was tall. Her programming quickly adjusted, making allotments to deal with the threat. Springing backwards and then off her hands. Penny gathered all the blades and a goodly portion of her aura. Splitting the gargantuan monster in two from the groin up with a single beam of emerald light.
And just as swiftly as it died Penny was beset by another just as fierce and determined to end her. And no matter that she just as deftly and decisively ended those as well for every Grimm she cut away two more came crashing out of the darkness to take up the assault.
She met them all the same,
Alicia quickly spun the revolving chamber of her own Dust knife, glancing back at Co'Balt who lay next to his ax where she had practically dropped them both at the mouth of the upturned corridor.
"Hey," she said to the Faunus again, "Come on we've got to help Penny."
Co'Balt remained firmly on the ground, only raising one fist up to his mouth when it split open in a yawn. He finally responded, "Penny's got this, its fine."
She blinked a few more times in visible surprise. Co'Balt's languid dismissal of the situation. Alicia could not so easily accept. Or anymore the strange sense of calm that she felt. And knew that she definitely shouldn't. She looked out beyond what safety the airship could still offer of its gouged out hull.
Relentlessly the monsters clambered over each other coming for Penny who fought defiant in their bone white face masks.
Alicia flinched when the bark of an energy carbine sounded out from elsewhere in the wreckage. And was soon joined by several others of its kind. Some Atlesian survivors doing what they could. But their pattern of fire was sporadic, one shot or long burst every other heartbeat. Not the disciplined volleys of automatic fire the heavy squads were trained to deal out.
She stepped close and crouched down next to Co'Balt who was now struggling to keep his eyes open. "Nice of you to finally give her some credit, but now isn't the time to be sitting down on the job!"
He gave a simple noise of complaint and tried to turn away. Alicia chastised him again, "You really want to just sit here and what? Wait for Kad to come and solve all our problems?"
Co'Balt shook his head slightly and crossed his arms where he lay, "At this point, sure! Fuck it, it's worked out well so far." He replied beneath a growing sneer settling further down as if back in their dorm room.
So balling up a fist, Alicia punched him in the stomach. His brown eyes bulged as he gasped out another pained expletive.
"Wake up asshole!" The Huntress yelled right into his face, raising her fist back for another blow.
Unsure of himself or what had just happened Co'Balt bared his teeth prepared to lash back at his teammate and to him her unexplainable assault. Alicia had a moment to see his visage of anger turn back to shock. Focus shifted onto something behind them that blotted out what little light there had been.
Co'Balt pulled in his legs and sprang to his feet faster than Alicia had ever seen him move. Her world soon disappeared into a blur, and her stomach lurched up into her throat. A familiar and unpleasant sensation of Co'Balt sweeping her along as he pulsed his semblance.
Shifting away from where the mighty punch of an apelike Beringal struck down. The Grimm roared and spun after them. Co'Balt's thrown ax sank up to the barrel haft and trigger, between its eyes. He sped again away from Alicia grabbing his weapon and pulling the beast's chin down into his rising knee. Scattering sharp teeth across the deck. The monster however refused to be parted from Remnant so easily. Bleeding and bludgeoned it still managed to bring its arms down trying to flatten Co'Balt into a paste. Too slow to catch the Faunus. And too close to dodge the shotgun blast that took its head off. Co'Balt groaned into clenched teeth, beating the ball of his left fist against his brow and swearing with every hit, "Shit! Shit! Shit!"
He took a deep breath finally, "Ali do you feel that?"
Still trying to keep down her new nausea she simply replied. "Yeah…"
"What the hell is it?"
"I don't know!"
Two sides warred within them. One the rational, the aware, the very much afraid. The one bolstered by the courage and determination to strive. Kindled by the living giant that had walked out of history and myth to move among them. The side which knew that this might be their end if they did not get up and fight for their lives.
And the other…
A foreign, an alien, insidious weighing sense of nothingness… One that sapped at their strength… Whispering to them sweet echoes of. Apathy.
It sucked strength from their limbs and air from their lungs. Alicia almost keeled over on the spot, barely managing to just halt motion downwards by bracing an arm against the wall and leaning into the bend.
