Someone noticed that I had been avoiding killing the Authors.
WELP.
DONE WITH THAT NOW. IS TIME FOR DEATH.
Feel it everywhere and you see it growing
Enemies arise and the hate is flowing
Shattering the moon and bloodying the sky!
The machines of war will fuel both sides
And the greed will only grow more lies
Farewell to days of peace cause now it's
Time
To
Die!
...yes those are song lyrics from 'Die' because irony.
I have discovered that listening to RWBY music helps me write fight scenes.
SO HERE YA GO. THIS IS SHORT.
And this is sooooooo unedited . I didn't have ANY time to double-check stuff. If you fins any mistakes, tell me and I'll fix it.
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The two villains examined the five Authors calmly. Well, Salem looked calm. Jacky looked like a wound-up coil ready to spring.
"So this is the rest of the Authors. Forgive me if I am underwhelmed." Salem said dryly.
"The rest?!" Kendall exclaimed, catching the implication.
Salem regarded her with little interest. "Yes, we already encountered some of your companions. They shouldn't give us too many more problems."
The five of them exchanged a nervous glance. What had happened to the others?
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Jasmine asked slowly. Jacky grinned. "Let's just say you won't be seeing them anytime soon."
"But you...you look like a little more of a problem." Salem mused. "What are you doing all the way out here? Shouldn't you be running for safety like everyone else?"
Rush raised her sword. "Look, we don't know who the heck you are, but if you think you're gonna threaten us, think again."
Salem sent her a dark look. "Oh I don't think so. You might not recognize us, but we know who you are. And we know what you could do if you got those powers. You could spell doom for all our plans. We can't have that happening, now could we?"
"We don't care about your plans! Just leave us alone!" Logan retorted.
"No can do, I'm afraid. By the end of this journey, none of you will be left alive. Trust me when I say this."
Kendall glanced around at her companions, then back at their opponents. "Fine. If you want a fight, bring it on."
Jacky grinned even wider. "Now that's something we can do." She and Salem leaped for the Authors, holding their weapons aloft.
Salem's midnight-black sword clanged against Rush's iron one and Logan's dagger, striking both at the same time. Jacky went for Jasmine, who didn't move in time. She wasn't fatally injured, but Jacky's dagger left a nasty slice in her arm, tearing straight through her jacket. Jasmine yelped in pain, but recollected her wits quickly.
Kendall shot at Salem with her bow, trying to distract her from Rush and Logan. Aranna backed up Jasmine, whacking Jacky with her Fish of Knockback.
The Authors might've outnumbered the villainous pair, but they were not even close to being evenly matched in skill. Salem disarmed Logan, punching him squarely in the gut and kicked him to the side. She then lunged for Rush, who could hardly defend herself against the barrage of attacks. Salem slashed at the girl again and again, leaving bleeding wounds across her arms. She wasn't deterred at all by Kendall's arrows, which she ducked and deflected with ease.
Aranna and Jasmine were having trouble keeping up with Jacky's whirlwind of strikes. Jasmine was hampered by the dagger wound in her arm, the pain slowing her down and throwing off her concentration.
Then Aiden came crashing out of the trees to aid in the fight. He had stayed at the camp, but had come running at the sound of battle.
Salem knocked Rush's sword out of her hands and prepared to run her through, but Aiden body-slammed her, knocking her off her feet. She was up again in an instant, with a new light of fury in her eyes. She quickly tossed a potion of slowness, and it broke at the brown-haired boy's feet.
"Aiden, RUN!" Kendall screamed, before getting punched by Jacky. He turned to escape, but the potion took its toll on his speed.
Salem's black sword came swinging down, taking Aiden's life before anyone could react.
Kendall was screaming for all she was worth, and Rush was flinging every swearword she could think of at Salem.
Meanwhile, Jacky was still battling Jasmine and Aranna. Logan had been knocked to the side by Salem, and was only partially conscious. Salem rushed to her side in an instant, landing a cruel kick on Jasmine. The black-haired girl crumpled, succumbing to the pain. Jacky sliced at Aranna's hand with her sword, making her drop her weapon. She then held her sword to the smaller girl's throat.
"Look around you. All of your companion are injured, with one dead. This is what happens when children take their games of heroics too far. Failure. Death. Destruction. This was doomed from the start." Salem told her coldly.
