Chereads / RWBY: The Time Bender / Chapter 22 - Misery Loves Company

Chapter 22 - Misery Loves Company

'How long have we been fighting for?' Looking around, there were an uncountable number of corpses strewn about, and the enemies were still coming.

I don't know exactly when it started, but my mother had stopped killing everyone in one hit, and around that same time my father appeared right next to us, keeping the balance relatively even.

The number of strikes they would have to give until an enemy's aura gave in was slowly rising, and the effort was starting to show. Both of my parents were drenched in sweat and blood, though the blood wasn't theirs, and the glow both of their eyes held at the beginning was now much more subdued.

Despite the obviously taxing fight occurring around them, every enemy that came my way would become a priority, and this was becoming apparent to everyone fighting, so they began exploiting this.

And because of this, it finally happened. A man with a mace jumped my way, glowing a vibrant blue, while 4 others wielding various weapons went towards my parents.

Had it been at the beginning of the fight this would have been nothing, but with how tired they were compared to then and their strikes doing less damage they had to choose.

Amelia took on the man with the mace and one of the 4 others that had a sword, while Maxwell took on the three others.

No matter how tired they were, they fought with such strength and grace that almost no blows would hit any of us three, but only almost. One of the four with a spear found an opening, and thrusting it forward it landed point forward on my father's side.

Letting himself slide a little to lessen the power behind the blow, his side glowed a dull gold as he grabbed the spear and kneed it, bending the metal into an unusable shape.

Shoving the butt end into the man's stomach, he then shattered the remaining aura of the three and swiftly beheaded them.

It was hard to not see the blow land on him, and it worried me just as much as it angered me. 'Damnit! If I were stronger then they wouldn't have to worry about protecting me so much.'

But no matter how much I cursed my weakness, I knew me running with the rest would have put them all in danger, so I just had to hope we would all make it out of this alive.

I would be hurling over in pain if not for the extreme distress I am in.

For every breath that felt like I was drinking fire, I could only see Argento and his parents bravely facing the army of people.

For every agonizing step that felt like my muscles were being torn apart, I saw Trivia, who was once the most docile of us, fearlessly step forward with Cromwell to fight to the death against several Grimm.

And for every bead of sweat that ran along my body like rivers of acid, I couldn't stop feeling the light pressure from when they kissed me.

'When did I become such a coward?' This thought wouldn't leave my aching head as we ran in the direction that should be Vale.

Though we had no clue where exactly it was, a general direction was all we had, and it was the only thing we could work on; at least, that was until we had to stop because now surrounding us were wolf-like Grimm. "There are more?!"

"It looks like we might not be able to retire, after all, honey." My father has always been a master of morbid jokes, but it felt less like a joke and more like an observation.

Without any other choice, they both brandished the dual pistols they had on their waists, raising them and standing back to back with me.

With my whip at the ready, a Grimm charged my way, and mostly out of instinct I cracked my whip straight into its viscous neck. Though it failed to slice it off, it did knock the Grimm sideways after lacerating it.

*Bang* *Bang*

My parents were shooting as fast as the dust guns were letting them, aiming at the Grimm who decided to make the first move.

Though ineffective if shot once or twice, the constant barrage of bullets was enough to take one down, while pushing another back.

'We might actually win this! Just a few more and we can -'

"Agh!" The pained voice of my mother brought me back to the fight, where dark green particles can be seen floating in the air, and dark red droplets fell to the ground.

It was only now that I realized the growing group of Grimm around us, including a menacing bird-like Grimm that was in the air, and also the cause of my mother's pain.

With the spilled blood, it was now that the rest of the wolf-Grimm, along with the late-comers, ran forward to pounce the now kneeling figure of my mother.

"No!" Rearing my whip back, I swung it forward, and this time managed to lob the head off one, but I couldn't stop.

Using every ounce of my strength, I tried my hardest to kill every Grimm my whip connected with, but I could only do it for so long before my father's bullets ran out.

"Gah!"

"Dad!" Keeping up the pace to the best of my abilities, ignoring the screaming pain that was flowing through my whole body, I kept swinging, but the strength was no longer there, and one of the Grimm got past.

It pounced on my mother, opening its vile mouth above her neck, and I swung. But it was too late.

"Kah!" The muffled sound of my mother's cries of pain flew to my ears, and the gurgling noises of her choking on her blood were the only thing I could focus on. Until the very same noise came from behind me, from my father.

With a resounding crunch, both of their necks were snapped, and in favor of collecting one more, the Grimm dropped their bodies. Now staring at me were the wide-eyed bodies of my parents' barely attached heads.

"No…" Disbelief. It's the only thing that was running through my head, I refused to believe they had died until the stench of blood flittered to my nose. The realization hit, that I was never going to see them again, and pain began overflowing my head.

