Opening theme:
Black Rover (Black Clover opening 3)
Visuals: The camera pans from the sky down to just above Beacon Academy as a bird perches on top of the Beacon Tower's Spire as the title card Flame and Crimson flashes upon the screen. Following this, it opens up to Teams NDTSA and RWBY walking alongside each other and laughing before Weiss begins to chase Daikon for some comment he no doubt made. It flashes to a panel of JNPR, some of the other Vytal Tournament Participants and Beacon's faculty before it zooms in on Ozpin briefly.
The bridge is a compilation of the Saiyan characters and team rwby training against each other before the screen darkens with Cinder, Emerald, Neo and others smirking darkly before rushing into the screen. The chorus is a scene of the main cast fighting back against a horde of Grimm invaders before transitioning to a scene of Nova and Turuk fighting Cinder with their ki surrounding them. Nova kneels briefly and breathes in slowly as a menacing shadow of an oozaru (Saiyan Great Ape) is seen behind him as he charges towards cinder again.
The song ends with Ruby and Nova entwining their hands together as they stare at the sunset.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR AND A HALF: Rest, Relaxation, and Training? Part II
Part I — Growing Pains
Location: Beacon Academy Courtyard | Late Afternoon
The landing was better than yesterday's.
Ruby's feet found the grass with the specific quality of feet that have decided, after considerable negotiation, to return to the ground on their own terms rather than the ground's. She wobbled. Her tail moved behind her in the automatic counterbalancing gesture that it had apparently decided was its primary function, and the wobble resolved into something that could charitably be called a controlled descent.
"That was good," Aiko said, landing beside her without wobbling at all, which Ruby was choosing not to think about.
"I stayed up for almost eight seconds," Ruby said.
"Seven and a half," Aiko said. "But the improvement from this morning is significant. You went from two inches off the ground to—"
"To actually flying," Ruby said, which felt important to say correctly.
"To actually flying," Aiko agreed.
Ruby sat down on the grass and stretched her arms behind her, looking up at the specific quality of late afternoon that came through Beacon's trees. The tail curled around beside her in the way it did when she was relaxed, which she was still getting used to — the specific experience of having a part of herself that had opinions about her emotional state and was expressing them independently.
"Aiko," she said.
"Yes?"
"Is it normal for the aching to feel like my muscles are arguing with each other?"
Aiko sat beside her and thought about this with the specific care she brought to physical questions. "That's... actually a good way to describe it. Your Saiyan muscle fibers are denser than human standard. The existing tissue is adapting." She paused. "It should ease in a few days. After that it will actually feel better than before — the density becomes an advantage rather than an adjustment."
"So I'm going to be stronger."
"Considerably."
"Even without ki?"
"Even without ki," Aiko confirmed. "Which, combined with what Nova's been teaching you about ki application—"
"Is going to be interesting," Ruby said.
"Very," Aiko agreed.
Ruby looked at the tail again. The tail looked at a butterfly that was crossing the courtyard and followed it with the mild autonomous interest of something that was calibrating what it found significant.
"Can I ask you something personal?" Ruby said.
"Of course."
"When you first changed — when your Saiyan blood came in — did you feel like yourself? Or did it feel like something was replacing you?"
Aiko was quiet for a moment. Not because she didn't have an answer but because she was being careful with it.
"Both, at first," she said. "And then I realized that both was wrong. It wasn't replacement. It was addition. The self I had was still there — it just had more room now." She looked at Ruby with the specific gentleness of someone who had carried a version of this question for a while and had found its answer. "You're still Ruby Rose. You'll always be Ruby Rose. You just have — more of yourself available now."
Ruby turned this over.
"Nova said something like that to me once," she said.
"He's right," Aiko said. "He usually is, about things that matter."
"He's annoyingly right about most things," Ruby said.
"Yes," Aiko agreed. "It's a family trait. Turuk is the same way. Scarlett is right about things in a louder way, which is slightly different."
