RWBY: Avenge Me
Chapter 12: A Sight for Silver Eyes
Never in her worst nightmares had Pyrrha dreamt of what she would see the image burned into her eyes that fateful night forever. That witch Cinder roasting her little friend Ruby alive as the gladiator watched helplessly. Her one itty-bitty consolation was the shine that emitted from Ruby's beautiful silver eyes that scarred that monster, showing off the ugly wolf that was hidden beneath the beauty that was Cinder's old disguise. Raven likewise noticed it as she stabbed the Apathy arm that replaced the one Ruby burned off her easily.
"Aura can't protect your arm, it's Grimm." Raven snickered.
Cinder snarled like a wolf as she heard this taunt, amusing both Raven and secretly Pyrrha as she watched the scuffle.
"You turned yourself into a monster just for power." Raven added. Cinder conjured up another fireblade as she heard this, giving her a crazed look.
"Look who's talking!" Cinder spat as she flew towards the floating Spring Maiden, who conjured up a shield of ice, jagged pillars erupting from it Cinder growled at as she slashed at them with her blades.
At that moment, Pyrrha felt sick to her stomach as it boiled with rage as she caught eye of something from Cinder. The woman had her eye emit a small shine, a weaker one Pyrrha knew all too well from that horrific night, one that blinded Raven momentarily to Cinder's amusement, despite a minor burn forming on her Grimm arm she rubbed tenderly.
"Ruby." Pyrrha whispered in anger as she saw it, her old friend's silver eye pulsating from Cinder's Grimm-puss emitting socket as the light dyed down.
"She's a leech, a parasite on this planet nothing more." Jaune groaned as he watched their friend's killer soon grab Raven's neck with an elongated Grimm arm, the Spring maiden screaming as she felt her power drain, proving his point really. It fueled him with just as much rage as his lover, who soon knelt down and aimed Thorn Rose in sniper form at the witch. She trembled a bit as she eyed her tormentor, but she remembered Ruby's smile, it warmed her heart and gave her the strength needed to steady her aim.
"This is for Ruby." Pyrrha told herself as she open fired.
Cinder's eyes widened as she heard the shot, jolting her head to her Grimm arm as she saw black puss explode from it and ooze of her, a sharp pain surging up her neck as she screamed and recoiled, releasing her prey who delivered a kick to her abdomen, almost knocking the wind out of her.
"YES! Bullseye!" Jaune cheered Pyrrha on, the gladiator smiling proud of herself. She knew Cinder's aura would keep her safe, but her Grimm arm was easy pickings to stop her.
Raven sneered at the red-head as she rubbed her soar neck and huffed to catch her breath. Her eyes were watering as she saw she was saved by teens. Their presence only reminded her of her new loss today in something other than pride.
"I didn't….need your help!" Raven snarled as she wiped her eyes.
"Hey! She saved your life you ingrate!" Jaune protested, before he held his shield up to guard him and Pyrrha from a fireball a spasming Cinder threw at them, huffing herself as she caught her breath.
"GET OUT!" Raven ordered them as she charged at Cinder. She didn't need anymore kids dying today, just this witch. Raven soon had her her eyes glowing and releasing a stream of blue energy as Cinder enveloped herself in orange flames and charged, each side parrying off the other as they used dust blades and flame blades to clash, ripping the skies and walls with cuts and burns Jaune barely kept off them with aura and his shield to Pyrrha's relief.
The next clash between the maiden's was with a massive fire blade and ice blade sent a tremor across the chamber, nearly knocking the two lovers off their feet as stalactites began to crumble off the wall and rush down upon them. Pyrrha's eyes widened as she saw their chance.
"Remember initiation Jaune?" She asked and he nodded, getting her idea.
"Now it's just in reverse." He snickered, his heart fluttering and his stomach filled with butterflies as he remembered his shock being thrown off a launch pad. Now he was being thrown again, this time up as Pyrrha used her semblance on his shield to magnetize themselves and hurl them to run along the falling stalactites, finally getting their footing needed to catch up to the flying Maiden's and fight.
https/watch?v=bmjYdc56gus (Ost battle)
Pyrrha transitioned Thorn Rose into Scythe-Spear mode, injecting a lightning dust crystal into one of its slots, the curved blades on each end emitting electricity as she twirled them, creating a wheal of lighting she hurled at Cinder and Raven, who broke apart their current blade lock to avoid the blades.
