DISCLAIR: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishnt at threads/rwby-the-gar-the-gas-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.
Ninth Interlude - Raven Branwen
Even with prior experience, the suddenness of it all still caught her by surprise. It wasn't a gradual thing, sothing that built up and allowed her to grow used to it and adaptit was like a switch being flipped, an instantaneous change that ca without warning.
And the mont it did, she felt everything change. It was like a portal had opened into her heart, flooding it with liquid fireenough that for a mont, she honestly believed she might spontaneously combust and burn to ash. Instead, it flowed through her veins, spreading its increasing warmth to her limbs. If her veins had started to glow through her skin, it wouldn't have co as a surprise.
Then it began to solidify, taking shape as a network of power and light inside of her, pulsating in tune with her heartand she began to change. She felt her skin harden into sothing besides human flesh, steady waves of energy rewriting the very fabric of her being. Energy, untold and absurd amounts of energy, gathered in her muscles, giving her strength and speed. At the sa ti, the world began to slow to a crawl, monts beginning to drag and stretch around her.
And then the world began to open up, as if a veil had been lifted. Where there had once been darkness, now there was a riotous calamity of light, expanding across her field of vision. For a mont, she felt like she'd been blindedwhile at the sa ti, like she was seeing the world for the first ti. Things fell away and beca aningless as visible light was revealed to be nothing but a fraction of the much broader spectrum. Colors flashed before her eyes that she had no reference for, because they were a mixture of more than just three primary colors, while the illusion of solidity was dispelled throughout the world around her as matter was broken into a billion tiny parts by her gave. The blue sky vanished, replaced by remnants of cosmic phenona that painted broad stokes of light upon it.
It wasn't just her eyesor rather, her eyes beca an almost aningless part of it all. She could feel the brush of air against her skin and the very touch of light, and it was enough for her to 'see' by. Her senses combined and expanded until there was no practical difference between what she could hear or see or feel. It was an onslaught of sensory information, even before taking into account the fact that ti had been slowed trendously, giving her ample opportunity to take in everything.
And then there were the things that went above the normal senses, beyond them. As she cast her gaze over the battlefield, she could see traces of things left behind long ago, blurred images of n and won dying at the hands of the Grimm, of carnage and bloodshed and terror. She could see traces of Aura seared into the world around her, sothing at once blindingly pure and terrifyingly infectious. The lesser powers that had been unleashed throughout the battle had left its mark as well, in vague flickers and flashes, but they were nothing compared to the volcanic eruptions of light that marked traces of what had been left elsewhere.
But all that was dwarfed, literally and figuratively, by the figures that stood above it all, revealed for what they were. She saw Jaune as a towering figure, similar to the form he sotis adopted but made distinct by his sheer size as he towered to the heavens and covered the sky with his thirty-twofold wings. Countless eyes burned like stars, brilliant even against a background of pure white, and even knowing it was just an image, she was surprised his gaze didn't incinerate everything it touched.
Beside him was another figure, expect beside him wasn't the right word. Adjacent to him, within him, reflecting himit had elents of all these things, but none of them fit quite right either. Regardless, the figure that stood with him seed like an inversion of him; made of darkness where he burned with light, gaze literally frigid, and seeming to cover the sky above and below Jaune's wings with darkness. That must have been Jaune's second soul, his twin and partner. Seen this way, they seed like an angel and a devil, but also seed united, allied despite how they appearedand they stood in opposition to the sa foe.
The final figurewho could only have been Malkuthwas a giant as well, every bit as tall as either of the twins, but distinct. The twins, though opposite to each other, were similar in that their presence was like a brand upon the world, like divinity trespassing upon the mundane. Their presence was impossible not to notice and she was sure that had anyone else possessed the senses she'd no gained, they'd have been able to spoke either of them from miles awayhundreds of miles, possible.
Malkuth was different. His true appearance was a subtle thing, seeming to bend into the patterns of the world around him. Even as colossal as he was, he seed like a nature part of the worlda mountain that pierced the sky, perhaps, but still a mountain, a natural aspect of the world, however remarkable. Looking at him more closely than that only furthered that impression, because his form was almost like a window or, perhaps, a mirror. Looking into him, she saw the world and saw it fill with life over what must have been eons, even as she also saw the here and now, the world she was faced with and lived in.
Seeing him like thatseeing them like thatleft her feeling very, very small.
Taking it all in, on top of what her own Semblance providedher brain felt like it was overheating. Almost literally, in factlike sothing was slowly breaking inside of her. But it never quite ca to pain, though the sensation stopped only just short of it; as soon as it appeared like it might cross that line, the feeling dulled slightly, as if the feeling was escaping her mind. That would be Jaune's work, she imaginedhealing her before she was even hard or sothing to that effect.
None of which really changed how striking the experience was. This was how he viewed the world, every daybut even just a glimpse of it was terrifying. That was the best way to describe it; the breadth of the world seen through his eyes was horrific. Seeing it this way could haveperhaps should havedriven her mad.
But she was a Huntress. She managed.
Besideseven if it wasn't in quite the sa way, having a broad view of things was sothing she was used to.
Taking a mont, she forced herself to calm down and focus ca to her even more quickly than it usual did. Once she found that center, it was a simple matter to tap into her powerin fact, it was hard not to, especially at a ti like this. Truthfully, she felt as if soone had torn the heart out of her chest and replaced it with a burning star, such was the power flowing through herlike it would incinerate her if she didn't shed it all, though she couldn't possible get rid of even a fraction of it.
But there was one place for her to start.
Taking a slow breath, she channeled that power, gathering it behind her right eyeand felt the world start to break.
It was like walls falling away again, the background information she had struggled for so long to master and control rushing back in through the cracks. As it had since she was a young girl, the broadening of her awareness both gave her a way out and trapped her further. With a thought, her view of the world warped and shifted elsewhere, showing her places far distant. Any place, coming upon her in a chaotic, uncontrolled rushed of images.
When she'd been younger and less experienced, it had been hard to even function after her Semblance first developed. She'd never forget that first month, when she'd been bedridden, where even a stray thought could tear her from the present and draw her mind round the world. At first, she'd tried to just blot it out and ignore it, but that had proven unfeasible in short orderit wasn't sothing she could stop thinking about and it wouldn't go away. There had been tis when it almost seed like she was in control of it, but then a single word or the sight of sothing unfamiliar would shatter her grip on it and she'd feel like she was sowhere else.
In a way, it had been similar to what she was feeling now, though nowhere near as bad, because the issues built upon each other, worsening matters. Where before, she could only focus on a few specific places and things, flipping back and forth routinely, now things began to flood her vision. A thousand different images, a thousand different places, a thousand different peopleand she could see them all clearly, at the sa ti. But whatever the breadth of the problem, the solution remained the sa.
Before her power could fly away with her, she tied herself down with what she could see.
Her brother had been the first, in no small part because he had been the only at that point in ti. Back when she had been plagued by her power, he'd been the one to take care of her, even feeding her on the days when a particularly jarring image would make her drop dishes or shatter glasses. He'd beenhimself, but that had been reassuring in its own way. She'd thought that whatever happened, at least her brother would never changeand that had been what anchored her. Whenever sothing happened or her power started to infringe upon her thoughts, she'd look to him as a way of self-assurance. He was still there by her side, so she was still here, not in the snowy mountains of scorching deserts or whatever else happened to spring to mind.
But she'd been young and, before she knew it, things had changedfor the better, mostly. They'd gone to Beacon and she'd been place upon a team. She'd found friendships, really friendships, and two more anchors in the process.
