So, I don't like leaving the last chapter in the story's current state to be one with no dueling in it. Plus a busy week at work and I wrote this as minor therapy/stress relief.
"Soooooo, have you ever been to Patch, Jaune?"
"Nora, why are you asking me? I grew in Ansel."
"Right. That's in Vale. So is Patch."
"The other side of Vale. I haven't been everywhere in the kingdom. Actually, I haven't been most places in the kingdom."
"What? That's ridiculous! Ren and I grew up in Mistral, and we've seen pretty much all of Anima. Right, Ren?"
"We have. Though we were also homeless and constantly moving to keep ahead of roving gangs of Spider gangsters, Branwen Tribe raiding parties, and Grimm."
"And we got to see a ton of awesome scenery because of it!"
Pyrrha's face paled in confused horror as she marched down the winding forest road. "The more I hear about your childhoods, the more I wish you didn't have to go through them."
"Aw, thanks Pyrrha," Nora smiled, before flashing a soft look at her green-robed partner. "But hey, if we hadn't gone through them, we wouldn't be together. I mean, not together-together obviously, but you know, together. You know. You know…"
"Observation number sixteen," Astral noted from where he floated between Jaune and Pyrrha. "Nora greatly desires to be 'together-together' with Ren."
"Figure that out all by yourself, did you?" Jaune sarcastically muttered, Pyrrha unable to prevent a sympathetic wince on Nora's behalf given that the only one who hadn't seemed to figure that observation out was Ren himself.
"Sure did!" Nora exclaimed, pulling herself out of her bashful mumbling as she yanked out a large folded map. "And we're gonna figure this out too! I mean, come on, the entire island can't be picturesque forests and lakes?"
Pyrrha shook her head fondly at her teammate as she and Ren poured over the map, Jaune nodding along as Astral noted any detail of the scenery that intrigued him. To think that before she'd come to Beacon, she'd never dreamed that she could have such wonderful friends. She'd been worried that outside of school, outside of dueling, they wouldn't care about her the same simple way they had at the academy, but her fears had been dashed throughout semester break. The four of them, secretly five, had spent the last few days in Ansel being introduced to Jaune's family, save for his eldest sister Saphron who, ironically, lived in Pyrrha's hometown of Argus.
Though, Pyrrha wished that her partner had clarified that his sister who'd discovered the key with Astral in it, the key that was somehow connected to the mysterious over one hundred Number that The Invincible Girl had forged long ago, was the respected archeologist Saphron Cotta-Arc. Pyrrha had met her a few times at some Heartland Corporation events, talking with Ms. Malachite and Mr. Heartland, but she would have never figured out that she and Jaune were related until Mrs. Arc had showed her some old family photos (baby Jaune had been so cute!). The hyphenated last name had really thrown her recognition off until it had been pointed out to her. She'd always just assumed that Cotta-Arc was a single fancy name. There were certainly plenty of those in the pedigree-obsessed Mistral.
Now though, Team JNPR was headed to Ruby and Yang's house on Patch for a big end-of-break party with their sister team before they had to get ready to return to Beacon. And while Pyrrha was immensely looking forward to the fun that was sure to be had, she was also admittedly looking forward to the chance to speak with someone with experience in magic. Even aside from Astral and Number 101, the brilliant mystical fireworks that had concluded Weiss and Blake's duel still haunted The Invincible Girl's mind, as well as the limited explanation Yang had been able to provide in the aftermath and the little information Team RWBY had shared of their own investigation. With Astral's memories still foggy at best, the only clue that Pyrrha had to learn more about magic was to find–
"Hey!" a warm voice called out. "You may want to stop there!"
Team JNPR paused in their tracks, a well-maintained golden duel runner plowing out from the trees. The motorcycle skidded to a stop in front of the four huntsmen-in-training, its muscular rider stepping off the vehicle and removing his dark brown helmet.
"Woah!" Nora exclaimed. "Who're you?"
He was a tall and bulky man in a yellow shirt and brown vest, fletchings of golden stubble dotting his weathered chin. His smile was friendly, but his muscles were crisscrossed with the scars of an experienced combatant, a thick leather bracer covering his right forearm.
But Pyrrha's eyes widened when she glimpsed the edge of tattoo lines just peeking out from under that bracer. Tattoo lines that were a familiar shade of dark crimson.
"You're Taiyang Xiao-Long," Pyrrha deduced. "Yang and Ruby's father."
The blonde man warmly chuckled. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance. And given that you're Pyrrha Nikos, I'm going to assume that you all are Team JNPR. Glad my girls bothered to tell their friends about their dear old dad."
Jaune tilted his head in confusion. "I mean, have they–mmm!"
"They've told us a lot," Pyrrha responded, plugging a hand over her partner's mouth. She'd been the only one that Yang had discussed her father with, and what she'd been told made her more than willing to give the older man a respectful bow. "It's a honor to meet such a skilled hunting duelist."
"You flatter me. I've seen your duels. You've got a ton of skill yourself," Tai replied, smiling at her and her team. "Hope you're all hungry. I know Beacon's cafeteria's solid, but I like to think I've gotten pretty good at cooking over the years."
"Sweet!" Nora cheered. "But why are you all the way out here then?"
"And why did you warn us to stop?" Ren inquired. "I don't sense any Grimm nearby."
Taiyang grinned. "No Grimm. The girls took out all the ones in the area a few days ago. A friendly competition that Ruby proposed. As for why I'm out here…"
"Go, White Rose Dragon!"
"Don't let them get away, Paladin of White Dragon!"
"Ha! You ain't catching us! Right, partner?"
"Hm. Keep ahead, Coin Dragon."
Team JNPR turned towards the quartet of shouts approaching from the treetops, Astral floating over their head to get a better look. Taiyang merrily shook his head at the childish joy filling the forest.
"I'm playing referee," the elder hunting duelist mused.
Blake and Yang exploded out of the trees, the former flying atop a small gold dragon with a coin pasted on its face, while the latter zoomed below her on Bumblebee with Red Sprinter galloping beside her. Ruby and Weiss flew after their teammates atop White Rose Dragon and Paladin of White Dragon, chasing a fluttering orange flag tied to the back of Yang's duel runner.
Weiss threw out her hand and conjured a line of white glyphs through the air, Paladin of White Dragon flying over them and launching itself through the forest. The small pale blue dragon reached just shy of Bumblebee's tail, its rider thrusting its lance forward to claim the orange flag.
Only for Yang to viciously spin her duel runner around to face her purser at the last second, playfully winking at Weiss in her new position. The heiress could only grit her teeth at her near-miss, her blonde driver opponent skillfully maintaining Bumblebee's breakneck speed even though she was now driving backward.
"One minute left, girls!" Taiyang called out.
"One minute left in what?" Jaune asked. "What're they doing?"
"Ooo! Are they fighting to the death to see who gets to be the team's scout?" Nora excitedly inquired. "I mean Pyrrha was an easy pick for us since me and Ren don't have runners and Jaune's learning, but Blake and Ruby both have serious riding skills."
Taiyang raised an eyebrow. "Ruby just turned sixteen. She doesn't have her duel runner learner's permit yet."
"Ugh, Ozpin got a special exception from the council so that she could learn during class," Jaune nervously covered, shooting an annoyed glare at a sheepish Nora. "She's got a lot of natural talent."