"Jaune! Boost me!" Pyrrha hollered and Jaune nodded, smacking her back as he poured his aura into her, recharging her and allowing her to clasp her hand as it became enveloped in a slight dark aura, her scythe-spear following as it froze mid air. She jerked her arm back, Thorn Rose now flying backwards towards the maidens, who formed barriers of fire and wind to shield themselves, stopping the weapon in its tracks but freezing themselves in place.
"Pyrrha, Launchpad!" Jaune orders and she nodded as they jumped to the next falling stalactite. Pyrrha waived her hand this time at Jaune, launching him at highspeeds as he brandished his sword aimed at Cinder's neck. He cladded himself in his golded aura to shield himself for her flames as he entered the fireball.
"WHAT!?" Cinder screeched in shock as she came face to face with the Arc, who shuddered as the pain of the fire seething off his aura flickering as he shakily tried to stab her face. Cinder gasped as she instinctively jerked her head right to avoid the end of that blade, her eye feeling a sting as the ends cut into her black veins that spurt gunk. It was followed by Thorn Rose that penetrated her shield from the weakening the distraction caused, twirling like a boomerang as it slashed offer her human arm, which also spurt blood, but red one this time as she screamed in pain. She knelt back from the pain and quickly kicked him away, flying backwards as she tried to get a distance between herself and her foes. She quickly cauterized her wound to close it and stop the bleeding using her fire powers, despite the immense pain almost making her bite off her tongue.
"They….almost killed me? Those….brats!?" Cinder thought with a furry after her confusion subsided as she eyed the two running towards Raven next. "They think they can take my arm and now consider me less of a threat!?"
Cinder couldn't take it. Vengeance clouded her mind, everything turning into a red haze as she wanted blood, their blood right now. Her human eye erupted with fire as she formed a battalion of fire spears she threw over at the trio as they fought each other. Jaune noticed the glow in the corner of his eyes first as he blocked a sword strike from Raven.
"Incoming!" He hollered as she raised his aura, as did the others who felt a flurry of pain stab into them, especially Pyrrha.
The gladiator was holding up fine from the barrage from her aura, but she felt it, somewhere down below a pain return again in a place her aura couldn't guard.
"My knee!" Pyrrha thought in agony as the metallic prosthetic began glowing red, the metal burning into her skin. Her aura couldn't shield her metal, sooner or later it would singe of the rest of her aura as it wasted itself guarding her leg than the rest of her body. "What do I do?!"
Unfortunately, Pyrrha didn't get long to contemplate her option as she felt the pain in her leg cease, along with every other feeling with in as she saw a flash of a red blade and soon her leg flying upward in front of her.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?" Jaune cried as he saw the perpetrator, Raven do the deed before grabbing Pyrrha and flying them over to Jaune and pressing themselves to a cliff on the wall, holding his shield up to stop the barrage from damaging themselves further.
"No. We're even now boy." Raven spat as she held up his shield. He went to protest but she grabbed his neck, gripping it tightly, choking him and leaving no chance to protest.
"S-Stop please. Thank you, really." Pyrrha pleaded as she weakly grabbed Raven's arm choking Jaune, the maiden rolling her eyes as she released him, letting him catch his breath.
"T-Thank you? Pyrrha she-" Jaune whined but Pyrrha hugged him as he saw her severed leg fall to the ground beside Vernal's corpse.
"Saved me! My leg wouldn't protect me. The gun knee was defenseless!" Pyrrha screamed as she winced from her stump pulsing a bit, her aura shining to close the slight cut to it that had formed.
Jaune opened his mouth to retort, but seeing the fire pounding his shield Raven kept up made him shut it reluctantly. He hated this, not being able to help stop this from happening, but he knew Raven did what she needed to do because of his weakness.
"Thanks." He spat annoyed.
"Your welcome, now, we gotta end this while we have the chance." Raven retorted.
"How? It took us everything we had just to cut her face?" Jaune asked.