For a long ti, it had been just her, Qrow, Taiyang, and Sumrand the rest of Beacon, of course, but she'd never been good at tying herself to places, not when she could be anywhere. People were different; she could cross from Vale to Vacuo in a second, from Atlas to Mistral in a step, but who she was with, who she stood beside? They were how she determined 'here' and 'there.' Qrow had always understood that and the others had co to as well.
Other things, it had taken them longer to realize, for which she was soone glad. Her innocence, optimism, and nativity had been short-lived after she acquired her Semblancean unfortunate downside of being able to see what was happening behind the scenes. She couldn't even rember when it had first started, but all it had taken was so idle musings about what the Council was doing, or so famous Hunter, or whoever else. What people did when they thought nobody was lookingwell, she'd learned various things, quite a few of them things people wouldn't have liked.
So of them, things she herself hated. She'd dread of being a Huntress since she was a girl, sa as most young childrenbut that dream began to tarnish as she grew older and learned more and more about what went on behind the scenes. So of it had to do with the darker choices Hunters sotis had to make and the things that were carefully edited out of the tales told to childrenbut mostly, it was the people who pulled the strings. So many decisions, so many plans, so many 'necessary sacrifices.' She'd been watching heroes die since she was a child because of what they deed 'necessary,' and so much of it had seed pointless. What purpose did it serve but to deep the lies she couldn't help but see through? And knowing that in becoming a Huntress, she might beco a sacrifice herselfthat her friends might bleed and die for the wishes of so distant council
She'd told Qrow about it, on one of the nights she'd been unable to sleep and had been completely unsurprised by his reactionhe'd decided on the spot to rise to the top, until he was the one holding the strings and could make things 'right.' It had made her smile, because he was always like that and always serious about what he said, but she'd wondered even thenhow could they fix anything? They were Hunters; powerful, yes, but that power leant itself primarily to killing things and there were only so many ways to cause wide-spread political change with a sword. Her brother wouldn't even consider any of them, even knowing the truth.
But sheshe had. More often then she'd like to admit, she'd considered just appearing from the darkness and slipping a blade between the ribs of a few politicians.
Instead, she'd waited, allowing herself to be tied down further and further. She'd fallen in love, in tiTaiyang had been charming, kind, optimistic, and a part of her team. She'd trust her back to him without a thought and knew she wouldn't be let down. Why not other things? It was common, perhaps even expected, for such a thing to happen, and he was one of the few people she truly trusted. They'd dated and had fun and everyone had smiled, saying they'd expected it for years.
Perhaps they had, but probably not for the real reasons. She's been looking for sothing desperately, sothing she still couldn't pin down preciselysothing that was wholly hers, sothing that would change things and make it so she never wanted to fly away again. She'd found a husband, a house, romance, a career, and, in ti, even a daughter.
But not what she'd been looking for.
She'd always rember the day her daughter was born, the day she'd first held Yang in her arms. She'd been beautiful, even thenprecious and innocent as a only an infant could be, with her father's hair and what she thought might have been her own features. Labor had been uncomfortable, but looking at her daughter had made it worth it, and she'd loved her from the mont she saw her. Taiyang had been on one side of her, smiling as brightly as the sun at their daughter, while Qrow had waited at the other, smile making it clear that there would be celebrations in short order. Even Sumr, always so shy and afraid that fragile things might break apart at her touch, and pressed in with a smile. She'd been happy, at ho among friends and family.
anwhile, the Right's Revolution had been building. Atrocities were occurring throughout the Kingdoms and nagerie, tensions bringing the beasts out of n. She's seen it all, unable to stop thinking about it even while giving birth, while holding her daughter, while laughing with her friends. It didn't leave her during the night, didn't leave her in the morning, and it plagued her constantly.
Since the day she'd gotten her Semblance, she had always felt as though she should be elsewhere and it had never been stronger than when she looked at what was happening then. Even her own daughter hadn't been enough to banish itif anything, the feeling only grew stronger for enduring. What kind of mother would look at her daughters face and want to be sowhere else more than she wanted to stay? A bad one, no doubt.
But she had. She had never been good at ignoring what happened before her eyes, which was complicated by how she saw most things, and in the end
She'd left. And knowing what she intended to do, the thods she intended to useshe hadn't co back. A part of that was for their sake, to keep from drawing trouble onto them. She'd never allowed the full truth of her powers to beco known outside her team, but people suspects suspected and once she began, they'd know.
The other part, perhaps the larger part, simple didn't want to look them in the eye and admit the truth or explain it. To tell them she'd valued her self-appointed duty more than them.
Funny where that had led her.
nagerie had only been the beginningbut she knew better than most how important beginnings were to endings. It had been a chaotic place, where the pieces of a thousand broken lives had been left to stew and stir until they boiled over. She'd known from the beginning how things would probably go, and hadn't been surprisedbut one didn't need to be surprised to be appalled.
Most peopleand, surprisingly, even most Faunustended to think of the Faunus race as a united whole. She had no idea why; being mbers of the sa 'species' certainly hadn't united Mankind, after all, and it hadn't done much to historically aid the Faunus, either. While commonly considered a single species, the Faunus were composed of thousands of different groups, who'd made their hos in vastly different locals and shared very different histories. The Faunus had fought with each other as often as they had mankind, for countless different reasons; though so fight be surprised by it now, at the end of the day, a man with scales isn't necessarily any more like a woman with cat ears than he is like a plain human, and for a long, long ti those differences had mattered. Being a Faunus, or being the wrong kind of Faunus, could see you shunned just about anywhere.
Then there were thepolitical issues, the facts that now went unspoken. Slavery and effective slavery had been hallmarks of Faunus history, but where did those slaves co from? The modern train of thought seed to be of humans hunting Faunus down in fields and strapping chains upon them, but such things were raresothing she'd always thought obvious, honestly. If the purpose of owning a slave was to make them work in one's stead, could you really expect soone who owned a slave to go through all the effort of capturing and training one themselves? More often, slaves had co from wars between groups of Faunus, with the defeated being conquered and enslaved by the victors and later sold to human settlents for profit. When people think of the historical treatnt of the Faunus, they tended to brush over that or assu that every group was treated the sa by mankind, when the so-called Slave Kings had been seen as nobles by the n of their ti.
People always seed to forget that peopleFaunus or otherwiseare more than just one thing. There had been slaves and slaves, Kings and Kingdoms, wars and sacrifices and defeats. Boundaries based on holand, on culture, on appearance, on blood, or on 'history.' For all that people thought of them as being one, the Faunus were just people; varied and complicated and fractured along a million lines.
Her mother had been a slave. Perhaps not called such, but the fact remained that she hadn't belonged to herselfshe had always been another's, for as long as she had known her. Perhaps one of those owners was her father, though all the ones she rembered had been noblewon, keen to sell and trade the body of another; quite frankly, she'd never asked or wanted to know and she'd left before it could ever matter. When they were still children, too young to work or do much else but take up space and food, they'd been cast out and left to fend for themselves.
Neither of them had found much sympathy on the streets, not even from their own kindthey were Faunus, yes, but with traits so muted it hardly seed to an anything unless attention was drawn to it. When there were young, it had seen them shunned by everyone around them, caught between two sides. It had always amused her how people had cared then and never even noticed later on, but she supposed that had been for the best. After a few years, no one even knew who or what she was and so no one had sought to discriminate against her, oppress her, or force her to do anything. Not that it would have worked out for them if they had, of course, but they hadn't even thought to try.
