A blinding wave of silver light seared its way towards her, tendrils of foul magic seeping out from the main mass of the large wave of light, snaking towards her. In seconds she would be turned into ash or maimed, and all she could do was watch.
There was so much she wished she could do. So much she wished she could experience. She wished it didn't have to be like this, that she and Ruby could reconcile and become sisters again. But nothing could repair the broken bonds between them.
She wished she had the time to know Jaune more. The brief time they'd spent together was the best in her life, trumping even the happy summer days when she and Ruby had been sisters. Those memories were tainted now, by the murder of her mother and now the murder of herself at Ruby's hands. But Jaune wasn't. He was pure, kind and honest. He had a protective streak and a vengeful side, and he'd carved a path through his enemies so ruthlessly that any dragon would be eyeing him up as either an ally to have or a mate to have.
Yang held him close, trying to shield him in their last moments together before the magic of the woman who had once been her sister killed her. She refused to close her eyes, determined that the last thing she would see before her death would be Jaune.
Then nothing happened.
No pain. No burning. Nothing. She looked around her, seeing the silver light hovering around her, engulfing them but not attacking them. She frowned and stared around her, realising there was a faint green light protecting them.
A strained groan made her look behind her, and her eyes widened as she saw the same Inquisitor that had tried killing Jaune and she had tried killing in turn, protecting them with some sort of magic that pulsed from his hand.
The Inquisitor stared at her, pain clear in restless pink eyes as he strained against the might of Ruby's magic.
"When the…" The Inquisitor flinched, coughing out some blood and spitting it on the ground, making Yang wince with regret that by no means out-trumped her confusion. "When the shield drops…take Jaune and run…"
"You-You were trying to kill him!" Yang snapped, eyes narrowing at sheer confusion and emotional whiplash. She had managed to barely come to terms with being killed by her own sister then the person she had tried killing herself saved them! Who's idea of a sick joke was this?!
"That…wasn't me." The Inquisitor replied, letting out a low moan. "None of it was. Find a herbalist. Only they can save him from the poison."
"What poison?!" Yang snarled, body feeling ice cold as she noted the black veins stretching up from Jaune's neck. "What did you do?!"
Before the Inquisitor could reply, the wave of silver light flickered out of existence and the shield protecting them dropped suddenly.
"Run!" The Inquisitor ordered, stumbling to his feet and charging towards Ruby. Sheer instinct propelled Yang to do the same, and she picked up Jaune's limp body in her arms and raced towards the treeline on the other side of the small island, the sound of battle echoing behind her.
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The temple was cold and dark, and every footstep echoed in the large chamber. Blake shivered at the familiarity of it all, having known that the road she had been travelling on for nearly a decade had led her to this.
"Blake?" A warm hand pressed down on her shoulder, making her jump in almost horror. She turned around and saw Jaune, a look of concern on his face. "Are you alright? Your hands are shaking."
She looked down and noticed that he was right. Trepidation, fear, excitement, adrenaline, triumph, all of it was pumping around her body and making her hands shake and knees tremble. All of the things she had done. All the lives she had taken and betrayals she had inflicted. All of it was about to be made worth it.
All she needed to do was commit one more sin. Add one more name to the list of lives she'd taken, one more face to the nightmares that plagued her at night.
"I'm fine." Blake replied, smiling weakly. "Just excited I can finally get this done. Plus a certain someone scared me."
She nudged his arm and to her relief he took the deflection for what it was, holding up his hands and smiling apologetically.
"And just what are we getting done again?" Asked a significantly less warm, less welcome voice. Blake turned around and faced the blonde she favoured the least, giving Yang a glare that did not disturb the dragon one bit.
Distantly she wondered how she knew the name of someone she didn't know.
"You'll find out soon enough." Blake replied, striding ahead of her fellow companions, though only one she thought of as a friend. That only made what she was about to do hurt all the more.
They entered the sacrificial chamber, malevolent, cruel looking statues of monsters leering down at them, staring into her soul and judging her for the crime she was about to commit, the crime that would bring her down to their level.
"Why don't you guard outside the door?" Blake told Yang, not able to bear the distrusting look on her face anymore, especially with the knowledge it was more than deserved.
Yang raised an eyebrow, cocking a hip and resting a hand against it. The other curled up into a fist, and Blake didn't know if it was a subconscious or conscious action.
