Gamer4 in. I'm going to stop acknowledging gaps in time- it prompts me to spend too much time explaining or justifying them I could be using for just getting to writing the next episodes. Let's get back to brass tacks.
Episode IV
Chariots of Fire
Stranger From a Strange Land
"Alright, following the proper order of things, I believe our next move is to go further into this particular narrative," Vanessa concluded after flipping through a notebook for a second.
"Yay, more Renny!" Nora whooped.
"There is something... very wrong with that world," Pyrrha commented uncomfortably.
"But this is probably my favorite version of Ren so far!" Ruby put in. "He's like something from... a... fairy tale..." She trailed off when she felt a sudden cold front, coincidentally when Nora's gaze crossed onto her.
"Down, Nora," Ren instructed gently. "...I suppose we may as well, if there are no objections."
"Yeah, if I'm there, I wanna see what's up with Rubes!" Yang agreed. She glanced sharply at Vanessa. "She'd better not be dead already!"
"She's not," Vanessa volunteered with a tone of absolute unconcern. "As you'll see."
The world returned on a shot of a bathhouse, where the soldiers of Hoshido were resting and relaxing in the warm waters after their hard-fought battle.
"Wait... a unisex bathhouse?!" Weiss screeched, affronted.
The others looked closer, and saw that yes, man, woman and nopon alike were bathing together, seemingly without issue. "Huh, whaddya know?" Yang tilted her head. "Didn't figure Weissy to be the type to set up something like this."
"I... I wouldn't... it must be the army's decision... surely?" Weiss looked desperately at Vanessa, who took a chug on a can of soda with no interest in clarifying.
The camera focused on Ren, tastefully shot only from the waist up. (Nora sent jealous glares at all the women in attendance- Blake seemed to be enjoying the eye candy, while Yang's anger towards earlier Rens seemed to be causing a dilemma where she both wanted to join Blake and refuse to on principle.) He dumped some water over his head before moving towards the bath itself, where Yang was already reclining with her arms behind her own head, her wings fluttering in contentment.
"Okay, I can see Yang not worrying about it," Pyrrha admitted.
Yang's eyes drifted towards Ren, and a note of sadness entered them. "Ren... you still remember... what happened? The incident that made you decide to become an offseer?"
Ren closed his eyes and took a deep breath- a vision flashed through his mind, of Velvet's broken body buried in rubble. "...Yes, I quite recall."
"Wait- Velvet died?!" Ruby's eyes widened, silver brimming with tears.
"That... would explain why she wasn't on the battlefield with them earlier," Weiss admitted reluctantly.
"It must have been Nohr!" Nora realized. She scowled and pumped a fist into the air. "I'll never forgive the Nohrians!"
Vanessa choked on her drink.
Yang remained surprisingly taciturn as she asked, "Does... does it still hurt?"
Another deep breath. "Yes... I'd be lying if I said I was completely over it. But... I think I'm on the path." His fingers flexed, recalling the feel of his flute. "Seeing off so many comrades... so many things have happened."
Yang quietly nodded her agreement, sinking lower into the water.
Ren glanced across the house. "If there's anyone you should be asking that, it's Jaune."
Yang followed his gaze to where Jaune was scrubbing down his metallic skin.
"He blames himself- it's what drives him to push himself so hard."
"Just like you to blame yourself for something you had no control over," Pyrrha lamented, turning her emerald gaze on her leader. "Jaune, if you ever feel like that, you come to me, okay?"
"...Yeah, right."
"I don't know what to say to him," Yang admitted sadly. "He never got to apologize. It's... I don't know..."
"Someone talking about me?" Jaune asked, completely unabashed about his nudity in front of Yang as he plopped himself down in the bath. (It was Pyrrha's turn to glare jealously at the female audience members.) "Final score, Yang?"
Yang puffed up her chest proudly. "Forty-two!"
"Not bad, not bad," Jaune nodded with a smirk. "I, however, am sitting happily on forty-three."
"What?!" Yang growled, rising from the bath, absolutely shameless as she bore her entire body to both boys. "The snuff you are- that blue-skin lady didn't die, she was still twitching!"
"Twitching because my sword was embedded in her nervous system!" Jaune objected, rising to his feet as well, equally unconcerned about his unobscured nudity before a member of the opposite sex.
"I don't know what's weirder, them arguing over who killed more people, or the fact that they're doing it completely in the buff," Yang crossed her arms.
"This is... highly inappropriate!" Weiss flushed vibrantly.
"Ah, you can't see nothin' anyways, it's all blocked out with the fog!" Nora pointed out rightly.
"Do they just... not have sex drives?" Ren pondered aloud.
"Well... if they're born at ten years old to die at twenty, they're hardly normal humans to begin with," Blake pointed out. "I suppose them being born without any sexual desire wouldn't be entirely out of the realms of possibility."
Ren rolled his eyes and sank further into the water, tuning out the continuing squabble.
The world then moved ahead to the three of them leaving the bathhouse, back in their white uniforms. "Alright, I'm gonna hit the sack," Jaune yawned.
"Same here- walking all the way back to base really took it out of me," Yang agreed with a stretch.
"Cry pardon," Ren apologized offhandedly.
Yang chuckled. "Wouldn't be you otherwise. Let's go."
She led the way to their tent- Jaune, Ren, Qrow the nopon, and Arslan all followed.
"Ren... sleeping in the same tent with two other girls... no, that's fine, that's fine!" Nora's red face told a different story.
"He didn't flinch when Yang stood up naked," Ruby pointed out. "I don't think you have anything to worry about."
"But he wouldn't anyways!" Nora fretted.
"...Isn't that a good thing?" Blake wondered.
Despite, or perhaps because of their fierce battle, the team slept silently that night- until an alarm began blaring throughout the camp. Soldiers that they were, the team was awake, alert, and ready to fight the second it began. Yang in particular had her gauntlets on before she'd even fully regained consciousness.
"What is it?" Jaune asked.
"An emergency assembly!" Ren answered, recognizing the alarm's tone.
The five soldiers fell into line with their fellow Hoshidans at the base of the large mech that served as the base's centerpiece.
"What's the word?" Yang wondered.
"From what I gather, there's an enemy unit coming this way," Arslan whispered.
"Nohrians!" Nora hissed, clearly still sore about Velvet's death.
"Picked a bad time," Jaune groaned. "I could have done with some more sleep."
"Friend could have gotten more sleep if spent less time in bath," Qrow chastised.
"And maybe I'd have spent less time in the bath if you hadn't spent so long tinkering with my frame!" Jaune fired back.
"Meh, work perfect," Qrow brushed aside. "Perhaps mix up order- Qrow's work has many fans, after all."
"Qrow being a mechanic? Yeah, that makes sense- he is the one who helped me build my baby!" Ruby grinned.
"If friend unhappy with Qrow's work, friend welcome to fix by self!"
Jaune opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off as a woman with pale blue hair appeared, a sniper rifle slung over her back. "We have one target today- it's on its way to the suppression area here." She tapped the side of her head, and her right eye began to glow, signalling a transfer of data to all the soldiers, their right eyes taking up the same light.
"That's a nifty way to sent information," Yang nodded approvingly. "Any chance the SDC is developing something like that on the down-low?"
"Not likely," Weiss shook her head. "Technology like that is leagues away from anything even Atlas is capable of producing."
Yang let out a low whistle. "Looks like we've got a big boy here!"
"And fast," Ren put in. "Should be at the valley at 0100 hours."
"Be careful, everyone- the target is emitting a large amount of ether energy," their leader warned. "Your mission is to deploy to the canyon at the designated time. Investigate and destroy the source of the energy."
Another soldier raised their hand. "Commander, if I may..."
"Yes?" the woman acknowledged him.
"This ether source... is it from Nohr?"
