“Now girls, I don’t want you getting hurt too badly, but consider this a test of your skills. I want you to show these six why being my friend is the best thing ever, okay? Then, when they are my friends, we can go have some real fun.”
They cheer at that as Chaos resumes his place on the throne. We ready our weapons. Team RWBY charges.
This is gonna hurt.
As the tide rushes toward us, we subconsciously split into pairs. I’m with Twilight against Ruby and Weiss, Rarity and Applejack face down Blake, and Pinkie and Fluttershy take on Yang. Twi forces chunks out of the pillars and floor to fling. I bring up Rainboom to block Ruby’s first strike…
And am immediately pushed to the floor. I look up, and Rainboom is standing straight up, taking the brunt of Crescent Rose’s weight. I was pushed down by the shockwave of our weapons colliding.
I hear explosions, magic, and general chaos happening all around me, but I can only focus on my opponent. To falter for one second spells death for my entire Team. Ruby grins, and spins away. As she does, Crescent Rose grows a second scythe, made of shadow, on the opposite side of the original blade. It doesn’t matter how pointy her scythe gets, I have to beat her.
----------
Shit shit shit balls damn it buck me shit!
I’m behind a pillar, trying to avoid Ruby’s sniper shots. My leg is on fire where a shot connected before, and I can’t get enough breath into my lungs. I can’t tell if RWBY is actually trying to kill us, but they’re sure making us regret this plan!
I glance around, and nopony else is faring better. Rarity is also limping, blood streaming down her leg. Applejack, like in the tournament so long ago, isn’t able to keep up with Blake’s speed. Twilight’s been backed into a corner, raising wall after wall to block Weiss’ Dust powers. Fluttershy is unconscious near the stairs. Pinkie is running around the room like a madpony, trying to stay ahead of an extremely pissed Yang. We need to remove one of them from the equation, but we can’t match any of them! Weiss’ magic, Ruby and Blake’s speed, Yang’s rage…
Wait, we could match rage.
I grab Pinkie as she runs by my pillar. Before she can question, I rip the Reader off of her, find the setting, and crank the Aura Reader setting to the max. I then slam it back on her face, point her at Yang, and duck.
The effect is instantaneous. She goes rigid, her eyes move independent of each other, and her cannon arm starts shaking. With a cry of fury, she launches herself at Yang. Pink laser shots light up the room. One threat taken care of, for now.
Now, how could I get Ruby? I’m thinking, if I can get her to lower her guard, I could switch with Twilight and she can hit Ruby with that chaos reversal spell she used before when Discord was released on Equestria. Then, we join forces against Weiss, rinse and repeat.
This is such a stupid plan. Maybe, but my mind is blanking on anything else. We could try and beat them into submission, but that seems unlikely with one of us already out, and we need all of us functional for fighting Chaos. I take a breath, and step out from behind the pillar.
----------
Kill.
“No.”
Kill them all.
“Please. Don’t make me do that.”
Destroy them! Make Father proud!
“I can’t! I won’t!”
You have no choice…
I’m trapped in my own mind. I’m naked, curled in a ball in the one corner of my sanctum I have left, as the darkness that is the Grimmfather tries to overtake me.
When Discord changed me into one of his playthings, I was able to block off a part of my mind from his influence. I tried to keep myself together, but it was a quickly lost battle. First to go was control over my body, trapping me. I couldn’t do anything but watch as he used me, used me and the others to capture many other people, and either change them all or banish them… somewhere.
He made us do it just to break us, and it worked. I lost another part of my inner sanctuary, along with my memories. The only memories I have are of Discord and the Grimmfather, and the dark magic they used to carve my mind away from me.
The only part of my mind that is still my own is my identity, which I keep repeating to myself so I don’t lose it like everything else. Even most of that has gone with my memories.
“M-my name is Ruby Rose. I am the daughter of S-Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long. I have a sister, Y… Y… I know I have a sister. I am the leader of… a group… who… fights bad things. The others out there, the ones with the yellow, black, and white hair, are part of this group, but Discord made them like me. My name is Ruby Rose…”
Over and over. It is the only shred of myself I have left, so I cling to it like… something very clingy.
Discord went somewhere, and when he came back, he was different, and stopped trying to take my mind. He left me like this, shattered, weak, and helpless.
Then, six new people showed up. I know because this new Discord allowed me to see out of my eyes. He had said something about how it would break me to the core; I couldn’t react to that. These six people wanted to take him down. I screamed at my body to help them, but it didn’t listen. I felt… elation when he said to make them ‘his friends’. I don’t recognize these people, but I know they can help somehow.
We fight, the four of us against the six of them, and we are soundly thrashing them. I am fighting the one with three-colored hair, and she is behind a pillar, trying to stop me from shooting at her. Suddenly, she steps out. I aim at her heart, trying in vain to make it stop. Then, she speaks.
