356Distortion
Raven just looked over to her current opponent, the giant of a man known as Yatsuhashi. He just analyzed her as she had Omen at her side in a relaxed but ready to attack stance. He would definitely be a difficult opponent to deal with if Velvet hadn't told all of Knightingale about her old teammates weapons and Semblances. His ability to wipe a few seconds of her memory at a time was jarring and the first time it happened, he almost landed a brutal attack on her. Luckily with her prior knowledge of his Memory Wipe and years of experience helped her to better deflect the oncoming attack.
Her eyes went over to her left to see Coco ready with her Gianduja at the ready. She definitely didn't want to be on the other end of that especially with her Semblance boosting its destructive output. That was why she took up Jaune's strategy to sticking close to her teammates to stop her from firing.
Speaking of which, Raven spun around to block the blades of the tonfas coming for her. Her red eyes peered into the white eyes of Fox as he tried to overpower her. She heard Yatsuhashi running behind her, ready to capitalize with his greatsword. She had a way to counter that but luckily she didn't need to. At that moment, a black arrow with a red Dust tip flew over both her and Fox's shoulders and directly towards the swordsman behind her. She heard the explosion behind her but the lack of a scream was an indicator that he used his sword to defend himself. But she could easily hear his massive form skidding backwards from the blast, so it still worked out.
Her eyes went over the blind Huntsman's shoulder to just see the faint blue glow of Onyx's Semblance turning him invisible once again. She wouldn't admit it out loud but having Onyx backing her up was making this fight much more manageable. Not that she really needed it but it made it so that she didn't have to overexert herself to keep the odds in her favor. And Onyx's long range fighting had been mixing nearly flawlessly with her own.
She pulled herself from her thoughts as she threw Fox's arms into the air and delivered a kick to his stomach, sending him skidding back. She turned herself to face Coco, ready to deal some damage to the nearly unscathed fashionista. As she ran forward, said fashionista turned her minigun onto the once leader of the Branwen tribe. As the barrel of her minigun started to spin, that was when a purple tipped arrow slammed into the ground to her right. On impact, it release a wave of gravity that pushed her off her feet.
She managed to roll with the blast and get back on her feet but it was shaky at best. She turned back to Raven just in time for her to go for a horizontal slash. On instinct, Coco raised her gun vertically and managed to catch the blade on the barrel. It stopped it but now her gun was at an angle that would do very little for her.
Raven was using her strength along with the weight of the minigun to push Coco back. She could see her straining and her teeth were clenched. She then heard footfalls behind her before another explosion went off. Sounded like one of her teammates were coming to her rescue but Onyx had other plans in mind. It was most likely Fox considering she only picked it up at the end there.
That was when a dark red light started to shine towards the center of the island they were on. Raven looked up at it and raised a confused eyebrow. They were far enough away but she could still sense the faint cold coming from the light. 'Negative aura?' she thought to herself. 'But who's?' It couldn't be anyone they brought here, which meant it was one of Ozpin's pawns. That was not good. She needed to go investigate immediately but that would free up these three and Onyx couldn't handle all three by himself.
"Ahhh!" screamed the familiar voice of Yatsuhashi behind her. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she had missed his approach and his apparent attack.
She heard something land behind her and the sound of metal meeting metal. Then a very familiar voice came from behind her, "Hey, Boss. Fancy meeting you here."
Raven was stunned before she grinned underneath her mask, "Good to hear from you, Vincent. What kept you?" She then grew serious, "Swap." Both pushed back their current opponents before they spun clockwise to trade opponents. Yatsuhashi had his arms in the air and Raven caught him in the chest with an aura amplified swing. Vincent did similar and caught Coco with both of his blades. Both members of CVFY were sent sliding back and taking a good chunk from their auras.
The two members of Knightingale turned to one another and Vincent smirked at her from under his Taijitu mask. "Sorry about that. Got captured by the Atlas military and all." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, "Luckily, one of your new recruits got me out."
Raven looked over and saw Neo was currently engaged with Fox while Onyx was looking a bit more worse for wear. "That explains how the giant got the drop on me." She turned back to Vincent, "Do you think you can help Neo and Onyx keep these three busy? Something has garnered my attention."
