Well, here we are. This is a rather long chapter, but I just had so much happen in this one. Now that I know how it plays out, I can confirm, only two more chapters to go! I really hope you like this one, as this is the end of this arc...mostly. And again, I hope you like my characterization of these people! Thanks so much for reading!

Disclaimer-I don't own anything involving RWBY. At all.


The inside of the CCT lobby was surprisingly empty, at least as far as any of the teens could figure. Even Blake's enhanced senses weren't picking up on anything. With the exception of the broken glass from the doors scattered just inside the doorway, everything seemed in place. The lights in the lobby were all on, lending an oddly eerie quality considering the silence within the lobby. Though the sounds of battle from outside the tower leaked in, the tower itself seemed quiet as a tomb. Ruby paused in the middle of the room, craning her neck back to look up at the ceiling for a moment, narrowing her eyes.

"They gotta be up on a higher floor."

Jaune nodded, looking pensive. "Yeah, but how will we know which one?"

Ren's quiet voice rang out in the still air, the tiredness evident in his speech. "The top. Whoever did this is arrogant. They would want to be at the very apex of the tower, looking down at what they have created." The logic seemed sound to the rest of the teens, but they quickly realized the issue at hand.

"How will we reach it? The only way up is the elevators, and…" Weiss' voice trailed off, allowing Ruby to finish her thought.

"And they'll know we are coming. We're walking into a trap. We'll be stuck in a small box with only one way out, right into whatever they have waiting for us." The assembled group was silent for a moment, before Ruby continued, her eyes still narrowed on the ceiling above her. "I'm going. But I'm not going to ask any of you to come with me."

Yang huffed, putting her hand on Ruby's shoulder and squeezing. "My little sis is not going up there alone. Besides, best chance is if I'm the first one out, I can take the hits."

Weiss shook her head, before sidling up to Ruby's other side. Taking the younger girl's hand in her own, Weiss squeezed it. "If you think I'm letting you two go by yourselves, you're bigger dunces than I thought. I can throw a glyph up in front of the door as well, to block them."

Blake chuckled dryly, taking her place next to Yang and looking over at Ruby, adding her input. "I'm not letting my best friends and girlfriend go in alone. I'll throw clones out to distract anyone outside the door. Between the three of us, we should be able to exit the elevator fine."

Jaune's amused voice came from behind them. "Are we done with the dramatic plans? Crater-face, you should know better…like team JNPR is just going to abandon their friends. We're all going Ruby, and we'll stop this. Together."

Ruby's face slowly slid into a half smile, the first smile she had given since everything had begun, before her face became set once more. "Alright. Let's end this." Ruby marched to the elevator, hitting the button to open the doors, both teams following behind her. With a ding that sounded horrendously loud in the still lobby, the doors slid open, allowing them to crowd into the elevator. Though there was little room to maneuver, Yang positioned herself before the door, with Blake and Ruby directly behind her, ready to spring out. Weiss readied Myrtenaster, taking a deep breath before concentrating, waiting to call upon her glyphs. Pyrrha and Jaune stood just behind Blake and Ruby, shields up, as Nora and Ren took position up along the sides, expecting to come out last. Yang reached forward and hit the button for the top floor, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet as the elevator doors slowly slid shut, prepared to bring them up.


The ride up the elevator had been silent, but it felt like an eternity to the assembled group. Each of them shifted nervously, anticipating what was to come. They could feel it, their instincts telling them that a fight was to be had. They knew this would be a true test of their abilities. Yang kept her eyes forward, clenching and unclenching her fists, ready to burst out of the elevator and blaze through whatever was in her path. She had to set aside her worry for her sister, even though such silence from Ruby was uncharacteristic to say the least. As she watched the numbers tick higher and higher, ever so closer to that thirty that denoted the top floor of the tower, she began to concentrate, pulling all her stored energy into herself. Yang was ready for this.

