Chapter 1 artifact of the cursed hero

The story of the Brothers is a sad story. One is corrupted with insanity while the other remains sane. No one knows how it started or where the brothers came from. All that is known has become a tale as old as time itself, and that is where our story begins.

Everyone of team CFVY is sleeping peacefully until the alarm goes off. Simultaneously, everyone in the room groans in annoyance at the device before Velvet gets out of bed. Velvet wipes the sleep out of her eyes and stretches. Coco tries to turn over and go back to sleep, but the alarm persists. She throws the cover off and looks at Velvet. "Velvet, can you shut that off, please?"

Velvet sighs in exasperation. "Coco, you know that when the alarm goes off, we need to get ready."

Falling back on her pillow, Coco breathes out a heavy sigh. "Ugh! You know I'm not a morning person."

Velvet turns toward Coco. "Coco!" She starts to gather her toiletries for her daily routine, intent on being the first in the bathroom this morning.

Coco, finally acquiescing to Velvet's demands, gets out of bed. "Fine, but this doesn't mean have to like it."

Coco enters the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. Meanwhile, Velvet looks up at Fox and Yatsuhashi, and unlike Coco, they didn't complain. They just got up and started to get ready. After about thirty minutes, Coco exits the bathroom with her uniform on just in time to see her team also dressed in their uniforms.

Coco looks at the guys in surprise. "Wow, you guys got ready quick."

Shrugging at Coco's comment, he turns to finish gathering his things. The rumor he heard earlier comes to mind, then. "Coco, did you hear about the rumor?"

"What rumor?" Coco straightens her beret and puts her sunglasses on.

Velvet looks between Coco and Yatsuhashi. "Oh, right, the one about the ancient temple and the two statues that professor Oobleck discovered last week."

Coco nods. "Ah, that rumor. Why are you bringing it up now?"

Velvet looks away from Coco. "I was thinking that it would be a great place to visit when Spring break comes."

Coco raises her eyebrow, not that you can really see it through the sunglasses. "You just want to get away from Cardin, don't you?"

Velvet pauses as she looks at the floor. "Yes." Her voice is meek and unsure.

Coco walks over to Velvet and pats her on her shoulder. "It's okay. I understand. He's a real j***. Who wouldn't want to get away from him?"

Yatsuhashi sighs at the very idea of his partner having to deal with such abuse. "We should start heading to class. Something tells me that this is going to be a long day."

Everyone hastily agrees and exits the dorm. On the way to class, Velvet hoped that she wouldn't have any problems from Cardin. Unfortunately, as soon as they enter the classroom, the first people they see are the members of team CRDL, and Cardin was giving Velvet a nasty smile.

Velvet shakes her head while frowning. "Why me?" Her voice is so quiet that no one could possibly hear her.

Then, suddenly, an announcement echoes through the classroom. "Would team CRDL and team CFVY report to Professor Ozpin's office immediately?"

As they exit the room, Coco poses an important question. "Why would they call us at this time?"

Yatsuhashi just shrugs. "I'm not sure, but we better do as they ask."

Both teams start to walk toward the office, leaving the classroom full of curious students behind. All the while, Cardin is staring at Velvet's ears, thinking about pulling them again. Velvet, conscious of Cardin's gaze, tries her best to stay away from him. Coco notices Velvet's occasional retreats from the bully and starts to walk next to her.

Coco leans in and and whispers so that only Velvet can hear. "Don't worry. If he gives you any problems, I'll knock his teeth out."

Velvet whispers back with a smile on her face. "Thanks, Coco."

They soon enter the office. It's there that they see Professor Ozpin at his desk, drinking coffee. Hr puts down his mug and addresses them. "Great. You're here."

Coco shifts her weight to her right leg and puts her left hand on her hip. "So, why did you call us here?"

Ozpin clears his throat, becoming rather serious. "There's a mission that I'm assigning four teams to do, and we must wait for the others to arrive before I explain everything. Right now, though, you may have a seat." He gestures toward the many chairs lining the wall. Everybody just seems to sigh and resign themselves to sitting and waiting for whoever else Ozpin has called for this four-team mission.

After waiting a few minutes, team JNPR arrives. Jaune asks the same thing that Coco did but with less sass. Ozpin, of course, just tells them to sit and wait for the last team, team RWBY, to arrive. JNPR sits down, having the horrible luck to be right next to team CRDL. Luckily for them, though, it was only mere moments before the four members of team RWBY enters the room in the same confusion that the rest of them feels. Team RWBY looks over at the other three teams for an answer, but they just shakes their heads.