"I don't really know what will happen." Blake lied, grateful her voice hadn't broken under the intense pressure cast by Yang's glare. "So I'd rather we have someone as strong as you at the door in case it tries closing."
The dragon in human form turned to Jaune, who shrugged and smiled in that honest, dorky manner of his. Yang smiled back, one just as honest but with a clear undertone of something else before it morphed into a piercing glare as she gave Blake one last distrustful look before turning to leave the room.
Blake turned to Jaune, who was inspecting the sacrificial altar. Her hand twitched and became clammy with sweat. Her throat was drier than it ever had been underneath the baking heat of Vacuo and humidity of Menagerie, and the dagger at her hip felt like an impossibly heavy weight.
"What do we do now?" Jaune asked, looking around the altar curiously. "There aren't any instructions or anything. No symbols or glyphs or anything. Just a slab of rock."
It wasn't a slab of rock. The instructions weren't there because they were scattered across the globe in dozens of other temples like this. For nearly ten whole years she had been putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and the vision she'd received after finding the sacrificial dagger had given her the final piece.
She knew what she had to do. She just didn't know if she could live with herself if she did it.
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Blake woke up with a gasp, head pounding as the faint traces of Ruby's silver-eyed magic faded. Her comrade was next to her, scythe drawn and confusion written across her face two a blonde figure easily carried away an armoured form.
"How…?" Ruby gasped, and Blake shook her head, her ears ringing distantly.
She was also curious as to how whoever facing them had survived Ruby's magic. Except she did know who they were, didn't she? She already knew who the armoured boy was and Ruby had just given her a name to a face she had already seen.
Yang. The girl who kept reappearing in her visions, the girl who faced her with distrust at the centre of the ancient temple in which she would finally achieve her lifelong goal. A goal that required sacrifice.
Just not hers.
A figure burst from the smoking ground left by the blaze of Ruby's magic. The silver-eyed warrior managed to raise her scythe in time to block the blow from a curved dagger, and Blake's eyes widened upon seeing the spoke wheel emblazoned on the stranger's armour.
An Inquisitor.
"Gah!" Ruby cried as the Inquisitor kneed her stomach, bowling her over and slashing downwards with his blades. Ruby escaped death by mere inches, barely managing to roll away as the daggers completed their arc downwards, shaving off small strands of red coloured hair from the top of her hair. "Blake! Help me!"
Blake met the girl's pained gaze, tears welling up in her eyes from the strike to her gut and leaning on her scythe heavily. She was winded. Blake glanced at the Inquisitor.
He was panting heavily, trickles of blood falling from the corners of his mouth and his bared teeth were stained crimson. Looking down at his stomach, Blake realised that part of his armour had been dented inwards, and she glanced at the fading blonde figure with wide eyes.
Just how strong was that other girl?
Blake glanced back at Ruby, who stared at her with growing horror as time passed on yet Blake did nothing.
It was too late to choose. Joining Ruby would lead to awkward questions after the fight as to why she hadn't intervened immediately, questions that could lead to more repeats by Ruby to get more information out of her about her past with Tyrian. There was another key factor that helped make Blake her decision.
Ruby wasn't in her visions. Jaune and this Yang girl were.
Watts had always forewarned against trusting the visions prompted by silver-eyed magic blindly, his own experiences having long since burnt him, leaving wounds that had not healed and leaving an egomaniac to deal with the trauma of it. But this…this was real. Blake knew it. Could feel it.
She couldn't explain why. She just knew. That was enough for her.
"Blake?" Ruby asked softly as she turned her back on her. "Blake, what are you doing? Blake!"
Blake ignored the pleas and the betrayal lining Ruby's voice. If it was any other world, any other circumstance, Blake might have stayed behind and helped.
But it wasn't those circumstances, and she would act in accordance to the hands she was dealt. The ends would justify the means, and the end of her mission would finally be nearing an end, if anything those visions told her had been true of course.
All she would need was to sacrifice a good man who deserved better. Part of Blake was worried at the fact that another part of her had already come to terms with that fact. Anything so it could all be over.
She was lost in thought as she abandoned someone she might have easily called friend, eyes focused on the future and the two figures fading in the distance ahead of her.