Aranna glared up at her, overflowing with justified rage. "What about the Order, huh? Were they just children taking their games too far?"
Salem tipped her head to the side thoughtfully. "In a way, yes. The only good thing they did was to put all of this in motion. Soren may not have meant to, but he's the reason all this is happening. The fool may have been a complete failure of a man, but he did start the end of the world. We can thank him for that, at least."
"You're LYING! There's no way that's true!" Aranna hollered. Jacky smirked. "Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about."
The brown-haired girl let out an angry growling noise and thrust her hands out in front of her. The gesture was more out of anger than anything else, but it sent Jacky and Salem flying backwards, propelled away by some unknown force.
"What the hell?!" Kendall gasped. "My sentiments exactly." Rush commented.
Jacky stood up, then Salem. They had been knocked quite a ways away, and looked somewhat confused. Salem's expression morphed from confusion to horror, and she murmured something down to Jacky.
"Don't think this is the end! We'll be back to finish you off!" Jacky yelled. Salem smashed an orange potion at their feet, and the two of them vanished.
The group was silent for a moment, unsure of how to react. Then Logan let out a low moan. "Aaaoooww mygod everything hurts." Jasmine bent down next to him, looking concerned. "Are you alright?"
"Kinda...? Ow. Stupid crazy psychopaths." He sat up, clutching his abdomen where Salem had hit him. "They don't look super dangerous, but geez can she pack a punch!"
"No kidding." Kendall replied, rubbing her shoulder.
Rush stood up shakily. "They killed him. I can't believe...he wasn't even an Author. I thought they were only after us." She wept, staring blankly at the spot where Aiden had fallen.
"They might be after us, but it looks like they'll kill anyone who gets in their way." Jasmine said softly. Then she turned to Aranna. "And you...how did you do that?! What happened?"
"I don't know! I just...put my hands out, and they were knocked back. It doesn't make any sense!" Aranna exclaimed.
"Well...we are supposed to have powers, right?" Kendall commented. "Maybe the chaoticness of the fight made your powers start working."
Jasmine shook her head. "You come up with the craziest stuff, you know that, right? But in this case...you might be right."
Rush snapped at them, her eyes blurring up with tears. "Do any of you even care?! That's another member of our team dead! DEAD! That's two people that we're never going to see again! Who knows what happened to everyone else! They could all be gone too!"
She wasn't looking the same as she had when they started their mission. Her eyes were glassy and barely looked alive. Her upper arms had been practically torn apart in the fight, and her overall appearance made her seem...defeated, somehow.
Kendall gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Rush, we're just as sad as you are. It's just...there's too much going on. We need to find the others, before anything else happens. We need to figure out more about these powers. We don't have time to slow down and grieve."
"No! It's not about me! It's about Aiden! It's about Star! It's about everyone else who didn't or won't make it out alive! We need to end this now, before anything else happens! Either we save the worlds soon, or it'll be too late! You heard what they said. They'll be back for us, and we're running out of time."
"Rush..." Jasmine started.
"No. We don't even have time to find the others anymore. If they made it out alive, they'll probably keep going along the crevice, because that's what we were originally doing. We need to find out how this started, and how to finish it."
"How are we supposed to do that? We've got no clue what to do next! How exactly are we supposed to finish this? Who could possibly have this information?" Logan snapped.
"Isn't it obvious?" Aranna asked quietly. The rest of the group turned to look at her.
"If Jacky and Salem were trying that hard to stop us from continuing on, there must be something they don't want us to know."
Kendall slapped her palm against her forehead. "Of course! That's why they're after us! They don't want us to save the worlds. They must be responsible for the crevice, somehow."
Rush straightened up, sheathing her sword. "That just gives us one more reason to end this now."
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PFFFFFF WHAT ARE ENDINGS
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The potion of teleportation had taken Jacky and Salem all the way to the opposite side of the crevice. They were both shaken up by the game-changer of Aranna's powers.
"What the hell was that?! How did that happen?!" Jacky shrieked. Salem just turned and stomped away from her companion. The shorter woman trotted along beside her.
"Seriously, what just happened? I know you know!"
Salem didn't even look at her. "Her powers started coming out. Already."
"What?! But whyyyyyyyyy? They shouldn't be activated yet!"