"Probably!" Nora spat. "Comin' to try and kill Renny again!"
"It is hard to imagine who else it could be- as far as we've seen, they're the only factions in this conflict," Ren surmised.
"Still, there could very well be others we simply haven't been informed of yet," Pyrrha countered.
"Our reports are uncertain- they're making a run for it, but it's difficult to tell if it's a recovery mission or if they're curious as well. For the moment, we're treating it as a separate enemy force. Either way, we should absolutely expect a Nohrian presence. We'll forward more details to your irises as it they become available. Remain vigilant throughout the operation, are we clear?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the army saluted.
As Ren and his team prepared for the expedition, Jaune let out an appreciative whistle when he spied the levnis that would be accompanying them. "Talk about bringing out the big guns!"
Yang looked at Ren's face and chuckled. "I can actually hear you overthinking. What's wrong?"
Ren shook his head. "Nothing, as such, it's just... we are rank Copper, aren't we?"
"Oh, the ranks, right!" Pyrrha remembered. "Presumably, the higher the rank, the more resources they're given."
"What, do Copper ranks not usually get that kind of cool stuff?" Ruby pondered.
"Hard telling exactly what he's thinking," Jaune admitted.
"Hey, we won a major victory yesterday!" Yang reminded him. "We'll be up to Iron rank in no time!"
"I hear they rolling out Silver rank colonies for this operation," Qrow put in.
"Silver rank?" Ren's eyes widened. "Seems a little overkill for a basic reconaissance mission!"
"Eh, orders are orders," Jaune shrugged. "Don't know about you, but I'm not about to complain over the extra help."
"Notice the red flags or draw twenty-five cards," Yang groaned.
"Drawing twenty-five," Jaune reluctantly admitted.
Ren, however, couldn't take his concerned eyes away from the levnis, at least twice as large as the one they'd taken into battle the previous day.
"We're moving out!" called a helmeted commander. "Wedge formation to Point D! Don't fall behind!"
Ren and his team nodded and moved out.
Spotting several more levnises of equal size to the one Ren had noticed, Pyrrha shuddered. "Yes, I agree with Ren. This is far more firepower than they should need for a basic investigation."
They headed north into the Yzana Plains, a vast grassland, dotted by rivers and sky-flung cliffs. Various odd creatures roamed around, grazing, flying, and drinking from a nearby lake, paying little or no heed to the marching army.
"It's just as pretty as the last world!" Ruby beamed.
"Not quite," Blake disagreed. "There's something... sick about this one. I don't quite know how to describe it, but Menagerie... it was full of life. This one... it looks similar, but you can tell it's dying, just like Ren said."
Ren seemed to answer the question when his team broke apart from the rest at the edge of a forest- his eyes crossed sadly over an area of land with a very odd destruction to it, a chunk of ground scooped away as perfectly round as if a giant ice cream scoop had descended from the sky. Beyond that, it was burnt black. "The annihilation events seem to be happening more and more every day..."
"'Annihilation events?'" Jaune repeated with a shudder. "I don't like the sound of that."
"It looks like some sort of explosion... but I've never seen any sort of explosion, natural or otherwise, that acted like that," Weiss agreed, eyes wide.
"Think it's some weapon that Nohr's got up their sleeves?" Nora guessed.
"I doubt it," Ren shook his head. "I think my other would have mentioned a connection by now if there was. It sounds like he doesn't have much more idea of what's causing it than we do- it's just... something that happens."
"Yeah, sure, that makes me feel a lot better," Ruby shivered. "No baddy you can beat or reason with, the world itself is just... falling apart."
"Yeah, get used to that," Vanessa muttered through another drink.
"Those aren't our goal," Arslan reminded him. "'Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die.'"
"Lalilulelo, what does all that mean?" Jaune chuckled.
"Lali...lulelo?" Ruby repeated. Nobody answered.
"Hold up!" Yang raised a hand as they approached the mouth of the valley. "Looks like someone's filled up the clocks a bit!"
They all turned their attention to their irises as the flame clocks appeared and filled... so minuscully it was barely noticable. "Must have just been some volffs or something," she muttered in disappointment.
"No kidding- that Dirt Rank colony we wiped out last week gave us more than that," Jaune scoffed.
Pyrrha shivered again. "It's so strange to see Jaune being so... flippant about that."
"To you, maybe," Vanessa whispered, so quietly the others couldn't hear. "I've had the misfortune to see Volume 6 on."
Ren seemed to be sharing similar thoughts to Pyrrha. "C'mon, you two, we don't want to turn this into another competition. You saw them bringing in Silver Ranks- whatever this is, it's serious. We must give it our full attention."
"Hey, who d'ya think you're talking to?" Jaune grinned, flexing. "You're looking at the rising champion of Colony 9!"
Jaune cringed. "If I ever start acting like that again... just shoot me."
"Will do," Weiss agreed with perhaps more eagerness than was strictly necessary, causing Jaune to gulp.
Jaune turned his smirk towards Ren- the air of cockiness instantly flagged in the face of his piercing gaze.
"That sort of attitude... is what gets people killed."
Despite standing a full foot taller, Jaune stepped down. "Just... just joking, Ren. Just trying to raise morale."
"Yeah, that's something Renny can do alright!" Nora declared proudly. "One look from him and I bet even Salem would zip her lips!"
"The only one I've known to be immune is Nora," Ren sighed. "My greatest power is useless upon the one against whom I need it most."
"You have a bad feeling about this, Ren?" Yang asked concernedly.
"Yes... I can't put my finger on it, but something isn't right here."
"Well, I've never known your instincts to be wrong," Arslan admitted.
"Everyone best stay sharp," Qrow agreed, somehow mustering a gaze similar to Ren's even as a nopon.
"...Gotcha. Don't worry, I'll always have your backs," Jaune promised. The others nodded their agreement, and Arslan led them further into the valley.
"I must say, it's a good thing this version of Arc has Ren looking out for him," Weiss commented.
"Yeah... true," Jaune admitted heavily.
"I've especially got to protect Arslan," Jaune commented. "Gotta get you to your homecoming next month! Snuff if I'm gonna let the real pride of Colony 9 die before she can return to the Queen!"
Arslan flushed and looked away to hide her smile. "It's... quite something, making it this far." She looked up at them. "Don't get angry, but after this op, I was considering putting in a transfer to the salvage corps. I'm sure some will see it as cowardly, but... you never know what will happen on the battlefield." She looked sheepishly back at them. "Now's the time to laugh, if you want."
"Laugh, no, weep, yes," Yang crossed her arms.
"Why? She's finally getting out!" Ruby pointed out.
"Rubes, one day you'll learn the meaning of 'death flags.'"
"Do you see me laughing?" Jaune challenged, a small smile on his face. "Laugh at you, the one who kept us alive all this time?"
"He's right- what kind of mudders do you think we are?" Yang agreed. "We owe everything to you. We're gonna make sure you get to your homecoming."
"A lion faunus is gonna die tonight," Blake agreed hopelessly.
"Thank you all," Arslan said, a tear in her eye.
They were interrupted by Qrow coughing. "Now not time for tears," he said in that gruff voice of his. "Is old nopon saying- 'Hold basket tightest when near home- that is when eggs most in danger of breaking.' You not want to fill Nohrian flame clock, yes?"
"He gets it," Weiss nodded.
"Qrow!" Yang chastised.
"No, no, he's right," Arslan admitted with a chuckle. "Sorry if I was worrying you, Ren."
"Not at all," Ren denied. "It's just... when I think about that homecoming... it does make me a little sad." He donned a small smile. "None of us are going to look down on you for salvaging- that's a service critical to our functions. There's no need to feel like you owe us anything."
"Thank you... Ren," Arslan bowed her head.
"Urge to murder... rising..." Nora whispered.
