Cinder Fall managed to find consciousness again just as the hordes of Grimm arrived. She looked up as Opher and Teams RWBY and JNPR broke their staring match to concentrate on fighting those beasts. The Hunters-in-training had little to do, however; ghostly threads of Opher's soul rocketed through the air, annihilating the Grimm mere seconds after making contact. Mesmerized by the display, Cinder gawked for a moment before collecting herself and realizing she was likely next. Once more, she tried to coerce the Fall Maiden's might into doing her bidding. A gaping silence in her heart was the reply. "Damn you," she muttered.

Pyrrha noted Cinder's stirrings before anyone else. "She's awake!" she warned her team. "Watch out!"

What few Grimm Opher didn't kill ended up shattering across Yang's fists as she exorcised some of her anger. "Who's awake?" she yelled back.

"Oh, she is?" Opher looked over his shoulder as Cinder rose to her feet and smirked a bit. "Well, well."

"Keep your distance," she growled at him.

The lanky man rolled his eyes a bit as Cinder launched herself into the sky. "I'll be right back," he said to Nora as she backed away from a charging pack of Beowolves.

"Where are you going?!" was all she could get out before having to defend herself with a swing of Magnhild. His Aura went with him, leaving the two teams suddenly overwhelmed by Grimm and people trying to escape them. "Come back, you jerk!" she shrieked shrilly.

Her yelling fell on deaf ears. Two or three powerful beats of his wings got Opher within arm's reach of the escaping Cinder. He latched onto her ankle with his tattooed hand and pulled hard as she tried to beat him with her electrified fists. "I won't let you!" she roared. "It belongs to-" The pricking of his ghostly Aura washed over her body again; she looked down and found herself wrapped in gray threads. "No…"

"If it belongs to anybody around here, it belongs to Pyrrha," Opher corrected her, using his hand and his spirit to launch her straight into the grassy ground below.

Cinder's impact was so violent that it blew Weiss and Ruby into the Griffons with which they were engaged. Only quick thinking and a bloom of ice on the heiress' part saved both from being bitten. "What was that?" she gasped.

"Dunno, kinda busy," Ruby said, whipping Crescent Rose around in graceful circles as she kept on fighting. "Yang! Death Stalker!"

The blonde acknowledged it with a nod and started moving toward her sister. "Coming! Blake, go help Ren! We'll take thi-"

A sharp shock knocked everyone present off of their feet. Even the Grimm were left staggered. As Pyrrha collected herself, she looked toward its source to see Opher straddling Cinder's waist. His right arm went into a hole in the ground where her head should have been. "What…" the redhead breathed. The orange light of the Fall Maiden's power floated out of the hole as she watched, only to be snared by Opher's Aura. "Jaune, it's time."

"What, no!" He paused to brace himself under his shield against the incoming claws of an Ursa. "Pyrrha, please!"

She ignored him and dashed headlong at Opher, arriving just in time to hear him speak unintelligible words to the Maiden's might and let it go. The glowing orb flew straight at her face; despite flinching, it slipped into her mouth and disappeared. Its absorption generated a strange, dry feeling in Pyrrha's soul. Weakness came with it. Her weapons fell from her hands as she dropped to her knees and tried to figure out how to make her limbs function again.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune yelled over the din of battle. "Pyrrha!" He couldn't turn away from the Grimm, but knew something was wrong with his partner regardless. "I'm coming! Hold on!"

The redhead stared at her gloved hands as if she'd never seen them before. All the while, the Fall Maiden's power adjusted to its new vessel. The sight of Cinder's limp form drew a weird smile on Pyrrha's face. "Good riddance." the Maiden's might said, using the redhead to speak. "Why this girl?"

"Carmine's descendant," he said evenly. "My descendant. She only had one child." Opher wondered how long their souls had known the truth and spurred them on. Now he was certain why Pyrrha couldn't let the situation go, and equally sure why he'd tolerated it. They were family, even if their link was diluted by nearly a thousand years of time. "Who better to put me down after all these years? It's the unspoken duty of children to bury their parents."