And no one had so much as looked her way when the Faunus were being gathered and locked up in nagerie. People had even co up and talked to her about it, asking her to take a side on the issue or chi in for or against the Faunus. It had been laughable in its absurdity, but she'd never been able to co up with an answer or decide how she felt. It would have been a lie to say that her race was a matter of pride to her. That wasn't to imply that it was sothing she felt ashad of, so much as it was sothing she felt absolutely nothing at all for. She was a Faunus and she considered that fact pretty much irrelevant to who she was.
But at the sa ti, nagerie had ant sothing to her, even before she stepped onto its shore. Why, she wasn't sureperhaps it was simply the implication, the opportunity. nagerie was the first ti in recorded history that the Faunus could truly be said to be one, united in one place and, presumably, with the desire to escape. In such a situation, it should have been possible for them to work together, to change things as a group, to finally see.
She wanted to say she was surprised when instead they turned upon each other, but she really hadn't been. It was inevitable, however disappointing it may have been; there were too many differences to be put aside, too much history to simply forget, and while Mankind may have been an enemy in a distant sense, they were trapped in a prison with a million other foes. You didn't need to be of different races to do sothing horrible to one another, after all.
If it had just been that, she'd have left them all rotting there and forgotten about themwhat had 'the Faunus' ever done for her, after all? Nothing to help her when she'd been a child on the streets. Why should she feel any loyalty to 'her kind.' She was loyal to her friends, to those that were loyal to her, not to groups of people she'd never t.
But even despite that, there had been a reason why she'd chosen to actto leave her friends and ho behind and enter the nagerie. The organization that would one day beco the White Fang, the dream that went with it, and the people who, despite everyone and everything, were still worth fighting for. Though no one had ever done anything for her, she was a Huntress and she had to be better than those who'd stand back and do nothing while people suffered right in front of their eyes.
With her strength and her Semblance, she'd connected the scattered pieces of her kind, giving them the purpose, focus, and power they needed to act, to change things, and too make things right. She'd found allies and they brought with them others, building upon one another to create sothing powerful, great. A beast of such power that even the Kingdoms had been forced to stop and take heedand they had.
It just hadn't mattered, in the end.
Once the walls ca down and the common enemy vanished, everything she'd built faded away. For a while, she thought that might have been for the bestafter the Revolution ended, things improved. The Faunus were given legal protection and things that had been common where outlawed. After the example nagerie had created, things changed as people realized that the Faunus as a whole could resist and reject. The organization she'd created changed and refocused on bridging the ancient gap between man and Faunus, and for a ti all had seed well.
She hadn't believed it. Unfortunately, because of how much she'd always known of the truth of things, she'd beco a cynic. Even more unfortunately, Remnant was itself and cynicism usually proved itself right. While the Faunus as a whole could resist and execute change, once nagerie was escaped there was no driving need to remain unified and centuries of history working against it. People went back to their hos and their lives and for a while, there was a hush of sortspeople's feelings towards the Faunus hadn't changed overnight, of course, but with a war having only just ended, they were hesitant to act.
Slowly, however, people began to test the boundaries. Minor snubs aid towards Faunus, skipping over them when it ca to opportunities, and so on. While discriminating against Faunus itself was outlawed, it was a simple thing to co up with explanations and excuses; to say they weren't as qualified, perhaps, or to shore up the quality of another worker. If it ca to trial, the court might feel inclined to lean one way, to be more excepting of a story. Laws were important, but in and of themselves they couldn't change everything.
In short order, dissatisfaction began to grow among the Faunus, or at least groups of them. Most were still content with the change, seeing it as a huge step up from where they'd been previously, however short it may have fallen from the ideal. So refused to accept that, fighting against itpeacefully, at first, but the Kingdoms of Remnant had always been good at brushing uncomfortable truths under the rug. There were rallies and protests and marches, and all too often they ca to naught. Those who believed in the cause needed no swaying, after all, while those who laughed at it could ignore it with ease. Things grew from there and the organization she'd helped build quickly returned to its militant roots.
It would be a lie to say that displeased her, but an exaggeration to say it made her happy. As far as she was concerned, violence was just another way to accomplish ones goalsbut it wasn't the only way nor the best in every situation, and like any other thod, there were limits and conditions to its use. Violence, or even the threat of violence, could change hearts and minds, but it was sowhat difficult to use it too its full effect from a position of weakness. The White Fang was a shadow of the beast that had ford during the Revolution; a vocal minority, but still a minority. Most of the soldiers who had cut their teeth in the war had found work in the Kingdoms, partially because ones race or species didn't matter to the Grimm and partially because the Kingdoms were wise enough not to antagonize the group most likely to be able to oppose them. Those who could fight had been accepted with relative ease.
It was those who couldn't who had the most reason to protest, but, of course, they had very few ans to do so. That was the White Fang that had sprung up in the aftermath of the Revolution; those who'd been angered enough to turn to violence but lacking any ans to be a true threat. By her reckoning, it was better to resist than to not, but the Kingdoms wouldn't even notice such a thing.
In ti, it had been possible to change that, but it had been harder than during the warand, truth be told, her heart wasn't really in it any more. She had felt committed to the path she had set out on, but seeing where it had led and knowing what had co of it wasdiscouraging. She aided the budding White Fang where she could, calling in a few favors and reminding several allies she'd made of their past loyalties. Though the new mbers were non-combatants, they could be trained and, given ti, beco fighters in their own right. She wasn't convinced it would much matter, given their size relative to the power of the Kingdoms, but it had been sothing. But with limited enthusiasm and nothing to do but wait, she had focused on other things.
Her son, for instance.
When she'd first found Adam, she'd seen sothing in him that reminded her of herself and her brother; of what they could have been, perhaps, but for one another. nagerie had done horrible things to even the best of people and it was no place for a childand seeing one rage across the countryside, seemingly hell-bent on destroying everything in his path, himself, or both, had beensaddening. But it had also served as sothing of a reminder for her, of what a part of her had always dreamt of doing to all the monsters she'd seen with her Semblance. Seeing it from the outside, seeing it in the eyes of a child no older than she had been when her power first ca to her
She'd put a stop to his rampage and took him in, giving him the aid she'd only received from her brotherbecause he had no one and who else if not her. At first, she'd still kept her distance; she was the teacher and he was the student. It had been difficult to do so, but it had seed wrong to do anything else; to treat Adam as her son after abandoning Yang. She'd left behind her family for the sake of duty, choosing her desires over them. Who was she to play the part of a mother, however much he may have needed one.
Ironically, it had been her reunion with her own mother that had changed all that. It hadn't involved anything like closure, hadn't been a heart-felt reunion after decades apart, but then it wouldn't have been. She'd barely rembered her mother, after all, and she'd never truly considered her such. There had been circumstances and reasons, of course, and she understood that; she'd never hated her for giving them up. It would be pointless to, when she'd had no choice in the matter. But at the sa ti, she'd never loved her.
But she'd lied for the sake of a broken, dying woman who'd lost everything without even having a chance to decide. Said she rembered her, forgave her, and loved her, even when she hadn't felt anything but pity.
She'd watched her mother die and simply walked away. But afterwards, she let herself treat Adam like a son, as if trying to make up for the fact that her mother had never had a daughter.
And so, she'd waited. For a long while, she wasn't sure for what exactlyfor the White Fang to mature into sothing greater, for Adam to grow up, or maybe just for ti to pass her by. She could have gone back to her brother and her team, but she never did; it just didn't feel like she had any right to return, knowing she'd walked away and would again. But she'd watched over them from a distance and she was pretty sure they knew she was.