"Alright, let's roll!" Arslan clapped her hands. "This signal's not going to investigate itself!"
As she took the lead, Ren, Yang, and Jaune exchanged a look- each knew what the other two were remembering.
Velvet and Ren were sitting on a bench in the encampment beneath the castle where Queen Weiss resided. Velvet smiled at him. "Well, of course I'd like to reach my homecoming- for all the luck that would take me."
"You'll make it," Ren promised assuringly. "We all will."
"Will I, though?" Velvet asked, her ears flattening behind her head. "I mean, I'm not like you guys- all I'm good at is running away!"
"That's not true," Ren objected. "Don't you recall the last match? You surpassed us all."
"And we still lost," Velvet pointed out hopelessly. "Maybe I should just give up now- spare you from being disappointed later. All someone like me can hope is that when I die, I go down being of use to my friends."
"She... is really depressed," Jaune observed sadly. "I can't say I don't know the feeling, though..."
"Don't you dare, Fearless Leader!" Nora objected immediately. "You have the strength to take on any challenge! That's what makes you our Fearless Leader!"
"She's right, Jaune," Pyrrha agreed fiercely. "Ozpin knew about your transcripts, he wouldn't have let you in- let alone made you leader- if he didn't see the potential you have!"
Ren settled for another type of gaze, one that communicated all he wanted to say without words. Jaune teared up. "Thanks, guys..."
Ren's other was more vocal. "That's enough, Velvet. Stop talking like that." He stood up and turned to face her. "How many times do I have to tell you that we're a team? None of us are giving up on you, not now, not ever!"
Velvet was taken aback, smiling with a tear in her eye.
Later that day, she sacrificed herself during a Nohrian raid, pushing Jaune out of the way of a collapsing building, taken by it herself.
"Crap... no wonder VB's been taking it the worst," Yang winced.
"You mean... he thinks it's his fault?!" Ruby fretted. "But it's not!"
"Survivor's guilt often trumps logic, I'm afraid," Weiss admitted, chewing on a nail.
Yes, they all remembered, but they had to return to the present.
Despite their early start, the sun had set again by the time they got to the end of their march- a dark patch of trees, a clearing in the center. "This is the place?" Jaune whispered, looking around. "I don't see anything."
Ren motioned for silence. "Levnises... Nohrian."
"Crap," Yang muttered. "Comin' at us?"
"No, they're still pretty far off- they haven't seen us."
"We takin' them on?" Jaune asked.
"Not yet- we haven't got permission to engage. We're here for that energy source, not them."
He scanned the clearing. "I can't make out any details- there's black fog interfering with my iris."
"Black fog?" Pyrrha asked. "That doesn't sound good."
"It's like he said, it interferes with thieir irises, keeps 'em from working as intended," Vanessa commented drily.
"Someone ough to tell the main force about this," Arslan decided. "I'll go let them know."
Ren nodded as she dashed off. "Alright... follow closely," he instructed to those that remained. They snuck futher into the trees, eyes wide open for any approaching Nohrians.
"Alright," Ren whispered. "Here... we... go!"
A message flickered across the Hoshidans' irises: COMMENCE OPERATION.
Ren peered through the trees and spied a ship being bombarded by the Nohrian levnises- their attacks, however, seemed to be diverted by a field. "Is that it?" Yang asked, squinting as she attempted to make it out.
"That's not one of ours," Jaune observed.
"And clearly not Nohrian either," Ren agreed.
"Then who the spark is it?" Jaune asked.
Soaring low over the sky was a ship of military grey. As they watched, it turned its thrusters around and used them to land on the ground.
"So it really isn't with either side," Ren pondered.
"Another kingdom?" Blake wondered. "Ren certainly made it sound like it's only the two of them, but perhaps...?"
It wasn't a graceful landing, by any means. The damage it had sustained from the Nohrian fire sent it plowing into the earth as several levnis-like units fired from the side. These units began fighting off the Nohrian levnises- and, with a crash, Ren recognized the sound of Hoshidan levnises entering the fray as well, three factions fighting around this small clearing.
"Well, this escalated quickly," Weiss noted.
"Yeah, that's what happens in war," Blake agreed.
"Looks like they started without us!" Jaune yelled.
"Then let's move- straight for the target," Ren ordered.
"Sounds like a plan!" Yang agreed, readying her gauntlets.
The three fought their way through the forest, taking out man and machine alike en route to the mysterious craft, providing support to their allies where they could.
"Yeah!" Nora cheered. "Kick Nohrian butt!"
A fire had been ignited where the ship had crashed- several crates had spilled out, and there was somebody crouching behind them- a woman with long white hair and a large pair of goggles concealing her face. Every now and again, she peeked from behind her cover and took a shot at her assailants before quickly returning.
"Yeah, she's not wearing any uniform I recognize," Ren nodded. "A third faction indeed."
"Dammit!" the old woman cursed under her breath. "Didn't sign up for fighting both kingdoms at once!" She sighed. "Then again, I guess nobody said this would be easy. Of course they'd do anything to get their hands on this!"
Not too far from her was an odd metal object, steely grey, surrounded by geometric lines of light- it had the shape of an egg atop tripod legs, a few grooves giving an idea of how it would open.
"Ooohhhhh, what's that thing?" Ruby asked, immediately intrigued.
"Hmm... I don't know why, but something about it is... familiar..." Blake mumbled.
"Maria!" called a man crouching behind another bit of cover. "They've knocked out the last of our automatons! We're running out of time!"
Maria cursed again. "Take the stone and go! We need to get it back to Monad!"
Before she'd even given the instructions in full, the man she'd been yelling to was blasted away. Maria was able to locate the Hoshidans who'd done it and blast them back with her rifle before making her way to her fallen comrade. "Eyes open, Michael, we've been through worse than this!"
"Sorry, Maria," he shook his head with a wry smile. "Guess I'm gonna haveta flake on that... drink I owe ya..."
The light left his eyes. Maria's face was near impossible to determine beneath her goggles, but she clenched her hands tight and closed his eyes for him.
"Man... not even from Nohr, he might have been cool!" Nora pouted.
Ren sighed. "Nora, I can't help but think you're missing something."
At last, Ren and company arrived at the edge of the clearing, peering carefully in. "Well, found the ether source," Jaune commented- it was glowing like a miniature sun on his iris.
"First those weird levnises, now this?" Yang stared.
"What in the flames are we even fighting?" Ren wondered aloud.
"It seem Nohr not know better than we," Qrow put in.
"Something's... lulling," Weiss noticed. "Everything was exploding a second ago, but now it's all... quiet. Too quiet."
"The deep breath before the plunge," Pyrrha guessed.
Maria glanced over her cover. "Not getting much further..." She glanced back at the egg. "Well, if we're gonna use you, looks like it'll have to be here."
Yang was the first to see her in her brief moment out of cover. "There's someone over there!"
"Woman," Jaune identified quickly. "I think... there's something... strange about her."
"And there's nothing strange about metal skin?" Yang snorted.
"Not to them, there isn't," Blake pointed out. "Which does make me wonder what they find so strange about- oohhhhh!" She bit her lip.
"Care to... share with the class?" Jaune probed gently.
"I... you should see soon, but... if I'm right, that's just..." She shook her head and refused to speak further.
"She's no Nohrian, that's for sure," Ren observed. "Perhaps she was the one controlling those... levnises?"
Abruptly, his eyes widened as he saw something strange- an entire river of white projectiles coming his way. "MOVE!"
The three dodged out of the way just in time- whatever it was moved so quickly Ren couldn't even see what they actually were, receiving only fleeting impressions of an army of birds.
"Attack!" Jaune immediately snapped to full attention.
"It's not the lady- it's gotta be Nohr!" Nora immediately realized.
"Yup, there he is!" Yang pointed.