The ding as it arrived set the entire group into a flurry of motion. In the split seconds it took for the door to open, Yang burst forward, a glyph leading right before her courtesy of Weiss. Ruby disappeared in a swarm of petals, even as three shadow clones leapt out before Blake. Jaune and Pyrrha rushed forward, shields raised, with Ren and Nora in the rear, ready to fight...nothing? A mocking laugh sounded from before the teens as they stood in battle formation, expecting an attack but finding nothing.

"Quite the show you put on. Such fretting about a trap, but I would never do that to you. Please, join us, it's time for a celebration." The slow, sensual female voice had all of them looking towards the back of the room, seeing a woman standing tall on a platform before a door. To the two sides of the room, two half spiral staircases led up to the platform she stood on, but before the staircases were assembled an array of White Fang members, along with some very familiar faces.

"Why hello Red, long time no see!" Roman Torchwick grinned at Ruby, his ever present cane twirling in his hand as he tipped his hat to the teens. Neo stood silently beside him, her parasol over her shoulder, eyes locked on Yang.

"How the hell did you get out, Torchwick?!" Blake snarled at the red-haired man, leaning forward as though she was tempted to rush him right then. He chuckled at her, before bowing low and gesturing to his right.

"Oh, I had a little help…an old friend of yours, perhaps you remember him?" A tall, red-haired man stepped out, a Grimm mask over his face. He looked dead at Blake, his voice expressionless.

"Hello, Blake."

Blake gaped, her voice coming out in a whisper. "Adam?" He nodded at her, but was interrupted by a green-haired girl shoving past him, followed quickly by a silver haired boy.

"Wow, you kids are such idiots. Never even realized we were right there the whole time. Names Emerald, by the way, and I'll be killing you today!"

The silver haired boy rolled his eyes at her, before pointing at Pyrrha. "So, Nikos, wanna finish what we started in the arena?"

Before anyone could reply, Ruby stepped forward, her eyes having never left the woman standing upon the platform. "You're the one I fought here before, aren't you? And you came to our school too."

The woman on the platform smirked. "Cinder Fall, at your service."

Ruby took another step forward, her eyes locked with Cinder's. Her voice was quiet, calm, and steady as she kept looking at Cinder. "Why?"

Cinder cocked her head at Ruby, her smirk growing slightly. "So that everything will burn. Everything will burn today. This city, this kingdom, this world will burn."

Ruby's voice stayed calm as she replied. "I didn't ask what you're doing. I asked why."

Cinder arched an eyebrow at this, her smirk fading. "The why doesn't matter. The what doesn't matter. You're here to stop me. Let's not waste our time. You want me…come and get me." Cinder dashed backwards through the doorway behind her, the large metallic doors beginning to slide shut. Ruby burst into motion, her semblance allowing her to blitz past the people guarding the steps. She sped through the doors, Crescent Rose already in hand, just before they slammed shut, barely missing catching her cloak as it fluttered behind her. A single rose petal fell from the platform above, slowly drifting down to the floor. All eyes on the petal as it fell, until the moment it landed softly. Like a signal, Cinder's soldiers surged forward, going on the offensive.

Yang immediately threw a blast forward, clearing a small path for her as she charged straight at Neo, leaping into the air and screaming down at the oddly colored girl. Neo flipped her parasol up, intercepting Yang, before spinning away to a corner, Yang quickly following. Pyrrha had no time to react as Mercury had already leapt at her, a spinning back-kick followed by a quick series of jabs making her hop backward defensively. Emerald threw herself at Ren, firing with both her pistols as Ren returned fire with Stormflower, the two of them rushing each other in a hail of bullets. Nora and Jaune found themselves separated from the others, White Fang surrounding them and trying to use their sheer numbers to overwhelm the two.

Blake found herself torn. Looking back and forth between Adam and Roman, she had no idea what to do. She wanted to bring Roman down, again, desperately wanted to stop him. She still hated him with every fiber of her being. But she couldn't just ignore Adam. She knew exactly what Adam could do with Wilt and Blush…and more than that, she needed to end this. She had to stop Adam, she had to step up and stand up to him, or she'd never be able to move on with her life. A pale hand on her shoulder made her snap out of her trance, to see the serious face of Weiss looking at her. Weiss nodded her head at the two men.