My head was pounding a warrior's rhythm of sorrow, and as all the energy in my body collected at my head, it went forward, escaping my eyes.

An unimaginably bright light enveloped every Grimm in the area, and as it died down I had only a second to see, through my glowing silver eyes, that the Grimm had become stone.

"Mom…Dad…"

And I collapsed.

I was always afraid as a child; afraid that one day I would wake up and not be the same. For many this would seem farfetched, but how many people can say they had someone else in their head?

But for the first time, I didn't feel that fear, because I willingly gave her freedom. It's not like she would harm me, in fact when it came to fighting and surviving she was better, but she only reminded me of the pain I felt every day at home, and the only good thing that ever came out of that place was in danger.

As my rapier went through the head of the nearest wolf-like Grimm, another jumped at my back, but before it could attack a sword cut off its head.

Now standing at my back was the man I would gladly take as a father, and we had finally finished the last of the Grimm.

Neither of us was in great condition, but I couldn't feel my own exhaustion as I saw the dead bodies of my guards around me. I wanted to cry, but I knew I couldn't allow myself the time. We had to move quickly, and catch up to Ivy and her parents.

The only problem was that we weren't alone, because now standing apart from us were two men, clad in black, with the marking of whoever this 'Salem' character Amelia mentioned.

It seems that as right as the Chronos were, they didn't want any witnesses, so they sent two of their people to deal with us.

'Do they think so little of us that they would only send two?' It didn't matter, because both rushed toward us, wielding matching short swords.

There was little time for talk, as Cromwell and I fought with everything we had, barely making headway, which scared me even more. 'If just these two are this strong, then how are those three going to live against that many?'

From my worry I became distracted, and the pair instantly struck toward me. With one coming from behind and the other from the front, I couldn't dodge in any specific direction, and though he swung Cromwell wouldn't make it in time, so I had to take a chance.

Putting all the power into my legs I could, I pushed off the ground hard, launching myself just above their swords.

The reason I hadn't wanted to do this was because of the vulnerability it left me, and as the one in front of me swirled around to deal with Cromwell, the one behind thrust his sword straight for my spine.

Twisting my body in the air, I managed to deflect the sword to my side, shattering the little aura left surrounding my body as it made a small gash where it struck.

As I landed, I crumpled to my knee, unable to properly support my body with the pain from the wound, and barely deflected another blow made to my heart, which scraped my shoulder.

With barely any strength left in me, I leaped back to Cromwell's side, who was in a similar shape. His guy, however, was actually hurt and was currently holding his maimed arm.

As they rushed toward us, Cromwell dragged me aside, parrying the blow from the uninjured one into his leg as he shoved his sword through the neck of the man he maimed.

Spinning his body, he managed to yank the short sword out of the remaining man's hand, to which I began swinging as fast as I could possibly manage.

The injury on my side and my shoulder limited this greatly, but I managed to land quite a few hits before the man created a glass-like sword, swinging and grazing my leg.

Barely supporting my own body, I pushed one final time with all the strength I could muster, and though it was deflected by the man's sword it hit just enough to finally shatter his shield.

Taking this opportunity, Cromwell ran his sword through the man's stomach, the only area he could fully pierce in his state, and let go of his sword to avoid falling onto the man.

'We did it!' Feeling exhausted, and in a lot of pain, I looked up and smiled, to the best of my ability at least, at Cromwell. He saw my smile, and as he staggered on his feet, struggling to stand, he smiled back.

Then a splash of warmth covered my face, as his smile faded. Touching the warmth I felt, I brought my hand away, only to see fresh blood had been sprayed onto me.

As he looked down I did too, to find the glass sword sticking through his stomach slowly fading away, causing even more blood to flow.

I couldn't feel any of the pain anymore as I saw Cromwell's body fall in slow motion, and before I could move my head to follow his body I saw the smirk on the man's face.

Without thinking, I spent what little energy that I tried to save as I chucked my rapier into his head, but it did little to erase the smirk plastered there for eternity.

Crawling over to Cromwell's body, I could hear labored breathing, and as I got to him he began coughing out blood.

" *cough cough* I'm glad… you're safe."

*Ding*

{Don't talk dummy, you have to save your strength until someone arrives for us.}

"You know I… won't make it… out of this one." With each word he said, he was losing his energy, and the light in his eyes was slowly fading. "Stay strong for me… I'm sorry I won't be able… to watch you grow up… my daughter."

"No… Dad!" It came out quieter than a whisper, I lacked the energy to make it louder, but as tears began collecting in my eyes I saw him smile brighter than I ever have before; and just from me calling him dad.

His breathing halted, my hand on his heart felt no more pulse, and I couldn't keep in all the tears I had been building since this all started.