"And it's made her a wild animal now. She isn't thinking clearly so its leaving her with openings. I just need one more strike to finish her."
"NO! Let me finish her! I need to." Pyrrha demanded.
Raven gritted her teeth as she held the shield in place to avoid the many fireballs and lightning spears Cinder was wildly throwing at them in her tantrum. To the Arkos couple's shock, she turned to them with tears in her red eyes.
"I killed a kid to get this power. I already lost my daughter today too, I'm not letting this happen again, especially not to myself guarding a bunch of weaklings who want to selfishly avenge some weak little girl this bitch killed." She spat at them.
Their eyes widened as they heard these scathing words. Yang was dead? Raven murdered a child for the maiden powers?
"H-How do you know-" Pyrrha whimpered, wondering how Yang could be gone and how Raven could know that. She wanted it to be a lie, a trick to put them off mentally, knowing they would have to fight Raven after Cinder fell, if possible. She never did get to make her amends with Yang, she wanted to after this fight, to hold Cinder and Yang's birth mother captive and offer her ex-friend a chance for revenge for the misery they put her through. This had to be a trick.
But she knew otherwise as she saw it, the tears she saw in the maiden as her face winced. There was no lie in those eyes. The pain made them almost as pure and honest as Ruby's.
"No way….she can't be too?" Pyrrha whispered.
"She is. I could sense it with my semblance. And we'll be next if we can't end this now, but I'm almost out of aura wasting it on you brats." Raven spat.
Jaune soon put one of his hand on her back and seeped his aura into her, the other wiping tears from his face as he did so.
"Then, use mine and get us outta this mess so we can make sure it wasn't for nothing." Jaune cried. Soon his arm went limp as he huffed in exhaustion and ceased boosting Raven's aura.
"Thanks punk." Was all Raven said before she took out her blade and slashed the ground, forming a portal beneath them that they sunk into.
"I HATE DROPS!" Jaune cried as they fell through, remembering initiation.
"Where'd they go?!" Cinder screamed in shock as she lost sight of her prey, seeing nothing but a singed shield on a wall. "GET BACK HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!" She demanded to the air in a furry, firing a few more balls of fire in her tantrum.
Soon a portal opened up behind her, as if hearing her wish, as a glowing hand shot out and smacked her back, her body soon emitting a blue aura that flashes and disappears.
"Remember, always watch your back." Raven snickered as Cinder felt a cold chill run up her spine. Her arm trembled as she felt her body grow stiff, a cold pain forming from her feet. She looks down to see her shoes encased in ice that is slowly beginning to work its way up her legs, which begin to feel heavy.
"GAAAAH!" Cinder screams as she begins falling to the ground, her legs crashing onto the bridge as they shatter to dust and she painfully crawls on the floor.
Raven and co fall where she lands, the latter reluctantly holding onto the kids.
As she sets them down, she draws her blade and points it at the remaining half of the maiden.
"I'm gonna enjoy slitting your throat." Raven said coldly.
"No! I said she's mine to kill!" Pyrrha yelled as she summoned Thorn Rose back to her hand, brining its top curved blade near Raven's cheek menacingly.
"Why do you care so much about killing her instead? As long as she dies who cares who does the deed?" Raven asked.
"Ruby died to save me, I need to be the one who ends this." Pyrrha spat.
"If she died for you why blame yourself if that's her choice to make?"
"Shut up! It's my right, my burden." Pyrrha shouted incensed.
"One she didn't ask of you."
Raven's words enraged Pyrrha further, making her shudder as she contemplated them. As much as Raven didn't understand her pain, she couldn't help but ponder the words.
"I…I want this. That's all." She finally admitted.
As she heard the two women argue over who had the right to kill her, Cinder groaned as she felt her energy begin to fade. Her eyes widened in terror as she realized what was happening.
"I'm weak again?" She whispered. She hadn't felt this way since Ruby maimed her on the tower, since Salem tortured her into controlling her new powers. She wanted power, power to lord over people, and here she was at someone else's mercy again. Her blood began to boil as she grinded her teeth in frustration, her Apathy arm bubbling as it reacted to her rage.
"You…." She began to grumble, catching Raven and Co's attention.
