"Ruby!" Cried Oscar, he had finally caught up to the other three and could see what had happened. "Ruby, can you hear me?!" He asked.
"Y-Yes…" She was able to let out. "But I think I'm gonna di-"
"-Don't say that!" Said both Oscar and Yang in unison. But Oscar was interrupted by another shock of pain, and Petra flew back up and laughed at what she was seeing.
"It's hopeless you three…" She said, then noticed that Yang was still crying. "Oh my, is the 'tough as nails' Blondie… Sobbing?! This is priceless! Boo-hoo-hoo-hooooo!"
"You stabbed my sister!…" Gritted Yang in both anger and tears.
"Pah, if you're as tough as you pretend to be, you'll soon get over it…" Giggled Petra, "Hopefully this'll teach you to think twice before intruding on my mansion…" She then looked at her sword, which… Was still covered in Ruby's blood.
"Oh you gotta be kidding-Little Red got blood all over Stabblington!" She said in frustration, "Oh well, I'd better take care of that…"
What Petra did next caused Blake, Yang, and Oscar to nearly throw up in disgust. She took her sword to her mouth, stuck her tongue out… And began to lick the blood off. Once she was finished, she then giggled again.
"Woo-hoo-hoo-hoooo!" She said, "I just LOVE the taste of bl-AARRGGHH!"
Petra's taunting had been interrupted by Weiss charging at her and impaling her in the chest with Myrtenaster. Weiss then twisted it, making sure that the bent part could inflict even more pain on Petra. She dropped her sword, and Yang seized the opportunity to grab it and throw it off of the cliff.
"No-NO! NOT STABBLINGTON-"
"-Yes, 'Stabblington'!" Interrupted Weiss, "By the way, I killed your boyfriend." Then she grew the strength to throw Petra to the side, causing her to crash into a chair.
"Ruby, Ruby!... She got you didn't she?..." Sighed Weiss, she then ran towards Ruby and took out her canteen, which still had water in it. "Here, drink the rest of my water. It should help keep the fluids flowing in your body." While Weiss had her attention turned to Ruby, Petra got back up and noticed Yang's mechanical arm on the floor. She quietly snuck towards it to pick it up.
"B-But Weiss this is yours-"
"Don't worry about that! I haven't been stabbed, you have, please, I just want to do everything I can to make sure that you'll get out of this ali-"
"-YOU THINK YOU'VE WON?!" Petra screamed, they all looked back in shock.
"H-H-H-How are you still alive?..." Asked Blake in horror.
"Have you forgotten already?! I am eternal, pussycat! I am a LEGEND! And legends never die!" She then revealed that she had Yang's arm in her grasp, "By the way Blondie, thanks for lending me a hand! AHAHAHAHA!" She laughed, and started firing at them. Weiss and Yang scattered like rabbits, and Blake, still holding Ruby tight, could only drag her away from the crossfire.
"Wooooooooo! I like this new toy!" She laughed, then aimed the arm at Oscar.
She kept firing at him, but Oscar was able to dodge each bullet. She was clearly trying to direct him towards the edge of the patio to knock him off.
"... H-How are we going to stop her?" Whispered Yang to Weiss.
It was at that moment when she realized something. Weiss observed Petra's necklace as she was focusing on Oscar, and remembered what she had said earlier.
"The necklace… We need to get her necklace…"
Oscar barely had a few inches behind him at this point as Petra got closer, laughing in the process. "End of the line, Oz… Maybe you'll wake up with a better body!"
When Petra cocked Yang's arm ready for again, Oscar felt another pain. This time though, he didn't fight it. Petra didn't understand until suddenly his aura began to glow.
"... No… You didn't…"
"Yes…" Said Oscar, with a slightly deeper voice, "You've made a foolish mistake trying to mess with us…"
Then Oscar grabbed his staff and whacked Petra several times with it, eventually she was knocked back to the wall. He then used his aura again to charge at her and pin her neck against the wall with his staff for as long as possible, and he turned to Weiss.
"NOW!" He shouted.
Weiss ran up to Petra, used one hand to cover her face, and the other to grab hold of her necklace. Petra was trying to fight back, but was struggling.
"WHATHE-GETYOURGLOVE OFF OF MY FACE, GAH! GETOFFOFME-"
But Weiss wouldn't listen. She pulled the necklace so hard that soon enough, the band snapped, and she quickly tossed it away from Petra, much to her horror. She shrieked and pushed Oscar off her at last, and attempted to grab it back.
