Well that was a hiatus and a half. Incredibly sorry, between going back to school and getting a part time job this was difficult to get out to you guys. The next chapter will be the end of the Volume (Once again this ended up being way longer than I expected, I thought this volume would only be 17 chapters). The next chapter will mark the end of the fanfiction and will be out before Christmas. Then onto Volume 6!

Chapter 33: Wrath

Coco didn't look at Velvet. She knew that if she saw her face sleeping peacefully on their shared bed she would have lost all the willpower she had spent the last few days mustering, she would crawl back into her arms in vain hopes that she could recapture that one peaceful night sleep and forget for just a moment all that had happened.

But she couldn't forget, she couldn't go back to that peace, after all, that girl she hadn't even bothered to learn the name of wouldn't know peace ever again.

After having managed to find weak solace from three hours of sleep before waking up in a cold sweat, she hoisted herself slowly from her bedside and reached for her purse.

"So much lighter, how many bullets did I go through, how many people..." Coco shook her head clear of those thoughts.

They may plague her dreams but she wouldn't let them slip so far into her day that she become useless. No, Coco couldn't afford to be useless anymore, there was work to be done. Lifting her backpack filled with her essentials her eyes lingered on her favorite pair of sunglasses drooped over her black coffee mug. For a moment she thought to snatch them from their moonlit perch but inevitably decided to leave them where they lay.

Still not returning her gaze to the blissfully unaware Velvet, Coco opened the tent door slowly and stealthly slipped into the darkness.

After only making a distance of only a few paces between her and the tent she heard a hushed voice from the shadows. "So the fallen warrior, racked with guilt, disappears into the void away from her pure little maiden for she is not worthy of her. How honorable of you dear leader."

Coco scanned the faint outlines of her surroundings till she spotted a figure in a dark red nearly indistinguishable from the black background.

"Fox? Is that you? Stop reciting poetry you've read and get back to the tent." She whispered.

"You know full well I can't read and I take offense to your insincerity."

Coco pushed down a frustrated groan. "I do NOT have time for this right now Fox. Get back to the Tent, pretend you never saw me. No, don't sass me about that phrase. And go to sleep."

There was a long pause, the eerie quiet turning seconds into minutes. "Is that an order?"

"Yes that is an order."

Fox sighed and stood up from the log he was sitting on. "If I might add something leader, whatever noble intentions you think you have by leaving, that won't mean jack shit to Velvet when she wakes up to find herself being held by nothing but air."

Another pause. "As you were, Coco." He said, his voice returning to his careless biting sarcasm as he quietly sauntered off towards their utilitarian quarters.

Coco kept her eyes trained on the red of his hair until she saw it disappear into the folds of their tent before continuing on her route.

"Sun's holding cell should be close by. I'll need to knock the guards out fast."

Regrettably she hadn't fully planned out her rescue mission for the framed faunus, but out of a stroke of luck either good or bad she found herself in a position where such a problem was irrelevant.

Entering the makeshift cell block, Coco found the dead bodies of several guards and two empty cages. The box containing the two prisoners' belongings were emptied as well.

"What in the name of Dust happened here?" Said a voice from behind.

Jumping backwards and nearly yelping Coco found the other three members of team SSSN standing behind her with weapons drawn and set to stun. "I guess we won't be needing to fight." Said Scarlet.

Neptune brushed past Coco and went to inspect Sun's cage.

"So It seems you had a similar plan of breakout and running as we did." Said Sage, his cartoonishly large broadsword that seemed to even outmatch Yatsuhashi's resting on his shoulder.

Scarlet motioned to the dead guards. "I sincerely hope you didn't do that."

Coco held her hands up in resignation. "Nope, not taking the fall for this one."

"It was probably that terrorist." Muttered Neptune.

The blue haired boy lifted up a note scribbled on scrap paper. His eyes scoured the page several times before crumpling it up and shoving it in his pocket. "Sun's not coming, we should go." He said in an uncharacteristically deadpan voice.

Scarlet and Sage looked at him with surprise. "But-"

Neptune gave an uncharacteristic scowl. "What did Sun tell us before he got carted off?"

His remaining two teammates' protest caught in their throats before they resigned to inspecting the laces of their bland military boots.

Neptune shook his head. "Just listen to me on this one. Come on, there is nothing for us here anymore." He placed his spear back onto his back and stormed quietly out of the room, his friends filing in behind him.

"Where are you going?" Asked Coco.

Neptune turned to look her over, his eyes looking nearly as weathered and tired as her own. "Vacuo, saving the world and all that bullshit, you coming."

Coco's grip on her handbag tightened. "Of course."

…..

Daffodil must have narrowly avoided being impaled by icicles at least three separate times in her mad dash through the whipping rain that drowned out the normally vibrant forests of southern Anima. A high pitch whistling sound propelled through the air. Another one. Daffodil spun around on her heels and slid backwards nearly onto her back as a spike of ice went soaring over her and drove into the trunk of a thick oak tree.