Coco glances at Ozpin and sees that he's smiling. " Team RWBY, so nice to see that the four of you were able to make it. We were just about to get our little discussion strated." Ozpin explains before taking a sip from his coffee mug.

Blake crosses her arms over her chest, clearly both annoyed and curious. "Why are we all here, Professor?"

Ozpin sighs. "Please, take a seat. I'll explain everything." They take their seats as Ozpin starts to tell them the purpose of them being summoned.

Velvet sees team RWBY sit beside team JNPR. She, then, turns her head to Yatsuhashi and whispers to him, "Why do you think he called us here?"

Yatsuhashi shakes his head, thinking. "I'm not sure, but if it's requiring four teams, it must be something rather important."

Coco scoots closer to Velvet, joining in on the conversation. "The bigger question is: why do we have to be grouped in with team CRDL of all teams?"

It was at this point that Ozpin took another sip of his coffee. "Alright, then, as I'm sure you are unaware by now, there is a rumor going around about an ancient temple that was discovered by Professor Oobleck during the last weekend, and what could possibly be found inside?" Ozpin told them.

Coco looks at Velvet. "Do you think he's going to be sending us to go there?"

Velvet just shrugs. "Let's wait and see."

Ozpin turned his attention towards the bulky team leader. "We have reasons to believe that the statues that attacked Professor Oobleck are protecting something potentially dangerous. Therefore it may be in our collective best interests to investigate and make sure that it isn't dangerous. And who better to send then out top four teams we have available." Ozpin explained.

Cardin looked at the Headmaster for a moment before nodding in understanding. "Alright, I get that, but there's no way I'm working alongside an animal like her," Cardin stated with a sneer as he pointing towards Velvet who looked down, sadly, with a hurt expression.

Coco sneers at Cardin's racism. "B***." You couldn't see it, but she was definitely glaring at Cardin.

Yatsuhashi mimics Coco's disgusted reaction. "J***."

Fox didn't really say anything, but he did give Cardin an angry look. Meanwhile, everyone else that wasn't part of his team glared at him, including Ozpin. "Need I remind you that she is a year above you?" Ozpin asked, narrowing his eyes at the Faunus hater. "You will treat her with respect and as an equal. No exceptions." There was no hint of negotiation in his tone as he gave Cardin a look that unnerved the brunette. Velvet smiled as she was thankful that the Headmaster defended her.

Cardin huffed. "Whatever." Cardin told him and went silent, causing Ozpin to nod.

After a few tense moments, Jaune raised his hand. "So how are we going to get to the temple anyway?" The blonde boy asked, making Ozpin smile.

"The same way you got to Beacon in the first place." Ozpin told him.

Jaune gave an uncomfortable look. "Oh crap."

-Airship, three hours later-

Jaune Arc was currently throwing up in a bin that was nearby while Pyrrha soothed him by rubbing his back.

"Why…did it…have to be…an airship?" Jaune said in between throwing up, mentally scolding his motion sickness for acting up so easily.

Pyrrha gave him sympathetic looks as her leader continued to throw up.

Everyone was having their own conversation. Meanwhile, Velvet was sitting alone on the bench thinking to herself, still hurt by Cardin's harsh words from earlier. She sighs softly, turning to Coco. "Sometimes, I wonder why I even bothered coming to Beacon."

Coco pats her shoulder, concerned for her teammate and friend. She pulls her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose. "Hey, don't look so down. One day, he's going to get what's coming to him." She pushes her glasses back up and looks straight at Cardin with a hate filled look in her eyes.

Velvet huffs. "I don't exactly care what happens to him." She looks down at her lap, twiddling her thumbs nervously.

Scoffing at Velvet's blasé attitude, Coco shakes her head. "Well, in my dreams, I imagine him getting eaten by a crazy, psychopathic, red haired dude."

Velvet looks at Coco, shocked at that grotesque picture. "That's kind of... scary, Coco."

Coco just shrugs. "A girl can dream, can't she?"

-hours later-

The airship finally landed a few miles away from the temple. The four teams left the temple and trekked through the thick forest. After thirty minutes of walking, they finally stumbled across the temple that the rumors were talking about.

"Wow!" Jaune stated loudly in awe as he glanced at the large temple. "This place is huge!"

"No kidding! This place is bigger than Beacon Academy!" Yang said as she whistled at the size of it.