Ruby laughed.
The butterfly completed its crossing of the courtyard without incident.
"One more thing," Ruby said.
"Yes?"
"Nova said — he said the change was somewhat his fault. That it happened because of the training, because of how close we'd been working together." She looked at Aiko directly. "I'm not angry about it. I want to be clear about that first. But you're Saiyan-born. Does it make sense, physically? That proximity to his ki could do this?"
Aiko nodded slowly.
"For most Saiyans and most humans, no," she said. "The ki is compatible but not transferable in that way. But Nova's ki is—" She paused, choosing the word. "It's unusual. In its density and in its specific character. And you've been training with him, which means sustained contact over time, which means—"
"Which means it found a way in," Ruby said.
"Which means your body recognized something in it and responded," Aiko said, which was slightly different and, Ruby thought, more accurate. "It's not passive. Your body made a choice, on a level below consciousness. Which means some part of you was already—"
"Ready," Ruby said.
"Or willing," Aiko said.
Ruby thought about this.
She thought about the first time she had felt the ki — in the clearing in Forever Fall, with Nova's hands on her shoulders and the specific quality of something arriving that she hadn't known was possible until it was happening. She thought about the weeks of training, and the specific warmth of it, and the way her body had started to understand the language of it before she could have articulated the grammar.
She thought about the night on the mountainside.
"Yeah," she said. "Okay."
"Are you all right?" Aiko asked.
"I'm good," Ruby said. "I'm genuinely good." She stood up and offered Aiko her hand. "Shall we go again? I want to make eight seconds."
Aiko took her hand and smiled.
"Eight and a half," she said.
"Deal."
Part II — The Explosion
The explosion was not the kind of explosion that came from someone losing control.
It was the kind that came from someone finding it.
The distinction, Scarlett had learned early, was audible — the losing-control kind was larger and less shaped, the finding-it kind was sharp and specific and followed by a quality of silence that was actually the absence of the preceding uncontrolled noise.
She lowered her arm from where she had shielded her face and looked at Yang.
Yang was standing in the small crater her landing had made, her hair blazing with the specific warm gold of controlled power rather than the dark orange of what had happened in Tenkawa. Her tail was bristling — not defensively, but with the specific energy of something that has just done a new thing and is experiencing the afteraffect of it.
Her hands were open.
Ki crackled between her fingers — not rushing, not escaping, but present, held there by someone who had just learned that holding was possible.
"That was it," Yang said. "That was the thing."
"Yes," Scarlett said. "That was it."
Yang looked at her hands with the expression of someone who has been carrying a thing they didn't know they were carrying and has finally put it down in the right way. "It clicked. Like a lock opening."
"I know," Scarlett said. "Everyone describes it differently, but everyone describes that click."
Yang closed her hands, and the ki gathered itself into two small spheres — not the explosive, unbounded version, but something compact and directed, something that had shape because she was giving it shape. She held them for a moment, watching them.
Then she let them go, and they dissipated cleanly, and she stood in the aftermath with the specific quality of someone who has arrived somewhere they have been trying to reach for longer than they knew.
"Yang!" Ruby's voice, from the edge of the clearing.
Both Ruby and Aiko came through at a sprint, stopping when they saw the crater and the lack of emergency.
"We heard the—" Ruby's eyes went to the golden light still fading from her sister's hands. Then to Yang's expression. Then back to the hands. "Oh. Oh, good."
Yang turned and Yang's expression was open in a way Yang's expression was not always open — the specific quality of someone who has just done something that let a thing out that had been stored for a long time.
She crossed the crater and pulled Ruby into a hug.
Ruby hugged her back immediately, no processing required.
Yang's tail, moving on its own authority, curled around Ruby's as they held on. Ruby's tail reciprocated. The gesture had the specific quality of something instinctive rather than learned — the way certain things were apparently just known by the parts of them that had become Saiyan without being told.
