Broken Apart Ch. 16: Finale

It's all coming to an end! Do not worry though, there will be an epilogue. Final numbers for this story are, 86 followers and 56 favorites. It's been fun guys, kind of sad that it'll come to an end. No one did 100% guess Distrio's true origins, so I will simply tell you. Washington District of Colombia is correct in some ways, but not quite. Distrio's nickname is the Sniper, and D.C are his initials. The D.C Sniper was the inspiration for his name, but not much else. Enjoy the finale guys!

Distrio twirled a round in his fingers. There wasn't a whole lot he could do other then what he was currently doing, and that was waiting. He had his orders, he knew what to do, but his orders included a start time. That start time happened to include that everyone was needed to be there. Currently, it was only him. Waiting was the easy part of the game, it was keeping on alert that was the hard part.

Schnee Manor

Ruby looked down at the plans in agony. She knew precisely where she would come in from if the attack was up to her, but she also knew that Cinder didn't like to work conventionally. Staring down at these ideas was always painful. How would she know how someone would want an attack done?

"Need help?" Someone asked. Ruby turned around, and saw Jaune standing there.

"Yes," Ruby said. "I need to know what you would do here." Jaune walked over to her, and looked down at the plans.

"Hm," he said thoughtfully. "Well, if it were me I'd say the easy end. It looks like there's more of a chance for the offenders there then the west side since that's so close to the house." Ruby nodded in agreement, but she still looked troubled. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to get this wrong," Ruby said. "I hate losing people, but I know we always do."

"On a scale this large, no one's ever safe," Jaune agreed. "Hardest part about this is accepting that this is how things are." Ruby nodded in agreement, and just sat down.

"Weiss and Blake want to rejoin," she finally said. "They want to become RWBY again. If I can convince Weiss' father to let her then everything is good to go. Except that both of them would have to live."

"So would you and Yang," Jaune pointed out. Ruby let out an even deeper sigh, and just held her hands over her face.

"I don't know what to do," Ruby sighed.

"Hey, you'll figure something out," Jaune said encouragingly. "You always do." Ruby nodded, and put her scroll away. Everyone had a copy of the plans, there was nothing more she could do.

Outside

Distrio finally stopped twirling his bullet, and slowly drew one of his daggers. He turned around, and raised up throat level. He saw the calm and careful face of BB behind him, causing him to sigh.

"Calm down, sniper," BB grumbled.

"I'm in a hostile zone," Distrio growled back. "Count yourself lucky that I decided to make sure it was someone I didn't know before I cut your throat." BB nodded, but pointed back at the trees.

"Everyone's here," he said. "We have our first wave ready to go. Most of them will die, don't concern yourself with them. The second wave has some of our heavier hitters, and the final wave will contain our employers along with myself. Shoot until someone shoots at you." Distrio nodded, and chambered the round. He got down into a prone position, and slowly lined up his sights. He carefully raised his semblance around him, and took aim at two of the hunters.

"Goodbye," he said calmly. He pulled the trigger, and the first bullet went clean through one of their chests. "Come on, trigger the alarm," Distrio muttered in frustration. The second hunter remained stationary for a few moments, but then he finally started shouting. "You would be dead several times over if that were the objective," Distrio muttered. He fired off his second round, and watched the other one drop. He then shifted his sights towards where his allies were hidden, and just waited.

Schnee Manor

It didn't take long for Ruby to get to her feet once she heard the yelling. Jaune was up as well, and everyone was trying to rush to get ready. Before they could, the yelling was cut off abruptly. Blake, Sun, Tauran, and Lyria's ears all twitched as they heard the sound of the body dropping. Wash was the first to get ready, and he calmly raised up his sword.

"I believe it is time to pay a visit to our friends," Wash said, his voice showing the same level of calm that his body was. He walked towards the door, and the rest of the hunters followed along. Ruby waited to make sure that everyone else was ready, and then she rushed out.

Upon opening the door, Ruby could only see one fighting. They had come from the east end, just as Ruby had thought. Everyone was prepared, but there were a lot of people. Everything from hired goons to former members of the White Fang, and the hunters were all holding their own.

"Let's go," Ruby called back to everyone who was still inside. Yang, Weiss, Blake, JNPR, Sun, Tauran, and Lyria all came out behind her, and immediately ran into the fray.

It took them almost no time at all to take down 10 enemies, then 20, then 30, and so on and so forth until they finally cut through almost all of them. Everyone that was left was running away, making the fight incredibly easy.

Ruby let Crescent Rose fall to her side, but she kept a close eye on everything. Something was wrong. They hadn't seen Distrio, Cinder, Torchwick, anyone. While Ruby hadn't expected to see Distrio, but the other two were unusual to her. They would want to have their heavy hitters out there on the field.