"So, that's their names." Vincent said mostly to himself. He then rolled his shoulders. "Sure. I need to stretch my legs from all the time I've been locked up. How long and do you want them in the ground?"
"Five minutes." Raven replied as she sheathed Omen. "And no. Jaune already killed Goodwitch and that earned us the attention of Ironwood. Killing his students will only earn us Oz's wrath. We don't need that." She looked back over to the red light. "You three meet up with us at the light over there."
Vincent nodded and turned back to the fashionista and giant getting back on their feet. "We'll be there." He didn't get an answer and looked over his shoulder to see Raven was gone and a bird flying away. He chuckled, "Still don't know how she does that." He then turned back as the Dust containers on his weapon, Hydra, spun and locked into place. His blades extended and electricity was racing across the blades. He gained a sadistic grin, "This should be fun."
On another part of the island, the golden brawler of Team RWBY was having a titanic clash with the gladiator of Knightingale. Yang had just delivered a power packed punch to the face of Akouo, sending out an impressive gong-like sound into the surrounding area. Pyrrha used her Polarity to help hold herself against the sheer force of Yang's strike. But the aura she lost doing so was quickly recovered from her Negative aura siphoning more of the boxer's own.
Immediately afterwards, Pyrrha swung forward with her javelin, aiming a slash for the blonde's face. Yang saw this and fired a blast from her free arm, getting away from Pyrrha's attack and creating distance. As her feet hit the ground, she fired two more bursts to fly directly at Pyrrha. She threw her right arm again, aiming for her opponent's masked face but with a wave of a hand, her attack went wide and over Pyrrha's left shoulder. Before Yang could curse mentally, the air was driven from her lungs with a harsh gasp as the shaft of Milo buried itself into her stomach. Pyrrha cocked her head before she released an explosion and sending Yang tumbling across the ground.
Yang eventually came to a stop and slowly tried to push herself up with her arms. She was panting from exhaustion and her arms were shaking. She looked over to Pyrrha, standing tall and looking like she could still fight for hours to come. Yang narrowed her eyes as her yellow aura was shimmering across her body but luckily didn't shatter. She took a deep breath before she pushed herself back onto her feet and shakily raising her arms back into her boxing stance.
That was when a dark red light erupted not too far away from them. Both turned to look at the light in confusion and shock. More so from Pyrrha since she knew instantly that this light was Negative aura. Yang was shaken by the cold feeling that seemed to wash over the area, all originating from that light. Then she heard something coming from that direction, something that made her blood freeze. Ruby screaming.
"Ruby!" Yang shouted before she started to run in that direction. That was until she had to jump back from the red and bronze javelin that was making its way to her. Milo impaled into the ground right where Yang would've been if she didn't jump back. She then saw a black outline cover it before it was pulled from the ground and back into Pyrrha's waiting hand. She started to slowly pace to the right as she kept her eyes on her opponent, "We're not done here, Yang."
That earned her a glare from the brawler, "The hell we aren't!" She pointed over to the red light. "You hear that?! That is Ruby and I am not going to just stand here while my sister is in trouble!"
Pyrrha shook her head, "And my job is to stop you. Seems we're at an impasse."
Yang slammed her fists together and triggered her Semblance. Her hair glowing gold and looking like fire as her eyes turned to a blood red. "Move, Pyrrha." She commanded in an angry tone. "Or I'll break you." She threatened seriously.
Pyrrha just kept staring at her from behind her mask while shifting Milo to its rifle form. She brought it up and aimed directly at Yang. "You'll try." She fired.
Yang ran towards the champion, not even feeling the bullets that bit into the dregs of her aura. She only felt the kinetic energy fueling her Semblance and rage further. When she was close enough, she leapt and pulled her fist back with a bloodthirsty shout. She was going to take down the 'Invincible Girl' here and now. Then go save her sister.
She threw her fist forward and that was when Pyrrha did something she didn't expect her to do: she threw herself to the side and away from Yang. Up to his point, Pyrrha had either taken her attacks on her shield or deflected them away blatantly with her Semblance. 'Why did she dodge now?' she asked herself in that moment of clarity as Pyrrha stayed crouched down and raising her shield to cover as much of herself as possible.
