The shadow is cast by the light. Removing the light will make the shadow grow, but what happens when you place more light to shrink the shadow?

The light has tried, but try as you might, one light will give out, allowing the shadow to grow again.

"ARGH!"

Cinder was doing her best to perform an aura transfer so as to save Ruby's life. The process is a long, and arduous one, and is extremely painful to the donor.

The only reason Cinder could muster even the slightest smile on her face, was the fact that natural aura transfers could only occur if the receiving party deeply trusted the donor, and if the donor was willing to sacrifice their life for the one who needed it and vice-versa.

Natural aura transfers were used to heal others, or as a ritual to establish trust. The ways to perform such a feat were thought to be lost to the ages, but Salem had ensured that they were only lost, not destroyed.

"Her vitals are improving, Cin." Emerald informed, "She'll be back on her feet, and slicing up hunters in no time."

"Damn! Cereal Box did a number on 'Thorn." Mercury muttered.

"Can you fix it?"

Mercury scoffed, "Please. I could repair a scythe that doubles as a high-impact sniper rifle with a couple paper clips and some string."

'Oddly specific', Cinder thought, as her aura was helping Ruby's to recover. "Just… Tell me when her own aura can…" She was exhausting what little aura she had left, and collapsed.

"CINDER!" "BOSS!"

Emerald rushed towards Ruby. With Ruby's condition still unstable, someone had to help. Mercury, on the other hand, had rushed to Cinder, intent on getting the woman back on her feet.

"T-Thank y-you Emerald…" Cinder had managed to say before falling unconscious.

"No problem." Emerald replied just as her boss had been taken by exhaustion. "She's basically my little sister, anyways." She finished, having completed the aura transfer.

Pyrrha managed to walk on the airship, despite her injuries, and exhausting her energy fighting off the mirages Emerald had conjured, she could still move rather quickly.

"Jaune!" She rushed to her partner's side as he struggled to sit up right.

"Hey Pyrrha. How was your fight? And what's that?" He pointed to the laptop that his red-headed partner was holding.

Pyrrha was a bit exhausted, "I figured that we might be able to find Professor Ozpin with it."

Jaune's eyes widened, "He's missing?"

"Pyrrha doesn't look that great…" Nora noted, her voice lacking its usual jubilance.

"It was fine Nora. I'm just…" She sighed, "Tired. I'm so tired."

"You rest then. I can fly us out of here."

"Thanks Ren." Pyrrha gave the young man a rather weak thumbs up, "After we land, we'll have to check out what's on this thing."

Roman and Neo were piloting the airship when a transmission came in, "Yo! Torch guy, you there? I swear, if this is another Atlas dude, I will-"

"I'm here, Bunny Lover. What do you want?" The thief asked with slight venom in his voice.

"Tch," Coco growled, "We have a list of casualties to give to your boss."

Roman furrowed his eyebrows, "Give me the numbers."

"Seventy-nine deaths, and two hundred sixteen injuries." Coco relayed.

"Death count."

"Twenty-two White Fang members - Adam included in that statistic," She added, "Thirty-two Noctis members-"

"Which means six teams died, huh?"

Coco sniffed a bit, "You're assuming that they were all on teams."

Roman's eyes widened a bit, "Oh damn. How many have survivor's guilt?"

"The ones who didn't die with their teammates." Coco sullenly replied.

Oh. "Oh… Damn. How are they holding up?"

"Not that great. Three of those people killed themselves out of grief," Coco lamented, "Can't say I blame them. If one of them had been Velvet…"

"I understand kid." He looked over to Neo, "I understand."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S NOT THERE?"

Raven was furious. Her daughter - Her only daughter, was nowhere to be found.

"It's like I said, lady! Yang's missing!" Otto Duman, a male student - part of team FOIR - panicked. "We lost communications with her, Flynt and Neon told me to try and get in contact with her, and-'

"Who was the last person she talked to"

"IT WAS EMERALD AND MERCURY! JUST DON'T EAT ME!"

