Hey everybody. It's been a while since I posted a chapter of anything, but I'm happy to finally present this first installment of what I hope will be a fun and worthwhile project set in the world of Remnant. I'm immensely enjoying the progress RWBY has made, and even with the heartbreaking loss of the brilliance that was Monty Oum, the show and fandom are still going strong. This is my re-imagining of the last act of Volume 4 and where the series will go from there, as I've been inspired to try my hand at envisioning a future for the series. I fervently hope you all enjoy this story as much as I do!

P.S. Big shout out to TheLastSonata and TheSwedishMoose for reviewing my drafts and giving me great feedback on this, and Couer Al'Aran for inspiring me to write RWBY stories in the first place. Please go check out all their works!

Enjoy!

Fall

"Jaune..."

"Hmm?"

"I don't know what to do."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Do you believe in destiny?"

"Um... I-I don't know. I guess that depends on how you view it."

"When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather... some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life."

"Okay. Uh, yeah. I can see that, sure."

"Well... what would you do if something came along that you... never expected? Something that had the potential to stand between you and your destiny?"

"Like what?"

"Or what if you could suddenly fulfill your destiny in an instant, but at the cost of who you were?"

"Pyrrha, you're not making any sense."

"None of it makes sense! This isn't how things were supposed to happen!"

"I'm sorry! Please, I-I'm just trying to understand what's wrong."

"I've always felt as though I was destined to become a Huntress - to protect the world... and it's become increasingly clear to me that my feelings were right. But...I don't know if I can do it."

"Of course, you can. The Pyrrha Nikos I know would never back down from a challenge. And if you really believe it's your destiny to save the world... you can't let anything stand in your way."

Pyrrha pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, gasping for air.

All that was visible of her enemy was a dark outline, hovering above the floor. Roaring flame and searing heat surrounded her, encroaching upon where she lay. Milo was lost, destroyed in the fight, and her Aura had to be almost drained. The massive eyes of the Grimm Dragon peered into the tower from the other side of a broken wall—yet another impossible foe to overcome.

And she was so tired…

(If I do not get up, I am going to die.)

Pyrrha repeated that one phrase in her head like a mantra. Never had she been in a true fight to the death. No Grimm had ever managed to truly threaten her life and she'd never fought another human with intent to kill.

Here and now, however, she knew she would not leave the tower alive if she lost.

Through the inferno flew yet another stream of searing flame, and Pyrrha's instincts kicked in, her endless training overcoming her exhaustion. She dove forward, under the attack and through the surrounding fire, coming up in a roll and hurling Akouo in one smooth motion.

As always, her shield flew true, but the woman called Cinder Fall simply brushed it aside with one glowing hand as she remained hovering in midair. She looked amused, as if Pyrrha's attempts to fight back were no longer a concern. Pyrrha glared right back at her, still defiant.

(Not yet. I'm not finished yet.)

The Dragon perched outside had smashed the top of the CCTS tower to pieces; rubble was everywhere and the floor was cracked and crumbling in places, burning wherever Cinder had unleashed her frightening power. Ozpin's desk and other furniture lay broken and scattered all over the room. Amongst the ruin, large metal gears lay scattered all around, bent and twisted pieces of what had just recently been a marvelous feat of technology.

Now, as Pyrrha stood and unleashed the full might of her Semblance, they had become her last hope.

Always she had practiced restraint, never letting the control over magnetism that she had been born with slip, never revealing how much influence it gave her over her opponents. When the thought of the burden Ozpin had asked her to bear overwhelmed her, she had thrown Jaune into a wall without thinking. When Penny had brought forth a storm of swords in their match, she had panicked and pushed it all away with a desperate surge of her power.

The sight of Penny's weapons tearing her apart was exactly why Pyrrha had always feared losing control over her Semblance.

But now there was no need or time for restraint. Only the full extent of her gifts would be enough to end the fight. She reached out to the metal, felt it's familiar pull against her arms, the steel and iron becoming an extension of herself, and she willed it all to rise. Throughout the shattered and burning tower, a mass of gears flew into the air, surrounding Cinder Fall on every side.