"Look ou-" Jaune tried to yell as he instinctively reached for his shield at his waist, only to shudder as he remembered his shield was still on top of that ledge above. He couldn't guard them again as he saw Cinder's arm begin to mutated, becoming veiny and muscular as it molded like clay soon after.
"Will kneel before me!" Cinder roared as her arm morphed into the head of a Sea Fenglong (Grimm Sea Dragon) and emitted a laser blast at the trio, blasting them apart.
Raven crashed into the nearby wall while Jaune was sent crashing near the door entrance. Pyrrha was the only one still near Cinder as the maiden huffed from her exertion, soon floating slighting in the air to compensate for her lack of legs, ice shards flickering off her frozen waist.
"After I get her power…" Cinder began as she morphed her Grimm arm back into Apathy that slowly elongated and reached for the unconscious Raven. "I'm finishing what I started at Beacon." She spat at Pyrrha who banged her wrist into the ground in frustration, rubbing her forehead into the ground.
Cinder snickered as she saw her foes defeated expression of frustration, licking her lips in satisfaction as she eyed her prize. Her silver eye bulging as the apathy arm began to glow orange a bit as it neared the Spring maiden's body, resonating with her power.
Meanwhile…
"Ruby stay strong!" Yang cried out in concern as rubbed her sisters back soothingly.
Up in Heaven, Yang and Summer were busy cradling Ruby as she rocked back and forth in pain, clutching her face. One moment they were watching the battle of Haven on the television they conjured up to watch the mortal realm, then Ruby began to whimper in agony as they saw their friends predicament grow worse.
"Sweetie I know this is hard to watch, we don't have to see this anymore." Summer said soothingly as she moved to turn off the television, thinking her friends torment was what was hurting her youngest.
To their surprise, Ruby smacked away her mother's hand before it could reach the television.
"It won't help mom. I'd still see it." Ruby whimpered as she removed her hand, her only eye bloodshot as it pulsed.
"W-What do you mean?" Yang asked her fearfully.
"I can see it. Whenever she used that eye, I can see what Cinder sees." Ruby revealed. "She…she's going to make me watch her do it." She soon buried her face in her mother's chest, crying her eye out as she knew her friend's death was near."
Summer and Yang grew crestfallen as they eyed her cries, knowing there was nothing they could do to alleviate such a torment. Yang especially felt horrible, just imagining how Blake and Weiss must feel right now due to watching her sacrifice to kill Adam.
"I just wish I could stop her somehow." Ruby whimpered a plea.
No sooner did she say this however, her body began to glow a golden color to her families shock. She soon vanished into thin air.
"RUBY!?" They both yelled in shock.
A hero's gift
"Finally. The power I deserved is mine." Cinder whispered as her claws nearly touched Raven's neck, about the wrap around them and dig into her jugular to make sure she wouldn't be separated this time till the deed was done.
But Cinder soon spasmed as she felt her silver eye pulse with pain, it flickering a bit of light as she felt this.
"W-What's happening!?" She screamed.
Pyrrha raised her head as she heard the witch scream in pain, soon wincing as a light shined from her pilfered silver eye. Pyrrha gasped as she saw in front of the Fall maiden the impossible.
"Ruby?" She whispered.
A silver silhouette of her dead friend stood before the Fall maiden, eyeing her bitterly as she began to grip the grim arm and Cinder's neck, drawing a sizzling burn mark to each.
"You won't hurt anybody else anymore!" Pyrrha could swear she heard Ruby's voice again from the specter. She then saw Jaune weakly rise to his feat, held up by his sword as he wobbled, soon eyeing the specter in shock like Pyrrha.
"I…Guess Ruby is still fighting beside us after all? No one else but her can do such a crazy impossible stunt like this huh?" He thought bewildered.
But no one was more bewildered than Cinder right now as she clutched her burning throat with her singed arm, unable to squeak out a cry of how this could be possible.
"I…I killed you Rose!? How are you back and burning me again?!" She thought., before noticing the glow in the corner of her silver eye seeping onto the specter.
Unable to take this pain that was roasting her alive, Cinder's human eye soon widened as it flamed up again, getting an idea to end this pain. She had to cut the connection off so she…..