Her other had spied a man crouching behind a tree, in full black armor- but he seemed to be dictating the direction of the projectiles with his hands, almost like a conductor before his orchestra. She immediately opened fire with her gauntlets, forcing him into deeper hiding.
As she opened fire, another helmeted Nohrian soldier sprinted towards her from the trees, wielding a large hammer.
"Hold up!" Jaune raised his hands, shocked. "Anybody else... recognize that hammer?"
"All I see is some Nohrian scum who needs to-" Nora started, but Ren cleared his throat.
"Nora... look closer, if you please."
"Oh, my!" Pyrrha clapped her hands to her mouth in equal shock. "I certainly didn't..."
"Eh, what're you all talking about?" Nora waved aside. "Nothing about that hammer looks... looks... Magnhild?!"
"Which means..." Blake quietly prompted her.
"Which means... that dirty Nohrian stole my hammer!"
Pyrrha sighed, looking to Ren. "...Should we tell her?"
"I... think she'll need to see it herself."
Jaune saw the hammer-wielding soldier coming, and plunged his blade into the earth, using it as a makeshift turret to open fire, forcing her to dodge and weave. He kept up the pressure, however, until he felt an itch on his left side- he turned and was immediately forced to pull the blade from the ground to block a blow from a third Nohrian, this time wielding a large scythe that would undoubtedly have cut him in two had he not blocked in time.
"They stole Crescent Rose, too?!" Nora yelled. "Does their evil know no bounds?!"
Ruby glanced to Yang. "...They didn't steal my baby, did they?"
"I don't think that's how weapons work in this world," Yang confirmed.
"Which means those two soldiers-"
"Yeah, most likely."
Ruby nodded and took a deep breath, trying to hide the fact that she was shaking. "I... I'd never do that to..."
"Clearly, something is very wrong in this world," Weiss observed.
A quick strike from Ren threw the scythe-wielder off-balance, sending her back across the clearing, where the three Nohrians seemed to regroup.
"Alright, three Hoshidans," said the one with the hammer. "Any reinforcements coming?"
"I doubt it," the man with the gauntlets shook his head. "Seems like we're the only ones left."
"Does that voice sound familiar?" Ren pressed.
"I can barely make out what they're sayin' through those ugly-lookin' helmets of theirs!" Nora denied, though a note of red was appearing on her face.
Weiss's eyes widened. "The one with the gauntlets... can't be..."
"Ren?" Yang asked, turning her gaze towards their current leader.
"Yes..." Ren nodded, closing his eyes momentarily in acceptance. "We'll have to fight."
The scythe-wielder was the first to move, rushing forward directly at Ren, who leapt backwards, leaving room for Yang to counter from the side- she was blocked as a wall of those strange birds appeared to impede her.
"Eyes open, Ruby!" the man controlling them hissed. "I can't protect you all the time!"
"Heheh... sorry, Whit!" the scythe-wielder apologized sheepishly.
"Ruby?!" Nora gasped.
Ren sighed. "Do you know anyone else who uses a scythe like that?"
"Wh...Whit? As in, Whitley?" Weiss was gaping.
"Huh... he's fighting on the army opposing yours, huh?" Yang tilted her head.
"That, I can believe," Weiss readily admitted. "But protecting Ruby like that... like..."
"Like you usually do?" Blake guessed.
"Well... yes."
"That doesn't make sense!" Nora cried. "Why would Ruby be fighting against Yang? Why would I-" She caught herself mid-sentence.
"Realizing something?" Ren asked calmly.
"I... I acknowledge nothing!"
The fighting had continued throughout their conversation, until it reached its peak as Ren managed to get in close to the hammer-wielder, striking at her face with his blades, putting enough strength into the blow for her helmet to fracture, revealing the face beneath.
The ginger, teal-eyed face beneath.
"..."
Nora melted down.
"WHYYYYYY?! WHY WOULD I EVER BE ON THE SIDE FIGHTING REN?! THE SIDE THAT KILLED... that killed..."
She turned desperately to Ren. "Ren, I wouldn't- you know I wouldn't!"
"I am well aware, yes," Ren nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I see..." Blake nodded, trying to conceal her own shock at seeing Ren and Nora attempting to kill each other. "So, the conflict is definitely not meant to be as black and white as we may have initially been led to believe."
"But... the Nohrians... they killed Velvet!"
"And why were they fighting before that?"
"Because... because..." Nora wasn't sure what to say.
"The Hand said your world had a particular problem with viewing things in black and white," Vanessa recalled. "Hmm... maybe he was right."
"This world really wanted us to think it was black and white," Weiss pondered. "It's even the color of our uniforms."
"To think that, just because Ren, Jaune and Yang were fighting them, they must be the villains... yes, I see," Blake mumbled into her hands.
"And you've never viewed things similarly in your own life?" Vanessa asked.
"No, of course not!" Blake objected immediately, her ears flattening at the implication.
"I'm sure everyone says the same." And that was Vanessa's last word on that matter.
The fight between Ren and Nora became a test of speed vs. power, Ren forced to dodge around her swings, a single one of which could destroy him.
Far away, Maria watched, her face growing sour as the two squads drew closer to killing each other. "No... at this rate, they're going to kill each other... reduce each other to nothing but a little fire in their clocks!"
Nora used the force of one of her strikes to vault over Ren, revealing Ruby just behind her, coming in with her scythe. Ren's eyes widened. "When... did she...?"
"Call that a swing?!" Jaune roared as he leapt in and blocked Ruby's attack.
Ruby's eyes widened as she went flying backwards. "That's impossible! Nobody can deflect the Ruby Splash!"
"Just did," Jaune smirked as he pulled himself back up. "I'll admit, you pack a wallop- for a munchkin!"
"I'm sensitive about my height!" Ruby whined.
"I... I'm sorry, Rubes," Jaune apologised.
Yang was being chased by the strange birds over which Whitley seemed to preside. "Dammit, how many birds can this geek have?"
"There's no escape," said Whitley's voice, as the camera panned over to him, standing within the center of the clearing. "Once they've got you in their sights, my Shikigami will pursue them to the ends of Aionios!"
What they had previously taken for birds were now flying together, combining into larger forms that swooped to pincer Yang behind a rock.
Yang snarled. "Who the spark said anything about running?"
She fired two shots from her gauntlets, disintegrating both in turn. She then leapt over the rock and made a rush right for the wizard controlling these things.
Before she could bring him in range of a punch or shot, Nora and Ruby appeared between them, hammer and scythe at the ready. Once again, each three-man team stood facing each other, neither having gained any ground.
"I'd have thought Whitley being on their team would be enough of a handicap," Yang grunted.
"Not with those... shikigami, I think he said?" Weiss tilted her head.
"It makes some sense, yes..." Ren folded his hands. "Shikigami- spirits bound to paper to do as their creator bids."
"They're pretty good," Ren commented as he held his knives close to his chest.
"Hate to say it, but they're definitely no grunts," Jaune grunted.
"Think they're special forces?" Yang speculated.
"Must be," Ren agreed. "The one with the hammer, she's an off-seer."
"Wait, so I play the flute, too?" Nora blinked.
"Certainly not a role I'd have expected you to fill," Pyrrha agreed- before quickly backtracking. "Not that I think you-"
"No, no, don't apologize, Pyr, I'm just as surprised as you are!" Nora cut her off.
"Well, we're not exactly grunts ourselves!" Jaune turned his blade into its turret form and opened fire. Whitley responded by sending out three streams of his paper spirits- two attempting to flank Jaune while a third formed into a path in the air- one that Nora ran along. It took her high into the air, where she leapt off and brought her hammer down on Yang, who dodged, but only just. She then had to immediately turn to block an incoming attack from Ren.