The Atlesian guns had gone silent, some with a scream as the soldier who wielded it was carried off in the claws of a Grimm. Yet the wreckage, the ground, even the air itself shook at the rage of the Grimm who howled whilst Penny the only Hunter still fighting killed them such a short distance away. Swelling the evil volleys of sound rising from the rest of the horde moving into position to complete their encirclement.
"Co'Balt," Alicia said again, "We've got to… Got to…"
"Ehhh, fuck it," He groaned back at her. His adrenaline rush gone just as quickly as it appeared. "Can't we just call for a ship already? Shits definitely fucked now.'
Just as easily as he might have back in their dorm room Co'Balt slid to the ground, flat on his back. Stifling another yawn. She stared down at him. Fighting to find the urge, the words. Anything to reprimand the boy, to find the fire and drive again. To scream and rage against the suicidal stupidity.
It never came.
The same lethargy that had taken the young Huntsman was deep within her bones now. What happened next, Alicia did not consider it to be against her better judgment.
She just did not care anymore.
Slumping to the ground, all her strength gone before it could even be spent. But with cold and ironclad certainty in her heart that all would be well…
Where their young leader was taking them through the abandoned streets, the rest of Team JNPR could only guess. In truth, none of them believed it mattered.
As long as they were going away from that Daemon.
Not long after parting the two halves from each other, had the telltale rhythm of the monster's galloping gait sounded again behind them. Drawing nearer and nearer even as JNPR broke into a run. Their pace slowed by other Grimm encountered and killed. The creature's numbers growing with every meter they covered towards the center of the city. Weaving through gutted houses, under fallen beams and walls. Ren called out to Jaune,
"We've got to stop." He said, holding back a few hard breaths to do so.
"Are you nuts?" Jaune replied in question, slowing a little to match Ren's speed.
"It'll chase us to the ends of the city. Jaune, please… This is my fight."
"What are you talking about? What is with you and that thing?!"
The team leader's question fell on deaf ears. Their team came rounding another bend back into the dimming sunlight. And team JNPR found themselves surrounded.
The great horde, ten thousand burning eyes staring right through their skin and into their souls. The end of Remnant they, and all the others had come here to face with bared teeth of their own. Staring at a paltry four hunters.
Over the white skull masks and spear-like armored spikes on the backs of almost every conceivable type of Grimm that had ever crossed any of JNPR's minds laid the Iron Hill museum. Standing lonely on its pitiful summit, smoke curling behind it. Some flashes of leaping Grimm and errant projectiles screamed up into the sky in the distance between, as the battle flow came to a grinding halt out among the monsters.
Those stranded Hunters having their strength and morale sapped away by the alien will soaking the Vacuon air. The urge to and run and retreat, tempted their resolve. Their will fading away beneath the darkness.
There was nowhere to run.
At their back, the monster that had been chasing them for what felt like hours exploded through another building. Both heads of the beast glared down at those who had so heinously given them a glimpse of freedom. And only proved that their curse was as eternal as their real master's realm beyond this place they were banished to.
Moving back to back team JNPR readied their weapons. What use they would be against such unbelievable numbers was of little debate. Jaune knew this, and looking into the sight of a million leering teeth ready to strip the flesh from the bones of him and his friends. Jaune could barely hold back his frustrated choked words,
"Guys… Guys… I'm sorry…" He said, a herculean effort required to raise his words to an audible level. "I'm so sorry… I ran us right into this…"
At his back, Ren faced the thing that had haunted his nightmares for far too long, "Don't be… This chance… It was worth it…"
Between the two, Pyrrha and Nora stood looking back and forth between the two Grimm that were one. And all of its evil kindred. One finding calm in her destiny. And the other that the same fire in her heart that had not dimmed at all in such dire circumstances.
"We're together…" Pyrrha said, with a soft smile lost on the monsters, "…I wouldn't have had it any other way."
Nora spun her hammer and gripped it tight in anticipation, "This fight's not over yet!"
The twinned monsters that towered over them screeched another cry of utter hatred into the sky and broke into a run. Froth flecking away from both sets of lips as it thundered forward. The Rider raising one long arm high to bring down on the Hunters.
Before it fell, a shock ran through the world.