Sotis, her brother would walk into an empty room and just start talking, like he had when they were kidsspeaking to her, as if she was there, which of course she was. Sotis, it would be just a normal conversation, him talking about his day, and sotis he'd rant and rave at her, as drunkenly insulting as he could get. Either way, the point was the sa; it was an invitation to respond, to reappear and pick up an old argunt or throw sothing at his head or bring up so factoid she'd gleaned from the other side of the planet. Sotis Sumr would sit out in the backyard of her ho with plates and chairs for two, leaving her the option of reappearing and sitting down. And sotis Taiyang would just stay up late and wait for her to co ho.
She never did. Soon enough, they tried to move on and so did she, even if none of them seed particularly sure what moving on ant. On the occasions where they talked about their own deaths and addressed the possibility, they seed to co to an unspoken agreent that they'd die together; that that was the only way they'd ever be separated.
But life has a way of not going according to plan. Taiyang had already decided to beco a teacher and Qrow had decided to follow him; both remained active, performing missions when they could, but focused primarily on preparing the next generation, to make sure they were prepared for what was ahead of them. Sumr had remained an active Huntress, taking missions whenever she could, separating the team once again, but she thought that it'd be okay. She'd told herself that if it every happened, if one of them were in danger, she'd step in to save them and she kept them in the periphery, even nownot so much that they infringed upon her thoughts, but enough to notice if there was a massive change. She'd saved her brother's life a few tis that way.
But she hadn't saved Sumr. Hadn't even noticed that sothing was wrong until she was abruptly gone, vanishing into the wind like she'd never been. With fully half of their team gone, Taiyang and her brother had been visibly crushed, along with her daughter and even Sumr's young girl.
Andshe had been, too. Now, she thought she might know the reason, but back then? She'd wondered and worried. For her to lose track of soone that wayhad she been upset? It hadn't been long after her death that Sumr approached Taiyang and pulled him out of his depression, but she'd thought she'd just accepted thatafter all, she'd been the one to leave. The romance had been a quick one, but so had hers and Taiyang's; when you'd spent over half a decade living and fighting for your life beside each other, one could usually just skip the 'getting to know each other' stage of romance. Even before their first date, she'd known just about everything about Taiyang, inside and out. Literally; she'd seen him naked and disemboweled.
So she'd accepted it and moved on. Or, that's what she'd thought, but Sumr's death made her doubt. She was pretty sure it made the others doubt, too; that first month, they'd seed to just expect that Sumr would return, whether on her own or arm in arm with her. That vanishing off the face of Remnant had just ant she'd swept in to save her, like she should have. After a couple weeks went by, Qrow had even asked about Sumr's condition, speaking to her in an empty roomasking if she knew how she was, if she could find her, if she was watching. She hadn't appeared then, either, simply because she wasn't sure what to say. Whatever had happened to Sumr, she shouldn't have allowed it.
That was when people first started thinking she was dead, sothing she found morbidly amusing. She disappears for years without a word and people just shrugged, but not appearing out of nowhere to save a forr teammate from danger in the middle of nowhere and they assud death must have stopped her. She tried to be annoyed, to get pissed off by their expectations, but that's how it should have been. Instead, Qrow stuck closer to ho for several years, no longer seeming sure that she'd appear to save her team or her daughter if they were in danger.
Ironically, she'd kept a closer eye on them, too. When Yang was old enoughor perhaps, in hindsight, still too youngshe'd even dropped one of the pictures she'd taken with her into her path. She'd deserved to know that much and it was a way of telling those who needed to know that she was still breathing.
But otherwise, she waited and worked behind the sceneslike her brother did, but with a further reach and less need to hide the truth. While she'd thrown off the reins of the Council and the Hunters, she still did what she thought was her duty, now and then. She'd step in to slay the Grimm now and then, stopping them before they could reach a vulnerable village and cause fear and panic to snowball into a massacre, or seeing to it that a few n and woman who'd co into power in villages at the edges of the Kingdom made their way to where they could be trained and do the most good; subtle things, mainly, light touches.
And then there were the major threats, the human ones. It had always been a fear among those who knew; that the wrong person might develop the wrong power and throw the world into chaos. Where she could, she did her part to make sure that didn't happen, whether that ant stopping a man with a Semblance that gave him influence over minds that spread like a virus before he could go too far or killing a growing monstrosity before they shut down every machine in Vale. She was subtle then too, of coursethey'd vanish and no one would even know they'd been there to begin with.
It was almost funny; she'd stopped being the Kingdom's assassin, but hadn't stopped being one. Even so, she made sure to hold back, to keep an eye on threats and only interfere when they proved to be a threat. None of them ever even noticed they were being watched.
Until one did.
'Jian Bing.' A man using the na of a historical Faunus King. She hadn't found out about him until after the White Whale incident, when he'd exploded onto the scene without warning, and by the ti she'd seen the news report, he'd already vanished. Usually, she worked backwards, tracking odd reports back to their sources, but a cursory investigation hadn't revealed anything that pointed to a man acting on such a massive scale. She'd considered investigating more thoroughly, but seeing as her son had been involved, had decided to simply ask instead.
Surprisingly, Adam had been fairly tightlipped about him. He'd told her plenty about Jian Bing, but nothing about where he'd co from or even really how they'd begun working together, except that it was because of Blake, her maybe granddaughterAdam seed about as unsure about that as she had been with him, which was probably because she'd set a bad example. Regardless, it was clear he knew sothing and just as clear he didn't want to be forced to say, which had been at once unexpected and familiar.
It had made it clear he thought of him as a friend, of which Adam had never had many. For that, as much as anything, she hadn't pushed. She wasn't one to act without investigating first anyway, and such a man was bound to cause waves.
And he had. re days later, he returned from his quest with a thousand Faunus refugees and the na Jian Bing was on everybody's lips, at least within the White Fang. So even began to speculate that he might have truly been Jian Bing reborn, though the majority laughed that thought off. Personally, she hadn't been sure what to think and hadn't been sure she cared. He could have been a super robot beneath a human-seeming exterior, a genetic experint gone wrong, soone whose Semblance allowed them to transform into others at the cost of their selfhood, soone using the na for their own ends, or simply crazywhatever the explanation, the fact remained that these things happen.
As it turned out, he was actually an ancient and possibly celestial superweapon gone wrong, now reborn as a human man who was pretending to be the reincarnation of an ancient Faunus king with the help of an exceedingly powerful Semblancewhich, admittedly, was a new one for her.
Of course, she hadn't known that at the ti and instead continued to keep an eye out for himbut besides a few attempted copy cats, Jian Bing seed to vanish off the face of Remnant as soon as his mission was done. She'd known better than to accept such a thing at face value and had continued her vigil, watching to make sure he wasn't doing anything major, but for quite a while, he seed content to do nothing. As if saving those particular Faunus from that particular place was all he'd wanted to do.
And then he'd reappeared in Mistral, just as the situation began to worsen, walking into a White Fang base as if he owned the place and it just didn't know it yet. It had been coincidence more than anything that had given her that first glimpse of himshe'd been there at the sa ti and heard word of her arrival. But when she'd looked in to see what she could learnshe'd been spotted.
That wasn't sothing that happened to her often and the occurrence imdiately set her on edge. She'd grown overconfident, brushing off the possibility for how rarely it occurred, and he'd noticed her with an almost casual ease. Hardly even seeming to twitch at the knowledge he was being watched or even at the sight of her. And he'd recognized her on sight, despite her mask and long absence, and t her eyes without flinching.