Very well, I'll go to them." She opened a portal to Emerald and Mercury's ship. "Oh, and I don't eat people. Now, I can't say the same about my daughter though…" She stepped through.

Otto turned to Ember Fiamma, the leader of Team FOIR, "She's… Joking, right?"

Ember shrugged.

Summer was unfortunate enough to take some major blows to her aura. She hadn't been able to recover it since her encounter with Qrow. And with Ironwood's armor using her former unlimited stamina semblance enhancement unit. While her new adaptability semblance could make it so she couldn't be killed by conventional means, it wouldn't keep her from dying of exhaustion.

Several shots were just narrowly dodged

It also wouldn't protect her from being tortured.

"Are you ready to surrender yet?"

"Are you?" Summer panted.

Ironwood chuckled, "Now why would I have a reason to surrender?"

Summer braced herself on a small rock formation, "You…" She fell down a bit, "You will be exposed. One way, or another." She shot him a glare of her cold grey eyes before falling to her knees.

"Hmph" Ironwood scoffed, "Looks like your semblance wasn't as great as you thought it was. Pity that I have to kill you though, that semblance of yours could be put to good use protecting people."

Summer rolled her eyes, "Protecting people from who? The Noctis, The Lucidum, or you?" she spat.

"From themselves." Ironwood continued, "Humans and Faunus, they're flawed. They need a leader. Someone who can lead them to peace and prosperity."

"And you think…" Summer panted, "That enslaving them is going to do that?"

"These people want to fight. That is all they can do." Ironwood countered, "Under the new rule, they'll be coherent force that can conquer any foe in front of them. From the likes of Salem, to the creatures in the depths of space. Under this new rule, we will be successful!" He clenched his fist in determination.

Summer's ears perked up, "What the hell's that noise?"

"Hmm?" Ironwood turned towards the rocks blocking the entrance. Faint sounds of guns firing, and stones being crushed by a blunt weapon came from the other side. Small licks of fire seep through the cracks, as do small electrical surges and shreds of water and speckles of ice.

A faint noise was heard on the other side, '…here…' was barely audible from the other side.

Several screams of determination also came from the other side, along with a sickening sound of a skull being crushed. Blood seeped in through the cracks and mixed itself with the small puddle of water.

BANG!

Several small rocks dislodged themselves from the area of the cave-in.

BAM!

Several more rocks fell down.

BASH!

Large licks of fire erupted from the other side as even more rocks fell down.

Both Ironwood's and Summer's eyes widened. Neither of them were sure if whatever - whoever on the other side was friend or foe. It could be more Atlas army men, or some White Fang. It could be the Lucidum, or Noctis. It could be Grimm or Mechs.

SLAM!

The rocks finally caved in. Revealing a new figure. One with eyes of red, and hair of hellfire.

"Mother?"

"Y… Yang?"

Ironwood used the dust to carefully put some distance between himself and the two women. With the rocks gone however… He pressed a button on his wrist.

"How…" Yang could not believe it. For so long, Summer Rose, one of the mightiest warriors to walk the planet, was thought to be dead. She blinked again, to ensure that she was not seeing an illusion, "What the fuck happened? Why didn't you come home?"

"Blame Ironwood now, I'll explain later." Summer summarized as she noticed that Ironwood also got his own backup. "Olive. Long time, no see." She glared.

"Miss Rose." Olive stated as she stared at her opponent, and activated her semblance: Size Manipulation. Olive tripled in size. "Prepare to be crushed under my boot!" She roared.

"Oh, I remember that one." Summer muttered, "got that one after they launched me into the upper atmosphere inside a spiked coffin."

"Mom?" Yang said.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"After this, we're going to have a talk." Yang replied, summoning Shadow.

"Figures."

Well… We got something going on. Anyways, at the time of writing this, I am Job Hunting. Hopefully, I can get something good.

Up next: Historical Exposition!

Support me via p-a-t-r-e-o-n (CJ Slash X) to make getting these out a lot easier for me.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this, I have rented it out.