Fearing the loss of momentum could mean the loss of her life, her freedom from Raven's clutches, the exhausted maiden swung back into her sprint paced the maimed tree and further into the bushel of vegetation around her.

"I've got to lose them."

She directed her aura and magic into her feet and launched herself into the branches of the trees with a powerful leap. Not missing a single frantic step she bounded from limb to limb across the foliage that swayed in the rain filled winds. Each propulsion barely moved the branches she used as her aura absorbed most of the required force. It drained her at a fairly reckless pace but if it meant leaving no train for her pursuers to follow in the confusing surroundings it would be invaluable.

Sadly, one who chased her seemed perfectly at how in the ever changing chaos. A dart of deep red spun through the trees to her right and with not a moment to spare she called up a thin shield of magic to block a bombardment of concentrated dust bullets. Her foot slipped from the branch of her tree and she found herself tumbling backwards helplessly.

The hunter in black and green with blood tinted SMGs bounced effortlessly from his perch as he followed her down to the uneven earth. Exposed and with no cover to protect her she shot lightning from her fingertips directly upwards at him. The Assassin cursed softly then twirled to the side to dodge the burst of pure energy. It brushed his cloak ever so slightly yet barely left a mark. It was Daffodil's turn to curse.

Rubber laced clothing. Of course Jacob would have told his companions how to defend themselves from her abilities. He knew everything there was about the maidens, their strengths, their weaknesses, everything, he bloody taught her everything she knew.

The attacker landed besides her and went in for a jab downwards with the blade ends of his SMGs. Channeling her aura into the palms of her hands she caught them mid attack then proceeded to headbutt the startled enemy. Staggering backwards he was open for another strike of lightning. This one wasn't too strong, she was only able to conjure with a single hand in order to take advantage of the opening and her aim was strained by the angle at which he fell. The result was a shock that sent him flying into a thorny bush at the base of a tree. It would have to be enough.

Another icicle; this one dodged through a mixture of instinct and blind luck. Her other adversaries were gaining and the one she bested was already beginning to stir. A pang of panic surged within her. She grit her teeth, she was not going to end up like poor inexperienced Amber, beaten to near death on some godforsaken stint of dirt and her very soul robbed from her and twisted to the needs of one who would bring Misery to all Remnant.

Escape. Latching onto her resolve she channeled the raw power of nature locked away within her maiden soul through her hands to create a whirlwind around her. Another icicle, she threw it back with the force of her wind then rode weightlessly on the raging gust bursting forth from her very being. The chase continued, the assassin with the Red weapons had recovered and trailed behind her but the distance was growing, the power of the maiden may save her yet.

A glint of light shone through the darkness behind her reflecting off the raindrops to her front. A tab of panic flowed through her as she realised what was coming, a hard bank to the right while surfing atop her wave of magical wind brought her out of harm's way. More icicles. Cursing yet again her whole body reacted as she spun yet again to avoid the incoming salvo only to be forced back into her original position, directly in the way of the oncoming light.

The shine was from a polished blade. Heradine, the ancient yet deadly sword of Jacob Cemalt was unremarkable by contemporary standards. Adorned with fanciful carvings and brilliant hues, it would have made for a lavish decoration over a mantle place in some rich families' mansion. It could cut through the hide of a small grimm and the skin of a person with locked or weak aura, but it was entirely without dust augmentation or mechanical upgrades. It was virtually useless, and still, she had seen that blade fell numerous rouge huntsmen throughout the years with brutal efficiency, a lethality that was heading straight for her heart.

It was probably a foolish reply to give into her fear of the blade's preposterous destructive capabilities, capabilities that were no doubt beholden to its wielder's semblance and not vested in the antique of war itself, but nevertheless upon seeing it slice through her protective winds she urged her body to action. She channeled all her being's collective aura and magic into an impenetrable wall of energy before her.

The blade connected and bounced off with little resistance. Baffled by the anti-climax, she failed to realize where her body was heading with it's continued forward momentum. She slammed into a tree and fell to the earth with a thud. The redirection of her aura reserves left her back fairly exposed and the pain of the impact shot through her body. For one horrifying moment she thought the collision had broken her back and left her helplessly paralyzed on the ground. The familiar feeling of her magic enhanced aura flooding back into place to frantically heal her wounds told her that her body was still more or less in fighting shape.

Hearing the approaching sounds of her three predators, she scrambled to her feet and fled despite the extreme pain she felt. A few trees beyond where she made her graceless crash landing she felt hope alight itself once again inside of her. She had reached her destination, a moderately sized clearing in the expansive forest. She had seen it on her way to the village but went around as to avoid leaving easy to see tracks, now, it would be where she made her last stand.

She hobbled out into the center of the circle of treeless grassland, there were stone slabs protruding from the ground, all writing that had once been immortalized upon them now nothing but depression fit for growing unsightly bunches of slick moss. Tombstones; a resting place for dozens, perhaps hundreds, forgotten by the town that spawned it; a graveyard belonging to no one but the endless expanse of time and the shattered world of Remnant.