All of that spoke to him being a very dangerous man and she'd put up her guard at once. Abruptly, she'd had a thousand questions and no easy way to find answers, not when he could sense her so easily. What was he doing? What else was he capable of? What was he after? She'd tried to ask Adam without letting on how concerned she was with his new friend, but doing so made it difficult to truly demand anything. A part of her wanted to do the sa thing she always did when corneredto act, to movebut she made herself wait, refusing to let such things control her as she continued to wait.
Luckily, she hadn't had to wait for very longthough their second eting was as jarring as the first. The news about Weiss Schnee had been unexpected and she'd been quick to act, knowing she'd need to do so before the moreextre mbers of her group had a chance. That much couldn't be helped, really; with all that the Schnee Dust Company had done, it was impossible for there to be no resentnt held, and regardless of what the girl had or hadn't done, anger like that was only rarely aid. Those who joined the White Fang did so for a reason and if given the chance they would have killed her.
But that was an explanation, not an excuse, and so she'd prepared herself to step in, to deal with things with a cool headuntil Jian Bing had chosen to interfere as well, arrive re monts after she shifted her attention to the scene and appearing as if tearing his way through space. At first, she'd wondered if that was how he'd noticed her, if his power was sohow similar to her ownbut that was only the first surprise he'd had for her.
He'd defeated the heiress, but hadn't killed her. He'd taken what he'd needed from her necklace, but then gave it back. And he'd faced her after doing all of that, with no way of knowing what to expect or how she might react as a mber of the White Fang, and still looked at her without flinching. And he'd followed it all up with offers of alliance, casual displays of power, and knowledge. He'd shown her what she'd co to expect from those in power and had taken it all in calmly, even when her own emotions started to boil over.
And then he'd told her of Babel, of the Grimm, and had spoken of the fate of the world. Of saving it together.
It was strange, after waiting so longto finally have a mission. But strange revelations and unexpected surprises were what she soon ca to expect from Jian Bing. Adventures and impossible things; he seed to defy experience and expectation alike, telling her things that she'd never imagined and sohow making her believe them. Every ti they t, he seed to have changed, as if the break was nothing more than an opportunity to quickly refill his bag of tricks, and when they spoke again
She'd found an answer about what had happened to Sumr. Laid sothing to rest and found yet more goals to work towards, where before she'd spun her wheels in uncertainty. She'd found an enemy to work against, a cause to reinforce, and more. The knowledge of what they were up against had been terrifying in its own right, but for her it was the good kind of fearthe kind that prompts action instead of halting her or slowing her down. She had the power to see everything and she'd learn more in just a brief ti with Jian than she had in years on her own.
But all the while, Jian Bing remained a mystery. With every question she had answered, a dozen more arose. With everything revealed, an ocean was left implied. He had staggering power and shed it as casually as the sun, but who he truly was, she hadn't known. Every ti they t, every ti she looked at him, she'd wondered if she truly knew the tiger for what he really was or if she could only see the stripes. It was a question she'd wanted answer, but not one she could answer for herself.
And then he'd told her the truth.
It had been hard to believe, at first. Still was, in many ways. So of it was terrifying enough that she didn't want to believe it, so of it so incredible that it seed too good to be true, so of it just nearly unbelievable. After his confrontation with Cinderand her true capabilities been terrifying in their own rightwhat he'd told her, what he'd shown her
And yet, hard as it had been to believe, she had. Or rather, she'd believed in himthat what he told her was the truth, however ridiculous or absurd it may have seed. When he told her about his Semblance, about his past, about his true identity, about their true foe, about what she had to expectshe'd believed it. And when he told her about Sumr, had shown her Autumn
It was almost funny now, looking at how things had started to change. She still anchored herself to the world with people, but they'd begun to shiftbecause the people she thought of had changed, in turn. Her brother, Taiyang, her daughter and Sumr'sthey were still there. But now there were others, with them. She thought of Autumn now, instead of Sumr's grave, a new life instead of one lost. When she'd first seen her, she'd been staggered, unsure what to think; had Jian found Sumr sohow, saved her from the creature that had taken hold of her? Or was it sothing else? When he denied it, that had only added to the confusion, causing her to wonder if it was a trick or if she was truly grasping at straws. He'd shown no particular knowledge of Sumr, apart from what they'd learned together, but maybe
She'd wanted to believe. And when Autumn had spoken, giving the answer that Sumr had kept so close to her heartit had just seed to fit. And what they'd found, what they'd done, the pieces they'd put together
She wasn't Sumr, she knew that much. She was what ca after, just like her na. But there were still pieces there, remnants and words and actions that she didn't even think about. She wasn't Sumr, perhaps, but being with her made her think that perhaps she hadn't failed completelyor, at least, that she could still make up for her failure.
Admittedly, she could be a touch odd at tis, owing to her nature as a sapient plant-being, but it was easy to brush it off as a product of her Semblance, which it technically was anyway. She was hardly in any position to judge on that front, regardless. And she was a good student, absorbing things like a sponge despite her age and adapting to her abilities with astonishing speed. The only thing she wasn't sure of was precisely where everything stood with her friends, family, and team, but she was starting to right that up as a lost cause after the confusion Jian had added to it. She couldn't force Autumn into such a thing, couldn't bring her before her once-husband, teammate, and daughters and place the burden of their expectations upon her. Autumn was young enough that she probably was entirely sure who she was, even before adding in her nature as a fallen Huntress reborn as a floral hivemind.
Then there was Adam, her son, happier now than she'd ever seen him, not that he would ever admit it. He had been in her thoughts as one of her anchors since he was a young boy, but her view of him had changed quickly over these past months. He was less cynical, less resentful, for all that he still pretended to be. Instead, there was sothing quietly hopeful, reassured, and confident, like he was sohow certain that things would work outthat they could get better instead of worse. He'd always been one to fight for a cause and to his last breathe, but he'd always been one to doubt if it, or even he, mattered.
He was stronger now, even if he didn't see it. As a fighter and as a person. She'd seen the training regi he'd undergone with Jaune's aid, the tasks he willingly took upon himself, and it was obvious that he was driven in a way he'd never been before. His swordsmanship had improved dramatically for what little ti he'd had to practice, and his skill with his power and Semblance had skyrocketed, to say nothing of the benefits he'd garnered thanks to Jaune's Semblance. As he was now, she knew he could hold his own against so of the strongest fighters she'd ever known.
Then there was Gou, in so ways the oddest addition to her new team. The nearest parallel she could draw was to Zwei, but he had never really been her pet and she'd never desired one. Instead, he had just been one of the things she focused on when she thought of ho. He was still there, at tis, image floating to the surface of her thoughts alongside picture fras and the house itselfa fond mory that tied to her team, of him fighting alongside Taiyang and bouncing through the house. Not a pet, but an associate of sorts, at tis even a fellow warrior and ally.
