RWBY: The Black Reaper

Author note:

I did not write the details of some conversations and actions in this chapter as they pretty much the same as in the show such as Ozpin telling Pyrrha about the maidens.

The chapter is long enough without the details (+9000 words).

Enjoy

====================================================================================================================================

In team RWBY room, Qrow was talking with team RWBY and NPR as Ozpin told him.

" …. This is the only reasonable explanation of Mesa's weird behaviour. Umm …. There is the possibility of him being simply crazy with burned fuses in his brain, but considering the level of intelligence he showed, it is very unlikely "

The group was silent, everyone of them wondered about Mesa's past. Everytime they talked about his life before Beacon ended with them being shocked. They couldn't begin to imagine how bad his life was to get him react like this. They usually talked with him without any reserves, he was their friend and he didn't get angry no matter what they said or how they scolded him sometimes. Yet, Today he became completely enraged and left them because of few sentences.

The group felt shame and guilt, they didn't understand their friend and his suffering. They didn't like the way he carried himself and his actions. But thinking about it again, did they ask him? Did they try to understand why is he acting like that? They wanted to change him for the better, What they did is pushing him away and destroying his bonds with them. The group felt endless guilt over an assumption that couldn't be more wrong.

The one who was feeling guilty the most was Pyrrha, she was his partner and supposed to be his lover for a while. Yet, she didn't notice anything and even was the main reason why Mesa left. She regretted not trying to understand him better, if she had a chance to go back in time, she would never try to force him to do anything, she would talk to him more and try to understand him. But it was too late, she felt like crying but she managed to stop herself.

Qrow watched their reactions and sighed, he told them " Look, Mesa probably had a miserable childhood and lunatic brother that will put even faunus discrimination to shame. This is not your fault, you didn't know, the only reason we thought about this possibility is because Mesa abnormal reaction and his words. Beside, this is only an assumption, we might very well be mistaken"

The group only paid attention to the first sentence about Mesa and ignored the rest of Qrow speech. Even Blake was reconsidering Mesa's situation, maybe he is not as evil as she believed him to be, maybe his bad life pushed to this state like it did with The White Fang. Blake hated how the faunus were treated like slaves and animal, but thinking about Mesa, Mesa probably was treated like a slave and even his mind wasn't spared, he had been suffering all alone. Now, Blake was viewing Mesa with empathy and pity. The others thoughts were not that far from hers.

Qrow stood up and headed toward the door leaving, he opened the door then turned around, he said " Oh, I almost forgot. Pyrrha, tomorrow go to Ozpin's office at the morning. He wants to talk about something with you "

Pyrrha looked at Qrow and asked " What does he want to talk about? "

Qrow replied " You will know tomorrow. Have a good rest, kids " With this Qrow left the group alone.

After a minute of silent, ruby said " What should we do? We have to find Mesa and talk with him "

Weiss replied " find him? How? He can be in any place in remnant! Did you forget he can teleport? I doubt you would be able to find him "

Yang added " And don't forget what uncle Qrow said, Mesa will probably consider us enemies and won't hesitate to attack us if we tried to get close to him. I dread the thought of fighting Mesa when he is not holding back "

Thinking about the possibility of fighting Mesa at full power made every shudder in fear. They didn't mind fighting him in spars as he always held back so he won't harm them, but fighting him when he is not holding back that was something they won't dare to do. Ruby slumped down in defeat, she wanted to help but she couldn't.

" I think we should follow your uncle advice and not try to get involved with Mesa anymore " It was Ren who said that

" WHAT? HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!" Nora screamed, the other faces showed that they had similar thoughts.

Nora replied " If he doesn't want to listen, we will gang up on him and beat him until he listen to us "

Ren looked at Nora " Nora, do you honestly believe we can do that? Have any of you ever thought why Mesa wasn't punished regardless of his actions? He killed, he stole extremely rare material from military base and even insulted them. Yet and despite all that, he was still sitting with us like usual. I thought about it, The only reason I could think of it, they were afraid, AFRAID !!! A group of elite professional huntsmen ignored his actions, the military of the strongest kingdom ignored his actions. Mesa hold the power to scare them all away, who would want to have an enemy that can destroy a cities with ease. That day in the market, Mesa caused that amount of destruction with a single move. But did you notice that after such a huge and destructive attack he didn't look tired even in the slightest? Mesa is that strong, he is strong enough throw that ball multiple times, Imagine the amount of damage he can do if he got angry and started attacking all out without holding back"

Ren's words made everyone realise how powerful Mesa truly is. They knew he is strong, far too strong, but when they thought about Ren's words, they understood Mesa had the strength to scare kingdoms.