Her magic pulsed; despite the winds, rain, and distant thunder, she could hear it clearly.

"Hello?"

The voice was as unsettling as she remembered, a supernatural choir of hollow echos from those long returned to the earth surrounded her.

"Hello?" It asked once more

She responded "I require that which sleeps within me!"

"Huh? Oh? Oh! It's a Maiden! How exciting!" The voice said.

Daffodil groaned.

"Oh come look everyone, a Maiden has come calling!" The voice said, raspy yet with a strange enthusiasm.

She could feel the energy around the graveyard building, the pulse of her magic grew more rapid, a barely visible mist coalesced across the ground.

"So the Maiden of the blistering sun light wants our aid. Interesting." Said the voices of the graveyard in unison.

The snap of a branch rang out. Daffodil's instincts kicked in and she quickly spun to lob a lightning bolt at the assassin in black who just leapt from the tree line into the cemetery. He reeled himself back and avoided the worst of the bolt, skidding into the ground.

Daffodil turned back to the msit surrounding her in a panic. "Please you must help me!"

She heard a grumbling amongst the voices that she couldn't make sense of.

"Five hundred years sleeping in this Gaia forsaken hole in the ground without so much as an acknowledgement and now a demi-god wants our power? How presumptuous!" Said a slightly masculine voice followed by another quick exchange of murmurs.

"But it is our duty to help our guardians! Lest we fall to Misery!" Said a feminine whisper.

They were arguing, wonderful.

"We are forgotten, Misery has already claimed us."

"Oh just help her you old fuddy duddies!"

"Uggh, if it will shut you up then fine, come on everyone, let's help the little Summer out. Now, hold up your hand living one."

Daffodil complied, reaching her arm as high into the sky the mist of souls followed till it cloaked her entirely. Storm clouds swirled over the clearing as if they new what was coming, as if they were drawn to the pulsing life force of an endangered god of nature. The hooded assassin was had once again risen back to his feet and was gaining on her, his weapons of blood a perfect accent to the forgotten compository of decay that was their arena. Like the lightning that danced above, he descended towards her with an almost supernatural speed.

He was now so close she could almost hear the hum of his aura infused with the metal of his blades.

Lightning struck her arm. The mist vanished, absorbed into her body from the raw energy. The magic within her burst to a new level of power that loomed over her aura. Her whole body shimmered with a brilliance that rivaled that of a mid july sun. The muggy air of the storm dried in an instant, the sopping wet grass beneath her becoming brittle as it threatened to droop and disintegrate into dust.

The voices spoke again, this time in a perfect harmony. "You who bears the remnant of god's soul, who stands as light before a darkness most miserable, who strives to uphold what the traitor has failed; you are our champion, now Child of the Burning Summer; Ignite."

Daffodil had only tapped into the True Form of the Maiden a few times, Amber had been scared to after nearly killing a bystander the first time, it was hard to control to say the least. Luckily, surrounded by those who would usher in an age of chaos, she had no reason to hold anything back.

The ground flared up into a rising wall of flames. The attacker staggered backwards as his proximity to the inferno singed a part of his jacket and licked against his aura.

With a glance in his general direction she condensed the flames into a tiny sphere that resembled the sun then released it's power in a massive beam of raw fire like a souped up flamethrower. The man retreated quickly, his coattails burning in his wake. With a loud crash a hunk of ice dust broke through the tree line, already sweating gallons from the intense heat, with its caster riding atop. He sported Blue hair and slung what looked like a bladed mic stand over his shoulder. He held what looked like a cocky grin being threatened with something that might just be out of his league. And oh would that be right.

She raised the temperature around her feet and the earth beneath her slumped as it melted as the heat compressed. She let it all release, most of the grass within the graveyard burnt away in a millisecond, the assassin retreated further frantically and the man with the mic stand nearly tripped as his miniature galcer began to give way into a puddle of glittering water on the verge of boiling. The burst of hot air sent her flying towards the blue haired man.

Any arrogance in his posture melted with his dust and he frantically raised a wall of ice between the two, a wall that was practically melted by the time it was formed. She crashed through the barricade, the volatile dust bursting around her as she collided with him. He cried out in pain as his aura began to buckle under the immense pressure. He went flying, surprisingly he remained conscious and managed to send a few of his icicle spears towards her on his way down to the burning earth. With a wave of her hand the projectiles shivered and evaporated before they even came close.

She felt a disturbance in the air to her left, an unnatural change in the hectically moving wind amidst the extreme temperature. She readied another offensive column of flames in her right hand and swung around to blast the sneaky assassin. She saw a black coat roasting and crumpling into a ball of ash but no body. A sharp pain spread across the left side of her body. She winced, even a god could wince. Her opponent faked her out and crouched into position to fire upon her at a distance where he wouldn't have been killed. The man looked far more wiry than he had with his dark cloak, his pale pink eyes had a composed persona about them that was betrayed by his slight panting as he sweated from the heat.