A blinding flash of light slammed into the side of the Grimm. The four Hunters raised arms too late to shield and began to blink away fading spots from their vision. Their pursuer suddenly thrown almost head over heels into one of the still standing walls where it crashed in a gangly heap of twisted limbs.
Apart from the rear leg that had been cut from its body,
The rest of the black army roared a unified sound of recognition seeing who had appeared before them. Their vocalizations quickly turned into barks of confusion.
New shadows swooped down out of the storm grey clouds.
And gunfire strafed the Grimm's disorderly lines.
Bullheads, and Atlesian dropships slowed to hover as they came down and opened fire. Almost directly overhead where Team JNPR still stood in the fraction of a second which had passed since their certain doom slipped into memory. Rockets and Dust projections blasted into the Grimm sowing further chaos in the final frontline this battle would have.
The few larger ships still flying, held position above those gunboats. There to shield the Hunters on the ground from the creatures that managed to make it through the howling gales that kept the majority of Grimm capable of flight away.
Whilst the Daemon horde was pushed back and hammered with what artillery the small airforce had, team JNPR was divided.
Three watched with a sense of almost awe as the Grimm reeled under the bombardment. Feeling their spirits lifted higher and higher as more Hunters, by the dozens and soon hundreds followed the airships up above out into the fray. Friends, rivals, peers from all the academies of Remnant came charging down the barren boulevards to the fight. Their own small ranged weapons lashing out but only the beginnings of their fury visited upon the Grimm.
The fourth of them, Lie Ren. Looked backwards at his team's savior.
The Huntsman himself, Kad Amaranth. Tall with aura shining bright like a hero of old. The true face of the Primarch bared and battle ready. Twin gouts of flame pouring forth from his eyes. The red sword Ignis in his left hand back in ready position after sliding through tendons and muscle in a long drawing cut when he had thrown his strength into the conjoined Grimm's guts mid stride
Coils of energy flickered from his right hand still clenching the arcane Dust shard in a bandaged fist. The same hue as the lightning crashing amidst the windstorm high above keeping the rest of the flying Grimm at bay.
Despair and weakness that had lingered like an unwanted odor washed away. A new, warm sense of strength and determination filled hearts and gave strength to limbs grown weary and worn by the battle. It was power, radiating off the giant in waves.
Rubble stirred, and the conjoined Grimm creatures began to haul itself upwards on its remaining limbs, hissing hate and defiance.
The Primarch sprang into motion.
Ignis came up and then down in one smooth stroke.
"Wait!"
A jolt of surprise ran from twin hearts to his brain and Kad halted the blow about to hew both heads of the monster off. He pressed the burning metal down on the rider's neck, all his senses keyed to alert him should the need arise to bring the blade down and end the creature.
But the monster was just as surprised as the Primarch.
Both looked at the one who had called for a stay of the thing's execution.
Ren stepped forward, "That one is mine…"
He stood tall, puffing out his chest, "You say… That we don't have to be afraid any more… That thing, that thing killed my parents… My whole village…" Ren's voice wavered, but not his resolve. He drew both pistols of Storm Flower "And I will avenge them…"
There was a moment, when the giant considered denying Ren his claim. The battle was far from over and he did not need one team sidelined for one monster now.
Yet, seeing what was building in Ren's eyes. Kad knew even more that he needed this. And in doing so would prove what the Primarch had said of their enemy. What he had said to all of the others fighting and dying for his words of a future without fear. If those held any truth, if the tide could be turned. It would be here.
Battle sounds crashed over them,
Kad took a step back. Ignis trailing a burning scar across the creature's neck. The piercing point of his sword never wavered, moving as slow as he dared between the two partner pairs of team JNPR.
The giant looked down, and said a single word, "Quickly." Then broke into a run, decapitating an errant Ursa that had barreled through the other Hunters.
Team JNPR leveled gun barrels and blade tips at the monster rising up like the picture of death itself before them. A low hiss coming out from behind both mouths and too many rows of teeth, laced with rot stench deep from whatever passed for its bowels.
Broken masonry smashed to the ground, the Grimm stood as tall as it could on three remaining limbs. The fire Dust hindering its regenerative gifts for the moment.