"Second wave," Ruby muttered. "Tauran!" Tauran turned around, and nodded at Ruby. "You have the loudest voice, tell everyone a second wave's incoming. This time, more of the heavy hitters are coming out." Tauran nodded, and cleared his throat.

"SECOND WAVE IS COMING!" He yelled out. "HEAVY HITTERS INBOUND!" Tauran clapped his hands together, and all of the hunters held their formation.

The next group came in, and Ruby reacted instantly. She fired off a round into the chest of one of the criminals and used the momentum to bring around the blade into the chest of another. She fired off a round to get rid of his corpse, and turned around just in time to see another guard crumple to the ground. She saw Weiss holding her sword in one hand, and her other hand glowed to raise glyphs as needed. Ruby nodded in appreciation, but had to immediately shift around her scythe blade.

Blake was silently carving through anyone and everyone. She would shadow out of the way of one attack to bring her sword into the body of a second attacker, while never having to fire off a round. She switched around her grip, and shifted her sword into it's clever form. She swung around the blade and took out the knees of one attacker, and turned to face another. Just as she was able to, he slumped over. Blake smiled at Yang, who had bloody knuckles and a wild look.

"Thanks," Blake said. Yang just nodded, and brought her fist into the neck of another attacker.

Sun twirled around his gun chucks a few more times, and unloaded several rounds into every attacker that he could see. He was making quick work of anyone and everyone was trying to keep a fair distance from him.

Someone backed up, and felt their body hit something solid. They looked up just in time to see Tauran's fist enter his skull. Tauran picked up his corpse, and threw it at another group of attackers. All of them stumbled back from the hit, and Lyria flipped around her whip swords into their necks. They fell to the side, and she fired off two rounds to bring the blades into the necks of two more attackers.

Nearby Tree

Distrio sat in his branch, and fired off another round. Killing hunters was always tricky. Their aura was always raised, thus meaning it would sometimes take several shots. It added in another layer of patience to his craft, but Distrio was nothing but patient. He heard his ear piece ring slightly, and he held his hand up to it.

"We're coming in now," Cinder's voice came in. "I want you to pick off as many as you can to make way for us."

"I'm already doing that," he hissed. Before he could get her response, bullets started to fly by him. He had to duck out of the way of some of them, but one of them hit the branch that he had taken cover on. It snapped, and he jumped off of it just in time. He quickly raised up his sniper, and fired off rounds at his attackers. While he could no longer safely snipe, he was still far more dangerous with a gun.

He fired off one round at the chest of one hunter, and his aura saved him. Distrio raised his grip on the gun, and swung it around like a baseball bat. He caught the hunter in the neck, causing him to stumble back. Distrio fired off another sniper round, and saw his target drop. He grinned in satisfaction, but he could already feel another presence behind him. He turned to see a boy with blonde hair and a pair of nunchucks at his side.

"Sun Wukong," he said smugly. "What brings you here?" Sun just snapped his nunchucks together to form a bo staff, and he let it drop to his side. "All business today, isn't that a bit unusual?" Sun swung his staff forward, and Distrio blocked it with his rifle. Distrio backed up, and fired off two shots. Sun blocked both of them, and switched around his staff into a pair of nunchucks.

He fired off several rounds at Distrio, who just backed away from all of them. He tried to block them with his rifle, but felt wildly unsuccessful in doing so. He tossed the rifle at Sun, who paused for a moment in surprise. Distrio drew both of his daggers, and threw one of them into Sun's leg. Sun was so caught off guard, it successfully entered in. Distrio ran forward, and pulled the knife out while kicking Sun to the ground. He stood over him with a dagger in his hand and a grin on his face, and he started to slowly lower it towards him.

Before the knife got there, it was yanked from Distrio's hands. He called out briefly in surprise, but turned to see a lynx Faunus. He instantly identified her as Lyria, and he went for his sniper. Just as he picked it up, she batted it out of his hands. He called out sharply in pain, and rolled to the side. Lyria cautiously walked over him, and as soon as she was directly over him, Distrio rolled over and plunged his knife into the back of her knee. She called out sharply, and Distrio pushed her off of him. He picked up his sniper, but felt it get knocked out of his hands.

He had almost no time to look up before being hoisted into the air. He looked down, and saw the face of Tauran Brownfur staring up at him.

"Beg," Tauran said angrily. Distrio stared down calmly at Tauran. "Beg or you die."

"Then I die," Distrio said calmly. Tauran angrily brought Distrio's body down onto his knee, and snapped his spine in half. Tauran tossed his body to the side, and spat at it.