Quick reaction time... definitely more than a brute, Ren thought as he looked for an opening in her defenses.
"NO! BAD OTHER ME! STOP FIGHTING RENNY!" Nora wailed.
Ren's hands clenched- he didn't like seeing the struggle between himself and his childhood friend any more than she did.
Every strike, either blocked or dodged.
He looked her over- it seemed the only damage she'd ever sustained was a nick to her right ear-
"HOLD EVERYTHING!" Ruby cried, eyes lighting up. "Did anyone notice- NORA'S GOT CUTE KITTY EARS?!"
"How... did I not notice that?" Blake agreed, doing a double-take.
"Must have gotten caught up in the drama of the moment," Yang guessed.
Ren and Nora flushed, recalling the one time they'd discovered a couple pairs of cat ears and experimented. They're frightening...
As Ren continued to duel her, a word one of his mentors had given him came back to his mind: There is a flow to battle. Work against the flow, and you will perish. Work with the flow, and it will lead you to victory.
As he observed Nora's movements, he came to notice something. Yes, she's fast... but there's a pattern to it. Solve the pattern, win the fight! Come on, what's the rhythm?
Almost unbidden, he began hearing music in tune with her swings- words came to his mind, punctuating each of her movements:
"Day to night,
Dark to light,
Fall the sands of time..."
His eyes widened. Is that it? The Nohrian off-seeing tune?
He continued their dance, watching intently for the rhythm- and it continued just as he predicted:
"Let the years,
Like the gears
Of a clock, unwind...
In your mind,
Walk through time
Back to better days...
Memories
Like a dream
Wash the tears away..."
"Is it just me, or is the Nohrian song... creepier than the Hoshidan one?" Ruby asked.
"They're both melancholy... but in different ways," Blake shook her head. "It doesn't sound creepy to me, more... soothing."
"Well, if their uniforms are anything to go by, you wrote it, so you might be a little biased," Yang smirked.
That's it! Ren considered his theory confirmed, and began moving accordingly, recognizing every step Nora made.
"Like a star
In the sky,
Darkness can't reach you!
Light the night,
Joy is light,
'Til a new dawn!
With his realization, the tide absolutely began to turn. Nora did a cartwheel backwards and turned to face her opponent- but he wasn't facing her, instead standing in a pose of meditation, his eyes closed. Her blood burned with fury. "Not taking me seriously, huh?"
She couldn't hear him playing the music in his head:
"Cast away
Your old face,
Let go of your spite!
With this mask,
We all ask
To borrow your might!"
The second the last word came, he ducked and slid under her strike, coming up behind her and striking with his knives. She gasped as she felt them slice along her back.
Wha- he hit me?!
"Owww..." Nora winced- then quickly sighed in relief as Ren began massaging the matching area on her own back. "Oh, thanks, Renny..."
"Think nothing of it, Nora."
"Okay, gotta admit, seeing her pattern and using it like that... pretty badass," Yang admitted.
"I'd appreciate it more if he wasn't using it on me-ohhhh..." Nora sighed with contentment as Ren redoubled his efforts.
Ren didn't let up his assault, pressing his advantage further and further until...
Until the world seemed to slow down around him. Nora was falling back, Yang and Jaune were struggling against Ruby and Whitley, but... that was it. There was no other sound, not from either army. What had previously been the site of an all-out battle had suddenly become a scrap between two three-man teams... and nothing more.
He looked to Nora, struggling back to her feet. If we continue at this rate... the only option will be for one of us to die.
"No! I don't wanna kill Renny, and don't want him to kill me!" Nora wailed.
"What you think I wanna kill my sister?" Ruby and Yang pointed out simultaneously.
"I... don't really know Weiss's brother, but I'd rather not kill him," Jaune shrugged.
The silence was getting to him. What is this? This silence... if the battle's over, why are we still fighting? We should be running- wait, running? Why am I thinking that? What's going on here?
He met Nora's gaze. No... maybe nobody has to die... if I can get through to her somehow...
When she next struck, he switched to purely defensive maneuvers, and began to speak. "You're an off-seer, right?"
"Yeah, what of it?" Nora demanded as she struggled to hit him through his dodges.
"Why are you fighting me?"
"What, like you have room to talk?" Nora sneered. "After launching this attack in the first place?!"
"Didn't they both attack at the same time?" Jaune asked.
"Since when has Nora stopped to ask questions like that?" Pyrrha whispered back to him.
If anything, Ren's sudden shift to the defensive made her angrier. "Too scared to fight now? Don't you Hoshidans have claws?"
"No, I'm not afraid," Ren shook his head. "At least, not of you. I'm afraid of that sound... the one I think you heard before I did."
Nora hesitated a split second, coming to a halt that Ren matched. She bit her lip, then attacked again. "We're fighting because there are enemies to kill! What other reason is there?!"
"Shut up!" Nora pleaded with her other. "Shut up and listen to him!"
"Is that all you have to say?" Ren challenged, a note of desperation crossing his face only visible to those who knew him best. "I'm telling you, there's-"
"No, I'm telling you, you're full of it!" Nora interrupted as the two swooped right by each other, neither landing another hit, landing on the ground. As he swung back up to his feet, Ren shook his head. Do I really have to kill her? I certainly can't lower my guard- one second of lost focus, and broken legs are the least of my worries...
"Me? Break Renny's legs?!" Nora looked both horrified and affronted at the implication.
To their surprise, the world next allowed them a glimpse into the other Nora's mind.
Hoshidan off-seers... so much for just being window dressing, this guy's tough! And there's something about his blade... I don't quite get it, but it's weird!
"I don't see anything," Ruby readily admitted. "At least, not any weirder than any other weapon in this world."
"Ren's turn to use a legendary sword?" Pyrrha speculated.
"Ohhh, you'd better not come out of it, Pyrrha!" Nora growled agitatedly.
Whatever she was seeing, Maria seemed to see it as well. "That blade... eh?" She glanced back to the egg- the glow had subtly changed. "I see... So, that's that 'fate' stuff at work, is it? Just like we're all drawn to the ground, we were all pulled to this place by gravity..."
She smirked beneath her goggles as she pulled a gun from her waist. "I suppose it's time for Maria Calavera to make her entrance!"
Just as Ren and Nora were about to resume their clash, she fired- not at them, but into the sky- a brilliant flare shot from the gun into the air, immediately catching the attention of all the combatants. Before they'd even acknowledged it, the woman had managed to take advantage of their surprise to tackle both Ren and Nora to the ground.
"What the-" Nora gasped.
"Oh, thank gods, someone's finally going to talk some sense into them!" Weiss gasped, lowering a hand to her chest.
"What do you all think you're doing?" she began, sounding more like a stern mother telling off her children than an outsider calling for a ceasefire in a war. "Why are you fighting?!"
"What are you-" Nora started, but Maria forced her head back into the ground.
"I'm asking the questions, kid- why?"
The fighting had, indeed stopped, as the remaining four combatants all turned to stare at the woman standing over their leaders.
"There is no 'why!'" Nora objected. "I see an enemy, I break their legs- simple as!"
"I mean, that's true, but..." Nora suddenly looked more uncomfortable than before.
"Don't you dare inter-"
Nora had managed to break free of her grip, raising her hammer for a strike, only to be met by a strike to her gut with what seemed like a large cane, topped with a skull, held by Maria.
"Moves fast for an old-timer!" Yang's eyes widened.
"Open your eyes, kid," Maria instructed. "You weren't sent here to kill each other, were you? You were sent to retrieve my package!" She pointed towards the egg-shaped object she seemed to have been protecting. "If you're here to fight anyone, it's the person holding it- and that would be me! No, you start biting at each others' throats... do you- any of you- have a clue who the real enemy is?"
She raised her cane into the air and plunged it into the ground- it crashed wtih far more might than should have been possible, forming a crater where it hit. "As of now, this fight is over!"