"They shouldn't be, and yet they are! I need to figure out which ones are the most powerful, and then we kill them immediately."
"Why don't we just kill them all? That'd be simpler!" Jacky protested. Salem bit her bottom lip, thinking. "I want to see how this plays out. The Authors seem willing to do anything to save the worlds, and maybe we can use that to our advantage. Let them grow into their heroics, then crush them before they get out of hand."
"There's another one, ya know." Jacky said suddenly. Salem stared down at her. "What? What in the Nether are you talking about?"
"There's another Author. We figured out that there's thirteen, right? Well that's one too few. There's another one out there that the Order doesn't know about."
The gears were turning in Salem's mind. She had almost forgotten about this. "Right, right. That one. We should track him down. With the right arguments, he might be willing to work with us. But we need to take care of the others first."
"Which ones should we go after first?" Jacky asked.
"The shapeshifter's gonna be trouble if she gets her powers. So is the creation-powered one. I would say that the dream controller is going to be a problem, but she didn't seem very dangerous. She might not be able to control her powers, when and if they come." Salem mused.
"What about the one with foresight?" Jacky reminded. Salem huffed. "Right. He needs to go too."
"The creation one is already taken care of. She won't survive the Wither poison." Jacky said with smug satisfaction.
"Good. Let's take care of the others, then find the more evasive one." Salem decided. With that, the pair headed off, to do away with another one of the Authors.
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As you might've guessed, Minty, Ruby, Jesse, and Maya weren't having a lot of luck with finding the others. They had been following the crevice at a brisk pace, hoping for any sign of their scattered companions. They passed ruined towns and fallen forests, but never saw any hint of life. They weren't even challenged by mobs.
"This is starting to look pretty hopeless." Ruby commented. She had been taking up the rear of the group, trailing slightly behind the other three.
"No kidding. This is just ridiculous. We've got no idea where ANYONE is! If they're even still alive! UGH!" Maya shouted irritably.
For once, none of them argued with her.
"Aaron, do you know where any of our friends are?" Minty asked quietly.
No. I'm sorry. Something is messing with my radar.
"Radar...?" Minty echoed doubtfully.
I can usually use my...skills...to track people down. But since the crevice started, I've been having trouble with it. I can hardly locate you on my 'mental map'.
"Oh. That must be annoying."
It is, but it's not too bad. It only adds difficulties for you, not me.
"Hey Minty?" Jesse asked in an offhand way. "Not to be accusatory or anything, but...how do you know we can trust Aaron?"
"He did warn us before Jacky and Salem attacked." Minty said, feeling defensive of her mysterious friend.
"Well yes, but he doesn't seem suspicious at all? How much do you even know about him? How has he been surviving the crevice so far?" Jesse pressed.
Minty frowned. Come to think of it, how was he avoiding the crevice? And why hadn't he told her more about himself? What was he hiding?
Minty, please. I'm not hiding anything. I just figured it would be better if I didn't burden you with details.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. But how are you managing to stay away from the crevice? You could tell me that, at the very least."
I live at the corner of the world, near the south Far Lands. Close to an abandoned, ruined, potentially haunted castle. You wouldn't've heard about it. The crevice appears to have originated from somewhere near here, which is why it's not spreading any further in this direction.
"Ooooh, okay. That's actually kinda of neat." Minty said, then relayed the information on to the others. Maya frowned. "I think I remember something like that. There's a village pretty close to the southern Far Lands, appropriately called Farthest Town, and I've heard rumors about and old castle near there. I've never heard anything about it being haunted, though."
Tell her that I don't know if it's haunted. It just seems haunted, because it has that whole 'somethings in here' vibe. The whole place feels very wrong. It's not a fun place to visit, let me tell you that.
Minty repeated this to the rest of the group.
"Ooooh, like some kind of animus magic!" Ruby said excitedly. Maya gave her a sideways look. "I'm not gonna ask. I'm sure it's some crazy fandom thing, and I don't really wanna know."
The earth shifted violently, knocking them off of their feet. The crevice split more and more, spreading with every passing moment. Nearby, a cave system completely collapsed, sending up huge waves of dust and stone bits. The four of them scurried away, not wanting to get hit by the falling rocks.
Minty! Watch out!