"Let me take Adam. You can have Roman."

Blake looked dead into Weiss' eyes, before shaking her head no. "No. I can't run from this anymore. I'll take Adam. Just make sure to bring that cocky prick down." Weiss nodded, smiling at Blake before leaping up, using one of her glyphs to give her more height. Standing in midair, she pointed Myrtenaster down at Roman with narrowed eyes, leaping off the glyph, the tip of her blade leading the way.

Blake stood only a few feet from Adam, Gambol Shroud drawn and down at her side. She swallowed nervously, before locking eyes with Adam's behind the mask.

"Why Adam? Why are you helping her?"

Adam slowly drew Wilt, mirroring Blake's posture. "We will rebuild a new world from the ashes of this one, a world where Faunus will never be mistreated again. Like the phoenix, the world will be reborn…but for that to happen, it has to be destroyed first."

Blake clenched her fists tightly, eyes shut for a brief moment. "Adam, you were my first friend. My mentor. You were like my brother. But this…this is insane. This is too much. I can't let you do this Adam. I'm sorry." Blake leapt forward, Gambol Shroud leading the way, knowing this could only end one way.


Ruby barely had time to slow down before she had to leap away again, the petals from her semblance bursting into flame as the lance of fire blew past where she was standing. Ruby took a moment to take stock of the room, noting that in the small, circular room she was in, the entire room was surrounded by crates upon crates of Dust. Cinder laughed once more, gesturing proudly around her.

"Do you like what I've done with the place, little rose? All this Dust is connected to a series of detonators. When it goes up, so does the tower...and the city. I've spent months setting this up…years making this plan. When Vale goes up in flames, we can spread outward, using the fear to continue our march. The Atlesian soldiers will remain in my control even after this tower goes up. You see, the transmitter is right here," Cinder casually patted a small box on her right hip. "We'll burn the entire kingdom to the ground, and then move on to the other three. I already have agents in place in Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo. It's only a matter of time before I can bring my fire to the rest of the world. And when everything in Remnant is ash, we will recreate this world. We'll make it a better place. Why fight us? You should join us, little rose. We're just trying to save the world, just like you."

Ruby snarled at Cinder, her eyes flashing. "You think killing everyone in the world is saving it?! What kind of monster are you?!"

Cinder's smile faded, her eyes narrowing on Ruby's. "I'm not the monster. I'm what the monsters made me!" Cinder swept her arm forward, a wave of flame flashing through the air at Ruby. Ruby ducked beneath it, returning fire with Crescent Rose, cursing under her breath as Cinder just deflected each shot with her bare hand. Cinder quickly dragged her hands up, forming a bow of flame, firing multiple arrows in rapid succession at the younger girl. Ruby dived to the floor, doing a front roll as she felt the heat of the fiery arrows bursting behind her. Leaping up, she kicked off one of the Dust boxes, swinging her scythe around her.

Cinder snapped the bow in half, flames wreathing it and transforming it into a pair of dual curved blades. Bringing them to bear against Ruby, she crossed them in an x formation, grunting slightly at the exertion as she stopped Ruby's blow in its tracks. Shoving up with one, forcing Ruby's scythe high, she slashed out at Ruby's abdomen. Ruby sucked in a breath and yanked her hips back, wincing as the tender area from where Penny had cut her earlier stretched the new scar. Ruby planted the scythe handle against the ground, using the leverage to leap up and kick out, landing a double kick directly on Cinder's chest, forcing the older woman back.

Cinder tossed a blade up in the air, making a quick gesture. A red glyph formed beneath Ruby's feet, making the red-head's eyes widen. Activating her semblance for what felt like the thousandth time that day, Ruby barely managed to throw herself out of the way as a towering inferno of flame burst upward from the floor below her. Landing on her feet, she held Crescent Rose carefully before her in a defensive stance. Cinder caught her second blade in hand and took a defensive stance as well, slowly circling to the left as Ruby mirrored her movements. Ruby took a moment to look at Cinder's eyes, seeing something she hadn't expected to see before. She could see the flash of pain in the older woman's eyes. Ruby could feel Cinder's fiery aura, and beneath the heat Ruby felt…sadness. Ruby kept her stance, but let her voice drop into a more soothing tone.