He shot at her again and again with his dinky weapons, they were intended for a quick and silent sneak attack on poor politicians and unlucky civilians, not for clashing on the front lines with the embodiment of nature.

Daffodil arced her arm backwards as her fingers began crackling with lightning, far more powerful than what she held before her ascension. The man's eyes widened ever so slightly, deciding that his attack was futile he channeled his aura into his legs and backflipped out of the blast zone of her lighting. However he was fatigued greatly by the unexpected heat and landed with a crack on his side, his aura was clearly reaching it's limit.

A snap of cold leaked into her bubble of heat from behind. Bewildered, she turned around to find a face full of sub zero ice dust that shocked her aura something fierce. She landed on the ground, it's melting expedited as she approached and cushioned her fall as if it were a pile of jello.

A small pillar of ice rose before her with the man in blue perched on the top and striking a pose with his mic as if he were a rock star. His skin glowed with a complex mosaic of tattoos branded from dust. His eyes glowed with cruel excitement.

"You've heard the drop, now it's time for the final verse!" He exclaimed, leveling the but of his stand with her face.

Daffodil rolled to the side to avoid the cannon ball of pure white dust that splashed into the mushy ground where her head once was. A wind from the earth blew her back up onto her feet, the arctic and volcanic temperatures colliding was causing the air around them to contract and expand rapidly, the air of the storm began to swirl, if this fight lasted long they could very well form a tornado.

"You like it?" The man shouted. He flexed his fairly unimpressive muscles to show off his tattoos. "A present from the old tinkerer up in Atlas. Designed with fighting just like you frail little maidens, can't just leave humanity's' salvation to some old magic now can we? Oh now that I think of it that might just be a theme floating around these days, dontcha think?"

Daffodil thrust a bolt of lightning from her left hand up into his face. The dust and aura around his face diffused the shot. He smiled and swung his stand around to hit her upside the head. Daffodil blasted upwards upon a pillar of flames and leapt down to strike again, both hands holding balls of rippling fire. The man with the tattoos countered with a legion of icicles aimed upwards. Knowing she could simply melt these projectiles she swerved and darted around them, avoiding getting hit but losing partial control and colliding on the ground besides him, leaving her back exposed.

He raised his weapon above his head, a large chunk of ice crystallizing at the base of it, and swung it downwards like a hammer beating a red hot metal. In a weakened position, Daffodil combined her two balls of fire and gambled on a point blank range assault and met his oncoming sphere of cold. The two conflicting forces collided and the stark difference in temperature caused an explosion that sent both parties flying.

Daffodil cringed as frostbite nipped at her hands through her radiant aura. An uncomfortable new fog spread across the battlefield from the instantaneously melted ice. The very ground around her appeared to be at war with itself, ever solidifying ice and earth attempted to claim the bubbling sea of melted land that in turn tried to drag its opponent down into its pool of warmth.

Another drop in temperature, this time from the right. She raised another ball of fire just in the nick of time to block a punch layered with ice. Another cloud of fog enshrouded her. He was blinding her. Taking a guess at his strategy, she jumped and narrowly avoided the swing of his mic stand that would have swept her off her feet. She could see the faint glow of his tattoos within the fog. A bolt of lighting was summoned to her left hand, she threw it and connected. He stumbled backwards, this one had an effect, however negligible it was.

She used the chance to retreat, for a moment the man didn't retaliate, the temperature seemed to rise again, albeit slowly. Daffodil smiled.

This power you have, it's just a cheap knock off of mine, it's influence is already giving away to my fire!"

The crack then sizzle of a sheet of ice and dirt falling into the soup of melted earth punctuated her point.

A hissing sound. More icicle spears. This again? Confidence growing, she grabbed one with her bare left hand while spinning in place to dodge the other. Her hand shook slightly at the freezing cold touch but quickly steadied as the mass fell between her fingers and plopped unceremoniously onto the ground.

The mist began to thin, the man made his move. One final salvo made up of a dozen gargantuan shards that shot towards her. She backhanded the first that reached her then filled her palms with fames once again. She gripped the tips of the next two, they dissipated before her skin as if her hands were shredders eviscerating paper. She ducked beneath the next three but backflipped onto of the seventh, using its form as a stepping stone to push off of and leap over icicles eight and nine and crash into ten. She rose to her feet and backhanded the eleventh just like the first. The Twelfth collided with her chest. She didn't flinch, her aura only depleting by a small percentage.

"How marvelous" the ghostly feminine voice cheered with glee.

The male voice did what sounded like a huff. "Grimm hoggle, if I were but a thousand years younger and had some meat on my bones I would have done that WITHOUT the help of the bleeding dead."

The man had left his position while she was attack. He had circled around to her left while surfing on a stream of ice that threatened to turn to a weak slush underneath him.