"Ozpin did, did he?" Taiyang sighed, the sunny man's disposition floundering for a second before he shook his head and resumed his smile. "Well, anyway, Yang being Team Scout was decided by one of Ruby's earlier 'friendly competitions'. This capture-the-flag match is to see which pair of partners helps me with the dishes tonight."
"Capture the flag?" Pyrrha blinked, staring at the girls' chase even more intently as Yang blocked Weiss's way with Bumblebee and passed the orange flag off to Red Sprinter. "I didn't know there was a training exercise version of that game."
"There is, but this isn't it," Taiyang laughed. "This is a version I came up with for the kids at Signal. Level Four or lower monsters only to keep people from getting too badly hurt. And whichever team has the flag at the end of the time limit wins."
"Cool!" Nora exclaimed, Jaune nodding his head beside her with wide eyes. Even Ren was watching with interest.
However, Astral cocked his head to the side, confused. "If it is not a training exercise, then why take part in this activity? Surely there must be something more productive that can be done with the time?"
Pyrrha smiled at the ghostly figure, doing her best to disguise it as beaming at Jaune. "Having fun with the people you care about is productive."
She certainly prized it after years of being excluded from such pickup games at Sanctum because "You're the Invincible Girl, so it'd be unfair since whichever team had you would win." Maybe she could see if her team or Team RWBY were up for a round of this capture-the-flag after dinner.
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Taiyang nodded, Red Sprinter galloping for Blake and Coin Dragon. Both monsters and even Blake had big competitive smiles streaking over their faces. "As much as monsters enjoy being summoned to duel, it's important to make sure that's not all they're summoned to do. People, monsters, we all need to play. If all we do is work or fight, even if we love doing it, eventually we'll give out."
Blake snatched the orange flag from Red Sprinter, her dragon bobbing and weaving through the trees. Just as a shadow fell over her from above, followed by two bursts of flowery fire forcing her into a straightaway.
"Got you!" Ruby exclaimed, her red hood billowing behind her as she proudly stood with a foot each on White Rose Dragon and Red Rose Dragon, the dragons smirking as their maws crackled with fire.
Ruby slapped another card onto Crescent Rose, the glittering plumage of Roxrose Dragon flashing into being beneath her.
"Keep her boxed in, boys!" Ruby called to her original mounts as she jumped onto Roxrose Dragon.
White Rose Dragon and Red Rose Dragon each preened with pride at their duelist's glee. The sibling drakes spared each other a challenging side-eye, before following orders and unleashing a hail of fireballs on either side of Blake, forcing the cat faunus and her Coin Dragon into a straightaway.
But in a straightaway, no one could match Ruby Rose in speed.
"I got you!" Ruby shouted, her semblance blurring her and Roxrose Dragon forward in a blur of rose petals, her fingers suddenly closing around the orange flag. "I got you! I got–a shadow clone. Oomphf!"
Indeed, Blake, Coin Dragon, and the orange flag all flashed below their purser, Ruby's fingers flailing through a ghostly afterimage. Right before she and Roxrose smacked into a thick tree trunk.
Pyrrha, Jaune, Nora, and Ren all winced as Ruby slid down the tree, her monsters glittering away in sparks of aura.
"Time!" Taiyang yelled. "Blake and Yang win!"
"Woo!" Yang cheered, Bumblebee whirring to a stop by her father and Team JNPR. The blonde girl reached up to pet Red Sprinter while she smirked at Weiss. "And with that, the prettier half of Team RWBY takes the 'Not Having to Do Dishes' championship."
"I still say we need a better title if you all insist on having a name for it," Weiss grumbled, Paladin of White Dragon's rider helping her down from its dragon. The heiress bowed gratefully to her monster once she was on the ground, the knight and its mount doing the same before smiling and disappearing into sparks. "Also, I demand that you at least rinse the plates before just throwing them into the sink. I'm not Klein, my 'elbow grease' can only get so much of your actual grease off."
"Don't worry, Weiss," Ruby assured her partner, having blurred over with Blake in a flurry of petals. "Dad and I can take care of the ones that your rich girl childhood left you helpless against."
"Hey!"
Blake buried a small smile from her lips before nervously turning to Taiyang. "So, um, Mr. Xiao-Long, do you think–"
"The fish is already on the grill," Taiyang warmly informed her.
A line of drool immediately began trickling down Blake's chin.
"Zwei's watching it personally."
Blake immediately froze stiff as a statue.
Yang clapped her on the back. "Don't worry, partner. Zwei's great at managing cook times."
Astral tilted his head quizzically to the side. "What is a 'Zwei'?"
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"Observation seventeen: Zwei is a dog," Astral commented, watching as Weiss didn't even bother hiding how she'd knelt under the picnic table to cuddle with the cheerful corgi. "Observation eighteen: He does indeed seem to be skilled at managing cook times."
With Taiyang having led Teams RWBY and JNPR back to the Xiao-Long family cabin, a picnic table was set up outside as the sun began to set. After Yang and her father stowed their duel runners away in a nearby garage, a veritable feast of steak, fish, salad, and a substance called corn, that was for some reason served on some form of cob. Given how all the aspiring hunting duelists readily devoured the food and not just Nora, it seemed that the Xiao-Long patriarch and his dog were as skilled cooks as advertised.
It filled Astral with… warmth, to see them so contented. After all the pointed barbs and painful revelations that had come up during and after Weiss and Blake's duel during the first semester at Beacon, seeing all eight of the children play games and gobble down feasts was quite heartening to the spirit. With how readily Jaune shoveled salad into his gullet and Pyrrha elegantly and precisely carved up her steak, Astral almost yearned to ask to borrow his keyholder's tastebuds and try some himself.
Perhaps that redheaded bull faunus hiding in the trees would also like some? He had been staring at Blake devouring her fish for some time now.
"So, Mr. Xiao-Long, you're a Signer, correct?" Pyrrha inquired, gracefully wiping her lips of steak juice with her napkin.
Taiyang cocked an eyebrow and smirked at Ruby and Yang. "Man, I was pretty sure you girls would try to hide that I even existed when you went off to school. It really touches this old man's heart that you've talked about me so much with your friends."
"Eh, don't get too big a head, old man," Yang playfully joked. "It was important to explaining Ruby's new tattoo."
"My new magic tattoo!" Ruby corrected, proudly rolling down her sleeve to show off her Signer Mark. She pressed it up again her father's arm, the one with the leather armband obscuring his forearm. "We totally match now!"
Astral noted that, strangely, Ruby was the only member of her family pleased with that fact. Yang's smile became pained at her sister's words, while Taiyang stared at his youngest daughter's silver eyes with an air of dread behind his gaze.
"Was he able to help you figure out if there was any connection to your dragons?" Pyrrha asked. "The four summoning method ones, not Black Rose Dragon."
Ruby deflated, her chin hitting the table with a groan. "Nope."
"Mr. Xiao-Long's insight into the mechanics of magic has been invaluable," Weiss said, the white-haired Obelisk Blue cuddling Zwei against her chest as she scratched the corgi under his furry chin. "However, his knowledge is unfortunately limited in regards to our dragons and what they were trying to do when they took control of Blake and me during our duel."
"Sorry, girls," Taiyang shrugged, taking out two gray medicine capsules from a pill bottle and swallowing them with water. "I will say, the four of them are fairly unusual just for Blake's dragon."
"What's so unusual about Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon?" Ren queried, Jaune and Nora glaring daggers at each other as they both reached for the butter at the same time.