Her eyes went back in front of her as the world slowed. Her eyes widened as she saw her fist about to impact one of the large gravity Dust crystals that formed on these islands. She was so absorbed in her anger and worry; she didn't realize that Pyrrha was in front of it. Ember Celica slammed into the crystal and cracks started to cascade across the entire thing. Purple light poured form the cracks as a massive gravity wave erupted from the crystal.
Yang was thrown back from the crystal and slammed into the ground back first, shattering her aura and her Semblance with it. She tumbled uncontrollably across the ground, feeling her body bruise with every impact. Her vision became blurred images of the sky, ground, or a combination of both. Until she came to a rest on her stomach.
As her body laid there, her ears were ringing and her vision was going in and out of focus. She saw her hand in front of her and with great effort, managed to close her fingers into a fist. She then slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position. Almost passing out as she did so.
When her eyes settled upon the area she was just at, her eyes widened in shock. The section of the island they were on had been blown apart into dozens of large rocks. Some of them had fallen away into the lake below but other were being held in the air from the amount of gravitational energy that was released from the crystal.
She was pulled from her awe as she felt her arms be pulled to the side forcefully by her gauntlets. She looked and saw them being surrounded in a black aura. She looked to the side to see Pyrrha walking towards her: her shield on her back and Milo still in hand as her left hand was extended forward. "You do realize that with a flick of my wrist, both of your arms could be broken, right?"
She stopped a couple feet in front of her as Yang looked up at her, barely holding onto her consciousness. "And that would be the least I could do to you." Pyrrha just stared her down, "With all the times you said you wanted to fight Grimm and save people, I would've thought you would be better than this." Pyrrha took her rifle in both hands and brought down the butt of her rifle onto Yang's head. Finally sending her to unconsciousness.
On the opposite side of the island, Blake was running for her life. Pink explosions were going off as she ran, each one fired from Magnhild by no other than Lie Ren. Blake jumped back from yet another explosion and looked over to him. 'He's not trying to hit me. Not seriously, at least.' She landed and just looked at him, 'He's keeping me from going back the way we came. He's trying to keep me away from the others. Divide and conquer is their plan.'
Blake dug her feet in before charging the ninja with both her blades poised to strike. Ren didn't shy away from the challenge; he shifted his childhood friend and love's weapon into its hammer form before taking off as well. He jumped into the air and came down with the full weight of the weapon. Blake crossed her blades, looking like she was going to take the attack head on. That was until Ren's hammer went through her Shadow and impacted the ground.
Half expecting this, Ren scanned the area around him from behind his mask. When he didn't see her, he knew there was only one place she could be and leapt forward. That is when he felt a katana slash across his back but it was mostly absorbed by his aura. And him jumping forward made it so it didn't bite into him as much as it would've.
Blake saw him roll forward and when he was back on his feet again, he had StormFlower back in hand and was firing. She left another Shadow in her place and dodged to the side. She ran a few feet before quickly sending an aura slash at the ninja, hoping to catch him off guard. What she didn't expect was for him to not move an inch from the path of the attack. Instead, her aura attack just seemed to shrink the closer it got to him before disappearing before it even touched him.
That brief shock gave Ren the opportunity to throw both his weapons, akin to boomerangs, at her. She was lucky enough to be able to deflect them away with her two blades. When she focused back on him, he was right in front of her since he closed the distance from the distraction. Using his martial arts, he was able to deliver an impressive combo of punches and palm strikes to her torso. With every hit he landed, he used his Negative aura to siphon some of Blake's aura to replenish what he lost. He ended it with a backflip kick to her jaw, sending her into the air.
He landed on his hands before spring boarding up to catch his weapons still in the air. When his feet touched the ground and with his trusted weapons in hand once again, he pounced. Spinning his body as he did to be a spiral of blade. His two blades were about to drive into her chest when in a blink of an eye, a fire Shadow was in her place. Ren strengthened his aura to prepare for the inevitable explosion and was rocketed backwards.
As he was being thrown backwards, he looked over his shoulder and saw he was on a direct course with Magnhild. He attached his guns to his thighs once again and threw his arms out. His fingers wrapped around the shaft of the weapon and he used it to spin himself around and back towards Blake. The force of which also pulled the hammer from the ground.
The two were back to staring the other down but their positions reversed. Which was not what Ren wanted. If Blake tried to run, he'd have a harder time stopping her. That was when a deep red light erupted into the air not too far away from them. Both turned to it in confusion until Ren felt the chill in the air, 'Negative aura?' he asked himself.