Jaune hunkered behind his shield, while his eyes bored over its edge into the beast he asked his teammate. "You have a plan Ren?"
The two pistols in Ren's hands wavered for a heartbeat, and his lilac eyes found the ground for an equally short length of time. His fury, smoldering for as long as he could remember. Had not served him, or his team so well in their last encounter.
Ren looked to his friend, his brother. And with a quick nod told him, "I'll follow your lead Jaune."
The twinned beast shrieked a double cry of hatred. The rider's arms stretched out and gouged out grips into the asphalt below their feet. The equine lower half lurched awkwardly forward as the two propelled their shared form as one.
Lightning split the sky.
Power cracked through the air again, the Primarch renewing his elemental assault on the daemons. Shapes of dying Grimm fell as they tried to breach the barrier high above. The brilliant flash caught the young swordsman's attention. And the beginnings of a plan ran through his head.
Jaune raised the shield and leveled Crocea Mors. Calling out to JNPR, "Together!"
Air shimmered a crimson so dark it was nearly black. And a new hole in the world opened wide.
Five figures emerged running from within its depths. Red and black the first, Ruby Rose ahead of the rest of her team and Raven who had brought them as close as she could guess or dare to the front line.
The clear tone of steel ringing, rapid cannon fire from above matched the lesser firearms below. Hard crashes of noise that threatened to deafen those locked in bitter conflict. All three were slowing. No singular fighter realized it themselves, their lapse in aggression a simultaneous lull in the ebb and flow of combat.
One thought themselves too tired, in need of only the slightest breather. Another sought room to maneuver away from a large foe. Yet another thought to take stock of their ammunition. Whilst still another down the line took pause to look for their teammate who had become lost in the press of bodies and blood. A thousand separate reasons no longer considered unwise to stop and breath given under the malignant air of apathy the Hunters had been pushing through just as much and as hard as they pushed through the Grimm themselves.
Half the reason they had made it so far, slightly way laid behind them.
Until, as only one of his kind could. Kad broke through the forming battle-line.
A trio of Goliaths lowered their heads and charged. The great bull in the lead, twice the size of any other. The red sword Ignis flashed. Hurled through the air, a meter's long tongue of flame extended beyond its metal length. Without slowing it parted the first Grimm perfectly down the middle. Before halting unnaturally midair before flying backwards to the hand of its maker and wielder who had leapt after his weapon over the now burning Grimm that had swarmed about the Goliath's legs before its death shriek had faded.
Edged metal hacked down again, clean through a dozen Grimm. Kad's legs bent, absorbing the force of his impact. Between the other two Goliaths and the numberless horde below them and beyond.
Right hand gripping tight the shining piece of Dust coursing with power.
Power the Primarch unleashed as a breath of air held for so long it burned the lungs. Out in a pulse through his aura like a bomb blast in the center of the black army.
The Daemons had a moment to raise the arms of their vessels in a futile defense before they flashed from existence on the mortal plane. Shrieking back into the place behind reality from whence they came. The remaining Goliaths reared, standing back on their hind legs and howling in pain as their skin blistered and peeled.
In the ashes of the slain, Kad stood tall holding aloft his burning sword. Pointing it back to the Hunters of Remnant and then forward at their foes. Yelling out in command, to spur and embolden the hearts that had wavered behind him.
"Get up!"
Gleaming like a star he swung down again, bisecting another swath of monsters. The two Goliaths were cut down by a barrage of munitions from the gun boats as their healing powers were burned away.
"You've made it this far!"
At his call wounds and weariness no longer stung or dragged at the arms that held weapons close to chest. Aura's flared with renewed strength being freely shared from the nova that had come down to their planet in the shape of the Huntsman who charged forward as inexorable as the rising dawn.
More lumbering behemoths trudged from the depths of the Grimm ranks. The arcane crystal shard came up again in Ignis' backswing. Light and lightning crashed against bone masks the size of houses. The Daemons behind them hissed and backed away like spurned dogs.
"And nothing can stop you now!"
This time, Kad's call for defiance was answered. As blades sang and guns spat death one Hunter lost in the fray shouted out two words. Those at his side then repeated the two words screamed from the bottom of their lungs. Dozens more after them, till hundreds after them the battle cry grew and grew and grew.