"The very fact that it is a Pendulum Monster," Taiyang clarified. "Most monsters that possess magic power tend to be ancient. While Xyz Summoning has only risen to prominence in Atlas and Mistral in more modern times, there are records of it and Synchro Summoning going back centuries. My Signer Dragon has chosen several Signers before me. But Pendulum? That was only invented a handful of decades ago. That means Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon and, by extension, its three siblings are, despite their power, relatively young monsters."
"Unusual indeed," Astral noted. That presented a possible explanation for why he himself, despite his muddled memories, seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of Xyz, Synchro, Ritual, and Fusion Summoning, but did not recognize Pendulum Summoning at all. If his own mystical potential implied that he was also as ancient as Taiyang suggested, it was possible that he'd been sealed with the key for the entirety of Pendulum's lifespan. "Though, that would also mean that the four dragons are native to Remnant, rather than coming from beyond like the Numbers and Signer Dragons."
"Native to Remnant?" Jaune quizzically repeated, Nora ripping the butter out from under him and smashing it into her pyramid of corn cobs. When Team RWBY and Tai all looked at him confused, Blake in the middle of biting off half a salmon, the blond chuckled nervously to try to save face. "I mean, if Pendulum was only invented a few decades ago, that means Odd-Eyes, Dark Rebellion, and the others all have to come from Remnant where it was invented, instead of… uh… elsewhere? I mean, Pyrrha said that Yang said that you said the Signer Dragons don't come from Remnant. Can magic come from Remnant?"
Taiyang glanced at Ruby's eyes and sighed. "It can. Though usually only specific types."
"Types?" Nora asked, somehow understandable despite the corn she was shoving down her throat. "Isn't magic just, you know, magic?"
"You'd think it would, wouldn't you," Taiyang remarked, snagging a few long celery sticks and setting them on his plate. "But no. There are six types of magic overall, each fueled by a primordial element of the universe. Three positive magics in creation, light, and order, and three negative magics in destruction, darkness, and chaos. Light, Darkness, Order, and Chaos Magic are alien to our world, but Creation and Destruction Magic are native to Remnant."
"That's what that silver laser beam blast from my eyes was during the duel!" Ruby revealed, pointing to said silver orbs. "Apparently I'm something called a Silver-Eyed Warrior and I can channel a ton of Creation Magic energy out of them."
"Which you should do only very sparingly. Same with your Signer Mark's Light Magic," Taiyang insisted, forcefully pointing a celery stick at his youngest daughter. "Apparently the two gods that created humanity made us to be creatures of balance, out of both Creation and Destruction Magic. A bit of imbalance can filter out of your system given enough time, but the more extreme it gets, the longer it goes on, the more chance it can have dangerous repercussions for the mind and body."
Taiyang tapped his medicine bottle. Astral had no idea what the older hunting duelist was referencing with the motion, but it was enough to render Ruby sheepish. The young girl nodded in understanding, at which point her father playfully ruffled her hair and she laughed.
Astral smiled at the short exchange. Though, he noticed Weiss observed the situation with a look of longing, the heiress clinging to Zwei even tighter for security.
"What about the other magics?" Pyrrha inquired. "The Signer Dragons and the Numbers? What do they use?"
Taiyang smiled and went back to chopping his celery sticks. "The Signer Dragons use pure Light Magic. As for the Numbers, I admittedly have less experience with those, but all those I've encountered have been formed by Chaos and Order Magic. The mixture varies for each monster, usually favoring the power of Order, but all one hundred of them are built of those two energies."
Pyrrha rubbed her chin in contemplation. "Fascinating. What about for Numbers over one hundred?"
CRACK!
Astral blinked in surprise, the rest of the group recoiling in equal shock as Taiyang's knife sliced through his celery sticks and his plate beneath it.
"... Pyrrha, there are no Number cards over one hundred," Taiyang slowly spoke, clenching his knife until his knuckles turned white.
"I… I don't mean to be disrespectful, sir, but there are," Pyrrha tepidly contradicted, reaching for her Extra Deck as Ren and Nora's eyes whipped towards her. "I'll show you. The first card I ever forged was–"
"You forged one?! It chose you?" Taiyang snapped, his arm shaking as he slammed his knife onto the table. "Does Ozpin know you have it?"
"Uh… I don't believe so," Pyrrha said. "I didn't use it in my entrance duel against him or any of my matches in class."
Taiyang stared at her for a few moments, his blue eyes hard like sapphires for several seconds. But before long, they melted into raindrops and the bulky man himself let out an exhausted sigh. "Good. That's good. Keep it that way."
"What do you mean, dad?" Yang asked.
"Yeah," Ruby concurred. "Why wouldn't she tell Ozpin that she's got an awesome card like that–"
"Not just Ozpin. No one who would tell him either," Taiyang insisted, intensely eyeing his daughters. "None of your teachers. Glynda. Even your uncle. If you care about Pyrrha's safety, make sure they don't learn that she has an over one hundred Number card. In fact, I'd advise you to make sure as few people as possible know you have it."
"Why?" Ren demanded. "What would he do if he discovered she had one?"
Taiyang said nothing, sorting his celery sticks onto his napkin and placing his knife atop the two halves of his broken plate. "On most matters, you should trust your headmaster. But this… not this one."
The hunting duelist rose and bused his broken plate back into the house, obviously unwilling to say any more on the matter.
"Well, that was unhelpful. Ominous, but unhelpful," Nora remarked. She nervously pushed another slab of steak toward Pyrrha. "More meat?"
"Um, sure. Thank you, Nora" Pyrrha said, managing a camera-ready smile to spare her teammate's earnest efforts. She turned towards Yang. "So, Yang, I hear we're both officially our teams' scouts. Congratulations!"
From there, the food and friendly conversation restored the cheerful atmosphere bit by bit, even prompting some joking speculation about much detention Ozpin would give Pyrrha if he found out that she had an over one hundred Number. Which of course then reminded Ruby that Pyrrha had such an unheard-of card and ignited feverish pleas to see Silent Honor ARK, which Weiss ended up joining for her academic interest. In part due to the weaponization of Zwei's literal puppy dog eyes, the Invincible Girl pulled out and showed off her oldest card.
Astral found he could not join in the young duelists' jubilance. Because despite the fact that only two of them knew he existed, the spirit had watched them for the last several months. And while his bond with Jaune was his oldest and deepest, he found that he had grown… fond of them all. And jokes aside, he had a sneaking suspicion that Pyrrha would not receive merely detention if she was discovered to have Number 101. She was in danger because of a card that had a strange connection to him.
He felt… guilt, at that. He did not enjoy it.
He could not have fun with Team JNPR and Team RWBY. He could not eat with them. Aside from helping Jaune study, discussing strategies with Pyrrha, and some theories on magic from his scattershot memories, he could not aid them against the danger he put them in. He had only his strength, and even that was limited.
But perhaps, he could expand it. Perhaps there was a way for him to be some actual help to his new associates, whether he could 'have fun' with them or not. After all, he believed that there had been a small forge in the garage where Yang and her father had towed their duel runners.
"Jaune?" Astral spoke up just as his partner was biting into a candied apple for dessert. "Would it be alright if I borrowed your body after you went to sleep tonight?"
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"Wow, you were not kidding," Ruby noted to her partner, as the Xiao-Long family kitchen sink finally shut off. "Your rich girl upbringing made you terrible at doing dishes."