Without the energy to yell, it all came out in quiet sobbing and endless tears, but in the middle of it my mind went fuzzy, and I fell over next to him.

The constant bleeding and fighting were getting to me, but as I fought to stay awake an image of two people popped into my head.

'Please be alive you two…'

And I passed out.

As my katana deflected a halberd swung my direction, my mother's Chokuto blades impaled the bloody female from behind, and my father's katana was shoved through her heart. As she fell to the ground, I looked around and relief momentarily flooded every part of my body; there were no more.

Littering the area around us were piles and piles of dead bodies, with just as much blood literally covering the whole area, like a flood of it just washed through.

This relief was short-lived as I felt the state I was in, and saw that my parents were just as badly hurt if not way more so. At this point, it was hard to tell who was more hurt, with all the blood covering us I couldn't tell how much was ours and how much wasn't.

What was obvious though was the heavy panting coming from the three of us, and I had to use my katana to keep myself upright.

"Are you okay honey?" Looking up from the blood-covered ground, I could see both my parents look at me with worry as my mother asked this, and I couldn't help but chuckle at that, which I regretted instantly because of the pain I felt from it.

"Am I okay? I should be asking you two that. The only thing I did was defend myself!" They looked at each other, and just wryly smiled.

"What about all of… this? Does this not affect you?" As my father gestured to everything around us, I realized that despite the massive amount of blood, gore, and death around me, I was perfectly fine; well, as perfectly fine as I can be after barely surviving that.

"Oh… well, I guess not? They did try to kill us, so I don't feel bad if that's what you're asking."

'As much as I want to go after the others, I can barely even stand. My parents may look fine, but they haven't moved since they finished that last woman off, so I have to assume they are in similar situations.'

As we began lightly conversing to regain some strength, none of us noticed minor movement among the many piles of corpses, as it slowly crept closer.

"I'm assuming you have some questions for us, after seeing what we just did." My parents seemed a tad relaxed compared to before, so without holding back the first question came to mind as stars shone in my eyes.

"How did you bypass their aura shields so easily? Did you attack with so much force it wiped out all their aura or was it like a secret technique?" Gently smiling at me was my father, fully ready to answer any question I may have, until a glint of light caught my parents' eye.

Both jumping forward, my mother grabbed me first and shielded my body, and Maxwell did the same for the both of us.

I was confused for only a second until I felt something stab through the lower left side of my body, barely missing anything vital but still very much hurting and potentially fatal.

Feeling it leave my body, I looked down to watch it go out of my mother, who held a bigger hole in her stomach, and as we fell to our knees I saw a massive hole in my father's stomach.

Through the pain, I was feeling was surprised; not at being attacked, but at the fact that my father was holding the head of a man, who had dropped a lance at his side.

Without hesitation, he squeezed his hand, causing an audible crack as the man's skull broke and caved inward, and dropped the corpse to the ground.

As the body hit the floor, I began feeling just how much pain I was in, and I could feel my body starting to give in. Until my mother picked me up and brought me over to an area clear of bodies.

"We knew this day would come, but we didn't want to leave you so soon." I could barely focus on their words as they seemed hazy, with the pain being the only thing keeping me awake.

But I did notice that both of their eyes were once again glowing a brilliant gold, far brighter than they were at the beginning of the fight.

Putting me down, I felt another wave of pain, waking me up a little more than before, enough to give my words strength. "What's happening?"

"That's hard to explain, but we're currently burning our life force to give our bodies strength. It's not exactly a practiced action, since it causes the user's death; that is, if they weren't already going to die."

As my mother was explaining this to me, she began drawing circles of gold in the air around me, while my father brought out a device and quickly typed something, dropping it soon after and assisting my mother with the circles.

I couldn't understand any of this, they continued to draw circles and symbols in the air around me, eventually making me feel the power accumulating around us even with so little focus left in me.

"But if you're burning your life force… doesn't that mean you won't live after this?" Their words, as confusing as they were, were scaring me more than anything.

"We already were on death's door, but even if we survived you wouldn't have." As my father said these words, the circles were finished, the golden glow they had was sucked out of them, and it began surrounding me. They both fell to their knees, now in front of my head, and tears began leaving their eyes.

"We have lived a long life, honey, but the best thing that has ever happened to us was you. So no matter how far into the future you live, just know that we will always love you, and we will always be with you."

As my mother finished these words she kissed me on the forehead and collapsed into the arms of my father, who looked ready to collapse as well.

"You are Argento Chrono; son of Amelia Chrono and Maxwell Chrono. With us gone, the Chrono line will be left to you. You are the last of us, but always remember that we will be proud of you, no matter what."

As my father finished his words, he kissed my forehead as well, and as he began collapsing, the strength to say anything more slipped away from me, as did my consciousness seconds after.