*James stared down at the prisoner aboard his ship - sitting chained in his seat with two guards standing on both sides of him. Leonidus kept his gaze on the ground with eyes that might as well had been made out of the metal of a dagger.

Despite Leonidus's obvious position, James needed to know something.

"You were willing to give away your boss's location. Why?"

Leonidus didn't talk for a moment. His tongue painted his lips wet with saliva and blood and a crooked grin slowly spread like a gradually building fire.

"It didn't matter how much I agreed with my master," he croaked. "The safety of my brother comes first. And I believe that my master has snapped. I think somewhere along the line, something happened to her that made her the way she is now."

Leonidus finally looked up at James with hungry eyes. "What your friend is doing by looking for Signal is suicide. No matter how powerful he thinks he is, he will never be able to prepare himself for what Signal can do."

"And what can she do?" James asked.

Leonidus only laughed, a wet hacking sound that made a shiver run down James's spine. "She will break him, just like she has been broken. Her lieutenant knew that she wouldn't last long, and he told me that I had permission to kill her when the need finally comes. When Signal took me and my brother on to be part of the Lioness's Pride, Khol tried to keep me and my brother separate, because he believed my brother would play the voice of reason."

Leonidus paused to chuckle at that, and a tear rose in his eye. "He was right about that. That's what my brother is, or at least that's what he tries to be. Fortunately, the bond between us has always been stronger than our allegiance to Signal, and there was nothing Khol could do to change that, but he believed I could do the job should it ever have to be done."

James narrowed his eyebrows and turned away from Leonidus, deciding to focus all of his attention on the battle down below. A lot of the citizens had already been evacuated, but it was becoming increasingly clear to James that the city wasn't going to survive. More and more Grimm were entering the city, and no matter how many got destroyed, more just kept coming.**

*Signal's eyes were glued to the pool. She had finally made it, and her hands were trembling so hard she was unsuccessful in gripping the hilt of her katana when she heard footsteps. She turned to find Brutus standing there.

"It's just me, boss."

"What are you doing here?" Signal asked.

"My brother sent me to protect you in case you need it. The pursuit for Ozpin and his friends continues."

Signal was irritated at the idea of someone acting as a bodyguard for her, but she was too focused on the pool to care. Soon she would become powerful enough to defend herself on her own. Maybe she didn't need the Lioness's Pride to see to it that her ultimate goal is finished.

"You'll need to take a step back. I'm going in, and I don't know what might happen to you," Signal said.

"It's okay. I understand," Brutus replied, and Signal felt his hand rest - just a littlebit too firmly - on her shoulder.**

*Ozpin ran, faster than he had in a long time. Despite using his Aura to repress most of the pain from running too long and too fast, he could still feel his muscles screeching at him to take a break.

"Signal!" he yelled, though he was barely able to put a sound behind his calls. He was so tired.

Finally, he rounded the corner in the tunnel to get to where the pool was. Signal was there. She turned around to see him, her eyes wide. She looked as though she was actually surprised that Ozpin went after her. With her was the assassin, Brutus, who had bandages covering multiple parts of his torn jacket.

Ozpin opened his mouth to say something, anything.

The tip of the black blade shot out of Signal's chest.

Ozpin barely heard himself over the sound of his own beating heart exploding through his ears. "No!"

Brutus had his hand on Signal's shoulder with the other hand gripping the hilt of his sword. A mixture of both pain and determination could be seen distorting his face.**

*In the warehouse, Summer's screams knifed through the silence as her newborn infant was about to be delivered. Taiyang held onto her and tried to keep her steady. One hand caressed her cheek.

"It's okay, I'm here, I'm here. Push, baby, push," Taiyang urged.

Tears streamed down Summer's cheeks and her cries continued. Another contraction flooded over her and her muscles tensed as she reared up, screaming mostly-silently. Taiyang was worried that that would draw Khol's men to them, but Qrow and Krystal had already gone off to face them, and hopefully they were succeeding in holding them back.**

*Ozpin rushed to Signal's side as her body collapsed onto the ground, just a few inches away from the pool. He managed to slide his hand behind Signal's head to catch it before it hit the ground.

"Signal, stay with me. Stay with me, okay?" Ozpin asked amidst the tears.

Signal coughed up blood and looked up at Ozpin. "Ozpin?"

"You're going to be okay, Signal. I'm here."

"Oz, I'm so sorry."**

*Summer let loose another strangled cry as her body violently shook.

"You're almost done. Just a few more. A few more," Taiyang said.

Another cry echoed through the warehouse, joining Summer's.**

*"What can I do?" Ozpin asked, more to himself than to Signal.

"You're already doing it," Signal replied.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth. I'm sorry I lied."

Signal's eyes changed, as though something had passed through her vision that Ozpin couldn't see. "I'm sorry too."

Signal reached her hand up to stroke Ozpin's cheek. She brought her other hand up to take Ozpin and draw him close to her. Before Ozpin was even able to fully register what was going on, his lips were locked with Signal's.

And despite everything Ozpin had thought before about the Faunus race and his relationship with Signal, the moment felt right.

"I have made many mistakes, and I would have made more," Signal said.

