The wind whipped over the highest parapet of the Garlean outpost known as Baelsar's Wall, carrying with it the scent of smoke and blood. Four figures stood at the edge of the parapet, staring down the hooded figure at the center of the soon-to-be showdown arena. All around them, the faint sounds of war drifted up from below, underwritten by the omnipresent crackle of the burning outpost.

The petite, white-haired elezen stared unerringly at their adversary. "And so here we find ourselves," she said in a slightly-shrill voice, a closed tome held in her right hand, fingers tight around its spine. "Not a moon after putting to rest a thousand-year animosity, one of our own ghosts returns to haunt us."

"Then we must needs ensure that he is laid quite permanently to rest," remarked the dark-haired miqo'te, her tone even through her voice like silk. She had a blade sheathed at either hip, standing in a remarkably-calm pose despite not only being deep into enemy territory, but having a deep and personal loathing for this individual. "He'll not escape us this time."

"We've waited too damn long for this, ladies." The tallest of the four, a towering roegadyn woman with long, flowing blonde hair, dragged her axe up from where it had been resting with its head to the ground, the scrape of metal lost to the clamor of war below. Heaving the giant weapon up and letting it rest on her shoulder, she turned her lilac gaze back to her companions. "I know that we wanted this to end as peacefully as possible, but...uh... No. I'm taking his head back on a pike." She turned her head to the right, but unwilling to take her eyes off the man before them. "So, any sign of Thancred and the others?"

The very smallest of the group, a lalafell that barely came up to the roegadyn's knee, gave a troubled nod. "One of the remote sensors I left on the way up spotted them coming up the battlements. We've got about five minutes before they get here." Then, the troubles disappearing into a broad grin, the lalafell lass withdrew a firearm that would have looked well-fitted to the roegadyn's hands. "It's a race to the finish!"

Chuckling, the warrior took a step forward and focused her attention on the white-haired man. "Well, let's not waste any time then. Weiss?"

The elezen was already casting. The melodic chimes of gathering aether erupted into a crescendo, the warm cascade of protective aether shields enveloping the group in addition to the invisible shields of a Protect spell that they'd been swathed in the entire time. With a whoop that fell somewhere in the spectrum between joy and rage, the heavily-armored blonde charged forward, rearing back and sending her gigantic axe flipping end-over-end toward the man. Just as she released her weapon, another set of aetheric shielding from the scholar enveloped her, followed almost immediately by yet another spell that she knew would backlash upon enemy contact and decrease her foe's strength.

With his own sword drawn, Ilberd Feare met her charge, shouting above the noise, "I'll give you all a glorious end, Warriors of Light! Come! See what awaits you at the far edge of fate!"

The blonde ducked under the traitor's initial swing and slid past him, coming up with axe in hand and hammering him in the side, cementing his attention on her and turning him away from her compatriots. His blade snuck in through her axe and would have dealt a strong hit, were it not for the double-layered shielding that readily absorbed the blow.

"Come on, coward!" she sneered at him, more venom in her voice than usually present when she taunted her foes. "My grandma hits harder, and she's dead!"

By then, the rest of her comrades had joined in the attack. An explosion of water from just behind him shrouded the next attack of the miqo'te ninja, a harsh stabbing sound echoing out as she drove her blades into the weakpoints of his armor, momentarily leaving him more vulnerable. The tiny machinist was only too happy to take advantage, her gun and accompanying turret belching fire into his undefended backside. A sphere of dark magic burst into life underneath them, the elezen's targeted Shadow Flare sapping the life away from Ilberd while leaving her comrades unaffected.

Axe and sword clashed and danced past one another, biting into their respective foes. The advantage, however, laid with the roegadyn woman, given she had the support of a healer. Despite this, Ilberd did not seem disheartened by the four-on-one odds he faced. He reached into a pouch on his armor, removing a stoppered flask of the type used by alchemists to hold throwing potions or alchemical explosives. The warrior could see the silvery grains of flash powder within it as he lifted it over his head and taunted, "How do ye like this?"

"Eyes!" she shouted in warning to her fellows, turning her head away just in time as he hurled the flask to the ground. A blinding flash filled the air, but she was not affected, and by the sounds of it, the others had averted their eyes just in time as well.

She turned back in time to see that Ilberd had coated his sword in pure, glowing orange aether and was in mid-leap as he readied an attack against her. "Oh, sh-"

The first blow knocked her axe out of line, leaving her vulnerable to the following two blistering strikes against her center of mass. Almost before her mind could register the damage done to her, the soothing sensation of Weiss' healing magic—like a cooling breath of spearmint—washed over her, negating the physical harm of Ilberd's strike.