"You little bi-"

Daffodil swung an inflamed right hand that slapped him in the face with the heat of ten thousand branding irons. The tattoos on his left cheek burned away and left a welt of red hot flesh. He squealed in a particularly unmanly fashion and careened into the ground twenty yards away into the section of ground that wasn't either melting, burnt, or currently on fire.

She panted heavily, as much as she hated to admit it, that fight took the breath out of her, but she couldn't relax yet. She steeled her aura as it flowed with the blessings of the souls of old and encircled the unwavering pulse of the maiden.

"Well that was particularly barbaric don't you think. I mean a slap! Really Daffodil?"

She turned to seem Jacob step towards her circle of hellscape, his hands resting of on the sheath of Heradine. His face as calm adorned with a proper smile as always.

She lowered into a battle stance. "Take one step closer and I burn you alive."

An audible groan escaped his mouth, his face growing no sign of loosing it's politeness otherwise. "I guess that means I have to get my hands dirty after know I truly hoped we could have resolved this peacefully, you an me. It could have been just like the old days, back when you were my student and I was living the dream as a teacher."

A fond remembrance entered his eyes for a brief moment before shriveling up to resemble his soul. "But no, It looks like greater responsibility, my need to fulfil it and your need to run from it, drives us apart."

He followed her lead and entered his battle stance. "Well? En Garde old friend."

Daffodil sighed.

Goodbye master, you old fallen fool.

She burst forward, an entire realm of blistering fire trailed behind her as if she were ripping open the veil between the world of the living and the world of hell, the world that would be all their futures if Salem were to win. The two collided, and then, it was over.

She flew past him, her attack, a blast of concentrated fire from her fist, veered off course and hit a tree, burning it down. Jacob had nudged her arm to the side ever so slightly, causing the attack and her whole body to shift to the side. His flame retardant gloves blocked the brunt of the attack yet the whole sleeve of her arm was burnt away and spots that looked like severe burns dotted his exposed skin.

His face showed no sign of pain, instead she saw distaste. "How wasteful" He mttered.

Daffodil's eyes glanced towards his outstretched hand, Heradine shone in the brilliance of the fires around them, a streak of blood running down it's side.

All at once her aura vanished, the maiden's soul went silent, and the burning fire within was smothered.

"Oh phoy" Said the Feminine voice.

"I said we shouldn't have bothered." Replied the masculine voice.

Daffodil collapsed to the singed ground, defeated. The winner was Jacob.

…

"Somebody had a lot of time on their hands down here" whispered Blake as she looked upwards.

In their search for their friends the three of them had found their way to what appeared to be the remains of a raised garden above the city streets and junctions of commerce. All the plants were long dead and reduced to lumps of grey dust indistinguishable from the dried up soil in their cracked pots.

The three were staring up at one of the nine murals they had seen from the entrance, the large building they were standing in front of had blocked their view of it before but now it was perched right in front of them, the fifth in the sequence.

An older man lay huddled on in the corner, he was painted in stark silver with only slots for his eyes with tiny silver dots for wizard , the original silver eyed warrior. Beside him, shielding him, was a small army of humans clad in shimmering armor, eyes simple slots as well with the same silvery dots in the center. In front of them, leading what looked like a charge, were four women drawn in vibrant blues, oranges, greens, and yellows. Each one held a simple sword in their hands while sparkling crystals of dust seemed to float around them. The original four maidens. Accompanying them was a single man, one with massive black armor with murky eyes contrasting those of the silver held by his soldiers. A general, this one was surrounded by a thin wall of shifting black mist and held in his left hand a decrepit phantom of a scythe.

The actors of the portrait were indeed charging towards the far right, at the border of the mural was a deep shadow of dark black and violet red. The beady eyes of grimm dotted the void, all surrounding a vaguely human figure at the front.

"That right there is the Last Stand, another crucial moment deemed trivial by man yet vital for survival." Said a voice.

Edna. The three got ready for a fight as they scanned their surroundings for the headmaster. Somehow she had appeared silently behind them and was sitting in a stone chair, one that looked a thousand years old, she played with the curls of her hair with her left hand as she playfully spun her ginormous staff around the pinky of her right.

She rolled her eyes. "Weapons again."

"We're tired of playing games Edna! Tell us what you know NOW! What the hell is Raven trying to accomplish?" Ruby yelled as forcefully as she could despite her tired state.

Edna rolled her eyes again and sighed. "Save the world of course, Salem won't need to destroy the world if we just hand it to her like good little humans."

"But you're not human, you're a faunus!" Blake called out.

Edna's face twisted in annoyance and her reptilian eyes unnervingly blinked sideways.

"Irrelevant, now enough with the questions you're not students anymore after all, you're bleeding drop-outs now!"

She smiled. "Or more precisely, traitors and enemies of the state."