Cinder had a moment to process the sight in surprise before Pyrrha recalled Akouo with a wave of her hand, the shield slamming into the back of Cinder's legs and throwing her off balance before returning to Pyrrha's left arm. Another wave brought the first of the gears down upon Cinder's torso, smashing her into the floor in a cloud of dust.

Pyrrha's hands came together, and every gear and cog under her influence descended, merging on the spot where Cinder lay, the ring of metal hammering into metal drowning out the faint sounds of the battle below the tower and the roars of the Grimm. Gears bent and twisted as they melded together, forming a steel coffin for her enemy that continually folded in on itself.

Overwhelming pressure from every side. The tried and true method for draining an opponent's Aura as quickly as possible, and her only chance for a victory. She would entomb Cinder Fall and crush the life from her before she could hurt or kill anyone else. The thought of killing another human had always horrified Pyrrha, but for this woman, she would make an exception.

At the center of the metal mass, an orange glow flared up, burning brighter with every passing second. Pyrrha felt resistance growing through her Semblance, a huge pressure that made her strain to hold the pile of metal together. She gritted her teeth and put everything she had into her Semblance, refusing to let Cinder break free.

(Just a little more and she'll be finished. A little more…)

The pile exploded in a blazing fireball.

Chunks of metal hurtled in every direction, some of the gears literally torn in half by the power of the blast, and one large piece sailed directly towards Pyrrha. She had just enough time to raise Akouo before the debris impacted, but her shield did little to absorb the blow. Pyrrha was sent flying back, all the wind knocked out of her, and she hit the floor right in front of the edge of the tower.

And slid straight towards the open air.

In the moment before she fell, Pyrrha grabbed at a chunk of ruined wall left after the Dragon's attack. Her grip tightened on the small pile of rubble and rebar right as she slipped over the edge, and then she was hanging off the edge of the tower, a hundred meters above the grounds of Beacon upon which the battle against the Grimm still raged. Utterly exhausted but determined to keep fighting, she started to pull herself back up, groaning from the effort.

Only to find Cinder Fall standing right above her, swords of black glass gripped in her hands.

Cinder grinned and stabbed one of the blades down at Pyrrha, who let go of the rubble with her left hand and quickly raised Akouo. Her shield took the hit, but Pyrrha couldn't block properly from such an awkward position, and her arm was knocked away. Akouo spun from her grasp, falling to the ground far below, and Pyrrha tried to recall it before Cinder could strike again.

Nothing happened. Her Semblance wouldn't activate.

Her Aura was gone.

The realization sent a wave of despair through Pyrrha even as she turned and heaved herself upwards with a shout, reaching out with her left hand for Cinder's leg, trying to drag the other woman off the edge as well.

A black sword descended, its point driving through Pyrrha's outstretched hand and pinning it to the floor. The pain was sudden, intense, and Pyrrha cried out in agony as her arm spasmed. Tears filled her vision as Cinder dug the blade in further, twisting as she did, before releasing the sword and standing. Pyrrha hung half in and out of the tower, painfully stuck in place by the blade that she strained to pull out with her free hand.

When the pain became too great to continue, Pyrrha slumped against the floor, each breath coming out as half a sob. A small pool of blood formed around her left hand, reflecting the light of the surrounding fires. Black high-heels clicked on the floor as Cinder walked around her and knelt, gently cupping Pyrrha's face in one hand and raising it to meet her gaze.

Glowing amber eyes stared into emerald green for a long moment, and Cinder murmured in a quiet tone, "It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours. But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined."

Pyrrha looked up at her enemy, feeling the weight of her failure as she heard the words. The power she had just witnessed would be unleashed on all of Remnant. Cinder Fall would wreak havoc everywhere, just as she had here at Beacon. Mistral, her home, would suffer this same fate.