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The betrayal! The angst! The sheer emotional turbulence! Such delectable tastiness tainting its senses and making it shiver as a roiling wave of urge rolled over it.
It wanted to lunge forward. To go to the source of the negativity and tear and rend. It wanted to do more than just wait in the shadows, stalking prey and unable to inflict it's natural savagery on the disgustingly bright souls around it.
It had to wait. It had waited so long already for the return of its master. It could wait a little longer.
Oh but the urge. The urge! It remembered the days where it had roamed free and terrorised everything that dared cross its path! The days after it found its master, and its full potential had been unleashed on the blight that was Light's creations.
It was difficult to contain, and its arms trembled with the desire to rip and rend and tear and maim and kill and destroy.
Something crossed its path nearby, its ears picking up the sound of panting breaths and pounding feet. The creature oozed fear, and while it was much more blander than the negativity it should be enough to unleash some of the frustration building within it since it had killed the shepherd and its furry companion.
Ever since it had done that, let itself loose for the first time in milenia, its control had waned drastically.
But it would hold on. It refused to fail its master.
But it simply couldn't hold back any longer.
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Block, parry, dodge. Each response was an automatic reflex that kept her alive by the skin of her teeth as the Inquisitor in front of her attacked, slashing with his daggers like a whirlwind.
Ruby needed to focus if she was going to win, but how could she focus after being betrayed by someone she had been travelling with and sharing a room with?
She had not known Blake for long, and the Faunus' shady behaviour had put a strain on Ruby's opinion towards her over the last few days. But she had trusted the other girl enough to sleep in a close vicinity of her, and had fought against Tyrian Callows for her as well. That didn't mean that Blake abandoning her to die didn't hurt.
She…She couldn't even think about…about it. The monster that had dared to survive. That had dared to look hurt and shocked and scared at the sight of her.
Caught up in the turbulence that was her mind, she lowered her guard briefly and the butt of the Inquisitor's dagger slammed into her side. She cried out in pain and stumbled, a second strike already flying towards her as she struggled to regain her footing.
The blade sank into the long wooden shaft of Crescent Rose. digging in for a few inches before getting caught in the thick wood. Sensing an opportunity, Ruby pivoted, swinging the curved blade of her scythe at the Inquisitor's head.
The Inquisitor noticed, leaning back just in time to avoid decapitation as she had hoped. Although he was attacking her, Ruby wasn't keen to take his life. He had answers for questions she had, and as a silver-eyed warrior it was her duty to protect Humanity, not take. Not to mention killing him would cause a diplomatic incident if Mistral ever found out.
The Inquisitor staggered back, breathing heavily and red trickling from the open wound scraped across his cheek. He was obviously on his last legs, tired from his fight with Jaune and…and Jaune's newest companion.
Her eyes narrowed as fresh anger flooded her system at the mere thought of it, of the thing she had once called sister. The Inquisitor seemed to think the anger was directed at him, as he shifted his feet and took up a defensive stance, waiting for her to strike.
She didn't. The Inquisitor was on borrowed time, if the dented armour and blood bubbling up from his mouth was any indication. She had to do to win was outlast him, and there was no point needlessly going on the offensive in order to do that.
The Inquisitor realised this quickly, staggering forward and slashing wildly. Before he was a whirlwind, now his strikes were like the last gusts of wind in the aftermath of a ravaging storm. She avoided them easily, though her training warned against her getting overconfident. All it would take was a stab to the neck and she would be dead.
Right, left, right, left and finally there was an opening. She dove low, spinning her scythe around with her to build up momentum. Crescent Rose tore into the Inquisitor's heel, causing a scream of pain to burst from him as he toppled over, one leg crippled and his strength fading as another wound was cut open on his body.
Ruby had no illusions as to the Inquisitor surviving their battle. The monster she had trusted and been burned by had already seen to that, likely having caused untold amounts of internal damage through the blow that had caved in his armour. Ruby couldn't save him, but she at least could get some answers before he died.
"I have questions. You're going to answer them." Ruby told the Inquisitor, knocking his daggers away from him using the butt of Crescent Rose.
"W-Why should I…d-do that?" The Inquisitor replied weakly, hands clenching his stomach and wincing in pain.
"Because the blonde girl with Jaune, the knight, is actually a dragon." Ruby told him tonelessly. "I need to kill it before it harms Jaune or anyone else. Will you talk or should I leave you to die?"