"You're related?!" Weiss blurted out, the only one in the assembly able to put her shock into words due to the continued fighting. Opher and Pyrrha afforded her only brief looks before returning their attention to each other.

"Hmm. Spring never mentioned your sense of poetry." The Fall Maiden commanded Pyrrha's body to rise, drawing a gasp from her lips. Sparks of icy pain shot through her nerves as the ancient force linked itself to the redhead's considerable Aura. "You chose well," the Maiden's spirit admitted.

Opher shrugged at this with a tiny smirk. "What can I say? She is my daughter, more or less."

The Fall Maiden sneered at him with Pyrrha's lips. "Some father you are."

The redhead finally seized command of her own voice. "What are you doing to me?!" she demanded of the Maiden's essence. Every joint remained immobile, no matter how hard her brain shrieked. She watched helplessly as Jaune tripped while trying to reach her. The Death Stalker Yang had noticed earlier finished its fight with the two girls, knocking the blonde aside with a claw and running Ruby over as she tried to slash at it. Jaune was the next person in its path. Panic seized her heart. "No!" Her arms flew out toward him, and with this motion a screaming rush of wind blew the Death Stalker several hundred feet into the cloudy sky. Every monster in her sight was fired upward by a power over which she swore she had no control. "I can't stop it!" she shouted, certain one of her friends or an innocent civilian would get caught in the maelstrom. "Look out!"

"Pyrrha?" Ruby watched in helpless awe as the redhead pointed toward the sun and sent more monsters hurtling into the air. "Wow."

"How am I doing this? I don't have any wind Dust!" She searched herself desperately for some sort of internal off switch, but the Fall Maiden was in complete control. In a minute more, the entire festival ground had been swept clean of the Grimm, leaving the people totally unharmed.

"Oh, she likes you," a smiling Opher remarked as falling Grimm splattered around them.

Pyrrha turned on him and felt a severe, disgusted lurching in her chest as the Fall Maiden's memories of the lanky man soaked through her heart. "I believe I have heard enough from you for one day, monster!" she snapped viciously. Her face dropped a moment later. "I… I'm sorry."

Opher clenched his fists and strode toward her. "No you're not." He laughed out loud when Jaune, Nora, and Ren put themselves between him and the newly minted Maiden. "Now you kids are just getting in the way."

His statement lit Yang's fuse again and sent her Semblance to flaring. "Fuck off!" she screamed, charging Opher down with a fiery fist cocked back. She tried to drive her knuckles through his jaw, firing Ember Celica in the process, but his Aura absorbed the blow and flashed brilliantly as it dispelled the energy. The attack succeeded in moving Opher's head about an inch to the right. Undeterred, Yang rolled her upper body as she slugged him with her other fist. Once more, her weapon fired. "You asshole!" she yelled, punching him as fast as she could ready her fists.

Ruby picked herself up off the grass and rushed over to them. "Yang, wait!" She arrived as Yang ran out of ammunition and the smoke cleared. Her fury hadn't moved the lanky man at all; he looked down at her with a grin. "Yang!" she yelled again, holstering Crescent Rose and trying to tug her sister away before she succeeded in provoking Opher's wrath.

"We've gotta stop him!" the blonde growled, yanking her arm away.

Weiss streaked overhead, lashing her blade against Opher's neck on the way. She dropped a glyph and bounced back the way she came, pinballing around him and delivering a slash each time by. Nora got into the act next; as Weiss dropped out of the picture to catch her breath, she attempted to kneecap Opher with Magnhild. His Aura caught her hammer and forced it backward, making her stumble away. Ren and Blake's bullets glanced harmlessly off of his skin until the latter darted past and dropped a fiery shadow in her wake. The explosion accomplished what Ruby couldn't, forcing Yang to retreat with her arms up protectively. Jaune was the last to attempt an offensive charge, but his blade failed to pierce Opher's stomach. "Uh, guys," he said while backpedaling, "I think we need another idea."