Between quick blinks she flung her staff from her finger at a swift, aura propelled, speed that slammed headlong into Ruby who managed to avoid a direct hit with her skull with a well timed block.

Not letting their opponent get the drop on them, Weiss and Blake charged at her while she was unarmed. Edna jumped up and casually ripped her chair from the floor beneath it with an aura enhanced grip and chucked it towards Blake who leapt over it leaving behind a shadow clone to take the hit. She got in close to her and began swinging in a flurry of attacks. Either from her fatigue from the illusion earlier or Edna's sheer skill Edna managed to gracefully dodge every hit like a ballerina spinning around her dance partner. She let out a gentle chuckle of amusement as she dashed around a wide arc from black and broke into an elegant sprint past her.

Weiss stepped in to intercept her with a jab of her rapier. Edna ducked to the side and kicked Weiss hard to the side of her stomach, spinning in a three-sixty on the tip of her shoe as Weiss staggered back into place, Blake backing her up. Ruby recovered from the first attack and ran in to attack from behind.

Edna used her aura enhanced limbs to backflip over her as she swung her scythe. She landed next to her discarded staff and clutched it back into her hand before turning back to her adversaries who were already charging in a trident formation towards her in a desperate scramble. She could see it in their eyes, they knew they were outmatched, outmatched yet still determined to fight on despite the odds, it turned Edna's stomach. So youthful, so naive, this innocence would mean humanities' end. Unless Raven had her way. Edna smirked again. Raven always had her way.

The three dived forward in a frenzy. Ruby swung, Blake Chopped, Weiss stabbed. A simple spin of her staff negated the three pronged assault. A follow up swing would have taken them all to the ground if Weiss hadn't managed to block it with a wall of ice generated by a spin of her dust cartridge barrel. Edan's staff lodged itself into the improvised shield, leaving her open for just a moment. It was enough, Ruby flipped her Scythe around so the barrel of the sniper faced Edna's abdomen. She pulled the trigger and Edna went flying a short distance away.

She cursed and scrambled to her feet, somehow still retaining her lady like poise. She glared at the trio before her, that wasn't very ni-"

They wouldn't let her finish, instead they seized the ground Edna left behind and surged forward with reckless abandon.

"Oh bother" Edan muttered under her breath.

Edna ran towards them as they approached and effortlessly weaved her way through an all side slash fest of aura humming blades until she found herself stepping confidently up to her embeded staff leaving a confused threesome of huntresses bewildered at how they hit nothing but air.

Edna tugged gently on the hilt of her weapon and allowed her aura to flow through the obsidian lining of it's fanciful structure. The energy entered the dust stone at the top logged in the ice and it up, shattering the wall around it.

She returned her gaze to the others as they geared up for yet another attack. "Well now that you've shown me that you have no hope of beating me, or even giving me a proper fight, I guess I'll just pull the plug and be done with this."

Edna cleared her throat and closed her eyes. Team RWBY exchanged looks of perplexity and back away slightly to give her a wide berth, Edna was a headmaster after all, and there was no telling what she was planning.

Edan began to sing.

"Mirror, Mirror tell me something…"

Weiss dropped to her knees and clutched her head. "No, no, no."

Ruby and Bake dropped their guards. "Weiss what's wrong?" Blake asked, worry embedded on her face. Ruby ran to her and attempted to calm her down by putting her arm around her, a gesture she violently rejected as she knocked her to the ground with a sudden twitch.

"Mirror tell me who's the loneliest…"

Weiss' gaze grew increasingly vacant. "No, no, no, no, no, no."

"Of all."

Her fit stop and her head lolled downwards, her bangs covering her eyes. "I am the loneliest of all." She said, her voice devoid of all emotion, as if it were an artificial one and not her own.

Edna's eyes fluttered open. "Well I'll be damned, ol' Aibori's little magic trick actually works. Now Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee family."

She gestured to Blake. "Eliminate the threat to your family."

Without another word Weiss leapt forward, her eyes a glazed white, and attack Blake.

The startled faunus failed to defend in time and found herself taking the full brunt of a dust powered slash from The Heiress' rapier. Blake slammed into the group and went skidding across the garden.

Ruby, unable to process what had just transpired, didn't notice as Edan ran up to her and smacked her upside the head with the glowing top of her staff with an aura powered swing. The young huntress lost consciousness immediately and crashed to the ground.

"Oh dear. I hope I didn't damage the goods, well can't help it now, off to the bug jar then!"

She hoisted Ruby's limp form onto her shoulder and waved towards Weiss, be a good dear and kill the faunus for me. After that meet up with ol Em if she's still kicking and kill the rest. Wait no leave the Bimbo alive, THEN kill the rest."

The Heiress nodded absently.

"Creepy that." Edan muttered. She gave a sarcastic salute to a stunned Blake who was scrambling to her feet. "Ta-ta Catnip."

And with that she vaulted herself over the railing and into the city streets, leaving Blake alone with a friend that was about to kill her.