Weiss sagged back against the counter and slid down to the floor, exhausted. "I thought Klein made them clean themselves by magic when I was little for a reason. Where's Zwei? I need my good boy!"
Ruby noted the shattered moon shining in the night sky. "Pretty sure he's asleep like everyone else."
"No!" Weiss pitifully whined. "I need my sweet doggo!"
Ruby chuckled at her partner's dog-loving dramatics. "Guess slumming it out here in the boonies isn't so bad after all, huh?"
Turned out that dishes took a lot longer to do when Nora was around and Weiss could only do her 'best' to help. Night had already fallen and everyone else had hit the hay in their sleeping bags, while the dishwashing crew still had a quarter of their load to go. Strangely, Taiyang had asked Ruby and Weiss to handle the rest of the load when they'd neared the end, his eyes warily watching the forest beyond the house. Ruby didn't know why her dad was so worried, even if the girls hadn't cleared out the nearby woods of Grimm days ago during one of her 'Team Training Sessions that totally weren't designed to put Blake in a good enough mood to teach her Fusion Summoning', the town's watchmen would spot any invading Grimm long before they reached the cabin. But, given he still seemed a tad on edge about Pyrrha's over a hundred Number (which she was totally awesome! Why hadn't The Invincible Girl told her about it sooner?), the silver-eyed girl decided to do her father the favor. She just hoped he remembered to take his heart medicine if he stay up too late.
Weiss sighed, her head listing back against a cabinet. "It was… wonderful."
Ruby teasingly smirked. "Wow, outright wonderful from Weiss Schnee. Not 'adequate'. Not 'bearable'. But outright wonderful."
"Oh, don't start," Weiss chuckled back.
"No, I'm serious, are you feeling okay?" Ruby joked, plopping down next to her partner and pressing a hand to the Obelisk Blue girl's forehead. "Is the Ice Queen melting?"
"Stop," Weiss laughed, lightly shoving her giggling team leader off her. "A Schnee must be a fair judge in all things, and I have judged this semester break to be wonderful. You, Yang, your father, and especially my precious puppy Zwei have all been exemplary hosts."
"... you know you can't take Zwei home with you, right?"
"Your father reluctantly informed me that he has therapy duties here," Weiss grumbled, an adorably petulant pout puckering her lips. "Still, he'd probably be happier here than back at my home. I certainly am."
Ruby winced. "Eh, everywhere's nice to visit, but if you stuck around here long enough it wouldn't be all that special. Like, the cliffside with the best view is stupidly out-of-the-way–"
"That's not what I meant," Weiss glumly cut it.
Ruby managed a weak smile and rustled over to sit next to her partner, taking her hand for support. "I know."
Weiss squeezed her palm in thanks, flashing her own tiny smile before her face turned contemplative. "I know that at least some of the families I knew back in Atlas must have been genuinely loving. At least I hope so. But all I ever saw at the parties and the recitals were their public faces, jockeying for position and prestige. So with my own… complicated relatives as my only basis, it was… nice to see yours. See what a parent is supposed to be."
"Believe me, dad's not perfect. Mom's death hit him hard," Ruby revealed. "It took him a lot of work to get to where he is now."
"But he put in the work. And he still does. Because whatever his flaws, he loves you," Weiss praised. The heiress raised her palm, staring at the perfectly ivory skin with conflicted disgust. "Because he's a good person. Not like my father. Not like me."
"Oh, come on, Weiss," Ruby snorted. "Just because your dad is a jerk doesn't mean you are."
"He's hurt so many people. So many faunus. And every piece of clothing I've ever worn, every card I've ever played, was bought with that cruelty," Weiss morosely murmured. "There's a member of the White Fang who was forced to turn to violence in part because of my family's sins and he's rotting in jail right now while I play with my friends and eat corn on the cob. Am I a honorable hunting duelist for beating him?"
"I… I don't know," Ruby admitted. "But I don't think letting him beat you would have made things any better."
Weiss unlatched her deck box from her hip, pulling out Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon and one of her Blue-Eyes White Dragons. "When my sister joined the military, she disowned my father and our family name. She assured me that we were still sisters and that she'd always love me, but she left her Blue-Eyes at the manor and set out to continue carving her own path as the Kaiserin. She told me that she no longer wanted any part of the Schnee legacy. I didn't realize what she meant, how truly toxic our family was to the world, until I saw Blake's memories."
Ruby's lips pursed in worry. "You're not gonna try to tear up your Blue-Eyes, are you? Because I will stop you."
"Please. I believe you already hammered it into me quite well how stupid it would be to blame my monsters for my father," Weiss snarked rolling her eyes. "And the truth is, I don't want to do what Winter did. I don't want to abandon the Schnee name, I want to redeem it as a hunting duelist. My rebellion of pride."
The heiress's crystal blue gaze turned fond on her twin dragons of dark and light. Ruby liked to think that both spirits approved of their duelist's conviction.
"But how can I do that if I hurt people my father has hurt? How am I any different from him then?" Weiss deflated. "But how can I help Blake when she inevitably goes after the White Fang again if I'm dueling with one hand tied behind my back?"
"I think that you're overthinking it," Ruby advised. "Being a hunting duelist is about helping people, stopping whatever bad guy is in front of you. If that's your dad, stop him. If it's the White Fang, stop them."
"You make it sound so simple," Weiss groaned. "So why doesn't it feel that way?"
"Because Blake was right. Life's not a fairy tale. But you've got to keep moving forward. And if you're gonna do that, you can't hide from your own strength," Ruby shrugged, a sly grin crossing her mouth. "Which is exactly why I've got to figure out some way to convince Blake to stop being afraid of Fusion Summoning."
Weiss cocked a mocking eyebrow. "Are you sure that isn't just so that she'll teach you how to do it?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong, me and Starving Venom both wanna see him on the field as soon as possible. But it's more important that Blake doesn't handicap herself like you did," Ruby declared. "If Team RWBY's gonna be an all-blue team after the Promotion Exams when we get back, we've all got to be the best we can be to earn it."
"You realize that the Promotion Exams only allow a student to rise one track at a time, right?" Weiss inquired. "Blake can join the Obelisk Blue track if she passes her exam and wins her proctor duel, but you can only rise to Ra Yellow."
"Oh, don't worry about that. I've got a plan," Ruby boasted. "A plan that this time won't be foiled by some stupid written test."
"So you say," Weiss groaned, only to look at her Slifer Red partner with a serious expression. "Lay off Blake teaching you Fusion Summoning though, okay?"
"What? But–"
"I'm serious, Ruby. I know she's handicapping herself and I know it's not healthy, but… do you remember how you blundered into my issues with my father during our duel when you got on my case about Xyz Summoning?"
Ruby flinched. "Not my finest moment."
"Well, Blake has similar issues wrapped up in Fusion Summoning, only unlike me, she was completely isolated with the one who gave her those issues before she ran away to Beacon. She didn't have a Winter or a Klein to at least start her progress," Weiss explained. "If you try to brute force her to confront those issues, you could end up making them worse, maybe even alienating her. Do you want that?"
"Of course not!" Ruby earnestly responded. "But we can't just do nothing. That's not gonna help."
"We're not doing nothing," Weiss corrected her. "I know this past week didn't exactly provide the definitive answers about our dragons that we were hoping for, but campfire meals and capture-the-flag games… that's not nothing. Especially not for people like me and Blake."