A frowning Pyrrha watched the affair unfold with her arms crossed. "You can't hurt him," she said as Jaune retreated. By this point, the Maiden's power had mostly fused with her own; the two were hardly distinguishable to her internal mental picture. "But I… we, can." The redhead needed only to clap her hands to cause two formations of ice to appear and squish Opher between them. A flick of her wrist turned the structures to fire so bright it outshone the sun above. It went out thanks to a hurricane formed by the mere twirling of her finger, a gale that sent Opher tumbling into the sky despite his soul's attempt to anchor him to the ground. The more Pyrrha leveraged this power, the more natural it felt. "Unbelievable," she breathed, watching the leaves swirl around her. Her eyes went to Jaune again. "Go somewhere safe. It's up to me now."

"Wait!" he yelled as she ascended into the sky. "Pyrrha!" While the panicked civilians scattered, the remainder of his team, as well as Ruby's, gathered beside him. They all watched the new Fall Maiden's flight. "Anyone else feeling a little overwhelmed?"

"Looks like they're heading toward Vale," Yang noted gravely. She looked at her sister. "What now?"

"Let me think," Ruby said as she produced her Scroll. The device had no signal; she looked back at Beacon's tower as it continued to belch flames from several locations along its height. "Uncle Qrow said he was gonna help the evacuation in the city. If they're heading that way, we gotta find him."

"Heh, we were supposed to go there anyway," Jaune sighed. He glanced at Nora and Ren with a tired smile. "How about it? Up for a road trip?"

"Yeah!" Nora assured him loudly. "Besides, Pyrrha might need our help."

Weiss, who had been watching Opher and Pyrrha's skirmish in the air, winced as one of their clashes produced a pink lightning bolt and a tremendous clap of thunder. "I somehow doubt that," she said through a frown. "But… we did make a promise." She cast an awkward glance at Cinder's body before turning to Jaune. "Besides, I doubt that woman is the last person he's going to kill if we don't do something."


Schwarze kept her rifle trained on the front door of Indigo's shop as the swarthy woman continued to load Dust crystals from the safe into her bag. "Are you almost done?" she asked as a panicked throng of people rushed by outside. "I don't know how long it's going to stay this quiet."

"Yeah, yeah," Indigo called back. She zipped up the duffel bag, hung it on her shoulder, and grabbed her assault rifle on the way out of the back room. "I'm ready." A silent moment passed as she waited on Schwarze to rise from her kneeling position. "Does your Scroll have a signal?"

"Wide-area? Nope. Hasn't for about an hour." She led the way out onto the sidewalk, sweeping her weapon around before adding, "What do you think happened?"

Indigo said nothing; she only pointed at Beacon's distant tower as it continued to burn.

"Oh." Schwarze's brow furrowed hard. "Well."

"Yeah." Indigo turned away and looked down the street. "Let's head to the post and grab all the ammo we can carry. Assuming the place hasn't been looted yet." A flock of Nevermores flying overhead caught her eye. "And let's grab some rounds for my sniper rifle too."

"Good idea. I hate birds." Schwarze blinked as two small dots rocketed through the Grimm's formation. Two of the creatures shattered before her eyes. "Whoa! What was that?"

"Dunno." Indigo tracked the indistinct shapes as they bounced off of each other, shedding fire or lightning at various points with each collision. "What the hell are those things?" To find out, she dropped her bag, grabbed her sniper rifle off her back, and looked through the scope. After a bit of adjustment, she saw Opher and Pyrrha locked in combat, beating the hell out of each other with fists that seemed to be made of gray or orange light depending on who threw them. "Look!" Indigo said, handing her weapon to Schwarze and pointing up.

"Wow. I didn't think Pyrrha could fly." Schwarze handed the rifle back and looked over as more passersby rushed past. This group was being chased by a pack of small Ursae. "Uh oh, problem."