But Gou wasn't a pet either, nor anything like Zwei. If anything, he was the voice of reason and stability on their teamironic, perhaps, as he was a magical talking dog, but the fact remains. Adam was still impatient, eager to fight and change things. Autumn was young, even if it could be hard to rember how much so when she warped herself into sothing monstrous. She was plagued by things near and far, a thousand things fighting for attention and a need to be resolved, elsewhere even while she was her. And Jaune
Jaune was too far from normal to have any idea what it even was. Intelligent, brilliant even, but if there was anything she could be certain of with him, it was that he probably wouldn't react to sothing in a standard way. No matter how terrifying the situation got, he remained calm, never showing more than he wanted and quick to respond with so new trick, twisting space or setting stars in the sky or who knows what else. He always knew how to make ends et, of course, but at tis there seed to be a conflict with how he understood the world and how he believed everyone else was capable of interacting to it. He'd react to things at ti, things she had only recently begun to glimpse; phenona that most people wouldn't know existed, to the sight of things no one else could see, to the flows of energy through the world, to souls, and more besides. In an instant, his view on sothing would shift dramatically without his skipping a step, changed by a crucial piece of evidence he'd sohow garnered, and he'd justknow. He'd fall silent for a few seconds and in that ti plot out his entire strategy, contemplating and reacting and deciding what he'd have for lunch in between the bullets. Assuming he ate food. She was pretty sure he didn't.
It wasn't just his mind either. His body seed to hold no value to himbut then, he could shrug off just about anything, ignoring wounds that could kill or cripple anyone else. His fighting style was absurd on the face of it, based around that and a library of skills that gave him an answer for seemingly every situation. And if they didn't, he'd pause for a millisecond and engineer a solution from the pieces he had and call down power out of legend, crafting displays out of literal storybooks as if they were toys made exclusively for him to play with. He'd adjust his entire style in-between monts, never stopping or worrying or even seeming to need to try.
By most standards, she was fairly certain he'd qualify as sowhere between a god and a madman. Which end of the scale he leaned towards seed to vary from mont to mont.
And for all that, he was her best friend. Her team leader. Her partner. Jaune Arc, Jian Bing, Keterit hardly seed to matter. When she first t him, she hadn't been sure what to think of him. Now that she knew him better, she still wasn't sure what to think of him. But she knew she trusted him.
That was why she was here, after all. Why she'd co to this place, when everything she knew painted it as a death sentence. Why she hadn't left when given the chance, until it was part of the planand why she'd co back after ferrying Adam, Autumn, and Gou to safety. Why she had stood before a being that by all rights, from everything she'd seen and heard and knew, should be able to wipe her from the face of Remnant with hardly more than a thought, even when she couldn't be certain Jaune's plan would work. Why she was about to start the fight of her life, without any guarantees.
Without looking at him, she could sense him nowwhere he was, how he was doing, even vague shades of more. A connection forged from the skill he'd used, keeping them aware of each other. According to him, most of his personal skills would be shared by the process and he'd be able to support her with everything else. It wasn't a lot to go on, but she knew he was relying on her to make this plan of his work.
That was all she really needed to know, she supposed. This was her target. This was her task. Destroy everything that gets in her way.
Huntress 101.
She gestured with her sword, cutting a wide swath through the branching paths that filled the airand portals flickered open, nurous enough to cover the sky.
"Ho" The possessed Grimm before her mused, tilting his head up at the sky. Before he could do anything more, she swept her sword again and then turned to drive it deeply into the ground. As she did, space distorted all around her to swirl into pits. They weren't arranged in walls, exactly, but randomly placed in the air such that it was impossible to move without touching any. At the sa ti, the ground seed to drop away and more portals opened beneath their feet, covering the ground as it had the sky.
And then, with a flick of her wrist, a solid do of portals rose to cover Jaune, encasing him in a shell of twisted space.
This was sothing she'd never done before, at least not on this scalebut the connection she now held with Jaune fed her power constantly, or else supercharged her own ability to generate it. She could see the barriers around them bolstering that even further, leaving her with oceans of Aura to draw from. With Jaune handling all of the effects now upon her, there were only so many ways for her to make use of that power and thisthis was sothing she could use.
She didn't bother counting the portals around her because she didn't need to. She was aware of them all in a way that went beyond such things; she could feel things through them as if they were extensions of herself, sense the touch of air and light upon their surfaces in a way she'd learned to interpret as sight and soundand they hung in her thoughts in a way she didn't even need to consider. This point connected to that one, this distance bridge like this, and so on.
And with the senses her connection to Jaune no offered hereven this flood of information what nothing. She could literally see from them, hear through them, and feel them. They were connected to her through an extension of power that she could draw from and control, channeling things from the center to the whole. Between that and her natural ability, she had no trouble at all creating a ntal image of where all of her portals were, where they led to, and what was waiting on the other side of them.
Given his own talents, Jaune shouldn't either.
She stepped forward, leaping into a portal with all the speed she could musterand as she was now, that was more than enough to set the air afla and worse around her. She didn't move in a straight line, either, flashing between points and moving from one portal to the next; a shadow that appeared briefly and skipped to another position in space. She could feel the attention on her with her Aura, keep track of when and where Malkuth lost sight of her, but knew that Jaune would be able to sense her through their connection and figure out what she was doing. Could Malkuth? She'd arranged it so that there were thousands upon thousands of possible paths for her to take, countless ways to approach him, and portals opened and closed with every second. One second she was far away, the next at mid-range, then far, close, near, far, and close again. To her, it was no different than moving in a straight line, but could he understand the route she was taking? Could he react to it?
Only one way to be sure.
In a step, she went from mid-range to right behind Malkuth's back, and he was looking in entirely the wrong direction. His gaze flickered to the upper left, towards the entrance to a pathway she'd switched from at the last mont, and found nothing. Whatever he was doing to track her, it wasn't perfect.
To his credit, however, he reacted fast, whirling around the instant she began drawing her blade. When it ca to Iaido, she was one of the best, and with her current enhancents she could draw her sword at an absurd speed, but he still managed to turn half-way around and lift a glowing hand towards her face before firing what looked like a blood red lightning bolt at her.
But before he did, before he even moved to attack, sothing trembled in her like the vibration of a spider's web. A warning of what to expect, what was to co, and at the sa ti a reminder that whatever physical enhancents Jaune called forth, they were but a shadow of the ntal ones. A portal opened in front of her, swallowing the blast and releasing it from on positioned behind her, skipping the space she occupied. It was an almost unconscious reflex, a nearly instinctive defense for all that she'd never practiced it, and instead of striking her, the blast careened to strike a patch of ground that she briefly cleared of portals.
The earth erupted in a sudden explosion that expanded to about the size of a person and then froze for an instant. Then, the explosion seed to reverse, sucked towards the center by so force, dust and smoke gathering into a piece of extrely dense matter no larger than a marble. It began to fall the second it form, dropping towards the perfectly smooth crater that the blast had created.
It simplified things, she mused, to simply assu anything he sent her way defaulted to absurdly lethal. If it hit her, she'd briefly regret it; ergo, she should make sure not to get hit. Simple enough.
Instead of giving it any more thought than that, she finished drawing her sword and swept it cleanly through his outstretched arm, energy gathering to help put on a sudden burst of speed as she did. The mont the blade struck his flesh, the spacial Dust activated, creating a kind of sticking effectinstead of 'cutting' his arm off, which she assud would be exceedingly difficult, she separated them, an altered portal clinging to either stump. They didn't bleed as they ca apart, but the hand fell to the ground, caught in gravity's hold, and she positioned a portal such that it ended up a fair distance away. Not a wound, technically speaking, but removing the limb all the sa. Against a regenerating opponent, it tended to have more effect regardless.