"Weiss what the hell are you-"

The Heiress ran forward for another attack, her eyes still soulless. She struck forward with a stab of her rapier with far more raw force than Blake had ever known her to posses. She blocked with the sheath of her blade which nearly broke in two then continued her retreat.

I can't hurt Weiss! But I can't let myself get killed, and Ruby…

"Weiss please I know you're in there!"

The Heiress stared her down, a face of stone unchipped save for her single scar across her eye that seemed infinitely more noticeable than before.

Another uncharacteristically strong jab, Blake barely managed to parry it but almost buckled under its strength. No choice left, sorry Weiss.

The next strike came this time propelled by one of her glyphs, Blake glided to the right and left behind a clone of shadow. The moment The Heiress' attack made contact with it a tomb of rock surrounded her weapon. A dust fusion trap, Weiss' idea. The Heiress showed no reaction, only a swift flick of the arm to break her blade free in an instant. Luckily, that was all Blake needed to step into her guard and knee The Heiress hard in the abdomen.

The Heiress went soaring into the railing at the end of the garden, cracking it. For a moment Blake thought she had knocked her unconscious, Weiss was always on the squishier side even with her aura in full force.

The Heiress rose to her meet with refined poise, not the slightest bit shaken by the rather brutal attack. She tapped the tip of Mytenaster to the ground summoning a massive glyph decorated with rotating ethereal swords.

The Heiress gazed up at Blake, any semblance of the persnickety yet endearing girl was gone and replaced with, well, what Blake always imagined The Heiress to the company that brought so much pain and suffering down upon her race would be, a cold unfeeling automaton.

"Go guardian." Her voice was hollow and lifeless. "Exterminate."

With a flash of blinding white light the form of a dazzling knight in shining armor rose from the glyph. Blake was awestruck. Weiss had said she hadn't mastered summoning yet, so she had never seen it in person, but, dear god it was just so beautiful. Sadly, the most beautiful thing Blake had ever seen was naturally about to kill her.

The knight drew it's blade, which Blake guessed was about twice her size, and proceeded to stampede towards her. Blake frantically ran from the lumbering paladin with all the grace of a chicken with it's head cut off. Running huh Blake? Wow, so original. She thought to herself.

She ducked and averted a few close calls of the titan's Aurasteel blade nearly removing her ears, both cat and human. Why do I have two sets again?

Another swing, this time Blake needed to drop a clone to push her forward. She glanced over her shoulder for just a moment to see the blade slicing, or more like crushing, her doppelganger, the grisly sight certainly put a second wind behind her. She was running low on aura and needed to conserve her power, right now she estimated she'd only be able to use a few more clones. Another swing, Blake could almost feel this one, it's humming energy nipping the trailing strands of her hair. With how poorly her trusty plan of running from her problems was going she elected to use the last of her strength fighting back.

Blake tossed her Gambol Shroud around a chunk of rock lying abandoned in the middle of the ancient garden and circled it. Using her momentum, she flung herself back toward the knight, gliding across the ground on her knees until she went straight through the gap between it's legs. Now in his blind spot, Blake slashed its achilles heels in an attempt to topple it. Sadly the being made of pure energy didn't have a body that operated according to human weakness. It swung it's broadsword around in a circle as it turned around to face it's enemy again. Blake cursed a rolled away from the oncoming blade. She crouched on the ground, summoned another shadow behind her, and used it to throw her upward towards the knight's head.

She grabbed onto its helm and found something solid to grasp. Thank god. If this thing were able to massacre me and be intangible to the touch at the same that would be just downright unfair.

Shifting to gun mode, Blake aimed her weapon into the slit Knight's helm and fired away. Thankfully this attack seemed to do some damage. The Knight stumbled backwards, slamming his blade into the ground for stability. The beast was silent, not a single groan of pain. Instead he rose back to his feet and reached up to grab Blake from his visor. Blake panicked, sending another salvo of bullets into his apparent weak spot, this time it barely did anything.

Blake let go of her grip to avoid being squished by it's colossal hand and somehow managed to land on her feet. She didn't have time to celebrate however as the knight once again tried to slice her open with the swing of it's blade.

Not working, this thing is practically invincible, there is only one thing left I can do.

Her gaze shifted towards The Heiress. She stood tall and motionless, barely even blinking, creating such a powerful being out of raw aura must have been draining on the caster, forcing them to remain still.

Blake made a reckless rush towards her, blades drawn and aura pulsing.

The Heiress' sedentary gaze snapped to Blake as she flowed into a battle stance. The glyph beneath her dulled slightly. Blake threw her Gambol Shroud forward on it's thick black string. The Heiress refused to move forward to engage, wishing to force Blake on the offensive the whole fight and tire her to her breaking point. Blake triggered her semblance and pulled back on the ribbon of her weapon, sending it flying back to her after pulling its trigger. The bullet of Earth dust merged with her aura and a statue of Blake made from hard stone went barreling forward.