Grief and fury surged through her in a sudden rush. She could not bear the sight of the woman in front of her, could not fathom someone planning to cause such pain and misery. The pain, the exhaustion, the knowledge that she was about to die—all of it went away as Pyrrha yanked her head out of Cinder's grasp and fixed her with a cold stare.

"Do you believe in destiny?"

A frown appeared on Cinder's face, and she stood up straight and took a step away from Pyrrha. For a long moment, she stared down at the defeated Huntress in contemplation before giving a simple reply.

"Yes."

Cinder gestured, and the blade stuck in Pyrrha's hand broke apart and flew upwards in a cluster of black glass.

Pyrrha slid backwards and over the edge.

A Beowolf leaped at Ruby's back and found Myrtenaster waiting for it, the rapier's point ramming home into the beast's skull. Weiss quickly yanked her weapon out and pivoted, slashing at another Beowolf and driving it back before ducking under the swipe of an Ursa's paw and stabbing her blade through the monster's heart with precision.

Ruby heard the thud of the Ursa hitting the ground behind her even as she cleaved the front left leg of a Boarbatusk, letting the strike's momentum carry Crescent Rose around in a circle, the scythe's blade burying itself in the maimed creature's side.

That was three more down. Half a Beowolf pack and another Ursa still surrounded Ruby and Weiss in Beacon's courtyard, leaping at the girls and lashing out before retreating from the girls' weapons. A trail of dissolving corpses stretched across the grounds of Beacon behind them, and ahead lay the CCTS tower, the massive Dragon now latched onto the side opposite from them at the top.

Ruby glanced upwards as the Alpha Beowolf she had just put a bullet through fell back, growling in pain. She wasn't foolish enough to think they could kill… whatever that huge Grimm was, Dragon or otherwise. If it attacked them, escaping would become a much more difficult task.

Especially if Pyrrha was unable to escape alongside them under her own power.

(Please be alright, Pyrrha. We're almost there…)

The plan was simple in theory. They would get close to the tower, have Weiss utilize her glyphs to turn the side of the tower into a surface Ruby could run on, and then Ruby would charge up to the top, grab Pyrrha, and run right back down. She would have to be quick, or Weiss would get overwhelmed trying to maintain her Semblance and fight off Grimm at the same time.

However, reaching the base of the tower meant finishing off the Grimm around them first. The Alpha Beowolf charged back in, ignoring the bullet in its arm in favor of tearing apart the humans standing before it. It got within two paces and raised one arm to bring its claws down on Ruby's head.

She sidestepped the blow, lopped off the Grimm's arm, and plunged Crescent Rose into its chest from below before firing and blasting a hole through the monster. The Alpha Beowolf went down, twitching once before falling still, and Ruby moved on to one of the last two Beowolves, ducking to avoid its pounce and bringing Crescent Rose up and around, hammering the blade down into its skull before it could turn back to try again.

Beside her, Weiss struck down the other Beowolf, Myrtenaster cutting deep between its ribs, before turning and thrusting her sword at the remaining Ursa as sparks flickered around the blade. Flames erupted from Myrtenaster's tip, and the Ursa stumbled backwards, roaring in agony as fire consumed it.

"We've gotta hurry!" Ruby called out over the death cries of the burning Ursa. Weiss nodded and took off at a run with Ruby hot on her heels, sprinting the remaining distance to the tower.

When they were within twenty meters, Weiss stopped and focused, pointing one hand at the tower and projecting a glyph onto its side. With a wave of her hand, a line of the similar glyphs formed above the original, stretching to the edge of the tower's shattered top. Ruby looked up at the huge building, praying that she would be in time even as she prepared to activate her own Semblance.

"You can do this," Weiss murmured from behind her, confidence in her voice. Ruby met her partner's eyes and smiled gratefully before turning back towards the tower, bending her knees and letting her Semblance flow through her body, filling her limbs with unbridled energy.