That was when both heard a scream coming from the same place. Both recognized it and Blake gasped, "Ruby?" she said in concern.
Ren quickly shifted Magnhild back into its grenade launcher and aimed at Blake. The entire front opened up and he fired the entire payload at once. Blake turned at the last second and had just enough time to leave a Shadow. She may've gotten away from the grenade heading directly for her but the others landing around her still did a number on her. They threw her to the ground as her aura was shimmering around her from the consecutive blasts.
She shakily got to her feet and looked around but the area around her was just filled with pink smoke. She quickly looked around, looking for any sign of where Ren could be. Her ears strained under her bow to try to hear him but they were still ringing from the numerous explosions. She finally did get a bead on him at the last second and she turned in time for him to slash across her upper arm with his blade.
The next few seconds were of him ducking in and out of the surrounding smoke to deliver slashes to slowly whittle down he remaining aura. She tried to fire her weapon at him but with little luck. Her eyes and ears were useless in this condition but Ren could sense her aura. Better than ever since he had joined Jaune. The assault ended early when a blast of wind came from the other side of the island and blew away the last of the lingering smoke.
With the smoke clear, Blake looked around but it was too late, Ren was already on top of her and driving an aura packed palm into her chest. The downward force was too much for her and she was driven back first into the ground. The ground spiderwebbed on impact and the air was driven from her lungs. The pain also making her let go of her trusted weapons. Her aura shattered and Ren was crouched next to her, hand still on her chest.
Her eyes slowly panned over to him as her vision kept growing darker. He removed his hand and said one thing, "You should only worry about people when you have the strength to make a difference. Not just determination and the ability to run." That was the last thing she heard as Ren stood tall and unconsciousness took her.
Weiss was fairing just as well as her teammates in her own battle. She had her Glyph in front of her as a shield but she was still sliding backwards steady from the hail of bullets impacting it. Velvet was merciless with her hard-light copy of Gianduja, not giving Weiss a second to think. The heiress was just glad that she couldn't copy Coco's Semblance or her Glyph would've been dealt with long ago. Her only hope was to wait for the weapon's time to run out and go for a counterattack at that moment.
She didn't have to wait long. Soon after that thought, Velvet's weapon faded away and she waved her rapier, leaving a line of Glyphs in front of herself. She filtered her fire Dust into them and began to fire a salvo of fireballs towards her opponent. Velvet seemed unfazed by this and just started to create another weapon from her former team. This time it was Sharp Retribution, the bladed tonfas of Fox.
With her new weapons in hand, Velvet took off in a sprint towards the Schnee heiress. As the fireballs came towards her, Velvet was able to easily weave through them or slash through them with the blades on her arms. Seeing this, Weiss swung her rapier upwards to create a wall of ice between herself and the Faunus. With that reprieve, Weiss started to rotate her rapier's chamber to the Dust she would require for the next stage of her strategy.
She looked up just in time to see that Velvet had jumped over the wall and was now descending upon her. The heiress quickly placed a Glyph above her head to stop her but Velvet flipped herself so she would land feet first on the shield. She then lunged forward to land on the ground on all fours. She angled herself before shooting off again at Weiss. The rabbit Faunus spun around just in time to land a kick to her opponent's chest and send her crashing through the ice wall she had created not long before.
Weiss managed to stay on her feet but Velvet was already on her, flowing into a combo of slashes from her tonfas just as savagely as Fox would in this occasion. Weiss tried her best to deflect as many of those attacks with her rapier as she could but Velvet's mimicry of Fox's fighting style was too much for her. The Faunus went for one last devastating strike by pulling her arm back and firing off a bullet from her weapon. That made her spin almost a full rotation and adding the force for the blade aimed directly for the younger woman's chest.
Before it could land, Weiss thrusted Myrtenaster forward and released a small cyclone from the tip. It slammed into the Faunus' chest and sent her skidding backwards but Velvet managed to throw herself to the side to get out of the vacuum. She landed on her shoulder first but she rolled with the momentum and managed to get back to her feet. She looked around to reorientate herself before he eyes landed on Weiss once again. She narrowed her eyes before charging at her target once again.