For the first time since she awoken The Heiress showed an emotion beyond eerie calm, slight surprise. The slightest hesitation on how to respond was enough for the statue going at the speed of a high caliber bullet to collide with her. Her blade was knocked from her hand and she sprawled to the ground, her aura flickering ever so slightly.

Blake saw a flash of white light peak out of the corner of her eye. The Knight was upon her. She heard the swish of the air through her sensitive ears just in time to dodge, no need to even look at it. A the blade passed beneath her she looped her Blade's string around it and latched on. The Knight tried to clumsily toss her off. It no longer moved with the knowing precision as before, it must have required constant guidance by it's caster, quite the large chink in the armor of something so grand and majestic.

Blake used the momentum of its rapid attempts at shaking her free to launch herself at The Heiress who was dragging herself her feet. The two collided, knocking The Heiress down once again with a loud thud. Her aura flashed again and for the briefest moment her eyes reverted to that of Weiss only to be immediately returned to a pair cold and unfeeling voids.

The two grappled on the ground as they tried to pin each other. Both were clearly drained and exhausted, despite the influx of aura that came with whatever was triggered within her by Edna's song, The Heiress' reserves were lower than Blake's. Realizing that she could very well lose this fight, The Heiress let another emotion through her facade, anger.

"I won't let you chain me again. The Schnee lineage. It lives through ME."

Her incredible strength, something Wiess could never have hopped to match, no matter how much training she could go through.

Blake's could feel her own strength giving way as The Heiress gained the upper hand.

"The Guardians, they shall return, this world, shall be protected once more by the eternal glow of Dust."

Blake was soundly toppled now, The Heiress' hands now making their way to her throat to strangle her. "Weiss" She whispered.

The Heiress showed yet another emotion. A sadistic grin encroached upon her face. "Weiss, so that is this Squire's name. Weiss, a blank white canvas. Perfect. The artistry of humanity's' salvation shall be draw upon her. The Dust speaks, it shall save us from the darkness with it's light, it shall save us from ourselves, from our savage lessers."

She leaned down closer to Blake's face as she squeezed her neck. Fourth emotion. Spite. "I will succeed where The Wizard has failed. It shall save us, We shall save us, We will save us from you, Faunus, child of filth, scion of demons!"

The Blake clone turned to stone. The Heiress' eyes widened. The real Blake slammed the but of her weapon into her head from behind. With a jolt her aura popped and The Heiress' eyes fell closed and she slumped to the ground.

Blake fell to the ground next to her, panting heavily as she used what little strength she had to hold her own aura together. She heard a loud thump. To her horror the knight remained standing. It was flickering now, the defeat of it's master slowly unanchoring it from the physical plane. Yet still with it's last moments it lumbered forward.

For the first time Blake could see it's eyes, two perfectly spherical stones of dust and aura that glittered like stars, like moons unbroken and complete. Yet there was something underlying their brilliance, a deep, unwavering power that fed their perfection. A feeling as cold and immovable as stone, she knew this feeling all too well, the feeling she felt float off her brother and Adam. Hatred. Pure, raw, and unchained.

The titan roared with a deep, primordial voice. It bounded towards her, it's last moments of power fueled on the endless sea of hatred that churned within it, within whatever monster lurked within Weiss' soul.

Blake couldn't move, her energy spent and her aura barely holding together.

"I'm sorry Weiss, I couldn't keep my promise." She thought in despair.

A ball of fire streaked from overhead and punctured the Knight's fading chest. It growled again as it's whole body dissipated. The ball of fire cooled and a person looked over towards her. Yang.

The blonde called to her but her voice was lost to Blake, just a muted echo from far away, other echos followed, ones she could only assume were the rest of the gang.

"They found each other, that's great." Is what she was suppose to think, yet Blake wasn't able to focus on them. Instead her attention remained transfixed on the Knight.

It was nothing but a collection of Willo-Wisps that danced and fluttered further apart from each other. All except for the eyes. The Eyes remained, floating there, ever hating in their perfection until they crumbled into nothingness in an instant, still the cold remained.

Blake head lolled backwards and hit the freezing stone of the long dead gardens. Her vision blurred and the echos grew more distant. Above her she saw the stalagmites of crystallized dust protruding from the cavern's ceiling like chandeliers of nature's glory. Only now they weren't the timeworn menagerie of rainbows that she saw upon arriving at time's forgotten speck of civilization long lost, now they were a uniform stark white. White as the eternal snow of Atlas, White as the empty eyes of The Heiress.

With one last twitch of her faunus ears before consciousness left her she thought she heard a whisper emerge from the echos, an elderly spat from the dust itself. It spoke one word to her.

"Filth."

Next Time Chapter 34: Keep Moving Forward

Great news guys! I just made a twitter account as a hub for all my current and future updates to this fic and any future works I plan to create (perhaps even a book I may or not be planning to write named "Moonriders"). It's called ZireksWrites or writes_zireks