AN: RWBY x Cradle fic. If you haven't read Cradle something like 90% of this is going to mean absolutely nothing to you. Sorry.. That being said I absolutely recommend you read Cradle. It's a hell of a ride. Though the first book was pretty lackluster, unfortunately.
Anyway I have purged the plot bunny and that's what's important here. This was originally just supposed to be a mental exercise. See how closely I could recreate the weapons, fighting styles and semblances in a new power system. Then I titled my head and wondered how best to fuse the two settings and this was the result see end for a bit more AN.
The small amphitheater within the Ninecloud City easily held the crowd of more than one thousand True Gold sacred artists. The only truly notable thing about the group was their ages. Every one of them was young.
Six months previously the call had gone out from the Nine Cloud Court to every corner of the nation. The Queen was searching for young talent. People who might someday be future leaders, prodigies.
The message was simple; any True Gold not yet twenty five was invited to come to the capitol. They would be given unique tasks, opportunities, and rewards. All to push them to advance. Communities which raised them and gave up their services at home for the Empire would be rewarded. Individuals who distinguished themselves had the potential to be sponsored as far as their paths might take them.
Power, riches, glory, respect, all there for the taking. If only one had the skill and drive to take them and the willingness to swear an oath on their soul to not discuss the particulars.
Now young prodigies had arrived from all across the nation.
A bell chime brought the dull roar of conversation to an end as all eyes turned to the rainbow glow of the Ninecloud Soul.
"Presenting her Majesty the Luminous Queen Sha Miara, who has recently succeeded her late Mother Sha Leiala."
Frantic muttering broke out across the hall as the teen nearly stomped out onto the stage looking imperious and energetic. Her veil loosened enough that no one in the crowd could doubt the Ninecloud Soul's declaration. As one the mass of Sacred Artist kneeled in respect and fear.
"Oh do get up!" Miara shouted to the crowd. "I didn't go to the trouble of getting you all here just to make you bow."
Tentatively the crowd rose to their feet. The child queen gave a decisive nod as the last person stood.
"Right, you all are here because I'm bored!" No one dared to interrupt the young Monarch but all were incredulous. "Ever since I inherited the throne my advisers are the only people I'm allowed to talk to. They're all old, and boring, and annoying. If I don't get some company closer to my own age soon I'm going to be miserable until I'm as old and boring as they are. That's where all of you come in."
She paused to grin at the crowd.
"You're some of the best young sacred artists on the continent and you're only a step away from being Lords and Lady's. So, with a little help and some top notch resources at least some of you should make it to Underlord, maybe even the peak Underlord, in time for the Uncrowned King tournament!"
All through the audience eyes burned with excitement and desire at the mention of the tournament, and the thought of the prizes which could be won.
"Which is how I'm justifying all this to my advisors. Well, that and the missions you'll be going on. I'll be sending you out all over for things like killing sacred beasts, collecting natural treasures, helping my citizens, stuff like that. Completing missions and returning with valuable materials gets you points, those points can be used to buy all sorts of things that will help you advance! Time in advanced cycling chambers, rare treasures made by our refiners, time training with experts of paths similar to your own!"
"I want the best and only the best! Whether that's competing in the uncrowned king tournament, or being my future advisors, aids and leaders of vassal states! I don't care where you're from or what path you're on! All that matters is that you're the best and not ancient and annoying! You've been assigned teams of eight, and each team will get a cloud ship as well as a list of missions! Now I've got to go take care of a bunch of stupid paperwork so get to work, advance quickly, and all of this is covered by your oaths of silance. So don't tell anyone!"
Her speech completed, the young Monarch turned and stalked off the stage past a very frustrated man radiating the power of an Archlord
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Eight teens sat around a simple but comfortable dining room table in their brand new cloud ship. All of them sipped from cups of tea as they cautiously took each other's measure.
Well, most of them.
"I'm Xiao Long Yang, fire and force path, nice to meet you all!" Yang waved to the group. Her goldsign, golden scales from her elbows to fingers, caught the light as she waved.
"Oh, me next! Me next!" A girl with short orange hair shouted. "Valkyrie Nora! Lightning and force path!" A pair of short ram's horns shaded the light blue of lightning strikes poked out from her head.
Just like that the two boisterous girls broke the tension and the others around the table at least partly relaxed as introductions were traded.
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"So there I am, fresh to my goldsign feeling like I could take on the whole world, returning home as the conquering hero. I'm thinking it'll be at least a few months before Dad'll have time to help Ruby get an appropriate Remnant, and I might finally get a bit of a lead on her. So I open the front door, swagger in… and get bowled over by my lowgold little sister and her brand new wings."