Weiss pulled her sword back and quickly rotated her Dust chamber from wind to lightning. She closed her eyes in concentration as a Time Dilation Glyph formed under her feet. When the effects took hold of her body, she opened her eyes and focused on Velvet with laser focus. That is when she rushed towards her in a blur of white.
She managed to meet up with Velvet before the Faunus had expected her to. The two then devolved into a clash of multiple stabs and slashes, along with their weapons clashing against one another in rapid succession. Several attacks from each managed to get through but Velvet was still winning the exchanges thanks to her Negative Aura siphoning Weiss' because of their close proximity. That was until Velvet's copied weapon faded after one final attack. Weiss tried to capitalize and went to stab her one last time but that was when her Glyph's effect seemed to give out. The world, which seemed to be moving in slow motion before, crashed upon her again and she felt herself slow down for a few seconds.
Velvet couldn't ask for a better moment, she held out her hand and created the last of her old team's weapons: Fulcrum, the greatsword of Yatsuhashi. She took it in both hands to swing it with all her might. The massive blade slammed into the side of the still stunned Schnee and with a shout, Velvet sent her flying across the ground.
Weiss met the ground ribs first and she slid across it for several meters before slowly coming to a stop. She took in a shaky breath before pushing herself back onto her knees. Just in time to see Velvet leap into the air and bringing down the large sword down. On instinct, she raised her hands and summoned another Glyph above her head. The sword bit into the Glyph and it seemed to cause Weiss' arms to buckle slightly before she grit her teeth and pushed back. Velvet didn't give her any reprieve and started to slam the sword into the Glyph repeatedly with all her strength. Each hit made the Glyph waver and Weiss' light blue aura started to shimmer around her from the strain.
Velvet could feel her time was almost up for her weapon, so she held it above her head and with one last scream, brought it down upon the shield. The Glyph couldn't stand the impact and shattered almost instantly, her aura doing the same a second later. The blade sunk into the ground just inches in front of her before she looked back up at the mask wearing Faunus as the sword faded away.
Weiss shakily tried to raise her weapon again but a large gust of wind washed over the two of them, causing Weiss to fall to the ground with her waning strength and her rapier sliding across the floor. She shakily reached out for it but her trusted weapon was just out of reach.
She saw Velvet walk over to it and several flashes of light from above. From the corner of her eyes she saw Velvet taking a few pictures of Myrtenaster before placing the camera back into the box at her back. She then looked down to the downed W of RWBY, "Never know when that'll come in handy. Now, with that, have a good nap, Weiss." With that, she pulled her foot back and kicked Weiss on the side of her head. With that, her entire world went black.
Jaune was still looking upon the peculiar sight in front of him. Ruby was on her knees while gripping her chest tightly with both hands as she was trying to breathe. Surrounding her was the blood red energy of her Negative aura and the usual red of her Positive aura; looking like two different fires were battling for supremacy. Trying to burn away the other and Ruby was dealing with the full onslaught of the struggle. The air around them was growing colder and colder as the Negative aura seemed to absorb the surrounding heat. The ground around the younger girl that had been getting scorched from the intensity of her auras was now starting to crack around her as the aura battle was going on.
With his greatsword still in hand, Jaune reached up and removed his Wyvern mask to see this phenomenon unrestricted. "What is going on? I've never seen the two sides of someone's aura battling like this."
That was when a familiar raven flew above him and landed behind him. A second later, the form of his wife walked around his right while taking off her own mask. She stared at Ruby before turning to him, "What on Remnant is going on, Jaune?"
He shook his head, "I have no idea. Her Negative aura just reacted as we were fighting but for some reason, her Positive aura started to battle it as soon as it emerged."
Raven looked back to her, "Why would it do that? This has never happened to you or the others."
Jaune was deep in thought before his eyes widened in realization, "Because we accepted it…" Raven turned back to him with a raised eyebrow. "Negative aura is fueled by the negative emotions you feel over your lifetime. So when you take hold of it, you need to accept the darkest pieces of yourself. But that's the problem." He looked back to Ruby, "Ruby has always looked to the light and tried to be an optimist. Even though her Negative aura is just as powerful as my own from all the negativity of her life, she is incapable of accepting it. That is why her aura is battling itself because her Negative aura is the polar opposite of who Ruby is."