Ren continued " Do you remember our first day? Mesa fought with Ozpin until Ruby stopped him, I can't help but think what would have happened if the fight continued. I have a feeling Ozpin would have been killed back then, I'm also sure Ozpin realised how powerful Mesa was that day and feared him. That is why Ozpin was this tolerant when handling Mesa, he didn't dare to anger him "

Ren took a deep breath then continued again " If you want to help Mesa…. If you want to have the chance to help him and talk with him, then you need first the strength to stand against him. Currently, even if all of us joined hand, we are not strong enough to last 1 second against Mesa. Even without his semblance, Mesa can defeat us all in less than a minute and yesterday match is a prove of how strong he is even without his semblance "

No one tried to retort against Ren's words, they understood he spoke the truth and saying anything else is just lying to themselves.

Pyrrha looked down as she clenched her hands. The people always looked up to her and treated her like something out of reach, she didn't like their actions but it still boosted her confidence in her capabilities, but now she wondered is she really that strong? Is she that skilled? Compare to Mesa, she was nothing. To the first time in her life, Pyrrha felt weak and d.e.s.i.r.ed more strength more than anything.

Pyrrha stood and said " I will go back to have some rest, you should have some as well "

The others looked at her with pity, They could tell she was blaming herself for all of this. Ren and Nora stood up and followed Pyrrha leaving team RWBY alone. Neither team MNPR or team RWBY could bring themselves to sleep tonight.

The next day, Pyrrha separated from her team and headed toward Ozpin's office. When Pyrrha entered the office, she saw Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood and Qrow waiting for her.

Ozpin spoke first " Good morning Miss Nikkos. I hope you managed to get some good sleep to night "

Pyrrha didn't respond, her tired eyes answered for her. Ozpin sighed then said " We would like to talk with you about an important matte. I hope you will not tell anyone about what we are going to tell you. It is very important for humanity survival "

Pyrrha tensed hearing Ozpin, She couldn't help but think about Mesa, is he related to this?

Ozpin asked " What is your favourite fairy tail? "

" What? " Pyrrha replied in surprise, she didn't expect such a question.

Qrow sighed then said " This is going to take some time to explain "

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

In a warehouse in Val, Cinder and her team were with The White Fangs, Cinder was talking with Adam, who just arrived to Vale.

" We are going to be bring change to this world, some sacrificed is a must " Cinder replied coolly

Adam unsheathed his katana, he pointed it toward Cinder and said " What about I turn you into a sacrifice for their souls? "

Cinder smiled at him and said " After everything we had done and all the efforts and times we wasted, you want to stop when we are near the end, and here I came to give you a good news "

" What good news ?" adam asked while his sword still pointing toward cinder

" Mesa, the student who stopped our attack on Vale few days ago, fought with his friends and left Vale yesterday After heavily injuring Winter Schnee. The news were suppressed by Ozpin and his group " Cinder replied with smile

" And how do you know? " Adam asked her

" Oh, I have access to their control system, They can't hide secrets from me " Cinder replied with a sinister smile, she continued " Now that monster is not in Vale, carrying our plans will be far easier. Also, don't you want to have revenge on him for killing many faunus? This is your chance, you can take care of his friends and adopted sisters "

Adam seemed convinced as he lowered his weapon as he said " Very well! Give me details about these friends and sisters and remember to not touch them or touch Blake Belladonna, they are mine " He then left along with his subordinates

Mercury nodded with smile, on the other hand Emerald seemed worried. She spoke to Cinder with worried tone " Cinder, I'm having a bad feeling about all of this. What if he comes back? What if all of this part of their plan? "

Cinder looked annoyed by Emerald words, she said coldly " You don't have to worry, just do your job "

Cinder walked out of the warehouse leaving Emerald thinking for herself.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

In the bas.e.m.e.nt under Beacon, Pyrrha was standing in front of a huge machine looking at the injured fall maiden. Pyrrha looked back toward Ozpin and his group.