“Ruby, don’t do this. It’s me, Rainbow Dash. Remember?”
A memory flashes in the dark clouds surrounding me. Yes, Rainbow Dash. My group found her… in a forest… she eventually brought friends… she is a friend.
I try to grab the memory, but it slips away. Who is this girl again?
“Ruby, please. You don’t need to do this! I know you don’t want to do this. We can help!”
“Help?” I hear myself saying. “I don’t need your fucking help! Daddy Discord is all the help I need!” I feel myself pulling the trigger.
“NO!” I scream, and force myself out into the void of my mind. I force the barrel of… it, to fire upwards into the ceiling.
She smiles. “There’s my girl. I know you’re in there, Ruby. Fight him!”
I intend to. I reach out, and grasp the first thought cloud I can. In an instant, it comes back to me. I wield the magnificent sniper-scythe, Crescent Rose. The memory is of when I made her; one of my happiest memories. Me, very young, with another figure watching lovingly as I put the finishing touches on the mechanisms.
A surge of power hits me. I grab another cloud; another happy time. The four of us had just gone through initiation, and are on a stage. A man in a green suit with a cane is speaking.
“…And finally; Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao-Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, led by… Ruby Rose!” The crowd goes nuts, and Weiss looks like she just lost Miss Universe or something.
The memory fades. A growl sounds in the void. I whip around, and beady red eyes staring at me. I want to run, but I know defeating this demon is the best way to free myself from Discord’s grip. I still hold the two thought clouds; I concentrate, and mold them into Crescent Rose. I brandish it at the eyes. “You think you can control me? You can’t have me!”
“Ohhhh, I don’t think so,” a voice speaks. “How can you hope to beat me, when I am you?” It steps forwards, and another Ruby made of pure shadow magic appears. She is huge, made of all the parts of me it stole. The thing charges.
I try to block it, but I don’t know how. She bowls me over easily.
“Ha! You cannot hope to hurt me, you little bitch! I hold all, and I mean all, of you. Your likes, dislikes, secrets… fighting moves.”
I answer by swinging wildly, and I actually manage to sever the thing’s arm. It isn’t fazed at all, it just regrows the arm, and shrinks by a teensy bit.
“Pah! Lucky shot! Let’s see how you fare against this.” It tries to do some kind of fancy flip, combined with a shot and decapitation of me, but falls flat on its face.
I have a moment of realization. I dart over, pick up the severed limb, and reclaim part of my lost self. Fighting moves, memories, friends, purpose. I swing Crescent Rose around easily.
“No, I don’t think you’re me. I wouldn’t let down my guard like that, especially against a weaker opponent. Now, let’s see how you deal with the real thing.” I launch a flurry of attacks at the shadow me. It seems to still have some of my moves, but I remedy that by slicing every limb it tries to grow off. It eventually gets smaller than me, but is still trying to fight.
As it comes at me for another round, I step on it, pinning it with my foot. Suddenly, a bright light flares above. I look, and a face I haven’t seen in half a year shows up.
“Ruby! Hang on, I’m casting a spell that’ll break Discord’s influence!”
“Take your time, Twilight. I’ve got it handled.” Not sure if she can hear me, but it’s comforting to know that my friends have arrived.
“Come at me! I am invincible! Hey, what’re you doing? Put me down, I’ll bite your legs off!” I pick the mini-me up, then casually impale it on Crescent Rose.
“Whenever you’re ready, Twilight.” As if she heard me, a blinding pillar beams down, incinerating the last of the influence. I am thrust out of the confines of my mind, and back into my own body. I look around.
We’re inside a castle of some sort. Twilight is in front of me, wand placed to my head. Applejack and another girl are fighting a twisted Weiss, Rainbow is losing ground against Blake, and Fluttershy is unconscious, a small Grimm at her side. Another girl I don’t know is giving Yang a serious run for her money as she flips around, putting lasers everywhere Yang is.
Oh, yes, the floor is nice too. I know, because the moment Twilight took her wand away, my face met it. Hard. I steal a glance at Twilight. She grimaces.
“Sorry.”
----------
“Ruby, don’t do this. It’s me, Rainbow Dash. Remember?”
She stops, the grin dropping a bit. However it only lasts a moment before the grin is back, saying you can’t beat me. Her gun is still pointed right at me, so I don’t move.
“Ruby, please. You don’t need to do this! I know you don’t want to do this. We can help!”
“Help?” She says. “I don’t need your fucking help! Daddy Discord is all the help I need!” she pulls the trigger. I close my eyes. At least I tried…
“NO!” The shot misses me, and impacts the ceiling. I breathe a sigh of relief as I see a bewildered look on Not-Ruby’s face. I smile.
“There’s my girl. I know you’re in there, Ruby. Fight him!”