Unfortunately, Malkuth seed familiar with such effects, because instead of wasting even a mont waiting for it to grow back, he made the limb glow an off-yellow color. A mont later, it simply evaporated, coming apart into a chemical cloud that she didn't recognize but which was probably ant to do horrible things to her. She swept her sword through it, leveraging the sa blade to a different effect, and what looked like a glass lens briefly ford in midair before banishing the toxic gas, switching it with a similarly-sized patch of air elsewhere. Still a portal, but ant to replace instead of move. Just in case, she moved it sowhere near enough for Jaune to deal with it and focused again on stabbing Malkuth in the face.
"Bitch, I just grew that back," He said, sounding annoyed as he evaded her next strike. However he was communicating, it wasn't reliant on sound, because she didn't slow down. Telepathy? No, this didn't have the feel of a ntal effect. So kind of energy- or Aura-based transmission that her brain interpreted as words.
It didn't matter, truthfully, but it ant that she might have to listen to him talk as she tore him apart. Thankfully, before she had to do any more of that, she felt a shift co from Jaune's direction and was reacting even before he fired. Portals opened all around Malkuth, monts before an extrely narrow beam of light flashed from an open space at his feet. It pierced straight through his chest and feed into another portal behind his, releasing it from another for it to tear through the elbow of Malkuth's remaining arm and fly into another portal. In an instant, there was a cage of piercing light weaving in and out of Malkuth's body, and the world darkened until it was the only thing visible.
Taking advantage of the opening, she sheathed her blade once more.
Exceptthat wasn't quite it. It was a trick she'd used before in a pinch, now no more than an afterthought. Her revolving sheath contained dozens of different Dust blades, each designed for a specific task, and now she was creating a tiny portal at the entrance of her sheath with the other side positioned within the case itself. Putting her current sword back where it belonged was simple enough; she didn't even really need her power for that, seeing as it was currently on the empty place. Rembering the precise location of the exact blade she needed relative to that empty space was usually a bit trickier, which was why she'd used several tricks when it ca to their precise arrangent. Mnemonic things, to make it simpler; batching similar types together, ordering by color, numbering them, and more. There were several different thods, because in a battle there wasn't always ti to think through or get trickyin those cases, she went with whatever she thought of first and made due.
Now, however, there was no need for tricks. She could literally see inside the case without even looking at it; she disconnected her current blade, reassigned the portal to what she wanted, and attached the new one in a process that took no more ti than it had taken to sheath and draw her sword.
If space didn't work, what of ti?
She swung her new blade, her Aura causing the Dust to glow, and a wave of twisting power leapt from the edge to sweep across the battlefield.
The secret of using Dust is that there is no predefined way of using it. It was sothing that reacted to a person's Aura and could be used as a catalyst to create sothing new, beyond the user's normal ability. At the most basic level, it was easy to draw parallels between one person's use and another's, because Dust could simply be used to align the user's Aura with the corresponding elent. Similarly, an experienced or reckless person could simply draw the power out of the Dust, unleashing it upon the world with no restraint but their own power and will. Even then, however, there were countless possibilities hidden within Dust and just as many ways to use it. There wereand had been for as long as their records now went backmany schools of thought and practice when it ca to wielding the power of Nature's Fury. Martial arts styles, sword styles, long and short-range thods; there were even styles ant entirely for show, practiced by high-end entertainers. Once, she'd listened to a musician who used their instrunt to weave a song into a story, illustrated by mobile figures of ice and fire. Those were all things that could be taught, given a willing enough student.
And then there were things that were as personal as one's Semblance. Specifically, the ways Dust interacted with a person's Semblance. It was, after all, a personal expressionperhaps even manifestationof the user's Aura. While generally static and unchanging barringspecial circumstances, there was always the option of aspecting or redefining one's power through the lens of Dust. Not all Semblances allowed that; for so, there was just no aning to aligning their power with an elent, while others were just entirely unaffected. A precog she'd once known could use Dust to sense the presence of only a specific elent in the near future, but outside of rare situations, that did nothing but limit her sight. Jaune's was like that, too, and was perhaps the most thorough example she'd ever seen, with the most basic aspects of his power left completely untouched no matter what he drew upon. He could use Dust to change the nature of so of his skills, but the Gar itself? No.
But that was too be expected. Not all Semblances lent themselves easily to such modifications after all, nor to violence itself. Worse, because of the personal nature of it, it wasn't necessarily sothing that could be taught, but which had to be discovered. A dozen different crystals might prove themselves utterly worthless to a person, while using a specific kind of Dust might yield unexpected results.
In many ways, that had been the case for her. She'd first learned how to use Dust by observation, peaking into classes and watching practices while she was just a little girl. Like most talents, Dust was sothing that took ti and effect to masterand even more ti and effort to remain a master of. Once she'd figured that out, it had beco simple to find unknowing teachers and, with her power, easy to find opportunities to practice. Many of them had ended explosively, in one way or another, but in ti she'd gotten a feel for it and explored the possibilities. Due to the nature of her Semblance, spacial Dust had been one of the first she'd put serious effort into learning to use and she'd found a variety of ways to do so. A 'sticky' portal that seed to separate things she cut through. A sharp portal that she could use to intersect things, dividing them in truth. Portals of different sizes that could cause temporary alterations to any who moved through them, briefly turning pebbles into boulders and monsters into kittens. She'd even figured out a way to make a portal within a portal, such that anything that tried to pass through appeared to be reflected.
After tampering with space had provided so many useful results, however, she'd inevitably started to wonder about its counterpartso, of course, she'd tried.
As it turned out, it was tricky, ddling with ti. Playing with ti Dust was much the sa. It was costly, with even sizable chunks of the material potentially lasting only an instant, and the uses almost always short-lived in an absolute sense.
But sotis, all you really needed was a little ti.
Malkuth lifted his remaining hand even as the other began to regrow. Violently colored light wreathed it, bright enough that had she been relying on her normal senses, she might have had to avert her eyes. Instead, she stared at him silently, waiting without fear. Malkuth prepared to fire
And abruptly staggered, a gleaming blade erging from the center of his chest. Sparing it a brief glance, she trust her sword forward where it seed to vanish into the airconsud by ti and space even as the blade that had stuck Malkuth disappeared.
Without hesitation, she rushed towards Malkuth, feeling a change co over her even as she did. She'd only experienced this once before, during the single trial run she and Jaune had managed to engineer, but it was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. Her flesh began to peel away, revealing sothing underneath as if it had always been there. She felt the mask co over her face, beco her face, even as her clothes turned black as night, becoming sothing in-between armor, flesh, and skin. Her arms beca vaguely wing-like, feathers sharp as steel. But more than any of that, she felt her gaze sharpen. Not her sight, but the view she had of the world, now coming into even clearer focus before her.
This was Sahasrara, if she rembered correctly. The skill Jaune used to bear his literal soul and draw power from it. It was good timing, though she wasn't sure if that was because of the Dust or just Jaune. Either way, she'd happily take advantage of it while she could.
She approached Malkuth through another series of portals, flickering from place to place in monts and letting minute adjustnts of ti confuse the process. Even so, as she drew near her opponent, he once again reacted fast, gathering sickly green light in the center of his chest instead of his hands. It spilled forth as sothing between a whip, a laser, and a lightning bolt, carving a line of destruction straight for herand then vanishing into another circular ripple of space. It didn't reappear instantly, but she flicked her blade down and it reopened, the blast slipping through ti to strike at Malkuth at her command.
It did nothing but splash over himobviously, he'd known better then to dish out more than he could take while fighting a portal-userbut it was a distraction and that was all she really needed. She flicked the tip of her sword to the left and a silver portal opened to the left of Malkuth. Another twitch and it's opposite point opened a mont later. Two portals, bridging not just separate points but separate tis. Even with all her power, she could only cross a matter of monts, buta mont was enough.