"What happened to you?"

Cinder's stance faltered for a brief second, bafflement crossing her face before she schooled it back into a neutral expression. "What are you talking about?"

Ruby slowly shook her head, not letting her gaze be interrupted. "What you just said. About being made what you are. You said you're not a monster, but you're what they made. What happened?" Cinder narrowed her eyes at Ruby, keeping her expression calm. But Ruby felt the spike in her aura, the confusion.

"What happened is unimportant. What matters is now. Whoever wins gets to decide how today ends. That's how this works. That's how the world works, little rose. The strong make the decisions for the weak. If the strong want the weak dead, or tortured, or…something else, the strong make the decision. The winner writes the ending of the story. So let's see which of us gets to write this ending!" Cinder burst forward, her blades swinging for Ruby's head.


Chaos. Bedlam. Disorder. The only words able to describe the situation in the main room of the top floor of the CCT. In the minutes that had passed since Ruby and Cinder had become locked in that room together, no one had escaped injury, not even Neo. Cuts, burns, frostbite, broken bones, injuries scattered around the room.

Blake kept one hand over her hip, trying to put pressure on the slice that Wilt had dug out of her as her Aura desperately tried to heal it. Adam was against the wall in front of her, one hand holding Wilt, the other placed on top of his left eye as his Aura slowly was healing the cut that ran from his forehead down to his chin. He'd ripped the mask off after Blake had shattered the left half of it, one brilliant green eye staring down at Blake as she kept Gambol Shroud pointed at him, panting slightly.

"Adam, stop this! I don't want to hurt you!"

Adam snarled at Blake. "Oh now you care about me? What about when you abandoned me on the train, huh, Blake? Remember that? You were like my little sister, and you just up and leave without any explanation? How the hell do you think I felt?!"

Blake sniffed, bowing her head. "I couldn't stay! What you were doing…you were going to kill all those innocent people! I couldn't see you become that! Why can't you see, I don't want any part of that!"

Adam looked sadly at Blake, dropping his left hand down, still covered in blood even as the cut over his eye slowly closed. "I have to do this Blake. I have to make things better for our people. You can still come back to us! We'd take you back, I swear!" His tone had shifted to a plea, even as he took a step forward.

Blake inched backwards, shaking her head no. "I'm sorry Adam, but I can't. I have a new family now. I have people I love more than anything in my life now. I can't go back…I'm sorry." Blake lifted her hand back up, taking grip of her sheathe, the cut in her leg barely healed over.

Adam sighed. "Then I'm sorry Blake…only one way this ends."

As the two dashed back in to clash blades, Weiss was still locked in battle with Roman. His hat had been burned beyond recognition as he kept twisting his cane, deflecting every one of Weiss' pinpoint accurate stabs. His casual smirk was gone, replaced by a slightly panicked expression. He had landed one shot on Weiss' shoulder, but the heiress had ignored the pain even as blood seeped out of her shoulder, staining her white dress crimson. She was determined to bring him down once and for all…at the very least, she had to bring him to justice for Blake. Blake was her best friend besides Ruby, she couldn't let her down. Roman Torchwick had to be stopped.

Yang had taken Azure's lessons to heart, and was doing far better in her duel against Neo than she had in the past. She'd managed to land a powerful blow to the shorter girl's abdomen, slowing down her movements as she winced every time she had to move too fast. Not that Yang had escaped unscathed…she still had the tip of Neo's parasol buried in her left arm where she had snapped it off after Neo stabbed her. Yang figured it would hold the bleeding in for now, and just ignored the excruciating pain as she kept fighting, using the pain to fuel her semblance even further.