Ren nodded in agreement. "We should be careful; we don't know what could happen in there."

When Ren said that, everyone went into high alert. As they crossed over a bridge that was above a deep chasm, they were unaware that one of the statues at the front of the temple turned its head to look at them. The statue was a dark grey color and had a helmet on that had a v-shaped visor. The statue silently pulled it's sword from its back and prepared to slice the four teams before they realize that it's alive.

Velvet looks around, still oblivious of the statue behind them. " I guess the rumors of the statues being alive aren't true."

Yatsuhashi nods at Velvet. "They probably would've attacked us before we cross the bridge if they were alive."

Coco scoffs. "That's a shame. I was looking forward to fighting..."

Before she could finish, the statue was a second away from swinging its stone sword at them and knocking them off the bridge. Luckily, with their sensitive hearing, Blake and Velvet were able to hear the slight creaking that the statue's joints made when its arm was moving.

LOOK OUT!" Blake yelled as the statue swung its giant blade.

Blake's warning alerted everyone of the impending danger, which allowed them to dodge the stone blade before it could hit them. The group recovered, and they looked upon the statue in shock. They weren't expecting to find the statues alive, despite the rumors that they'd heard.

"The statues are really alive!" Weiss stated with wide eyes.

"And it looks like it has a brother." Ruby added as she spotted another statue walking towards them. This statue had a similar design as the one that attacked them, but this one was silver instead of dark grey. When the statue was close enough, it stopped and drew its own sword, prepared to fight them alongside its fellow statue.

A moment of silence passed before the two statues charged towards the four teams, starting the battle. The Silver statue swung its massive sword at Yang in a two-handed slash. She dodged it and jumped on its hand. The fiery blonde rushed towards the statue's head and threw a punch at its head with her Ember Celica activated, hoping to deal enough damage to bring it down only for the statue to smack her off its shoulder with its other hand. When she collided with the ground, she was knocked out from the impact and out of the fight.

Ren then tried shooting at the silver statue, only for the dust bullets to prove ineffective as they harmlessly bounce off its stony exterior. The statue kicked Ren aside as Jaune charged at it and swings at its leg, managing to cut into the stone leg. But to Jaune's horror, not only did it do nothing to harm the stone creature, but his sword ended up getting stuck in the leg. As he struggled to pull it out, the silver statue bent over and grabbed Jaune by his shirt collar as he struggled to get loose.

Coco whistles at the strange sight. She looks at the statue up and down curiously. "Damn, that's something you don't see everyday."

Yatsuhashi sighs. "We better help them, right Fox?" Yatsuhashi turns to se Fox doing nothing. "Fox?"

Fox just stands there, still doing nothing. Coco waves her hand in front of his face, knowing full well he's blind, but does it anyway. "Hello. Remnant to Fox."

Fox just smile and shakes his head, taking Coco's hand and putting it down. "We don't need to do anything. This will all end very shortly."

Velvet looks over at her teammate. "How can you be so calm about this?" Fox just stands there smiling, seeming like he's waiting for something.

"Your heart…is pure." The statue told Ruby with a deep, gravelly voice . "You…are…worthy." All the other teams turn their attention to the statue that just talked.

All of team CFVY's mouths drop open in shock. Then, simultaneously, they all say, "IT CAN TALK?"

Ruby simply stared at the talking statue. Suddenly, she yelled out. "YOU CAN TALK!?" Ruby exclaimed, causing the others, including the silver statue that had picked up Jaune by his collar, to stop what they were doing.

"Indeed I can." The dark grey statue told her with a nod. "We both are capable of speech." The statue looked at its silvery counterpart.

"Brother, would you kindly release that human?" The silver statue nodded and slowly lowered Jaune down to the ground and released his collar.

"There you go." The silver statue told Jaune, who shakily walked towards his team.

Coco shakes her head, trying to wake up from this dream. When it doesn't go away, she says, "Okay, someone needs to hit me because I think I'm dreaming."

Velvet is a semi-trance like state. "Me, too."

"Please, allow me to introduce ourselves. We are the statues of the great Dark Warrior and Light Warrior. I am the statue of the Dark Warrior, while my brother is the statue of the Light Warrior." The Dark Statue told them. "We were created long ago to protect this temple and the artifact within, waiting for someone worthy to seek it. For, you see, we are able to read hearts."

Coco scoffs. "Reading hearts? How the hell does that work?"

Velvet turns to Coco. "I think that's kind of interesting."

