Chapter 11: Under Heaven Destruction

Mercury slid backwards, having blocked Ruby's scythe once again. Tears had been streaming down his cheeks during the first ten minutes of the fight, having focused on Emerald's death. It was apparent now, however, that he didn't have the luxury of brooding on his oldest friend's passing. This battle required his full attention, or he'd meet the same fate. He stood fifteen feet away from the younger girl, who stood calm as the eye of a storm, waiting to pass and rage once again. Risking the glance down, Mercury's heart sank; his left boot was empty of ammunition, and the right boot only had one shell left. I...I've never run out of ammo before. Shaking his head, he brought his gaze back to meet her.

But she was gone. "Shit!" he yelled, reprimanding himself for his lack of attention. A knee impacted hard against his back, knocking him to the ground and coughing up a glob of blood in the process. Wiping his lip, he glared upward at Ruby. "You bitch! You killed Emerald!"

With a twisted smile to match her red eyes, Ruby lifted her scythe and dropped the full weight of the dull back of the blade onto his right leg, shattering the bone. Mercury's scream of agony could be heard throughout the entire campus. "How does it feel?" she asked with a slight laugh. "How does it feel!? I will break every God forsaken bone in your body until you can't feel a thing! Only then will you be allowed to join your friend! I want you to suffer for what you've done to my sister!"

"Wake up, Ruby!" came the voice of Blake.

Ruby ignored her friend, seemingly unable to hear her. "So, what bone should I break next?"

Mercury spat blood at her. "Just fucking kill me, you bitch! You've already won!"

Ruby frowned. "Oh no! No, no, no! Didn't you hear what I said just a moment ago? You don't get the easy way out of this." Her smile returned. "I know. How about a few ribs?" Raising her leg, she brought her foot down with all her might.

A blade hovered above Mercury, stopping her foot. A silvery, nearly invisible wire stemmed from the hilt. Ruby's gaze followed it until she came face to face with Penny. "This is not you, Ruby."

"He deserves this," Ruby answered coldly.

"No!" Penny spat back. "No one deserves such treatment! You've beaten him, Ruby! Let the law take it from here."

"He broke Yang's neck!"

"And Yang is still alive! She will be handicapped, yes, but she will live! Killing him won't help. And killing the girl...that was not necessary, Ruby. You could have beaten her. You could have let her live and answer for her crimes."

Ruby, her eyes still red with rage, yelled angrily at Penny, "What do you care!? You're not a human or a faunus! You're just a machine, Penny! You don't feel the same as we do!"

Penny seemed hurt by the statement. Yet she held her head high, and her resolve shone from deep within her eyes. "A machine I may be...but I have a soul. I was born so that I may protect the world. Impartially, I am able to make decisions for the greater good of Remnant, if I so choose. Unbiased, I am able to judge a person's crimes without favoritism, if I so choose. I have all of the perks of being a machine, just as you say. But my father felt that wasn't enough. He wants me to make the choice for myself...to be a mindless machine, fulfilling my duty without question, or to live as a human, rising to meet eternity with all the traits that humans have without the drawback of biological death."

Ruby seemed taken aback. "It's true," Penny continued. "I have the choice. I have lived for only a short year, and in that time I deeply considered wiping away my human soul. To become a simple machine. But I met you, Ruby. I met Weiss, Blake, Yang, Sun...I met you all and I realized what it meant to be human. So, I have made my decision. I will live forever as a human. It will hurt. My God, will it hurt!" Tears streamed down Penny's face, and Weiss, Blake, and Ruby all watched in awe. "You girls are my friends. My first friends. My only friends. And from the moment we met, I knew that I would outlive you. I will watch all of you die. In the years to come, I will be left all alone. More will come, I am sure. I will make new friends, and maybe even fall in love some day. But the end will always be the same. You will all die, and I will live on. The ever vigilant, ever watchful protector of Remnant." She glared at Ruby angrily. "So don't tarnish my memory of you, Ruby. You are not a cold, heartless murderer. You are an idealist. You are an optimist. You're happy at all times, and never sad! You seek to protect all of Remnant just as I do. And if I have to hurt you to make you wake up from this nightmare of yours, then so be it!" The blade protecting Mercury retracted to her side, and Penny deployed the remainder of her blades. "What will it be, Ruby?"

Ruby's eyes never wavered from their red tint. She raised her scythe once more and swung to bring it down onto Mercury. Penny, at speeds many thought only possible for Ruby, intercepted the blade with her hands, catching and holding it in place. "Move, Penny!"

"You are not you," Penny said quietly. "I will wake you." Twisting her wrists, tearing off the fake flesh from her hands that covered her metal endoskeleton, she threw Crescent Rose across the room, much to Ruby's shock. Without giving Ruby the time to dodge, Penny punched the young huntress in the stomach.