Aiko and Scarlett watched this from the edge of the crater and did not say anything, because some things did not need commentary.
"We're okay?" Ruby said, into her sister's shoulder.
"We're okay," Yang confirmed. "We're—" She paused. "We're something new. But okay."
"Something new sounds right," Ruby said.
Yang pulled back.
She looked at the tail that was still intertwined with Ruby's. Then at Ruby's. Then at the expression on her sister's face.
"You've got more control of yours than I do of mine," Yang said.
"Aiko's been training with me all day," Ruby said.
"Is it weird?"
"Very. Also good."
Yang looked at Scarlett. "You said Turuk was asking about me."
"He was," Scarlett confirmed. "He'd like you to join them for training with Tarro tomorrow."
Yang's tail did something involuntary. She managed her expression. "Is that him being considerate or is that Tarro's idea."
"Both," Scarlett said. "Tarro wants you there because your situation needs specific attention. Turuk wants you there because—" She looked at her friend with the specific expression she used when she was being direct rather than diplomatic. "Because he wants to know you're all right. And because wanting to be where you are is the most honest thing Turuk ever does, even if he hasn't said it in so many words."
Yang's expression did several things in rapid succession.
"He's an idiot," she said, which was not at all what she meant.
"Absolutely," Scarlett agreed. "Will you come?"
Yang looked at the clearing — at the crater she'd made, at the residual energy still visible in the air, at the specific evidence of a morning spent doing something that had mattered.
"Yeah," she said. "I'll come."
Part III — Tarro and Ozpin
Location: Beacon Tower | That Evening
The tower had the specific quality of places that had been thought in for a long time — a quality that had nothing to do with the stones or the view and everything to do with accumulated consideration. Tarro stood at the parapet and looked at Vale and thought about several things that did not have comfortable resolutions.
"You still come up here," Ozpin said, from behind him.
Tarro did not need to turn. "Some things hold."
Ozpin moved to stand beside him, cup in hand. The cup was his specific and perpetual companion, which Tarro had come to understand was less a beverage choice and more an anchor — something to hold in situations that required that particular kind of management.
"How are they progressing?" Ozpin asked.
"Beyond my estimates," Tarro said, which was honest. "Particularly Nova and Yang. The rate at which they're developing understanding — not just power, but understanding of the power — is unusual even by the standards I was using."
"And that worries you."
"It does and it doesn't," Tarro said. "The rate of development is what it is. What worries me is the specific mechanism behind it, and what that mechanism means for what's coming."
He paused.
"Ruby's conversion is faster than it should be," he said. "The physical change is ahead of the schedule that her baseline would suggest. Which means the bond between her and Nova is producing an effect I didn't fully anticipate — each of them is accelerating the other."
"Complementary," Ozpin said.
"The old texts had a word for it," Tarro said. "Two powers that, in proximity, don't simply add — they multiply. It's rare. It's also something that the people who know the old texts would recognize if they encountered it." He looked at the sky. "If Salem's intelligence network includes anyone with that specific knowledge—"
"Then our timeline has already been compressed," Ozpin said.
They were both looking at the sky when the first object crossed it — moving too fast, too purposefully, too bright for the specific duration of its brightness to be a meteor.
Then a second.
A third.
Ozpin's hand tightened around his cup.
"The Imperial Guard," Tarro said, which was not a question.
"You expected this."
"I expected something," Tarro said. "The Guard specifically — that's five elite Saiyan warriors deployed for a classified mission. Which means someone with significant authority within the Saiyan power structure knows about Remnant. And knows enough about what's here to warrant the Guard specifically."
"Is there any possibility they're here for a different reason?" Ozpin asked.
Tarro was quiet for a moment.
"No," he said.
Another object crossed the sky. Another.
"Nova needs to know," Tarro said. "The full version. Everything that's been kept back." He turned to look at Ozpin directly. "I know your position on the burden of knowing one's own destiny. I've considered it. But the people landing in that forest tonight don't care about the philosophical problem of self-knowledge. They care about the prophecy, and they will use it as a targeting instrument whether or not Nova understands it."