Coco shrugs. "I guess."

While everyone was listening to the statue's explanation, Ren walked toward the dark statue with a small frown on his face."So why did you attack our professor if you could read his heart?" Ren inquired. The statues looked at each other as if nervous.

It was the statue of the Light-Warrior that answered. "You don't happen to mean that bizarre green hair man? He was running so fast that we were not able to confirm whether or not his heart was pure. So, we decided to attack just to be safe, in case he was not pure of heart." He explained.

The members of the four teams nodded in understanding. Professor Oobleck really needed to lay off the coffee.

"So what is the relic anyway?" Blake asked them, voicing the question that everyone was pondering since they heard of it. Luckily, the statue of the Dark Warrior was more than willing to answer her.

"The artifact that you speak of is a scale that connects two worlds together. This one is inhabited by humans, faunus, and the Grim alike, while the other one is inhabited solely by humans." The dark grey statue answered, earning a scoff from Weiss.

Velvet frowns at this. "A world without Faunus?"

The rest of team CFVY look at Velvet with concern.

Yatsuhashi is the first to voice his, though. "Are you alright?"

Velvet waves off his question with a small, timid smile. "I'm fine, just a bit nervous after hearing that."

Coco nudges Velvet in the side softly, giving her a bright smile. "Well, the bright side is that there's no monsters there." Velvet nods at her, returning the smile.

That's completely absurd!" Weiss told them. "That is completely impossible." If the statues had eyebrows, they would raise them at her remark.

"And yet you're here right now, talking to two moving, talking statues and saying that having two different worlds connected together is too farfetched?" The Silver statue asked her with amusement, causing her to pause for a moment.

"Good point." Weiss said with a blush, clearly embarrassed.

Coco puts her finger to her chin in thought. "Hmm. I wonder if the people in that world know any good shopping districts." The rest of team CFVY looks at Coco curiously. Coco looks at them. "What?"

Yatsuhashi sighs in incredulity. "There is a whole other world that has many things and cultures that remain unknown to us, and that's the only thing you want to know?

Coco just shrugs. "To me, that remains the most important thing of all. Right, Velvet?"

Velvet wasn't listening to them, as she was too curious about what the statues said. "Wait, you said that you two were the statues of the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior?" Velvet asked them. "Who are they?"

Ren nodded, wanting to know as well.

The twin statues turned to stare at each other for a moment before turning their attention back to the group. "We will explain who they are once you retrieve the artifact." The Dark Warrior statue stated.

Coco lowered her signature shades. "So you're going to let us through?" Coco asked them as the statues nodded.

"Of course. From what we were able to see, you all seems to be worthy of it, except those four right there." The Light Warrior statue stated as he turned towards Team CRDL as if glaring at them.

The team looked surprised. "WHAT! Why aren't we allowed to go get it?!" Cardin demanded with a scowl.

Coco narrowed her eyes in anger. "Because you're a j***." No one but Velvet and Blake heard, though, as it was too low for human hearing.

"We saw nothing but hatred and cruelty within your hearts, especially in yours Cardin Winchester." The Dark Warrior Statue stated, earning nods from the other teams and a shocked look from Cardin.

Velvet looks up at the statue then at Yatsuhashi in confusion. "Did he just say his name?"

Yatsuhashi nods his head. "I think he did."

"H-how do you know my name?!" Cardin asked them, feeling slightly unnerved by the fact that they knew his name.

"Our ability to read people's hearts also allows us to read their memories as well. So, we know everything about you. And to be honest, I am disgusted at how you treat others." The statue explained.

"So you know everything about us?" Fox asked them.

The silver statue nodded. "Yes, and we even know things about you that you don't even know about yourselves." He explained. "But enough about that, you have proven yourselves and shall be allowed to pass." The two statues moved out of their way as they started to move passed them, with Blake carrying the still unconscious Yang along.

Velvet was at the back of the line but stopped when the dark gray statue calls out to her. "Velvet Scarlatina?"

Velvet looks up at the towering figure. Confusion and maybe a little fear fills her eyes. "Yes?" Her voice is timid but well heard by the statue.

The dark gray statue looks at her with interest. "May I have a word with you?" He gestures for her to come to him, and she moves closer, albeit slowly.

Velvet makes it to the statue. "Wh...what is it?"

The dark gray statue looks down at the rabbit Faunus with sadness. "I was looking through your memories and... I am terribly sorry with what you had to go through."