"Ugh, blugh~!" came the sound of Ruby vomiting bile and blood.

"I am sorry," Penny said. Ruby stumbled backwards before dropping to her knees. Sitting still for a moment, she fell sideways. Penny quickly caught the girl and held her gently in her arms. Ruby's eyes were closed for a moment, and when they opened, Penny was relieved to see the bright, shining silver that she so longed to see. "Welcome back," she said with a smile.

"P-Penny?" Ruby asked. "What are you doing here? What happened? Did...did we stop Cinder's attack?"

"You...you don't remember?"

Ruby shook her head. "The last thing I remember was..." Her eye's shot wide open. "Yang!" she yelled, bolting straight up. "Where is my sister?!"

"She's over there," Penny said, pointing to Weiss and Neo, who gingerly were tending to Yang. "She's alive. She'll...she'll be a cripple. I couldn't help her neck, Ruby. I am sorry."

"What about the people that did this?" Ruby asked angrily. "Who took care of them." Penny remained silent. Ruby's gaze shifted around the room until she saw Mercury, broken and bloodied. He was crawling on the floor towards Emerald's corpse. Ruby's eye's narrowed. "What...what happened?"

"You weren't you, Ruby," Penny explained. "We don't fault you. You weren't in control. It was...the rage you felt when Yang was wounded."

Ruby turned to meet Penny's eyes. "You mean...I did this?"

Penny sighed. "Do not worry, Ruby. I won't allow you to ever feel that much despair ever again." A frown came upon the mechanical girl's lips. A gunshot echoed, and Penny's arms moved at a blurry speed, ending with a closed fist; a bullet rested within her palm. She and Ruby turned and glared at Mercury, who had recovered Emerald's other revolver.

He laughed to himself. "Fucking freak," he muttered. He checked the cylinder and saw that only one bullet remained. "This...this day has been just the worst, you know." He glared at Ruby. "You mean to tell me that your rage filled burst of strength completely wiped your memory of our fight?" He laughed. "The nerve of you. You can't remember that you killed Emerald. You can't remember what you did to me." He gave her a ghoulish smile. "Well, I'll give you something you won't ever forget!" He placed the barrel to his temple. "Go fuck yourself!" With those final words, he pulled the trigger, splattering his own brains onto the floor.

Penny winced at the sight, and Ruby simply stared in awe. He was right; she would never forget this. Because those were the same words that Roman said when he was killed. How about you go fuck yourself! Ruby sighed. "So...is it over?"

"Not quite," came Cinder's voice. "I'm still here. And until I have been beaten, this will never be over." Raising her hands, she summoned molten glass in the shape of a searing spear. "I'll kill all of you and continue with my mission! Beacon will burn!" The sound of steps echoing from the nearby hall brought her attention away. "And it seems that more fodder is on its way in!" Launching the spear at the doorway, she smiled a sadistic smile.

A barrier shattered the molten glass shaft, catching her by surprise. "I think not, Cinder," Ozpin said as he entered the room, his hand held up. "We've been watching from the hall. This ends now."

Nik Stoll entered behind Ozpin with a slight smile on his lips. "I thought you were going to leave this up to your students, Ozpin. Are you seriously intervening now? Penny is more than capable of defeating her."

"I don't want her defeated," Ozpin said. "Penny is Remnant's future. I am it's past. As such, I have one final act as the world's protector." He smiled, looking back at Nik. "I am not wrong in my assumption that she is the future, correct?"

Nik chuckled. "Her actions today are admirable. Her words, however...she's accepted eternity already. She has accepted the pain and hardship that comes with it. Yes, I have made my decision."

Ozpin nodded. "I...I haven't used my power in thousands of years. Not since I forged this cane and sealed it away." He held the cane, staring at the white gemstone on the handle. "It's time I broke the seal." Flipping his cane, he forced the gem into the floor, shattering it. A flame of every color of the rainbow burst forth, swirling around him. Ozpin closed his eyes and tilted his head skyward, relishing the feeling of his full power returning to him. As the flame died away, his eyes opened and he glared at Cinder. "Tell me, Cinder, would you rather live or die in defeat."

She smiled. "You can't beat me, Ozpin! I know all about your skills in combat! I've learned how to counter it!" Summoning more glass spears, she threw them relentlessly at the headmaster.