With one leap, Ruby crossed the distance and landed against the tower, parallel to the ground as rose petals fluttered downwards in her wake. She immediately started sprinting up the wall, ignoring the weird feeling of gravity pulling at her from one direction and Weiss' glyphs pulling at her from another. All that mattered was reaching the top in time.

With her Semblance's power surging through her body as she charged up the tower, Ruby's senses shifted as the world slowed down relative to her own perception. She saw Griffins flying lazy circles in the skies above, smoke spiraling upward at a snail's pace from all over Beacon and Vale, a fireball slowly blazing to life as an Atlas ship exploded in midair.

She saw a flash of red and bronze falling through the air above her as if dropping through water. A moment later, Ruby realized that it was Pyrrha falling headfirst towards the ground, unarmed and eyes closed.

She was falling to her death.

Fear and adrenaline surged through Ruby's body as she undid her Semblance and the world reverted to normal speed. She slid to a stop, whipped Crescent Rose around, and slammed it into the tower before pushing off Weiss' glyphs and flipping over the huge scythe. She yanked the blade free and pulled the trigger, the momentum of the shot propelling her away from the wall and into the path of Pyrrha's descent.

A moment passed in which Ruby frantically wondered how to get Pyrrha to the ground safely, and then the girls slammed into each other. The painful collision turned Ruby's horizontal flight into a downward tumble, and she tried to fight off sudden dizziness as the world spun around in sickening circles.

"Hold on!" Ruby tried to yell over the noise of the wind rushing by them. She couldn't hear if Pyrrha replied; she could hardly hear herself. Up was down and then up again as Ruby fumbled with Crescent Rose with one arm and hugged Pyrrha tightly with the other. Firing her weapon once, Ruby halted their spin with the shot's recoil, finally regaining her sense of direction... and seeing the grounds of Beacon rushing up to meet them.

She frantically switched her grip on Crescent Rose to the hand she had around Pyrrha and racked the weapon's bolt with her free hand, aiming awkwardly and getting off two quick shots before she and Pyrrha hit the ground. Her efforts had only partially slowed their fall, and even with her Aura up, the impact hurt; she lost her grip on Pyrrha and Crescent Rose, and Ruby went sprawling across the grass, trying to roll with the landing like Uncle Qrow taught her to until she came to a stop.

Ruby lay still for a moment, catching the breath that had been knocked out of her. It felt like her efforts over the course of the terrible evening—fighting Mercury and the Grimm at the stadium, taking down Torchwick and Neo on the warship from Atlas, and now this—were catching up to her all at once. Her whole body hurt and her limbs trembled from the exertion she had forced them through.

Trying to ignore the pain, Ruby pushed herself onto her hands and knees, looking around and seeing Pyrrha on the ground a few meters away. She lay on her back, her right leg bent at an odd angle, and she wasn't moving or making any noise. Fear clutching at her heart, Ruby stood on shaky legs and stumbled over to the prone form of her friend.

"Pyrrha?" she asked as she collapsed to her knees next the other girl. "Pyrrha, please, please say something…"

When she lay a hand on Pyrrha's chest, relief flooded through Ruby as she felt the rise and fall of a breath. It was faint, indiscernible except from up close, but it was there. She was unconscious yet she was still alive, still with them.

However, relief turned to slight nausea when Ruby looked Pyrrha over. A bruise was forming around a cut on Pyrrha's forehead, just below her dented circlet, with more blooming elsewhere on her body. There was a terrible, gaping wound through her left hand, and worst of all, jagged bone stuck through the skin of her lower right leg where it bent unnaturally. Lines of blood trickled from all three injuries.

Ruby felt grateful that Pyrrha was knocked out; she couldn't imagine how much pain her friend would be in otherwise. With great care, Ruby draped Pyrrha's arms over her shoulders before lifting the taller girl up and standing. It was awkward carrying someone bigger than herself—Pyrrha's legs dragged on the grass, and Ruby hoped she wasn't making her friend's terrible injuries worse, but they had to move.