Ruby tilted her head quizzically, still not really getting it. Sure good food was great and playing with their monsters was fun in its own way, but compared to the awesomeness that was dueling? How would anything help more than expressing their feelings to each other that way? How could anything be more fun than that?
But hey, Weiss had literally seen Blake's memories when their dragons mashed their minds together or whatever after their duel (dad hadn't had much explanation for that phenomenon). If she said it was a good idea to let the Odd-Eyed Bandit realize that Fusion was incredible at her own pace, she'd give it another semester before she jumped back on the issue.
"Well, guess that means I've got to figure Fusion Summoning out myself then," Ruby declared, an excited smile spreading her lips as she rose to her feet. "First thing's first. Get a Polymerization card."
"And how exactly are you going to manage that?" Weiss challenged. "Get one of the White Fang to ante one up next time we see them?"
"Nah. That could take too long," Ruby waved off. "I'm thinking I'll just forge one myself."
Weiss's brow furrowed. "You have no idea what the dust formula is."
"It can't be too complicated," Ruby remarked. "The whole idea of the spell is that it's simple enough for even those grunts we dueled to work it."
"That's still an unfathomable number of combinations! You'd be up all night just starting–" Weiss immediately facepalmed. "You're planning to stay up all night on this, aren't you?"
"Yup!" Ruby grinned, turning towards the garage.
Only to spot the familiar fiery glow of an active forge burning from within the smaller building.
"And it looks like I'm not the only one."
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
Since Jaune had given Astral permission to borrow his body after he went to sleep (on the condition that he change into different clothes than the Rainbow Kuriboh pajama onesie this time), the spirit of the key was confident that his partner would be quite pleased with the bounty of cards he'd forged. Most of them supported Utopia or his Chaos Number which Jaune couldn't summon yet, but there was some more generic Xyz support that could benefit the rest of the Slifer Red's Extra Deck arsenal like Gagaga Cowboy. Granted, Jaune couldn't consistently summon even that on his own yet, but he was closer to the promo monster his mother got for him than the Numbers. And considering the boy was nowhere close to learning how to summon anything from the Extra Deck when he first arrived at Beacon, it was impressive progress.
Astral merely hoped that the new cards would help him weather whatever trouble came his way because of the spirit of the key.
He turned off the Xiao-Long family forge, the fire fading as its well-maintained machinery whirred down. It was a much smaller and older model than Beacon's massive Paladin Arc-VI, but the basic functions were similar enough that he was able to get it to work based off what he saw Ruby do the night that they encountered Cardin.
"What do you think you're doing, Arc?"
Though it seemed this time it was him caught forging after hours.
Astral turned to spy Ruby and Weiss looking at him from the entrance to the garage, the white-haired Obelisk Blue staring at him accusingly, while the red-hooded Slifer Red just looked betrayed.
"Yeah, what she said," Ruby added to her partner's earlier comment. "You're using my family forge to create awesome cards while everyone else is sleeping… without me! Without even inviting me? I thought we were friends, man!"
Weiss smacked her face into her palm. "Ruby, that is not the issue here. Arc hasn't gone through any of the forging safety classes at school yet and, unlike you, has zero experience using a forge. He could have burned down the building and hurt himself! Or started a fire that spread to the house and killed the rest of us in our sleep!"
"An unlikely possibility, Ms. Schnee," Astral calmly argued. "Ruby explained how to use a forge the night I dueled Cardin after hours."
Weiss blinked in surprise at him for a moment. "Ms. Schnee?"
Ah, yes. He had tried to address the Atlas woman as politely and formally as he could to assuage her anger, but it seemed his efforts had clashed with his current appearance to her. What was the term Jaune normally addressed her with? Snow Angel? Somehow, Astral doubted that involving that term would improve the situation.
"Whatever," Weiss waved off, her fierceness reasserting itself. "A half-minute explanation on a completely different model is not sufficient preparation."
"It is not?" Astral asked, looking back at the Xiao-Long family forge with his own confusion. "Strange. I simply did as Ruby instructed back then and the process felt intuitive from there."
Which in hindsight seemed extremely odd. Logically, Weiss was correct. His efforts should have resulted in disaster. That they hadn't when he'd simply done what felt natural once he'd begun the process… had he forged cards before? It didn't feel like it. Or at least, it didn't feel like he'd ever done so with a forge of Remnant before.
"Regardless, you are correct. My actions, however well-intentioned, were quite reckless, no matter their successful outcome," Astral said, offering Weiss and Ruby a short bow. "You have my sincerest apologies."
"Oh. That's… well… as long as you understand that," Weiss awkwardly replied, the elegant heiress taking a perplexed step backward. "Are you… feeling alright, Arc? You're acting… unusual."
Curses. It seemed his efforts to avoid causing more headaches for his partner had been foiled. Jaune truly was correct about Ms. Schnee's keen mind.
"Oh, don't be so hard on him, Weiss. Nothing burned down, so everything's good," Ruby said, rubbing her hands together as she grinned at Astral. "More importantly, can we see what you forged? Oh, did you make an over a hundred Number for you too, like Pyrrha's?"
Weiss groaned. "Ruby, I highly doubt he's going to create an impossible Number on his first-ever forging?"
"Pyrrha did! She said Number 101 was the first card she ever forged."
"Pyrrha is Pyrrha. Arc is not."
"Oh come on, he's already got a regular Number."
"So you've claimed," Weiss remarked, rolling her eyes. "Yet, he hasn't summoned it, or any Xyz Monster, in class since that night you claimed he called it up the first time."
"He has it!" Ruby whined. "Jaune, show her your Number! And while we're at it, show us all the cards you just made!"
Astral shrugged and reached for his deck box to do just that… but then he got a better idea.
"I will gladly show you both Utopia and some of the new cards I have created to support it," he said, reaching for Jaune's deck box and weaving the cards into the Onomatopia deck. "But perhaps it would be more helpful to give you an active demonstration of their capabilities. I challenge you both to a duel."
Ruby and Weiss's eyes widened in shock, both girls looking at him as if he'd just grown a second head.
"You want to duel us? Both of us at once? With cards that you just made and threw together into your deck without testing?" Weiss disbelievingly inquired. "Is this your attempt at a joke, Arc?"
Astral shook his head. "I assure you, my challenge is completely genuine."
Creating cards to support his associates from the danger his presence would bring down on them was useful, but in the end, that alone dissatisfied the spirit. Astral was confident that he was a capable duelist who could aid Jaune, Pyrrha, and the others, but his only evidence of that belief was his victory over Mr. Arc and his interrupted match with Cardin. He needed more. He needed certainty that he could protect them. Perhaps then he could quiet the guilt he felt inside of him.
Fortunately, there were few things, if any, that Ruby Rose prized more than a spirited duel between friends.
"We're in!" Ruby declared, a massive grin of excitement spreading over her face. "You want to do this with just cards or with live aura bodies?"
"The latter," Astral clarified. It would do little good to assuage his concern about the path he was on if he couldn't make sure he could utilize his arsenal in combat.
"No way!" Weiss protested. "Even assuming you could hold your own against one of us, let alone both of us at once, everyone else is asleep! We can't duel here. We'll wake them all up."
Well, not all of them. Though, Astral wasn't sure if Weiss was aware that Blake had snuck out of the cabin already. He'd only known himself because he'd seen Yang sneak out and run off after her.
