Embrace of Light and Dark

by Knight of Crows

Chapter 71.

Equinox POV

"What is that you're carrying on your lower back?" I asked Ruby, who became, I think excited at the question.

"This? It's Crescent Rose!" She pulled it out, it extended and unfolded into a scythe.

"That's a big scythe." I commented.

"It's also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle!" She continued.

"A what?" I didn't understand.

"It's also a gun." She said, plainly.

"I don't know what a gun is." I told her, she looked at me like I grew a second head.

"How do you not know what a gun is??!!" She shouted.

"I woke up with amnesia not long ago, the only weapons I've seen being used were swords and spears. Though I have no idea what two of mine are." I answered.

"You don't know what your own weapons are?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well I can make a shuriken and a couple scythes out of ice and other elements."

"And what about-"

*growling*

We both stopped, are these things supposed to be this close to town? Timberwolves I mean.

"What are these things?" Ruby asked as she took a stance.

"Timberwolves. If nothing else, they're vicious, relentless, according to bestiaries anyway." I summoned Silence and Thorn before throwing the scythe near one group to my side and shooting the group in front of me with Thorn before they could get close. They died quickly. I heard several loud noises similar to what Thorn and Lumina make, but paid them no mind as I threw a Withering Blade at the frozen ones. As I turned in Ruby's direction, I saw she was already done.

"You work fast." I commented before shooting one last wolf that was about to lunge at her.

"I thought you said you didn't know what a gun was?!" She crossed her arms and looked at me for an explanation.

"I don't."

"YOU'RE HOLDING ONE RIGHT NOW!!" She shouted.

"Is that what this is?" I gestured to Thorn.

"YES!!"

"Okay then." I desummoned it and continued towards Fluttershy's, but she did that thing again and got in front of me.

"Was that your Semblance just now?" She asked.

"My what?" Was my response.

"Your Semblance! You know, an ability fueled by your Aura that's almost, if not exclusive to you?" She clarified.

"I think that was magic, I don't know what those are." Are all humans like this besides me?

"Where have-oh right, amnesia." She said in an almost defeated tone.

"Is that thing you do your 'Semblance'?" I asked her.

"You mean this?" She turned into that red thing again and circled around me a few times before stopping a few feet in front of me. "Yup!"

"Okay." I walked past her.

"You're not very talkative, are you?"

"Not really, no."

"What about that ice you used?" She stared at me intensely.

"You mean this?" I summoned Silence again, but she looked at me with I think confusion and I think sadness.

"Your eyes..." She choked, I barely heard what she said.

"What about my eyes?" I asked.

"Why do you have Maiden powers?" She held her hand over her weapon as she looked at me angrily.

"Maiden powers? But I'm not a mare. What are you talking about?" I asked Ruby, who became even more confused.

"I'm sorry, 'mare'?" Was her response.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not female, and you made it sound like I needed to be to gain these 'Maiden powers'." I said as I threw Silence behind me.

"Well, normally, but he found a way around that, apparently." She said as her hand went back to her side. She looked like she wanted to say something, but chose not to as she stepped to the side and let me pass her.

"So who was Cassiel to you?" I asked Ruby.

"He wasn't just my teammate, he was family to me and the rest of the team." She answered.

"I see. So you were close?"

"Not as close as he was with one of my other teammates, but he thought of the rest of us like we were sisters to him."

"What happened to him?"

"He... I don't know... Exactly... He was there, and he just... Faded away." She choked again.

"'Faded'- AGH!!!" I clutched my head in pain, Ruby stopped and quickly came to my side.

"Are you alright?"

---

Weiss POV

(Canterlot Gardens, 1 hour before)

"You had ONE job, Ruby! You figured out how to open the portal, but Cassiel is nowhere in sight, and I can't find anyone from our team!"

I don't know how long I was out, I just know that there are several voices shouting something about an intruder. Why wouldn't I be dropped into a guarded area? Peaking through the bushes,- what am I looking at? They all look like humanoid horses in gold or black-ish purple armor. Maybe I can- nevermind, some have wings!!! And the horned ones can teleport!!!

"OVER HERE!" I didn't notice the guard behind me before he alerted the rest.

"Winter would be so disappointed in me right now." I internally groaned. In seconds, I was surrounded by guards. I was hoping to get out unnoticed, and I don't want to start an incident. This probably wasn't a good idea, but I had to bet on "Nevermore" being a guard like the ones here, so I laid Myrtenaster on the ground and held my hands above my head before they gave the order.