The option was there to her. She wasn't the best at tracking, but if she moved fast enough she could probably catch up to them. Her worry was that it had already transformed and flew away with Jaune in its clutches.
"F-Fine." The Inquisitor grunted, spitting out a wad of thick blood. "A-Ask away."
"Why is the Inquisition targeting Jaune Arc?" Ruby asked. "We all know he didn't commit any act of heresy."
"He's a threat to Alexander N-Nikos." The Inquisitor replied weakly. "We-They-need Nikos to achieve their goals."
"And what are those?"
"To bring their Goddess onto Remnant so she can end it." The Inquisitor answered. "They believe Judgement Day has already passed and each passing day is a consequence of intervention from false Gods who have imprisoned Her."
"Why is Nikos so important then?" Ruby demanded, remembering the snide, slimy man who was supposed to marry Queen Weiss. He didn't seem like much of a threat, even if he was a snake.
"Because soon he'll be in control of three Kingdoms." The Inquisitor retorted, sounding bitter for some reason. "He'll usurp his sister and kill Weiss Schnee after their marriage. Then the Inquisition will bring back their Goddess and end the world."
"You speak as if you are not an Inquisitor yourself." Ruby noted, and the Inquisitor looked away from her, breathing ragged and coughing up yet more blood. It did not seem like he had much time left.
"I am not." The Inquisitor replied. "Not anymore. That…That wasn't me. Couldn't have been me. I wouldn't…would I? I can't remember…there was a light, a fire, and it made everything bright again."
She said nothing, unsure as to what he was saying. She steered the topic back towards answers.
"How will the Inquisition bring back their Goddess?" Ruby asked, wondering just why they apparently needed three entire Kingdoms to do so.
"Blood sacrifice." The Inquisitor replied tiredly, eyes fluttering briefly before they opened sharply. They were starting to look distant, tired. "They have been hunting magic users and killing them with artefacts that allow them to contain and store their power. Once Nikos has control over Atlas, Vale and Mistral, they will send three artefacts to the centre of each Kingdom and use the contained power to destroy them in the name of the Goddess."
"H-How? W-Why?" Ruby stammered, still unsure as to what she was hearing. "Why not just do it anyway? Why does Nikos need to be incharge first?"
"Betrayal…" The Inquisitor replied, eyes welling with tears and voice becoming distant like an old man remembering unwanted memories on his deathbed. "The only way to draw the Goddess' attention is betrayal. They will let Nikos grow popular and loved by the masses so that when he authorises the destruction of the Kingdoms it will count as a massive betrayal, massive enough that the Goddess returns to Remnant."
His breathing grew heavier, slower. His eyes started to fade, the rest of his body falling deathly still apart from the slowing rise and fall of his chest.
"Kill me." The Inquisitor blurted suddenly, making her blink. "The pain…it hurts so…so much…Nora…I didn't mean…"
His eyes were glossy. It was clear he wasn't entirely there anymore, the death was nearing. She glanced at her scythe, its blade stained with blood from the wounds she had already inflicted on him. The wounds that were making his final moments painful, miserable and drawn out.
"Nora…" The Inquisitor mumbled sadly. "I'm sorry…so sorry…kill me…please…"
"I hope you can find some peace." Ruby told the Inquisitor quietly, and his eyes flickered briefly towards her before they became distant again.
"Nora…is that…you?"
She lined up her swing. If she buried the body then no-one would know afterwards. If anything he had said were true then she didn't need to worry all that much about causing a diplomatic incident with Mistral anyway.
Crescent Rose fell downwards.
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In his final moments, Lie Ren was a happy man. He was in excruciating pain, yes, but he was happy.
"Nora?" He asked tiredly. "Is that you?"
"Of course silly!" His long lost friend cheered happily, teal eyes brimming with a happiness he hadn't dared of seeing ever again. "You think I'd leave you alone in your final moments?"
"B-But I killed you!" Ren wailed, tears trailing down his cheeks as he came to terms with what he had done. "I cut your throat and w-watched you die! How can you not hate me?!"
"Because that wasn't you, you silly goose." Nora smiled, leaning forward with a grin and pressing her finger against his nose. "Boop! That wicked witch was manipulating you, making you see things and forcing her control over you. I would have done the same if the roles were reversed, and since you would have forgiven me, I forgive you!"