Fortunately, Ruby turned to her partner with a proud smirk before such distracting information could be brought up. "Don't worry. There's a perfect spot a bit away where the others won't hear a peep."
RWBYRWBYRWBYRWBYYUGIOHYUGIOH
"Hey, mom," Ruby greeted, kneeling at a gravestone on a cliff with the inscription of 'Summer Rose: Thus Kindly I Scatter…'. "I know, I know, I shouldn't be up this late, but I wanted you to meet some of my friends."
"Are you sure you want to do this here?" Weiss tentatively inquired, Myrtenaster glittering on her arm in the starlight.
"Sure. Dad, Yang, and I come here and duel every year on her birthday. Sometimes even Uncle Qrow shows up," Ruby smiled, hopping to her feet. "Trust me. Even if Mom is gone, there's nothing she'd love more than to watch us duel."
"Then let us give her a match worth watching," Jaune declared, using that same weird robotic cadence he had during the opening half of his duel with Cardin. (What was that about? Some sort of new way to handle stress he'd come up with?) Crocea Mors deployed into its active state, the aura projectors whirring to life. "Shall we begin?"
Ruby eagerly took a ready stance, Crescent Rose spinning into its active state.
"I have to ask one last time, are you sure you want to do this?" Weiss said. "It might be safer just to duel one of us."
"I do not seek safety in this confrontation. I seek to test my abilities," Jaune responded, a bit of heat in his voice. "I must make certain that I can follow the path before me despite these… doubts, clouding my mind. Can you understand that?"
Weiss started back in surprise, a pensive look crossing her face. Ruby could take a pretty good guess about what was running through her partner's head. After all, before they happened upon Jaune in the garage, a bit part of their discussion in the kitchen had been trying to work through her doubts about her own path forward.
Needless to say, Myrtenaster deployed soon after.
"Duel!"
Jaune Arc: 4000 Life Points
Weiss Schnee: 4000 Life Points
Ruby Rose: 4000 Life Points
"I summon Goblindbergh," Jaune announced, precisely placing his monster onto Crocea Mors before reaching for another card in his hand. "When this monster is normal summoned, I can special summon another Level Four or lower monster from my hand so long as I switch this card to defense mode afterward. I shall use this effect to special summon Gagaga Magician."
A goblin piloting an old-timey biplane (ATK 1400/DEF 0) swooped over Jaune's shoulder, the blond's hair billowing in the breeze as the aircraft hauled in a steel crate on a wire. When it reached the field however, that crate exploded apart, a magician in black and orange robes (ATK 1500/DEF 1000) descending into attack position from within.
"Ooo, the mercenary with a heart of gold Goblindburgh giving Gagaga Magician a lift into an impossible battle," Ruby gleefully observed. "Just like in Episode 64."
"What are you talking about? That happened in Episode 14–wait!" Weiss paled, whipping towards her partner. "What happens in Episode 64?!"
Ruby smirked. "Spoilers."
"No! You can't tease me like that–"
"I activate the continuous spell Xyz Change Tactics," Jaune announced, a spell card with a picture of some gold and while object falling into the spiral of an Overlay Network on it. "By the effect of this card, whenever a 'Utopia' monster is Xyz Summoned, I can pay five hundred life points to draw one card. I shall then follow up this action by building the Overlay Network with Goblindburgh and Gagaga Magician."
Ruby watched Weiss summon glyphs beneath them both to brace them. She was probably expecting Jaune to mess up the summoning and cause some sort of energy backlash like Cardin had the night of the forge incident.
That did not happen. In a familiar sight for Ruby and one that caused Weiss's crystal blue eyes to widen, Gagaga Magician and Goblindburgh swiftly morphed into nodes of golden light and swirled into a spiraling purple galaxy, their flights smooth and stable before erupting in a nova of cosmic energy.
"With order and chaos bound to your shining wings of valor, rise like the dawn to banish light and darkness! Messenger of Hope! Xyz Summon!" Jaune proclaimed, one of his eyes flashing red for some reason. A trick of the nighttime light maybe? "Number 39: Utopia!"
The majestic winged warrior exploded upward to hover before Jaune, the stalwart figure's golden armor so bright that it seemed to be a miniature sun in the midst of the night sky.
"It's real?!" Weiss squawked, blinking at Jaune in complete shock. "And you Xyz Summoned it?"
"You just witnessed it yourself," Jaune remarked, his face stoic as his Xyz Change Tactics card glowed and he drew his additional card.
Jaune Arc: 3500 Life Points
"That doesn't make any sense," Weiss insisted, her eyes narrowing at the blond Slifer Red in suspicion. "If you've been able to Xyz Summon a Number like this since the night Ruby forged Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, how have you been struggling to bring out Gagaga Cowboy in class for weeks now?"
Jaune eyes nervously flicked about the cliffside, but he merely slid two cards into Crocea Mors. "I lay two facedowns and end my turn."
Weiss growled at being ignored and drew for her turn. "I activate The Melody of Awakening Dragon! By discarding my The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor, I can add two dragons with three thousand or more attack points and twenty-five hundred or less defense points from my deck to my hand. I choose Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon. And I will then reveal the former to special summon the latter."
The distinctive roar of the signature Schnee dragon filled the air and the Blue-Eyes variant took the field with its sparkling glow that differentiated it from the original (ATK 3000/DEF 2500).
Weiss winced a bit at the sight of her iconic monster but quickly shook her head to knock herself out of it, forcefully pointing at Utopia. "Blue-Eyes! Use your special ability to destroy Number 39! Burst Stream of Destruction!"
"I think not," Jaune countered, one of his facedowns flipping up. Though strangely, one of Utopia's overlay unit broke off from the monster and zipped into the trap card when it rose. "I activate Utopian Aura. By detaching an overlay unit from one of my monsters, my Xyz Monsters cannot be destroyed by card effects this turn."
A wall of brilliant golden light manifested in front of Utopia. Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon fired its lightning blast at the barrier, but the tempestuous attack didn't even make a dent.
Weiss looked back down at her hand and furrowed her brow in thought. "Can't be destroyed, huh? I can work with that. I activate Monster Reborn to revive my The Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor. And since I special summoned a Phantom Knights monster, I can summon The Phantom Knights of Stained Greaves from my hand as a Level Four monster."
"Two Level Fours?" Jaune queried as the two possessed armors manifested on the Schnee heiress' field. "I question the wisdom of calling on Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon in this situation. Even if you use its effect, this is a battle royale duel. None of us can attack on our first turn."
"He's not wrong, Weiss," Ruby playfully added. "You can't use the attack boost to help you this turn and I can't even take advantage of Utopia losing attack on my turn."
Weiss smirked. "Who said anything about Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon? In fact, who said anything about Xyz Summoning? I normal summon The White Stone of Legend!"
The glimmering white egg (ATK 300/DEF 250) popped onto the field, right in between the two floating Phantom Knights as its adult form hovered a bit further off.
"The White Stone of Legend?" Ruby muttered, only for her silver eyes to widen in excitement. "Oh!"
"A tuner monster," Jaune noted.
"Precisely. I tune my Level One The White Stone of Legend with my Level Four Phantom Knights of Torn Scales and Phantom Knights of Fragile Armor!" Weiss yelled. Her dragon egg morphed into an emerald tuner ring and floated into the air, her ghostly armors quickly transforming into a line of eight twinkling stars running through it before a blazing pillar of light blasted through it. "Synchro Summon! Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!"