Raven nodded, "That makes sense. But we can't let this go on." She turned back to the younger girl. "If this keeps up, her aura may trigger the Dust still within this island and that would mean all our deaths." She reached down to her sword and drew her blade, "We need to stop this."
"You're going to kill her?" Jaune asked.
She turned to him like he had grown another head, "Are you going to stop me?"
He shook his head, "No. I was more asking if you will be capable of doing it?"
She narrowed her eyes, "This isn't the first time I've had to kill someone, Jaune. It won't be the last."
"I know." He answered easily enough. "But this is more personal for you." She opened her mouth to answer but he kept going. "Can you really bring yourself to kill Summer's daughter?"
Raven froze and the married couple just held each other's gaze for a while before she eventually turned away. That was when Ruby gave out another blood curdling scream. Jaune's head snapped back to her as he saw Ruby's form crumble to the ground. As he looked her over, memories started to come back to him. Memories he had long since buried. Memories of them spending time together at Beacon. Memories of them being the best of friends.
Along with that, a conversation that he had with Pyrrha and Ren after they had fully joined Knightingale. They had told him how the rest of Team RWBY had reacted to his re-emergence. He wanted to know fully what he'd be expecting when he saw them again. But they had also told him how they reacted when they found out he was dead. Those had hit him harder than he thought they would. It was such a contradiction from what he had believed to be the truth for so long: that they hadn't cared for him. But Pyrrha and Ren had earned back his trust so he was inclined to believe them. But it still mattered little in the long run. He had a mission to accomplish and he'd would still uphold it.
But now, standing across from someone he once cared for and that cared for him in turn was suffering. And that resolve seemed to buckle and the part of him he thought was long dead came back. His eyes locked onto Ruby as his greatsword shifted back into it's sheathed sword form. He placed it on his back before charging forward. "Jaune!" he heard Raven scream but he ignored it.
Jaune summoned his Negative aura, his body being cloaked in black as he charged into the aura surrounding Ruby. Her blood red Negative aura slammed into his own, like the force of a waterfall but he still slowly moved forward. As that was happening, he was absorbing some of her Positive aura to keep pushing himself forward. He held his arms up to try to shield his face from the force around him as he kept taking steps forward. It was slow but he was making his way closer to the reaper.
After what felt like an eternity, Jaune was now at Ruby. He knelt down and gently took a hold of her. He then slowly sat her up and he just looked at her face, set in a grimace of pain. "Hold on, Ruby. Don't give up yet." He raised his right hand and allowed his black aura to coat it completely. He then placed it upon her chest and started to send it into her. Much like he had to do for Raven back during the fall of the Branwen tribe.
His Negative aura filtered into her, similar to what he had done with Onyx and the other members of Knightingale. He was trying to strengthen her Positive aura by letting his Negative be absorbed by it. That way it would be strong enough to keep her Negative aura in check and to keep it locked away.
It took a few minutes of him constantly doing this until a third of Ruby's usual aura pool was his Negative aura. More than Onyx and the others had absorbed but not nearly as much as Raven. He could already tell that her Positive aura was already starting to absorb it and making itself stronger. Slowly but surely, her Positive aura seemed to engulf the Negative aura around her and the two energies soon receded back into her body. The Positive side back into control and the Negative buried deep within her soul again. And the grimace on her face turned to a look of peaceful sleep.
Jaune just took a deep breath before he sighed. He then stood up with the smaller girl in his arms. He turned to Raven, who was still looking at him in shock. "Is Vincent free?"
She slowly shook herself before nodding, "Him, Onyx and Neo should be here soon."
He nodded, "I can also feel that the rest of Team RWBY's auras have been shattered. The others shall be here soon. Let's go home." Raven couldn't agree more and slashed the air with her blade, creating her portal. Jaune nodded and walked through as she stood there, waiting for the others. It wasn't long before the six other members of Knightingale arrived and stepped through the portal with little to say.
When they were safely through, Raven walked in after them. The portal slammed closed behind her. Leaving very battered members of what was once CFVY and the remaining members of RWBY out cold. Along with whatever soldiers of the Atlas military dealt with. But with Vincent liberated and Ruby taken as well. What ripples would this send out throughout Remanent? Only time would tell.