Indigo held her fire as she noted a detachment of Atlesian soldiers on the heels of those beasts. "Not ours. Let's move." As she turned away, however, Opher came streaking down from above and crashed into the street ahead, engulfing the area in dust and blowing out most of the windows of the shops nearby. The force of his impact sent people and Grimm tumbling through the air. "Holy shit!" Indigo yelled, grabbing Schwarze's hand to make sure her friend was still there. The impact had ripped up a fire Dust line; a sparking street lamp turned it into a flame-spewing hose which threw a yellow pall over the scene. They could see him standing in the crater in that golden glow, a silhouette against the flames. "Let's get out of here," she muttered to Schwarze. Upon turning around, however, Indigo saw Pyrrha standing nearby. Her eyes shone orange. The two women darted one way, then the other, before realizing they were stuck between her and Opher.

"I am done running from you," the Fall Maiden said as Opher emerged from the destruction. "We are done running."

"Uh?" Indigo finally noticed a way out and skittered toward the sidewalk with Schwarze in tow. She did not, however, leave the scene entirely. "What's going on here?" she yelled at Pyrrha.

"A fight as old as time," Opher answered for the redhead. His clothes were ruined and his hat was missing. Yet his skin bore nary a scratch despite all of the punishment he'd been taking. Glowing gray haze clung to his form as he crouched, then flung himself at Pyrrha in a renewed offensive. Eight ghostly fists struck out at her; the attack sent her bouncing off of a parked car and through the side of an apartment block, which collapsed on top of her a few seconds later.

As some of its stunned occupants clambered from the rubble, a glowing Pyrrha burst free. Cloaked in swirling leaves, she rocketed forward and bashed Opher with a simultaneous discharge of fire, ice, water, and lightning; the resulting explosion blasted him all the way down the street until he crashed through the front wall of the large Dust shop at its end. "What the fuck are you doing?!" Indigo yelled as Pyrrha started to press her advantage. When the redhead gazed at her, she pointed to the destroyed apartment building.

"What?" Pyrrha regarded the bodies scattered among the debris and realized what she'd just done. "Oh… no…" The Fall Maiden within suddenly seethed with regret. "He made us do this," she told her container. "He always brings us down to his level."

"Why is she talking to herself?" Schwarze asked between coughs.

"I… we need to calm down," Pyrrha murmured to the Maiden within. The tornado of leaves subsided a bit as she chose to walk instead of fly after Opher. "Aren't we supposed to protect these-"

Her final words were lost to the thundering rush of a wind whose source Pyrrha, Indigo, and Schwarze struggled to place. The haze and smoke parted in turbulent swirls as Opher launched himself toward the redhead once again, this time assisted by Dust crystals he'd taken from the shop that had broken his fall. He cocked back a fist and slammed her with what was effectively a block of air, it sent her flying into the low clouds above. "It has been too long!" he shouted after her. Instead of taking off right away, Opher paused to consume a gravity Dust crystal in preparation for their next encounter. As it digested, however, a heavy bullet sparked off of the back of his head; his Aura, unprepared for the strike, only stopped it after it had made contact with his skull and knocked him unconscious.

Seeing that Opher was still upright, Ruby chambered another round just in case. Coco appeared from an alleyway in front of Opher just as the rest of RWBY and JNPR dropped out of the Bullhead hovering above Ruby. Yatsuhashi accompanied them; he gave her a thumbs up after landing. "Coco, hit him quick!" she yelled.

"On it!" Coco squeezed the trigger and unleashed a tremendous sound, like hundreds of burlap sheets being ripped all at once, as the bullets flew. Opher's Aura concentrated itself forward to absorb the assault.

"Okay!" Ruby looked to Weiss as she set up three glyphs to catapult Nora, Yang, and Yatsuhashi at what they assumed was the occupied Opher. "Ready?"

"Do it!" Yang insisted. Their launchpads flashed white as the heiress unleashed her power, sending all three rocketing off down the street. Coco silenced her weapon and darted to the side as they grew close. With nearly impeccable synchronicity, a hammer, a greatsword, and a fist struck Opher's right side.

His Aura saw it coming this time and tried to anchor itself to the pavement with gray barbs. Their combined swings tore Opher off of the street anyway and blasted him not only through the nearby restaurant, but through four other buildings behind it as well. Nora slid to a stop and admired their handiwork as she counted the sounds of his impacts. "I think we nailed it!" She regarded Yang's disapproving look with a smile. "Hey, one of us was gonna say it."