Velvet waves off his concern with a smile. "It's all right. I'm used to it." She twists her fingers together, looking at the ground. She lost her previous smile as all of the things she's been through flashes across her mind. "Of course, I do wish it could stop."

The statue looks at her, the sadness never truly leaving him, but it's covered by a determination to console her. "Well, there's no real way to prove that it's going to stop, but it is guaranteed to get better."

"What makes you so sure?" Velvet gives it, him, a skeptical look.

The statue just shrugs. "It's the very thing that's allowing you and your friends to pass."

She looks toward where her friends had gone then back at him. "What is it?"

The dark gray statue smiles. "It's compassion, Velvet."

Velvet's confusion only worsens. "Compassion?"

"It's the very thing you share with your team. The more you treat each other as equals and friends, the better of a example it will show to others. Some will probably learn from it, and some will probably never learn from it." The statue looks into Velvet's eyes, right into her soul. As the dark gray statue turned his attention back to Team CRDL, who are still upset about not going, Velvet shed a tear of joy after hearing that. The dark gray statue turned his attention back to her. "You might want to hurry up or you will be behind."

Velvet snaps back to reality. "Oh, yeah. Thank you." Velvet started running towards the entrance of the temple, hoping to catch up to her friends.

It took a few moments, but Velvet managed to catch up with the others. As the teams trekked through the temple, their curiosity about the two warriors the statues spoke of were boiling in their minds.

"Who do you guys think the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior are?" Velvet questioned out loud.

"Whoever they are, they must have been pretty important to have two gigantic statues build for them." Coco answered, adjusting the strap for her handbag/mini gun.

At this point, Yang slowly started to regain consciousness. "Ooooh, what happened?" Yang moaned as she held her throbbing head.

"Um...we'll explain on the way out." Blake told her as she let Yang go so she could walk.

They eventually made it to the center of the temple and noticed a tomb with a cross on its side. "Do you think the artifact is in there?" Fox asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Nora grinned as she took out her war hammer, walked over to the tomb, and proceeded to smash the lid of the tomb to pieces.

"NORA!" Everyone yelled out in shock and disbelief.

"What?" Nora asked in confusion. "You wanted it open, didn't you?"

Yatsuhashi just smiles and shrugs. "Well, we did want it open."

Coco nods. "I can agree with that, although that was a bit extreme."

Everyone walked over to the now opened tomb to see a skeleton wearing what looked like the remains of a torn up black outfit and like a smaller, slightly broken version of the helmet that the statues were wearing. The broken helmet revealed the skeletal face of the person in the tomb.

In the clutches of the skeletal hand was the artifact that they came here for, the Scales of Light and Darkness.

Everyone stared at the scale for a few moments. "Soooo...who's going to get it?" Ren asked to everyone, not wanting to get closer to the body.

Coco holds up her hands. "Hey, don't look at me. I am not touching that."

Yatsuhashi smirks. "Ditto."

Velvet looks at the skeleton with a mix of disgust and interest. "Yikes."

"I think that you should do it Jaune." Pyrrha told her leader.

"WHAT?! WHY ME!?" Jaune cried out.

"Because you're the leader and your closer to it." Pyrrha answered, trying to hide the fact that she didn't want to go near the skeleton.

Jaune gulped as he reaches for artifact, grabbed it, and yanked his arm back. The artifact was dislodged from the skeletal hand's grip, causing Jaune to sigh in relief before realizing that the skeleton's arm was still attached to the scale. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Jaune screamed like a little girl and panics, accidentally throwing the scale and knocking the hand off.

Ruby quickly runs to the fallen scale and picks it up happily.

Coco laughs out loud. "You know, if there was a record for the most biggest nerd ever to scream like a girl, Jaune would definitely hold that record."

Velvet can't help but smile and laugh at that. "Ha ha, maybe." They, then, walk towards Ruby.

'It's so beautiful.' Ruby thought as she turned back to the others. "Hey guys, you should take a look at this." Ruby called out. Before long, everyone was crowding around Ruby and the scale.

"It's so shiny!" Nora stated, earning a nod from everyone.

"It's certainly looks kind of cool." Fox remarked.

"What do you think it's made from?" Weiss asked.

"By the look of it, I think it might be marble and obsidian." Pyrrha guessed.

"We should probably get out of here and talk to the statues and pick up Team CRDL" Blake told them. After everyone agreed, they left the room and headed to the front of the temple where they saw the statues and Team CRDL, the latter looking bored and irritated.