That, however, was not the only result of having taken such considerable damage. The warrior let out an echoing, deep scream of rage, her eyes shifting color from a gentle lilac to a furious red. She raised her left hand to the skies, as though beseeching the Twelve for deliverance, but in reality drawing aether unto herself. She lunged at Ilberd, her axe head unleashing a trio of aetheric bursts of energy in the shape of looped, interlocking chain blades, with the expatriate Ala Mhigan trapped at their center.

At nearly the same time, a hypersonic shot of pure aether struck him in the back, along with a bolt of lightning from the blue and a scalding hot blast of magic. Undaunted by the multi-pronged assault against him, Ilberd hoisted his sword aloft and shouted, "For Ala Mhigo!"

Glowing replicas of his sword made of aether rained down from the heavens, beginning with one in the center, with others falling equidistant as they drove themselves into the parapet. Each impact scattered burning aether in every direction, keeping the white-haired elezen on her toes in mitigating the damage to her team. Once the final one had fallen, Ilberd raised his hand into the air, grinning as the aether coalesced into a single point above the center.

"I have you now!"

The condensed aether detonated into a massive blast that blanketed the area. Once the light had faded, the aetheric swords began to burn, and the four ladies knew well what a collection of burning aether entailed. All four of them converged on the burning sword in the middle of the field, their attacks dispersing the gathered aether bit by bit into the air. The warrior kept her focus on Ilberd, planting herself as a wall between him and her comrades.

He already had another vial of flash powder in his hand as he came toward her. A quick glance showed her the others had their back to him as they swiftly dealt with the center-most of the aetheric swords, and she snapped her eyes shut as he threw the vial. The flash was bright enough to see even through her closed eyelids, and she grunted in pain as his sword found its way into an opening on her armor.

"Sloppy..." he taunted as he withdrew his blade. Turning away from the warrior, he wound up and delivered a powerful kick to the lalafell, sending her skidding backwards into the blast radius of several of the swords.

With an inarticulate scream of rage, the blonde struck her axe against Ilberd's sword, but another assault of the spinning aetheric chain blades was not so easily parried. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her lalafellin companion just make it back to the safety of the cleared space as the glow of the aetheric swords reached their peak. The explosion of the swords filled the night sky with an overwhelming light, but the four were safely out of reach of the blasts.

Under the cover of the light show, Ilberd darted across the parapet, holding his sword aloft and drawing it back over his free hand to infuse aether into it, imparting a bloody red glow to it. The quartet were already scurrying to safety; they knew full well the power of the move he was about to unleash.

They had, after all, witnessed it firsthand over a year ago at the disastrous banquet in Ul'dah.

Just moments after the lalafell reached safety behind the Griffin, Ilberd swung his blade, sending a red wave of hyper-sharp aether sweeping across the parapet in front of him where they had been standing.

The Griffin turned back toward the blonde and raised his blade high as he charged at her, the weapon glowing bright orange. "I'll tear ya limb from limb!"

She was ready for his devastating attack this time, taking a defensive stance as a green aetheric shield flashed into being around her. The first strike of his 'claw' broke the defensive shield, but between it and her attentive parrying, the full assault hurt a hell of a lot less than the initial one had.

As the wash of healing magic cascaded over her once more, she gave Ilberd a crooked grin and her eyes flashed red once more. She unleashed a fusillade of axe blows against him, many that he struggled to defend against. The sharp sound of a blade striking home indicated that the ninja had once more found a gap in the Griffin's armor, and this was followed almost immediately by the pitch of the machinist's turret's shots dropping into a deeper register, signifying that she had supercharged the device. They could all smell the proverbial blood in the water.

Even as the warrior let out another yell that was more gleeful than infuriated, and lifted her axe to deliver yet another felling cleave, Ilberd fished a device out of his armor, spinning and flinging it at the elezen scholar. "Let's see you squirm out of these!"

The device struck the tome that Weiss instinctively lifted to defend herself, bursting and ensnaring her in dual loops of magitek chains. The machinist and ninja set upon the chains immediately, while the warrior kept the Griffin occupied near the edge of the parapet.

Knowing that the healer was momentarily indisposed—and hopefully taken out of the picture entirely if the other two were too slow—Ilberd leapt up and drove his sword into the steel ground. A concussive blast of aether exploded out from the point of contact to damage all the adventurers opposing him. He then flipped his grip on the hilt of the sword, wasting no time in tearing it out of the ground and up into the warrior.

Ignoring the—so far—negligible damage she had sustained, the blonde roegadyn fell into an almost trance-like pattern of flowing her axe blows into a steady, uninterrupted sequence. She and Ilberd continued to trade strikes, almost turning it into a contest of wills to see who would fall over first.

A wash of cool aether fell over her without warning, rejuvenating her fully; their scholar's most potent healing spell. "Honestly, must you make me work so hard to keep you alive, you great oaf?" Despite the clearly-notable bite in her voice, long experience gave knowledge that Weiss wasn't truly irritated with the warrior's actions.

"Aw, didn't want ya to get bored, Weiss Cream," the blonde teased back, grinning infuriatingly.