A gust of freezing-cold wind tore out from the pillar of light, the grass surrounding Summer's grave instantly covered in a thick layer of frost. A gigantic dragon of pure ice descended from the blizzard, buffeting all three duelists with the frigid breath from its trio of ferocious heads (ATK 2700/DEF 2000).
"S–so c–co–cold," Ruby chattered, swaddling herself in her red hood as she grinned up at her partner's dragon. "But s–so c–c–cool!"
Weiss evidently didn't think so, the stupid Solitas girl completely unfazed by the blizzard her monster had summoned as she glared across the field at Jaune.
Jaune, who usually begged for hot chocolate after Professor Goodwitch's Cold Environment Dueling Class, and yet wasn't even shivering. Okay, Weiss was right, something was definitely up with their lovable Vomit Boy.
"When Trishula is Synchro Summoned, I can banish up to one card from your field, graveyard, and hand," Weiss revealed. "So say goodbye to your Number, Gagaga Magician, and a card in your hand. Zero Breath!"
"Again, I think not," Jaune replied, his second facedown rising up. "I activate Breakthrough Skill. Your monster's effects are negated until the end of this turn."
Trishula's three heads reeled back and unleashed a triple stream of blizzards. Before the frost could reach the other side of the field though, a grotesque gray claw shot out of Jaune's trap card and smashed straight through the snowstorm, striking the icy dragon in all three of its throats.
Weiss ground her teeth together. "I end my turn."
"I am grateful," Jaune informed her. "Circumventing my first defense with a banishment effect was an impressive move. I did not expect to have to use both my traps on just your turn. You truly are an intelligent duelist."
Weiss blinked in surprise at the robotic yet sincere compliment, so unlike Jaune's usual flirting attempts. Which again, just made Ruby more convinced that her partner's concerns were real.
"My turn! Draw!" Ruby called. "I summon Twilight Rose Knight! And when he's normal summoned, he brings out a Level Four or lower Plant-type monster from my hand. So Baobaboon will be coming out too!"
A short knight in black armor lined with red (ATK 1000/DEF 1000) swept onto the field in front of Ruby. The young warrior flourished his sword and cut a hole in the air, a tree trunk with a baboon head growing out of it hopping out to stand beside it (ATK 1200/DEF 1000).
"When Baobaboon is summoned, I draw one card from my deck and then place a card from my hand on the top or bottom of my deck," Ruby explained, drawing a card before placing Copy Plant on top of her deck. "Then I activate Fragrance Storm! I destroy Baobaboon and in exchange, I draw a card. And if that card is a Plant-Type monster, I can draw another card by revealing it."
"And by destroying Baobaboon, you can use its effect to summon any more of them that you have in your deck," Jaune finished, having seen her use one of her go-to setup monsters plenty of times before. "Allowing you to use their effects upon summon to cycle the cards in your hand."
"... yes," Ruby suspiciously confirmed, her first Baobaboon being blown apart as she drew Copy Plant and revealed it to draw another card. Her two other Baobaboons then flashed onto the field in defense mode. Jaune might have been smart enough to predict her combos after seeing them in action so much, but he'd never be confident enough to speak up about them.
Of course, the red-hooded duelist let her concerns about her friend fade away the moment she saw what her Baobaboons' effects had dug up for her.
"I can't attack you on my first turn in a battle royale, but that doesn't mean I can't hit you. I activate Seed Cannon!" Ruby declared, her enormous cactus artillery flashing into existence behind, watching over her mother's gravestone. "Then I activate Seed of Deception, which lets me special summon a Level Two or lower Plant-Type from my hand. Come on out, Copy Plant!"
A gnarled mass of roots and branches (ATK 0/DEF 0) sprouted next to the Silver-Eyed Warrior's other monsters. Behind them, Seed Cannon groused larger from Ruby's first plant summoning that it was present for. She may have drawn it later than was convenient, but that didn't mean she couldn't get some damage in.
"Copy Plant can use its effect to copy the level of any Plant-Type monster on the field. So I'll make it Level Three like Baobaboon," Ruby revealed, Copy Plant morphing into a rough, gnarled copy of her other monster. "I tune my Level Three Copy Plant with my Level Three Baobaboon!"
Smooth as silk, Copy Plant morphed into three bright green tuner rings and flew into the night sky. The three new stars of one of the Baobaboon's twinkled in a row through the emerald hoops, a pillar brighter than the shattered moon blazing through them.
"Synchro Summon! Queen of Thorns!"
An elegant woman with red and green flowers for a resplendent dress and vibrant vines for stitching blossomed into the Extra Monster Zone (ATK 2200/DEF 1800).
"I equip Baobaboon with Ring of Magnetism," Ruby said, a sickly yellow glow surrounding her tree with a baboon's face (ATK 700/DEF 500). "It loses five hundred attack and defense points, but you can't attack any other monsters."
"But your Twilight Rose Knight prevents any of your Plant-Types from being attacked," Jaune remarked. "You have an efficient attack lock."
"And a Seed Cannon with two counters on it," Ruby grinned, pointing at her opponent. No way she was leaving her cannon to be vulnerable like in her tag-duel at the docks. "Fire!"
The Seed Cannon exploded, its massive spikes shooting across to Jaune's field, the blond Slifer Red shielding himself with his duel disk.
Jaune Arc: 2500 Life Points
"I end my turn," Ruby smiled, still with one card in her hand. "Oh, and just so you know, as long as Queen of Thorns is on the field, every duelist has to pay a thousand life points every time they summon a monster from their hand that isn't a Plant-Type."
"I see," Jaune noted, drawing for his turn and bringing his hand up to two. "That… is actually quite useful."
"Huh?" Ruby said, confused.
"How is paying life points a good thing?" Weiss demanded.
"You'll see," Jaune ominously warned, calculatingly placing a monster on Crocea Mors. "I pay one thousand life points to summon Gagaga Girl."
A young peppy blonde woman flashed onto Jaune's field, holding an archaic scroll and wearing her own version of Gagaga Magician's black and orange robes (ATK 1000/DEF 800). Immediately, spiked vines lanced out from Queen of Thorns' gown and thrust into Jaune's shoulder just above his armored chest. He didn't even flinch.
Jaune Arc: 1500 Life Points
"Then I equip Gagaga Girl with Wonder Wand, which allows me to sacrifice them both to draw two cards."
And just like that, Gagaga Girl disappeared, with Jaune replenishing his hand at the not-insignificant cost of his normal summon and a thousand life points.
It honestly made sense to Ruby, though she felt a bit bad that they'd put her fellow Slifer Red in such a brutal spot. He had his awesome Number on the field, but Utopia couldn't attack because of her attack lock and even then Weiss's monsters had it outnumbered and overpowered. Even if he could use that Double or Nothing combo he'd used on Cardin's Battleguard General, that'd only take out one of the Team RWBY girls' monsters. And that was even assuming he'd drawn the spell he'd need for that.
Though from how focused he was on the two cards he had drawn, it seemed he had drawn something he liked.
"Hmm, it seems Breakthrough Skill's graveyard effect will not be necessary to disassemble the attack lock after all," he muttered, sliding a spell into Crocea Mors. "I activate Utopia Buster."
Baobaboon instantly burst into flames, Ruby throwing up Crescent Rose to shield her from the blast that buffeted back Trishula's everpresent cold for just a moment.