"It's okay, Aaron. We're far enough away; I won't get hurt." Minty assured him. She continued backing up.
No, it's not that! You need to-
The aqua-haired girl ran into something as she tried to back away. A cold feeling of dread overtook her as she turned around.
Standing directly behind her was none other than Salem.
"YOU!" Maya spat, scowling at the tall woman. Jesse and Minty both drew their weapons, and Maya and Ruby followed suite.
"Yes, we're all old friends by now. But weren't there...more of you?" Salem asked, sounding bored.
"Well we don't know where they are, thanks to you!" Jesse snapped.
Minty glared at the mysterious villain. "Yeah, thanks for nothing! Now we're down to four!"
Salem grinned malevolently. "Wrong. You are three."
Jesse turned around just in time to see the flash of movement that was Salem's companion.
Jacky's sword went right through Ruby before she even had time to scream. The other three whirled around with gasps of shock and horror, but it was too late. Jacky pulled the now-red sword from Ruby's back, grinning maniacally.
A small stream of blood flowed from the side of Ruby's mouth, and she collapsed. She was dead before she hit the ground.
Minty was screaming, with Aaron hollering warnings in her mind. Jesse was frozen in horrified grief. Maya was cursing Jacky and Salem for all she was worth.
Jacky wiped the sword on her leg, Ruby's blood hardly visible on her dark red pants. "One down, three to go."
"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?! WHAT DID WE DO TO YOU?!" Minty screamed. She wasn't thinking clearly, but she didn't care. Salem leaned down and gripped her chin in one hand, holding her face steady as she stared into Minty's green eyes with her unyielding brown ones. "It's not what you have done, girl. It's what you will do."
Salem glanced up for a moment, and the blood drained from her face. Three people were approaching the group. They had their weapons out and looked rather formidable, but that's not what sent Salem into shock.
"YOU! What are YOU doing here?!" She pointed a shaking finger at the middle person, throwing the words at them with all the savagery she could muster.
"I could ask you the same thing. I never expected to see you, in this world, especially not now!" The person Salem had pointed at marched up to her, looking ridiculously furious.
Jesse almost screamed when she realized who it was.
Gabriel and Ellegaard, who hadn't been seen since the defeat of the Witherstorm. This in itself was a shock, but Jesse was sent reeling by their companion.
Soren.
Soren, the coward who had run off before they had defeated the Witherstorm. Soren, who's books had been scattered throughout the Portal Network. Soren, who had become infamous for the number of secrets he had kept from them all.
"Wha-how-you didn't-but-why-what the hell are you doing here?!" Jesse stuttered. "Why were your books in the other worlds?! How do you know them?!"
Soren glanced at her, a grim look on his face. "I promise, there will be time to explain everything." He pointed his sword at Salem. "Get out of here, and leave them alone. I do not ever want to see either of you again."
"Trust me, the feeling's mutual." Jacky hissed. Salem shook her head. "Not gonna happen. We obviously have different motives here, and if they collide...we'll do what we must."
Soren sent her a dark stare. "You really want to threaten me, Salem?" He asked quietly.
Jacky prepared to shout at him, but Salem reached over and covered her mouth, narrowing her eyes at Soren. "Fine. But don't think this is over. Not by a long shot."
With that, she pulled another orange potion from her inventory and smashed it at her feet. She and Jacky promptly vanished.
Maya stared at Soren with wide eyes. "What just happened?"
Soren stayed silent, so Ellegaard answered her. "Me and Gabriel don't know it all, just that Soren has a...history with whoever set the crevice in motion. I'm assuming that means those two women."
Minty and Maya shouted at the same time. "They STARTED all of this?!" "Well then WHO THE HELL ARE THEY?!"
The Redstone engineer held up her hands in a 'hold on' motion. "I just told you, we don't know. He won't tell us anything."
Jesse moved to face Soren. "You have a lot of explaining to do, you know that?"
He was silent for a moment, then lowered his head. "Yes. There's a lot that needs to be said. What do you want to know first?"
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*troll face*
IM SORRY RUBY
But for the others...
The more you ask about your powers, the sooner you're gonna die.
...okay that's kinda a lie I already have most of the deaths planned out.
Oh god that sounds really scary doesn't it ._.
Btw, the publishing date of this story has officially been moved to Tuesday. Sorry.
Word count: 3441