The blonde shook her head. "I'm not in the mood."

"Nice shot, Yatsu!" Coco said with a wave of approval. "Think we got him?"

"Not a chance," Weiss stated anxiously. She paused to catch her breath as she and Blake caught up with the rest of their team. Jaune and Ren brought up the rear. "Where did Pyrrha go?" the heiress asked after a while.

"Good question." Ruby searched the sky for her friend, but could see only smoke, clouds, and Atlesian airships engaged with the flying Grimm above. "She went over there, but I haven't seen her come down yet."

"Pyrrhaaaaaaaaa!" Jaune called, hands cupped around his mouth. "Are you okay?" The distant rumble of a collapsing building forced him to look away from the sky. "Oh, what's going on now?!"

Yang had an idea before anyone else. "Isn't that where Opher is?" she asked, pointing toward the rising cloud of dust. The low, bassy notes were suddenly followed by a terrific screech that forced them all to cover their ears. "What is that?!" As she glanced around, every intact piece of glass in sight began to crack. "Uh… guys?" A moment later, the masonry of nearby buildings started to fracture. "Guys! We gotta get out of here!"

Her warning was lost to the awful wail; it had grown powerful enough to cause pain despite their attempts to protect their ears. They were forced to retreat into the nearest building in an effort to get away from the sound. Fortunately, Indigo's shop was unlocked; Coco led the charge to get inside and piled all of them into the glass-free back room. The space was hardly big enough to fit them all, but at least it attenuated the horrible sound. "I think we pissed him off," Coco noted gravely. "Anybody here know what's up?"

"I wish," Ruby grumbled, rubbing her temples and wincing with pain. "Whatever he's doing, it's probably bad." The sound abruptly ceased. "Oh, thank-" Her initial smile died in a flash. "Wait. I don't know if silence is worse or better."

Silence was the right word. The distant sounds of airships and panic were gone thanks to the walls around them. No one had any idea what might be happening beyond Diamond Dust's broken front door. The would-be Hunters looked among themselves as they tried to figure out who should go check the situation. After a few seconds of unbelievably awkward squirming, the two upperclassmen exchanged a glance and took charge. "I'll be right back," Coco volunteered herself. "Watch my ass, Yatsu."

"Of course." He followed her as she gently threaded her way through the front room. Ruby and Jaune led their teams out behind him, taking up positions behind the shelves just as Coco stepped out into the street. Yatsuhashi himself stopped in the doorway with his sword drawn.

"I mean, I don't see him," Coco called back over her shoulder. A look toward each end of the street yielded nothing either. "Nope. Coast is clear." After another cursory sweep, she turned slowly to look at the others. "Okay, kids, what now?" No sooner than she'd spoken did Opher drop in behind her, his arrival producing barely a whisper of wind. His limbs hung awkwardly; in fact, his feet weren't even touching the pavement. Coco, unaware of his arrival, blinked at Yatsuhashi's expression. "What?"

"Behind you!" he said frantically.

Turning quickly was a cumbersome process thanks to the weight of her minigun. She got it aimed at the lanky man, but couldn't pull the trigger before the gray hands of his angry Aura lodged their fingers between the barrels. It ripped the weapon from her hands and and drove it into her skull. "That hurt," it hissed as Coco fell. Before it could continue to beat her, Yatsuhashi charged in with his upraised blade.

"Move!" Ruby yelled as she watched six ghostly hands stop his overhead sword strike. Crescent Rose unfurled in her grip as she stormed toward the door. "Come on!" In the smoky sunlight she saw faint extrusions of Opher's essence appear and drop to the ground in a circular pattern around him. Tiny red flames lit themselves at the ends of those threads, but the heat they emitted was immense. Realizing something was amiss, Ruby slid to a halt and Semblance-dashed right into Yang's chest, causing a domino effect that knocked all seven of them back into the shop. "Get d-"

Their world turned a brilliant crimson as the roar of the explosion consumed Ruby's words. Opher's detonation vaporized the front of the shop; even worse, the heat ignited what few bags of Dust powder were still on the shelves. Crackles of lightning and random stones of ice pelted the hapless students as they were thrown against the back wall. Yang managed to fly through the doorway to the back room and slam against the rear door that led outside, opening it with her impact. A graveyard's worth of stillness fell on them after a few seconds, broken only by muted groans of pain.