"Hey-hey-hey don't you-, that's MINE-"
But she was interrupted by a swift punch in the face from Yang, while Weiss ran towards where the necklace had landed. Just as she was about to step on it, Petra grabbed her arm, shrieking. "WEISS! NO! PLEASE! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING, DON'T DO IT!"
"Why not?!..." Came the fierce reply.
"Listen, hear me out! I can give you something in return!" Pleaded Petra. She then dropped to her knees and began begging for mercy, "I can get more necklaces for the four of you! Yes, all FOUR of you! Even Ruby! The necklaces can heal wounds, and if the four of you have necklaces like mine, you'll have eternal youth too! Wouldn't you like that?... To retain your good looks for the rest of time?..."
Weiss looked at Yang, then at Blake. Both of them shook their heads slowly. Even Ruby was able to pluck up the strength to shake hers. The writing was clearly on the wall.
"... Say Auf Wiedersehen to your precious reptile…" She finally said, and then stomped on the glass crocodile… Shattering it on impact.
"N-N-No! NO!" Quivered Petra, "NO NO NO NO NO NO NOOO!"
Her pleas were suddenly interrupted by her making a choking noise, and when she stopped coughing, she looked at her arms. They didn't look young anymore, there was body hair that wasn't there before, and the skin began to sag. She then crawled towards a window where she could see her reflection. She gasped in shock, she now looked like she was in her 50's! No, her 60's! That's when it hit everyone.
"OH NOOOOOO! WAH-WAAAAGGGGHHHH! I'M AAAAGGGGIIINNNNGGGG!"
Everyone was now horrified at what they were seeing. Gone was the young, cocky girl that they were fighting moments ago, now what they saw was what looked like one of the oldest women to have ever lived. Her hair was no longer black, it was whiter than Weiss's hair. It was growing rapidly too, almost all the way down to her waist.
"I'M AGING! AAAGGGGIIINNNGGG!" She screamed to the five of them, "AAAAGGGGHHHH! WAH-WAAAAHHHHH!"
Suddenly, she stopped screaming, and started choking again. She had aged so much that her lungs had given out, she couldn't scream anymore! Her hair fell off, her skin wrinkled up, and then it began to peel off like wallpaper, revealing her skeleton inside. Everyone covered their eyes at this point. Then, her eyes fell out, and she could no longer stand up straight. She fell backwards onto the floor and could only let out feeble gasps. Then it all stopped. No more screams, no more breathing, no more movement. Her skeleton began to dissolve like ash, and soon… When everyone uncovered their eyes, there was nothing left of Petra.
"Hoooh…" Weiss sighed, putting her hands up to her face. "It's finally over…"
Everyone then turned to Oscar, "... Does this mean the merge between you and Ozpin is now complete?" Asked Blake.
"Yes…" Sighed Oscar, "But… Maybe it's for the best."
Blake gave him a solemn expression, but they were all more worried about Ruby.
"Ruby! Ruby…" Said Weiss, "We did it, you saw right? We've defeated Petra…"
"Yeah I know…" Ruby was beginning to look pale, which worried them even more.
"We need to get you home fast…" Said Weiss.
"And all of the kids too…" Said Blake, "We can't abandon them either."
"But how are we going to do that with just the hoverbikes?" Yang asked, "Weiss can't call Winter to get a ship since there's no reception out here…"
"I don't know…" Sighed Weiss, "But we might as well do a headcount."
Yang and Oscar stayed on the patio to keep an eye on Ruby and try to get reception. Weiss and Blake ran into the mansion to not only get Winona, Jalen, and Miles, but all of the other kids that were there as well. When they got into one of the hallways, both of the girls banged on the walls loud enough to make sure everyone would hear them. One by one, the doors to the rooms opened and dozens of children slowly walked out of each of them.
"Listen up, kids!" Called Weiss, she proceeded to pull out her huntress license to prove who she was, and Blake did the same. "We're going to get you all out of here, please follow us. And make sure no one gets left behind."
Despite what Oscar had said earlier about their behavior, all of the kids complied! When they all came outside, Weiss was surprised to see just how many kids there truly were! There had to be at least 50…
"I shudder to think about what would have become of them if we hadn't intervened…" She said solemnly to Blake.