"She makes a convincing argument!" Jaune gulped.
"Yeah... I don't think even Yang would feel like backsassing her after that..." Ruby agreed with a nervous chuckle.
"Why single me out?" Yang objected- but didn't refute.
"You say all you need to fight is an enemy- is that really all there is to it?" Maria challenged.
Surprisingly, it was Whitley that spoke in objection. "What more reason do we need, when so many of our comrades have already lost their lives? So many brave men and women struck down by these vermin?"
"Vermin, are we?" Jaune growled, straightening up with his sword. "And how many Hoshidans have you killed with those birds of yours? How many friends do you think we've been forced to watch die, one after the other?! YOU STOLE EVERYTHING FROM US!"
Yang stepped forward, gauntlets at the ready. "What, you think we're just out to fill these damn clocks?! We can fill 'em up all we like, it'll never replace the friends that we've lost! That's why we-"
Ren interrupted her, and unlike his comrades, he wasn't shouting. "We're not fighting because we want to."
Yang seemed to get completely sidetracked. "We're not?"
Ruby burst into giggles. "That's such a Yang moment, it actually kinda breaks the tension!"
"Oh, shut up," Yang flushed.
Ren raised his hand and tapped at his iris. "When you can see your life in front of your eyes... fighting is all you have. And because of that, we lose loved ones... take them from others... and the wheel keeps spinning. That's what it all comes back to in the end- we have to fight so we can keep on living!"
Something in his words seemed to resonate in Nora- her eyes widened, and she let out a gasp.
"Looks like she's finally starting to listen, eh?" Yang grinned, elbowing Nora.
"Yeah... when Renny gets like that, it's hard not to..." Nora sighed happily.
"Who set that wheel in motion?" Ren spat, anger creeping into his voie. "Who decided this is how it had to be? If I knew who they were, I'd-" He paused, taking a deep breath, but he'd caught Maria's attention.
"You would...?" she prompted. "It's only, I happen to know."
Ren took a step back as she approached him. "An off-seer, are you? Hmm... listen up, kid- the face of your real enemy is-"
A spear descended from the heavens and pierced straight through her chest, sending her collapsing back into one of the crates from her ship.
"Oh, bullshit!" Yang cursed. "Of course when she's about to spill the beans, that happens!"
"Who did it?!" Pyrrha asked, eyes wide. "One of the Hoshidans or the Nohrians?"
"I don't think it was any of us!" Jaune shook his head. "That spear- none of us had a weapon like that!"
Indeed, it was all six of the fighters that spun in the direction from which the spear had come, eyes raking the treeline for the assailant. Even Whitley was putting his all into it, his paper spirits circling protectively around them.
And from the trees lumbered... there was no other word for it but beast. It stood on even ground with the trees from which it was emerging, its eyes all fiery burning red. Raging crimson circles were dotted down its front- its mouth was a nest of razor-sharp fangs, and from its head emerged two curved horns that twisted above. Behind, it had a long, segmented tail ending in a cruelly pointed stinger, and both hands and feet ended in hook-like claws. And in its right hand was a limp form that the Hoshidans instantly recognized.
"Arslan!" Ren cried.
"Lion faunus gonna die tonight," Yang repeated sadly.
"I'm... sorry... Ren," she choked out. "Looks like... I messed up..."
Nora's eyes widened as she saw another faunus in the beast's other hand. "Nora... run..."
"Scout!"
"Clearly, someone else who doesn't care about Hoshido or Nohr," Pyrrha glared.
For a moment, Ren thought he was trembling, but he realized it wasn't his own hands moving- his knives were vibrating. What- my blade?
With a great, sickening crunch, both soldiers were crushed in the beast's hands, already turning to husks as it carelessly cast them aside.
"That... that monster... what the hell is it?!" Jaune was so petrified with fear he had yet to do anything with his own blade.
"I've never... seen anything like it before!" Ren shook his head. "Yang?" At her silence, he turned to see her transfixed- absolutely motionless with terror. "Yang!"
She was staggering back from the creature, her breathing shallow and ragged.
"Ex-cuse me?" Yang objected. "What do you mean, I'm the most scared?!"
"Maybe she has seen something like it before?" Jaune guessed with a helpless shrug.
"Yang, snap out of it!" Jaune called. "What, you've seen this thing before?!"
"N-no!" Yang quickly shook her head. "I... I couldn't have, could I?"
The beast opened its mouth... and spoke, with a voice as if several people were speaking at once. The predominant voice was high, cruel, and cold:
"Oh, no, don't mind me, I'm just the peanut gallery- by all means, go back to killing one another!"
"It speaks?!" Pyrrha gasped.
"Because it wasn't creepy enough to begin with," Nora gritted her teeth, hair standing on end all over her body.
"It... can talk?!" Nora stepped back in horror.
"That's... Moebius... that's... your true... enemy!" Maria choked out.
"Moebius?" Ruby tilted her head.
"I believe there was a mathemetician by that name," Weiss recalled. "Though I doubt he'd have anything to do with this... this abomination!"
"Is that the type of creature, or its personal name?" Blake wondered.
"And how do we kill it?!" Nora pressed her own most pertinent question.
"C'mon, let's see some bloodshed!" the beast cackled. "I love it- two rival armies killing each other over a rock! Well, it's right there- all you gotta do is step over your enemy's broken body! So get to it! Love it- savor it- the sweet taste of a life cut short!"
"Mudder!" Jaune swore, as at last, he and Yang moved.
"Jaune, Yang, wait!" Ren protested.
"Why?!" Nora argued. "Didn't you see what he did?!"
"Yes... which makes me wonder what else he can do," Ren pointed out, sending a chill up everyone's spine.
"Murderer!" Nora screamed, hoisting her hammer and rushing in as well.
"Wait- Nono!" Ruby hesitated momentarily before summoning her scythe and giving chase, leaving Whitley to watch.
He stood for a moment longer before muttering, "Spark!" and joining the rush.
"Er... Nono?" Nora tilted her head. "That's... a weird nickname."
"And Jaune-Jaune isn't?" Ren smirked- as much as he ever did.
Maria forced herself to her feet, leaning heavily on the crates to maintain her position. There was a mech nearby she began slogging her way towards.
Meanwhile, the beast almost lazily raised an arm- what looked like a bone forced its way out of the wrist before firing at its attackers like a lance, immediately sending them into disarray. It made its way towards Ren as it readied another lance- Jaune immediately took position as defense, even as he trembled, uncertain he could stand up against such a blow... but the blow never landed. Just before it fired, Maria's mech attacked, punching it across the face and sending it flying.
"I like this lady!" Ruby cheered.
"Better enjoy her while you can," Blake noted ominously.
Maria screamed as she brought one of the mech's fists down towards the beast's face- but it countered, stopping the strike with one hand. A cackle escaped its lips as it brought itself to its feet, and managed to bring the mech to its knees despite being half its size. "I thought you city-folk would have learned to put up a fight by now, but I guess this is all you're good for!" Using the arm it had hold of, it turned and tossed the mech away like garbage, sending it crashing into the ship that had brought it.
Maria coughed up blood. "Hell... of a throwing arm..."
"That's... a freakish amount of strength," Weiss commented. "I don't think even Yang at her peak could do that!"
"Hey, don't count me out!" Yang objected... before drooping. "But not likely, yeah..."
"But... bold of you... to think that's... all I have!"
A gatling gun emerged from the mech's shoulder and opened fire, but seemed to have no effect as the beast sauntered towards it. It fired a lance that destroyed the gun, then leapt forward and broke through the cockpit with ease, dragging Maria out.
"No..." Ren shook his head, slowly stepping forward. "Leave her alone! Let... her... GOOOOOOO!"