She could see Crescent Rose lying in the grass several meters from her, and further away, Weiss running towards her, a long tear in her dress but otherwise unharmed. More Grimm corpses were dissolving in her wake, and the path back to the airship pads looked clear.

A weary smile spread across Ruby's face as she started carrying Pyrrha towards Weiss, stopping for a moment to bend down and press the button on Crescent Rose's handle to collapse the weapon. She picked up her scythe and kept walking, wearily putting one foot in front of the other, making her way to Weiss and to safety.

"Just hang on, Pyrrha," Ruby murmured to the girl on her shoulder. "We're all getting out of here. Together."

(What an impressive little girl.)

With Grimm overrunning Beacon and the Dragon still perched on the tower, raining monsters from its body and ready to wreak further havoc, Cinder had expected the defenders to be retreating or fighting for their lives. The possibility of a someone pulling off a mid-air rescue after ascending the outside of the tower had not occurred to her.

However, Ruby Rose seemed to be making a habit of defying expectations and interfering with her affairs.

She could see them far below on the ground, tiny like the insects they were when compared to her might. The Rose girl seemed to be picking up Nikos and carrying her across Beacon's grounds. Even with her Aura down, it seemed Pyrrha Nikos had survived the fall, for what purpose would carrying a corpse serve when danger still loomed on all sides?

(Perhaps an arrow through the eye would have been a wiser choice.)

Still, it had felt fitting, appropriate even, to send Pyrrha Nikos falling back down to the ground after the girl had tried to reach for a power far above her. Cinder wondered if her flair for the dramatic was getting out of hand. For someone of ultimately little consequence like Nikos, it had hardly seemed that indulging herself would matter.

Nevertheless…

Nikos knew about the Maidens now, and had displayed surprising fortitude even in the face of her death. Ruby Rose had proven time and again to be a capable thorn in her side.

And both were now directly below her, doubtlessly in poor fighting condition.

Cinder flexed her fingers, smiling as she felt the Maiden's power flow through her, caressing her very being. It was an exquisite pleasure to wield such a gift, and although she was somewhat weary from her bouts with Ozpin and Nikos, she could instinctively feel that there was power to spare within her.

Enough to end the night by tying up some loose ends.

Cinder turned towards the other side of the tower, fixing the Dragon's large eyes with her own golden ones and smiling warmly. She stepped towards the creature, feeling its subservient demeanor, the monster waiting on her will as everyone and everything would in time.

"Fly," she murmured softly. "Feast. Destroy. This is your home now. Do as you please with it."

The Dragon screeched and flapped its wings, gusts of wind buffeting the ruined tower as the monster launched off the side and flipped over, gliding through the air and heading out towards the city of Vale, drops of darkness falling from its body to spawn more monsters on the ground below.

Cinder turned back towards the ledge she had dropped Nikos from, took two quick steps forward, and leapt off the side.

Wind rushed by her face with a howl, blowing her long, dark hair out in a mess behind her, and she laughed with wild abandon at the adrenaline that coursed through her. She could do anything now, and it felt wonderful. The ground rushed towards her at high speed, but she felt not the slightest bit of fear; instead, she felt for the warm, glowing sensation that had filled her since her arrow had plunged into Amber's heart.

She let the power flow through her once more, felt the energy that her body barely contained, raised her hands in front of her and let it free. Jets of flame blasted from her palms, the force immediately slowing her descent even as she adjusted her trajectory away from the base of the tower. Seconds later, Cinder flipped herself upright and landed against the ground and went to one knee, the impact hard but quite manageable.

Her posture was perfect as she stood up straight and smiled at Ruby Rose, who stood frozen in place two meters away, Pyrrha Nikos' head on her shoulder and arms around her as the smaller girl carried the taller on her back.

Abject fear filled Rose's features, and Cinder felt satisfaction as she stepped forward. This was how her enemies would look at her from now on. The young girl tried to draw her weapon with one hand, but encumbered as she was, it was laughably easy to knock the weapon from her grasp with a quick burst of fire.