Before Ozpin could reply, Signal stopped breathing.**

*At the same time that Signal passed, a new life was born into the world. Taiyang took his newborn daughter and tears fell down his eyes at the sight. It was a tiny infant with beautiful, silver eyes, just like Summer had. She was still streaked with birthing fluids, but he had never thought anything was quite so perfect.

"What is her name?" Taiyang asked.

Summer shut her eyes with a satisfied smile and sighed. "Ruby."**

*Ozpin held onto Signal's body until there was nothing left but a spiral of floating Dust that drifted around him and embraced him. Within the Dust it felt warm, like a loving embrace from a loved one he hadn't seen in a long time.

I'm back.

That was undeniably Signal's voice. She was happy to be back with the rest of the earth. That was why Ozpin was so intent on preserving the Dust that he used to collect with Glynda, which was being used by people like Collus as energy for weapons. Very few people that passed away returned to the earth now.

Ozpin looked up at Brutus who was towering over him now. An unspeakable pain was bathing in his eyes, and he was almost out of breath. Before he could speak, two hands wrapped around his neck.**

*In his last moments, Brutus heard Ozpin's companion, Dusk whisper in his ear. "Thank you for doing your job."**

*Ozpin watched Dusk snap Brutus's neck before shoving his whole body into the pool. Brutus's body immediately drowned, its fate being to melt in reaction to the Dust that the pool had.

"It's over," Dusk said, reaching his hand out for Ozpin to take.

Ozpin reluctantly took it and got back onto his feet. The warmth that he had felt from Signal's Dust was now gone.

"I know you never meant to kill Signal, so when I saw that Brutus did it, I knew I had to do something," Dusk said.

"Killing him wasn't the answer," Ozpin replied.

"It was a desperate measure. He would've killed you afterwards," Dusk said dismissively.

Ozpin didn't doubt that, but as he started to piece together everything that had happened, more than he thought before began to make sense.

"Why did you go after the two assassins when they fled yesterday?"

"I told you. To make them serve as an example to the Lioness's Pride not to mess with us," Dusk replied.

"You told me though that you thought one of them was dead. When you came back to me, had you already made sure one of them was dead, or did you leave when you thought you had caused enough damage?" Ozpin asked.

Dusk stopped and folded his arms. He bit his lip in thought. "I thought I killed him, simple as that."

"Then I sent you to Signal's base of operations to fight her. I saw the bandages on the assassin that killed Signal, they weren't just some cheap bandages out of a small box, it was surgical dressing to protect deep wounds. He would've had to be in a room by himself for some time to heal."

At this point, Ozpin could see the confidence in Dusk's expression began to fade a little bit. He was clearly growing nervous.

"Dusk, did you negotiate with Brutus about killing Signal?" Ozpin asked.

"He didn't want to at first. I told him I would give him two days before I visit him again, and he still didn't budge. But he wasn't sure either, and I guess something happened along the way that made him change his mind."

"Dusk, I never said that our mission was to kill Signal."

"But that's what should've been planned all along. Damn, Ozpin, you're so soft. You never changed. You don't have the guts to be a Headmaster, or a Huntsman for that matter," Dusk growled.

"I don't want to fight you, Dusk. You're my friend," Ozpin said.

Dusk's eyes bulged, and without warning, he began laughing. It was a loud, high-pitched, frantic laugh that caught Ozpin off guard. Dusk sounded—insane.

"All this time, did you think my Semblance was the ability to steal another person's Semblance with my sword? That was merely biological. My Semblance is reality warping. I can create visions and change a person's surroundings to throw my enemy off," he said.

The tunnel walls started to morph and change around Ozpin, and he felt his heart rate steadily rise up the more everything shifted.

"Dusk, what are you doing?" Ozpin asked.

Then he heard screaming and his heart iced over. All around him, Faunus were running in one direction, some of them bloody and naked screaming and shouting as they tried to get away from a village. One Faunus threw himself at Ozpin onto his knees.

"Please, please help!" it shouted.

Before Ozpin could respond however, the tip of a longsword protruded out from his chest. Ozpin looked up to see that the one the sword belonged to was Dusk wearing a pitch black cloak.

An explosion rocked the ground,and Ozpin was terrified to see Atlas warships dropping bombs from the sky, lighting the village up in flames.

"What is this?" Ozpin demanded.

Dusk's voice echoed through Ozpin's head. "The future. The future where all Faunus go to die. If we don't destroy them all now, we humans will suffer at their hands as their slaves, which is why I will pour all my energy into wiping them out. By doing so, it had to start with Signal."

"But why?" Ozpin asked.

"If you watched helplessly as your own sister gets taken advantage of and then killed right in front of you by a gang of Faunus, you'd want revenge too, wouldn't you?"

The vision suddenly vanished and Ozpin found himself back in the tunnels, staring straight at Dusk's repulsive figure.

"You don't know me like you think you do," he snarled. "I am Dusk Gray, your former mentor's son, and I am seeking vengeance for the death of my father's team at the hands of Team Stark."

So this is it.

Ozpin knew that Dusk was beyond saving.

He had to kill him.