A solitary portal opened in the midst of it all, the other end of it right in front of Jaune, and he didn't need any more of any invitation to give his best shot.
What ca forth was very nearly blinding to look at. It wasn't Longinus, the space-piercing spear bound to interfere with her portals, but instead a torrent of pure lightLux Aeterna, most likely.
Good. That served her purposes better than Longinus would have, anyway.
Malkuth lifted his arms in defense, leaning into the blow as if anticipating itbut it was pointless. The initial strike was all but aningless in this case, at least compared to what was to co. The light washed over him, searing his flesh and pushing him back, before reaching it's true destination and flowing into the ti portal.
The mont it didor rather, several monts before it didthe sa amount of light ca streaming from the opposite portal, rushing back through the intervening space and adding onto itself. She managed to close the portal at the center just in ti, before that power had a chance to splash back through, and so it continued onwards, crashing over Malkuth and flowing into the ti portal yet again.
And so the process repeated. Whatever entered the first portal exited the second several monts before it enteredin this case causing Lux Aeterna to retread the sa path, creating a line of still-brightening light as it overlapped with its past and future self in a strange manner. The nature of entropy saw to it that the attack itself constantly lost energy, but that was nothing compared to the energy being funneled into it through the quirk in ti, and so its net energy was increased by its previous iteration with each lap it took through the connected points in ti and space. And being an attack made of lightwell. It should go without saying that it took many, many laps.
In a way, Lux Aeterna may have been the best possible choice for this combinationenough so that she assud Jaune had understood the nature of her attack in the mont or so of thought he'd been allowed. From what see understood, the nature of the attack was to draw in energy, condensing further as it grew more powerful. Jaune had once described it as endothermic light, and as it devoured itself endlessly and grew further and further, it stayed neatly within the pathway allowed by her portals. And as that pathway intersected Malkuth quite nicely, he got to enjoy every mont of the process.
Against anyone else, she'd say that was enough. The power gathered in that stream of light, the power being added to it every secondit was sothing aweso in a literal sense. Awe-inspiring, terrifyingit was one of the reasons she didn't use this application of her powers very often. For all the potential it held, the risks should it be unleashed or go out of control way phenonal. Under normal circumstances, with far weaker attacks in use, it was possible to cause extre collateral damage; added onto itself enough tis, practically anything could be weaponized. A flash light, a laser pointer, or any variety of weaponsonce, she'd even combined it with her secret weapon and the results had nearly been disastrous. The 'wipe nations clean of life' kind of disastrousand Lux Aeterna was significantly more powerful than a laser pointer. Under normal circumstances, she'd hold it in place over the target for a second and let nature take its course.
But Malkuth wasn't a normal enemy and she knew it. She'd gone into this knowing she'd need to start with her best tricks and scale up and so that was exactly what she was going to do.
Unfortunately, while the twist in ti she'd created could shatter any number of physical laws, in truth or in seeming, it remained an application of Dustand it's ti was ironically running out. Perhaps it was the stress caused by sustaining Lux Aeterna, sothing Malkuth had done, or the other uses she had put it to before this, but what should have been enough to last a second or two looked like it wouldn't even last one. Once it ran out, the portals would fade and the power gathered would take its natural course. And given the power in question, If it did thatit was entirely possible they'd lose sothing they couldn't live without.
They being Mankind. And that may well be lowballing it; even with the senses granted to her by her connection with Jaune, it was hard to keep track of the precise magnitude of sothing that was overwriting itself at the speed of light and she'd given up before even trying.
Normally, this would be when she'd create a portal in ti and space, banishing the attack utterly before it could cause too much damagebut she was reluctant to throw such a weapon away so easily, considering their foe.
Besides. There might be a better use for it that simply getting rid of it.
Sheathing her sword again, she cast it aside but kept her power flowing through itit would waste away entirely in a few more monts, but she needed those monts.
And in its place, she brought out her trump carda blade of purest white, the only one of its kind she had. While she could afford to carry duplicates of most kinds of Dust, there were several varieties that were too hard to co by to allow that. Thanks to her power, she had other ways of getting what she wanted, but even then, finding enough of certain kinds of dust to make an entire blade could be a challenge. White Dust in particular was a severe chore to acquire in such quantities, especially with the limits to its use. But every now and then, it proved itself worth having. In her lifeti, this was the third such blade she'd owned and the previous two had saved her life.
Hopefully, this one would live up to their standard.
Taking a deep breath, she lifted her sword and called to the power contained within it.
In an instant, there was nothing left in the world but her. Everything around her flickered once and then went black, fading utterly from her sight. The light of the portals, the sky, everythingit all just seed to cease to be. The only thing she could see, the only thing she could sense, was herself and the blade she held in her handand even that was changing. The white Dust of the blade seed to corrode, shattering and breaking apart in a matter of monts as if it were falling towell, to dust. The physical matter that had composed her blade was gone, completely and utterly.
But in its place was sothing else, like a light in the darkness. It embodied the sa space, held the sa shape, still looked like a swords edgebut it wasn't. Instead, this was the state her Semblance took when exposed to white Dust.
It was a portal in the shape of a sword. For a long ti, she'd though that it was nothing but an opening, that there was no other side of it, but her ti with Jaune had changed that. Where the portal led to, she still wasn't certain, but it had sothing to do with the Light Jaune drew several of his own skills from. And now that she held that power in her hands, the only question was how to use it.
White Dust was strange. For all that it seed to embody the elent of light, it was more than thator rather, the Light was more than that. It wasn't just a matter of photons and illumination; it held ties to the very soul, to the core of a person. The first ti she'd used it, she'd broken through limits that should have been untouchable, bisecting her opponent with a portal. The second ti, she'd created a portal that drew in everything around it and another that emitted it as raw power. Two completely different uses, with the only connecting point being her.
This ti, she used it differently once more. As the world ca back to her, she ignored the light, though it now seed to draw her towards it. She ignored the ignored she could sense within it as well, though she considered leveling this power towards him. Instead, she focused her light on the swirling darkness she could feel at the edge of her sensesand cut.
The still black pit that had hovered over the battlefield tried to resist that power, but it couldn't, nor could its master. It ca apart at the seams and released its prisonerand the light assailing Malkuth gained a mind of its own.
"Thank you, Raven," Jaune said as he strode past her, abruptly by her side. He'd probably teleported when he sensed the situation changeand change it had. Of all the possible uses for the one shot the Dust gave her, this had seed like the safest best, even if it was also the least certain. She couldn't be certain what would result from this, because it wasn't her power she'd chosen to rely on this ti. Instead, it was soone else's.
She'd chosen to trust Jaune's plan.
He stopped and looked back at her, smiling for a mont.
"Do you mind if I handle it from here?" He asked.
Already, she could feel her power and control fadingso instead of answering aloud, she simply nodded.
She smiled a bit wider and then looked at the torrent of light, now writhing as if fighting to take shape or to retain one.
"I figured none of the skills I'd learned would be enough to stop youif it was that easy, you wouldn't still be here. You've probably seen it all before, anyway. Sohere's a new trick, Malkuth," He said. "Sothing I made just for you."
His form fractured, splitting in twoand then there was light between his halves, drawn from the power gathered before him; Keter, briefly visible between the twins. Then the two sides of him ca together with an explosion of force, trapping that light and energy between their reunifying mass and collapsing into itself.
But what was left was sothing greater than the sum of its parts.
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