Ozpin looked at him.
"He's not ready," Ozpin said. "No — he will never be ready, which is different. What I mean is that telling him doesn't make him ready. It makes him aware, which is a different kind of preparation."
"Yes," Tarro said. "And right now, awareness is what he needs."
"And Ruby?"
Tarro looked at the last of the falling objects, tracking its descent toward the Emerald Forest with the specific attention of someone reading information from a trajectory.
"She stays where she is," he said. "Beside him. The old texts were clear about the catalyst's role." He paused. "Which is perhaps another conversation, for another time."
Ozpin sipped from his cup.
"Gather the teams," he said. "And Tarro — bring Rhubar and Sala. They should be present for this."
Tarro was already moving.
Part IV — The Emergency Council
Location: Beacon Academy, Briefing Room | That Night
The room had the specific quality of a space that was not designed for emergencies being used for one — the holographic table was built for mission briefings, and the mission briefings it was built for did not typically involve thermal imaging of five simultaneous atmospheric entry points.
But the table was doing its job.
Glynda stood at the controls with the specific posture she used when she had bad information to deliver and was focusing on the delivery as a way of managing the bad. The thermal images rotated above the table, each one representing a crash site in the Emerald Forest.
"Five distinct impact sites," she said. "Spread across a radius of approximately four kilometers from the forest's eastern edge. Energy signatures are consistent with what we've been told to expect from Saiyan life pod technology."
"Consistent and then some," Daikon said, from his position at the table's edge. He had been examining the readings since he arrived and had the expression of someone who has found numbers they don't like and has been checking them twice. "These aren't the same energy signatures as what we saw from Turles. The baseline is significantly higher."
"How much higher?" Blake asked.
"Considerably," Daikon said, which was not quite an answer and was also more honest than a number.
Nova stood at the head of the table with the specific quality he had when he was managing something internally while managing the room externally. Ruby was at his left. Turuk at his right. The positioning was not accidental.
"These are the Imperial Guard," Tarro said, arriving with Ozpin at his shoulder, and the room received this information with the specific quality of rooms that receive names they were not expecting.
Rhubar and Sala came through the door a moment later — not because they had been invited, Ozpin had noted, but because they had sensed what was in the atmosphere and had followed it.
Sala moved directly to her sons. The gesture of her hand on each of their shoulders was brief and specific — not comfort, which would have been one hand, but the two-handed gesture that meant I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, which was something different.
"The Imperial Guard serves the Saiyan Royal Family directly," Rhubar said, for the benefit of those without context. "They don't deploy for minor objectives. When the Guard is sent, the objective is classified, the mission profile is indefinite, and they are authorized to handle collateral as they see fit."
"Handle collateral," Jaune said.
"He means people who are in the way," Pyrrha said, quietly.
"Yes," Rhubar confirmed.
The room absorbed this.
"Okay," Yang said, from her position beside Turuk, her tail held firmly around her waist. "Why are they here? What's the objective?"
The question landed in the room and the room did the specific thing it did when a question had an answer that everyone in it was aware of and no one had yet said.
Nova looked around the table.
"Me," he said.
It was not a question.
No one contradicted him.
"We don't know that with certainty," Tarro said. "But the probability is high enough that we should proceed as if it's true."
"Five elite Saiyan warriors land in a forest four kilometers from the school where I'm a student, in the week after an encounter with Turles who specifically identified me," Nova said. "The probability is high."
"Yes," Tarro said.
"Then we don't wait for them to come to us," Turuk said. "We go to them."
"At first light," Rhubar agreed. "Not tonight. Tonight we prepare and we rest. An engagement in the Emerald Forest in darkness with five unknown combatants is a situation that advantages them, not us."
"Agreed," Tarro said.