Most of the group laughed or chuckled as Ruby self consciously played with the hem of her sleeve.
"Turns out while we were gone she raided Dad's stuff for parts, made a half dozen launcher constructs ranging from low to truegold, then talked a group of lowgolds into helping her tackle a razor hawks nest. She got the remnant and they got the sacred beast meat and the eggs. Apparently she was afraid I'd leave her behind."
Yang smiled ruefully as she tosselled her sister's hair.
"Yaaaang." Ruby whined as she tried to disappear into her own robes.
"You managed to make truegold level constructs as a jade? How old were you?" Weiss asked.
"Twelve" Yang threw her arms out. "It was ridiculous! I mean seriously impressive, but ridiculous! Dad couldn't decide if he was proud of what she accomplished or pissed at her for being so reckless and using so much valuable material he planned to sell."
"Don't know why he was upset. We managed to sell all the launchers that didn't break." Ruby muttered.
"You took on a truegold sacred beast with a pack of lowgolds and a bunch of untested launchers." Yang deadpanned.
"And a plan! It was a good plan, because it worked!"
"It was a crazy plan, and it's a miracle you're alive!"
"How would you know, you never even make plans, you just punch things!"
"Hey! I don't just punch, I also set stuff on fire!"
Before the argument could devolve further the sisters were distracted by giggling.
"I'm, I'm sorry." Pyrrha got out between giggles. "I don't mean to laugh. You two are just so…" She trailed off as she failed to find an appropriate word and instead just giggled again.
"Oh, Reny!" Nora turned to her friend as he put down the last scroll given to them by the Ninecloud Court which he had been reading instead of participating in the conversation. "Was there anything good in there?"
"Quite a bit. Detailed instructions on opening our Soul Space, a primer on Soulfire, and on the proper form of meditation for advancing to Underlord."
Many eyes blew wide open in surprise and Weiss lunged across the table only to take incredible care as she opened the scroll and began to read. Several of the others darted to her side to read over her shoulder.
Yang leaned back into her seat and stared at the ceiling.
"So this really is on the level." Yang said, running a scaled hand through her hair. "The Queen really is semi sponsoring the most promising Golds in the Empire, just so she'll have people her own age to talk to. Because she's bored."
"I'd be bored too." Ruby said, once again playing with the hem of her sleeve. "And lonely."
The group traded looks as they considered just what the Queen must be feeling.
"We're in a race, with the best of the best." Weiss muttered. "There's no chance this will go on forever. Sooner or later some of us will be cut loose. The faster we advance the more likely we are to stay an investment, the further we can go."
"If we could earn spots in the tournament…" Pyrhha muttered. "The Uncrowned King, a good showing could mark anyone as a future asset to sponsor past Underlord."
"But we're talking about companions for a Monarch." Jaune said. "Underlord might mean we show promise, enough to keep us around, but that's not going to cut it. If she's serious… we've got to treat this like it's an impossible opportunity. Because if you want to keep up with a Monarch Archlord is probably the bare minimum. She's looking for future Heralds or Sages."
Yang whistled through her teeth.
"Honestly, I always thought this was as far as I'd get." Blake spoke up as she looked into her cup of tea. "The tribe I grew up in wasn't exactly flush with resources. I was only highgold when the Queen's offer reached us. But the compensation they offered for giving up young truegolds? It was enough to help the whole community, so they threw resources at me until I advanced then sent me off. Now you're telling me I could advance all the way to Sage if I want it badly enough? If I can work hard enough?"
The girl looked up with a fire in her eyes as her black cat ears twitched.
"I thought my path was done, but I don't want it to be… Where do we start?"
Slowly, like a fire being stoked up from embers the others began to smile with similar manic energy in their eyes. There was a way forward, and the only thing to do was advance.
AN: It's rough. I know it's rough. But the child Monarch didn't exactly get a lot of lines for me to get a feel for her from, and getting this down was really more about the concept for me. I love fusions. Crossovers are good but fusions scratch an itch for me and they are RARE. I'm not planning to chase this, but I love how many easy options this opens up. Pick a fandom. Drop the cast in an unexplored section of cradle, figure out a way to approximate their powers, invent an excuse one of the Monarchs might use for the group to be forced together to train. Have fun reinterpreting their backstories. Have the long term plan be for them to hit the uncrowned king tournament, the best of the lot displace some of the nameless shits in the first few rounds. And maybe the best one or two break through into the top 16, from there? Play it by ear and decide if you want them getting sucked into things or not. Maybe fit some of the none cradle antagonists into the Dread God cults. Maybe have those antagonists be the focus of the plot until the tournament. There are a lot of options to play with here and it makes for a really enticing fusion if you don't mind working without canon rails for a while.