" If everything you said is the truth, then why no one know about it and think it is only a fairy tale? " Pyrrha asked

Ironwood answered her " If the world knew about this, then many will look for the maidens to get their powers and use it for their selfish d.e.s.i.r.es. What happened to Amber is an example of what could happen to the rest of the maiden. Not to mention, there are evil people out there that far worse than any grim "

Pyrrha nodded slowly then asked again " Then why are you telling me all of this? "

Ozpin walked two steps toward her, he answered her " We have been watching you Pyrrha, and we wish you to obtain the maiden's power. You are the one with the best qualifications "

Pyrrha felt pain in her c.h.e.s.t at the mention of Mesa, she calmed herself and asked " The maiden's power, is that strong? Why someone would hunt and kill other to get it? "

Ozpin answered her " If the one who possess the maiden power and can control them perfectly then she will be able to rival someone like Mesa "

Ozpin words ignited Pyrrha's d.e.s.i.r.es. She d.e.s.i.r.ed to have the strength to bring Mesa back and help him, but she knew her limits, she didn't dream to be able to move mountains like Mesa. But now Ozpin told her there is a way to gain strength and reach Mesa.

Ozpin noticed the change in her and smiled internally, he continued with the same face " You don't have to give me answer now. After your match, you can come here and give me your answer. But you should understand the consequences. We want to transfer the powers using Atlas technology, but such a procedure wasn't done before and we won't know if that might harm you. You might suffer permanent damage, so keep that in mind before you make your decision "

" Yes, sir " Pyrrha answered and left the bas.e.m.e.nt. In her heart, she already made her decision, there was no need for her to hesitate.

Glynda looked at Ozpin disapprovingly " You purposely spoke about Mesa, right? That is really a disappointing behaviour, Ozpin "

Ozpin closed his eyes " I know, Glynda. But you must understand that we are truly being pressured. I will pay the price of this lie later, but for now, protecting Remnant comes first"

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

An hour later, Pyrrha was walking toward the arena to meet with her friends, she was still thinking about what she learnt. Her d.e.s.i.r.e for that power was growing the more she thought about the possibility of being able to bring Mesa back.

" Pyrrha !! over here!" The sound of Nora calling for her woke her from her thoughts

Pyrrha looked in the direction of Nora, who was standing near Ren, Ruby, Blake and Weiss. Pyrrha walked in their direction.

" What did Ozpin want from you? Is it about Mesa? " Ruby asked Pyrrha, she was worried for her friend

Pyrrha didn't want to lie to her friends, but Ozpin made her promise to not tell anyone, so she could only hide the truth " Yes, he wanted me to ….. Tell him about his behaviour, and if there was any change lately. " Pyrrha felt guilt for lying.

Ruby nodded as she said " Don't worry, someday will find that idiot and bring him back. We will make sure he will apologize and fix his attitude " Ruby tried to lighten Pyrrha mode. Pyrrha gave her a grateful nod.

Ren wanting to change the subject said " The match is about to begin, I don't think Yang will be happy if we got even a second late"

The group walked inside, a minute later they saw Yang and Mercury standing in the middle of the fighting stage. The match was about to being as the countdown was going on, the two competitors were talking to each other.

Once the count, the two fighters dashed toward each other. Yang was punching while Mercury was kicking. The fight continued for few minutes and ended with Mercury's defeat.

The rest of Yang's team and NPR were celebrating, Ruby screamed " Great job sis!!! "

Yang looked in the direction of her sister and gave a peace sign as she was walking by Mercury's side. Suddenly Yang turned toward Mercury and punched his knee breaking it.

Ruby and the rest stopped cheering, they were shocked by Yang sudden action. Yang seemed to have a satisfying look after what she done. The audience could hear her speaking saying " You deserved it loser "

The audience was enraged and started booing and calling to punish Yang, who in return looked around her in confusion. Soldiers entered the stage pointing their weapons at Yang.

" Come with us, you are under arrest " The leader of the soldiers said

" What? He attacked me first!! Are you blind? " Yang replied with anger, she pointed at the big screen which was repeating the match. When Yang saw herself attacking Mercury who was standing there while clapping for her with smile, a look of shock and confusion appeared on her face.

" There is something wrong !! I tell you, he attacked me " Yang screamed again

The leader didn't care about her words, he simply replied " Come with us, or we will have to use force "

Yang stopped talking as she followed the soldiers. Ruby seeing her sister being taken away couldn't stay still. She immediately followed her sister using her semblance. The rest followed Ruby.

When the group managed to catch up with Ruby, she was standing in front of a small room where Yang was being held. Inside the room Ozpin and Qrow were talking with Yang.