"What do we know about the Guard specifically?" Scarlett asked. "Are they working for the Royal Family, or is it possible someone else is directing them?"
"That's the right question," Tarro said, looking at her with the specific approval he gave to people who had found the correct thread. "The Guard serves the Crown. But the Crown's intelligence about Remnant and about who specifically is on it—" He paused. "That raises its own questions."
"Salem," Ozpin said, which landed with the weight of a name that had not been spoken in this room before at this level of proximity to the current situation.
"Possibly," Tarro said. "Or the Guard's own intelligence network, which is considerable. Either way, by morning we need to be prepared."
"Teams deploy at first light," Ozpin confirmed. "Professors Koizumi, Rhubar, and Sala will coordinate the response. Students will support." He looked at the assembled teams — RWBY, NDTSA, JNPR — with the specific look of someone who is about to ask something significant and is measuring the room before he does. "I need everyone's best judgment tomorrow. Not their bravest. Not their most determined. Their best."
Nora raised her hand.
"Can bravest and best be the same thing?" she asked.
"Sometimes," Ozpin said. "Tomorrow we'll find out."
The meeting began to dissolve into the specific productive motion of people who have an action plan and are moving toward it.
Nova stayed.
He waited until the room had thinned — until the people remaining were the ones who needed to be remaining, which was Tarro and his parents and Ruby, who had stayed with the specific certainty of someone who had been told once that she could wait outside and had declined.
Tarro looked at the four of them.
"There's more to the prophecy," Nova said.
"Yes," Tarro said.
"You've been telling me pieces of it."
"Yes."
"I'd like the full version now."
Tarro looked at Rhubar and Sala. They looked at him. The look was the look of three people who have been discussing the timing of something for a significant period and have arrived at the end of the discussion.
"Sit down," Tarro said. "All of you."
Ruby took Nova's hand.
He squeezed it once.
They sat.
"The legend of the Legendary Super Saiyan," Tarro began, "is not simply the story of a person who becomes powerful. The power is the mechanism, not the meaning." He looked at Nova. "The meaning is what the power is for."
He paused.
"The old texts speak of two warriors," he said. "Not one. Two. A Saiyan of legendary power, and — alongside them — a warrior of ancient sight, whose eyes can see what others cannot, and whose presence gives the first warrior's power its direction rather than its destruction."
Ruby went very still.
"Silver eyes," Nova said.
"The texts don't name it that," Tarro said. "But the description is consistent."
"You're saying," Ruby said carefully, "that I'm part of this."
"I'm saying," Tarro said, "that the texts describe a pair. And that the specific nature of what has happened between you — the transfer, the bond, the acceleration of both your developments — is consistent with what the texts described would happen when the two halves of the prophecy found each other."
The room held this.
Nova looked at Ruby.
Ruby looked at him.
"Of course," he said, which was not resignation but something closer to recognition — the specific quality of someone who has been told a thing that explains several things they had already observed without having a framework for them.
"You're not frightened by this," Tarro observed.
"No," Nova said. "Should I be?"
"Most people would be," Tarro said.
"Most people aren't Saiyans with a silver-eyed girlfriend who learned to fly this morning," Ruby said.
Tarro looked at her.
Then — specifically and genuinely — he smiled.
"No," he said. "They're not." He straightened. "The Guard arriving tonight means that someone who knows the legend has determined that one or both of you are here. Which means we have very little time and a great deal to do."
"Then let's not waste the time we have," Nova said. He stood. Ruby stood with him. "Tell me the rest of it. All of it. Tonight."
Rhubar and Sala looked at their son with the specific expression of parents who have been waiting to be proud of a specific thing and have just encountered it.
"All of it," Tarro agreed.
Outside, in the Emerald Forest, the crash sites glowed faintly with residual energy in the darkness. The Guard had arrived.
By morning, the next question would be answered.
★ END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR AND A HALF ★
Next: Chapter Twenty-Five — "The Saiyan Imperial Guard"