Ren blinked. He was…he was…conflicted. He didn't know what to feel. A silver gleam flashed before him, and he saw a silvery figure standing above them.
"Is that an angel?" He asked curiously, and Nora frowned next to him.
"She would have been in another lifetime." She replied, a serious, sad tone creeping into her voice. "Now she's another pawn of the witch. A reaper rather than a saviour."
Ren couldn't digest the information because he was suddenly weightless, all pain and feeling disappearing and the landscape swirling around him.
"Nora?!" He cried out with panic and fear, only to calm when her warm, strong hand caught his.
"I've got you silly." She smiled, dragging her through the swirling mess around them towards a bright light. "C'mon, your parents want to see you."
Ren wasn't sure how to feel. He had done terrible things, horrible, monstrous things that he deserved punishment for. Maybe he would receive some form of punishment later, but for now, with Nora at his side and the prospect of seeing his parents again?
He was grateful for the chance he was being given.
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Yang panted heavily as she carried Jaune's heavy form deeper into the hills. She wasn't tiring just yet, though with all his armour he was definitely a challenge to carry. Rather it was the emotional confusion and turmoil roiling inside of her that made it so hard to stagger onwards.
First the Inquisitor, then Ruby, then the Inquisitor saving them. Her eyes glanced down at her hands, clenching tightly to Jaune's arms and knee as she kept him cradled in her arms. Those same hands had burst into flames along with her hair just minutes ago, yet the Inquisitor hadn't been burned. He had definitely been wounded, but his armour had remained un-scorched.
She had no idea she could have done that in the first place, but seeing Jaune being threatened had…it had been an unpleasant experience.
Ruby…She knew the truth now. She had allowed herself to be deluded by Jaune's wonderfully sweet, but ultimately naïve, optimism. Yang should have known there could not have been any reconciliation, she had known, she had just allowed herself to be caught up in the brightness that was Jaune's kindness.
And was he even as kind as she thought? Their one-sided fight against the fur-clad people, those bandits as he had called them. They deserved their fates for harming an innocent and slaughtering those animals so senselessly, let alone for the emotional turmoil the act had caused for Jaune. But his willingness to shed blood so easily hinted at a darker side to him she either had not seen or refused to see.
Yang would never abandon him. He had chosen to help her, despite their differences, despite the norms of his people's culture that dictated he slayed her. He should have killed her, yet he had instead helped and comforted her. He was a good person, even if had a darker side to him, that much was obvious to her.
It wasn't even like he didn't have good reason to kill the bandits. Unlike Ruby did for her.
That was the reason behind her tangent, her needless distraction. Her mother…Raven was a horrible being. She had taken her mate and used him. There were times, distant memories she always tried to force down and forget but always came back to haunt her, where her father's screams and desperate pleas had echoed throughout their lair and only cruel laughter had responded to them.
Raven deserved her fate. Yang accepted that.
But what had Yang ever done? Ruby believed Yang had burned down the village of her old crush. That hurt, it really did, but Yang could at least understand why she might have come to that conclusion, especially with Ruby's mother whispering poison into her ear. Yang had only ever met Summer Rose three times, one of which including her attempt to murder her with Ruby, but each time she had stared at her with nothing but disgust and her hands had flinched towards her weapon every other second.
What Yang could not understand was Ruby's hatred for her now. All it would have taken was a five minute conversation to make the actual situation clear to her. Instead she had chosen to kill Yang, no ifs or buts about it.
Which meant Yang would have to kill Ruby if they ever met again, which seemed likely considering she and Jaune were friends, and her first reaction to seeing her with him was "What have you done?"
If she wanted to live in peace, she would have to kill her little sister if she hunted her down again.
The thought made Yang stumble, and she struggled to get back to her feet. Dirt and blood stained her dress, her arms were tired and Jaune was a dead weight, the dark veins on his neck growing with every passing second and creating a terrifying spider web of clear malignance across his pale skin.
"Herbalist…" Yang panted, remembering the Inquisitor's instructions. "Need to find…a herbalist."
"I can help carry him if you like?"
Yang spun around, letting go of Jaune so that he slid onto the ground from her lap, arms raised defensively. It was the girl who had been with Ruby earlier, the one with four ears.