She goes stock still, gun pointed in the air. Now’s my chance.
I bolt over to Twilight. “Ruby’s fighting it! Use the spell!” I shout as I parry Weiss’ blade.
“Which spell? There’s so many!” She looks almost on the edge of her rope. I can only pray to Celestia she still has enough for this to work.
“The spell you used on us? You know, when Discord did that stuff to us?” She nods in realization, then uses a slab to launch herself backwards. Now, just gotta deal with Ms. Ice Queen until her partner is taken care of.
----------
“Oh, come on!” I shout as a glyph bounces me into the air, out of control. Obviously, Twi really is the only one of us who can face Weiss, as she’s just having a heyday with me. Every time I get near her, she lands a glyph right under me, teleporting me somewhere or bouncing me in the air or collapsing the floor around me. I try to gain some distance to shoot her, but she just summons, what else, another glyph that stops all of my shots in midair, Maretrix style. Unlike The Maretrix, though, Weiss can launch my bullets back with ease, forcing me behind cover. And by ‘cover’, I mean a destroyed or intact pillar that has more glyphs behind it.
It is during one of my bouncy moments that I glance back at Twi and Ruby. I can feel the magic coming off of Twi in waves, concentrating hard as she tries to force Discord out of Ruby’s head. I also see Rarity joining Applejack to fend off Blake, as Blake moves behind Twilight, blade in hand.
What?
Oh shit! Those two are fighting her Shadow! She showed me this power, how she can leave a short-lasting shadow behind her, but infuse with Chaos’ energy, the Shadows possess a real threat.
Time for the ace. I spread my wings, and soar down at Blake, catching her off guard. She flips back, missing me by an inch. Her Shadow across the room dissipates, ad AJ and Rarity waste no time in seeing me, then going after Weiss. Blake looks at me in wonder, then… hunger?
“Ooh, a pretty birdie! I wanna eat it!” she bares fangs. Oh, did I forget to mention Blake is a Faunus? Specifically, a cat Faunus; she hides her kitty ears under her bow. As Blake the Agent, she is more like half-cat, one-quarter human. Long black tail, tall pointed ears, and yes, long glistening fangs. She curls into a hunched figure, then launches ten feet in the air right at me.
Shit shit shit shit shit! I poke her out of the air with the butt end of Rainboom. Think; she’s a cat. What do cats love more than birds? It comes to me.
“Pinkie! Confetti Ball Shot, right here!” A BOOM answers, and a tangled ball of party paper thunks down. I swing Rainboom like a bat, sending the ball flying. Blake immediately gives chase. “Sufferin’ succotash that actually worked.”
I look over to the clueless duo to see Ruby do an epic face plant. Twilight drags her over behind a group of destroyed pillars, as far away from the fighting as she can. I fly over.
“What’s the story?”
Twilight is panting. “Fairly good. The influence is gone, but Ruby’s gonna be out of it for a while.”
“N-no, I can fi-fight, really… I can…” Ruby tries to get up, but slumps back down.
“No you aren’t. You’ve still got a lot of chaos energy in your body. It’ll take some time to purge it all.” She looks up. “Time we probably don’t have. Look.”
I look, and Lord Chaos stares right back. I can see shadows moving across the floor back to him, and I see the slightest hint of disbelief on his face. “Shit, he’s onto us. We need their help, Twi!”
“Maybe I can be of assistance,” a familiar voice sounds. Twilight and I whip around to see Luna stepping out of the shadow of a pillar. She keeps her head down, not letting Chaos see her, and comes to Ruby’s side.
“What? Luna? How?” Twilight and I are gibbering at the same time, but she quiets us.
“In truth, I never left. I knew you would need our help, Twilight Sparkle, and so we stayed, hidden in the shadows.” She looks at Ruby. “Ah, Chaos’ magic still rides within her. I can remove it, but it will take time, thankfully, less time than the natural purge. Twilight, you need to begin the restoration process on the other three. Unfortunately, the more you stop, the more influence Chaos will put on the remaining Agents.” She catches our looks, and adds, “Personal experience. Now go! Rainbow, you must stay.”
Twilight dashes off, and I face Luna. “Why? They’ll need my help taking the other girls!”
“Nay, you need to stall Chaos so he doesn’t become suspicious and find us. Oh, hello Cel.”
I whip around again (really starting to hurt my neck with that) and behold Celestia behind another pillar, a pout on her lips.
“Oh, man! I thought, for once, I could get an upper hand on you, Sis!”
Luna smirks. “Not a chance. Now, give Rainbow Dash some of your power.”
“What? Why?”
Celestia answers, “In case you haven’t noticed, my little Pegasus, Chaos in his true form holds greater power than any of you, and almost as much as Luna or I. We cannot reveal ourselves, or he will join the fight, and we will lose all of you. If I give you my power, you may be able to stall him enough for Twilight to finish the other three, and Luna and I to purge the influence from them.”