Nora and Jaune had managed to defeat most of the White Fang soldiers, but the massive Lieutenant with a chainsaw had them both occupied. The same one Weiss had previously been defeated by, Jaune and Nora quickly realized why. He shook off every blow struck on him as though it were nothing, his powerful Aura deflecting even a perfect grenade fueled shot from Nora's Magnhild. Jaune was trying to delay him until someone else could finish their fight, hoping he'd get some backup soon. Nora didn't have room to leap around as she normally did, which made it more difficult for her to bring her hammer to bear the way she was used to. It made the fight that much more difficult for the two of them, but at least Jaune had blocked most of the attacks. He and Nora had suffered a few cuts, and he was pretty sure a couple of his fingers were broken from when the lieutenant had tried to wrestle his sword from his hand, but a swing from Nora had dissuaded him from that. Jaune sighed, before rushing back in, hoping this would end soon.

Ren panted, doing his best to avoid the kusarigama's whipping at him as he ran around the outside corner of the room, returning fire with Stormflower when he could. Emerald was keeping him at range, preventing him from bringing the blades on his guns into play or his martial artistry, using the chains on her weapons to force him to back off, while dodging his gunfire. He had managed to get in a few good blows on her back when she had lost sight of him for a moment, but she'd quickly returned with a shallow stab to his side. Even as Ren channeled his Aura as best he could into the wound, he could see Emerald had already healed up from his attack. He narrowed his eyes at the green-haired girl, looking for a weakness he could exploit.

Pyrrha had seldom fought an opponent as skilled as Mercury, and especially not one who had apparently figured her semblance out. Though she could force his boots away with her semblance, he never gave her a chance to bring it to bear for a proper win. The explosive shots that fired out of his boots she couldn't block with polarity, so she had no option but to dodge or deflect with her shield, leaving her little time to bring Milo to bear as she wanted. But she would not even consider giving up or losing an inch of ground…she planned on stopping this, and stopping everything today. Too much had been lost already. Nothing more would be lost, not while Pyrrha still drew breath.


Ruby wanted desperately to somehow convince Cinder to stop, but she wasn't sure she could. Not as the fight progressed. To be honest, Ruby wasn't sure she could win even if she just wanted to end the fight. Her Aura was on its last dregs, the injuries she'd sustained catching up to her. Even though Aura could heal wounds, it could only heal so much of it before the body simply needed time to regenerate on its own. But more importantly, Ruby wasn't sure she could go as far as she was slowly realizing she would have to in order to stop Cinder.

"Cinder, please! Please stop this! I don't know what happened to you, but please, you don't need to do this!" For a moment, Ruby thought her words had made it through to Cinder, as the older woman stopped in place, her blades lowering towards the ground. Ruby carefully kept Crescent Rose up in a defensive position, but kept talking, trying to make Cinder see sense. "This isn't right. My uncle told me, you can't fight with hate in your heart. He said it destroys people. And he's right, I know he's right." Ruby paused, taking a deep breath before locking eyes with Cinder once more. "I am so angry at you. People died because of what you've done…died right in front of me. A little girl lost her chance to grow up and live her life, because of this. But I don't hate you. I won't let myself hate you. It's not right. So please, please Cinder, don't do this. Just please…stop. Stop all of this. This won't fix what happened to you."

Cinder sighed, dropping her blades to the floor, standing there with hunched shoulders. For a brief second, Ruby thought she'd listened to her, but then Cinder began chuckling quietly. Slowly, her chuckle evolved into a loud laugh as tears started to fall from her eyes. The longer she laughed, the more manic the tone became, until she sounded frantic. Abruptly, she cut her laugh off and looked Ruby dead in the eye, a maniacal grin stretched across her face. "No little rose…your uncle is wrong. Hate doesn't destroy people. Hate gives us purpose, gives us a reason. Everything will burn. Everything...will...BURN!" Ruby watched, horrified, as Cinder thrust her hand out, a burst of flame leaping off her hand towards the boxes of Dust beside her.

Ruby triggered her semblance, pouring every last ounce of her aura into it, moving so fast it seemed like time stood still. In that brief moment, she realized exactly what she had to do. She could see it in Cinder's eyes…whatever had broken her, Ruby couldn't fix. Ruby couldn't save Cinder from her memories, from her past. Ruby realized, then and there, she had only one option. Even as she flashed in front of the flames and swept her cloak over them, dragging them towards herself and smothering the fire with her cloak and own body, biting her lip to avoid screaming out in pain as she felt the flames searing into her flesh, her own memories poured into her head.