Weiss

Weiss calmly swung around her sword, and cut down one more of the guards. They didn't have many hunters, but 54 hunters against two hundred mediocre fighters always ended in favor of the hunters. But now the occasionally convict was being thrown into the mix. The issues were becoming more and more, but Weiss could handle it. While relatively unpracticed in some ways, she was still a huntress.

She knocked aside another one of the lower level goons, and looked up. She noticed Torchwick firing off his weapon at the crowd, and her gaze narrowed. Weiss ran forward, and put a glyph under herself. Weiss raised herself up, and dove over towards Torchwick. He noticed her, and fired off a Dust shot straight at her. Weiss raised up a glyph to block it, and she managed to get to the ground and roll to her feet. She swung around her sword, but it was instantly met with Candy Cane.

"It's the princess," Torchwick sneered. "So glad to see that you're up and around after our shooter missed you."

"Good to see that you're still a slime," Weiss snapped back.

"And uncreative," Torchwick said boredly. He fired off a round from Candy Cane, and it forced Weiss to back away and move to her right. Torchwick took this opportunity to fire off a round at the ground, knocking Weiss back. She looked up, and silently cursed herself for underestimating Torchwick. She should have known better.

He calmly held his weapon over her, and smiled.

"There's no prince to wake you from this spell," he said calmly. Weiss closed her eyes just as he pulled the trigger, and she heard the round go off. But she never felt it.

Weiss looked up, and saw a sword holding up his weapon in the air. Weiss let her eyes trail over to who was holding the sword, and her body met the military coat of George Wash.

"No prince, that's overdone," he said calmly. "How about the old fox gets to save the day for nothing in return?" Torchwick growled, and George Wash twisted around the angle of his blade. The weapon slowly got more pushed towards the air. "Weiss, find the others and inform them of my little spat here. I'll be holding him off." Weiss nodded, not willing to question authority in this instance, and ran off to get the others.

"Who are you?" Torchwick asked.

"George Wash, old hunter wonder," Wash replied calmly. "Now it's time for one of us to learn what it's like to be on the losing end of a fight. Shall we?" Torchwick finally broke the strong hold of Wash, and he swung around his cane. Wash blocked the attack, and he stepped towards Torchwick. Torchwick was already in the middle of firing off a round. The angle was thrown off, and the round sailed harmlessly away. Wash stepped down on Torchwick's foot, just hard enough to cause him to instinctively flinch.

He immediately rebounded, and threw a punch at Wash. It threw him off for a moment, and that moment was long enough for Torchwick to fire off a round at him. Wash flew back, and hit a nearby tree with a hard thud. He started to slowly get up, and he tried to eye Torchwick. All he could see was the barrel of Candy Cane, causing him to smile.

"Over forty years out here and this is how it ends," he said softly. "Well then Torchwick, I suppose it is only fitting I die by the hands of the most recent most wanted."

"Indeed it is," Torchwick said. He pulled the trigger, and watched as the explosive hit Wash. He made no effort to move, knowing that he was a little bit too slow, and he made no effort to raise his aura, purely because he accepted his fate. He died almost instantly.

Torchwick smiled, and turned to walk away. As soon as he did, a single sword blade went through his stomach. He looked up to see a very angry looking Weiss staring him in the eyes, with her sword in his stomach.

"That's for everything," Weiss growled. She pulled her sword out of him, and went to kick his corpse over. As soon as she did, a club landed right next to her. She only just managed to dive out of the way before it would have crushed her, and she raised up her gaze. She didn't recognize him instantly, but she did notice his plate armor.

"That was my paycheck," he growled. Weiss didn't say anything, she just raised up a glyph. Immediately the brute of a man swung his club into it, and failed to break through. He tried again, and again, and Weiss felt her aura lower. She had to make the glyph full body, meaning that she couldn't sneak under any ice. She just readied her stance, and centered her sword.

She never had to fight.

Blake jumped out form a nearby tree, and landed directly on top of the man. She instantly stabbed her katana straight through the gap in his neck plates, and heard the man choke out weakly. She jumped off of him, and watched as he fell over.

"Thanks," Weiss said tiredly. Blake nodded, and looked over at Torchwick. "He killed Wash," Weiss explained. "I couldn't find you guys, so I came back. I shouldn't have left..."

"Where's Ruby and Yang?" Blake suddenly asked. Weiss' eyes widened, and she looked around.

"Cinder," both of them said in unison.

Cinder

Cinder had two fire snakes wrapped around her arms. She was throwing flames at everyone who dared challenge her, and she had killed a fair amount of them. She was smiling the whole time, trying to make her way to find those she wanted to pay back the most.

"HEY!" She heard someone yell out. Cinder turned, and saw two of the people she was searching for.

"It's you brats," Cinder said happily. "I was so hopeful that you would be here. Luckily you did not disappoint me." Ruby twirled around Crescent Rose, and Yang rubbed her fists together. Both of them ran forward, and Cinder just raised up her arms. She fired off two columns of flames, forcing Ruby and Yang to take cover behind the first things they could.