Ruby was the first to collect herself enough to even try sitting up. Bouncing off of one of the shelves had cracked at least a few of her ribs, but she set aside the pain to figure out if they were still under threat. Fire clung to the floor near her boots. Its smoke made seeing outside impossible, but a gray light in the haze told her that Opher was still standing in the same spot as before. A limp Weiss, the only one of them not groaning, was near her left hip. "Hey, Weiss?" she whispered hoarsely. She gave her partner a gentle shake. "Weiss!" she said again, balancing her terror with a need to stay quiet.

"It's Saturday, Ruby, go back to sleep," the heiress moaned into the carpet.

"Weiss, get up!" But she wouldn't; Ruby gave up after a few more jostles and searched for her sister. "Yang!" she wheezed into the fog. "Yang?" With no sign of her, Ruby looked for her partner next. "Blake?" After a bit of crawling, she found the girl curled up on the floor at the base of the back wall. "Blake?"

"I'm fine," she lied quietly. "Give me a second."

Nora was the next to stir. "What the actual hell, man," she muttered while sitting up. A considerable gash had been opened across her forehead. Like Ruby, she needed a moment to survey the area. "Ren?" she gasped upon seeing him face-down and draped over the glass counter.

"Everything hurts," was all he could get out.

Jaune managed to stand after a moment more, though his legs could barely hold him up. "Okay, so, we need a new idea," he said hoarsely, "'cause I don't wanna make Opher any angrier than he already is." He looked back and saw Yang sitting up in the rear doorway. "How'd you get back there?"

"How do you think?" she snapped angrily. Her mood changed when Ruby stumbled around the counter and into view. "Everyone make it?"

"I think so," an uncertain Ruby said. With her and Jaune's urging, the two teams collected themselves and hid from the gray light as it began to move. "Is he leaving?"

"I'll sneak a peek," Jaune said, ignoring Ruby's frantic babbling as he moved away. "I'm not gonna fight him, it'll be fine. I'm just gonna look."

"Please don't get yourself killed," Ren advised evenly. "I don't want Pyrrha angry at us too."

"Eh, I'll be fine. I mean, we should be used to him exploding by now. I'll keep my distance." Jaune gingerly stepped around piles of rubble on his way to the gaping hole left by the explosion. After about ten feet, he was enveloped by the smoke and cut off from everyone else. "I'm still fine," he assured them as loud as he dared. "I'm out on the street now. Uh…" Coco and Yatsuhashi were nowhere to be found; considering their fate made Jaune's stomach twist into knots. Given the circumstances, he decided to leave that bit out as he spoke again. "Opher's headed toward the industrial district. Slowly. Really slowly."

Ruby was the next to brave going outside. She ended up next to Jaune as both watched Opher's glacial retreat. "Okay, well, at least he's done trying to murder us, I guess." When she realized who was missing, her blood ran cold. "Where did… oh. Oh, crap."

"Yeah." He rubbed his neck, unable to look at the massive circular scorch mark behind them. "Yeah." Sudden gunfire startled him into raising his shield. "What the-who's shooting?" At the end of the road, they could see the hardly-distinguishable forms of Atlesian soldiers firing at Opher. "Do they have a death wish?"

Ruby noted their halting bursts of fire and realized they were retreating more than engaging. "They're stalling him. Maybe reinforcements are on the way."

"I wish that was true, kid."

The startled Ruby and Jaune looked back as Qrow Branwen emerged from the acrid smoke. He waved away those fumes with a cough and watched Opher proceed down the street at a snail's pace. "Uncle Qrow!" Ruby finally blurted out. Before Jaune could add anything, Pyrrha stepped into view. "Hey, there you are. What happened?"