The slightest flutter of displaced air and the noise of grass crushed beneath a foot behind her alerted Cinder to what she had been waiting for— the Schnee heiress has been hard to miss on the way down, after all. She turned to face her newest opponent, jerked her head to the side as the tip of a blade thrust past her ear, and then lunged inside of Schnee's guard before she could bring her sword back for another strike.

Grabbing the girl's sword hand in a crushing grip that made her cry out in pain, Cinder pulled up to make Schnee stand up straight before hammering her knee into the girl's gut, doubling her over. She tightened her grip until she felt something give, and Schnee's hand spasmed, forcing her to drop her blade. Cinder snatched the weapon out of the air before it could hit the ground and grabbed a fistful of Schnee's dress, swinging her arm around to throw the girl towards Ruby Rose. They collided, and all three girls went down in a heap.

This way, they could all die together. She was kind enough to give them that much.

Another step forward. Cinder heated up her hands, gripping Schnee's thin sword in them. Compared to Nikos' weapon, it melted and broke apart far more easily. The pained gasp of the Schnee girl as Cinder tossed the pieces of the broken sword away broadened her smile.

Now Schnee was staring at her in fear as well, even as she stood up and raised her hands, a small glyph appearing in her palm and a much larger one forming between Cinder and her adversaries.

"None of that," Cinder stated firmly. She gestured, and a stream of flame flew around the side of the glyph barrier, curling around and slamming into Schnee, making the girl cry out and lose her focus. The barrier disappeared, allowing Cinder to hammer the girl off her feet with another blast of fire.

Schnee went down, energy crackling around her as her Aura dissipated. She crawled backwards even as Rose fruitlessly attempted to drag Nikos away, only to relent as Cinder closed the gap. She stood above the girls, staring down with a smirk, savoring her victory.

"Why…?" Rose whispered, tears in her eyes as she stared up at her better. "Why would you do all of this?"

"Pyrrha Nikos tried to take something that doesn't belong to her—that was promised for me. This is her punishment. As for all the rest… if you had walked my path, you'd have done the same. Anyone would."

And Cinder knew that was the truth. Anyone who lived her life would make the same choices. To do so was to be human.

She raised one hand, letting the fire fill her palm and expand until a roaring fireball writhed in front of her, ready to be unleashed.

"This is what happens to those who fly too close to the sun, Ruby Rose. They get burned to ash."

Nikos was clearly unconscious, her eyes closed and her breathing faint—she would die unaware, something Cinder would allow for a warrior like her. Rose and Schnee, however, both stared up at her, grief and terror on their faces. Tears filled Rose's silver eyes.

Tears… and something else.

Cinder frowned as a churning sensation filled her gut, her instincts warning her even as she raised her hand and let the power break free. The fireball erupted in a massive cone of fire, consuming the three girls at point blank range.

Except it didn't. Something pushed back.

Cinder felt it an instant before she saw it—a sensation not unlike her new power, but instead of a warm ember within her being, this was a fiery sensation that rippled and surged like a raging river. Around the raging flames in front of her, silvery light flared, painful to look at.

A split second later, the fire dissipated, ripped apart as the silver glow exploded into massive wings of light that spread almost instantly as a wave that enveloped the entire area.

She only had time to scream, "WHAT?!"

And then the wave hit her, and she burned.

"…It's alright…"

"...I got ya, kiddo…"

"…I got ya…"

End Of Chapter One

One thing to bear in mind, my friends. This is not a fix fic. This is not a "save the Arkos" fic. This story will respect just how bad war can be, and I can't guarantee that everyone's favorite characters will survive. I wanted this first chapter to closely resemble volume 3's ending to start the story off somewhere familiar, but afterwards events will deviate further and further from canon.

I really hope that was a good foray into this project. I'm really looking forward to working more on the story as volume 5 rolls around. Please let me know your thoughts through reviews or PM, and I will continue to write as fast as possible!

Cheers!