Cinder smiled, and started to walk towards them. She fired off a row of flames at where Ruby was hidden, forcing her to run. She turned to fire off a row at Yang, but she was greeted by a single fist flying towards her. She dove out of the way, and looked up to see Yang standing there. Cinder fired off another row of flames, but this time Yang just jumped out of the way.

She ran forward at her enemy, and swung around her fists again. Cinder ducked under the attack, and fired off a row of flames. This time, they caught Yang across the side. Yang howled out in pain, and fell to the ground. Cinder started to walk over to her, but something clicked in her mind. She tried to turn around, but turned too late.

The blade of Crescent Rose caught her in the legs, causing her to crumple to the ground. Ruby walked towards her, and chambered a round in her scythe.

"This is for all of the people you hurt," Ruby growled. "My friend's, my family, my sister, and anyone else."

"You think this has meaning?" Cinder asked. "Look at you, you don't even know how to be an adult. You kill me, you'll lose your purpose. Tell me child, is that something you really want?"

"Nope," Ruby replied. "But I'm willing to learn." Cinder's eyes flickered as her last trump card was used, and Ruby pulled the trigger. The blade of Crescent Rose cleaved her clean in half, and her body fell to the ground. Ruby instantly ran over to Yang, and looked at her.

"Yang?" Ruby asked quietly. "Yang, please tell me your okay."

"Not okay," Yang mumbled. "But I'll live. Can you just call me a medic?" Ruby nodded, and started to yell out for a medic as she turned to fight any vultures off.

Later

After the deaths of both Torchwick and Cinder, the battle ended almost immediately. Anyone who remained gave in, and those who fought perished. Out of the 65 that they had started with, they ended with 47. All of JNPR had survived {if only just} and many others were given a pass. Those that had died were to be honored, but there wasn't much more to do. Well, there was one thing to do. Weiss' father.

He had arrived about an hour after the battles. He had barely glanced over Weiss, and just instantly went to assessing the damage. Ruby had given Weiss a quizzical look, but she just shrugged. This was everything she had come to expect from him.

"Ruby," Weiss hissed. "Talk to him." Ruby nodded, and started to approach Mr. Schnee.

"Mr. Schnee," she called out. He turned, and briefly acknowledged her. "I'm Ruby Rose, I was in charge here."

"Yes, most likely why it's in such poor condition," he said. "I do still remember you, Ms. Rose." Ruby paused for a moment, unclear as to what to do. "Luckily I'm willing to finance everything. Weiss can return to a normal home soon enough."

"Right," Ruby muttered. "About that. You see, I was wondering if you'd allow your daughter to return to team RWBY?"

"Absolutely not," he said instantly. "She means too much to me. She stays."

"But Mr. Schnee, she is valuable and can do so much more good if she is back with RWBY," Ruby said.

"And I care why?" He asked calmly. Ruby felt the color rush to her face, and she stared him down in pure rage.

"If I may interject," someone said. Ruby turned, and saw Blake walking over to them. "Yang's getting some good care, so I thought I may stop by here."

"What do you want?" Mr. Schnee asked angrily.

"Well, I simply thought that it'd be a good thing to mention that your blessing is not technically needed to allow Weiss to rejoin team RWBY. Without it, she still can as she is beyond the age where she'd need it." Blake folded her arms, and Mr. Schnee looked baffled. "She can disobey you if she so chooses."

"That was an option this whole time?" Ruby asked in confusion. "I could just say, 'hey Weiss, don't listen to your dad?'"

"No it is not and no it will not be," Mr. Schnee snapped.

"Yes it is, and yes it will be," someone said. Ruby turned, and saw Weiss walking forward with Yang's arm around her.

"I wanted to watch this," Yang said. "Told them, fuck the treatment. This'll be way more entertaining."

"Father, I have decided to return to where my education taught me to go and resume being a huntress," Weiss said calmly.

"You do not," he growled.

"I do, and I have three honorable witnesses. This is enough here, wouldn't you say father?" Weiss asked. Mr. Schnee just looked baffled, and Weiss stepped away from him and towards the rest of RWBY. "Goodbye." Mr. Schnee remained speechless, but then he just left. He had nothing more to say nor to do. He had just done one of the dumbest things he could have done, questioned his daughter's stubbornness.

The four girls looked around at each other. They had done it. Cinder and Torchwick were gone, they were back together, nothing else was left.

"Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby said happily. "Bonsai!"

"Bonsai!" The other three echoed.

They wouldn't have it end any other way.

End: And neither would I. I will be covering how their lives carried out in the epilogue, but this story line is indeed done for me. Final questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.