When Ozpin walked out of the room, he paused as he looked at Ruby and the rest. He said " Stay with Yang, she will need your support" then left

Ruby and the other entered the room.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

In Atlas, Mesa was sitting with Jacques Schnee in Jacques's office. Mesa was writing in a book while Jacques was watching the tournament.

Jacques just witnessed Yang weird assault toward her opponent, he turned toward Mesa and asked " This is you work, isn't it ? "

Mesa replied without looking at Jacques " Nope "

Jacques snorted then said " Then how did you know this is going to happen? Do you really expect me believe you don't have a hand in this? "

Mesa look up from his book, he gave Jacques a sly look as he said " What can I say …. I'm a man of many talents, and one of them happen to be information gathering. I know all the details related to The White Fang invasion plan. This is but a part of the bigger game "

Jacque's eyes twitched hearing Mesa's answer, he replied " Learn to be more humble. Beside if you know everything, shouldn't you stop it? What are you planning for? Everything you are doing is a sheer madness!! I can't find anything logical in you actions "

Mesa gave Jacques a smile which caused the later to shiver " It's not your place to know, you are only supposed to finish my orders. Naturally when the time comes, you will understand everything. For now keep carrying your orders ….. You don't have to worry to much about your company, as I said you will have your share of benefits when everything is over "

Jacques nodded then asked " What about the book you are writing? "

Mesa replied with sinister smile " Oh this is a little story for volume 5. It is where the great evil will show itself preparing for the final act hehehe "

Jacques felt the temperature of his body dropped and despite that he kept himself collected and calm. He looked back to the screen and said " The next match will begin soon. It is your partner vs Penny "

Mesa said " Yeah, I know. Want some spoilers ?"

Jacques raised his brows as he asked " What spoilers ?"

Mesa answered " Pyrrha will cut Penny in half horizontally, it will be the signal for the attack to being "

Jacques was surprised " Are you for real? Penny is the advanced combat robot that Atlas created after spending fortunes "

Mesa didn't reply, he was focused on his book again. Seeing Mesa ignore him again, Jacques cursed internally and didn't dare to show it.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Back with Yang and the others, Yang explained what happened but no one believed. They didn't think she did it on purpose, but may be being tired and the whole thing with Mesa caused her hallucinate.

When everyone were trying their best to support Yang, they heard voice of Port calling >

Yang looked at Pyrrha and said " You don't need to worry about me, I'm fine. Just go and win the tournament "

Pyrrha nodded and said " When i'm done I will come back "

Pyrrha left and her two teammates followed her. After leaving Yang and her team, Ren asked the other two " Do you think she will be okay? She didn't seem well to me, like she was angry but not able to express herself she was …. Distressed"

Pyrrha replied " Yang is not weak, she will recover from this and we will be there for her. After the match we will go back and stay with team RWBY "

Ren and Nora both nodded their heads, Ren said " Good luck in the match, we will be cheering for you "

Nora added " Yeah, break her legs "

Pyrrha smiled back at them, and headed toward the arena. Ren and Nora headed toward the seats to watch the match.

Pyrrha continued to walk toward the stage, Pyrrha could see Penny walking like her on the other side. They both arrived at the same earning a lot of cheering from the audience, especially for Pyrrha.

Professor Port started the countdown. During the few seconds, Penny spoke to Pyrrha " Salutations Pyrrha Nikos, It's an honour to finally meet you. This will be so much fun " Pyrrha looked at her opponent and smiled " Good luck "

Penny replied " you too "

Once Port finished the countdown, Penny was surrounded by her floating swords, gesturing them around to her command before launching a volley of them at Pyrrha, who ran towards them and leaped through or deflected each aimed blade. The swords flied into the air until they turned around and came back to the fight.

Pyrrha returned the shield to her back, twirled the javelin to block each sword swipe of Penny's, dropping her weapon when she needed to somersault away after being hit by a slash, only to magnetically return it to her hand as Penny readies another wave of blades.

This scene earned a comment from Port " My word! What a tremendous display by miss Polendina! "

Fully glowering, Pyrrha rushed forward and jumped on an incoming sword, swinging down on Penny, only to have the assault halted by a collection of blades, though she leaped away from the retaliatory slice as Penny backed away as well. She tried to defend against the multitude of swords with the length of her weapon, but was forced back regardless, prompting Pyrrha to roll the shield from her back onto her arm with her polarity.

Pyrrha wasn't doing well, looking down at her hands, she saw her Semblance black energy bend the weapons in her hands unnaturally for a split second.