With those words, he led a charge against the monster that even the Nohrians joined in on, all six bearing down on the beast.
"Enemy of my enemy," Pyrrha smiled a little.
Nora managed to overtake him and open the assault with a strike from her hammer to the creature's arm, forcing it to release Maria- she landed in a heap on the ground.
For better or worse, they'd certainly caught the monster's attention- it laughed again as it took them all in. "Well, this happens every once in a while- a bunch of grunts getting ideas above their station! Let me show you how we deal with them!"
It gathered power into a fist and struck the ground, sending out a shockwave that sent those nearest flying- Jaune barely managed to catch Ren, and it took some of Whitley's shikigami to cushion Nora's flight.
The beast grinned, cracking its knuckles, its tail swishing in excitement. "So, let's see... an example of the leaders first, I think!"
He turned his next lance towards Nora, but Ruby interjected with her scythe- in one fluid motion, it caught her and threw her carelessly over her shoulder. She'd have hit the ground hard, had Yang not appeared and caught her. "Oh!" Ruby blinked in surprise. "Er... thanks, I guess?"
"Best sister ever!" Ruby cheered.
"Even in this bizarro world, the Rose-Xiao Long sisters will never break apart!" Yang grinned, pumping her fist.
"If you've got time to thank me, you've got time to use that scythe of yours!" Yang ordered, putting her back on the ground. "I don't like it, but it looks like we're on the same side for now."
"I just noticed- Ruby's hair is on fire!" Jaune pointed.
"Wha- oh, it is!" Ruby agreed. Sure enough, where her own hair turned to red at the tips, her other's seemed to turn to flames.
"Did that bastard do it somehow?!" Yang snarled.
"No... no, I think it's been like that since she appeared," Pyrrha remembered. "Almost like... it's just a natural part of her."
"Fire in her hair?" Weiss crossed her arms. "I don't believe that's a faunus trait."
"Iunno, maybe a salamander?" Ruby shrugged.
"No," Blake shook her head. "That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works."
Jaune maintained his protective posture over Ren, but was beginning to buckle under the beast's rain of blows, which were only growing heavier as its fists began to glow. Just as it was about to hit him with a particularly devestating one, several paper birds appeared before him, forming a protective barrier- Jaune looked in shock to see Whitley holding up his hands. "Fall back- you're slowing me down!" he grunted as the shikigami took the blow's full force.
Ruby giggled. "He really reminds me of Weiss when we first met!"
"I... can't deny that," Weiss admitted begrudgingly.
Jaune scowled. "You've got a lot of nerve!" Instead of pulling back, he shifted his blade into its full sword form and swung it at the beast, forcing it to dodge backward.
And far away, Maria was slowly making her way to the stone that had been their target from the beginning. More blood came from her mouth with every choked gasp, but she didn't stop until she was climbing the thing, hanging onto it like a lifeline. "Start... start working!" she cried, smacking the top.
"Okay, I'll bite- what's so important about that thing anyways? What does it actually do?" Jaune wondered.
"I think the only way to find out is to... see what it does," Blake shrugged.
"Dammit, work!" Maria yelled as she increased the ferocity of her strikes. "Damn useless hunk of junk- if you don't work soon, those kids- the world, and those kids- they're all going to-"
With her final blow, the very top of the egg caved in, and like a catch had been opened, the top half broke into segments that slid down, revealing a small pillar within, bathed in an azure glow. Maria laughed as she fell back into another crate. "...Thank you..."
"It better make some magic happen to turn this shitshow around," Yang grunted.
Indeed, despite being outnumbered six to one, the beast was very much holding its own- its latest strike had sent Nora to the ground, gasping in pain. "One down, good start!" it crowed. It brought a fist down to deliver the finishing blow, only to be deflected by a quick strike from Ren and his knives.
"Now we're talking!" Nora grinned eagerly.
"Two for one? Who am I to turn down a deal like that?" the beast smirked, readying a lance- but before he could fire, Maria screamed out to them from her position.
"IT'S NOT OVER YET!"
She had returned to the opened egg, turning the pillar and pressing it down like a particularly tall button- immediately, a shockwave was sent out over the entire clearing, enveloping all of them. And as it passed each of the humans there, something strange happened. Their bodies being sent back reeling by the force of the wave was expected- what wasn't was what came flying out behind them- a phantom or afterimage, of sorts, greatly resembling the person who'd been hit. A phantom Maria behind Mario, a shadow of Ren behind Ren, the ghost of Nora behind Nora.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"
Time seemed to slow down, as within each of their irises, something changed. They were no longer half-full loading symbols- the entirety of the circle lit up, taking on a new form, from a simple loop to the image of a snake devouring its own tail.
The camera zoomed in on this occurrence in Ren's eye, and when it zoomed out, he was no longer in the forest clearing- he was in a vast plain of light, surrounded by fleeting images- images of Nora, from what appeared to be various points in her life. Nora practicing with her hammer, Nora playing her flute as an off-seer... N ora fighting alongside Ruby, Nora having the flute forced into her hands by another girl...
Something very similar was happening on Nora's end, but she was witnessing scenes from Ren's life- Ren the failed exam against Cardin, the one homecoming he'd witnessed and sung for... his tutelage under Li, the eagerness with which he'd taken up off-seeing... his loyalty to his friends, his grief when forced to watch Velvet's death...
The two weren't alone in the plane of light anymore- they were both there, but standing at each other's feet, as if they were each others' reflection in a pool of water. A swirl of light surrounded each, and their forms became simple orbs- red for Nora, blue for Ren, until they merged into one great orb of blinding white...
"I... I don't get it... it's making them look through each other's memories?" Ruby tilted her head in confusion.
"That... seems to be part of it," Pyrrha agreed. "But... I don't think that's all there was to it. For them to really turn the tide of battle, there had to be more..."
In the real world, Ren and Nora's bodies underwent much the same process, forming into a single orb of light- which made a sudden move towards the beast. As it moved at rapid speed, it took form as something of a beast itself- a large purple humanoid, on even footing with the creature, rippling with muscle, carrying two knives the size of a normal person, and with a large horn protruding from its head. It struck, sending the beast crashing into the trees behind it, before landing evenly on the ground. It slowly stood up, and Ren's voice emerged from it, echoing: "What... what did I just... do?"
"They fused!" Ruby's eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh my gosh, it's just like Dragoncube X! They fuse, and it makes them super strong! Do you think the rest of us will be able to do that, too? Do you, do you?!"
"I... I don't... I have no..." Weiss stammered, trying to understand what she was even looking at.
"Fuse... together with Renny...?" Nora was halfway between awestruck and dying of heatstroke from her blush. Ren coughed and adjusted the collar of his shirt, but said nothing, electing instead to steeple his fingers to hide his own reddening face.
The Renora beast looked at its hands, taking them in. This hand... is it mine? Came the thought-voices of both Ren and Nora at once. It looked around, seeing the awed, wary faces of his/her/their comrades, who didn't seem to know whether to attack or not. Furthermore... they were all so tiny from here, only up to his/her/their waist!
At last, they became conscious of each other, and as one, asked, "What? How are you inside me?"
"Well, Renny, we always knew Nora wanted you-" Yang started, eager to lighten the mood, but she was met with a cat to the face from Weiss.
"Shut up, Long, this is a bad time!"
"Inside... wait... we're...?"
They were prevented from pondering any further when a loud cackle came from the trees, and the original beast re-emerged. "Fast learners, aren't you? Didn't think you'd be able to interlink so quick!"
"In... Interlink?" Renora repeated, looking at its hand again.
"Ah, what a wild ride, this passage of fate!" the beast laughed. "I'm a nice guy, so let me drop some knowledge on you- that form you've taken? It's called ouroboros- got it memorized?"