"Are you going to kill me too?" Yang demanded, and the girl shook her head.
"No. I'm Blake, and Jaune's my friend." The girl replied calmly, unphased by Yang's general bloodstained appearance and the fact she had been side-by-side with the girl who had tried murdering her. "Why do you need a herbalist?"
"The Inquisitor…" Yang answered tentatively, shifting on her feet and trying not to show her nervousness. She didn't want to reveal too much to the stranger, but at the same time she didn't have a choice, especially not if she could help Jaune. Those veins weren't natural, and the Inquisitor had mentioned poison, something Yang knew very little about beyond it being lethal. "He said I needed to find a herbalist for Jaune."
The other girl's amber eyes widened and she hurried over to Jaune swiftly, making Yang blink and her eyes narrow as the girl's hand touched his face and neck.
"Did the Inquisitor wound him during their fight?" The girl demanded, and Yang nodded wordlessly, making the girl curse. "We need to get him to Snowmire now!"
Yang nodded again, though she did not know what a Snowmire was. She leaned down to pick him up again, letting out a grunt of irritation when the other girl took one of his arms as well. Was she trying to imply Yang was weak? Too incompetent to be a potential mate?
Something in the sky caught her attention. She frowned and pointed.
"Is that Snowmire?"
"Wha-oh gods!" The girl gasped, watching in horror as the dark cloud thundered towards them, casting a shadow over the once bright land. "In there, quick!"
The girl dragged them in the direction of a nearby cave that sat in the middle of a brown rock face jutting through the green, grassy earth. The wind picked up suddenly, and snowflakes fell all around them, followed by icicles the size of Yang's infiltrator form.
They dodged and weaved before practically throwing themselves into the cave as a massive block off ice dropped out of the sky and sunk into the ground where they had just been standing, kicking up clumps of grass and dirt.
Without a word they headed as deep as they could into the small cave, not needing to communicate for a consensus to be made over staying the holy hell away from the sudden chaos that had erupted outside.
Jaune whimpered in their arms, the dark veins continuing to spread slowly across his face. Yang glared at the ice that was starting to build up just outside the entrance to the cave, cursing it for making her so helpless in trying to help Jaune.
The wind refused to let up, following them into the cave with a low, whistling howl. Outside the snow and ice continued to fall, and Yang continued to watched helplessly as the dark veins grew and the stranger who had been side-by-side with her murderous sister wandered about the cave, muttering to herself quietly.
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Cinder snarled as the sudden wind knocked her off course and forced her to soar higher into the sky lest she crash onto the ground.
She had just sighted her prey, weak and helpless and in the arms of another dragon, when the storm had suddenly swept into existence like some divine being was looking out for the blonde she was hunting.
She snapped at the air with irritation, and she flew higher, knowing she would need to wait for the storm to die down before finding her prey again. With any luck the storm would do him in for her and she wouldn't even have to put too much effort into Nikos' latest hunt so she could see her family sooner.
Cinder soared higher into the air, knowing she would need to find a place to rest and wait out the storm. The best way to do that would be to see how far the storm actually spread out for.
She crashed through the top of the dark clouds and higher into the no-fly zone where it became harder and harder to breathe and harder and harder to fly. Then she looked down, eyes widening with horror as she realised there was no end to the storm.
It spread for miles, all the way to the north, east, south and west and into the curve of the distant horizon. It spread on and on and on, sparkling with flashes of blue energy that one could mistake as lightning.
Cinder had seen magic before. Nikos had shown it to her first hand and used to it enslave her. But this wasn't his magic.
Which meant the question was, who's magic was it? And did they fancy a draconic retainer in return for killing Alexander Nikos?
Cinder let out a low growl at the thought of seeing the arrogant fool being put in his place. He didn't need to know she had already found the blonde he was looking for, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack afterall. And if the blonde was truly so important he would've ordered her to hunt him down during their last face to face meeting, meaning she had time on her side as well since it wasn't an urgent matter.
Time she could use to find whichever human sorcerer had caused a storm that stretched as far as her draconic eyes could see. A storm significantly more powerful and impressive than anything Nikos had displayed so far.
Cinder descended so she skimmed above the dark clouds and could breathe, cogs of her mind whirring as a new plan began to form within her mind.
A/N: Next update 25/09/22