"Agreed…" Came the reply. Blake then turned to Yang, "There's no way we'll be able to get all of these kids on the hoverbike, have you been able to get any reception?"
"No, I-" But she was interrupted by a huge roar they heard in the distance. It sounded like Grimm. "... Oh no…"
Blake, Yang, and Oscar drew their weapons in the distance they heard the Grimm from, Weiss held on to Ruby due to Myrtenaster being broken. But before they could see them approaching, they heard a portal open from behind them. Yang turned around.
"... Mom?!"
"Come on, hurry!" Shouted Raven, "But single file!" She held the portal open for as long as she could while all of the kids ran through it, then Oscar, followed by Weiss and Blake carrying Ruby, while Yang and Raven shot at the Grimm as they came into view.
Before Raven closed the portal, the last thing all of them could see was the horde of Grimm tearing Petra's mansion into shreds. Never Never was no more.
"Mom, how did you-"
"-I have an emotional connection with you, remember?" Said Raven, "You'd better hurry, I can see your sister needs help…"
The crowd quickly made their way towards home, but not before Yang turned back attempting to say "Thank you" to her mother. However, Raven had transformed into her Corvid form and was flying away.
Once they returned to their house, Weiss and Blake quickly laid Ruby on the couch and looked around frantically for Jaune.
"JAUNE!" Shouted Weiss, "JAUNE! WE'RE BACK, COME QUICK! IT'S URGENT!"
Jaune soon came trying to get sleep out of his eyes, grumbling.
"Sheesh… What could be so important that would require that I wake up at this time of-..." He immediately stopped once he saw what had happened to Ruby.
"Oh my god!" He said, looking at her. "What happened?!"
"No time to explain!" Said Blake frantically, "She's lost a lot of blood, that's why we needed you!"
"There's no time to lose!" Said Jaune as he immediately hopped down to start using his healing semblance on Ruby. He didn't lose focus for a minute, even when Yang and Oscar came in with the kids.
"Oscar! You're okay…" His relief didn't last long as he turned to Yang, "How long has it been since she got wounded?"
"Too long, I worry…" Said Yang, "You can save her, right?"
"I'm trying…" He said, "This might take a while though, but I promise she'll make it."
As Jaune was working on healing Ruby's stab wounds, everyone else began to wake up too. Nora, Ren, Qrow, and Winter soon all came down to be beside Ruby, some of them were worried that this would be their final moments with her, but Jaune wouldn't give up.
"Ruby, come on! You can do this!" Said Nora, biting her teeth.
"Sis, we've had worse… Don't leave me like this…" Said Yang in tears, holding onto her hand tight.
"Come on, Ruby!... Come on…" Said Jaune as he kept at it.
Finally, after more pleas, Ruby opened her eyes, let out a huge gasp of air, and sat up, trying to recompose herself and quickly looked around. The first person she laid eyes on was Qrow. Ruby had a look of guilt on her face.
"Uncle Qrow… I-I-I'm sorry, I broke your promise, I-"
But all Qrow did was run up and hug her, and everyone else soon followed.
"You did good, Ruby…" He said, "You did good… And so did you three, I can see."
"It was really scary to be honest…" Admitted Yang.
"I bet…" Said Qrow, "I've heard about the legend myself, but… I'm not going to lie, I didn't believe it either. I guess we all should have known better. But who would have thought a teenage girl could be that seriously disturbed?"
"Well… She's gone now..." Sighed Ruby, "... I suppose some legends do die after all…"
A few of them let out a chuckle as Ruby rested her head, but then a few of them turned to Oscar, realizing that something had changed.
"Is… Is it finished?" Asked Winter.
"... Yeah…" Said Oscar, "Ozpin and I are now one."
"I'm sorry buddy…" Said Nora in sadness, "I wish we could have done something to stop it from happening."
Oscar then let out a small smile, "Honestly?... Don't be." He turned to Jaune, "You were right, I did find a way to make it work out… A part of me is still here too."
"... Glad I could help in some way." Sighed Jaune as he returned the smile.
Winter looked outside and was stunned, "Sweet mother of… That's a lot of kids, how are we going to find all of their homes?"
Weiss smiled, "I know where to start. Blake, Yang, do you wanna go to the Brauen later with me?"
"Why-Ohhh… Right, yes yes yes." Said Blake, it took a moment.