"For Remnant!"
Words the Hunters roared together as they charged together after the Primarch.
"For Remnant!"
The curving blade of Crescent Rose parted Grimm from their limbs and heads. Ruby wove around clumsy blows and bites of the monsters. Hacking one to pieces every second stride, in bursts of rose petals as she led her team deeper and deeper.
Her heart only soared,
Ruby was smiling ear to ear, living out her dream. With her friends by her side
Spikes twisted and gnarled sprouted more and more from the Grimm's flesh. Other forms, avian in nature but bound to the ground came forth and attacked. Leapfrogging in pairs, team RWBY did their work. Weiss conjured glyphs and Dust bolts, cracking open monster formations. Blake slipped into those gaps hamstringing legs and pinging smaller rounds of daemon heads. And when those turned after the Faunus, Yang slammed her gauntleted fists up into jaws and blew their heads clean off. And through their death clouds Ruby and Raven came swinging again.
A smaller squadron of three ships broke off from the pack above and dove for the rear of the museum. What reinforcements could be spared, but all that the giant considered needed as the Grimm came to meet their challenge on this side of the museum.
Both sides were now committed. Victory or death.
On the part of the Hunters at least.
Another shadow stepped back out into the world.
A dark thing long limbed, winged and tall in its avian shape that clutched a vicious metal scepter in its hand. Malevolence and treachery the fibers of its being, and more hatred now than it had ever felt in all the millennia of its existence.
But not entirely for its enemy.
The Huntsman had not yet seen this creature's return. His sword of fire mowing down the lesser neverborn like blades of grass, elemental power that would have killed a hundred other soul weavers coursing through his body to the storm above. Superhuman thoughts divided between these two mammoth tasks.
No matter the years this creature of subterfuge had spent away from the great game and the true nature of its kind, it could see.
The Primarch was distracted
Vulnerable.
What light there had been, fled from the world. Swallowed into the howling vortex conjured twenty paces ahead of Kad up the steps. From which a black torrent of fire spewed forth at the giant.
He spun preternaturally fast. Ignis coming up through the guts of a King Taijitu wheeled down deep into rubble strewn ground. Parting the unnatural blaze around his body into the monsters clawing for his blood. What strength was sapped from his aura was soon replaced by drawing on the crystal.
The Daemon had returned, it curled one fist of razor talons closed. A hiss slithered out from its Nevermore head as it sneered down from its towering height above the Primarch. Four red eyes blinked in unison.
It was fated.
Kad knew that another confrontation with the Masters of the Grimm would happen before this battle was over.
"And so here I am boy. Watching you tell yourself you are not afraid…"
The Grimm spoke, severing the Primarch's brief muse. The words it uttered cut through the air like bullets. Willed out into the universe which recoiled from the very thought of them. Hairs stood on end on Kad's skin that glowed like an ember. A scowl pressed his noble features down.
"Never," Kad snarled back, refuting its accusation. He drew strength from the familiar weight of Ignis in his left hand. While the heat from the crystal in his right blistered his palm. "This time…"
"Will be different?" The Grimm asked, "Simply because you found one small piece of the puzzle of your life you finally decided to begin on…"
The thing began to pace, Kad mirrored it step for step refusing to show his back. Forgetting and forgotten by the battle around them.
"Oh what could have been had we more time with you creature…" The Grimm said, with what could have passed for a sigh afterward. "How different our story would have been…"
An anger terrible in its scope swelled up from the giant's stomach. "What might have been… Is not what is..."
Kad curled the crystal shard up, and an elemental shock pulsed from within. The air chilled. Flakes of frost fell, as lightning split the sky.
"Do you feel that?" He asked, the link to the world he had through the Dust going taut as Kad pulled his awareness back to the moment before it slipped too far away. "I'm going to turn this whole planet against you. It is time for your part in this story to end creature."
The Grimm Lord threw back its head and laughed, "Defiance, tastes like life itself!"
The rage within Kad burst like a flooding dam, a mighty roar surged from his throat just as the bolt of lightning shot from the crystal in his hand. Aiming to give the beast its fill of defiance.