Ruby Rose: 3300 Life Points
"What the heck?" Ruby squawked. "What happened?!"
"Utopia Buster, if I have a 'Utopia' monster on my field, destroys my opponent's monster with the lowest attack points, dealing damage equal to that monster's attack points on the field," Jaune revealed. "It was one of the cards I forged tonight. I must say, it performed precisely to my specifications. Thank you again for helping me test them."
"Sure," Ruby winced. "No problem."
Jaune sure got one heck of a draw. Her entire attack lock plan just got blown apart with one spell. Now if his other card was Double or Nothing, he could use it and Utoipia to attack Twilight Rose Knight and wipe her out in one move. Granted, his Number would then be out of Overlay Units and Weiss's dragons would tear him to pieces on the next turn, but it would still land this weird new Jaune a much higher achievement than regular Jaune had managed to get so far. He'd barely even scratched any of their friends in their past for fun duels–
"I then activate Overlay Regen," Jaune announced, his second spell flashing into existence only to immediately transform into a node of golden light that shot off to orbit around Utopia with its remaining Overlay Unit. "As the name suggests, this card becomes an Overlay Unit for one of my Xyz Monsters upon activation."
Ruby blinked. "That's it? You didn't draw Double or Nothing?"
"Overlay Regen is a basic Xyz support card," Weiss noted. "And in this situation, it's hardly useful. No matter how many attacks Utopia can negate, Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon can just destroy it with its effect next turn. With no other cards to defend yourself, that move was pointless."
"I assure you, it was not," Jaune argued with a smirk. "You see, the opportunity has finally arisen for me to test out something I've been waiting to utilize since my last duel."
"Your last duel?" Weiss dryly parroted.
"Wasn't that the one you had with Russel in class? He's the one with the mohawk, right?" Ruby pondered, rubbing her chin in thought. "Or did you have one while you and your team were at your parents' house?"
Jaune outstretched his arm, one of his eyes a steely blue far calmer than its usual shade… and the other a burning chaotic red. "It is time. Utopia! Combine with your material and rebuild the Overlay Network!"
"Rebuild the Overlay Network?!" Weiss screeched. "But that's–"
"Chaos Xyz Evolution!"
Chaos Xyz Evolution? Every article Ruby had ever read about this advanced technique had called it 'Rank-Up Xyz Evolution'.
Nevertheless, the rest of the events matched the pictures and recordings she'd seen of other instances of the rare phenomenon. A new spiral galaxy, this one bright, burning orange, blossomed beneath Utopia, the Number monster folding in on itself until it was a single compressed capsule. That capsule then plunged down into the nebula below, a great nova of power erupting out from its impact as a new warrior was formed in the forge of stars, the Trishula's ice purged from Summer Rose's gravestone forever.
"Chaos built upon order to forge power beyond light and darkness! From the peak of reality, descend on determined wings of will! Reincarnated Messenger of Hope!" Jaune roared. "Number C39: Utopia Ray!"
The new warrior was certainly bigger than the original Utopia, bulkier and with a gargantuan broadsword strapped to its back in addition to the curved blades sheathed at its hips. The gold of its color scheme remained, but the white had been purged for shades of gray and black permeating its armor and the compressed metal apparatus behind its shoulders (ATK 2500/DEF 2000). As champions of all that was good and right went, the base Number cut a more inspiring image.
Of course, that didn't stop Ruby from getting stars in her eyes at the sight of it.
"So cool!" she squeed.
Beside her, Weiss could only gape at the new titanic warrior in near-catatonic, her gaze flickering between it and its blond master, her suspicion turned to outright terror.
"Xyz Change Tactics activates again," Jaune reminded them. "I pay five hundred life points to draw one card."
Jaune Arc: 1000 Life Points
"You sure you want to do that?" Ruby challenged. "You don't exactly have many left."
"I am quite sure. You see, Utopia Ray's effect can only be activated if I have one thousand or fewer life points," Jaune revealed, pulling a new card from his deck. "I will now activate that effect. Now, Number C39 can use up as many Overlay Units as I wish. And for each one, it gains five hundred attack points and one monster on your field loses one thousand attack points."
"For each?" Ruby squeaked. That meant…
"I select Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier to lose attack points," Jaune declared.
Ruby and Weiss's eyes widened even further as Utopia Ray drew the curved sabers at its waist. The metal apparatus on its back then unfolded into two extra arms that proceeded to heft the warrior's titanic broadsword into the air. Each blade then began to glow with the light of a feverish star, golden veins spreading over the Chaos Number's dark armor (ATK 4000). At the same time across the field, Trishula seemed to wilt from the shining presence, the cosmic heat melting the icy three-headed dragon (ATK 0).
"Battle," Jaune firmly announced. "Rising Sun Chaos Slash."
Utopia Ray surged through the sky, its blades a maelstrom of glittering steel as the warrior fell upon Trishula.
Three shining swords for three draconic heads. In the blink of an eye, it was over, the frozen creature and Weiss's aura shattering like glass as the Atlas heiress was driven to one knee by the shockwave.
Weiss Schnee: 0 Life Points
"Weiss! Are you okay?" Ruby called, Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon fading from before its mistress without fuel for its aura body.
"I second that inquiry," Jaune said, his eyes, now back to their regular blue, looking on the white-haired Obelisk Blue with real concern. "I attempted to restrain my attack enough to prevent serious injury, but confirmation would got a long way to ensuring that you are safe–"
"Shut up!" Weiss snapped, her icy eyes shooting up with a livid rage. "What have you done with Arc?! Because you're sure as hell not him."
Alrighty! I'll admit, I'm really excited for this. Not the original arcs coming up, I'm TERRIFIED of them dragging the story's pacing down, but I am excited to be digging into Volume 2 stuff. Volume 2 is a personal favorite Volume of mine in canon and I'm really excited for the small adjustments made to the narrative due to this story's crossover setting.
Onto the chapter itself, it's a pretty stacked one. Pyrrha, Tai, and the spirit's words and thoughts set up the Volume's themes, Tai gets to give lots of exposition at dinner, Weiss and the spirit get to have parallel inner fears, and Ruby gets to squee at a Chaos Number. Lots of fun stuff that's only going to get more fun as the White Rose pair interrogate the spirit as the duel continues.
Also, the poll for the fan-favorite duel of Volume 1 has pretty much stabilized. I'm proud of how heated the competition was, means I did a good job making each duel as interesting as possible. As of this chapter's publishing, the ranking is as follows...
First Place: Weiss vs. Blake and Ruby & Penny vs. Torchwick & Perry - Tie with 7 Votes Each
Second Place: Ruby vs. Weiss - 6 Votes
Third Place: Yang vs. Pyrrha and Jaune/'Jaune' vs. Cardin - Tie with 3 Votes Each
Pretty much the expected heavy hitters occupying the top spots, the two-chapter duels tend to leave more impact due to having more time to dive into the character conflict involved. If I had to pick one myself, I'd probably say Weiss vs. Blake for just how bonkers that got plotwise due to the story strongarming me while writing its ending, but I do have a special place in my heart for Yang vs. Pyrrha. That was the first duel where I got to show off the story's little narrative and character adjustments from canon, as well as really nail down mixing the dueling action with the character development like the best of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime's matches do. Plus, it was a Turbo Duel, and I do love me some card games on motorcycles.
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Go Forth and Conquer!