"I'd rather stay here with Ruby…" Sighed Yang, with Qrow nodding in agreement.
"You take as much time as you need, hun." Smiled Blake, "We'll be back!"
Weiss and Blake soon left, taking Winona, Jalen, and Miles with them.
Blake and Weiss walked to the Brauen, opened the door, and immediately when they walked in they saw Aspro and asked him a question.
"Excuse me, Mr. Aspro-Bob! Is James here today? We need to see him."
Aspro looked surprised, "Uhh, yes! He's in the back. Hey? Hey James?! Those huntress girls are here to see you!"
James walked out, and immediately locked eyes.
"Oh, hello again ladies. Do you need something from me?"
"Actually… We have something for you." Said Weiss, then she and Blake walked apart to reveal… Winona, Jalen, and Miles.
"Daddy!" They all said in unison.
James was stunned. He had to rub his eyes, was he actually seeing this? Were these his kids in front of him? They were, and they all ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug. James broke down in tears of joy, and hugged them back.
"I thought I'd never see any of you again!" He said, hugging and kissing them on their foreheads. "You weren't hurt by that demon, were you?"
"No, daddy! We're okay!" Beamed Winona, as she nuzzled him in comfort. "And just you know dad, we changed our minds, we're ready to grow up now…"
"Oh, all in good time kids…" Sobbed James, "You're still my babies, no matter how long it's been, okay? When I'm done with work we're going to go home, I'll make you your favorite food, we'll play games, anything you want, okay?"
"Yes, daddy!" They all said.
James then looked at Weiss and Blake.
"Thank you…" He said, still in tears of joy, "I don't know how to repay you…"
Blake shed a tear herself, "Don't worry, this is our duty. You're very much welcome." She then turned to Aspro, "Hey, do you want your map back?"
Aspro shook his head, "I know now I don't need it anymore." He smiled, and gave both of them a salute as they walked out the door.
But once they were outside, Weiss then admitted something else. "I still can't help but feel bad for all of Petra's victims…" She sighed, "Killing her didn't bring them back."
"I get it, I completely get it…" Said Blake, then she put her hand on Weiss's shoulder, "But you were a great leader, Weiss! After all… I think we can both agree that we still ensured that she will never hurt another kid again, didn't we?"
"Yes… Yes we did." Smiled Weiss as they made their way home.
When they returned home, there was a surprise. Azure Muramasa, Ruby's boyfriend, was there and Ruby was giving him a bunch of kisses. There was also a strawberry milkshake and a bouquet on the coffee table.
"Azure?!" Said Weiss in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
"I texted him and told him everything that had happened." Ruby quickly explained.
Azure blushed slightly, "... I just couldn't help but drop everything and swing by. I wanted to make sure you were doing okay." He said, looking at Ruby.
"I am now…" Ruby smiled, she looked at the gifts. "These are for me, right?"
"They are indeed." He said, handing them to her. "I hope they help… Sorry I can't stay long though, I have to get back to the shop soon."
"It's okay!" Smiled Ruby, kissing him again. "Thanks for stopping by…"
Weiss then remembered something, "Wait-wait-wait-wait, before you go Azure, I was hoping you could help me with something…"
Azure waited, as Weiss ran to her room, and moments later, she came back and handed him Myrtenaster. She quickly explained how it got damaged.
"Oh!..." He said in surprise, and took it. "Looks like it'll be an easy repair though, probably will take a few days if that's okay with you."
"It should be, we are supposed to be on vacation anyway! Thanks, Azure! You can just text me when it's finished." Said Weiss as he made his way out. Though when he got to the door, he stopped, and turned to Weiss.
"... By the way, thank you for getting rid of that demon, Miss Schnee."
Weiss was taken aback, blushing a little at him referring to her as "Miss".
"If it wasn't for you... Rosebud probably wouldn't be here now..." Azure said solemnly. "So thank you..."
"... You're welcome, and thank you for treating her so well." Smiled Weiss as Azure left with Myrtenaster.
To be concluded...
You guys didn't think Ruby would die, right? Don't worry if you did, she's safe! At last, the team was able to stop Petra once and for all, even if it was a scary thing to watch... Petra's death is pretty self-explanatory, I personally imagined it being like Walter Donovan's death from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Stay tuned for one final chapter... On Ruby's Birthday!