“Uh, Princess, I’m not sure I can handle—”
“Nonsense. Of course you can!” Then she takes my hands, and I light up like a light bulb. No, seriously. I look at my arms, and they are quite literally glowing. My wings have become giant, lighting up in all the colors of the rainbow. I feel Rain and Boom grow heavy I their holsters. I pull them out, and with the physical contact, they morph into full-auto machine guns, but are somehow still just as light as my revolvers. I place them together, and Rainboom forms into a large staff, topped at each end by two feet of steel. This is a different feeling than when I felt the connection that first day. This is more of a respect, as if Rainboom is a sentient being, who has chosen me as being the one to wield it. I spin it perfectly.
“Now, our boost is temporary, but should stall Chaos long enough for us to finish, then help. Do not dawdle.” I nod, and step out from behind the wrecked pillars.
Chaos bolts to his feet as I approach. I can feel the worry coming off of him.
“What? Who are- Ms. Dash? How are you…?”
“Oh, you didn’t get the memo, Chaos?” I twirl Rainboom a bit, showing off more than anything. “Since Celestia and Luna couldn’t be bothered to fight you, they gave me their power. Well, Celestia did, at least. Hear that? The Angels, the ones who have beat you thousands of times, didn’t want to come and kill you one last time. How does that make you feel?”
With a roar, he launches himself at me, a shadowy bastard sword forming in his grip as he flies. I meet his blade with Rainboom, stopping him in his tracks. Now he’s furious.
“How can you block me?”
I wave my fingers in front of my face and say, “Magic.” I shove the sword down, and swing at him.
He backs up, as do I. I use the room to go full-auto on his shadowy ass. I open up with Rain and Boom, and the entire back wall of the room is blown apart. Now he is moving like that stallion in The Maretrix, flipping around and somehow avoiding every single shot I launch at him. I take a moment and spare a glance at the others. Weiss is conked out, being dragged to Fort Kickflank by Rarity, Blake is against a wall, fighting Fluttershy and her Grimm, and Pinkie and Applejack are still chasing Yang around the room.
I turn back in time to catch a fist full of face. Wait, no, a face full of fist. Either way, I’m launched into the nearest pillar. I look up, dazed, to see him looming over me. He’s about to bring his sword down, when he freezes.
“No! Not my Ice Princess!” He regards me with unadulterated hatred. “What are you doing to my Agents?”
I tsk at him. “Shoulda paid more attention on Equis, Chaos. How did we beat you before?” Before he can answer, I blast him backwards with Boom. Rain complains, something about his brother getting more action, so I let him loose too. We fill Chaos with holes, which rapidly close up in time for another bullet to enter the same spot. I’m having fun.
Click.
Son of a fillyfooler! I scramble for more ammo, but Chaos doesn’t let me have the chance. I switch back to the double halberd, and the fight resumes in earnest.
We clash for several minutes. The only reason I’m not dead from exhaustion is the near-infinite energy reserves the Princess gave me. As I parry him again, his face contorts in agony. Not even going to question which one my fiends got this time, but soon enough, a fluffy ball of Grimm takes out Chaos’ legs. As I backflip away, he gets covered in a goop rocket. I turn and yell at Fluttershy, “There’s nothing left of Discord in there! Blast him with everything!”
She looks at me. “Everything?”
“EVERYHING!!!!!!”
She nods, loads a high-yield (as evidenced by the black and yellow striped tape on the side), and blasts Chaos’ goop puddle with it. However, he’s not there. He’s back on his throne, looking royally pissed off, pissed on, and pissed around.
I sense someone to my right and left, and the other girls are beside me. We approach the throne.
Chaos gets desperate, throwing anything he can at us. We either deftly avoid, or cut down whatever he launches, until we are at the foot of the dais. I step forward.
“Give up Chaos. There’s nowhere left to run. Just step down so we can force you back into whatever depth Tartarus has planned for you.”
He growls, then launches an attack with all his power. We barely have enough time to activate the Elements and answer with our own beam of Rainbow Friendship Magic. The beam dance back and forth, trying to gain an edge over the other. Even with the Elements, we can’t hope to match him. I wince as we start sliding backwards as the dark magic begins to overwhelm the power of Friendship.
“Now, Sister!” The Princesses swoop down on either side of us. Chaos sees, and laughs maliciously.
“Ha! You’ve broken your promise! Now watch as your precious student perishes!”
“Nay, Chaos,” Luna retorts, “We are not here to fight you. We are here to finish what we should have done millennia ago!” And with that, the Princesses add their power to the Friendship Cannon. With the added power, the beam quickly overtakes the shadow and rushes at Chaos. As it impacts, I have time for the last word, as always.
“Taste the Rainbow, motherbucker.”