"Bye Rose, and I mean it this time." Cinder thought bitterly as she formed with her grim hand a flame blade and slashed the specter, only she actually slashed her silver eye, the flickering orb flying strait past a shocked Pyrrha who saw it land beside her fallen leg and Vernal's corpse. Pyrrha's lips quivered as she saw the specter begin to fade to dust.
"No. Not again." She choked, having relived the nightmare of that night.
Cinder huffed and slouched over before smiling, satisfied with her deed accomplished. Her smile infuriated Pyrrha, but someone else more.
"You monster!" Jaune roared as she weakly ran half-hazardly at Cinder, his sword raised.
Cinder turned her back to him, raising her flame blade from her bloodied cut face to meet him. Pyrrha averted her gaze, knowing she could still fight and kill Jaune in that state easily. She couldn't watch this happen again. Her eyes widened though as she heard a familiar voice.
"Pyrr…ha" Ruby whispered in what seemed like static.
"Ruby?" Pyrrha whispered.
Back in heaven, Ruby suddenly appeared beside her family, too shocked to speak as she rubbed now both her eyes, her left one cut and bleeding though flickering as it reappeared and disappeared repeatedly with her as she winced and clasped her hands in prayer, desperate to keep the connection stable.
"My eye. Look a…." She tried to message her friend.
Soon Pyrrha locked her gaze upon the slit eye that once belonged to Ruby flickering a light beside Vernal and her leg. Her own eye widened as a small light pointed to the legs gun nozzle next to Vernal's limp fingers holding her axe, realizing what Ruby meant.
She smiled warmly as she got the message.
"Thanks Ruby I can always count on you to make a crazy plan we need." She thought nostalgically as she reached her hand out to her knee, it jostling a bit as its gun mode was initiated.
"Come on and get closer boy, I still owe you for nicking my face earlier." Cinder was so focused thinking of her revenge at the boy running wildly at her with his sword, she didn't notice a bullet coming at her own in her hand as it was knocked out.
"What!?" She tried to scream despite her damaged throat as she turned around, seeing Pyrrha snicker at her as she held her severed leg, her knee gun smoking from the shot she just fired.
Cinder snarled as she morphed her hand into a dragon again, aiming to blast that smirk off her face, only for Jaune to slash the arm off its socket to her horror as the boy collapsed beside her weakly.
"G-GO! PYRRHA!" He hollered at the top of his lungs as she nodded, summoning Vernal's Axe with her polarity semblance and Thorn Rose, the latter she used to propel herself like a pole towards Cinder.
"FALL!" She screamed.
Cinder's eye widened as she heard this shout of anger…..the saw her waist and the bloodied blades of Vernal's axe above her as her head began to fall into the chasm below the bridge.
"T-They…..killed me? Those…weaklings?" Cinder thought as her sole eye began to pulse, the flame in it fluttering as it weaken along with her vision as it grew hazy, the eyelid soon shutting as darkness consumed her vision, and her head as she was lost to the chasm forever.
Pyrrha huffed in exhaustion as saw Cinder's corpse cease levitating before her, soon shattering into shards of bloodied ice on the bridge as she threw away the bloodied axe and collapsed beside her lover. She began to hyperventilate as the reality before her sunk in.
"I….we did it. We avenged Ruby. It's over. Right?" She asked almost unsure if it was true.
Jaune, despite his exhaustion, reached out and caressed her bloodied hand lovingly.
"Yeah. We di-" Jaune tried to say before suddenly a pillar of orange fire and energy erupted from the chasm to their shock.
"Or did we?" He couldn't help but whimper in fear. Could Cinder seriously still be alive after all that!? She had her freaking head cut off!
As Pyrrha crawled over and cradled Jaune, wincing as she prepared herself for such a fatal possibility for them, the fiery geyser soon drew itself to her, seeping into her chest as her emerald eyes began glowing, emitting an emerald green fire to Jaune's shock.
"WHOA! Pyrrha! Are you ok-?" He tried to ask before a shockwave cut him off, soon unable to speak as he saw her huffing in exhaustion, before suddenly raising her head and grinning.