The form of the Grimm shimmered and disappeared with a crackle of dark energies. Rock and other daemons too dead to even realize it exploded where the thing was but a heartbeat ago. And when the Grimm returned, giving a roar that rattled bones beneath skin. The monster swung its staff in a great two handed blow towards the ground. Ripping a furlough as long and deep as the tattered wings on its back. Sweeping the detritus from within like a wave at the Primarch.
Crossed arms and the flat of his blade did nothing to block the avalanche of stone from sweeping Kad backwards feet first as he was pummeled. Hunters behind him leapt as high as they could dodging rocks, some not high enough.
Kad shot back up before the clatter of stone and the crunch of breaking bones faded. Launching a bolt of fire from Ignis in retaliation.
The Grimm stretched out its hand and the flames splashed across its bony fingers like water. "You are afraid boy," It hissed down, "That is what your father burdened you with…"
Its serpentine neck reared backwards. A familiar glow built deep within its gullet.
Kad thought of the Hunters behind him. This fight wasn't theirs,
Kad thought of how many would die if this duel continued in their midst.
And then he thought of the thing's pronouncement…
That he was afraid…
Before it could send the warp fire forth. Kad hurled his sword like a spear, the red blade passed within a hair's breadth of the things neck which twisted like worm dodging the improvised javelin. The other Hunters scattered. Momentum lost, and perhaps the battle with it. Grimm pressed forward in the melee here at the epicenter of the war for Remnant.
Iron wrapped around his hearts, and the Primarch leapt up and forward. His free hand coming down on the Grimm's jagged beak.
And passing straight through it.
Ignis halted and soared back to its maker's hand, Kad landed hard and rolled to a guard position unsure of where his foe had disappeared. All senses tuned to hunting it down.
For he knew that his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Seeing nine forms of the monster shimmer into being and surround him.
Sunlight died in their shadows. A howl like knives across glass scraped over the field as the spectres raised their staves and the spiked circles atop to hammer down. Kad's ears rang and burned as the shrieks washed over. The foul, yet somehow unnervingly clean scent of the Grimm was everywhere as well. He could not rely on his nose.
At the back of his mind, through his aura, his soul. Like a puppet to the tug of its strings, Kad turned his head, oft to his right down the field. Following the draw of instincts honed through genecraft for a singular purpose.
And he found his prey.
The primal fury, pumping blood at the thrill of the hunt that a hundred thousand years had not removed from humanity. Fell cold.
The Grimm, poised in the same motion as all its simulacrums bringing down death with both hands.
Death not aimed at Kad.
Only he perceived what was happening fast enough to act. And at the speed his mind was running. The Primarch had a long time to choose what form that action would take.
And in the end, watching the scepter creep slowly down and down to take someone else who had nothing to do with his duel from the world.
He did the only thing he could…
Kad lunged in a blur of speed and light, meters covered in the blink of an eye. Ignis stretched to the farthest of his reach before him in both hands to intercept the coming blow. The shadows of the daemon and the Huntsman met. Shrouding two Huntresses below them.
Yang Xiao Long, back in her element pulling a fist back to throw another fiery punch. Only now turning to see what descended on her. A reaction milliseconds behind Raven at her side.
Whose' only thought was for the safety of her sister.
The Daemonic metal met Ignis.
Raven crashed into Yang with both hands beneath the blonde's right arm. Whiplash bringing the limb far out of position.
And the red sword snapped in two.
Sparks rained down over the Huntresses. The Grimm's weapon continued down. The sharpened circle cut through aura that shimmered at the metal's mere presence into flesh and bone.
Severing Yang's splayed right arm above the elbow.
Driving a killing iron spike deep into Raven's back.
Momentum carried Kad forward. Almost threatening to make him stumble after Yang. Over Raven lying still on the ground into which she had been driven. Bisected across her shoulder blades, blood soaking freely into the Vacuaon ground.
She hadn't any time to cry out before the end. Neither did Yang who lay in shock sprawled on her left hand side a few feet away. Her aura a sallow shade of its former vibrancy over the grievous wound.
The Grimm Lord hissed in annoyance drawing its weapon back with blinding speed to strike again.