Pyrrha spinned wildly as she deflected and dodged each sword, until she got close enough to Penny to deliver a few slashes with the spear, sending her flying back as Pyrrha batted aside the blades called to their wielder's aid. Penny slided and made a new series of motions, the weapons folding up until she's circled by several laser rifles, a few of which open fire on the approaching Pyrrha.

Pyrrha avoided the blasts and fought off the remaining swords with her spear until she slipped into position to charge at Penny and knock her back. Pyrrha straightened herself with a victorious grin that disappeared into dizziness, just as she saw Penny rocketing forward, weapons firing behind her like a jetpack so she could leap into the air, then came down as an energized meteor on her opponent.

Pyrrha rolled back to her feet but she didn't expect a sword to knock her shield off, then another to do the same for her blade. She tried to get the latter back with her magnetism, but was stopped by Penny's flying swords.

Penny grinned and raised her arms as the swords floated above her, she aimed to strike. Pyrrha looked with shock at Penny as the later swords started to double then triple and so on. The blades kept multiplying and turned into unreal thicket of blades. At the sight of this, Pyrrha unsteadily stepped back.

Penny sent them all forward, Pyrrha was left with no choice but to spread her arms and send out a magnetized shockwave. Each blade was sent reeling back to Penny, who was also unintentionally affected by the Semblance attack. Pyrrha only had a brief moment to understand what's happening before Penny's arms were spread wide as she gasped, the strings attached to her own weapons curling around her left arm and midsection.

Penny was sliced to three pieces; the left arm, the lower half of her body and the upper half. Pyrrha and the entire stadium were watching in shock as the swords dropped to the ground. Pyrrha starred in abject horror, eyes wide and mouth agape.

The voice of Oobleck could be heard in the background saying " Broadcast, what are you doing? Kill the feed! "

As if it was answering the professor, the screen feed was replaced with a picture of blake queen chess piece and bloody red background.

A voice rang out for everyone to hear . He turned around and walked away.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

In Beacon, Centos was inside the vault with Cinder, Cinder was listening to every command. She didn't dare to play anything with this demon. She opened the vault for Centos who didn't hesitate to enter and brought the relic out. He smiled warmly at Cinder, he walked slowly toward her with a warm charming smile. Cinder was slightly shocked but her fear still dominant. Centos gave her a bear hug while still smiling.

Cinder wore a confused look at first then turned into absolute horror and pain. She felt her body set on fire, in reality It was Centos body burning, the flame was roasting cinder little by little. Cinder tried to resist, but the more she did the tighter the hug became. It didn't take long before Cinder heard the sound of her bones breaking. Now, she was crying because of pain instead of fear. Centos looked at her tears then kiss it on the face. Black flame started to burn on the top of her check. After sometime, Cinder lost her conscious because of the intolerable pain. Centos let go off her to fall on the cold floor with a very severe burning injuries. He gave a satisfied smile and walked out of the bas.e.m.e.nt. While he was walking outside he met with Emerald and Mercury, the two had ugly faces seeing him.

Centos didn't try to attack them as he continued walking away, but he said " Your boss is down there, she is alive, but a little sick because of weight loss"

When the two saw Centos leaving, they sighed in relief then ran toward the direction he came from. After sometime, the two stood in front of Cinder. Emerald puked at the sight while Mercury cursed. Mercury said with disgusted sound " What the f.u.c.k happened her? Was it his work? That twisted f.u.c.ker "

Emerald continued puking while crying. The sight was definitely not a pleasant scene

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

In Vale, the students and the soldiers met with the rest of the forces fighting in Vale including Qrow and Glynda.

" What happened to you? Why you act as if you saw a ghost ?" Qrow asked Ironwood

Ironwood hugged Qrow surprising the later, Ironwood then let go of the hug as he said " I wish I met a ghost, it would have been a 100 times better "

Qrow and Glynda became more confused. They were about to ask about more details when they heard Ruby screaming

" PYRRHA !!! ARE YOU OKAY ????"

The trio ran toward Ruby, in Ruby's hand laid a weak Pyrrha. The rest of her friends were surrounding her.

Ren asked her in extremely worried tone " Pyrrha, what happened to you? Are you okay? "

Pyrrha spoke in a low voice but everyone heard it " I'm not .. sop … sop. He was killed…. Professor Ozpin was killed "

Everyone felt like they were having a nightmare