"And don't call me that," Weiss deadpanned almost immediately, off-handedly tossing a blast of scalding aether at Ilberd with a flourish of her pen and a flick of her wrist.

Before they could continue their banter, a great rush of aether filled the air to the sound of a thousand mirrors breaking. It coalesced into a massive blade of glowing orange energy larger than all of them, somehow impossibly held in the ninja's hands. The miqo'te jumped high into the air, bringing the blade of light crashing down twice onto Ilberd's head. On the second strike, the gathered energy exploded violently, dealing yet more damage to the Ala Mhigan man.

Ilberd's sword clattered to the parapet as the man staggered, then fell to his knees. He wasn't dead, but there was no disputing the point: the battle was over.


Yang Xiao Long leaned back in her computer chair and stretched her arms high above her head, letting out a yawn. On the leftmost of the dual monitors before her, her friends stood around as the victory fanfare echoed through her headphone speakers. Weiss was already moving toward the exit portal.

"Yay, got all my light!" the exuberant voice of the lalafell's player sounded as, on her right screen, the Discord icon for 'Ruby Rose' illuminated. "Thanks, guys!"

"You're welcome, Ruby," Weiss answered immediately, a notable warmth in her voice.

"You know we're up for helping you any time," the miqo'te's player agreed, as the catgirl on Yang's screen opened the treasure coffer.

"No problem at all, sis," Yang added, giving about ten percent of her attention to the loot table to note that the reward was a Heavy Filibuster's Gambison of Maiming. Clicking the greed button out of habit, she continued, "Better get going to Azys Lla and get that anima upgraded."

On the screen, Ruby's lalafell was already out of the instance. "Yep! Only got an hour or so left before the servers go down and I've still got a whole nother step to do."

Yang won the greed roll for the loot, calling out in a sing-song, "Vendor traaaaaash~" as she exited the dungeon.

One loading screen later, she was back at the house of their free company in the Lavender Beds. After a quick hug emote at the miqo'te ninja—who had also been dumped outside the front door—she ran off to the right side of the yard, clicked the gear set icon for her blacksmith class, and began navigating her recipe book. The ninja walked over and sat in front of her as she selected adamantite nuggets and hit the button to start her high-quality crafting macro.

"So, Blakey, excited for the party tomorrow?" she asked.

She could almost hear the black-haired woman roll her eyes over the headset. "I'm on pins and needles in anticipation," came the sarcastic answer.

"Of course you are," Yang said, playing along and grinning as she watched her character automatically perform the varied crafting actions. "Any of me and Nora's parties are something you couldn't bear to be apart from."

Weiss huffed in annoyance, Ruby hissed as though she was in pain, and Blake immediately snarked back, "I am literally less intelligent for having heard that."

To support her statement, Blake's character stood up and emoted angrily at Yang. Unfortunately, the female miqo'te angry emote—like most of them—was nothing less than adorable, and Yang only giggled in response.

"You know you love my puns." She clicked the macro again.

"First off," Weiss cut in, "that wasn't even a pun."

"I love Nero's puns," Blake added. On cue, her character spawned in a minion doll of a blond man in red armor with a huge magitek hammer. She then proceeded to blow a kiss at it.

"He punned twice way back in two-point-oh!" Yang complained with faux drama. "Never since! Not in the Tower, or with Omega."

"What can I say?" The teasing tone positively dripped from Blake's words. "I just have a thing for blondes with bad puns."

"Aww, love you too, Blakey."

Ruby made exaggerated gagging sounds as Weiss threatened, "I will throw both of you in the Pungeon, so help me..."

Yang clicked her macro once more. "I know I wouldn't mind a little 'time out' with Blake," she said suggestively, waggling her eyebrows even though she was alone in her room and they weren't broadcasting over webcam. "How about you, babe?"

"I won't dignify that with a response," Blake answered, even though her tone of voice said something else entirely.

Weiss muttered in German for a few moments before letting out a sigh and then lapsing into silence, probably surfing the web. Ruby was still watching her quest cutscenes, and Blake was almost certainly reading a book at her computer. Yang took the opportunity to turn out another dozen high-quality nuggets.

Several minutes later, Ruby suddenly called out, "Alright team, who's up for some primals?"

Yang exited her crafting window and clicked the hotkey back to her warrior. "Let's do this."

"We can knock out the old ones ourselves unsynced," Weiss pointed out, "but we'll need help for Ravana, Bismarck, and the Warring Triad."

"I see Nora...Yatsuhashi...and Sun still on," Blake remarked, clearly browsing their free company listing and her linkshells. "Neo's on too, so we can at least scrape together a functional full party for the Heavensward primals."

"Yeah, but we still have a bit until we get there," Ruby added.

On cue, Yang's duty finder window chimed.

"Look out, Ifrit! Team RWBY's coming for you!"