Ruby watched a series of people flash through her head…her friends back at Signal, who she still wrote to every week. The teachers at Beacon, those who taught her and helped her on her path to becoming a huntress. Team JNPR, her sister team, her friends. Her father, the man who had raised her, who had helped bring her into this world. Her uncle, her mentor, and the one who saved her from herself not long ago. Her mother, her inspiration for everything she did, the woman she missed so much, who she desperately wanted to make proud of her. Blake, the quiet bookworm of her team, who had quickly become like a sister to her. Yang, her boisterous older sister, her protector and one of the most loving people Ruby knew. And Weiss…her beloved princess, the woman she planned on living the rest of her life with. Even as Ruby thought back to the people she cared for most in this world, she knew that today would change her forever. One last memory, one last line, her uncles words to her long ago…

-Never strike someone down with hate in your heart.-

In the split second it took for Ruby's mind to go through all this, she'd moved next to Cinder. In the stillness of Ruby's semblance at its utmost power, Cinder looked almost happy, arm still outstretched from when she had flung out the fire. Ruby gripped Crescent Rose tightly, and as she felt her fractured heart shatter from the final weight of today's events, Ruby swung, one single tear falling from her eye.


The sounds of the doors on the upper floor hissing open brought everyone involved in the fight to a stop, all eyes turning to the dark doorway. Ruby stepped through, holding in her arms the lifeless form of Cinder, face blank. A screeching cry of protest came from Emerald, the green-haired girl dropping her weapons and sprinting towards the two. Ruby gently lay Cinder down on the ground, standing up and stepping backwards so Emerald could kneel down beside her. Tears began to pour from the girls eyes as she looked down at Cinder, hands trembling.

Mercury stood in shock, jaw gaping, before slumping to his knees, head bowed. Pyrrha eased back from him, keeping her stance ready, but not making any move to attack him. Roman sighed, running his hand through his hair, disheveling it, before shrugging. He dropped his cane, holding his hands up in surrender. He looked over at Neo and nodded, making her shrug as well. Neo flipped her parasol over and held it out for Yang to take, the blonde looking at her in shock. Neo shrugged again, giving a half smile to Yang, before gesturing again for her to take it. Yang slowly reached out and grasped it, taking it out of Neo's grip with no issue. Neo sat down calmly on the edge of the steps, waiting patiently.

Adam took one look around as his face took on a contemplative expression. He calmly sheathed Wilt, before bowing low before Blake and setting the sheathed blade down before her. The other White Fang members who were still conscious disarmed themselves, dropping to their knees before the teens. Silence filled the room, the only sound being Emerald's sobbing. Ruby kept her eyes trained on Emerald's weeping form, before Emerald slowly looked up to lock eyes with Ruby.

Although Ruby had expected hate in Emerald's gaze, what she got was acceptance. Emerald's eyes held no rancor, just sadness, and a strange sense of calm. Emerald let her gaze drop from Ruby's, reaching down and slowly, gently laying Cinder's hands over her chest, before grasping the box at her hip. Unclipping it from Cinder's belt, Emerald held it up for Ruby to take. As Ruby grasped the box, Emerald held tight for a moment, once again looking directly at Ruby. Emerald spoke, her voice quiet and cracking.

"You won. You write the ending." Emerald let go, allowing Ruby to take the box in hand. Ruby stared at it for one second, looking at this tiny little box, marveling at how such small devices had caused such big trouble. As she felt the weight of everyone's gaze on her, Ruby tossed the device up in the air. Grabbing Crescent Rose from behind her, she felt the familiar weight of is in her hand as it unfolded into its full form. One final shot from it rang out in the still air, small particles of the box flying off into the air. As she replaced Crescent Rose on her back, she grasped her scroll and triggered the emergency channel once more. Holding it up to her mouth, she swallowed, before speaking.

"The signal is disabled. Mission…successful."