"Whoa Jaune….I feel incredible!" She yelled as she began flyhing around the room to her boyfriends shock.
"Your, the fall maiden now. Then….that means we-" He tried to say before she flew down and cut him off, her warm lips pressed to his as levitated him along with her, twirling in the air in pure joy and ecstasy as she embraced him. As their lips separated, she gave a smile on her flushed face.
"We won. We really did it. Cinder's gone." She whispered with relief as she flew them down beside Vernal, or more specifically.
"Is that?" Jaune asked as he eyed the orb before him.
"Yes. Ruby gave us one last surprise I guess, even when dead." Pyrrha chuckled as she went to pick up the slit silver eye, before her eyes pulsed a green fire as the eye resonated from her touch, making her and Jaune scream in shock.
When the light faded, Pyrrha found herself in a flowery meadow, both legs attached to her to her shock.
"W-Where am I?" She asked surprised.
"If I had a lien every time I someone said that their first time here I'd be as rich as Weiss." A warm voice called out to Pyrrha.
She gasped as from the meadow a tornado of rose petals erupted before her, soon she came face to face with a maiden with 2 silver eyes she recognized instantly staring at her joyfully.
"Ruby!?" She yelled in surprise, before instantly hugging the smaller red-head before her who returned the embrace.
"Yup. I'm back, for a bit that is." She said happily, if giving off a sad smile.
"O-Oh my god! There's so much I have wanted to say to you. I…I'm so sorry I got you-" Pyrrha began to stutter as she broke off the hug, before Ruby put her finger to the gladiator's lips, shushing her.
"Raven was a jerk, but she was right for once. It wasn't your fault. I chose this." Ruby countered.
Pyrrha's eyes watered as she heard this. The truth she denied for an entire year out of guilt. Still, she couldn't help but feel otherwise.
"You and Yang. I-I wasn't strong enough to-" Pyrrha tried to argue before Ruby wrapped her arms around her neck, caressing her cheek lovingly with her own."
"You already saved us. From a year-long nightmare. Yang said she forgives you, but there's nothing to forgive, only to thank. I can finally watch you guys with two eyes instead of one." Ruby whispered.
Pyrrha choked on her sobbing as she wrapped her arms around Ruby's waist. "But I failed you that night."
"And you never gave up for me after-words, or your friends. You don't deserve to be punished. I asked God to let me bring you here, because I know you deserved a gift instead." Ruby said lovingly as her body began to glow white.
"Seeing you again…that's the greatest gift I could ever have." Pyrrha cried softly with a smile as she eyed her friend slowly begin vanishing again.
Ruby planted a small kiss on her friend's temple to her blushing surprise.
"Then here's another gift." Ruby whispered as she vanished, as did heaven in a brilliant light Pyrrha winced and shielded her eyes from.
"Pyrrha?!"
The gladiator gasped as she heard Jaune call out to her, wobbling a bit queasy as everything was a bit hazy from that light.
"J-Jaune? Where am I?" She asked confused.
"What do you mean Pyrrha? Where still in the safe room. You passed out after that light from Ruby's eye exploded. You okay?" He asked as he slung her arm around his shoulder. She could only nod weakly, feeling queasy from that flashbang.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Lets get that relic and get outta here. I want to tell Weiss and the others the good news." Pyrrha said with a smile and Jaune nodded, before his eyes widened as he finally locked onto hers as they met his.
"Pyrrha" He whispered frightfully to her concern.
"W-What is it now?" She asked afraid.
"Your eyes their-" He tried to explain, but decided it was best to show her. He unsheaved his sword and showed off its reflective metal to her. Pyrrha recoiled as she understood what he was talking about.
"Their…..silver?" She whispered as she saw Ruby's gift before her.
Author Notes
One down, one to go. Next chapter we have the epilogue to this story now that Ruby has finally been avenged. Speaking of Ruby, she left Pyrrha with a gift, now she can watch her friends fight through Pyrrha, a really literal meaning to keeping your friends alive through yourself (memory or eyes ha!). With that, Pyrrha may just be the last living Silver Eye in this AU, someone has to beat Salem somehow right? The fight for Haven and all of Remnant continues in the final chapter of Avenge Me coming soon!