"He knocked me halfway across the city," she said after a small sigh. "Almost right into one of the emergency shelters. It was surrounded by the Grimm, so…"

"Yeah, yeah, I gotcha." Ruby looked over as Yang emerged with Blake on one shoulder and Weiss on the other. She blinked as Nora came out last, carrying Ren in her arms. "I guess we're done here?" she inquired of her uncle. "I mean, that's why you're here, right? To get us out?"

"Actually, no. You mentioned reinforcements, well, that would be all of us," Pyrrha explained. "Mister Branwen-"

"I sure wish you'd stop callin' me that," he complained after a quick drink from his flask.

Pyrrha rolled her eyes and continued. "Every Hunter not stuck on Amity Colosseum is at Beacon trying to protect the tower."

"And so is the Atlesian military," Qrow added. "Most of Ironwood's troops are encircled on the Academy campus. It's up to us to deal with Opher Riese before he does something stupid like damage the city wall."

Yang accepted this news with a determined nod. "Fine with me."

"You mean up to you, right," a crestfallen Jaune said to Pyrrha. "How much more punishment can you take?"

"Hey, wait! Chin up!" Ruby chided him. "We…" Her voice failed as she began to reply recent events. Before she'd saved her team and Jaune's from being incinerated by Opher, something about his expression had stuck. His eyes had been closed. "Wait. Was he asleep standing up?"

Qrow perked up instantly upon hearing this. "Huh? Did he look like a puppet? Limbs hangin' all weird and such?"

"Yeah!" she confirmed quickly. "Super weird."

The old Huntsman's eyes narrowed. "Shit. His Aura's in control."

"Excuse me?" Weiss said as she slipped out of Yang's grasp. Standing on her own was still a challenge, but she was determined to at least look strong. "What are you talking about? We control Aura, not the other way around."

Pyrrha folded her arms and looked away. "That's not exactly true. I wasn't in command of the Fall Maiden's power when I took out those Grimm at Beacon." Her eyes closed as she continued to process the Maiden's immense knowledge. "The older it gets, the more autonomous it can become. Aura already protects us unconsciously, even through our normal lives. Souls as ancient as Opher's and well, mine, are capable of much greater feats."

"We have to wake him up, then," Weiss concluded. "Or at least stall him until he wakes up himself. Any ideas?"

"Actually, yeah," a thoughtful Ruby said. She took stock of her bruised friends as a plan began to form in her head. Ren was still in poor shape, but at least Nora no longer had to carry him. Everyone else seemed to be mended enough to fight again. "We're gonna pair off. Someone that hits hard with someone who's fast. I'll go with Yang. Weiss, you go with Nora. Blake, it's your job to confuse Opher's Aura. I want all the clones you can drop, okay?"

"Right," she responded with a nod.

Ruby gave her a thumbs up. "Okay!" Her attention went to an awkward Jaune. "You and Ren are gonna help Blake get Opher's attention and keep it while all of them go to town on him." She swept her arm around at Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha. "Any questions?" Everyone involved shook their heads "All right." And then she looked to Qrow. "Any comments?"

An anxious Jaune folded his arms. "Is this really gonna work? The more we fight him, the madder he's going to get at us. I don't want to, you know…" He nodded at the crater. "That."

While Qrow shared his concerns, the old Huntsman also knew how pressed for time they were. "We're outta options. I think it's the best we've got given the circumstances."

But not even Ruby was completely sure of her plan just yet. "Pyrrha, do you think you can fight Opher to a standstill by yourself?"

The redhead's green eyes flashed orange as the Fall Maiden spoke. "I will do whatever it takes."

"Okay. Scary, but okay." Ruby looked back to her uncle. "I guess you're coming with us, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Taiyang will kick my ass if something happens to you girls. Besides, I can help keep that jackass occupied while you wail on him." Qrow twirled his weapon as he shifted it into its scythe form.

Ruby nodded and turned around just in time to watch Opher retreat around a distant building. "All right. Let's follow him. If super-duper Pyrrha is a tie with him right now, then it's up to us to break it."

"Or to break him," Yang added, cracking her knuckles as they started off in pursuit.