"Of course!" Blake slapped herself. "Ouroboros- the snake eating its own tail! It's a symbol of infinity!"
"Wait... that ties into 'moebius' as well!" Weiss realized. "That mathemetician, he created a theoretical shape called the Moebius Strip!"
"Nerd," Yang sniggered.
"Shut up, Long!" Weiss fired back. "It's impossible to recreate in reality, but in theory, it's a strip that loops back on itself with only one side- a shape that represents infinity!"
"Urgh, my head hurts..." Ruby put a hand to her head.
"So... so this ouroboros thing... it's the same type of creature as a moebius?" Jaune seemed to be struggling to understand himself.
"Well, I think our ouroboros looks way cooler!" Nora preened.
"Ouroboros... and moebius!" the beast bowed. "Two sides of the same coin! Hoshido and Nohr unite to unlock their full potential, and you're almost half as strong as us!"
"From two... one?" Renora steadily realized.
"But don't go getting ideas- ouroboros is just the scraps left over from what created us," the 'moebius' preened. "Just a sad imitation! It's quite pathetic, reall-"
He was cut off by a sucker punch from Renora. He went flying into the air, where Renora leapt up and sent him flying back into the earth. All the others watched from the sidelines with bated breath.
"Yeah, Renora for the win!" Nora crowed.
But the moebius only chuckled as it pulled itself from the crater. "Heheh... you're pretty good!" it praised as it raised its hands in a gesture. "Tell you what- I'll let you have this victory! And as a parting gift..."
It looked up into the sky, and light poured from its eyes, eventually forming into an image against the clouds- a large figure eight, tilted on its side.
"What's that?" Jaune asked.
"I can answer that one," Weiss spoke up. "Remember that moebius strip I was talking about? That's what it looks like."
"That certainly makes sense," Pyrrha agreed. "A sideways eight has always been the symbol for infinity."
As the camera showed, the symbol could be seen from practically everywhere in Aionios- primarily by those strange men and women in the red armor with the symbols on their chests.
The moebius chuckled again as the light died down. "May as well lay down and die here, kids- the whole world's your enemy now! From here on, you're living on borrowed time! All I need is to sit back and enjoy the show!"
He turned around, and without further adieu, leapt away.
For a moment, Renora made as if to follow, but was overcome by a glow themselves that caused its form to disintegrate- when it was gone, Ren and Nora were back, landing on the ground in a heap. They pulled themselves to their feet and glanced at each other awkwardly, uncertain what to say after such an experience.
"Heck, I know I wouldn't," Nora nodded.
After a long moment of silence, Yang finally spoke. "Ren... that thing just now... what happened?"
Ruby and Whitley had similar questions. "Nora, are you alright? What was that?"
"I... I don't..." Nora was the only one even able to speak as Jaune, Yang, Whitley, and Ruby suddenly realized they were standing in front of enemies, and readied their weapons again.
"Oh, come on, after all that?!" Yang objected.
"It's all they've known their whole lives," Ren pointed out. "It will take more than one battle to break that sort of conditioning."
"That's enough!" came Maria's voice- they turned to see her slumped against a tree. "Put away your weapons, all of you! You're not enemies... not anymore."
"We're not?" Ruby asked, not dissipating her scythe, but at least dropping out of her aggressive stance.
Maria shook her head, then coughed up yet more blood. Nora and Ren immediately ran to her side, slowly followed by the others.
Slowly, she reached up to her goggles and pulled them away, revealing a face ravaged by war... and by time. The white in her hair was no lie- her face was beset by wrinkles, and her eyes were filled with so many cataracts it seemed a miracle she could see at all.
"What... what happened to her? All those wrinkles?" Jaune asked.
"How insensitive!" Weiss chastised.
"No... it's just like I thought," Blake shook her head. "That's why they thought she looked weird- they've never seen someone older than twenty before."
Evertyone stared as they realized she was right.
"Oh, this?" Far from sounding offended, Maria sounded amused- she let out another rough chuckle. "This is called getting old."
"Old?" Whitley repeated, clearly testing out a new word he'd never heard nor spoken before.
"Yeah... it would be your first time," Maria nodded. "Well... hit a few bumps, but I suppose the plan was a success in the end..."
"What plan?" Yang demanded.
"To create... ouroboros," Maria explained. "You six... you're it. You should be able to see... your irises..."
Jaune and Yang glanced at each other, and both saw it- the snake eating its tail. Whitley and Ruby checked with each other... as did Ren and Nora.
"That's it... the ring of ouroboros. At least I got that done..."
He looked up, and saw the tattoo on Nora's neck. "Looks like you're late into your tenth term, aren't you? Three months left til your homecoming?"
Ren visibly flinched. "Nora... only has three months...?"
"I'm right here, Renny!" Nora immediately pulled him into a hug and ran her fingers through his hair. "I'm right here..."
"The rest of you... one year, maybe two, right?" Maria guessed. "Me? I've been alive for sixty."
The soldiers' jaws dropped at the absurd number, and Maria nodded. "Yup... six times longer than you get to see if you live to your fullest. And... that's how it's meant to be." She coughed. "This is the end of the path for me, but... only the beginning for you. There's still something that needs doing."
She raked her eyes over their faces, ending on Nora, who seemed unable to meet her gaze. "Life's meant to be about carrying a torch, passing it on to the next generation, not this... pointless fighting. And now... you don't need to. But... that moebius wasn't lying. That sign in the sky was him painting a target on your backs. He and the rest of his kind... they'll never tolerate your existence. Your destinies... they're intertwined. They'll chase you to the ends of Aionios. There's only one safe place for you now... go towards Swordmarch, the land pierced by the great sword. There, you'll find it... the city of Monad. There, you'll find your hope. That's the only way... you can defeat the true enemy. Reclaim what was lost... return this broken world to rights."
Her body was starting to glow. "Listen... don't give up." She scoffed, which quickly turned into another cough. "Ten years? You kids deserve better. The only thing that can fix this world now... is the will of ouroboros. It's all... up to... you..."
Her body dissolved entirely, becoming nothing more than motes of light.
"Poor old lady..." Ruby wiped at her eyes.
"That bastard's gonna pay..." Yang growled.
After nearly a full minute, Nora was the first to move, rising back to her feet and producing her flute. Steadily, she raised it to her lips and began to play that same eerie melody Ren had recognized earlier.
Ren looked up at her, and rose, matching her movements, producing his flute and beginning to play his own tune. Nora paused for a brief moment, caught off-guard, but then raised the flute and began playing again. Despite their differences, the songs harmonized surprisingly well, forming a single tune that echoed into the night, speaking of the loss that had occurred there.
"It's... beautiful!" Weiss dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. Pyrrha was mimicking her, while Jaune and Nora were outright bawling. Ren seemed to be maintaining his composure, but his eyes were certainly glimmering as well.
As they played, all the husks around the battlefield, Hoshidan and Nohrian alike, began to glow as well, giving off the same motes, twining around each other as they ascended towards the heavens.
"Rest in peace... Arslan," Jaune whispered.
"She was so close..." Yang agreed, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"So long... Scout," Ruby's eyes glistened. Whitley looked as if he wanted to comfort her, but didn't have the words.
At last, the song came to a close, and they all maintained a long moment of silence for the fallen, Hoshidan and Nohrian alike.
XXXX
That was a longy- maybe that's necessary, with the mission I've set myself for this story. I hope you enjoyed- next time, we'll be reintroducing the world of Xenoblade 1, per the poll... speaking of which, I am officially resetting that poll now. After Xenoblade 1's been reintroduced, what would you readers like to see next? A reintroduction of Gears or Saga, or perhaps an introduction to the world of Blade X? Depending on how things go, the poll will be up until the end of next chapter, or the one after- haven't quite decided yet. Until then, don't you dare go hollow- Gamer4 out.