Sensing that they were out of the temple, the statues turned towards the three teams. "Ah, I see that you found the artifact okay." The dark grey statue commented. Ruby nodded and held out the scales. "Yes sir, we found it without a hitch." Ruby stated with a broad smile.

Velvet walked up to the statues. "So, will you tell us about the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior?"

The silver statue nodded. "Of course. The Dark Warrior and Light Warrior are-" Whatever he was about to say was silenced when something came flying towards his head and collided with it, causing his head to explode, destroying the silver statue.

Everyone watched in horror as the once great statue crumbled as he died. "BROTHE-" Just like his brother, the dark grey statue was interrupted by something hitting his chest and exploding on impact. Fortunately, he did not start crumbling away like his brother.

Velvet watched in horror as the statues were hit. The only thing she could do was scream, "NO!"

Everyone gathered around the statue of the Dark Warrior, who looked like he was in agony.

"Oh my Oum! Are you going to be alright?!" Coco asked him, taking off her glasses, which showed her horrified face.

The statue started to grunt as he tried to get up but failed to do so as he fell back down. "I'm afraid that I will not be alright, I feel my life energy fading from me." The statue told everyone. "Who...would do this to my brother?"

"That would be me." A man's voice said. Everyone looked towards the source of the voice to see Hei Xiong, or Junior as most people know him as, walked out of the shadows with his signature missile launcher slung over his shoulder.

Yang's eyes turned red as she angrily growls at him. "Junior! You backstabbing j***!"

Junior raised his hand defensively. "Now, now, Blondie. No hard feelings, but he was bad for business. Now, how about you brats hand us that artifact you have, and this won't get ugly."

Velvet's eyes widen. "Wait? Us?"

Junior smirked. "Yup, my friends and I want that artifact. Isn't that right, everyone?" As he said this, more people started to appear from the shadows of the jungle.

The teams were shocked when they noticed Roman Torchwick was among the group. "ROMAN!? How did you get out!?" Ruby exclaimed in shock.

Roman chuckled at her question. "Well, you see Red, I had help from my lovely assistant Neo and my allies right here." Roman explained as he pointed towards Cinder and her minions.

Emerald and Mercury were wearing the same type of suit as their boss Cinder was, but Mercury's suit was grey while Emerald's was green. Cinder smirked as she waved towards Ruby. "Hello, there, remember me?" Ruby glared at the woman that she fought while the dance was being held.

Blake was staring at Adam while he smirked at her. "It's been awhile hasn't it, Blake?" Adam taunted.

"Adam!" Blake said with narrowed eyes.

"We waited a long time for this." Melanie said.

"This time, we will win." Her twin, Militia, added.

Yang smirked towards them as she cracked her next and fists. "Looks like it's time for round two."

Just then, the dark grey statue started to shutter and crumble apart. "Ru...by," the statue said in a low voice.

Ruby and Velvet turns to the statue with a worried expression."Are you going to be okay?" Ruby asked him.

He shook his head no. "I'm afraid that I do not have much time left...please avenge my brother for me."

Ruby nodded her head while hot tears started to stream from her eyes. "I...I'll try." Ruby told him shakily.

He stared at her for a moment, as if smiling. "Thank...you." These were the final words he said before his body collapsed into rubble, his life finally ending after so long.

All the Beacon students looked down sadly for the new friends they just met. Nora started to cry, clutching Magnhild, as Ren wrapped her in an embrace. Velvet, on the other hand, is deeply consumed by sadness at the prospect that someone so kind had to die.

Coco looks a to Velvet in concern. She puts her hand on Velvet's shoulder, trying to console her and get her attention at the same. "Velvet, this is about to get nasty we need to go."

Velvet, with tears streaming down her face, looks at Coco. "Why?"

Coco's brow furrows in confusion. "Why, what?"

Velvet wipes her cheeks with the heel of her palm. "Why did they have to die, all for a stupid relic. It's just not fair." She shakes her head furiously, still consumed by sadness, but also confusion, for their deaths.

Right before Velvet could do anything else, Ruby had rushed straight towards Cinder, who barely had enough time to block when Ruby swung Crescent Rose at her. Cinder tried desperately to hold Ruby in place, trying to make a grab for the scale from Ruby's hand. When her hand finally touched the scale, a shining light erupted from it, blinding everyone in the area.

Then, suddenly beams of light rocketed out of the scale and collided with everyone in the area. When the light died down, everyone was gone and the forest was dark once again.