"I'm not here for trouble, I'm looking for someone named 'Nevermore'." I hoped they would listen to me. A few of them did and lowered their weapons slightly. One who I'm assuming is the commanding officer stepped up as two guards put distance between me and my weapon.

"How do you know Nevermore?" The one in gold and purple armor asked with a suspicious tone.

"I don't know them personally, though I do know the boy she was in a sense, a caretaker for." I answered, realization dawning on his face.

"I'll handle this from here. Back to your stations!" He ordered the rest before signaling to the guard with my weapon to hand it to him.

"What's going on?" I asked as the guards restraining me released me.

"Nevermore hasn't been seen in a long time now, about the same time as the human she was responsible for disappeared as well."

"Do you mean Cassiel?!"

"I never met him, but yes. We'll talk along the way,-" he returned Myrtenaster to me "-the princesses will want to speak with you, but as court is in session right now and protocol dictates, you'll have to stay in a cell until we're ordered to release you." He started leading the way.

"'Princesses'?"

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. If you're like Cassiel or Equinox, you probably came from another world." He clarified.

"Equinox?" That's a strange name.

"The other human who arrived not long ago. But before we get into that, tell me about your connection with Cassiel?"

---

Yang POV

(Everfree Castle, late in the evening)

"This place has seen better days, kind of reminds me of the ruins in the Emerald Forest. Can't find the others either, might be a good idea to crash here for the night."

It took me a while, but I found a room with a moon on the door that looked to be in decent condition, if filled with dust everywhere.

"Dust aside, this room is in really good condition! No webs, no rust on the metals, nothing you'd expect from ruins old enough for nature to claim it. And the bed is SUPER comfortable!"

Sleep quickly took ahold of me. Since that day, my nightmares returned to me. The order is never the same. The Apathy, Weiss being impaled, my round in the singles, The Fall, Penny... Blake and Cassiel... My arm.

This time, it started when I went searching for Blake and Cassiel, fighting my way past every Grimm and White Fang that got in my way. I had just blasted a Fang outside what was a window to a classroom. I took a few more steps before turning right to the classroom in question after hearing a scream, desks and seats were all over the flaming room. Cassiel was bleeding out on the ground and Adam had just stabbed Blake. Everytime, I always do the same thing, even when I try to do things differently. I leap at him in blind rage and lose my arm before waking up. This didn't happen this time. Everything just vanished, replaced with Beacon before The Fall.

"Wha-..." I looked around in confusion, my arm replaced with the prosthetic after I looked down at it.

"Another human? Interesting." A voice came from out of nowhere. A flash from behind me caused me to quickly turn around, ready to pummel whatever showed up. A blue horse-lady with a horn and wings stood a few meters away.

"Not going to ask what you are."

"Who are you and what's going on?!" I asked her, she raised a hand in response.

"At ease, I came to relieve you from your nightmare. Though I wasn't expecting to find yet another human so soon after the last three." She said.

"That doesn't answer my other question, now what other humans are you talking about?"

"I am Princess Luna, and two of them were in your nightmare. The girl with the silver hair and the boy on the ground with the keyblade behind the one who hurt your other friend. Though one of them look very close to the third one." She answered.

"Weiss and Cassiel are here??!!"

"Weiss is here as a guest in Canterlot, nopony has seen Cassiel for a long time." He's not here?

"DAMNIT!!!" I punched the wall in anger.

"What is your connection to them?"

"They're my team, my family!" She looked at me, surprised.

"I thought Cassiel had no family? Tell me everything."

---

Blake POV

(Realm of Darkness)

These things keep appearing out of nowhere! Less threatening than a Beowolf for the most part, but their numbers are insane! Is this where Cassiel and the others are? Every time I destroy one of these shadow-like things, another takes it's place! A few with emblems like what Cassiel had on his chest and back would come now and then, more dangerous, but still easily dispatched. After what felt like hours of fighting, they finally stopped coming. As I was taking a moment to catch my breath, I heard waves crashing against something. The sounds led to a place that felt somewhat safe.

I took a seat on one of the rocks and stared off into the horizon. There's so much darkness here that I can't tell if that's a sun or a really bright full moon.

"I'm sure he would like this place." I thought.

"You don't belong here." A voice said from behind me. I immediately drew Gambol Shroud and Lionheart.

"Is he one of those things too?" I can't see his face, but I don't like the fact he wears that emblem.