His heart up to his throat and a void of thought ringing in his ears, Kad looked first to his broken blade. Almost as if his own arm lay upon the ground. A jolt of shame that he may have thought more of the weapon than the dead brought his eyes that once shone with the fire of Remnant down to the ground and the ones he had failed.
The air chilled as Kad seemed to almost shrink. The radiance he had projected dulled and the windstorm above began to die. The numberless Grimm howled and redoubled their efforts to sweep everything and everyone before them.
And one Huntress who had only now realized what just happened. Cried out for her sister.
"Yang!"
Fire surged in the Primarch's eyes locking on to the Daemon. The roar from his throat drowned out the echoing screams for violence from the horde. He spun what remained of his sword backwards in his left hand as the Master of the Grimm swept down to split him in two. Kad struck forward with his right hand, Pulsing his semblance. A blast of light seared the Warp conjured flesh. Knocking both weapon and wielder with crossed arms back.
As he had done hundreds of times before with his inherited knife Kad hurled the sundered Ignis through the air. When it slammed into the Grimm's blocking guard he bent his will and exploded the sword in a ball of fire. The Daemon let out a pained screech, disappearing behind the blaze.
Kad cursed himself mightily, trying to gain his focus back. Stretching mind and aura out to the elements that had calmed. Lightning barrages cracked and the wind soon howled once again through the streets of Grimm closing in again.
No longer the Hunters advanced. Going back to back, shoulder to shoulder at the edge of the museum over their fallen brethren. Airships foundered and threatened to crash into one another holding station above the duel. Some going down in flames as a lucky creature dive bombed through the storm cover and slammed into their hull as the winds waned.
There was a weight in Kad's chest, pushing on his lungs and chilling him to the bone.
At his back, Kad heard another otherworldly laugh. His left hand fell to the familiar wooden grip of his last remaining blade.
"Fish in a pond Huntsman! My first prophecy rings true. Does it not?"
Fury.
Anything on the Primarch's mind was eclipsed. His only desire, his only need to go and wrap his hand around that monster's throat and squeeze until it died. And when it came back... All the better.
Another bolt of lightning flowed from Remnant through the crystal and through his flesh. It sailed out and struck the Grimm lord's blocking right hand dead on. Unfazed, the monster chuckled to itself again.
Stepping backwards.
Backwards through the horde that slunk away like rats before rising water between the two. Through the tall ironclad double doors into a darkness no light could pierce.
Soaking in his boiling blood, Kad's left hand fell to the worn hilt of his knife. Soon dropping his keen eye down amongst the Hunters. Spotting a familiar short mess of blonde hair and a flashing red staff.
"Sun!" The giant called out to the owner of both.
His fellow Huntsman knocked back another pair of snapping jaws. He spun on a heel back between his teammates who charged the Grimm in his stead. Side by side with the Huntresses Blake and Weiss who defended Ruby and Yang down on the ground, one kneeling over the injured other.
Sun fired off a shot at a swooping Griffon then turned to the giant who quickly gave his command,
"Get everyone to the Express," Kad said, pointing the hilt of his knife in said direction as he drew it free, "Over the roof, I'll meet you on the other side,"
"Other side?" Sun echoed back, looking between Kad and the smoke behind the museum. Protesting, "Bro, you can't!"
The giant's next action gave answer, as Kad's unmatched stride carried him towards the darkness. Seeing his foe's challenge, sensing the trap that was undoubtedly waiting.
Unable to ignore either.
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A/N A-yo. Back on my bullshit.
Ho boy, Been quite a decade hasn't it? What? Two years?
Hope you all have been safe and well. I haven't really been where I want to be in my life or this story right now. But I'm still here. YOU AREN'T RID OF ME YET. Or if you are starved for stimulation of something to do with me right now. Got 375-13 at an important part. Feel free to do with that information as you may.
Can't remember if I noxed another chapter into one again. So let me know how that works in reviewing if you feel inclined.
Also, I am not particularly happy either, knowledge of updates comes when updates managed to be done. If anyone has an idea of how I can share progress with y'all in a preferred manner let me know.
Either ways, share if you care. Review as you do.
I have no idea what I am going to work on next.