"That's where you are mistaken," he said. When the spears came within four inches of his body, an explosion of rainbow flames would destroy them. Slowly, he began to walk towards her. "You studied my human skills. I was convinced that Remnant's way worked. That we didn't need universal power to defeat out foes. And I'm not wrong; we don't. But you are too arrogant. You need to be brought down to earth once more. My humanity is forsaken once more." He smiled as he destroyed each of her spears. It was not a smile of malice, nor was he threatening. He smiled a sad smile, knowing that what he was about to do marked the end of his time as the headmaster of Beacon. "I am a Shifter, through and through. My time is eternal. Your life is but a blink to me; a short moment in time that could be easily forgotten. But I cherish all life. I detest taking it away. But you're arrogance if your downfall, Cinder."

He stopped just inches away from her, and fear shone deep in her eyes. "Wh-what are you!?"

He raised his right hand. "I am Remnant's protector. Or rather...I once was." With a snap of his fingers, a large tornado of multicolored flames erupted around the two of them, and Cinder screamed in pain.

Ruby, Penny, Weiss, Blake, and Neo all watched in awe; they'd never seen anything like it before, and they all felt fear at the sight of the flames. Yet, they all felt that the flames were something beautiful. When they died away, they fully expected nothing to remain of either person but ashes. Instead, Ozpin stood as he had moments before, and Cinder dropped weakly to her knees. "What...what have you done!?"

Ozpin's smile faded, and he stared sternly at the woman before him. "I've stripped you of your aura, your semblance, and your ability to use Dust."

Her eye's went wide. "Wh-what!?"

"If you ever attempt to even handle dust, you will go into anaphylactic shock and die; in short, I've given you an allergy to the one thing you need to fight. Now, you will spend the rest of your life in prison. I promise you that."

"You...you lie!" Reaching into a satchel, she pulled out a shard of lightning Dust. "I will kill you all~!" she yelled, but her eyes narrowed. Dropped the Dust, she stumbled backwards. "Wha..ack!"

Her hands went to her throat as she began to gasp for air. Ozpin shook his head. "Penny," he said calmly. "Help her."

"S-sir?"

"Do you have a shot of adrenaline?" She nodded. "Use it. It serves her as a lesson. Next time, I won't offer her medical attention."

Nodding once more, Penny rushed over. A syringe extended from her wrist, and she injected Cinder with the drug. After a moment, she began to breathe normally once again. "How...how dare you! How dare you do this to me! You are all beneath me! I am a goddess compared to the likes of you!"

Nik shook his head and approached her. "Sleep," he said with a wave of his hand. Cinder's eyes immediately closed and she fell into a deep slumber.

"Now," Ozpin said. "It is over."

The girls all stared in wonder at the two men. "What...what the hell are you?" Blake asked. Looking between Ozpin and Nik, she didn't know what to think. "I thought you two were just teachers! Huntsmen, yes, but teachers all the same!"

Nik smiled. "My apologies for the deception," he said. "But...let's just say that you aren't alone in the universe." He looked to Ozpin with a smile. "I shall send word to my superior to let her know my decision. She will be better suited to explain the situation."

Ozpin nodded, and the man in his blue robes became engulfed in the rainbow colored flames, disappearing from the world when they died away. "What," Penny began, looking to Ozpin. "What is going on?"

He looked at her gravely. "He's Shifted back to his headquarters, the Thoughtspire. The world is about to get more complicated. And you, Penny, will be at the center of it...if you so choose."

Song: Under Heaven Destruction - BlazBlue OST

Author's Notes

I realize I've been updating this a little faster than before, but I have some free time, and as stated before (though worded differently) I write like a bat out of hell when I have free time.

Cinder is alive, Mercury killed himself, and Penny's monologue...I really enjoyed writing that. So, what do you think? Did anyone see Penny being Nik's choice? Granted, I didn't bring her into the story until the middle, but, eh, I'm not a perfect writer.

No POV changes were made in this chapter either. That's a writing style that I only do for RWBY fanfiction, btw. In my original work, anytime I have a moment where I want the POV to be different, I make it a completely seperate chapter. You guys would hate me if I did that here though. You know how many POV changes can happen in just a single chapter! This would have 40 chapters instead of 14.

That's right! Only 2 chapters left! Chapter 12, and then the Epilogue!

Also, I'm writing a spin off set in the Shifting Remnant Au...I don't know if it will take off just yet, but I've got some ideas that I've already written on. I'll let you know more on this probably for the final Author's Note at the very end of this story.

Leave a review or PM to let me know what you think, or if you have any questions. :D

Shout out to /r/RWBY because I love that madhouse of a subreddit.

Fun Fact: I am having so much fun writing the Shifting Remnant AU. You have no idea how much I wish at this point that I could actually integrate these stories as canon to my Shifted Universe [the original fantasy series I'm writing that I've implemented here...I'm sure I've pointed that out a million times, and for that I am sorry.] I sincerely wish I could add Remnant to my list of worlds. Alas, I can't.

Till next time!