"This is the Realm of Darkness, perhaps with the exception of the horizon here, there is no Light to be found." He took a seat away from me, I holstered my weapons.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

"A fragment, you may call me Abaddon. The only people I would expect to find themselves in a place as unforgiving as this are either looking for something, seeking power, victims, or escape from the cruelty of False Light. Which are you?" He asked.

"I'm looking for my team."

"They are not here, they do not belong here either, but to honor a few memories, I can point you in the right direction." He opened a portal between us as he continued to stare off into the distance.

"'Honor a few memories'?" What does he mean by that?

"Not important. The only ones who belong here are those tied to Darkness. A Light as true and bright as yours does not belong here. You'll find them in due time."

"You talk like you know us."

"When you cross over, protect that Husk until later." He moved behind me so fast that I couldn't react to it, pushing me into the portal. I landed outside of a town called 'Ponyville', the portal closing behind me.

"Someone must have really loved horses."

Author's Note:

I've been debating whether to have Weiss appear in the empire or Canterlot for a while now. I said progress would be slow after the RWBY arc because most of the work wasn't done by someone else unless the chapter(s) take place in an episode on that series.

For anyone thrown off by the extent of Ruby's reaction to Equinox having the powers, I think it'd be better to think of it as her clinging to the hope Cassiel's still alive. Xemnas said in KH3 when he was about to kill Axel that "they didn't need his soul, only his heart". This was the only time I can remember when the two were spoken of as separate things. Though I do think it's more fitting to think of both as the same given the context throughout both KH and this story.

While it might be OOC for her, I don't see much harm, if any for her to remember/ conclude that Cassiel might be fragmented to some degree like Summer, and try to keep a cool head like she was able to do multiple times in the series. I mean, she saw Pyrrha and Penny die (her first death) on the same night, or the aftermath of Blake and Yang's encounter with Adam, but didn't lose it like Jaune did in V5, or how she didn't seem to go berserk after Yang "died" in V8. She didn't go into an actual panic when Qrow was poisoned by Tyrian. She quickly recovered from Salem's comment about Summer, and even the implications regarding the Hound.

She's been able to keep her composure under circumstances that would've blinded anyone else with murderous rage or extremes of other emotions, that is why her character here might seem off here. It can be argued that it's poor writing, but she's been able to push past so much shit and not let it distract her from what needed to be done.

As for Yang's nightmare, I thought it wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility that her nightmares would return to her with Cassiel "gone". I was thinking about her landing by Zecora, but I didn't want to spend so much time thinking of rhymes that I'd have to rewrite a portion of the chapter.

Blake being the closest to Cassiel, even if it doesn't make sense that she landed in the Realm of Darkness, I thought it fitting that she land as close to him (his Heartless anyway) as she did.

Comments

[zachary12]

nice work.

[kuroi-me]

it was an interesting chapter and quite calm in a way.

[taelonso]

I can feel the concussion of this ark getting closer and team RWBY finally seeing there fifth member becoming whole again and I'm sure Blake will pounce on him the moment it happens lol

[taelonso]

Also great work on the chapter

[kuroi-me]

10806312
i think the same as you.

no longer a headache for Equinox because seeing blake and hearing his voice will surely bring him memories of cassiel.

[Error 404 pic not found]

So how did team rwby get so separated when going through the same portal as Blake appears in the realm of darkness even making it to the black shore.

[Knight of Crows]

10808667
I kind of want to say it was Ruby's inexperience, I also kind of want to say it was like when Sora got separated from the others (can't remember how) in worlds like I'm pretty sure he did in Tarzan's world, but I decided to do a mixture of the first and how strong each members' connections with him were.

[taelonso]

I also think Blake will see how much the world like horses once she sees the residents of said town of ponyville lol then she sees Equinox i see her glomp him cause they were from what I've seen really physical with each other then maybe pinkie will as she will see it as fun and maybe once team RWBY is back together Equinox will become whole again I am just getting really eager for this to finish a ark that feels really long I mean the shield hero one didn't feel this long

[Knight of Crows]

10812213
I think I've said this before, but I was planning on ending the RWBY arc at the end of S3, but thought it would've been OOC for him to leave after how attached he became to his team, and I think it was good for his character development in the long run. But yeah, 30+ chapters covering seasons 1-7 was pretty long, not including the Nobody arc. With that said, I will be skipping over a lot of episodes in Avatar and Black Clover (still haven't decided what his magic will be).

[taelonso]

10812553
This has me getting twichy again the need to know what happen next is just Maddening I hope the flying purple hippos don't come back ( if any one know where that is from would be kind of impressive) lol but still I see those fuckers when I start losing it